Christmas… Yes, I know it’s February

Basically since the start of the year, I’ve been on call at work.  That means I get pages to respond to equipment issues 24 hrs a day Monday – Friday, and as of 2 weeks ago, about half of my weekends will be on call too.   In fact, 2 weeks ago I got the “opportunity” to, on a Saturday night, work on some equipment from about 9pm until about 1:30am.  What does that have to do with Christmas and the fact that it’s mid-February?  Pretty simple, life is too busy & moving too quickly these days….   😦

In any event, here’s the reader’s digest version of what we’ve been up to for the last 2 months: 

1) Christmas!- Bailey got a rubber ducky yellow rain jacket for Christmas from one of his grandparents that ironically enough matches his dad’s yellow Marmot rain jacket.

  

2) Happy Newyears! While his parents had a great time celebrating New Years eve at Oba (Pearl district restaurant that I’d highly recommend) with some good friends, Bailey didn’t seem as excited to wear the beads and “2008” glasses as his dad was just hours earlier. 

 

3) Showshoeing is fun. Mt. Hood has got a ton of snow this year. As I write this, they have a ~ 180″ base (that’s 15ft!). Kara got us some snowshoes for Christmas and we went new years day. Can you say POWDER?! We were able to go anywhere we wanted in the woods eventhough there was that much snow.

  

4) Portland International Auto Show. We went a couple weekends ago with some friends. There were definitely some nice rides there. Even some that I hadn’t heard of before, such as this Dutch Spyker. Yes, Kara, there are some cars that I don’t know about (though they’re available in limited quantities)!

Cannon Beach, Oregon… on a Perfect November Day

After taking Bailey to the Hondo Dog Park near our house early Saturday morning, Kara recommended we go to the Oregon coast since it was a very unexpectedly nice November day.  And after an hour and fifteen minute drive we arrived at Cannon Beach.  Given that it was November and Oregon, I don’t think we could have asked for a better day….  Actually, I’ll go one better and say that it was perfect!  🙂

    

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

About 70 miles southeast of Hillsboro is Silver Falls State Park.   Kara and I had heard some good things about this place from a few friends so we decided to head down there 2 Saturdays ago.   We hiked most of the “Trail of 10 Falls” before it was getting dark after a late start.   Definitely a pretty place to visit.   The only downside for us was that Bailey was prohibited on the Canyon Trail where all the falls were- so he stayed back home.   Here are a few of our pictures….

             

The Drive to Portland, That Almost Wasn’t

Before I post anything else, I should back up a little….

Due to some relatively last minute change of plans (me moving up to Portland with Kara), I decided to rent a Uhaul trailer to bring some of our things with us.  The idea was that I’d pull it behind my Nissan Pathfinder… after all, I did this when I moved back to ABQ from Portland in ’02 and it wasn’t too bad.   We had Kara’s Civic shipped.

Well, apparently, I didn’t load the trailer correctly because when we hit the high speed of ~ 65mph about 10 miles west of ABQ, things got really dicey and we nearly turned back (once I regained control of the swaying rig).   We stopped for the night in Flagstaff, AZ, after driving ~ 55mph all the way there- a drive that usually takes about 4.5 hrs which took closer to 7hrs at this rate, while, I kid you not, getting passed by ever other vehicle on the interstate, including a school bus.  Well, that’s not completely true… I did pass one other car- a minivan, pulling, you guessed it- a U-haul trailer! 

Things improved when, during our lunch break the 2nd day, in Barstow, CA, I spent about 25 minutes to rearrange some boxes and that was enough to get more weight on the front of the trailer-which then allowed me to drive safetly at 70mph.  The irony of the situation was that California’s speed limit for vehicles pulling trailers was only 55mph, unlike the 70mph that I could have driven legally in NM & AZ.  Oh well.  I’m happy to say that I was able to make some better time through CA & OR once I resolved the situation with the trailer- and without any traffic citations telling me to slow down.

Since Kara had never been up to northern Cali to see the huge redwoods, and neither of us had made it to Crater Lake, we decided to head in direction, rather than the direct route of Moab, Salt Lake, & then through Boise which we did in ’02.   Driving through the redwoods just makes you feel small.  The huge trees are incredible.   Crater Lake was definitely worth the drive as well.  We actually got to drive around the west rim, though it was going to close for the season within a week of our visit.   They already had a decent amount of snow which isn’t bad for late September, but I’m sure it wasn’t much when you realize they get 533 inches on average each year!  Nonetheless, we learned that Bailey likes to play in snow which was the first time we’ve been in snow since we got him.

And finaly, we had a good laugh near Eugene, OR (2 hrs south of Portland), when we actually spotted Kara’s civic on the back of the car carrier as we were heading up I5 towards Portland.

        

Wholly Crap- Where’d Sept & October Go?

Wow- I haven’t posted since Aug 30th…. over 2 months!  Probably no one’s reading anymore, huh?  Guess there’s been nothing to read…

Anyhow, in that time, Kara and I moved to Hillsboro, got settled into our apartment, and started our jobs here.  We’ve also done a few other things such as hanging out in Portland, hiking Silver Falls, and checking out the coast.   We’ve gotten some pretty good pictures so when I get a few minutes, I’ll make some separate postings complete with pics.  

