Washington DC

Foxy and I are making our final weeks preparations for heading out to Washington DC for a long birthday week to visit Alicia and Joe. I have a tradition of being on vacation for my birthday every year. This will be my first DC trip (Foxy's 3rd?) and I'm trying not to plan much for a change. The idea is to see the city but I'm really excited about seeing it from a locals perspective and let whatever happen, happen. It looks like I'm also going to get a chance to catch up with an old buddy from high school while we are there. So follow along....

Pour me another glass...

Today was off to a great start as we headed into Oakland, CA to visit Mariposa bakery. The place is entirely gluten free and fabulous by my made from scratch standards. Joel and I feasted on wheat free pizza and brownies and I got bagels and muffins for tomorrow morning. :) It was so nice to be able to walk into a bakery and actually eat something instead of eyeing the glass and trying to figure out how to make a wheat free version at home.
I had decided that nothing could be more breathtaking than the coastal views in Monterey, and then we entered wine country. If I could ever bare to live farther than 2 hours from my family, I think I would pick up and move out to Sonoma, California. Joel could open a winery and I could teach. During the summers I could assist with the gardens and chat with the visitors. If that didn't work, we could run a bed and breakfast. A person can dream, right?
I have seen my fair share of wineries in my time and have never been all that excited by what the tours have to offer. However, today, at Benziger I was blown away. I wanted to ask if there was a position open for someone like me. I'm not even a big wine drinker. In fact, I'm a terrible drinker, I don't appreciate fine wine and I get half a glass before I'm ready to fall asleep in the middle of a dinner party. That aside, the philosophy behind having a family run winery centered around the ideas of being a sustainable organic and biodynamic farm was incredible. The water is reused, the animals help the plants, the plants feed the animals, the people merely assist in the process instead of trying to manhandle it all, and at the end of the day....a beautiful wine is born. It makes me excited to hurry home to our small garden and almost makes me want to move to Gainesville and be the experiment that is Green Market.
We are staying here on the property in what was originally one of the brother's houses. It is huge, way too much for 2 people. I feel like inviting up the town to come have dinner and entertain, as this house obviously calls for a couple who know how to throw a fine dinner party.

Is that a radio in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Our afternoon/evening in Point Lobos State Park was the highlight of the State Parks here in California. There were multiple trails that led us hiking through a tree covered path, another over looking the west coast from sharp jagged cliffs, and our final trail leaving us at sunset down at water level hopping from rock to rock about 50 ft from sunbathing sea lions. The views were made complete by the sounds of asian elevator music singing softly from inside the thick layers of a stranger's down jacket. You heard me, a lady with a radio in her jacket, playing traditional chinese music took our picture as the sun was dancing quietly to its nighttime position. "Make love! Be love!" she directed over her boombox, trying to get us in the perfect sunset pose. A more perfect evening could not have been planned.
Tuesday, we grabbed some food at Whole Foods (thank god for a deli that serves gluten free and vegetarian sandwiches). and headed down to Big Sur for a day of hiking through the state parks and a picnic. While we were able to enjoy the gorgeous beach views of Julia Pfeiffer State Park, we were disappointed to find the other parks closed or limited due to the recent storms and fires. Even though we did not squeeze in quite as much hiking as we would have liked, the drive down CA-1 was definitely worth the trip (even with the car sickness factored in). One thing is for sure, the west coast is absolutely breathtaking!!

Day 3: Monterey Bay Aquarium

This morning we had a pretty quick start to head out to the aquarium considering some hooligans occupying the room next door tried to keep us up all night with their partying (don't worry we were really loud this morning and I am have 'accidentally' hit the adjoining wall a few times while in the shower).
We did the smart thing and bought tickets online last night so we wouldn't have to wait in line to get in (an possibly miss the otter feeding show). This proved to be a wise decision. We spent the better part of the morning exploring the sea from the comfort of the museum. It is understandable why so many people rave about it as it is really a well put together museum for all. I think for the us the jellyfish exhibits were the highlight... although the otters were a close, close second.
We quickly breezed by the touristy Cannery Row on our way back to the hotel for lunch.
If you're into the touristy trinkets, t-shirts, and restaurants then it's a one stop shop. We stopped at our local little Trader Joe's to pick up some picnic-y kind of stuff for lunch which we ate on the deck/fire pit area of our hotel.
The day isn't over yet and we are heading out to Carmel or somewhere close to it to try to find a spot for some good sunset photographs.
To be continued.....

