stateside.

back in jolly old england after a glorious three week adventure home in california. the time was really packed full of good friends, delicious food, and some fun adventures stateside to remind me of all the cool things there are to do outside of places where pounds and euros are accepted.

i had to come home for a work conference during which i accomplished two major things - 1.) showing all the londoners what real mexican food tastes like and 2.) proving that it is NOT always sunny in california like everyone here seems to think. the conference was in monterrey, where is was nothing but grey and cold during the entire three days.

thankfully i had plans to skedaddle to warmer climates, heading down to las vegas and the grand canyon. four of us jetted down to the vegas strip for three days, and then rachael and i stayed on for the long journey to the canyon from there. we spent the entire last day in vegas in the lap of luxury at the four seasons pool (will always be grateful for rach's four seasons connections!). they brought us frozen fruit to munch on, spritzed our faces with evian water, and cleaned off our sunglasses. the absolute definition of vacation.

on monday we headed out through the hoover dam and into the arizona deserts, but not before stopping to take in the sites. taken on the hoover dam:

we continued on, dining at a diner on route 66 on the way. finally, after about 5 hours in the desert we arrived at the sleepy little town of carefree, arizona. yes - that's the real name of the town. the speed limit is 5 mph everywhere, and according to the bellhop at the hotel, you get looked at sideways for anything over 10 mph. it seemed to be a place where people go to retire or have a vacation home or something.

we spent the next day at the near by outlet malls scooping up some deals, before driving north to sedona, arizona about 2 hours away. let me say, that it was my fault we were so far away from anything of interest. i saw the good deal on the hotel and thought arizona is pretty small - nothing can be THAT far away. wrong. we wanted to go to sedona and the canyon while we were there which were 2 hours and 3.5 hours away respectively.

if we had it to do again, i would have just stayed in sedona. it was beautiful. not only gorgeous, but a great little sleepy vacation town, with plenty of nice resorts (which i think is one of the best things about arizona - the resorts). full of amazing vistas and delicious food, sedona was my kind of town.

this was taken on the drive into the actual town of arizona. there are all these little vista points you can turn off onto. really just gorgeous. we walked around the town a bit and then iphoned like mad looking for a dinner spot at the previously selected choice was closed on the day we were there. we ended up selecting a highly well reviewed albeit pricey place in the woods. it was AMAZING. again, really expensive but totally worth it. who knew arizona was foody heaven?

the next day we woke up early as i could manage and headed out for the canyon with some to go pancakes for the drive. it took about 3.5 hours but the drive was nice. up through arizona deserts into the flagstaff area which is somewhat mountainous and more like colorado then deserts. and then the canyon is about 45 minutes from flagstaff. we had booked a tour on the way since we were only there for a day and wanted to see as much as possible. with our tour we got a free ticket to the grand canyon imax experience, though both rach and i dozed off after the early start. oppsies. shortly after we met our guide and headed into the canyon.

two words - holy crap. this was the FIRST picture i snapped right after i saw the thing -

the thing just takes your breath away. our guide was saying how most people say "it doesn't look real" when they see it. he then went on to explain that it's because your brain has no point of reference to compare it to - there is nothing in our memory we have previously seen that can compare to it's size and depth. pretty nuts. here's a picture of our guide. he was such a misplaced california hippy, though he was saying flagstaff is pretty liberal. hard to believe based on current laws passed there.

we went around to a few different viewing points, all the while snapping pictures that just looked like rocks and really didn't do it justice at all. here's one from the watch tower where you can see the colorado river.

the canyon was fantastically amazing. well worth the 3.5 hour drive and all. there really aren't any words to describe it or anything to compare it to - it's just awesome. and big. really big.

we drove back to vegas the next day before catching a (three hour delayed) flight home. safe to say the vegas airport bar never saw better customers. :) friday i hung out in the city with friends still having the time off, and then went out to dinner at farmer brown before seeing 'in the heights' (which was awesome - definitely see it if you can. i downloaded the album after, which is a sign i REALLY loved a musical.) saturday i went to the a's game with lauren and sabine, before meeting up with marie for dinner in burlingame. and then sunday brunch was held at the tipsy pig in my old stomping grounds - the marina. highly recommend strawberry fields there - perhaps my favorite cocktail of all time. spent the next few days seeing as many friends as possible and enjoying more delicious dinners at range and flour + water - really liked flour + water - definitely go for the pasta if you go, and range was delicious too. yum.

