Archive for the ‘Streefy’s Trips!’ Category
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30
Mar
2010
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
We spent Monday in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I can now die happy. Seriously though, the weather was perfect – the wine was amazing – and my bank account has been somewhat drained.
Huge stones covered the best plots of the vineyards, the vines were old and gnarly, and I could have stayed there forever. Sadly we had to leave.
Though we did end up visiting a 2000 year old Theater in Orange – which was pretty cool considering it’s the most well preserved theater in Europe as the majority of the outer walls are still intact.
Hmmm I will now continue dreaming about my love for Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
29
Mar
2010
France: A leisurely Sunday drive
Sunday morning (okay late morning – because the whole daylight savings thing, and my need for sleep took over) we took off for a ride through some of the smaller cliff-side Provence villages. Our first stop, which also happened to be lunch was Roussillon. Roussillon is set atop of some monstrous clay cliffs, which come in handy for making all things terracotta (and also for wine since the clay retains the moisture).
Lunch was amazing, more on that over at Two Girls, One Cork.
After lunch we continued our drive and ended up at the base of a hike leading up to the Fort de Buoux. So we dragged mum up the mountain to visit the 12th/13th century fort (well worth the hike for anyone who is out in this area) and Jay and I took the opportunity to lean over every clifftop in order to get the best picture (and to freak mum out – she had to close her eyes in fear that we were going to fall off).
After our hike we stopped off at Le Pont Julien, a 200 year old keystone bridge that had cars driving over it as recently as 2005. ‘Keystone’ meaning that there is no mortar holding the stones together – just keystones that take all the pressure from the arch, holding the bridge up. Crazy. I’m waiting for Cornholio to try building one of his buildings this way…
We finished off the day with a five course meal at one of the local St Remy restaurants – will post pictures on that other blog… but it was amazing… mmmmmmmm food.
28
Mar
2010
France: markets and such
Saturday morning we headed into Arles to check out the market – the theme of the market was rotisserie chickens… so we bought a chicken (sans feathers) for dinner. I also pushed that our chicken didn’t have talons, thankfully brother cooperated and we didn’t have to deal with those either.
They were also big on their Bull sausage… mum picked up a new boyfriend at the market who was passing out Bull sausage – though she debated dumping him when he told her what she was eating. Regardless, she bought two sausages which we will now consume for happy hour over the next week.
In the afternoon mum and I headed into Avignon for lunch and some shopping. Lunch was nothing to write home about… so I won’t. But shopping was decent and even resulted in me buying a new pair of shoes.
We then proceeded to drink wine while Jay cooked and somewhat picked on mum for a bit until she forced us into a truce.
26
Mar
2010
I love France.
Did I mention that I was in France? No, that would require having posted something on this blog in the past month. I’m just going to blame it on the Olympics, and my lack of schedule during the Olympics (and over consumption of alcohol combined with lack of sleep, and the opening of the Hotel Streefkerk).
Since the Olympics, my cold has disappeared, the Hotel Streefkerk has closed and my workout schedule has resumed… oh yeah, and I ran away to the South of France with mum and Jay for 10 days.
They beat me out here and spent a couple of days in Paris, I met up with them yesterday in Marseilles and we drove out to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where will will be stationed for the next 9 days.
This morning we woke up to a crazy rain storm and were convinced that we would be spending the entire day inside vineyard tasting rooms. Much to our delight the clouds parted and it turned out to be a wonderfully warm day.
We ended up going into two vineyards (Mas de la Dame, Chateau D’Estoublon) and an olive oil shop (Castelas). We then hiked up the hills to check out the ruins of Chateau des Baux – which were situated on the mountain top above the vineyards and olive groves.
As you can see by our pictures, we are having a horrible time… so bad that we may never return home.
If you’re interested in reading more about the wine and food we are consuming, I’ll be posting over at Two Girls, One Cork – sharing some of our culinary adventures.
7
Jan
2010
Christmas Shenanigans
As I sit here on my couch wrapped in my new snuggie, I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I am no longer on vacation. You know what I have to say about that? Lame.
I love my office because they are smart enough to shut down between Christmas and New Years, which allowed me to take a whirlwind tour down the West Coast: Kelowna, Seattle, Ladera Ranch, San Diego, LA and Big Bear.
To start off I headed up to Kelowna for a couple days to celebrate the holidays with the familia. We did a lot of eating… basically mum asked us to send our grocery lists before we came up and then when we got there we had to do all the cooking… but it was great, because it was free. highlights included: smoked turkey, prime rib, bacon fried brussel sprouts, gourmet eggs benny, scallop tartar, mashed parsnips…. oh and did I mention the 4lbs of butter that was consumed? Brother loves cooking with butter, and butter makes everything so freaking delicious.
Santa also paid a visit to Kelowna and I’m happy to report that he screwed up and forgot to put coal in my stocking… SCORE!
After Kelowna I headed down south to enjoy an extended vacation in California (also known as the place where I was first introduced to my bright red snuggie).
Greg and I started our week of couch hopping in Seattle with a 3:58am wake-up call to get to the airport… seriously, no human being should be awake at this hour. But in the end it paid off because we got to Orange County just in time for lunch at Wahoos and a visit to Laguna Beach… where Greg proceeded to have a run-in with Adam Sandler… I’m pretty sure they shared a moment.
The next day we were off to San Diego to take in the sights and visit the Nicholsons (my extended Jewish family). To get down there we hopped on the handy Amtrak – which was a lovely little ride down the coast, where we watched surfers out the window and listened to the 10 y/o with a mullet sitting behind us explain to his friend what a Hook-e-r is….
You know what though, in the 8 times I have been to Southern California in the past 3.5 years I have never been on the train… or to the top of Laguna Hills or to the nice little restaurant on the cliff of Laguna Beach… pretty much I hibernate with Kirst in her house, and on occasion get out to Javiers to eat some food. We did more in this trip than all my other trips combined.
So San Diego was great, and once I find my greencard husband I’m moving into Nancy’s house so I can BBQ and sit out in her new backyard every night.
Rather than sightseeing in LA… we opted to be lazy and spend the day watching trashy TV shows (Kandy you’d be proud) like Jersey Shore and 16 & Pregnant (who knows how many braincells died that day).
To cap off the weekend we headed up to Big Bear for New Years. We spent two days snowboarding on Snow Summit – and I’m not going to lie, the fake snow was a lot better than I had anticipated… Barring a few minor incidents (Greg being pummeled by a skiing tourist and Ginger somehow breaking her ass) it was a great two days of boarding. We rang in the new year with some patron and beer at a mullet bar called Chad’s Place… it was lovely :)
On that note, I’m going to attempt to return to reality and go to sleep.
Happy new year!
