2011: By the Numbers (its a pun)*

Professionally:
Conferences attended: 2
Papers presented: 2
Papers presented at a single conference: 2 


Papers accepted for publishing: 1 (Teachers College Record - dig it!)
Chapters published: 1 (Gender and Higher Education)
Other people's papers edited and reviewed for journals or columns: 4


Dissertation proposals started: 1
Dissertation proposals finished: 0
Dissertations finished: 0
Dissertation pages written by end of December, 2011: 39**
Days spend avoiding dissertation: ~200
Articles and books consumed to write 39 pages: ~45


Jobs currently holding: 2
Maximum jobs held at one time: 4
Maximum hours worked per week: "40"
Maximum hours worked per week really: 28
Number of emails received regarding jobs: ~4,576
Decisions made about what I want to be when I'm done with this season of life (aka PhD): 0


Personally:
States visited: 7 (Arizona, Washington, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin)
Round trip flights: 8
Road trips to destinations 6 or more hours away: 2
Road trip to Orange County: ~45
Foreign countries visited: 3 (Mexico, Canada, England)
Out of town friends and family hosted: 13 (Heather, Sarah, Kathryn, Monica & DJ, Mom & Dad, Andie & Milton, Bethany & Ryan, Laura, Barb)


Weddings attended: 4
Weddings participated in: 3
Premarital sessions attended: 6
Engagements of friends announced: 2
Pregnancies of friends and family announced: 5
Babies born to friends & family: 6 (Asher, Owen, Thomas, Natalie, Violet, Jedi)
Asked when Curby and I will be having babies: ~785


Concerts attended indoors: 2 (Watkins Family Hour, David Crowder* Band)
Concerts attended outdoors: 4 (Allison Krause, U2, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, LA Philharmonic)
Professional baseball games attended: 1
Movies attended: 14


Living room rearranged: 3
Desks assembled: 2
Couch assembled: 1
Ice Creams made: 2
Shrimp Enchiladas made for dinner: ~10
Cake pops consumed: ~20
Pounds gained: 10


Trips to Michael's Craft Store: 10
Trips to Disneyland: 9
Breakfasts at Marie Calendars: 15


Baby quilts made: 1
Baby bibs made: 6


Paper flowers made: 250
Programs sewn: 200
Wedding "thank you" cards sent: 2
Wedding "thank you" cards remaining: 70




Posts made to this blog: 29 (a new low)
Posts made to the Tiff and Curby blog: 17 (some of them were double dips with this blog)
Photos taken: 2855***


Here's to a new year, where I take fewer pictures but am involved in more lives; write more pages, but complain and procrastinate about it less; and where I make my creative side (sewing and cooking) a priority!


*i got this idea from Jess!
** including automated table of contents and reference list...
*** does not include the pics i deleted, some of these (very few) may be pics that others took and gave to me - maybe up to 150 of them?

Bridesmaiding it up in the State of Cheese

When I was out in Greenville for Heather Caddell's wedding, Curby and I had lunch with some old friends of mine from the Greenville days - Maura and her husband, Marcus, and Jenn. Jenn and Maura were part of a small group bible study that I led back in 2004-2006, and it is a total joy to still be in relationship with them and call them friends.

Well, while I was introducing them to Curby, Jenn mentioned that she had heard about my meeting and falling in love with Curby at (basically) first date, and prayed for something like that. And a week later it happened. Seriously! Cool, right? So when we saw her in May, she was saying that things were moving quickly and that she thought they might be getting married, too! (Curby and I were not yet engaged) I'll be darned if they weren't engaged just a few weeks later (one week before Curby and I) and their wedding was planned for two weeks before ours.

Curby and I had talked about it before we knew the date of their wedding and agreed that if we could work out the $$, I'd be at the wedding. Later, Jenn asked me if I would be IN the wedding as one of her bridesmaids and I was so honored to be able to say "Yes!"

