The Importance of Dessert

What I Did Last Sunday

2012-01-30T21:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my first planned task was to "sandwich" the Marine/Whale quilt I have been working on. I already had the top and backing made. All I had to do was to iron the batting, and then layout and pin the three layers together. Simple enough, right:?

This one task took me almost 6 hours! And I was exhausted when I was done.

Top, batting and backing are now all pinned together,
and the quilt is ready to be quilted!

It turns out that it is hard work to crawl on the floor on all fours, constantly getting up, and going back down, with all the extra weight mainly concentrated in my abdomen. I should not have been surprised.

31 Weeks

Last Friday, I tried to casually hop on a counter top (just like a kitchen counter) in conference room in a meeting at work, because all the chairs were taken. I did not think twice about it, because I have done this many times. I tried the "hopping" several times, before it dawned on me that given the extra weight and a change in my center of gravity, I am just not going to be able to do it. Given that I hopped on the same counter only about a week and a half ago, made this failure even more shocking.

Baby Prep: Childbirth Class

2012-01-23T07:17:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, Nick and I spent 6 hours learning about childbirth (first of two sessions). Don't worry -- I have no intention of relating the details. The class was good and useful, but I would not call it fun, or uplifting. However, there was one aspect of it, which we both found entertaining (and it will probably come as no surprise to anyone) -- apparently there is a smart phone app out there for just about anything relating childbirth. In fact there are so many, that the class instructor made recommendations as to which ones were better than others.

Oh Pregnancy

2012-01-20T22:51:00.000-05:00

A wanted pregnancy is a wonderful thing!

You plan for it, you read about it, you join an online community of other newly pregnant women, and you think you know what to expect... All of the knowledge acquisition and sharing is great, and it helps. Still I seem to be unable to avoid dilemmas and or bizarre conversations--not something I expected, though not surprising either.

I obviously knew that when time came to have children, it would be me and not Nick who sends his body in for a hormonal spin and organ shifting. (I refuse to even think about delivery just yet.)

As if the physical gender differences were not enough in themselves, they tremendously contribute to the social issues, particularly at work. Take the act of informing coworkers of the upcoming event, for example. A male coworker with a pregnant wife has to inform the team of the impending joy just as much as a pregnant female coworker--so what is so unfair about this? It turns out that the appropriate, or accepted, timeframe for the man is significantly wider than for a woman. Theoretically (though I would not suggest this) a man can make the announcement as late as a month before the birth. A woman could never pull that off.

In all fairness, it is possible that in this case my many superstitions have exacerbated the problem. I wanted to wait well into the 2nd trimester, before telling anyone about my condition. When I was finally ready to tell, I could not schedule a proper meeting with my manager for awhile and then was away on vacation. Growth apparently comes in bursts, and oh boy did I have a burst during our vacation. Waiting another 5 days till my meeting became a creativity test for wearing loose, shape-concealing clothing (it turns out that I only own one presentable sweatshirt). As I revealed the truth of my condition to some of my coworkers, I learned they have already been suspicious for some time--someone suggested that it was the shape (as opposed to size?) that gave me away.

Pregnancy seems like a very personal and a relatively private affair. (I say "relatively" because 1) here I am writing about it in a public blog, and 2) I have reached the point where my body shape broadcasts my condition to any and all innocent bystanders.) To avoid the communal rejoicing I decided not to announce my pregnancy in any meetings at work, as many people at my workplace do. As a result, a lot of people I see on a daily basis did not realize I was pregnant until I started showing. Some people have been interacting with me as if nothing happened, while others ask direct questions. I am fine with either. But not everyone falls into one of these groups.

Last week, I had a conversation with a coworker, that went something like this:

Lady (blocking my way through the kitchen): Are you... ? [LONG pause]

me: [LONG pause] Yes, I am.

Lady: I would never ask, except that with you it could not be anything else...

me: [smile and nod]

Lady: Do you know who it is?

me: It's a boy. [Resisting the urge to say that it is definitely not a puppy]

Lady: [Finally moving to unblock the kitchen] I did a lot of nursing. So if you have any questions about nursing, please come by and ask.

me: Thank you very much. I really appreciate it...


15 weeks (October)	24 weeks (December)	29 weeks (now)

Luckily I have been able mostly to avoid random people touching my stomach. I attribute my luck to the time of the year--I spend a lot of time in my puffy down coat, which so far has been doing a good job of concealing my bulge.

Recent Quilting Adventures

2011-12-27T00:19:00.001-05:00

Back in 2009, I have finished my second ever quilt. The workmanship of the "elephant quilt" was not too great, but it was my own design, and I was (and am) quite proud of it.

My finished Elephant Quilt (2009)

This past year, almost two years later, I tackled another quilt. Rather than trying to come up with a design, I decided to follow instructions from One Block Wonders: One Fabric, One Shape, One-of-a-Kind Quilts book by Maxine Rosenthal. (Stay tuned for my review of the book.)

Making the quilt went something like this:

I "shredded" 4 yards of fabric into 600+ unilateral triangles (648 triangles, to be precise).

648 triangles (plus some scrap fabric)

In the course of the next two weeks I sewed the triangles into 100+ hexagons. (Honestly, they were really half hexagons pinned in the middle.)

Hexagons

The next step was particularly entertaining--deciding how to arrange the hexagons. This part was so much fun that even Nick got involved, and we spent several evenings arranging and rearranging the hexagons. (In the end we have decided that the process is pretty much infinite.)

Hexagons

We were taking care of a tiny adorable and most rambunctious dog, Rascal, right when it was time for me to make the quilt "sandwich"--pin the backing, the filling and the top layers all together. Rascal really wanted to participate.

Rascal is helping me with the quilt
(Don't worry--I washed the quilt when I finished it)

Then I decided that I just have to do "free motion" quilting on this quilt. So I put together several flannel baby blankets to practice the technique on them. In the end doing free motion quilting on the quilt turned out a bit easier because it was much stiffer than the baby blankets.

The quilt "stuffed" into my new machine!

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the finished quilt, because I finished it literally hours before gifting it to my friend.

Christmas Eve in Walla Walla

2011-12-25T18:12:00.000-05:00

Christie is setting up the table for the Christmas Eve dinner

Parker House Rolls is a serious business out here in Walla Walla
I rolled out a triple batch, and Christie, the chef, provides direction on how to serve them

Sitting down for the Christmas Eve dinner
We did not have any "kid" tables this year,
but one long table set for 20 (counting little Ethan) instead

Little Ethan and Britney do a little after dinner dance

Relaxing after dinner
The measurements should be not in the number of rolls
I had for dinner (1), but in weeks (25 weeks)

Socializing and relaxing after dinner

What Is Harvard Afraid Of?

2011-11-26T23:37:00.000-05:00

Today was a beautiful, unseasonably warm day, and we went out for a stroll around Cambridge. When we approached the Harvard Yard, we encountered locked gates and a lot of police. Even Nick's Harvard student ID was not sufficient to allow me and Nick's two cousins to enter the yard.

Why the lock down? Apparently, because Occupy Harvard has set up a few tents in front of the John Harvard statue. For full disclosure, I do not claim to understand their position nor do I want to take a stance on it one way or the other. However, I would like someone to explain to me how the Occupy Harvard "protest" presents a risk that is so great as to lead the Harvard administration to block people from visiting the historical campus.

Pachyderm Parade

2011-10-12T21:02:00.000-04:00

After several years of hearing people talk about this event and glimpsing photos, I was finally able to go see it for myself—elephants marching on Memorial Drive. Yes, REAL elephants.

Every year the Ringling Bros. Circus comes to town, and every year they walk their elephants from a railroad car somewhere behind the MIT campus to TD North Garden along the streets of Cambridge and Boston. I have heard different theories. Some say that it is an old tradition and a way for the circus to announce their arrival into the city. Perhaps once upon a time that was true. However, the parade is not publicized, does not involve anyone but elephants and their caretakers, and seems to be conducted as quickly as possible.

So the theory I prefer to believe is that there is no way to get the special train cars that elephants travel in up to TD North Garden, and so the animals have to make the last ½ mile of the journey on foot. This theory would also explain why a similar parade happens when the circus is leaving town.

Nick and I arrived at the intersection of Mass Ave and Memorial Drive just as the police was gathering there, preparing to close the streets. There was no crowd, but a few curious bystanders. In just a few minutes, we saw a slow moving lead vehicle and elephants walking behind it!

There were 6 Asian elephants—5 adults and one baby (or at least a juvenile). All but the lead elephant were holding on to the tail of the elephant in front of them. The baby elephant let go of the tail in front of him quite a bit, but the extra trainer walking next to him kept encouraging him to hold on.

I walked next to the last elephant in the procession for a little bit, and it was having some tail issues as well. The elephant in front of it really wanted to use its tail to swat its own back. But every time the elephant in the front pulled out its tail to do that, the elephant behind him grabbed on to it again. It was rather amusing to watch.

The elephant procession came and went very quickly. Even though the whole spectacle lasted no more than 10 minutes, it left me feeling giddy for the rest of the day. Elephants!

Rosh Hashanah

2011-10-12T20:17:00.000-04:00

It is a little bit late to talk about Rosh Hashanah, but I will do it anyway.

This was our second year in a row baking our own challah—truly a team effort where I mix the dough and shape the bread, while Nick monitors the third and final rising, bastes the bread with the egg glaze and poppy seeds, and does the actual baking.

Exploring the Forest Hills Cemetery

2011-09-10T22:05:00.000-04:00

Back in early July, Nick and I ventured out to the Forest Hills Cemetery.

It might not be the first garden cemetery in America like the Mount Auburn Cemetery is in Cambridge, nor can it compete with that cemetery for having more incredibly famous “residents”. Our visit to the cemetery was not unlike a visit to a museum. We wanted to see the works of art in landscape, architecture and sculpture.

Daniel Chester French was one of the main sculptors whose works I wanted to see. Luckily one of his masterpieces is located right next the main entrance to the cemetery.

Death and the Sculptor by Daniel Chester French
a tribute to brothers Martin and Joseph Milmore

Death and the Sculptor is French’s tribute to his fellow artists, Martin Milmore, a sculptor, and his brother Joseph Milmore, a stone cutter. Interestingly, the bas-relief depicts the sculptor chiseling a sphinx.

Civil War Memorial, sculpted by Martin Milmore

You may remember or know this unusual tribute to the Union and the American Civil War at the Mount Auburn Cemetery--this was the work of Martin and Joseph Milmore.

Angel of Peace by Daniel Chester French
a tribute to George Robert White

Angel of Peace is another work by Daniel Chester French that we saw. This tall statue is a tribute to George Robert White, a businessman and a Boston philanthropist. His name did not mean anything to me until I started seriously studying my manual for the Longwood Medical Area tour. White donated money to the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and the college’s first building built in the Longwood Medical Area was named after him.

The Slocum Memorial by Daniel Chester French

The lesser known 1909 Slocum memorial by Daniel Chester French was difficult to find, but no less graceful and beautiful than the other sculptures.

Citizen Soldier, also known as the Civil War Roxbury Soldiers' monument
by Daniel Chester French

Besides going to see the memorial to Martin Milmore, we also visited his Roxbury Soldiers’ monument or the Citizen Soldier. It is no wonder that this sculpture catapulted him into fame.

While enjoying the sculpture, we also visited graves of some notable people. Nick particularly wanted to pay his respects to William Lloyd Garrison.

Nick taking photos of the William Lloyd Garrison gravestone

I am very glad to say that I have now been to the site where many of the Warrens are interred.

a boulder of Roxbury pudding stone, marking the Warrens' burial site

One of the Warrens' headstone
This one lists Joseph Warren, John Warren and John Collins Warren

The important ones for me are Joseph Warren, the physician/spymaster and Revolutionary War hero, his brother John Warren, who established the Harvard Medical School, and his son John Collins Warren, who was one of the founders of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Medical Library.

We also visited the graves of e.e. cummings and Eugene O’Neil.

Eugene O'Neil's headstone

We had a hard time finding the latter, and while Nick was busy looking, I enjoyed taking photos of the statue of Saint Francis, known for his love of animals and founding of the Franciscan order.

Saint Francis, known for his love of animals and founding of the Franciscan order,
watches over the area called Sleepy Hollow

Our last stop before leaving the cemetery was the grave of Henry and Lucinda Barnard.

Sandstone sculpture of a Newfoundland dog, by Henry Dexter

We actually do not know anything about the Barnards, but the grave is guarded by a beautiful sandstone sculpture of a Newfoundland dog, created by Henry Dexter in 1854. It is not clear to me whether the Barnards had a pet Newfoundland dog. It is more likely that the sculpture acts as a guardian for the grave.

Getting Familiar with the Longwood Medical Area

2011-09-08T22:13:00.000-04:00

It has been full 2 months since I blogged. At first I was going to blame the Longwood Medical Area (LMA) tour that I had to give for Boston By Foot at the end of July. But it has now been over a month since I have given the tour... So maybe the tour was only part of the story.

I did spend a lot of time in June and especially July memorizing various facts about the Harvard Medical School and the many hospitals now located in the LMA. There were also many "walk throughs" and a few practice tours... In the end, I think the tour went well, though I wish more people showed up.

A couple of weeks ago I tracked back along the tour route and took photos of the things that I found particularly neat. So here I present you a small peek into the wonders of the tour.

Gordon Hall at the top of the Harvard Medical School Quad

At the end of the 19th century Harvard Medical School was located near Copley Square. The school started looking for a new location in order to have space to expand and to be near hospitals to train the budding doctors. This need played an important role in establishing the Longwood Medical Area.

The Stoneman Building, originally the South Building, built in 1948
It is the 2nd building of the Beth Israel Hospital in the LMA

The Beth Israel Hospital was establish in Roxbury in 1916, but moved to the Longwood Medical Area in 1928. While the hospital welcomed people of all religions and nationalities, it particularly catered to Jewish people, providing kosher meals and religious services.

If you noticed that the South Building in the photo above is built at an angle to other (later) buildings around it and more importantly at an angle to the street, it is because at the time it was really important that the operating rooms get northern light exposure. The natural light requirements turned up in many places on the tour because when many of these buildings were originally built, the electric lighting was simply not sufficient for complicated medical procedures.

Yawkey Center, the newest clinical building of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,
just opened in late January this year

Patients names written on steel beams exposed in the Yawkey Center

The Yawkey Center, Dana Farber's new clinical building, just opened in late January of this year. Besides the expected numerous exam and consultation rooms, the center also has over 300 works of art on display for the patients and a two story healing garden. The building has a green roof, landscaped with native plants. During the Yawkey Center construction ironworkers wrote the names of patients on the steel beams. Some of the names still remain visible in honor of the patients.

A plaque on the Libby Building of the Deaconess Hospital
that marks the spot where insulin was administered for the first time
in New England to a diabetes patient, Elizabeth Mudge

It was interesting to learn about the early treatment of diabetes. Apparently before insulin became available in 1922, the only way to "treat" diabetes was essentially by starvation.

And now it is time for one of my favorite parts of the tour--the original building of the Angell Memorial Hospital.

An inscription inside the arch of the Angell Memorial Hospital original building

When the Angell Memorial Hospital first opened in 1915 on Longwood Avenue, it was the first large animal veterinary hospital in the United States. As it was the age of the horse, people brought their ailing horses here. The inscription asks that the horses be taken through the arch and into the courtyard.

