key west

Not quite a month ago we got to enjoy a quick trip to Key West courtesy of Scott's work.  It was a very nice time--though it would have been more fun if I weren't pregnant.  The travel was difficult for me as was all the walking in the heat with my swelling.  Nonetheless is was fun. It was actually better than I was expecting.  The history of KW was interesting, the vistas were beautiful, and the food delicious.   We didn't take many photos, but here are a few pics. 

 

the weirdest part of Key West: all the wild, roaming chickens and roosters.  so strange.  if you know me well, you know I am petrified of birds, so this was a challenge for me.  I find I'm less afraid of poultry than normal birds, but they still make me uneasy if they are close.  At one restaurant we ate, the rooster loved me and just kept getting.  A small hen at the same restaurant took a nap in a planter right next to our table.  Creepy.  We asked why there were so many, and it is illegal to kill anything with feathers on KW, so there you have it-a major problem. 

 

Mile marker 0--the most stolen road sign in FL

 

 A view of our little key

 

Pulling their weight out on our booze cruise. The female sailors needed help hoisting the sail.  It was not overly comforting.

 

 A view from the dock where we caught the boat shuttle from our Key to the main part of Key West. You had to be with it or you could really waste a lot of your time b/c it only left from each side every 30 minutes.

 

 

Waiting on the dock.  I did not have cool enough clothes for sure.  I was so hot. 

 

Riding the shuttle out--this is our key.  We stayed in the cottage to the right of the 2-story.

 

Another view

Vacation Part 5: Athens and Atlanta

Then we hit the road for leg 3: Athens, GA to the Lauers.  The Lauers are super fun and love to stay busy.  Even when we lived in the same town as them quality time was hard.  Josh is an Assistant Coach for girls Volleyball at UGA, which means he is always on the go with games and recruiting.  So we just decided to campout for a couple of days in casa Lauer to get as much time with them as possible.  They have a cute, spunky little 21 month old who seems so much older.  He and C liked each other a lot.  It was definitely harder for C at the last stop b/c there was a bigger age gap and we were further into our journey...and it showed in C's behavior.  He had a great time, but was running out of patience. 

Athens is a very cool college town.  We checked out the campus and saw the most unfortunately named building there (maybe anywhere)--The Butts-Mere building.  Gross name.  We ate at a local taco joint, visited the local free zoo/park, played a game after the boys went to bed.  Friday we bought some GA Dawgs merchandise for me and C.  I'm no Dawgs die-hard fan, but we root for whoever Coach Lauer is with, which is currently UGA.  Friday afternoon we headed to Atlanta w/Deb and E also to see some volleyball: UGA vs. GATech at Tech (hence Atlanta).  We originally had visions of taking the boys to the aquarium or some other fun place, but honestly C was pretty much done with vacation at this point, and we would have all been miserable.  After a little quiet time in the hotel for C we headed to grab some dinner--ate it in Centennial Park (wether was gorgeous) and then watched some volleyball.  C pretty much fell apart in the first game.  He demanded to leave (thankfully it was crazy loud in there).  We had to have a little "talk," and then he was fine, but mad at me.  The Tech fans were crazy supportive of their volleyball team: large pep band, huge student section, and tons of alum/parents.  It was a great atmosphere, but really loud and tight--which was stressful for C I think. 

We got to squeeze one more quick visit in with Deb and E at breakfast the next morning before we headed for the Birmingham Airport.  Lots of fun. 
As a side note: I did a terrible job taking pictures on this leg.  We were all just tired by this time.

Random: all three boys had cute little voices.  M has a very deep voice and says Daddy like Daw-dee (think British),  E says Ma-Maw (think French), and C has a southern accent though he doesn't live in the south...just a weird observation.

posing at the zoo

walking, well E doesn't walk anywhere.  He has the cutest happy feet you've ever seen.

checking out the bears

C taught E...1,2,3 go!

decked out to root for the dawgs

a little action shot...sadly they lost in 3 games, but they were all close.



and taking a page out of Becca Bryan's mothering advice we let C go crazy jumping on the hotel bed before we left for another long travel day to St. Louis. He thought it was so cool

Vacation Part 3: Blue Angels

I really had to cut down on the B.A. pics.  We took so many b/c it was truly awesome to see.

currently this is C's favority plane--Fat Albert.  It's driven by Marines and carries equipment and techs to service the planes at shows.  It hadn't flown in Pensacola in over a month, so we were lucky. We got to go into the first one (that's retired). It's pretty big.

he was actually in the cockpit of a real Blue Angel here

us with the Boss of the B.A.s

inside the museum.  it was really cool.  they had tons of chopped off cockpits for kids to crawl in and lots of whole planes to read about (for older kids), a space and aeronautics section, lots of vintage planes, and some simulators (all of which C loved).  He could have stayed there for hours, but we were in a hurry to get on the road w/our 7 hr drive ahead of us.