Trader Joe

I don't know how Joe became a trader but thank goodness he did. It's amazing the things he does. Seriously as Floridians, we don't realize what we are missing. As a wine merchant Trader Joe's scares me a bit not only because they have a decent selection of wines and beers, but at prices that seem impossible. Yes there are a lot of exclusive labels that only they sell... but you have a pretty easy time figuring out who really made the wine and can't believe they are selling it for $4.99 or less. As a foodie you realize they carry just enough of what you need on a day to day basis without having to have all the hard to get, oddball stuff. As it turns out Trader Joe's is actually coming to Florida in the next year or two which is exciting in some ways. I think they can easily sweep many of the Whole Foods and Publix crowd, especially in times like these where money is tight and everyone is after saving the extra buck or two. I am just amazed at how truly efficient they are as a company, even with the amount of waste they produce as the cost of doing business.

I picked up a couple bottles of wine and beer (yes I'm trying some 2 buck chuck) to experiment with. The wine isnt bad and $1.99 is really hard to beat. Now you all know what you are getting for gifts when we get back.

Day 2: Monterey, CA

The second day took us cruising the West Coast on CA-1 where we passed through Half Moon Bay, Pascadero, and Castroville all before reaching our destination of Monterey. We took quick stops for pictures, but quickly hopped back in the car because it was FREEZING. The weather has been beautiful here, but in some places on the water, the wind chills you right down to the bone and in Pascadero that was the case. With Castroville being the 'artichoke center of the world', we decided to make a pit stop at The Giant Artichoke for steamed artichokes. While the restaurant was far from gourmet, the novelty of eating a steamed artichoke between acres of rolling farmlands large enough to feed 75% of the nation's artichoke supply was well worth the $7.
We rolled into Monterey and did a quick drive through to develop a game plan. We wandered through the art galleries on Alvarado Street and ended up renting bikes from Adventures By The Sea. While we did not bike the entire 18 mile trail, we did cruise along the coast from Monterey to Pacific Grove. The coastal views were unbelievable, although fighting the wind on the front end of the ride was a bit of a struggle for this little Florida girl. Along our ride, we saw people standing off to the side of the trail. I pulled over and was amazed by all the large rocks laid out on the sand, until I saw one of the "rocks" jump away from the cold water. The entire beach was covered, not by rocks, but by a slew of sunbathing seals. We turned around at Lover's Point Park(BEAUTIFUL) and headed back into town to grab some food and a little downtime.
After downing sample after sample of clam chowder on the pier, we decided to have a low key dinner to rest our muscles before heading back out for sunset. Our beautiful hotel bed makes a lovely table for cheese, crackers, salad from a bag (eaten with our hands), and $4 bubbly in coffee mugs. A delicious dinner in true McKeeby traveling fashion, thank God for Trader Joe's.

Day 1: San Francisco, Ca

We walked along the water's edge admiring the sights and cool breeze coming off of Fisherman's Wharf until we found ourselves face to face with the local flavor at the Ferry Building Marketplace. The sidewalks were filled with California farmers selling their prized collections of fresh fruits and vegetables, honey, artisan cheeses, infused oils, baked goods, and anything else that could be produced with the ingredients found fresh from the California soil.
After brunch on the water, we followed the directions on a nearby directory. Unfortunately for us, the directory was old and our many block excursion landed us at the old location of the California Academy of Science. Fortunately for us, Joel has a friend in San Francisco. She instructed us to head over to her apartment, sending us on a mini tour through Yuerba Buena Gardens, Union Square, and Nob Hill.
Amy graciously hosted a driving tour around San Francisco to showcase the niches we would have never found on our own, especially, not by foot. This included the Golden Gate Bridge Park, the Presidio, Sea Cliff, Pacific Heights, China Town, and North Beach before returning us to our hotel. The Golden Gate Bridge Park was beautiful and we look forward to spending more time in the park on Friday when we return to see the new Academy of Science. Our evening ended with a casual dinner on Cannery Row at Pompei's Grotto, where we realized we were no match for the tiredness that comes along with a 3 hour time difference. Looking forward to a good night's sleep and a beautiful drive along the west coast in the morning.

Almost there

We have changed the schedule around a bit and unfortunately one of our other travelers will not be able to travel with us this time. Friday afternoon we have a nice loooong flight out to San Francisco. The trip will consist of a couple day in San Fran, 3 in Monterey and the surrounding areas of Carmel (just passing through, cant afford to look) and Big Sur. I hear the coastline is beautiful. Hopefully we will get to practice our amature photography skills a bit. Then we are on to Sonoma and Glen Ellen to be wined and dined by a couple wineries that I work with followed with one more night in San Fran right next to the Golden Gate and we then fly home.
Should be fun, stay tuned.