Rings for tethering horses to be examined
in the courtyard of the original Angell Memorial Hospital building

All around the courtyard there are still rings mounted into the walls, once used for tethering horses to be examined. In 1976 Angell Memorial moved to a new much larger facility in Jamaica Plain, and this building today belongs to Harvard and is being used for office space. Luckily these small remnants of the veterinary hospital still remain.

Butterfly Pattern!

2011-07-06T23:30:00.001-04:00

Gardening on the Fire Escape

2011-07-04T17:35:00.000-04:00

Our condo association suddenly decided that we can have a flower box on the fire escape. I am personally skeptical about this lapse in fire safety. The association also stated that anyone caught on the fire escape in a non-emergency situation will be fined $500. So does mounting the flower box and watering the plants constitute an emergency? But I have always wanted a flower box, so here I go. Grow, herbs, grow!

Sweet basil and parsley hiding behind petunias. (Please, no aphids, please!)

Another pot of sweet basil, and a pot of cilantro!

Another Fabric Design: Fireworks or Flowers in the Sky

2011-06-29T20:22:00.000-04:00

Last Weekend in New York City

2011-06-18T13:03:00.000-04:00

Nick and I met up with Brooke and had a fun filled weekend in New York City. Here are the highlights.

New York bagels for breakfast!
We ate them sitting in the middle of Times Square.

New York Public Library
We wondered around a bit, but our main destination here was the Children’s room. There, in the middle of little tables and colorful books, stood a glass case with the real Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and Kanga! These toys were given to Christopher Robin Milne and eventually inspired his father, A.A. Milne, write the Winnie the Pooh children’s books. My first reaction upon seeing the toys was that Piglet was indeed a “Very Small Animal.”

Being a resident of Boston and a proud wife of a Harvard Medical School alumnus, I cannot resist mentioning that the buildings on the Harvard Medical School quad along Longwood Avenue largely owe their magnificent marble facades to no other then the New York Public Library. The original plans for HMS intended the buildings to be built of brick and granite. However, one of the bidders offered to substitute marble, which was originally intended for the construction of the New York Public library. The library architects rejected it, because this marble was not "entirely free of color." Thus the marble was available at a discounted price, and eventually used for the construction of the Harvard Medical School.

The Cloisters
Brooke and I thought we were going to the Cloisters. We eventually learned that it is mandatory to visit Ulysses Grant’s Tomb before arriving at the Cloisters. Alas, this mausoleum, the largest in North America according to Wikipedia, was closed.

Luckily, the Cloisters hours of operation were a lot more sensible. We spent a couple of hours wondering through Gothic and Romanesque halls and chapels, admiring Medieval tapestries, wood carvings, alter pieces, and even looking at some Medieval plants. The unicorn tapestries were my favorite part of the museum. They are the one thing I remember well from my only previous visit here back in 1994. I cannot decide whether it is neat or insane that researchers have properly identified 85 species of the 101 different plants depicted in the “The Hunters Enter the Woods” tapestry. Still no one knows who, why and how commissioned these tapestries.

“Sleep No More”
I do not know if it is appropriate to call what we saw a play or a show or something else. I heard the term “immersive” used to describe the experience. Action took place in a warehouse in Chelsea, where 4 or 5 floors were transformed into a labyrinth of rooms. Each room has been painstakingly decorated, creating living spaces as well as offices, storage, forests, a cemetery, a hospital ward, etc. Everyone explores the warehouse. Audience is masked, the actors are not. I spent some amount of time dashing after different actors trying to put together the story line and some of time just exploring the rooms.

The Brooklyn Bridge
We power walked to the middle of the bridge and back. This visit did not turn out to be one of the more memorable ones for me, as the bridge was somewhat crowded. Plus, unlike the Hunters I really do prefer to stroll.

A bit of walking around the Financial District
Nick really wanted to see a specific building near Wall Street, because many significant historical events took place there, including George Washington inauguration as the first president of the United States in 1789. We eventually found the building and spent a few minutes on its steps, as the building itself was closed. Later, I looked up the building, since at the time none of us actually knew any details about it. According to Wikipedia, the building where the first United States Congress met, and where George Washington was actually inaugurated in 1789, was built in 1700, eventually named Federal Hall, and demolished in 1812. Another building erected on the same site in 1842 was eventually designated as the Federal Hall National Memorial. So in the end, we visited the site where George Washington was inaugurated, not the building. Though just to be fair, the newer (though hardly new) building had its own important moments in history, such as being the first Customs House in the country

On our way to the Federal Hall National Memorial, we stopped by St. Paul’s Chapel. The church, completed in 1766, was designed in the then fashionable Georgian style and modeled after James Gibbs’ St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London’s Trafalgar Square. (Another church modeled after St. Martin-in-the-Fields is King’s Chapel right here in Boston. Although due to lack of funds, it is missing a steeple.) George Washington attended services at St. Paul’s Chapel right after taking the oath of office in 1789 and continued to worship here until the capital was moved from New York City to Philadelphia in 1790.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Due to our bus schedule, we had about 45 minutes to spend in the museum, so we split up. After a quick look at the Renaissance velvet exhibit (which included no more then 6 or 7 textiles), I headed to the French Period rooms. In the process I became completely distracted by German porcelain. The figurines of a lion and a lioness particularly caught my eye.

Reading the sign confirmed my suspicions that these two enormous porcelain figures were “part of an extraordinary commission to produce large-scale animals in porcelain” and were intended to decorate the Japanese Palace in Dresden.

It just so happens that MFA's collection of these large porcelain animals is "one of the largest in the world outside Dresden."

Out of the figures on display, the Macaw is my favorite.


Boston's Museum of Fine Arts Macaw Germany, Meissen manufactory, about 1731 Modeled by Johann Joachim Kandler (German, 1706-1775)

Look What I Found

2011-05-10T20:34:00.000-04:00

This is one of my favorite photos. The photo is from sometime in 1993, and we just moved from one apartment to another. My parents decided to get rid of the old donated sofa during the move and buy a new one, but it took them sometime to find a suitable one. In the meantime, everyone piled into the one armchair that stood in front of a TV in the living room.

Musical Whales Pattern

2011-05-04T22:38:00.000-04:00

Musical Whales Pattern

Musical Whales is a new pattern I completed last night, just barely in time to submit it to the Black & White "fabric of the week" contest on Spoonflower.

Musical Whales Pattern Detail

Bird Frenzy - First Peek

2011-04-28T23:05:00.000-04:00

Swamped!

2011-03-24T22:37:00.001-04:00

Last night I did not go to bed till after 4am. I did not have to travel or pack, and I was in my office before 9:30am this morning. So what was I thinking! Last night I stayed up later than I have ever done in college in order to finish working on a fabric pattern, which Nick and I have named "Swamped!"

Believe it or not, these caterpillers and snails came to life
after many hours spent sketching space ships and flying saucers.

This particular design had to adhere to the “Baby Boy” theme in order to qualify for submission to the Project Selvage contest, run by Spoonflower and Michael Miller Fabrics. One lucky winner gets to create a baby boy and a baby girl collection of fabrics (6 prints each), and travel to the International Quilt Market in Housten where the collections will be "debuted."

By no means do I aspire to win this contest. After years of working in the software industry I have learned (I think) to set reasonable, “measurable” and achievable goals. So I would consider it a great honor if my design makes it into the first round—the sponsors review all submissions and choose 75 designs for the Spoonflower community to vote on. Wish me luck!

Projects' Update

2011-03-13T00:20:00.000-05:00

It is only March, and Nick and I have already taken two vacations this year! Craziness! (Both vacations had to be timed just right to match up with our families.) Here are a few things I have been working on between all the traveling and my day job.

Even though my “fabulous” rabbit fabric pattern did not take the Spoonflower community by storm, I was still quite happy with the results. (I think I have finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up!)

But before working on more fabric patterns, I decided to participate in the sock design contest, held by Oregon based company, Sock It to Me. The finalists are supposed to be revealed on Monday, and you might be able to vote for your favorite sock design on Facebook.

Here is one of my designs. Click on the image to see all 5 of my submissions.

2011-03-10T22:31:00.000-05:00

Late last night before going to bed

Helen: What is "alligator" in Russian?
Nick: Алягрушка?

Today's Snapshots from Shark Valley in Everglades National Park

2011-03-07T23:06:00.000-05:00

One of the largest allitgators we saw today

Me, taking a photo of the large beast

This "little" alligator walked out into the road and lay down for a little bit. After a minute or so, the alligator got up and finished crossing the road--apparently a rest stop was required.

A male anhinga drying his feathers.

Coconuts in the Mail

2011-02-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

Last year someone told me that US Postal Service considers a coconut to be valid packaging. In other words, at least within the United Stated you should be able to mail a coconut without packing it into a box or any sort of an envelope. While in Hawaii, we decided to take USPS at their word. The adventure of mailing a couple of coconuts turned out to be a rather amusing multi-step process.

Step 1. Acquire the coconuts
Despite the fact that large ripe coconuts threatened to fall on our heads practically everywhere we went, acquiring whole coconuts was not trivial. We stopped by a farmers’ market and three supermarkets before we could buy some. (Shockingly this seems to be a pattern with many local fruit.)

Step 2. Get the coconuts inspected and stamped at an airport
All the airports we have visited in Hawaii had multiple USDA stands. (USDA checks all luggage traveling to the mainland.) We took the purchased coconuts to one of these stands at the Lihue airport for government inspection. “Yep, that’s a coconut,” said a USDA officer after taking one of our coconuts into his hands. He then proceeded to carefully search each fruit for a smooth spot to stamp his USDA seal of approval.

Step 3. Address the coconuts
You might think that addressing a coconut is so simple and obvious that it does not deserve its own step. If you do think so, I challenge you in your free time to write your full name on one of these little fur balls. Legibly! We tried a combination of thin and thick sharpies, and eventually ended up with something acceptable.

Step 4. Convince the USPS worker to mail the coconut without a box
In the end our coconuts’ fate fell entirely to the mercy of the post office worker. And they (the coconuts… or maybe we) were very lucky. The cheerful post office man that greeted us shrugged his shoulders, smiled and started weighing each of our little “packages”. We knew we were lucky because another friendly post office worker came by to take a look, and he did not think that mailing coconuts without a box was such a good idea. In fact, he thought mailing coconuts should not be allowed at all, because they contain liquid.

In the end, the two coconuts we mailed to our friends on the mainland safely reached their destination in only 3 days! We were originally going to mail three coconuts, but it turned out that one of them was leaking. So we spared everyone involved in transporting mail and bestowed the leaky coconut on our friends, Ryan and Talia, who live in Hawaii.

Hanakapi'ai Falls, or How to Donate Blood to Mosquitoes

2011-02-05T18:34:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we drove out to the North West edge of Kauai to hike part of the Kalalau trail. We almost did not go because it was raining really hard, but we decided to try it out. The rain continued to sprinkle on and off as we scrambled up a slippery muddy trail.

Soon the rain stopped, and we started getting glimpses of the cliffs ahead and the surf down below us.

View of Na Pali Coast from Kalalau Trail

Our first destination was 2 miles from the trail head--Hanakapi'ai Beach. This beach is not for swimming. In fact, there is even a sign posted on the trail warning hikers not to go anywhere near the water.

Sign by the Hanakapi'ai Beach

The existance of a sign is in itself unusual. The local pattern we have noticed (and read about in our guidebook) is to provide as few signs as possible. The trail from the beach to the falls was extremely poorly marked. Later I learned that it is technically unmaintained.

Past the beach, the trail turned away from the ocean and started climbing. After another 2 miles of scrambling up the rocks and crossing a several streams, we have reached the Hanakapi'ai Falls.

Hanakapi'ai Falls

Several extremely brave fellow hikers (Britney, Cory, Thomas and Dan) jumped into the large pool under these 300 foot falls. The water must have been freezing--I felt cold just feeling the water spray on my face and arms.

Cory and Thomas waiting for Britney to swim under the waterfall.

The sun came out as we hiked back to the beach, and then back our cars.

There were practically no moscitoes along the trail except for one magical spot--the bamboo forest. Unable to encounter thick groves of bamboo in my every day life, I was fascinated and paused to snap a few photos. I could not adjust my camera settings fast enough before my legs, thickly smeared with bug repelent, were covered in mosquito bites.

That was on the way to the falls. Did I learn my lesson? Apparently, not. With the sun shining into the "bamboo forest" I was compelled to pause and take a few more photos. For these I invariably paid with a few more bites.

Captain Cook and Kealakekua Bay

2011-01-27T04:25:00.000-05:00

For some reason I have always believed that Captain James Cook (the British explorer, who discovered Australia and Hawaii for the Europeans) was killed by the natives in Australia. (And Visotsky's song about Captain Cook certainly supports my theory.)

It turns out that Captain Cook was killed in Hawaii, in Kealakekua Bay. In late 1800's the British were granted a piece of land near the spot where the captain was killed and erected a monument there in his memory.

Monument to Captain Cook, the British explorer

Kealakekua Bay is said to be one of the best snorkling spots in Hawaii. Nick and I hiked down 2 miles to the water in order to do the snorkling and see Captain Cook's monument.

Kealakekua Bay

At the top the trail cut through tall wild grasses. For all you "Lost" fans out there: the entire time the grasses made strange noises, which made me think that either someone was following me, or that someone was whispering nearby. It felt eerily similar to some of the scenes in the show.
The snorlking was indeed amazing. The coral reefs seemed a lot healthier, and hence a lot more colorful than the ones we saw in Hanauma Bay. At one point Nick and I saw an eel. The sun was setting by the time we climbed back up 1300 feet to the road.

Things I do not have time to blog about right now:

whale watching near Kona--we saw several humpbacks, including a mother with a calf about a week old
seeing an active volcano for the first time in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
the landscape, the flora and the fauna around us
snapping my sun glasses in half and lamenting that I failed to lear such simple things as the Reparo incantation in elementary school

Turtles, Pineapples and Pearl Harbor

2011-01-25T04:38:00.000-05:00

None of the items listed in the title are connected, but the title summarizes are adventures for the day. Ryan drove us out to the North shore of Oahu, to the town of Hale'iwa.

On a beach near the town we looked for some sea turtles. Unfortunately, the strong surf does not seem to agree with the turtles. The few that we saw kept getting flipped over by the waves, probably not a pleasant experience even for the turtles. However, the heads of the turtles occasionally sticking out of the water were still pretty cute.

Since I could not get a photo of a sea turtle,
I took a photo of a crab running nearby on the beach

We tried to look for surfers at the Waimea Beach, but the waves were not very high, and the surfers were mainly wading in the water looking for bigger waves.

On the way to Hale'iwa, we stopped at the Dole Plantation of pineapples. For some reason I always assumed that pineapples grew on trees. I'm not sure where that conviction of mine came from, but I was quickly proven wrong.

Nick and Ryan in front of the entrance to the Dole Plantation

In the afternoon, we visisted Pearl Harbor and saw the USS Arizona memorial.

USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated in 1962

Oil still leaking from USS Arizona
(sunk on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor)

Hiking and Snorkling on Oahu

2011-01-24T02:58:00.000-05:00

We continued to soak up the sun here in Honolulu.

Ryan picks an avocado while standing on his porch
--the wonders of living in a tropical rain forest

Our first adventure today was to hike to the edge of the rim of an extinct volcanic crator near Waikiki, called the Diamond Head. It was very crowded at the top, but the views were amazing.