So there I was, two weeks before I tied the knot, on a flight to Milwaukee. I"ll admit that even I thought I was crazy! At that point, I had started having trouble sleeping - on a few days I'd wake up at 5 in the morning thinking about wedding stuff, unable to get back to sleep, and basically was barely hanging on with the work I had to do. My head was totally full of wedding stuff. Despite that, I was really looking forward to hanging out with Jenn and helping her get hitched to her beloved, Edward. I was also excited because my friend, and bridesmaid, Laura lives near Jenn, and we were going to get to hang out on Sunday - and I was going to get to meet her baby, Hope, for the first time.

I arrived late Thursday night and had a great drive home getting caught up with Jenn and hearing all about the wedding. On Friday, we worked on some details for the wedding, like making the bouquets and some crafty things (centerpieces and such), a rehearsal and a really fun time decorating the rehearsal hall. Saturday was the wedding and it was just beautiful. The pastor knows Jenn and Edward well and really tailored the ceremony for them, and the reception was tons of fun! We had a blast!!

After the reception, I went home with Laura and Andy, and stayed with them until Monday morning. While I was helping Jenn, I slept great - we were burning candles at both ends and so I was sleeping HARD - but the night after I got to the Petersons', I woke up at 5am again and could not go back to sleep. It was all back - wedding thoughts! Luckily, it was just a really great day and I was so blessed, despite my full mind of worry. I had breakfast with another friend (and former student) and her husband, Jamie and Zach (who I hadn't met before), then hung out with the Petes the rest of the day. I got to play with Hope (see below) and enjoy that time together.

And then later I was treated to an amazing amazing treat.

People.

Laura's mom treated all of us to dinner and a show at the Fireside Theater in Fort Madison, Wisconsin. Laura and I followed the rest of the crew, so that Hope could sleep a little longer in her nap, so we had a really great visit on the way there, and then we got to have a delicious (!!!!!) 4 course dinner, and see one of my all-time favorite musicals: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Picture from the preview of the show

It was really awesome and I was so blessed. It was a small theater, so every seat was good, and the music was amazing and the dancing great, and it took place on this small round stage, so the staging was interesting and fun, and it was just awesome. I was completely grateful.

It was a great end to a great trip. I flew home excited to see my future husband, excited to see my friends and family, and fully ready to begin running the sprint that was set before me.

Horsing Around in San Antonio!

The thing I was most looking forward to after the trip to Philly was my trip to San Antonio. This year, I had committed to Andi Fergason that I would visit in the spring, on the weekend of her horse show. I had not seen her riding in a show since her very first year of horse riding, and I knew that she had improved a lot. I was really excited to see the Fergasons, get more soul-filling, love on them, and just enjoy each other's company generally! Curby decided to join me on the trip, after I told him that in order to win my heart he also had to win the heart of the Fergasons.  Well, its true and I am committed to authenticity and communication. LOL.

The entire Fergason family met us at the airport, which was a really fun treat. I was inundated by kid hugs and shouts of "TIFF!!!!!" and then quieter voices saying, "Hello, Curby, its nice to meet you." which is how well the Fergason kids are trained!

Curby won over the boys on the way home by disclosing that he used to play video games, and in fact had beaten the whole "Lego: Star Wars" game. That was that, the boys were putty in Curby's hands after that! Later in the weekend we had a Wii party with just the boys and they were in heaven! Its a good thing that I still have the love of Andi and Brooki, because the boys have definitely thrown me over for the Curbster.

Later, Jared (the middle boy) told me that he was nervous about whether or not they would like Curby but their dad had reassured them that "If Tiff likes Curby, then he must be likable. I'm sure we'll like him." So I
said, "Well, J, what do you think, now that you've met him?" "I like him," he answered simply.

The first day we were there was a free day for Curby and me, so we took ourselves on a little hike and picnic in New Braunfels, followed by a blizzard at DQ. It was a really, really fun day. The weather was perfect and the hike was awesome. The picnic was perfect - a deer even came near enough to snap a photo, and the blizzard was heaven. Turns out Curby and I have the same favorite flavor and that was a fun discovery!

