tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20109238369922906492024-03-19T03:41:58.329-04:00One Sweet WorldI'm in my late 30s (gulp) and married to a great guy. We live in Northern VA with our wild toddler son and crazy hound dog Cady. We love to travel, eat great food, drink good wine, cheer for our favorite sports teams and have fun with friends. This blog is a collection of things - travel stories, DC happenings, home improvement projects, recipes, and all kinds of fun adventures we're having!One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.comBlogger233125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-80425012241219119782017-03-03T14:48:00.000-05:002018-06-24T14:49:11.493-04:00Jerez and Sevilla, part 2 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A second stop at the Torch Coffee Roasters cafe didn't disappoint - I love a beautifully done cup of coffee!</div>
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On one of our days in Sevilla, we took a day trip out to Jerez to do some sherry tours and tasting. </div>
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The train station was so beautiful and unique! After the short train ride, we walked around the Cathedral and Alcazar. </div>
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Our tasting and tour was at <a href="http://www.lustau.es/en/" target="_blank">Bodegas Lustau</a>. </div>
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While they make wine in 3 different cities in the "Sherry triangle," this is their main facility. The winery was built in the 19th century. </div>
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According to their website:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: start;">"Sherry is a fortified wine...meaning, additional alcohol is added to these wines to facilitate their extended aging process in American oak barrels." Then, the wines are classified according to their age and alcohol content. </span></span></span></div>
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After the tour of their beautiful facility, we were able to taste 7 of their different wines.</div>
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Following our time at Bodegas Lustau, we wandered around a bit more and then headed to <a href="http://www.restaurantealbores.com/" target="_blank">Albores</a> for lunch.<br />
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Lunch was delicious - fresh and tasty! And the setting outside on their patio was lovely.</div>
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We enjoyed our day in Jerez!</div>
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Back in Sevilla, we had several things we wanted to see on our last morning in town. We started with a tour of Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza, the bull ring! </div>
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The bullring took roughly 150 years to be built, from 1730 when the wooden construction began, to about 1881 when the stone structure and balconies were completed.</div>
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The tour begins with a museum portion, showing paintings and costumes of the bull fights of the past. </div>
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The bulls' entrance.<br />
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On the left is the Price's box, reserved for the Royal Family. </div>
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After the bullring, we got the combo ticket to go see the Church of the Savior and the Cathedral. </div>
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The outside of the Church of the Savior is different from so many of the churches you see in Spain/Europe - it's pink! And the inside was incredible.<br />
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It is Sevilla's second largest church, and has lots of Baroque altarpieces inside. </div>
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A quick visit inside and we headed over to <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, or the Cathedral of Sevilla. It's the largest Gothic church in the world. </span></div>
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The bell tower, which was originally a minaret, allows you to climb to the top for some incredible city views.<br />
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Construction took over a century to complete, from 1401 to 1506, and stands on the sight of a former Mosque that was built in the late 12th century. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"The Patio de los Naranjos dates back to Moorish times when worshippers would wash their hands and feet in the fountains here - under the orange trees - before their five daily prayer sessions." <a href="http://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/cathedral.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">source</span></a></span></span></div>
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From the patio is a beautiful view back up at the massive bell tower.</div>
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One final stop before heading to the airport - <a href="http://www.mercadodetrianasevilla.com/" target="_blank">Mercado de Triana</a>. </div>
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We got some ham, cheese, and other treats around the market.<br />
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The stalls were large and colorful!</div>
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Including some furry rabbits! All kids of veggies and meats.</div>
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Time to head to the next stop. Sevilla, we loved you! We will be back.</div>
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One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-17369811355381733592017-02-17T12:56:00.000-05:002018-06-24T12:59:53.419-04:00Day trip to Cordoba<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
After a delicious almond croissant and some coffees at <a href="https://www.torchcoffee.eu/" target="_blank">Torch Coffee Roasters</a>, we took the train to the small town of Cordoba. </div>
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We walked around the town, and poked around the small Christmas market they had set up in the square.</div>
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After wandering around the market a bit, we went to the <a href="https://untappd.com/CervezasCalifa" target="_blank">Califa brewery</a>. We had a delicious flatbread for lunch and tried a few of their beers. They were all pretty good! </div>
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Not only did they have several of their own, but bottles from other breweries around Spain. </div>
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We walked around the town a bit more, and headed over to the main attraction, La <span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mezquita.</span></span></div>
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This unique and stunning former mosque was built in the 10th century, and was the center of Western Islam.</div>
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It was just beautiful - these photos don't even do it justice. So peaceful and serene. </div>
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And then, you turn the corner and you're standing in the center of a massive cathedral. When the Christians took control of the town in 1236, they built this cathedral in the center of the mosque. </div>
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They are completely intertwined. The huge bell tower enclosed where the minaret once stood. </div>
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It was so interesting to be in this space where both of these cultures and religions seem to peacefully coexist. While I know it wasn't a peaceful time, and there are so many challenges and conflicts between the 2 religions today, it was encouraging to spend time in this amazing space.</div>
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Once we felt like we had soaked up enough of the <span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mezquita, we headed back outside to wander the town a little more.</span></span></div>
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The market was still teaming with people, buying food, toys, Christmas gifts, and more.</div>
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The massive Christmas displays were just incredible.</div>
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One final stop before heading back - Churros Bar Marta! This place was mobbed, and the churros and chocolate were delicious!</div>
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Great end to our fun day exploring Cordoba. </div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-53705617730814747862017-02-03T08:01:00.000-05:002017-05-05T08:11:26.013-04:00Sevilla, part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We bused and trained through more olive trees than I could have ever imagined on our way to Sevilla. As far as you could see, for hours, were olive tree groves. </div>
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When we arrived at the train station, the owner of our AirBnB, Nacho, was there to pick us up and drive us to our apartment for the week. It was nice not to have to worry about finding our way there. We were on the ground floor, the white door and windows on the right. </div>
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The <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8928663?s=nMAc3epC" target="_blank">apartment </a>had 1 bedroom and a loft, and 1 bath. It was big, and nice to spread out! Even with no true windows to an outside street, the little patio/courtyards allowed for natural light. </div>
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We were starving, so after we got settled, we headed off for a quick lunch. </div>
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We grabbed sandwiches at 100 Montaditos, which we ended up seeing all over the city the rest of our time there. </div>
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We set off on the Rick Steves Barrio Santa Cruz walking tour to check out parts of the city. It's the old Jewish quarter of the medeival city. </div>
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The beautiful Sevilla Cathedral is right in the heart of the city. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"> It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world. </span></div>
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The Plaza Virgen de los Reyes is where the cathedral is, and it's a main tourist hub in the city - lots of tour guides, carriage rides, and the like. </div>
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The Jewish quarter was just beautiful. </div>
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All over the city were these massive orange trees. There are more than 14,000 in the city. While the oranges usually aren't ready until December or January, lots of trees had dozens already on them. Then in the spring, the trees blossom, and it's supposed to smell amazing. The bitter oranges are harvested and made into marmalade for Britain. </div>
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Narrow streets!</div>
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After our tour, we were both craving a delicious gin and tonic like the ones we'd discovered in <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2017/01/first-stop-in-spain-granada.html" target="_blank">Granada</a>. </div>
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This little place near our AirBnB was packed, so we ducked in and found a spot at the bar for an afternoon cocktail.</div>
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That evening, we took the <a href="http://devoursevillefoodtours.com/tours/tour/seville-tapas-tour" target="_blank">Tapas, Taverns and History of Seville</a> tour with Devour Seville. Our tour guide, Maria, was fantastic. We were lucky, and it was just us on the tour. This was perfect as so many of the places she took us to were tiny, so it was nice to not have a big group trying to squeeze into places. </div>
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The tour was really great - and we discovered that they drink sweet vermouth on it's own! It was delicious. As was the orange wine that is original to this tiny bar in Seville. I highly recommend this tour - request Maria!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bar with the orange wine, just up from the cathedral.</td></tr>
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The next morning we had a bike tour scheduled with <a href="https://seebybike.com/tour/daily-bike-tour" target="_blank">Seebybike</a>, and we met them at the Mercado del Arenal.</div>
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The rest of the group was late arriving, so we had time to poke around the market a bit. There wasn't much to see, but the little birds that still had their feathers were quite interesting!</div>
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We finally set off on our tour. We love riding bikes when we travel, it's a great way to see a lot more ground that just walking. </div>
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The Plaza de Espana was just beautiful. It was one of my favorite places in Sevilla. </div>
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After the tour we were starving, so we marched up to the <a href="http://azahar-sevilla.com/shopping/mercado-de-la-feria/" target="_blank">Mercado de Feria</a>, which is the oldest market in Seville - from tourist central to completely the opposite. </div>
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You went to one window, ordered tickets essentially, then went to the center to order your tapas. </div>
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We got the Spanish lasagna, the 'beef bomb' and one of the paellas, which we ended up getting 2 orders of - everything was deeeelicious! There was no English spoken, so it was a little tricky, but I was able to stumble through.</div>
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Walking back towards the main part of town, we grabbed a coffee at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/virgincoffeesevilla/" target="_blank">Virgin Coffee</a>, and stopped by the Setas de Seville, or the Metropol Parasol... or the big mushroom. It's a massive wooden structure that's quite controversial, but really cool. You can even go up on top!</div>
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It was completed in April 2011 by a German architect, and is 85ft high. It's said to be the largest wooden structure in the world. </div>
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Even in the clouds, the views were pretty awesome. </div>
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Walking back through the beautiful squares to our hotel, there were several musicians set up and playing. It was really lovely. </div>
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That evening, we made another visit to the orange wine bar before going to the <a href="http://www.lacasadelflamencosevilla.com/espectaculos" target="_blank">Casa del Flamenco</a> show. The bar is teeny - you squeeze in, pay your couple Euros for your wine, and squeeze out to stand on the street. </div>
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The Flamenco show was pretty cool. About an hour long, they sang and danced, and we were really close to the stage as it's in a tiny little room. While it wasn't a spontaneous show in a bar somewhere in Seville, I'm glad we were able to see a show, and the performers were great.</div>
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Back down near where our bike tour was, we had dinner at Septimo Wine Bar. It was really good - we got several different small plates to share, and a great bottle of Spanish wine. The perfect ending to a busy Seville day!</div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-30376486785051546192017-01-27T09:59:00.001-05:002017-01-27T09:59:26.373-05:00Alhambra of Granada<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Our second day in Granada, we had morning tickets to tour the Alhambra. We took the bus up the hill to the complex. </div>
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Alhambra was given that name for the colors of it's walls, for in Arabic it translates to "red castle" or "red one." The original palace and fortress was built in 889 AD, and then actually ignored until the mid-13th century when a Moorish emir renovated and rebuilt it. Over the centuries, different rulers and religious groups controlled Granada, and also Alhambra, making changes and updates along the way. Today, it has been "respectfully and greatly restored" and has hundreds of visitors a day. </div>
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The intricate carvings, tile work and scripts all over the buildings was just unbelievable. The photos absolutely don't do it justice, but we'll try anyway... </div>
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The Court of the Myrtles</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">"Muslims avoid making images of living creatures — that's God's work. But Arabic calligraphy, mostly poems and verses of praise from the Qur'an, is everywhere. One phrase — "only God is victorious" — is repeated 9,000 times throughout the Alhambra."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/granada-moor-than-the-sum-of-its-parts" target="_blank">source</a></span></div>
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You wander from room to room, building to building, courtyard to courtyard. The views out to the town of Granada are just beautiful. </div>
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The Patio of the Lions</div>
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Don't let some of the photos without too many tourists fool you...it was pretty crowded. I can only imagine how full it gets in the afternoons, and in the summer. There were lots of tour groups. </div>
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Lovely back lit selfie! </div>
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In the photo below, towards the bottom...the yellow and orange building across from what looks like a park...that's where the night photo from the <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2017/01/first-stop-in-spain-granada.html" target="_blank">previous Granada post</a> was taken. </div>
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As I mentioned, we were pretty lucky to dodge most of the tourists...but there certainly were a lot of them...and a lot of selfie sticks...</div>
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We also wandered over the Generalife area of the complex and enjoyed the beautiful gardens and views. This is where the 'summer palace' is located...just a few steps away!</div>