View of the ocean and some coral reef from the edge of the rim of the Diamond Head

After a light lunch of sushi, we did some snorkling at the Hanauma Bay. I have never snorkled before, so it took some getting used to. We saw a lot of fish. I was amazed how little I had to move to stay afloat in the water. I guess it has been awhile since I last swam in salt water. (No photos from the beach, as we again locked our cameras in the car.)

Enjoying views after the snorkling

Nick taking a break from looking out for whales

Aloha

2011-01-23T03:22:00.000-05:00

Our first day in Honolulu involved a bit of hiking in the Lyon Arboretum in Manoa and some kayaking in Kailua. There are no photos of the kayaking, because we decided to leave our cameras safe and dry in the car.

Honolulu

Talia near a giant tree, whose name we do not know

At the Pali Lookout

After our kayaking adventure we had a bit of shaved ice at the "Island Snow", the same place where the president went just a few weeks ago.

Nick eating a Raspberry Vanilla Shaved Ice at the Island Snow in Kailua

Three Sure Ways to Raise My Blood Pressure

2011-01-13T20:40:00.000-05:00

For an institution such as a museum or another event venue:

Invite me to attend an upcoming event. When I show up to pick up the tickets, tell me that the event does not exist.

For a fellow T/subway rider:

Wait for a train while standing next to me and next to a fare machine. When the train arrives, hold up the train preventing passengers from boarding in order to use the train’s fare machine to add enough money on the fare card to pay for the ride.

For various parties concerned with saving the environment:

Encourage me to live without a car. When I chose not to buy a car and to use public transit, deny me ways to increase my liability insurance while driving a ZipCar, charge me an arm and a leg for comprehensive coverage on a rental car, and do not plow your property sidewalks after a snow storm.

Grandma Jo's Chocolate Quick Cake

2011-01-09T23:18:00.000-05:00

Grandma Jo, Nick's great grandmother
whose full name was Anna Josephine

Even though this cake seems to have been popular in Nick’s family while he was growing up, I only made it once before, a few years back—too long ago to remember exactly what I did.

Inconveniently, the recipe omits two small but important details: the size of a baking dish to use, and how intensely to beat the eggs.

I compared the amounts of the ingredients to other recipes of known volumes and gave the recipe a couple test runs. Now I can attest that the batter fits nicely into two 9” round pans for a two layer cake.

In an effort to spread the pleasure of cake over a longer period of time (by freezing some of it), I have also baked the batter in two 6” round pans. The baking takes longer, and the cakes are higher. You can freeze one, and slice the other one for a small two layer cake.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
Preheat the oven to 350F, and butter the baking dish. (I also lined the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.)
In a medium bowl, beat the egg. (I did use a hand held mixer).
Add buttermilk (I beat the mixture a little more).
Mix in oil and vanilla
Gently mix in the dry mixture above. (I did not use a mixer at this point. If you do opt for the mixer at this point, stay at the lowest speed possible.)
Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes for 9” pans, or at 325F for 40 to 45 minutes for 6” pans.

My Chocolate Quick Cake recipe card comes complete with a recipe for the cake frosting on the back.

2 Tbsp butter
1 square chocolate (probably 1 ounce)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp hot water
vanilla (optional)

Melt butter with chocolate
Add the rest of the ingredients, and beat all until smooth

In the name of full disclosure, I have never made the frosting above. My note that a square is an ounce of chocolate is just a guess.

So far I have been using a simple ganache frosting instead.

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 lb bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Heat the cream in a small pot until just boiling
Take the pot off the heat, and mix in the chocolate until smooth
Cool until the mixture thickens, but is still easy to spread.

The above amount is just enough for a 6” inch cake, but should be doubled for a 9” inch cake.

Nick and I also enjoyed the cake frosted with the ganache, but filled with rapberry preserves.

Christmas Eve in Walla Walla

2010-12-26T18:32:00.000-05:00

Brook, Ethan and Kate


Parker House Rolls Production

This year was a double turkey Christmas Eve dinner

Ethan loves the Christmas tree

Joanne with her great grandson, Ethan

Brooke warming by the fire

Christmas Eve dinner

Dinner on Christmas Eve

Joanne's Parker House Rolls

2010-12-14T22:21:00.000-05:00

I tried my very first Parker House roll in Walla Walla while spending my first Christmas with Nick’s family. The rolls Nick’s grandmother, Joanne, made were simply delicious. Legend has it when Nick was eleven, he ate as many as 14 in one sitting, accompanied by a complete Christmas Eve dinner—you know, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, Christmas Jello... So of course I asked Joanne for the recipe, and she kindly wrote it out on a card for me.

After making several rather tasteless batches of rolls, I asked Nick’s Aunt Lisa, well known for her humor and excellent cooking, for help.

If one can laugh loudly in an email, Lisa certainly did. The subject line of the first email back to me read: “TEASPOON????” She suggested that I attempt the recipe using 1/4 cup instead of 1 teaspoon of sugar. I followed Lisa’s advice, and for the first time ever my rolls had a taste and were actually pleasant to eat.

Unbeknownst to me, the sugar measurement saga continued—Lisa and Joanne were vigorously exchanging emails on the subject:

Joanne: I've never in my life put 1/4 cup of sugar in Parker House rolls! I put in 1 heaping T and that's it.

Lisa: The recipe that I am using is the one you pointed out in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook [which calls for 1/4 cup of sugar]. … Your T tells me that you use a tablespoon, heaping, correct? Is that a measuring tablespoon or a serving spoon from your silverware? Either a heaping measuring tablespoon or a heaping "tablespoon" from my silverware is about 1/8 cup, so it isn't really that far off.

Joanne: All this funny stuff about the sugar in the rolls. Actually in both rolls and spaghetti sauce I use one of my big cooking spoons that hang above stove and put in a heaping one of those for the sugar!

Sometime later someone in the family measured the volume of one of those “big cooking spoons that hang above the stove” heaping with sugar, and it came out to be almost exactly 1/4 cup.

A few years have gone by since then, and I have gotten better at making rolls. Besides changing the sugar amount, I made two other minor adjustments to Joanne’s original recipe:

I use butter instead of Crisco.
I make the dough the night before and let it rise in the fridge. Putting the dough into the cold might sound like blasphemy to Joanne, but a slow rise gives bread more flavor. Plus, doing so allows me to do half the work the night before.

Joanne no longer cooks, and other people in the family take on the responsibility of preparing the Christmas Eve dinner. Everyone tries to help, and I have been making a triple batch of Parker House rolls for the last two years. Hopefully the family will not bar me from doing so again, now that I am publicly revealing my changes to Joanne’s original recipe.

Joanne’s Parker House Rolls as written on my card

In a large bowl:

1 Tbsp suga
1 tsp salt

In a small pan:

scald 1 cup milk with 2 or 3 Tbsp of Crisco
Stir, don’t let boil

Pour over sugar/salt in a bowl, stir to dissolve
Let cool to just warm
Add 1 beaten egg
Add 2 ¼ tsp dry yeast dissolved in very warm water (not too hot)
Stir in 1 cup of flour (will be lumpy)
Stir in 1 more cup flour, beating well and scraping off sides of bowl
Measure 1 more cup flour, add about ¾ cup. If dough is still sticky add rest of flour. If dough is stiff, don’t add flour.
Beat dough vigorously with large spoon, scrape sides and bottom of bowl beating air into the dough
Cover with dish cloth. Set in a warm spot. Let rise 2 hours.
Roll out (to about 1/2”) on floured pastry cloth, rolling pin has cloth cover as well.
Use 2 ½” cookie cutter, dab melted butter on each. Stretch circle, fold over and press top edge down on greased sheet. (Will keep rolls from popping open.)
Bake @ 400F. Check at 8 min – 10 min max. Will be lightly brown.

Joanne’s Parker House Rolls with a few adjustments

Ingredients:

1 cup of milk
3 Tbsp of butter + more butter melted to brush the rolls
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1 egg slightly beaten
3 cups of flour (more for rolling out the dough)

Combine sugar, salt, milk and butter in a small pot, scold, but don’t let boil. (If it boils, it is ok). When the butter, sugar and salt dissolve, take off the heat and let cool.
In a cup, dissolve yeast in warm water, and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.
When the milk/butter mixture cools (I sometimes use ice baths to speed up the process), stir in the beaten egg, and the yeast/water mixture. (The milk/butter mixture should not feel hot—you don’t want to cook the egg or kill the yeast).
Stir in 2 cups of flour one at a time, beating well with a large spoon and scraping off the sides.
Measure 1 more cup of flour, but only add about 3/4 of the cup. Only add more flour if the dough still feels sticky. The dough should remain a little sticky. (Note: When doubling or tripling the recipe, sometimes more flour is needed.)
Beat dough vigorously with a large spoon (or knead with your hands) beating air into the dough.

To make a day ahead: cover the bowl tightly and place in the refrigerator. The next day, bring to room temperature before rolling the dough out.
To make the day of: cover with a dish cloth, set in a warm spot, and let rise for 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness on floured surface. (I do not use a pastry cloth or a cloth cover for the rolling pin.)
Use 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter to cut out circles in the dough.
Dab or brush melted butter on each circle.
Stretch each circle, fold it over (in half) and press the top edge down.
Cover with a dish cloth, set in a warm spot, and let rise for about an hour.
Bake in 400F oven for 8-10 minutes. The rolls should be just lightly brown.

New Greeting Cards

2010-12-10T23:20:00.000-05:00

Click on the image to read more...

Our Last Day in Istanbul

2010-11-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

Sadly, today was our last full day in Istanbul. So we tried to plan in careful to make sure we did not miss anything important.

View from the roof terrace of our hotel

We finally visited the Little Hagia Sophia--a small mosque, that was a Byzantine church, the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, completed shortly before Hagia Sophia was built. Some theories exist that this building influenced the design of Hagia Sophia.

The Apse of the Little Hagia Sophia

The Little Hagia Sophia is very close to the water--the Sea of Marmara. So to reach our next destination, Valens Aquaduct, we had to scamper up a steep hill. Curiously, the neighborhood we walked through was full of shops supplying fabric and accesories for making shoes and bags. We also got to walk through an area teeming with students of Istanbul University--an interesting crowd. The Valens Aquaduct, impressively large with cars running under it, was built by the Romans in the late 4th century.

Valens Aquaduct

Next, our attempt to visit the Suleyman Mosque was not particularly successful. Even though the mosque was supposed to reopen in August, it is still closed for restoration. Moreover, the tombs of Suleyman and his wife, Roxelana, were also closed.

Slightly disappointed we headed back to the Galata Bridge, where we enjoyed watching the ships and crowds go by while eating some "balik ekmek", fish sandwichs, for lunch.


Eminonu, area near the Galata Bridge	Preparing balik ekmek

Our next adventure was to cruise the Bosphorus. The boat we went on sailed under the Bosphorus Bridge and up to the second bridge along the straight. Along the way we saw many enormous cargo ships heading towards the Black Sea. With Turkish techno music blasting through the speakers, we sailed by Rumeli Fortress, used by the Ottomans to control Bosphorus.

Cruising under the Bosphorus Bridge

After the cruise we did a bit more shopping at the Grand Bazaar and enjoyed our last cups of chai and apple tea. In the end, we never did set foot in Asia, unless being on a boat that is docked in Asia counts.

Nick next to a singular column in the Underground Cistern

We were on our way to dinner when we realized that the Underground Cistern was still open--so we decided to go in again, and the second visit was well worth it. We had the place pretty much to ourselves--a lovely end our adventures.

We will have to return to Istanbul, at least for the following reasons:

To eat more fish sandwichs, kofti and fried anchovies
To go inside Suleyman Mosque when it reopens after restoration
To visit Hagia Sophia again (which unfortunately was closed today)
Just because Istanbul is a beatiful city... The list can go on and on.

Istanbul: Exploring the New District

2010-10-31T17:47:00.000-04:00

Before crossing the Golden Horn to the New District, Nick and I visited the Rüstem Paşa mosque. It is a small mosque not far from the Spice Market, whose exterior and interior are richly decovered with 16th century Iznik tiles.

Nick under the portico covering the courtyard of the Rüstem Paşa mosque

Having spent a considerable amount of time obsorbing the tiles' floral patterns, we crossed the Galata Bridge and visited the well hidden (down a tiny alley) and rather empty Museum of Turkish Jews. For example, I did not know that in the 1930s the Turkish government invited many German and Austrian Jewish scietists and professors to relocate and continue their work in Turkey in order to escape the Nazi regime.

Our next adventure was the Galata Tower. There was quite a crowd on the viewing platform, but the views were well worth the pushing and shoving.

View of the Bosphorus Straight and Bosphorus Bridge from Galata Tower

After the tower we continued walking up the hill and soon reached Istiklal Street--the main pedestrian "drag" of the New District. This street was very busy as promised by our guide book, but pleasantly there were as many (if not more) locals as tourists strolling by. We followed Istiklal Caddesi all the way up to Taksim Square. On the way we counted at least 3 Burger King joints, several Starbucks cafes, and a few clothing stores whose names we actually recognized, among many other fancy stores, cafes and restaurants full of locals.

Looking down Istiklal Caddesi

Taksim Square was partially closed off to pedestrians, and it was only after we got back to our hotel that we realized that there was a suicide bombing there in the morning.

Republic Monument in Taksim Square

From Taksim Square we walked down to the water on the Bosphorus Straight and enjoyed the sunset.

Bosphorus Bridge


With Bosphorus Bridge behind me	Nick with Hagia Sophia in the background

The Istanbul Walkathon

2010-10-30T17:40:00.000-04:00

We started our day rather tamely--at the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, where the carpets and tiles were beautiful, and at least half of the exposition was closed for restoration.

Only an hour later we took a taxi to the Chora Church to view its amazing mosaics. I mention the taxi mainly to underline the fact that the Chora Church is about 4 miles away from the Sultanahmet district of the Old Town.

The mosaic pieces used for the jars are actually pieces of terra-cotta

After looking at the mosaics in the Chora Church, we sort of, kind of messed up, and did not eat lunch before continuing on our journey. We climbed the walls of the city (Constantinople had multiple walls, and these were the Walls of Theodosius, built in the 4th century) for some some amazing views.

Afterwards, we marched through several neighborhoods, thankfully yet untouched by hords of tourists. The lack of tourist industry can be a blessing and a curse, in particularly the latter if you really need to eat.

Tekfur Palace--the world's only surviving Byzantine palace

About two hours after leaving the church and losing all hope of finding real food (little corner shops selling potato chips do not count), we came upon a little restaurant and decided to go in. We were clearly the only non-locals, but the waiter was extremely nice, and the food was very good. I guess we just got really lucky.

After lunch, we strolled along the Golden Horn for about two more miles until we reached the Galata Bridge. The pedestrian and automobile traffic was horrandous, but nevertheless we made it to the Spice Market about an hour before it closed.

The Spice Market was very crowded, and merchants lost no time trying to get us to buy something from them. I actually found it harder to shop here than at the Grand Bazaar. We quickly learned that prices visible outside the shop are not necessarily honored in the shop. Finally all "spiced" out we walked out and turned onto a street busy with shops selling similar items, but to locals. Prices here turned out to be lower, and the merchandise also included things like a dozen varieties of olives, feta cheese, and fish.

We rewarded ourselves for all the miles walked by eating dinner at the Adonin restaurant. The food was good, but for a noticably higher price we got significantly worse service here than in Pasazade, where we ate yesterday.

