¡Feliz Año!

Fresh off the boat from Luxembourg, we stopped home just in time to say hello to the cats before turning right back around to the airport. Uncle Bob and Barb are spending the month of January in Spain and invited us along for a few days at the beginning of their trip, so we met them in Madrid to ring in the new year.

Andrew's taking over for the rest of this:

Bob and Barb were meant to call us first thing after landing on New Year's day, but when we didn't hear from them, we figured their flight was delayed and that we had time for a trip to the supermercado. Luckily, it was a quick trip, because we returned to the apartment to find them waiting at the front door, looking panicked. It turns out dialing international numbers can be a bit tricky. We spent our first day together walking to el centro de Madrid, including La Latina -- the old town.

Just off Plaza Mayor we found a purveyor of "el mejor churros del mundo" (which was, sadly, a gross exaggeration). The slow service allowed our newly arrived companions time enough for a quick snooze.

We walked home that night through a very dark, but surprisingly populous, Parque del Retiro, which is located near our apartment and also where we began the day on Friday.

We emerged from el parque on Friday just behind El Prado, with pangs of hunger and a bit of thirst. After admiring the baroque door of San Jerónimo el Real, we stopped for a bite and a caña (draft beer). After a bit more wandering, we rendezvoused with our companions (after we had parted in pursuit of separate meal plans) at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza for a chronological stroll through art history.

Saturday we were off to an early and frigidly cold start on not-quite-the-first (but near enough) train to Toledo. The town was stunning; particular highlights included the cathedral (Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada Toledo), the excellent meal at Restaurante Locum, the incredible views, and the absurdity of staffing the ticket office of a museum that was closed until February (thanks for nothing, Museo de Santa Cruz!). We also met Pollock's (much more active) Spanish cousin, El Pollocko.

We came back from Toledo in the afternoon, just in time to get a quick visit to the Reina Sofia, the museum where Guernica lives. We toured El Prado on Sunday before strolling down the Gran Vía and ending up at the palace. We arrived too late to get in, so it's on our to-do list for our next visit. We're excited to get back at some point again!  (More photos on flickr.)

Passengers Kennedy & Hamilton. This is the last call for your flight to Luxembourg. Please proceed to your gate immediately.

We were sitting in Schiphol, agreeing that it was one of the nicest airports we travel in, enjoying a drink or two before our connecting flight to Luxembourg, when Andrew looked very panicked. "They're paging us!" For the second time in our lives, we sprinted through Schiphol in an attempt to catch a flight.

Rest assured, we made it. KLM is possibly the nicest airline ever, with the nicest employees. They very generously called a bus to take us to the plane all by ourselves, and we even got to sit in the nicer seats so as not to disturb all the timely passengers who were ready to go when they should have been. This was an excellent start to a truly wonderful Christmas, made even better upon landing in Luxembourg with Sara waiting.

On Christmas Eve, we spent some time in Luxembourg City, ice skating and going to a Christmas market. Andrew was the fastest skater, Julia was the cutest, and I was the grumpiest. We got to ride a giant ferris wheel at the market, ate some lunch, and indulged in a bit of mulled wine.

Christmas morning was wonderful. Santa spoiled us all, but everyone except Julia was left wanting a My Little Pony or Frozen gift - it seems none were left for the rest of us.

We went chateau-ing on Boxing Day - three in one day, oh my!

Next stop Mount Everest

Our last day in Luxembourg dawned snowy and cold. I was glad to get a bit of snow for Christmas and I was pretty lucky to have a pal who wanted to play in it with me. Andrew and Paul went out cross-country skiing for a few hours before we had to pack in it and head back to Belfast. We were seriously sad to leave, as it was a really incredible trip. Check out more of it on flickr.

Thank you for being a friend!

Andrew and I threw a 'fancy dress' party for Halloween this year. (They call costumes 'fancy dress' here, which I like. It makes a costume party seem much cooler.)

We like to represent the USA as much as possible and we thought this was a great opportunity. Halloween is not nearly as big a holiday here in the UK, but it has been gaining popularity in the past few years. So much so that I was unable to get a pumpkin! I had one ordered with our groceries for Wednesday night, but was told by our delivery guy that Tesco is all out. "Good luck finding one - maybe if you go at 10am when the delivery comes in?" Thanks, buddy, I'll try that... Thursday after work I checked our local store. I was following around a woman and her stroller-bound baby, and was prepared to wrestle one away if she found one first. Lucky for her, the only thing left in the huge bin was a sad, small, green blob that neither of us wanted. Three of my coworkers looked at various places for me throughout the day on Friday, but to no avail. Sadly, we had no jack o' lantern at our party.

We did have a penguin, a pussycat, a castaway and Wilson, a lady frankenstein, a Roman soldier, the girl from The Exorcist, Beetlejuice, Austin Powers, and THE GOLDEN GIRLS! I sincerely thank my friends for being friends. Susan, Aisling, Richard and I were Rose Nylund, Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy Zbornak, and Blanche Devereaux, respectively.

Andrew's costume was among the best:

We celebrated late into the night and a good time was had by all! More photos to enjoy on flickr.

Winter is coming (but you wouldn't know it in Florida)

We spent last week in sunny Florida, which is especially amazing since the clocks have now changed here and we have about five solid months of darkness headed our way. Memories of our week in the sun will have to get us through.

I started the trip with a stop in Chicago, visiting my nearest and dearest for one night. Thanks to everyone for a great little birthday dinner! Thanks to my sister for picking me up and providing me with Portillos! Thanks to my nephew for all of the hugs and kisses he packed in! Thanks to Giordano's for making pizza!!!

