tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83602599706975995232024-03-13T10:06:59.947-04:00Wondering and WanderingMarielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.comBlogger839125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-88559369711095830232011-07-20T18:21:00.000-04:002011-07-20T18:21:17.177-04:00My last blog post!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Yes, it's true. After four years and 844 other posts, this is going to be my very last post on this blog. Since marieljohn.blogspot is not quite as accurate as it once was, and since I'm going to continue to try and get Jeff to write occasionally, I thought I'd better say goodbye to this trusty old blog. But not to worry, I'm just migrating things over to a new address (you can even get all of the older blog posts there). So from now on, you can read about our adventures through everyday life here:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://theborowitzes.blogspot.com/">The Borowitzes</a></b></span></div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-59956703626131666202011-07-19T22:03:00.000-04:002011-07-19T22:03:22.487-04:00Honeymoon VideoJeff and I took about an hour's worth of short video clips during our honeymoon, and I put a few of them together to make this short (about 2.5 minutes) video! Hope you like it!<br />
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<object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/k0aPc47_0g4/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/k0aPc47_0g4&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/k0aPc47_0g4&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-63550200019288361192011-07-12T21:29:00.000-04:002011-07-12T21:29:20.244-04:00Before and After<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJa8hO3oSCw/Thzb2BoC0MI/AAAAAAAD9xo/1OZG8MfKCco/s1600/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25287%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJa8hO3oSCw/Thzb2BoC0MI/AAAAAAAD9xo/1OZG8MfKCco/s400/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25287%2529.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="265" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-giiPq0VnG5Q/Thzb0gW_wUI/AAAAAAAD9zU/I84ZrenJkmU/s1600/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25284%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-giiPq0VnG5Q/Thzb0gW_wUI/AAAAAAAD9zU/I84ZrenJkmU/s400/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25284%2529.JPG" width="265" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-COUa7fpsw80/Thzb3JZHicI/AAAAAAAD9zA/SbUVheXe3m4/s1600/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25289%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-COUa7fpsw80/Thzb3JZHicI/AAAAAAAD9zA/SbUVheXe3m4/s400/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25289%2529.JPG" width="266" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UGT7weK52uo/Thzb226YF4I/AAAAAAAD9zo/V59Ju0SNsr0/s1600/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25288%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UGT7weK52uo/Thzb226YF4I/AAAAAAAD9zo/V59Ju0SNsr0/s400/20110711+Mariel+Haircut+%25288%2529.JPG" width="266" /></a></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-80999747293844952992011-07-12T21:23:00.000-04:002011-07-12T21:23:22.523-04:00Jeff's First Day of WorkSo business-y!<br />
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I made him a special dinner to celebrate. (Stuffed portobello mushroom caps.)<br />
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And now he's got a blackberry!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G3xpPycptCA/Thzb7w3OzcI/AAAAAAAD94M/f-OQVO9_GIg/s1600/20110711+Jeff+First+Day+of+Work+at+CEA+%252813%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G3xpPycptCA/Thzb7w3OzcI/AAAAAAAD94M/f-OQVO9_GIg/s400/20110711+Jeff+First+Day+of+Work+at+CEA+%252813%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-23665195696295450782011-07-12T21:06:00.000-04:002011-07-12T21:06:52.136-04:00The Last Space Shuttle LaunchThe very last Space Shuttle Launch was on July 8th, and Jeff and I decided (kind of at the last minute) that we'd get a car and make the drive down to the launch.<br />
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We left Wednesday evening, spent the night in Florence, South Carolina, and got to Cocoa Beach in time for the official launch parties on Thursday night. We ran into friends at the parties and had a really good time. We were going to stay with our friend, Pete, in Melbourne Beach, but Stephanie offered to let us crash on her couch in Cocoa Beach. Since we were planning to be up by 5:15 the next morning to beat traffic to the 11:26am launch, that was much better.<br />
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The traffic in the morning was not too bad. Our friend had given us his tickets to the NASA Kennedy Visitor's Center (he'd gotten tickets to an even better viewing spot), and we didn't hit any traffic until the line of cars actually entering the visitors' center.<br />
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The weather had been really bad all week, and was forecast to be bad over the weekend, so most people (including us) were kind of expecting the launch to be scrubbed. But we parked and found a spot anyway.<br />
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At the visitor's center, there was a big clearing where most people had set up chairs and things. This made it possible to see the shuttle come up above the trees. The countdown just kept going smoothly and the sun kept peaking out until finally the countdown got so low that everyone started to get really excited that it really would go. Then there was a hold at 31 seconds, which definitely made everyone nervous, but they got the glitch cleared up, and the final countdown began!<br />
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We saw the shuttle come up above the trees - it really just looks like a very bright point of light - and then heard the rumble of the sound wave. It seemed like everyone there was teary-eyed. I was just holding my camera at my side (not looking through the view-finder), but I did manage to catch a bit of it.<br />
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It was pretty amazing to witness such a historic event in person. The last shuttle launch. I can't believe it.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gI78AuvNTVM/ThzcQeym3DI/AAAAAAAD_D4/lt_rneYZBG0/s1600/20110708+Last+Space+Shuttle+Launch+%252846%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gI78AuvNTVM/ThzcQeym3DI/AAAAAAAD_D4/lt_rneYZBG0/s400/20110708+Last+Space+Shuttle+Launch+%252846%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-27135157199787951702011-07-12T20:27:00.000-04:002011-07-12T20:27:26.214-04:00Fourth of JulyJeff and I spent most of the Fourth of July weekend moving things back into our apartment, doing laundry, and generally getting settled.<br />
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But on the evening of the Fourth of July, we did manage to make it out to the National Mall to catch the fireworks. Our friend, Rocco, was in town for a conference, so he joined us.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9j37RBMxYBQ/ThzbviXCkNI/AAAAAAAD-V8/7vQnl2YD2bk/s1600/20110704+Fourth+of+July+018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9j37RBMxYBQ/ThzbviXCkNI/AAAAAAAD-V8/7vQnl2YD2bk/s400/20110704+Fourth+of+July+018.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-57694846416965191532011-07-04T17:59:00.002-04:002011-07-04T17:59:23.915-04:00How was the Honeymoon?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Jeff and I have only been back from the honeymoon a couple days, so we haven’t had the chance to talk to many people, but when we do, the main question people ask is, “How was the honeymoon?”<br />
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Well, it was amazing. And it’s really hard to describe beyond that without going into so many details! It was an adventure, it was relaxing, it was romantic. There were cities and beaches and historic tours and rooftop drinks and movies and weddings. There were breakfasts in bed, roadside snacks, gourmet meals, unrecognizable treats, and lots of champagne.<br />
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Looking back, I can’t think of anything I would change (except to make the whole thing longer!) – there is no location or activity that I would take out, but there weren’t any places I wouldn’t have lingered longer if we had the time. It was an amazing honeymoon.<br />
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</div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-79787356240054694362011-07-04T17:58:00.000-04:002011-07-04T17:58:39.871-04:00Honeymoon Day 30 – June 30, 2011 – Napa, CA and San Francisco, CA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Thursday was the last day of our honeymoon. We slept in, enjoyed our last gourmet breakfast in bed – by the fourth day, we were both convinced that the quiche of the day was the best option. Drank coffee and chatted, and then finally got around to doing the packing.<br />
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When we were finished packing, we left the hotel to go to a tour we’d booked at Schramsberg. It’s a Napa valley winery that specializes in sparkling wine made in the French style. Their label actually used to read “California Champagne,” until they decided to remove “champagne” from the label in deference to the French, where it’s against the law for French sparkling wine-makers to use the term if they aren’t actually located in the Champagne region.<br />
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The tour was a bit expensive (about $45), but it had been recommended by some of Jeff’s relatives that live in the area, and we thought that a champagne tour and tasting on the last day of our honeymoon might be really nice. The tour took about 45 minutes, and it was really interesting. Schramsberg was one of the first wineries in Napa, founded in 1863, by Jacob Schram. It stopped producing wine shortly after he died (in 1912), and eventually became abandoned and overgrown. In the mid-1960’s, the Davies family purchased the winery, fixed it up, and started making wine again. They decided to focus on French-style champagne, which wasn’t being done at all in the U.S. yet.<br />
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In 1972, the White House called and asked Jack Davies to deliver a few cases of the Blanc de Blanc to a nearby Air Force base. They were later informed that the wine was served during Nixon’s visit to China, and used for the “Toast to Peace” between President Richard Nixon and Permier Chou En-lai. They had a really cool picture of the toast up on the wall.<br />
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They took us on a tour through the caves – they’d been dug into the mountain by hand (using chisels) when it had first opened. It always stays about 55 degrees inside, which is perfect for keeping the wine. All of the wine is still kept there while it’s being made and aging. They showed us the process, including the hand turning-process they still use to get the sediment out of the wine.<br />
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At the end of the tour, they brought us to a tasting room, and we tried five different sparkling wines. All of them were really great – some of the nicest sparkling wine I’ve ever had. And looking at the price list, I could see that a couple of the ones we tried sell for $100 per bottle at the winery, which would probably be twice that at a restaurant – definitely above my usual level.<br />
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Also on our tour was a couple from Missouri and a couple of women from Texas whose kids were just going off to college. They were all really nice – especially the two women from Texas – they were really friendly. Everybody was congratulating us on our marriage, and we were telling them about our honeymoon trip. It was a really cute group. Jeff and I ended up buying a couple of bottles of the sparkling wines we really liked – maybe we’ll keep them to celebrate our anniversary!<br />
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Just down the road from Schramsberg was Beringer winery. Jeff and I served Beringer wine at our wedding, so we thought it would be cute to stop there. It turns out Beringer is the oldest continuously-operated winery in Napa Valley. It was founded in 1875, and apparently survived prohibition by producing sacramental wine and “medicinal” products. Jeff and I had a good time at our tasting – they gave really big pours, though, and after just visiting Schramsberg, we decided that Jeff would just take a sip and I’d do the heavy lifting here. I’m very helpful in that way.<br />