Istanbul in the Rain ...and Wind

2010-10-29T16:59:00.000-04:00

Honestly, we did not explore Istanbul in the rain. Having learned our lesson in Prague last summer (e.g. do not stand under a gargoyle spouting water...), we used two criteria for visiting a "sight": is what we want to see indoors, and how much walking would we have to do to get there. And the Thursday finalists were Istanbul Archaelogical Museum and the Grand Bazaar.

Far from being an archaelogy buff, I still got excited about a few things in the Archaelogical Museum:

Alexander Sarcophagus--The sarcophagus did have Alexander the Great portrayed on the sides, but it was carved for another king
The Tetrarchs: the statues are now in Venice, but the heel is in Istanbul
Tetrarchs' Heel--Remember those double porphyry statues of the Tetrarchs in the Piazza of San Marco in Venice. We saw them last summer. They were actually from Constantinople (as were the four hourses on top of the Saint Mark's Basilica), and one of them is missing a foot. Now we saw the missing foot here in Istanbul.
The Tiled Kiosk--a small 15th century building exhibiting cool tiles
A piece of chain that was strung across from Constantinople to Galata Tower (from sometime before 10th century till at least the 15th century) to prevent unwanted ships from entering the Golden Horn

In the Grand Bazaar we were thankfully not harassed nearly as much as we expected. The bazaar was very festive as it was the eve of the Turkey Republic Day.

We went to sleep on Thursday to the sounds of the winds wailing. The next morning--today--it was still really windy, but the rain subsided a little bit, so we decided to brave the weather and tour the Topkapi Palace.

Apparently many many other people decided to tour the Topkapi Palace today as well. (Because today is a holiday in Turkey, both the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market were closed, which probably did not help.)

Nick in front of some tiles in the Harem of Topkapi Palace

In short, the pros:

the Harem was relatively uncrowded and full of tiles
Helen is addicted to looking at tiles, and hence loved the Harem

and the cons:

we froze to death while fighting the crowds
the European porcelain exhibit was closed

Helen in front of tiles, of course, in the Harem of Topkapi Palace

After touring the palace, we headed towards the Galata Bridge. And this is when finally the sun came out.

Fishermen on the Galata Bridge, with the view of Galata Tower in the background.
And the sun is out!!!

We were going to tour the Spice Market, but this was when we found out that it was closed. So we just wondered through the back streets.

Local boys sliding down a street

We finished the evening with a nice dinner at Pasazade (where amazingly the prices were the same as at a place we had lunch yesterday, but service and food were several levels above that) and a nice stroll by Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia at night

Our First Full Day in Istanbul

2010-10-27T16:26:00.000-04:00

We are staying in Sultanahmet district of the Old Town, which means that we are just a couple of short blocks away from many of the "must see" sights here in Istanbul. Without doing much walking, we visited three of them today.

Underground Cistern
Built in the 6th century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, the Underground Cistern is an enormous underground chamber that can and used to store water. It supplied water to the Great Palace of Constantinople and later to the Topkapi Palace.

The cistern was restored in the 1980s and the walkways were added to allow public access. Before the walkways, visistors had to rent boats and row around in the dark. Rain water still accumulates in the cistern today due to cracks in the mortor, and shockingly the water is teeming with fish, some of it quite large, but the excess water is pumped out regularly.

In the Underground Cistern, by a one of the two Medusa heads "squeezed" in under a pillar

Hagia Sophia
We have been really looking forward to going inside Hagia Sophia--the Great Church of Constantinople (built in the 6th century), later converted into a mosque (15th century), and now a museum.

In the process of restoration, there has been layers of mosaics uncovered under layers of plaster and paint. The restoration continues, but you can see parts of these layers in different parts of this magnificent building.


Nick admiring Viking graffiti (from the 9th century) in Hagia Sophia

Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque
The mosque, built in early 17th century, is one of many churches and mosques whose architectural design uses many elements of Hagia Sophia. It is popularly known as the Blue Mosque because the color dominates the wall designs and tiles decorating the mosque's interior.

Inside the inner courtyard of the Blue Mosque, ready to go inside

Unlike Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque is an active mosque, so all visitors are required to have their shoulders and knees covered. Our faithful guide, Rick Steves, tells us that women should also cover their heads with a scarf. While it is not required, it is appreciated as a sign of respect. So we followed his suggestion.

When we left the Blue Mosque, we discovered that a nice gray turned into a rainy and windy one. So we did not do much of anything else, except for eating an excellent meal at Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi (click on this link to see exactly the food we had). This restaurant was not only recommended by the venerable Rick Steves, but also by our dear friend, American in London.

Istanbul: The First Glimpse

2010-10-26T13:49:00.000-04:00

We could have easily fallen asleep as soon as we got to our hotel, but it was not even 5pm here yet. So Nick and I ventured out for the first glimpse of the city and a bite to eat. The real sightseeing will start tomorrow.


Hagia Sophia, first completed in 537A.D., built in just 5 years

Blue Mosque, built in 7 years, completed in 1616

Leaf Peeping in the White Mountains

2010-10-20T20:57:00.001-04:00

All these years we have been talking about going leaf peeping and we finally did it. In early October we drove up to New Hampshire looking for some colorful foliage.

Our ambitious plans involved hiking the entire 9 miles of the Franconia Ridge Loop, an extremely popular hike, hailed to be one of the best in New England.

Always reluctant to get up early, we had to improvise a spot in the trailhead parking. Despite the day being rather overcast, we were not alone, when we started hiking along the Old Bridle Path. As we gained elevation, the sun started peeking out from the clouds lighting up the golden valley below.


Views from the Old Bridle Path

As we surmounted the “three agonies” on our way to the Greenleaf Hut, we found ourselves and the path well hidden from view by a milky fog. We have reached the clouds.

The Greenleaf Hut was buzzing with hikers. Everything (everything! including garbage) has to be carried in and out of the hut along the same hiking trail we just climbed. Yet for just a couple bucks, the hut crew offered hikers freshly made cookies, and bread, and even hot potato soup, which Nick and I could not resist despite having packed enough food for twelve.


More Views from the Old Bridle Path

It was while sitting in the comfort of the hut and enjoying the steaming peppery potato soup that we decided to turn back. It was almost 2 o’clock in the afternoon and we have only covered about a third of the journey we originally planned. Hidden in the clouds, the ridge did not promise clear views of the landscape. The waters of Dry Brook were at least knee high. If we continued onto the loop, we would have to cross this brook several times, and the idea of wading through icy waters just did not sound as appealing as it usually does.

Dry Brook at the end of the Falling Waters Trail,
which we did not hike

Our descent along the Old Bridle Path was not necessarily made easier by gravity, as we clambered down large smooth rocks. Nevertheless we safely made it back as the sun started to set over the White Mountains. Despite the last minute route change, we deemed our hike a great success.

Visitng the Mount Auburn Cemetery

2010-10-11T23:11:00.018-04:00

Back in September, Nick and I went on a walking tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery. The cemetery has been on my list of places to visit for a long time, but now I am glad we went when we did. I have learned a lot of Boston history in the last two years (thank you, Boston By Foot), making our visit more meaningful to me.

It might seem odd that we would tour any cemetery, especially one where none of our relatives are interned... But Mount Auburn Cemetery is special. In fact, it was intended to be visited.

Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, Mount Auburn Cemetery was established in 1831 and is America's first "garden cemetery". It marked a shift in the way the dead were buried in America--moving away from using church graveyards often located within cities, and towards using landscaped, park-like burial grounds outside of the city limits.

Edwin Booth's Headstone

During the walking tour we were surprised to learn that Edwin Booth, the famous 19th century actor (whose infamous brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Abraham Lincoln), is buried at Mount Auburn because apparently his first wife, Mary, was from the Boston area.

The headstone of Charles Bulfinch, prominent American architect

The tomb of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, the Scientist.

We have visited the Longfellow House in Cambridge the previous weekend, and now we were able to see Longfellow's tomb.

The tomb of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Our tour was briefly interrupted by a fox. He was busy pouncing on something in the grass, completely unperturbed by a large group of people staring at him.

After the tour, we climbed the Washington Tour, built in 1852-1854 at the highest elevation of the cemetery, for great views of the surrounding area.

Washington Tour

View from the Washington Tour

Chocolate Truffles - First Attempt

2010-09-26T23:58:00.001-04:00

I have been dreaming of making chocolate truffles, and tonight I finally decided to try it. I followed the Basic Ganache Truffles recipe by Coco&Me. The jury is still out on how my truffles taste (we have not tried them yet), but one thing is certain: making truffles is a very messy business.

Thinking of Istanbul

2010-09-19T15:05:00.000-04:00

I did this little watercolor after looking through my friend's photos of her trip to Istanbul last summer. Now that Nick and I are planning to travel there ourselves, I remembered about the drawing and decided it to share it with you.

Happy and Sweet New Year!

2010-09-09T07:19:00.002-04:00

Nick and I made this challah bread together--I mixed and shaped the dough, and Nick basted the loaf with egg, added poppy seeds and baked it. It was truely a team effort! Shana tova!

My Old Stereo

2010-09-05T23:23:00.001-04:00

Why in the world am I blogging about a boombox? Because this one is special. This double tape deck with a short wave radio was the first purchase I made with money I earned myself.

I was 14 years old when I applied for a job in a kennel, and had only been in America for about 6 months. I told the owner that I missed my dog. It was late fall, and the holiday season was coming up, so he hired me.

Cleaning poop does not sound very appealing to many people. (Mom had to segregate some special clothing for me to work in, so that I did not always smell like dog poop.) But I liked the job. Besides temporarily housing people's dogs, the kennel also bred German Shepherds. In order to clean puppies' cages, I had to move the puppies into a different cage. I would pick each puppy up, cuddle it, kiss its wet nose and let it lick my face as I carried it from one cage to the other. The puppies made dealing with poop in a super hot room (the puppies had to be kept very warm) all worth while.

My dad took me to the Wiz where we picked out this stereo, and I bought it with the cash from my first two paychecks. Clearly I have had it ever since, but it has been in storage for the last few years. Yesterday, I decided that it was finally time to let it go. Today the stereo started its new life with a man who was very excited about its short wave radio capabilities. Hopefully, it will serve him well.

О Мойше Хаиме и клане Горячих по рассказам тети Муси, тети Розы и дяди Саши

2010-09-02T20:48:00.000-04:00

Мойше Хаим Ойгензихт жил во второй половине 19-го века в украинском местечке Ялтушково Барского района Винницкой губернии. У него было собственное дело, приносившее надежный доход, позволявший достойно содержать его большую семью. Мойше Хаим держал постоялый двор. Это означает,что в своем большом доме он выделил одну или две комнаты, где проезжающие могли отдохнуть в ожидании возможности продолжить свой путь до следующего постоялого двора (пока вернутся из рейса и отдохнут лошади, например, или пока не установится подходящая погода). Он также владел несколькими ездовыми лошaдьми с кибитками для перевозки людей и почты. Мойше-Хаиму помогали наемные работники. Бизнес приносил хороший доход, и Мойше-Хаим обеспечивал своей большой семье достойную жизнь.Было у Мойше Хаима еще одно занятие. Из рейсов он привозил лекарства для жителей Ялтушкова, которые очень ценили его медицинские познания, так как все его родившиеся дети, а их было 13, благополучно преодолели с его помощью детские болезни и были живы и здоровы. Мойше-Хаим обладал почётным правом проводить беседы с молодыми мужьями о том, как вырастить и выходить всех детей, и за беседу получал плату 5 копеек.

Мойше Хаим помог встать на ноги своим старшим детям. Но самый младший ребенок - дочка Дора - осталась бесприданницей. Ей было в грозном для России 1905 году 19 лет. К этому времени экономическая активность в России пришла в упадок,бизнес Мойше-Хаима стал приносить мало дохода. Старшей сестре Доры родители отдали половину дома, Доре же предстояло либо уйти без приданного либо привести мужа в дом родителей. (Дом был большой, и, очевидно, в части его жила семья, а во второй части был постоялый двор.) В это время Владимир (Вольф) Горячий был учащимся старшего класса гимназии. Он участвовал в уличных беспорядках, и его выгнали из гимназии и отправили в провинцию под надзор полиции. Он был обязан являться "отмечаться" в полицию с определённой периодичностью, а полиция следила, чтобы он вёл себя добропорядочно. Так он поселился в Ялтушкове, на постойлом дворе у Мойше-Хаима. Там он познакомился с Дорой. (Он был 1884 года рождения, а Дора – 1885 года рождения.)

Они поженились в 1906 году или вначале 1907 года. В декабре 1907 года родился их первый сын Маркус (Марк Владимирович Горячий). Бабушке Доре тогда было 22 года. В 1911 году родился сын Давид (Давид Владимирович, дядя Додя). В страшном 1917 году родился их младший сын Яков (Яков Владимирович). Больше детей у них не было.

Владимир (Вольф) Горячий стал коммивояжёром (представителем и продавцом – дистрибьютором) фирмы Зингер, производившей швейные машинки (фирма, широко известная в мире до сих пор). Потом, подкопив денег, Владимир купил печатный станок и печатал наклейки на продукцию сахарных заводов и объявления. В период революции, Владимир печатал прокламации по заказам то белополяков, то красноармейцев. Дядя Додя рассказывал, что иногда власть менялась так быстро и неожиданно, что Маркусу и ему приходилось прятать прокламации, заказанные предыдущей властью, за пазухой...

Дора приняла на себя все заботы, связанные с обслуживанием постояльцев, а также ведение домашнего хозяйства, которое перешло постепенно в ее руки по мере старения Мати. Вольф устроился на сахарном заводе: печатал рекламные материалы.

Мати и Мойше-Хаим прожили длинную жизнь. В последние годы Мати была прикована к кровати. Весь интимный уход за ней выполнял Мойше-Хаим, только сам. Легенда говорит, что когда Мати умерла, Мойше-Хаим сел в кресло и сказал: "Ну вот, теперь и мне можно умереть". И умер через 3 месяца. Легенда также говорит,что Мойше-Хаим прожил около 100 лет.

Дора и Владимир были счастливы в браке, но жизнь их совпала с лихими годами России и потому на их долю выпало много тяжелейших испытаний.

В 1918 году Володю едва не расстреляли оккупационные немецкие войска: за восстание молодежи мужчины Ялтушкова были построены в шеренгу, и был расстрелян каждый 10-й. Володя не оказался 10-м. После этого каратели подожгли каждый 2-й дом - и дом Мойше-Хаима сгорел.

Пришлось им пережить и страшный погром в 1919-м году, во время которого было убито много евреев. Они пережили, и не один раз, страшный голод на Украине. Но они сумели сохранить детей и даже построить дом.

Этот дом снова был подожжен немцами во время Второй Мировой Войны, но на этот раз он сгорел не полностью, и его остатки Дора и Вольф продали за сумму, которой хватило лишь на покупку одной комнаты в коммунальной квартире в г. Винница.

Вторую Мировую Войну они пережили только благодаря тому, что, не раздумывая, бросили дом и хозяйство и чудом успели уехать в Москву буквально с пустыми руками. Бабушка Дора умела предпринимать быстрые и решительные действия. Дедушка Володя называл её (шутя, естественно) "комендант паники". Её решительность спасла им жизнь.

В стране была паника и неразбериха. Из Жмеринки до Москвы поезд шел целых две недели. Из Москвы они заехали в Ковров к Маркусу. Оставаться здесь было негде, квартира Маркуса была крошечная. Кроме того Ковров находится всего в 272 км от Москвы, на единственной железной дороге, которая связывает Москву с Горьким и далее с Уралом. Немцы стремительно продвигались к Москве, и Ковров не казался убежищем.

