Sunday, September 30, 2007

Scotland: Home of Golf

Gene said Edinburgh is one of his favorite cities ... now I get it. We kicked off the morning with a brutal uphill run which finally made me understand the term 'breathtaking' when we got to see the view from the top. In classic Geno style, we hit like 10 destinations before our train landed in the home of golf, Saint Andrews. And wow, what a site. Geno's friend Ken from Portland was incredibly generous and let us stay in his family home blocks away from the 18th hole on the "Old Course". (Our taxi driver almost called the police as he was convinced we had no right to be there - can't blame the guy.) Then I fell in love with golf all over after playing 18 holes and managing not to hit anyone in the head (sorry again Papa Gene). Click here for some fabulous pics.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Paris Escape

Less than 4 hours by train is this little up and coming city people like to call Paris. And it just so happens that one of my childhood best friends, Jen and her husband Jeff from Vegas let me crash their French holiday and join them for a weekend. How can you deny Paris?! While it was Jeff's first time in Europe, you wouldn't know it by the way he mastered the metro in less than 24 hours ... without him, Jen and I would've been roaming around the Eiffel Tower all day. Of course we hit some of the major landmarks, but the best part was just hanging out catching up. Click here for pics

Italia for Sun, Food, Wine and more Food

No amount of pictures can do Tuscany justice. But rather than attempt to describe our magical weekend at a villa of paradise, I'm cutting the writing short so you can experience the perfection. Our incredibly visionary Portland friends Laura and Matt (and adorable baby Julia) had the brilliant idea to rent out a Tuscan villa for 3 weeks so all their friends (and friends of friends of friends) could come and hang out. And they acted on it! So we took along our Amsterdam friends and spent a weekend in the sun, doing nothing but relaxing, eating Italian feasts and enjoying wine from local grapevines and getting to know new and old friends. Click here for shots





Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Dutch trifecta

(As told by Geno) Plenty of stuff going on around Amsterdam in August. We hit three of the big ones. First was "De Parade", an annual festival staging a range of musical, theatrical and comedy acts....and of course, grill your own pancakes? (Yes, we did it, and I ate a disgusting amount of them.) De Parade isn't a pile of dirt with elephants and half-sober clowns, it's a classy but welcoming setting underneath about 3 acres of trees. Here's an evening pic of one of the outdoor bars - notice the water hoses on top.


Then we got a great invitation from some friends to join them on a boat on the Prinsengracht canal to hear a free opera which takes place on a floating stage in the middle of the canal. I'm not a big opera fan, and was selfishly hoping the performance would climax with the stage dramatically sinking into the canal. No such luck. People line the streets in advance and set up little tables for the evening performance. Check out the scene to the left.




Before the weekend ended, I got a chance to go to a proper European Music Festival, you know, the ones with hundreds of thousands of people like the one you see in Guns N' Roses Paradise City video. Wasn't it Jeff Foxworthy who insists rednecks are everywhere, not just the South? I think he reached this conclusion after attending this festival. If you wonder how people are still making money selling tank tops and barb wire tattoos...I give you Lowlands. Low indeed. That said, there was strangely some crazy good asian food, some solid performances by The Shins, Kings of Leon, and Arcade Fire, not to mention some bizarre hands popping out of the water which were freaking just about everyone.