Viva La France! Part Trois

Friday May 2: The Loire Valley continued...

We decided to stay in the Loire Valley in the morning because we wanted to check out another castle and see a winery. Our next castle was Chateau d'Azay le Rideau. It was built by a French finance minister and when the King saw how elaborate and expensive it became-he confiscated it. The inside of the castle was much better kept than the prior castle because this castle was a national monument and one that the French government maintains.

It's all about symmetry for the French-the view down the walk.

A castle is a castle is a castle...

The family seal above the fireplace: this castle was really well maintained. Some of the tapestries looked like they were practically new even though they were over 100 years old.

Mom, Dad and the castle.

After the castle, we headed to a winery in a nearby town. I wasn't feeling great so I stayed in the car while the rest of the family went to a wine cave where they age the wine. They ended up with these caves when they were digging out stones to build the castle. They all said it was a great day (and they bought lots of wine!).

Then we all piled into our cars and headed to Brittany to try to get to Saint Michel (a famous Abbey) before it closed...we made it and the pictures will be up shortly!

Viva La France: Part Duo

Thursday May 1: The Loire Valley

On the grounds of the first castle we visited, Chenonceau there was a 12th century farm. The buildings were covered with these purple flowers that I think my mom said were wisteria. They smelled like bubblegum. It was beautiful!

Nora stopped to smell the flowers...
The castle itself was built over the river for one of the kings mistresses. It was really crowded (even though we didn't get there until late afternoon). Nora and I took the audio tour which had some interesting facts...like that the hall that stretches over the river used to house soldiers in WWII and they used to fish in the river out the windows.
The gardens were along one side of the river-done in the French style, very symmetrical.

We spent that night in Tours, which was a really nice town. The hotel recommended a small little square with great old buildings and restaurants to eat dinner.
Stay tuned for more of the Loire Valley and then Brittany on the coast!

Viva La France!

I realize it's been way too long since I've posted anything-but I figure nothing like a 10 day trip to France to get a person back on the blogging wagon. So, I'll go through our trip posting two days at a time. That will give me a chance to put lots of pictures for each day.

The real planning for the trip got down and dirty at O'Hare airport while we waited for our flight (which was delayed due to a leak in the plane's kitchen). My dad had a huge map of the whole country of France spread out and Harry was reading the driving directions. We had plans to head straight to Confolens to pick up Nora as soon as we landed in Paris and rented the cars.

Once we landed, it took us about two hours to rent our cars and get our luggage. We passed right through customs without any questions because we were told there was "no staff". I think it was lunchtime so there was no one working the customs desk. In any case, it took a really long time to rent our cars (they were "big" by European standards...about the size of a Toyota Camry), both Harry and my dad got Renault Laguna cars that were brand new. We lost Harry on the Peripherique (the road that goes around Paris) and my dad, mom and I decided to take the toll roads (which was the quickest way) to get to Nora. The scenery got prettier and prettier as we headed away from Paris. Nora's town was about 6ish hours. We stopped at an "oasis" along the toll road for some food and gas. The oasis' in France are really nice. You can get fresh cafe and glasses of wine and most had bakeries. I could've spent a long time checking out all the goodies. They also had any kind of ham sandwich you could imagine (the French love their jambon).
We arrived in Confolens before dark and Harry arrived about 45 minutes later and Nora had ideas for dinner. There was a restaurant in town that is owned by a British couple that just opened. Nora befriended the couple and spent a lot of time there with them so we headed there for dinner. They were delightful and it was a great first dinner in France (I had mushroom risotto). The restaurant is below and a picture of Confolens is above.

Mom and Dad and Harry spent the night in town in a small hotel and I stayed with Nora in her apartment (which was on the grounds of the high school). A picture of Mom and Nora along the river in Confolens before we headed out to our next town Tours (with a stop in Poitiers...where Nora lived with Ben in the fall). Mom stepped in caca de chein (dog poo) along the banks...which Nora and I thought very humorous....

A stop along the way at an idyllic French village. The French countryside really looks like everything you've imagined-the buildings are amazing.




Next up....Tours and the castles...

Halloween is for Kiddos

Joel and I recently saw my godson, Anderson and his sister Ella at their house. It was trick-or-treat night and the kids were all decked out. I wanted to share the pictures because they are just so darn cute.

Brett Farve (he loved is Badger football)

Brett Farve explaining the logistics of football to Joel

Brett Farve and Blue ready to brave the cold for candy!

High School Musical

Only without the singing! I'm sure you've all been holding your breath for the pictures from my 10 year high school reunion. It was well-planned (thanks, Rebec!) and the venue was great. The Midtown Bar and Grill, we had the whole place to ourselves until 11pm. It was a blast-and I saw lots of people who I haven't seen in as many years and drank a bunch of wine. Fun!

Rebec and an old friend, Amanda

Julie, Gina and I

A friend I haven't seen in years (Tamar)
And there was dancing...

And what's a night out without Qdoba with friends?

All in all it was a great night but I was happy to leave everyone else behind and eat Qdoba with the people that I see every time I come home. My best high school friends!

Did You Know?

• That we give approximately $1 Billion in aid to Pakistan every year

• That the Pakistani government is beating its own people in the street.

BUT REMEMBER...That "We are the United States of America, we are very powerful, we have a lot of influence,'' the administration official said, "but we don’t dictate'.

Um...at least we're consistent?

Just a bit of political mumbo jumbo for this Monday night. Want to read more? Check it out.