Дору и Володю в их бегстве из Ялтушкова сопровождала их приятельница Пшеничная со своим сыном лет 8-и. Все четверо, проведя в Коврове несколько дней,поехали дальше, в Горький. В Горьком, в квартире дяди Доде жили Додя с тетей Надей, Софой и Сашей. Родители Тёти Нади жили там с 1937 года.

Вскоре начались бомбежки Горького, и встал вопрос об эвакуации. К этому времени у Доди собралось много беженцев: Дора и Владимир, родители тети Нади (жены Доди) и двоюродная сестра тети Нади с ребенком.

Двоюродная сестра тети Нади приехала в Горький из Москвы со своей семьей. Она и ее муж с сразу ушли на фронт, и осталась её мать, тётя Поля (жена Айзика, погибшего в 1918 году - брата дедушки Израиля (отца тёти Нади) и её внук Володя Бочкарёв, на год старше Саши.

Поля и Володя Б. жили на кухне, а остальные – в 3-х комнатах, 16, 16 и 9 м. Из этого коллектива не работали (по возрасту) бабушка Дора, бабушка Фаня (мама тёти Нади) и тётя Поля. Софа училась в школе, в 1-ом классе (1941 год). Мальчишки (Саша родился за полгода до начала войны) были на попечении бабушек.

Дядя Додя был на казарменном положении на автозаводе, приходил домой на час-полтора раз в неделю. В начале войны он был начальником производственного отдела завода.

Тетя Надя работала конструктором в службе механика эвакуированного из Ленинграда завода авиационных двигателей. Работала она по сменам, смена - 12 часов. Тётя Надя получила медаль "За доблестный труд во время Великой Отечественной Войны".

Дедушка Израиль (отец тёти Нади) работал кладовщиком в деревообрабатывающем цехе. Дедушка Володя работал бухгалтером в пошивочной мастерской, где шили военное обмундирование. Приезжая после войны в гости в Горький, дедушка обязательно ходил навещать сослуживцев в пошивочное ателье (в которое превратилась мастерская), и долгие годы потом сотрудники ателье расспрашивали Софу при встрече о дедушке Володе.

Семейное предание: Тетя Надя в редкие свободные минуты пытается воспитывать сына, Сашу – и получает указание:

"Иди лаботай! И день лаботай, и ночь лаботай!"

И ещё воспоминание: Саша с Володей Б. сидят на "тревожных" чемоданах в коридоре перед выходной дверью и, не понимая ужаса ситуации, весело вопят, не обращая внимания на просьбы вести себя тише:

"Товарищи, тревога,
Сидите у порога!"

"Товарищи, отбой,
Идите спать домой!"

Завод (автомобильный?) часто бомбили, особенно в 1943 году. Практически ежевечерне с первыми звуками сирены надо было спускаться в бомбоубежище (в подвале каждого подъезда). В июне 1943 года в дом попала бомба, но, на счастье, не взорвалась.

Ковров эвакуировался с частью завода. Маркус обязан был остаться в партизанском отряде. Его жена, Циля, отказалась ехать без него. "Что будет с тобой, будет и с нами."

Дядя Додя работал в Горьком на автомобильном заводе, на котором во время войны производили танки, орудия, грузовики. Додя тоже не мог уйти.

К счастью, зимой немцев отбили от Москвы, и они потеряли темп. Вопрос об эвакуации Коврова и Горького больше не стоял. А ведь 16 октября, 1941 года, Москва была охвачена паническим бегством. Катастрофа казалась неминуемой. Как выяснилось впоследствии, Красная Армия была настолько обескровлена, что Москва была до подхода войск из Сибири буквально беззащитна. Немцы упустили этот момент.

После войны дедушка Володя и бабушка Дора с 1944 или 1945 года жили в городе Винница в одной комнате в 3-хкомнатной коммунальной квартире без удобств по адресу ул. Ленина, 72, напротив небольшого садика им. Козицкого, в котором был туалет… Дедушка работал в бухгалтерии областной газеты. Он ушёл на пенсию в начале 50-х. Ввиду скудности пенсии они сдавали угол студенткам (комната была большая). Перед смертью (октябрь 1963) сказал бабушке: "Дора, садись, пиши телеграмму сыновьям – Папа умер…".

Бабушка умерла в марте 1974 года. С конца 1964 она жила у дяди Доди и тёти Нади (в одной комнате с бабушкой Фаней. Бабушка Фаня умерла в январе 1974 года, и эта потеря ускорила уход бабушки Доры).

Cooking Laurie's Blackberry Pie

2010-08-25T23:58:00.002-04:00

Laurie makes amazing pies, including this blackberry pie.

Crust
2 cups flour
2/3 cups of shortening (Laurie uses Crisco)
7 table spoons of cold water

Filling
4 cups of berries washed
3/4 - 1 cup of sugar, depending on sweetness of the berries
3 tablespoons of flour
couple of table spoons of lemon juice
butter

I am not a big fan of Crisco (or margarine). So while I follow Laurie's instructions for the filling faithfully, I improvise on the crust. It usually comes out fine (Nick being the judge), though it tastes very differently (understandably so) from Laurie's. Instead of Crisco, I use butter and substitute some vodka straight out of the freezer for some of the cold water. (The vodka idea came from this "foolproof" pie crust recipe from Cooks Illustrated.)

The butter is great for taste, and shortening is great for flakiness. To make up for the flakiness that my crust will lose due to my resistance to shortening, I try to leave the butter in relative large chunks while mixing the dough.

The alcohol from the vodka will evaporate during baking, and no aftertaste will remain. Yet using vodka gives me a slightly larger margin of error for adding too much liquid. (If you add too much water, the crust will be tough and soggy.)

Cut the butter into 1/2 inch pieces and sprinkle them over the flour in a bowl. Work the butter into the flour until the butter pieces are about the size of beans. To accomplish this I use a pastry blender, but a fork and a knife will also work. You want to keep the butter as cold as possible. (Sometimes I even refrigerate the bowl before starting.) So resist the temptation to use your hands.
The amount of liquid for the recipe is approximate. Add one table spoon at a time, gently working it into the dough. Switch to vodka after about 4 spoons of water. Stop adding the liquid as soon as the dough starts coming together. (You will certainly need to use your hands for to do this.)
Form the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you are making the filling.
In a bowl, gently toss berries with sugar (I have yet to add more than 3/4 cups), flour and lemon juice.
Grab your favorite pie plate--a 9 inch Pyrex one works great for me.
Remove one ball of dough from the refrigerator, and roll it out into a circle (12 inches in diameter according to most cook books) on a lightly floured surface. (Laurie uses a pastry cloth, while I roll it out directly on the kitchen counter.)
Place the dough into the pie plate. The dough edges should be hanging a bit over the plate. Refrigerate while you work on the second half of the dough.
Roll out the second ball of dough.
Remove pie plate with the bottom crust from the refrigerator and pile the berry mixture into it.
Dot a few pieces of butter here and there on top of the berry mixture. I generally use less than a table spoon total for this step. I do not know how much Laurie uses.
Place the remaining rolled out dough on top of the berries, and seal the edges. Cut slits into the top crust to allow steam to escape during baking.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Edges of the pie need to be covered at first to prevent them from overcooking. I have tried doing this with strips of foil, and what a pain that was. Finally, I discovered a much easier way to do it in the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. The book suggests to "fold a 12-inch square of foil into quarters; cut a 7-inch hole out of the center; unfold and loosely mold the foil ring over the pie's edges." (You do not need to measure the foil--just approximate.)
If you pie is ready to go, but your oven is still heating up, put the pie into the refrigerator until the oven is ready.
Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes, until the top is golden and the filling is boiling. The times here are very approximate and really depend on the oven. The filling sometimes escapes from the pie and into the oven, so you may want to put the pie plate onto a small cookie sheet in the oven.

We love to eat it warm with vanilla ice cream.

Excellent information on making pie crust:

Gardening

2010-08-08T21:15:00.002-04:00

Somehow this weekend turned out to be mainly about gardening. I do realize that it is August already. But you can think of it as a learning experience/testing the waters.

On Saturday I joined a few neighbors to plant some flowers in front of our building. We kept hoping that our landscaper would do it, but for various reasons that never happened. So we pitched in a few bucks, picked up some pretty flowers at Home Depot, and stuck them into dirt here and there.

Our building has a little courtyard in the back, with two areas of dirt (dirt mind you, not soil) where weeds and ivy have been growing wildly for as long as we have been living here.

Inspired by yesterday's gardening adventure, I cleared the ivy from about two square feet of dirty in the courtyard and planted a couple of herbs.

Honestly, I do not expect any harvest at this point. I mainly want to see if anything will grow at all. If it will, I just might try a real vegetable garden next spring.

Walla Walla Fields on a Greeting Card

2010-08-07T21:19:00.002-04:00

5K on One of the Boston Harbor Islands

2010-08-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday, Bess and I ran the Camp Harbor View's 2nd Annual Harborthon 5k. It took place on Long Island--not THE Long Island in New York, but one of Boston Harbor Islands. Nick came along too, but he did not run.

We all took a refreshing ferry ride to the island, from where we had a beautiful view of Boston. The scenic course with views of the Boston skyline was rather hilly, not something I had expected, but enjoyable nevertheless.

Afterwards, we ate dinner watching the sun disappear behind the city.

On the way back our ferry stopped at Quincy before dropping us off at the Long Wharf. We just enjoyed sailing around the Boston Harbor enjoying all the lights a little longer.

Хрюкаем Вместе

2010-07-23T20:21:00.003-04:00

A few nights ago, Nick was lying on his back trying to correctly pronounce the word хрю. (Хрю is the sound pigs make in Russian.) He was having a hard time combining a rolling "r" with a soft "yu" sound. To help him, I was trying to think of more words that include syllable "рю" in them.

Nick: hroo, roo, hruuuu, hroo
Helen: хрю, хххххррррррю, хрю
Nick: hroo, khrooo, kkkhhhhhrrrrru, roo, ru, r'u, r'yu...
Helen: Do you know what the word хрумкать means?
Nick: No. What? hru, hrrrru, hroooo, hrrr, rrrrrrr
Helen: To chew something such that you make a lot of noise doing it.
Nick: So to eat like a pig.
Helen: I guess.
Nick: hroo, roo, roo, rrrrrrrru, yu, yu
Helen: хрю, рю, рю
Nick: hrrrrrrrrrrrrroouu
Helen: Do you know what the work рюмка means?
Nick: Roomka? A little room? hroo, hru, hr'u
Helen: Good one, but no. It means a shot glass.
Nick: hru, hr'u, r'uuu, hryu

Last Weekend With Eric

2010-07-20T23:09:00.008-04:00

Last weekend we visited Eric. Together we ventured out into Manhattan, where our main objective was to "experience" the "Big Bambú" installation on the Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I am proud to say that we have achieved our goal and climbed along the walkways inside the bamboo. There is no proof of the all the effort we put into this in the 95+F degree heat, because we had to stow all of our loose belongings in lockers before we were allowed up into the bamboo.

After our walk down the High Line, Eric and Nick goofed off in response to my picture taking.

Below, you can see Eric and Nick admiring a seal at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, where we spent our Sunday morning, and where the most advertised exhibit involved a family of meerkats...

Fourth of July in Walla Walla, Washington

2010-07-13T22:16:00.000-04:00

The last time I was in Walla Walla in the summer was six years ago, when Nick and I got married. Going back to Walla Walla for the Fourth of July this year was a long trip, but it was well worth the effort.

Instead of driving directly to Walla Walla, Laurie, Nick and I went on a little adventure first. Over the Snoqualmie Pass, through Vantage, and over the Columbia River we went towards a little town, called Othello, on our way to the Drumheller Channels.

Named after Nick’s great-great-great-uncle who owned the land, the Drumheller Channels are scab lands, cut by floods from the glacial lake, Lake Missoula, during the last ice age. “Potholes” of water still remain, deep and clear, between the rising ridges. This beautiful area, home to over 200 bird species, is a “natural national landmark” and is collocated with the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge.
Laurie knew exactly where to look for a Great Horned Owl, and we saw one! We also walked around a few “potholes” in hopes of seeing beavers, but none graced us with their presence.

We reached Walla Walla in the late afternoon and discovered the house porch already overflowing with fireworks. (It is a 4th of July family tradition to set off fireworks in the front yard.) As more people arrived later in the evening and the next morning, the number of fireworks only grew. The young and the young at heart grew restless, and the fireworks display started a day early, on Saturday night, to the great distress of Reggie the basset hound.

Kate, Nick and I kicked off the Independence Day festivities by going for a drive into the fields.

Nick and I love driving out to Nick’s grandparents farm via the Scenic Loop and stopping at the top.
From here you can see the town below on one side, and the foothills of the Blue Mountains on the other. You can touch the wheat. It is beautiful.

In the evening, we had a huge feast at the house. The abundance of burgers, hot dogs, condiments, salads and chips could only be surpassed by the abundance of cake and ice cream.

As darkness fell and eating slowed, people sat around watching the fireworks display on the lawn.
Before I knew it, the holiday was over, and I had to start my return journey, leaving Nick back in Walla Walla. Marit and Lexi graciously gave me a ride back to Seattle. (Thank you!) After stowing my luggage in a ZipCar (how convenient!), I spent several hours nostalgically wandering around downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill, before heading off to the airport for my red-eye flight back to Boston.

Christy Drumheller's Potato Salad

2010-07-07T07:12:00.005-04:00

Being generally averse to buying pre-fabricated food, I insisted on making the potato salad from scratch for our 4th of July feast in Walla Walla. Thankfully Nick's aunt Christy, who unfortunately could not join us for the weekend, emailed us the recipe, and Nick's unckle Tom bought the ingredients. (Thanks, Tom!)

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp chopped Walla Walla Sweet Onions
1/3 cup chopped celery
4 hard boiled eggs chopped
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup mayo
1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
6 boiled, cooled & cubed potatoes
1 Tbsp mustard

Directions: mix well, sprinkle the top with paprika, and chill before serving.

I followed the directions faithfully (even measuring out chopped onion and celery--something I would never do at home), and the salad was a big hit. I did I completely forgot about paprika, but that did not seem to make all that much difference.

For me, the 3 table spoons of chopped onions worked out to be about a 1/4 of a Walla Walla sweet onion, and the 1/3 cup of chopped celery was one large celery stock.

When I came home, I decided to look up the recipe to the potato salad that was written down for me by Nick's grandmother. I remember having made it before, and good as it was, it has never come out this good. Interestingly enough, my recipe cards (for some reason I have two for the same recipe) omit mustard, and call for 6 cups of cubed potatos, as opposed to 6 potatos. I would guess that in most cases a cup of boiled cubed potatos is less then a single cubed potato, but I have not actually measured it out. My recipe cards also suggest using some parsley to sprinkle over or mix into the salad. I love parsley, so I might just add it in next time I make the salad.

The Romance of June

2010-07-03T17:02:00.004-04:00

It is July 1st, and I am flying. Ok, I am not really flying, but I am typing while sitting on the plane on my way to Seattle. In reality, the flight is only one leg of my journey to spend the 4th of July in Walla Walla. Doesn’t that just roll off your tongue—“Walla Walla”.

