Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Part 1

At "The Breakers"

So, I know its been almost a month since we last blogged (thank you Edwin), but we are back, haha. In the past month we have been to Newport RI, Boston MA,  New York and Killington VT. Also, my boyfriend, Jose came up to visit. So pretty much, we've been super busy the month of December :)

Our Beautiful Sunset

In Newport, we toured one of the Vanderbilt's summer homes called "The Breakers."  If that was my summer house, I don't think I'd EVER leave! It was absolutely beautiful! http://www.newportmansions.org/. After our tour, we drove down Ocean Ave, and saw the most beautiful sunset. After our little drive, we met my friend Julie (from nursing school), for dinner and then started our long drive home to pick up Jose from the airport. Unfortunately I read his flight schedule wrong and we were an hour late picking him up. Ooops, I felt so bad! At least he wasn't mad, just tired :) 

Statue of Liberty

Jose and Me at dinner

Top of the Rock

The next morning, Jose and I dropped Hayley off at work and we headed to catch a train to NYC. Our friend Carter rode a bus up from DC to meet us for the day. It was both of their first time in the city so it was kind of fun seeing their reactions. We did the whole touristy New York thing, while making Hayley a little bit jealous, since she wasn't able to be with us :( I think we probably walked 5 or 6 miles that day, but we sure did see a lot and have fun! I loved having 2 of my best friends in NYC :) The next day, we took it easy, doing a little shopping and ending the day with some Italian with Hayley! YUM YUM! Unfortunately Monday came, and it was time for Jose to go back to Bama. We had a fun weekend!

Good thing for Umbrellas

Our Rainy day in Boston

Of course it rained while we were in Boston, as it has rained everywhere we've gone except New York. Our friend Emily (whom we work with) came with us to be our tour guide. While in Boston we walked the Freedom Trail http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/. It was a great way to see the city along with seeing some major historical landmarks. Harvard was very disappointing though. It not only is extremely small, but it has a fence all the way around and each entrance is guarded. I guess you either had to have a scheduled tour, or be a student to get on the campus. We had a fun day anyway, as we always do :)

These three trips were extremely fun, but the next two might be even better :) Stay tuned!

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Philly Cheese, Please!

Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Hayley's friend Leia invited us to come down to Delaware and spend a few nights with her, so we decided to take her up on that offer last week. So, we decided to head down there on Tuesday, and come back Thursday. Of course we didn't look at the weather until last minute, and yet again, rain was in our future! At least this time it wasn't freezing cold and rainy. We ordered some rain boots from target (since we've had such bad luck lately), but they didn't come in before we left. Just our luck!

The drive down wasn't too terrible. We did, however, take a wrong exit and drove through the Bronx. Is it Bronx, or "The" Bronx? Who cares, right? Anywho, we finally made it to Delaware, met up with Leia and her husband, and after about a 30 minutes deliberation, decided on an Italian restaurant for dinner. Of course the server had to ask where we were from (we get that almost everywhere we go). It was pretty good. I took my leftovers to go and left them on the table, then in Leia's car and finally at her apt. Apparently I really didn't want it. We stayed at a friend's across the street (we love free places to stay!). So after our long day of driving and late night dinner, we called it a night!

Inside Macy

Our Philly Cheese steadks

When we woke up the next time, we were happy to see that it hadn't started raining yet (I believe the forecast called for 80% chance of rain. But of course our hopes were shattered when it started raining one we got into Philadelphia. Parking was much easier than Boston, so we found great parking at the visitor's center. We started the day at the Liberty Bell, then to Independence Hall, next was Betsy Ross's house, followed by the US Mint, then Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Lunch (philly cheese steaks) at Sonnie's steaks, then walking several blocks to City Hall, Macy's (largest department store in the country at it's opening), back to the car, driving to the Muter (pronounced Mooter) Museum, and finally ending at the Rocky Statue in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (was that just one really long run-on sentence?).

Me and Rocky

So our trip to Delaware/Philly was fun, but also rainy! Why is it that it rains almost every trip we take. We never had to worry about that in Arizona or California! Now if it was snow, I wouldn't be complaining :) Anyway till next time

Hayley and Rocky

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Lighthouses and Lobsters

Spring Point Ledge Light

Portland Head Light

So, pretty much every trip we go on is "on a whim." We either wake and up and decide to go somewhere, or the day before we decide since we are off work, we should take a day trip. That's exactly how Maine was decided on. We were at work, new we had the next day off, didn't want to sit around the apartment, so Hayley had a wonderful idea of driving to Maine for the day!! So that morning we were going to wake up early, but you know how that goes. We didn't end up leaving until after lunch, but that was okay as long as our goal of seeing a few lighthouses and eating fresh lobster were met!

