At Home with the Houses

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-30T14:50:00.000-06:00

To celebrate the start of the Year of the Dragon, this past weekend London hosted festivities in Trafalgar Square and Chinatown.

David and I made it into central London in time to see the Chen brothers, who hold the Guinness World Record for highest pole jump in the lion dance.

After watching some of the performances, we walked from Trafalgar to Chinatown, admiring all of the red and purple lanterns, and kids wearing masks and playing with homemade crafts.

Decorated Metropolitan Police Truck

A wishing tree. The idea is to make a wish and throw the bag back to the tree. If it lands on a branch, your wish for the new year will come true.

I made it!

Amazingly, we were able to get a table at HK Diner for lunch in the heart of Chinatown. We ate spring rolls, special fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and kung poa chicken with tapioca bubble tea.

In the evening, we met up with our friends John and Michelle to watch the fireworks back in Trafalgar Square.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

The 12 Days of Christmas

2012-01-11T06:18:00.000-06:00

On the first day of Christmas, David and I flew from London to Minneapolis/St. Paul to be with my family for the holidays. Both of my parents grew up in Minnesota so almost all of my family lives there. This year, my parents and both my sisters (and Emily’s boyfriend, Kendal) were able to make the trip back home, as well as most of my cousins.

A couple of years ago after we flew in, my family started the tradition of eating at Mickey’s Diner near the airport for dinner following our flights. This year was no different, and because it’s impossible to find good, greasy diner food outside America, we thought Mickey’s tasted better than ever!

There's nothing like a bowl of steaming chili

and a grilled cheese/bacon sandwich to warm you up!

On the second day of Christmas, my mom’s sisters and most of her nieces and nephews met up with my family at Macy’s for our biannual walk through the winter wonderland. Every year, the downtown department store brings a children’s story to life through gorgeous displays. We’ve been going to this since we were babies and have seen past exhibits like the Nutcracker, Harry Potter, and Cinderella. And the best part is, at the end you get to meet Santa!

This year, Macy’s featured A Day in the Life of an Elf.

All the animals helping the elves decorate for Christmas

And at the end, David got to sit on Santa’s lap for the first time since he was 3 years old... and he didn't cry this time!

After we left Macy’s, we decided to try out ice skating at the Depot. I haven’t ice skated since I was a kid. I was really wobbly at first but I eventually got the hang of it. Because David’s so athletic, he was a pro right away. At one point, Elizabeth, David and I were all holding hands skating around the rink when Elizabeth lost her balance. She brought David down with her but I managed to let go of them and skate off. Only problem was I couldn’t stop. A little kid came skating right in front of me so to avoid a collision, I fell on my back. The kid was horrified and stopped skating, just staring at me. Then his dad came up and yelled at him, “Did you make that woman fall?!” I felt bad, but then it turned out the kid was a mini ice hockey player and easily could’ve gotten out of my way! He just wasn’t paying attention. I am proud to say that was the only time I fell, though!

Ty, Elizabeth, Dad, me, Uncle Bob, Matthew, David,

Aunt Karen, and Lauren about to head onto the ice

On the third day of Christmas, we celebrated Christmas Eve with my dad’s side of the family. We always see a Christmas movie in the afternoon, and then spend the evening eating lots of yummy finger foods and playing brutal rounds of the card game Nerts. At the end of the night, we go to church for the candlelight Christmas Eve service.

This year, we suffered through Arthur’s Christmas 3D since it was the only Christmas movie out. Then we went back to the house where everyone got to meet my cousin’s new baby, Zooey! Erich and his wife Michaela live up in Alaska and just adopted this precious little baby girl. It’s been a long time since the St. Paul Kurzwegs were all back together, so it was really special that David finally got to meet the Alaskans on this trip.

Zooey is almost 2, so this year we broke tradition and went to the children’s Christmas Eve church service instead. All of the little kids led us in carols and for the sermon, the pastor read us Humphrey’s First Christmas, a story about a camel that met baby Jesus.

I couldn't help it when I burst out laughing when the pic of Humphrey and

his dislocated-looking jaw came up on the screen at church!

The church then gave out free copies of the book. With some of my cousins starting to have families, there was a lot of baby talk during this holiday (but no babies for David and me in the near future – sorry, Mom) and my dad even got in on the action when he snagged a copy of Humphrey’s First Christmas for his “future grandchildren.” Oh boy! We had fun playing with Zooey and getting to share in her first Christmas with her new family.

Zooey fell in love with David once she heard his "Baby Beluga" voice.

I don't know how he did that for so long...
my throat would've hurt so badly!

On the fourth day of Christmas, it really was Christmas! We always celebrate Christmas day with my mom’s side of the family. We had a big slumber party at my grandparent’s house the night before and then woke up early to open presents from Santa! And this year, David and I decided to actually get each other presents (usually we’re boring and count our trips as presents). Then we had a big breakfast and headed over to Aunt Karen’s and Uncle Bob’s house. There we had our Secret Santa gift exchange, where David and I made out with a Christmas-tree shaped candy dish and a fun new dice game called Farkle. Elizabeth was thrilled with the gift we brought back from England, a warm winter hat embroidered with the Union Jack.

Papa and Grandma with all of their grandchildren

+ David and my Uncle Brian's fiance's girls

Then we had some Italian sandwiches for dinner along with lots of good sides and played more board games, like Mexican Sorry. I love that game but don’t know anyone else besides my Aunt Julie and Uncle John that has it, so we always play when we go to Minnesota. After smoking the guys and drinking maybe a little too much homemade Bailey’s (yum!) we called it a night.

The whole Cocchiarella family

On the fifth day of Christmas, we went tubing with all of the cousins from both my mom’s side and my dad’s side. It was really nice bringing the whole family together! Most couples don’t have the opportunity to introduce their paternal cousins to their maternal ones, but since everyone is from the same area, all of ours know each other and get along great!

The original title of this blog was going to be “I’m Dreaming of a Brown Christmas” because there was no snow in Minnesota this year! It was soooo strange flying in and seeing brown, dead grass everywhere. I can’t remember the last time Minnesota had a brown Christmas. It was weird. Luckily the tubing slope was prepared and generated its own snow for us!

One patch of snow for the tubers.

At least it was nice and warm - a beautiful day!

Because the snow was man-made, it was icier than ever and we flew down the hill. All of us except Emily, though...

On her first run, Emily somehow couldn’t get down the slope.

She pushed herself about halfway and then gave up and walked back up…

In the end, David won the contest for who could go furthest. And Elizabeth won the contest for worst injury by accidentally kicking a girl in the face! Oops! I also had a collision... As I was spinning out of control down the hill, I smashed right into a little boy just chillin' in his tube at the bottom. Stupid kid – get outta the way! I had bad luck with running into little boys on this vacation.

All of the ladies getting ready to slide!

The whole gang... minus Uncle Bob and Matthew

(I don't know where they disappeared to during this pic)

On the sixth day of Christmas, we drove down to Faribault to hang out with the Lechtenberg’s.

On the way, we had to stop and get some Taco John’s. Taco John’s is kind of like the Taco Bell of the North. The sauce is a bit sweeter, rather than spicy, and every order contains potatoes. The potatoes, called Potato Ole’s, are basically tater tots with special “Mexican” seasoning. For dessert, our favorite is the Tex-Mex apple pie. Prepare yourself. It’s apple pie filling layered between two crispy tostada shells, topped with cinnamon sugar, red hots, and cheddar cheese. It sounds like a disgusting combination but it’s so good! David doesn’t understand our obsession with Taco John’s. I guess you had to grow up with it to appreciate its deliciousness.

Back to the Lechtenbergs!

Lee Ann Lechtenberg was my mom’s best childhood friend. And even though the girls grew up and got married and moved away and had kids, they’ve still always found time for each other and maintained their friendship. Lee Ann and Brad have four kids – Jacob, Charlie, Emma, and Annie. Jacob and Charlie are the same age as Emily and me and we found out Elizabeth was coming the day that Annie was born! We love going to Faribault to hang out on the lake with the Lechtenberg’s.

The winter tradition is to take a late night walk out on the frozen lake to have a bonfire on the island. Since it hasn’t been that cold in Minnesota, it made me really nervous walking across the ice. But everyone kept reassuring us that because there’s no snow, the ice is even more solid. The snow insulates the ice and can make it slushy and melt. I have fallen through ice (luckily only up to my knees!) twice before, and once on that very lake, so I’m always cautious. Everyone was right, though, and it was frozen solid and safe to walk on. This year, we built the biggest bonfire EVER.

David feeding the flames. This was before the fire became ENORMOUS!

Elizabeth and me. My hand looks HUGE in that glove.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my mom’s side of the family went to the Mall of America (MOA). When we were little kids, we would go to Camp Snoopy (the amusement park inside the mall) every year! Even though Camp Snoopy has been changed to Nickelodeon Universe and we can’t recognize the place, this year was better than ever! A lot of the rides are new and more thrilling. There’s now a SpongeBob Plunge that tilts riders back until they’re staring at the ceiling, and then drops them over the edge of the rollercoaster before spinning them upside down in giant loops. There’s also the Avatar Airbender, a giant skateboard that throws riders back and forth while also spinning them out of control. That one’s my new favorite! And thankfully there are still the oldies but goodies – the haunted house, log chute, and Screamin' Eagle.

This year we were even more excited because for lunch, we got to pig out on American food in the food court. Even Emily, who lives in Connecticut, was excited to chow down on fast food she can’t get in New England. David was thrilled to see Pita Pit, an old favorite I turned him on to during college. He got a turkey club while I headed to A&W for a root beer float, chili cheese coney, and onion rings. My sisters and I also split a side of Wisconsin cheese curds and hush puppies from Long John Silver’s. It was a hodgepodge of food, but it was so good! There was no dieting or working out during this vacation!

After the MOA, we said goodbye to Emily and Kendal at the airport. Then we changed into our UT gear and headed over to Aunt Julie’s and Uncle John’s to watch the Texas bowl game. For dinner that night, my mom was treated to her absolute favorite – chow mein. It was a great day at the mall, an awesome lunch, an equally delicious dinner, and an okay game. David and I were just glad UT won.

On the eighth day of Christmas, we relaxed! Whenever we go to Minnesota, it’s a marathon to see everyone and fit in all of the traditions like the MOA, tubing, and Mickey’s. This year was no different, but we did have a few days to unwind towards the end of our trip since we stayed longer than usual. On Thursday, we hung out at Papa’s and Grandma’s before meeting up with the rest of my mom’s siblings at a bar and grill, where we ate dinner before seeing Moneyball.

On the ninth day of Christmas, we met back up with my dad’s brother and his family at the MOA aquarium for Tayler’s, my cousin, birthday. We saw the usual fish, lots of sharks in the giant tank, and cute tiny turtles that couldn’t get enough of swimming against the man-made current. We even saw a pregnant seahorse, a first for all of us! In the seahorse world, the men carry and birth the babies. Crazy!

Male preggers seahorse

Shark Tank

Aunt Christine with her first grandchild, Zooey

For lunch, we were able to meet up with our friends from Austin, Jill and Noah. They are both from Minnesota and had driven up with their chocolate lab, Bailey, for the holidays. On their way out of town, they made some time to have lunch with the Houses. How sweet! It was so weird seeing them in Minnesota when they are our “Austin friends.” It was great to catch up. We miss our Austin family!

That night, we had dinner with the Kurzwegs at the Gasthaus. My Uncle Paul met my Aunt Christine when he was stationed in Germany during his Army days. They were married there and then moved back to his hometown in Minnesota. But every year the family visits Germany and they made sure that all of their kids speak fluent German. Dieter even lives there now and was able to take the train to visit us in London last year!

The Gasthaus is a traditional German restaurant where my German family likes to eat way too much food, sing loudly along with the accordion, and order enormous beer steins. What a great way to celebrate having the family together and Tayler’s birthday!

Sonja and Tayler

After stuffing ourselves, we caught the midnight showing of Sherlock Holmes – Game of Shadows. It was pretty good, but not as great as the first one.

On the tenth day of Christmas, we celebrated New Year’s Eve at Aunt Christine’s and Uncle Paul’s. We went over early in the afternoon so the guys could go ice skating out on the lake. They were so happy they decided to skate when they did because later that evening… it finally started snowing!

The family sporting T-shirts and souvenirs Dieter

brought back for us from the brewery he works at in Germany.

Dad and David showing off their moves on the ice

We rang in 2012 with big, hearty bowls of homemade chili and Michaela’s yummy jalapeno cornbread. Then we watched the NYC countdown and toasted with glasses of champagne and lots of hugs and kisses. In Germany, it’s customary to run around the streets at midnight on New Year’s Eve, so a bunch of us braved the cold and took off down the road to celebrate German-style.

The first snow of 2012. Minnesota finally looked normal again!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Papa and Grandma made their famous spaghetti and meatballs for lunch. Then my mom got her family together to play card games and poker. David actually won! A whole $9 – yay!

For dinner we headed to Culver’s for old-fashioned hamburgers and frozen custard. I had a sundae with vanilla frozen custard, marshmallow cream, and hot fudge – all toppings I can’t find in London. That night we saw Mission Impossible 4. My family loves going to the movies, and with the flights’ movies added in, I definitely got caught up on some recent films during this trip.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, we packed up all of our stuff and had leftover meatball sandwiches for lunch before heading to the airport. Those twelve days went by way too fast. :( But next year, the family’s headed to London for Christmas and we can’t wait to share our English Christmas traditions with them!

Moscow

2012-01-04T11:43:00.000-06:00

I decided to spend a couple of extra days in Moscow site-seeing after I finished up work. Like the weekend before in St. Petersburg, Jenn helped plan a lot! She worked really hard to try to get us tickets to the ballet at the newly renovated Bolshoy Theatre, but tickets sold out. So instead, Joey, Jenn, and I had dinner at Café Pushkin on Friday and then headed to the Ritz Carlton’s rooftop bar, the O2 lounge.

The Bolshoy

The restaurant/bar is all-glass and kind of suspended in mid-air in the center of the hotel. There’s an outdoor area that was completely deserted due to the cold, but we braved the weather for a few minutes to see the view and take some pics. Then we warmed up indoors with $30 vodka cocktails. That was nothing compared to the caviar - $1,500!! There is no way fish eggs taste that good. Even though I was in Russia, caviar was one thing I refused to try. Fish is not my thing.

O2 Lounge from the roof

Jenn and me in chairs designed after the Faberge eggs

On Saturday, we tried to fit in everything we wanted to see so Sunday could just be a relaxing day before our flights home. Luckily, the protests had cooled down a bit and Red Square was re-opened. Because of the elections the week before and the subsequent mass demonstrations, there were military and security personnel everywhere. Since military service is mandatory for teenage men, all of the soldiers seemed so young to me. But I definitely felt safe with hundreds of them surrounding my hotel and the big tourist destinations. It was very clear throughout the week with the sites closed and increased security that Russia was not going to risk an uprising like Egypt’s or Libya’s.

First stop on Saturday’s itinerary was Lenin’s Mausoleum in Red Square. Before his death, Lenin told everyone not to make any monuments to him. But after he died, and against the wishes of his wife, he was embalmed and put on public display. To this day, he's shown in a glass case inside his mausoleum, exactly as he was when he died in 1924. His body is so life-like that when we were passing through, I couldn’t help thinking his eyes would pop open at any moment, and he'd sit up and wave at us. The tomb is heavily guarded and only a few people are let in at a time, for a short amount of time. I guess Jenn and I were taking too long, so we were shuffled out by security. Behind the mausoleum, other famous people like Stalin and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, are buried. But since we couldn’t read the cyrillic writing, we had no idea whose tombs we were looking at.

Lenin’s Mausoleum

After the mausoleum, we walked through Alexander Gardens to the Kremlin. We passed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then under Trinity Tower before entering the Kremlin. The Kremlin is the seat of Russian government, so it was also heavily guarded. I took one step off the sidewalk and immediately a guard blew his whistle at me to get back on the path. Oops!

The Kremlin's Saviour's Tower

(This gets blown up in the latest Mission Impossible)

Alexander Gardens

Once inside the Kremlin, we visited the State Armoury. The Armoury holds much more than just weapons and armour and was really interesting. We saw carriages and sledges (giant sled carriages for the royal family to travel in through the tundra) as well as Catherine the Great’s dresses, original Faberge eggs, and the State Diamonds (similar to the Crown Jewels of England but the Russian collection).