As the title of this post insinuates, Nick and I had a rather romantic June. We attended two weddings, and celebrated our own anniversary—6 years since that memorable evening in Walla Walla when we were married, and 10 years since another memorable evening in Seattle when we started dating.
To celebrate our anniversary Nick took me to Chesterwood, a country home and studio of Daniel Chester French, a sculptor best known for the sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.
Daniel Chester French (lovingly referred to as DCF at the Chesterwood Visitor’s Center exhibits) bought a farm in the Berkshires in 1896, where his friend and prominent architect, Henry Bacon, designed him a cozy house to live in with his family and a bright, airy studio to work in. French personally created the landscaping around the house, transforming the farm into formal gardens.
The Visitor’s Center on the property contains a small, but well done exhibit on various projects French undertook. He first studied art with no other than Loisa May Alcott’s sister, May Alcott. Though at first it was the Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s statue of Lincoln that was considered for the Lincoln Memorial, the commission eventually went to Daniel Chester French, and he spent over 6 years working on the project.

Nick and I spent some time looking around the studio, where many plaster sketches and smaller models of French’s work were on display. One side of the studio had enormous doors and railroad tracks leading outside through the doors. A volunteer explained to us that French used the tracks to wheel his work outdoors to see what the sculpture would look like in the natural light and to check for extortions.

We also went into the house where Daniel Chester French lived, but only the first floor was open to the public.

Heading to Walla Walla now, only two weeks after our anniversary, I feel that we are simply continuing to celebrate. The romance continues…

Visiting Charlestown Navy Yard

2010-06-02T18:14:00.001-04:00

About a month ago Nick and I visited Charlestown Navy Yard. Our main goal was to take a tour of the USS Constitution, world’s “oldest floating commissioned naval vessel”, but once there we discovered many other areas to explore.

While walking around, we saw one of the nation’s first dry docks, built in the 1830’s. We also saw several austere looking granite buildings, which apparently have been designed by Alexander Parris—the same architect who created Quincy Market in Boston and introduced a “large scale use of granite in structural facades.”

One of these granite buildings we encountered was a ropewalk—a building where ropes used to be made—also designed by Alexander Parris. A ropewalk building had to be really long, because workers walked backwards twisting the fibers to create a long rope segment. The ropewalk in Charlestown Navy Yard is the oldest ropewalk still standing in the country. Unfortunately, we could only see the building from the outside, and sadly it looked like it was in disrepair.

Before boarding the USS Constitution, we took a tour of USS Cassin Young, a Navy destroyer that was active in the Pacific during World War II. The ship has been decommissioned and preserved as a memorial museum ship, maintained and operated by the National Park Service.

The tour took us to the lower decks describing what it would have been like to live and work on the ship. Back on the main deck, I found the galley to be most intriguing with its enormous mixer and three stock pots big enough to fit a person.

Unlike USS Cassin Young, USS Constitution is still a commissioned US Navy ship. A US Navy officer dressed in a 19th century sailor uniform gave us an overview of the ship's history. Touring the lower decks, we got to see the ship’s guns and sailors’ quarters. (Apparently, back then sailors on a ship slept in hammocks.)

Launched back in 1797, USS Constitution is maintained and operated by the Navy with a crew of 60 officers and sailors. Since it was restored to be able to sail under its own power in 1997, it makes a “turnaround cruise” every year usually around the 4th of July. Unfortunately, there will be no cruise this July, because the ship is currently being repaired, but the work is expected to be completed by the fall.

Our Mini Vacation in Washington DC Two Weeks Ago

2010-05-31T21:22:00.001-04:00

We wanted to take a short vacation, that did not require too much planning or many hours flying. So we decided to go to Washington DC—we have not seen our friends there for awhile and there is no shortage of things to do in the area.

Admittedly we still did some planning. For example, we tried to come up with some places we wanted to visit, and prioritize them. Two things came up to the top—Frederick Douglas’s house for Nick and Ford’s Theater for me. Needless to say, we managed to make it to neither one of those two locations. Luckily, we still had a lot of fun doing other things.

Friday was a hodgepodge of interesting places around the National Mall. Walking through the Lafayette Square, we went inside St. John’s Church. (In case it is hard to read the plaque in the photo below, it says that every U.S. President "since President James Madison has attended occasional services here.")

After a required nod to the White House, accompanied by many laments that we did not get a spot on a White House tour, we headed to the Museum of American History.

Far from trying to see the entire collection of this museum, we went for what we considered the highlights, and the Lincoln room was definitely one of them. We saw two original casts of Lincoln’s face, and the original cast of his hands. (Later in the American Art Museum, we saw copies, and were glad that we have seen the originals. The copies had a lot less details.) Other items of note in this exhibit included the top hat that Lincoln wore often, including the night of this murder, a cuff stained with Lincoln’s blood that belonged to an actress who ran up to give him water and held his head after the shots have been fired, a line up of Lincoln’s photographs, where one clearly sees an increase in aging that the presidency and the war have inflicted on him.

In the same museum, we carefully examined Julia Child’s kitchen and determined that she had way too many knives.

The next stop on our trip was the Natural History Museum. Here we spent most of our time looking at dinosaurs. On our way to see moonstones, we joined a large crowd of people to take a peek at the Hope Diamond.

Exhausted by all the history, we headed to what is supposed to be the best cafeteria in all the Smithsonian Museums for lunch—the café inside the American Indian Museum. We spent almost half an hour deciding what to eat, and can now confirm that the café was well worth the extra walk.

After an unsuccessful attempt to visit Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was killed, we headed to the American Art Museum. My primary goal there was to see John LaFarge’s stained glass windows, commissioned by Frederick Ames for his fancy house that still stands on Dartmouth Street in Boston.

Other memorable items in this museum included several works by Daniel Chester French and August Saint-Gaudens, the last portrait of John Adams painted by Gilbert Stuart, several portraits by John Singleton Copley, and the original portrait of Benjamin Franklin that you see on one hundred dollar bills.

Nick ventured to the National Archives for a peek at the original copy of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, while I got a head start socializing with friends.

After dinner we all headed to the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately it was far from deserted, but we still enjoyed the experience and the view.

Before retiring for the day, we also made a stop at the FDR Memorial, which Nick and I have not seen before.

Saturday began with an amazing breakfast cooked up by our hosts that included pancakes and home grown strawberries. (How much better can it really get!) Our next touristy activity turned out to be a visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center—the relatively new wing of the Air and Space Museum. As expected, my favorite part of the museum was the space section, where we got to see the Gemini VII command module and the boiler plate Apollo command module with floatation devices attached that came from the actual Apollo 11 command module.

Yet the funniest items in this exhibit were tubes of cosmonaut food.

Later in the day, Nick and I tried unsuccessfully to visit the National Art Gallery. After a quick, mandatory stop at the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, where I spent some quality time staring into the actual Apollo 11 command module, we walked around the grounds around the US Capitol Building.

Here are some fun facts revealed to me by the AIA Guide--an impulse purchase I made early Friday.

The Ulysses S. Grant statue in front of the Capitol is the tallest equestrian statue in the city, and only second tallest in the world—the first being the statue of Emmanuel in Rome.
The reflecting pool in front of the Capitol lies on top of the tunnel that carries US Highway 395 underneath the mall. The pool was put because nothing could be planted there.
The terracing and the layout of the Capitol grounds was designed by none other than Frederick Law Olmstead, whom we know and love in Boston for creating the landscaping of the Emerald Necklace, including the Back Bay Fens.

We tried but failed to see a Frederic Auguste Bartholdi fountain a block away from the Capitol—it was removed for restoration.

On Sunday we sadly bid goodbye to Julie and Andy, picked up a Zipcar at the Union Station and drove off to Virginia. (Nick and I never stop to marvel at how wonderful the Zipcar concept and service is. Here we were in a city we did not even live in, and here was a great car waiting for us at the perfect location.)

In preparation for our visit to Fredericksburg, we listened to Shelby Foote’s Civil War, which promptly put me to sleep—shameful but not disastrous, because Nick made an excellent tour guide once we were on location.

We climbed Marye’s Heights and looked down at the town of Fredericksburg below.

From this excellent position, the Confederate Army was able to completely overpower the Union soldiers as they tried very unsuccessfully to cross the Rappahannock River and take the hills. Our view of the river was very different as the hills have overgrown with trees, whereas back in the 19th century they were almost bare.

After a quick lunch, we visited Chatham, a beautiful Georgian-style house built in the second half of the 18th century overlooking the town of Fredericksburg and the Rappahannock River. Most notably, Chatham served as the headquarters for the Union army during the Civil War and doubled up as a hospital after Union’s disastrous defeat in the battle of Fredericksburg in November of 1862. Walt Whitman came here after seeing his brother’s name on the list of casualties. Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have visited the house at different times, while Robert E. Lee refused to order artillery fire onto it because it was here that he had courted his wife. Unexpectedly we got a tour of the upper floor of the house, and it turned out that the house is much smaller than it appears to be from outside.

From Fredericksburg, we drove straight to Monticello, but the gates to Jefferson’s plantation closed just before we got there, so we had to delay our visit till Monday morning. Instead, we walked around the University of Virginia campus, admiring the Rotunda and the Pavilions Jefferson designed.

Monday morning turned out to be relatively cold and rainy, but the weather did not deter us from touring Monticello. The house tour led us through most rooms on the main floor, including notably Jefferson’s bedroom and his library. After strolling around the gardens surrounding the house, we left the top of the “Little Mountain” to walk by Jefferson’s grave before heading back to the car.

We considered but decided against making another attempt to visit Ford’s Theater. Instead we stopped for lunch and had an uneventful, though extremely rainy drive back to the Union Station. We will have to come back again soon in order to

prevent Chester (one of Julie’s cats) from sleeping his rightful bed (the one in the guest room)
play with Loki (Gayle’s dog)
visit Ford’s Theater and its museum
visit Frederick Douglas’s house
tour Monticello when it is not raining cats and dogs
visit Appomattox
explore more battlefields around Frederickson and Chancellorsville
take a guided campus tour of the University of Virginia

The list goes on and on. We will just have to return.

Playing "Ketchup"

2010-05-16T01:15:00.002-04:00

My previous post was about the Olympic Games—that was certainly a long while back, almost two month ago now. Let’s recap before I move on to the more current events.

I celebrated my birthday. And when I say “celebrated”, I really mean it. We actually threw a little party at our house, with food, and guests, and cake. Cake! The reviews for the cake were rather flattering, so I promise to proudly post the recipe.

The Back Bay Fens flooded,

then burned,

Originally uploaded by Ol' Mr Boston

then bloomed,

and is now freshly green. And then Eric and I saw two turtles in the Muddy River.

Nick has been talking about seeing turtles for several years now, but this is the first time I have seen any. Spring came to Boston early this year, and it has been beautiful.

The Boston Marathon has come and gone--the stress and excitement now replaced by a sense of pride and accomplishment, and exhaustion. (I invite you to read about all the details of my Boston Marathon run this year in my "Marathon Post".)

The weeks after the marathon left me so tired as I never was even while training, and as a result I have not even attempted to achieve anything (outside my job of course) since.

Nick and I spent a day at the Charlestown Navy Yard, touring the USS Constitution (world’s “oldest floating commissioned naval vessel”) and USS Cassin Young. However, the visit may warrant its own blog post.

Watching Figure Skating

2010-02-16T23:24:00.003-05:00

Training for the marathon won't kill me, because watching Olympic figure skating will. It is almost 11:30pm, and the men's short program is still in full swing live from Vancouver. I will not and cannot stop watching, and this is my third evening straight watching figure skating--pairs competition was on Sunday and Monday nights. Thankfully, there will be a break tomorrow--the men's long program is not until Thursday night. And it will go late into the night. While the short program is only 2 minutes and 50 seconds long, men's long program is 4 and a half minutes long!

Here are the roots of my addiction to figure skating:

Ankle Stories

2010-02-15T02:48:00.001-05:00

The following is a slight variation of the song by the Decemberists called Red Right Ankle (if you follow the link, click on the Preview button to hear the tune).

This is the story of my poor left ankle
And how it came to meet my leg
And how it twisted as my feet got tangled
On the stairs as I fell.

And how it screamed in misery
“Oh what have you done to me!
For whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb.”
This is the story of my poor left ankle.

That was 5 weeks ago, and things are definitely improving. For example, I have started running for 5 minutes a day last week. Of course, it will take me a bit longer than 5 minutes (more like 4+ hours) to run the Boston Marathon. With just over 2 months left before the race I am determined to do it, and my plan is fully supported by my team's coach, my physical therapist, and of course by my dear husband. So please--no worrying!

Yosemite National Park: Staying in Curry Village

2010-02-05T18:03:00.006-05:00

While visiting the Yosemite National Park, we stayed in a heated tent cabin in Curry Village. We chose to stay in Curry Village because of its excellent location—right in the Yosemite Valley, with beautiful views and close to many trailheads.

A “heated tent cabin” is a tarp draped over a plywood room, built on an elevated wooden platform. Our cabin had electricity and came with two windows and an opening in the door, open to the outside but covered by a tarp. Being a “heated” tent cabin, the room also had a forced air heater.

Staying in this “heated tent cabin” in Curry Village felt similar to camping, but nicer. We had beds, pillows, sheets, blankets, and clean towels every day. Unfortunately, I am just not into camping all that much. So I found it somewhat difficult to climb from under my two blankets and a sleeping bag in the middle of the night, and then put on socks, pants, fleece, coat, hat, gloves and a head lamp—all for a trip to the communal bathroom.

Black bears live in Yosemite National Park. Their proximity and their excellent sense of smell require all tent cabin guests to store their food and toiletries in the “bear locker”, and one was stationed by every tent cabin. A “bear locker” is a metal box with a deeply set, covered latch that would be impossible for a bear to reach.

After spending the night inside the bear locker in the winter, some toiletries changed their consistency. Toothpaste, for example, became a bit difficult "to chew", and applying deodorant and lotion had a rather cooling effect on the body.

At first, we did not take the food storage rules all that seriously. While we locked up our peanut butter and jam, a granola bars and a bag of cookies remained in our packs overnight. Bad idea! Next day, we discovered that bear lockers do not only protect us from bears. A little mouse went through our backpacks and enjoyed a bit of granola and cookies. Certainly we never forgot to extract all edible items from our backpacks again.

Our Trip to Yosemite National Park

2010-01-25T20:52:00.001-05:00

After watching Ken Burns’ new documentary on National Parks in the fall, Nick and I decided to ring in 2010 in Yosemite National Park in California. Many plans were made, and many plans were changed.

Only a few days before we got to the park, Nick and I decided not to follow the original plan and go to the Ostrander Hut. The trek sounded like it would be very hard. As uncertainties amounted, we worried that the adventure might be too stressful for us to enjoy.

Our friends, Ryan and Talia successfully made the journey to and from the Ostrander Hut on snowshoes despite all of our worries, and you can read about their adventure on Ryan's blog: Day 1 and Day 2.

Day 1: Tuesday, December 29, 2009

After skiing for a few yards—their first ever attempt at cross country skiing—Ryan and Talia decided to snowshoe to the hut instead. So Nick and I explored the Glacier Point Road by ourselves, as it winded through the tall snow covered evergreens.

We enjoyed the downhills and worked up a sweat going uphill. The road was well groomed, and the snow at Badger Pass was abundant. At one point, the Merced Peak appeared on the horizon before the road turned downhill again.

