Europe Part II

Paris!! (see Europe Part I here)

On May 1st we took the overnight train from Munich to Paris. We arrived in Paris the morning of May 2nd.  We headed straight to our hotel, The Hotel Saint Dominique located near Rue Clair.  We had a super cute little room right off the inner courtyard and a view of the Eiffel Tower out the front door of the hotel.

Once we checked in, we headed to a local flea market.  This was so much fun!  I guess they only have these on the weekends: http://en.parisinfo.com/professionnals/1729/marche-aux-puces-de-la-porte-de-vanves.  We had a blast just walking through the market, checking out all the stalls selling their wares.  It truly felt like we were among the true Parisians! 

After the market and some lunch, Bob, Sue and I headed to the oldest department store in Paris:  Le Bon Marche.

We got Bob’s mom her souvenir and thank you gift for watching the kids.  It was a beautiful department store and we found a lovely scarf for Marcie.  AND we spotted Andi MacDowell coming down the escalator.  Ooh La La!

 

Every evening, before dinner, the 4 of us (Rob, Sue, Bob and I) would meet in our lovely courtyard for aperitif’s.  It was wonderful!  One of the most favorite parts of our trip!

We ended our first day in Paris with kissing on a bridge over the Seine River overlooking the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.  Wonderful!

Day 2 found us off to Sacre Couer in Montmartre.  Montmartre is the highest hill in Paris where all the artists used to live and paint.  Today it still has artists who create and sell their paintings in a street vendor atmosphere. At the top of the hill is Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church that was built in the late 1800’s.  The view from here is the best in Paris!  It looks out over the whole of the city.  
(climbing the many steps to Sacre Coeur)

  The church was so beautiful.  But I felt a little bit weird taking a tour while they were having service!  It was Sunday, so the locals (and probably some tourists) were attending service while the tourists walked around the outer edges of the sanctuary admiring the architecture and the paintings.  Kind of weird and maybe a little wrong….but, still, I loved the church!

After that, we headed to the artists square and we bought our first piece of real artwork.

 

Walking back down from Sacre Coeur, we saw a beautiful carousel and we then we shopped along Montmartre for souvenirs for the kids.

 

(shopping for scarves with Sue)

After Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, we headed over to the Luxembourg Gardens and Palace where we saw kids sailing boats on a pond, listened to a brass band, saw a big giant head (?) and just enjoyed the cloudy and cool, but lovely, day in Paris.
(Luxembourg Palace)

(kids sailing boats – this was really cool.  The kids put their sailboats on the pond, pushed them out in the water with a stick, and then ran around the pond following their boat.)

(those silly Americans!)

After the gardens, Rob and Sue headed back for nap and Bob and I decided (NO SLEEPING!), so we headed off to the Louvre!

We got there about 2 hours before it closed – on FREE MUSEUM SUNDAY.  It was CRAZY!  Funny story:  Once we got in, we decided to head to the bathrooms and then decide which wing we wanted to see.  We KNEW we would only be able to see just one wing because the museum is so huge!  So, we start heading to what we THINK is the bathrooms.  Little did we know that when the sign said “Sortie”, which means exit, that we would actually be exiting the museum!  We thought that the sign just meant “this way to the exit” not “you are exiting now”.  So, we walked in the Louvre, then we walked right back out!  Luckily, the museum people were nice enough to let us back in without having to stand in line again.  Bob and I joked that we could say “Yes, we were in The Louvre….but we didn’t see anything!”.  :-)  We were pretty loopy at this point from being so tired.

Once we were back in again, we chose the Denon Wing, that houses the Italian and Spanish Paintings, including The Mona Lisa.  At the top of the stairs to this wing is the famous “Winged Victory”

This is how close we got to The Mona Lisa: (that’s her on the back wall. Much smaller than you would think, huh?)

This picture was on the opposite wall of Mona Lisa: I was amazed at how close you could get to some of the paintings.  Pretty cool, huh?