Also inside the Kremlin walls, there is a courtyard containing three cathedrals and one church. The exteriors of the church and cathedrals all feature gold domes. The Cathedral of the Assumption held the crownings of the Russian princes and was the burial place of important people within the Orthodox Church. Across the square is Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Outside lays the largest bell in the world, the Tsar Bell.

Cathedral of the Annunciation

Ivan the Great Bell Tower

The Tsar Bell

After leaving the Kremlin, Joey, Jenn, and I walked to Arbat, a pedestrian street full of souvenir shops and cafes. We had lunch at Tepemok, a fast-food joint known for good, cheap blinis, and then walked around for a while.

On our last night in Russia, we went to Khachapuri, a Georgian restaurant. Georgian cuisine is extremely popular in Moscow, being that Georgia is part of the CIS (former Soviet countries) and it’s delicious! Khachapuri lived up to its name and served all different types of khachapuri, or cheesy bread. So on Saturday night, I had the traditional khachapuri with potato and cheese dumplings and vegetable soup. For dessert, I tried the mountain honey pot. Europeans eat honey by itself, which I’ve always thought would be too sweet, so I ordered yogurt with my mountain honey. And to be honest, it was disgusting. The honey was so bitter. I’m not sure if that’s how real honey is (without the added sugar) or if it was the added “mountain” flavour. Not a great end to my really, really good meal. Oh, well.

On Sunday morning, we toured St. Basil’s Cathedral. It had snowed on Saturday night and it was finally cold enough to stick, so it was nice to see Red Square covered in a light dusting.

The Historial Museum in Red Square

St. Basil’s was a lot bigger on the inside than I thought it would be. The top floor was like a maze through all of the domes, which are each separate chapels.

Then we did some last-minute souvenir shopping at GUM, Russia’s largest department store, and the Christmas market in Red Square.

Finally it was time to head home to get ready for our trip back to the states for Christmas!

St. Petersburg

2011-12-20T11:41:00.000-06:00

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get a Russian visa. So once I got mine, I convinced David to get one too and meet me in St. Petersburg over the weekend.

Like I mentioned in the previous blog, usually I’m a good planner but this time around I didn’t do much. Luckily Jenn, Joey’s wife, was travelling with us. So she scheduled both our weekend in St. Petersburg as well as our following weekend in Moscow. One thing we did leave until the last minute, though, was train tickets from Moscow – St. Petersburg. We thought it would be better to get them all together through the concierge at the hotel but then it turned out there were no seats left on the high-speed train to St. Petersburg Friday night.

Instead, we did what we swore we would never do – we booked a domestic flight.

Russian airline Aeroflot has one of the worst safety records, if not the worst, of all time. If you are ever afraid of flying Southwest or American or United within the US ever again, just take a look at Aeroflot’s record and you’ll feel much better! Before the dissolution of the USSR, there were about three crashes a year. I truly felt like I was risking my life by flying within Russia during the winter. I’m sorry, but Russian aviation authorities just don’t have the same safety standards that I trust and love.

In the end, the flight was fine. I have to admit I was gripping the seat and praying pretty hard as we came down to land in the wind and rain in St. Petersburg. But I attribute that more to me no longer being a good lander than Aeroflot. (This past summer our small plane from Nice landed so hard that we bounced off the runway and had to take back off. Most terrifying flying experience of my life, and now I hate landings.)

Once we met up with David and checked into the W, we headed straight to bed to get as much sleep as possible before a long day of site-seeing Saturday.

The next morning, we met up with our outgoing guide, Sasha. She really took a liking to David and even got his email address at the end of the day to “discuss Marketing opportunities in London.” But we all joked that he’d found his Russian bride and she'd found her meal ticket into the EU!

We started the day off with a drive along the city’s main river, Neva, while Sasha explained that Peter the Great and his family loved Italy so much that they wanted their new city, St. Petersburg, to be the “Venice of the North.” Of course this was not going to happen because it’s Russia and it’s freezing so people are not going to be strolling the canals or taking boat rides, but it was a nice thought.

Peter and Paul Fortress

Hermitage/Winter Palace

We first stopped outside a row of museums and old lighthouses. St. Petersburg’s first museum, the Kuntz-Kamera, was a collection of all the abnormal things that fascinated Peter the Great, like preserved giants and Siamese twins. I was kind of interested but the rest of the group did not want to see any pickled people. So David threatened to take me to the soil museum if I subjected him to Kuntz-Kamera, and we saw neither.

Lighthouse

Next stop was the Peter and Paul fortress. It was deserted at that hour (10:30) so we had the whole place to ourselves. Before entering the island, visitors are supposed to toss a coin over the bridge and try to land it next to a little rabbit statue while making a wish. If your coin makes the landing, your wish will come true! Jenn and I both did great but the boys missed.

Once inside the fortress, there is a distorted statue of Peter the Great. Visitors are encouraged to sit on his lap and hold his hands for luck. So since David failed the coin toss, he hopped right on up to Peter’s lap and made a new wish!

We took a few minutes to view Peter’s boat inside the boathouse before heading into the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral was built in the early 1700s along with the rest of the fortress after the Russians finally took back the land from the Swedes.

The spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

All of the Russian czars following Peter are buried inside the Cathedral. The last Romanovs, Nicholas II and his family, were buried inside St. Catherine’s chapel, within the cathedral, in 1998, 80 years after they were assassinated. Two of his children are missing though, Alexei and Anastasia… which further fuels the “rumor in St. Petersburg.”

Interior of the Cathedral

After listening to a short concert inside the cathedral, we walked past the mint and through the Neva Gate, which marks where prisoners from the fortress’s political prison were loaded onto boats to be executed elsewhere. One of the first prisoners was Peter the Great’s own son.

Neva river surrounding the fortress

After the fortress we drove to St. Michael’s Castle, which was built as a highly fortified palace for Emperor Paul I. He was petrified that he would be assassinated so he had ditches built around the castle and a draw bridge. Ironically, he was murdered in his bedroom just 40 days after moving in.

St. Michael's Castle

We then saw the cruiser, Aurora, whose gunshot signaled the start of the attack on the Winter Palace during the October Revolution. If you can’t tell by now, the Russians have a long and bloody history and most of the stories we heard were “terrible, just terrible.” The czars were constantly battling and murdering their own family for power. Sasha told us during the second half of our tour that she would focus on more romantic, happy stories.

Next stop – the Winter Palace, now the world-famous Hermitage Museum.

The palace square of the Hermitage with

St. Isaac's gold dome in the background

I thought the Museum would have more objects inside, especially from its days as a palace. But during the revolution, the palace was raided so now it’s mainly a museum with paintings. Lots and lots of paintings. We saw works by Monet, Picasso, da Vinci, etc. etc. etc. The place is enormous, so we were glad we had a guide with us. We only saw a small section of the Hermitage, yet it still took about 3 hours to get through.

Me, David, Joey, and Jenn after our tour

When we came back outside, magically it had cleared up and the sun was actually shining! Amazing! So we booked it over to St. Isaac’s Cathedral. This was the largest Cathedral in Russia after it was constructed and offers great views of the city from the gilded dome. After climbing up and down the stairs and viewing the inside of the church, we went back to the W.

St. Isaac's

Around the corner from our hotel was the Astoria Hotel, where Hitler planned to celebrate his victory over the Soviets. He even had invitations printed with the name of the hotel and the time, only leaving off the date. It’s weird to think about how different the world would be if things had gone his way and he had been able to have his parties.

The Astoria

That night we ate nearby at a small restaurant called Gogol, named after the Russian writer. The restaurant looks like a small home and we were given a bell to ring for service. We were afraid to use it and have the wrath of the Russians descend upon us, but once the table next to us starting ringing for attention, we finally did too.

I had the boar pelmeni (dumplings) to start and then a mystery meat dish with gravy and potatoes as my main. The boar was too game-y for me but the mystery meat was good! David got to try the borscht and Joey, David, and I also had small glasses of vodka.

As I came out of the bathroom at Gogol, I happened to look around and noticed a group of familiar-looking Americans in the corner of the restaurant. See, when I travel internationally, I’ve noticed how Americans tend to notice other Americans. I don’t know if we just seek each other out like magnets, or if this is because we’re usually just louder than everyone else so it’s impossible not to notice. But back in Moscow, at the Hotel National, there was a group of auditors from Chicago in town for a month for an audit. So after coming back from the restroom, I told Joey and Jenn that I thought I'd just seen the auditors from Moscow in the corner. Jenn thought they looked familiar too so we convinced Joey to take a shot of the horseradish vodka (David claimed it was delicious) and go over to them. Joey complained the whole time he was drinking the nasty vodka, but once he had his liquid courage, he turned into Mr. Social. And it turned out it was the same group of auditors from Chicago!

What a coincidence that our American “friends” from Moscow just happened to be in St. Petersburg the same weekend as us (especially since they were in Russia for a month), eating at the same restaurant, on the same night, at the same time. What further blew my mind was that they were risk-takers like us and on the same Aeroflot flight the next day back to Moscow.

After dinner we all headed to the Hippo, a nightclub, but once we saw the red velvet rope and line to get in, we decided we didn’t want to wait and there was no way we were getting in dressed the way we were anyway. Russians are just too damn fashionable. I don’t know how those women walk around in the ice and snow with 3-inch stiletto heels without breaking their necks. Jenn and I were having none of it and wore our boots the entire time.

On Sunday, we woke up early to check out and then walked to Stolle, a pie restaurant near the Church on Spilled Blood. David and I split the Russian soup (beef, potatoes, cabbage, herbs and sour cream – yum!) and cabbage pie. Cabbage pie is my new favourite pie. I don’t even really like pie that much, because of the crust, but this was really good! For dessert, we had whortleberry pie. Then we walked to the church.

The Church on Spilled Blood was built on the site where (get ready!) Alexander II was assassinated (shocking, I know). Even though Sasha had told us the day before that the interior of the church was covered in mosaics, I didn’t anticipate how beautiful it would be. Literally every inch is covered in colourful mosaics. It looked like one massive painting, but as you got closer, you could see the teeny tiny tiles creating gigantic images. We were blown away. It was honestly one of the most stunning church interiors I’ve ever seen.

Colorful onion domes top the church

Across from the church is a row of souvenir stalls, so David and I picked up some Christmas ornaments and matryohska dolls. Then we needed to get warm so we headed to Nevsky Prospekt, the main shopping street in St. Petersburg. We had hot chocolate in the café of Dom Knigi, St. Petersburg’s largest book store. The hot chocolate in St. Petersburg was so thick it was like eating warm pudding. It was sooo good.

David enjoying his hot chocolate at the bookstore

in front of the Kazan Cathedral

The book store café overlooks Kazan Cathedral, modelled after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. As you can see from the picture, the Kazan does not even compare to St. Peter’s. On our walk back down Nevsky Prospekt was saw the hotel where beef stroganoff was invented and stopped inside the smallest chocolate museum ever, and then it was time to head our separate ways.

David got on a flight back home to London while Joey, Jenn, and I (and our American auditor friends) took off for Moscow. The flight was really smooth, so I have a much higher opinion of Aeroflot now… or maybe it was the lucky rabbit!

Russia

2011-12-19T17:37:00.000-06:00

For some crazy reason, the audit organization decided to schedule an engagement in Moscow in December… couldn’t this wait until the Spring?? Apparently not, so for the last couple of weeks I was in Russia for work.

During the week, work was extremely busy, but our team of four still managed to get out in the evenings and site-see a bit.

Joey, Ana, me, and Peter wearing Russian hats in front of St. Basil's

It helped that we stayed at the Hotel National directly across the street from Red Square. The National is not only a historic hotel, but was also once a luxury apartment building. Lenin even lived there. Now it hosts presidents and foreign ministers... and the Dell team. My room was just down the hall from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s (there was a plaque on the wall commemorating his visit).

One of the prep questions our teams always asks before a site visit is ‘What are your hours of operation?’ For example, in the US it’s about 8:00-5:00, while in Europe they tend to start a bit later around 9ish. In Russia, the admin told us most people don’t start to trickle into the office until around 10:00 and they leave at 7:00. When we woke up on Monday morning, we saw why. It was pitch black outside. It didn’t start to get light until almost 11:00. So people do rise with the sun, but they are night owls. Most of the restaurants and bars and shops were open well into the night. We later learned that Moscow and St. Petersburg only get about 75 days of sun a year. I could never live there… I would be too cold and depressed without a steady Vitamin D intake. The UK is about as far North as I go.

Besides affecting everyone’s schedules, the weather seemed to affect everyone’s moods as well.

David and I love “An Idiot Abroad,” a British reality TV show that follows Ricky Gervais’ friend, Karl, around the world. Karl hates to travel, so Ricky has forced him out of his comfort zone by sending him on adventures that are always hilarious. This past season, Karl met his Russian twin when he took the Trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow to China. When he arrived in Moscow, his taxi driver was absolutely miserable. Karl asked him what he should see and do in Moscow and the driver responded with, “Nothing! It’s awful here! Just terrible!”

We got that vibe a lot.

When we were in St. Petersburg over the weekend, our tour guide showed up at 9:50, 20 minutes past our scheduled departure time, exclaiming, “Why did you schedule this so early? It’s too dark and cold. It’s terrible!” Then she went on to complain about how much she hates being Russian with her “stupid Russian passport” that doesn’t allow her to easily leave the country to travel or live abroad. Poor girl!

Just take a look at this professional technology magazine I found in the Dell office…

I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw that cover. Never, ever have I seen a magazine with such a dismal cover model.

Russians are definitely more blunt, too. I’ve gotten used to that from working with a lot of Europeans who will say exactly what’s on their minds, but the Russians take it to a whole new level. For example, in restaurants if we would ask for something and it wasn’t available, instead of hearing, “No, I’m sorry, we’re out of…” we would get, “Niet!”

Speaking of restaurants, the food experience was very interesting. Sushi is hugely popular right now in Russia, especially Moscow. I kept forgetting how big Russia is, but it made sense that Japanese food would be popular once Sasha (our tour guide from St. Petersburg) told us she was from a small island North of Japan. I only had sushi once during the trip, and it was really good.

My first taste of Russia came with my blini on the plane ride from London. Blinis are like crepes and can be prepared savoury or sweet. Dinner on the flight to Moscow was a blini stuffed with custard and raspberry sauce. That would usually qualify as dessert in my book, but for the Russians it was a typical dinner. For breakfast most days, I had blinis with sour cream. And for lunch I often ordered a ham and cheese blini with a chocolate banana blini for dessert. I couldn’t get enough of them, they were so good!

Another popular dish is borscht, beet soup. I hate beets, but I couldn’t come to Russia and not try borscht. It was actually really good. The broth is really flavorful with the different seasonings and there is beef in the soup as well, so it hardly tastes like beets at all.

Beef stroganoff was invented in St. Petersburg (more to come on that in a different blog post) so I tried that during our first team dinner… which was quite an experience.

Usually I’m a great planner and try to figure out the best restaurants to eat at and opening times of museums/sites to plan my day. But with Thanksgiving the week before and work being really busy, I was not on my game for these two weeks in Russia. So on Monday after work, we dropped our bags at the hotel and asked the concierge where we should eat. She told us about Kitsch, a nearby restaurant that served well-priced, traditional Russian dishes. We walked to the address she gave us, but we weren’t sure if it was the right place because there was a scary-looking bronze guard dog statue outside the door and the sign above said Kitsch Kock.

We should’ve known by the name…

We opened the door and saw a steep black staircase between two walls covered in black wall paper and black lights hanging from the ceiling. When we got to the top of the staircase, there was a picture of a sexy vampire staring down at us. And in the middle of the restaurant was a chandelier with the lights shining through the hollowed-out eyes of skulls. We thought about leaving, but the manager was so nice and welcoming, so we gave it a shot. She didn’t have an English menu, but she spoke pretty fluently and was nice enough to sit down at the table with us and go through every dish. I played it safe with the stroganoff and a glass of vodka with orange juice. It was surprisingly delicious.

Ana, one of my co-workers, was a very brave eater during the whole trip. She would order sushi without knowing what kind of raw seafood she was being served. At Kitsch Kock, she enjoyed the cow tongue. Later on in the week she even tried bear! I don’t know what kind of bear they serve in Russia, but I have never heard of bear for dinner before this trip.

Our engagement director had told us that last time he was in Moscow (years and years and years ago) he went to a Ukrainian restaurant with a farmyard in the middle. He LOVED it and kept telling us how we had to find it. So I Googled “Ukrainian restaurants in Moscow with farm animals” and sure enough, Shinok came up at the #1 Ukrainian restaurant in the city. So during our second week of work, we took a taxi across town to check it out.