We stopped for lunch when we reached the Clark Range view point. Sitting on stones on the side of the road, we enjoyed sweeping mountain views, accompanied by yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Day 2: Wednesday, December 30, 2009

All in all, we skied over 11 miles at Badger Pass. Being still quite tired the next day, we were glad we did not have to ski the distance all over again. While Ryan and Talia made their way back from the Ostrander Hut, having gotten there well before dark the previous day, Nick and I took it easy. We slept in, checked out the park’s Visitors Center, spoke to some park rangers, and did not start hiking until after lunch.

Following park rangers' suggestions, we headed for the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. As we walked away from the road, the trail quickly became steep. We huffed and puffed and peeled away our clothing layers like onions, as we climbed up the endless switchbacks. After taunting us with glimpses of its magnificence, the Half Dome finally emerged from behind the trees in all its glory--we reached the point on the trail known as Columbia Rock. The valley lay at our feet, and the Half Dome seemed to be with an arm’s reach.

We decided not to continue up the trail, and descended back into the valley instead.

Twilight was coming over the valley, and fog was rising over the Merced River as we walked across a beautiful meadow. The setting sun made the snow covered mountains sparkle with shades of pink and orange.

Day 3: Thursday, December 31, 2009

On the day of New Years Eve all four of us decided to explore the Mariposa Grove, one of very few areas where giant sequoias grow. The road there took us to the park's Southern entrance, and from there the last two miles of the road were closed for the winter. Even though the snow was scarce and icy in places, we chose to ski to the grove. We were definitely in the minority. A few other people skied to the Mariposa Grove that day, and several people were snowshoeing, but the majority of the people sadly were walking.

After slogging uphill the entire two miles, we finally reached the first giant sequoias, and giant they were. We continued up along the road, skiing past the Fallen Monarch and stopping near the Bachelor and Three Graces. The giant sequoias’ trunks looked so enormous, that they could have easily fit many of the surrounding tree trunks inside. We just stood there with our heads tilted and our mouths hanging open.

The next giant sequoia we saw, the Grizzly Giant, is the biggest giant sequoia in the Mariposa Grove, and it was amazing. Aptly named, this enormous tree looked a bit like a monster rising against the sky. Far above the ground its massive branches curved up towards the clouds—each branch thicker than any ordinary tree trunk.

Nearby stood the California Tunnel Tree, so named because in 1895 a tunnel was carved through the bottom of the tree, and cars used to drive right through it. It is amazing how this tree managed to survive, but there it still stands, still working hard on trying to heal itself.

There were more giant sequoias to see in the Upper Grove, but by then we only had about an hour of daylight left, so we decided to turn back. Our friends did not want to attempt the icy road downhill on their first day of cross country skiing, so they walked, while Nick and I tested the effectiveness of the steel edges that our “backcountry” skis had as we slid back towards the parking lot.
Since it was the New Years Eve, we stopped at the Wawona Hotel for a celebratory dinner. On our way back to Curry Village where we stayed, we stopped at the Tunnel View Point and enjoyed an amazing view of the El Capitan and the Half Dome lit up by the full moon.

Day 4: Friday, January 1, 2010

On our last full day in the park, we walked up to the Mirror Lake, and continued up the Snow Creek trail. It was very grey and cloudy, and the sheer granite wall of the Half Dome loomed ominously above us. Despite the enthusiasm of some amongst us, we turned around before reached the point on the trail from where we could see the creek.

As we hiked back down, the most amazing thing happened. Within minutes, the clouds melted away and the sun came out. The scenery transformed, and the granite and snow shined against the clear blue sky.

Day 5: Saturday, January 2, 2010

Before leaving the park on Saturday morning, we explored the Ahwahnee, the magnificent hotel built in 1927 to attract the “affluent and influential” visitors to the park. We also had just enough time to take a stroll to the bottom of Yosemite falls.

Christmas Moments

2010-01-05T09:13:00.000-05:00

Here is the recap of our Christmas in Walla Walla this year (my tenth, no less), as seen through the photos taken by Katherine and Nat. (Thanks guys!)

There is a story behind this giant cake. While an abundance of cookies, ice cream and sheetcake is far from uncommon in Walla Walla, I have never witnessed a sheetcake this big during all my years visiting. According to Nick’s grandma Joanne, her daughter Laurie (Nick’s mom) told Joanne to order the sheetcake in full size, which she did. Of course, Laurie vehemently denies ever making such a request. Plus Nick’s grandma is notorious for her love of all things sweet and cake especially.

2009-12-28T02:00:00.001-05:00

There is a particular point, a certain overpass over I-90 that for me marks the border line between Eastern and Western Washington. Every year as we drive under it I plan to figure out the name of the road. Yet another year goes by, and I still do not know which road it is.

There is nothing remarkable about the overpass. We have driven under many like it, and many more lie ahead. It is just another road, not even a highway. It is what lies on each side of it that seems drastically different.

Driving east along I-90 the car is still descending after going over the Cascades at the Snoqualmie Pass. Magically, the descend ends right as we drive under the overpass. The highway straightens and becomes perfectly flat. The terrain ahead is empty and desert-like. In the summer, you can see tumbleweed rolling on the side of the highway.

The opposite happens when driving west along I-90. At this overpass, the desert ends, and tall evergreen trees spring up on both sides of the highway. The engine revs as the car begins the climb into the mountains. We have left Eastern Washington behind on our way to Seattle.

Vacation So Far

2009-12-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

I have been on vacation since last Saturday, but today marks the first day when I did not have something I absolutely had to do while at home.

Review of the week:

Saturday--2 hour workout at the gym, pack, run over to the airport, fly to Seattle.
Sunday--lunch with friends, stuff, stamp and close up the holiday cards.
Monday--short run, make two toy frogs which involved ironing, cutting out and sewing the fabric, stuffing and closing up the first frog.

Tuesday--run, lunch with friends, prepare more holiday cards for mailing while Nick drove the car, shop for clothes for our upcoming trip to Yosemite National Park, iron 12 towels (5 minutes each!), wash the towels (thankfully not by hand), stuff and close up the second frog.
Wednesday--drive to Walla Walla, get a haircut.
Thursday--run (in the fields!), finally mail our holiday cards, make Parker House Rolls, eat a ton of food.

And that brings me to today. I think I finally do not have any immediate tasks with a deadline hanging over me. (If I do, I have completely forgotten what they were. Hopefully they were not too important.)

We started the day by opening presents, followed by a traditional enormous brunch. Later while Nick napped, I joined a couple avid birders in the family for a short trip to look for owls near Frog Hollow Road just outside of Walla Walla.

The drive took us through the rolling fields, where we saw many pheasants. Red-tailed hawks sat on many telephone poles along the road. We were lucky--we saw two great horned owls. Nick's uncle, Nat, took some great photos of it through his telescope.

Tree Cards

2009-11-21T14:57:00.002-05:00

Click on the photo to read more about these cards.

Nick's World

2009-11-13T22:40:00.003-05:00

A few nights ago I noticed an enormous bruise on Nick's leg. When I pointed it out to Nick, he was as surprised to see it as I was and examined it in the mirror.

Now, if I just discovered a bruise on my body, I would probably wonder what I bumped into.

Walking away from the mirror deep in thought, Nick mumbled that he needed to "remember all the things [he] ran into in the last couple of days."

Halloween on Beacon Hill

2009-11-02T23:02:00.005-05:00

I have lived in Boston for several years now, but I did not know that Beacon Hill is such a happening place on Halloween. This year I ended up on Beacon Hill on the night of Halloween because I was helping out with Boston By Foot's "Beacon Hill With A Boo" tour.

The tour itself fits in with the Halloween spirit very well, uncovering the stories of mystery and murder that still haunt the neighborhood. While listening to these stories, we walked through the usually quiet streets of Beacon Hill now filled with crowds of people dressed in costumes. It seemed like the entire population of greater Boston has gathered on the hill. Almost every house proudly displayed carved pumpkins on their steps and spider webs spread across the windows. The neighborhood residents sat around on their doorsteps sipping wine and giving out candy to children. Even Senator John Kerry, who lives in Louisburg Square, came out to greet the crowds gathered at his doorsteps while someone from his house was offering candy.

After the tour ended, Nick and I spent more time walking the streets of Beacon Hill. I particularly enjoyed a little garden on Chestnut Street where a headless knight and ghosts flying overhead greeted the passers by.

Ten Years Since My First Trip to Vancouver BC

2009-10-30T23:18:00.003-04:00

Ten years ago today Nick and I met for the very first time.

We drove to Vancouver together with our mutual friends, Brooke and Van, where we promptly spent 5 hours sitting in a car in pouring rain waiting for Canadian Automobile Association to come help us with a blown tire.

U2 360 Tour

2009-10-24T18:06:00.003-04:00

U2--what a band! On Sunday, September 20th, Nick and I went to see U2 perform at the Gillette Stadium. First we spent a long time bonding with other U2 fans.

Tightly squeezed in between other lucky General Admission (GA) tickets holders, we waited for hours to be let into the stadium. However, it was all worth it, we ended up just a few yards away from the stage. We jumped and danced, clapped our hands and sang along with the songs, watching the band perform right in front of us. U2 delivered a great performance, and we had an incredible time.

Perhaps the set list was not particularly “unusual”, but just hearing Unforgettable Fire performed live was incredible enough. I will definitely have to go to more U2 concerts, because the band did not play Bad—one of my favorite songs ever. Bono did forget the lyrics on a couple of occasions, but for me that did not take away from the quality of the show.

This concert was my fourth U2 concert, but it was only the second time I got to watch the band standing no more than ten feet away from the stage. As awesome as this concert was, my first ever U2 concert, just over four year ago, still remains the absolute best rock concert experience ever. The concert back in 2005 was a completely new experience for me, and just like this time, Nick and I got to stand really close to the stage. It is hard to imagine that we almost did not go!

I was not a huge fan of U2. In fact I was completely oblivious until in 2001 Nick made me listen to two of their albums, Joshua Tree and Actung Baby. I loved the music, but knew nothing about the band. If they were really the punks I saw on the photos of the Achtung Baby album cover, then I did not want to know.

Then, in 2005 they were coming to Boston, and I decided that I wanted to see the band that wrote One and Love Is Blindness live. As I started reading more about the band and Bono’s philanthropy work, the punk image quickly dissolved. By the time we went to the concert on May 29, 2005, I was a fan, and I was in rock music heaven. I did not want to touch Bono, unlike many people in the GA line. I did, however, want to listen to U2 all the time. I learned the lyrics. I read more about the band.

At the risk of appearing incredibly immature, I now admit that the memorable U2 concert in May 2005 became a turning point for me. I was inspired. I was not sure what to do, but I wanted to volunteer and to do more charity work. When I came back from my first trip to Honduras in 2006, people asked me if the trip has changed my life. No, it did not. I went to Honduras exactly because my outlook on life has changed.

New Yawkey Station

2009-10-18T14:45:00.004-04:00

On Thursday the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Board came to an agreement with the developers of the Fenway Center, a mixed-use project to be built over the Mass Pike. If approved by the state environmental officials, the construction of the first phase of the project will begin next summer.

The Fenway Center project will create new residencial, commercial, retail and shared-parking space, as well as a new full service commuter rail station at Yawkey Station.

You can find a few more details on the project and the new agreement by reading this MBTA news release.

Excited as I am at the prospect of the new Yawkey Station, I wish I knew answers to the following questions:

Does the title "full service commuter rail station" require the station to have two platforms (as opposed to what is there now--just one)
Would the existence of this brand new station actually affect the train schedule such that more inbound and outbound trains stop there?
When would the construction of the new station be complete?
How would the Fenway Project construction affect the current Yawkey Station and the Framingham/Worcester line train operation?

Boston Half Marathon

2009-10-12T22:42:00.003-04:00

Finish: 1:55:38

Edited to add: Click on the photo for details...

I Am Running Running Running

2009-10-10T21:38:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow morning I am running Boston Half Marathon, and of course I am excited. I have bored Nick to death with questions about what to eat and what to wear. Not that Nick knows any better than I do, but it is a huge comfort to have him tell me what he thinks.

The level of my excitement seems even greater than it ought to be before a race, if that is at all humanly possible. I attribute this phenomenon to the fact that yesterday I have confirmed my place on the 2010 Dana Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC) team. In other words, I will be running the 2010 Boston Marathon!

Of course, all DFMC team members (and there are over 500 of us) have two major challenges before them. Besides training and running the marathon (one challenge), we also aim to raise $4.4 million for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. Personally my goal is to raise $8000 for cancer research, and that is the second and most important challenge. Please help me achieve my fundraising goal by making a donation!

To keep you up-to-date with my marathon training and my fundraising, I am brining back my Run Helen Run blog into action--the same blog I used when I was on the 2008 DFMC team. I hope you visit it regularly so that you can participate in raffles, games and other activities I plan on organizing.

For now, I am off to bed, so that I can be well rested for the race tomorrow. If you are in the Boston area, please come out to watch the race and cheer me on.

New Sea Shell Pattern--Truely Seamless

2009-09-22T18:21:00.002-04:00

U2 Sighting in Berlin

2009-09-19T20:57:00.005-04:00

Our first night in Berlin had a distinct U2 theme, even though we certainly did not plan it that way. We walked past the Berlin Zoo (Zoologischer Garten Berlin) and the nearby Zoo Station, which inspired the song, Zoo Station, the opening song on U2's Achtung Baby album, recorded in Berlin.
Our walk also took us through the Tiergarten, a large park in the center of Berlin designed in the 1830's that was once a hunting ground. As we walked past the Victory Column, I could not help but think back to U2's Stay (Faraway, So Close) music video. In the video (as well as in Wim Wender's movie of the same name) this 66+ meter column with a sculpture of Victoria on top servers as the gathering place for angels watching over the city.

As we passed under the Brandenburg Gate, we noticed a large crowd standing in front of the enterance to Hotel Adlon. Apparently, Bono was signing autographs at the entrance of the hotel. I climbed a railing for a better look, but still could not see anything. What can I say--the man is short.

As you can tell, I was greatly entertained by the fact that our almost U2 sighting happened right after we walked by so many places that reminded us of the band.

Hotel Breakfasts In Europe

2009-09-13T20:57:00.004-04:00

Breakfast was included in every hotel we stayed. Bread, rolls, cheeses and cold meats were served almost everywhere. Canned fruit salad was also a popular offering.

Hotel Atlanta in Munich offered pouched eggs, but during our first breakfast there I could not figure out where people were getting them from. Eventually I noticed a tray of toy rabbits! The body of each rabbit was exactly the size of an egg; each soft plush rabbit kept a single pouched egg warm.

Croissants in hotels in Italy were particularly good. Nick fell in love with jam filled croissants at Casa Formosa in Venice, while my favorite ones were in Residenza Domizia in Rome.

Hotel Maxim in Florence was the first place we have encountered serious fresh fruit—bananas and enormous kiwis. (Just to be fair--Hotel Atlanta did serve really sad looking apples, but I just could not count those as a real effort to serve seasonal fruit.)

The breakfast at Hotel Oberland in Lauterbrunnen knocked me off my feet. I could not get enough of their Birchermuesli—muesli (rolled oaks soaked in water or juice overnight) mixed in with fresh yogurt and fresh fruit. Mixed in with the yogurt and oats were red currants, wild blueberries and gooseberries. While we have seen currants and wild blueberries sold in the markets in Germany and Italy, I have not seen gooseberries anywhere but Russia. So they were an extra special treat. Apparently gooseberries are readily available in Switzerland, and we actually saw some gooseberry bushes while walking through Gimmelwald.

