8 posts tagged “vacation”

Last Sunday Alex and I hightailed it out of dodge to spend a few days in Stumptown (aka Portland, Oregon) with our dear dear friends who moved out there two years ago. It was great seeing them but oh so bittersweet as it reminded me what a great couple they are and how much I miss being able to hang out with them in NYC. I guess we'll just have to plan more trips out west to visit with them, and try to lure them out to the East coast. As ever we hit the ground running but unlike our usual vacations which involve pounding pavements this time we were being driven about! So much less tiring but felt guilty about not racking up the steps for my pedometer.

On our first afternoon we went wine tasting (hurrah!), and visited four vineyards (Argyle, Domaine Drohin, De Ponte and another one whose name is alluding me) . There are hundreds of wine producers in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and we only scratched the surface. Each winery had a totally different atmosphere and the wine varied quite dramatically. We started off with Argyle and the wine was rougher than Domaine Drohin but it's sparkling wines is what it is really known for. The 2006 Argyle Brut was yum but the 2006 Black Brut was alarming. I am sorry but a sparkling pinot noir is just not right. It tasted a wee bit like a unsweet sparkling Ribena - yuk!

On Labor Day actual we headed to the coast, and the weather was beautiful. We walked along the beach at Look Out State Park and Cannon Beach. Alex got some great photos, and I got lots of steps on my pedometer!!!
 

Tuesday was our last day and since our friends were working we headed into Portland proper and spend the day mooching about. We got a much needed sugar hit at Voodoo Donuts, explored Powell's Books and had lunch with my uncle and his wife who were over from Scotland to visit his wife's son (who just happens to work in Portland). The Pearl District was just taking off when we last visited Portland 5-6 years ago and it has really taken off with lots of stores, restaurants and gorgeous apartments. However, because it is so new it doesn't have much character.  We headed over to the east side to have our final dinner with our friends on Mississippi Ave. It's night and day to the Pearl. Diverse and overflowing with character. We hopped from restaurant to restaurant having a different course at each one. Rather cheeky but lots of fun.

We had a great (well timed) break and I feel really rested. It was nice going back to the office and only having to work a two day week.  The rest of Alex's photos from our trip are on Flickr - enjoy!

A few weekends back Alex and I hoped a train to Philadelphia for a weekend of sightseeing, and oh my word did we see sights or what. Over the course of two days, according to my pedometer, we racked up over 18 miles! No wonder we were exhausted with very sore feet by the time we caught our train home on Sunday night.  We packed a lot into the weekend, but there were many things that we didn't get to do like run up the Rocky steps or explore the dozen or more museums that call Philadelphia home. My favorite parts of the weekend:

• Franklin Walking Seminar (Context Travel) - We were the only two people on this tour and we had a wonderful docent. Learnt a lot about Franklin, and had some great discussions about the marketing of history, how different materials present their exhibitions and the foundation myths of the US
  
• Reading Terminal Market - Awesome farmers' market. Packed to the rafters with fresh produce, Amish ladies, and hole in the wall places to eat 
  
• La Colombe - Philadelphia based coffee company that I am addicted to. They have a cafe near my office, and I dragged Alex to the original cafe in Philly. He had a very yummy iced coffee made with condensed milk, and it was so delish that I wished I'd ordered it instead of a boring latte 
• University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology - Okay I fess up one of the main reasons we went to Philly was so I could check out the Greek & Roman galleries. The museum is a little old school but the Greek & Roman galleries had recently been done up and were pretty darn good. I got quite squeally when I got to see a Villanovan hut urn which was all shades of awesome (if you are into that type of thing!)
  
• Franklin Institute - There were two special exhibits on: Galileo & the Medici (excellent, very technical so Alex was in heaven) and Star Trek (lots of costumes, sets and props; we were in heaven!)
  

I didn't end up taking that many photographs, the walking tour was really intense and given that Alex was snapping away I thought it would be rude if I started talking photos too but I've popped what snapped on Flickr.