after my dining adventures in the city, i headed home-home to courtland to celebrate the high school graduation of the infamous jacob harris, followed by some fun time on the waters of the california delta before boarding an overnight flight back to my new home. there will always only be one home-home though.

my first spring.

i am headed back to sunnier climates (or at least what i hope will be sunnier as it was quite cold here today), but before i hopefully board a plane to california, barring any further ash-pocolypse, i wanted to share some photos of my first spring.

the parks in london are impeccable. daffodils and tulips spring right out of the ground, and regent's park is designed like the queen's garden, i'm guessing because it probably actually was the queen's garden at some point, but it's just gorgeous. the thing about the weather here is while everyone says it's drab and gloomy (and don't get me wrong - it can be), when the sun comes out the whole city glows. the skies are bluer, the sun yellower, the trees greener, and you just appreciate it all so much more.

a few photos i snapped -

park near where i work. took this on my walk to the bus.

regent's park tulips.

if anyone ever considers coming to visit, i highly recommend spring. it's just amazing.

see everyone on another continent!

the oregon coast of europe.

just returned from my three day adventure to cascais, portugal. a few weeks ago i had realized, a bit late in the game, that we got a four day weekend here for easter (friday through monday off). now mind you, i had realized this much sooner in the year when i was calendaring all my new and unusual holidays, but had forgotten about it until 2 weeks beforehand. and apparently everyone goes away for the 4 day weekend here leaving to scramble to find a reasonably priced holiday option. i immediately visited my two favorite travel websites. luxurylink.com and travelzoo.co.uk (both work in the US if anyone is looking to book in a vacation. luxurylink is actually US based and travelzoo has travelzoo.com). travelzoo came through in the clutch with a fantastic deal for the grand real villa italia in cascais. i had never been to portugal and it was definitely on my list of places to hit and after scouring flight sites for a deal (please note, none were found so i had to pay a bit more than i wanted for the flights - the curses of 4 day weekend travel booked 2 weeks before) i was set and ready to head of to portugal hoping for warm temperatures and poolside days.

well, the weather was warmer, but not warm enough for poolside days. it hovered somewhere between 64 and 70 while i was there. i left early friday morning and luckily due to the expensive flight i bought, was kindly admitted to the british airways lounge where i enjoyed breakfast and was shielded from the extremely over crowded airport. it was nuts in there. after breakfast, i boarded my flight where i had a classy little lunch of fine portuguese meats, cheeses and fruits. i really need to stop flying at levels above my pay grade. it gives me illusions that i can afford flying like that all the time.

i landed in lisbon and took the airport shuttle to the main train station that would then take me to cascais. after some negotiating and translating of portuguese into spanish at that was the nearest language i could conger up at the time, i managed to secure a ticket and was on a train headed up the coastline. if you ever go to cascais i would recommend taking the train. it winds up the coastline, is cheap, and only takes about 30 minutes from lisbon. trains run pretty much every 20 minutes during the day and overall it was a really easy public transport experience once i figured out the ticket thing. and what was i greeted by along the coastline but a mini-golden gate bridge!!

we actually flew over it on the way into lisbon so i was excited when the train went right by it and i could snap a picture. about 30 minutes later i had arrived in cascais and after pulling up the hotel in my gphone (google phone) with google maps (don't know how i traveled before smart phones) and it was about a 20 minute walk away. being as it was sunny out and i had spent most of my budget on the flights for this trip, i hoofed it. i quickly came to realize 1.) cascais was a small town and 2.) pretty easy to navigate. i knew the hotel was near the water so i just walked along the coast until i found it. one thing that is tough about walking anywhere in europe though is the cobble stoned streets. really does havoc on a wheely suitcase.

arrived at the hotel unscathed, but can't say the same for my suitcase. i was amazingly surprised that travelzoo did me a solid - the hotel was amazing!! i couldn't have asked for better. and again, i need to stop getting myself in situations where i think this is how i can afford to travel regularly. here's the view of the atlantic from my room.

after soaking up the fact that i had a giant king bed, sitting area, balcony, soaking tub, steam shower and view of the atlantic all to myself i decided to head out and explore the town. i realized i had actually seen most of it on my walk in but wandered in and out of some of the little streets and through some of the shops. i walked down to the lighthouse and around town some more.

