Roadtripping, part 2: the West

It took us two days to get from Seattle to Colorado with an overnight stop in Sheridan, WY.
First stop: my grandmother in Greeley. Martha is turning 90 in September. One of my favorite people!


In all truth, I love going home. This time especially, I felt reconnected to Colorado. Here are the reasons:

My dad (here with my sister Connie's kids: Emily, Helen and William)

My sister and her husband. She is such a good friend to me. I miss her and we're usually very busy which makes it really hard to catch up as often as I would like. Hanging at her house is so relaxing and fun. We always watch movies and eat ice cream (this time, Clif made lucuma ice cream, so yummy!)

Clif and friend Dawn man the grill:

Connie, Dad and I (we miss Kendall!)



Fortuitously, we also caught up with our dear friend Emily who lives in Arvada. She is enjoying a prolific summer of gardening with boyfriend Kirk (as I like to call him, Captain, ha)



We also went down to Colorado Springs and caught up with Andy, one of CD's high school friends. It was really fun! He took us to Manitou Springs, a cute little town west of CS which hosts a slew of artists at the base of Pikes peak. We planned on driving up the peak in the morning, but the clouds were too low.

Another beautiful sight, Garden of the gods:

During our drive home we stopped and camped a couple of nights in Dinosaur National Monument. It was beautiful to see the canyons created by the Green and Yampa rivers and their confluence. The geology was so beyond our grasp that I have put Geology 101 on my top 5 classes to take next. We also saw a lot of fossils and petroglyphs- very cool!

Our next camping/hiking stop was supposed to be Great Basin National Park in northeastern Nevada, but apparently we arrived on a holiday Friday, so all campsites were taken! It was probably best since it rained most of the night and we got the chance to get cleaned up a bit in Ely, NV. The next day was great because I drove highway 50 all across Nevada. It is called the loneliest road in America and I concur. We saw very few towns and luckily we had plenty of food because there was not much there!

We arrived at Lassen Volcanic National Park late in the afternoon and scored a nice walk-in campsite. In the morning, we rose early and broke camp to climb Lassen peak.

It was short and steep, but the views from the top were worth the effort. It was a good idea to get an early start because there is no vegetation to use as shade when the midday heat starts.

CD with Shasta in the background:

Snowy at the top!

Roadtrip pictures

Roadtripping, part 1: Pacific North West

For the other big trip of the summer, we thought it would be fun to drive to Colorado to visit my family and make some stops along the way, such as the Grand canyon and all the beautiful parks along southern Utah. That's what we thought, but not what happened!

I had friends who were going to be in Seattle for a work conference, so we headed north to catch them and also to meet a group with whom I will be working in Sept and part of October.

Our first stop was Portland where we enjoyed Robyn's hospitality. A great southern dinner at the Screen Door:

Here we are enjoying some blackberry lemonades:

Also in Portland for the evening was Betsy, always a pleasure to see! We visited with Jason and got the tour of their cute new home (Jenna was already asleep, it got so late!)

After a nice brunch at Toast, we continued north to Seattle where our host was Jason. I think it's fun to stay with Jason because he lives in Queen Anne, a neighborhood I seldom explored while living there. So many great places to shop and amazing views of the city from the top of the hill!

Our first evening in Seattle, we joined the barbecue going on at Celia and Adam's house. It was the perfect ocassion to see quite a few people: Sarah and Stefan with little Laila (she's getting tall!), Dan and Rebecca, Molly and Brandon. We also saw Eloise, Celia and Adam's little girl for a brief second before she went to bed for the evening. The hosts offered lots of flavorful rum for the evening, so we hung out until late.
Sunday started out with a late breakfast with Kendall. Always so good to see my brother (I got a pic this time! hee hee). That afternoon, I spent some time with Liz (my other sister) while CD and Jason went shopping. The day had a perfect ending: I finally went to Ocho for some delicious tapas with CD, Jason, Molly and Brandon.
Monday promised to be chock full of more friends and it started out with some great coffee at Green Bean with Sarah (and Laila) and Anna (aka super mom with Henry and Reid). It was so good to catch up with the ladies at such a great hangout; the Greenwood neighborhood just keeps getting better and better!

Reid and Laila say hello:

In the afternoon I had some meetings to attend, but I made Thai Tom a priority for this visit and sitting at the counter for lunch was divine. Still one of my favorite places to eat in Seattle!
The evening was a reunion of sorts for (some of) the Vocals crowd. My old cruise mates were in Seattle for a follow-up meeting and it was very good to see Carlos, Lelia and Sara PLus all of my old PMEL group. Not surprisingly, it was a real mustache party!
Our last day in town brought a very pleasant surprise: Hyewon! For the life of me, I couldn't remember when we had last seen each other, but it was so wonderful to catch up! We spent a beautiful early afternoon down in Carkeek park where little Emmy played in the stream and showed me numerous rocks. She's growing up so fast! The news that their family has returned to the PNW to stay was welcomed!