We didn’t get to see very much – I pooped out pretty quickly.  But trying to get to the Sortie (for real this time) we saw some beautifully old paintings and even an Easter Island Head.   Definitely a place I would love to try and actually spend time at next time.

After our quick tour through the Louvre, we headed back to our hotel for our nightly aperitif and dinner.  We met up with a friend from home, Jon D’hondt, who had been working in Paris for two weeks.  We walked to Rob and Sue’s favorite crepe stand in Rue Claire and enjoyed a nice evening of crepe’s for dinner and crepe’s for dessert.  I have to say, the Nutella and Banana crepe was super yummy!

Whew! Day 2 was a busy day.  I think I’ll stop my blog post here for now, and blog Day 3 (Versailles!) on a different post.

Friday Favorite Five – 6/5/2009

Finally, I can post a FFF this week!

1) The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaladon –

  I love this series!  It is about a woman in 1945 who goes back in time to 1743 Scotland.  From Amazon.com: “While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before.”  Aaaah yes!  Jamie Fraser……James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser……my first fictional true love.  Bob knows about Jamie, and my obsession with him!  Ha ha  There are 6 books in the series, I just finished the 2nd one for the 2nd time, and I just found out that book #7 will be published September 2009.  Woo hoo!

2) Hot summer days – Yes, here in the PNW it’s been quite hot this week.  Temperatures in the 90’s!  The kids have had a blast with running through the sprinklers, eating popsicles, and wearing shorts to school.  This doesn’t happen often around here – especially this early in the season.  So we’ve been trying to enjoy every minute of it!  Too bad we don’t have air conditioning though……it’s been quite warm in house during the early evenings!

3) Zumba – I have discovered Zumba and love it!  For those of you who may not know Zumba, it is “A workout that mixes body sculpting movements with dance steps derived from cumbia, merengue, salsa, reggaeton, hip hop, mambo, rumba, flamenco, and calypso and Salsaton. The routines feature aerobic interval training with a combination of fast and slow rhythms. It targets areas such as the glutes, legs, arms, abdominals, and the heart. A Zumba class is typically not formulaic in that instructors often add on their own music choices and choreographies to make their class presentation locally unique.”  Why exercise, when you can ZUMBA!  Woo Hoo!

4) Windows Live Writer – I just discovered this application, thanks to my adorable home-IT support-guy, hubby.  It has changed the way I blog!  Before, my pictures were a nightmare to upload.  No matter where I wanted the pictures to be inserted in my blog, they would automatically get inserted at the top and then I would have to move them to the spot I wanted them in.  Now, I just insert my picture right where my curser is. (those of you who use blogspot know what I’m talking about!)  Anyway, I am so far behind on my blogs that I was dreading trying to catch up.  But since I discovered this Live Writer, I’ve been able to whip them out quickly.  Yay!

5) Spring Gardening – Take note people – you will only see this item on my blog once a year.  11.5 months out of the year I HATE gardening.  I hate the planting, the watering, the weeding – everything except the enjoyment of a nice landscaped yard.  However, once a year I get the bug to pretty up our yard.  This spring has been BEAUTIFUL!  So, a couple of weekends ago Bob and I made multiple trips to the nurseries and planted trees, flowers, bushes and filled some planting pots and wine barrels and even bought a hanging basket.  Our yard is looking pretty good right now and thankfully my gardening bug is gone.  Whew!  Now we can just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors.  Next up:  deciding if we want to build a deck or put in a patio!  :-)

Have a great weekend!  I hope you get an opportunity to reflect on your Friday Favorite Five from the week!

Fairly Odd Pharaoh's

In May, Alex and Sarah participated in a musical at our church called The Fairly Odd Pharaoh's. It told the story of Moses and was super cute. Alex and Sarah did a great job! Alex was Aaron, Moses’ brother, and a slave. Sarah was a ballerina and a slave girl. The kids had a great time and the volunteers who put this musical on should get a gold statue for their patience and all their hard work!

