Bangkok at Night

I'm winding up the photos from Thailand with these night shots of the Bangkok skyline that Ross took. Yes, Ross!

I enjoyed Thailand. I didn't really like Bangkok-it's just big and smelly and smoggy. The tigers were the best part. If I go to Thailand again I'd like to visit the Northern part.

I don't know where we will go next, but I'm stoked about New Zealand 2016. I want to celebrate my real birthday bungee jumping, caving, swimming with dolphins, or soaking in hot springs. I don't know why, I'm just attracted to New Zealand.

Athens: The Acropolis

So our first day in Athens we decided to climb the rock of the Acropolis.  We took the long way around to the entrance and I was worn out before we even really started.  It was a nice, sunny, warm day, in stark contrast to our days in Florence.

This is the Erechtheion with a view of the Porch of the Caryatids.  The ones shown are replicas. We got to see the originals in the Acropolis museum.

This shot shows the olive tree that was planted to commemorate the olive tree that Athena first planted in a competition against Poseidon.

The Parthenon. It is under reconstruction/restoration and parts are being filled in with new marble.

This shows the Theatre of Herodes Atticus. I think it is great that the theater is still in use. When we were there the sound guys were setting up for some sort of performance.

Here we are in front of the Parthenon.

View from the Propylaia (entrance/exit).

The Negatives

I'm going to bitch and whine about all the annoying, irritating, bothersome, irksome things about our trip.

1. Cigarette Smoke: Athens was the worst.  At one point we opened the window in our hotel room to get some fresh air only to have smoke drift in from the cafes below. Sitting outside is a surefire way to have smoke with your meal.

2. Ugly Americans: I encountered them right away, and all the time. It started in Piazzale Michelangelo where some young (college age) Americans were carrying around wine bottles and drinking out of plastic cups. Classy.  They were arguing about who the statue in the center of the Piazzale was.  Ignorant. Stupid. Americans. It seemed like there were more of them in Italy than Greece. I'm delighted when people think we are English or Canadian. I don't want to be associated with all these stupid, rude Americans who think that the world revolves around them.

3. Smells: It seems that Italians and Greeks don't understand proper venting in bathrooms, so sewage gases come up through the pipes. Lovely. There are also some pretty nasty smells on the streets. Oh, and Europeans don't feel that deodorant or regular baths are necessary, so we got hit with a lot of body odor smells too. It seemed like when we were out and about it was either B.O. or cigarette smoke. One or the other. We couldn't get around without either.

4. Disrespect: Some churches and museums don't allow photos. My attitude: buy a postcard, it will probably be better than the photo you were trying to take anyway. If a church doesn't allow photos, then I respect that. It is, after all, a place of worship, and many times people were actually there praying. I felt bad enough walking around while people were praying, but to also take photos? No way. We met an American lady who was upset that some churches charge entrance fees and many don't allow photos. She was really angry about it and said she took photos anyway. Shameful. The worst was at St. Francis's Basilica. When we got to St. Francis's tomb there were people praying.  It was weird to walk by them and around his tomb. Photos were not allowed, but everyone seemed to be trying to sneak them in. It was awful, and the same way at the Sistine Chapel.

5. Relics: I don't like relics. We saw reliquaries in many churches. They bother me. I'm bothered because here you have some piece of a guy you see as holy, which means you desecrated and destroyed his body in order to put a tiny piece of it in a fancy jar. Ross is bothered by the fact that people worship that bit of bone or tooth. It is creepy and wrong. I always skip past them in the churches and museums. People fight over these bits of bone. Boggles my mind.

6. Poop: There was dog poop everywhere. Most people don't clean up after their dogs. Ross started calling them Italian biscuits. You always have to watch where you are stepping. Gross.

7. Rain: We had lots of rain in Florence, one rainy day in Athens, and it did rain some in Rome. We even had a rain shower at the State Fair. I'm glad I packed my umbrella and tall boots.

8. Restoration: Seems like everything we visited was under restoration: the Duomo in Florence, The Acropolis, parts of the Vatican museum, St. Peter's Basilica. Annoying, but necessary, and next time things will be brighter and cleaner.  It just sucks when you can't see things at all or they are covered by scaffolding. Cranes kept getting in the way when I wanted to take photos.

Okay, I'm done bitching.  The good way outweighed the bad.

I'm Baaaaa-aaack!