The next day was Dave and Deb's wedding, the real impetus for our trip. Ceremony right on the beach, excellent food, good music, and a great bunch of people. They are a beautiful couple and we are so glad we could make it in!

The rest of the trip was spent with the Hamiltons/Lapps in a mansion on the beach: not too bad! The house we were meant to have for our week in the sun wasn't available, so we got upgraded to an insanely large substitute - Andrew and I got to stay in our own wing of the house! We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool, swimming, taking the sea kayaks out, and I won a pretty great game of Uno one night. One day, Jon rode a jetlev for an hour. It was pretty cool:

On Tuesday, Eric, Mom & Dad, and Andrew & I spent the day in Key West. After an exciting drive down in the pouring rain (during which we had a brief brush with the local law enforcement...), we got there and had some amazing Cuban food at a little cafe. We hopped on a trolley and explored town a bit: we saw Hemingway's house, the little White House, the US Naval Air Station, a house that Calvin Klein once owned, a very tall lighthouse, and for some odd reason, a lot of roosters wandering the streets. We were also the farthest south we could be in the U.S. and the closest to Cuba.

Jon rented a boat on Wednesday, and Andrew, Eric, Jon, and I went out for a ride and some snorkeling. We ran into a small snag on the way out to sea when we lost power for a few minutes - our trusty mechanics got us on our way again in no time, though. Snorkeling was fun for a little while, despite the fear of jellyfish and the copious amounts of salt water I ingested. I was feeling a bit rough by the time I got back into the boat, and I ended up feeding the fish some of the pumpkin muffins I had eaten for breakfast not too long before. We headed home soon after...

All in all, it was a really excellent trip home. I got to see both of my families, enjoy some warmth and sunlight, and celebrate with friends on such a wonderful day in their lives.

More pictures on flickr (there are a lot of jetlev photos!).

p.s. Here's the view from the mansion. It was AMAZING!

And Bob's yer Uncle!

Lucky for us, Uncle Bob had a conference in Dublin last weekend and had the time for a quick jaunt up the coast to see us in Belfast. We picked him up at the train station on Saturday morning, and after a short stop at Starbucks for a PSL we were on our way. We started with a tour of Queen's, and after a few hours, a 1.2 mile walk, some complaints from my stomach, and being turned away at Mourne's, we settled on Deane's Love Fish for lunch. It was amazing. After our late lunch / early dinner, we headed over to Belfast Castle for a hike up Cave Hill before we lost the light. We got a bit turned around on the way down, but a very helpful local pointed us in the right direction and then even drove us back into town!

 

We spent Sunday taking a long walk along the coast. We made it all the way to Helen's Bay on foot before getting the train back to Bangor for dinner at the Salty Dog. One new thing we discovered was an old WWII military fort along the way. It was built to defend the lough from enemies, and there's now a small museum there with a few remnants.

One of the best discoveries at the fort was these pamphlets, which have quite a few useful tips for how the locals should deal with Americans:

 

 

We capped off a wonderful weekend with a night of pinochle. I started off the evening with a bang, but in the end we had all won excellent games. It was an early morning on Monday to see UB off, back to Dublin and then homeward bound.

  

Check out all of the rest of our photos on flickr here.

Donegal

We were in Ireland two weeks ago with some friends (Ruth, Adam, Aisling, & Richard). Donegal seems to be everyone's favorite little weekend getaway spot. Everyone we know keeps telling us we have to go to Donegal. Now we've gone and I think we can agree it's a pretty great place for a quick holiday.

Ruth's mother has a rental house that was free for the weekend, so we got to enjoy a weekend on the north coast before the weather turned. We lucked out big time, as I think it broke seventy degrees! Also, there was no rain, which was great because we spent an idyllic Saturday at the beach. We relaxed in the sun, made a fire and ate hot dogs, and Andrew and I introduced everyone to s'mores, which were terrible. No graham crackers or Hershey's chocolate here, and the marshmallows were small and weird. Oh well, they didn't know the difference and it was such a nice afternoon I didn't care.

Believe it or not: Andrew found a few things to climb.

Needless to say, it was a great weekend. There are more photos on flickr, which you should definitely check out because Donegal is GORGEOUS.

A good day for a picnic

Actually, it was a good weekend for a picnic. Friday-Sunday (29-31 August), Andrew and I ventured down south to a big music festival: Electric Picnic. A friend of ours, Beatrice, has a cousin in a band that was playing, so she invited us along with her and her partner Tom for the weekend. Here's Tom. (He borrowed my hat because it was a bit chilly. It's a bit chilly now because summer is definitely over.)

Bea and Tom got a camper for us to stay in, and we are eternally grateful. Most people were camping and it looked disgusting. We had to walk through the campsites to get in and out of the festival, and it looked like a garbage dump. It smelled even worse.

Despite the gross campers, it was a really fun weekend. I got separated from everyone on Friday night, which was a bit scary in a crowd of 40,000 people, but I kept my cool and was reunited an hour later. I've learned my lesson that Andrew and I should probably tether ourselves to one another.

There was good food (I found a churro stand and indulged twice), and really amazing music. Jenny Lewis was excellent, Paulo Nutini was great live, Andrew loved Metronomy, and we both agreed that Beck was the best. His set was class, but I would have watched his concert on mute if I had to, because the dancing was excellent and he can really rock a hat.

All in all, we had a great time. Andrew especially.

We capped the relatively crazy weekend by catching a bus to Dublin immediately after Beck ended at 11pm. From there, we caught another bus up to Belfast at 1am, arriving at 3:30am. Our long journey ended with a cab ride back to Bangor, walking in the door at 4am. The worst part of this weekend came when I realized I accidentally booked our cat-sitter for the wrong weekend. The cats were alone for almost three full days - I'm the worst!