Tip Toe Through the Tulips

While we were on our trip, Coleen and I talked about making a trip down to Woodburn to the tulip farm when we got back. We just happened to luck out and have beautiful weather this weekend, so Coleen, Merrick and I packed up the car and headed South while Travis got ready for his NFL Draft Football Birthday party. These days any chance Merrick gets to go in the car or be outside, he is all for it. Although, after only a short time at the farm, he decided that he didn't want to walk and that either Auntie or Mama had to carry him. This made our trip to the tulip farm a little shorter than I would have liked. We heard that the fields were about half the size as in years past. This was our first time to the farm and it was a beautiful sight to see all the tulips in bloom. At $5 per vehicle, I would say this is worth the trip down to Woodburn, especially if you have beautiful weather.

We're Home!

Travis and I arrived back in Portland at about 11:30 am this morning after a very long flight from Frankfurt to Portland. We were so happy to arrive home safely. Coleen and Merrick came to pick us up at the airport. I didn't realize how much I had missed Merrick while we were gone and how much he has grown and changed in the past 2 weeks. Now we all have to get back into the swing of our normal schedule. We hope to have pictures downloaded and posted very soon.

Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon after a little mix up at the train station in Antwerp. Apparently the tickets we had bought online from Antwerp to Amsterdam had to be printed out in France =( So we had to buy new tickets. I'm hoping to be able to get a refund when we get home.



We arrived in Amsterdam to finally see a familiar face. It was so nice to get off the train and see Kristen. She had figured out what Tram to take to get us to our hotel and went with us to get us checked in. Then because it was so nice out, we decided to walk through Vondelpark to Kristen's apartment to do some laundry. After each of us living out of one suitcase apiece for 2 weeks, we wanted to have some clean clothes for our flight home. We then headed to a little cafe to have dinner. It has been so great to catch up with Kristen and learn about her experiences here in Amsterdam.

We have done a lot of sight seeing, visiting the Rijks Museum, The Van Gogh Museum, The Rembrandt House, The Anne Frank House, we tried to visit the Old & New Churches, but they are both closed while we are here, we also did a canal cruise and went to see the comedy show Boom Chicago.

As this is our last day in Amsterdam and on our trip, Travis and I have been taking a little slower pace and just enjoying our last day here. We have plans to meet up with Kristen for dinner and then to take a guided tour through the Red Light District, which should be very interesting!

Travis and I have both really enjoyed our trip and have missed Merrick so much. We are ready to head home and sleep in our own bed and see all of our family and friends (although we will miss Kristen!)

Chocolate, Beer, Bicycles and Waffles

We didn't have access to internet while we were in Brugge. The city is gorgeous and it was a nice little pit stop between Paris and Amsterdam. We really just relaxed and didn't do much. We enjoyed lots of beer (well Travis did), lots of chocolate (well I did), several waffles (they don't make them like this in the states!) and a guided bike tour through Brugge and the countyside. We were really only in Brugge for about a day and a half, so we didn't do any sight seeing. It was a nice change from everything we had done in Paris and London. I would definitely recommend making a stop in this city if you are ever in Belgium!

Goodbye Paris

We are wrapping up our last full day here in Paris and will be heading to Bruges, via Brussels tomorrow. I am going to miss this city. Travis and I have had so much fun exploring and we have covered a lot of ground! Last night after a walk from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe to Trocadero Square, we caught a cruise along the Seine River. Again we started just as it was turning dark and got to see everything come to life at night. One of the highlights of the trip was as we were coming back to dock, the light show started on the Eiffel Tower. Travis was teasing me about how many photos I took (we did have to buy another memory card). We walked quickly back to our hotel as it was very cold out. Today was full of sight seeing, although we only got to see half of the Orsay Museum as they were on strike. We are now just trying to figure out where we'd like to have our last meal in Paris.

I'm in Love!

