2.5 years as a flight attendant, and I never get sick of it! I'm enjoying my daily travels at work and the vacation time I've gotten to spend recently. I've been trying to combat all the time I had been spending on Facebook, so I'm starting this blog instead to keep everyone updated on my travels.
In July, David and I made a fun three-day weekend out of an interview call I got for an instructor position with my company (I did not get the job, but the trip was a blessing). It was a full weekend with visits to the Winchester Mystery House, Pacifica Beach, the Japanese Tea Garden at the Golden Gate Park, and San Francisco Bay.
Going to the Winchester Mystery House was a bucket-list item/dream-come-true for me, as I have dreamed about visiting the mansion since sixth grade. In middle school, I read about Sarah Winchester who moved from her home in Connecticut to San Jose, CA to avoid the spirits who were in pursuit of her in an attempt to get revenge from their deaths by the Winchester rifles (made by her husband's company).
A medium told Sarah that she must build a house and continue building to confuse the spirits. If she stopped building she would die. Sarah bought a house in San Jose and transformed a six-room farmhouse into an over 160-room mansion with seven stories. Sarah slept in a different room every night. It is next-to-impossible to detail all the quirks of this house, including doors that open to walls or a three-story drop into a kitchen sink, stairs that lead to nowhere, and cabinet doors that are empty and open and could be used instead as doors to another room.
Sarah used the number thirteen often in her architecture. Her chandeliers have thirteen candles, and many rooms have thirteen stairs and thirteen window panes. She held seances nightly in a room dedicated to communicating with the spirits. To say this home is creepy would be an understatement. David and I followed guides through the labyrinth-like house for two tours (over two hours!). Many people feel nauseous in one tower (to the point where tour guides actually refuse to enter the room, and David felt nauseous before that was even announced! We were even shown a photo taken from the front of the mansion where there appears to be a spirit in one room. Many people have captured that same spirit, but I wasn't able to...too bad. If you want to watch an interesting twist on the Winchester story, the movie Winchester was just released.
Overnights since our trip--Aspen, double Nashville overnights, and Tucson. I visited with my Aunt Rene and cousins in Nashville and had my first Cambria overnight in Nashville, which was beautiful!
I was invited to be the wedding photographer for my friends' wedding, so that was new and very fun! I felt honored to be there, since they kept the guest count very low. It was beautiful and perfect!
I was then very excited to learn that my boyfriend's mom Claudia was visiting Colombia again! Of course, I decided to visit, and it gave me an intense motivation to study more Spanish (100 pages worth in my Spanish Learning Grammar) prior to my trip. I visited Bogota for the second time in August (my last trip was in February).
Claudia, David's aunt Mafer, cousin Mariana, and I visited a nearby town called Guatavita. Complete with white-washed homes and similar structures and roofing, the village encompasses the beauty of Colombia. I can't wait to visit more cities in this country, like Medellin, Cartagena, and Santa Marta. I've heard that all parts of Colombia are very different from each other, so I am looking forward to learning more about the culture.
I am always so excited to practice my Spanish, so that was enough reason alone to visit again, which was good, because I got very sick and had to rest most of my time there. We did shop in a market nearby Aunt Mafer's house, and I was able to try some very rich new fruits and vegetables. Uchuvas are my favorite! Oh, and we went to a salon in town and had three haircuts (David's other aunt Marcela's, Claudia's, and mine), two manicures, and a pedicure for $26! Colombian pesos are the best!
Since my trip to Colombia, I had very short overnights in Colorado Springs, Fort Wayne, and Bismarck and spent two weeks home in Grand Junction nursing a cold. I have a few more days off now after another quick overnight in Cedar Rapids.
And now, we are relaxing...