Alex and I were very much in need of a Florida shaped timeout so we headed south for a few days of r and r. Oh my word it was good. It has been years since we had a vacation that didn't involve traipsing around ruins or museums, and even though I am the instigator for these types of trips it felt good to lie on a sun lounger and do NOTHING. I barely recorded any steps on my pedometer, and feel all the better for it.

Okay, so there was one thing that we had to attend whilst in Orlando - the night launch of the shuttle Endeavor. We got to the Kennedy Space Center 11 hours before lift off so we were able to check out the new exhibits before camping out on a grassy knoll for the majority of the day.

It's pretty hard to describe a shuttle launch, that it took place at night made it all the more dramatic. It was pitch dark, and the shuttle really did light up the sky. I don't know what I expected but to see that the shuttle is basically a flaming vessel made me look-up to astronauts all the more. We shot a shaky video, and Alex's photos are here.

Woo Hoo

• The Unit
  
• Winter sun
• House punking Foreman
• The excitement of a shuttle launch
  
• Lazy afternoon spent clearing out the DVR
  

Meh

• The end of vacation
  
• Blindness by Jose Saramago
• The piles of laundry I need to put away before bed
  

It's probably a good thing that I didn't vent when I got home today it would have been a mixture of hormones and bile. Not the greatest combination, and after nearly two hours cooking I have found a little perspective.  We're off to Montreal tomorrow and I have prepared enough food to feed the whole train. Seriously, I could open up a stall and sell what we don't eat but instead we've offered the extra to our neighbor below us.

Ooh that was the buzzer on the dryer my laundry is done this Cinderella needs to go fold and pack for the weekend away,

Despite having to wear every stitch of clothing that I brought with me I really didn't want to leave Seattle this morning. It is one heck of a city; absolutely beautiful with schizophrenia weather - my kinda place.  We had a blast there this weekend, it was hectic with Alex being busy with his ASP.NET and me with my Romans but we did manage to fit in some sight seeing. We explored Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, and the CNN Tower.  The highlight of my weekend was obviously the exhibit of Roman art from the Lourve at the Seattle Art Museum (I am a bit worried that when I go to the Lourve next month it will be empty), and the day of Roman art lectures at the University of Washington was fantastic, and I'll try to bore you all with a post on its own in a few days time.

This year, for a special treat, our holiday schedule is reflecting Alex's likes and not mine. We were planning on going to Greece but because of an off-line project we decided that it made the most sense to defer our Hellenistic adventure until '09.  I guess that Alex shouldn't always be held hostage to my tastes and preferences all the time!  In April I am tagging along to a .Net conference in Seattle. I don't really know what this "dot net" business is but I really want to check out Seattle. So whilst Alex is netting dots I will be revising and checking out the Roman art exhibition at the Fine Arts Museum. Flash forward past exam month to June, and we are off to Montreal for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. This is going to be a lot of fun, and we are taking precautions to make sure that we don't end up in a scary motel like the Indianapolis debacle.  I've booked us a cute B&B, and because the flights were uber expensive we are taking the train. Yes it will take about 10 hours to get up there but it should be fun, and we can bask in the cheapness of our tickets. Finally, we are thinking about heading to Florida to catch a space shuttle launch because the gods owe us a space shuttle launch (and a goose that lays golden eggs).

• Eat mini mince pies and watch University Challenge with Alex
• Wander around John Lewis with my Mum debating the merits of the upside down Christmas tree
• Tote about a hundred weight of books that I may or may not read
  
• Have the worst and most expensive manicure in my limited history of manicures (avoid Nails Inc. and their $30 ten minute express mani which took forty minutes and then they don't have any of the little drying machines that EVERY $10 nail store in the US has in abundance!)
• Be ignored in Selfridges luggage department
  
• Text message for free on my brother's old cell phone
• Use my Oyster card
  
• Try to take the bus everywhere as it is cheaper and slightly less frustrating than the tube
  
• Cry over paying over $45 for two small pizzas and soda at Pizza Express
  
• Have coffee with friends and Sunday lunch with cousins
• Avoid Thanksgiving