The restaurant was so fun! It’s meant to look like a Ukrainian farmhouse, so you actually walk into the home and up three flights of wooden stairs to get to the “dining room.” And sure enough, in the middle of the restaurant there was a farmyard complete with chickens, roosters, peacocks, and even a cow! And watching over all of the animals was a babushka.

That night most of the table ordered the Chicken Kiev, breaded chicken breast stuffed with butter. I had already had Kiev earlier in the week, so this time I ordered the crispy garlic chicken. The waiter brought me out a whole chicken, butterflied. I was just hoping it wasn’t the mother or sister of one of the chickens I had just seen wandering around the coop. Joey, my engagement manager, had the rabbit pie. I didn’t notice any rabbits or bunnies hopping around, but that may have just been because Joey ate the last one.

On Friday after work, Joey and I met up with his wife, Jenn, back at the hotel and then walked to Café Pushkin for dinner. Café Pushkin is owned by the same restaurant group as Shinok, but Café Pushkin was much better. The surroundings weren’t quite as whimsical, but the restaurant was inside a beautiful big house decked out with dozens of Christmas trees. They served traditional Russian and French dishes. This time, I ordered the cheesy chicken. It was like Chicken Kiev except inside of butter in the middle, it was oozing with gooey, delicious cheese sauce. And it came out on a cracker set made to look like a saw.

For dessert, they made Jenn's crème brulee at the table in front of us with a candle.

One other cultural difference I picked up on, besides the attitude and food, was that Russia was not as Westernized as I'd thought it would be. I expected with a bustling metropolis, millions of people, and advanced space and military programs, Moscow would be more developed. The first sign that this was not the case was when I had to go to the health clinic to get immunizations for my visit. The doctor warned me that I needed to get all of my hepatitis shots and boosters and told me when I was in-country, DO NOT DRINK THE WATER. That really surprised me. I expected that going to Mexico and Egypt, but Russia?? The entire time I was there, I was extra careful about brushing my teeth with bottled water and never ordering ice!

There was also a massive language barrier outside the office. Even Joey and Jenn, who are probably the most well-travelled couple I know, said it was more difficult finding an English-speaker in Moscow than in most Asian countries.

Because traffic is so awful in Moscow, the team opted to take the metro instead of a cab to and from work. Because of recent terrorist attacks at the airport and on the subway, we were extra vigilant, and thankfully nothing really happened while we were in town (besides the mass protests and rallies the second week of the trip).

The metro was extremely difficult to get around in, though. I would not have tried it on my own. The Russian language is in Cyrillic, so we couldn’t even read the metro stops. For example, my full name, Sarah Elizabeth House, translated into Russian is Сара Элизабет дом. Yes, there’s a number 3 in the middle of Elizabeth... Since we couldn’t read anything, we literally had to guess which platform to get on and then count the number of stops between stations. And if multiple lines stopped at the same place, the stop had a different name for each line. Really confusing! After a couple of days of counting stops and listening to station names, we got the hang of it though. Enough to barely get by.

While Joey, Jenn and I travelled to St. Petersburg on Friday night, the rest of the team took a self-guided tour of the Moscow metro, which is the most beautiful metro I’ve ever seen. Stalin ordered marble and statues and chandeliers in the stations to make the lives of the commuters a little bit brighter and “thank” them for their sacrifice. Peter, another one of my co-workers, took these pics during their tour:

Even though Russia wasn't quite what I expected, I had a really good time there for two weeks. It is such an interesting place and it’s growing and developing so fast! I will post more blogs about what we did and saw later, but I wanted to share this little cultural overview first!

Crazy Faces

2011-11-21T14:44:00.000-06:00

So I bought a new phone last year after moving to London. Being a Droid-man, I went with the HTC Desire-HD. I was pleased as punch with my selection, and after a few weeks of playing around on the phone, I discovered the key to countless hours of tear-jerking laughter: a distortion feature built into my camera phone. So far, almost all of our house guests have fallen victim to my sharp eye for the grotesque and ridiculous, and below I have included a few of our favorites!

WARNING: The images you are about to see may frighten you to your core. Houseman Inc. is not responsible for any of the following effects caused by viewing the aforementioned images: Loss of sleep, loss of appetite, loss of friends, loss of self-respect (or respect of any kind), photographobia (fear of having your picture taken), night-terrors, and day-terrors. Let's begin....

I hope you didn't expect me to start off slow - the evil witch Sarah welcomes you to this album!

A lot of people say that Cristy and Sarah look a lot alike... the two pics above show that they may be possessed by the same demon.

There is no doubt that Keli was EXTREMELY excited to be in London!

Normal Katie = absolutely beautiful. Distorted Katie = one of the monsters from the castle battle scene in the movie Willow.

Dad looks like an old, confused Bruce Jenner.

I don't know what is creepier or more hideous - my ear, smile, eyes, hat, or enormous hand/wrist holding my glasses... or just the "Hey baby!" look I am trying to give.

Award for the tiniest nose in the world goes to... Boone Lawrence.

And award for tiniest mouth flanked by huge cheeks.... Cristy round 2!

Charming, Sarah. Charming....

Jordan was just trying to show his friendly Texas smile, but every God-fearing person in Nice ran away screaming at the mere sight of this beast!

Sarah looks like a alien in this one...
an alien suffering from severe depression.

Sarah cannot stop laughing when she looks at this one, but personally, I think he looks like a really friendly and innocent guy - the kind you just want to get to know!

This man just became a father. Jeremy, play your cards right and Quinn never sees this...

Allison is completely unrecognizable in this shot, about which I am sure she is happy in case she ever wants to be welcomed back to Nice.

This truly looks absolutely nothing like my younger sister Laura, but rather the gruesome creature that ate Laura.

Amy looks like an injured animal crying out, begging for someone to put her out of her misery.

Ross looks like an eight-year-old child who belongs in The Brady Bunch (Amy is just plain frightening).

I don't know how much of this is distorted and how much is really just me being terrifying.

Such a dreamy look... minus the demon-eyes, gaping nostrils, and ridiculous half-smile/smirk.

Two things Austin Powers fears: nuclear war and my Mom - "Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage. Small hands."

Ahh! Dad's back! Jay Leno chin and almost non-existent eye - or is it a creepy wink?

Dave looking angry that he lost out on the leading role in Twilight - sweet hair, though!

My favorite part of this picture is the woman in the red pants running for her life for fear of being devoured by Sarah the Baboon.

This seriously looks like a caricature drawing by a street artist.

Even Kirby cannot escape my distorted camera shots! I think he looks just like the dog from the intro to the TV show "Goosebumps."

Possibly the stupidest looking expression in this entire post.
Congrats, Jeff!

Sarah looks like a mix between a chipmunk and a round-chinned old lady... with enormous Japanese cartoon cat-eyes, of course!

My wife's reaction to anyone saying, "Hey Sarah, I ate all of your pop-tarts!"

You again, Jeremy?! Between the lazy eye, Vote for Pedro
mustache, and peanuts in the teeth,
I just don't know what else to say!

Elizabeth would be an incredible linebacker if she joined the NFL.

Haha! The flat head really helps to explain the seemingly brainless expression created by the distortion-feature - I'm pretty sure that this started off as just an innocent smile.

If I had to write a sound-effect for this one, it would probably be "Dddaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!"

Jeremy's shot at the Jay Leno chin - classic!

Back so soon, Elizabeth?! Cross-eyes or horrific smile... not sure which will haunt me more.

Amazingly, Renee's hair looks incredible in these shots... but the camera took no mercy on the rest of her.

Even Papa got in on the fun, though after seeing this he may
not let me stay at his house for Christmas!

Two fantastic shots of Dave - the one on the right is our favorite, probably because he looks like the Jolly Green Giant.

I really love this picture - the way the light hits my face/eye, the way my mouth shows an expression of half-joy half-terror, and the fact that my eyes were filled with tears from laughing so hard at many of the other pics in this blog.

One from far away (look at those hands!!!), one from close up - both are simply horrible, but the first pic is one of my absolute favorites - please click on it for a larger view and notice the eyes, nose, mouth, and overall expression (I love you, Molly!)

Th.. th... th... th.. that's all folks!!!

The Fox and the Hound

2011-11-20T11:29:00.000-06:00

London – the big city. Home to historical palaces, a thriving theatre district, the seat of government… and thousands of urban foxes!

That’s right, foxes. One of the most surprising things about moving to London has been walking down the street and foxes strolling right down the street next to you. It's strange to be living in such a metropolitan area with these woodland creatures living among you. But I guess with large amounts of open spaces and parks in London, they have plenty of places to live and plenty of garbage and scraps to eat. In our area, we've nick-named each one our "friendly neighborhood fox.”

We have had quite a lot of run-ins with foxes in the 16 months we've been here. Before Kirby moved in, they were fearless and practically camped out in our backyard. They’re a bit more hesitant now but they still come around quite a bit. And Kirby goes nuts!

One of David’s first up close and personal experiences with a fox was while I was away. He was sitting in the living room watching TV one night when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked out the window and saw a fox sitting on top of Kirby’s doghouse watching him watching TV. What a creepy fox!

Another time, a fox came through the yard and jumped from Kirby’s doghouse over the fence into the neighbor’s garden. We noticed him struggling in the bushes, so we thought he hadn’t made the jump and was falling. Nope. Instead the fox had grabbed a pigeon sitting on the top of the fence. He fell back onto the doghouse and started eating the pigeon… right in front of us! It was horrible! I felt like I was on an episode of ‘Animal Planet: When Foxes Attack.’ The pigeon struggled for a while, and then I jumped up to grab my camera. Unfortunately the fox saw me through the window and ran away with his food before I could get a video or pic.

Outside the city in Bracknell, where the Dell office is, the foxes run rampant. One day I was leaving the office and there was a fox walking across the parking lot with a goose hanging out of his mouth. Another time, while waiting for the shuttle at the train station, a flock of birds was taunting an injured fox. The poor guy ran across the street and then tried to get through the fence onto the train platform… maybe to get to the fox doctor. He didn’t make the train, though, and headed off down the street instead.

Foxes are very mischievous too. We learned this lesson the hard way. One day after working in the yard, David left his gardening gloves on the patio table. The next morning, they were gone. A fox had taken them for his nest. David could just imagine little baby foxes curled up inside his nice warm gloves. Last season, they ate David’s tomato plant so we put a little fence around the vegetable garden. This year, they developed an appetite for strawberries instead. The tomatoes were fine but the strawberries were non-existent.

Kirby is usually too busy hangin' out on the couch watching me work…

or sleeping half in/half out of his doghouse…

Ouch!

to notice the foxes in our backyard, but sometimes he does catch the scent and then he’ll just run laps around the backyard with his hair raised up on his back. When he does see one through the window, he will bark and bark until he’s let out. He never manages to catch them… we don’t even know if he would actually bite one, or just lick it to death. Chances are he'll never get that close because foxes are soooo fast and they can jump really high! We’ve seen them leap from the ground over the fence like it's nothing! This drives Kirby nuts and usually for two days after, he’ll OCD-it-up sitting next to the back door on full alert.

During the winter, when it gets dark around 4 in the afternoon, the foxes come out a lot earlier. So we see them a lot more on walks with the pup. And If Kirby sees one, he’ll chase after it like he does with cats (pulling David or me down the street with him). But again, they’re way too fast for him. Overall, we think this a good thing because we don’t want an epic battle to go down. I don’t want Kirby to get mauled or anything, but I also think he could handle his own… or they could become best friends just like "the fox and the hound!"

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T03:47:00.000-05:00

TRICK

TREAT!

Kirby loves his costumes, except the squirrel. As you can probably tell, he hated us that year...

We hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! Here are some pics from our UT alumni fundraiser costume party Saturday:

Me (Batgirl), David (Jigsaw), Audra (Nun) & Brad (Monk)

David loved creeping people out

wandering around the dance floor by himself

I don't know who this girl is, but she totally made our teddy bear picture all about her, and she's not even in a costume - LAME!

A jockey picture-bombed us!

Brad praying for the people at the bar

My absolute favorite costume! "Elliot" literally rode his bike throughout the entire pub, even managing to make it upstairs to do a lap around the dance floor.

Happy Halloween!

Dubai

2011-10-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

The chilly fall weather has arrived in England. So this was the perfect time for David and me to escape to warmer climates! We asked ourselves, where could we go that we wouldn’t normally be able to travel to if we were living in the states? Our answer – Dubai!

Dubai is a 7-hour flight from London, so we took the overnight flight last Tuesday to arrive in the UAE Wednesday morning.

Driving through the city on the way to our hotel, we felt like we had just time travelled to the future. Dubai is unlike any other city in the world. It’s so new and so clean. I have never seen so many skyscrapers in my life… and I’ve been to NYC! Even the fancy, fully air-conditioned metro stations looked like something out of the Jetsons!

I have always wanted to stay at the Atlantis. David and I even researched trips to the Bahamas when we were living in the states. So once we chose Dubai as our warm-weather getaway location, our number one hotel pick was the Atlantis on the Palm Jumeirah.

There is a section of my Dubai guidebook entitled “Audacious Projects” and while we were in the UAE, David and I were continually amazed at the number of record-breaking projects we saw or heard of. For example, one of these project is Dubailand - a multi-billion dollar entertainment theme park scheduled to be completed in 2020. It is planned to be twice the size of Disneyworld in Florida. In other words, enormous! I can’t wait!

The first “audacious” project David and I saw was the Palm Jumeirah. It’s basically a massive palm-shaped island complex. It may qualify as the 8th Wonder of the World due to its size. It’s one of the only man-made structures visible from space. The craziest thing is there are two more, even bigger, palm projects in the works.

The Palm Jumeirah. Atlantis is situated in the top center of the ring.

#2 is Atlantis itself. Atlantis opened a couple of years ago to a fireworks show larger than that of the Beijing Olympics… so you know it had to be awesome! The hotel is absolutely amazing. The hotel has its own waterpark, aquarium, dolphin habitat, helicopter service, luxury shopping avenue, and 17 different restaurants, bars, and lounges. Everything you need is right there!

The view from our room. The hotel not only let us check in super early,

but also upgraded us to one of the top floor rooms.

Beautiful glass sculpture in the Atlantis lobby

We literally did not leave the hotel for days. On Wednesday after checking in, we changed into our swimsuits and headed to the waterpark, Aquaventure, which is free for all hotel guests. We grabbed a double tube and floated along the rapids river and then went on a couple of water roller coasters before heading to the hotel’s private beach for lunch and a dip in the Arabian Sea.

There are a few award-winning restaurants inside Atlantis, including upscale Japanese eatery Nobu. David and I went to Zuma in London for my birthday, which is very similar to Nobu. But I have to say, after enjoying dinner at both, I liked Zuma better. Both have really inventive, fun dishes but Zuma’s lobster miso soup, spicy beef, and “popcorn” with yuzu salt can’t be beat!

After dinner in the lobby in front of the aquarium.

On Thursday, we slept in and then headed down to The Burger Joint (TBJ) for lunch. We both tried the wagyu beef cheeseburgers. I don't really know what the big deal about wagyu beef is... it was good but we've had better burgers.

Hotel guests also get free admission to Atlantis’ aquarium, the Lost Chambers. So after lunch, David and I headed over for an exclusive hour-long tour of the chambers. The aquarium was pretty extensive, and the décor was all created around the theme of the lost city of Atlantis. The largest tank holds all different kinds of fish, sharks, and sting-rays and winds around the hotel so there are viewing areas in the Ground lobby, one of the restaurants, and the coveted Super Suites.

David admiring the aquarium. He could've stood there all day.

That's a big ray!

After our tour, we headed back to Aquaventure to feed the sting-rays. Since David and I have already been swimming with the dolphins, on this beach trip we decided to try something new. So after a quick security and information briefing, we stepped into the shark tank at the bottom of the Mayan-style pyramid to feed the rays. The sharks stayed away from the shallow area of the tank where we were, which made us feel safe and sound. The rays were not shy at all though! Once they smelled the food, they swarmed around us, even popping out of the water for a snack! Some of them were getting a bit frisky and started sucking on our legs and thighs, trying to get our attention. It was a lot of fun!

A kid being swarmed by the rays

David found a new friend!

After our session with the rays, we worked up the courage to go down the Leap of Faith thrill ride that drops you from the top of the pyramid down a tunnel through the shark tank.

