Sunday, August 22, 2010
Surprise!
It started off innocent enough...
Brian - "Hey, leave Saturday open we are going away with Sean and Adrienne"
Tracy - "OK cool, where are we going"
Brian - "I dunno, I gotta talk to Sean"
Oddly enough, I left it at that. If the boys wanted to plan something - fine with me!
Fast forward to Saturday morning at 8am, I was told that we were meeting Sean and Ado at Waterloo Station. Given that information I thought we were on our way to Brighton or maybe
the New Forest. Brian insisted that I wear shorts and comfortable sandals, even though it was a cold and gray British "summer" morning.
Being so early in the morning, I didn't pay attention to where the cab was headed. Suddenly, we pulled up to St. Pancras Int'l Station. Hmm...I was confused. We walked in side and the next
thing I knew we were in line for the Eurostar check in, and Brian was handing me my passport (that he so sneakily stached in his cargo pockets) and pulling out our LV Paris guide book.
SAY WHHHAAAATTTT???
Paris?
For the day?
Best.Husband.EVER.
Sean and Ado arrived shortly after, Adrienne and I doing a little happy dance knowing that we were heading out of the grey day in London and heading for sunny Paris! No wonder Brian
insisted I wear proper summer attire - in Paris they actually have real summer weather during the summer months!
A quick trip through security and boarder control and we were off!
What was the plan for the day? Absolutely nothing. Wander around Paris. Eat. Drink. Repeat.
Perfection.
I have a confession to make. Its a little bit embarrassing.
We have never been to Paris.
Yes, yes - I KNOW that we have lived in London for almost two years annnddd I spent an entire semester abroad in Italy. But, it just never made it on the list. Oh but now. Now its at the top of the list.
I
Loved
Paris
My first loyalty will always be to Italy, but holy crap. Paris is amazing. We didnt even see the Eiffel Tower or have a crepe or any macaroons (don't worry - we saved those for our weekend trip to Paris scheduled for mid October). What did we do?
We rode bikes.
Had an amazing lunch.
Wandered around the streets of Paris.
And we enjoyed a nice little spread of Paris's finest on the Eurostar home.
What a perfect day.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Ciao!
Sorry to leave you hangin like that - I didnt want to say anything about our trip until we had the flights booked (Im superstitious like that) and that took a little longer than I thought.
But now - the tickets are booked and my bags are practically packed (and yes I am aware that we arent leaving for another 2 months)
So...where are we off to for our extra two weeks of vacation this year?
so.in.love.
We are going to fly into Verona and spend a few days exploring the Dolomites. You know Brian and his mountains (as seen here, here anndd here). Since we are going in the middle of October, there is a good chance that there will be snow at the peaks already, so we are expecting to only do some low level hiking. The scenery is supposed to be amazing -
After spending some time in the mountains - we are off to Tuscany!
The exact route hasn't been finalized yet, but were hoping to cut through Emilia Romagna (hello Bologna), stop for a couple days in Florence (EEEEEE!!!!!!) and end up in Pisa where we will catch our return flight to London.
Reasons why I am excited to go to Italy:
1.Duh
2. Except for the couple days that we spent in Venice last year, this will be our first full vacation in Italy.
3. It will be the first time in SEVEN YEARS that I have been in Florence. Shameful I know. SEVEN YEARS! Wait...how old does that make me then?
4. Wine.
5. Pasta.
6. Bread.
7. Its truffle season
8. Wine.
9. FLORENCE!
Ok, I think you get the picture. Im excited.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Honeymoon?
1. we would be bored out of our skulls. Yes we like to relax as much as the next person (or rather, the IDEA of relaxing), but we arent very good at it. Im all about laying on the beach...for an hour or two. Any more than that and I get antsy. And if you think Im bad - bring Brian to the beach without any entertainment and you pretty much should have brought a 5 year old (no offense, hun).
2. a two week vacation in any one of the world class resorts on these amazing honeymoon-centric places would probably break the bank, in several places. So, as amazingly beautiful as those places may be, we knew they weren't right for us.
Things we knew we wanted for our honeymoon -
1. a mix of activities - sea, city, hiking, culture, beaches....we wanted it all
2. preferably someplace that was NOT in Europe. If we are going for two weeks, we can afford a longer flight time, might as well aim for some place far away.