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As we were walking around, we happened upon the Catholic cathedral that is in the middle of so many Muslim inspired buildings. It is St. Mary Church, and was completed in the 17th century on the site of the Alhambra Great Mosque. </div>
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The Palace of Charles V was never fully completed...</div>
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And is open in the center - totally unexpected! </div>
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The last bit of the Alhambra that was visited was the barracks ruins and the Torre de la Vela, or watch tower of the Alhambra. What a stunning view from the top!</div>
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We are so glad we decided (kinda last minute) to add Granada to the front of our trip, specifically for the Alhambra visit. It's certainly something to see in this world, so if you get a chance, put it on your list. </div>
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And I'll leave you with a final photo of just one of the photo-crazed Asian tour groups that we encountered... </div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-34141103282848233582017-01-22T17:58:00.000-05:002017-01-22T18:41:33.373-05:00First stop in Spain, Granada<div style="text-align: center;">
Much like last November when we went to <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/01/melbourne-stop-1-on-our-australian.html" target="_blank">Australia</a>, we took the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving and jetted off to Spain and Morocco for our most recent travel adventure. We flew DCA-DFW-Madrid-Granada...it was a long trip. M was all excited that we would be flying across the ocean on a new AA plane with a new Premium Economy section, but they did a last minute plane change on us... and we had the regular, "old" Premium Economy. Still quite nice! Because the new set up is only 2 seats, and this one was 3 across, we didn't have anyone in the middle - thank goodness! </div>
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We finally arrived in Granada! We grabbed THE one 'city bus' and it took is right into the heart of the city center at the cathedral. We walked a few blocks, and up a pretty good hill and lots of stairs, and came right to our AirBnB - the little wooden door right there. </div>
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It was lovely - 2 stories with a rooftop balcony. Bedroom and bath on the first floor, then up a narrow set of stairs to the kitchen and living area. </div>
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The view from the kitchen window was picturesque, even with the overcast weather.</div>
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Our lovely rooftop deck.</div>
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After we freshened up and found some lunch (pizza!), we started on our first Rick Steves' tour of the trip. It was right at siesta time, so the town was pretty quiet. </div>
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We walked around just a bit before deciding to head in to take our own siesta. After a much needed little nap, we ventured back out...</div>
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And finished our tour.</div>
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We ducked into this bustling little spot for churros, chocolate and an espresso.</div>
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The beautiful Alhambra was all lit up way up on the hill. That visit deserves it's own post, coming later. </div>
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We were starving, and finally the tapas place we were going to, <a href="http://www.labotilleriagranada.es/tana/" target="_blank">La Tana</a>, opened at 9pm. Thank goodness for the siesta and espresso! We were there when she put the metal door up and opened for business.</div>
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We sat at the bar, and my 'first day Spanish' got us through a lovely evening! You order a drink, you get a free tapa. You order another drink, you get another! We tried a few of her different wines, and tapas - everything was lovely. And the place was mobbed just a few minutes after we walked in and grabbed our seats.</div>
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We had just decided on our final glass of wine - we were enjoying it too much to leave - and when the woman went to pour a taste for M, she accidentally knocked the glass over, spilling wine all over him, and the glass shattered everywhere, cutting his finger pretty good. She was absolutely mortified, apologizing over and over. She had M come behind the bar, got him all cleaned and bandaged up, and even comped our whole evening. </div>
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The streets were so pretty and decorative. As we were walking back to our AirBnB, we passed by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/rosariovarelabar/" target="_blank">Rosario Varela</a>, which was hoppin', so thought we'd check it out. M had read about it, and they were known for their gin and tonics. Gin and tonics are super popular in Spain - and we fell in love! The server was really helpful with picking from all of the dozens of gins they have. </div>
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<a href="http://www.nordesgin.com/" target="_blank">Nordes</a> was my favorite, and I hunted it down for the rest of the trip.</div>
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The next morning was beautiful and clear!</div>
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We found this cute little coffee shop at the bottom of our hill where we grabbed breakfast. </div>
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That morning we had tickets for Alhambra. It was just amazing - and really deserves it's own post, coming next. </div>
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That afternoon we met our <a href="http://playgranada.com/electric-bike-tour/" target="_blank">bike tour</a> for a quick tour of town. Apparently, M had mixed up the dates and we had been scheduled for the day before! Whoops! Luckily they still had a tour going at the same time, and they had space for us to join. </div>
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We started in the gypsy quarter, where they've just literally built houses, or caves, into the hills. </div>
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We went up some pretty good hills - it was nice to get some exercise, and the views were beautiful. Luckily we had electric bikes - made those hills much easier! You can see the Alhambra on the left of this valley.</div>
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Another beautiful view with the mountains in the background from the overlook point. The tour guide for this tour was nice, but wasn't a great guide. That's ok, we still covered a lot of ground and got to see parts of town we wouldn't have just being on foot.</div>
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Look closely and you can see the snow capped mountains in the background.</div>
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That evening we had reservations at this special, teeny restaurant, <a href="http://www.laoliva.eu/" target="_blank">La Oliva</a>. According to their website, "we aren't a restaurant." It's a tasting menu with wine parings, and there were only 4 tables total. </div>
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They prepared everything right there, and on these tiny little burners in a second room. </div>
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Delicious meal, and quite a special experience. The next morning we had an early train to Sevilla, stop #2 on our trip.</div>
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For most of the trip to Sevilla, as far as the eye could see, were olive groves. Most of the worlds olive oils are made from Spanish olives! </div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-84279492900742487652016-12-23T10:20:00.004-05:002016-12-24T22:32:59.286-05:00Last day of our Sonoma weekend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We woke up Monday morning to clearing and the promise of a sunny day. Finally! </div>
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After our visit to Flying Goat coffee, we headed to Westside Road and our first tasting appointment of the day, <a href="http://macrostiewinery.com/" target="_blank">MacRostie Winery</a>. </div>
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So excited for blue skies and sunshine!</div>
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The winery is situated beautifully on a hill surrounded by vineyards. It was still a little brisk so we opted for a table inside, but next to the patio along the windows. </div>
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The interior of the tasting room was lovely, and views were just gorgeous!</div>
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They were also set up where you do a tasting sitting at a table, and they bring the wines to you, rather than standing at a bar. It was quite enjoyable to soak up the beautiful surroundings and sunshine. </div>
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They produce mostly Chardonnay's and Pinot Noirs. While we aren't Chardonnay fans, we loved their Pinots - even bought 6 to serve at Thanksgiving! </div>
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I also became fast friends with their adorable winery puppy, who I didn't want to let go! I threatened to take him home with us.</div>
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A wonderful visit to MacRostie. If you're a fan of Pinots, definitely put it on your list.</div>
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Leaving MacRostie, we headed north just a bit to <a href="http://www.vmlwine.com/" target="_blank">VML Winery</a>. They are the sister to Truett Hurst who we visited the day before. (They're actually moving as I type this, and their last day at this location is December 23. According to their website, they will be 'camping' in the old barrel room at Truett Hurst over on Dry Creek Road for a bit.) </div>
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While Truett Hurst focuses on Zinfandels, VML focuses mostly on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. They make a few one off wines such as a Syrah, a <span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: inherit;">Gewurztraminer, Sauv Blanc, etc. We really liked their wines, and they're at a good price point, so...surprise, we joined our final club of the trip. </span></div>
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After our last winery of the weekend, we headed to another favorite restaurant, <a href="http://www.diavolapizzeria.com/" target="_blank">Diavola</a> in the teeny town of Geyserville. </div>
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We sat at the bar and ordered a few things to share - cheese and meat plate, beet salad, and a pizza. Everything was delicious!</div>
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A perfect end to our always-too-quick Sonoma getaway. We drove south, M dropped me off in the city and headed to the airport. Another wonderful weekend in Sonoma wine country! Already looking forward to the next time we can get out there. </div>
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One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-73204989181740913512016-12-19T16:48:00.001-05:002016-12-24T22:34:29.667-05:00Sonoma weekend getaway, day 2<div style="text-align: center;">
Sunday morning, once we lounged a bit, we walked 3 blocks away to our favorite Santa Rosa coffee shop, <a href="http://flyinggoatcoffee.com/10-fourth-street/" target="_blank">Flying Goat Coffee</a>. A couple of scones and coffees, and we were ready for our morning. </div>
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Winery stop #1 in the Dry Creek Valley area - <a href="http://www.nallewinery.com/" target="_blank">Nalle Winery</a>. <br />
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Another cloudy morning, but luckily no rain yet. Nalle has mostly Zinfandels, but also a delicious rose. We decided to join their club, too, as we could pick out our first shipment while standing in the winery. They surprising had some rose left, and gave us a great discount and shipped a case for a penny, so we stocked up for next summer!<br />
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Next we headed to <a href="http://www.timbercrest.com/" target="_blank">Timber Crest Farms</a>, a farm and wine collective in Dry Creek Valley. </div>
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Here we ducked into <a href="http://www.papapietro-perry.com/" target="_blank">Papapierto Perry</a> for a revisit - we were there years ago, but hadn't been back since then. They make very good Pinot Noirs...a bit pricey, but very good. <br />
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They have a beautiful little tasting room that was bustling for the gray day. </div>
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Once we finished our tasting, we walked across the parking lot to the <a href="http://www.familywineriesdrycreek.com/" target="_blank">Family Wineries</a> tasting room. Here they have wines from 6 very small wineries - a great opportunity for the winemakers to sell their wines without the overhead of having their own tasting room. We went specifically for the Dashe Cellars wines, but enjoyed trying a couple of the others as well. </div>
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We were starving by this point, so headed back down the hill to one of our favorite spots, the <a href="http://drycreekgeneralstore1881.com/" target="_blank">Dry Creek General Store</a>, for lunch. This is a must stop place for any trip to Dry Creek. Delicious sandwiches and salads, plus a beautiful little store full of local goods, cookbooks, and wines. </div>
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We enjoyed our sandwiches outside (under cover as it was starting to rain!) and watched all of the people come and go - this place can get pretty crowded, especially on the weekends. </div>
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We had to stop at one of our favorite wineries while in town, <a href="http://www.kokomowines.com/" target="_blank">Kokomo</a>, so back to the Timber Crest Farms we went. Since our last visit, they've opened a beautiful space for club members only, which we really liked. Their club is great, we really enjoy getting our Kokomo shipments, and they produce wine from many different varietals. Their rose is possibly my favorite rose ever. </div>
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Sun, rain, sun, and rain...we huddled inside and tasted several of their wines while the weather outside flipped back and forth.</div>
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One final stop for the day - a return visit to <a href="https://www.truetthurst.com/" target="_blank">Truett-Hurst</a>. We stopped in there on one of our last visits, and have enjoyed a few of the bottles that we brought home since then, so decided to stop by again. It was very fun - the folks working in the tasting room were just delightful. They set us up with a long line of their different Zins to do a side by side tasting. We liked them all! So much so....you guessed it...we joined their club, too! We've already gotten one shipment, which included porcini salt!</div>
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Once we finished our wine tastings for the day, we headed to downtown Healdsburg to wander around a bit. We ducked in and out of several of the cute stores along the square, before stopping to get a bite to eat. <br />
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Usually when we're in Healdsburg, we bar hop a bit - get a bite or 2 at one place, then move onto the next. This evening we started at the newer restaurant, <a href="http://chalkboardhealdsburg.com/" target="_blank">Chalkboard</a>. This place was adorable, and had a great cocktail list and menu. I wanted one of everything! <br />
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We had a few different things, including the pork belly biscuits. Everything was delicious! <br />
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Once the rain stopped, we headed over to a favorite, <a href="http://www.starkrestaurants.com/stark-restaurant/willis-seafood-raw-bar/" target="_blank">Willi's Seafood Bar</a>. We sat at the bar, had a couple more bites, and chatted with the guys working the raw bar. </div>
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Another fantastic day in wine country, we headed back to the hotel in Santa Rosa and turned in for the night. </div>
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One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-27723277322979353852016-12-14T21:27:00.000-05:002016-12-24T22:35:43.646-05:00Sonoma, here we come!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
In October, I had a business trip to San Francisco planned, and we had a free weekend right before it...so we decided to sneak out of DC and spend a couple days in Sonoma! It had been a few years since we'd been there, and we were pining to visit. So, early Saturday morning we were up and on a plane, and up to Sonoma by lunchtime. </div>
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We went straight to Sebastopol for lunch at <a href="http://www.handline.com/" target="_blank">Handline</a>. </div>
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The brand new casual restaurant by Sonoma restaurateur Lowell Sheldon is in an old Foster's Freeze drive through building. We were starving and the collection of fish tacos, fresh unique salads and soft serve ice cream were perfect. </div>
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Now, time for wine!</div>
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It was chilly and cloudy, not the beautiful sunny day we'd hoped for! But that didn't stop us! The first place we had an appointment was <a href="http://www.emeritusvineyards.com/" target="_blank">Emeritus Vineyards</a>. Many of the wineries are moving to a more 'sit down tasting' experience. You make an appointment, come in and they have a spot set up for you on couches or at a table and chairs, rather than the traditional stand up bar tasting. The random collection of furniture inside was beautiful, and I'm sure on a warm, sunny day when they can open the doors right to the vineyard, it's just lovely. <br />
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Mostly Pinot Noirs, the wines were nice, but very expensive. For the price, we prefer others throughout the county better. The 'host' we had was nice, and knowledgeable about the wines and their process, but also seemed to have a very strong affinity to Rodney Strong winery, and seemed to almost talk more about their wines than Emeritus! Anyway, after our 4 wine tasting, we paid our fee and headed to the next place. While the setting was lovely, and wines ok, for the price I'm not sure we'll be back. </div>
