Tag: cruise

European Cruise: Day 8 Sicily

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training, travel

Sicily, Italy! We are in port from 7am to 7pm today. I have no planned excursion today but most of my travelling companions do so I was just gonna walk around on my own. 

I slept in until 8 then got up and went to breakfast then Carra’s grandma and I headed out for a little walk in the town. 

We meandered along looking at the pretty buildings. 

Got cappuccinos

Wandered around some more

Then stopped for wine and bruscetta before getting back in the boat to relax and read. 

We went to an actual sit down dinner that had great food and tiramisu for dessert!!

Then I went with Carra’s grandma to a 50s and 60s music trivia thing then went to a little game show that I was terrible at hahahahaha. I only lasted 8 seconds before I said the word I’m not supposed to. 

Then I wandered around for a few minutes then went to bed. 

European Cruise: Day 7 Naples

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training, travel

Hello from Naples, Italy!!!!! We are docked here from 7am-7pm. From 7:30am-about 3pm I have a planned excursion through the cruise line. We are hiking part of Mout Vesuvius and getting a tour of Pompeii. After that we get dropped back off at the ship where we will leave in search of pizza!!!! Gotta have pizza in Naples, I think its the law, or like a commandment.

Gathering before the excursion. 

Great view from the top!  Well not even the top yet. 

A view of the crater…..there was some steam coming out hmmmmm

Pompeii!!!! It was huge!!! Way bigger than I thought it would be. 

I was really suprised by the ingenuity of people that far back, you could tell which were shops and which were houses. The shops had little groves in the doors where gates were pulled across. There will little pieces of marble in the roads and floors to reflect lamplight at night.  It was amazing all the things they came up with. 

There are some amazing details that have survived this whole time. These sculptures were amaziny still in tact. 

Look at the wall frescoes and that fountain!

Pizza!!!!!

Best gelato to date! I got coffee flavor and it was to die for!!!

We stumbled upon a giant piazza while walking around. That happens in Italy,  you just stumble upon amazing sights around any corner. 

Tomorrow a slow, relaxing day in Sicily!

European Cruise: Day 6 Rome and the boat!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Day 2 of running around Rome like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get it all in. Boarding on the boat starts at 2pm and we HAVE to be on board by 6:30pm. Here we go!

The others in my group did a more expensive Vatican tour so they left the house around 5am. I had a shorter, less expensive one so i left around 6:45am. I took the metro all by myself! I had gotten directions from a tourist information place yesterday so i knew exactly which lines and ways to go. I navigated it like a champ!!! Hahaha. 

I purposefully got to the meeting point about an hour early because it was a coffee shop. I ordered a large cappuccino with a croissant and enjoyed people watching for 45 min then met up with my tour group.

 

There were so many beautiful things!!!! Everywhere you looked was a photo op

No pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel but we got one in the front in St Peter’s square! …….I may have made an Angels and Demons  (movie) reference

It worked out well and both our groups got to the Sistine chapel at the same time. We then all headed back to the apartment, gathered our things and headed for the train station. 

We decided to not wait for the train an hour later and made a run for the train that left in a little less than 20 min.  This was not the best idea as we ended up running for the train with one person catching it by literally about 10 seconds. But what was done was done and we were on our way to the cruise ship!!!

We got to the ship settled in a bit then had the obligatory safety gathering and life vest try-on party….and by party I mean boring talk. Now we have laundry going because we have already been traveling for 6 days!!!! My backpack was getting stinky. 

After the washing is done and we switch it to the dryer we will go explore a few levels. 

We had the obligatory saftey meeting then headed to the deck to watch the departure. 


Then came dinner, calzone!! And more exploring. After looking around we got distracted and watched part of a movie then decided we needed to go to bed instead. 

Tomorrow off to Naples!!! Here we come Vesuvius and Pompeii!! 

European Cruise: Day 5 Rome!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

We have 1.5 days in Rome to squeeze in as much as we can. Get ready to be exhausted just from reading this post.

We started with a 10am tour of the colosseum 

This was out 2nd tour buy the company ‘CityWonders’ I HIGHLY recommend them. Their people are funny, unique, and soooo interesting. They also have lots of different kinds of tours. 

With our colosseum tour we got to enter through the private gladiator entrance with only 1 other group. It was pretty cool to enter the colosseum through the private gladiator entrance. 

This place was pretty amazing.

There are ruins everywhere you look in this area

Pagan arch 


Then off to lunch we went!

More pizza!!!

Tiramisu!!!

After lunch it was off to explore Roma!!

The Pantheon 

Crazy amazing 

Then dinner, then to the spanish steps we went 

And the Trevi fountain!!! Yes, I through a coin in and made a wish.  

And now I am in for the night and ready to sleep.  So far i have been consistently walking about 12 miles a day. Almost a half marathon a day!! 

Tomorrow we head to Vatican city! This will be an interesting day, the other 5 of my traveling companions are taking a different tour than I am (it was too rich for my blood) so I get to navigate myself their and back alone…….I got this!!!……right?

European Cruise: Day 4 VVFPR

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Today is a go, go, go, cram everything in kind of day. We are waking up in Venice and ending the day in Rome.

We got up at 4am (well i woke up at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep) and caught a train to Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet! 

We only stayed in Verona about 3 hours, just long enough to catch the major sights. But they were pretty great. We were there right as the city was waking up!