Well, my few and faithful readers, as you know, I've been away away for two weeks on an impromptu vacation.  I'm back and have almost 1500 photos to sift through. I'll try to share the best ones. Amazingly enough I'm not feeling jet lagged. I am worn out though. I wish I'd taken my pedometer, I'm curious just how much we walked. My feet and shoulders are sore. It will take a while to recover from this vacation.

Here is a photo of me in the Vatican Museum.

Friday in San Francisco

I got to San Francisco around lunch time and I took the BART to town. I got off right into the Westfield Shopping center.  I started shopping, but decided I had to eat first.

I ate under this dome, which was beautiful until the light shows began.  It made it look so cheap when it turned red and blue or snowflakes were projected onto the dome.

I had a chicken and mushroom open faced sandwich and only ate two bites of bread.  I totally resisted the pastries at La Boulange (where I had lunch).  It was a miracle.  I had tea instead of coffee.  They gave me a tea bag in a regular glass with warm water.  The coffees looked so pretty, but I got a cup of pale tea.  Oh well.

I did some tea shopping, and waltzed over to Nieman Marcus in the rain to buy something I've been wanting for a while.  I then hopped back on the BART to get up to the Ferry Building.

I walked all up and down the Ferry Building and the smell coming from Acme Bread was killing me.  It smelled so luscious, but I was trying to be good.  Ross met me there at the Ferry Building. I ended up breaking down and getting Mac and Cheese and steamed vanilla milk from Cowgirl Creamery and shared them with Ross.

I also bought lots of tea at Imperial Tea.  And I bought some bath salts to use on the trip.  Oh, my bag when I got to San Francisco weighed 14 pounds!  My shopping added to that and I ended up putting things in my bag in my bag.

I think this is the best photo I took all weekend.

After the Ferry Building it took us almost 2 hours to get onto the freeway.  Rush hour traffic, holiday traffic, and lack of signs made for a grumpy couple heading up to Napa.

Packing Light

So when I go on short trips I try to pack light(ly). Here is what I'm planning on taking on a long-weekend trip.

1. The water bottle.  I've been using a different one lately, but I opted for the smaller SIGG.
2. Reading materials.  I'd take more, but they are heavy.
3. Cheese--it seems like that is the only snack allowed on my current diet.
4. Cell phone.
5. Camera.
6. ipod touch.  This has all my music on it so I can chill on the plane or wherever.
7. Noise cancelling headphones.  These make the plane seem so much less noisy that I can actually sleep.
8. The 1 quart bag with all my liquids.
9. Jewelry bag.
10. A comb, gum, and my starbucks certificate that I have like 2 dollars left on.
11. Umbrella.  Forecast is calling for rain.
12. Wet bag---having my clothes in a zip-lock saved me when I went to NYC with Valerie.
13. Extra clothes for the weekend.
14. Tons of socks.  I'm wearing tall boots, and I have to wear two pairs of socks because they are a little big.  I was silly and sent an extra pair of jeans in Ross's suitcase.  I should have sent all these socks and my underwear.
15. A travel essential: perfumed hanky.
16. My new travel silverware: matching fork, knife, and spoon.
17. Bag.  I always have a bag inside my bag.
18. That's my wallet.
19. Charger for the ipod touch.  I don't want it to die when I'm playing Bedazzled at the airport.
20. Case with my make up and toiletries.  I wish they made my kind of deodorant in a travel size.  I might have to buy a regular one and just take out the inside bar, cut it in half, and put it in a snack bag.  I actually considered buying the Dove travel sized anti-perspirant, but I decided the pain under my arms isn't worth it.
21. Feminine items. Blegh.
22. Bra and underwear.
23. Not pictured: A hat to protect my straightened hair in the rain.

Some have called my purse my suitcase--and I did travel to NYC a couple of times with nothing but the purse.  My new bag is even BIGGER.  All that stuff is in my new purse.  It is heavy.  And that's with an empty water bottle, the camera is charging, and the cheese is in the fridge.  If it gets to be too much I can always pull out the wet bag and wear it as a backpack, or take out the bag inside my bag and put some things in there and throw it on my other shoulder (if it isn't already full of tea from Imperial Tea).  And once I get to the hotel (B&B) I can dump most of the stuff out and it will feel light as a feather after carrying around all that stuff.