Here are a few pictures from this wonderful show. I hope you enjoy!

Alex as Moses showing off his magic trick that showed God turning the staff into a snake.

Sarah, as a slave girl, after the show with the rose she received.

Moses and Aaron talk to Pharaoh.

Sarah as a dancing ballerina, when Moses is found in the river.

Sarah dancing to “Walk Like an Egyptian”.

The costumes were great! Alex is in the cream robe with red scarf and beard.

I’m back!

So, my laptop died. I haven’t been able to blog! I finally got a new laptop and Bob is having me try a new blog writer program called Windows Live Writer (free download). So far, both are awesome! (Eve, this has solved my problem with inserting pictures!)

So here is my test blog! Hopefully I’ll be back to blogging my FFF and I have TONS of updates with pictures of the kids to blog about.

According to me (from my friend Raimi’s blog):

When I was a child...my dad and sister sang in a traveling gospel group called The Happy Aires. We would spend our weekends on this tour bus with a dozen other people traveling all over the tri-state area, singing at different churches. This was our only experience with “camping”.

I can't imagine my life without... my family – they are everything to me!

If I could be anywhere, I'd be... sitting on my back patio/deck, sipping a glass of wine, watching the sun set, and have my current favorite book in my hand ready to read. And, oh! Bob would be with me rubbing my feet!

My least favorite chore is... emptying the cat litter box. gross.

If I could be on any TV game or reality show, it would be... The Family Feud! I rock at that game!

If a mystery package arrived on my doorstep, I'd hope it would be... my three BFF’s in CA coming for an unexpected visit. We’d tour Seattle, scrapbook a little, maybe see a concert at the winery, and laugh all night long!

My guilty pleasure is... The Tudors on Showtime! I just love that show about King Henry VII and all his wives! And that Jonathan Rhyes Meyers is a hottie!

I thought I would never... move away from Indiana. Can you believe that? I’ve lived in Ohio, California, Utah and now Washington. I’m a long way from Indiana! And…I like it!

If a genie granted me three wishes, I’d wish for... a patio/deck in my back yard, to lose 10 pounds and no more arm fat, and for my parents to be healed from all their ailments.

Hope you enjoy these! Let me know if you play along and do your own “according to me”.

Lisa

Europe Part I

So, I'm finally blogging about Bob and my fabulous trip to Europe!

On Wednesday, April 29th, 2009, I arrived in Munich Germany. We stayed at a lovely, quaint hotel called the Hotel Laimer Hof, run by a very friendly man named Sebastian and his wife. Sebastian was awesome with helping us plan our time in Munich and the surrounding Bavarian countryside.

(our very cute hotel)

Bob was already in Munich due to work, and I had plans to join him at his work dinner at Restaurant Tantris, which is one of the 50 best restaurants of 2009 and number 1 or 2 in Germany! It was fabulous, French, and very fancy! We had 6 courses and 3 different wine pairings. The menu is set daily by the chef, and at our place setting was a handwritten menu in German with an English translation. Very nice!

(web picture of the restaurant)

The next day found us touring Marienplatz in a very rainy Munich and we had to purchase rain hats!
(Bob and his lovely hat)

(Lisa and her lovely hat at the Marienplatz Gates)

(Marienplatz taken from the top of the Glockenspiel looking at the Old Town Hall)

(The Glockenspiel)

After a morning of touring Marienplatz, having a traditional Bavarian lunch, discovering Radler, and strolling the open air markets, we headed back to our hotel and made a detour at Nymphenburg Palace which was in the same neighborhood. However, we were so tired and jet lagged that we just toured the garden, the gift shop (which had a great presentation of how the palace was built) and the outside of the palace.