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Next stop: <a href="http://www.inmanfamilywines.com/" target="_blank">Inman Family Vineyards</a>. The grounds looked beautiful with the tasting room barn right in the vineyard...but with the gross weather, we snuggled inside of the bar at the tasting bar. The gentleman working that day was really great - super nice and friendly, and knew a ton about the winery. </div>
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We loved almost everything we tried. Lots of great Pinots, and a sparkling, too! We decided to join their wine club. Usually when we travel to wine country, we bring back 2 cases of wine as luggage...but since we were traveling separately, and I was in SF for a few more days, and M had a red eye and was heading straight to the office...we decided checking a bag wasn't worth it. So instead...we decided to join a few new clubs! The wine would be shipped a month or so later, and we can cancel at any time. So, Inman was our first new club!</div>
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A break in the rain made for a perfect selfie-op!</div>
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Our last winery stop for the day was <a href="http://www.ballettovineyards.com/" target="_blank">Balletto Winery</a>. The place was mobbed - quite a change from being the only people at Inman! While the tasting bar was crazy, we ended up chatting with a few of the folks on either side of us. The wines were pretty good - hard to compare to Inman. We ended up grabbing a bottle, and heading out. </div>
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Now - time for beer! It was pouring, so we raced into <a href="http://www.cooperagebrewing.com/" target="_blank">Cooperage</a> - a brewery that the guy at Inman told us about. </div>
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We ordered a full tasting list. The beers were tasty! M really liked them - lots of IPAs, so not my favorites, but he really enjoyed them. </div>
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After Cooperage, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and called an Uber to head into downtown Santa Rosa for dinner. We went to <a href="http://www.birdandthebottle.com/" target="_blank">Bird and the Bottle</a>, and grabbed a table in the teeny bar area. </div>
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Enough wine for the day, we ordered a couple of delicious cocktails and a few small plates. My cocktail even came with a little refill bottle!</div>
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The meatballs were outstanding - best thing we had all night! </div>
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After dinner, we were glad the rain had finally eased, and we walked the couple of blocks to the famous <a href="http://russianriverbrewing.com/" target="_blank">Russian River Brewing Co.</a> It's one of our favorite spots in Sonoma, and it's not a trip to Santa Rosa without going to Russian River! We tried a few different beers, people watched, and talked about our day. Great end to our first day in Sonoma! </div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-88980196590015551372016-09-28T12:06:00.000-04:002016-09-28T12:06:29.235-04:00Kitchen finale!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Better late than never?! </div>
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It's only been almost 2 years since this project was finished...but about the time I was ready to write a 'reveal' post, my computer crashed...I'm finally getting around to finishing this post. We are still on the hunt for a colorful runner to go in front of the sink, and finally have the photograph I've been wanting, that I still need to frame, for the big empty spot between the windows, but we're getting there! We absolutely love our kitchen, and are so glad we didn't wait too long after moving in to remodel it.</div>
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Enjoy a good 'before and after' show!</div>
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One of my favorite parts of the kitchen is the tv. Now, when I'm cooking dinner and there's a Nats game or something else on, I don't have to keep shouting to the den to see what's happening! And, we put it on a movable arm, so we can hide it. </div>
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Now you see it....</div>
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Now you don't! </div>
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We also connected in a Sonos speaker above the cabinets so we can have music in the kitchen, which I have on almost all the time. </div>
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Microwave, trash can/recycling and beverage center all in the island.</div>
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We absolutely love it, and as they say, everyone really does live in our kitchen!</div>
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Source list:<br />
Cabinets - <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/kitchen/" target="_blank">Ikea</a><br />
Island cabinets - <a href="http://www.barkercabinets.com/" target="_blank">Barker</a><br />
Contractor - <a href="http://www.mossbuildinganddesign.com/" target="_blank">Moss Building and Design</a><br />
Floors - <a href="http://www.artisanfloorsandmore.com/" target="_blank">Artisan Floors</a><br />
Mudroom floor tile - <a href="http://www.lowes.com/pd_487338-89276-0487338_4294856525__?productId=50013992&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=" target="_blank">Lowes</a><br />
Counter tops - London Gray quartz by Caesarstone - <a href="http://www.pyramidgranite.us/" target="_blank">Pyramid Granite</a><br />
Backsplash tile - Sixth Sense, 4x8 from <a href="http://www.mosaictileco.com/" target="_blank">Mosaic Tile</a><br />
Over counter pendants - <a href="http://www.westelm.com/products/globe-pendant-milk-finish-w1047/" target="_blank">West Elm</a><br />
Kitchen table pendant - <a href="http://www.crateandbarrel.com/finley-large-white-pendant-lamp/s106988" target="_blank">Crate and Barrel</a><br />
Hardware - <a href="http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1283091" target="_blank">Restoration Hardware</a><br />
Paint color, island - BM Polo Blue<br />
Paint color, walls - BM Gray Owl<br />
Stools: <a href="http://www.worldmarket.com/product/adjustable+round+wood+and+metal+stool.do?&from=fn">World Market</a><br />
Kitchen Table: <a href="http://www.cb2.com/compass-dining-table/s203722">CB2</a><br />
Chairs: <a href="http://www.overstock.com/">Overstock</a><br />
<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-72571988817706700632016-09-21T21:43:00.003-04:002016-09-22T08:32:41.798-04:00Vienna, Austria<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I will warn you - this is a bit of a long post, as it's our entire 4 days in Vienna, all in one...so here we go! </div>
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We arrived from <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/09/next-stop-rotterdam.html" target="_blank">Rotterdam</a> and our <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/09/tulips.html" target="_blank">tulip adventure</a> pretty late, and were starving and anxious to see some of the city with the night lights on. We wandered off to this small restaurant and inn for some traditional Viennese dishes - wiener schnitzel, beef goulash, and potato salad. Plus we had our first bottle o<span style="font-family: inherit;">f <span style="background-color: white;">Blaufränkisch</span> - a light red wine, usually young, and similar in style to Pinot Noir. Very tasty evening! </span></div>
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We had to walk dinner off a bit, so we wandered around the main sights, passing by the beautiful Opera House all shining in lights, before turning in.</div>
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The very first thing we did on day one was pull up our<a href="https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/austria/vienna" target="_blank"> audio guides from our good buddy, Rick </a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/austria/vienna" target="_blank">Steves</a>. First one the list was the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Ringstrasse Tram Tour - he told you exactly what tram to get on, and in which direction - even what side of the tram to try to sit on for the best views. Then he described the sights along the way. It was a picture perfect day. </span></div>
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After we did the loop, we pulled up his Vienna City Walk tour, and wandered off, this time on foot. </div>
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We walked by the beautiful St. Stephen's church, as we would come back there after lunch. </div>
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We ducked into Kleines Cafe for a little lunch and a coffee. </div>
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Couple sandwiches, glass of wine, and a traditional Melange coffee, and we were set for the afternoon. </div>
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We finished up our city walk, and headed to the cathedral. It is absolutely stunning, and massive. The tile detail on the roof was amazing. We did the Rick Steves' audio tour of the church also.</div>
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We wandered around a bit more, poking our heads into the famous Julius Meinl market store. White asparagus were in season, and we saw them everywhere! They were massive.</div>
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and pausing for some photos at t<span style="font-family: inherit;">he Michaelerplatz.</span></div>
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We decided we'd done enough walking, and it was time for a glass of wine and some dinner. We wandered ov<span style="font-family: inherit;">er to <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.w-einkehr.at/" target="_blank">Vinothek W-Einkehr</a>, this lovely little tiny wine bar. The owner/bartender was quite nice, and helped us pick out a flight that would walk us through 6 different Austrian wines - and gave us a little book to follow along! He was super knowledgeable and helpful as we learned about Austrian wines. </span></span></div>
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The Gruner Veltliner, or GV, was our favorite - and we looked for it the rest of the trip. We also ordered some delicious, freshly sliced meats and cheeses for dinner.</div>
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And of course stopped at the super popular gelato spot on the way back to the hotel.</div>
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A lovely evening in Vienna.</div>
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The next morning, we walked across the street from our hotel, and boarded what became our favorite (most used) tram line, the #2, and headed off to the market.</div>
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When you boarded the trams, you didn't show a ticket - you just got on and off. They will randomly inspect the riders to ensure they have an updated and paid pass, and you better have one if that happens, but it was the honor system otherwise.</div>
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The market was very busy that morning, lots of vendors selling a little bit of everything. We browsed for a while, then found a good spot for some lunch. </div>
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Lunch was absolutely delicious!</div>
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We thanked the very friendly stand owner, and headed to the metro, which we took out to th<span style="font-family: inherit;">e <span style="background-color: white;">Schönbrunn </span><span style="background-color: white;">Palace</span><span style="background-color: white;">, the former </span><span style="background-color: white;">summer</span><span style="background-color: white;"> residence of the imperial family. It was massive, and literally looked fake! It looked like a big, yellow monopoly piece they'd just plunked down on the grounds. </span></span></div>
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We went in and did one of the tours, then enjoyed walking around the grounds, enjoying the beautiful weather.</div>
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Once we had our fill of the palace, we headed back to town to wander through some of the neighborhoods out of the center of town a bit. We headed to the Neubau area, and came across this cute coffee shop, <a href="http://www.espresso-wien.at/" target="_blank">Espresso</a> - looked like the perfect spot for a coffee!</div>
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That evening, we trained, bused, and trammed out to <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a real Viennese “heuriger” or wine tavern. </span></span></div>
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These wine taverns are all along the outskirts of the city, and are just lovely. You look through the front door at a beautiful courtyard and right into the vineyard. We went to <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Fuhrgassl</span><span style="background-color: white;">-</span><span style="background-color: white;">Huber, and it was quite lovely.</span></span></div>
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We had made reservations, but didn't end up needing them. We snagged a table outside near the vineyard, and went inside to the counter to order our dinner. There were a few choices of meats and sides to choose from.</div>
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We ordered ham, pork, dumplings, green bean salad and potato salad.</div>
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It was a beautiful evening!</div>
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The wine taverns serve their own wines, usually young white wines. We ordered a carafe of our new favorite, GV.</div>
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After dinner and back in Vienna, we got off the tram at the Opera House to walk a bit back to the hotel. </div>
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Each night of a show, they broadcast it live on a massive screen on the side of the Opera House. People bring chairs and blankets and sit and watch the show. We stood for a little, that night it was a ballet. </div>
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The next morning we had tickets to the Spanish Riding School's performance. We had decided on standing room only tickets, and I'm glad we did - we got there early and once we figured out the right entrance, we got a great spot up along the railing. </div>
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The Lipizzaner stallions were just amazing, the performance was beautiful. Definitely recommend this to anyone going to Vienna. </div>
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After the show, we walked by the stables, then off to lunch. I loved all of the different cross walk lights around town...more down below. </div>
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Casual Saturday lunch on the patio at the famous <a href="http://www.kameel.at/en_index.php" target="_blank">Zum Schwarzen Kameel</a> cafe for mini sandwiches. You go inside (the very smoke filled restaurant) and wait in line, then once it's your turn, you tell the lady which ones you want from a huge selection of probably 30 or more. She puts them on a plate, you pay, and go sit at your table.</div>
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We went back for round 2, they were all delicious. The curry was our favorite.</div>
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We wandered out a bit again and found a cool brewery to check out - in the middle of a middle eastern market. Bit of a different feel from the one the day before! Much more informal, and way more crowded!</div>
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Wandering on a bit more, we discovered a beer garden, so we popped in there for a bit!</div>
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While the main downtown was of course great, we really enjoyed poking around some of the neighborhoods that were a outside the ring a bit. </div>
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M found this cool beer and burger bar that we went to for dinner, <a href="http://hawidere.at/" target="_blank">Hawidere</a>. </div>
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They had pages of burgers to choose from! I saw one with Brussels Sprouts, and thought that sounded great. Didn't realize it was a Brussels Sprouts BURGER - no meat patty! Whoops! It was still delicious, definitely different!</div>
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More great, unique street crossing signs...</div>
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Our final day in Vienna was Sunday. We were able to get in for the early English tour of the Opera House. It was what felt like a busy morning - there were 3-4 different languages taking tours that morning, and the English group broke into 3 different tours.</div>
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The inside of the hall was really incredible. There are 3 different stages, and they can move them in and out, up and down. There is a different show every night, so they have to build the set, run the performance, and break it down just so they can build a new one for the next night. </div>
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After the Opera House, we went to<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white;">The Kunsthistorisches Museum for brunch. </span></span></div>
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Sunday brunch is served in their incredible dome, and it's just beautiful. </div>
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We walked around the art museum, then headed to the Imperial Palace. We toured the apartments, Sisi museum and the silver collection. The china, silver- and goldwork was absolutely amazing. </div>
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The rooms and cases just went on and on and on...</div>
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We were about museum'd out after all of that, so we wandered around a bit, and decided we needed a coffee. We'd been meaning to check out this cool looking spot sitting on the river,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.mottoamfluss.at/en/welcome/" target="_blank">Motto am Fluss</a>, and not much else was open as it was Sunday, so we headed over to their cafe. You can see the restaurant on the left in the photo below - the cafe is on the top floor.</span></span></div>