I have fallen in love with Paris! I am amazed with everything this city has to offer, including the stunning Eiffel Tower. The other night I mentioned that we would be heading there to have a picnic dinner and a glass of wine. Well things didn't work out exactly as we had planned. We got in line, which was surprisingly short, only to be told NO ALCOHOL! Travis decided to put the bottle of wine we had just bought in the garbage and hope that it would be there when we returned. After getting through security, we noticed that the top floor was closed. I told Travis that we would wait in line and if it was still closed when we got up to pay that we would come back another time. How could I go to the Eiffel Tower and not go all the way up? We were told once we got to pay that the top would open in about 30 minutes. So up we went! The view from the 2nd floor is amazing and we got to watch the sunset and then up to the very top to watch the lights come on in Paris. Absolutely stunning! I told Travis that I could stay up there all night. After soaking it all in, we decided to head down and see if our wine was still there. IT WAS! I don't know how that happened, but it was about 11 pm by then so we decided to head back to our room and have our picnic there.

Versailles

We had a late night last night, including 2 frustrating hours of trying to call and talk to Merrick. I couldn't get the calling card we bought to work, so I ended up using the cell phone for a few minutes, only to find out he was taking a nap. I had my first breakdown in the 6 days we have been gone. Thankfully it didn't last long. Then the people that are on the same floor as us came back right after we had tried to go to sleep and pretty much had what sounded like a party in the hall way.

We got up late this morning and decided to take advantage of the nicer weather and head to Versailles. The train there was uneventful. We purchased our tickets in Paris so thankfully we did not have to wait in line to buy tickets there, but there was about a 45 minute wait to get into the building. We ended up spending about 4 hours there and still didn't see everything. If you ever make a trip to Paris, you definitely want to have this on your list of places to go. It is amazing! It's hard for me to believe that people actually lived in these buildings.

Travis and I made our way back to Paris and to our hotel. I had to call Merrick to hear his voice and I don't know what I did, but I actually got through this time. I just love hearing his little voice say "mama". He didn't say much else to me, but grandma Bec said he just sat there with a smile on his face the entire time I was talking. We've been lucky that both hotels so far have had free computer/internet access, although the keyboard here in France is taking some getting used to. It's been great to be able to read emails and keep up the blog.

We've decided to get a little rest and then go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower this evening. We bought a bottle of wine that we are hoping to enjoy at the top. Tomorrow and Thursday will be full of museums and sights.

Bonjour!

We arrived in Paris today to cloudy skies and rain, although that didn't keep us from seeing some of the sights. First on the list was the Eiffel Tower, which is right by our hotel! Thankfully the rain let up and we were able to get in a general tour of the area. When we arrived at our hotel at about 3:00 I only had about 3500 steps on my pedometer. When we returned at about 6:30 I had almost 21,000! We enjoyed just wandering and getting aquainted with the city. I think I already love this city more than London and I've only been here a few hours. Tomorrow we'll hit the ground running and see a bunch of sites. Stay tuned!

Goodbye London, Hello Paris!

We've spent the last three days being extremely busy and running ourselves ragged trying to see all the sights in London and stay dry. We've had nice weather until about 10:30 am each day and then we've gotten poured on. Luckily there are lots of things to do inside. Here's a breakdown of what we've done the past three days.

April 11
London Tower
Tower Bridge Exhibit
Winston Churchill's Britain at War Experience (a total waste of time)
London Bridge
St. Paul's Cathedral
Millenium Bridge
Shakespeare's Globe
Tate Modern
trip to Big Ben and the London Eye to see them at night

We bought a London Pass for one day and tried to see as many sights that were covered by it, so we were out for about 12 hours that day)

April 12
Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms
Rode the London Eye
British Museum
British Library
Went to Kensington Gardens to see Kensington Palace, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and the Prince Albert Fountain

April 13
Buckingham Palace to see the finish of the London Marathon (although is was pouring rain, so we decided not to wait to see the elite women finish)
Imperial War Museum - which has an amazing exhibit on the Holocaust
Picadilly Circus
Leicester Square
National Portrait Gallery
Because of the Marathon, we caught a bus back to the hotel that took us on a diverted route through London. It was kind of fun to see all the places we've visited over the past 4 days. We have plans to get some dinner tonight and possibly go on a night bus tour.

Tomorrow we catch the train to Paris!

We made it!