The Joys of Travel

Our flights to California went off without a hitch, in fact I think we landed early in both DFW and SNA. Our flight back was a different story. We had a layover in DFW that was extended due to weather in the Washington, DC area. The 2:30 flight to DC was cancelled, and the 4:30 and 5:30 flights were delayed for hours. Our 7:30 flight was only delayed 50 minutes. Before we boarded we were warned that we might be diverted to Dulles because the runways at Reagan were closed or something.

I sat on the plane, bored, uncomfortable (I ate way to much in California and my digestive system was suffering for it), and a little annoyed. The pilot came on over the PA system and announced that Reagan was keeping the  runway open until midnight, so we would be able to land there. Yay! Well, 100 feet from the runway (per the pilot) we were waived off. I noticed we were doing a fly over and was very confused. It was probably 11:55. At 12:02 (am) the pilot informed us that the tower had waved us off because there was still a plane on the runway (translation: near miss) and they had closed the runway and diverted us to Dulles.

Diverted? Oh, Ross and I were mad. I had figured we'd be home by about 1 am, but now we had no idea what time we'd get home. You see, our car was at Reagan, so we would have to get a cab over there and then drive home.

We landed at about 12:25 and then sat on the runway. There wasn't much crew left, so we had to wait in line for a terminal. Well, we ended up in a remote area, so we had to wait for a people mover to take us to the main terminal. The people on our flight did not know how to cram in together. Seriously, they thought they were as crammed as they could get, but I've seen subways much tighter than that.

Ross had voluntarily checked his back (for free at the gate) so we had to wait for it at baggage claim. But again, they didn't have much crew at 1am, so we waited quite a while. At some point an AA rep came out and said that he would be handing out taxi cab vouchers to Reagan airport and we had to pack in 4 to a cab. Once Ross got his bag we found another couple to share a cab with. They were quite nice. The thing is we ended up standing in line for a cab until 2:30 am. (We had to top off our trip with more waiting in line.)  I was so tired, I couldn't be cranky anymore. It was bad, but the line extended way far behind us--at least another hour, if not two. I thought about taking a photo, but I was really tired, and didn't really want to remember standing in line for so long.

The ride to Reagan was a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be. We got to our car, and started the long drive home. I unfortunately sent us on a roundabout way and I'm 99.9% sure that Ross got hit by a speed camera. Oops. We arrived home at 4:30 am! I hadn't slept at all on the plane. I called my boss and let her know I'd be in by noon. I'm still recovering from that mess. Ross is beyond pissed with the tower at Reagan. At least we got home safely....

Book Review: Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

I wanted to get Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel from the library before we left for Texas so that I would have something to read on the plane. I wanted something funny. Despite what the computers said, the library didn't have it. They had Absurdistan, another book by the same author, so I took it. As I have mentioned before--I am a jew story magnet, so no surprise that the main character in the book is a Russian Jew.

This book is sad and funny. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the change of pace that I really needed after finishing The Dark Tower. Super Sad True Love Story is still on my reading list, along with Psychopath Test, but I need to read a book in Spanish now. I wonder if the library has anything. I don't think I'm up for Love in the Time of Cholera.

Packing Bailey

I'm really bad about unpacking when I get back from a trip. I only opened my suitcase to get presents out for Ross. Bailey gave everything a good sniff, climbed in, then curled up. She's been using it as her bed this week.

I wish I could take her with me wherever I go, but she'd be miserable.

Texas Blooms

I saw all kinds of blooms as we drove from El Paso to Del Rio last week. I managed to take a couple of photos.

These ocotillo plants were just dry twigs with flowers. These cacti actually grow leaves, but I guess there was only enough water to make flowers.
The prickly pears were also blooming.

We saw some burned out land and smoke on the horizon near Ft. Davis. The wildfires are currently burning over about 664k acres of Texas. That is nearly the size of Rhode Island (777k acres.) They were started by people--welding, tossing cigarettes. It is too sad for me to even think about.

The Good Stuff

This is where we stayed over the weekend--the Cider Mill House B&B. On Friday night we had the entire house to ourselves. When Ross got up at 4am to go to the bathroom we realized the power was out. It was pitch black and eerily quiet. Well, at least for a little while, then I could hear the cows and goats and the rooster.

Breakfast on Saturday morning was enough to feed at least 4 people. We started with cranberry muffins. Then we had a small fruit smoothie. Then the main course came. We had gigantic omelets made with fresh eggs from the farm. We also had turkey sausage over sauteed pears with maple syrup glaze, two mini croissants each, and roasted potatoes. I couldn't even manage to eat half of my omelet. I love potatoes, so I kept eating them. Then came dessert--a cup of sauteed pears with some kind of sauce and home made raspberry sorbet on top. I was completely stuffed.

