Fall vacation: The UK and Italy

Cheryl travelled to the UK for work. We decided that it would be a good idea for me to join her in Edinburgh near the end of the trip, and extend the visit with a European fall vacation. We originally planned to head out to Istanbul but the town’s weather forecast was for much more rain following the worst floods in 80 years, so at the last minute we decided to head to Italy instead (not a bad second choice).

Wednesday afternoon (Sept 23) I took the red-eye out of Seattle direct to London. From there my connection didn’t quite work out (after standing by on 4 flights British Air finally swapped me airlines on the last flight out), so I didn’t make it to the Gleneagles Hotel in time for Scotch tasting. Bummer.

My bags didn’t turn up either, so I had to attend the relatively formal conference lunch with my sneakers: I stuck out a bit...

At the end of the conference we played a round of golf at the famous PGA quality Gleneagles golf courses. I was scheduled to play the King’s Course, while Cheryl opted for the par-3 Wee Course. I played with a couple of low-to-scratch golfers, and for the most part hacked the course apart. Highlights for me include getting to within 15 feet of the pin on a 250 yard par 4 with a 4-iron from the tee (then three-putting for par), a lone birdie, and the loss of over 9 balls :) Cheryl got a par by sinking a shot from the sand!

Here is Cheryl right after chipping in from the sand for par:

London
From there we started our trip over to Italy. We had a long layover in London, and had to transfer between London City Airport and Stansted which required us going into town anyhow, so we checked our bags at the Liverpool Street Station, and headed down to visit some of the sights of downtown London.

We went to Westminster Abby, saw the church (The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster – Westminster Abby for short), Big Ben, the London Eye, and had lunch downtown.

Here’s Cheryl and I in London with Big Ben in the background:
 

After catching the train to Stansted Airport it was time to head to Rome. We flew to Rome on a budget airline (RyanAir), which would not allow checked bags over 15kg (which really isn’t that much weight for a week’s long trip), so after a lot of luggage-swapping, and pocket-packing, we were able to get my bag down to 14.9kg, and Cheryl’s to 15.0kg even. So, there’s a good reason we didn’t bring back many souvenirs :)

Rome
Our first night in Rome was pretty uneventful. We got in late enough that we essentially hit the sack immediately after a crazy taxi ride.

The next morning we decided to tour around to some sights near our hotel to get a general sense of the city. We immediately walked to the train station (Termini) and bought ourselves Roma passes (which gives you free transit around the city for 3 days, discounts at many major attractions, and free entry into the first 2 attractions you see).

From there we walked towards the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri church. A pretty impressive first site, made more so by the sounds of the spectacular organ ringing throughout.

The most impressive organ I’ve ever seen someone play:
 

Just around the corner from there is the National Museum of Rome – Palazzo Massimo. I am not a huge museum buff, so to me this was primarily a good way to escape the noon-2pm heat prior to walking down to the more interesting sights in the old city.

After escaping the museum and participating in the famous Italian siesta, we started our walk down to the iconic Colosseum, a truly impressive sight. The Colosseum construction began in 70AD (ish), and its opening in 80AD was marked with an 100 day opening ceremony where 9,000 animals, and 2,000 humans were killed. That’s 90 animals, and 20 people per day on average: Lots of ‘entertainment’… Over the course of its existence it is estimated that 500,000 people, and over a million animals died to entertain the people of Rome.

From the inside:

From the outside:

After spending a few hours marveling at the Colosseum we walked over towards the Pantheon, and to start a night walk through the city.

No shortage of scenery:

We then went over to the Pantheon, and ate some dinner nearby. The night walk took us through the Trevi Fountain (where Cheryl and I threw money over our left shoulders for apparent good luck – approximately 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day and given to charity), and then we walked on to the Spanish Steps (and up them). This was a lot of walking in one day for Cheryl, so we took the metro back to the hotel to get some sleep for our next big day - the Vatican.

Vatican City
Technically the smallest country in the world, Vatican City houses St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Vatican Museum which gives access to the famous Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo.