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After our tastings, we were ready for a late lunch, so we stopped at Gott’s Roadside Diner just off Highway 29. It looked like a really cute place with a window to order and an old-timey outdoor metal counter. Jeff and I ordered cheeseburgers and garlic fries, and enjoyed them on our long drive back into town. The burgers were great, and the garlic fries were awesome – they had some kind of green herb on them, too – almost like pesto fries.<br />
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We had hoped to stop by Dave and Taylor’s new apartment in San Francisco to visit for a while, but the traffic was worse than we’d expected (maybe people leaving early for the Fourth of July weekend?), so we only ended up having a couple of minutes to say hi. Luckily, we did get to see their new place. It’s a really cool apartment in the Mission area of San Francisco. Their windows look out over city streets that really make you feel like you’re in the middle of everything, which is a really cool feeling. And they’ve got an awesome neighborhood to explore.<br />
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Our dinner was only a couple blocks away, at Foreign Cinema. This is actually the restaurant where Dan proposed to Janet a couple years ago. It’s a nice place with all out-door seating. In some ways, it feels like its indoors – it has a front door and four walls, but there is no ceiling on the building. They play a movie every night on the back wall of the restaurant, though there is no sound (but there are sub-titles, because it’s foreign!). The food is really great, too. Jeff and I were not too hungry since it hadn’t been all that long since the burgers, so we decided to just get one full meal and share it. We had fresh oysters and then baked brie as appetizers, shared sliced zucchini, and then had duck for our main course. We finished with a crème brule and sparkling wine. It was a very romantic last dinner for the honeymoon.</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-9333041208816225212011-07-04T17:49:00.001-04:002011-07-04T17:51:33.746-04:00Honeymoon Day 29 – June 29, 2011 – Napa, CA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It was a bright and sunny day on Wednesday, and we did manage to get up and get going pretty quickly. We spent our morning on a long bike ride – the hotel provides free bike rentals. When we originally started planning, we talked about biking all 22 miles to Saint Helena, but when we saw that the bikes were a little slow and our time was a bit limited, we revised that to 5.5 miles to a couple wineries outside the city.<br />
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We visited Hagafen, which was small, but really cute and friendly. They had nice wines, which have been served at the White House many times. Their wine has also been given as a gift to the Prime Minister in Isreal (their wine is Kosher). The person pouring gave Jeff and I each a free tasting glass of one of their sparkling wines since we were on our honeymoon.<br />
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We also stopped at Black Stallion, which is a winery that was built on the site of a historic equestrian center. We enjoyed our tasting there, too.<br />
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We got back into the city in time to grab a quick pizza lunch (at Filipi’s – very good!), and then go to our 3pm spa appointment. We had booked a couple’s massage – our first ever! It was going to be a 90 minute hot stone massage, but the stones were overbooked, so we did a hot towel massage, which is the same idea. We both really enjoyed the massage – the hot towels are nice, and they do make you feel relaxed and your muscles feel lose. I’m not sure I’d do it again, though, because you do sacrifice some massaging time. The couple’s massage aspect was nice – though we didn’t talk or anything, it’s just kind of fun to have the person there, and you kind of get the sense that you’re doing something together. It can also be a bit distracting – I think Jeff fell asleep, and I spent a good while trying to listen carefully to his breathing and deciding whether to say something to him. (I ended up not saying anything, and he woke up when his masseuse moved something.) We both felt very relaxed when it was over.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Michelin-Guide-San-Francisco-2011/dp/2067153366?ie=UTF8&tag=wonderinga-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Michelin Guide San Francisco 2011: Restaurants & Hotels (Michelin Guide/Michelin)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=2067153366&tag=wonderinga-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wonderinga-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=206715334X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wonderinga-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=2067153366" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />After the massage, we headed up to Yountville (in the car this time) for our fanciest meal of the trip. We went to Redd, which is another Michelin star restaurant. It has great reviews on chow hound and Gayot. We both ordered the five-course tasting menu with wine pairings. They don’t actually tell you what’s on the tasting menu – they just bring it out, which is kind of fun. Also, when two people at the table order it, they bring something different to each person, so you really get to try two things at each course (the wine pairings are different too – one wine to go with each plate). Everything they brought out was wonderful. The food looked beautiful on the plate, the combination of tastes and textures was always creative and very well done, and the wines were great with each dish. Also, all of the portions were very generous, which is great for sharing. Some of the dishes we really liked – sashimi of hamachi and carmalized diver scallops with cauliflower puree and golden raisins. We also really liked the duck breast and the prime New York steak and short ribs. The other impressive thing about the restaurant was the service. The greeters and the servers were all really friendly. Each course was described to you, as were each of the wines poured, all in a very friendly and accessible way. Our server made a point of asking us if we wanted a break between courses to chat and enjoy the wine. (The answer was definitely yes between the main course and dessert – it was really nice to be able to let our food settle and to relax for a while before the last course.) Overall, we had a great experience – a great place for the last big meal of our honeymoon!<br />
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</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-37338226837604716592011-07-04T17:44:00.000-04:002011-07-04T17:44:20.110-04:00Honeymoon Day 28 – June 28, 2011 – Napa, CA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
On Tuesday, we knew it was forecast to rain, and we had planned to drive around to a couple different wineries during the day. But somehow, when we woke up in the morning and actually saw the rain coming down, and then saw the cozy fireplace in our room, we changed our minds. We had a wonderful rainy day in, sitting by the fire, chatting, and watching movies (more Bond!). This also turned out to be the perfect time to open up the wine that the hotel had given us for our honeymoon.<br />
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We did finally venture out for dinner, but by then, the rain had actually stopped. We went to Ubuntu, a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Napa. The restaurant has one Michelin star, which I think makes it the first Michelin star restaurant I’ve ever been to. They have a yoga studio attached, and a lot of the food they cook comes from their own organic garden. Jeff and I had the tasting menu, and ordered a few different tasting-size wines along with the different courses. They had two options for each course on the tasting menu, so Jeff and I just always ordered different things, and got to try it all. All of the food was great. The ‘roast and raw asparagus’ was really good – the asparagus itself was really fresh and tasty, but also the sauces along with it were great. Jeff had a really interesting melon gazpacho, too.<br />
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After that, we stopped at Bounty Hunter again for a quick flight of white wines, and then it was back to the hotel!<br />
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</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-26868452766239292292011-07-04T17:40:00.002-04:002011-07-04T17:40:09.696-04:00Honeymoon Day 27 – June, 27, 2011 – Napa, CA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
We started our day off nice and slow, with breakfast in bed, and reading through the news.<br />
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Eventually, we decided to head out. Breakfast had been so big that we weren’t really hungry for lunch. After a little walk around town, we went to “Bounty Hunter,” a wine bar and barbeque place. We used a couple of our free tasting coupons, and ordered their taster platter to share. The barbeque was really good, and so was the wine. I had a Pursuit Pinot Noir, which I really enjoyed.<br />
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After our wine, we continued our little walking tour of town, before heading back to our hotel to make reservations at the spa. We also grabbed some coffee and spent some time relaxing near the river.<br />
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We had dinner at Angele that night, which is in the same building complex as our hotel. It’s a well-reviewed French restaurant with really nice patio seating. We enjoyed their cheese plate, and then I ordered the off-the-menu burger, which was very good, and Jeff had their vegetable risotto, which is one of the better risottos I’ve had – with a strong herb taste, and not too salty. We had their shortbread for dessert, and that may have been my favorite dish overall. It came with strawberries and ice cream, and was a great end to the meal.<br />
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</div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-12117964128013499142011-07-04T17:37:00.000-04:002011-07-04T17:37:03.748-04:00Honeymoon Day 26 – June 26, 2011 – Los Gatos, CA to Napa, CA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
The day after the wedding, the whole wedding crew got up early to get the house straightened and ready for guests. Janet’s relatives came over and brought a huge collection of Dim Sum foods.<br />
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When it was time to eat, we all loaded up our plates with the different items (conveniently labeled in English). About 20 minutes into the meal, when everyone was too full to take another bite, we agreed that it was the most and the quickest any of us had ever eaten dim sum. Usually you’re waiting for a good cart to come around and trading off with other people at the table to get a piece of something, and it takes a long time to get through the whole meal. This time, you just took everything you wanted right away, and you got to eat everything you picked, and so we all discovered that our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. The food was great, though.<br />
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The brunch went until 3pm, but Jeff and I didn’t manage to leave until about 4:30pm – it was hard to go when there were so many fun people still around that we don’t see often. Also, a picnic table on a deck on a beautiful, sunny day, looking out over the mountains, is a pretty hard thing to walk away from.<br />
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Eventually we did, go, though. John gave us a ride to our zipcar, which happened to be only a couple blocks from his house (complete coincidence!). From there we drove (well, Jeff drove and I slept) to Napa and checked into our hotel.<br />
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We stayed at the Napa River Inn in downtown Napa. It’s a historic hotel, located in a building that used to be a mill. Jeff and I stayed in a room that had been a roller-skating rink at one time. Everything was really beautiful, and it had a nice fireplace with cushy chairs nearby. I could have used a bit more natural light than our one little window allowed, but I guess you have to make some concessions if you stay in a historic location.<br />