Hyewon and Emmy watch the train go by:

Our last evening in town we enjoyed a fabulous seasonal summer dinner at Betsy's house. She makes food that begs to have seconds. We met up with another big group for one last cheers before our departure in the morning.

The gang at the George and Dragon:

Link to pics coming in part 2, stay tuned...

America's birthday and visit to Hyampom

A few days after returning from travels abroad, it was time to celebrate this great country of ours. Upon returning, I was glad to reconnect with my friend Beth and we agreed to enjoy the holiday together. Our other friend Kelly also wanted to join in the fun and volunteered to host the BBQ. It made sense because she lives closest to downtown where the fireworks would be as soon as darkness came. Beth's husband Pat cooked some of his famous pizzas on the grill, followed by meats and an assortment of salads.

The fourth of July fell on a Saturday. In Eureka, the first Saturday of the month is usually Arts Alive where all the shops stay open late and bands play in the streets. After dinner, we took a stroll downtown and window shopped (of course, Beth and I went to look in the Knittery) and even caught a local bluegrass favorite, the Bucky Walters:

Typical of Humboldt county, the fog rolled in and the fireworks were mostly colored clouds. The fireworks and sparklers continued on the street, thanks to Jim, Kelly's boyfriend. Everyone enjoyed the holiday and the grand finale was dessert: strawberries and whipped cream by Beth AND a festive cake decorated by Libby and Elizabeth.

The summer weather has also been good for CD and his plane-mate Dave. They have enjoyed a few afternoons were the fog clears up and they are able to take short trips up in the plane. Most recently, we took the plane to Hyampom, a mountain town where a mutual friend has a house (with swimming pool!) right by the landing strip.

It was just an overnight stay, but we had a great time with Dave and Kim!

Egypt, Part 2: Cairo with family

We returned to Cairo from Luxor on Sunday afternoon. Lucky for us, Justin came to pick us up at the airport and had already arranged a cab ride, our first of many. He had also worked out a great itinerary for the week.

Sunday night: Great dinner at Felfela for typical Egyptian fare.

Monday: Adventures in transportation to Alexandria. The catacombs and the library.

Tuesday: The Egyptian museum. We had to leave early due to the arrival of a Russian diplomat, but not before seeing the mummy room and King Tut's tomb treasures. No cameras were allowed :(

Wednesday: Islamic Cairo. The citadel and its mosques. I took the afternoon off to get some rest after coming down with the stomach flu.

Thursday: the grand finale: the pyramids. We saw all of them and rode camels- it felt very unstable!

What a great time we had with the family. I hope this is the first of many with the whole Hoyle clan. Thanks again to Morgan and Justin for being such great hosts and even teaching us to play Egyptian backgammon.

Would you like more pics? Click right here!

Egypt, Part 1: Luxor for my birthday weekend

We were so excited to go on vacation with the Hoyle clan! We always enjoy our time with Dave and Paige, but this time Cindy, Jeff, Morgan, Justin and Nate would join in the epic adventures!

When planning our Greek vacation we left an 8-day window open in our plan for the Egyptian portion of the trip. We knew the family would arrive on a Saturday and figured they might be slightly jet lagged, so we headed south for a couple of days earlier to squeeze in a side trip to Luxor.

This was my birthday gift from CD and boy, was it ever a great experience! Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime. We took some overnight flights to arrive in Luxor at 6am on Friday morning. We stayed at Mara House which is run by Mara, a super friendly and helpful Irish woman. She had someone pick us up from the airport and offered us breakfast as soon as we arrived. Then she gave us all the information we needed to maximize our brief visit and within a couple of hours we had cleaned up, breakfasted and were on our way to tour the sites! She was amazing!!!

Words cannot convey how intricate and spectacular all the tombs and temples were. We started at the Valley of the Kings where we visited 3 tombs: Ramses I, Ramses IX and Ramses IV.

Then, we went to Queen Hatshepsut's temple. The temple has obviously been rebuilt from the ruins as they imagine it looked.

A few more exciting spots: Deir el-Medina, tombs of Sennedjem (one of the valley of the Kings' workers) and Ramose (tombs of the Nobles) and Medinet Habu.

Our last stop for the day was to see the Colossi of Memnon.

That evening we wandered into downtown Luxor (our hotel was behind the train station in a residential area), saw Luxor temple and enjoyed some delicious vegetarian tagines and cold beers by the Nile. People were warm, friendly, helpful and mostly curious. We were repeatedly asked where we came from and it was a relief to see people get excited about Americans. In my past travels, when I would tell people where I was from (mostly during the HW Bush administration), they would frown and start asking about the war or even try to engage in political discussions. I never could stomach to defend the choices my leaders were making at the time (things with which I just didn't agree). Our president had just been to Cairo to discuss the Middle East peace process and whatnot and the whole country was definitely taken with Obama-mania. It was fun!

The next day, we took a trip to see more temples at Abydos and Dendara. Again, spectacular! The best part was learning about the numerous Egyptian dynasties, the Egyptian gods and goddesses (so many!) and trying to decipher some of the hieroglyphs.