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We ended up staying all afternoon! We had a coffee, then a cake, then wine, and then just ordered dinner! It was lovely. We just relaxed, talked about our trip, looked at our calendars for the upcoming weeks, and relaxed. What a great end to our fabulous European trip - we would fly home early the next morning. </div>
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One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-77072683749093465432016-09-14T22:02:00.000-04:002016-09-14T22:02:21.609-04:00Tulips!! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
As I mentioned in my <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/09/next-stop-rotterdam.html" target="_blank">Rotterdam post</a>, I felt that our tulip adventure warranted it's own post. Especially since there are dozens of photos here, and this is less then half of the ones I took. </div>
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One of our days in Rotterdam, we piled in the car and headed to Keukenhof, the massive flower garden park just outside of town. Their website says they have more than seven million tulips, daffodils and hyacinths on more than 32 hectares. They have 800 varieties of tulips. It's only open for 2 months in the spring. These pictures are beautiful but don't even begin to do the experience justice. </div>
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First, we walked through the grounds, looking at (and posing in front of!) all of the planted flowers. </div>
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Lovebug here wanted her photo taken in front of every patch... so of course we obliged! </div>
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Sniff sniff snifffff </div>
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Then, we walked through the greenhouse, which was just as amazing. Every patch was different and more beautiful than the last. I said to M at one point, I don't take many pictures of flowers usually, but I can't seem to stop!</div>
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Little bit was starting to get a little tired of looking at flowers....so what does daddy buy her? Ice cream of course, she's on holiday!</div>
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Next up, it was time for our bike ride! So, we <a href="https://www.rentabikevandam.nl/en/" target="_blank">rented our bikes</a>, strapped little bit in, and off we went! Little did we know, D decided to take us on the 26k route....we rode...and rode....and rode. </div>
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Looking for the tulips! </div>
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Found em! It was unbelievable. A little chilly, but the day was gorgeous. </div>
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Look Auntie Lindsey - no hands!!</div>
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We found this random cafe along the way that we made a pit stop for - we all needed a cold beer and a snack. And then we got up, and continued on - we even rode to the edge of the North Sea! Another quick pit stop...</div>
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As the sea was at the top of a never ending gradual climb.... and then, off again!</div>
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Finally (finally!) back at the park, we had to walk all the way back through on our wobby legs. At this point, it was almost closing time, and it was practically empty, which was actually quite nice. </div>
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Absolutely one of the very coolest things I've ever done. Of all of our travels, this is definitely top 5 experiences. And, getting to share it with our dear friends made it just that much better!</div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-787098767530940862016-09-09T10:40:00.000-04:002016-09-09T10:40:32.635-04:00Next stop - Rotterdam <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We once again walked the couple of blocks from our hotel in Amsterdam to the Centraal Station and boarded a train. This time, we had about a 40 minute trip over to Rotterdam. The city was essentially used as an example by Hitler during the war, and he leveled it...so it looks completely different than any of the other towns we'd seen - modern! Starting immediately with the super fancy Centraal Station train station!</div>
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Here we were meeting up with some of our closest friends who live in England! We were so excited to spend a few days together! M hadn't met baby A (baby....she's 3.5yo!) and hadn't seen D in several years. It was a great reunion! </div>
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I couldn't get enough of this one! You may remember her from a few of <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2013/05/weekend-in-kennebunk-me.html" target="_blank">my Maine visits</a> to see them when they come over to the states for a few weeks each year. </div>
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First, after visiting the "ravey baby," this massive glowing baby doll, we went to the <a href="http://markthalrotterdam.nl/" target="_blank">Rotterdam Market Hall</a>. </div>
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We wandered all around, checking out the different vendors and stands - 100 fresh food stands, 15 food shops and 8 restaurants in total. The ceiling was incredible - so many graphics of various foods. The windows are actual apartment windows! </div>
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We selected the Spanish tapas place, Pinchos, to grab a bite to eat before we headed out on our Rick Steves' guided walking tour!</div>
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We spotted the cubes, and just had to go see what they were up close!</div>
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These homes were designed and built by architect Piet Blom in the 1970s. They sit tilted on a hexagonal pole. </div>
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After exploring all around them, we decided to pay the fee and go into the cube museum! Once you enter and go up the narrow staircase, the lower level is the kitchen and living area, middle is the sleeping rooms, and the top floor is a sunroom of sorts. They're each a total of 100 square meters, but because of their tilt, only about 1/4 of the space is usable. </div>
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Once we had our fill of the cube museum, we continued on our trek around town. It was quite chilly this day, but luckily sunny! </div>
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We ducked in a coffee shop for a cake and coffee, and to warm up a bit!</div>
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After exploring the city for a bit, we decided it was time for dinner. We boarded a tram and headed across the river to the Hotel New York. It's the original Holland America Cruise Lines headquarters. We hung out in the bustling bar area and snacked on several appetizers for dinner - delicious! It was especially cool for me to go to the original HAL headquarters as a friend of mine is their president! They had all kinds of old ship models and posters around - neat spot. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.traveladdicts.net/2015/12/eclectic-rotterdam-architecture.html" target="_blank">Photo source</a></td></tr>
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The next day we were up and at it early to go check out the tulip fields - those deserve their own post, coming soon...<br />
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Our last day with our friends, we decided to show them a true <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/08/quaint-little-dutch-towns.html" target="_blank">Dutch town</a>, so we piled into the car and headed off to Delft. </div>
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Delft is know for it's historic canals and Delft blue pottery. There are loads of stores that are just FULL of both authentic and replica pottery pieces. </div>
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This is going to be wildly hard to believe, but we followed a Rick Steves' tour around the small town.</div>
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We stopped in this cute little cafe for lunch, as it was quite chilly outside!</div>
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I had a delicious and hearty beef stew, and of course we had to try their apple pie!</div>
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A little photo shoot after lunch!</div>
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The boys entertained the little one in the square while the girls did some pottery shopping.</div>
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And then we headed back to Rotterdam. Our friends had decided they needed to stay one more night, and were able to rent a cube through Airbnb! So we moved them into their space for the night! We walked back to the food mart and picked up some snacks and drinks for a little happy hour in the solarium before we headed off to the airport. One more selfie stick group photo, lots of hugs and a few tears, and we said goodbye. </div>
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Thanks for an awesome few days, Rotterdamn, we were off to Vienna!</div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-42538544255493070952016-08-27T09:14:00.000-04:002016-08-27T09:14:47.755-04:00Quaint little Dutch towns <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
During the 4 days we were home based in <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/08/wheels-up-to-amsterdam.html" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a>, we ventured out to a few quaint little towns around the area. We mostly took the trains to get to them...with one exception I'll get to later. </div>
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The first morning was the Alkmaar cheese market, so we took the 15 minute train from Amsterdam Centraal Station down to Alkmaar. Despite the rain, the crowds were thick. </div>
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The cheese carriers guide was established in 1593, and contains 30 men and a cheese father. There are 4 groups within the guild, and they are recognized by a different color, which you can see in their hats and bowties. At the market, the cheeses are weighed, sorted, sold and packed into trucks to take to stores and restaurants. </div>
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Suckers are heavy! </div>
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After watching the market for a bit, we went into the small but well done cheese museum, with a great view looking back at the square. </div>
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We stopped at one of the market vendors for a small collection of the different cheeses - perfect sample! </div>
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We explored the little town for a bit, grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich, and enjoyed the scenery. </div>
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The church was really cool...</div>
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And the inside was so different and beautiful.</div>
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We then were heading to Den Bosch next...however apparently some guy threw himself on the train tracks, causing a bit of a challenging travel adventure. We made it most of the way on the train, but then had to get off and cram onto coaches to go the rest of the way. What a mess! But...once in Den Bosch, it was another beautiful and quaint little town. </div>
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We walked around town before our scheduled time to go to the art exhibit. We discovered a beautiful little store, <a href="http://www.robbies.nl/" target="_blank">Robbies</a>, and enjoyed exploring the little town. We had tickets to go to the Jheroniumus Bosch exhibit that afternoon. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death, they were hosting a number of different events. This included bringing together a collection of his artwork from museums around the country back to Den Bosch, his birthplace. </div>
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I tried to see if we could get this guy home for our back yard...</div>
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The city was just bustling, and people we talked to said it had been that way since the exhibit opened. We walked around a bit more and decided on the restaurant <a href="http://lokaal1650.nu/" target="_blank">Lokaal 1650</a>, sitting outside on their lovely patio. </div>
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After our afternoon in Den Bosch, luckily the trip back to Amsterdam was a much smoother one. </div>
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Haarlem was the next town we ventured off too, and it was my favorite of the bunch. While small and quaint, it was a bit more bustling. </div>
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Some more rain that morning, but that didn't deter the market from setting up along the town streets. </div>
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So many tulips! You could buy 50 stalks for only 5 or 6 euros!</div>
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It must have been fair season, as every town we went to, including Amsterdam, had quite the little fair set up in the middle of the town square.</div>
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We poked our heads into the church, and again it was beautiful and very different than the others. </div>
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Over the centuries, the stained glass windows were neglected, and few originals remain. However, they have brought in windows from other demolished or defunct churches, so today it has quite a collection of different ones. </div>
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The organ steals the show in this church. It sits 30 meters off the floor and has over 5000 pipes. It has more than 25 larger than life statues. </div>
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They have free concerts twice a week, and one was happening the day we were there. It was still 2 hours before the show and people were already claiming their seats. Once the concert started, you weren't allowed to leave until it was over...so we decided to save that for the next trip, and just admire the organ while we were there. </div>
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Back outside we wandered around the exterior more, and then off to explore the town a bit. We did a bit of shopping... and Haarlam is where we acquired the large copper tray that I had to have...which then meant we'd have to carry it the rest of the trip! </div>
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Then we went to another church, but this one was a bit different... it was a brewery in the old church. </div>
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<span class="s1">Haarlem has been one of the best beer cities in the Netherlands, starting from the early middle ages! According to the Jopen website, "Jopen’s history goes back to 1407, when the recipe for Jopen Adriaan was first registered by the Haarlem Guild of Brewers." The brand really got going in 1994, when they started making their traditional beers, some that they still make today. While looking for a place to house the brewery, they discovered this church. They converted the church in 2010, and Jopen moved in. </span></div>
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They wanted people to be able to see where the brewing process took place while enjoying a beer or food. We were enjoying the spot so much, we stayed and had lunch and sampled a few of their beers!</div>
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After a great day in Haarlam, we headed back to Amsterdam. If you get to the Netherlands, be sure to get out and explore some of the beautiful little towns around the country!</div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-23140195801796880642016-08-09T13:33:00.001-04:002016-08-10T10:20:54.566-04:00Wheels up to Amsterdam!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
In April 2016, we headed off to Europe for an 11 day getaway. We started in Amsterdam! </div>
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Once we landed, we took the train to Central Station - and our hotel was just across the street. </div>
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We knew there would be a lot of bikes...but never expected a 3 level bike parking garage!</div>
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Once we got checked in and got some coffee, we were starving! Where did we go first? French fries, of course!</div>
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That's one happy guy right there. </div>
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We had downloaded several <a href="https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/netherlands/amsterdam" target="_blank">walking audio tours</a> from Rick Steves, so we were off to do our first one, the <a href="https://d3dqioy2sca31t.cloudfront.net/Projects/cms/production/000/004/395/original/8bb41393c07ee6e61ee76f207b5568cf/amsterdam-city-map.pdf" target="_blank">City Walk</a>! We each had them on our iPhones and were able to listen through our ear buds. They were all really good - and the timing was very good. We were able to pause when we wanted to duck into a store or linger longer. </div>
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We ducked into the Amsterdam Museum along the way...</div>
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and then we continued on our tour...</div>
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The tulips were amazing - and everywhere - and SO cheap! Here, 50 stems for 8 euros!</div>
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It was just as beautiful and picturesque as I'd imagined. </div>
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That afternoon we did a boat tour. But not a fancy, touristy one. </div>
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We took a <a href="http://www.thosedamboatguys.com/#intro" target="_blank">Those Dam Boat Guys</a> tour. It's an 'alternative' tour - so you are encouraged to bring food and drinks on board. This was our tour guide - he's lived in Amsterdam for 6 years after growing up in California. It was cool to hear from him about the culture and city. </div>
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We got to see the famous dancing ladies houses. They are nicknamed that as they look like 4 girlfriends who are just leaving a bar, arms around each other and a little tipsy. </div>
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For being just off the plane, we were doing pretty good!</div>
