Travelogue

Honeymoon in Italy

2008-03-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

I finally broke down and bought our tickets to Italy this week so it's time to start planning in earnest. And just in time for our trip, I see that Rick Steves has put up a series of iPod tours for Italy. Excellent.

I have recenty started reading his Italy book, and we've been working our way through his Italy shows. I've got a vague outline for our itinerary and should be firming it up in the months to come. I do know that our trip will start in Milan and end in Rome, it's the middle bit that is still fuzzy.

Hammocks

2008-02-07T10:59:00.001-08:00

Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

If you come back from the Yucatan with one impression only, it is likely to be this: they make hammocks.

In fact not only do they make them there, the are aggressive about selling them. On the beach, in the shops, at the ruins…

These hammocks, however, were innocently hanging in a shop, not trying to force themselves on anyone. The shop was right next store to Treseluna (or something like that) where we had breakfast nearly everyday we were in Tulum. IT was delicious.

Sunrise in Tulum

2008-02-06T14:14:00.001-08:00

Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Another photo from our trip to Mexico. This one of the sunrise in Tulum.

Irene in Merida

2008-02-04T08:10:00.001-08:00

Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

I haven't gotten around to writing up a trip summary yet, but I have started working on the photos.

Here is a picture of my baby in Merida.

You can see a few other shots by heading over to Flickr. I've also set up a Flickr group for people to post shots from the wedding and their trips.

We're Back

2008-01-31T07:48:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick post to say that we are back from our trip to Mexico. The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time in Tulum and Merida. This weekend I'll try to write a post about our trip, and I'm hoping to have some photos up as well.

The Countdown to Mexico

2008-01-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

I know posting on this blog has been scarce but it should pick up pretty soon as I start to plan for our trip to Italy in September.

In more immediate plans, we head out for Tulum in just under two weeks. We will be there for 5 days and then will be in Merida for 3. Very much looking forward to this trip and will post photos when we get back.

In Merida we will be staying at the charming looking Luz en Yucatan, we'll see if it lives up to it's web site. I will let you know that as well.

Odd Spike

2007-11-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

It's very odd, in the last week this blog has had a large spike in visitors from Oakland, CA. There are no keywords or referral sites associated with it as far as I can tell. They appear to be direct visits. If any one out there knows why this should be, please let me know.

Also, I know this blog has lain fallow for a while and I apologize. I've been focusing work on my other blog for the time being and I haven't been doing nearly as much planning for our trip to Mexico as I should be.

It will soon be time to start planning our honeymoon to Italy for next year, so activity should be picking up around here soon.

Sardonic Dog

2007-07-27T09:12:00.001-07:00

Sardonic Dog

Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

I know I still haven't posted any of the photos from our trip yet. I've put a lot of them up on Flickr, but haven't got around to making a separate page for them yet.

In the meantime, I'll post some of my favorites, like this dog.

Look at that face!

Mexico Planning

2007-07-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Our tickets for Mexico have been purchased and our room for the first five days has been booked. Planning can now commence in earnest.

To that end I've started reading the Moon Handbooks Yucatan Peninsula and marking things of interest.

Because we are going down for a wedding we will be spending the first majority of the trip in Tulum and surrounds, but the last three days will be ours to do with as we wish. And that's the part that needs the planning.

Sketches of France, Pt. 2

2007-07-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the rest of the sketches I did in France. Yes, I know there aren't very many of them, I all ready explained that.

This first one was done in the town of Gigondas in the Cote du Rohn region. I had a little bit of an obsession with the Plane trees.

Next we have a watercolor of the town square in Roussillon.

And finally a sketch of a coffe break in the old town of Nice on top and a schematic of our hotel room on the bottom.

So there you are, I hope you enjoyed them. Feel free to email me with comments or leave a comment using the link below.

Sketches of France, Pt. 1

2007-06-30T09:03:00.001-07:00

I didn't get to do nearly as much sketching as I would have liked to. We were moving so quickly there wasn't much time to slow down and draw. I did manage to do a few, though, of varying quality. Here are the first few. As always, click on the thumb to go to the full size version.

This first one is outside of a bar at Place Pigalle in Paris.

This next one is from Place Jerusalem in Avignon where we stopped to have a kir.