i ended up dining at a cute little restaurant that overlooked the lighthouse too. had grilled sardines that were delcious. also, have to send a special shout to out to friends like diana and rachael who have both made me eat sardines (or at least try them) on seperate occasions. i never would have ordered them otherwise and they were amazing. once you get over the image of the greasy things come out of a can, actual real ocean sardines are great.

saturday morning i woke up to grey skies. i wanted to rent a bike later in the day so walked in cascais again wandering through more alleyways and hidden streets. i also got to try the most famous gelato in all of cascais. i had walked by this place the day before but the line was literally at least 30 people long so i passed it up. i happened to be walking by the next day just as they were opening and snuck in before the crowds. it definitely lived up the lines.

the grey skies didn't deter me from renting a bike and heading up the coast. cascais actually has free bike rentals at multiple locations to encourage people to bike instead of drive alone the coast. there are also nice roads and trails. and to be honest, it reminded me LOTS of the oregon coast. the bike guy actually told me when i turned the bike back in or at least that he gets told a lot that its like oregon and california. proof below. in the end it was raining too much to make much of a day of it and i gave up after about 2 hours of biking. i headed back to the hotel, changed, and of course as the sun had come out by this time, i decided to head into lisbon and check things out there as i was now without bike.

lisbon was great as well. lots of cool streets and amazing sidewalks. i think it's a thing in all of portugal, but the sidewalks are paved in these amazing patterns and are different on almost every street. this was probably one of my favorite things about portugal. it just seemed so unique and beautiful.

i spent a few hours wandering, had dinner, and then trained back over to cascais just in time to catch a few night shots of the city.

this one might be my favorite from the trip, but it's hard to say.

sunday was fairly low key. as a part of my travel zoo i had free access to spa facilities so spent most of sunday morning in the steam room (i know - my life is hard) and then down by the pool reading my book before having a small lunch at the hotel and walking back to the train station to begin the journey home. of course the saddest part was walking to the train station during the sunniest/warmest time of the whole trip. i then had the saddest sandwich ever on the economy flight back - a cruel reminder of the flight status i can afford. :(

all in all it was a great trip. i really loved portugal. would definitely go back, but also think if anyone there is jealous - just take a bike ride down the oregon coast like my dad did. :)

full album here.

parisian celebration.

i celebrated my 26th birthday in france last weekend. a special thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes and all my fun treats. here are the flowers sabine sent over. :)

celebrated the actual birthday at the pub with a few co-workers. followed it up the next night by treating myself to 'dirty dancing' the musical which was amazing. it was basically like watching the film happen live. they say all the same lines and of course have all the same songs/dances etc. thursday was a co-workers going away party so continued the celebrations and then friday i was off to paris to meet up with diana.

i was greeted by beautiful (albeit) cold weather. there was no cloud cover which meant it was super sunny but super cold as well. i had some lunch (a crepe of course) and headed to the musee de orsay which was amazing. one of the favorite museums i been to - just the space is beautiful. it's an old rail station so the ceiling is made of glass and there is lots of light. i also meandered around notre dame since it was so near our hotel then took a nap. although the nap was bad because it made me miss the eiffle tower at sunset but i did manage to get there just in time to catch the of the sparkle and a few night shots.

diana got in about at about 11:00pm and we just walked around the neighborhood a bit debating whether or not to get crepes.

the next day we got up and headed to a delicious little bakery and ate delicious little pastries for breakfast. when picked up some macaroons and proceeded to walk through the jardin luxemborg towards the rodin museum which again was really cool. it was an old mansion they turned into a museum with an outdoor sculpture garden. it's a smaller museum so it feels really manageable and not overwhelming at all. we walked there through some really cute side streets popping into shops every once in a while to get out of the cold. there was a really cool shop that made ballet slippers that was just adorable. good thing i didn't go in to that one because those suckers (i later learned) are expensive.

after the museum we got lunch at a delicious little asian restaurant diana knew of and then wandered through the jewish quarter and over to the most amazing little tea salon. who knew the french loved tea as much as the brits? definitely have tea in a tea salon if you go to paris. the one we went to was called mariage but there are a few others that we passed up such as la duree. after our superb tea we headed back to the champs de lysses and checked out the fancy shops and then walked home through the concorde area where i caught this night shot thanks to my nearly dead camera battery.