Right before our "Leap of Faith"

Dinner Thursday night was at Ronda Locatelli, where we were joined by TV celebrity chef Giorgio Locatelli himself for the launch of his White Truffle menu. White truffles are so rich, so David and I opted out of this menu for our main courses but we did have the white truffle bacon bruschetta to start and I had the white truffle zabaglione for dessert.

On Friday we finally left Atlantis to explore the city. Friday was the clearest day of our trip thus far, so we lucked out that this was the same day we had reservations for the Burj Khalifa. The tallest building in the world was our #3 record-breaker.

To get to the outdoor observation deck on the 124th floor, we had to take a ride on the fastest elevator in the world – Record #4. We went 0-124 floors in 60 seconds. Our ears popped about three times on the way up. You don’t quite realize how fast you’re going until the elevator starts shaking. Scary!

When we came out of the elevator, we were immediately shuffled outside to the observation deck. The first thing I noticed was all of the other skyscrapers far below us. I had to keep reminding myself that the buildings we were looking at are some of the tallest buildings in the world, yet we were looking down at them. It was hard to wrap our heads around how high up we really were. Plus, when we looked up, there were still a ton of floors above us! The 124th floor isn’t even close to the actual top of the Burj Khalifa. Being up there made us truly appreciate how far mankind’s achievements have come in the past couple hundreds of years. It’s hard not to believe in the impossible when you’re standing on the top of the Burj Khalifa.

View below from the 124th floor outdoor observation deck

We saw our fifth record-breaker from the observation deck – the World island project. The World is coming together quickly. We could actually make out the shape of South America and Antarctica. The islands will all be privately owned and start at $10 million.

And again, I need to point out that David did so well on top of the Burj! I kept telling him that he didn’t need to go outside; that it was no big deal as long as he used his prepaid ticket to just go up in the elevators with me. But he actually really enjoyed the view and the overall experience.

David is soooo going to win the Volusion around-the-world T-shirt contest

And for continuing to conquer his fear of heights (he can’t really go much higher now), his reward was…

Middle Eastern Taco Bell (sorry for the Pepsi cup, Dad)

That’s right! The Burj is right next to the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world (Record #6). The food court literally has EVERY restaurant you could ever think of, including all of our favorite American chains – Macaroni Grill, Potbelly, CPK, Texas Roadhouse, etc.

80% of Dubai’s population is made up of Expats from different countries. People can’t help but be drawn there by the 0% income tax incentive. Because of this cultural diversity, the city contains different restaurants and shops from all over the world. And with all that extra money not going towards taxes, people have a lot more disposal income to spend on shopping. The malls are the main tourist attractions.

After wandering through the Dubai Mall, but avoiding Candylicious, the world’s largest candy store (Record #7), we grabbed tickets for the Dubai double decker, hop on/hop off, bus tour.

Riding on the top of the bus

After passing Wafi City, an Egyptian-style shopping center, David and I hopped off the bus at Dubai Creek for a cruise in a traditional wooden dhow.

That looks familiar...

In front of our dhow

While cruising along the waterfront, we heard all about the history of the creek, from a small fishing community to a thriving trading hub. As Dubai is one of the safest cities in the world today, it is common practice for traders to unload their goods on the docks and leave them there until they are moved into the souqs or loaded back onto the boats for their next port. I couldn’t believe all of the goods we saw just sitting around, completely unprotected. Everything from carpets to refrigerators… As most Dubai residents are foreign, the threat of deportation is enough to deter anyone from stealing!

Dubai Creek

After our cruise, we got back on the bus headed to the Dubai Museum, housed inside an 18th century fort. I think the fort is the oldest thing in the city, which further emphasizes how young Dubai is.

Here, we hopped off the bus for the second time to walk through the Bastakiya quarter. We joined an Arabian Treasure walk, where our guide first pointed out the ruler’s court across the street. Then we walked behind a mosque to discover a Hindu temple complex. This mixture of religions demonstrates how tolerant Dubai is compared to the rest of the Middle East. It was refreshing to see the practice of freedom of religion in an area surrounded by controversy.

Wind towers, early air conditioning systems, in the Bastakiya quarter

Then we walked through the textile souq before crossing the creek in a water taxi, or abra.

Crossing the creek on a crowded, open-sided abra

On the other side of the creek, we first walked through the spice souq, where David and I bargained for some vanilla tea and apricot/peach tea. We finished our Arabian Treasure tour at the gold souq, where we saw the world’s heaviest gold ring (Record #8).

Here we got back on the bus and drove past a couple more malls before getting to the beach. We caught a glimpse of the sheik’s beach-front home and the Jumeirah Mosque, the only mosque in Dubai open to non-Muslims. We also drove past the iconic Burj Al Arab.

The Burj Al Arab was the world’s tallest all-suite hotel at the time of construction (Record #9). It is also rumored to be one of the most expensive buildings ever built, although this cannot be confirmed because the cost has never been revealed. It’s a 7-star hotel that sits on its own artificial island, has gold columns inside, an underwater restaurant, a helicopter chauffeur service, and a restaurant suspended in mid-air over 1,000 feet off the ground. You’ve probably seen the ridiculous video of Tiger Woods hitting a golf ball off the roof or Andre Agassi and Roger Federer playing tennis. To even step inside the hotel, you must have reservations for tea, cocktails, or a meal and a strict dress code is enforced. Obviously, David and I only admired the Burj Al Arab from afar!

The Burj Al Arab from the Atlantis beach

Our final stop on the bus tour was our own hotel, Atlantis! After we hopped off for the last time, we had dinner at French bistro Rostang. I had the lobster bisque and goat cheese gratin. David opted for the crab claws and steak frites. For dessert, we walked around the corner for some Coldstone! Even though I’m a Marble Slab girl and worked there for years in college, I had to hand it to the Atlantis Coldstone crew. They actually flipped the ice cream in the air and batted it over to the mix-in station. Why haven’t they opened a Coldstone or Marble Slab in London yet?!

On our last day in Dubai, we headed to the Mall of the Emirates to see Ski Dubai. Only in Dubai would you find an entire ski village inside a mall. This was the tenth record-breaker we saw – the largest indoor snow park in the world and the world’s first indoor black diamond.

Keeping with the cold weather mountain theme, David and I had a traditional Swiss fondue lunch at Apres, a restaurant overlooking the slopes.

We then cabbed it back to the hotel to take one last walk through the complex to check out Dolphin Bay and Aquaventure beach. Then we grabbed a couple of tubes to go through the rapids and the Torrent wave river. We ended our time at the waterpark going on the Shark Attack ride one last time.

Dinner was at Atlantis’ Saffron restaurant for Asia, Asia night. This was a casual, buffet-style restaurant offering food from all over Asia. The best part was dessert! The dessert table offered sweets from Asia and the Middle East, including peanut butter soup (strangely delicious) and a giant chocolate fountain!

To end the trip, after dinner we grabbed a couple of cushions at Levantine Terrace for drinks and shisha. We ordered the fresh pineapple hookah and enjoyed the downtown view with all of the buildings lit up at night.

This was another once-in-a-lifetime trip for us and we had such a great time together savoring the food at the award-winning restaurants, acting like kids at the waterpark, and relaxing on the sandy beaches of the Arabian Sea. To see all of the pictures from our trip, click here.

Babies!

2011-10-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

When I was in Austin for work a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend two very special occasions – the Sylestine’s baby shower and the Watson’s baby dedication.

A lot has changed since David and I moved to London a little over a year ago! When we moved, none of our friends were even pregnant! Now most of our friends have babies or are planning to have babies, and Molly and Jeremy are preparing for the arrival of their baby girl Quinn!

One night I met up with the girls for dinner at Molly and Jeremy’s new house, so I was able to see Quinn’s adorable nursery. I couldn’t believe how much baby gear had already taken over the Sylestine home! But Jeremy had to remind me, “She’s coming in seven weeks. We’ve got to be ready!” And less than a month from today, Quinn will be here!

When I got to Austin, one of the top priorities on my shopping list was a gift for the shower. Even though the Sylestines had registered, I was still really, really lost and confused in the store! I didn’t understand what half the stuff on the baby registry even was… I must’ve spent about thirty minutes in the blanket aisle alone! Between swaddling cloths, regular blankets, receiving blankets, security blankets and bedding blankets, my head was spinning! Who knew babies needed so much stuff?

After that adventure, I headed straight to Sonic for a cherry limeade and chilli cheese coney and called David to say goodnight. And though I can’t say he was jealous of my shopping trip, he was mighty envious of my lunch!

Then on Friday night, I reunited with all of my Austin girlfriends to help set up for the shower at the Gristy’s new place. We planned and cooked and decorated!

The diaper basket

In lieu of a card, guests were asked to bring a children’s book. Being the avid reader I am, the girls joked my future baby can expect a Kindle at their shower!

The shower turned out great! I finally got to meet Ali and Andrew’s baby boy, Caleb, and Sarah and Hoon’s daughter, Greta! In the past six months, the Floyds and the McHams have also had baby boys! Before David and I got married, we joined a church class for engaged couples and now I think everyone in that class has had their first child, except the Scott’s and the Vennes’. I’m hopeful they’ll hold off until we move back!

Precious baby Greta in her playful pink tutu

Because of the high percentage of baby boys in our circle of friends, David is convinced the ultrasounds are wrong and Quinn is going to be a boy too! Let’s hope he’s wrong…

David and I have always said that we want to be surprised by the sex of our baby, but after seeing all of the cute shower decorations, the beautiful nursery, and the pretty little girl clothes the Sylestines received as gifts, I may be changing my mind.

Our future children will definitely be dressed in either UT cheerleading uniforms or jerseys. Jeremy's a UT alum like us and since Molly attended Baylor, he mom sewed up both of these outfits!

All of the couples that hosted the shower

Allison used her crafty paper-cutting machine

to create these Quinn onesies

Jill learned how to make the hanging poms by watching YouTube videos

The morning after the shower, I went to church to check out the new Sunday school class led by Jordan and attend Declan Watson’s dedication. Although our church, Riverbend, believes more in a ‘baptism by choice’ when children are older, it was important for the Watsons to honor Jen’s Catholic heritage and baptize their child as a baby too. David and I also grew up with these different traditions. He was baptized when he was 7 but I was baptized in the Methodist church as an infant, so it was great to see this compromise and get an idea of what to do in the future for our own kids.

Dave Sunde, who performed our wedding ceremony, led the dedication and Declan was easy-going as always!

The Watsons with happy baby Declan

Thank goodness for Facebook and blogs and Skype and all of the other technology available that allows David and me to watch these babies grow up and be a part of their lives, even though we can’t physically be in Texas. Next time we see y’all, there will be a new baby girl in the mix. And she’s going to be fighting off a lot of little boys! ;)

Movie Buffs

2011-09-25T16:28:00.000-05:00

In case you didn’t know, David and I are huge movie buffs! Remember the groom’s cake at our wedding?

At the first UT London alumni event we went to, David and I met another young couple, Brad and Audra, who had also recently moved to London from Texas. They’re really into movies also, so last fall Audra and I did a girl’s night out at the Eat, Pray, Love premier in Leicester Square.

I have to admit I was a total nerd and brought along my copy of the book, hoping to get it signed by Julia Roberts. Well unfortunately Julia didn’t show up until about 15 minutes before the movie started, so she barely had enough time to sign a few autographs between posing for the paparazzi and doing a couple of interviews. While I was watching her walk the red carpet, I just kept thinking how weird it would be to be a movie star. For security reasons, they are escorted EVERYWHERE. When Julia stepped out of the car, there were hundreds of people in the crowded square screaming her name. An old man literally ran me over trying to get closer to the barriers for a better view. And her picture on the movie posters was also EVERYWHERE. How strange would it be to walk from your car to a movie theatre with hundreds of people screaming your name and photos of yourself staring back at you? It must be really hard to not get a big head in that business. By far the most bizarre part that I’d never thought about before actually going to a premier, is that at every premier, the movie is actually shown. Tickets were about £200/person for Eat, Pray, Love. So needless to say, Audra and I did not actually see the movie. Most people that are lucky enough to score tickets get them for free from friends and family that work in the industry. But for the stars, wouldn’t it get boring to sit there and watch your movie over and over and over at each premier? They must take naps or something…

But I digress.

Instead of getting Julia Robert’s autograph in my book, I got the author’s – Elizabeth Gilbert! Liz showed up over an hour before the movie started, which gave her plenty of time to meet her fans, sign a ton of autographs, and even hand out free books! I got a picture with her (which is really bad and will never be posted anywhere) and she signed my book!

Elizabeth Gilbert greeting her fans

SPOILER ALERT!

I have to admit, I didn’t really like the book that much mainly because of Elizabeth Gilbert’s character, which is kind of terrible to say since it’s an autobiography. But I felt like she was really self-centered and whiny. Plus I didn't think she learned a whole lot about herself because in the end, she just ended up with another guy anyway! But then I later found out she married the Brazilian and that made me like her a bit more, because it wasn't just another relationship she had jumped into. And then when I met her at the premier, she was sooo nice. So I totally forgave her for leaving and kind of cheating on her husband. And I eventually saw the movie on one of my many cross-Atlantic flights and thought it was pretty good!

Our latest claim to fame came in April when one of David’s high school friends, Camilla, landed the part of Princess Kate in the Lifetime movie about the royal couple. I met Camilla a few years ago during one of our visits to London for Christmas. It was surreal seeing someone we knew acting on TV, being featured in celebrity magazines and interviewed on late-night talk shows. We heard she’s going to be a regular on this season of Californicaction, but I don’t know if we’ll watch since it’s rumored she has some nude scenes! That might be too weird…

During the summer, somehow between all of our vacations and my work travel schedule, David and I managed to be in London for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 premier! The premier promised to be epic. The red carpet was rolled out in Trafalgar Square, with the road from Trafalgar to Leicester Square transformed into Diagon Alley. The alley was completely sealed off to the public so the actors could use it as their route from the red carpet to the theatre.

Thousands of Harry Potter fans camped

out in front of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

I had read in the paper about a week before the premier that because the event was expected to be so huge, wristbands would be handed out the day before, first-come/first-serve, to fans to watch the event from prime viewing locations in Trafalgar Square. What the paper didn’t mention was that the rest of the square would be totally blocked off by an eight foot wall. Apparently a lot of parents did not get this message. There were so many children dressed up in their Hogwarts costumes excited to see Harry, Hermione and Ron... but they couldn’t see over the barriers. Some even broke down crying in the street. It was really sad. I think they should have put up the small fences like they usually do, but not a wall!

This sweet girl in her Hogwarts uniform was waiting patiently for her turn

on her dad's shoulders to catch a glimpse of Harry

Luckily I had David’s shoulders to sit on. He was nice enough to lift me up so I could see the action. I couldn’t see much, but it was still fun to be out with thousands of other people celebrating the movie’s release. The crowd was enormous and there was a real sense of community with all of our fellow Harry Potter-loving Londoners. It was a great way to close out the final chapter of the series (minus the crying children).

Last week before I headed back to Texas for work, David and I went to Leicester Square to see Hugh Jackman. Even though his new movie, Real Steel, looks like rock ‘em sock ‘em robots for the big screen (aka – not good), we still thought it’d be fun to see Hugh. Plus we had a craving for Chinese food and Chinatown is just around the corner from Leicester Square.

Hugh Jackman being interviewed on the stage in front of us

When we got there, Hugh was walking right towards us but I didn’t even recognize him. I had always imagined him as Wolverine – jacked! But he was a lot smaller in real life. I'm sure under his suit, he was still really buff but I couldn't help noticing his skinny arms and legs. I'd always heard what a nice guy he is, and he really did seem genuinely friendly. He arrived super-early (unlike most actors... Julia!) and said hello to everyone, signed autographs, and even took pictures of himself with his fans.

Then whatdayaknow, the next day I was reading People online and I swear I saw myself in the background of Hugh’s pic!

So now that I’ve made People magazine, I won’t be needing to attend any more movie premiers… just kidding! They’re one of the great things about living in London! It’s a fun night out and one day, we will actually get tickets to see a film with the stars. I’ve already asked David for Breaking Dawn Part II tickets as next year’s birthday and Christmas present!

Kid Commuters

2011-09-15T08:47:00.000-05:00

Last week, kids across the UK went back to school. And that meant more traffic on the roads and on the tube.