Spring Point Ledge Light

Me and My town sign :)

So we headed on our 3 hour drive to Portland, ME, passing through 2 more states: New Hampshire and Maine (we missed the New Hampshire state sign :( Oh well. The first place we wanted to go was Portland Head Light Lighthouse. It was in Cape Elizabeth (yes I took my picture with the sign). This lighthouse was beautiful. The pictures we took looked almost like a painting. We explored the grounds, took some pictures and headed back to the care to find a few more light houses before dark (it was already around 330, only 1.5 more hours of sunlight). We found one finally called Two Lights. It was in a neighborhood, so I just took the picture from far away, using my zoom lens :) I guess it had to lights on top and that's why it was called Two Lights? The next and final lighthouse we found was Spring Point Ledge Light. It wasn't as pretty as the first, but we could walk right up to it. It wasn't the easiest walk. The walkway was uneven rocks. We met a nice couple and they suggested a few places for us eat some lobster! So we took a few pics, and then headed to dinner. But, before we decided on the place to eat, I had to take my pictures with the Cape Elizabeth sign. I was posing it up as cars drove by. It was kinds funny. Anyway, on to dinner!!


We decided on eating at Dimillo's. It's a floating restaurant that used to be a ferry. When we walked in, we thought "this place is too fancy." But we didn't sit in the main dining room, so we felt a little better. Plus, when I saw a man in a jogging suit, I thought our jeans weren't so bad after all. Mission for dinner, eat an entire lobster! We ordered our lobster and told our waitress we had never had it before. She was so kind to bring us a "how to eat lobster" guide. I read it, but didn't really help much. You basically just start crack it. But of course we had to take a few pics with our new friends before we mutilated them. After our lobster shoot, we "dug in." I ate the claws first, using what appeared to be a nut cracker, while Hayley tackled hers tail. After eating all of our lobster we were thoroughly satisfied and so excited to have eaten lobster in Maine! Yes, cheesy, but that's us! After dinner we started our 3 hour drive home, stuffed and ready for bed!

Our New Friends, Sebastian and Sebastian

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Big Lights Will Inspire You, Part 1

Arriving Grand Central
Station

So, I’m running behind on our blogs again! Oops. I say this is part 1, because I am sure we will take several more trips to NYC. Nicki (our new friend from Missouri) was going to head there two weeks ago (during the power outage) for the day and see Phantom of the Opera, so we decided to invite ourselves along. We were kind of sick of being in the dark and having absolutely nothing to do. Nicki of course loved the idea and off we were on a Thursday morning at the crack of dawn and headed to NYC! We took the train from New Haven so we wouldn’t have to drive in the city! The train is so convenient! So once we got into Grand Central Station, Hayley and I of course took our first picture of NYC!!!  It was Hayley’s first time to the city (I went in 2007 with Lauren), so it was fun to see her reaction! Then we took the subway and headed to Times Square to get our Phantom tickets! After standing in line for a few minutes, getting cussed out by rude people, we finally got our tickets. We then headed to find a bathroom (of course). We went to a deli/bakery and felt bad we were using the facilities, so we bought a cupcake, German chocolate that is! It was delish! We then headed to Bryant Park, passing some Disney characters along the way. We were going to go ice skating, but since there weren’t many people there, we decided against it and headed back to Times Square and found ourselves roaming around Toys R Us. Yes we are dorks, but we let the inner child come out and play J. So after enjoying our time in the toy store for an hour, we left headed to Rockefeller Center to check out that ice skating rink. We took a few pictures, got in trouble for sitting on the wall, then decided to find some food!!!  We ate at a yummy pub that was actually priced pretty cheap (we’re cheap remember). Each of our meals was only $9! How amazing is that?! My cousin Stephanie came and met us for lunch, we visited for a few, then off to the Phantom of the Opera! It was so awesome! The Venue was great and the singing was amazing. Nicki and I thoroughly enjoyed it, not so sure about Hayley though. Maybe it was because she fell asleep during it, hahahaha. Oh well. Once the show was over, it was about 430pm, and we decided we should at least see Central Park. While there, we were talked into taking a stupid bike tour. It cost us $60, and I think we could have walked faster than we were biked, and would have been more comfortable. All three of us tried to fit into a two person carriage. Not our brightest idea, oh well it was an adventure in itself! So once our hour long bike tour finished, we headed back to Grand Central Station, go some dinner and hopped on the train back to New Haven. On the train ride back, I sat next to a guy whose wife is from a small town near Mobile. How random is that?! This was a very fun trip, and we can wait to have more NYC adventures! Till’ next time,

Helly and Lizzy

Time Square

Our German Chocolate Cupcake!