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We had ordered the hotel through Jetsetter.com, and it included not only the room, but also one $150 spa gift certificate for each night we stayed, gourmet breakfast in bed each morning, and a complimentary wine tasting each afternoon. And the first night we were there they sent up a bottle of wine with a card congratulating us on our honeymoon.<br />
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There’s lots of good food and wine in Napa, of course, but the night we got there, we were really ready for a night in with just the two of us, so we ordered Dominoes, and laid back to watch another Bond movie. This time we decided to start from the beginning, so we put on “Dr. No.”<br />
</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-44143895091935879192011-07-04T17:32:00.000-04:002011-07-04T17:32:38.724-04:00Honeymoon Day 25 – June 25, 2011 – Los Gatos, CA – Janet and Dan’s Wedding!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Jeff and I slept fairly late – which is reasonable, since it was our first full night’s sleep in a real bed in almost 50 hours.<br />
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We had breakfast at the house (Jeff was feeling much better!), and then went with Neera and Shreyas to downtown Los Gatos. We visited Janet at “I Do” Hair, the salon where she was having her hair and make-up done. When she had to head off for photos, the four of us walked around town a bit and got some falafel for lunch.<br />
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After getting ready, we headed to the wedding site a bit early, because the four of us were the ushers at the wedding. The wedding venue was really beautiful – it’s called Nestldown, and it’s in the middle of a huge red wood grove. The ceremony was at the bottom of a winding stone stairway, with a lake just behind the alter. There was a grassy area to the left of a big wooden building (they called it ‘the barn,’ but it was much more clean and new looking than the name suggests), and they had the cocktail reception in that outdoor space. There was another big grassy area to the right of the barn where all of the dinner tables were arranged. Each clearing was surrounded by tall, old red wood trees. It definitely had a fairytale feel.<br />
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We handed out the programs and directed people down the road to the ceremony area, and just before things started, we grabbed seats. We were in the last row, but that turned out to be ok, because we had a great view of Janet coming down the stone staircase with her dad. It was a beautiful entrance. (Also Janet said later that it was really nice for her that we were some of the first faces that she saw – smiling and excited!)<br />
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Janet and Dan’s ceremony was really beautiful – they had some really great personal touches. The officiant talked a fair amount about Janet and Dan’s cultural heritage – Janet being Chinese and Dan Jewish, and the history that involves. They had both the families and everyone present affirm their support for the couple (which we did too, and which I really like. It made me wonder - is this standard at weddings now? Does anyone still do ‘if anyone has a reason why these two should not be wed, speak now? It seems much nicer to have everyone affirming rather than an awkward silence of no one objecting.) At one point of the ceremony, they had both sets of parents come up and each give four of ‘eight blessings.’ This was building on the traditional seven blessings (like we had at our ceremony!), except in China, eight is a lucky number. Four of the blessings were from the Jewish tradition, and recited by Dan’s parents (in Hebrew and English), and four were Chinese proverbs and recited by Janet’s parents (in Chinese and English). I thought it was really cool that the parents were so involved, the prayers themselves were really nice, and even the overall structure (doing eight rather than seven blessings) was a melding of the two cultures. Janet and Dan each recited really sweet vows, completing the sentences, “When I’m with you, you make me…” “I knew I loved you when…” They were memorable vows – I think Dan said that Janet made him accomplish more and dream bigger and get more done, and that he knew he loved Janet when she went to Boston for the second time, and he knew his life wouldn’t be complete without her. Janet said that she knew she loved Dan when wherever she was, she didn’t feel at home unless he was there too. And of course, they broke a glass at the end, and everyone yelled ‘Mazeltov!’<br />
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After the ceremony, Neera and Shreyas, who are getting married in a month, were discussing their ceremony. They are having a traditional Indian ceremony, but after seeing Janet and Dan’s wedding, they’re trying to think of ways to make it more personal and tailored to them. Neera was telling Janet about their re-thinking at the cocktail reception, and Janet said that she and Dan had the same reaction after Jeff’s and my ceremony a month ago, and they had ended up making a bunch of changes! I thought that was so cute – the benefit of having three best friends with weddings all in a row!<br />
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The cocktail reception was in a nice open, grassy area to the left of the barn. There was an open bar and space to mill around and chat. There was also a miniature train that people could ride on, and a miniature “fantasy house” that you could visit. They had a guest book table set up with polaroids so you could snap a picture, put it in their book, and write next to it. There was plenty of time to explore the grounds, chat with friends (and Janet!), and enjoy a couple drinks.<br />
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At some point, people started making their way over to the tables for dinner. The weather was perfect for dinner outside – temperatures in the 70’s and light shade from the trees. Janet gave butterfly wine stoppers as table gifts – they were very cute and went with the butterfly theme of the day. The food was good – Jeff and I both had steak with au gratin potatoes, which were great. Jeff and I sat by Craig and Patrick, Neera and Shreyas, Stephanie and Aaron, and John Gardner.<br />
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Also, Janet had her first costume change of the evening, and was now in a beautiful red dress, rather than the white dress she’d worn for the wedding.<br />
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There were five speeches during dinner. Dan’s mom and dad both gave speeches, and told a bunch of short stories about Dan growing up. My favorite one was from when he was about nine. He’d been sick with an undiagnosed illness for about nine months, and he told his mom he had a question. She was sure he was going to ask her when he would get better, and was trying to think of what she could possibly say. But then he asked, “Mom… do you think four kilobytes will be enough for me?”<br />
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Janet’s dad told a really cute story about Janet when she was four years old. Janet had been born in Shanghai, and then her Dad had moved to Florida to go to school. He had been away for four years when he was able to send for his family to join him. When he met them in San Francisco, four-year-old Janet was very wary of him. She wasn’t sure he was really her dad, even though that’s what the adults were saying, and he did look like the guy in the pictures. He tried everything to get her to warm up and chat with him on the plane. In the connecting airport, he said he got an idea. At that time, it was still very difficult to get icecream in China, so he asked Janet if she wanted an icecream. He bought her one, and after that it was all smiles – he said she must have figured, if this guy can get me icecream, he must be my dad! (It was very sweet when he told the story – Janet was tearing up, though she noted later that the moral of the story is maybe not the best…)<br />
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Dan’s brother, who was the best man, gave a speech that was mostly made up of stories about how smart Dan is – like how he skipped a grade, and how he took the AP Probability and Statistics exam and only got a four – because he’d never actually taken the class.<br />
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Janet’s cousin, Dorothy, gave the most tear-jerking speech – it was very sweet and really heartfelt. She talked about how she had come to the U.S. in high school and moved in with Janet’s family. Janet was really supportive of her, and always there to talk to her when she was having trouble. Janet made her really believe that she could do things she never thought possible – take harder classes, apply to better schools – and it had a huge impact on her life.<br />
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Janet and Dan also performed a Chinese tea ceremony during the dinner. They bowed to each set of parents and to each other, and then poured tea for each set of parents. And the parents gave a gift to the couple. It was a cool tradition, and fun to see. It’s nice, in general, how involved the parents were.<br />
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After dinner, we changed locations (inside the barn for dancing and cake), and Janet changed dresses (now blue instead of red). There was dancing – including the Hora. The outdoor spaces were still open, so you could grab a drink and a piece of cake (which her little sister made!) or a chocolate covered strawberry, and chat outside. Lots of people were dancing, and the reception was really fun.<br />
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Things ended at about 9:30pm, which is a bit early, but also meant that almost everyone – friends and family – could stay to the end, which was really nice. Also, since Janet and Dan had rented the huge house nearby (the Wedding Mountain Headquarters), they could invite everybody over for a big afterparty.<br />
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Neera, Shreyas, Jeff, and I helped to pack things up and load them into the car, so we were some of the last to arrive. But when we did get there, things were going strong. The house has a large upstairs with a beautiful wrap-around with a great view, a fire pit, and a downstairs with a pool table, and ping pong. We had an awesome night back at the house, where Janet and Dan could stay up late with everyone, since they had their own suite just upstairs.<br />
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</div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-73689164853584368112011-07-04T17:16:00.000-04:002011-07-04T17:16:26.276-04:00Honeymoon Day 24 – June 24 – San Francisco, CA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Well, things didn’t go entirely smoothly on the flight to California – Jeff got sick on the flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, and was only a bit better on the flight from Tokyo to California. Other than being sick, he slept almost the entire time. Usually I’m the one that has an easy time sleeping, but I barely slept on the flights, and I didn’t sleep at all in the airports. I did manage to watch three movies on the second flight – The Adjustment Agency, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Green Hornet. They were all pretty good. I don’t know if I was just sleep-deprived, but I giggled all the way through Jack Black’s silly humor in Gulliver’s Travels – it seemed really funny to me. The Green Hornet was done fairly well, too, though I thought there were times when the characters would do things that seemed really odd or ‘out-of-character,’ which also tended to be boring – like when the Green Hornet and Kato got in a fight. Anyway, Jeff and I made it to California, both tired, but all in one piece.<br />
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We met up with Neera and Shreyas in the San Francisco Airport, which seems like it would be really difficult, but Neera and I have done it a number of times and had good luck – no delayed flights or weird re-routing (knock on wood). We all headed to Janet and Dan’s Wedding Mountain Headquarters (the giant house they had rented for their wedding ‘crew’), where our first order of business was to take a nice afternoon nap. (We found on our bed cute shirts that said “Janet and Dan’s Wedding Crew” on the front, and “bigger than a party, smaller than a brigade” (Janet’s general explanation of what a wedding ‘crew’ is) on the back.<br />
