Beach trips! Vamos a la playa!

Cadiz.... How great is our God! He is quite the artist, isn't He? 

Here I am at the beach in Cadiz, enjoying the sun and the water. This was actually the last weekend in OCTOBER. The weather was amazing! 

The day was absolutely beautiful

Wow. And I get excited when I make a sandcastle...

I went on this trip with my good friends Phil and Zack. Here I am with Phil (Zack is taking the picture) at midmorning, when we first arrived at the beach. 

This place is one of the most gorgeous beaches I have ever seen. 

Cadiz is also a neat town! This is the Cathedral of Cadiz. 

When we first got there, we visited a few museums before heading to the shore. This museum of Cadiz was super interesting and had a lot of cool artifacts! These are some puppets that we found that were actually quite creepy... horror movie-worthy! 

Hola! 

Here's Zack behind the sarcophagi. 

Really old jewelry

Zack and Phil inside this small church that we visited. 

This photo was taken from my second beach trip with a group of friends. This time we went to a beach near Huelva, a city on the coast where we went the beach waaayy back when we first go to Sevilla. This beach is called Matalascañas.  

My friends Peter, Marta, Fatima, and Phil enjoying the magdalenas (muffins!) that Phil bought. They had chocolate on them! Yum!! Thanks again, Phil!

Absolutely gorgeous weather... this was the first weekend in November. Would never happen in Oregon! 

My dear friend Fatima and I. I sure miss this girl ever since she went to Alicante! We have lots of good Spain memories together! =) 

Photos from my Christmas adventure in Roma!!!!

I apologize for the fact that these are all out of order (the pictures are backwards as far as what I did from beginning to end), but these are some of the MANY photos from my trip to Rome! 

This here is San Angelo's Castle, which is close to St. Peter's Square. 

Looking down the road at the Vatican

Old, neat-looking bridge

St. Angelo's again

Colosseum!! One of the monuments I had always wanted to see!

Me on the Spanish Steps... which of course was one of my favorite places (mostly because of the name) 

Me in front of the Colosseum with my 5 Euro umbrella (yes... it rained a lot there!)

Arch of Triumph

Venetian Plaza... I had the biggest Christmas tree ever! haha

Venetian Plaza again

Trevi Fountain! Absolutely beautiful at night!

Katie and I visited it Christmas night.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

The pope

Don't worry, folks, he survived the woman trying to tackle him... 

Christmas Eve Mass

A service in many different languages... it was incredible!

We had some great seats! We deserved them too, after waiting in line for 6 hours, fighting off people who were trying to cut, and then literally running up the Basilica's steps in the rain... yeah... it was an adventure!

St. Peter's Square

Me in front of St. Peter's Basilica

These next few pictures are from the Vatican Museum. I really liked this artwork because it shows Jesus as a shepherd, as one who takes care of us, leads us, and watches over us!

Roman mile marker

Courtyard in the middle of the Museum

Venetian Plaza lit up at night

The Roman Pantheon

Venetian Plaza during the day

Hippodrome - where they used to have chariot races

View from the Colosseum

Arch of Triumph

Me actually inside the Colosseum

Incredible

The history that is hidden inside these walls...

It was exciting seeing this in the distance!

Narrow Roman street

Plaza of the Republic (I think)

I rarely ever drink coffee, but I got a discount with this one and I needed something to wake me up!

Katie and I eating breakfast!