Random Disney Characters!

Woody!

Big Tootsie-roll pops we found in Toys-R-US

Rockefeller Center

Phantom of the Opera

On Our Central Park Tour

At the end of our Central Park tour. Pooped and cold!

Outside cooking

Outdoor Refrigerator

Outdoor Kitchen

So I'm sure everyone knows about our snowstorm (whether you heard about it on the news or read about it on our blog). Well, we were out of power for an entire week, so of course we did not want our mean to go to waste. We made our own refrigerator outside out of our cooler and snow. But, by Wednesday, the weather had gotten a little warm, and our snow/refrigertor had melted and warmed up. Time to cook up our meat, I mean meal! So, e grilled/sauteed our hamburger meat, sausage, and cubed steak. I think in all it took a total of  2.5 hours. We invited our friend Nicki over for lunch (we didn't want this meat to go to waste of course) and then packed the rest up, took it to Nicki's (she still had power) and then off to shop! The next day, we were off to New York, but I will save that for another blog :) Until then!

Hayley and Elizabeth

SNOWTOBER!!!! (compliments of Stacey Thomas)

Witch graveyard

Our Pumpkins. Hayley's is ghost , mine
is bat and jack-o-lantern

Scary monsters

So, Our time here in Connecticut has started out kinda rough! The first two weeks were pretty good. We began scrapbooking our previous assignments, decorated the apt, and even carved some pumpkins!  But the easiness ended last week. We had already tried to plan a trip to Salem, MA 2 weeks ago, but it rained so we scrapbooked instead (yes we are dorks). So last Wednesday we knew we were going to be off Thurs and Fri, so we decided we were heading to Salem rain or shine. Well of course it rained the entire time! It rained so hard, we had to buy umbrellas. It was a neat little town, and we learned about the witch trials. Our last event of the evening was a "Tales and Tombstone" tour, where we learned about the most haunted places in Salem. Pretty neat, although we didn't pay to close attention b/c as soon as our trolley took off the rain turned to snow!!!! Our first snow in New England, and it wasn't even Halloween yet! Never-the-less we were totally stoked!!!  By the end of the night, our jeans were wet up to the knees, our feet were frozen solid and we were so very tired! The next day we went to Boston which was a complete disaster, never go there without some kind of plan. So we basically ate lunch and then headed back home.

Outside our apt the day
after the snowstorm

Snowing outside of Hospital

               The disaster started the next day! I went to work this past Saturday like any normal day. We all knew snow was coming, but no one expecting what happened. I believe it started snowing around lunch time. It was sooo cool to watch it start accumulating, even if it was from the hospital window. Hayley was texting me, letting me know how much was coming down. Then I got a text around 4pm saying we lost power! AAHH poor Hayley, sitting there in the dark and cold just waiting for me to get home. On the drive home, it was still snowing like crazy, there were trees down everywhere, and probably at least 4-5 inches of snow on the ground! CRAZY! Our first New England Snowstorm! So, once I got home, we were going to head to our friend Nicki's apt to take showers (since she still had power), but with in 5 minutes of being home, we were already "snowed" in. We called the hospital and let them know what had happened and didn't know if we could get to work the next morning, so we called staffing and set up for security to come pick us up. Sweet, no driving tomorrow for us! We figured out we still had hot water, so we showered, layered our clothing and headed to bed. The next morning we woke up to a true winter wonderland. It was absolutely beautiful!  Too bad we couldn't play in it! Security was 2.5 hours picking us up (an whole story, but too long to type), and we finally got to work around 815 am. They day wasn't too terrible. Security ended up taking us home also, back to a cold, dark apt. That night, on our way in we saw our neighbors who we had seen using a shovel the night before, so I asked if we could borrow it. There we were, Southern Alabama girls, trying to shovel snow. I think we did a pretty good job! So here we are, it's Thursday and still without power. I'm sitting here at Panera Bread alone "blogging", and Hayley is at work.  I really hope we get power back real soon, I have laundry that needs to be done! Anyway's until next time!
~Hayley and Elizabeth~

We're Back!!!!

