Live :: Love :: Laugh :: Eat!

Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

I’m going through my photos from our trip to Ireland in 2003, and came across this one, which is perfect for this week’s Photo Friday challenge theme: Distant.

The Cliffs of Moher on Ireland’s western coast are 800 feet high at their highest point, and five miles long. We were walking up a slate staircase toward a guard house on a hill near the cliffs when I took this picture. Over a hundred years ago, the property owner built a wall of slate there as well, to prevent people from being blown over the cliff by the downdraft.

We were pretty amazed that people were permitted to walk around that hill to go out on that ledge, though. Below is a closeup showing cracking in the rock under his feet.

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

Fractured Rock, 400 feet up

When we were in Florence, Italy in September, we happened upon the Mercato Centrale, or Central Market. Between Via dell’Ariento and Via San Antonio is a building about the size of Norfolk’s Waterside Festival Marketplace (I’m not great at spatial awareness, so don’t hold me to that), filled with row upon row of booths selling an amazing variety of fresh and preserved fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, herbs, spices, wines, oils and vinegars, flowers and prepared foods I think I’ve ever seen. I wished I could buy a week’s worth of groceries and start cooking, but we were staying in a hotel with no kitchen in the room (it had a great breakfast buffet and I stuffed myself on prosciutto, but that’s another story…)

The City of Norfolk, Virginia, is looking for a new concept to transform the aging Waterside Festival Marketplace on the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk. Dan and I were talking about this recently and he said, “They should turn it into a food market like the Mercato Centrale in Florence.” There’s lots of easy parking, and it’s close to I-264, not to mention the ferry from Portsmouth, to bring shoppers from all parts of Hampton Roads. The Buy Fresh, Buy Local movement is taking hold here with more and more consumers interested in purchasing fresh, locally grown and raised groceries, and the cruise ships that dock nearby bring tourists interested in taking home Virginia-grown products.

What do the rest of you Hampton Roads residents think? What do we need to do to help make this happen?

Several years ago, I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Oak Park, Il., just outside Chicago, and since they had to work one day I was there, I took a walk around downtown Oak Park. And discovered the Penzey’s store there. I was blown away by the huge variety of herbs and spices there, and I’ve been ordering from there ever since. I even had my brother bring me some Greek seasoning last time they visited!

So yes, I would love to win the spices being given away by Sugared Ellipses. You can enter till Dec. 15.

Years ago, just before we went to Germany to see our first exchange student, Olaf, I saw a print for sale in an art gallery titled “Doors of Williamsburg.” It had 20 shots of, duh, doors in Williamsburg, Va. I loved this idea, so I shot “Doors of Germany.” Those are still on film prints, which I am too lazy to scan, but here are pix from our most recent trip to Europe in September.

I was in San Francisco for a conference in 2001 and took this photo from the window of my hotel room. I love San Francisco – one of my favorite cities in the world.

This is my contribution to Photo Friday; the theme this week is Urban Landscape.

In 2005, Dan and Barbara and I took a long-weekend trip to the Grand Canyon. While we were there, we stayed in Sedona, Arizona, and went hiking on a trail to Cathedral Rock. We didn’t know this would be there, too, but we came upon Buddha Beach, a place where people pile up river rocks so they resemble a Buddhist temple. We sat on a large rock on the opposite side of the river, ate a snack and took pictures.

Last weekend, Dan and I rented a lodge at James River State Park with two other families (Danny, Sally and Alex, and Paul, Terry, Katie and Nick), our dog Pippen, and Danny and Sally’s dog Cody. The occasion was the Nelson Downriver Canoe and Kayak Race in Nelson County. After the race, we enjoyed a picnic by the river and then medals were awarded. Paul and Nick won second place in the Open Canoe/Father & Son class. Way to go, guys!

The lodge has a fully equipped kitchen, six bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is a back porch with rocking chairs, a picnic table and a large grill. We brought food and drinks, grilled dinner, and generally had a great time. I beat Sally and Terry at Scrabble, Danny beat everyone at poker, and we had a fabulous Sunday breakfast cooked by Paul.

When I have time, I’ll put up a regular photo album of the weekend, but here are some snaps for now:

This is my entry in this week’s Photo Friday photo challenge. The topic is Far From Home.

The furthest I have ever been from home was when I went to Turkey in May, 2001 on vacation with my mom, aunt, uncle, and two other couples who were friends of theirs. It was a wonderful trip – friendly people, great food, beautiful artwork and textiles. We had a wonderful time.

According to this site, it’s 5,282 miles from home in Virginia to Istanbul, Turkey.

One day we toured Ephesus, an ancient city near the southwest coast. This is a photo of the Ephesus Library. Archaeologists believe it was completed in the year 117.

This is a closeup of a statue in a niche to the right of the entrance to the library.

L-R: Nick, Danny, Dan, Josi, Katie, Paul and Kim.

Yesterday, Sept. 10, Dan and Josi and I, with several friends – Danny, Paul and his kids, Nick and Katie – went to kayak the James River again, from Pony Pasture to Reedy Creek. The river was high, the day was warm and sometimes sunny, and it was just glorious. We had a few newbies along (and you know who you are), but they did great and we had a lot of fun.

At one point, Katie ran into a rock and got stuck, and then Josi ran into Katie and tipped over. Then Paul had to get out of his boat (he was paddling the canoe with Nick) and Dan held it while Paul helped Josi empty the water out of her boat so she could continue on.

We had a few other minor mishaps like that, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

We got a late start, so we ended up getting home around 11 p.m. We had dinner at the fanciest Arby’s I’ve ever seen – fresh sandwiches and salads, fresh cookies and brownies – it was surprisingly good.

Another great day on the water. More pics are here.

Well, it was a tough call between this photo and one of the Capitol dome from the inside, in Washington, D.C., for a circle, but this one has brighter colors, so it won.

This is the ceiling of the lobby of the all-inclusive hotel where we stayed in Playa del Carmen, Mexico – the Mayan Riviera. That was a fabulous trip – we took a day trip to Chichen Itza, a famous Mayan city ruin, and another trip to the ruined fortress of Tulum, on the coast. And it was our first all-inclusive experience, which was fantastic. Three meals a day, plus all drinks, plus trips, all for one price. Not a cheap price, but it was great. I highly recommend it.