Thanksgiving Trip- Day 2- Bus Rides and Dusk at Tikal

 We woke up bright and early on Friday morning and caught the bus to Flores, Guatemala then another bus to Tikal National Park. (We waited a long time for that first bus to come, but we won't talk about that.)

 We each got our own row of seats on the bus from Belize City to Flores. There were other people on but it never got full. I think the ride was about 4-1/2 hours long.  Maybe a little longer because of our stop at the border to get into Guatemala. 

 A cemetery on our way out of Belize City.  Cemeteries are fascinating and beautiful places!

 Houses on stilts were a common scene on the bus ride.

 At this house the guy on the porch saw me taking a picture and waved at me.  I waved back then he waved again.

The beautiful countryside of Guatemala from our bus window!

I loved these little cars many people drove in Flores.  They kind of made me laugh.  (We ended up getting to ride in one later. I will tell you about it in a different post).

 We got to Tikal National Park and checked into our hotel there.  It was a nice hotel.  The room was big and clean and the location couldn't have been better.  It was interesting that the hotel had electricity only at certain times of the day, for a couple of hours in the morning and a few hours at night.  But I guess they don't really need it during the day because it's light enough outside and most people wouldn't be there any way.

We checked into the hotel about an hour before sunset and closing time of the park.  We decided we didn't want to wait til morning to see the ruins so we walked fast/ran to the ruins because we weren't sure how long it would take us to get to there.
 
On the trail to the ruins was the tree of life, pictured above.  I really liked it.  The Mayans believe it was the first creation and that it held up the sky.   It's a beautiful tree! (There will be more pictures of it later.)

 Our first glimpse of the Mayan ruins!  It was awesome!

These ruins are to the left of the temple above.  This is all part of the Grand Plaza. The ruins used to be a residential area.

The temple from the front.  That animal in front is a coati.  They are a member of the raccoon family.  When we first got to the plaza there were a bunch of them hanging around.

 

 I liked this shot with the moon above the temple.  It's beautiful!  We got to see the ruins in dusk light, morning light, and afternoon light.

And me in front of the temple!  I was there.  Tikal National Park is awesome!

Thanksgiving Trip - Day 1 - Belize City

 My oldest brother, Nate, and I went on a Thanksgiving trip to Belize and Guatemala.  And it was AWESOME! It was my first time in both of those countries and since I took so many pictures, I am making a blogpost about each day.

We arrived at Belize City International Airport and there was a live band playing traditional Belizean music at baggage claim that we could hear while going through passport control.  It was quite the welcome to Belize.  Everyone at the airport and the hotel we stayed at and even people on the street were all very friendly and welcomed us to Belize and made sure we were enjoying our stay.

 This is the hotel we stayed at, the Great House Inn.  I loved the look of it.  It was clean, the room was big, and the hotel in a good location.

 We still had an hour or so of daylight when we checked in (we were advised to not go out at night time in Belize City) so we decided to take a walk and see what we could see downtown before it got dark.

It was a dirty town and the roads not very nice, but the buildings were so colorful.  Everywhere we went in Belize (and Guatemala), I couldn't get over how colorful the buildings were.

 Some scenes of Belize City!

 The Caribbean Sea!

At the hotel we stayed at they had a restaurant below which served Thanksgiving dinner.  Since we got there on Thanksgiving day, we decided to eat there for dinner.  It was called The Smokey Mermaid.

We had turkey and ham and potato salad and rice and beans and cranberry sauce and corn and stuffing and fried plantain and gravy to pour over our turkey and ham.  The dinner was quite good.  Of course nothing can take the place of homemade Thanksgiving dinner but considering that we were in a foreign country that doesn't normally celebrate Thanksgiving, we were happy with our dinner!

At the end of day one we were exhausted from waking up early and traveling time.  But it was awesome!

Mother Nature is Alive and Kickin'!

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I have lived in the D.C. area for a total of about 2 years and 9 months. It seems in the time that I've lived here, Mother Nature has shown her power and let us know that she's alive and kickin'.

When I moved here in 2009 after I graduated from BYU, I was here for the winter of snowmageddon. I was definitely not prepared for that one.  Schools were cancelled for days at a time, some work places closed for many days, people could not get out of their neighborhoods, electricity went out, powerlines and tree branches broke. It was rough.  Click here to read a short post of my thoughts about the snow that year and here to see some pictures from my sister, Lara's, blog, who I was living with at the time.

We had the heavy rains in summer 2011 from Hurricane Irene in August and more heavy rains in September that flooded our basement a long with many others.

We had the 5.9 earthquake on August 23, 2011, which caused minor structural damage to some buildings including the Washington Monument which is still closed to the public. You can read about my experience with the earthquake here.

Then we had the Derecho storm back on June 29 of this year, where many branches fell and some trees (large and small) were uprooted, roofs were damaged, and some people without electricity for a week.  I was outside when this storm happened and you can read about it here. 

Now we are awaiting Hurricane Sandy to make its way to us.  Hurricane Sandy is supposed to bring heavy rains, damaging winds and cold weather.  We are hankering down, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.  We will see and I will let you know on the other end of the storm how I and those around me fared. May all of us be kept safe as we see what Mother Nature brings our way in the next few days. 

My Birthday with Lots of Pictures and Captions Too :)

In case you didn't know I turned 29 (for the first time:) on Saturday. I am glad that I was occupied with fun activities on my birthday, otherwise I would have thought way too much about how old I was turning and felt sorry for myself.   But I will admit that I may or may not have had a little bit of a break down a few days before my birthday, (Almost to the point of tears. Almost. Not quite.)  But don't worry I am okay now and I realize that I am just one year older and wiser too.