Espresso and a pastry were a must!

We made it to Juliet’s house just as it was opening and beat the crowds, then something amazing happened,  a choir was visiting….just listen.

Found a big church to explore.  It was beautiful inside!

Now its back on the train to Florence!

We stayed in Florence for about 1.5 hours, no where near long enough but I’ll take it over not stopping at all. We got Gelato 

and saw an incredible church

 and some crazy square with insane statues

 and stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for appetizers, thankfully they had a locally sourced appetizer….and it was delicious!! 

We overestimated our time a bit which left us literally running tp catch our train. 

Back on the train for a quick stop in Pisa!

We were here the bare minimum, just long enough to get to the tower, see it lean, walk in the cathedral, get some dinner and its back on the train to ROME!!
I am soooo exhausted am going to sleep so good tonight hahaha. Even though I’m exhausted I am going to take some melatonin tonight to make sure I don’t have a repeat of last night. 

Proud mama moment amd extras

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, training, travel

Happy Saturday morning!!!

Wasn’t feeling 100% great yesterday so i spent the day napping and cuddling on the couch with Artemis

I got Artemis almost 2 years ago and she was so timid. Over the last 2 years i have taken Artemis on road trips and hikes and overnight trips and now to a farm and she is also sharing her house with 2 other dogs and slowly……very slowly she has started to come out of her shell. 

I showed you guys her and the cow

And now here is a video of her playing with DeeDee the other girl dog in our house 

She is working on learning how to play lol.

She loves to run full out. She gets the buggest grin! She loves to be out exploring on a hike or out on a farm. She loves to ride in the car. 

This was from our hike last September.  I LOVE the picture of her under the sleeping bag. I have that framed in my room

Playing in the snow
I love my crazy dog. 

Now for the extras…..

I just booked my Vatican city tour! 

I just bought some new shoes because the other ones i got were giving my blisters blisters.

These feel like they should be better on my feet. 

I also wanted some comfortable but cute walking shoes for Europe that i could wear with dresses as well as jeans. Running shoes don’t go well with dresses 

They are Keens!!!! Just like some hiking shoes i have and my favorite water shoes!! I am pretty stoked about them. I looked and looked and looked until i found a pair on sale on Amazon. Score!!!!!!

What is one awesome thing about your pet?

Stitch Fix for Europe!!!

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, travel

Good morning!!!

Europe is coming up quick and after asking my roommate about her packing situation and realizing we have 2 formal dinners on the cruise I thought I might need a little more style to add to my wardrobe for the trip. So I my clothes will be have stylish have workout clothes hahaha. I ordered a stichfix and for the first time gave them a dollar amount that I needed to stay with and they totally listened! She was actually $1 under my budget! I was impressed. But I won’t be keeping the whole box unfortunately. I wish they gave you like 10 things instead of 5. But here is what was in the box:

This necklace is actually on point for my style but so much so that I have at least 2 necklaces that are pretty similar hahaha.

This doesn’t wow me or unwow me. I have been starting to lose weight so in another 10lbs it will look totally cute but I have a few things in this style already.

LOVE this shirt, it is cute and comfy and has Polka Dots which are totally my jam. It is adorable and conservative so I can wear it to the more strict dress code places in Europe like Vatican City. and it is loose a breezy so I shouldn’t be dying on a hot day. This is definitely a keeper.

This dress is the style I love, its empire waist-like and its a dark green color which I love, it would be great in fall with leggings and boots and I like the neckline design, it makes it cute but still classy because it doesn’t really show cleavage. But again I have a dress pretty similar to this so I unfortunately don’t need to spend the extra money on something similar.

The fifth piece is this kimono cover thing. I don’t hate it but I don’t love it. I can see how it would be cute with jeans and a tank top in the fall and the colors are great but I am not 100% sold on it. And if my first thought isn’t “omg I have to have it” then it goes back.

That leaves me with the polka dot shirt. Maybe I will check out target and some discount websites.

 

Have you tried Stitchfix yet?

Here is my referral code if you have not.

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/7169629?sod=w&som=c

 

 

Europe prep

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training, travel

Holy Guacamole!!!! I leave for Europe in about 7 weeks! That snuck up quickly. Europe prep is in full swing over here, we have one day were we take the train 4 different times (we are cramming in everything we can) so we just bought our train tickets for that day so that we don’t need to worry about navigating ticket counters or worrying about currency when we are on a strict time table, a gondola ride has been booked and paid for for Venice, a coliseum tour has been booked and paid for for Rome. We are prepaying what we can so we don’t have to worry as much about spending money when we are over there.

That is my quick Europe update now lets talk about normal things.

July is over!! I got some good mileage in (good for me at least hahaha) my goal for next month is 46 miles!

Got my juicing in though I switched it up, morning juice was green

and afternoon was orange-ish

 

Artemis enjoyed another bone I bought her at the beach

I made 2 new running calendar things for me to keep track of my running as I want to start really building up my miles.

 

the first one is super simple to see me month mileage progress and keep me honest, a quick something to look at, like an at-a-glance thing

the 2nd one is a bit more in depth to really dive into each run and analyze the week. I want to get used to doing this so next year I can buy a running training journal thing and know I will actually keep up with it so I don’t waste the money.

And i found this to put on my wall to remind me to stretch