(Nympenburg Palace)

That night for dinner, we went to an old German Monastery called Kloster Andechs, established in 1445! They brew their own beer and have a restaurant called The Klostergasthof that has fabulous food. The locals recommend the Pig Knuckles (which was very tasty) and the Apple Strudel.
(the monastery)

The next day was our last day in Munich so we decided that after breakfast we would rent a car and head to Neuschwanstein Castle -- the one that Walt Disney used to create Sleeping Beauty's castle. To get there we traveled through the beautiful Bavarian countryside with views of the Alps.
(Sue Clark, Rob Craft, Bob and I at breakfast on our last day)

(Bavaria with the Alps and the castle -- just beautiful!)

(Bob inside the castle courtyard) (View of the town and Hohenschwangau Castle -- the parent's castle)

We had a great time touring the castle and learning about Mad King Ludwig II. We drove back to Munich through an old medieval town called Landsberg am Lech. The town still has the old castle walls surrounding it.

When we arrived back in Munich, we realized that it was May Day and there were many festivities going on at Marienplatz, with lots of beer and lots of rowdy crowds! We were pretty tired and had several hours to wait for our overnight train to Paris. So we found an Italian restaurant off the main streets (much quieter) and had a nice, long, leisurely dinner until it was time to go to the train station.

The four of us all stayed in the same cabin in the sleeper car. It was quite cozy -- 4 bunk beds and very little space. However, it was worth it when we woke up the next day traveling through the Champagne Region of France!

(Our cabin in the sleeper car)

I thoroughly enjoyed Bavaria Germany! The buildings are so old and the architecture is so beautiful! The cobblestone streets; the buildings that are older than our oldest buildings in the US; the bullet holes from WWII....all so very interesting! The countryside is breathtaking! I would love to go back some day and spend more time touring the countryside and learning more about the history.

That's it for Part I. Stay tuned for Part II!!!

Friday Favorite Five - 5/15/2009

FINALLY!! It's been two weeks since I last did my FFF. I've been busy, busy, busy! But, today, some of my FFF are a preview to some future posts and as to why I've been gone. So, without further ado:

1) My new Flip Flops: -- I bought some new Sketcher flip flops a few weeks back from Fred Meyer and I have to say, I love them. I'm not a huge flip flop fan -- I'm more of a sandals gal. However, these are pretty comfy and nothing says "summer's almost here" than flip flops!

2) Wedding Anniversarys -- Monday was our 13th wedding anniversary. We had a GREAT wedding and reception. We were so young and in love....and so POOR! We watched our so-called wedding video with the kids that night, and what a crack up! I have to say it is the worst wedding video ever. But! It was free. It may have been a used VHS tape (it cuts from our partial reception coverage to my sister during her glorious VFW singing days), and, yes, you may see alot of the backs of people's heads, but at least we have something to share with our kids from that day. Of course, when they are whining and saying "how much longer? We want to see you smash the cake in mommy/daddy's face!" or when they are laughing silly at how everyone looks "so old" or "so young"..... it still brings a smile to our faces to remember the wonderful day we had back in 1996.

3) My travel journal -- you may remember when I FFF'd this little journal here. I finally got to use it when I went on my Europe trip. I tried to journal every day of my trip. If I couldn't find time to actually journal, then I at least listed the highlights of that day. And then for the return trip home, I stuck all of my ticket stubs, menu's, maps, etc. in here so that I could save them for my scrapbook . It worked out perfectly. Thank you, Eve!

4) Bavaria, Germany and Neuschwanstein - What a lovely we time we had driving through Bavaria, Germany! This view was so amazing! The Alps, the lake, the hills, the castle.....sigh....very romantic! This was probably my favorite from our trip to Munich.

5) Apéritif-- "An apéritif (also spelled aperitif) is an alcoholic drink that is usually served to stimulate the appetite before a meal, contrasting with digestifs, which are served after meals.
Apéritifs are commonly served with something small to eat, such as crackers, cheese, pâté, olives, and various kinds of finger food."

This, my friends, is my new favorite word! We had aperitif's in our hotel courtyard each night at 7:30pm while in Paris. Lovely!

Happy Friday Everyone! I'm hoping to post about my trip soon. Stay tuned......