Archive for March, 2007
Mar 28th, 2007
Test
This post was a test to see if the Flickr blog posting feature I set up would work. This was a picture I shot this winter a few day after one of the (numerous, for us) snow storms we had in Seattle.
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.
Posted in Photos | No Comments
Mar 27th, 2007
Headin’ to California
On Friday, we head for San Francisco and our first real vacation in months (six, to be exact). We’ll be there for 10 days and will be spending most of that time in Menlo Park and SF proper, but towards the back half of the trip we’ll be heading up to Gualala (to visit Irene’s cousins) by way of Napa and Sonoma.
We have a few favorite wineries that I’m sure we’ll hit, and probably check out a few new ones as well. I’d love to hit the Broman Cellars winery (no relation), but as far as I can tell, they don’t take visitors.
Our very favorite, Valley Of The Moon, will be a definite stop, but due to the new draconian FAA regulations and my aversion to checking bags, we won’t be buying any bottles. We still have a few in our stock because I hoard this stuff like gold, dolling out on special occasions only. It’s not so easy to find in Seattle. The QFC in the Broadway Market carries one varietal, but that’s about it.
We’re planning on staying overnight somewhere in Wine Country, probably in Calistoga so we can indulge in a mud bath.
Anyway, I’ll probably be posting some cam phone pictures from the road, and maybe a post or two. And I will definitely have photos to put up when we get back.
And then it’s just over a month until we head to France.
Posted in Journal Entry | No Comments
Mar 16th, 2007
Winding Down
In two weeks we are headed to San Francisco where we will spend 10 fairly low key days and we are both very ready for a vacation because we haven’t had any extended time off since September.
Planing for San Francisco has been pretty minimal as it’s an entirely different sort of journey than the one we’ll be taking in May. This trip is all about visiting friends and family, relaxing and probably an excursion to Napa and Sonoma with a possible overnight stay in Calistoga. But really there isn’t much required in the way of pre-trip planning apart from the rental car and a few emails and phone calls to people to let them know we’re coming. And since I’ve put Irene in charge of finding us a place to stay in the wine country, my work is done.
Which is good, because most of my attention has been focused on France. And now with two months until we leave, the planning is winding down as the itinerary is fixed, the apartment in Paris and the car for Provence have both been rented, and hotels have been booked for Avignon and Vaison-la-Romaine. It remains only to book hotels for Nice and the Luberon (and I’m in the process of doing that) and to contact the apartment people and arrange the details of our arrival.
One thing that pleases me about this trip is that even though we will be packing a lot in, we won’t be switching hotel as often as we might. We will have a minimum of two nights at two hotels and three and four nights at the others. This allows us to feel like we have a little bit of a base from which to explore the area. The logistics were tricky at first, but I feel like of got everything pretty solidly nailed down.
I really do enjoy the whole planning process and lately I’ve been listening to the A Year In Europe podcast and dreaming about what it would be like to drop out of life for a year and spend it traveling. And although it doesn’t seem feasible right now, some day I would love to do it. Although I think I would probably broaden the scope a bit and make it more of a round the world trip.
For now though, I’ll just have to settle for the two or three weeks at a time we can manage.
Posted in California, France, Travel Planning | No Comments
Mar 13th, 2007
Moleskine City Notebooks
I’m a big fan of Moleskine notebooks. I’ve been using them for my travels since my second trip to France in ’03. Apart from the large size I used as a journal, I also bought a pocket size to use as my trip organizer. I filled it with addresses of shops I wanted to visit, restaurants I wanted to try and hotels and hostels in which to sleep. I took notes along the way of places of interest and the names of artists I discovered in museums. I did one for New York that I’ve used on two or three trips, one for Eastern Europe, and even a small one for London when we went for 5 days.
So when Moleskine announced their new City Notebooks I was very intrigued and excited. Now, after months of trying, I finally managed to get my hands on the one for Paris. They are not quite yet in wide distribution and the two places in town that have them were always out of the Paris edition. I eventually had to order it through Powell’s.
If you haven’t seen these yet their a brilliant little package. Included are maps of the city, street indexes, metro maps, blank pages for notes, and tabbed sections for restaurants, bars, shops, people, and various blank tabs for your own interests. One of the best bits, though, is the transparent sticky sheets that fit on the map pages so you can trace your routes or mark place of interest. I have all ready transferred all the things I marked on my Wayfaring map to my notebook maps and have also filled it with my own spots to check out.
Moleskine also has versions coming out for U.S. cities and I’m sure I’ll pick up the New York book, and maybe the San Francisco one as well. Hell, I might even get the Seattle one just for kicks.
I wouldn’t mind seeing some more general country books as we rarely only visit one city on a trip.
Posted in Books, Travel Planning | No Comments