Every morning on our way into our offices, David and I can’t help noticing the kid commuters. Compared to most kids growing up in America like we did, the commute to school is a totally different experience for the Brits. Most American kids are lucky enough to grow up down the street from their schools, close enough to walk or just a short car ride away. And David and I were both spoiled with stay-at-home moms that drove us to school and picked us up, especially in bad weather when we didn’t want to walk. In the states, where you go to school mostly depends on where you live, based on your district. But the school system is totally different in the UK. Most of the schools specialize in different studies and even for state-run schools, children have to apply to get in. So where they go to school doesn’t really depend on where they live… hence the commuting.

Kids in England start commuting from the time they’re in grade school. And most of them commute by themselves, or with friends and siblings. They’ve grown up with this schedule and know no different, so it’s no big deal when they become adults and have to commute hours and hours and hours each week to work. But for a spoiled American like me, used to an 11-minute comfortable car ride to the office, saying I’ve had a difficult time adjusting is an understatement. And to my defence, 4 hours a day is excessive, even for Londoners. But at least I’m working from home almost full-time now, which means I only get to marvel at the kid commuters two days a week, three max.

I’ve been fascinated by the whole thing since we moved here and first noticed these kids last Fall. Not only because they’re pretty tough to wake up so early, commute for who knows how long each morning, go to school all day, and then commute home at night (often in the rain or snow), but also because most of the kids sit there quietly and read the newspaper on to the way into school. They’re like miniature adults. No wonder they all seem so smart!

Just another day into the office... no wait, seventh grade!

And the uniforms definitely reinforce the idea that they’re all a bunch of smarty-pants. Suits with ties and jackets for the boys and skirts with knee-highs for the girls. Some of the smaller boys even wear matching pageboy caps!

Yes, I realize it's totally creepy to be taking random pics of kids, especially little boys, but I wanted you all to see what I see!

And I was very sneaky about it... using my phone's camera

while pretending to be doing something else.

So it’s no wonder that when they all grow up, they dress up for work every day. David and I are also both lucky to work for American computer/software companies that definitely take the dotcom approach to casual work wear. I still wear jeans quite often to work, and since David runs his office, he wears jeans every day that he’s not meeting partners or customers. Dressing up is just so much work, and it hurts wearing heels around the city!

One last point to make – I don’t understand how the English are brave enough to send their children into the scary world all alone at such young ages. Some of the kids I see can’t be older than 9 or 10. When does a parent decide, ‘Okay, my child has taken this route long enough to:

1) Not get lost between all the different stops and lines

2) Not stand too close to the edge of the platform and get run over by a train and

3) Not get kidnapped in the throng of millions of other commuters each morning?’

I watch way too many shows like Law & Order: SVU and Criminal Minds to imagine sending my precious child out into the world all alone every morning.

If I had to go to school here, I would've travelled in a pack too, and

caught up on my latest gossip like these girls,

instead of reading the paper!

Overall, though, I think it’s a good routine for kids to have that really instils independence and a great work ethic... Plus they entertain foreigners, like me, on our commutes!

Let's Get Madored!

2011-09-02T15:39:00.001-05:00

In July, David and I flew to Portland, Maine for Amy’s wedding to Ross.

Continental really disappointed us during this trip. We usually love flying Continental, especially since that’s our frequent flyer program. When we got to Newark, though, our flight to Portland was delayed for almost three hours because of storms up in Canada, which was delaying our plane getting into New Jersey. Since this was a tiny puddle-jumper, it couldn’t fly up into the clouds and bypass the storms like larger planes. On the way home, the same thing happened with our flight back to Newark because of storms in New Jersey. So we left Portland two hours later than scheduled, landed at exactly 10 PM and sprinted across 50 gates to get to our 10:10 flight to London. Thankfully, they were holding the flight for us and we didn’t have heart attacks after that mad dash across the airport. But even though we made it on the flight, our bags did not. And for some reason, they didn’t get on the next flight out. So I had to leave for Bratislava the next day missing half my toiletries, my nice suitcase, and some much-needed clothes. I did receive an apology email from Continental so we’ll see if there are any vouchers coming our way…

The theme of the weekend (besides a beautiful wedding of course!) was the high temperature in New England. A record-setting heat wave swept through the Northeast the weekend we were there. Most buildings in Maine don’t have A/C (much like London) because it just doesn’t get that hot. In fact, this was my third trip to Maine and all the other times I’ve visited, the temperature has never gotten above 70 degrees. That was NOT the case the wedding weekend. When we got to Newark, the airport did have central A/C but it was not working well enough to offset the heat coming from all of the open causeway doors. And the fans just blew around hot air instead of cooling down the terminal. It was a miserable delay, to say the least.

But we eventually got there! After we landed, David headed straight to the bachelor party. Amy drove me back to the house Karen had rented for the family for the long weekend. She warned me in the car that the house didn’t have A/C either. I toughed it out on Thursday night by sleeping spread-eagle in shorts and a T-shirt on top of the bed with the window and door both open and a fan blowing right on me. Karen ended up curling up on the living room floor and Jeff slept in the creepy basement to escape the heat!

The next morning it was nearly impossible to put on makeup and blow dry our hair because of the humidity level. That was not going to do, since all of the bridesmaids were scheduled to get ready at the house the next day before the wedding. So the landlord stopped by on Friday afternoon and installed a window A/C unit in the master bedroom. That made all the difference in the world! The rest of the weekend, the entire family had slumber parties in this one bedroom to get a good night’s sleep. Amy came in late after the rehearsal dinner on Friday night to find David and me on a double mattress on the floor with Jeff on a single mattress (all of them moved in from the other bedrooms in the house), Laura in the bed, and Karen in a cot next to the bed. We did the same thing after the wedding on Saturday night.

Slumber Party!

On Friday, Karen hosted a bridesmaid brunch at a delicious diner in downtown Portland. I had some real American bacon (not English back-bacon, yuck) with country potatoes and dark chocolate strawberry waffles.

We also walked to Willard Beach just down the street from the house. It was way too cold for me to get in. It had to be about 60 degrees. My feet actually ached after being dipped in. I’m a baby, I know! Karen and Laura did go swimming though. Then we took a trip to the local grocery store and stocked up on American food. David and I had brought a completely empty suitcase just for food. :) The woman at the checkout looked at us like we were nuts as she scanned 20 boxes of Kraft mac and cheese, about 10 packets of taco seasoning, 5 Pop-Tart boxes, and 3 different Betty Crocker cake mixes.

Then we stopped by Wendy’s for lunch where I had my favorite – a junior bacon cheeseburger. David got the #1 and Jeff had the BLT Cobb salad. Karen and Laura also ordered some Frostys. I LOVE Wendy’s. In high school, we had off-campus lunch and I was given an allowance of $15/week for food. So Wendy’s was perfect because it’s delicious and I could get two Jr. bacon cheeseburgers and a small fry for only $3. As we were pulling through the drive-thru, the guy at the window told Karen the total was $16. Karen couldn’t believe the value and asked to be read back our order. When she still didn’t believe how cheap all that food was, another person came around to read back the order. Finally she exclaimed, “Wow! What a deal!” I guess us Londoners are just used to really, really expensive burgers back in Europe. We tease her about it all the time now…

That evening we had the rehearsal for the wedding, which took place at a gazebo in a beautiful park overlooking the Portland harbor. There are so many islands off the coast of Maine, a couple of Civil War forts, and a ton of sailboats. And obviously it was sunny, so the location was stunning.

Ross’s parents hosted the rehearsal dinner, a lobster bake, at their home. I love lobster… I just don’t like actually preparing it. Laura and David were so sweet and offered to take care of me, so they did all the dirty work while I just got to eat! The Madores also cooked up some seafood chowder, clams, barbequed chicken, and baked potatoes.

Then before we knew it – the big day had arrived!!

All of the ladies were able to get ready at Karen’s house because the landlord came back and installed a second A/C unit downstairs in the living room. We did our makeup ourselves, but I cannot be trusted to style my own hair for anything important, so Amy gifted us all with hair stylists.

Huge rollers that my hair had to set in for hours!

Then the wedding party met up at the park, where I got to walk down the “aisle” with my hubby. Right before the march started, we all put our hands together and shouted, “Let’s get Madored!” This lightened up the moment and made Amy much less nervous. Actually, once she got her gown on, she turned calm and collected and ready to go!

Waiting for Amy to arrive

The wedding was beautiful and the reception was awesome.

Post-wedding pics in the park

Brothers and Sisters

The reception was held down the street (literally, we all walked from the park) at this spot called the Portland Company, an old warehouse in the shipyard. Ross and Amy visited Paris when they were in London a couple of months ago for Jeff’s graduation and absolutely loved it. So they converted the warehouse space to look like a Paris metro station. There were lights strung from the poles and the tables were named after different metro stops. Ross and his Dad even whittled a Metropolitain sign that displayed the seating chart. In lieu of traditional flower arrangements, the bride and groom opted for herbed potted plants, which doubled as favors for the guests so the room was really fragrant. And on top of all that, they brewed their own beer and then made up names like "Wedding Saison" for each of the different types. The entire event was really unique. They did a great job in a short amount of time - from their engagement in December to their July wedding, it came together perfectly!

We danced the night away to a great band, tried lots of different cake (the bride and groom chose six smaller cakes in lieu of one big one) and drank a lot… of water! There were fans all over, but even when the sun went down, it was still really hot inside the Portland Company. But that didn’t stop everyone from dancing and having a great time!

The bride and groom making their grand entrance

After the reception, David went out with some of his old TASIS friends that he hadn’t seen in a long time, but I was exhausted so I headed home with the rest of the House clan.

The next morning, we were woken up by Mrs. Robinson, Eric’s mom. Eric is one of David’s best friends from high school and was a groomsman in our wedding. His family lives in Maine and we were lucky enough to visit a couple of years ago during Memorial Day weekend. Well after the wedding, Eric started feeling a lot of pain, so he was rushed to the hospital. Turns out he had somehow bruised his spleen – probably performing all those crazy dance moves! ;)

Mrs. Robinson promised to keep us updated, but in the meantime we had to get to the post-wedding brunch back at the Madore house. We ate some yummy Quizno’s subs (sometimes I just miss the simplicity of a turkey sandwich). Then we hung out with the Bales cousins, watching funny YouTube videos and reminiscing about old times (which I have now convinced myself I was a part of, after hearing these hilarious stories so many times)!

The weekend went by way too fast and before we knew it, we had to pack up our bags and head to the airport. We couldn’t fly out without checking on Eric though! The poor guy was sound asleep in his room after spending all night in the ER, waiting to get his test results back and for the doctors to figure out what was wrong with him. But David was told to wake him up, so we did! Eric is the funniest guy, so if this had to happen to anyone, at least it’s someone who stays in such good spirits. We cracked a lot of jokes and wished him well before heading to the airport.

Oh boy...

We waited out our flight delay at a restaurant in the airport, where I had a traditional lobster roll and David ordered hot wings… which he deeply, deeply regretted after racing through Newark airport a couple of hours later!

Maine is such a beautiful place and we’re really lucky to have been able to visit so many times. One day, I hope our kids can join the thousands of other youngsters at Maine’s famous summer camps. I’m sure Amy and Ross are sad to have left New England, but I know Texas has welcomed them with open arms as they start their new life together in Austin! Congratulations – we love you both and are so happy for you!

Road Trip

2011-08-30T18:21:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was another Bank Holiday, so David and I decided to rent a car and take our first road trip in the UK.

David has been driving a little bit using the local Streetcar (a short-term car rental service for people that live in the city without vehicles). Mostly, we’ve used the service to drive to and from baseball games outside the city and to B&Q (also known as Home Depot in the states) for gardening/lawn supplies. But we’ve never driven through the city or as far as we did this weekend… and it was TERRIFYING!

David is very focused driving on the opposite side of the road.

We decided to drive to England’s Southeast coast for our mini-vacation. Only problem is, we live in West London. So to avoid driving through the city to get East, David printed MapQuest directions that took us around the outskirts of the city, instead of the “faster” route straight through. Well… after about 10 minutes of driving, we realized we took a wrong turn and were headed straight into the city!

Crap!

I quickly pulled out my handy dandy iPhone GPS and rerouted us. And then before we knew it, we were driving past Hyde Park and Harrod’s and the Wellington Arch! Once we got to Victoria, the traffic and rain and darkness finally got to us and we took another wrong turn. David maneuvered us into a double-decker bus only lane (luckily there were no buses around) to get us back on track. Finally we crossed the Thames into East London and things slowed down a bit. Traffic was terrible in this part of the city, though, and it ended up taking us 45 minutes to drive 3 miles. Never again!

Our first stop was Canterbury. Canterbury is mostly known for its massive cathedral, a pilgrimage site since the late 1100s. David and I had booked a hotel room on the grounds of the cathedral, but since we arrived so late, all of the cathedral gates were closed. So our final hurdle on Leg 1 of our road trip was actually getting to the hotel once in the city. We drove around the block a couple of times before finally pulling over and asking someone. When we finally found the gate, we did feel a little stupid since it is obviously a huge, historic marker…

Cathedral Gate - It does look really obvious in the daylight!

On Saturday morning, we enjoyed the breakfast part of our bed and breakfast and then walked the few steps to the cathedral. We took a self-guided tour through the nave, the beautiful quire, and finally the crypt. The focal point was the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered by King Henry II’s knights. He became an instant martyr, inspiring pilgrims from all over the world to visit the cathedral. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer tells the stories of the pilgrims’ voyages.

The Quire

I asked David to take a picture of this plaque for me.

How sweet that they loved their auditor that much!

David loved this stained glass window...

It reminded him of our beloved Disney characters.

After the tour of the cathedral, we walked a couple of blocks to the main city center, where the Saturday markets were taking place. We couldn’t resist the kettle corn, so we grabbed a bag while we window-shopped. Then we went to the Roman museum.

Much like last year’s trip to Bath, we discovered that Canterbury was a Roman town about 2,000 years ago. No one knew this because the town was deserted and the Roman buildings were buried under new structures. It wasn’t until WWII when Canterbury was shelled by German bombers that some ruins were found in the craters. David and I paid for our museum tickets and then took the steps to get underground. We came out into a colorful room with mannequins of archaeologists and Romans. It turns out the Roman museum is a children’s museum! Haha! We made the best of it, though, and still learned a lot! David even got into the arts and crafts section, putting together a mosaic much like the mosaic floors of the Roman houses and baths discovered!

After the museum, we walked to the Norman Castle, which has been reduced to a four-walled open-air stone structure with a partially flooded staircase.

We had lunch at a gastro pub recommended to us by TripAdvisor called Deesons. The fresh-baked bread was so good and all the ciders and ales were local. David had the best steak sandwich ever. I don’t even like horseradish, but even I couldn’t get enough of this sandwich! For dessert we split the deconstructed strawberry shortcake.

Then we hopped back in the car and got ready to drive 30 minutes to Dover. We took a quick detour as we got outside the city center to Martyr’s Field, where Bloody Mary ordered 41 heretics to be burned at the stake. When we got to the address though, it was all houses! We were in the middle of suburbia and there was no field left!

A little disappointed, we got back on the road headed to the coast.

We stayed at another bed and breakfast on the beach in Dover. Once we checked in, we decided to head to Dover Castle. I whipped out my trusty GPS again and saw that it would take about 19 minutes to walk up the hill to the castle and the last admission was in 11 minutes. We didn’t want to rush the castle or wind ourselves running up the hill for no reason, so we decided to just hike up to the famous white chalk cliffs instead. We enjoyed some local blackberries and saw lots of horses grazing in the fields. Once the weather cleared up a bit, we could even see France across the channel. I couldn’t believe how close it was!

A ferry headed to France - they have white cliffs too!

We didn’t do the full four mile cliff hike to the lighthouse and back but we were still hungry and tired once we hiked back down after a couple of miles. We walked to The Allotment, supposedly the best bistro in Dover. The reviews were right – it was really, really good. For starters we had the prawns with garlic chili sauce and goat cheese crostini. David had fish with buerre blanc as his main and I had the beef tips with potatoes dauphinoise. For dessert, we split the blueberry cheesecake. Everyone at the restaurant was so nice, and even though we didn’t have a reservation, they seated us anyway. It was an open layout, so we could watch our food being made in the kitchen across from us.

The cutest little church we found on our way to the restaurant.

Saturday morning we woke up early to take the ferry to Calais. Dover is the world’s busiest ferry port. Both ships we took (there and back) were packed full of tour buses and motorists. And the ferries were like mini-cruise ships! There was a duty free shop, restaurant and cafeteria, a bar, a coffee shop, outdoor decks, and a casino. All of that for an hour and a half journey across the channel!

