Refreshed

I guess it was fairly obvious I was not in the best mood while writing that last post, which I will attribute to being completely exhausted. I am much more positive today, due to an excellent and relaxing weekend as well as working swing shifts this week... yay sleeping in on weekdays! :-) Also, the Mini finally passed inspection and the Cabrio goes in to get fixed today, so it will then pass as well. I finally posted pictures of Lisa's visit to England here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=546920&id=701905001&l=707f0d4650 (What? They're only, um, a month and a half late...)

I also posted pictures from Labor Day weekend in Spain, so I have the appropriate illustrations for my recap of the trip! We flew out early Saturday morning from Stansted, and spent a good portion of the plane ride laughing over a Spanish phrase book I bought to learn some basics. (If you are ever in a situation where you need to say "I had an accident" or "Can I smell it?" in Spanish, give me a call!) Alicante is on the southeast coast of Spain, and as we flew down the eastern coastline, my nose became increasingly glued to the window. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous... mountain ranges running right along picture-perfect beaches. It sort of reminded me of California.

We landed in Alicante just before noon and took a bus from the airport to our hotel. The hotel was the tallest in the city, so it was pretty easy to find. We had a suite on the 23rd floor, and when we walked in and saw the view, my jaw literally almost hit the floor. Here are views from both sides of our corner balcony:

So yeah, pretty sure we had the best view in the entire city! That afternoon we hiked to the castle, explored it and enjoyed the incredible views from the top, and walked through various parts of the city. By evening, we were exhausted and found an open-air restaurant on the marina to eat and relax in just as the sun was setting. Here is the view from our table:

We also enjoyed a local drink specialty... sangria! I had only had it twice before, but this was by far the best. After enjoying a pitcher (or two?), we took a walk on the beach and headed back to the hotel for the night. The next day, we logged some quality beach time, explored more of the boardwalk and town, then ventured down to a farther pier for dinner as the sun set and lights came on. I love this picture of the castle all lit up:

Monday morning, we had time for a little more sightseeing and an early lunch before heading to the airport to catch our flight back. What a perfect weekend... I literally felt like I was in a vacation commercial the entire trip. It was very hard to leave Alicante's 80-degrees and clear skies to return to Stansted in 50-degree pouring rain, but thinking about the weekend kept a smile on my face... well, at least until the base exercise began the next day. Here is the link to the rest of the pictures from the trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=547326&id=701905001&l=bad1538ab6

I'll skip more complaining about the two exercise weeks (you're welcome), and wrap up with my birthday this past weekend. After almost no sleep last week, I was super-excited to spend my 26th b-day sleeping til noon and being a college football couch potato all day. And I am not being sarcastic by any means. However, the day ended up even better than I expected when Martin surprised me by giving up a concert in London he had a ticket for and coming over with steaks for the grill and the first season of Glee on DVD! So, it wasn't a beach weekend in Alicante... but sleep + Glee + football + friend + perfect steak = AWESOME 26th birthday. :-)

I have a lot of other things rambling around in my head, but I think I'll stop here for now since I need to be heading for work soon. (How I love saying that at noon...)

Good List:

1. Sleep (How could this not be my #1 this week?)

2. Happy 1st Anniversary to my wonderful cousin Amy and her husband Jon! So happy I could be there for the wedding last year! :)

3. Funfetti cake/cookies.

4. Penn State beat Kent State! Yay for a 2-1 record now...

5. Living in a place where I can take a weekend trip to Spain on a whim. I've been here a year and it still blows my mind how blessed I am. :)

6. Glee on DVD.

7. Parents... and the fact I have two I can respect, talk to, and trust.

8. Fantasy football. It makes watching the NFL so much more interesting.

9. Facebook.

10. Fall colors in the trees on my drive to work.