kk's bachelorette weekend

I went down to California for KK's bachelorette party a couple weekends ago. I met the Santa Clara girls in San Francisco and we all drove about four miles south to Paso Robles where we stayed at Ashley's beach house. It was beautiful there and I really wish I had taken more pictures!

We went to a really cute day spa one day and spent the next day wine tasting. The wines we tasted were great! We ate at some wonderful restaurants and talked just like old times (all together, really loud, with LOTS of interruptions). The best part was that even though it has been almost a year since I had seen some of the girls, it felt it was only a few weeks. Now I am counting the days until KK and Evan's wedding!

happy 4th of july

my photography

Since I was having trouble keeping up with my goal to take a picture every day, a goal I ambitiously made on my birthday, I decided to change the site where I was posting these pictures. Instead of posting a picture every single day, I will use this site as a place to post my photography and I will try to update it regularly.

http://briannamariedonegan.tumblr.com/

happy father's day

It was just me and my dad on Father's Day this year, with my sister in Germany and my mom up at the cabin. We went to a yummy brunch in Issaquah at my grandparents' place. Then we walked around the Fremont Street Fair and had a great dinner at a new little neighborhood pub called Hudson. It was a fun day with my amazing father :)

I did not get any pictures of the two of us, but I did take a few at the street fair...

This is one of my dad's favorite quotes, painted on a car:

pizza pizza

Last night my roommates and I made homemade pizza for dinner. It was delicious (and cheap and easy)!! We just got pizza dough, pizza sauce, and cheese from Trader Joe's and added some veggies, chicken and basil.

We made a caprese salad to go with our pizza...

And had my FAVORITE food for desert... Cupcakes!!

Yum! Yum! Yum!

more pictures...

I have slowly been adding pictures to my par*is*tanbul website... It is so fun to go through these pictures!! It takes me back to our trip, and makes me want to still be on vacation.

Before I left, people told me that this was going to be a life changing trip. I didn’t really know what they meant, but I would smile and nod. Now that I have been back for over three weeks, I can honestly say it was. I learned so much about the French culture and the Turkish culture and both of their histories in the couple weeks I was there. But I also learned some things about myself. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I feel that I have a deeper appreciation for the things in my life and a more relaxed approached to life in general. I can truly say that this was the best trip ever. Thank you so much, mom and dad, for giving us this opportunity. I don’t know how I will ever show you just how grateful I am for our trip to Europe. Spending two and a half weeks with my family, getting to see my sister, and to do it all Paris and Istanbul – Life doesn’t get much better than that!

and istanbul

Then, as hard as it was to say good bye to Paris, we were off to Istanbul...

Istanbul was UNBELIEVABLE!! I am not kidding. I had no idea what to expect, and maybe that is why I was so blown away by this city. 15 million people live in the city and it is packed. Everywhere you go there are people, no matter what time of day. I would walk down a crowded street at 5:00 pm and it was busy, then I would walk down the same street at 2:00 am and it was still just as busy. The people were so nice and they loved talking with us, especially when we would try to speak Turkish :) And the history… Istanbul’s history is incredible. To stand next to a building or a wall or a mosaic that was built thousands of years ago and try to imagine what life was like back then, is breath taking.

Again, we did everything… We went to the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Green Mosque, Ortakoy, we took a packed ferry to the Prince’s Islands, road in a horse drawn carriage around the island, spent a day on the Asian side of the city, sat by the water and drank tea, walked along the Bosphorus, tried Turkish coffee, read our fortunes in the coffee grounds, had dinner at the rooftop restaurants and drank and danced at the rooftop bars, saw the underground cistern, went on a day trip to Bursa where we spent time in an amazing little village, ate some of the very best ice cream I have ever had, baklava, turkish delight, lots of yogurt, lamb and olives, walked through the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, Music Street, İstiklal, tried lots of new foods, had a massage, did hookah (yes, with my parents!!), played backgammon, bargained for a good deal here and there… It was all so so so much fun!! And we were so lucky to have my sister to help us with the language. Although, I think I picked it up pretty quick -- “ichi tana Efes” means “I’d like two beers” and “teşekkürler” means “thank you.” What more do you need to know?!

I hope that someday I get to go back. There is just something about this city...

I will have more pics on this website soon: http://paristanbul.tumblr.com/!!