The Vatican Museum line is famously long, often hours, so Cheryl and I decided to start there to be sure we could make it in before it closed - it closes earlier than other museums in the city. When we got there, the line we saw seemed to stretch for a kilometer… But it was moving very fast, so we held out hope. In the end I believe it was under a 45 minute wait for us, so I was pretty happy for that – we had psyched ourselves up for an hour and a half wait, and it’s all about expectations.

The line for the museum:
 

I do not have an art degree, so I am very sure that I didn’t come near full appreciation for the art held within the museum, but the Sistine Chapel was impressive even to someone who doesn’t typically appreciate art.

From there we took a trick from Rick Steves, and snuck into St. Peter’s Basilica by closely following a tour group through a side entrance rather than walking out and around for 30 minutes into the main entrance (having to once again go through security). This worked really well. We came out of the Sistine Chapel right by the main entrance to the Basilica.

St. Peter’s Basilica was the most impressive building I have ever seen, and I had just been to the Colosseum. It blew me away, and I really wasn’t expecting it to. The size of everything in there was absolutely incredible, even though the construction was actually made to make the building look smaller than it is.

St. Peter’s Basilica (photos do not do this one justice):
   

We then went up the dome of the basilica (elevator + 320 stairs), which offered a stunning view of Vatican City, and a 360 degree view of Rome.

View from the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica:

We then went down to the shop at the base of the dome (still on the roof) to buy a few post cards (and Vatican stamps), wrote the post cards and sent them off.

At this point we went back to the old city again to continue our tour, we went to Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum to learn more about ancient Rome prior to heading back on another night walk via the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps.

The next morning Cheryl and I visited the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore since it was a block from our hotel. Then we were off to Sorrento which required taking a train from Termini to Naples, and then swapping to another train to Sorrento.

Sorrento
Sorrento is a pretty small town compared to Rome and Naples, famous for Limoncello, lemon trees seem to be all over the place here. Now that we’ve got our fill of museums, and churches, it was time to relax.

This was the view from our hotel terrace:
 

We arrived early enough to get a look at the town in the daylight, we found a good pizza place, and walked around to get a lay of the land. Cheryl also had the chance to dip her feet in the Mediterranean for the first time too.

In the morning we decided to head to Positano on the Amalfi Coast. Our bus actually got stuck trying to go below a bridge it didn’t fit under. It took the bus driver a few minutes to wrench the bus out of there, and we were a bit worried we’d have to figure out another way to get there (or back to the hotel). The views on the way to Positano were stunning, the highway is perilously perched at least a hundred feet over the water below, and it winds its way with many tight (and stomach wrenching) turns.

The highway winding its way around the mountain:

Positano is a pretty small town, and the houses are constructed seemingly one on top of the other on a relatively steep set of hills…

Hopefully people here have erosion insurance:

Cheryl took a swim in the Mediterranean and we both sat down for more pizza prior to grabbing the ferry back to Sorrento. From the boat we were able to watch the beautiful coastline, along with that same long and windy road much of the way back. The water was calm, and the weather was great for a boat ride.

Cheryl on the boat as we leave Positano:

The next day, we decided to go to Pompeii, an ancient town destroyed (and completely buried) by the local Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 79AD. At this time somewhere between 10 and 25 thousand people died in the area. One of the more interesting exhibits in the area are the plaster casts made from the holes left in the ash by the decomposed bodies that once laid there. These casts show people frozen in time as they were… attempting to protect themselves from the inevitable.

Here are some of the plaster casts of people who were trapped in the eruption:

Much of the city has been excavated (starting in the 1700’s), so you can essentially walk through the streets of ancient Pompeii, and see cart paths, pottery, frescoes, and murals.

Another interesting sight is the amphitheatre – one of the oldest and best preserved in existence:
 

Walking through the ancient village:

On our way back from Pompeii we found out that it was too late to take the bus to Mt. Vesuvius, so we decided to do that on our way out of Sorrento the next day.

Our hotel recommended a fish restaurant on the water, so we decided to eat there. The wine was great, and I ordered the local fish – which came with a full fish, mini-lobster, shrimp and squid. The waiter de-boned the fish at the table, but didn’t touch the full shrimp and mini-lobster. I didn’t really do a good job of picking the lobster meat off, but I did my best.