we walked all the way back to the hotel from there but were nearly half frozen. we took a nice break then grabbed a late dinner at a delicious little restaurant near our hotel diana hear was good. i had an amazing steak. just melt in your mouth buttery delicious. yum. we conked out early after our super packed day. after all, i am old now. :)

sunday diana had an earlier flight then me so we just got up, grabbed breakfast, and grabbed some macaroons for her trip home from la duree. from left to right - lemon, orange blossom, passion fruit chocolate, coffee, raspberry, and green apple. i definitely think the orange blossom was my favorite. so light and fluffy with the perfect amount of stickiness.

after diana left i went to the louvre. it was freezing cold that day. literally - it was -1c below outside. the louvre was amazing but pretty overwhelming. it's just so big and there is so much to see. i should have gone in with a game plan, but i'm sure there will be more trips in the future where i can fully stake it out. if you go, definitely take a couple days and have a plan of everything you want to see - because there's a lot. i really only caught the highlights because there were just so many people and i didn't feel like laying out a plan right then and there. look how big some of the hallways are! but it was really amazing. saw the mona lisa and the venus de milo which even on their own were cool. plus it was the first sunday of the month which meant it was free to get in. which is probably also why it was pretty crowded.

after the louvre i walked through the nearby park over to the concorde area again and then back over to st. germain where our hotel was. i was nervous about getting back to the hotel after my last trip to paris circa 2003 ended in such a disaster trying to get home so i wanted lots of time to get back to the airport. good thing two considering the two minor disasters. first - i bought a train ticket to the airport and was putting it in the turnstyle while trying to maneuver my luggage under the turny thing when someone who was in a much greater rush then me shoved her ticket in the machine and grabbed mine instead of hers as she ran past. this left me with a regular ticket and her somewhere with my train ticket. i tried to explain to the train people what had happened but my french didn't come across so well apparently so i had to buy another train ticket with 30 seconds of buying my first one. argh.

oh well. not such a big deal. i board the train and head off to the airport or so i thought. i ended up in a small town outside paris realizing i had taken the train in the right direction but on the wrong track. i had to pay for another ticket back to paris and then finally caught the right train to the airport. thank goodness i left myself plenty of time! i was no where near late but still, given my previous luck leaving paris i wasn't putting anything out of the question. good thing i stopped for a baguette on my way out of town so i at least at something to eat on this journey because the food at the paris airport when i finally arrived sucked. they have the most delicious bread/cheese/wine in the world and can't get their airport food right - go figure.

and then after all that when i finally got back to london the tube was being worked on meaning i had to take a bus to another tube before i finally got home. phew. a pretty eventful ending to an otherwise relaxing and easy trip. diana is great to travel with - she has everything planned and lots of options for things to do but is flexible enough that when things don't go as planned she doesn't sweat it. that's kind of the way you have to be when you travel. and i like it.

more on other london happenings and this most recent weekend later. i'm all blogged out.

no news is good news.

sorry i haven't blogged in a bit. have just been settling in, getting things done, running errands, and figuring out life half way around the world.

the last few weekends have been uneventful. my stuff arrived a few weeks ago meaning i spent a lot of time unpacking/stuffing things under my bed. everything seems to have found a place at this point though, whether it likes it or not.

i also found a dance studio which is great news because it means i'm dancing again. i've taken a few ballet classes so far and am looking forward to trying lots more. they have exercise classes and pilates too and it's only 10 minutes walk away from my flat so hopefully lots of time will be spent there burning off the last few months of eating out all the time.

other than that, not a lot to report. my allergies have kicked in here which made this weekend somewhat miserable health wise. and it was really cold today so you put two and two together and get lots of time spent at home/in warm cafes reading.

i did spot on my walk home though some new window displays at selfridges. everyone here is very excited about the new 'alice in wonderland' movie and selfridges (huge department store) did all their window displays up to celebrate. there were so many little hidden details. loved it.

that's about it for now. i'm off to paris next weekend to meet up with diana and treat myself to lots of crepes and macaroons for my birthday. thanks to everyone who has already remembered and sent lots of goodies along!

steady as a rock.

first, a plug for my dad's blog. he's getting very into technology. first the iphone. then facebook. now a blog. i'm very proud.