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In the evening we all went to Janet and Dan’s rehearsal dinner, which was in Palo Alto, and open to everyone attending the wedding. They had a great buffet set up with a combination of Mediterranean food and Chinese food. There were lots of people there, and this was the first chance to see everybody, so we spent a lot of time chatting and catching up with friends from college. Janet and Dan had a couple of friends give speeches, which were all very cute, and then people headed back to the Wedding Mountain Headquarters to hang out a bit before getting some sleep.<br />
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</div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-21352264901990763742011-07-04T17:13:00.000-04:002011-07-04T17:13:50.619-04:00Honeymoon Day 23 – June 23 – Phuket, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Even though I knew that we’d have to leave Phuket at night, I was happy when I woke up, because I knew we’d still have a full day to relax. The resort had given us a late check-out – 7pm instead of the normal noon.<br />
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We slept in, and then caught the last bit of brunch. We ordered two new made-to-order dishes – ricotta hotcakes with honey and bananas (very good, but not as good as the ones at Hell’s Kitchen in Minneapolis) and cinnamon encrusted pancakes with apple compote (also very good). We also shared fried eggs, assorted snacks from the buffet, and our traditional lychee juice. This time, I also had fresh coconut milk directly from a coconut.<br />
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Then it was back to the villa for our favorite activities – swimming, relaxing, and napping at our villa.<br />
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At 1:30pm, I went to get a Thai massage from the hotel spa. Thai massage is kind of like a cross between a normal massage and passive yoga. They massage you muscles, but then they also manipulate your limbs and body to stretch them.<br />
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When I got there, I changed into a thin cotton jump suit. The first thing was a foot wash, which was really nice and relaxing. Then I had the main massage, which was definitely interesting. There was the massaging, but also moving your legs or arms or body to do different stretches. Also, in order to reach to do all these things, the lady giving me my massage would often climb up on the table. She used her elbows, knees, and feet during the massage – definitely something I haven’t experienced before. Overall it was a really good experience.<br />
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The rest of the afternoon was spent whiling away the minutes at our villa – it’s impossible to spend too much time there. Eventually we got more practical and did our packing. Then we went out to catch the beginning of happy hour and to finish writing post cards. When we got to the pool bar, we learned that it was “GM Happy Hour” starting in 15 minutes, and that during that time, all of the drinks would be complimentary. Since we couldn’t stay too long, Jeff and I ordered a lychee martini while we waited. It was very good – obviously made with fresh lychee juice, and served with a lychee speared by lemongrass.<br />
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When “GM Happy Hour” started, they brought us each one of the Anatara signature cocktails, which was also pretty good. Jeff and I guessed that the “GM” stands for general management, because a number of managers came over and talked to us and asked us about our experience. One was particularly interested to know about jetsetter, because they’d just started working with them. From their first posting (which was the one we saw a couple weeks ago and booked with), they’d already booked 350 room-nights. Not bad.<br />
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Eventually, Jeff and I left the happy hour for one last swim and a shower before checking out. It was tough getting out of the pool for the last time – especially knowing that we’d have a long journey ahead of us!<br />
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We took at 9pm flight from Phuket to Bangkok that arrived at about 10:30pm. Our flight from Bangkok to San Franciso (via Tokyo-Narita) departs at 5am. That means, if we got a hotel, we’d (at best) be there from 11pm until 2 or 2:30am, which really didn’t seem worth it. I’ve decided to try to stay awake to get a jump start on jet lag. (It may be 3:30am here, but it’s 1:30 in the afternoon in San Francisco – the middle of the day!) We’ll see what happens – all of the time changes are pretty confusing. We’ll leave Bangkok at 5am, fly for six hours, and get into Tokyo-Narita at 1:20pm. Then we’ll take off from Tokyo-Narita at about 4pm, fly for 10 hours, and somehow arrive in San Francisco at 10am on the same day.<br />
</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-47144347278411353412011-07-04T17:07:00.000-04:002011-07-04T17:07:42.842-04:00Honeymoon Day 22 – June 22 – Phuket, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
We started the day with an early breakfast – Jeff ordered the same fried rice and prawns as before, and I just had some fried eggs and things from the buffet.<br />
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At 8:30am, a driver arrived to pick us up for our day trip to Phang Nga bay. This is the beautiful area you often see pictures of in Phuket advertisements. It has huge limestone islands jutting up out of the sea – some are hundreds of feet tall. It’s also the area where the bad guy in the James Bond movie, “The Man with the Golden Gun,” has his evil lair.<br />
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We weren’t exactly sure what to expect from the trip. I had found a brochure for another tour of Phang Nga bay, but that company didn’t offer tours on Wednesdays, so the person at our hotel said she would book us with another company that did something similar. Lucky for us, the tour turned out to be amazing – Jeff said it was his favorite excursion of the honeymoon.<br />
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We rode in a big van with a middle-aged Japanese couple that was picked up from the hotel next door (the Marriott). After a 30 minute drive through the island, the van dropped us off at a port full of tourists – quick a change from our secluded beach and seemingly empty resort. We got on a big boat, and Jeff and I staked out a nice spot on a bench along the side near the front – and happened to end up next to the same Japanese couple. After a bit of a wait at the harbor, the boat headed out. It was a fairly long trip to get to Phang Nga bay – the limestone rocks were really hazy in the distance and then became more and more clear.<br />
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Our first stop was at James Bond Island – the particular island where the villain had built his evil lair and where a fair chunk of the movie takes place. The island was really crowded with tourists, and the middle is lined with little booths selling random souveniers (but oddly, no postcards of the island, which is the one thing I might have purchased). But the island is still really cool to see, especially if you’ve seen the movie. The shape of the rocks is interesting, and there are places around the main island to climb around. The Japanese couple told us later that they had visited the island 25 years ago (about 10 years after the movie was filmed) – it was much less crowded then, they said.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We got back on the boat and had lunch, which included a very scary looking fish (but also chicken drumsticks). After a little more sailing, made our second stop. This time, we climbed into little sea kayaks, which were inflatable. Each one had a professional driver/ paddler, so you could just enjoy the view. They told us to bring cameras, but it was a bit of a gamble – you’re right near the water, and the bigger waves get in the boat and get you wet. I kept my camera covered in a plastic bag as much as I could, but overall I was glad I’d brought it along – there were some pretty incredible sights. On the sea canoes, we went right up to the limestone islands.</div><br />
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We kayaked through a short cave – it was so low that you had to lay down in the kayak to get through – during high tide, the cave is completely gone. Once you get through, you see that you’re in a “hong” – a hole in the island where the top is open to the sky, but you’re surrounded on all sides by tall limestone walls. It’s a pretty cool experience. Jeff thought it seemed like a Disney World ride, except it was all natural, and you were really going through caves and ending up in magical hidden areas.<br />
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On the way out, we kayaked past a big jellyfish. Our guide picked it up with the paddle to show us. Apparently they’re not poisonous, because he asked if we wanted to touch it, and Jeff did. I did not. (I figure this should help me in the future – since I declined to touch the jelly fish, I think jellyfish should avoid touching me in the future. Ever.)<br />
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After lunch, we were happy to find that there was another kayak outing in the plan. This time, we went through a much longer cave – it was almost all really low – even when you laid down, you only cleared the space by a couple inches at times. In the middle of the cave it was pitch black if you turned off your flashlights. When we got through to the other side, we were in another hong. The water was really shallow and sandy, so we could get out of the kayak and walk around.<br />
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There were mangrove trees growing in the middle – it was all really jungle-y.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We also saw these fish that have fins kind of like feet – they climb up the mangrove trees so they’re half in the water and half out. When they move, they skip across the water like someone just skipped a stone.</div><br />
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We’ve had nothing but sun in Phuket so far, but heading back to the harbor, you could see that one direction was blue skies (behind us), and the other way was dark and stormy (straight ahead). Luckily, when the rain did come, it poured hard, but passed really quickly, so we could get back to our sunny tour.<br />
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Our last stop, coinciding with the end of the rain, was at a sandy island where we could kayak around on our own or just swim. They encouraged us to jump off the top deck of the boat if we wanted to. I convinced Jeff to do it, and then realized how scary it was when I tried to follow. I did do it eventually, though!<br />
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Jeff and I kayaked to shore (he did the paddling, I did the sunbathing). One of the incredible things was that the temperature of the water was perfect. There wasn’t a single moment of shock or a chill before you adjusted – you just jumped in and were comfortable. Even Jeff loved being in the water!<br />
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After about 45 minutes of swimming around, everyone got back on the boat, and we headed back to the port. From there the same driver picked us up and brought us to our hotel (which was the perfect opportunity for a nap).<br />
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When we got back to the hotel, we decided that since we were already in our swimming suits, we might as well try the swim-up bar for the sunset happy hour. Jeff and I enjoyed a refreshing Singha beer together in the pool, and then swam around a bit.<br />
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Once we were dry, we went to the tailor to try on the finished suit. It looked really good on Jeff – it fit him nice, and I really like the color. However, I also know that I really don’t know anything about suits, so I’m excited for him to get back and be able to show it to someone who will be able to tell us if it really is good quality. It’s also really convenient that he got a nice, new suit just in time for Janet and Dan’s wedding (which is in two days)!<br />