The horse show was awesome! Andi looked so good up on the two horses she rode, Zorro and Shilo, and she received first place for her riding on Zorro. I was so proud of her, and very impressed.

After the show, we met up with Curby's parents who had driven down from Arlington to see Curby and meet me. We had a lovely evening eating dinner and then wandering around the town of Gruene (incidentally, where Willie Nelson was discovered). The next morning, Curb's parents joined the Fergasons, me and Curby, at church and then we had a lovely barbeque lunch back at the Ferg's house. Later that evening, Sarah and Myles joined us and we got to have a great visit with them, too.

Monday evening came too soon and Curby and I said a tearful farewell (on my part ) to my second family, as we headed back to LA. Pictures below.

Philly(ing) up my Soul - March, 2011

I tell you what, friends. By early March I was due for some Soul Filling. I needed to see some friends and have some good times with them. Its not for nothing that I look forward to the NASPA student affairs conference every March. This is a great opportunity to at least get together with my friend Matt, and usually a few other good friends from Baylor, while hanging out in a new city and recharging our batteries (and occasionally, attending a few sessions on student affairs-related topics).

I roomed with my friend Jessica for most of the trip. Jessica is a great friend of mine from here at UCLA and it was fun to get to introduce her to my Baylor friends and hang out with her in the evenings! Matt and I got into Philly first, so we spent a day together, exploring Philadelphia - we walked from the convention center down toward the famous Art Museum, where Rocky ran up the steps, then we kept walking and eventually go to the penitentiary that once housed Al Capone. Later we met up with our friend Katie, and ended up at a bar around up by our hotels, just hanging out with some other friends who were in town and getting caught up.

The next days, we spent time exploring Philadelphia, making memories, attending conference session, and one night, by sheer luck and blessing of the Lord, ended up back at the bear from earlier in the weekend - and it happened to Karaoke and $6 pitcher night. What tremendous fun! We were even joined by our old professor, Frank Shushok, who enjoyed himself along with the rest of us - it is fun that we get to be colleagues now!

Overall, Philly lived up to my expectations. I left exhausted with not getting enough sleep and drinking too much beer - but completely refreshed emotionally. Below is a photo album of some of the pics from the trip. Enjoy!

Week in Review

Some of my blogging friends post review of their weeks or months and since my life has been so crazy lately that I haven't even been able to write the posts that I've started, I thought it might be fun to do a some week in review postings over the next few weeks just so that I can keep the blog updated.

So, here we go!

Last week was crrrrrazy!

Sunday: I had my last Sunday with the Growing Kids Sunday school class for a few weeks - it was INSANITY - 30+ kids and for a while, no parent helpers. Needless to say, I almost fell asleep during church I was so exhausted. Later, my friend Jessica and I watched Amazing Race together.
Monday: I worked a long day to make up for going out of town. I was asked to talk on the phone and to my coworkers less, which left a bad taste in my mouth as I headed home to pack for a trip to Phoenix.
Tuesday: 7 hours in the car with my dog, followed by a shopping trip with my mom where we found a great wedding outfit for her, jewelry and makeup. After grama went to sleep we got blizzards and it was like the best blizzard EVER! (It had truffles in it - enough said)

Wednesday: We celebrated my mom's 40th service anniversary with her company. We had a great time at her work, meeting her coworkers and hearing anecdotes about her awesomeness.

Thursday: Shopping with Grama at Goodwill stores around town. We had a good time and got her a pair of winter boots for $8 - score! Later that night, all three of us got dressed up and went downtown to hear my dad sing with the Phoenix Symphony Chorus. The concert was really good and we had really terrific seats on the main floor!

Friday: Grama, mom and I packed up the dogs and the car and headed to El Centro to get ready for Ben's wedding. (Dad joined us in the afternoon) We had a fun lunch with Ben, Isabel and Angel (my new nephew) and later, mom, dad and I took Angel out to dinner and a movie.