So it's been a few weeks since we blogged, so let me catch y'all up to speed! So two weeks ago, we left California and headed back to Alabama! It was 2300 miles home, and we made it in two days! We go home two Saturdays ago and were home for a week. While home we visited with friends and family, and also packed and repacked the car. Early last Sunday (10/9) morning, Hayley drove to my house and we left Montgomery around 4am and headed north to Connecticut. That drive was 1700 miles!!!  We arrived to our hotel around midnight Monday morning, then had to turn around and be at work at 7am that morning! AAHH!!!  So in all we drive 4000 miles in two weeks!  Craziness right!!!!????  Well so far here in Connecticut we have worked every single day!  We did get out of orientation early on Thursday and head over to our soon to be "hometown" of Wethersfield for a local Farmer's Market. While there we found Scarecrows on EVERY street corner! Today was our first day on the floor and it was actually a very good day. The doctor's put their own orders in the computer, so us nurses don't have to try and read their terrible handwriting and guess at what they are writing anymore!! AMAZING!  Tomorrow we are going to move into the apt and then hopefully on Sunday head to Mystic Harbor http://www.mysticseaport.org/ and http://www.proseandphotos.com/mystic,_ct.htm for the day!

So not too much has been going on, but we are soo excited to start taking our trips up the Maine coast, and to New York, Boston, Salem, and Rhode Island! I've included a few pictures from both the California road trip and the Connecticut road trip. Enjoy :)

New Mexico Sunset

Driving down the road in Arizona

Fall Foliage in Virginia

Fall Colors in Virginia

 Pennsylvania Sunset through passenger side mirror

Pennsylvania Sunset through driver's side mirror

Cute pumpkins at the Wethersfield Farmer's Market

Connecticut in the fall!!!!!!!!

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Farewell Trip!

Well our time in California is coming to an end. Tonight is our last night of work, and then Alabama bound we will be tomorrow morning!  But, before we ended our stay here in Sunny Cali, we had to take one last road trip, this time with some new friends, Sara and Jen. These girls are travelers on Hayley's floor, and they are super spontaneous, and oh so much fun. We had a awesome weekend with them.

Rocky beach on 17 mile drive

It all started out with Hayley and I having last Friday and Saturday nights off and us wanting to hit the coast one last time and drive down to Montery and Carmel. Well we looked and looked and looked for places to stay, but our cheap selves didn't feel like paying $90/night for a 2 star hotel. We found out you can sleep on the beach, so that was our new plan! In the mean time, Hayley talked with Sara and Jen about coming and they decided after their computer class Friday morning they would come. We napped for a few hours (as usual) got up, ate lunch, got oil changed and headed to Santa Cruz. We met up with the girls at a Ross, b/c of course Hayley and I weren't prepared and needed a blanket! Sara and Jen are campers, so they brought their two person tent and we decided we were going to find a camp ground. The third one we came to was Sunset Beach State Park. Apparently it was booked solid, but Sara and Jen got us in. They found a big group  that welcomed us to join them for the night. Little did Hayley and I know, until we started unpacking the car, that is was a boyscout troop and their dad's. That's right I said boyscout troop, 12 and 13 year boys.

camping!!!

4 people in a 2 man tent!

So Hayley and I unpacked our stuff and the cooler, while Sara and Jen set up our tent. We made pizza pies on the coals that were still hot, and then cooked some smores over the campfire. Ahh, this brought back great memories from camping with my brother and his boyscout troop when we were little. The girls taught these boys some campfire songs, and we all discussed Hayley and I being from Alabama, and Sara and Jen from Ohio. When it was time for bed, all for of us piled into the 2 person tent!! We were packed in like sardines, but at least we were warm :) Oh, I forgot to mention, we had about 10 visitors throughout the night (from beginning to end). They looked like bandits and they were stealing our food. You guessed it, raccoons. I think I only slept about 2 hours that night b/c I kept hearing them everywhere!!!!

Our Tent, and our Visitors

The next morning, we were woken up to the boys saying "Girls, time to get up. We fixed you breakfast (I almost put ya'll but we all know only us southerners say that). Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and fresh fruit." They also shook our tent. I had a great breakfast, and I didn't even have to cook or clean up! PERFECT :) Well we got on the road early (before the head leader of Troop 42 got there).

Sea lions!!!

Not the Gulf, but still Beautiful

We headed to Monterey to the famous 17 mile drive from Monterey to Carmel. Along the drive we saw beautiful houses, rocky beaches, and famous golf courses. I finally did something my brother hasn't done!!! We ate lunch in Carmel and then headed back to Monterey so Jen and Sara could get their car and head home (they had to work Saturday night). Hayley and I stayed in Monterey in search of the Sea lions. After witnessing about 4 weddings, going to 3 different spots, we finally found them. Totally worth it!

Our final trip in California was, I think, the most memorable one! So far, Arizona and California has brought us tons of fun and adventure, and we can't wait to see what Connecticut holds!!!!  Till next time,

~Hayley and Elizabeth~