Cali, here we come...

We decided to stay in the states this year to save a little money. In March we will be heading out to California (Monterey, San Francisco, Napa, and Sonoma). Any ideas would be appreciated. So far we are looking into:
Monterey Aquarium
The San Francisco Zoo
Mariposa bakery (gluten fee goodies)
Wineries, wineries, and places that serve wine
Fisherman's Wharf
Alcatraz
Horseback riding on the beach
Biking/hiking through the redwoods

Counting down the days till Spring Break 2009...

Thumbs Down on the Holiday Inn Express

We decided to pick something cheap and close to the airport, since we were flying into Gatwick at midnight and than leaving the next morning. The Holiday Inn express was relatively inexpensive and had the benefit of a 24 hour shuttle. Little did we know, they're a bunch of liars! We landed at midnight to find out that instead of the $2 shuttle, we were actually a $30 taxi ride away (not to mention the $30 to come back to the airport in the am). Big bummer, but I guess you can't have everything go your way.

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
and it went straight to my head.
Wherever I may roam
On land or see or shore
You can always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go
Show me the way to go
Show me the way to go hoooooooooome

Arthur's Seat

We hiked up this bad boy today... it was definitely the highlight of Edinburgh.

6/22 St. Andrews & Edinburgh

Hey guys and gals, sorry for being so late with the posts. As it turns out, just because the advert in the B&B booklet says internet available, does not mean they actually have access anywhere other than their local library.
This morning we were off for St. Andrews before we headed into Edinburgh. It's amazing how the weather can change in a matter of 15 minutes. We were walking around the grounds with some menacing clouds looming overhead. Once it began to drop a bit of rain we decided to head to the gift shop to let it pass. By the time we got halfway through the little shop of junk, I mean souvenirs, the sun had come back out and there was no sight of rain.
Don't fret though, we picked the rain back up while enroute to Edinburgh and while in the city. We found our B&B without much incident. Each day we are within about 50 yards of where we are staying and have to do just a bit of searching. We decided to hoof it (walk) into the city and check out what we wanted to do tomorrow before our flight. We toured the castle at the price of about $24 a piece US.... just for the castle. I thought it was worth the entrance fee 15 years ago when I went but not this time. Christina was in search of the coffee shop that the Harry Potter author wrote from which was just down the street. From there it was off to Calton Hill (quite a hike) to snap some pictures of the town below. Tomorrow we will climb the opposite side (Arthur's Seat) which is an extinct volcano.
On the way back to the room we wanted to stop at a local pub with wireless access (which is where I am writing you now) and got completely dumped on by rain on the way. We are sitting here soaked head to toe even with rain jackets on.... but at least I have a good beer and the Spain v. Italy game.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. We didn't upload them from the camera to the computer before we left the room so they will have to come tomorrow. Tomorrow is our last real day, hopefully we can get one more post and some pictures in before we fly back.

Things to note:
Virgin Atlantic Airlines rocks even in economy!!!!
Zeus et al - we only booked our first nights in London and tomorrow night near Gatwick. The rest of the time we have completely winged it usually the day of. We got a little nervous when we hear about the agric. festival but it all worked out ok. We are early enough in the season that there is still plenty of room somewhere.
Tourist info centers really are good at picking out great places. We got better B&B's through them than doing 3 months worth of research on my own. Go figure.

6/21 Pitlochery and Anstruther

By now, we were really starting to get the hang of these big English/Scottish breakfasts. We decided what better way to start the day than washing down black pudding with a little local Scotch. We picked Edradour, the smallest distillery in Scotland, for its handcrafted Scotch and because they gave a free tour :) What can I say? We are near the end of our trip and feeling it in our pockets. For some reason they built the place for midgets and Joel was forever running into doorways. I think he was just trying to gain enough pity for more free Scotch.
We left Pitlochery and headed along the coast towards Anstruther(a random pick on the map, just south of St. Andrews). I was not thrilled about being stuck in the car for another long drive, but was pleasantly suprised by what we found. As we were reaching a real lag in our journey, we happened upon a small pick your own strawberry/raspberry farm with a cafe attached just outside of Leven. We stopped in for scones and homemade strawberry jam and then grabbed some raspberries for the road. I had been joking the whole trip about if only we could find a place with the beach, mountains, and farmland than I'd never leave and thats just what we found in Anstruther. It was a real quaint fishing town. Unfortunately, after our quick walk through town it got real cold and started pouring. We spent the rest of the longest day of the year inside reading and playing cards.