Vacation Part 2: Pensacola/Perdido Key

I lived in Pensacola for about 5.5 years as a child, so when we were planning our southern expedition we decided we were too close to the beach to miss out. Not to mention being within reach of the Blue Angels.  Oh Yeah!  We got a great deal on a beach front condo in Perdido Key (the tiniest little beach town ever).  It was pretty deserted after Labor Day which was great.

We spent some time on the beach, checking out Palafox Place in downtown Pensacola, driving by my old house, eating seafood, and then the Blue Angels and the Aviation Museum.  Pensacola is a pain to get to, and an even bigger pain to get around.  We spent so much time driving--which isn't ideal for a 3 year old.

We enjoyed it a lot--very relaxing.

the evening we got there it was crazy rough from the tropical storm.

eating some pizza

firing the cannon in P'cola

hello from Perdido Key

running on the beach

sandcastles for the monster aka C to destory

silly boys

Vacation: Montgomery, Alabama

The primary purpose of our recent family vacation was to catch up with some dear friends of ours we hadn't seen in over a year and in another couples' case--2 years.  We needed a little reconnection/refilling of our souls with these couples.  We had a very special group of friends in St. Louis that will never be recreated.  We were friends before we had kids, got to love on the first baby from our group, and then the group started to move away.  One couple one year, then 1 the next year, and 1 the next, now there's only 1 couple that even lives in St. Louis left.  Crazy!  2 of the husbands from the group are currently employed by Universities in the south, so we took this opportunity to head down and visit. 
Look out Snyders and Lockes--we're coming for you in 2012!

First stop Montgomery to the sweet Cobbs.  Aaron and Alisha have the cutest 4 year old boy.  He has the best imagination EVER.  C was happy to play along.  C taught M about superheroes, and M taught C about Star Wars.  M also introduced C to the concept of big brother/little brother--a game they played since Micah is going to be a big brother soon.  They were 2 peas in a pod.  They got along amazingly.  They pretty much watched themselves.  The Cobbs have an open ranch home, so we could see the boys playing in M's room the whole time w/o them playing right by us...Awesome! 

the dads fell asleep on the job (though it seems like C single-handedly killed them with the light saber)

did i do that?

2 obi wans

sweetest improptu hand holding as M led C to Sunday School

watching a little Mater's Tall Tales

Argentina: Day 6

My camera had died by this day, so the only photos I have are from a friend.  We took a walking tour through Recoleta (the neighborhood where we were staying).  The majority of the tour was in the Cemetary.  It was an amazing cemetary.  It is full of mausoleums.  They don't have to bury above ground there, but in their Belle Epoch they decided to show off their money and status.  It was a challenge to build the most elaborate mausoleums.  Some have 30 people buried in them.  Some are falling apart if the families have died out--or run out of money to pay for upkeep.  Some families have to sell the plots.  Evita is buried there.  It was raining and windy, but we stuck it out.  If it had been nicer weather, I would have loved to stay longer.  It was literally like a little city. 

• 10:15 guided walking tour of the Recoleta: including Recoleta Cemetary (including graves of many of Argentina’s historical figures including Evita Perron

• Ice cream at Freddo--tried my last bit of dulce de leche--so yummy in a chocolate wafer-like cone.

• 12:30 wine and brunch at hotel (sparkling with smoked salmone bruschetta, pastries, croissants, and other stuff

• Free time to explore city and lunch on own

• It was labor Day, so we found one of the only restaurants open El San Juanito

 6:00pm Load Bus

 6:30pm Depart On-Time to International airport (approximately 45 min.)

