The rest of my US trip

After the (second) bestest wedding weekend ever, I had plans to go down to Myrtle Beach for a week. MB is my home away from home, having gone there since I was about 8 months old. (My first plane trip was to MB as a baby - I'm told I slept through it). I can whip around town, dodge tourists who are confused by the three main streets, endless mini golf courses, and fast food places with ease.

The first order of business was hitting the outlets. I was on the hunt not for me, but for hubby who was in need of new shirts (he has plenty but he always rotates through the same Izod outlet shirts and I was hoping to add a few to the mix). With coupons in tow, I was able to snag four really nice looking shirts for about $90. I even got myself a few new shirts at the Banana Republic and Ann Taylor Loft outlets. It was quite a successful day.

The second order of business while in SC was eating copious amounts of Chick Fil-A, Sonic, Zaxby's and visiting The Library. The Library is where I want to have my last meal on earth - I adore their steak diane and I was excited to share this place with my sister and her boyfriend this trip, especially since they both appreciate good food. My sister and I had their table-side from-scratch Caesar salad. So delicious.

The third order of business was evening out my crazy burn/tan thing I had going on, so we waited for a halfway decent beach day and I was able to get everything evened out. (Obviously I burned first and then tanned, but within a week it was all good).

My favorite part of the trip was hanging out with my sister's dog, Bear. He's a sweetie. We hung out on the drive back to Maryland too, where we were backseat buddies.

Like me, he's also a fan of naps.

Before I left we stumbled upon a huge Bark Park and took Bear:

 This is Bear's bench. He did not like it when any other dogs tried to come near.

 (My sister laying down the law)

 Crazy eyes.

He's pretty cool as far as dogs go.

The day after we got back to Maryland I found myself at the airport again waiting an inordinate amount of time for my flight which caused my connection to be re-booked, but I was super happy to be back in Europe. I definitely felt some culture shock when I was in the US because I was already accustomed to less "noise." By noise I mean there are less invasive advertisements, fewer traffic problems (and better drivers), fewer choices and other things that make life simpler. Because of this, and because it's pretty pricey to fly across the Atlantic all the time, I don't have plans to return for the foreseeable future. We're hoping that friends and family take their turns on the long flights to see us so we can introduce them to new and exciting experiences.

Will I miss things like decent pizza and certain restaurants? Sure, but the benefits of living here far and away outweigh that stuff.

On tap for Wednesday: A review of four airlines (United, Lufthansa, British Airways, Ryanair) and our experiences.

Lake Como

Seriously, stop whatever you're doing and book a trip to Lake Como. I mean it, stop reading. It's so gorgeous. Hubby and I spent a long weekend there from last Saturday through Wednesday and it was absolutely relaxing.

Here's hubby after we got to Milan, waiting for our bus to the train station. Surprisingly chipper for it being 7:30am and already being up for a few hours.

Changing trains in Lecco, with our first glimpse of Alps:

Arriving in Varenna:

So pretty, right?! We were a little early meeting our home-away representative (our "hotel" for our stay - it's basically someone's apartment they rent out, so they're usually more reasonably priced, roomier, and closer to the city centers) so we walked around:

Everywhere in the town, as in all the others nearby, there are stairs. Makes sense- I mean, we are in the Alps. This is not a handicapped-friendly area!

This was our view from the home away:

Alps! Lake! Sunshine! Yay! Then, onto important things, which in Italy means pasta and wine, hence the following:

There was even a small (rocky) beach where people were enjoying the water.

Hubby and I hung out there for awhile before finding a place for dinner. The next day we woke up and went to a pizza place recommended to us by our home away person, and decided to hike up to Castello di Vezio. Hubby thought the sign said .2 kilometers, but I'm 100% certain it was actually 2 kilometers - it was an incredibly steep incline, took a long time (especially since it was like 90 degrees out), and since I had just come back from the US, I felt even more out of shape than usual.

Worth it? You be the judge:

I say worth it. So SO pretty up there.

After that we were pretty spent so we took a nap before dinner. Our dinner spot was gorgeous with a great view of the lake, and during the course of the meal all the lights across the lake started coming on as the sun set, making it all super romantic. I had a caprese salad and eggplant pesto ravioli with sundried tomatoes. Delicious. Hubby had a potatoes and fish appetizer followed by a steak.

(I shouldn't have had that espresso after my panna cotta dessert, and hubby's chocolate lava cake, but I couldn't resist. I was totally up all night and I don't even care!)

Next morning - another sleep-in day, so we finally got our stuff together to grab some lunch. Please note that my martini glass was actually a "coffee shake" - I'd heard about these elsewhere and basically it's brewed espresso chilled over ice and strained. A really great start to the day :-)

We decided to take the ferry to the larger town of Bellagio where things are a little more happening (i.e., better shopping to be had!). Here we are on the ferry:

And then in Bellagio (it was really hot):

After walking around, grabbing some gelato (yum), we headed back and I got a few more pictures, this time of Varenna as we pulled in closer:

That night we had another great meal. I started with this veggie pasta (short, dense pasta in a light tomato sauce with chopped eggplant, zucchini, onions, etc) which I adored, followed by a gigantic filet in a green peppercorn cream sauce. Hubby got the lasagna to start, followed by a veal chop.

Since we were going to have an early flight on Wednesday morning we spent one day/night in Milan at the Hilton in town. Milan is... okay I guess. I didn't think it was amazing since I am sick of bigger cities, the heat, tourists, and not really interested in spending so much on clothes and accessories. What was nice was the hotel had an executive floor that we could use. This means all the free drinks and snacks we could handle. From 6-9, they even had a happy hour with hot and cold apps to sip alongside wine and other tasty drinks. The hotel even brought us complementary champagne and dessert for our room!

All in all, a really great extended weekend. This was just supposed to be a quick getaway trip, and we tried out Ryanair (the Spirit Airlines of Europe - more on THAT in a later post) which meant that they charge for everything. We took the challenge upon ourselves to only use one backpack per person and it worked out great for a full 5 days of travel. I didn't even bring my camera - all of these pictures were taken with my phone (Nexus 4- love this thing!) and it was really liberating to just have a backpack, especially as I watched people struggle with larger suitcases.

Next week: a re-cap of the rest of my US tour, review of airlines and more!