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!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The other red meat...
Yup.
You read it right.
Ostrich.
Yum?
Turns out - YUM is right! We cooked that bad boy up tonight on the grill (in our GARDEN!!! Yes, still super excited about the garden) - along with a rack of lamb (have I died and gone to heaven?). We cooked the Ostrich steak the same way you would a regular beef steak, and it tasted pretty much the same as regular red meat! Its healthier than regular red meat as well...this could become a staple bbq item this summer!
I managed to pitch in a little today - I baked some chocolate chip cookies for dessert...still having major issues getting my cookies to look right (hmm I guess it WASNT our old oven then...). So after the first batch of regular CCC, I stuck the rest in a pan an made blondies. What a dee-liscious end to the weekend!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
When life gives you lemons...
*make lemonade!*
I just found out that my job at Gap won't be permanent. I was initially signed on for a 4 month contract with an option to extend it. Sadly, that option was just taken away. They just announced a big reorganization of the company, which majorly impacted our London office and parts of the NY office, and my position will be moved to NYC as of May 2010. Oh the irony.
Back on the interview train I go...I wallowed in self pity last night ("no fair - I JUST found a job that I really like, in an industry that I love, doing what I do best!!" - yes, as a grown adult I whined "no fair") but I am trying to take on a sunny approach to the situation this morning. Hey - at least I have a great project to put on my CV (in London no less, for a global company!) and maybe this final push from the fashion world will give me the guts to try something new! All I know is, I won't be back in that bloody hair salon any time soon.
Another blessing is that I'm employed at least until the end of January, possibly until May. So don't worry my friends...you'll still all get your Christmas presents this year :)
"When life gives you lemons...make lemonade"
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Ain't these perrty?
**some be-yooo-tiful zinnias that I bought at our local farmers market a few weeks ago**
We are all moved into our new place and 95% unpacked! Most of our giant american sized furniture fits (hooray!), save for a few jumbo occasional tables, and we had very little problems moving in. Much to my shock our internet and phone were hooked up the same night we moved into the new flat, although yesterday we did have to wait over 10 hours for Sky to come and hook up our cable tv (not to mention that when they finally came they only brought the cable box and not the chip card that actually accesses the cable...so now we have another useless cable box sitting in our living room). However, 1 out of 2 aint bad!
Pics of the apt are coming soon - I promise! Hope you had a nice weekend!
Pics of the apt are coming soon - I promise! Hope you had a nice weekend!
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Pack it up, Pack it in
Brian is so sick of hearing that. What? It's not annoying to sing the same two lines from a rap song over and over and over every time I start packing up a new box. It's not - I swear! That's right folks, we're moving! Much to our dismay, we have to pack up our stuff and move out of our lovely apartment at the end of this week. The bad news - packing is a pain in the ass. The good news - our new flat is AWESOME. Right now I only have a few pictures of the new apartment with all of the previous tenants stuff in it, which would be weird to post on this blog. So once we get all settled in I'll be sending pics of our new home!
Our internet is supposed to be installed the same day that we move into the new place - but lets be real, the odds of that happening are about the same as me getting through this move with less than a dozen new bruises. But I'll cross my fingers anyway, and hope that all goes well! If you want our new address send me a note and I'll update you. I figured posting our mailing address on the internet was not the best of ideas. Go me for thinking ahead. I think that deserves a cupcake.
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