September 25-29th 2004 - Rome, Mykonos, Santorini & Athens!

ROMA!!! I was so excited to see Rome. It was the 3rd day of heavy touring, so we were exhausted by the time we hit Rome. It was such a great day! We visited the Vatican, including St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums. It was just incredible. It was a surreal experience to walk into the Sistine Chapel and to look at Michelangelo's ceiling and his Pieta. It was the coolest experience of my life! After lunch we headed to the Colosseum. It was unbelievable. It was like stepping back in time.

We wandered around St. Peter's Square and it was a gorgeous day. The square is huge. Dan and I had a fabulous day here.

After a wonderful sea day... and much needed, we arrived Mykonos, Greece. We spent a leisurely day wandering on our own and lunching down by the water. It was another beautiful day but it was HOT!

The windmills of Mykonos.

The next stop was Santorini Greece. This was the most beautiful place I had ever been. We rode the cable cars up to the village of Thira and wandered the day away.

This was the view leaving Santorini. We have GOT to come back here!

Next stop Athens! For many many years I have wanted to come to Athens. I couldn't wait to see the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and all the history that Athens has to offer. After watching the 2004 Olympics on TV, I was so excited to be there. It was another great day and we learned SO much. We wandered all over the Acropolis and then went to the Plaka where we walked around and shopped and then made our way on the Metro back to the pier.

Here is Dan and I up top on the Acropolis with the city of Athens below.

Here is Jim and I mailing postcards back home from Athens.

September 23rd, 2004 - First trip to Europe - Wedding Day!

Here we are in Barcelona! This is my first flight across the pond, and first trip to Europe for both of us. We flew in this morning and thank GOD everything went perfectly and all our luggage made it. We were out on the bow by 3pm getting married. What a day. It was thee perfect place to get married. I had met some people online at the CruiseCritic.com and they attended our wedding. We also had a small reception (included in the wedding fee) in one of the bars on board. It was such a great time!






Our first stop, the very next morning was Villefranche sur mer. This is my first trip to France. It was going to be a gorgeous day! We were newlyweds, we were in the French Riviera... What's not to love!










This is the view as soon as you got off the tender in Villefranche. It was such beautiful place. After getting off the tender, we made our way to the train station to go to Monaco. In Monaco we ended up going to a yacht show. It was amazing!

Dan and I at dinner... we had such a fun table onboard the Brilliance of the Seas. There was another newlywed couple also. They were from Long Island and the entire table had a blast.











When we arrived in Florence the next day it was FREEZING! Dan had to break away from our group and find us sweatshirts. Florence was such an awesome place.












By afternoon, we had made our way to Pisa and it was warm again! Yay! Pisa is beautiful! I loved it! The leaning tower is amazing... I wish we would have pre-bought tickets to climb the tower, but no...

June 7, 2004 - Alex's first trip to New York City!

This was actually a surprise gift to my daugher for her incredible grades and school habits. It is such a nice thing for a single mother (at the time) to not have to worry about school issues on top of everything else. I had talked about taking Alex to New York City for a few years. She was dying to go, and I was dying to go back! Anyone that really knows me knows that this is my favorite U.S. city. There is just so much to do here... and there really is something for everyone. I invited my mother along too... it would be her first trip to the city as well. Her and Alex both fell in love with this place! These pictures are all prior to me having a "real" camera, so don't look too close at them. We spent a whole week here and went to see one Broadway show, The Phantom of the Opera. VERY good show.

One of my favorite areas in the city is Central Park. http://www.centralparknyc.org/site/PageNavigator/virtualpark_main In fact it is my favorite outdoor space. You have to go there to believe it. It is 51 city blocks long, and 3 large city blocks wide. It is 843 acres and was the first landscaped park in the United States. This picture is Bethesda's Terrace. It's a great area with a lot of sitting room... a huge fountain, and across the pond you can see Loeb's Boathouse: http://thecentralparkboathouse.com/ this is a great place for lunch, but a bit pricey. The view, though... superb!

Alex by the fountain in Bethesda's Terrace

Bethesda's Terrace seen from the end of the Mall.

Alex standing at the start of the Mall
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One of our first stops is always the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). If you are going to NYC, get this museum in first... You may not have the energy later in your trip. This is one of my favorite museums. There is so much here that it would take days and days to see it all. I also love the building.

Alex in the Met

St. Patrick's Cathedral. Incredible beautiful. I wish my camera would have taken some decent shots of all the stained glass inside and the interior. Maybe next time.

One of the activities we did was take a Harbor Lights Cruise. This leaves every day from the theatre district and goes at dusk... just when all the lights are starting to come on in the city. It is a great, relaxing way to see the city from a different perspective. (Brooklyn Bridge in picture... my favorite bridge)

I wish this photo had turned out better... I just love Grand Central Station. I would love to travel back in time when this was the center of the action. The history inside this building is incredible. The ceiling is painted with star constellations... it's pretty cool.

Alex at the Statue of Liberty... we did a ferry out to the Statue and to Ellis Island. A very interesting tour that every American should go on.

The view from the Empire State Building. This is my favorite building in all of NYC.

Another view, looking towards the Hudson. You can make out a small portion of Madison Square Gardens... that part of a circle building right next to the very tall building. PENN station sits right under Madison Square gardens. The city is incredible... what goes on UNDER this city is staggering. I try not to think about it ;)

This is one view of Rockefeller Center.