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Since we’d tried both of the restaurants in the hotel, we decided to save a couple dollars and have dinner at one of the places in the Turtle Village shops. Our two options were Bill Bentley’s (which was an English pub) and The Coffee Club (which was a trendy-looking coffee place). Despite their appearance, though, both sold a number of different Thai dishes at a good price (about $4 per entrée). We decided to go with The Coffee Club, because it’s a chain we’ve seen all over Thailand (or at least in Bangkok, where we’d done most of our wandering). We started with nachos, because I saw them on the menu and had a sudden craving for them. They were pretty awful – the chips were a little stale, the guacamole probably came from a can, and the salsa just tasted… weird. Luckily, the Thai dishes that we ordered were much, much better. I actually liked the dish I got (minced chicken and pork with hot chiles and basil) better than either of the dishes at the fancy restaurant the day before.<br />
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Back at our villa, Jeff and I decided to get fancy with our A/V set-up. We figured out a way to play the movie so that we could see and hear it while we were in the pool. We turned on another James Bond – “From Russia with Love” – which had been filmed in Istanbul. We swam and watched, and when we started to get a little chilly, we filled up the hot tub and moved there. We had even managed to find a bottle of champagne at the “Turtle Mart” in the Turtle Village Shoppes, so we enjoyed a romantic glass of champagne with our midnight pool-movie.<br />
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</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-30401436607334722392011-07-04T16:49:00.000-04:002011-07-04T16:49:53.598-04:00Honeymoon Day 21 – June 21 – Phuket, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
During our first full day at Anatara, we managed (just barely) to get up in time for the free brunch buffet. Again, they had a huge assortment of foods from all over the world. They also had fresh lychee juice, which we decided was one of our favorite morning drinks. In addition to the buffet, they have a selection of made-to-order dishes that are really tasty. I had tropical waffles – waffles with diced papaya and mango on top, and Jeff had fried rice and prawns. We also had fried eggs. Again, it was a big, late breakfast that made it impossible to even think about having lunch a few hours later.<br />
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After breakfast, we went to the “Turtle Village” shops, which are just around the corner from our hotel. Jeff is starting his new job, and needs some new suits. It’s possible to get tailor-made suits for relatively cheap in Thailand, and Jeff wanted to check it out. The tailor seemed really good, and the price for a tailor-made suit was going to be about the same as an off-the-rack suit in the states, so Jeff decided to give it a go. He got a free tailor-made shirt and a tie using a coupon we got from our hotel. The tailor works fast, so he told us to come back that evening for a fitting.<br />
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From there, Jeff and I went back to the hotel to relax and read by the pool. We had two comfy lounge chairs, and again they laid out towels, put up the umbrella, and brought us free water and apples.<br />
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We also walked along the beach a bit – there are huge waves this time of year, and red warning flags flying all along the beach, so it wasn’t possible to swim, but we enjoyed the view, dipped our feet in, and watched all of the little sand crabs scuttle back and forth.<br />
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Then at 1:30pm, we had to go back to Turtle Village for an appointment. The next two and a half hours marked the only bad experience we had while we were in Phuket, and I almost hate to write about it, since everything else was so great, but here it goes anyway…<br />
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As a bit of background, you need to know what happened the day before when we got off the plane. You enter the airport, and there are lots of people jostling to get your attention, asking, “Do you need a hotel? Do you need a cab? Do you want a shuttle? Do you want to book an excursion?” Someone asked where we were staying, and we said Anatara, and they pointed us to a little booth. In the booth, people were wearing nametags that said Anatara on them. They welcomed us, had us sit down, got us water, said they could arrange transportation, and asked us to fill out a form. Reading a little more about the form, Jeff and I realized that this booth wasn’t really for the Anatara hotel – it was for the Anatara Vacation Club – kind of like a time-share program that the hotel does. However, the deal was that if you sign up to go to the 90 minute vacation club talk (during which they’d be telling you all about Anatara resorts), you would get a free taxi to the hotel and a voucher for 4000 bahts (almost $150) to use at the hotel restaurants, spa, or excursions. So, knowing that this was the deal, we decided to continue filling out the forms. We paid a 500 baht deposit, which gets returned to you when you actually show up for the appointment the next day. But then, when we gave them the paper work, they saw that neither one of us was over 30 years old, which is apparently one of their criteria (maybe to keep backpackers from taking advantage of the free vouchers?) They said that we actually couldn’t do the deal and get the voucher. But since we’d already paid the deposit and they’d called the taxi, we should just take the free ride to the hotel, and then go at the 1:30pm appointment time to pick up our deposit and talk for a few minutes, but not go through the full 90 minute presentation.<br />
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So fast-forward to today. We went at 1:30pm, got our deposit, and then waited to be called to talk to the person that would give us the sales pitch. When she called us back, we explained that we were both under 30, so we didn’t really qualify, and we weren’t sure we could do this. She said she’d check with a manager, and then came back and said that it would be fine to continue. The woman – Lola – was friendly and nice and chatted with us about our travel style, about the vacation club program, about the Anatara resorts in general. The manager came in and gave us a price. It’s actually a fairly reasonable deal, and Jeff and I did think and talk it over. They also do all sorts of “first-visit discounts,” to encourage you to sign up immediately, but I know that I’m not the kind of person that can be happy making a big decision without sleeping on it, so I was happy to walk away from those discounts to have the luxury of thinking it over carefully (which they clearly didn’t really like). When we finally had all the information and reached the end of the presentation, Jeff and I asked about the voucher. She said that we don’t get one because we’re under 30. I was so frustrated that I didn’t think I could talk without crying, so we basically just said ok and left. It just seemed to misleading that we had said we didn’t qualify for the deal, and she had said that the manager had ok’d it (which we assumed meant the whole deal - not just the part about listening to a sales pitch for an hour and a half). Then we got back to the hotel and saw a clock and realized that it was 4pm. We had been there for two and a half hours – almost double the 90 minutes that they told us. I was so frustrated, because I felt like we’d been tricked out of our whole afternoon on one of our only full days at the resort. We had diligently showed up at the appointed time, mentioned the age issue upfront, and then listened attentively to the whole presentation, only to find out at the end that for the time and attention we had given, we wouldn’t be given the advertised voucher, and we had been kept there for almost twice the amount of time they had originally said. Back at the hotel, I did end up explaining the situation to a manager, though I think the Anatara hotel people and the Anatara vacation club people are not the same. Still, she said she’d look into it, and the hotel did send us an apology letter and a voucher for 2000 bahts (half of the advertised amount, but more than nothing).<br />
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Phew – I feel like it takes a lot of mental energy even just to remember and think about that whole episode – so frustrating! If only I could just go back and have those hours relaxing and swimming at the villa, enjoying my honeymoon! But what’s done is done. So…<br />
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The first thing we did after the whole two-and-a-half hour sales pitch fiasco was go back to our villa and swim. It’s impossible to be too upset if you’re swimming in your own private pool at your beautiful villa, so things got better pretty quickly.<br />
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Jeff and I also decided that those big glass doors opening onto the pool from the bedroom were just begging to be used – so we opened them up and took turns jumping straight from the bedroom into the pool – technically no different than jumping from the deck, but it still feels awesome.<br />
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There’s a daily sunset happy hour at the hotel pool bar from 5-7pm, so Jeff and I headed down there. We sat on big bean-bag type chairs in the sand in front of the bar, and tried the two-for-one rose wine. Not the best wine I’ve ever had, but the view was unbeatable.<br />
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Around 7pm, we headed back to the tailor for Jeff’s fitting – it was incredible that the pants were basically done and the skeleton of the jacket was finished, too. Jeff tried them on, the tailor made some chalk markings and showed us the look of various lengths, and then we were done.<br />
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For dinner, we tried the second restaurant at the hotel – it serves Mediterrean and Thai food. We tried two Thai dishes – Massaman curry and pad thai. Both were pretty good, though not as good as the seafood dinner we’d had the night before.<br />
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We went back to the room to relax and watch another movie (The Fighter, this time – from the resort’s DVD library). Just to prove how mesmerizing the pool is, Jeff decided mid-movie that he wanted to take a break to jump in – Jeff! Who usually never wants to go in the water unless I plead with him!) And once I saw him jump in, there was no way I was staying out, so we had a romantic midnight swim.<br />
</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-53675206978927183382011-07-04T16:35:00.000-04:002011-07-04T16:35:31.816-04:00Honeymoon Day 20 – June 20 – Phuket, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Our flight was pretty early on Monday morning, so after a quick skype call to each of our dads (it was Sunday evening of father’s day back home), and one last stop at the Lebua breakfast buffet, we caught our flight to Phuket.<br />
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We got into Phuket around 10am. We had originally booked a room at the Hilton resort in Phuket, which looked very nice, though it was in the main tourist area, which has a reputation for being crowded and a little rowdy. But then, while we were traveling on our honeymoon, a deal came up on jetsetter.com for the Anatara resort in Phuket. It’s located on a fairly secluded northern beach (actually part of a national park), and it’s a five-star resort. For not much more than we would pay at the Hilton, we were able to get a 2000 square foot villa with its own private pool.<br />
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It sounded like an amazing deal, and when we arrived and saw it all in person, it was even better. Our villa was completely surrounded by a high fence, so you really have your own private space. It has a beautiful blue tile pool that’s a really good size. The pool is surrounded by a deck on two sides, and by the villa (with big sliding glass doors) on the other two sides. The deck is big enough to have two lounge chairs and a big umbrella as well as a whole covered outdoor seating area with a couch and a table and chairs, and its own minibar.<br />
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Inside, the villa exudes relaxation. It has dark wood floors and tables. A big beautiful bed, on which they had arranged two swans making a heart shape, sitting in a heart made of rose petals, with “LOVE” written beneath. There was a desk (and free wifi!), and another sitting area with a couch and cushions. One whole wall of the room is big glass sliding doors that open directly onto the pool.<br />
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There was a back room with two closets and a make-up table. Then there was the bathroom. It had two sinks, and a small couch. There were two interior doors, one to the toilet, and one to a huge rain shower. Then there was an exterior door at the far side that led to the outdoor rain shower.<br />
