I slept in this morning (despite Zeke's best efforts to dislodge me from the bed), and had a fairly late breakfast. At around 1 PM, I met varina8 at the Museum of History and Industry because they were offering free admission--it's Free First Thursday, so it seemed like a great opportunity to explore the museum's new location (at South Lake Union) and ( Read more... )

Executive Summary
Friday: Morning at Shark Reef; lunch at New York, New York; picked up Zumanity tickets; a visit to M&Ms World to smash pennies; Paris for dinner at Mon Ami Gabi (excellent) and penny smashing; and then a visit to the Bellagio to see the Chinese New Year decorations at the Conservatory (which was smaller than I expected). Nearly ( Read more... )

Sunday, davidlevine, kateyule, and I got up and out to meet janetl, EB, and MD for brunch at Southpark. After delicious food and lots of laughter, we headed over to the Portland Art Museum to see its exhibit, "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece," a show featuring sculptures and other artifacts from the British Museum collection. It was a small but select exhibit, and the ( Read more... )

On Sunday nights: I guess I don't like Sunday nights very much. I mean, they're just as good as other evenings for getting together with friends--and I did have a lovely afternoon and evening with EB--but I always get a little blue past about 8 PM on Sundays. The weekend is over, and once the sun rises on Monday, my time stops being my own in 8 ( Read more... )

I was, indeed, at the Amsterdam Hermitage when it opened--15 minutes before, in fact, and was the first person in the door. I checked my bag (taking my notebook and my wallet with me), got my audio tour equipment, and made a beeline for my intended goal: the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit. Remember how I mentioned that 2012 seemed to be the year for ( Read more... )

I had mapped out my day's itinerary via tram and bus with the help of the kind gentleman who switched me into a nicer room the night before. He flirted with me while we talked and tried to give me the best advice on how to get to my destinations. As I left the hotel, when I began to think about how I walked the city on Tuesday, it occurred to me ( Read more... )

I spent Monday morning with Monika while skidspoppe went to work. Monika kindly accompanied me--in the pouring rain--to the post office to mail home some stuff and to a couple of shops to do a little early holiday shopping. Skids met us and then saw me to the train station to launch me on my way to my next stop: Amsterdam! He was such a generous host; I'm ( Read more... )

Another day, another roadtrip. skidspoppe and I were up and out of the house by 8 AM, heading south toward a resort town called Druskininkai (say "drush-kin-in-kay") where, on the outskirts, lies a park that I had just had to see ( Read more... )

For our last day in Paris, we did a little triage: so many things we haven't done and only a day left in the city. We debated: the Catacombs, the Jewish Museum, the Carnavalet (city of Paris history museum). Having spent yesterday with the dead and so much time in churches, we decided to spend a little time with the Jews and that history here ( Read more... )

Morning businessThe original plan for yesterday (Friday) was to go to the Musee D'Orsay in the morning and then spend the afternoon at the Catacombs. What we realized when we rose was that we were pretty much out of groceries (we've been eating breakfast in the apartment each day to save a little cash), and had to do something about that. We also ( Read more... )