Alex outside Rockefeller Center - She looks right at home in NYC!

This is the Rose Center inside the Natural History Museum. This is my second favorite museum in New York City. It is incredibly interesting, but there is SO much here that it is kind of overpowering. I suggest taking a few wings on different days. There is a LOT of info inside this place...

And this is Washington Squre. This is one of my favorite outside spaces in the city.

December 21st 2003 - Honolulu, Hawaii

Hawaii! I had been to Hawaii before, but only to Maui (the best island, I think). I was excited to see the North Shore and Waikiki Beach. Alex and I were with Dan and his boys and we were meeting almost his entire family over there. His niece lived in Waikiki but we were splitting our time between the North Shore and Waikiki beach.

We rented a house on the North Shore. This was the back yard. We had this huge deck with steps down to the beach. It was just incredible to hear the ocean at night. One thing though, even though Christmas is a great time to be here, you cannot go in the water in very many places because the water is too dangerous. We walked along the beach close to the water and got caught up in a wave and almost were sucked out to sea. It happened in an instant.

Alex on the North Shore - this area is the famous Pipeline and you could go into the water here. Not sure of the difference, but a few hundred yards down the beach, you could not enter the water. There were plenty of surfers here to watch.


A view of the Pipeline

I took a blow-up Christmas tree with us, so we wouldn't feel too sad being away at Christmas. It was still a little strange to be here without my family in a place that just does not look like Chirstmas.

OK... biggest disappointment of the entire trip. I canNOT believe people rave about the Polynesian Cultural Center. I just can't! Forget that it's run by the LDS church, it's just boring! You can't even get a real diet coke here! All the exhibits are cheesy... it's very cheaply put together and it's SUPER expensive to get in. It's a beautiful spot, for sure... but if you are not into LDS theme parks, I would save your money.

The one VERY interesting thing we did in Hawaii was visit Pearl Harbor. This was a fascinating day. Incredible history here! Truly something every American should see.

Here is the USS Arizona - the final resting place of the 1102 of the 1177 sailors killed onboard the battleship on December 7th, 1941. This memorial is amazing. You really have to see the aerial view to understand it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Arizona_Memorial

They have these markers out where other battleships were.

Inscription in marble of all who lost their lives onboard the USS Arizona alone.

My Christmas photo. This was taken at Dan's niece's place above the city of Waikiki.

June 21st, 2003 - New York City! My first time!

It was my first time in New York City! I was so ecxcited! Dan and I and both the boys flew into Newark... rented a car and then drove into the city. The boys were leaving the next day on a train to the lake up in the Adirondacks and Dan and I were staying in the city for 4 days and then meeting up at the lake in the car. Let me first tell you about our car rental experience. We flew into Newark in the rain and finally found our car rental counter. While we were checking in, the man at the counter asked if we would like to upgrade... ummm, no thanks... So, he does a little looking in his computer (we were to have the car for 2 weeks) and gives us the keys and a slot number of where we'll find the car. So... we head out walking to find our car number. We get there and it's a NEW Jaguar! We walked back to the counter and said "I think there has been a mistake??" and the man looked at us and said "Have a nice vacation Mr. Sutliff." SUPER COOL!!! A Jag!

This is us in our Jag making our way to enter the Holland Tunnel.

The next morning we had to take the kids to Penn station and put them on a train to Amsterdam New York where they would be picked up by their aunt. After dropping them off, it was out to explore. The rain had stopped but the puddles were huge. Here is a shot of my favorite building in NYC. The Empire State Building. Built in 1930 during the depression and only took 13 months to build!

Atlas - famous figure from Greek Mythology. Atlas was half-man, half-god and condemned to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Rockefeller Center

Prometheus - bringing fire to mankind.

This is where the tree is at Christmas... the ice skating rink. In the warmer months, it is a great sidewalk cafe. Rockefeller Center is a huge group of buildings with a giant shopping area underground.

The famous Times Square

Here I am waiting for the ferry to take us out to the Statue of Libery and Ellis Island.

The Statue of Liberty

Ellis Island

It's kind of hard to see the wall of names here on Ellis Island but it wraps around this entire park. Very interesting stories.

This is the area around Ground Zero. This was an incredible experience to be here. The empty area between all the buildings is where the World Trade Center used to be.

Here is the Stock Exchange Building. Since 9/11 you can no longer go inside.

Federal Hall on Wall Street... Where George Washington took the oath of office for the first President of the United States. Federal Hall was home to the first congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch of government when New York City was the nation's capitol. It is now a museum.

The Brooklyn Bridge... the coolest bridge ever. Completed in 1883, it's one of the oldest suspension bridges in the U.S. There is a huge bike/walk path that runs down the center on a higher platform, with cars running below. It's a very strange thing being up there... but cool.

Had to get a photo of this... This is a Hummer for children inside FAO Schwarz. Can you see teh price tag? It's $30,000!!! Unbelievable!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

http://www.metmuseum.org/

Inside the Met... it is just the coolest museum in the USA!

Inside the Met

A stroll through Central Park

Conservatory Water - a pond where you can sail your own boats or rent one. There is a snack bar here and restrooms. It's a great place to take a break and watch the kids and adults race their boats.

One of the adorable trails inside the park. You better have a map if you want to go off the sidewalk here. There are so many pathways and the scenery is just incredible.

Looking across the pond... I love Central Park.