The Santa Fe Opera!!

To get a little more cultured, Kara and I went to the Santa Fe Opera last Friday night.  It’s been on our to-do-list for a long time since it’s a well known Opera venue and the tickets sell out each year.   We didn’t get any good pictures since you’re not supposed to have cameras inside, so here’s one of the only shots we got of the sky.

Red River Camping to Escape the Heat!!

I’m a little behind on some postings that I planned to make, so here goes…. about 2 weekends ago we decided to head north in order to escape the summer heat in ABQ.   It’s been in the low to mid 90’s and the swamp cooler has barely kept up so we loaded up the pathfinder and headed to higher elevation courtesy of Red River, NM.  The weekend was good, as we arrived a night too late for a bear visit to the camp ground (darn!), and we only got hailed on twice- so all in all, not bad.  🙂   Here’s some pictures, mostly of Bailey as this was his first time camping.    Kara also got to play with her Sony Alpha SLR camera in between rain showers.   She got some pretty good pictures from my novice point of view, especially of the sky and waterfalls.  Oh ya, check out our new RV, jeep, and ATVs…. oh wait, those are some rich people’s.   We stayed in the tent (so good thing that bear didn’t come back!).

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Went Boating…. Almost

We made a good attempt this past weekend to head north to Lake Abiquiu and go boating on our friend Clint’s ski boat, along with Matt, Bri, and their daughter Ella.  Unfortunately, Clint was the only one who got to enjoy a boat ride, even though it was only about 5 minutes of one.  Soon after launching his boat he noticed a major overheating issue going on so we put it back on the trailer, only to realize that the impeller that’s used to draw water into the engine had disinegrated.   Though we should consider ourselves fortunate, as there had been a tragic drowning just before we had gotten to the lake. 

At this point, eventhough the temps were in the 90’s and the NM sun was still blazing, we decided to head to a remote camping site about 6 miles off the paved highway, right along the Chama River.   Here are a few pictures…

   

Switzerland and Italy Trip- Long Post

And now on to the reason that finally drove me to create a Blog in the first place….  As many of you probably know by now, Kara and I went to Europe for 2 weeks to start off my sabbatical from work.  It’s taken me about the last 4 weeks to sort through the ~1800 pictures we took and narrow them down to something that most of you will find entertaining enough to look though.  After renaming all of them and resizing them so I could upload them to Photobucket.com (for the blog), I think I’m ready to share them with you.

You can log on and view ~230 pictures of our best pictures on Kodak’s Easyshare gallery, here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6ug9bek9.678s999t&x=1&y=45ydik..  I recommed this, as it seems a better way to just view the pictures, but I thought the blog would be better to tell the story of the trip.   If you see a picture that you like and want a high resolution version, let me know and I’ll get you a copy.  

Trip Overview: May 1-14, 2007.  Itinerary: Switzerland- Zurich, Lucerne, Interlaken, Geneva; Italy- Venice, Maranello, Florence, Rome. Here’s a map of our travels (click on map to view larger image).

 

 

 

 

Day 1/2:

On May 1, We flew out of Dallas into Zurich, Switzerland where we arrived at 8am on May 2.  The ~11hr flight was long, but wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, with this being my first trip out of North America.  Upon arrival, we took a train from the airport and began our trip to Interlaken, Switzerland.

 

We decided to grab a bite to eat so we got off the train and stayed a few hours in Lucerne, Switzerland.  Finding something to eat in Lucerne was a little harder than we expected as just about everything was in German, but we definitely didn’t starve.  (Kara copped out and ordered a mozzerella and tomaten sandwich.  Chris got a schinken sandwich….  Schinken definitely isn’t chicken, but it wasn’t bad.)  🙂
     

After our brief stay in Lucerne, we jumped back on a train and headed to Interlaken.  Here’s a few pics of the countryside.

 

Interlaken was very nice and scenic.   The view below (not of the flowers) was what we had to look at from our hotel balcony.

Hotel Interlaken (Lindner Grand Hotel Beau Rivage): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g188081-d290090-Reviews-Lindner_Grand_Hotel_Beau_Rivage-Interlaken_Bernese_Oberland_Swiss_Alps.html

   

Day 3: We took a train up the mountains from Interlaken up the Jungfrau- which is called the “Top of Europe”.   It was a beautiful train ride to the top and a spectacular view of a glacier.   There’s even an area in the mountain that’s an ice palace which is tunnels of solid ice (walls, ceiling, floor).

     

On the way back down the mountain, we got off at a small mountain town called Wengen and hiked down to another small town called Lauterbrunnen.  This place made me really wish I had more time and my mountain bike.   We got to walk through some of the most amazing countryside you could imagine complete with cows with bells and waterfalls off the mountain walls with even larger snow capped mtns in the background.