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Once off the boat, we headed to <a href="http://www.indewildeman.nl/index.php?lang=en&page=0" target="_blank">In De Wildeman</a>, a beer bar in the heart of the city in an old distillery. We found a good little spot at the bar, and were commenting on how busy it was. Well, turns out, it was their 30th anniversary party, and we just happened to be there!</div>
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The owner was there, and they had all kinds of special guests. </div>
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The gentleman had suffered from a stroke or something, but you could just tell the excitement and pride that he had of this bar. We didn't understand anything, but it didn't matter. </div>
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They were releasing special collaboration beers with 5 different brewers from famous breweries around the world. </div>
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Great fun!</div>
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We spent a few days exploring some smaller towns around Amsterdam (another post coming soon!), and then one more day back in the city. We did a couple more audio walking tours, went to the Anne Frank house, and some of the museums. If you go, and want to do the Anne Frank house, be sure to get tickets ahead of time. The lines were INSANE and would take hours... while it was interesting to see the house, and learn about the family and the war through her eyes, it's a pretty quick visit... I would have been sorely disappointed if I'd waited for hours. </div>
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It was chilly - but at least we had sun! </div>
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That night we went to the Foodhallen for dinner - it's a massive, indoor food market. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.6px;">Similar to those </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.6px;">in Copenhagen, Madrid and </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.6px;">London</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.6px;">, it's "a</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.6px;"> unique addition to Amsterdam.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.6px;"> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.6px;">The very first "indoor food market in the Netherlands, where you can enjoy good food and drink on site." The place was absolutely PACKED. They were eating and drinking on every possible surface. The food was delicious - we had several different things: a burger, pretzel dog, and more. What a fun evening in the midst of all the local hipsters!</span></span></span></span></div>
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On our last day, we did some more wandering, soaking in the sites, and a few museum visits. </div>
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Delicious lunch spot - and complete with cherry blossoms! We might have missed them in DC, but we had them in Amsterdam!</div>
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We had to find the sign and get a photo...even though with all of the people, you can hardly see the sign! We should have snuck one in at the airport, without any of the crowds!</div>
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A stop in the <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.8px;">Rijksmuseum, complete with a Rick Steve's tour of the highlights, and a trip to the Van Gogh museum for the afternoon. </span></span></div>
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Followed by apple pie, of course!</div>
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There's a very good chance we had 2 of these...</div>
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Our last night in Amsterdam we decided to try Indonesian food, and this little restaurant <a href="http://www.restaurantjun.nl/en/" target="_blank">Jun </a>was just perfect. The owner and chef were both just wonderful, and as nice and helpful as could be. We had a delicious meal, and enjoyed chatting with them. </div>
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And with that, we said goodbye to Amsterdam! We really enjoyed the city, and the atmosphere around. Yes, we smelled pot around almost every corner, but you kinda get used to it after a few days! We just loved the Dutch 'do whatever you want, just don't be a jerk about it' attitude. </div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-63544498733856436562016-07-12T22:49:00.000-04:002016-07-12T22:49:22.382-04:00A little bit of landscaping.Ok, a LOT of landscaping! This spring, we finally deciding it was time to bring in some help with the back yard. <br />
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When we <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2013/08/snapshots-from-our-weekend.html" target="_blank">first moved in</a>, we thought the back yard looked fine, but wanted to extend the small amount of grass. <br />
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That fall, we pulled up all of the vines that covered the entire back yard - it was unreal. We were pretty proud of ourselves, and had plans to move the monkey grass and put down seed in the spring....little did we know... Spring came and dozens of perennials grew up in our nicely cleaned out yard! You just can't imagine... we just didn't find the time to do the overhaul that year, but M cleared things a few times with the weed-wacker and ground clear spray. So when this spring came, we decided it was time to bring in some professionals...<br />
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We asked around, and tried to get a few different quotes from different landscaping companies. However, only one was professional enough to actually respond, show up on time, and answer all of our questions in a timely manner. Unfortunately he was so busy, and this was a 2 day project, that we didn't get it scheduled until the first week of July. I was literally counting down the days.<br />
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Danny and his team did an amazing job. We took out 3 medium sized dogwoods, plus another small tree. They limbed up our large Hickory tree, plus some other dogwoods that we kept, and trimmed back the remaining azaleas and boxwood. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Danny did the tree trimming himself.<br /></td></tr>
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They removed/moved all of the monkey grass that surrounded the grass, and put it along the back of the house. They removed all of the bricks that also surrounded the grass, plus all kinds of extra bricks and rocks that the previous owners had left in the back corner of the yard. We had already removed a ton, but there was still a lot left. They cleaned up everything else in the back, removing plants, massive hostas, <strike>dozens</strike> hundreds of bulbs, and a ton of weeds that had joined the party. They also moved 3 azaleas from one side of the walkway to the other and cleared out the vines along the fence. <br />
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Then, once everything was cleared and tilled, they put down new sod and planted 2 new crape myrtles. We are planning on adding a few more bushes to the back, but couldn't even imagine how much space was actually there when it was all covered! So we will probably add some hydrangeas next spring to fill up some of the open space.<br />
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I can't even tell you how thrilled we are with it. The open space is amazing - Cady loves it! She's been running all around, sniffing everything and sprinting from one side to the other. Before we wouldn't let her past the grass cause who knew what lurked back there!!<br />
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Can't wait to enjoy the rest of the summer in the back yard!!</div>
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Danny Sharpe, <a href="http://www.lookingsharpelandscapes.com/" target="_blank">Looking Sharpe Landscapes</a>, was great. He helped us to design the yard, was responsive while we went back and forth to decide what exactly our plan was, and then he and his guys did a great job. Highly recommend him from our experience!</div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-74607645401941105112016-05-04T10:39:00.000-04:002016-05-04T10:39:27.940-04:00Singapore for 24 hours<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
When M was researching flights home, one option was to fly through Singapore. So, we decided to stop and stay for 24 hours - <a href="http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/the-layover" target="_blank">Layover</a> Style. We had big plans to eat our way through town! It was rainy, humid, and very hot. </div>
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First - Hawker Centres. We started our adventure at the Hong Lim Food Centre, a popular hawker centre in the CBD. Hawker centres are permanent, open air markets for street food vendors to make and sell food. A little tough to see in the photo above, but the first 2 floors of that building is where the market is. There are dozens of stands in each centre selling all kinds of food and drink.</div>
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Through his research, M had found a few places that we were off to try. Now...actually finding said places proved to be a bit challenging, but finally we got the hang of it....the long lines helped us find them!</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">It's definitely not the prettiest dish we've ever had, but man it was delicious! It's c<span dir="ltr" id=":1cr">har kway teows, which means </span><span style="line-height: 16.12px;">literally "stir-fried ricecake strips," is a popular noodle dish in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.</span></span></div>
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M stood in line at our next stop while I went to get something to drink - we wanted to try something different. So I got a chocolate avocado smoothie - it was surprisingly tasty!</div>
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The next 2 dishes were also delicious! Wanton Mee and a chicken curry (I'm not sure of the name). </div>
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Seating is first come first served. It was so interesting to see people leaving umbrellas or coats or their purses to save a seat and go wait in line - no one would dare mess with anything! Two young guys sat down at our table, heard us speaking English and struck up a conversation with us. Super nice guy, he wants to get to the US one day! </div>
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We walked around the area a bit before we met up with our bike tour.</div>
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There were tons of these massive covers that were over alleys and walkways - to protect from rain and sun. </div>
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We met our bike group at <a href="https://www.letsgobikesingapore.com/" target="_blank">Let's Go Bike Singapore</a>. We love doing bike tours in cities - you see so much more than walking, and get some exercise! They're the same group as the company we did our crazy Bangkok bike tour with. Luckily, this tour was much calmer than the one in Bangkok! </div>
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We did the 'Historic Singapore' tour. Since Singapore
is so small, we were able to really see a ton of different areas on our
20km ride - Chinatown, Boat, Clarke and Robertson Quays, Singapore
River, Kampong Glam, Museum District, Raffles Hotel, and more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I always love spotting older men sitting around playing intense games of checkers. </div>
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Did I mention it was incredibly hot and humid?!</div>
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We stopped at a small cafe for a Kaya Bun, or peanut butter bun. Such a great snack!</div>
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Our tour group - the other couple was from Toronto and the man from Ft. Lauderdale. </div>
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One of my favorite parts of the city was how many different religions coexist together. For example, while the mosque still has the traditional call to prayer 5 times a day, they keep the volume low and point the speakers only towards the neighborhoods immediately around so to not disturb others. </div>
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The Merlion, half mermaid and half lion, is Singapore's national symbol. Unfortunately he was under construction when we were there, so he wasn't spewing water... but that didn't deter the massive crowds around him! </div>
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This was the last stop on our tour, which was fantastic - definitely recommend it. Such a great mix of old and new Singapore. Our guide Freddie was terrific. We felt like in just a short amount of time, we got a really good feel for the city. </div>
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After our bike ride we headed over to Orchard Road, the main shopping district of Singapore. The Christmas decorations were out in FULL force - it was absolutely unreal. These photos don't even begin to show many lights and decorations there were! They certainly don't mess around. </div>
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Once we were a bit overloaded, and surprisingly in the holiday spirit (despite the temperature), we went back to near where we finished our tour for dinner at an outdoor hawker centre, <a href="http://www.makansutra.com/eateries-stalls.aspx?mid=1" target="_blank">Makansutra</a>. With all of the city lights illuminating the skyline, it was really beautiful - very different look than in the daylight</div>
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We got the traditional wee nam kee chicken rice, as well as a stir fry dish hokkien prawn mee. The place was absolutely mobbed! We finally were able to grab 2 seats, our food and a pitcher of beer. We'd definitely earned dinner that day after all of our biking and walking! </div>
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A fabulous, whirlwind stop in a vibrant city. We so enjoyed our time there and can't wait to return one day. It was the perfect end to our trip on the other side of the world. </div>
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Back to our hotel to shower, pack up and head to the airport. Several people have asked me where we stayed - it was the <a href="http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/singapore/sincq/hoteldetail" target="_blank">Holiday Inn Express Clark Quay</a>. Great location, tiny but very nice room, would certainly recommend it. We had a reservation for both nights - our flight out wasn't until around midnight, and we knew we would want to clean up before the long journey home. </div>
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Flying through Tokyo, we landed back in DC the morning before Thanksgiving - and were so looking forward to spending the holiday in Richmond with our family and friends! </div>
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Time to plan another trip!</div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-91465038392458075382016-04-27T13:57:00.001-04:002016-05-01T20:52:02.340-04:00Gourmet Escape <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We had already planned to spend a few days in Margaret River before we discovered the <a href="http://www.gourmetescape.com.au/" target="_blank">Gourmet Escape</a> food and wine festival... but it did help determine our order of cities to visit! And what a fabulous way to end our time in Australia. </div>
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In addition to the actual festival, there were several other events that you could purchase tickets to, such as specialty chef pop-up dinners. We decided on 2 - both things that were unique to Australia, that we couldn't easily repeat at home in DC. </div>
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The first was Dining on the Brusselton Jetty. Sponsored<span style="font-family: inherit;"> by the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Western Australian Fishing Industry Council (WAFIC) and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), it was a seafood focused meal. The dinner took place at the end of the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, which we had to take a boat out to! </span></span></div>
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Beautiful but quite windy evening as the group waits for the boat to arrive. </div>
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Not too shabby!<br />
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Very cool to see the sun setting in Margaret River, just at the same time as it was rising at home. </div>
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The tent on the end of the jetty! We were lucky the dinner even was able to occur, the evening's before had been postponed due to the wind. </div>
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Sitting inside the beautiful tent. There were 2 waves of diners, we were in the second. </div>
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The 2 celebrity chefs, Rick Stein and his son Jack, came out and did a bit of a Q&A, told stories and jokes, in the middle of the evening. They were quiet entertaining! We also got to chatting with a lovely couple on the boat who we sat with at dinner, so it was a very fun evening! We are now Facebook friends - gotta love social media. You never know - our paths might cross again one day!<br />
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The next day was our day to attend the actual festival. It was incredibly hot that day, but we still had a great (albeit sweaty) time trying all kinds of different foods from the chefs. </div>
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I was so hot I could hardly catch my breath - I don't know how these guys were cooking over hot grills! </div>
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After a few hours and lots of delicious food and drink, we took the bus back to the house to clean up for the event I was most looking forward to - dinner on the Castle Bay beach!</div>
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It was even more beautiful than I'd imagined!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Chef <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Guillaume Brahimi was the celebrity chef of the event. He's from France, but currently living in Sydney. He grilled the lamb chops that we had for dinner on this massive grill, right on the beach! Luckily, at this point in the day, the weather had cooled down and it was quite nice.</span></span></div>
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We were literally right on the water! They were starting to stack sandbags while we were eating to keep the tide from getting into the tents.</div>