Saturday: My brother got married!!! Before that we had a fun lunch with some of my aunts and uncles, and we helped get all the details set up for the event. It was really awesome to see Ben so happy and in love and to know that he and Isabel are a good fit for each other.

Sunday: I had driven with my aunts back to San Diego after the wedding and so we spent a relaxing day exploring La Jolla and Coronado Island - the weather was great and we had some great laughs! Later, we watched the Amazing Race together.

It was a kind of exhausting week, but also really fun. This next week promises to also be exhausting but fun. I'll be posting about it next week.

Epic UK Road Trip: Volume 8 (AKA: My Birthday!)

Happy Birthday to Me!

I was lucky enough to get to spend my birthday in Ireland. I was even more lucky that I got to spend it with these three fun friends. In fact, I also spent my birthday with them last year, so now its a "tradition" and I have to figure out how to get back to the Continent next June!

On Monday morning, we left the Ballyeamon camping barn - sad to leave the story barn but happy to leave the Midges. We headed south with a plan to head into Belfast for a quick stop and lunch and then down to Dublin where we would stay the last couple days of our trip. The night before we had gotten directions to a restaurant/pub in Belfast - the John Hewitt, but frankly, I don't know that any of us could understand a word of what the guy was saying to us (mayby Collin a little bit) and none of us were taking notes on directions, so we decided to drive to downtown Belfast, near the Cathedral, and wander around until we found it.

Collin was driving and turned a corner... there was an open parking space, so we took it and got out. To find the John Hewitt was 20 feet away from us! Awesome! We walked down through downtown Belfast for a bit and then back to the JH for lunch (delicious!!). Our Belfast experience was not nearly long enough, but that suffices to tell you about it.

My first Coffee Stout

 After loading ourselves back into the car, we headed down to Dublin. Dublin is about 2 1/2 hours south of Belfast (about the distance from LA to San Diego) - but is in a different country! YES! On the way to Dublin, we finally left the United Kingdom and headed into the Republic of Ireland (which was doubly exciting because they are on the Euro - which was almost on par with the dollar!).

Collin matched the train.

Dublin is a notoriously expensive city and parking is super expensive, so we parked at a train station outside of Dublin (in Howth, by the sea) and then walked to our hostel. After a quick rest, we headed out for a little walk and some Dublin nightlife/birthday fun in the Temple Bar District.

We settled in at The Auld Dubliner for dinner and drinks. Even though we were about "pubbed out," the food there was good and the ambiance was nice. The waiters were super nice and during the dessert course (Bailey's pie), Candice went over to give them some candles to put in my pie (she had carried candles across the UK for me. cue sheepish/flattered grin) and they not only served me a birthday pie, but put a birthday song over the PA. I felt loved and super special.

I should have mentioned that my birthday is on the Summer Solstice, so even though we had steadily been traveling south, we knew that it would still be staying light fairly late into the evening. We decided to leave The Auld Dubliner and try to find another location with an outdoor beer garden.

We ended up at The Temple Bar where we had a great time, meeting people, enjoying some live music and laughing a lot! I tried my first pint of Guinness and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it! I met and chatted up and Irish guy named Phillip who was super chatty and fun, and then the group of us met up with some Irish 20-somethings who were pretending to be from all sorts of other countries. Lots of awesome laughs were had with these kids, who then invited us to come with them to a "club" nearby called The Purty Kitchen.

The Purty Kitchen experience involved: getting let in for free by the bouncers, a crazy squished dance floor with awesome American dance music, and Matt holding all the coats and drinks. Basically, it was a rave and I felt pretty cool to be at a rave on my 36th bday with a bunch of youngsters! We didn't get back to the Hostel until almost 2am and I felt like I was 25 again.

Fun was had! Check out the pictures!!

Matt and me at dinner.

Collin and Candice at dinner.

My first Guinness!

My new Irish friend, Phillip.

 

We had a pretty good time at the Purty Kitchen - Collin and I danced while Matt held the jackets and Candice people-watched.