The view of the Dover Cliffs from the ferry to France

Being an important strategic location along the French coast with such close proximity to England, Calais is no stranger to conflict. Hundreds of years ago the English and French battled it out to gain possession of the tiny port town. At first, the English won, but eventually the French took it back! During WWII, the Germans occupied the city and over 70% of it was destroyed. Eventually, it had to be evacuated, until it was finally liberated by the Canadians.

Because so much of the historic city was destroyed in the war, there is not that much to do in Calais. So we had a long, leisurely, French lunch that ended up lasting almost 3 hours. Thanks again to TripAdvisor, we discovered Aux Moulettes, a seafood restaurant near the beach. We both got a little fish amuse bouche to begin and David was so proud of me when I actually ate it (I don’t like regular fish, only shellfish).

For my main, I had the prawn beignets with some crusty French bread and David had garlic scallops and fried steak. The dessert was the best part! David got a sampler with his meal that included chocolate mousse cake, profiteroles, and a strawberry custard tart.

To work off our delectable yet heavy French lunch, next we climbed almost 300 stairs to the top of the Calais lighthouse. Then we walked down the street to Notre Dame church where Charles de Gaulle, WWI and II veteran and French president, was married. On our way to the Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, we passed a 13th century watch tower and lighthouse (or what was left of it). Unfortunately, City Hall was under construction, but it was still a really pretty area.

Calais Lighthouse

Notre Dame Church

Hotel de Ville

In front of the Hotel de Ville is the famous ‘Six Burghers of Calais’ statue by Rodin, honoring six brave men who were willing to give up their lives for their fellow citizens. In the 1340s, the town was under siege by Edward III of England. The locals held up within the city walls but after about 10 months, they were running out of food and water. The story goes that 500 children and elderly were finally let out of the citadel, but the English wouldn’t aid them and they ended up starving to death. Finally, everyone was ready to surrender. But when a town has held out for that long, the king usually kills everyone anyway. So six brave men came forward and offered their lives in exchange for the remaining citizens. Edward’s wife was so moved by the sacrifice, that she convinced Edward to spare everyone. Nice, but where was she when the 500 children and elderly were dying in front of her??

Across from City Hall is the St. Pierre Park. Inside this beautiful park is a hideous concrete bunker that houses the WWII museum. We had some time to kill before our ferry, so we decided to go inside. It was a great museum and we learned a ton! There were old plane parts and guns and other things found in the channel from the Battle of Britain. Nazi flags and old war posters were hung on the walls behind glass cases, and there were recreations of war control rooms. One of the best parts of the museum is all of the old newspapers along the walls. One front-page story from a British paper had a picture of the King and Queen after the famous ‘King’s Speech.’ The entire speech was re-printed on the front page… just like in the movie. It really put you in the mindset of someone living during that time, from both the French point of view (defeated but still holding out hope) and English (doing whatever it took to keep the Germans out).

We had also heard about La Coupole and Blockhaus at Eperlecques, massive underground bunkers built by the Nazis to launch the V2 rockets (first missiles to reach the stratosphere). The rockets would have destroyed London but thankfully the bunkers were bombed by the Allies before they could ever be launched. We really wanted to visit La Coupole because it is supposed to be a really moving, educational site but it was also about 30 minutes outside the city and we hadn’t driven our rental car onto the ferry.

So after the park, we headed to a café for David to watch his Man U football match. Then it was time to head back to England.

On Sunday morning, we enjoyed another full English breakfast on the terrace of our hotel overlooking the sailboats and crazy-ass swimmers in the channel. That water must be so cold and they weren’t even in wetsuits! I was too much of a baby even to stick my toes in! The swimming clubs in the area are hugely popular though and every morning we noticed groups of swimmers and divers.

The Start/Finish line for Channel swimmers

After checking out of the hotel and loading up the car, we drove to Dover Castle.

The castle is enormous! It not only has a medieval history, but the castle was also used as recently as the 1960s when the UK government planned to have their headquarters there in case of a nuclear attack. We went from exploring the medieval tunnel system around the moat to taking a tour of the tunnel system used during WWII. Operation Dynamo, code name of the evacuation of 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk, was planned within the tunnels of Dover Castle. The line to see these war rooms was an hour long, so David and I opted for the much shorter tour of the underground hospital instead.

The tour was fascinating. Visitors follow the story of a pilot shot down over the channel, arriving with shrapnel wounds to his leg. You follow the team through reception to the operating room, with lights flickering in and out and air raid sirens going off. After the operation, you tour the rest of the facilities – from the bathroom to the kitchen to the tiny living quarters. During raids, over 600 people camped out in the tunnels. Winston Churchill visited on many occasions to meet with the soldiers and watch air battles over the channel.

Because it was a holiday, the castle also put on a lot of shows for the local kids. They had pirate reenactments and at one point, King Henry II even held court!

King Henry II's Court

We also saw one of the only remaining Roman structures, a pharos, or lighthouse, outside the castle walls, and a Saxon church. The church was used by servicemen stationed at Dover and King Richard the Lionhearted even stayed there before he and his knights sailed off for the Crusades. Graffiti from the knights can still be seen carved into the wall next to the pulpit.

The Saxon church and Roman lighthouse

After about four hours at the castle, we decided to head back to London. This time, the drive only took a couple of hours and we went Southwest instead of driving directly through the city! Much better!

This holiday weekend was the last now until Christmas. It’s going to be a LONG Fall….

The Kurzweg's European Adventure - Part IV

2011-08-22T06:21:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday morning, we said goodbye to David at the Rome airport. He had to get back to the office, while the rest of us had to get to the Amalfi Coast!

Ten years ago during our big Europe trip, my family was planning on staying in Naples until our travel agent horrified us with one too many mafia stories. So we changed our itinerary and decided to stay in Sorrento, a beautiful coastal town in Naples Bay, instead. This was the best decision of the trip! We loved it there and we were all looking forward to heading back!

Elizabeth and Carrie were sleepy from the early morning flight to Naples, but we made them stay awake for the coastal drive.

And once we arrived in Sorrento, we immediately changed into our uniforms for the rest of the week – swimsuits and flip flops!

After we got into the water, Elizabeth exclaimed that this was her favorite part of the trip so far! After all that history, all those amazing sites, all the food – swimming in the Mediterranean was her favorite thing!

Elizabeth does look pretty happy in this picture!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out on the beach, which in Sorrento is more like a private deck. There aren’t very many sandy beaches around, so we paid a few Euros for access to the water from the deck and some chairs. Umbrellas were extra!

The towns along the Amalfi Coast are built on top of sheer cliffs that overlook the Mediterranean. So the city centers are always at the top of the cliffs and the beaches are below. They’ve built these really cool pathways through the cliff rock for people to walk down to the beaches and ferries. They’re like mini-caves. Last time we were in Sorrento, we stayed in the city center. This time around we wanted to be on the water, so we stayed in the fishing-village area of town. This felt like a different town altogether, away from all of the other tourists. Every night, a group of older men would get together to watch the sunset on a bench next to the fishing boats and kids would play in the street while their moms and grandmothers watched them from their apartment balconies.

The little restaurants in this area were all family-owned, with the owners greeting and serving you. And all of the seafood was obviously very fresh, coming straight off the boats docked next door to the restaurants. One night Dad ordered the fried seafood platter, not realizing the seafood was literally fished out of the ocean, dropped in a deep fryer, and then put on his plate. He had to pick it apart, bones, eyeballs, everything before eating it.

After a long day of flying and driving and swimming, we hiked up the many, many steps to the city center and grabbed dinner and gelato. The gelato was well worth the hike!

On Wednesday morning, we took the ferry across the bay to the Island of Capri. You can see the island from Sorrento and we had wanted to visit last time but never got around to it, so this time we made a point to just get on the ferry and go! There was no pre-planning done on anyone’s part, so once we were on the ferry, we signed up for a tour of the island with 15 other tourists.

Once we docked, our tour guide led everyone to a teeny-tiny bus and crammed us all inside. It was one of the scariest bus rides of my life. With all the stairs and now the terrifying bus ride, this area of Italy was reminding me more and more of Greece. Carrie, who’s afraid of heights, kept it together really well as we rode along. The woman across from her was not as brave and could barely hold back her tears.

We drove around the island from the Marina Grande to the Blue Grotto, a cave bathed in iridescent blue light. We walked down steps along the water to a little landing, where boats would pull up and pick us up to row us into the cave. At the height of tourist season, it was madness trying to vie for a spot inside the cave.

At one point, another boat cut us off and we were rocked dangerously close to the rocks. But we trusted our rower and he got us in and out safely. All 5 of us did have to fit into one itty-bitty rowboat, though. It was Dad and the girls in the back, all kind of piled on top of each other with Mom lying on top of me in the front. I managed to take a video, but the entire time Mom was yelling at me to lie down so I wouldn’t get decapitated going into the cave. No worries – I made it!

After our cave adventure, we drove to Anacapri, the second town on the island (yes – there are only two), for lunch. We ended the day in Capri, the main (or first) town. We walked through the town and tried the local lemonade made from the biggest lemons I’ve ever seen in my life! They were about as big as our heads – no joke!

We then walked through Augustus’s Garden. Emperor Augustus had his summer home on the island, and his heir, Tiberius, also built a palace there where he ruled in his later years. From the garden, there was a great view of the sea and the rock formation I Faraglioni.

After taking the funicular back down to the beach, we swam around for a couple of hours and then took the ferry back to Sorrento. It was my parent’s wedding anniversary, so that night they had a private dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant and I was in charge of the girls.

I took them to another family-owned restaurant in the fishing village. The waiter must have liked us, because he brought us free bruschetta to start, and then free Limoncello for our after-dinner drinks. All week, the girls had been trying different red and white wines in France and Italy. They hated all of them. So this was their chance to try the local lemon drink. First, they said it smelled like Carrie’s lemon-scented nail polish remover and refused to drink it. When I insisted that I couldn’t finish all three drinks, Carrie tried it and Elizabeth followed. I have no worries that Elizabeth will be peer-pressured into drinking after that experience. She could barely swallow the small sip she took and afterwards said it tasted even worse than the wine, which was also disgusting. So I did end up drinking all three glasses... I didn’t want to offend the waiter!

On Thursday morning we hiked up the steps to the train station to get to Pompeii. Mom, Dad, and I showed Elizabeth and Carrie all the places we’d seen a decade ago (I feel really old when I say a decade ago). And it was just as hot as we remembered ten years ago too! That place just bakes in the heat. There are no trees or shelter anywhere… just an exposed archaeological site. The site is so well preserved because of all the ash that fell on it after Mt. Vesuvius erupted. In the House of Mysteries, a huge farmhouse outside the main city, most of the paintings are still visible on the bedroom walls. When the city was excavated a little over 250 years ago, even the bodies of the victims were found preserved. Casts were made and are randomly found in parts of the city today.

The Temple of Isis

Interior of the House of Mysteries

Forum with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

After spending hours walking around in the heat, it was time to get back to the beach! Dad and Mom had had enough of walking up and down the cliff stairs, so once we walked down from the train station, Dad declared that he would be enjoying the beach next to the hotel and eating at a local restaurant famous for once hosting Sophia Loren. At which point, Elizabeth asked, “Who’s Sophia Loren??”

Elizabeth, Carrie, and I didn’t mind the stairs, though, and we had wanted to try out a different beach with blue floats tied to the deck. We thought we could by-pass walking UP to get back DOWN by either swimming to the other beach (which we soon realized was way too far away) or using a paddle-boat. Earlier in the week we had seen a bunch of kids renting a paddleboat with a waterslide. But when we went to the beach to rent the boat, we were told it had been broken earlier in the day. Stupid kids!

So we walked up to the city, and then back down to the other beach. While we were tanning on the floats, Elizabeth and Carrie noticed another paddle-boat with a slide. But it was already being used, so I went back up to read on the deck and about fifteen minutes later, the girls came running up to me laughing hysterically.

They had swum around the paddleboat for a while waiting for the kids using it to get bored, or trying to work up the courage to ask them if they could try out the slide. The girls never got the courage to ask, but finally the kids did get bored and tied up the boat to a buoy before swimming back to shore. Elizabeth and Carrie decided this was their chance to “borrow” the boat! So they untied it and hopped on, ready to paddle away when a little Italian boy saw them and started yelling. All they could make out was “No! No!” Then the whole gang of kids jumped back into the water and started swimming toward them! Elizabeth and Carrie panicked, jumped off the boat, and swam back to the deck. It’s a good thing the deck was one of those “private beaches” so those little Italian kids couldn’t follow them!

After their botched boat-jacking, Elizabeth and Carrie got bored and hungry and headed back to the hotel. I closed down the beach, staying until dusk when they literally had to kick me out. I met the family for dinner at the Sophia Loren place, where Dad had his really, really fresh seafood meal.

The next morning we caught our flight back to London. The flight home included an 8-hour layover in Milan, so once we got off the flight from Naples, we bought train tickets into the city center. First stop was lunch! We had heard the focaccia in Milan is the best, so Mom and I both ordered a plate. It was ENORMOUS! The plates were the size of large pizza plates and the focaccia still spilled over the side of them! There were a couple of Americans sitting at the table next to us about to order the same thing and when they saw how huge our meals were, they decided to split! Mom was nice enough not to say, “I told you so!”

After lunch, we walked to the Duomo, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world. Everyone except Mom and Dad was dressed in inappropriate summer clothes, so they took a tour inside while we were banished to the square outside.

After they came out, we walked through the Galleria, a beautiful shopping center designed with mosaic floors and a huge metal and glass dome.

We then walked back towards the train station to the Castello Sforzesco, a Renaissance palace that now contains multiple museums. We walked through the courtyards to the Sempione Park. Here we took a break and hung out in the park eating ice cream and playing Phase 10, a great card game introduced to us by Grandma Cocchiarella.

Before we knew it, it was time to get back to the airport to catch our flight home. We loved Italy, and like I said before, especially spending the time together and seeing the sites through the girl’s eyes for the first time.

After a relaxing weekend back in London, it was time for the family vacation to come to an end. On Monday morning, the Texans packed up and headed back to the heat. We were sad to see them go, but this adventure was amazing and something that we will remember and cherish forever!

The Kurzweg's European Adventure - Part III

2011-08-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

After a great weekend in Paris, we flew out to Rome. Our first stop, after checking into our hotel, was the nearby Spanish Steps.

Mom and Dad at the bottom of the Spanish Steps

We snapped some photos in the plaza and then walked through the fashion district to find a restaurant for lunch. We discovered a great Italian bistro where David and I split the melon with prosciutto and pepper/pecorino pasta. Mom and Dad split the cannelloni and Elizabeth and Carrie split the spaghetti bolognese.

Our first meal in Italy

My mom has this thing with splitting food. She works out every day and is in great shape, but she doesn’t eat that much. So every meal she would try to get someone to split something with her. For instance, at our last dinner in Paris, she decided she would just have half of Elizabeth’s roasted chicken… without telling Elizabeth. So when the plates arrived and my mom didn’t have anything, Elizabeth was guilted into giving up half her chicken. Most of the time it worked out, but once we hit Italy and all of that delicious Italian food, we said enough is enough! And after that first lunch, there were no more halfsies. (In retrospect, Italy is probably the worst place to order full meals for yourself, though, because the pasta and pizza dishes are HUGE.)

After lunch we walked to the Trevi Fountain (after a slight detour to Bernini’s Triton Fountain – my mistake). At the Trevi Fountain, we had gelato and tossed in some coins wishing to be back one day. Last time we went to Rome, it was the last leg of our long, tiring trip and Mama had decided she did not like Rome. Maybe it was the heat, maybe the crowds and walking and touring had finally gotten to her. She also thought the fountain was dirty… so she didn’t throw in a coin. And she was back anyway – muahaha! This time she was really enjoying the trip, though, so she even tossed in a coin! :)

Then we walked to the Coliseum and took the audio guide tour. Unfortunately we didn’t realize that to get to the top level of the Coliseum and underneath the stage to the animal’s and slave’s quarters, you have to do a private guided tour (which is actually a little cheaper than the audio guide). So keep that in mind, anyone reading this blog and thinking about going to the Coliseum.