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We had lots of time to mill around, try different beers, take photos and chat with folks before dinner. Lots of the other celebrity chefs who were in town for the festival were at dinner, and it was very cool to meet some of them. We met the guys behind <a href="http://www.porteno.com.au/" target="_blank">Porteno</a>, one of the restaurants we ate at in <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/03/stop-3-sydney.html" target="_blank">Sydney</a>! </div>
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Dinner was served family style, and was absolutely delicious. We sat with 2 couples who both live in Singapore, and since that was our next stop, we were able to get some tips!</div>
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It just couldn't have been a better last evening in Australia. </div>
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The next morning, on our way back to Perth to fly out, we made a few stops along the way. First, coffee with a view. </div>
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and a windy selfie!</div>
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Our final stop was at <a href="http://eaglebaybrewery.com.au/" target="_blank">Eagle Bay Brewery</a> for lunch on their back patio. It was beautiful! The food and beer was delicious. </div>
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And with that, our time in Australia had come to an end. I knew it would be beautiful and the people would be lovely, but we were just blown away by everything. If only it wasn't quite so far to travel to visit!! </div>
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Next stop, a 24 hour whirlwind tour of Singapore! </div>
One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-60996265702417622182016-04-13T08:47:00.000-04:002016-04-13T12:01:18.773-04:00Margaret River<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
After a too-quick stop in <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-quick-visit-to-perth.html" target="_blank">Perth</a>, we headed south to Margaret River...another Australian wine region. Starting to see a theme? It was about a 3 hour, incredibly boring drive down to Margaret River. Once we got to town, we made a few stops - <a href="http://www.providore.com.au/" target="_blank">Providore</a> was first. A beautiful little shop wit<span style="font-family: inherit;">h a wide collection <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">of home made jams, olive oils, sauces, dressings and wines. After tasting several delicious sauces, and wishing we could take them all home, we went next door to the </span></span><a href="http://chocolatefactory.com.au/" target="_blank">Margaret River Chocolate Company</a>. Here, we did stock up! One bar for mom, one bar for dad, one for M's mom, one for us...and so on! </div>
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Then we headed into 'downtown' and checked into our adorable Airbnb, <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4789332" target="_blank">Yellow Door</a>. It was such a cute little house - great size, perfect location, and adorably decorated. M was quite proud that he was able to park the car in the narrow carport, he requested a photo. Actually, the bigger Camry was much easier to drive that the little whatever-we-had in <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/02/yarra-valley.html" target="_blank">Yarra Valley</a> because he felt more comfortable in the car, feeling like he knew the corners better. </div>
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We were only a couple blocks away from the cute little downtown so we walked over for dinner. First we went to <a href="http://www.settlerstavern.com/" target="_blank">Settlers Tavern</a> to try a few local beers. Then we walked across the street for dinner at <a href="http://www.swings.com.au/taphouse-kitchen/swings-taphouse-kitchen.html" target="_blank">Swings</a>. The place was absolutely mobbed and the food was delicious. </div>
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The next morning we got up early and went to the local farmers market for coffee and green smoothies. We had a tour booked for the day with <a href="http://topdroptours.com.au/" target="_blank">Top Drop Tours</a>, and they picked us up at the house. </div>
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Our first stop was <a href="https://www.juniperestate.com.au/" target="_blank">Juniper Estate</a>, and I think it might have been our favorite winery of this area. We ended up going back before we left town to get a couple bottles of one of our favorites of the whole trip to bring home - their 2005 Estate Shiraz.</div>
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Next was <a href="http://www.windowsestate.com/" target="_blank">Windows Estate</a> - what a beautiful little winery. They had some great wines. They also had a beautiful little set up with gift items and jewelry for purchase, as well as a full cheese counter. We also stopped back by Windows on our way out of town to get a bottle, as well as I picked up a beautiful necklace to remember our awesome trip.</div>
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One more before lunch - <a href="http://www.capenaturalistevineyard.com.au/" target="_blank">Cape Naturaliste</a>. The owner was a trip, and it was so fun to do our tasting with her. We tried all kinds of different things, and enjoyed playing with their adorable dogs. The setting was beautiful and wines delicious. </div>
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Lunch time! We went over to <a href="http://www.hayshedhill.com.au/" target="_blank">Hay Shed Hill Winery</a> for lunch on their back deck. We were serenaded by a group <span style="font-family: inherit;">of <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.12px; text-align: left;">didgeridoo</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.12px; text-align: left;"> players, which was so cool. The place was packed, and everyone loved the music! </span></span><br />
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I can't remember what exactly I had - but I DO remember that it was beautiful and absolutely delicious. We each tried just a couple of their wines during lunch - the rose was perfect with my salad on this hot day! </div>
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Final stop of the day was <a href="http://www.burchfamilywines.com.au/" target="_blank">Burch Family Wines</a>. It's a huge facility with several different brands of wine in the same place. We hopped around a bit and tried several different things. The tasting room manager was determined to find a chardonnay we liked...and we just don't like them! But applaud her effort. </div>
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Our tour guide was fantastic - I can't seem to remember his name! But he was as nice as could be, funny, and very knowledgeable of the area and wines. We had one other couple on the tour with us, and they were very nice as well. While a lot of times we like to do the wine tours on our own, in areas that are so new to us, it's great to have an expert guide! We even ran into him the next day at the food festival we attended. He came over to us and chatted for a few minutes! Great to see a familiar face!</div>
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Burch Family was a great spot to end the wine tour day. We headed back to the house to get ready for our first Gourmet Escape event - dinner on a jetty!</div>
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One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-43880182796523217032016-04-10T21:11:00.000-04:002016-04-13T12:02:47.960-04:00A quick visit to Perth<div style="text-align: center;">
After a busy, but relaxing 2 days in <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/04/wine-tasting-in-adelaide.html">Adelaide</a>, we packed up again and flew to Western Australia and Perth. Although it's a pretty easy 3 hour flight, we were a bit delayed that day, so unfortunately arrived in Perth later than we had hoped. Still, we checked into our hotel and grabbed the train south to Freemantle. We had planned to spend the afternoon poking around in and out of the little shops, but most were closed by the time we got there. </div>
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Since the shops were closed and we were hungry, we grabbed a table outside at <a href="http://www.themonk.com.au/" target="_blank">The Monk</a>. After sharing a taster flight of their beers and a snack, we wandered on. It had become dark and was a bit chilly sitting outside!</div>
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As you may know, M is afraid of heights. We were walking through a park heading over to our dinner stop when we passed a Ferris wheel. I jokingly said let's go - and for some reason he agreed! So we bought our tickets and stepped into our own little enclosed carriage thing, and off we went! Quite fun!</div>
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I was so proud of him! We needed photo evidence - I knew my mom wouldn't believe me otherwise.</div>
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After our thrilling ride, we finished our walk to <a href="https://littlecreatures.com.au/verify" target="_blank">Little Creatures</a>. Definitely one of the most well known breweries in Australia, as it seemed like everyone we told where we were going suggested we check it out. We went in the tasting room first and shared a sampler tray of their beers. Then we went next door to the restaurant for dinner - we were starving at this point! The place was packed, but we grabbed the end of a communal table right in front of the kitchen. We ordered one of their wood fired pizzas and a few other things to share - and everything was delicious. </div>
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The next morning, we got up and out pretty early. We grabbed some coffee and set off on a little <a href="http://www.perth.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/COP%2092845%20Icons%20of%20Influence%20Trail_0.pdf" target="_blank">self guided walking tour</a>. The City of Perth has a few to chose from, complete with a map and building descriptions! We just downloaded it onto my phone and off we went. It was a beautiful day!</div>
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A beautiful little shopping arcade called London Court</div>
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Perth Town Hall, which opened in 1870.</div>
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St. George's Cathedral</div>
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Government House, completed in 1864. Just as we walked by, one of the staff members came out to pick some herbs from the garden.</div>
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Sculpture in Stirling Gardens. We really loved the mix of old and new throughout the parts of the city we saw. </div>
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We got about halfway through the walk before my friend Peter called us, saying he was on his way to pick us up. Another former club manager, we met at one of my previous conferences, and I promised if I ever made it to Western Australia, I would call. Well, we had lost touch for years, but a few months before our trip I finally found him on LinkedIn - and you can imagine the surprise when I told him we were coming to visit! We only had a few hours together, but he took us on a great little tour of Perth! </div>
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First, beaches. In the few short minutes we stood on this beautiful beach, a coast guard type truck drove by warning folks that a 30m shark was just off the coast, and people should stay out of the water for 'just a few minutes while they shoo him away.' There was a helicopter just hovering overhead to do the shooing... guarantee I would not be getting back in that water! But apparently this occurrence was not out of the ordinary! </div>
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Next he took us up to Kings Park and Botanic Gardens. According to their website,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">Kings Park is one of the world’s largest and most beautiful inner city parks.</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">It is rich in Aboriginal and European history, contemporary culture and offers innovative design, displays and services.</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">Kings Park is home to the spectacular Western Australian Botanic Garden, which displays over 3,000 species of the State’s unique flora. Two thirds of the 400 hectare park is protected as bushland and provides a haven for native biological diversity." </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">It was packed on this beautiful morning. We stopped to enjoy the sweeping views, take a few photos and then grabbed a coffee from their cafe to sit and visit for a bit. It was great to catch up, and we promised our next trip to Perth would be longer!</span></span></div>
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He dropped us back off at our downtown hotel. We walked around the CBD a bit more, stopping for a delicious lunch at <a href="http://www.grilld.com.au/" target="_blank">Grill'd</a>. We really loved Perth, and hated not having more time to explore the city. It was beautiful and had a really unique, new design feel to it - that's what you get in a modern city built from new coal money! But alas, it was time to go south, so we grabbed our rental car and set out for Margaret River!</div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-36696732480074247022016-04-03T08:14:00.002-04:002016-04-13T12:05:41.323-04:00Wine tasting in Adelaide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
After a great few days <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/03/stop-3-sydney.html" target="_blank">exploring Sydney and visiting with friends</a>, we boarded a plane and headed to South Australia and the town of Adelaide. Adelaide is the 5th most populated city in Australia. We had originally intended to rent a car, but after our <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/02/yarra-valley.html" target="_blank">adventures driving in wine country</a> in Yarra Valley, and since we didn't end up going on the hot air balloon ride, we decided to explore the option of hiring a driver for 2 days. After a little bit of searching, we discovered <a href="http://www.topnotchwinetours.com.au/" target="_blank">David</a> of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TopNotchWineTours" target="_blank">Top Notch Wine Tours</a>, and he was available, so we booked it! What a great decision. He was incredibly knowledgeable of the areas and wineries, and as nice as could be. M was able to send him the list of places he'd researched, and David paired that with some of his favorites to put together a fabulous couple of days exploring the area. </div>
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He picked us up at the airport, and off to McLaren Vale we went! This area is about 35km south of the town of Adelaide, and as with most of Australia, very well known for it's SHIRAZ! With a Mediterranean climate, it has marine influences as it sits along the Gulf St. Vincent.</div>
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First we stopped by <a href="http://www.oliverstaranga.com/" target="_blank">Oliver's Taranga</a>, which we just loved. The wines were great, and the cellar door manager was very personable. It's amazing what a positive (or negative!) affect the person pouring the wines can have on your experience. Since this was our first stop, we didn't want to get too ahead of ourselves...but we did buy a bottle to enjoy while in Adelaide that week.</div>
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Next David took us to one of the more well known, popular wineries in the area, <a href="http://www.gorge.com.au/" target="_blank">Samuel Gorge</a>. It was incredibly busy that day with lots of visitors as well as bottling, etc. Back to my earlier comment about how often times the person makes the experience? The couple of wines we got to taste were fine, but not our favorites. I'd love to try this place again if we ever get back over there.</div>
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Lunch at <a href="http://salopian.com.au/" target="_blank">Salopian Inn</a> was next. What a beautiful, quaint little spot! We wanted to try kangaroo, as people kept asking if we'd had it, and it was on the menu, so we went for it! Apparently you have to cook it just right. This one was braised, and it was just delicious! We also order<span style="font-family: inherit;">ed steamed pork buns and a salad. Everything was just wonderful. </span></div>
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Who knew kangaroo tail had a bone?!</div>
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After lunch, we headed over to <a href="https://www.goodiesonbrewery.com.au/" target="_blank">Goodieson brewery</a> to check them out. Jeff and Mary Goodieson, the husband-wife team, were both there bottling and brewing at the same time. The additional guy who was working there stopped what he was doing to come show us their beers. He was from Chicago, so fun to talk about the US for a few minutes. </div>
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Two more wineries before the day was over. First, <a href="http://www.mollydookerwines.com/" target="_blank">Mollydooker</a>. We loved both the view and the wines. They make a ton of different ones, and about 80,000 dozen cases a year. We've found them several times here in DC in stores and on wine lists - and it's always quite the excitement when that happens! </div>
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Finally we stopped by <a href="http://www.kaybrothersamerywines.com/" target="_blank">Kay Brothers</a>. They've been around since the late 1800s! This was a bonus having David with us - they were closing up, but stayed open and spent time with us. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks for the action photo, David!</td></tr>
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After a beautiful, warm day in McLaren Vale, David took us back into Adelaide where we checked into our Airbnb. This was our first experience with Airbnb. It was fine - nothing fancy, more like a college apartment.... but it was very convenient, and had a washer/dryer. At the halfway point in the trip, this was crucial. We did some laundry, checked in with our email and social medias, and relaxed a bit before heading out to dinner. The town of Adelaide is very quaint and walk-able. We had dinner at a small tapas restaurant, <a href="http://udaberri.com.au/" target="_blank">Udaberri</a>. We ordered a few meats and cheeses to try, and sampled some local beers, too. We turned in pretty early as David was coming bright and early the next morning!</div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Day
2 and we were off to 'the Barossa.' The Barossa Valley is one of
Australia's oldest wine regions, about 56km (35 miles) northeast of Adelaide.
