Thursday, August 31, 2006

Happy anniversary

Today, August 31st, marked our 4th wedding anniversary. We celebrated in style, at least as best we could, with a wonderful dinner at French Meadows in Uptown. It was great to slow down for a bit and enjoy a nice meal together. It will be interesting to see how many nights we'll have like this after the baby arrives!

We also would like to wish Ron (Shana's dad) a Happy Birthday!

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Speaking of Peace Corps . . .

To our surprise, we also found out that Austin, Tom, and Matt were in town (all former Kyrgyzstan Peace Corps volunteers) after a week in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We went to Famous Dave's in Uptown to watch Prophets of Soul, a funk band that one of Tom's good friends is a part of. Jeff (also a former volunteer) joined us as well. It was great to catch up!I had also just gotten back from an Outward Bound trip with a group of students in the BWCA. It turned out that we weren't too far from where Tom, Austin, and Matt were. Here are a few pictures from my trip.

Marky Mark is Back

Sort of. . .

It was a great surprise to get a phone call one early morning and find Mark on the other end. He was home for a vacation from the Dominican Republic where he is serving in the Peace Corps. We spent a Sunday afternoon barbecuing and playing some serious Bocce ball in Central Park. Here are some photos from the day.
Mark is doing some great work in the DR and if a link exists to one of his Peace Corps partnership projects I'll have it posted.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Grandma's Marathon

It has been a little over two months since we ran Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, but I thought I'd finally post some pictures. Guest commentary anyone?





Wednesday, August 16, 2006

The Boys

We're hoping our two nephews will be able to see some of the fun pictures we took when they were visiting us. We had a great time and it gave us a preview of life with children.




Here's Antonio doing what he does best!

Here's the two boys in our backyard.
It was also a lot of fun to mess around with our new digital camera. So far it has been great! We had a great time taking silly pictures full of nose picking, goofy eyes, stretched lips and dangling tongues.


One last shot of the boys with some classic bunny ears. As you can tell, we were having fun and we'll be looking forward to their next visit.


Hopefully they'll remember to be good! :-)

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Highlights of France and Belgium

Honfleur
Considered to be one of the birth places of Impressionism, we loved this small Norman fishing village. This harbor is right in the center of town. There is also a wonderful park that pays tribute to all of the artists and patrons of the arts who worked in Honfleur. They have even created a water garden right next to the bust of Monet.

We also met a wonderful artist named Julien Schuster, whom we purchased a painting from. He has a website you can check out: http://www.julienschuster.com/


The American Cemetery
As a history teacher, I was especially interested in seeing the beaches of Normandy. We visited the American cemetery with over 9,000 graves. It was incredibly powerful. The cemetery is immaculately kept up and is an apt resting place for the fallen. The French are palpably grateful for the American, Canadian, and British sacrifices.

We also visited the German cemetary which is home to 22,000 (and that is not the only one in France) fallen German soldiers.
After visiting the Caen Memorial Museum and these two cemeteries, you are hit with the immense loss of human life and have to wonder why we still can't find better ways to solve our differences.


Mont-St-Michel
Mont-St-Michel is an immense church located on a small rocky island off the coast of Norman France. This picture doesn't do it justice, as it only shows a small chapel at the foot of the island. During low tide, you can walk around the mud flats that surround the island. During high tide, the water reaches the steps of the chapel and Erik (in the picture) would be in well over his head! Believe it or not, there is also quicksand in the mud flats and Erik was doing his best to find some.

Nowadays, they have built a causeway out to the island to bring in the tourists. While it was an incredible sight, it is indeed a tourist trap!


Chateau de Chenonceau
Probably one of the most picturesque chateaus in France. It was orginially built as a castle and then continually expanded until they eventually built it to span the river. Only a tower exists from the original castle, but it is quite spectacular. Chenonceau is also unique in that it was mainly run and developed by women! Catherine de Medici was one of its most famous female owners.
The Medici family basically funded the renaissance in Italy, or at least the start of it. They made their millions from banking, but got into a little trouble when they were caught loaning money to both France and England during the 100 years war.
History aside, the chateau was beautiful. We rented a row boat and took a lovely little boat trip on the river and admired the gardens, wine cellar, and historic farm site. They also had a fantastic audio guide via a rented i-pod! Check their website for more info: http://www.chenonceau.com/media/gb/index_gb.php


Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
We were always a bit rushed in Brussels, so by the time we finally found this museum we couldn't help but wish for more time. It is actually a collection of museums, ancient, modern, and a few others. The building itself is also very unique. We felt lost in it half the time, but it somehow worked and added to the experience. More importantly was the art. The impressive modern collection was home to this Dali (picture), a great Magritte collection, and a host of others. The museum also housed "The Death of Marat," by Jacques-Louis David.
This museum was a great way to end our trip and we can't wait to get back at some point!

http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/

Le Tour


We had a great time at the Tour de France, although it was a long wait for the riders to finally arrive. We thought about watching from the Champs-Elysees, but in retrospect I think we found a great spot (across from the Tuileries with the Seine behind us). I've posted a few pictures from the day.


Say it ain't so Floyd! Here he is on one of the first laps around. We're still hoping he's able to prove his innocence, but we'll have to wait and see. Like his mom said, if he doped, he doesn't deserve to win.


The peloton across from the Tuileries.


If you didn't know, Thor and I go way back and here I was congratulating him. Ok, actually Shana spotted him walking to his hotel and he was gracious enough to stop and pose for some photos with fans. I did, however, get to congratulate him in Norwegian!


Another shot of the peloton. Notice the Norwegian flags on Thor's jersey.