3. we wanted to stay in nice, 4 and 5* hotels, pamper ourselves a bit (we deserved it!) and not go bankrupt (another reason for not choosing Europe)
Conclusion - Vietnam here we come!
Huh?
Viet...nam?
I actually love telling people that we've chosen Vietnam as the location of our honeymoon because I generally get a response like -
"Are we allowed to go there?"
"Isn't there a war going on there?"
"My dad went to Vietnam, ask him how he liked it"
And so on, and so on.
To be honest, Vietnam has grown in leaps and bounds as a tourist destination over the last decades or so. Sure, some of it is still a little rough, and there are MANY small villages off the
beaten path that dont have any cash machines/telephones/paved roads, but for the most part Vietnam has become a popular vacation destination. Major roads and highways are paved and easy (ish) to navigate (though you would never drive them yourself - hiring a driver to drive you around the country/city/region is cheaper than renting the car alone), the train system is frequent and fairly reliable (and a great way to cover a lot of miles while youre sleeping) and the number of world class hotels and spas is multiplying like bunnies every year. Basically - awesome.
We decided to focus on 3 cities/regions throughout Vietnam for our 2 week holiday. We would spend around 3 days in Hanoi/Halong Bay in the north...
5-6 days in Hoi An in the central Vietnam region (for the best beaches/maximum relaxation)...
and another 3 or so days in the south visiting HCM (Saigon) and the Mekong Delta.
Vietnam is a pretty small country sq milage wise - however it is long and skinny, so traveling north to south as we wanted to would probably several in country flights in order to cover it all in only two weeks. ONLY two weeks...we are so spoiled.
The wedding was in June, which made for a bad time to visit Vietnam. So, we decided to put it off until the fall. No problemo taking the honeymoon after the wedding - it gave us time to plan it and something else to look forward to. So we were thinking October. And then I spoke to a travel agent who said that Nov/Dec would be better, as we would have a better chance at avoiding the monsoons (avoiding monsoons - good idea). And thennnnn when said travel agent found out that we wanted to spend the most days in Hoi An, he suggested February. Or March. Or April. Huh? April? But thats like....10 months AFTER the wedding? Is that even considered a honeymoon at that point??
After lots of thinking (ok, probably about 8 minutes worth) we decided to be patient, put the Vietnam books down for a couple mos and move the trip to April. Of 2011. Im still telling EVERYONE I meet on the trip that its our honeymoon. So, now we wait for April.
The good news is that leaves us with an extra 2 weeks in our vacation bank for 2010....
Where will be spending these two weeks?
Anyone? Stay tuned to find out
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
The Culinary Adventures of Brian and Tracy
We love food so much that it is one of our favorite hobbies. Cooking it,
eating it, staring at it...yes please I'll take three. Brian is kick ass on the BBQ (at one point we had 3 of them in our back garden) and makes a killer breakfast. Im a bake-aholic. If the recipe calls for sugar, my name is written all over it.
And now - a visual tour of our creations...
(From the top - mini muffins,super gigantic smoked pork chop/mexican grilled corn, our beloved beer can chicken, raspberry peach crumble, and last but not least cherry smoked chicken. nom.nom.nom.)
And that my friends...was just the month of July.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Mont Blanc
Brian and our friend Chris (the officiant at our wedding) went to Mont Blanc for 8 days with the plan to climb the highest peak in Europe (and later I found out one of the most deadliest in the world!). They arrived in Geneva and took a shuttle to Chamonix, France which would be their base during the trip. They signed up for a guided trek – it would be a small group of 10 people with 4-5 guides for the final summit.
The first 3 days were spent hiking up and staying on the glacier at the base of Mont Blanc. They stayed here for 3 days at 10,000 ft to acclimate to the air pressure, and they got some great hikes in as well. They got to use ice picks and cramp-ons for their boots, and ran in to a few crevices that ran so many meters down into the glacier, you couldn’t see where they ended. After 3 days they returned to base camp to restock on food and water, and prepare to summit Mont Blanc.
