Snow Lake Hike

Here are some photos from a hike we did this past Sunday. We drove 25 mins out of our way to get the batteries to take these photos so I had to post them.

This hike is up in the I-90 mountain pass. Very beautiful and a must see alpine lake. Sometimes I'm still amazed spectacular views like this are less than an hour (excluding a detour for batteries) from our home.


The lake upheld it's name.

London

The best part of our trip was seeing some of my friends in London. Kris, Ali and Kate were classmates from my semester in Newcastle. They were great hosts and we enjoyed their inside knowledge and personal tours of the city.

Day 1 -
Rob and I put on our walking shoes and hiked all over the city on our first day - from Oxford Circle to Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait gallery (for a bit of English Monarchy history). That was followed with a walk through James Park to Buckingham Castle and then a visit to Harrod's before we finally returned back to Kris's flat. To say the least, we were a bit exhausted, but also pumped from the exciting city.

Oxford Circus

Trafalgar Square from the steps of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Horse Guard with the London Eye in the skyline

Buckingham Palace

We sat outside of Harrod's at a cafe for a break from our long walk.
I practiced my biz motion photography skills.

We had dinner back at Kris', where we had a bit of fun playing with our food. It might have been spurred on by the bottle of Champaign and a couple bottles of wine. Note Rob's noodles are in flight!
Kate had a great idea of making spring rolls together. I'm not sure what Kris was so astonished with, but this photo shows the do-it-yourself spring roll spread.

Here's our non-noodled group photo.
The flash didn't work so I tried to lighten it as best that I could.

Day 3-Paris

Well Day 3 was definitely the least successful day in Paris. We were off to a great start when we overslept by about an hour. We had hoped to wake up with enough time to go down to the Musee d'Orsay and return to get our bags before we caught our train to London. Instead, we had to take our bags with us to the museum.

We went through our neighborhood in search of breakfast at a cafe. Believe it or not there was more ham involved. Oh and I-spy another Camille!

After breakfast we headed (in the rain) to the museum. As we were getting close the heavens opened. We were so close and yet so far. Luckily we were able to stand under a bridge and wait it out. As the rain lightened up we headed over the bridge to find a long line wrapping around the museum. It took us over an hour to stand in it...with our packs on.

Ah, but finally after a strenuous hour on or feet with our packs we made it inside the nice dry Musee d'Orsay.

After, we made a mad dash to the Gare d'Nord to catch the Chunnel train to London. We barely made it there in time. I think we were one of the last 10 people on the train. It took us one of the 2 hours to cool of and catch our breath.

Europe

So we're back from our big Europe trip. We had a wonderful time, and since everyone has been asking about what it looked like and what we did, we decided to actually post on our blog and share.

Here's a statistical overview:

• 7 plane rides
  
• 8 airports
• 1 fast train
• 2 Catamarans
• 3 buses
• 1 bus ride on a ferry
• 1 rental car
• 1 rental car on a 4 min ferry

• 13 ham & cheese sandwiches (only 2 of which were intentionally ordered)
  
• 7 squid
• 1 entire octopus
• 8 ice cream cones

• 2 attempted scams on us (that we know of)
• 2 cats sun bathing on scooters
  

Day 1 - Paris

We hit the ground running at 10am after getting off a plane with little sleep.

First we saw Notre Dame & then walked through the Ile de la Cite, Saint Germain Quarter and the Latin Quarter.
The back of Notre Dame
The front of Notre Dame with one American.

The organ we sat and listened to. Out of it's 7,800 pipes, at least 12 have been in function since medieval times.



While walking through the St. Germain neighborhood we randomly stopped at a cafe for lunch. Due to Camille's rusty H.S. French and a pushy waiter we ended up with the first of many ham and cheese sandwiches, actually one of the baguettes didn't even have cheese.

After a nap and shower we were off again in the evening to the Eiffel Tower and a rainy boat tour on the Seine River.



Note the ominous cloud.


The boat ride in the rain.

Day 2 - Paris

We were heading out of our hotel to go to the Louvre when we notice how nice it was out, a.k.a. not raining. So we opted to do a walking tour via guidebook and map of the Marais Quarter, where we were staying. It's considered Paris' Jewish neighborhood and the tight streets are lined with "hotels" or century old Mansions—many of them hidden behind gated walls.



Below is Place des Vosges, one of Paris' oldest squares and was once it's most fashionable. In fact there looked to be some kind of photo shoot going on at the fountain while we were there.

And of course, no hike in the urban jungle is complete without a bit of local wild life.




After our walk we headed to the Louvre. We only had time to browse the classics of the Denon wing before we were starving and needed to go hunting for something better than the cafe ham & cheese sandwich we found the day before. We luckily found a great cafe with a perfect salad nicoise and escargot....probably the best meal we were able to find in our whole 3 days there.


Wouldn't it be cool to say "I can paint any thing in the Louvre"?


OK, so I have to admit one of the reasons that I love France is a little game I like to play of "Spot the things named Camille". I-spy a statue named Camille.


That evening we were blessed with a break in the rain again so we took a quick Metro ride up to Sacre Coeur, a creamy white church that sites high above Paris. It's a great place to sit and watch the sunset.

Views from the top looked like they could be in a movie.



And nothing would be better than seeing the Eiffel tower sparkle! Ok, maybe finding a reasonably priced dinner consisting of more than pommes frites and a tiny piece of beef would have been nice, but then again, when you wait 'till 10 to have dinner and all the best places are closing up, then you have no choice. So, we have to say the highlights of the evening were the views and, to our disappointment, not the food.

Spring has sprung in Seattle

We've really been enjoying the arrival of spring. Last fall we replanted our front yard flower beds with a slew of bulbs. The daffodils are up right now and the tulips are just around the corner. If I can remember we'll post photos of our yard soon.

We jump started spring with these tulips we bought at Costco in a large vase. It was fun to watch them grow from bulbs and we think they turned out really pretty. ---Camille