Tri-ing Life and More

Chicago Technically my first stop of the trip was Indianapolis, but my first real stop was back to Algonquin, IL to see my parents and friends back there. I was so excited to show my parents the trailer but I got home too late so we waited until my dad got home from work so they could both see it at the same time. They both loved it and were surprised by how easy it was to open and set up. Even more amazed at how much space there actually is inside the trailer. We spent the rest of the day running errands to prepare for the trip including buying groceries, getting some final items for the trailer, and getting my hair cut (gotta look good for the trip). I also spent some time looking through beanie babies, stuffed animals, and some other childhood toys so my parents can donate them. I definitely didn't do enough justice to the pile and it will be there for me at Christmas. We finished with a home cooked meal which is always better when someone else cooks for you (Thanks dad!).

Yes, you read the title correctly, I planned my road trip mostly in two weeks. I had been thinking about it for weeks and did plan out the itinerary about 5 weeks out so I knew how much time to ask off for, but my boss had been on vacation so I wasn't able to ask far out in advance and then work had to figure out if I could disappear for 5 weeks. I wasn't willing to start planning the trip until I had permission to go since that would just make me sad if they said no. Once I got approval, I finished my itinerary, had to find a trailer my car would pull, start booking camp sites, and figure out everything else I needed to be gone for 5 weeks. Itinerary: This was the fun part. My only restriction was leaving on 21 September (after a work conference) and getting to Portland on 6 October to hang out with my friends before our friends' wedding on the 10th. I wanted to see friends across country when possible and hit plenty of National Parks. So I came up with this. 21 Sep

I have started my five week epic cross country road trip and will be blogging along the way so people can follow my adventures. The most asked question about this trip is why are you taking off 5 weeks now? Well two answers to this...the first is that I have hoarded vacation for 7 years and have accumulated a lot so why not take it and go on a dream vacation. The second reason isn't as easy to explain. I have been struggling the last 1.5 years with life. It is not a mid-life crisis (yes I did just turn 30), but more struggling with depression. I have lost my passion in life and I am hoping this trip can help me rediscover it. My coworkers are calling it my "Eat, Pray, Love" tour and I am game for that. I have started to question everything in my life to try to find ways to get out of my funk. Am I in the right job? Will a new hobby help? Should I move to start fresh? What caused this depression to start 1.5 years ago? These are all questions that I have an amazing am

So Cinque Terre is a place that was high on my must visit list. You hear such wonderful things about this picturesque area and it didn't disappoint in the views. We found a nice Airbnb in Vernazza (the second town from the top) because we heard it was one of the better towns to stay in and we could walk into town in about 2 minutes. We had the goal of hiking between the five towns but sadly two of the paths were closed due to rock slides making them unsafe. Of course, those were the easier hikes and sadly it meant we didn't get to do the "love walk" which I guess has some of the best views. We found delicious food and completed three of the hikes though. Day 12: Long Travel Day This was our longest travel day by far. We had a two hour drive back into Venice to catch the train. Then we took the train through Florence to La Spezia (all the way across Italy) and then jumped on a smaller train to Vernazza. It took most of the day but at least the main train had ai

The Dolomites were our adventurous addition to the trip. We thought we would get out and hike the mountains and burn off all the carbs we ate already. It didn't quite work out that way but it was still amazing and beautiful. Day 10: Traveling to the Mountains Traveling to the Dolomites actually wasn't too bad. We took the train from Venice to the mainland station and got our rental car. I think we were all thrilled to find the roads to the Dolomites were all highways and very easy to drive. I know Jenny was happy about this after dealing with the roads around Tuscany. We rented an Airbnb in a small town in the mountains. The view from the balcony was absolutely stunning and we couldn't wait to explore. But first we needed some food so we walked into the small town we were staying at and found a nice pub like place for lunch. We were definitely out of the tourist area. People here only spoke Italian or German so we were very good at pointing and smiling. It seemed to wor

This is how the Italy vacation started. My friends, Linda and Chris, ran into Hilary and I at dinner one night so they joined us. They were talking about how they signed up for Challenge Venice 140.6 and how excited they were about it. I looked at Hilary and said that we should go cheer them on. Hilary happily agreed and we started working on a plan. Thanks Linda and Chris for helping get my Italy vacation started. Venice was a beautiful city. We didn't have any plans when we went and I think we enjoyed that. Our favorite moments were getting lost in the alleys and canals and just enjoying it. We randomly followed locals to see what bakery they shopped at and again enjoyed plenty of gelato. Day 8: The day started with an uneventful drive into Florence and to the train station to get to Venice. I have rarely used trains to get around but it is the easiest way to get around Italy. The trains are pretty nice with air conditioning (except on the smaller ones which we learned later),

Yes I am a wino so Tuscany has been high on my list of places to visit. I was even more determined to find a place in Tuscany to get out of the cities and enjoy the beautiful countryside so that is exactly what we did. I could spend weeks in Tuscany and keep finding things to try and beautiful landscapes. Day 5: Hilary and I met Jenny at the Rome train station (after some confusion about finding Jenny in the large station) and had just enough time to jump on our train to Florence. It was about an hour and a half train ride where we updated Jenny on everything we did in Rome. We went right to Hertz to grab our rental to put our luggage in and then went to explore Florence. We were all very hungry so we went right to Mercado Centrale to grab lunch. Mercado Centrale was a fun place with markets on the bottom floor and an assortment of food options on the second floor. We were overwhelmed by options so we decided to just hit one of the restaurants on the third floor so we could sit down

Italy has been my dream vacation for years and on the top of my list for at least 5 years so I was thrilled when I found two friends to go with me. We had some friends competing in the Challenge Venice Iron distance triathlon so I was able to convince Hilary to join so we could cheer them on. Jenny was just excited to go see Italy outside of Rome. So we set a two week itinerary to see 5 different areas: Rome, Florence/Tuscany, Venice, Dolomites, and Cinque Terre. We loved every minute of it. Great food, wine, views, adventures, and company. Rome: So Hilary and I started in Rome for 4 days. This is about the only part of the vacation that I actually planned since I knew we wanted several tours. It was everything I hoped it would be. The weather was perfect, sunny and high 70s. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment near the Vatican. It was a perfect apartment minus we did struggle to find it (got off one bus stop early) and the air conditioner remote was hidden so we didn't get AC. It