Spring Break 2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
This year, for spring break, I did a variety of things. I started off by flying to Los Angeles where I watched Jeff sail in the Harbor Cup Regatta, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway into San Francisco, drove to Kirkwood and skied, drove back to Los Angeles, and then came back to Salt Lake. Here is what I did each day, enjoy!!!
Io ho avuto una settimana di ferie e quest'anno, ho fatto tantissime cose! Sono andata a Los Angeles a trovare Jeff e per vederlo andare in barca vela, sono andata a sciare a Kirkwood e con Jeff, abbiamo guidato sulla costa di California da Los Angeles a San Francisco!

Friday, March 13 (Venerdi', 13/3)...

Jeff had sailing practice all day today, so I just hung out at USC. I went to the grocery store and got some fruit and snacks for the weekend. I also got caught up on all of my TV shows (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Scrubs, The Office). When Jeff came home, he was exhausted so we ordered pizza and watched a movie and went to bed!

Jeff era impegnato tutto il giorno e io non ho fatto molto. Sono andata al supermercato a comprare un paio di cose e poi ho guardato la TV. Quella sera, io e Jeff abbiamo ordinato della pizza e l'abbiamo mangiata in tanto di guardare un film.

Saturday, March 14 (Sabato, 14/3)...

This was the first day of the Harbor Cup Regatta. The Harbor Cup was held at the Los Angeles Yacht Club from the Port of Los Angeles. USC was racing in boat number 1 today and they did well. The morning was off to a slow start, as you can not have a sailing regatta without wind. As a result, we waited around a while for the wind to come, hoping that it wouldn't storm. I was in the boat with USC's sailing coach along with other sailors' family members. It was my first time seeing a regatta and it was a lot of fun! USC did really well, they outright won two races by more than 5 boat lengths! Saturday night, there was a dinner at the LAYC so we ate there. At the end of Saturday, USC was in third place overall.

Oggi era il primo giorno della regatta di Jeff. La corsa e cominciata molto adaggio perche' non c'era molto vento e per andare in barca vela, serve almeno un po' di vento! Io ero nella barca con l'allenatore di Jeff e mi sono divertita molto! USC, la scuola di Jeff e il nome della scuadre, sono andati molto bene. Alla fine del giorno, erano terzi.














Sunday, March 15 (Domenica, 15/3)...
The second and final day of the Harbor Cup Regatta proved to be very exciting! Having been sunburned from yesterday, I was smart and wore a hat and sunscreen, yet still managed to get my ears and side of my face burned. I'm hopeless! The weather was much better today though because they were able to start the race on time since they had a decent amount of wind. USC was racing in boat number 6 today. They won one of the races and again, won by a landslide! The wind died down towards the end, and after the third race of three loops, everyone was ready to be done, but the Race Committee wanted to do one more race. I was doing really well not having fallen asleep the whole time because I was so tired, that I slept through the last race. I woke up as the horns were sounding per boat that finished. Whoops!! That night at the LAYC, there was the awards ceremony and USC finished 2nd overall (there were 8 boats) in the Harbor Cup. That night, Jeff and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner (my favorite restaurant) and then went home because we had to pack to drive to Kirkwood the next day.

Oggi era il secondo e l'ultimo giorno della gara. La scuadra di Jeff e finita in secondo e sono andati molto bene. Oggi c'era molto piu' vento al mattino, pero', verso la fine delle gare, non c'era piu' molto vento.