Epic UK Road Trip: Volume 7 (part 2)

The last post had so many photos that I wanted to share with you, but I didn't want to lose your attention about this next part, because it is one of my favorite parts of the trip.

I only have one picture to share with you from this part, so here it is:

Above you'll see the Ballyeamon Camping Barn (Bally means "town" in Gaelic, so there are a lot of locations that start with "bally" in Ireland - Ballycastle, Ballymena, Ballymoney, etc). Anyway, we stayed at the Ballyeamon Camping Barn on our second night in Northern Ireland.

We thought the Camping Barn was going to be more like our first barn than like a hostel. But perhaps the note online that said there was wireless internet should have been our clue. (Incidentally, this was a mis-statement - the wireless was not working but Collin did some good work on the computers there anyway).

When we arrived, a number of people greeted us but the most suprising greeting came from a group of teensy, tiny, virtually invisible and yet completely not invisible bugs called Midges. These Midges announced their presence to us by swarming all over us and then biting us mercilessly. This was the first night (aside from our Barn stay) that we weren't out on the coast, instead, we were inland near the forest. Unfortunately, just like how mosquitos are more likely in the redwood forest than on venice beach, the midges were thick in those parts.

Later, after picking up the laundry, the boys returned to our gigantic four-person apartment (seriously) and in the brief moment the door was open, the apartment was infested. They spent the next 10 minutes swatting at midges in every room. Hilarious.

We were going to cook on the BBQ there at the hostel, but we didn't have a firepit, nor did we have charcoal to really get the BBQ going - so we ended up using the oven in the hostel to make our "hobo stew" (which is basically really a lot of vegetables with some ground meat and spices thrown in). We chatted with the volunteers running the hostel (an American gal, a Welsh guy, and an Irish (I think) guy) and learned about a variety of things - most of which I couldn't understand (when coming from the Irish guy). Collin says that the further north you go the harder the accents are to understand and this guy was a good indication of that. He gave us some suggestions of things to see in Belfast, and then gave us DIRECTIONS to those places, as though expecting us to remember it verbatim. It was hilarious. But as you will see in volume 8, it turned out well.

Well, midges and random conversations not withstanding, our stay at the Ballyeamon Camping Barn was one of the highlights for me, because of the owner, Liz Weir. Liz is a storyteller by trade, who also happens to run the camping barn. She had greeted us when we arrived, and then handed us off into the capable hands of the volunteers and disappeared. She reappeared just as we sat down to eat our dinner.

It was late, having taken some time to get the dinner cooked, and she had already eaten. She sat down at the table with us and made some conversation and then said,

"Oh, ya missed a great storytelling session last night."

We inquired about the session. 'Where was it?' (in the studio, below our apartment) 'How many people come? Are they always the same?' (no, it varies, there are some regulars but not all) 'What was it like?' ("oh, there's music and poems and stories") and finally....

'Um, Liz, would you tell us a story?'

Yes. We asked, even though it was getting onto 9pm and she had already mentioned that she had had a long day and was tired.

But she's a storyteller, and lets face it, what else could we have done?

She said, "OK, D'ya know how St. Patrick ran all the snakes out of Ireland? Well, this is a story of St. Pat." and she proceeded from memory to recite the poem at this link: St. Patrick and the Snakes. You won't be able to get the full impact of how cool it was to hear her tell that story, unless you can conjur up an Irish brogue or quickly Google some Irish video so that you have it in your mind.

So there we were, in Ireland, and there was this storyteller, telling us a story. In fact, at one point someone was washing dishes and she said, "lets leave that till I'm done." - this was a lady at work. It was exactly like I imagined Ireland to be in my head for my whole life.


We were irrepressible, though and enjoyed that tale so much, we asked for another.

I secretly think she was hoping we'd ask.

She said, "well what kind of stories do you like?" and looked around at the four of us and then the rest in the room, saying "mystery? romance?" and then after taking another look at me and Candice said, "Romance then."

