North Peninsula, August '08

Camping trip 2008! Jody scouted out many a place for us to spend a weekend out of the city, and apparently everyone else had the same ideas...so we opted to spend 2 nights at their camp friend Murph's property in the North Peninsula, about 2-hours north of Seattle. Eight of us ended up making the trip; Jody, Anton, Anna, Alex, Kostas, Andy, Margaret, and myself, a great group. We arrived at the campsite which had a stealthy firepit, kitchen area, and wall-less shelter that was floored with thick red gym mats - perfect!

The weather could not have been more perfect, we made a trek up to Costco prior to departure and stocked up on all of the goods to make foil dinners (Anna, Jody, and Margaret's specialty from the camp years)...We unloaded our cargo, sleeping bags, and food and chatted around the fire, telling stories until the wee hours. The next day we set off on a canoe expedition, packing trail mix, fruit, water, and sandwich supplies to keep us going. The sun was scorching, and the paddled grueling - roughly 4 hours on the water, but it was well worth it to hang out with friends, playing various games across boats; 7 Degrees of Separation, sing-a-longs, and connect-the-songs...

We weren't entirely roughing it, we did drive into town for some drive-through coffee at a local barista, but we figured after our day of paddling, we deserved it. O a side note, I ended up red as a lobster, my entire back was so burned that I couldn't sleep on my back for a week after the trip, but overall it was a great bonding experience and an opportunity to venture outside the sweaty reaches of Seattle for a day or two. Definitely going to do this again next year!

Whistler, May '08

Sarah's "hen night," became a bachelorette weekend, in Whistler, B.C. With Canada being the destination du jour, we were able to bring our one youngster, maid of honor Samantha along with us. We started off at the Galando's where Alicia presented all the girls with t-shirts to commemorate the wedding of Sarah & Nathan with the tag line, "White is the New Gai." We piled into the suburbans and began the 6 hour trek up to Whistler to begin the bachelorette festivities. After opening presents we got all dolled up and headed out on the town, with Sarah sporting her bachelorette sash. It was a rowdy, roaring good time! The next day we laid by the pool, and shopped Whistler village before getting ready for another night out. We headed to a fancy dinner at a Japanese Steak House, where we treated the bride to a fabulous meal cooked right before us, and a few sake bombs, just for good measure. We rallied at Longhorns with a bachelor party to whom Sarah knew the groom, and proceeded to dance together, before a late night trip to ZogDog for some sustenance. All in all, a fabulous bachelorette weekend, cheers to the bride!

Seaside, Oregon, March '08

In celebration of Anna's 27th birthday, 12 of our closest friends took a road trip to Seaside, Oregon for a birthday weekend getaway. Anna's grandparents have a sweet little pad about 3 blocks from the beach, which built to accommodate her enormous family, made for comfortable sleeping arrangements for all. On Friday we rolled into Seaside late in the evening after work, and the festivities began.

Saturday we played Frisbee on the beach (and found an awesome sand castle) while walking en route to Seaside proper. While in town, we took in the local attractions: Tilt-A-Whirl, mini-golf, video arcade, and other small town novelties that shouldn't be missed, including saltwater taffy...Yum! Jody and I stumbled upon $5 viking hats in a hat store, which we simply couldn't pass up. All 12 of us ate lunch at Be-Bop Burger before walking back to the house, resting and relaxing before our Greek counterparts whipped out an amazing birthday dinner for Anna.

Nick, Kostas, and I made a trip down to the local grocery store and snuck behind the deserted bakery case to select for Anna the perfect b-day cake (the selection was minimal)...a tall, pink frosted cake, upon which we wrote "Happy Birthday." We drank wine and toasted to the birthday girl, before an evening of beach bonfires and relaxing. All in all, a great weekend!

Vail, Colorado (February 2008)

Presidents Day is the greatest holiday! A free day off in the middle of winter, perfect opportunity for a ski-weekend getaway. My family rendezvoused in Vail, Colorado for four sweet days of skiing. Unfortunately my sister Allie was unable to attend because of school, but Katie was able to fly in from New York City.

I had a terrible cold before we flew to Vail, and it stuck with me for most of the weekend, but I did manage to get 2 days of quality skiing in. The snow was AMAZING, at least a foot of fresh, lightweight, dry powder that completely covered my ski's.

At night we made the best of Vail's restaurant scene, eating at great locale's including Sweet Basil and Larkspur. I tried to make the best of it, even though my Sudafed cocktail did not mix too well with wine and spirits. It was great being all together again, especially since we hadn't seen Katie since she came home for Christmas. All in all it was a great, short but sweet family vacation.

Providence, Rhode Island, December 2007

After visiting Katie I took the train up to Providence, Rhode Island to visit Allie at Brown University for a couple of days. I didn't realize when booking this ticket that Allie would be in the middle of finals week. As such, College Hill was pretty quiet, apparently it is pretty lively every other time of the year. I got into Providence about 3pm to snow flurries, on top of the 2 feet of snow they had received the day before. The problem was, it froze that night, so all the sidewalks were extremely slick, I must've slipped like ten times walking up Thayer Street. Turns out Uggs have zero traction - who would've thought? We ended up going out to her favorite pizza joint for dinner and then caught the late showing of Polar Express at the IMAX theater in downtown Providence, part of our festive countdown to Christmas.

The next day Allie gave me a tour of the campus, we slipped and slid along the pathways through the campus. We took some pictures in the main green, Brown's version of a quad, which is a rectangle of gorgeous old buildings, and was covered in a white blanket of snow. We walked through the Greek Row, and by the famous Brown gate, where all the freshman ceremoniously walk through at convocation, and then all graduates exit out of.