     

Day 4: After a little logistical issue (missing our train) we made it to Venice just an hour later than we were planning on after a 6 hr train ride.  It was raining most of the train ride and when we first got to Venice, but we still had a great time in this surreal place.  We almost dropped Venice from our itinerary, but I’m really glad we made the long trip here.  It was amazing, though if global warming is real and the seas do rise, this place won’t be around or the same for much longer.  I couldn’t believe how low all the buildings were to the sea level.

Venice Hotel (Antico Fiore): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187870-d504386-Reviews-Locanda_Antico_Fiore-Venice_Veneto.html

     

Day 5: Against Kara’s better judgement, I rented a car in Venice.   And almost against her will, I convinced her to take a small detour on our way to Florence to go to Maranello, which happens to be the birthplace of Ferrari and where’s there’s the Galleria Ferrari.   The Galleria is a museum with about 30+ mint condition Ferraris on display from the early years of Ferrari (1940’s) up to a 2005 $1,000,000 Ferrari Enzo.    I had a great time on this detour, though I’m not sure Kara was so enthusiastic, but she’s just lucky I didn’t force her to go anywhere else, as this area of Italy is known as Motor Valley because most of the famous motor companies (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati, Maserati, etc) are located in about a 15 mile radius. 

     

After some difficulties with Italian (especially the Italian pay phones) and some missing street signs in Florence, we found our hotel and spent the next 3 days discovering Florence and the Tuscany region. 

Florence Hotel (Casci): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187895-d195703-Reviews-Hotel_Casci-Florence_Tuscany.html

Day 6, 7, & 8:  Florence was packed with sculptures and art, none more famous than Michelangelo’s David which was impressive to say the least.  We toured the Galleria dell’ Accademia (where David is) and the Uffizi museums and the Duomo (a very large church) while in Florence, among shopping and just walking around the city.  The David below is a replica of the one in the museum, but they wouldn’t let us take pictures in there. 

     

On Day 7, we drove the rental car through Tuscany and had one of the best days on our trip.  Tuscany was filled with vineyards, rolling hills, and lots of small medieval towns.  We stopped at a random hillside restaurant and had what was one of the best meals of our trip.  We stayed here for about 3 hours just enjoying the Tuscany sun which was a nice change from the cold, rainy weather that we had for the previous 2 days. 

 
   

On day 8, after spending the morning in Florence, we drove to Rome.   I was completely humbled by the experience of driving in Florence (where most streets weren’t well marked) and Rome because in both places there’s no lanes marked and everyone races from signal or traffic circle to the next signal or traffic circle which consists of about 30 cars and another 30 mopeds/motorcycles in a space that would be filled by about 15 cars in the US.   The guidebook that we had for Rome stated the following “Getting Around:  By Car: Don’t drive in the center of Rome.  Period.”   That was some good advice that I should have listened to, had I read that ahead of time, and before making the reservations to drop the car off at the Rome Termini (central train station) during rush hour.   Long story short, it took us 4 hrs and a few years off of my life to turn in the rental car in Rome at 10pm.  🙂  Quote of the day:  Kara to Chris:  “I told you so.” 

Fortunately, day 9 was much better, as Rome was amazing.  We spent the first day touring ancient Rome.   The history and the details in the construction methods which date back 2000+ yrs were overwhelming.  You could almost feel the history in this city.   Not to mention that Rome is a huge modern city as well.   We definitely wished we had more time here and would definitley like to go back though we packed 3-4 days into the 2 full days we had here.

Rome Hotel (Apollo): http://rome-hotels.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187791-d240831-Reviews-Apollo_Hotel-Rome_Lazio.html

               

We spent most of day 10 at the Vatican.  We went to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel which were both overwhelming, so much so that words really can’t begin to describe these places.   The magnitude and vast amount of art contained here was well beyond my expectations.    Quote of the day:  Chris to Kara:  “Do your legs feel like they weigh 1000 lbs?”  Random Stranger to Chris:  “YES!!!”

    

On day 11, we flew to Geneva, Switzerland to visit with Kara’s friend / college roommate Jeese who’s been working/living in Geneva for the last year and a half.   Two other friends of Kara’s (Alex and Heena) were also there visiting as well.  Jesse rented a car so we could check out the Geneva Ouvertes Caves, which is a local wine festival celebrating the opening of the local wine cellars.   After this, we spent most of the afternoon, driving into France and up the Saleve (mountain) to enjoy some great views of Geneva.

    
 

On day 12, we rode in a panoramic train car across Switzerland to view the Swiss Alps from Geneva to Zurich, where we spent the night before flying back to the states.   The views on the train were fantastic though we were so tired by this point, that Kara had to fight not falling asleep.  🙂  We spent the evening walking around Zurich, but not until we experienced our very first Swiss riot.  We got off the train in Zurich and there was a group of ~200+ young men chanting something German.  We thought they might be celebrating the victory of their soccer team, but shortly thereafter, the riot police showed up with their tear gas guns about 10 feet in front of us and they scattered….  Needless to say, we didn’t get any pictures of that.  🙂

Zurich Hotel (Fly Away): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g198838-d266699-Reviews-Fly_Away-Kloten.html

  

Overall, the trip was fantastic and exceeded my expectations.  I’d definitely like to do more traveling overseas now.   Can’t wait until the next trip!!