Luckily I had packed a lunch to eat on the train. For lunch we had rolls, cheese, and honeycrisp apples. The actual train ride was very nice. The views were amazing. We could see the hills starting to change colors, and we got to see some really striking colors up close. It was a very nice day out, but we were enclosed in the air conditioned car. We were able to go between the cars to experience the open air. There was an open air car, but it was very far up the train, so we never went up there.

When we got back to Cumberland we walked around. I bought some earrings made from scarab beetle wings. The shops were cute, and things were reasonably priced. I wish we'd had more time in Frostburg and Cumberland. The pie was a perfect dinner. On Saturday night I could hear a fox calling out to declare his territory. Of course Ross sleeps through everything.

Sunday was awesome. Breakfast started with pumpkin bread and some other kind of raisin bread. I only had one slice of pumpkin bread because I knew there would be a lot of food coming. Instead of a smoothie we got sliced bananas and strawberries with really good yoghurt on top. I traded my strawberries for Ross's bananas because he's allergic. The main course was orange French toast with a slice of orange, turkey sausage over apples, and roasted potatoes. I only ate one of my three slices of toast. Dessert was home made apple pie filling with whipped cream on top. Of course I ate all that. I also had at least 3 cups of tea.

I wish I'd had time to visit with the goats and cows, but we had an appointment. We went to Berkeley Springs State Park for a bath and a massage. The water from Berkeley Spring is heated to 102 F for the bath. The steps down into the bath reminded me of the mikvah. When I came out of the bath I felt really good. We had to walk to another building for our massage and the cooler air felt refreshing. We both had hour long massages. I was good and told the girl when she was being too rough. I came out feeling relaxed instead of like I was in a car wreck.

We left the car in our prime parking spot and checked out the Apple Butter Festival that was going on in town. We walked around--looking at the booths and in shops. I got a lemonade, then we went to lunch. We had bbq, and it was surprisingly good (I'm picky.)

We searched for some apple dumplings and when we finally found the booth they only had trays left, no more individuals, so we bought a whole tray (5). We've been eating them for dessert this week. Last night we went and bought whipping cream and we had one with sweet vanilla whipped cream.

So that's the good stuff. Lots of food and a hot bath.

Blunders Abound

So many things went wrong on Saturday. The day wasn't a total loss, but there were so many mishaps! I thought we could spend a few minutes on the way to Cumberland at the Sideling Hill Exhibit Center, but alas, it was closed. No big deal.

Our train was scheduled to depart at 11:30, and I think we'd taken our seats by 11:25. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. We were told that there was a slight problem with the steam engine and we'd be departing in a few minutes. We did start to move, but then stopped for a few minutes to load bicycles. No big deal. We started again, and barely made it out of the station when we stopped again. We were blocking the intersection and drivers were getting annoyed and turning around. We started rolling again, only to stop a few seconds later. We had only gone far enough to get out of the intersection. After a few minutes we finally started--and kept--moving.

Ross took a couple of photos of me and commented that the battery was getting low on the camera. I decided to change the camera battery, and discovered that the batteries from our old camera are slightly different and we can't use them in our new camera! I was a little bummed. I have no idea how we'd never realized this before.

The scenery was great, and I was able to take a few photos. About half a mile (or less) from Frostburg the train stopped again. The conductor from the rear (diesel) engine came rushing through our car toward the front of the train. We were told that the train couldn't make it up the hill, so they were going to split the train up. We were abandoned on the tracks. I would say we sat there almost an hour. A second diesel engine came from the rear and pushed us up the hill. I don't think we were rolling for 5 minutes when we stopped again. We were told we would have 35 minutes in Frostburg (we were originally supposed to have 90) and that the train would leave at 3:30. Originally we were scheduled to be back in Cumberland at 3:00! It took us 10 minutes to disembark from the train--so we only had 25 minutes before we had to be back on the train. Luckily I had packed a snack/lunch, so we didn't have to scramble to try and find food.