 8:00pm Arrive at airport and check in for International flight

 11:30pm Depart Buenos Aires (EZE) LAN ARGENTINA #520 – arrive MIAMI at 7:00AM on May 2

 Leave Miami airport at 2:25

 Finally arrived to St. Louis at 4:15

 Went to dinner at Galleria

 Home by 9:30

Argentina: Day 5

It's already getting hard to remember details.  I'm so glad I'm doing this--it's kind of like a travel journal, so I apologize if you're already bored. 

This was our last full day in Argentina.  We started the morning with a bus tour of part of B.A. We went to Plaza de Mayo (the city's government city)--the banking district is there as well as their president's place of business and a very old cathedral. We had a little shopping time in La Boca--which was really cool.  I wish we could have had more than 30 minutes.  This was where you could really find deals that we as tourists wanted.  Boca was originally a slum, but isn't too bad now.  Just outside Boca though there are still shanty towns.  You literally go under the highway and then you are in the newest, exclusive neighborhood of B.A--Puerto Madera--where we had lunch.  It's so weird how that works--rich right next to crazy impoverished. It seemed a bit like that in Mendoza, too.  We also passed through San Telmo--the birthplace of tango.

We had some free time to do shopping after our lunch.  We walked to a mall.  It was a mall--nothing special.  Walking around was cool though. 

On to the tango bar in San Telmo.  This was my second favorite meal.  The entertaiment was great.  We had dinner and when desert started the show started.  They had live musicians--a pianist, an accordion player (my favorite), an upright bass, and 2 violins.  They had 4 tango couples.  They had a man and woman who sang some songs (my least favorite part).  They also had this man who played a mandolin type instrument--he did solo performances--some accompanied by the other musicians.  He was amazing.  Then they had this dancer-type guy who for lack of a better term twirled these boleadoras (the things cowboys, gauchos, used to rope cattle by the feet). He was really entertaining to watch.  This was a great way to end our last night in the city. 

Plaza De Mayo--there are always people protesting here. Basically they set up tents and hang up signs and stay there. 

Casa Rosada--oddly it is pink.  It was once white, but the original 2 parties were white and red, so to show a sign of unification they painted it pink. 

El Caminito--all buildings are crazy looking like this

this neighborhood was saved by a famous Argentinian artist that hailed from there.  his estate donated tons of money to it

checking out the wares

a view from plaza de mayo

Puerto Madera

another view in Plaza de Mayo

The tango dancers before the show let you take photos with them and they gave a little mini lesson to some couples.

Tango lesson: tango has elements from Spanish, Russian, African, and many other influences.  It was created in the tenenments of San Telmo and La Boca.  It was very sensual.  Only the very poor danced it w/the accompaniment of an accordion player.  It was considered too dirty to dance by Argentinian high society until it was danced in Paris--then Argentinians embraced the dance their nation birthed.

Our itinerary--basically this just has more detail to what I just wrote

 9:30am Meet in Hotel Lobby for Guided City tour


 Highlights include
• Plaza de Mayo (historical center and place where the city was founded)
• San Telmo ( the origins of Tango) and historic Dorrego Square

• La Boca (the river mouth first populated by Italian immigrants who made a unique place out of this neighborhood)

• La Recoleta (considered to be one of the finest and most historic areas of the city.)

• Casa Rosada ( Presidents Palace)

• Catedral Metropolitana (mother church of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires)

• Recoleta Cemetery (includes graves of many of Argentina's historical figures)


 12:30pm Group Lunch Sotto Voce (Italian restaurant)
 Cheese course

 Salad: choice of vegetables or seafood over arugula

 Steak or fresh made fusilli with tomato and basil sauce

 2:30pm Return to Hotel
 3:00pm Free time to explore the city - meet in the lobby
 8:15pm Meeting Lobby for dinner
 8:30pm Depart to La Ventana Restaurant (Tango Show & Dinner) Attire: Nice casual
 Caprese (choice of appetizer—don’t remember all the choices)
 Choice of 2 different steaks, pork steaks, salmon, or pasta
 Dessert: choice of tiramisu, cooked pears in a Malbec wine sauce with ice cream


After the tango bar a few of us went out to a bar with our guides.  We stayed out until almost 3 am.  It was pretty fun.  We danced a bit, but mostly just sat around together.  Good ending.  It was funny that we traveled thousands of miles to listen to American music in their bars.