Bordeaux!

• Near the end of May we hopped in the car for another French road trip. This time we headed south and west to the regions of Bordeaux and Perigord for a week of fun with some fellow European stationed military folks. Paul took a break from french studies in Lyon, Brad and Maia headed over from Stuttgart, and we met our buddies Tim and Meghan in Paris so we could carpool down together. Tim found an absolutely amazing converted farmhouse in the tiny village of St Sernin on vrbo.com. The village is surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills, and for a week we played in the pool, played ping pong, dined al fresco on the patio, toured around the region, and oh yeah, drank some great French wine. Our first outing was to the nearby town of Duras to explore the chateau. Tim's become quite the wine connoisseur over the last two years so we also paid a visit to the town of St. Emilion for an unforgettable wine tasting, and Paul and I had a run-in with a local boulanger (bread maker) on the way back. The most adventurous day found us driving east to the town of Sarlat, home of foie gras and very popular with the Brit tourists, followed by a kayak trip down the Dordogne river to see the chateaus from the water. Finally, Paul and I made the drive out to see the prehistoric cave paintings in and around Lascaux. We got a little ego boost when the guy at the visitor center tried to switch to english for our conversation, then got stuck, and we told him that it would be better if we continued in french. It was. Booyah. What an awesome trip.
  

Okay, it's official...

We suck as bloggers.

April 20th was our last blog, so we certainly don't win any big points for frequency. Our hope, however, is that we can make up for our lack of quantity with an extraordinarily high level of quality. You be the judge. Rather than attempt to catch up the last 4 months all at once, we'll be releasing updates in bits and pieces. Stay tuned.

• 
  -May
• 
  
  • May kicked off with a road trip down to Strasbourg, France. Located in the Alsace region, Strasbourg sits right on the current border with Germany, and combines the best of French and German cuisine and culture. But even better than the half-timbered buildings and flammekuchen were our hosts! Our friends Pete and Whitney are (sadly, it's "were" now that they've moved to San Diego) Olmsted Scholars in Strasbourg, and even though Pete was working feverishly on completing his thesis, they took us in, showed us the town, and let us play with their adorable daughter Susannah. Whitney even took Jen and I on a run around the town, while Pete did his part by helping me polish off the Belgian beers I brought down. They're so unselfish! We even decided to take a day and go to EuropaPark, which was an incredible decision. The Rebers even popped by as they made their way through town, and it was great to meet them before they made it up to Brussels to stay with us.
• For the second half of May we headed off to St. Petersburg, Russia to visit Josh and Niki. Not only are they both extremely easy to hang out with and very welcoming, but Josh also happens to share the (dubious) honor of being the only other Gonzaga University alumnus in the history of the Olmsted program! The two of them pulled out all the stops and showed us all around St. Petersburg (or Leningrad, or Petrograd, depending on which decade you're there). We lost ourselves in the immense collection of the Hermitage museum, marveled at the intricate mosaics inside the Church on Spilled Blood, stood in awe of the massive scale of St. Isaac's Cathedral, wandered through the fairy tale gardens and fountains of Peterhof, and basked in the golden glow of the Amber Room at Catherine Palace. It was incredible. And it was a good thing Josh was there with his flawless Russian, because Slavic languages are definitely not my strong suit and Russian guys didn't seem all that friendly. Awesome, awesome trip.