We walked across a grassy area to the train station, which was packed. We hoofed it up the hill to Frostburg and I asked someone where we could get ice cream. Just a block or two up the street we got some ice cream in a little cafe and used their restroom. Then it was time to head back down to the train. The steam engine was still on the turntable when we got back and it was sputtering. I decided to take a picture and couldn't find the camera anywhere! I got really nervous. We headed back to the very last passenger car, where we had been sitting and found the seats had been rearranged. The other passengers were very nice and checked their seats, but the camera was nowhere to be found. I dumped out my bag, but there was no camera. I sat down and started crying. After comforting me a bit Ross went to talk to the crew. When he returned I was super relieved to see he had the camera. They had found it.

The train ride back to Cumberland seemed lightning fast compared to the ride up to Frostburg. The announcer apologized for the delays. It seems the breaks were sticking on the steam engine and the deisel engine overheated. He said even without those problems we would have never made it up the mountain with all the cars we had on the train. What? Apparently they were planning on splitting up the train all along. Not cool. We arrived in Cumberland without the steam engine at about 4:30 pm. It took a while to get off the train. The passengers waiting for the 4:30 departure were packed in the station.

We walked around Cumberland and actually got to see the train leave at 6p! We also saw some of the cyclist riding back into the station at about the same time. Maybe one day we'll take the train up and ride our bikes back down.

Ross and I decided to get some pie for dinner. I'd heard about a place that has lots of pies, so we headed out only to find it closed up. A sign said reopen 2011, but I'm not so sure about that. The place looked abandoned. We turned around and found pie at another place in Hancock.

We ended up driving a long and windy road back to the B&B in the dark. I had my slice of wild berry pie with some tea and was ready for bed at 8:30. I had taken the battery charger for the camera battery and decided to charge the battery. That didn't work because the charger was for the old camera batteries. Ugh. I went to sleep feeling totally drained. What a long day.

Wild China

Last night I finished watching the series Wild China on Netflix instant watch. This six part series by the BBC explores different areas of China and how the people relate to nature. The images are breathtaking. I'm not sure which episode was my favorite, but the last one, Tides of Change, showed the Tulou of Fujian Province (pictured). Many tulou were built hundreds of years ago and are still standing. Ross and I were really impressed. The series showed China's many sites of natural beauty. It makes me wish I had months (and the money) to explore all the remote areas of China.

Travel Month

Wallace is a professional photographer, so check out his blog for photos of NYC. Ross and I are even in a couple of the photos. Sad to say, but I didn't take even one photo on this last trip to NYC. I didn't take any in North Carolina either. Ross is in El Paso right now and I hope he takes some photos of our nieces. They seem to change so much so quickly. Ross is headed off to San Francisco right after he gets back from Texas. I'll encourage him to take photos there too. This month is just jam packed with travel and we are planning more. I want to go to Texas for Passover and we are looking at a trip to St. John in the Summer.

One Dozen

I managed to do the shred twelve days in a row. Yesterday was the first day that I didn't do it. I did exercise yesterday though. I started the day with yoga, walked, and did cardio and ab exercises in the hotel gym, so I'm not very upset about missing a day of the shred.

I'm in North Carolina right now. I have had a great trip so far. I stayed in a really nice place called the Carolina Inn, which is on the UNC campus. There is a boba place right next to the the building where I'm having my training. I am DEFINITELY going there today. I'm not going to pass up a chance for nai cha. Speaking of cha, I had a lovely pot of green oolong tea at dinner last night. Oh, dinner was duck soup. It was very tasty.

Being here in the South makes me homesick. Ross suggested that we go home over my birthday, but I might want to wait until Passover. We'll see.

NYC Here We Come...Eventually.

We've been here almost 6 months (I'm in complete denial about that), and I can't believe we haven't been up to New York yet. Tickets to the Statue of Liberty Crown were selling out fast, so I booked those about 3 weeks ago. Today I used Priceline to book our hotel. I was a little nervous, not knowing what I was going to get, but I got a 4 star hotel in the financial district for 165/night! I've been checking out bakeries and restaurants online. We are going for Ross's birthday, so I want to make it fun and special. As it turns out my parents will be here at the same time. They are going to stay at our place and visit DC while we are in NYC. It all works out because Bailey won't be alone and we'll have a ride to the bus stop. I'm getting excited, and the trip is over three months away!

Animalspotting

I like to keep a lookout for different animals when we travel.  On the way we saw: deer, cows, baby cows, horses, a pony, a dog, lots of birds, various water fowl and birds of prey.  We smelled a couple of skunks, but I didn't see them.