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Like the bedroom, the big wall in the bathroom was actually sliding glass doors. These opened directly to steps into a big stone tub, which was built directly into the pool, and even had a side-section made of glass, so you could see into the pool from in the tub.<br />
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But it wasn’t just the amazing design and layout that made the room so great. It also had a bunch of great finishing touches. Cute decorations and candles and things made the room look like home. It had an iPod stand that allowed you to easily play music on the surround-sound system installed in the villa – which included a speaker in the bathroom that you could hear while sitting in the tub. They had a bowl with flower petals and a selection of bath salts. There were robes and flip flops and slippers. There were yoga mats (despite our best intentions, we never managed to use these), and a sketch pad. It was easy to imagine spending our whole time in Phuket just in our villa.<br />
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And we did spend a lot of our time there the first day. Because the villa hadn’t been ready when we first arrived mid-morning, they sent us to the pool area down by the beach for complimentary drinks. The pool and beach area is beautiful, and there were only a handful of other people around. We easily got beautiful seats out in a shallow-water pool area. They laid out towels for us, put up the big umbrella, and brought us our drinks, as well as waters and apples. It was not a bad way to wait for the villa. Still, when we did get in, after touring around and taking pictures in amazement, we decided to take a little nap. And then swam. And then we rested. And that’s pretty much how we spent our first afternoon.<br />
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We eventually left the villa to get dinner. The Anatara resort has two restaurants, and they’re a bit expensive, but we wanted to try them out. The first one we tried is located right on the water – it’s called “Sea.Fire.Salt,” and specializes in sea food. It also has a salt sommelier who comes to your table and recommends particular salts to try with your meal.<br />
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Jeff and I got a bucket of assorted cold seafood that was incredibly fresh and tasty (and the Thai, Hawaiian, and White salt were nice with it). It included oysters, mussels (or something like mussels or clams – we weren’t exactly sure), crab legs, scallops, and prawns.<br />
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We also shared tiger prawns, cooked on a salt rock, which is a specialty of the restaurant. This dish was very good as well. We had it with two sides – wok fried vegetables and thyme potatoes, which turned out to be huge portions. We had a strawberry sundae for dessert and went back to our room very full and ready to relax again.<br />
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Back at the villa, we filled the bath with hot water, rose petals, and bath salts, and turned out on the lights in the pool. It was one of the most romantic scenes I think I’ve ever experienced in real life.<br />
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Eventually, we decided to cuddle up in bed and watch a movie. We were able to hook up my computer to the TV (we’d brought cords for this purpose), which meant we could basically watch any movie we wanted via the internet. We decided to watch the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun,” because part of the movie was filmed in Phuket. The movie was entertaining and light, and had some funny 1970’s vibes, since that’s when it was filmed.<br />
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</div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-68544647250464541482011-07-04T16:22:00.000-04:002011-07-04T16:22:47.197-04:00Honeymoon Day 19 – June 19 – Bangkok, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
We started our second day in Bangkok with another relaxing morning, though we did manage to make it to the hotel restaurant before the free breakfast buffet was over. The buffet was impressive – it had breakfast options from all different countries – miso soup from Japan, dim sum (including pork rolls) from China, boiled rice from Thailand, bread and cheese for Europe, and bacon and eggs for the Americans. Jeff and I basically tried a bit of everything, so there was no need for lunch that day.<br />
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After lunch, we caught a ferry on the river, which is supposed to be the best way to navigate from our area to the temples, which is where we wanted to go. If we hadn’t read the warnings in our guide book, we may have fallen prey to a common scam in Bangkok – apparently people tell you that the place you’re trying to go is closed, and then they try to direct you somewhere else – to their friend’s shop, or something like that. But when a random guy on the street offered to “help” us, asking us where we were going, telling us the ferry was closed, and saying just to follow him as he went down a street that we knew was the wrong direction, we politely, but firmly declined. My tactic from this point on was to always tell people who asked that we were “just walking,” because you’ve technically answered their question, but it’s basically impossible for them to tell you that it’s closed or to try to give you directions, and that tactic worked pretty well for us the rest of the time we were there. (And we saw this sign later in the day giving the opening hours of the palace and warning not to listen to strangers.)<br />
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The ferry was awesome (and cheap – about a dollar each to ride as far up the river as it goes). It was so great, that we decided to continue on past our own stop just to see how far it goes and get a little river tour, and then we got off at the temple spot after it had turned around and started going back. The river is lined with really fancy, tall hotels and also really ramshackle houses on stilts, with laundry hanging out front – it’s a really interesting mix.<br />
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The temples are really amazing. They’re really big complexes with lots of different buildings and statues. The architecture is really interesting, but it’s the details that are the most incredible. Every building is really, really intricate. It’s also covered with shiny metals and stones, so it just sparkles like crazy in the sun. It’s literally dazzling. I must have taken hundreds of pictures.<br />
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After seeing the temples, Jeff and I decided to get some sight-seeing variety by walking the three miles or so back to our hotel. Our route would take us through Chinatown, which we thought would be fun. The streets in Chinatown seem to be completely lined with people selling things. Some stands are like a mini garage sale, with a completely random collection of things – one pair of rollerblades, some jewelry, cups, etc. – while others sell tons of the same random thing – kitchen faucets, cell phone covers – we even saw a stall selling guns, ammunition, and crossbows. We didn’t buy anything until we passed a store with giant bags of tea for sale outside. Jeff couldn’t pass that up. Only after he’d bought the tea did we learn from the bag that we’d purchased tea from the Korean store in the Chinatown area of Bangkok – it’s practically the definition of pan-Asian. There were food stalls interspersed in all of this – Jeff tried a dish that looked like it might be fried rice and big noodles, but wasn’t – we’re not sure what it was, actually, but it tasted pretty good.<br />
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Eventually, we got back to our neighborhood, and we felt ready for dinner, so we just made our way back to the alley that we’d liked so much the day before. We tried a different set of linoleum tables this time – across from the ones we’ve eaten before. The people were different, but the menu seemed to be the same. We ordered the red curry again, along with a chile sauce dish and pad thai. We shared a bottle of Singha – a Thai beer. The food was all great, again, and somehow the price was exactly the same as the day before.<br />
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Back at the hotel, we decided to check out the sky bar. It’s on the roof of the hotel – essentially the 65th floor. The view is incredible, but dizzying. We enjoyed two nice cocktails as we admired the view.<br />
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(We would have ordered champagne, which has been our honeymoon thing, but for some reason, while the cocktails were a reasonable $9 or so, even the cheapest glass of champagne was about $50 – and that’s for one glass, not a bottle. We learned later that in Thailand there is a 450% tax on wine and champagne, which must be the reason.)<br />
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Luckily, either wine at the liquor store isn’t subject to the same tax, or we managed to get a wine whose base price was just a couple of dollars, because the price of the wine we’d gotten the night before was much more reasonable. We headed back to our room to enjoy the bottle and the view from our own balcony.<br />
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Eventually, Jeff decided we needed a midnight snack, and he went out on the streets to find something fun. He ended up buying these plastic bags that were filled with noodles and some other things (maybe veggies and some tofu?), with spices in the corner, and another plastic bag of sauce to put on top. Again, we didn’t know exactly what we were eating, but it was really good. (And now Jeff has cravings for it, but we don’t really even know how to describe what it was like!)<br />
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Also, around this time, I had turned on the TV and gotten sucked into the only English-language programming I could find – Terminator 4 (the recent one with Christian Bale – is that four?). By the time I finished my midnight snack and a bit more of the wine, I realized that there was no chance I was going to have the energy to pack, so Jeff took over that job while I finished watching Terminator and started on Ninja Assassin (which was the next thing that came on the same channel). I also had a stomach ache at that point – not super surprising given the random agglomeration we’d been eating, though Jeff was totally fine.<br />
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</div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-50451365876682367322011-07-04T16:05:00.000-04:002011-07-04T16:05:33.652-04:00Honeymoon Day 18 – June 18 – Bangkok, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
We arrived in Bangkok very early – around 8am. We took a cab (about 40 minutes, but only about $10) to our hotel. We stayed at Lebua State Tower, which had great reviews and is supposed to be one of the nicest hotels in Bangkok. We got a great deal through jetsetter.com, and we were excited to see our room. After the taxi dropped us off, a hotel person took our bags while another hotel person greeted us and sat us at a comfy table and chairs in the lobby area. Then she went to get the information to check us in while we just sat and rested in the cute little tea area – definitely a good start. Then we found out that they’d upgraded us, since we were on our honeymoon.<br />
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She showed us to our room, and it was amazing. It was on the 23rd floor (great view!) and we walked in to see a small sitting room and a hallway. Along the hallway was a bedroom with a big balcony and its own attached bathroom. At the end of the hallway was a full kitchen and a dining room, with a balcony (Jeff was extra happy to see the drip coffee machine). Beyond that was a living room with a wrap-around couch and big TV. And attached to the living room was the master bedroom, with its own balcony overlooking the river, and a large master bathroom. We also found out later (after opening the various closets and things) that we had a washer and dryer, which was great luck, since we hadn’t yet come up with a plan to do laundry during our trip.<br />
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(Also, we found out via a multitude of signs in the hotel that “The Hangover 2” had done some of their filming at the Lebua State Tower, so if you see the movie, keep an eye out for it!)<br />