This next one is also from Avignon. I ran out of the dark blue pencil lead half way through and had to switch to the less pleasing lighter blue.

That's all for now. I'll finish them off next time.

Still Here

2007-06-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick note to say I'm still here and still intend to upload photos and comments about the trip, but I have not had any free time in the past couple of weeks to work on my photos. I've put together a rough slide show, which, after I clean up a bit, I will upload here in three or four parts.

I've scanned in some of my travel sketches as well, and will put those up when I get the chance. Maybe Monday.

Back To Reality

2007-06-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

We got home last night at around 10:30 after spending way to much time on planes and transferring between planes and getting to airports. The cats were very pleased to see us, but were well looked after while we were gone.

I have many thoughts on our trip and of course a couple thousand photos to troll through looking for gold. I'll get started on that right away. I'll post more about our trip (and perhaps a few of the small number of sketches I did) this weekend after I've had a bit of time to decompress and unpack and do all the returning to normal life things that one must do after a long trip.

Including starting the planning for our next trip: Mexico! But that trip is a long way off.

Having a Nice time

2007-06-01T12:36:00.001-07:00

We rolled into Nice at around 4pm today and had a horrendous time trying to return our rental car. The area around the station is under all kinds of construction so we ended up circling three times looking for the return spot, still without success. Finally I hoped out of the car and ran into ask, and let me just say, we never would have found it if I hadn't. it wasn't even vaguely obvious. And as a fitting metaphor to the frustrations we had trying to return the car, a rain storm of monumental proportions rolled into town a half hour behind us. Fortunately we were ensconced in our hotel before the clouds let go, but there was thunder and lightning and all kinds of the drama that we just don't get in Seattle with our rain.

The last couple of days were spent driving around from one picturesque hill town to the next. About half way into the first day we had to retire the phrase "what a view" to to the redundancy laws in France. But good god, What A View! Miles and miles of bright green vineyards and farmland in the valleys between the towns. We hit about a dozen or so towns it seems like, the highlights being Lourmarin, Goult and Roussillon. In fact it was in Roussillon that we saw what is probably my favorite site, the old ochre quarry.

Bright red and orange and yellow cliff faces towering above and a path made of rust red sand. Even the trees had a reddish coating from all the dust stirred up by the visitors. It felt a bit like being on Mars. I think I must have shot a few hundred photos. Gorgeous.

And in a fortuitous bit of luck we've managed to hit 3 fabulous markets days in the last 4 days. The best of them being Vaison La Romaine and Lourmarin.

Anyway, we have four nights and three days in the Riviera before our vacation must come to an end. It sad, vacation is a lifestyle that agrees with me.

This time from Provence

2007-05-29T12:08:00.001-07:00

Hello all, sorry we've dropped off the radar but we've been moving around a bit and have been unable to get to an Internet cafe.

We are currently in Vaison-la-Romain and spent the day driving around the indescribably beautiful Cote du Rohn countryside stopping at a number of cute little medieval hill towns, not forgetting of course to do a little wine tasting along the way.

This morning we awoke to the sounds of the weekly market setting up in the square below our window. We bought a picnic lunch to take with us on the drive and ate it in the tiny town of Suzette on the side of a hill overlooking vineyards. The sun was out and shinning but the wind was blowing hard and threatened to carry away our lunch.

In the past week we have visited Avignon, where we stayed for three nights and used as a base to travel. We day tripped out to Pont du Gard, an old roman aqueduct, and Nimes where we rolled into town during the annul bullfight festival (not listed in any guide book, Gretchen). The town was hopping and we had a nice lunch of Paella for Irene and Gardienne de toreau (bull) for me.

Another day we drove to Arles and spent the day, and yesterday we visited the abandoned medieval town of Les Beaux, and the not so abandoned town named after my cat, St. Remy.

Well, that about catches you up. Tomorrow we head for Roussillon and the Luberon hill towns made famous (at least in the states) by Peter Mayle in his books about Provence.

Last Day In Paris

2007-05-24T08:47:00.001-07:00

We just got back from Versailles where we spent most of the day touring the grounds and getting burnt to a crisp. Really need to find some sunscreen before we hit the South. Right now we are doing laundry and later tonight we have tentative plans to meet up with Marion for a drink.

