Oh Traveling (and a prayer request)

The heavens declare the glory of God,  

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 

Psalm 19:1

I love to travel. There’s something about exploring a new city that just excites me to no end. I’m not sure if a love of traveling is something that God instills in certain people, or if maybe it’s deep down inside all of us, but I know that I love it.

I have a lot of details I can share about my trip to the UK. Places I went, things I enjoyed, memories I now have. I also have hundreds of pictures from the trip. But what’s sticking out to me right now is just my awe for this world that God has created.

Galway, Ireland

See that’s part of what I love about traveling…getting a better grasp of how big this world really is. It’s so easy to live our day to day lives and lose all perspective on what’s going on outside our little bubble. And getting a better grasp of the size of this world is a very tangible way to marvel at God’s magnitude. A reminder of how small we really are in this bigger picture of life.

Galway, Ireland

And beyond just marveling at God’s magnitude there's also the reminders about the beauty that God has created for us. Most of the time I visit cities within the US and don’t get to stray far outside of them. While I was in the UK I got a chance to see some countryside, and not just boring countryside, I saw gorgeous countryside. How anyone can go to the west coast of Ireland and not believe in a Creator is beyond my level of comprehension.
I take for granted a lot of the beauty in my home state because I've lived here for so long. Getting to see a greener version of God's beauty left me with a renewed awe for the gifts God has given us in nature.

Northern Ireland

Since I use this blog as a scrapbook of sorts, there will probably be numerous posts coming in the near future with more details of my trip. Right now I’m still a bit in awe of how lucky I am to have gotten to take this trip at all, and how thankful I am that I have the memories I now have.

Scotland

On a lower note, in true Mandy fashion I managed to get sick on my trip. Long story short, I was fighting what I thought was a cold for the second half of my trip. Instead of getting better after I got home, I got worse (probably largely due to spending over 18 hours traveling) and now also have some sort of funky eye infection going on. With my Dr's office being closed for the holiday weekend I now have the option of waiting for Monday or going to urgent care if I feel like I need a prescription sooner.
This summer has been hands down the busiest summer of my life, and the next three weeks are going to be a major part of that. I have a lot going on with ministries that I'm involved in, plus numerous things going on in my personal life, not to mention lots of things to get done at work. The next three weeks are going to be a lot to handle regardless of whatever my body is fighting right now, but this just throws a wrench into the whole equation. I'm praying for a quick recovery whether it comes from my body finally kicking this thing on it's own, or from my Dr being able to prescribe something to do the trick.
And while my energy level is low right now, I'm still beyond excited to see what God has in store for the rest of this summer! A big thanks to everyone who has been so encouraging this summer. I love all of you and I'm looking forward to having more time to just chill with all of you again soon!

Boston in the Faaalll...er...in the Spring!

Last week I had the pleasure of going to Boston, paid for almost entirely by my company. I went for an Android developers conference, and even if that was the only thing that I got to do while I was there, I still would have been excited about that. The conference itself was a lot of fun. But even better than that was the fact that I was able to tack two extra days onto the front of the trip and explore a city I've never been to before. On the way home I also got to have a day layover in Baltimore and got to hang out with an old friend from college. I consider myself lucky to have had the whole experience, even if it did fall at a rather busy time in my life.

Now, there are quite a few things that I always look for when I pick a new city to explore. I greatly enjoy cities where I can get around entirely by walking and using mass transit. For one, it's cheaper and easier than dealing with a rental car. Plus I just find it fun to figure out transit maps. Boston gets an A+ for awesome mass transit. $18 for a 7 day pass that got me everywhere easily? Yes please!

I enjoy cities that have historic value and as such have enjoyed cities like Washington DC and Philly, so Boston was no exception. The Freedom Trail was a great way to start off my Boston experience. I highly recommend taking the leisurely way of doing the trail. There were quite a few times where I'd look down and go "Shoot, where'd the line go?" because I'd spotted something off the path and left it to peruse.

I also enjoy cities that have universities that I can check out. I'm not really sure why, but I really enjoy seeing what other college campuses are like. So getting to visit both Harvard and MIT was a double treat for me. I have no plans to get a master's degree, but I think I'll put MIT on my short list for if I ever do. ;)
One thing I would recommend when visiting someplace like Harvard in May is checking what day graduation is. As much fun as it is to see everyone in caps and gowns with happy parents, it's definitely a bit congested. But oh well, the red brick buildings were still fantastic.

And the #1 thing I look for when traveling within the US? A baseball stadium, of course! But I'll write more about that in another post.

Something else that I just recently started to enjoy while traveling is beer. I'm still pretty picky about what beer I do like, and I dislike way more beer than I like, but I'm enjoying the process of figuring it all out. While I was on TripAdvisor looking for things to do in Boston I discovered Harpoon Brewery and that they had hour long tours of their brewery that concluded with 20 minutes of being allowed to taste all of their beers. For someone who's still learning what kind of beer she likes, it was an awesome idea! I didn't get to try all of them, but I tried quite a few and was surprised by what I did and didn't like. Of course, a cider ended up being my favorite of all.
The best part of this story? It turns out the brewery was less than half a mile from where my conference hotel was. I walked over and got a pretzel (which was incredible) and a pint of Harpoon Honey Cider after the end of one of my work days. Seriously amazing on so many levels. If you enjoy trying beer, I recommend giving Harpoon a visit if you're ever in Boston. And make sure to get a cinnamon sugar pretzel (which comes with maple cream cheese dipping sauce and a peanut butter flavored dipping sauce...once again...so incredible). Or you could get a regular pretzel and choose from numerous dipping sauces. But nonetheless, you should go.

I lucked out by having two sunny days in which to explore the city of Boston. Other than it being a tad bit windy the second day, the weather seriously couldn't have been more perfect. I was told that it had rained a lot right before I'd arrived, so I avoided all of that by about 12 hours. Later in the week the temps and the humidity increased and I confirmed that I do indeed hate humidity, although my hair does look better on the east coast than it does in Phoenix. =)

To sum up my trip to Boston...I loved Boston. If I wanted to move to the east coast I think I'd want to live in Boston more so than any of the other cities I've visited thus far on that end of the country. So who knows, maybe if I ever make the move from Arizona I'll end up picking Boston over Seattle. But for now, I'll enjoy living the amazing life I have here in Phoenix and spend my limited free time exploring cities as I'm able! God is good!

 If you've never heard vegetables sing about going to Boston in the Fall, please see this.