After about 13 hours of traveling, Travis and I arrived in London today. We were supposed to leave Portland at 11:15 am, on April 9, but our flight was delayed about 30 minutes. Travis and I were stressing a little since we had to make a connecting flight in Chicago. Luckily when we landed in Chicago, they let those of us with less than 30 minutes to our flight deboard first. Then Travis and I lucked out and only had to go about 10 minutes through the airport to make our flight. For those of you who've gone through Chicago O'hare, you know that doesn't happen very often. We arrived in London at 8:00 am their time (which is 12 am on the west coast). Travis and I didn't sleep very well on the plane, despite my taking two extra strength sleeping pills. I think we each got about 2 hours of sleep. After going through customs, we figured out how to get on the underground and get to the neighborhood where our hotel was. We made one mistake though and didn't have a very good map, so we had to buy one and figure out where we were going. Since we had arrived so early, we couldn't check into our room, so we dropped off our luggage and decided to go see Buckingham Palace and watch the changing of the guard. Well... we found Buckingham Palace, we had gorgeous blue skies and sun, but they aren't changing the guard today. So... after about 25 minutes of standing around waiting, we found this out and decided to walk back to the hotel and get freshened up for the rest of the day.

Then we decided to take a self-guided walking tour of the Westminster area. We got on the tube and made it to Westminster Bridge. We got to see the London Eye up close (we're hoping for better weather before we go up, did I mention the blue skies went away and we had a dark, cloudy afternoon?) then we say Big Ben, the parliment building and took a tour of Westminster Abbey. By now it as about 3:30 pm and we hadn't eaten yet, so we decided we would head to find some food. Well... I made a little mistake and took us about 10 blocks in the wrong direction. Thankfully we bought a 3 day transit pass, so we were able to catch a bus and head to where we needed to go. We found some food and then decided to go check out the National Gallery. The one cool thing about London is most of their museums are free! So we spent about an hour there and decided it was time to head back and get some rest. We're not sure if we'll venture out again tonight, but we're already planning what we'll do tomorrow! Stay tuned...

Three Days and Counting

Travis and I realized last night that we only have three days until we leave for our trip! For those of you who don't know, Travis and I are heading to Europe for 2 weeks. Merrick will be staying with Poppa and Grandma Bec while Travis and I head to London, Paris, Brugges and Amsterdam (to visit Kristen Pitstick). We've been planning this trip for a few months and are really excited, although I think we are both a little sad about leaving Merrick for so long.

Yesterday we started working on packing. Our goal is to each only take one piece of medium sized luggage. We each have a different packing method, I like to think that my "rolling" method will let me bring more clothes =) I'm not sure if that's the case, but it seems like I've got a lot of stuff in there!

We're hoping to be able to access email and our blog while we are gone, but we're not sure if we'll have access, so you may have to wait until we get back to hear about our travels.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Merrick and I were able to spend lots of time playing outside the past few days and enjoying the beautiful weather. On Wednesday evening all of the kids were out in the cul-de-sac playing and the hot topic was the newest addition to the neighborhood. Our neighbors Amy, Howard and Zachary welcomed the arrival of their little girl Zoey Rae on Wednesday afternoon. We are all looking forward to meeting her.

It always amazes me how quickly Merrick learns. He has started putting words together to create sentences. Some of the things he has said lately that have gotten all of us to chuckle are...

"I love Pooh" - In reference to his Pooh Bear (not what you use the toilet for)
"Ohh.... Mmm" - While watching a beer commercial. Neither Travis or I were quite sure about that one.
"your whining" - Said right after Mama had told him to "stop". Usually I'm the one telling him to "Stop your whining"

San Francisco Here We Come!

At Christmas time my sisters and I made a New Years pact to run in the Nike Half/Full Marathon. This is an amazing event that focuses on women (they even have a chocolate station on the course). This year because of the popularity of the event, they did a random drawing to select entries. We just found out today that we all officially got in! I will be training for my 3rd full marathon this summer, while Meggan and Coleen will be training for their first half-marathon. Because of an injury, Kira won't be able to run with us, but we're hoping she'll be able to come to San Francisco to cheer us on. Gretchen Pedersen, Sara Sitter, Susan Kelley and Bhavna Kumar, a few of my "sole sisters" also got in. I'm looking forward to spending lots of time with all of them pounding the pavement this summer!