Monthly Archives: April 2013

Koninginnedag!

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For all the Amsterdammers celebrating Koninginnedag (or Queen’s Day) – Enjoy! It was one of my favorite days last year and one of the many reasons why the Netherlands is the best. It is a national holiday where the streets and canals are filled with orange-wearing revelers eating, drinking and blasting music all day long. For reasons unknown (other than the Dutch royalty likely having a contract with Mother Nature herself), there is always beautiful weather on Queen’s Day. Here are some pictures I took last year.

Queen's Day, Amsterdam

Queen’s Day, Amsterdam

Queen's Day, Amsterdam

Queen’s Day, Amsterdam

Queen's Day, Amsterdam

Queen’s Day, Amsterdam

Wish I could do this again! Guess I’ll just wear my orange today to pay tribute.

Party on.

xxx

P.S. Here is the original photo gallery I posted last year.

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Monday Travel Memory: Swiss Forgiveness

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A few months ago, Jaro and I took a impromptu two week road trip through Europe. I wrote about Switzerland. Specifically, how I pretty much hated it. It’s funny to look back on those thoughts in retrospect. I mean, what a drama queen. Yes, it was shockingly expensive. Yes, I thought I was going to die when I went paragliding in Interlaken. But now, I realize how little those things mattered in the grand scheme of things. Okay, well maybe fearing for my life does sort of matter… but as much as I complained, I trusted. I lived. Why couldn’t I just let it go? Not be that annoying American tourist (cringe) complaining about money all the time? Just forgive and enjoy?

Now that we have our desktop up and running, I scrolled through the pictures from that portion of the trip and am blown away by the stunning beauty everywhere we turned in that country. And how lucky I am to have lived close enough to go.

Bern, Switzerland

Bern, Switzerland

Bern, Switzerland

Bern, Switzerland

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Lakeside in Montreux, Switzerland

Lakeside in Montreux, Switzerland

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Gruyere, Switzerland

J+J in Gruyere, Switzerland

Gruyere, Switzerland

Gruyere, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Outside Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Outside Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Lungern, Switzerland

Lungern, Switzerland

Lucerne, Switzerland

Lucerne, Switzerland

Countryside, Switzerland

Countryside, Switzerland

Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland

Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland

Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland

Me enjoying Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland

Matterhorn, Switzerland

Matterhorn, Switzerland

I truly only have wonderful memories about our time in Switzerland. I don’t remember the expense. I don’t remember if the food was mediocre. I don’t remember other negatives. I only look back on it warmly. With nostalgia. Sometimes you (okay, I) need time to realize things aren’t as bad as they seem. I strongly, highly, totally 100% recommend visitors to Europe to include Switzerland. Don’t have the attitude I did. Just enjoy it. Switzerland, I forgive you for your (very few) flaws. I hope you forgive me.

xxx

Daydreaming about… Oregon wine country

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Hi friends. I’m enjoying a fantastic visit from my father this week. We’ve already done so much (new!) stuff around Oregon that I’ll be sharing soon. This weekend will consist of some house updating (this will be an ongoing battle for awhile), but also gluttonous (and well-deserved) meals and beverages around the city. Looking forward.

Today, I’m pining for a visit out to wine country here in my very own state. We have yet to visit any wineries (though we have tried our fair amount of the local varieties), and I’m eager to learn more about the ones around here. After seeing the grandeur of Napa Valley, quiet elegance of Sonoma, and enchanting Alsace region in France, I’m looking forward to discovering some low key and comfortable vineyards where the attitude is totally relaxed and a short drive away! The wineries around the Columbia River Gorge are just lovely… Columbia River Gorge Wineries

This blog post looks super helpful. Isn’t it gorgeous out there? I can’t wait for the warm dry summer months to leisurely explore it. I love seeing those vines heavy with grapes. Makes my eyelids heavy just thinking about it. I think I just need some wine and R&R after how busy we’ve been getting the house set up. Last night was a painting session that went well into morning.

Have a great weekend everybody! Here are some fun links I found this week:

Did you see this? What an amazing, unique way to capture your travels. If only we had a theme…

The world’s most colorful cities, according to someone with credibility. Disappointingly, I’ve only been to 3… so far.

A useful resource for making friends in a new city. I’m happy to report I’m off to a wonderful start.

I love the smart graphics in this Mad Men modernization.

PSA: Clean your computer. Right now.

xxx

Monday Travel Memory: Just All Of It

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Fiji

Me in Fiji

Barcelona

Me in Barcelona

Istanbul, Turkey

Me in Istanbul

Kiev, Ukraine

Me in Kiev, Ukraine

Sahara Desert, Morocco

Me in the Sahara Desert

San Gimignano, Italy

Me in San Gimignano

Sorry for the radio silence the past few days (weeks? I don’t even know what day it is).

I wish I could combine, in some way sum up, all the travel I have ever done in my life for this travel reflection. To keep this from getting out of control, I cut it down to these six similar images. It’s funny, all these pictures are all quiet moments I had while traveling over the past couple years. (Thanks for the shots, Jaro.) What’s funny about them is I can’t believe those are all of me. I mean, it looks like me. It’s my bod. I do not really remember being there. But all of it seems like a distant dream, a lifetime ago, something that may never really have actually happened but just been fabricated by my overactive imagination, when really it has only been a few months. Why?

Because I am now a homeowner.

Every single one of my thoughts is focused on this darn house. Every waking moment, I’m consumed by ideas for how to address the storage problem in our bedroom; deciding the right shade of paint color in our living room; getting those last few moving boxes out of our dining room. And don’t get me started on the renovation we want to start immediately on the bathroom.

Is this what happens? Instead of sitting on the floor daydreaming about trips to foreign lands, imagining myself sprawled on a deserted beach, dwarfed in a towering forest or lost in a crowded city, I’m distracted by the dust bunny in the corner and scramble over to catch it. Or find myself wondering how that little scratch got into the hardwoods and what I can do to fix it. Or sit there and go back to my paint color debate… It’s taking over 100% of my brain space. Is this what having a baby is like?

If so, I don’t think I’m ready.

Don’t worry – I’m not adding a pregnancy announcement to this post or likely any one soon. The house is enough for now. Still. I can’t believe how energy-zapping it is. How tired I am. How drained. And alarmed that my priorities have shifted so much. Not that it’s a bad thing. I’m proud we own a house. Right now, it’s just taking over my every waking thought a little time-consuming.

One saving grace: After 5 months of being apart, of living in other people’s spaces or the hollow hole of corporate housing, we are now reunited with our trinkets, big and small, from all of our travels. I finally dusted off that old globe from the Russian flea market and lovingly draped the blanket haggled from a Moroccan souk over a chair. I see these things and all the others, and smile. I’m pretty lucky to have visited a lot of incredible places.

Home may be here in Portland, but it is also all over the world.

Here’s to quiet moments, wherever they are. Here’s to being (finally) settled. And yet, here’s to re-igniting the little fire inside that beckons – but there’s so much more. 

xxx

P.S. One time I wrote about my favorite souvenirs.