Playing With Sea Shells

2009-09-11T21:06:00.000-04:00

A Short Day in Newport, RI

2009-09-06T21:22:00.009-04:00

We took a late start on our day trip to Newport, but even then we did not expect the drive to take so long. Instead of an hour and a half, it tooks us well over two and a half hours to get there. I guess a lot of people are making day trips rather than going away for the entire long weekend.

Starting in the mid 19th century, wealthy New Yorkers began building summer houses in Newport to escape from the heat, and today many are open to the public. Unfortunately, due to our late arrival, we did not have much time to tour these famous mansions.

Rather than trying to rush, we decided to just visit the Breakers. I rarely enjoy audio guides, but the one taking us around this Vanderbuilt summer "cottage" was excellent. The opulence of the mansion is mind boggling, but much of it is quite beautiful.

We will have to return to Newport to visit more mansions as well as to tour the downtown area, which we completely bypassed this time.

More On Liquid Exchange in Europe

2009-08-30T21:45:00.003-04:00

If you feel uncomfortable reading about bathrooms, you may want to skip this particular post.

When leaving Zurich, we almost missed our train to Munich because I wanted to use the bathroom. The bathroom required 2 CHF (Swiss Francs), and we did not have any cash. What followed took well over 40 minutes. I first searched for an ATM machine, returning to the bathroom only to find that the change machine would not accept my 50 CHF bill. So after fruitlessly searching for a place to change the bill, I gave up and bought a pastry at a nearby shop. Only then was I able to finally enter the bathroom successfully.

My natural tendency to use the bathroom before getting on most forms of public transportation turned out to be just the wrong strategy in Europe. Train station bathrooms, while generally very nice, cost money. I thought prices were steep in Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof (€0.80), until I tried the train station in Florence (€1). In the meantime, the bathrooms on the train are usually clean, always free, and easy to find. Bathroom prices culminated in Venice where to use a public restroom costs €1.50. To add insult to injury, these bathrooms close at 7pm.

(Getting cash before getting on the direct train from Zurich to Munich turned out to be a good thing after all. The train passed through Austria, which was not covered by our Eurail pass, and the conductor only accepted cash.)

If You Want To Feel Blue, Fly With jetBlue

2009-08-27T21:42:00.005-04:00

Last weekend we flew down to Sacramento, CA, to attend our friends’, Ryan and Talia, wedding. Once there, we had a really great time. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, filled with so much love and so many personal touches. We got to help set up the reception area and spend a lot of time with Ryan and his family.

Getting in and out of Sacramento, however, turned out to be a bit of a challenge.

First of all, we never got to fly into Sacramento, even though we were supposed to… All jetBlue flights to JFK on Friday afternoon were delayed, making us miss our connection. Our choices were to delay our trip till Saturday, or to fly directly into San Francisco or into Oakland. We chose Oakland, as it made for a shorter drive.

Did I mention that the flight to Oakland was also delayed?

Living in America I always tend to think that anything is possible if you are willing to pay. Not so fast. We spent HOURS going through endless permutations of rental car companies and pick up times--to no avail. All car rental offices at the Oakland airport are simply closed by 1am.

At some point, it dawned on us that getting on the road at what would feel like 5am without having slept is probably not such a great idea. So we booked a hotel room. And oh boy, were we glad we did! After spending over 7 hours in the Logan airport, we finally landed in Oakland at 1:30am PT.

We gave up on renting a car entirely, when Ryan arranged for us to get a ride with his friends, who were driving up to the wedding from the Bay Area on Saturday afternoon. We could not be more thankful!

Our luck did not improve on our way home. Our flight to Long Beach, CA, scheduled to leave at 7pm PT, was sufficiently delayed to make us miss our connecting flight to Boston. And then we were offered a direct flight to Boston from none other than Oakland…

Instead, we chose to spend over 6 hours at the Sacramento airport, and take the midnight flight to JFK. We were now scheduled to arrive in Boston a little after 10am ET—only about 5 hours later than planned.

After yet another delay due to fog, our flight from JFK finally landed in Boston around 10:40am ET. Having already missed my 10am meeting at work, I decided to forego the circa $70 cab ride to Natick, and instead borrow my parents’ car, parked along the Silver line bus route along the Boston Waterfront. What could possibly go wrong now?

Lo and behold, the bus broke down about 2 minutes after I got on it. Within minutes, another bus came and picked up the stranded passengers. I was so impressed… until this same bus drove right through my stop! It turned out this particular bus was an express to South Station, but the driver was so flabbergasted about rescuing people from the broken down bus, that she forgot to announce that she was running express. Another bus ride and one thankfully uneventful drive later, I finally made it into work around noon.

Our Water Consumption in Europe

2009-08-17T21:40:00.003-04:00

On Friday, the New York Times published a small blurb that, among other things, lamented the fact that drinking fountains in America are not “as ubiquitous as fire hydrants,” forcing people to carry water bottles around. I felt the article was a cue for me to blog about tap water and drinking fountains in Europe.

Water fountains are indeed ubiquitous in Rome. Still I felt compelled to refill and carry a water bottle. Murphy’s Law told me that there would be no water exactly when I needed it. Plus even a short walk under the blazing Italian sun caused dehydration.

Of all drinking fountains the New York Times article surveyed only one (in San Francisco) was designed to provide water to our four-legged friends. The omission especially stands out after seeing all the happy omni present canines in Europe. In Bern and Zurich, most water fountains collected the water in a pool below, and dogs, little ones helped by their owners, happily drank from the pools.

Europeans do not tend to drink much water with their meals. Italians seem to prefer carbonated water. Everyone also seems to be used to the restaurant charging for every item served, including bread. Given all these facts, I did not expect to be automatically served tall glasses of cold tap water, but often I could not resist asking for one.

Both in Munich and in Berlin, when we asked, we did get tap water for free, though it came in tiny glasses (2 dcl). Germany was where the free tap water bliss ended. In Prague a waitress gently explained that tap water was “not very good” and brought out a bottle of water. In Venice the answer was much shorter—“no service.” The waiter almost snorted when I asked.

Paying for bottled water is far from shocking. I am also quite certain that people in the Czech Republic really do believe that their tap water is bad—nobody I know in Moscow drinks the tap water without filtering or boiling it. The paradox lies in the fact that while Rome has wonderful water fountains in every little piazza, and Venice prides itself on the purity and the excellent taste of its tap water, the restaurants refuse to serve it.

The change we experienced going from Venice to Lauterbrunnen in the Berner Oberland region of Switzerland could not be more drastic. The air was cool, public bathrooms were free (more on bathrooms in a separate post), and waiters did not even blink when asked for a glass of tap water. Most (though not all) restaurants still charged 1 Swiss Frank per glass, an improvement over €3.00 for 500ml bottle.

Run to Protect Your Knees

2009-08-12T21:54:00.003-04:00

This week I begin my training for the Boston Half Marathon, which will take place on Sunday, October 11. I know that my family, Nick in particular, worries about my knees as I continue to aspire to run more marathons. Worry no more! This article from the New York Times sites several studies that suggest that running may shield the runner from arthritis.

Dogs In Europe

2009-08-10T21:48:00.003-04:00

Dogs in Germany seem to live like kings. They follow their owners everywhere, including shops and restaurants. The smaller pooches proudly ride in bicycle baskets. Most dogs are not leashed. Yet they seem perfectly behaved. They walk at the heels of their owners, do not bark, and do not lunge at people.

Dogs in Italy are also omnipresent (and I do not mean homeless dogs--we did not see any). Yet here, most of them are leashed, and for a good reason. They are exuberantly happy. They bite their leashes, pull their owners in every direction, and joyfully jump regardless of their own size.

While we have been back at home for almost a week now, I still have more stories and observations to share with you.

Say No To Jet Lag

2009-08-06T23:02:00.003-04:00

What is the best way to get over jet lag? Go see Paul McCartney perform live at Fenway Park in the evening only two days after coming home from Europe.

At 67, Sir Paul McCartney played for OVER two and a half hours and did not miss a beat! Many of the favorite Beatles tunes made an appearance, such as Eleanor Rigby, Helter Skelter, Yesterday and one of my favorites--A Day In A Life.

Towards the end of the concert, I was trying to guess what the closer would be. After all the band has already played Hey Jude and Let It Be. But it was better than anything I came up with. The closer was a medley that started with the reprise version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,

"We're Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

We hope you have enjoyed the show

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

We're sorry but its time to go..."

and ended with The End.

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Rain In Bern

2009-08-03T12:54:00.003-04:00

Today we left the Alps (I almost cried) and arrived in Bern only to find that the weather forecast was a bit too optimistic--it was grey and raining. Nevertheless we faithfully followed Rick Steves' walking tour through the city. Now that we have returned to the hotel for the afternoon "nap" the rain has stopped of course.

Sadly our vacation is coming to an end. Tomorrow morning we go on to Zurich and fly home in early evening.

On Top of Europe

2009-08-03T12:17:00.004-04:00

On Saturday we took a train to the highest train station in Europe, the Jungfraujoch train station, at the elevation of 3,454 meters/11,332 feet.

The train is a cog railway train, and the last section before reaching the Jungfraujoch goes through the tunnel, carved inside the Eiger and Mönch mountains.

The Jungfrau summit at 13 642 feet (4158 meters) is one of the main peaks in Bernese Alps. The word Jungfrau means young lady, and here in the Alps she is being protected by the Mönch (a monk) from the Eiger (an ogre). Jungfraujoch is a low point between the Mönch and the Jungfrau peaks.

Once there, we visited two different observatories that allowed for magnificent views of the mountains (the summit of the Jungfrau, the Mönch and others) and the glaciers and for glimpses of the valley below and even Bern in the distance.

Schilthorn--Slower Than Swiss Seniors

2009-07-31T16:52:00.009-04:00

Yesterday (Friday) we took a series of cable cars from Stechelberg, a short bus ride from Lauterbrunnen, to the top of of Schilthorn (2970 meters/9744 feet). The summit has a sort of a lodge with a rotating restaurant and 360 degree outdoor observation terrace. We certainly spent a good amount of time enjoying the views from up there.

After lunch at the restaurant, we took the cable car part way to Birg, from where we hiked down to Muerren. The trails are clearly marked, and time estimates are posted for hiking to each destination. Our hike was estimated to take about 4 hours. Mostly due to my overall slowness and a tendency to take too many photos, the hike took A LOT longer. Rick Steves notes that the time estimates are determined by "local senior citizen"...

While hiking down we encountered a marmot--he was far away, but we noticed him because he was making high pitch squeeling noises. We have also come across a snake, many enourmous slugs and fields of wild flowers.

After dinner in Muerren, we took the cable car down in order to get home.

We Are In Switzerland

2009-07-31T04:05:00.004-04:00

We arrived in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, last night. Eric was delayed getting in, but he made it here alright as well. Here is a view from our room in Hotel Oberland.

We are off to "conquer" Schilthorn.

Wednesday--Our Last Full Day in Venice

2009-07-30T17:20:00.004-04:00

After breakfast we headed to San Marco Square in order to go inside St. Mark’s Basilica. Being adamant Rick Steves’ fans, we used his trick to bypass the line. Inside, while busy, it did not seem crowded enough for pickpocketers—Rick Steves’ promised the Basilica to be the most dangerous place in town. From the basilica, we also went into the Treasury (entirely not worth the €3—next time I would try the Golden Alterpiece area for €2,50 instead) and the San Marco Museum. The museum houses the original horses, whose copies are mounted on the basilica. The horses alone are well worth the €4 admission fee.

After leaving the San Marco, we walked to the north shore of Venice, grabbing some sandwiches along the way. We decided to spend the afternoon touring Burano and Torcello. We took a vaporetto from Fondamenta Nuove to Murano. We did not really linger there other then walking over to a different vaporetto stop to go to Burano. Another quick switch there, and we were in Torcello. On this route, the longest trip was between Murano and Burano—about 30 minutes of a very pleasant boat ride.

Only about 20 people now live on the island of Torcello, even though one time before the 14th century that number reached 50,000. Two churches and a bell tower is all that remains from those glory days. We looked into the smaller of the churches, and walked around main church of Santa Maria Assunta, which had some amazing mosaics from around the 12th century. After about an hour on Torcello, we caught the 5 minute ride on the vaporetto back to Burano.

Burano’s amazingly colored little houses are cute as a button. I cannot imagine that the locals enjoy tourists taking photos of their front doors, but it is simply irresistible. Thankfully the locals must feel relatively safe, because in the heat of the afternoon they leave their front doors open, covering them with a heavy curtain to block the sun.

Since Burano is known for its handmade lace, I couldn’t resist looking around a few lace shops. Most sold very similar beautiful items, sometimes more of what I would consider embroidery rather then lace. One shop had a large display of antique lace—exquisite.

After returning to Venice, we headed to the south side of town for a light dinner. We grabbed some “cicetti” (tapas) and white wine for a light cheap dinner at Enoteca Gia Schiavi on the San Trovaso Canal near the Accademia bridge. The sun was setting, so we walked to the water by the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute and sat “on the pier” until it was almost dark watching the water change colors and the lights go on for the palazzos.

Along the San Marco Canal At Night

2009-07-29T04:47:00.002-04:00

Doge's Palace and Laundry

2009-07-28T11:31:00.010-04:00

Today we decided to sleep in. And we did... except that around 9:30 (we were already up anyway) we got a call from the hotel reception checking if we were planning to go to breakfast (which was supposed to be till 10). I guess they did not want us to go undernourished.

After breakfast we walked to San Marco Square and went inside the Doge's Palace. Visiting the Doge's Palace included walking inside the Bridge of Sighs!

After a rather odd lunch (where I struggled with an enormous piece of pizza while sitting on the pavement by the Grand Canal) we walked around a bit passing through Campo San Polo and Campo del Frari, and then went back to the hotel.

Our goal before dinner was to do some laundry. Yesterday we have investigated a laundromat very close to our hotel. Nick had to wash all of his pants, so he had wearing his swim suite to the laundromat.

Doing laundry in Venice, besides being rather expensive, is also complicated. There is one central automated paying station where you pay for everything (soap, washer, dryer--there is no attendant). So there is a strict sequence to everything--e.g. select the temperature before you close the door, add soap before you pay, you have minutes to push start on the machine after you paid for the load, etc. On top of this it turned out that out of 4 dryers, only 2 had heat working. Of course we found out the hard way--by first running through a drying cycle of cold air.

On To Venezia

2009-07-27T18:15:00.003-04:00

Bon Giorno, Florence

2009-07-26T04:25:00.005-04:00

We arrived in Florence yesterday afternoon. Our hotel, Hotel Maxim, was a bit hard to find because, as it turns out, the buildings are numbered in two different ways, and we were not following the right numbers.

At least yesterday, it seemed like everyone in Florence was shopping. I can smell the leather goods just by walking down the street. As if the number of shops in the streets were not sufficient, we also discovered an underground tunnel connecting the train station with other parts of town that is full of shops.

A bit disorganized, we never did buy tickets to the Uffizi ahead of time, but we decided to try our luck anyway, and lucky we were! We got in line around 4:30pm, and in less then 15 minutes we were climbing the stairs towards the galleries.

We will see if we are as lucky getting into the Accademia today.


The Tetrarchs: the statues are now in Venice, but the heel is in Istanbul