B&B: 8 Melville Terrace
Afternoon snack: Blacketyside Cafe

6/20 Hadrian's Wall and Pitlochery

We said farewell to our beautiful farmhouse and headed towards Scotland. We became very familiar with the town of Hexham in our quest to find Hadrian's Wall, or whats left of it, and Chester's Fort. We were not impressed by the work of Chester and continued on our journey to Pitlochery. We were lucky enough to book a place through the tourist information center which was a struggle due to the Agriculture Convention. On day 8 of flying by the seat of our pants and still smooth sailing. Our B&B, Strathgarry, was a very "posh" room located above a small cafe, which was made even cooler when we realized the name of our room was "Sheeps Dip"(that one's for you, Tom M). We wandered the town and then settled into a local pub where we enjoyed drinks, Croatia v. Turkey game, and live music. You couldn't understand a word out of the Scot's mouth, until he started singing a pretty impressive rendition of everything American (Green Day, Leonard Skynard, etc). Nothing says Scotland like the sweet sounds of Sweet Home Alabama.

Kicking Turkeys

We bought a walking book and decided to hit the trails. We went on the one that was stated to be 2 miles round trip and easy walking, sounded safe enough. About half way through the trail, we noticed the path to another trail that looked more inviting than the one we were on. 2 hours, many goat poop piles, and a little rain later we found ourselves up and back down a gorgeous mountain. The 360 degree view of the Lake District was well worth the heavy winds, rain fall, and exhaustion. When our shaky legs made it to the bottom of the mountain we rejoined our original trail. Luckily for us, we had purchased the walking guide book, because little did we know, the barely visible path cut through farm lands and backyards. We were midway into crossing one path when we realized we were in the middle of a cow pasture and the path cut through 8 full size cows. We froze and debated whether to continue or turn around and haul butt. All I could think about were Mel’s stories of being chased by cows/bulls (at the moment I couldn’t remember which one it was, which made me hesitate even more). I took a deep breath, blocked out thoughts of being knocked on my butt into cow piles, and we made our way through with cows glaring in our direction. We made it safely and laughed at how scared we were of cows when we come upon another field of chickens, goats, and turkeys. Once again, fear of angry roosters entered our heads. We walked slowly, deciding if we didn’t look the animals in the eyes we’d be ok, when up walked the king of all turkeys worldwide. We tried moving out of his way, but he kept getting closer. As he came closer, so did the other chickens. I quickened my step and bummed into Joel, which sent Joel into a tailspin. Freaking each other out, we both hauled ass the rest of the way to the fence. “You almost made me kick a turkey” Joel yelled. “Better me than you, I’m a vegetarian. I can’t kick animals.” When we made it to the other side of the fence we realized the poor guy was just hungry, but in the heat of the moment that turkey monster looked like it wanted to take revenge for turkeys everywhere. Sure gave the farmers something to laugh about.

Yorkshire Dales

We ate breakfast in York and decided to see the Yorkshire Dalles before making our way to the Lake District. Feeling tired of planning, Joel put me in charge of the traveling guide and map reading. I picked a small place called Pately Bridge(SE side of the dalles) and How Stean Gorge. We drove through the most gorgeous country side on the way to Pately Bridge. I was tempted to make Joel pull over and just leave me on the side of the road. With the beautiful weather, gorgeous countryside, and my nose buried in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver I couldn’t think of a single thing I’d rather do than leave behind my life and become a farmer. Pately Bridge was a cute town, filled like all the other towns with gift shops. It wasn’t so much the town that impressed us, but the drive out there. Carsickness, headaches, and all, I’d do it again. After picking up some cheese, biscuits, and pork pies, we made the 20 minute drive to How Stean Gorge. For 11 pounds, it was much smaller than we expected, but we both fell in love with the secluded stream and breathtaking walk. We found some fallen logs and had a picnic in the open fields. When we got in the car to continue onto the Lake District, we finally saw real English rainy weather. It took several hours to get to our bed and breakfast(Tock How Farm), but we were extremely pleased when we pulled into the most quaint farmhouse. Our room overlooks the cow filled farm, a beautiful lake, and mountains in the distance. We were wet and cold when we arrived and were happily greeted by a fireplace, tea, and hot chocolate. This has proved to be the highlight of our trip this far. We’re ready to kick back and enjoy a few days in the English countryside.

Day 5: York

Gas shortages throughout London made us a little nervous as we made our trek from Suffolk to York, but we filled up when we hit 1/2 a tank and are hoping for the best for the rest of the trip.