Here was the meal – note mini-lobster on the far end of my plate:

Anyhow, the morning came fast, and it was time to head out to Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Vesuvius is considered the world’s most dangerous volcano mostly due to the 3,000,000 people that live within it’s eruption base (the most densely populated volcanic region in the world). The last eruption was in 1944, but none have been as destructive as the one in 79AD that obliterated Pompeii and neighboring towns.

Here is Cheryl on her way up to the crater rim:

Here’s a postcard of the rim with actual rim in the background:

In order to get to Mt. Vesuvius we originally stopped and left our bags at the Pompeii station, since we were on our way back to Rome. We found out the bus we paid for would not get us back before the bag storage stop closed, so we decided to hire a taxi to take us to the rim. The taxi ended up being a much better idea since it took us an hour and a half less time which really made the rest of our day go a lot smother.

After finishing the crater walk we got our bags, and took the train back to Naples:

From Naples we found our way back to Rome, and we spent some time in the Rome Termini station trying to find a small souvenir for our trip. At Termini we found a taxi to get us to our hotel, and had a pretty good dinner there. This was our last night in Rome, but with a 6:35AM international departure, the morning would come soon enough.

Our wakeup call for 4:30AM was a real shock to my system. For the past 3 days we had been waking up at 9:30 or later, so 4:30 was rough. We arrived back in Seattle by about 6pm Seattle time, and were able to get a few things organized prior to crashing. That was almost 24 hours of travel – wish I could sleep on planes.

Looking back on the trip, we saw a good variety of things. From golfing on one of Scotland’s great courses, to Ancient Rome, the Vatican, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii, and climbing Mt. Vesuvius I think we covered some good ground. I would totally recommend Italy since it was easy to get around, relatively safe, most people speak some English, and there is a ridiculous amount of stuff to see.

Until next time!

Mom and Dad visit Seattle

My parents came to Seattle to visit for a week starting on August 4th. Every year I try my best to coax them to come down during the summer when the Pacific Northwest is one of the best places on earth to be (in my opinion of course). Luckily enough, we had a pretty good excuse to get them down this summer :)

This time around we decided to tour some of the local sites rather than do larger trips as we had in the past. Instead of going to Rainier, or Vancouver Island, we stayed local to see some of the sites nearby.

Here is a link to more photos. 

Snoqualmie Falls

Our first stop was Snoqualmie Falls. For some reason I had never shown them this very accessible view, just over a half hour drive from Seattle, this is a great place to go.

Here are mom and dad at the top of the falls:

There is a hiking trail down to the bottom of the falls, and we decided that we had the energy to make the trek down.

This is mom climbing a tree on the way down to the base:

 

View from the bottom:

Rattlesnake Ledge

At this point we decided we still had enough energy to try out another local Seattle hike – Rattlesnake Ledge. Rattlesnake is a great hike because it’s relatively short, and it has an amazing view at the top.

Here we are up at the top of the climb:

Dad and I at the end of our hike:

 

After our hike, we went over to the Columbia Crest Winery to cap the day off properly.

Crabbing

Now for something that I’ve never done before… Crabbing. Our good friends Henry and Trang went crabbing last year, and they bought crab traps, and bait. They expressed interest in helping show us the ropes of crabbing, so after buying a crabbing pass we were able to take the ferry over to Bremerton to find out what this crabbing thing was all about.

Waking up before 6am on a Saturday seems a bit nuts, but apparently you need to catch the early ferry in order to get a good spot on the dock.

Here we are waiting for the ferry after grabbing some well needed caffeine:

When we got to the dock, Henry and Trang were already there:

There are two types of crabs to catch here – Red Rock, and Dungeness. Each of which has their own size limits. You cannot catch any females, so part of our crabbing education was how to measure, and determine the sex of a crab – very interesting.

Ok, so we caught some crabs… Now what:

 

Here I’m throwing a trap in for another slew of crab:

The whole crabbing crew:

It’s amazing how many crabs we’d pull up every minute or two. 99% of these did not fit the size restrictions, so had to be thrown back. At the end of the day we had caught 6 total that were larger than 6” across.

So, we invited a few folks over for dinner and then Henry taught us how to clean and cook crab. Which was another experience all in itself.

Cleaning crab:

Eating crab:

I’d definitely say that overall crabbing was a lot more exciting, and interesting than I thought it would be. It was actually pretty fun!