So this year for my birthday I decided, for my something I've never done before, that I needed to do something outside. 

I had a few activities in mind but one won out over the others. What did I do for my birthday you ask? Well I went to the Renaissance Festival in Maryland with some friends.  I have never been to a Renn Fest before and I was excited to check it out.

Side note: I took a lot of pictures and couldn't decide which ones not to put in so there are lots of pictures in this post.

 The entrance to the festival.

 The first act we watched.  They sang old songs and told jokes. I must admit I was surprised by the amount of the people in the audience that were singing a long with the songs.

 So part of the awesomeness of the festival was the food!  I ate lots of it.   I took a picture of all of the food I ate.

See those awesome fried triangles on a stick? Of course you do. Well that is fried macaroni and cheese.  It was so good!  I mean almost anything fried is awesome, but these were surprisingly good!

 Some of the restaurants.  All of the buildings and stages at the festival are permanent.  So it's a whole village of Renaissance type buildings and stages and shops and food etc. And since there were no cars allowed too, it almost felt like we were transported back in time. (Almost. Not quite.) It was pretty awesome though! 

 Fried peasant bread with butter on it = awesomeness!

 Cheesecake on a stick dipped in chocolate = sweetness!

 Emily and I waiting in line to ride the elephant.  I didn't know there would be an elephant there, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride.  Who knows when I will ever get the chance again.

 Although the ride was a really short one, it was worth it to pay the extra money.  It was another something new on my birthday and now I can say I've ridden on an elephant.

 One of the stages.

 The king and queen.

 Kara, Emily and I eating corned beef.   

I saw the corned beef vendor and had to get some. I remember as a young'un, on my birthday, whenever Mama would ask me what my favorite meal was, I would say corned beef hash.  So I was way excited when I saw the vendor and couldn't resist buying a corned beef sandwich.
 

 They had carts like these all around the village.

 I took this picture because I thought the pumpkin head on the mannequins was interesting and I liked the costumes of the people sitting in front of the shop.

 My orange slushie that tasted like a dreamsicle.  It was so good!

 We watched a jousting tournament.

Apparently this was a real jousting tournament, where people came from all over the country to compete.

The very first round of jousting, one of the guys was knocked off his horse.  He was fine, since he was in his armor and there were people there ready to help him.

No one else was knocked off their horse so to begin with someone falling off the horse added some action to the tournament.

 But a few lances did fly and break.

 The men on the horses were the jousters.  Most of them were older men.  This was after the jousting was over and they were announcing the places that each jouster had just placed.

 Princess Merida and Queen Elinor from Brave.  They told us that they made these costumes themselves. We thought the costumes were pretty awesome!

 Some weird guy on stilts.

 I really liked this dress.

 These awesome actors acted out a condensed version of Macbeth in less than 20 minutes.  Now that takes some talent :)

 Funnel cake fries.  I think these were my favorite food at the fair!

 I basically just took this picture because of the awesome hair of the boy on stage.

 Another stage.

 Megan, Kara, Emily and I.   Thanks for celebrating my birthday with me!

 On our way out of the festival.  It was time to go home.  We stayed there for about 6 hours.

 A self-portrait at the entrance on our way out.

 Captain America made his appearance at the Renn Fest.

After we got home, we went to the store and Emily insisted on buying me cake and ice cream so that I could blow out candles on my birthday (and I let her:).  We decided these mini cupcakes would be good since we had already eaten so much that day.

There were only 12 candles on those cupcakes and I still couldn't blow them all out. How pathetic is that?!  We ate cupcakes and ice cream  then watched a movie.

Saturday was a lovely day and I am grateful for the friends I shared it with!

Happy Birthday to Me!

More details and pictures to come about my lovely day today!  (I just had to post while it was still my birthday!)

Fall Time!

I love the fall time!  Today I was walking outside near work when I had to stop and stare at a row of four trees against a brick building that were a stunningly beautiful red color.  All four of them.  And yesterday, I was walking on the W. & O.D. trail and saw a magnificent tree that was orange and red with some green still left. I love it! I did not have my camera with me either time but even if I did I don't think there is anything that could do the fall colors justice.

Fall time is just so beautiful!  I think of the fall colors as the Lord painting us a colorful masterpiece before the winter comes on. (Although winter is beautiful in its own way too.) Not only is the fall time beautiful but it's cooler outside and it's hard to not be outside during the sunny, cool fall days crunching the falling leaves under my feet or soaking up the cool autumn sun or admiring the colorful trees or smelling the autumn air.

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.”

-Stanley Horowitz

 

What a Beautiful Day!

 Yesterday was a good day!  I woke up early and went to Lake Accotink Dam. I ran on the trail around the lake.  I came to a place where I had to decide which way to go and there were no signs telling me which way would lead me around the lake. I tried three different ways and turned around three times and just ended up going back the way I came from. I ran over 4.5 miles.

The lake is beautiful and yesterday was a crisp, cold, sunny morning.  The picture above is the only photo I got from there yesterday.  I like the raised train track.

Later in the day, I donated blood. My iron fortified cereal I eat every morning (Dad that ones for you) and meatloaf I made at the beginning of the week and spinach salads paid off because my iron was high enough that I could donate.  Yay!

Then later in the evening I went to a fancy dinner at the church.  I went over to my friend McKaylee's house before hand and she helped me do my hair and makeup, then we drove over to the church and the men in our ward served us, women, dinner.  The food was yummy and the entertainment was awesome!

The picture above is a roommate picture of Kara, Sarah and I. (Michelle wasn't there because she is in a different ward.)

Here's a self-portrait for the post. 

Overall yesterday was a lovely day! Just wanted to share it and remember it!