That evening we hung out with Kelly, a fellow traveler (incidentally from Seattle). She suggested that we take a ride on a felucca at sunset. It was beautiful on the Nile!

Afterwards, we enjoyed a great dinner at Sofra. Here CD gets ready to dig in:

Our last morning, we went to Karnak temple. It was equally impressive and much closer! It felt like an ancient culture whirlwind, but I loved every minute of it, recommend it and would do it again in a heartbeat!

More photos here!

Greece Part 3, Athens: the big city!

After taking an overnight ferry from Rhodes, we arrived in the early hours in Athens.




We were welcomed by a beautiful sunrise and were helped by a French couple in locating the way to the metro train that would take us to our hotel. When we arrived at our hotel, after a cool walk through the deserted streets of Athens, they checked us in, even though it was only 7 am. We immediately took advantage of the free breakfast and the cool morning hours to go see the Acropolis.




What a sight! Old ruins of temples and theaters plus beautiful views of the city! On the way down we saw the old Agora and ancient cemetery.



Afterwards we wandered to the Gazi neighborhood where we people watched all the young people enjoying their frappes and playing backgammon. It really does seem that things there moved at a different pace (not the traffic though); all the students enjoying the summer, hanging out at cafes drinking iced sweetened coffee and participating in the national pastime. Soon we realized restaurants would not open until 2pm for lunch: we were starving!

After a delicious lunch including grilled local sausages and lentil salad, we headed back to the hotel for a bit of rest. On the ferry the night before, we didn't get much sleep, so we were due for naps. In the evening, we headed out again to observe the changing of the guards at the Parliament building and afterwards enjoyed a lengthy stroll down one of the popular pedestrian-only promenades surrounding the Acropolis.
Here are the guards with their fancy outfits:



Our second day there, we strolled through some of the other ruins such as Hadrian's library, the Roman Agora, and the tower of the Winds. After a walk through the markets and some frosty frappes, we headed to the National Archaeological Museum to enjoy the bounty of treasures there. Amazing!

Here are some gold masks:



That evening we treated ourselves to the symphony at the Odeon. Apparently this is where Yanni performed 'Live at the Acropolis' or so we were told.
The old theater before sunset:


Our last day in Athens before heading to Egypt, we spent time in the National Gardens and visiting the Temple of Olympian Zeus.




After Egypt, we had one day to spend in Athens. We mostly concentrated on trying to reset our internal clocks while watching the endless stream of Michael Jackson (RIP) videos on the hotel television. More importantly we climbed to the top of Lycabettum Hill to get excellent views of the city. The Acropolis is on the right of the picture below:


Overall, I thought Athens was a beautiful city and relatively clean (I had heard it was much more polluted), probably as a result of the recent Olympic games. I would definitely travel to Greece again, many regions left to explore!

Whole lotta pics here!

Greece Part 2, Rhodes: Old World Heritage town and lots of wonderful beaches

Our flight to Rhodes was delayed a couple of hours, so we arrived pretty late in the evening. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. Hotel Anastasia is a renovated, old Italian style villa in the new town area: beautiful, spotlessly clean and with air conditioning! After chatting a bit with our hostess Stefania (good time to practice our Italian), we went searching for something to quench our thirsts and maybe fill our bellies. We were quite hungry, but most places were closed or closing, so we stumbled to Johnny's Pub. We had some chilly draught beers accompanied with peanuts and potato chips (quality nutrition).




Our first day was mostly spent in old town Rhodes. This world heritage site looks like a big fortress (including a large moat) with classic turrets and medieval stone walls. We walked on top of one of the inner walls around half the town and ended in a quiet neighborhood. Here we meandered around narrow cobblestone streets until we found a nice cafe to have lunch. The waitress was a cute British girl who had visited Rhodes, fallen in love and married a local Greek man. Her husband was a seafood purveyor and we met him as well when he delivered some fresh octopus to the restaurant. She invited to return that evening for live traditional music and dinner. We came back that night, but I was disappointed because the music was different than the Cretan folk music.

Here she is showing us how to eat the roasted eggplant salad:



The next couple of days, we rented a car and drove around the island to see various ruins and enjoy the beaches. The water's color was amazingly blue and we spent lots of time just hanging out on the beach. On one such occasion, we spotted a beautiful woman coming out of the water with her snorkel gear and a small trident with which she had speared an octopus. The poor animal was still fighting by wrapping its tentacles around the arm that held the trident. I wish I had captured it all on film because it was like a goddess, a female Neptune if you will, coming out of the blue Mediterranean.

I obviously got the memo about what outfit to wear to match the blue water:



One of the evenings spent in Rhodes, we stumbled upon Stefan's bar. I took a picture of it because one of our good friends is named Stefan, but the owner came out and started talking to us. Stefan was warm and welcoming and invited us in for some raki, the local drink. We ended up staying there most of the evening and then came back a second evening for more stories and refreshments. Stefan is quite a character! Having lived in Germany and Connecticut, his language skills were amazing, although we never did figure out how he knew Finnish.



More pictures here!