For the sake of posterity, I wanted to record the places I have been, with some information about each:
To start off: The United States
1. California-To my knowledge this is the first trip out of Utah that I ever took. I have been back many times and I miss it! I have been mostly to Southern California, though I did go to San Francisco for my honeymoon and quickly fell in love with Napa Valley. If I could afford it, I would move there in a heartbeat.
We drive there usually, and I will never forget the time that my friend got pulled over in Bakersfield, CA and when the policeman asked where we were going so fast my friend replied "California" and he dryly replied "You can slow down, you're here". Ha ha.
2. Nevada-Kind of goes along with California since most of the times I have been there it's because I am driving TO California. I have mostly stopped in Vegas, though a few times we have stopped in Primm and once we went to Reno instead. Primm is home to "Buffalo Bills" a very tall, very FUN roller coaster :)
3. San Antonio, TX-Absolutely beautiful. I can't say I enjoyed the few hours I spent in El Paso on the way, but San Antonio is lush with green as far as the eye can see. Went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Sea World, where they had some of the best roller coasters I've ever been on. The Riverwalk was my favorite part and I remembered the Alamo, too.
4. Drive across the country #1-We saw many states and many cities, we drove the southern route, through New Mexico and Texas and so on and so forth. We got pulled over in Texas (I TOLD Matt he was going too fast) and experienced some southern hospitality when the Policeman realized that we were from Utah and we told him we were driving to Florida. No ticket, but we promised to keep it under 70 MPH. I especially remember singing (loudly) "The stars at night, are big and bright *clap clap clap clap* deep in the hearrrrrt of Texas!" over and over with Matt as we drove late into the night and probably went a little crazy. Ha ha
5. Drive across the country #2-We drove the northern route this time. We made a few stops on the way. I bought my very first scratch ticket in Kentucky. I won 2 dollars! I didn't cash it in though, I wanted to save it. There was a Subway in a gas station in a small town that was packed. I got the feeling it was the most exciting thing to happen there for a while. We saw a turn off for Elizabethtown and REALLY wanted to stop, but we didn't. Sad.
6. Drive across the country #3-We drove the northern route again. Many places I wanted to stop and see we did not. I drove with my mom this time though, and that was fun! :)
7. Massachusetts-Since my hubby is from here, of course I have been! I've only been to Boston once, but it was very busy and a pain in the butt to drive around in! The rest of the state is beautiful. I love continental style homes. :) Matt's family lives in Sunderland, which is just outside of Amherst. We usually go into town a couple of times while we are there, which is always fun. Emily Dickinson's house is in a small town nearby, but i've never toured it. Maybe next time! One of my favorite things to do while we are there is go to Yankee Candle. The company's headquarters is there and the building is HUGE! It has many different sections, including one where there is snow falling year round. (Fake snow of course).
8. Connecticut-I'll admit that most of what I have seen of this state consists of the airport (Bradley), since this is usually where we fly in and out of Mass. Therefore, it barely counts.
9. Vermont-Matt's parents took us up there on a little drive once when we were there. it was very pretty and I got caught up looking at the leaves (I totally was one of those people). We stopped and got some Vermont maple syrup. Mmm...
10. New York-We went by train and I spent 5 hours there. It wasn't nearly enough. I want to go back! I got to go the the World of Disney New York but what I really wanted to do was go to Tiffany. Alas, it was a Sunday and closed by 5. Sad.
11. Idaho/Wyoming-I lump these together because I've barely been to both and both were for family functions. Fun none the less!
12. Montana-I went to Montana for New Years eve 2000 with two of my best friends. It was in the middle of nowhere. The hotel resembled the hotel from "The Shining". I kept expecting twin ghosts to pop out and say "Come play with us Erica". Despite that, I had a lot of fun in a mostly abandoned hotel in the middle of nowhere. :)
Outside the country:
European Choir Tour
1. London, England-London was bustling and exhilarating and fun. I loved the accents, and the "Mind the ______" the hotel elevator stated "Mind the door" every time it closed. It was fabulous. I got to see "Phantom of the Opera" while in London, and I got to go on a Jack the Ripper tour which was horribly fascinating. I loved the British Museum and everything that went with it!
2. Paris, France-Paris was beautiful. I turned 18 while we were there. I got a kiss on a balcony at sunset from a friend for my birthday. It probably would have been more romantic if I had liked him. Ha ha. We got to see the Moulin Rouge, the Arc de Triomphe, the Sacre Couer, Le Tour Eiffel among other amazing things that you only see in books. The Louvre was amazing, but I didn't get to spend nearly as much time there as I would have liked. I remember the hotel lobby being kind enough to let me call long distance to my mother on my birthday when I couldn't get my calling card to work. They will never know how much that meant to a girl who was far far away for the first time in her life. Even though my dad was there to keep me company too :)
3. Champery/Zermatt, Switzerland-By far my favorite place so far. In the world. It was sprawling and beautiful. Champery was basically cut right into the Swiss Alps, and the people were absolutely wonderful. Zermatt was nothing if not absolutely majestic since it contained one of the most magnificent mountains in the world, the Matterhorn. It certainly is NOT the same as seeing it at Disneyland. My favorite moment during the trip occurred in the small town below the Matterhorn. It was raining and I decided to do some cart wheels in the rain in the middle of town. I'm sure that local passerby were just thinking I was a "crazy American" but it was pretty fun!
4. Venice, Italy-We were only there for a day, but we got to sing in St. Mark's Basilica, which was beautiful, albeit awful for acoustics because of the gold paneled ceiling. We ate at a place that was essentially called "The Cavern". We got to see how glass was blown and found out that red glass is the most expensive because they put a bit of gold in the coloring to make it stand out.
5. Lichenstein-We were there for about 3 hours. I spent almost all 3 hours trying to find food that would accept cards. When I found a place, pretty much everyone else was there too. I snapped one picture as I got on the bus.
6. Seefeld, Austria-Fun little town, with delicious pizza and gellato. We got to go to the Swarovski Crystal outlet, since they are based there. They had a lot of beautiful EXPENSIVE things!
7. Rothenburg, Germany- It was a very cool medieval town. We got to tour it at night with the "Night watchman" which was awesome. The first town I saw that was actually surrounded by a moat.
8. Dachau, Germany-Went to a concentration camp here. It was very sombering, but something that I think everyone should experience once in there life. This camp was unique in that they never used their gas chambers (not from lack of torturing punishment), but nevertheless it was extremely creepy to walk through this seemingly unharmful "Shower" room. It even had the german word for shower written above the doors.
Carnival Cruise
9. Freeport, Bahamas-We went on a fantastic tour with "Uncle Chuck" and I collected soundbites from him as we toured the small island. My favorite, "We realized we were never going to be rich, so we decided to be happy instead".
10. Nassau, Bahamas-Catered much more to tourism and as a result seemed much less "Real". Still, i enjoyed the worst trained Flamingo show ever to exist (i'm sure), an underwater adventure and Senior Frogs.