Monday, March 16 (Lunedi', 16/3)...
Jeff and I left Los Angeles around 8:00AM this morning. We started our drive along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), or the California 1. We drove through all of the Los Angeles beaches, Santa Monica, Malibu, etc., and then kept going north. At one point, the directions had us going through all these small towns in California that I had never heard of. It was fun to see all these interesting little towns because they were all so great! One interesting part of the first part of our trip was that we did part of the drive on the Coastal Scenic Highway. There was nothing scenic about that highway at all. No coast or anything! It took us straight into a naval base at which point, we had to turn around and go back since there was no other way around that. We stopped for lunch in San Luis Obispo and then continued on our way. As we headed north and into more of the farmland, we saw so many different types of fruit trees. We saw oranges, lemons, tons of strawberries, and artichokes. We were tempted to stop for strawberries in one of the farms but by the time we decided to do that, we had passed most of the places that were selling strawberries. Heading north into Big Sur, the scenery was stupendous! Crisp, blue water blue skies, and no one around made the drive extremely peaceful. It actually made the drive so peaceful that I fell asleep and took a nap. When I woke up, we were winding our way up and down the hills along the coast. Here, the roads were very narrow and we were driving on the side of a cliff. Driving up the coast, we started seeing more and more fog and we knew we were getting closer to San Francisco. We saw a strawberry farm and stopped because we wanted strawberries. The place we chose was interesting. When we walked in there was a father and daughter playing a game on one of the tables inside. Then we started looking around at what was being sold. We were expecting someone to come help us, but the father in the room said help yourselves, it’s self-serve. Jeff and I looked at each other and weren’t really sure what to do. Sure enough, there was a sign that said “Help yourselves and please pay the honor till on your way out.” They had different types of jams for sale and to taste so naturally we tried all of them. They were all so good! We ended up buying a jar of strawberry jam and two strawberry truffles for a grand total of $8. What a deal! The truffles were so rich and creamy and yummy! But, I couldn’t eat an entire one so Jeff and I split one and saved the other for his mom. Then we kept on our way. The fog grew thicker as we continued but soon enough, we made it to San Francisco! We were so excited because we were so tired from being cooped in a little car. In San Francisco, we drove to Jeff’s moms’ apartment on Van Ness and dropped off our stuff. We went out to dinner with Jeff’s parents to this little restaurant down the street from the apartment. After dinner, we were all so tired that we went to bed anxious to go to Kirkwood the next day.

Oggi, io e Jeff siamo partiti per la nostra guidata della California! L'abbiamo fatta tutta sulla costa che era stupenda! C'era l'acqua blu, il celo blu, e non c'era nessuno per strada. Ci siamo fermati una volta a prendere delle fragole perche' avevamo voglia di frutta. Il posto in cui ci siamo fermati non c'avevano le fragole, pero', avevano la marmelata e io l'ho presa. La marmelata era buonissima!! Siamo arrivati a San Francisco verso sera e siamo andati a mangiare con i genitori di Jeff e poi siamo andati subito a letto perche' eravamo stanchi morti!





Nothing Scenic About This Part.














Fog Over Mountains

Fog Over Ocean






Strawberry Fields


Truffles

The Farm We Stopped At


We Made it!!!


Tuesday, March 17 (Martedi’, 17/3)…
Jeff and I slept in a little bit this morning and then, along with his dad, packed the car and went on the road. Jeff and his dad wanted to check out their boat, Jamani, which is docked at the San Francisco yacht Club (SFYC) so we detoured there first. Since there was no wind and very low tide, we didn’t sail, the men just did a few chores. After that, we left to go to Kirkwood. The drive to Kirkwood was nice. It seemed to go by very fast, but I also slept for about an hour so I didn’t really pay attention to the time. We arrived in Kirkwood around 5:00PM that day and Tim (Jeff’s brother) and Brandon (Tim’s roommate) were already there. After we had unpacked, Jeff and I went on a walk to see the slopes. There was so much snow on the side of the road, that when I stood next to it, the snow bank was taller than I am (it was slightly taller than Jeff too)! Jeff and I had a nice walk and we figured that since it was so warm when we went on our walk around 6:00PM, the skiing was going to be even warmer.

Oggi era il giorno in cui siamo andati a Kirkwood che e' vicino a Lake Tahoe tra la California e il Nevada. Siamo andati a sciare li e abbiamo fatto tre giorni di sciate dietro fila. C'era molta neve e un bel sole tutti i giorni!





Jamani


Massive Icicle



Ahh the Bunny Hill











Wednesday, March 18 (Mercoledi’, 18/3)…
Jeff and I woke up early, ready to go skiing! It was a beautiful day for skiing with blue sunny skies. Since this was my like 6th time ever on skis, I was extremely hesitant about the runs Jeff wanted to take me on. They were very intimidating! We started off on the bunny hill, but after about two runs, moved over to the next lift. After skiing for a few hours, we headed back to the house for lunch. We stayed in for an hour just relaxing and then went back out. We stayed on that second lift because I still wasn’t feeling super confident on skis. Jeff was very patient with me and taught me some tricks and tips that really helped me ski better. The whole day, we were both very hot because the temperature was so warm! I only wore my jacket in the morning, but that was the only time the entire trip that I wore my coat. That night, we made dinner, watched The Prestige (well, the boys did, I took a nap), and then went to bed. Jeff’s mom arrived late that night so we didn’t see her until Thursday morning.