Two more stories were told, one was the ancient story of Finvola, an Irish woman, who fell in love with Angus, a Scottish man (a variety of last names are attributed to Angus, according to the internets) and the other was a more modern story about a soldier and his pen pal and a rose. (called "The Rose").

After the third story, Liz left to go to bed and we rued the missed opportunity to take a photo of or with her. Instead, all we had left were our memories of this random night in Antrim County, Northern Ireland, at the Balleyeamon Camping Barn and stories told to us by a pro.

The next day would be my birthday and a great time was had, but this evening at the camping barn, sitting and listening to an Irishwoman tell us stories was a really terrific start to my birthday!

Epic UK Road Trip: Volume 7 (part 1)

Thanks for being patient with me as I slooooooowly post stories and pictures from this trip. It has been hard to find the time to set aside and really reflect on the trip.

In today's installment, you will explore Northern Ireland with me and the crew (part 1), learn about Midges and hear a story (part 2).

We woke early in our hostel in Port Stewart but had a relaxing morning as we packed up our stuff and prepared to see some awesome sights. After a short visit with Rick, the owner of Rick's Causeway Coast Hostel, we headed out.

Our first stop was Dunluce Castle, which is a really well-kept ruin of a castle, with a cool video introduction by a descendant of the owner of the castle. I loved that they had signs saying which part of the castle was which and that it was so well-preserved you could really imagine what would have happened in each area.

Under the castle there was an inlet where boats used to dock - we climbed down to explore it!

I just like this one... its a archway below the castle.

Dunluce Castle.

I thought it was really neat how the flowers were growing IN the ruins and reaching up toward the sky. It reminded me of some of the little flowers from Much Afraid's journey in "Hinds Feet on High Places."

Afterward, we headed to Giant's Causeway which is this really cool area where the shoreline is made up of all these hexagonal rock columns. This place is seriously cool - you walk down a big hill toward the shore and there are the columns - just piled up and down, at different heights - but all the same shapes!

from Matt's camera - I love this pic!

Matt did a little photo shoot for me and Candice - here is one for our dance team...

A good view of how the columns range in height but are all still the same shape! So cool!

The view from Giant's Causeway!

Travelers standing where Giants trod.

Finally, after the Causeway we headed out to the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge. The bridge is about 80 feet above the sea, and you cross it onto a tiny little island with beautiful views of the sea and the shore. The rope bridge turned out to not be scary at all (and in that sense was kind of disappointing) but the island was beautiful and we were all able to have some time to just sit and think and enjoy the sights.

The President is not afraid of no tall bridge!

Somewhere in there, we went into town and ate lunch at a pub that had really delicious fancy food and the cutest Irish waiters who had fair skin and red hair and said things like "I'm not sure which beer to recommend, I've been drinking cider since I was a boy" - adorable.

It was also during our visit to this pub that I remembered how much Irish is in my (and my dad's) family line, and how much we all look like a variety of Irish "types" - either fair skinned and red hair with blue/green eyes, or fair skinned and brown hair with blue/green eyes. This must be why I like the movie "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" so much - well, that and Sean Connery and his booming baritone.

Start watching this video at 1:26 and you'll understand the magic of the latter.

Epic UK Road Trip: Volume 6

We woke up early and caught the ferry from Troon (Scotland) to Larne (Northern Ireland). Taking a ferry in another country was a cool experience. First of all, it was a morning ferry, but that did not stop the passengers from enjoying some adult beverages in the bar - which I thought was funny and terrifically European. A group of men in the bar area (where we were also seated because there was a big bench seat on which we could nap) were obviously friends and all had moustaches. It was really funny and Collin actually took a MOVIE of them as well as some photos. hilarious. (See the Collin and Candice blog for the movie....)

But wow, am I getting off track! We landed in Larne in Northern Ireland, after leaving the Firth of Colin (in Scotland) and crossing the North Channel of the Irish Sea. Side note: Northern Ireland is a part of the UK, while the Republic of Ireland is its own country. However, because the UK and the Republic of Ireland are both part of the European Union, we were free to travel across all these countries without going through a passport checkpoint.