Little Si

My parents somehow still had hiking energy left at the end of our week. We decided to go to another well known local hike – Little Si. Little Si has about half the elevation gain of it’s bigger brother next door, but the hike itself is very pleasant, and you can see a pretty good panoramic from the top including Mt. Si’s Haystack.

And…

In addition to all this hiking, dad helped me do a lot of very useful things around the house. We rewired some of our light switches, added a lock to our bathroom door, installed a cat door to the basement, and fixed the garage door… I’m sure he did a lot more too, but that’s the stuff I can remember off the top of my head.

Anyhow, mom/dad, thank you so much for coming out, and I do hope you’re able to come sometime soon in the new year!

July 4th on the Oregon Coast

This past weekend Cheryl and I joined a good group of friends in renting a house on the Oregon coast near Lincoln City (about a 5.5 hour drive from Seattle). This was primarily organized by Trang and Henry – Thanks guys!

The full list of photos is here.

We decided to leave after the initial holiday traffic died off, so didn’t actually arrive in Lincoln City until well after midnight Thursday night. We were not the last ones in, I believe Shawn and Megan didn’t make it in until well after 1am – Henry and I stayed up to greet them.

The morning came quickly, and we were greeted to a warm day. The sun was having a hard time breaking through the ocean mist near the coastline, but 100 yards off the shore it was clear blue sky. We had each signed up for a meal (breakfast or dinner), and Cheryl and I decided take Friday night dinner. Our first breakfast was an amazing combination of crepes, and quiche – something both Cheryl and I appreciated.

After breakfast we spent some time hanging out on the beach playing with a soccer ball, football, disc, etc…) then headed south to go body boarding at a local beach… We headed down to Devil’s Punchbowl.

We also rented wetsuits because the water on the Oregon coast is freezing cold:

The wetsuits really helped, but we regretted not getting gloves. As soon as my hands hit the water I could feel the pain brought on by the cold water. After a few minutes my hands were numb. Regardless, we bodysurfed for over an hour, and had a great time. Every 5 minutes or so on the way back that night Cheryl would comment on how much fun she had in the waves. There were a bunch of surfers out there hanging out, but I think we caught way more waves, and had more fun :)

Since it was our turn to cook, on the way home we stopped in and bought the ingredients for Cheryl’s famous lasagna, and a bunch of Rainier cherries which were on a great sale – Rainier cherries are so good! We made dinner, and sat back to watch the sun set.

Here was the view from the house:

The next morning, Shawn, Megan, Cheryl and I drove further south with Trang and Henry to go sandboarding in the Oregon Dunes just south of Florence. On our way there we went to the ‘worlds largest sea cave’ to check out the local sea lions.

The view – even without the sea lions was spectacular:

After hanging out with the sea lions it was time to go sandboarding. We rented sand boards from a local place at Sand Master Park, and went south to Honeyman State Park. Sand boards seem like a cross between a wakeboard and a skateboard with a construction similar to the 7ply skateboards I used to ride, wakeboard-ish bindings, and a laminated bottom that has to be waxed prior to every single run. I had set my expectations very very low for sandboarding, it definitely exceeded my expectations though I don’t think it will catch on to be mainstream for a wide variety of (relatively obvious) reasons – until the climate changes a ton at least :)

Here’s Henry getting ready for his first run:

Cheryl surfing the sand:

Shawn and Aaron doing figure 8’s at the end of the day:

Cheryl also took some video. This one is a bit funny because a dune buggy in the background is revving up making it sound like the sand board has an engine. It does not :)

After finishing up on the dunes we headed back north to the house. It was Eric and Oliver’s turn to cook dinner, and they prepared an outstanding salmon dinner - with more Rainier cherries :)

Here’s Cheryl and I hanging out on the deck of the house:

We then sat back and watched a pretty impressive fireworks presentation – given it was not an organized event, just a bunch of random people launching fireworks from the beach. We didn’t bring any, but we had fun watching.

After the fireworks died down, Shawn broke out his guitar, and we massacred a bunch of popular tunes :)

The next day we decided to head out early. Cheryl really wanted to rescue Boots and Charlie from the kennel, so we wanted to beat the holiday traffic rush. We didn’t quite beat the rush, but we did make it back just in the nick of time. Boots and Charlie were very glad to see us.