These French key boards are very difficult to get used to.

Tomorrow morning we head for provence. Sad to leave Paris, excited to see what's next.

Bonjour encore

2007-05-22T03:55:00.001-07:00

Ken says:

We are five days into our trip and have been running around like mad people. We've done the Louvre, the Arc, the d'Orsay, Ste-Chapelle, and beaucoup walking around. Beacoup!

Last night we were meant to catch up with France at the Arc, but she never turned up. So we popped in here (Cyber Cube) to see if she left us an email, which she did. Hopefully we'll meet up with her tonight.

A week in Paris seems like a long time, but it's still not nearly long enough. I feel like we'll still miss half the things on the list. We'll just have to come back.

Irene says:

Paris lives up to its reputation and more so. My impression is it's endless. After my office job, my feet will soon be going on strike, so perhaps it's just as well that we are headed for the quieter South of France in just a few days - Friday morning. In the meanwhile, I'm absorbing this amazing city at the rate I best can. As for hoping to see it all. C'est impossible, alas.

Best thoughts and wishes.

Irene and Ken

Greetings from Paris

2007-05-19T10:19:00.001-07:00

I type this from France's computer (our friend France, of course, not the country, it would be absurd if there was only one computer for all of France). We landed yesterday at 9:40 am and hopefully got all the problems were going to have on this trip on the first morning. But that's another story.

This is just a short note to let everyone know that we got here safely and met up with France this morning. And everything (after that first troublesome half day) has gone swimmingly.

Pre-Trip Jitters?

2007-05-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

We leave for France tomorrow and I'm a bit antsy. I've been planning for this trip for so long that I'm ready for it to just get started.

Last night I had a little anxiety dream about the trip (the only bit I've felt so far). In the dream it was our first day in Paris and we'd been going around having a great time when, around 4pm, I suddenly realized we were meant to meet the apartment guy at noon, and now where were we going to sleep. I immediately hopped on the metro to set off for the apartment only to realize I didn't know where I was going. So I began digging around in my bag for my metro map. The first one I pulled out was for the NY subway, and the second for something else entirely. It dawned on me that I had brought no map at all and now I was really screwed.

And then I woke up and realized how ridiculous the dream was. We would have noticed that we were still schlepping around or backpacks and I would never have not packed a map. I'm very well prepared for this trip and expect it all to go very smoothly.

I'll keep you updated, though, if it should not.

1 Week

2007-05-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

One week from now we will be having diner in Paris. That is all.

Pictures Of California

2007-04-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I put up the first batch of photos from our N. Cal trip. Hopefully I'll be able to put up a few more before we leave for France (T-minus 17 days).

And I'm still hoping to do a post about the wineries we visited in Napa and Sonoma. So watch for that.

One month

2007-04-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

Four weeks from now we will be on our way to France.

And we are ready. Plans are all made, hotels are all booked, the car is rented and the train tickets are bought.

That is all.

The Northern California Post — Part 2

2007-04-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last time I covered only the first day of our trip, so I'll try to cover a bit more ground with this post.

Sunday we spent in the city with our friend B. We started off with walking to Golden Gate Park to check out the new de Young museum which has a pretty spiffy new building with a free observation tower and nifty sculpture garden. We didn't actually go into the gallery portion of the museum but did wander around the building and grounds. The building itself is this funky ultra modern design and very cool.

Afterwards, we headed to the Haight area to have lunch at a taqureia and so I could stop in at both Kid Robot and Giant Robot (not related, well, related in merchandise, but not business-wise). I picked up a few vinyl toys at Kid Robot, but they were all out of the Aztec Dunny's which was a bit sad.

After lunch we went over to Japan Town so that I could pop into the Kinokuniya (disappointing), and to have desert at this crazy japanese crepe place where they've essentially taken a crepe and turned it into a waffle cone. Very tasty.

That night we went out to diner with B and his partner E to a place called Foreign Cinema which was a disappointment on many levels. First, their whole schtick is that they show foreign films on an outdoor screen, but when we were there, they were showing Bullitt which is not a foreign film, it was shot in San Francisco, for christ's sake.. That should have been a sign if they couldn't even get that right. Second, the place is expensive, overpriced is probably a better word. And worst of all, the food was so-so. I would have expected more for the money.