In case you haven’t heard – this summer has been particularly hot for continental Europe. They have experienced extremely hot temperatures for most of the summer season. This has resulted in many of the snowy peaks in the Alps melting a lot more and quicker than they normally do. On the afternoon that they hiked to their final base camp, where they would leave from before dawn the next morning to make the final ascent, word of disaster reached the guides. The rapidly melting snow from the peak of the mountain was causing disruptive and dangerous rock slides, and created unpredictable circumstances for a critical part of the hike that was necessary to cross when both going up and coming down the mountain. Some hikers had been injured just hours before the guys reached the mountain hut by these falling rocks. Brian and Chris took one look at the situation and decided not to summit Mont Blanc. The guides huddled together to make a final call for the whole group – and called off the summit.
Even though they were disappointed, being safe was more important than making it to the top. The next morning, instead of rising early to summit Mont Blanc, they boarded a shuttle bus heading for Italy, where the hiked the tallest peak in Italy. At least they had some amazing views of Mont Blanc from the mountain in Italy. All in all the guys had a great time – and while it wasn’t a relaxing vacation by any means, they had some unforgettable experiences. They ended the trip by spending a couple of days of down time in Chamonix, letting their tired muscles heals and filling up on French food and chocolate.
Monday, July 26, 2010
*Ahem* Hello...hello?
*UPDATED WITH CORRECT LINK*
Hello...? Is anyone...out there...?
I know its been nearly 8 long months since my last post - its been a busy year with a new job, our wedding in NYC and a handful of trips here and there around the continent. The bad news is - the wedding is over. It was amazing and perfect and everything we could have asked for. But now its over *tear*. The good news is - now I have my life back! As much as I enjoyed every minute of planning our Manhattan wedding, a small part of
me is excited to focus on the other great things in life - reading a book, rediscovering my love of baking (no more wedding diet!) and exploring our home away from home.
Even though wedding planning was our main focus from Jan - June (ha, ok lets be honest, it was MY main focus), we managed to get in a few great trips and have some awesome experiences here in London as well. I have all that and more to share with you guys! So expect some heavy posting over the next few weeks while I get you up to speed on our first half of 2010. Once you're all caught up I promise not to bug you as much,
and regular posting will resume.
I will be putting up a full post about Brians last trip to Mont Blanc (he just got back 5 days ago!) with all the details, but I had to give you the link to his photos now. The pictures are SO amazing - some of them don't even look real. Amazingly enough, these photos were taken with our Cybershot and not our awesome dSLR that we received as a wedding gift. Go point and shoot!
So, grab a drink and a snack and get settled in to his pictures of Mont Blanc - by the time you are finished I will probably have published the next post :)
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I hope you all had a FANTASTIC New Years Eve. Its hard to believe that another year has gone by...so what does twenty-ten have in store for us? Well, it will definitely include a wedding and a honeymoon (hell yeah!), more traveling, a little work and a lot more play!
Heres to a great new year - and a new decade!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas!
We are spending a quiet christmas in London this year - and so far its been a fantastic christmas! I was up at 5am for some unknown reason (all those years waiting for santa...) but managed to finally get up at a reasonable time. We plan on spending the whole day at home,
with lots of good food and drinks (nothing starts the day like an irish coffee!). Everything in London is closed for Christmas and most stores are closed for Boxing Day as well (including all public transportation!) - so we will be hanging around Islington for the weekend. We had some snow at the beginning of the week but its melted now...maybe well have a christmas snow miracle :)
A big shout out to our parents and family - we wish we could be at home celebrating with you!
We wish you and yours a very merry christmas and happy holidays!
Love,
Tracy and Brian
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Random London
Like this...
And these guys...
Cant wait to see what else we run in to!
Tis the season...
Friends of ours hosted a fantastic, home cooked Thanksgiving dinner on that day. They cooked for about 12 people, mostly Americans, and we all had a great time! Brittany even smuggled in some traditional canned cranberry sauce on her last trip to the US - nothing like cranberry sauce with the can lines on it!
Next up was a big pub dinner the Friday after. We had about 20 Americans, plus a few little ones running around, get together at one of our favorite local pubs. The pub cooked us a traditional Thanksgiving dinner - a 2okg turkey, sweet potatos, mashed potatos, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing...the works!! And it was SO delicious - they really did an amazing job! We were fat and happy after two great days of celebrating!
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