Another great shot courtesy of David House

I read in my guidebook that the Forum closes an hour before sunset (which again, is much later in Europe). So we headed across the street only to find out the Forum closed at 6, which is well over an hour before sunset. Our Vatican tour the next day was scheduled from 1-4 so Dad suggested we just come back after that. But I was a bit nervous about cutting it too close again and I still wanted to do the Pantheon the next day. Good thing I listened to my instinct because our Vatican tour ended up being a 5 hour tour instead of 3 (more to come on that). So David and I convinced Dad and Elizabeth to wake up bright and early on Monday to see the Forum right when it opened at 8:30.

On the way to the Forum the next morning, we also saw Constantine’s Forum and Column and the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of unified Italy.

Constantine's Forum and Column

Victor Emmanuel II Monument

Because we were there early, the Forum was almost completely empty.

We found a great photo op in front of the Coliseum

And of course the guys wanted in on the fun too!

The other great thing about getting up early is the cooler temperature. We were able to enjoy our walk through the archaeological site without pushing through all of the other tourists or constantly stopping for water breaks.

We did stop for one water break, though.

Our water bottles were getting empty and Rome has great public water fountains available all over the city. These are even marked on maps. When we were in the Palatine section of the city, above the Forum, we saw a water feature and decided to refill our bottles. I looked for the marking on the map telling me this was a designated fountain, but I couldn’t find it. As David and Elizabeth started drinking the cold water, Dad walked a bit further up the path and noticed a disgusting, scum-filled pond draining down into the water feature we had just filled our water bottles up in!

Oops!

David and Elizabeth immediately spit out the water and dumped out their bottles. Then we had a quick prayer session begging God not to give anyone dysentery on our vacation. He must’ve been listening because David and Elizabeth stayed healthy as horses!

Back to the Forum – to Dad’s great disappointment, the Circus Maximus was closed. When we also saw that the entrances to the emperor’s residences in the Palatine were also closed, we decided to be rule-breakers and just jump the fence. Dad hesitated but when David chided, “Come on Dave! Don’t be afraid of history!” he hopped those fences faster and better than any of us!

Some of the exhibits that weren’t closed were the old temples, the Senate building (which was not as big or cool as we all thought it would be), and the tunnels beneath the Palatine for servants/slaves.

House of the Vestal Virgins. If those girls broke their

vows of chastity, they were buried alive!

On our way back to the hotel to pick up Mom and Carrie, we grabbed some pizzas. Then we met up with the rest of the group, got changed into some Vatican-appropriate attire, and took a taxi to Vatican City.

I was not prepared for the madness of the Vatican that day.

You see, David and I have gotten used to vacationing during the off-season. We don’t have kids and we’re not teachers, which means our travel schedule is not dictated to Spring Break, Summer, or Winter Break. We’ve usually avoided crowds and lines. But Rome in the middle of the summer is a different story. Let’s just say we were very thankful that we paid a few extra Euros for an official tour of the Vatican, which allowed us to skip the line.

After getting some gelato to hold us over for the tour, we began.

Prepping for our tour

The reason the tour took two hours longer than originally scheduled was due to the congestion of foot traffic inside the museum. You literally could not walk anywhere… it was more of a shuffle. It’s a good thing none of us are claustrophobic.

We tried not to focus on the crowd, though, and our tour guide was so good, we didn’t even realize it was 5:30 when we exited the Sistine Chapel!

The dome of St. Peter's Basilica from inside the Vatican gardens

A crazy twisty statue - our guide's favorite

Emperor Nero's bird bath... No wonder everyone hated that guy!

There are really no words to describe the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, or St. Peter’s Basilica. There is so much history inside there and the works of art are so amazing, we felt very blessed to be able to see these things in-person. A couple of remarkable things we saw were the original maps of Italy, which you can still use today. Most of the “paintings” you think you’re seeing inside the museums and basilica are actually mosaics, teeny-tiny mosaics that seen as a whole, look like paintings. The basilica has the largest interior of any other Christian church in the world. It is so huge that as you walk up the center aisle, there are markings of other famous churches around the world that fit inside. To give you an idea of how huge St. Peter’s is, Westminster Abbey’s marking doesn’t even reach the main alter of St. Peter’s.

“God rays” coming through the dome of St. Peter’s

Michelangelo's La Pieta

We took in the awesomeness of the basilica and Michelangelo’s La Pieta before walking down the street to the Castel Sant’Angelo, where we took some pictures on Bernini’s famous bridge before hopping in a cab to the Pantheon.

After a quick stop inside the Pantheon, we went to a local pizzeria for dinner (where we should’ve split those giant pizzas). We had a lot of fun at our last meal in Rome, singing with the maître d’ to get our picture taken and going around the table with our favorite stories from the trip so far.

The fourth and final blog coming up next...

The Kurzweg’s European Adventure – Part II

2011-07-31T07:40:00.000-05:00

My family returned from Amsterdam on Tuesday. I was still in Ireland, so David entertained everyone without me (again). Grandma and Papa had done France and Italy with us ten years ago during our first big family trip, so on Wednesday they left to get back to Minnesota. I was so glad they were able to come all the way here to visit us and see England and the Netherlands. We’ll see you again at Christmas!

On Wednesday afternoon my parents and Carrie and Elizabeth went to Abbey Road to try to recreate the famous Beatles zebra-crossing pic. The picture didn’t turn out so great (probably because there were no Asians around to take it) but they had fun trying! Then they headed to Trafalgar Sq. and the National Gallery and made their final stop at the British Museum.

A quick side note about this trip for the girls – this was a marathon for them! They had to learn how to function and physically walk miles and miles a day on less than ten hours of sleep. See, during the summers they’re used to sleeping in until noon and hanging out in the pool all afternoon. So waking up around 10AM was considered early for them. Oh, to be young again!

So on Thursday, my dad decided to let all the ladies sleep in while he ventured to Wimbledon. David and I have not been to Wimbledon (yet!) but we didn’t have high hopes for him getting tickets. And standing around in the rain for hours with thousands of other people didn’t sound like very much fun… which shows how little we know!

By some miracle it DID NOT rain on Thursday and it turns out the Wimbledon line itself is an experience. When Dad arrived they told him he was number 2,000-something in line. Yet people had brought champagne, picnic baskets, and of course the signature dish of Wimbledon – strawberries with cream. Everyone socializes and relaxes in the grass until the gates open at noon. So Dad bought a book on the event to keep himself occupied and even made some new friends!

A small section of the queue at Wimbledon

And at noon, even though there were over 2,000 people in line in front of him, Dad still managed to get in! So for a 20 pound ticket, he had access to the lower-level women’s matches and the grounds for the remainder of the day.

Watching a match - LIVE!

But the best part is that after the first match was over and he was heading out to meet back up with my mom and the girls, an official stopped him to ask if he was a single. He said yes, so the official let him know they had one seat available for the Venus Williams match in center court.

“That’s great, but I’ve got to take my wife and kids to the movies. Thanks anyway!”

I AM NOT KIDDING.

Dad GAVE UP a priceless Venus Williams center-court Wimbledon ticket to take his family to Pirates of the Caribbean. But at least now he can say he went to Wimbledon and watched a match…. I guess.

I got back from Ireland on Thursday night and much like a couple of weeks before, dumped out my suitcase full of work clothes and repacked with fun vacation clothes. And now you can better understand why I need to make packing lists!

We all rolled out of bed a few hours later at 3:30 in the morning for our early Eurostar train to Paris!

Even though David and I live in London and had to been to Paris just a few weeks before, we love seeing each of these places over and over again through our guest’s eyes, especially the ones that have never been to Europe before.

Elizabeth and Carrie were constantly cracking us up with their naivety. For example, the first time we got on the tube Elizabeth asked, “So is this the Eurostar?” Oh boy! But don’t worry, she was an expert by the time she left! Another evening, we had taco night. Part of the meal consisted of salsa, queso, and seasonings all brought back from the states. When the girls found out you can’t get these foods in Europe, or other staples like Kraft mac n cheese or PopTarts, they were so thankful to us for sharing our precious commodities… except the PopTarts.

Sarah doesn’t share PopTarts!

But anyway, back to Paris!

When we arrived, we waited in line FOREVER to get a cab to the hotels. Yes, plural. David and I were big procrastinators and waited to book our hotel until the last minute so we weren’t able to stay at the same place as the rest of the family. But it all worked out because our hotel was literally across the street from the Kurzweg’s.

Once we checked in, we walked to the Palais Garnier, or Paris opera house. This time, we all bought tickets to get inside. Last time I was inside was six years ago when I studied in Paris and they had the main auditorium closed off, but this time some of the box seats were open so we were able to sneak a peek inside. So I finally got to see the famous chandelier that inspired the opening drama of Phantom of the Opera.

After the opera house, we walked through the Place de Vendome, past the famous Ritz hotel to the Tuileries. We had lunch of baguettes and crepes at an outdoor café in the park, and then headed inside the Louvre. Again, Elizabeth made me laugh by asking as we walked through the park, “What’s everyone doing just sitting around?” I explained that in Europe, especially Paris, a favorite hobby is people-watching. Plus it’s nice to just sit outside sometimes and enjoy the warm weather, unlike in Texas where you might actually melt sitting outside for longer than fifteen minutes.

At the Louvre, we saw the ancient medieval foundations, the Egyptian collection, and of course the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Victory of Samothrace, The Wedding Feast at Cana, and Napoleon’s Coronation.

Winged Victory

How I managed to snap this photo without a

gazillion tourists in the background, I'll never know

We finished our tour on the top floor viewing the Dutch artists like Rembrandt. I had never been up to the second floor before, but it was really quiet and had great views of the park and Eiffel Tower.

View of the Tuileries Gardens and Eiffel Tower

from the top floor of the Louvre

Then we walked down the Rue Royal so I could introduce everyone to the gloriousness of French macaroons at Laduree. We enjoyed them on the steps of the Madeleine. We tried to go inside, but the church was closed for choir practice, which was unfortunate because it was also closed the last time my family was in Paris.

After quick naps back at the hotels, we met up and headed to the Eiffel Tower. The top of the Eiffel Tower was also closed last time my parents were in town. But we had really, really good luck this time because when we first arrived, the top was closed due to heavy congestion. But by the time we walked (yes, walked) to the middle section, the top was reopened!

Then Dad kept stalling so we could see the sunset, but what he didn’t realize was the sun sets at like 10 PM. So after a long day, we headed to dinner while it was still light outside. We ate at the same café behind La Madeleine that David and I had lunch at a couple of weeks before. David had stayed behind to finish the work week, so his train arrived around that time and he was able to meet us for dinner of croque monsieurs (my favorite)!

We started the next day at the Dome church and Hotel Invalides so Dad could see Napoleon’s tomb. I’d never been there before either. It was a beautiful church and the tombs were interesting to see.

David and me in the courtyard of the Hotel des Invalides

Napolean's enormous tomb - he really did have a complex!

We went to Notre Dame after that, but unfortunately it was closed due to some kind of festival.

We walked down Ile da la Cite towards my old stomping grounds, the Latin Quarter. When I was studying in Paris, we loved coming here for cheap drinks and food, like gyros! They have the best gyros outside of Greece at the stands in the Latin Quarter.

After grabbing our Greek lunch, we headed to Montmartre. First we stopped at the Moulin Rouge theatre and then walked through the narrow, art-filled streets of Montmartre to the funicular and stairs.

We opted to take the stairs to get up to Sacre Coeur. Since Notre Dame was closed, everyone and their mom had the same idea as us and headed to Sacre Coeur. It was really crowded, but still beautiful. To get away from the crowds and get a great view of the city, we climbed to the top. That was A LOT of stairs. Around 600… almost as much as the Eiffel Tower. But it was worth it.

The front facade

View from the tippy top

After walking through the empty (and boring) crypt, we walked back down to the Metro stop.

This is where I broke Rule #5.

First, I asked a young man to take our family’s photo. Before he or I could react, his older father snatched the camera out of my hand and offered to take the picture instead.

Noooooooo!!!

Poor old man… he kept “pressing the button” without actually ever pressing the button. Obviously my picture did not turn out, so instead, here’s a picture of the church that I took:

After Sacre Coeur, I told the group I’d show them where I used to go to school, which happened to be near Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Pere Lachaise is “home” to lots of famous people like Chopin, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. Dad really wanted to see Jim Morrison’s grave, so we headed there first.

He is still one popular guy

The cemetery is a really interesting place, but it’s also kind of sad to see a lot of the tombs in total ruin. Mom's theory is a lot of the graves are hundreds of years old and eventually families move away, or die off, so there’s no one left to take care of the maintenance. They should establish some kind of foundation that looks after that kind of stuff!

A row of some of the better-looking tombs

After walking around the cemetery and enjoying an impromptu concert by Will.i.am (Dad was convinced this crazy man rapping on the rooftop of his apartment was Will.i.am – trust me, it was NOT), we headed down the street towards my school. Problem was, I only went to school there four days a week for a couple of months over the summer six years ago. So… I had some trouble remembering which building was my actual school. Finally, I spotted it! The one with the big blue doors. Dad wanted to take a picture, so I looked as studious as possible and posed.

As we kept walking down the street, I noticed another building that looked strangely familiar. Oops! That would be my real school. The one with the big green doors, not blue! I was positive I had it right that time (mostly because the name of the school was written on a plaque next to the door), so I posed again.

Then Mom and I had to have a fruit tart snack break, so we grabbed some from the nearest patisserie and got on the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe. Again, we walked up the 300 steps there (what a bunch of troopers!) and rested at the top for… a long time. See, we lost Dad. We kept thinking he was taking his time snapping photos and enjoying the view but after about half an hour we realized he was no longer on the roof. And sure enough, we got back down the stairs and there he was, chilling on a bench waiting for us.

My feet were KILLING me after all those stairs. I hadn’t exactly worn the most comfortable shoes that day, but I thought my Dr. Scholl’s gel pads would protect me. Not so much. I could barely hobble back to the hotel.

Before we stopped at the hotel for the night, we ate dinner at a nearby café. I’ve never thought the French were snooty at all, but it is true that they appreciate you at least trying to speak the language. A case in point: All day, David had been working on Elizabeth’s French with her and she was getting more and more confident. So at dinner, it was Carrie’s turn! Carrie was having none of it though. So since she refused to speak French to the waiter, he refused to serve her. Really. At first we thought it was a mistake that he had forgotten her drink, but then her meal didn’t arrive. After she was finally served dinner, it was another struggle to get her dessert out to the table. But we made it!

As we left the café, Elizabeth stopped and gasped, “WAIT! We forgot that I need to see the Eiffel Tower at night!! I have to see it lit up! I have to!” David was nice enough to offer to take the girls, so they wouldn’t be Taken. But Dad said he’d do it instead. What a good dad, skipping out on Wimbledon matches and trudging through Paris in the middle of the night for his kids! The rest of us are not so good, and went back to the hotels to get some rest before we headed out to Rome the next morning.

Elizabeth is becoming quite the photographer!

The Kurzweg’s European Adventure – Part I

2011-07-30T05:45:00.000-05:00

The moment my family found out David and I were moving abroad, they started planning a trip to Europe… and then before we knew it, June 2011 had arrived! And so did our six guests – Dad, Mom, Elizabeth, Carrie (Elizabeth’s friend), Papa, and Grandma!

The weather in London has been pretty amazing (minus a small snowstorm in December that shut down the city for a week) since we moved here last July. I never knew why anyone complained about the rain… until June. When I left to Texas for my work symposium, it started to rain. And until about a week ago, it had not stopped! :(

So unfortunately, my family got to experience the infamous English weather. My sister actually loved it though, because growing up in El Paso, she never sees rain. She kept saying how cool it would be to have the sun out but be raining at the same time! Easy to please…

We knew we needed to make the most of our time in England, so we sucked it up and ventured out every day – come hell or high water.

I took off a couple of days of work to spend time with my family and show them the ropes in London. They had never been to London before, so after they arrived early Thursday morning, I gave them a quick tour of the house, and then we headed to Westminster Abbey. Everyone really enjoyed touring the church and seeing the site of the Royal Wedding in-person.

We had bought tickets to the London Eye weeks ahead of time to avoid the lines, which was very unnecessary on Thursday since it was raining and no one wanted to go on the Eye. But when we noticed it clearing up a bit, we quickly grabbed lunch of chicken and mushroom pasties, and then headed to the Eye. It was perfect timing!

Dad, Mom, me, and Elizabeth in front of the Eye

After the Eye, the family was pretty jetlagged so we returned home. We relaxed the rest of the evening and then headed out to the Tower of London on Friday morning.