We spent the first half of Monday in the city as well, again with B. We went the San Francisco Center (I think it was called) so I could go to Maido, which while related to Kinokuniya, has a much better selection of pens. I bought two, a Sailor Ace ($16) and a Platinum Preppy ($4), both of which I will be reviewing over on my other site.

We then headed over to Valencia to check out the Pirate Supply Store, but they were closed all week. I guess we'll just have to try them next year.

We headed back to Menlo Park in the early afternoon to avoid traffic as it was the first night of Passover and the seder started at 6. They seem to be getting shorter each year (the seders) but that only gets us to the amazing food that much faster. S is an amazing cook.

Tuesday we mainly hung around the house helping set up for the second seder. We also went out to lunch in Palo Alto with A. We ate at Francis Ford Coppola's restaurant Cafe Rosso and Bianco, though we didn't know it was his restaurant when we went in. The food was pretty tasty and they had these cool wine machines where you could purchase tastes or glasses of a variety of wines using a special card. We didn't try it but it sure looked cool.

That's about it for now. Next time I'll cover our time in Wine Country, and probably the coast.

The Northern California Post — Part 1

2007-04-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Even though this trip was low-key as far as our vacations go, it was still plenty busy.

When we got in on Friday night, A and family were all ready in bed so we were met by the elder Gs (Judge J and S), given good food and shown our room for the week. So it wasn't until the next day that we finally got to met Baby C for the first time. I think he was sleeping. Or breast feeding. Or one of those since he seemed to be in one of those two states the entire time we were there. Yes, I know, he's an eight week old baby, that's what they do. Baby C is actually a very quite little boy, hardly ever cries, just grunts when he wants his current situation to change. And cute. He's cute too.

Our first day of vacation was spent in Half Moon Bay. So two things about the car ride there:

1) There were six adults and two children crammed into a mini van with seven viable seats, which meant that Judge J (the elder G) was on the floor between the seat and the door. Irene was in the back of the van, not wearing her seat belt because, in her words "it just didn't work". So that's the situation when we approach a stop sign. On the other side of the intersection is two cops, one at the corner and one about 30 feet or so beyond him.

Now as soon as we went through the intersection I see the cop switch on his little radio and say something to the guy down the road and I knew it was all over for us. And sure enough, the second cop points to us and tells us to pull over. Apparently the first cop had spotted that Irene wasn't wearing her seat belt, which can net the driver a hefty fine. He starts asking questions, wants the registration and proof of insurance, so I open up the glove box and it is just full of wadded up papers and receipts and crap and I'm digging through all this stuff and Judge J is out of the car next to me and I'm handing him papers and trying to figure out what everything is and the whole time the cop is talking to J and getting fairly annoyed.

We finally manage to come up with the paperwork he's asked for and by this time it's pretty clear that he's going to give us at least one ticket and maybe more if he can. And the amazing thing to me is, he didn't even spot that Judge J was sitting on the floor when he first pulled us over. So as the cop is talking to J,Judge J strolls around the car and starts to talk to the cop and pulls out his little "I'm a judge card" from his wallet. The cop sighs, shakes his head and tells us to buckle up and be careful and off we go with out penalty. Amazing. But lucky for us.

2) You forgot about there was a second thing didn't you? Well this ones not as exciting. After the cop incident we're driving to Half Moon Bay and we pass a family fun farm thing were they offer pony rides and wouldn't that be fun for Young J (just so you can keep track there is Judge J, the grandfather, J the father, and Young J, the three year old son). So we stop and Young J gets his pony ride, feeds the goats at the petting zoo, and goes on what was apparently a pretty creepy train ride through some sort of miniture haunted wild west town. The farm was a kick and looked like it hadn't been updated since it opened in 1940-something.

Half Moon Bay itself is a cute little town where we stopped for lunch before heading for the ocean. Really, though, all the excitement happened on the way there.

Well, I think that's probably enough for now. I'll post more later. And I'm still hoping to get photos up this weekend in between household projects.

A couple of sketches

2007-04-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of travel related doodles I did today at work.

This first one is me during the day.

And then what I look like while we are between locations.

And here's me in just over a month!