Until next time!

Some biking, Some Wakeboarding

Well, the last time I posted I didn’t have a bike, but luckily I found one on Craigslist for a reasonable price. Last year, I took a bit of a spill on my bike, and that bike is still out of commission with a broken rear frame piece, shock that needs serious servicing, and a broken pedal.

So, my new bike is a Transition Bottle Rocket, it’s more of a slopestyle bike than a downhill bike – which is what I’m used to, but so far it’s taken a pretty good amount of terrain.

Here it is:

I’ve had the chance to do a lot of rides on it so far. Some longer cross country rides, some local freeriding, Whistler, and the North Shore. It’s proven to be very versatile.

Here’s a shot from Whistler last weekend (Crabapple Hits):

 

This is Glade contemplating a steep double roll on the North Shore:

Other than biking, I was invited out with a friend from work to go wakeboarding before work – which requires waking up at an unholy hour. Apparently people who know something about wakeboarding/waterskiing will find the following picture pretty impressive… It’s a flat lake with no boaters… I am not actually a wakeboarder (I’ve only gone a few times), nor do I play one on TV, so the awesome conditions are no doubt lost on me.

Here is Lake Sammamish:

Well, I did manage to clear the wake a few times, but it was not always pretty.

As an example…

Of course, I was shown up by my friend who was pulling backflips, and other crazy things you only usually see on TV. So my wimpy wipeouts were nothing compared to his.

Here’s my buddy with some serious hangtime:

He landed the one before this, but it’s better to have the wipeout on camera :)

I had a few hard landings, one gave me whiplash a bit, and I actually had to go home and rest during the afternoon. The water is a lot harder than it looks.

Anyhow, until next time!

Boots and Charlie

As many of you know, Cheryl is a big fan of most things furry with four legs. If we lived somewhere out in the country, or worked 9-5, we would definitely consider having a couple dogs – a few retrievers perhaps? Anyhow, with our work/travel schedule, we’ve determined that we do not have the time to properly take care of a dog. To fill the fuzziness void, for Cheryl’s birthday, I gave her the go-ahead to get cats.

Not long afterwards we found ourselves in the ASHA Kitty Harbor shelter, where about 20 kittens were roaming around on the floor, and in various cages. Kitty Harbor is a no-kill shelter that takes kittens in from other shelters that do not have the room to keep them. When we sat down to play with the various kittens I took a liking to “Tom” and “Jerry” as they were called. Cheryl seemed to take a liking to almost any kitten in the place, so apparently it was up to me to determine which ones we should grab. We were looking for 2 since we hoped they could keep themselves busy during the day while we were out.

To make a longer story short we brought home Tom and Jerry:

Who were almost immediately renamed to Boots and Charlie. Boots – because he has four white feet that look a bit like boots, and Charlie – because it popped into Cheryl’s head. The name seemed to fit, so we went with it.

Here’s Charlie in his first few minutes at our house:

 

Cheryl was pretty excited:

So far they’ve been very good together. Every night they sleep together, and most of the time they aren’t playing around they can be found lying around together somewhere. They are rarely apart.

Here’s them sleeping in a gift basket we got a while back:

 

Cheryl has already taken them on multiple walks outside:

So, now we have two scratching posts, a feather on a stick, a ball that makes noise when it rolls, and even a laser pointer… But, their favorite toy so far is the brown paper bag that Shawn and Megan brought over for a dinner party.

Here are Boots and Charlie playing in the paper bag:

Here they are on the paper bag:

I think I have about 20 photos of them and the bag.

Anyhow, we’re now on week two with these guys. They were 11 weeks when we got them, and have an easy-to-remember birthday: Valentines day. So far they’re doing great, we took them to the vet for their initial check up today, and they charmed the entire staff – who were all surprised they were so well behaved.

Anyhow, until next time!

Ontario for Sean’s Wedding

A couple of weeks ago Cheryl and I headed to Toronto for Sean’s wedding.

Here are the pics from the wedding.

Here are the pics from Kitchener/Waterloo.

