Chicago...Part 2

So Fernan and I decided to take a little getaway as an anniversary gift to ourselves. I love get-a-ways no matter how long or short they are. We had so many places to choose from and believe me it was hard to choose, especially after weighing the pros and cons as to where we should go. We finally decided and Chicago it was. I had never been to Chicago, but Fernan always rants and raves about what a great city Chicago is. I loved it, and would would like to visit again in the future when the temperature is a bit warmer to see what some of the attractions look like without all the snow. I know now why the call it the "Windy City" burrr!!! Anyhow we had a great time and we were reluctant enough to spend some time with my cousin (Jackie) who is living over there for the time being. She was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and save us some cab fare. Thanks Jackie!! My only disappointment was that we were not able to do the sky deck tour, due to lack of visibility all weekend long! Even if we did have visibility I am sure I would have been a little freaked out to step out on to the sky deck ledge, I guess I will never know until we visit again. Other than that small little weather snafu we had a great time and love our get-a-ways together!!! Happy Anniversary Honey I love ju!

Chicago's Sky Deck...the one thing we did not get to do, because of lack of visibility!

Perhaps now you can see why I would have been freaked out if we had actually gotten to do it.

Some Pictures from our Trip

Chicago's Famous Deep Dish Pizza!!!

brr...

The Adler Planetarium

Cloud Gate / The Bean

Ice Skating @ McCormick Tribune Plaza

View our entire album from our trip to Chicago:

Click here to view these pictures larger

Chicago...Part I

I remember sitting in my social psychology class in college and learning about how people always remember the negative events more than they do the positive ones. The reason being is that impressions are influenced more by negative traits than by positive traits. This is called negative effect and the best way to explain it; is that negative traits are more unusual and therefore are more distinctive, and because there distinctive we tend to remember them (Taylor et al.). With that said I will now begin to explain why I have even brought up this whole topic and what it has to do with Chicago. After spending four wonderful days in the Windy City, reality hit and all good things must come to an end. I really was not looking forward to our flight home, considering how turbulent and frightful our flight going there was. After 2 hours of being up in the air I thought to myself "thank God this is a good flight home", surely I thought/spoke to soon to say the least. I could swear I was in movie. I had never experienced anything like that on a plane! I remember a distinct silence, a peace you could say, one that was interrupted by a screaming woman. A woman shouting for her mother to wake up!!! "Mother wake up...wake up mother...wake up!!!!" She kept repeating and shaking the woman sitting beside her, finally one of the stewardess came to her side to see what was the matter. A few moments later the captain asked for any nurse or doctor on board to come forward and help out with the situation. The whole plane sat in silence as they watched a stewardess and a nurse try to resuscitate her in mid air. I began to pray for this woman that they referred to as Joan, and noticed once I was done that many other people were also praying for her as well. I began to cry because I could hear the pain, panic, and desperation in the daughters voice as she stood over her mother who was now laying on the aisle floor. I could not even begin to imagine what this woman was feeling as I sat and witnessed this entire ordeal. After about 30 minutes we finally landed and paramedics came on board and took the woman to the corridor exiting the plane where they continued to work on her. We were not allowed to leave the plane in order to not disrupt the work of the paramedics. An hour or so later we were allowed to exit the plane with no news as to the woman's condition. Prior to our exit we were constantly being updated on how Joan was doing, now I don't know for sure whether or not the elderly lady survived, but I did hear some airport employee talking amongst themselves about how they worked on her for over an hour and could do no more. I believe this woman passed away. My hope is that she knew the Lord and that her family may find peace in this difficult time. Emotions can have a powerful impact on memories and this is definitely something I will never forget. It is not the only thing I will remember about Chicago, but it is a story that I have told everyone since I have returned.


Maybe my next post will actually be about Chicago, but until then I use this post as a way to pay respect to Joan and my way offering condolences to her family.

Connect Weekend 2009

Where do I begin? All I can say is what an awesome weekend! I love my church, and I can clearly see God really doing something here at Relevant. What I love about connect weekend is how people connect (hence the name connect weekend..lol), the silly games and pranks everyone is involved in, the worship, the lessons learned, the friendships created, God moving, and the list can go on and on. Connect weekend is all about connecting to God and to others and that is exactly what happened in Bradenton, Florida this past weekend. I am hoping to have a video recap by the end of the week from Bryan Lobos so stay tuned for that.

Here are a few pics my dear husband (DH) and I took of Relevants awesome weekend.

The Welcome Bags

Everyone

Green Team

Some of the Blue Team

Yellow Team

Red Team

The Little Boy Who Stole My Heart

The Worship

The Moon

Labor Day Weekend - San Francisco

Every year my birthday lands around or on the Labor Day Holiday. This year it landed the weekend after my actual birthday which worked out great, because it allowed me to enjoy time with my family and friends on my special day, and to enjoy time away with my husband. As some of you know and as I have stated before on this blog, my husband gifted me a trip to San Fran for my birthday and well we had a great time!! I have been to California a couple of times, but I had never visited San Francisco, all I can say is wow!! I love how nice the people are and how cool the weather is over there, nothing compared to the hot and humid Miami weather, supposedly it is like that all year round! I can not even imagine that! Anyhow I highly recommend that if you get an opportunity to visit that you do so, it's so beautiful and I am now having thoughts of some day moving out there. My recommendations for those planning to visit is spend at least 5 days there, go to all the museums get on the double decker bus tour and definitely definitely go to wine country!!!

Here are some pics from our trip, we took a little over 1,500 pictures!

Me climbing up Lombard Street, it's a lot steeper than it looks in the pic.

Lombard Street

Lunch at Fisherman's Wharf...Yummy Clam Chowder!

Sea lions on Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf

Aquarium by the Bay on Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf

San Francisco City Hall has nothing on Hialeah's City Hall...lol

It took 3.5 million dollars to build this City Hall and is taller than the nations capital building!

The Painted Ladies

better known as the

Full House Sitcom House

Its actually the Blue house

The Palace of Fine Arts

Union Square

The Golden Gate Bridge

Before walking across it!

After we walked across it...it was cold!!!

Wine Country

It was hard to pick a few pictures out of 1,500.

Note: Photo Credit to Fernando Herrera & Melissa M Hernandez-Herrera

My Birthday came early this year!

So once again I come home to find this on my dinning room table, mind you my birthday is not until September 1st.

I of course ask my husband what this black birthday bag is all about? He tells me to open it and find out. I open the bag to find a card and a small paper folded up with a note that says "Open me to see your gift".

I unfold the paper to find a picture of this:

That's right people we are going to San Francisco Labor Day weekend!! I am sooooo excited!!!

Fourth of July

So my husband decided to surprise me with a trip to Disney this past weekend. It feels as though ever since we got married we barely have any time for ourselves and I figured once we were married it would be quite the opposite. I don't know if it's that we are involved in too many extra curricular activities or we just can't sit still, but it sure was nice to get away. I felt like a little kid as I packed my suit case and got all excited only drive four hours away from home. I love Disney and I love Mickey Mouse, but then again who doesn't? For the first time I looked at the Disney theme park in a different way. I thought to myself one day my husband and I will be bringing a munchkin of our own here to visit Mickey Mouse for the first time. I saw all the families walk by us and with there excited children in this magical place. Although neither one of us is any where near ready to have children I pray that God gives us wisdom when that day does come. If and when it does I will definitely not be taking them in July it was way too HOT, but then again watching the Fourth of July fireworks at the happiest place on earth was well worth it.