Heartbreak

Seems like I've been writing this too often. Bad news on the latest MRI for Anderson. Please stop by and offer words of support and encouragement.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/andersonbutzine

Simple Request

Please stop by and offer words of support to a member of my godson's support group. It's a three year old girl named Erin and she and her family received some bad news today.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/erinroderick

I Once Knew a Man in Nantucket

Apologies for the internet silence. Time has gotten away from me and all of a sudden summer turned into fall. As promised here are some pictures from our trip to Nantucket over Labor day weekend (already over a month ago!). We had such a great time-meeting lots of new people and relaxing on the beach. We even rented bikes and rode around the island. Good times!

At the beach for a sunset!

The whole gang at dinner...

The sunset (these pics were taken on the same night!)

We had beautiful weather the entire weekend. Nantucket is really a glorious place-the residents have worked really hard to preserve much of the island so it's not over-developed. A lot of the island is land trust and left alone.

Stay tuned for pics from my ten year high school reunion...

Ode to the Makers of Monuments

I spent last week from Sunday through Friday in Washington DC for a week long training at the GAO Headquarters. They put me up in a really nice hotel (where presidential hopefuls and former presidents have stayed) at the government rate of course! Even though I was in training all day-I did have some time to see lots of friends from grad school and old work buddies for dinner. It was nice to visit with everyone and I learned a bit about GAO too!

My hotel (The Mayflower) is a historic building that they've restored. It's pretty fancy and very close to lots of great restaurants and just a few blocks from G.W. Bush's current home.

I met my friend Maggie for dinner one night in Georgetown which is just rows of little shops like this (though they are mostly chain stores like Ralph Lauren and Banana Republic).

On my last night in DC my friend Vered and I went to dinner and then took a hike around the monuments because I had been in DC all week but hadn't seen anything yet!

Our first president

The Washington Monument after dark across the reflecting pool

the first glimpse of Honest Abe (i was struck at how busy the monument was at dark on a weekday night)

I always get a little choked up at this memorial because it's so well done.

I had never been to the Korean War Memorial which is very close to Lincoln. It's extremely moving. The wall along the middle of the memorial is etched with the faces of soldiers and lit from the ground. And then on one side of the wall or life-size statues of a platoon of soldiers seemingly marching through Korea. They are also lit from the ground and the look like ghosts. I could hardly breathe when I was walking through it.

World War II memorial was very different with every pillar marked with a state name in an elipse with lots of water rushing along the outside and the inside of the monument. Standing in the middle is overwhelming and loud with the water. It was grandiose but really didn't affect me as much as Korea.

And last but not least...the White House

Stay tuned for pictures of Nantucket...Joel and I just got back from a long weekend!

Just a second...

If you have a moment this week please head over to my godson Anderson's website and leave a note for his family. He was scheduled for an MRI yesterday but he was running a really high fever and the MRI will have to be rescheduled. He is still running a fever and I'm sure his parents will appreciate any notes/thoughts/prayers of encouragement. THANKS!

Opening his birthday presents (he turned 2!!)

Playing with cars

Market Daze, Elvis and Dim Sum

This weekend was great! Joel and I were around Chicago and spent it with friends going to a festival, running a 5K and eating dim sum in Chinatown for the first time! During the summertime in Chicago the city neighborhoods hold street festivals from mid June through the end of August and it usually involves street closures, lots of music, and food. Joel and I went to the Wicker Park festival a few weeks ago and loved it. This weekend we went to the festival in boystown (the gay neighborhood in Chicago) called North Halsted Market Days. It was really hot but we walked through with our friends, Lindsay and Jeremy and their family and had lots of fun. This festival has a different flavor than some of the other festivals.

The entrance

One of the bars had an outdoor patio and there were lots of men sans shirts crammed into it. Everyone was staring as we walked by...so I took a picture!

Earlier in the week, I decided to run a 5K on Saturday night so after the festival Joel and I headed down to the race start. IT WAS SO HOT! I knew it was going to be rough but it was a fun theme! It was called the Elvis is Alive! 5K and you can see above that a bunch of people dress head to toe as Elvis and run 5K like that! Crazy.

Run Elvis Run!

Run Mollie Run! I was hurting-it was really hot and I was struggling. But I finished!

On Sunday, Joel and I headed down to Chinatown for dim sum (it's like chinese tapas...small portions for the table). It was the first time we had ever been down to Chinatown to eat-it was great. But the company was even better than the food! We met Chris and Christine who are living in Hyde Park for the summer. It was great to catch up (they were living in Seattle last summer...when I was there!) and visit.

North Dakota's Goodlands

On the way home from Glacier we stopped in North Dakota at Teddy Roosevelt National Park. We camped one night in the park and had planned to do some hiking the following day-as we set out on our hike we encountered a herd of buffalo across the river...blocking our trail. We stood there for a bit but it was obvious the herd was in no hurry to move on. So we scraped our hike and drove around the park and we saw so much wildlife! Lots of bison, wild horses, and prairie dogs. The scenery was breathtaking and totally different from Glacier. Enjoy the pics!

The river through a canyon

A herd of buffalo across the river-Joel and I watched them for quite awhile

A herd of wild horses resting by the river (they were very close to the buffalo)

Another herd of horses-there were so many of them

We watched the prairie dogs for a long time too. They are so entertaining!

The young male bison (below) walked to the middle of the river and watched us to make sure we didn't come any closer (and we didn't!). Here he is giving us one last look...