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We had originally planned to just drop off our things, get ready quickly, and head straight out into the city, but we decided to take our time and enjoy our room a bit. We did finally head out, because we needed to find some lunch. Jeff had read in our guidebook that there were little food stands all over the city – on streets, down alleys – and this is where the best food could be found. There was a specific little alley the book recommended not far from our hotel, so we decided to try that first. It was basically a little street lined with people selling fruits, vegetables, or other foods. Some places had a couple linoleum or metal tables out front. Jeff and I walked up and down and then picked a spot with a couple tables. We tried red curry and green curry – they were both good dishes, though the red curry was really memorable.<br />
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From there, we made our way to the skytrain – the above-ground metro system. It was really nice and new looking and easy to use. We rode out to the weekend market – it seemed like it was fate that we’d come on the right day to see it. The weekend market is made up of a huge complex of little stalls – some are kind of inside a covered area, some are outside but covered with tarps, and some are just outside and uncovered. They sell about everything you can imagine. There are a lot of clothing shops and shoe shops. Lots of little food stands and mini-restaurants. There are some souvenirs. There is also artwork, kitchen supplies, metal-work, pottery, and lots more. Jeff ended up buying sandals. We found a cute dress and a tea set we liked a lot shortly after we got there, but we wanted to shop around a bit more before buying anything. It was a mistake to leave the stall, though, because the chances to finding the same place twice in that giant maze were very low. By the time we did make it back (and then, only by chance as we were looking for the exit), the shop had already closed.<br />
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Jeff did get to try a bunch of different foods, including some of dish made with tiny eggs (quail eggs), and a sort-of barbeque meat thing. We sat down at a little noodle shop and had the only thing they serve – noodle soup with chicken.<br />
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Since we were having a big shopping day, we decided to continue on the commerce trend and visit one of Bangkok’s biggest malls. It had about five floors with tons of little stores. There was an area that was filled with tons and tons of little stalls, too. We found a Dairy Queen, and blizzards were less than a dollar, so we thought we’d try the double-chocolate – it definitely hit the spot. We wanted to get some champagne for back at the room, too, but we never saw a liquor shop during our tour of all five floors. But then, as we were making our way out, the escalator dropped us off right in front of a little corner area in the department store that was selling alcohol. We got a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine (for the next day!), and headed home.<br />
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We finished off our day by having a glass of champagne on our balcony overlooking the city.<br />
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</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-34107386848018729782011-07-03T18:52:00.000-04:002011-07-03T18:52:05.094-04:00Honeymoon Day 17 – June 17 – Istanbul, Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Breadkfast on the patio at our hotel has become a ‘do not miss’ for Jeff and me, even though we do like to sleep in. The food and the view are both worth waking up for.<br />
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We only had a half-day today, so after breakfast, we went on the ten minute walk up to Topkapi Palace and did some sightseeing there. It was really beautiful, with lots of intricate architectural design and cool tiles. We saw a bunch of amazing jewel-encrusted thrones, pitchers, boxes, and other items in the treasury, and looked at religious relics displayed in other rooms.<br />
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We would have loved to spend even more time at the palace (an hour and a half was definitely not enough!), but we had to rush to have one last snack of Turkish food (kebabs and babaganoush) before making our way back to the airport!<br />
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The whole afternoon and evening we enjoyed flying on Emirate Airlines on the long trip from Istanbul to Bangkok. Their website says that they’re ‘fluent in luxury,’ and that seems pretty accurate. There are a million movies, the food is definitely a step up from the average airplane meal, wine is free, and the staff have never-ending smiles. Tomorrow we wake up in Bangkok!<br />
</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-55941904643749337952011-07-03T18:48:00.000-04:002011-07-03T18:48:17.103-04:00Honeymoon Day 16 – June 16 – Istanbul, Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Our plans on Thursday were all worked out – a ferry cruise up the Bosphorus, an adventure into the Asian side to try a restaurant recommended by a friend, and an evening in the new part of the city – until it started pouring down rain while we sat at breakfast.<br />
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We decided to forget about the Bosphorous cruise – even if the boat was still running in the storm, you wouldn’t be able to see anything through the rain and fog. Instead, we ended up having a quiet morning in the hotel and getting some extra sleep – not a bad alternative at all.<br />
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When the rain finally subsided, we caught the metro to the Istanbul Modern museum.<br />
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The museum focuses on modern Turkish art, and the first exhibit when you walk in is one of my favorite art museum exhibits I’ve ever seen. The exhibit showcases Turkish art from the early 1900’s to the present. The little plaques next to each painting explain who the artist is, where they studied, and who they studied with, which is really interesting – funny to imagine all the international ties in the art world. The plaques also talk about what was going on in Turkey at the time – who was ruling, and what debates were occurring in the public and among artists. Going along all of the paintings, you really get a sense, not only of the context or importance of one painting, but of the evolution of Turkish art and art debates in relation to current events in the world. When the paintings become more impressionistic, you have a sense of why artists have made this change. When you see paintings of people working in machine shops or fields, you understand that the choice of these subjects, rather than the scenic water views popular in the past, are significant.<br />
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Even later in the museum, when the focus wasn’t on the evolution of art through history, the explanation plaques next to each painting were particularly interesting. They would give you not only basic information on the artist or the painting, but also some pointers as to why this particular painting is interesting or important in the world of art. The plaques would sometimes point your attention to the direction of lines, the use of particular colors rather than others, the direction of gazes, and many other details that you may not appreciate if you had no background in art (like Jeff and me). They were some of the most interesting and helpful descriptions I’ve ever seen in an art museum.<br />
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The basement of the museum has very modern, temporary exhibits. These were interesting, but a little overwhelming in their use of light and sound and video, especially after more than two quiet hours of strolling and reading upstairs. Jeff and I headed to the café for an espresso and a tea on the patio overlooking the water and Sultanhamet (the old town).<br />
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An aside – the espresso and tea together cost about $9 – which brings me to one of my un-anticipated findings in Istanbul – it’s expensive! I’m not sure what I expected – maybe something at least cheaper than the states on average, but meals in both the old part of town, which is touristy, and the new part of town, which is a bit fancy, always seem to be about the same as U.S. big-city meal prices. Unless you want to buy a doner or other sandwich from a to-go kiosk, you can pretty much expect to spend $30-$40 for lunch for two people. It’s not super expensive, but it's still more than I expected.<br />
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After the museum, we went on a somewhat round-about walk, ending up back on Istiklal. We decided to have dinner at a place just down the street from the restaurant we’d eaten at the night before, because it had looked good to both of us passing by. The restaurant is called “Canim Cigerim Ilhan Usta.” They really only serve one thing – kebabs, and they specialize in liver. They don’t bring out the menu – they just ask: liver, meat, or chicken? (Jeff chose liver and I chose meat.) Then they bring out durum bread (which looks like tortilla) and a bunch of plates of side items – mint, parsley, some other green leaf, peppers, spiced onions, finely chopped tomatoes and onions, and grilled tomatoes, onions and and peppers. Then, they come out with what seems like a million long, hot metal skewers with your liver, meat, or chicken. And then you eat. It was really good, and a lot of food, and despite my previous comment about high prices, was only about $25 for both of us.<br />
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After dinner, Jeff and I decided to retrace our steps to find the cute side-street lined with pubs that we had seen on our walk the previous day. We did manage to find it, and settled into a cute two-person table right along the street. We tried the local beer – Efes Pilzen – which was not bad, and talked about wedding things.<br />
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Jeff and I have gotten into the habit of constantly using the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife.’ They’re still so novel, that it still doesn’t feel quite real to say it – that Jeff is my husband and I’m his wife. It’s so exciting! And so we say things like, “Do you want another beer, wife?” Or, “Ok, husband, do you think we should take a taxi or walk?”<br />
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Sitting on a cute pedestrian (mostly – it seems like there is no place motorcycles won’t venture) street, having a relaxing drink, marveling at the fact that we’re in Istanbul, and we’re married, is a pretty incredible feeling.<br />
</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-9310228312885389462011-07-03T18:39:00.000-04:002011-07-03T18:39:13.401-04:00Honeymoon Day 15 – June 15 – Istanbul, Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
We managed to get up in time for breakfast at the hotel this morning. There were breads and cheeses and eggs and waffles – I’m not sure how authentically Turkish the selection was, but all the food was really good, so I can’t complain. The hotel is right on the Marmara sea, so Jeff and I got to enjoy our breakfast on our patio, watching the boats go by.<br />
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We started the day by seeing the Aya Sofia, which is a church built in 537 AD by the Roman Emperor Justinian. That probably makes it one of the oldest buildings I’ve ever been in, since even the amazingly old Cathedrals in England were usually built after 1000 AD. It was turned into a mosque when the Ottomans took over, and then turned into a museum by Ataturk in 1935, so its history seems to parallel Turkish history fairly well.<br />
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The next stop was the Blue Mosque, which is also one of the most well known, and most beautiful buildings in Istanbul. It’s still an operating mosque, though, so we had to hurry to be out before the noon prayer.<br />
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From there, we made our way back to the grand bazaar and the spice bazaar. It’s a bit chaotic, and everyone wants to talk you into taking a closer look at their booth, but the only thing we ended up buying was a little Christmas ornament and a pair of earrings.<br />