Thursday, March 19 (Giovedi’, 19/3)…

I woke up Thursday morning and could barely get out of bed. I was so sore! So naturally, the only thing I wanted to do was go skiing again! Jeff and I went out early and we did a new lift with more difficult runs (they were just blues, nothing that exciting). The snow the whole trip was pretty nice. In the morning it was icy where the sun hadn’t hit yet, but in the sun, the snow was soft and perfect. The only time the snow kind of sucked was when it got slushy and so you’d be skiing at a decent speed, hit a patch of slush and slow way down. If you weren’t careful, you’d fall right over. After lunch, Jeff and I went back out skiing but didn’t ski for too long because we were both tired. We went home and changed and then went on a walk to Caple’s Lake, which is next door to Kirkwood. There weren’t any sidewalks on the walk there so we had to walk on the side of the road. Luckily, there weren’t too many cars. While walking on the street was fine, once we got to Caple’s lake, we had to walk through the snow. At first, it seemed packed enough so we wouldn’t fall through. And yet, two steps later, both Jeff and I feel knee deep in the snow. We laughed the entire time we were attempting to make it to the bridge over the dam. We finally made it and it was definitely worth it! The lake was covered with snow but it was gorgeous!! We took pictures and enjoyed the scenery for a little bit and then hiked back to the road and back to the house for dinner and bed!!










So Worth It!







If you look closely, you can see where we fell through


Trying not to fall

Friday, March 20 (Venerdi’, 20/3)…
Jeff and I got an early start on the day as this was our last day skiing. We were on the slopes early and made some fresh tracks. But, here’s what happened. Since the past two days we had gone out a little later, the snow was softer and not as icy. This morning, we were out earlier so the snow was all ice, no soft snow at all. Neither Jeff nor I were wearing gloves because the past two days had been so warm and today wasn’t going to be any different. On our first run of the day, just as we are at the bottom of the hill, I look back and see Jeff taking his skis off. He walks over to me and has a bloody hand. As he was rounding the last turn before the lift, his skis started sliding and he placed his hand down (which he does when wearing gloves) and the ice ate away at his hand. Needless to say we went back to the
house, cleaned him all up and staying inside until that afternoon. We had a great afternoon of skiing despite a bad start. We packed our bags that night and went to bed since we had a long drive ahead of us the next day.










Me Skiing on the Last Day

Saturday, March 21 (Sabato, 21/3)…
Jeff woke me up abruptly on Saturday morning since it had started to snow and his car has no chains, snow tires, or four wheel drive. We booked it out of there pretty fast. I had gone to AAA before our trip to get directions for the drive home. We followed those directions until it led us to Monitor Pass…which was closed. After driving 35 miles (40 minutes), we had to turn around and go back the other way. So much for AAA! Luckily, the roads were still okay and the weather held out because otherwise, I don’t know what we would have done! The drive back was nice and after leaving at 10:00AM (we really left at 8:30AM, but had to turn around and all) we made it to USC around 7:30PM. We went to dinner on Manhattan Beach at a restaurant called Rock N Fish which was very tasty then went back to USC and went to bed.











Cacti

Apple Blossoms


Lavender Fields




Sunday, March 22 (Domenica, 22/3)…

This was my last day in town (I left early Monday morning) and it was productive. We went shopping at the Beverly Center and bought stationary from Papyrus. Then we wanted to go to the Grove, but instead, ended up driving around Beverly Hills neighborhoods. While driving around, we saw an open house and decided to take a gander inside. This home is amazing. It has 7 bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms, an elevator, his and hers bathrooms in the master suite, a pool, a six car underground garage, wine cellar, media room, gym, you name it, it has it! It is a brand new house (that the haven’t finished yet) going for a mere $14 million dollars. Ya know, nothing too extravagant. Anyways, Jeff and I had a blast looking at the house and walked away with a better sense of how houses are in the 90210. After that, we both had studying to do so we studied the night away and then woke up the next morning and I left.
Spring break was so much fun and it was so great spending all of that time with Jeff. I wish I didn’t have to leave because I miss Jeff (and the sun) but I guess we all have to go back to reality at some point! Anyways, I’m off to Tampa tomorrow with my parents – they have a meeting there and I am tagging along – so look for pictures on that!








The House we Saw
(C) Giulia Longo 2013. Powered by Blogger.
All pictures and content are my own unless stated otherwise. Please do not use my pictures without my prior approval. Thank you!
Back to Top