Leaving the Firth of Colin and headed into the Irish Sea

So we landed in Ireland, on the northeastern side of the island. And it was green and beautiful. Our plan was to meander along the Northern Irish coast, along the Causeway Coastal Road, stopping at things that we were interested in (like Giant's Causeway) and eventually end up at our hostel in Port Stewart, on the northwestern side of the island. This was really a great day, because of our ability to be flexible. As we drove along the coast road, we saw a sign for Glenariff Nature Reserve. Candice read to us about it from the "Ireland" book and it sounded awesome ... so we just drove up there and took a 1 1/2 mile hike to these waterfalls. It was beautiful!

someone had written "TIFF" into the shelter on our hike, so I was excited to pose with it

Matt, the photographer, at work. I love his bandana sticking out of his pocket.

Collin and Candice posing for a outerwear catalog.

The Waterfall Walk lived up to the hype

We wanted to capture the size of the waterfall, so made the boys pose with it.

The travelers at the bottom of the hike.

Later, the coast road turned inland a bit and so we detoured onto the Torr Road, which kept us closer to the coast and provided us with some awesome views of the pastures and the sea. I don't think I can put into words how much I loved our first experiences of Ireland. It was just a beautiful day, first of all, the sun was out and the sky was blue, and there was a constant wind from the sea (just like at home at my beach in LA!). The grass was green everywhere but there was hardly any houses or towns, it was just idyllic (not like LA).

beautiful views of the Irish Sea from the Torr Road.

Collin was super excited!

We were pretty excited too - the scenery was just breathtaking (not to mention how cute we were! LOL)

We all needed to get our pics taken with these beautiful vistas of Ireland.

On the drive, we went to Torr Head, and stood a mere 12 miles from Scotland! (Torr Head is the closest part of Ireland to Scotland) We stopped at a beach and later tried to cross the Carrick a Rede rope bridge (but it was closed by the time we got there). All the while, we just kept exclaiming over the beauty that was Ireland.

The travelers at Torr Head (just 12 miles from Scotland!)

And examply of why they call it "The Emerald Isle"

We had matching baseball hats - we're like the Bobsey Twins.

And I lost my heart.

We decided we'd better get a move on in order to get to the hostel, and we figured that we would just move some of our planned stuff for the day (that we didn't get to because of our meandering) to the next day and instead just go hang at the hostel and enjoy each others company.

One the way back to the hostel, Collin screeches to a stop on the highway.... then immediately reverses. He has found our version of ice cream heaven: Morelli's Ice Cream! We of course went inside and tried a few flavors before we ordered double scoops of delicious, fresh ice cream. What a great way to finish our drive!

Thank goodness this sign said OPEN!

Sad because her ice cream is gone.

Happy because it is so delicious!

Once we arrived at our hostel, we quickly arranged for us to have a 4-person room (with a bathroom  en suite!) and got comfortable. We spent the rest of the night sitting on the rocks on the shore and laughing together and then walking around Port Stewart. Great memories had by all that evening.

beautiful view from outside our hostel on the rocks.

I heart this picture of Matt - lets vote: don't you think it should be a profile pic!?!

When Collin and I hang out, he always makes these "Hmmmmm" faces.

It was pretty cold and windy there on the north channel - I was glad we had packed our rain jackets for wind protection!

Our view from the rocks. Tremendous.

Candice made me take this picture about 80 times to get the splash right so it deserves a spot in the blog.

Good friends.

Right here I think Collin looks like he's from 1978.

Another good one of Matt. This was probably right before he started laughing at me and Candice.

Not my fave picture, but one of my fave people.

Ridiculous.

Be careful what you do/say; its very likely Collin is filming it.

Walking around Port Stewart.

My walking buddy.

Sunset at Port Stewart.

We slept in the next day and then proceeded to adventurize Northern Ireland. Stories to come, and I do mean stories.