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The spice bazaar is very close to the Galata Bridge, which spans over the “Golden Horn” – the waterway on the European side of Istanbul (the nearby Bosphorus Straight is the waterway that separates Europe and Asia). We walked across the bridge, and feeling very hungry and not up to a hike, we bought a ticket to the funicular to take us up the hill. The funicular was actually the 2nd underground railway in the world (after London). The funicular dropped us off on Istiklal Caddesi, the main walking street in the newer part of Istanbul. We quickly found a cute little café for lunch.<br />
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After lunch, we were energized, and walked the entire length of Istiklal Caddesi and then continued into the Taksim Square and the park behind it. I wasn’t a big fan of the park though, because it was hard to navigate, and we kept seeming to go downhill (which meant a big walk uphill a little later), so we headed back to explore some of the lively alleys around Istiklal.<br />
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After meandering, we found the restaurant where Jeff had made a reservation – and it was lucky he did, because all of the tables sitting out on the side-street (I don’t think there were any tables at all inside) were covered with ‘reserved’ markers. The restaurant is called Antiochia, and it’s famous for having food from the town of Antakya, which is a unique take on Turkish cuisine. The waiter basically ordered for us – telling us to choose the meze plate (which samples all seven appetizer dips) and share the kebab and a durum (sandwich). (It seemed like he did the same for everyone else, because everyone seemed to have the same things). All of the food was really great. I think Jeff and I may not be knowledgeable enough about Turkish food to really appreciate the subtle spice differences between standard Turkish food and the food at Antiochia, but we really loved everything we tried, which is really the main goal, anyway. We even had their dessert – which was icecream with candied walnuts and eggplant, and was much better than it sounds.<br />
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After dinner, we walked down the black to the Hotel Marmara Pera. This restaurant houses one of the nicest restaurants in the city – Mikla. On its roof is the bar accompanying this restaurant. The view from the roof was amazing. And our timing was perfect – we saw the whole city in the day, then saw the stone buildings turn golden as the sun set, and finally saw lights flickering on as darkness set in. Jeff and I drank Turkish wine, and the bar provides cherries and some other small, green fruit we didn’t recognize as snacks.<br />
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As our last drink, we shared a glass of Turkish champagne (it’s our official honeymoon drink!), and enjoyed some olives. Sitting on this elegant rooftop bar, drinking champagne, and watching all of Istanbul laid out in front of us, was probably the most romantic moment of our time in Istanbul.<br />
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</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-49703399140500768812011-07-03T18:21:00.000-04:002011-07-03T18:21:33.442-04:00Honeymoon Day 14 – June 14 – Istanbul, Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
After having barely slept the night of Christoph’s wedding, Jeff and I woke up on Tuesday to discover that we were not ready for a full day of sight-seeing. We decided that’s bound to happen when you’re traveling for a full month, so we took a re-charging day. We slept until noon, and then started our day with lunch. We ate at Ziya Sark Sofrasi, recommended by our tourbook. We had hummus, a really tasty lamb pide (Turkish pizza), and a chicken kebab. We love Turkish food, so every meal was exciting for us.<br />
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Right next door there was sweetshop with a window full of amazing-looking desserts, so we headed there next. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs, and we ended up filling up a box with about $25 worth of tiny desserts. The baklava is some of the best I’ve ever had, though. There was also Turkish delight, in all different flavors, many with nuts cooked into them. The Turkish delight was really great – there was no flavor that I didn’t like.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lMU7MiJN-Kk/Tf36aDepNuI/AAAAAAADR4Q/SAcl9z0IXWE/s1600/20110614+Istanbul+Turkey+012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lMU7MiJN-Kk/Tf36aDepNuI/AAAAAAADR4Q/SAcl9z0IXWE/s400/20110614+Istanbul+Turkey+012.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Witch-Wardrobe-Movie-Narnia/dp/0060765488?ie=UTF8&tag=wonderinga-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Movie Tie-in Edition (Narnia)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0060765488&tag=wonderinga-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wonderinga-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0060765488" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />Whenever I think of Turkish delight, it reminds me of the C.S. Lewis book, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” which my dad read to me when I was little. Back then, I thought that Turkish delight, which the witch uses to lull Edmund in, was a made-up candy, just like the imaginary animal characters in the book. It wasn’t until my junior year in college, which I spent in England, that I saw some for sale and realized it was a real thing. But the Turkish delight I bought in the discount store in England is not even close to as good as the freshly made Turkish delight in the store here. I wish there had been a way to bring some home, but with the trip to Thailand and California still ahead, I thought it wouldn’t make sense. (Who thought there’d be a downside to the trip to Thailand and California?)<br />
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We spent most of our afternoon walking through the Istanbul Archeological Museum – it’s really big, so we still didn’t really see everything. They have so many sculptures and statues and sarcophagi, you wonder if there were any left for other museums. They have artifacts dating back to 2700 B.C., which is crazy – it’s so incredible to imagine that there were people making pots and living life almost 5000 years ago, and that we still have those pots today. They had an exhibit with coins dating all the way back to 100 or so B.C., which was also surreal. Probably our favorite part of the exhibit, though, was the collection of letters written in stone in the Hittite Language – I think they were from hundreds of years B.C. They were translated so you could read the random information that people thought was important enough to chisel into stone and send via messenger – some were agreements between kings, or explanations of recent events (usually by very important or powerful people).<br />
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After about three hours, we ran out of museum energy. We walked to a tea shop located at the wall of the Topkapi Palace, overlooking the Marmara Sea. We had a couple cups of really great tea and enjoyed the view, and then decided what we really needed was another nap.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bY52P_SGC_U/Tf36opjozKI/AAAAAAADR6E/rl0FuUUiaBs/s1600/20110614+Istanbul+Turkey+041.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bY52P_SGC_U/Tf36opjozKI/AAAAAAADR6E/rl0FuUUiaBs/s400/20110614+Istanbul+Turkey+041.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mockingjay-Hunger-Games-Book-3/dp/0439023513?ie=UTF8&tag=wonderinga-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0439023513&tag=wonderinga-20" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Second-Hunger-Games/dp/0439023491?ie=UTF8&tag=wonderinga-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0439023491&tag=wonderinga-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wonderinga-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0439023491" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />We walked back to our hotel and spent the evening relaxing and reading (I finished the <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wonderinga-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0439023513" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />last book in ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy!). Jeff ran out at one point to get us a Doner and a Kofte (Turkish meatball) sandwich, and that was it for the day!<br />
</div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8360259970697599523.post-51790106691784620892011-07-03T18:15:00.000-04:002011-07-03T18:15:57.278-04:00Honeymoon Day 13 – June 13 – Freiburg, Germany to Istanbul, Turkey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Despite our late night the previous night, Jeff and I were up and back at the wedding venue at 9:30 in the morning for breakfast. I really like the idea of having breakfast the day after a wedding, because it’s really nice to see everyone a bit more and to say your goodbyes when you’re (somewhat) more awake and focused than at the very end of the night. We ended up getting a ride back to Frieburg with Christoph and his dad, which was really nice, because it gave us a lot of time to catch up with Christoph. He and Karen are headed off for their honeymoon – in Copenhagen and Sweden – and then they’ll be coming back and moving to Geneva together.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-McY--8h1tHc/Tfcv-jfNj4I/AAAAAAADO5Q/1NYxYdzqc04/s1600/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+152.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-McY--8h1tHc/Tfcv-jfNj4I/AAAAAAADO5Q/1NYxYdzqc04/s400/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+152.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZBuPHa25A0M/Tfcv_Q9pceI/AAAAAAADO5U/6B-BhnPHPLc/s1600/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+153.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZBuPHa25A0M/Tfcv_Q9pceI/AAAAAAADO5U/6B-BhnPHPLc/s400/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+153.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Christoph and his dad dropped us off at the Freiburg train station, and Jeff and I made our way to the airport. We slept every minute of our flight to Istanbul.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We arrived in Turkey around 8pm, and decided to be adventurous (and thrifty) and take the public transportation to our hotel. The subway and metro are relatively easy to understand, so we made it without much trouble. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The most difficult part was trying to actually find our hotel after we got off the metro – we only had a general idea of where it was. As we walked along with our bags, people would stop us every 20 feet to ask us where we were going, and which hotel. We thought at first that people were trying to stop us to get us to come their store or get us to buy something or something like that, but actually, we discovered they really just wanted to give us directions. This is actually one of the really cute things about Istanbul – it seems like people are used to tourists and just take it upon themselves to help out. In this case, it was person after person insisting on giving us directions to our hotel. But we saw the same helpfulness in a lot of other ways throughout our stay. When you’re trying to figure out how to buy a metro ticket, the Turkish person in line behind you will reach up and press a button for you, or show you how to do it. When I wanted to find stamps, I got information from about four different people along the way (they could see me scanning the street looking for something) – telling me where it was, how far I still needed to go, and warning me that it would be closed during prayer time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KfBL_iBd0gE/TfcwAt1EPmI/AAAAAAADO5c/lJjv_fORdug/s1600/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+155.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KfBL_iBd0gE/TfcwAt1EPmI/AAAAAAADO5c/lJjv_fORdug/s400/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+155.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We mentioned to the hotel – the Best Western Citadel Hotel - that we’re on our honeymoon, and they upgraded us to a sea-view room and sent up a bottle of wine to the room! It was a really nice way to start out our time in Istanbul.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MNm-kBzyfZk/TfcwD_EqTEI/AAAAAAADO5s/aHDuVbM5Wng/s1600/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MNm-kBzyfZk/TfcwD_EqTEI/AAAAAAADO5s/aHDuVbM5Wng/s400/20110612+Christoph+and+Karen%2527s+Wedding+159.JPG" width="266" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span></div></div>Marielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13274660228402517992noreply@blogger.com0