not a lot to report from merry old england. last weekend was pretty relaxed. didn't really do much on saturday - just watched probably about 15 episodes of 'how i met your mother'. i found a place online that streams them all so i am slowly making my way through the 5 seasons. it's a really good show which up until now i have only caught bits and pieces of so it's cool to see it from the beginning. i'm at the beginning of season 4 now. on sunday i took a walk from my flat to the tate modern - interesting fact: all museums in london are free courtesy of tony blaire. they all have donation buckets and of course i gave a few pounds to support the arts. one of my favorite paintings of all time is there - the water lilies by monet. it was the first painting i remember seeing when i was here studying abroad. i could sit and look at it for hours. i even snuck a picture so i actually can if i want to. :)

the tate modern is across the thames river from st. paul's cathedral. from the same room where the monet painting is there is an incredible view of st. paul's across the millennium bridge which they built for well, the millennium.

if you walk down the rive from the tate you get to the london eye and eventually to parliament. they are all connected and about 30 minutes walking from each other. i got down to the parliament end right after the sun had set and got some cool pictures with my phone. (all three of these first ones were taken with my phone actually - the camera is pretty solid.)

back to work on monday and for the rest of the week, but an exciting work event on friday: 'hollywood legends day'. basically dress up like a movie star day. for no particular reason. just because we're google. i went as a pink lady from grease - pretty generic. there were about 15 people in the office who went at the same thing. my co-workers got pretty creative though.

the marshmallow man from ghost busters. aka gavin who sits to my left at work.

jurassic park. aka luke who sits across from me.

and then this weekend i went to stonehenge. it was pretty cool. not the most amazing thing but the fact that it was freezing cold probably affected my perception. it's also right on the side of the road which kind of takes away from the awe inspiring-ness of it all. i did get some cool pictures though. this time with my real camera - not just my phone. (but you have to admit the phone took some good pictures.)

full album can be found here. and by far the best gimmick they had at the gift shop (aside from all the stuff that said 'stonehenge rocks')...

snow snow snow!

since i've returned to london it has snowed a total of twice. the first time everyone was talking about it the day before - it's going to snow a lot they said. this actually made me very excited. i imagined trudging to work in the snow up to my knees and secretly was really happy about what everyone else seemed to be dreading. i woke up the next day like a kid on christmas, opened my curtains and saw, well, what looked like a slightly denser rain had happened. i didn't even need my boots and by the time i got to work what was left was melted. however, what i did learn is that when the snow barely kisses the ground in central london, it likely means it snowed like i imagined in my head originally in all the outlying cities. it took one of my coworkers 5 hours to get to work (normally takes 30 minutes) because all of the trains were being stopped and sent away. london really can't handle the snow. this is what i learned. that and while snow may seem fresh and exciting on day 1, on day 2, it turns into an icy death trap. because central london is so warm, all the snow melted quickly, but then overnight when it got really cold again - it all froze. i had to wear my boots the next day not because i had to trudge through the snow, but rather because they were the safest shoes to take my treacherous walk to the bus stop in.

then, the following week, with no warning, no one talking about it or preparing i awoke to sound of slushing in the streets. i walked to my window thinking it must have begun raining overnight only to find an almost real amount of snow for what i can expect in the middle of the city that is too warm for snow to sit on the ground.

snow piled on cars nearly a few inches high.

snow tracks in the ground.

pub across the street from my flat covered in snow.


all in all it was a pretty exciting thing to have happened first because i didn't expect it and second because well, it actually snowed a significant enough amount to photograph. by the time i left work that day day the snow had melted completely, but at least i have the pictures to prove it.

in other news, i saw up in the air last night - i think i liked it, but overall i'm not sure i knew what to make of it. i'll leave it at that so as not to give anything away, but i just didn't leave feeling like it was complete. worth a shot overall though.

and then today i walked probably about 15k all over london. down to hyde park from my flat. my first time exploring the park. it's no central park, but pretty and big and i'm excited to see it in spring when it has leaves and stuff. then down to green park which takes you to buckingham palace and st. james park. st. james was my favorite - relatively small but really pretty. then back up the through the shopping area and home again. i downloaded this great app - cardio something on my android - that tracks how fast you're walking and how far you've gone using gps. really good stuff. and i found a pandora like app here in the uk that plays me music the whole time. woot.

lastly, i shall leave you with my current song of the moment. it's the song they are using for the preview for the new amy adam's movie leap year which played before up in the air last night and now i can't get it out of my head. enjoy.