We walked up to the gym and I got to see Allie's locker room - which was covered in fiesta decorations; streamers, sombreros, and cactus's, apparently freshman decorate for certain games. After Allie did some studying and I did some shopping we took the trolley up to Federal Hill, known for its famous Italian restaurant row for dinner. After dinner we waited in the freezing cold for the trolley to return. I was jumping and dancing in place trying to keep warm, much to Allie's chagrin. She claims to now be used to the cold weather...I don't think that is something I could get used to. Even when you finally get inside, it takes at least 10 minutes to defrost!

Allie had yet another night of studying, but we grabbed Starbucks and made a quick stop at the bookstore for some Brown University duds and in the morning before I took the train to Boston for my flight back to the west Coast. A quick, mellow side trip, but it was great to see a slice of her college experience.

New York City, December 2007

I flew out to New York City the day after my last class. I just beat the blizzard and arrived in the FREEZING city to a fresh coat of snow. Katie has been living in Manhattan since late August, and I stayed with her at her cute and cozy apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood. With Katie working Thursday and Friday, I was left to explore the city solo, and meet up with her after work. However, Thursday came with additional snow flurries, and even though I was able to make it to a few Christmas-y sights (Rockafeller Center, Palace Hotel Christmas tree, Lord & Taylor, and Macy's window displays)...my feet were soaked and freezing by mid-afternoon, so I hiked back to the West Side and warmed up at her apartment watching Project Runway and Top Model reruns. We met up later at Alta - a tapas restaurant/bar Katie had read about, in the West Village, and dined on some awesome fare: bacon-wrapped almond stuffed dates, tomato crostinis, and fried goat cheese balls (Katie thought any food with 'balls' in the name was worth ordering for a laugh, ha ha ha).

Friday night - I continued my solo venture by day - mostly cruising the Upper West Side, though I took a detour to check out the "Block Beautiful" in Gramercy Park, a street of picture perfect New York brownstones. At night we ate at Bread - famous for what else, different kinds of bread! After dinner and some wine, we walked around the Meat Packing District and then took a cab we met up with our high school friends Lauren and Jeff, at a fun bar in the East Village.

Saturday was our day of walking and shopping, we did brunch at Bubby's in TriBeCa, got a few token pics in front of the firehouse, prowled the flea market in Hell's Kitchen, and basically shopped all day. We spent most of our time in the West Village, which is probably my favorite neighborhood in New York. All the storefronts, shops, and residences are so picturesque, its the perfect blend of old and new. Most of the buildings are old and historic looking, but have been restored and prettied up to become scenic hot-spots. And because of it's chic street appeal, many designers have taken up residence, Marc Jacobs, Coach, and more. We did also stumble upon a Santa and elf pub crawl which was a sight to see!

As it started to get dark and cold, we headed back to Katie's apartment to change and met up with Jeff, Lauren, and Brett at a Chinese restaurant for dinner, before going back to Brett's apartment to watch SuperBad. Afterwards we walked to Rudy's - hands down one of the most random bars I have ever been to, but such a fun time! They served $7 pitchers, and gave out free hot dogs - you can't go wrong! After we were a couple pitchers deep we decided to play flip cup at our booth, acquiring plastic cups from the bar back. All in all - it ended up being a pretty good time, lots of drinking, laughs, and good times to go around. We ended up changing locations at about 1:30, taking full advantage of the fact that bars don't close until 4am in New York City! We ended up at an Irish pub around the corner, and befriended the DJ to play our favorite 80's and 90's songs, and danced around, laughing and being silly until 3:30, when we finally retired. It was a blast!

Paris, France (June 2004)

Katie and I arrive in Paris to torrential downpours. Seriously. It was not quite the Paris I had imagined - the City of Light overcome by enormous curbside puddles and blustery winds that would turn your umbrella inside out every 100 yards. However, we decided to make the best of it, and explored as much as our soaked feet would allow us. We stayed in a cozy B&B in Montmartre, literally in the shadow of the amazing basilica Sacre Couer. We were a two minute walk from the Place du Tertre - the artists quarter, where you can walk through and around easels of Paris's scenic sights. There was a creperie on the corridor from Sacre Couer to the Place du Tertre, which had delicious crepes, both sweet and savory. My favorite was the crepe de pommes (apple) and nutella banana (hazelnut and chocolate spread + sliced bananas). Katie and I tried a savory crepe, it had something like egg, cheese, ham, and spinach in it. Definitely prefer the sweet ones, the savory kind reminded me of a not-so-great breakfast burrito. As we continued to explore the city, we found arrondisements we liked more than others. While the Champs Elysees is a must-see, the surrounding area is one giant tourist trap, food and souvenirs are double the price, if not more. We liked the 8th, the area around the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides, there are a lot of great patisseries and coffee shops with character, especially on Rue Cler. Also worthwhile is San Germain, across the River Seine from the Louvre. There are an array of famous coffee shops to choose from, many of which once entertained the likes of Hemingway, Victor Hugo, and Voltaire. My favorite was Deux Magots - which has a long standing rivalry with its neighbor Cafe Flore (also good).

We also hit up a lot of the usual tourist attractions: the Louvre, Moulin Rouge, Notre Dame, one church I would highly recommend also on the Ile de la Cite is Sainte Chapelle. This church is a famous reliquary as well, home to the Crown of Thorns. The building itself is supported by a delicate framework, built so that you are hardly aware of the beams, making it feel as though you are completely surrounded in stained glass. It is definitely a very peaceful and spiritual space, well worth the 12 euro. So there you have it - even in the rain you can have a fabulous time, it's simply Paris!