We got to York around noon, checked into our B&B, and cruised through the busy downtown streets. York is a beautiful town with plenty of shops filling the historic buildings. We went on a guided walk around the town and over the city walls to get a bit of York's history, but approaching hour 2 decided to bail out a little early. Originally we had discussed spending 2 days here, but not wanting to spend 2 days of museums and abbeys we think an afternoon is really enough. We are mapping out our journey now for the Lake District.

Bed and Breakfast: Abbingdon
Meals: Sainsbury, small side street restaurant

Crumpets, teacakes, and scones...OH MY!!

We had a lazy morning here in Suffolk, drinking tea, reading, and playing on the internet and then John and Annie took us out to get a little local flavor of the neighboring towns. We strolled through the streets of Bury St. Edmunds and enjoyed the church, shops, lattes, and scones. We happened upon a wine shop and Joel was able to pick up something nice from Dujac to share with our hosts. Then we moved onto Lavenham where we were treated to High Tea at The Swan. The food was absolutely delicious and Joel and I have decided that we must find a way to get clotted cream in the states. John was quite amused with himself, this being the first time to ask for a "box" for the leftovers since a "box" in England refers to a cup that a man would wear during sports. The ride home our bellies were full enough to put anyone into a deep diabetic sleep, if it weren't for our bat out of hell British driver and a major caffeine high. On the ride back to John's we stopped to see a small portion of his car collection (this section being strictly for racing). Amazing to imagine having a different car for almost every day of the month, all in tip top condition, with some dating back to as early as 1935.
We stopped by the Tourist Office, which proved to be one of the wisest ideas we've had and picked up a load of wonderful guide books to get us through the rest of our trip. This evening will be filled with snackettes, browsing the guide books, and relaxing. Tomorrow we head out for York.

Heathrow to Bury St. Edmunds

Sorry we didn't get to write last night. We didn't get the internet connection up until this morning. Yesterday we took an early morning tube ride our to Heathrow airport in order to pick up our rental car. The lady at the counter gave us a pretty neat little upgrade; Peugeot 307cc (convertable). We drove out to see our (parents) friends John and Annie who live out in the country just north of London where we will be staying for a couple of days.
We had a couple wrong turns here and there but driving over here is like riding a bike, once you done it once or thrice, it comes right back to you. I had no issues with other drivers or figuring out how/where to go.
Once we arrived we all went out to lunch at the local pub which is apparently a fairly common Sunday tradition. It was a very large meal and that was all we needed for the rest of the day really. John took us in one of his old cars (1935 Talbot something or other) which was really impressive. They are taking that car on a road trip through France next month. Most of the cars he collects turns out are off other places but I'm going to take some pictures of different cars he has in case anyone cares. They are pretty neat.
From there on out we just lounged around the house and talked all night about all kinds of thing. Today we are getting a slow start and about lunch time we will head into Newmarket for a wander around town to see how the locals operate. More pictures to come today.

Joel Turns 27!!

12 hours of sleep was just what we needed. Today proved to be a much better start to our trip, beginning with the man of the house (B&B) making up for his wife's flakiness. She was out rowing this morning, so he treated us to breakfast and a good conversation. We found out that a house like the B&B in this area (Hammersmith) runs about 2 million pounds ($4mil). Guess we won't be buying a house in the area. After breakfast, we headed to Greenwich, by boat, to see the Prime Meridian. The boat ride was one of our favourite things (notice the Brit spelling already). Christina's on the east side of the world, Joel's on the westsiiiiiiiide. The sights from the top of the hill were unbelievable gorgeous and the Greenwich market was a lovely treat (vegan and gluten free treats for Christina in the land of meat, wheat, and meat wrapped in wheat). We ate our lunch overlooking the Thames River and headed back into Westminster.

It being Christina's 1st time in London, we thought it only be fair to hit all the tourist spots; Big Ben, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and Trafalgar Square (Holy Asians, Batman! We accidentally stumbled into the Taste of Thailand expo along the way.

 Sherlock Holmes had already gone home for the night when we got to 221B Baker Street. I guess it was 5 o'clock somewhere. 

From there it was a quick trip home and a stop at the local Tesco to recharge and fill our stomachs. We decided about dusk to head back out and see a little bit of London at night. 

Tomorrow we jump up early and head to Heathrow to pick up our rental car. For those following on their maps we are heading to Suffolk to stay with some friends of the family (John and Anne Ruston). 

Cheers!

Joel & Christina