According to Wikipedia, "many of Australia's largest and most
notable wineries are either headquartered or own extensive holdings in the
Barossa Valley, including the well know Penfolds."</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.thewillowsvineyard.com.au/cellardoor.html" target="_blank">Photo source</a></td></tr>
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Our first stop of the day was <a href="https://www.twohandswines.com/" target="_blank">Two Hands</a>. These wines, especially Gnarly Dudes and Bella's Garden, can be found around the states relatively easily. The cellar door manager was fantastic - hilarious, knowledgeable, and great to spend an hour with. The tasting was beautiful, and included many of their specialty wines. My favorite was Sophie's Garden, as well as the Ares Shiraz in their Flagship series. What a great start to the day.</div>
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PLUS they had 2 beautiful pups wandering around!</div>
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Stop #2 was at <a href="http://www.greenockcreekwines.com.au/" target="_blank">Greenoch Creek Winery</a>, per David's suggestion. A teeny tiny little tasting room in a basement, the ladies who were working there were very nice, and the setting was beautiful. However, the wines were not our favorites. </div>
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Following Greenoch, we had one more stop before lunch - <a href="http://www.thewillowsvineyard.com.au/" target="_blank">The Willows Vineyard</a>. The quaint little house where the cellar door was located was very unassuming and comfortable. They have a small production, so don't have too many visitors - this was one of David's suggestions. We loved both of the Shiraz's we had, and REALLY loved their sparkling Shiraz! We grabbed a bottle of that to take home. Apparently the Aussies drink a lot of the chilled, sparkling Shiraz at holidays and get togethers. We totally wished we could have brought home enough to have at Thanksgiving, but our suitcases were already getting a little full. </div>
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Finally - lunch! And, of course, a tasting too. We headed to <a href="http://www.firstdropwines.com/" target="_blank">First Drop Wine's</a> <a href="http://firstdropwines.com/hotb/">Home of the Brave</a> Tapas Room. The restaurant and tasting room are in a 1930s still house. They have several different flight options to enjoy during lunch. We loved everything - great spot. Especially the sign painted behind the bar!</div>
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After lunch, we went to <a href="http://www.langmeilwinery.com.au/" target="_blank">Langmeil Winery</a>. They are the "home of what they believe to be the world's oldest surviving shiraz vineyard: The Freedom 1843."</div>
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We tried a little bit of everything there! The lady in the cellar door was as nice as could be. They had a ton of different Shiraz to try, and they were all great. </div>
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Finally, David took us to the <a href="https://www.artisansofbarossa.com/" target="_blank">Artisans of Barossa</a> tasting room.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>"Artisans of Barossa is a group of like-minded producers with a common goal to protect and promote small batch, sub-regional wine making. We are six individual wineries, with different wine making styles representing the breadth and diversity" of the Barossa Valley. It was fantastic. The guy who helped us was hilarious, and incredibly knowledgeable. We ended up buying several bottles from them - everything was so good - and different from what we'd tried at the previous places. Plus the views were beautiful!</div>
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It was the perfect end to our South Australia wine tour. That night we wandered around the town a bit more, and found a little spot around the corner from our apartment for dinner. We had kangaroo again! This time in a bolognese sauce that was good, but not quite as good as the day before. After a stop for ice cream, it was time for bed - off to Perth in the morning!</div>
<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-83305615915781821562016-03-01T15:40:00.001-05:002016-04-04T10:32:26.608-04:00Stop #3 - Sydney! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
With a grin still on my face and happy heart from a night full of laughs and stories in <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/02/yarra-valley.html">Yarra Valley</a> (and a slight headache from the wine!), we moved onto the next leg of our journey - Sydney! </div>
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We arrived, dropped our stuff at the hotel, and headed out to explore. When we got there, it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. </div>
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It was just before their version of Veteran's Day, so there were lots of activities happening - including this military band performing for workers on their lunch breaks on Martin Place. </div>
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We decided to join one of the free walking tours to get a good overview and lay of the land. It started at City Hall/St. Andrews Cathedral. These trees with purple flowers were everywhere, and so beautiful! The pictures don't do it justice. </div>
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We walked through the Sydney Queen Victoria Market...</div>
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and through Hyde Park, over to St. Mary's Cathedral. </div>
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The park was beautiful with huge, gorgeous trees. About this point the rain started...</div>
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We got a big kick out of their 'Christmas tree' that was being put together piece by piece in Martin Place. We walked by this tree each day we were in town, and they made VERY little progress...</div>
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There was a really cool alley way with an art exhibit hanging in it - it's 100s of bird cages! They even pipe in bird sounds...</div>
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At this point of the tour, the sky literally opened up and it poooouuuured. We didn't have any kind of rain gear with us, so we dropped off the tour (with most of the other people), ducked into a restaurant, had a pint and waited for it to slow. </div>
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That evening, after the rain had settled, we headed over to the Surry Hills area of Sydney for dinner. Surry Hills is a neighborhood that's full of bars, galleries, restaurants, and shops, and I think would be a really fun area to live in. </div>
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We went to <a href="http://www.porteno.com.au/?home=1" target="_blank">Porteno</a> first, which is a very popular restaurant in town. It's owned and operated by 2 of the more famous chefs in town. Then we wandered over to <a href="http://doveandolive.com.au/" target="_blank">Dove and Olive</a>, had a few Aussie beers, made friends with the bouncers and learned all about their crazy strict alcohol rules, and turned in for the night. </div>
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Saturday morning, despite the gloomy, chilly day, we boarded a ferry and headed to Manly Beach. </div>
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We walked from the bay to the beach, and around the streets of the town a bit. Despite the weather, there were lots of folks out getting brunch or coffee and wandering around. </div>
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Then we met up with our tour group - we were going on <a href="http://davesbrewerytours.com.au/" target="_blank">Dave's Brewery Tour</a>! </div>
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First stop - <a href="http://www.nomadbrewingco.com.au/Home/page0.html" target="_blank">Nomad Brewing</a>. </div>
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We got to taste several different beers that they make, and have a behind the scenes tour, and get to know what they're all about. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Second stop was </span><a aria-describedby="js_9" aria-haspopup="true" aria-owns="js_8" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=267128776785857&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="http://www.mobrewing.com.au/" id="js_a" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Modus Operandi Brewing Co.</a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> for lunch and a few tastes. Everything was </span></span><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">delicious</span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> - definitely the favorite stop of the day. </span></span></span></div>
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Finally, we ended the tour at <a href="http://4pinesbeer.com.au/">4 Pines Brewing</a>. It was a great tour, and a really nice way to get a good feel for Sydney breweries, even in the rain!</div>
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Ferry back to the city and time to get ready for dinner. </div>
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While we were back in the hotel, we saw more news coverage of the awful Paris attacks. When we walked down to dinner, the Opera House was glowing in red, white and blue in support. </div>
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We had very special dinner plans - we were meeting more friends of mine! Nick and Dave, who I met ages ago at my first CMAA conference, both live in Sydney, so we were able to spend a fabulous evening together! </div>
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Dave attended most of the conferences over the years, plus had a quick DC visit one evening in between a whirlwind golf tour, so I had seen him a few times over the years - I hadn't seen Nick since 2007! It was like no time had passed at all. </div>
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Dinner with the harbor and Opera House in view, drinks just next door, retelling old stories, meeting a new girlfriend, and reconnecting. It was a fantastic evening in Sydney - only complete with a little photo shoot in front of the Opera House!<br />
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Sunday was another gloomy day with sporadic downpours. Luckily, we were able to still wander around town and explore some of the neighborhoods. </div>
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We stopped to get Aussie Pies during a break in the rain - I had the steak and mushrooms and M had one with curry, 'Tiger Style' - topped with peas, mash and gravy. They were delicious, and perfect on the cold day. </div>
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After lunch, we went to the fish market. It's supposedly the 'second largest in the world after Tokyo's.' Well...either we missed something, or the marketing is a big of a stretch, because it was a bit disappointing after visiting the market in Tokyo last year...</div>
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Finally in the afternoon, the rain stopped, so we were able to walk around the grounds of the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. </div>
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That evening, Nick met us for dinner and we went to this delicious Malaysian street food restaurant, <a href="http://www.hawker.com.au/">Hawker</a>. He's just recently moved to Sydney from Melbourne, and his family hadn't made the transition yet...so he was thrilled to get out of the apartment for dinner!</div>
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Then he took us to this wild ice cream shop <a href="http://n2extremegelato.com.au/">N2</a> - where they use liquid nitrogen for the ice cream!</div>
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Walking back to the hotel that evening was another memorial to the Paris attacks - City Hall was shining bright in red, white and blue lights. </div>
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Monday we woke up and were THRILLED to have a beautiful, sunny day! Finally! Luckily we saved a few activities, hoping for sunshine. First, we rented bikes and biked across the Harbor Bridge! </div>
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Someone (not me) is afraid of heights...and we were both quite proud that he made it across the bridge! The bridge itself is massive - there's a pedestrian lane, car lanes, trains, AND a bike lane. </div>
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They flew the French flag on the bridge the whole time we were in town. </div>
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Back across the bridge, we returned our bikes and raced down to meet our morning tour of the Opera House. I'm so glad we made time for this as it was one of the coolest things we did on the trip. </div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">In 1956, the New South Wales government held an open-ended international design competition. The wining design was originally discarded, and a loan juror didn't like any that had been selected so went back through the discard pile to discover the drawings. According to the <a href="http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/house_history_landing.aspx">Opera House website</a>, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">"</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The design solution and construction of the shell structure took eight years to complete and the development of the special ceramic tiles for the shells took over three years." The building finally opened in 1973. </span></div>
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The glass is designed so that if you're inside, taking a photo of the skyline at night, it will not reflect back on you as it is all slanted just slightly. </div>
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After the tour, we jumped on a bus and headed to Coogee Beach to meet Dave for lunch. We ducked into the <a href="http://coogeebayhotel.com.au/eat-drink/">Coogee Beach Hotel</a>, which has 4-5 different restaurants. We sat at an open window just overlooking Arden Street, the main drag, and the beach just on the other side. The day couldn't have been prettier. </div>
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Also - small world - as we're sitting there, a group of men in blazers walked in... and I instantly recognized one as one of our current members! Not wanting to interrupt (and I'm in shorts and sneakers!), I decided to simply send an email after the fact and mention what happened. About 30 minutes later, as we were finishing our lunch, they came walking right by our table so I had to speak! We were both totally shocked to see the other one 1000s of miles away!</div>
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After lunch, we went on the <a href="http://bonditocoogeewalk.com.au/">Coogee to Bondi Beach walk</a>. The 'cliff top coastal walk' stretches for 6km with stunning views of beaches, houses and more. </div>
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We ended in the famous Bondi Beach, where we found a pub for a snack and few beers - we'd worked hard for that!</div>
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Our last night in Sydney we headed back down to Chinatown to the original restaurant from the owners of Hawker, <a href="http://www.mamak.com.au/">Mamak</a> for Malaysian food. It was just as good as the night before. Luckily the line wasn't too long, so we were able to sit pretty quickly - we'd heard the lines could be crazy! It was absolutely delicious. As you probably guessed, we headed back to N2 for another round of ice cream! </div>
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After a fabulous few days in Sydney, it was time to head west. Next stop - Adelaide! </div>
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<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-23855915426563015022016-02-08T10:57:00.000-05:002016-02-08T10:57:40.277-05:00Kangaroos!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
One of the absolute musts while we were in Australia was to see a kangaroo. And NOT in a zoo, in real-life habitat. I said this to my friend Ben a time or two, and he nonchalantly said that he was sure we'd see one somewhere. Well - did we ever! The grounds of the <a href="http://www.yeringcottages.com.au/" target="_blank">Yering Gorge Cottages</a> were full of them!! It was fabulous. </div>
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They have these kangaroo crossing signs all over Yarra Valley. </div>
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Our first night there when we saw them just down from our cottage in the field, we were so excited. See kangaroos, Check! And lots of them, too! </div>
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The morning we were supposed to go on the hot air balloon ride that was canceled, we ended up having a very quite, relaxing morning sitting on our porch, having breakfast with the kangaroos! It was really amazing, and wild how close they were! Little did we know how much they'd really be around, just hanging out!</div>
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There are 2 albino kangaroos on the property, and we got to see one - Ben was really excited we saw one as they're very rare. </div>
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It was around the time where the moms were kicking the joeys (or johnnys, as M kept calling them) out of the nest, so to say. So we'd see them kinda fighting with each other when the babies wanted to crawl in the pouch. They were very sweet to watch together. </div>
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We even got to see close up how a joey actually hops into the pouch!</div>
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Can you imagine?!</div>
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Meanwhile, dad's just lounging around...</div>
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Hope you enjoyed our little peak into our new kangaroo friends' lives!</div>
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Now...off to Sydney!</div>
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One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-40420387898716630682016-02-01T11:05:00.000-05:002016-04-04T10:32:52.624-04:00Yarra Valley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We picked up our rental car in downtown <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/01/melbourne-stop-1-on-our-australian.html">Melbourne</a>, and headed east to wine country! First, getting acclimated with driving on the 'other' side of everything! </div>
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He only hit one curb getting out of downtown...and I don't blame him at all, it was trying to do one of Melbourne's insane 'hook turns.' As if being on the other side of the road and the car wasn't bad enough, Melbourne has created these crazy hook turns - according to google, "a<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;"> </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;">hook turn</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;"> is a right </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;">turn</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;"> from the left-hand lane. A </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;">hook turn</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;"> is required to be made at most intersections in central </span><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;">Melbourne</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.2px;"> where trams operate." </span></span></div>
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He did great! The worst part was that not only are you sitting on the right, but the windshield whippers and turn signal are on opposite sides of the steering wheel, too. I have to admit, I got quite a kick out of every time he hit the wrong one! But was very grateful I didn't have to drive, I could just navigate.</div>
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Ahhh, wine country. Our first stop was <a href="https://www.coldstreamhills.com.au/?&lang=" target="_blank">Coldstream Hills</a>. It was a beautiful spot with lovely views. Famous Australian winemaker and connoisseur James Halliday started Coldstream Hills back in 1985.<br />
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After our first tasting, we stopped at <a href="http://www.sthuberts.com.au/" target="_blank">St. Hubert's</a> cellar door (tasting room). We found several there we liked, including one we picked up for dinner - The Stag. </div>
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Next stop - lunch! <a href="http://www.meletos.com/cafe/" target="_blank">Meletos Cafe</a> was in a beautiful setting with gorgeous views for lunch. </div>