Even though the Tower is my favorite thing to do in London, I hadn’t been since 2004. That is way too long! Surprisingly, it was really crowded on Friday, even with the terrible weather. First thing, we took a free Beefeater tour. This tour was shortened and took place inside the chapel because of the inclement weather, but it was still really interesting and I learned a lot! After the overview of the Tower, we were left to explore on our own.

The girls with a Beefeater

Some of the highlights of the Tower are the Crown Jewels, Armoury, and the Wall Walk.

Dad in front of Traitor's Gate, where prisoners were rowed into the Tower

This summer, there’s also a special exhibit on-site featuring the old menagerie. Since this is a new exhibit, I hadn’t learned about any of this before. I didn’t even know there was a zoo inside the Tower. There were so many strange stories from hundreds of years ago… For instance, one of the animals kept at the Tower was a polar bear. Every day the bear was tied up to a rope and allowed to swim and fish in the Thames. The Tower was also home to a family of monkeys that lived in their own apartment, like people!

Elizabeth and Carrie where they belong!

But back then people didn’t know anything about animal nutrition or healthcare so unfortunately a lot of the animals died in horrible ways. Like the ostrich that choked on a nail (because people believed they ate iron) or the bear that overdosed on honey. Let that be a lesson to you, Winnie the Pooh!

After the Tower we headed to Harrods. It was getting pretty late in the day and the group was still jet lagged, but a sale was starting Saturday so I knew we needed to get to Harrods before the weekend rush of shoppers. Even so, that place is always crowded!

We picked up a few goodies in the food hall, then explored the ridiculous animal kingdom, and made our last stop at the Princess Di memorial at the bottom of the Egyptian escalator.

For the past two days, Elizabeth and Carrie had become obsessed with trying to make the Queen’s guards crack a smile or laugh (impossible, by the way). We had seen a couple of guards at the Tower, but they were roped-off so the girls couldn’t get near them. Plus they wear those really big hats so I’m sure they can’t even see anyway! The girls thought they’d have more luck at Buckingham Palace, but unfortunately we slept in late on Saturday and missed the changing of the guard… which I’m sure didn’t take place anyway because of the rain.

One of the Tower ravens and a guard

But after we finally woke up and got out of the house, we still walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace and took some photos. Then we headed to the Apollo theatre to see Wicked. Out of all of the shows David and I have seen over the past year, Wicked is still our favorite. After hearing me rave about it, my family bought tickets.

After we took some photos of the gang inside a red telephone booth, the clouds let loose! It poured like crazy! I hadn’t experienced anything like that since Texas! We were drenched. Dad even broke his umbrella in the lashing wind and rain. We managed to find an office building with an overhang that we huddled under with some other Londoners for about 10 minutes during the downpour. When it started to let up, we made a dash for it, forgot all about the pub lunch I had scheduled, and ducked inside the nearest coffee shop to dry off and grab some sandwiches.

Papa and Grandma moments before the storm...

Then my poor family had to then sit through three hours of Wicked in soaking wet clothes. The musical was good enough to make them forget all about it, though. And no one caught pneumonia, so that’s good.

The Wicked stage - waiting for the show to start

After the show, Grandma and Papa wanted to go souvenir shopping so we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and went to the giant souvenir store down the street.

Where's Waldo in Piccadilly Circus - Where are Elizabeth and Carrie??

Everyone bought some goodies and then we tried to get back on the tube to head home. This is where the fam got to experience how crowded London can be. We didn’t make the first train that appeared because people’s limbs were literally hanging out the windows it was so crowded. When the second train stopped, only half of us managed to squeeze into it. Luckily David was in the back of the pack with the girls, so he led them home. Thankfully he was there or I think Mom and Dad would’ve flipped!

You see, my parents recently watched Taken. The entire time they were in Europe, they were paranoid that Elizabeth and Carrie were going to be kidnapped by a bunch of Eastern European gangsters and sold as sex slaves. So even though they’re sixteen (the same age as the girls in the movie, I think) they had to have chaperones everywhere they went.

Because of little quirks like this, I established Sarah’s Rules on day one of the trip:

Rule #1: No shouting or freaking out or yelling (Americans are generally VERY loud in public compared to local Europeans and I did not want to be those people)

Rule #2: No fanny packs (which unfortunately left me carrying almost everything in my big purse, but it was worth it to avoid the fashion faux-pas)

Rule #3: No fast food (this was basically impossible to enforce and whenever I wasn’t looking, the girls somehow managed to sneak in Burger King or McDonalds – SHAME!)

Rule #4: Always try to get an Asian to take your picture (I know, this sounds like a stereotype, but it is soooo true! Asians are technologically-savvy and they travel a ton, so in my experience, they take the best pictures)

Rule #5: NEVER let an elderly person try to take your picture (Sorry to all of our grandparents out there reading this but most older people we’ve given our camera to have snapped photos of their fingers, their feet, even themselves... that is, if they can even figure out how to work the camera in the first place)

Rule #6: No giant maps (Dad loves bringing out the big maps and standing in crowds of people searching for places. This screams ‘I’m a tourist, come pick my pocket or try to take advantage of me!’ I had my trusty guidebooks with me most times so we avoided this and no one got robbed – yay!)

This concludes Part I of the Kurzweg’s European Adventure because on Sunday morning, the gang left for Amsterdam, where Dad used to spend a lot of time for work. He wanted to show everyone his old haunts, including the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank House, and the canals. David and I stayed behind to work, plus I had to go to Ireland on Monday.

Stay tuned for Part II – Paris!

ConGRADulations Jeff!

2011-07-17T12:54:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, David here. I’m back! I haven’t written a blog since Bath last year, but I wanted to write a little somethin’ special for my little brother Jeff.

This past June, Jeff graduated from high school. It was the end of an era, with the fourth and final House kid graduating from TASIS England.

The kids are all grown up!

The whole family was in London for the event. Dad flew in from Houston and Amy and her soon-to-be-husband Ross flew in from Boston. Laura came down from Edinburgh and my wife made it in the nick of time with a 7AM flight into Heathrow from Dallas.

Jeff started at TASIS in Kindergarten, so this really was a huge accomplishment for him, having stayed at one school for pretty much his entire career as a student.

On top of receiving his diploma, Jeff was also honored with the Sportsmanship Award for the graduating class of 2011! After the speeches and ceremony ended, we all enjoyed a buffet lunch with champagne and beers on the TASIS lawn, and then Jeff, Ross, and I snuck away for a pint at the local pub just outside of the school grounds.

It was an awesome day for the whole family, and we wish Jeff the best of luck in his next challenge at Texas!

Laura, Sarah, Me, Jeff, Mom, Amy, & Ross

Cote D'Azur

2011-07-16T09:26:00.000-05:00

Our good friends from Austin, Allison and Jordan Gristy, made their first trip to Europe this summer! Allison is a teacher and Jordan is a day trader so they were able to take five weeks away from the daily grind to soak up some European culture.

The Gristys started their trip about two weeks ago in Italy and then moved on to their next destination, the Cote D’Azur. Amy is getting married at the end of July so we are not going to be in London when Allison and Jordan arrive but we had to fit in some Gristy-time! So we figured this was the perfect place to meet – the beautiful, sunny French Riviera!

Allison and Jordan, like the Sylestines, are huge fans of HomeAway so they used a similar service called Riviera Pebbles to book us an apartment in Nice near the beach and old town. It was the perfect location. Six years ago while I was studying abroad in Paris, my classmates and I took a long weekend trip to Nice and Cannes. That was my first and last hostel experience. Needless to say, this trip’s living arrangements were much, much better! A lot has changed in the past six years, so I was not the best navigator around the city. But it was great to see the coast again and experience new things like the awesome tram system and farmer’s market!

On Friday night we met the Gristys at the apartment, dropped off our bags, and headed to the city square for a late dinner. July hosts the European Handball Tournament and Nice Jazz Festival in downtown Nice so the city was buzzing. The Gristys had already eaten, but Allison ordered some delicious profiteroles to share and I had a croque monsieur while David tried the salmon pasta. We walked around a bit more and then decided to turn in early. I know, we’re so boring, but David and I were exhausted from work and Allison and Jordan were tired from travelling.

On Saturday we relaxed all day on the beach. After walking through old town and stopping at some shops for beach mats and towels (where we also considered purchasing some plastic swim shoes that we later regretted not buying), we had lunch at a traditional Nicoise (or Nice-style) restaurant. David and I split the beignets de croquettes (fried zucchini) and socca (chickpea crepe). The Gristys had the poulet frites (chicken with French fries). After that heavy meal, it was the perfect time to go to the beach… :)

The one thing I did remember about the Cote D’Azur from my previous vacation was the rock beaches. Almost every single beach along the coast is rocks and the ones that are sand, I wouldn’t even consider real sand. Those dang rocks are so uncomfortable to walk on! I definitely did not look graceful getting into or out of the water. At one point, David threw me a flip flop, which flew past my head. I must’ve looked like a beached whale rolling around in the surf (to avoid running on the rocks) trying to get that stupid shoe. I’m glad the Flip wasn’t out to capture that moment!

The waves were surprisingly big on Saturday. Allison even got crushed by one and lost her bottoms and her sunglasses! Luckily she pulled up her swimsuit from around her ankles in time and Jordan found the washed-up sunglasses along the beach. Before that, we had been having a great time jumping the waves. So afterwards, while Allison and Jordan napped and read on the beach, David and I continued hanging out in the water.

When we first got to the beach, I noticed some people cliff jumping at a little peninsula of rocks. So I convinced David it would be fun to swim over there and check it out. I told David I wouldn’t peer-pressure him into anything because he has a great fear of heights, but he said he wasn’t swimming all the way over there for nothing!

First, we had to figure out how to get to the top of the rocks. So we treaded water for a while, watching some kids jump to see how they’d get back up. Those little monkeys literally scaled the cliff face to get back to the top! “So how else do we get up there?” I wondered out loud. There was NO WAY I was scaling a rock wall. We noticed a policeman monitoring the jumps, so he pointed to a cluster of mossy rocks that we managed to crawl up. Once at the very top, I tried to reassure David by telling him he just needed to pretend to be Bella and I’d be Jacob coming to his rescue after his daring cliff dive! The French girl in front of us who spoke very little English knew exactly what I was referencing and turned around laughing at us. Then she effortlessly jumped and we made our move!

Obviously we didn’t have our camera with us, so we went back later and took a picture.

We were very proud of ourselves.

After soaking up a lot of sun, we headed back to the apartment and got cleaned up before dinner that night at Chez Juliette, a French restaurant in the heart of old town that was recommended by almost all of the other apartment guests.

David always likes to think he’s Italian like me and doesn’t burn, but now we have this picture and his ridiculous Frenglish video from Paris to prove otherwise!

Dinner was sooo yummy! All of the tables outside were full, so the hostess sat us inside and we had the whole place to ourselves. We started off with French onion soup (even though it was hotter than hell outside). Allison and I had chicken with herbs de Provence and potatoes. Jordan had meat stuffed vegetables, also traditional Nicoise food, and David had pork with a delicious mustard sauce. We finished the meal off with peaches and cream covered in rich melted chocolate.

I loved this adorable sign outside the restaurant - my kind of place!

When David and I confirmed our trip with the Gristys earlier this year, David immediately had this idea in his head of us renting a boat and sailing around the Cote D’Azur eating wine and cheese like a bunch of yuppies. I didn’t really think this would ever happen and left all of the planning up to David. He surprised us all by arranging a sailboat trip for us on Sunday!

So Sunday morning, we woke up early to head to the main harbor to meet our skipper. I was the only one that had never been sailing before, so I was a bit nervous, but our skipper did a great job of explaining things. I even successfully steered the boat! Unfortunately there was no wind on Sunday so it wasn’t truly sailing, more like trolling. But we had the sails up to pretend!

We left from Nice and sailed past Antibes, a small resort town, towards Cannes. We saw some gorgeous mansions on the water and plenty of ridiculous million-dollar yachts. We stopped for a quick swim to cool off and then continued to Ile Sainte Marguerite. Here, we dropped anchor and enjoyed lunch of rice with jambon (ham) and pizza with olives and pesto. For dessert, we had tourte des blettes sucre. We were all a little scared to try this because it looked like a spinach tart. I’ve never heard of this dessert before, which surprised me since this was my third time to France in the past couple of months. But apparently it’s really popular and it’s actually made from Swiss chard, raisins, pine nuts, and rum. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. I could eat it as long as I didn’t look at it.

After we chowed down on lunch (we were hungry from all that swimming and sailing!) we got a nearby boatman to row us to shore. Ile Sainte Marguerite is a tiny island about half a mile offshore from Cannes and across from Ile Sainte Honorat, home to a monastery founded in 410 AD. Sainte Marguerite is famous for its fortress prison, Fort Royal, where the Man in the Iron Mask was kept captive.

Most of the island, though, is heavily wooded. So David and I only made it about a third of the way to the fort before I got half a dozen mosquito bites and turned around.

So instead of exploring we spent most of our time on the island snorkeling and tanning on the beach.

On the way back to Nice, David’s dream came true as we “sailed” across the water enjoying our glasses of French wine.

"I'm on a boat!"

After about 10 hours in the sun sailing and eating and swimming, we came back to harbor and went home to rent a movie and veg out on the couch the rest of the night.

On Monday, we slept in a bit and then took the bus to Monaco. It was a gorgeous drive along the coast, just a bit bumpy and HOT. Apparently we passed Bono’s house (though I had no idea which one was his) and Cap Ferrat, a very Ritzy area home to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Monte Carlo Casino

When we got to Monaco, we were starving and soooo thirsty from the sans A/C bus ride. So we booked it over to the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco’s convention center, for lunch at a new trendy restaurant on the beach. Jordan had the best lamb of his life, David had fish, and Allison and I had ravioli. It was also Allison’s first time trying lamb – whaaat?! I couldn’t believe that Allison had never had a lamb chop before, so I gave her my favorite recipe to try when she gets home! :)

We found this picture frame outside the Forum and had to strike a pose.

Then David found this sculpture in the Japanese garden and had to pose!

After lunch we walked to one of the only “sand” beaches on the Cote D’Azur. They claim to import the sand, but once there we discovered the sand was really just teeny tiny pebbles.

Lies!

So we quickly left and walked along the Formula 1 race route to the Monte Carlo casino. We looked around inside, but did not pay the entrance fee to actually gamble at a table. We were a bit disappointed (but not surprised) there was a cover charge, but our moods were lightened when we found a Laduree at the nearby Metropole shopping center. We got an assortment of macaroons for the Gristys to try (and David and me to share of course).

I had to get some Carmex at the health store inside the mall and guess what they charged?? Keep in mind this is Monaco, one of the smallest, but richest countries in the world. 4 Euros! 4 Euros for a tube of Carmex. That’s almost $6! I was really desperate though, especially after my poor lips had been in the sun for three days straight, so I ate the cost.

Then we took the Bateau (or ship) bus across the Hercules harbor to the other end of Monaco. We passed between even more ridiculous yachts (some with their own helipads!) and debarked in front of the Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium. This is one of the best aquariums in the world and is beautifully built into the side of a cliff against the sea.

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go in before catching the last bus back to Nice, so instead we walked through a scenic park overlooking the harbor and Monaco coastline. We ended the day walking along the palace walls back to the bus stop.

On our last day in the French Riviera, we grabbed breakfast at the Cours Saleya market. David and Jordan had fresh, juicy peaches from a fruit stand and Allison and I had pain au chocolat and almond croissants with chocolate filling. After browsing through the market stalls, we headed to the beach for one last swim.

David has never been parasailing before, so we decided to go. It was deja vue for me because the only other time I’ve parasailed was in the same spot six years ago! This time was much more fun experiencing it with my hubby!

I’m so proud of David for conquering his fear of heights more and more on each trip we take. Whether it’s riding the roller coasters on top of the Stratosphere in Vegas or taking a funicular to the top of a mountain outside Barcelona or parasailing in Nice, he’s more and more confident with each new adventure!

We realized it was getting pretty late, so we had a fast lunch at a delicious pizza place in old town and then literally ran back to the apartment to grab our suitcase before heading to the airport. When we boarded the plane, my hair was still wet and there was salt all over me from the Mediterranean. It was a very uncomfortable plane ride, but I was glad we made the most of our trip.

Only one more summer trip to go – Amy’s wedding! And don’t worry, for all those looking forward to Jeff’s graduation and the Kurzweg’s European Adventure blogs, they’re coming… but I’m waiting on pics for Jeff and it’s going to take a long time to put together the Kurzweg blogs so I wanted to get this one out first. But stay tuned!