We took the red-eye from Seattle-Toronto, and were lucky enough to stay with Amy and RJ in Kitchener. Since Steve is currently at UWaterloo I was able to go visit with him on campus. He toured me around the new buildings that have gone up since I was last there a few years ago, and I was surprised at how much the campus has changed. While we were in Waterloo I also had a chance to hang out with my cousin Bryan who I haven’t seen in a long time.

Amy and RJ invited Steve over for dinner Friday night, so Steve had a chance to show off his drum skillz on Guitar Hero World Tour with Ryan, Cheryl, and I…

Saturday morning Cheryl and I had to get dressed for the wedding:

 

We had rented a car, so we drove to downtown Toronto for the wedding, and were glad to meet up with Chris/Pat/Sean at the wedding. The hall was spectacular, it was clear that Sean and Jamie had pulled out all the stops.

Later on we headed north to pick up Cheryl’s mom at Yorkdale, check-in to our hotel, and head over to the reception.

It was great to see the Kirby’s again, but also great to hang out with Jamie and Michelle. I hadn’t seen them since their wedding in the Dominican.

Anyhow, the reception was fantastic, and Sean/Jamie showed off some of their mad ballroom dancing skillz. Not an act I’m likely to want to follow anytime soon.

On Sunday, Cheryl, and I went back to Kitchener to play with Lindsay/Ryan, and Sam.

Here’s Sam as we sat in the sun in the park near Amy and RJ’s house:

I went back to Waterloo while Cheryl played with the kids to save Steve from his Physics studying and take him out for a coffee. We didn’t stay too long because Cheryl and I were planning to take the 2.5 hour trek up North to Midland to meet Cheryl’s mom’s new cats.

 

Playing with the cats was fun, but all we could hear on the radio was storm weather warnings for the morning, so we cut our morning plans to make sure we would have plenty of time to get to the airport in the afternoon.

As expected, when we woke up we were greeted with 20cm of new snow – a much different sight than the previous day when we were playing with Sam in the sunny park…

So, we began our trip back to the airport early Monday morning:

Luckily the snow turned to wet snow, and finally rain by the time we hit Toronto. The flight back to Seattle was uneventful – just the way I like flights.

One thing I forgot to mention is it was Cheryl’s birthday the week prior to our Ontario trip. We celebrated with the usual crew, but also with Andrea, Stacy, and Steven from Vancouver, and Chloe and Jason.

Cheryl put up a bunch of photos from her birthday here.

Until next time!

Whistler, Vanc, Dallas, and San Jose

Last week was filled with travel for Cheryl and I.

Friday night we headed up to stay with Jen and Glade on our way to Whistler.

We woke up early to make the day trip out to Whistler, and by the time we made it to Creekside the line-up for the lift was somewhere between 45mins to an hour long. We were worried that we’d be sitting an hour at every lift line, but, although it did take us a long time to get up to the top of the hill, the rest of the day was a bit better. It was definitely the busiest I’d seen it in a long time, but the snow made it worth it.

It had snowed a ton the two days prior, and they had not opened the high alpine up until Saturday morning, so there was more than a bit of snow to be had. We were still able to get fresh tracks when we hiked up to Flute at the end of the day. Glade and I dropped a few ledges, and a 12 foot drop was feeling like 3 feet. So nice…  You can imagine there was some pretty huge cliff hucking going on around the mountain.

After heading back to Vancouver, Cheryl and I hung out in North Vancouver – I’m looking to buy a bike, so we toured all the typical North Shore shops, and we ended up hanging out with Kelly at a North Vancouver beach.

Sunday was Jerry’s birthday, so we were invited over to Andrea and Jerry’s for some birthday dinner in downtown Vancouver. Good times.

As soon as we got back to Seattle, Cheryl had to pack for her Monday flight to Dallas. She would be there Monday to Tuesday night. The timing of her trip was bad since I had a 6:50am flight to San Jose on Wednesday morn.

California was sunny, and warm, a stark contrast from the cold pouring rain that greeted me as I drove to the airport Wed morn. And as expected I was greeted with cold pouring rain when I got back late Thursday – ah Seattle.

This weekend is Cheryl’s birthday, so we’re sticking in town, and have friends coming down from Vancouver.

Should be fun!