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We ate a lot of pizza on this trip...it felt as though it was on every menu! We also had this delicious grilled asparagus, and maybe my favorite dish of the trip: gnocchi with chopped scallops, chorizo, mozzarella and basil in a tomato sauce - omg it was delicious!</div>
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After lunch, we walked over to the <a href="https://napoleone.com.au/" target="_blank">Napoleone Brewery</a>, which is inside of Meletos. We had a great time trying several beers and chatting for a long time with the head brewer and some of the other guys who worked there. We shared lots of US beer stories, and got some good recommendations for the rest of our trip. </div>
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The afternoon was beautiful, so we grabbed a pint and headed outside to enjoy the scenery.</div>
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After the big lunch, we weren't too hungry for dinner, so we stopped by the <a href="http://www.yvd.com.au/" target="_blank">Yarra Valley Dairy</a> for some cheeses and meats for dinner. </div>
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My friend who I mentioned in the <a href="http://bakerlg.blogspot.com/2016/01/melbourne-stop-1-on-our-australian.html" target="_blank">previous post </a>about Melbourne, is the GM of the Eastern Golf Club in Yarra Valley. The just opened the new clubhouse in the second half of 2015. It's beautiful and huge - we got the full tour! On the back part of the property is where the <a href="http://www.yeringcottages.com.au/" target="_blank">Yering Gorge Cottages</a> are - a quiet, lovely setting. </div>
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The property is just beautiful! The rolling hills of the golf course were green and lush! AND there were kangaroos!! I told Ben I better see one...and he delivered! See them in the photo above, just to the left of the natural area! More on that later...</div>
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The cottage was just fantastic. The setting was perfect, and the cottage was exactly what we needed. </div>
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That night, after a long day at the club, Ben came over for a little while to share the cheeses, meats, and wine that we'd collected throughout the day. </div>
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The next morning we were supposed to go on a hot air balloon ride that M had given me for my birthday. Unfortunately, the evening before, we got a call that said the weather was "too unstable" for us to fly. So bummed! However, instead of having to be up and at the launch site at 4:30AM (!!), we were able to sleep in and enjoy breakfast on the deck. </div>
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Time for wine!</div>
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Our first stop was Sticks, or so we thought! Apparently, Sticks had just recently closed their cellar door, and <a href="http://greenstonevineyards.com.au/" target="_blank">Greenstone Vineyards</a> had taken over. So, we enjoyed tasting their wines! Their Shiraz's were really good, we enjoyed all of them. The tasting room manager was very sweet, and was so excited to talk to Americans. Her favorite topic was the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, and how she'd always wanted to make pumpkin pie. I told her about Southern Living, and promised that would be the perfect spot to find a good recipe. Hope she had some luck!</div>
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<span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span><span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Next up - time for lunch. Since the BAC level is much lower, and you know, that whole 'driving on the other side of the road' thing was still uncomfortable, we were very selective in the wineries we visited. Also, with any traffic stop in Australia, a breathalyzer test is required. There was no messing around!</span></div>
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We wanted to try <a href="http://www.innocentbystander.com.au/" target="_blank">Innocent Bystander </a>winery, and they're actually in one big facility with <a href="http://www.innocentbystander.com.au/wines/giant-steps.html" target="_blank">Giant Steps</a>, <a href="http://www.innocentbystander.com.au/wines/mea-culpa.html" target="_blank">Mea Culpa</a>, and a wonderful restaurant. Since we'd wanted to try all 3 wineries, we were in luck! So we did a bit of a tasting, then had a delicious lunch! Guess what we had....pizza! Everything - the food, wine, and coffee - was so good. Giant Steps and Innocent Bystander had some of our favorites of the whole trip!</div>
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After we left there, it really started to rain... and all we had heard for two days was "have you been to the new gin distillery?" Since we aren't big gin fans, we originally hadn't planned to stop by...but so many people asked about it, and it was right around the corner, we thought we should stop and and see what the fuss was about. </div>
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<a href="https://www.fourpillarsgin.com.au/" target="_blank">Four Pillars Distillery</a> opened in 2013, but just opened their distillery door in 2015. While I neglected to take a single photo, the place was lovely. The girl at the counter was very knowledgeable and helpful educating us on gin, the distilling and tasting process, and really just super nice and cute. Definitely glad we ducked in - plus, the rain stopped while we were there!</div>
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The skies were still quite ominous on our trip to the last stop for the day. </div>
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The final stop of the day was <a href="http://www.debortoli.com.au/home.html" target="_blank">De Bortoli Wines</a>. They make a TON of different things - like 4 different roses alone! We tried a few of theirs, and they just weren't our favorites. We did really enjoy one of their sweeter wines, which happens to be probably their most famous one - <a href="http://www.debortoli.com.au/our-wines/our-brands/noble-one.html" target="_blank">Noble One</a> - which we had to bring a bottle home with us. </div>
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While the wines weren't our favorites, the views were just beautiful - especially with the storm clouds moving around the valley. </div>
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Back at the cottage, we enjoyed a quiet afternoon sitting on the deck and looking out at the view while we waited for 'the big event' of the weekend! My other friend Barb, who is the GM of a club just across the street, and Ben came up to the cottage for a fabulous dinner. Ben brought all the delicious food - cheese and charcuterie plate, big steaks and a lovely salad. He wanted us to have a 'proper Aussie barbecue!' We helped supply the wine from our few days around the valley, and had just the best night sitting on the deck, talking and laughing all night! </div>
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I hadn't seen them in over 3 years, and it was truly one of the highlights of the entire trip!</div>
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We said goodbye that evening, as M and I were headed back to Melbourne for an early morning flight - next stop, Sydney!</div>
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Ben and Barb, thanks for your fabulous hospitality and all the laughs - now come to the US to visit us!</div>
<br />One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-52656732041712799402016-01-26T17:55:00.001-05:002016-01-26T18:28:50.093-05:00Melbourne - Stop #1 on our Australian Adventure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Last February, we were 'celebrating' Valentine's Day sitting at our favorite beer bar in Falls Church and talking about the upcoming year, and our planned trips to Europe. M pipes up and declares: I want to go to Australia. We'd both always been a little conflicted about Australia - while we've heard amazing things, it always seemed like it would be very similar to the US...whereas our last several trips had been so drastically different. Plus, despite the looooong flight(s), we always felt that it was a trip we could take when we were in our 50s. After more discussions, and M getting to work looking for availability on flights, we decided to cancel both Europe trips, and book Australia in November!</div>
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So, on November 6, we took off for Melbourne! We flew through Abu Dhabi, so about 12 hours from Dulles. We few business class, and then had a 3 hour layover in Abu Dhabi. Since we were flying first class over to Melbourne, we had free spa services in the lounge! So we both got 15 minute massages, and I got a manicure and M got a haircut! It was fabulous! The only way to travel.</div>
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The first class cabin was ridiculous. M is a huge travel nerd so he was geeking out the whole time. We had a whole little pod to ourselves...WITH DOORS!!!</div>
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Those silver grated looking things CLOSE. Seriously it's wild. </div>
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So we left Friday night from Dulles and landed in Melbourne around 7pm on Sunday. We stayed at the <a href="http://melbourne.grand.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html" target="_blank">Grand Hyatt</a>, which was a perfect location. We wandered around a bit looking for food, and found this great little wine bar, <a href="http://www.citywineshop.net.au/" target="_blank">City Wine Shop.</a> After the long trip, it was just what we needed - a little wine, some amazing burrata cheese and other yummy snacks. </div>
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After a great night's sleep, we hopped up Monday morning and went in search of breakfast - coffee and donuts! Melbourne has some amazing coffee shops, and we did our best to try out as many as we could. The first one was <a href="https://www.short-stop.com.au/" target="_blank">Short Stop Donuts </a>- definitely off to a delicious start!</div>
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Once we were full of sugar and caffeine, we walked down to catch our <a href="http://www.freddysbiketours.com.au/melbourne-all-in-one/" target="_blank">city bike tour</a>. We met up with our guide, Freddy, and the one other person on the tour, and set off to explore the city. It was a beautifully hot and sunny day!</div>
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We love bike tours, it's a great way to see a large part of a city in a smaller amount of time - you can just cover so much more ground than by walking. First stop, the Shrine of the Remembrance: <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.04px;">"Built as a memorial of Victorians who served in World War I and now a memorial to all Australians who have served in war. One of the largest war memorials in Australia it hosts annual observances of ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day." It's a beautiful memorial, and has panoramic city views. </span></div>
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We rode by several government buildings, and the MCG, the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere. We also rode all through the Fitzroy neighborhood, which reminded us a lot of New Orleans. <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.04px;">Fitzroy has a thriving street art community and many small commercial art galleries, artist-run spaces and artist studios. A hub for live music in Melbourne, and plays host to several prominent venues." We stopped for a quick lunch and pint at <a href="http://www.blackcatfitzroy.com/" target="_blank">Black Cat Cafe</a>. </span></span></div>
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Then we headed to Hoiser Lane, one of Melbourne's great street art laneways - it was amazing! Literally everything was covered with paint!</div>
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Just around the corner from the Federation Square and St. Paul's Cathedral. </div>
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We said goodbye to our new friend Freddy, the tour was fantastic and just what we needed to get a little exercise and a great overview of the city.<br />
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Monday night we went to this tiny, amazing restaurant in the CBD, <a href="http://www.ricepaperscissors.com.au/" target="_blank">Rice Paper Scissors</a>, for dinner. They don't take reservations, so we went early and were able to sneak into a great little spot at the end of the bar overlooking the kitchen - best seat in the house! We tried several dishes, everything was delicious!</div>
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After dinner we went next door to this strange little cocktail bar, <a href="http://www.double-happiness.com.au/" target="_blank">Double Happiness</a>, for a drink. One there was enough, as it was a little crowded, so we wandered down along the river - it was a beautiful night and we wanted to enjoy being outside!</div>
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If you look closely, sitting in the water under that bridge is what appears to be just a wide base to the bridge. It's actually a bar!</div>
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It's called <a href="http://www.ponyfish.com.au/" target="_blank">Ponyfish Island</a>, and was really a great idea - such a fun spot for a bar! We snagged 2 stools along the edge and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine/beer. My good friend Ben lives in Melbourne, but works out in Yarra Valley (more on that later). He came downtown Monday night to meet us for a few drinks. He'd never been to Ponyfish Island, so it was an adventure for him, too! Then we wandered on and did a bit of bar hopping along the South Bank. What a great first day in Australia!</div>
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Tuesday's weather was not quite as nice, as they called for rain most of the day. We wandered down to the Federation Square to get one of the free trams over to Queen Victoria Market. Apparently it was Melbourne Monopoly release day! The crowd and press was insane - who knew there would be this much attention for Melbourne Monopoly!</div>
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Queen Victoria Market originally opened in March, 1878, and currently spans 2 city blocks. As with most markets, you can find anything there from meat and produce to oils, spices, even house ware items. </div>
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Already decorated for Christmas...in early November, when it was 85+ outside! (just not this day, much cooler weather with the rain)</div>
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Notice what type of meat that was...</div>
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Parts of the market had very structured, more formal stands than some others we've seen. </div>
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What's that? A donut TRUCK?! Why of course! They were delicious!!</div>
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And we stopped for coffee, too!</div>
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We wanted to explore parts of the Fitzroy area some more, so we wandered that way after we walked all over the market. </div>
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Hungry for some comfort food on this rainy day, we stopped in <a href="http://belleshotchicken.com/" target="_blank">Belle's Hot Chicken</a> for some good ol' fried chicken. They actually did a pretty legit job! They were quite proud of their greens cooked with ham hock, so we had to try them!</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;">Despite the rain, we were able to cover some pretty good ground walking around, ducking from one overhang to the next. We also wandered to the Melbourne Museum when the rain really started picking up. While it was nicely done, we're not really museum people...</span></span><br />
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Next we jumped on a tram and headed over to St. Kilda beach. I'm sure on a bright, sunshiny day, it's a beautiful beach area...but traipsing along in the cold rain wasn't working for us. We found a beer bar that M wanted to try, <a href="http://thelocal.com.au/stkilda/" target="_blank">The Local Taphouse</a>, and ducked in for a break and to try some Aussie beers. </div>
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We sat on their outside, covered deck and listened to the rain! It was a really beautiful bar and deck, with lots of tasty beers to try!</div>
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We ventured back to an area near the Fitzroy for dinner at <a href="http://www.forestershall.com.au/" target="_blank">Foresters Hall</a>. A few beers and some delicious pizza was a great way to end our stop in Melbourne.</div>
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Morning began with a stop at <a href="http://axilcoffee.com.au/" target="_blank">Axil Coffee Roasters</a> for...donuts and coffee! Well, mine was an almond croissant and M had an Oreo cinnabun type thing.. Coffee is serious business in Melbourne. Everyone has their favorite shop and specific drink they order. This was my favorite that we went to ... and we sure tried a bunch! </div>
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Next we went and picked up our rental car. Time to drive on the 'other' side of the car, on the 'other' side of the road, and head to Yarra Valley!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Details about the Melbourne sights were found on <a href="http://www.freddysbiketours.com.au/melbourne-all-in-one/" target="_blank">Freddy's Bike Tour </a>website. </span></div>
One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2010923836992290649.post-48031764039225836812016-01-14T11:16:00.004-05:002016-01-14T11:16:34.791-05:00Quick and easy Brussels sprouts recipe<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you like Brussels sprouts, you'll love this recipe. It's so easy and quick, I make it all the time. Most of the time I make it without the corn, but it's good both ways! And I really just eyeball the amounts of the spices, just a few shakes over the pan. I also made it the other day without the lemon juice and they were just as </span>delicious<span style="font-family: inherit;">! </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brussels Sprouts and Corn</span></b><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">Ingredients </b></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">1 lb Brussels sprouts</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;"><i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">2 ears of corn, kernels freshly cut off of the cob (or, for quick and easy, out of a can)</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">3 tbs olive oil, divided</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">1/2 lemons-worth of juice </i></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">1 tsp cayenne pepper</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">1 tsp garlic powder</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">1 tsp onion powder</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">salt and pepper </i></div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">Directions:</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">1. In a large pan heat 1 tbs olive oil over medium-high heat. Cut Brussels sprouts in half and add to pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and generous pinches of salt and pepper.</span><b style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;"> </b><i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;"> </i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">2. Shake and stir to coat, continue to shake every so often, to enable a caramelized sear but not an over-cook on one side.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">3. After about 10 minutes (adding more olive oil as needed), when Brussels sprouts are browned, soft on the outside, but a bit hard and crunchy on the inside, add fresh corn kernels to the pan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">4. Drizzle 1 tbs olive oil over the corn, sprinkle with more salt and pepper; stir and shake to fully mix.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">5. Cook altogether for another 5 minutes, until corn is warm but pops to the bite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;">6. Serve warm and enjoy!</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.48px;"> </span></div>
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One Sweet Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05449506580302593113noreply@blogger.com1