2007 What a Ride - Year in Review

It has been a whirlwind year for us that started in Kentucky, moving to England, having visited Ireland, Tanzania, France, Italy, ending with a new years bang in Scotland.

We have traveled too many miles to count and we are enjoying our time abroad. I know I know, our carbon footprint is huge. Anyway, we've had the good fortune to spend each of our birthdays on new continent and in different country. I have to say it is incredible to see the sights and sounds from all over the world! So in sum, we want to highlight a few of our most memorable moments from the year.

At the top of the list has to be the trip to Tanzania. Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime trip thanks to my good buddy Sameer, who's wedding we were honored to be a part of.

One of the first days that comes to mind was in Zanzibar at the local outdoor food market. Our tour guide took us around the cornucopia of new and exotic fruits, veg and meats which was overwhelming. Venders and buyers were everywhere selling everything you can image. It was madness and a long way from Kroger.

And how could we forget the animals of Tanzania and how spectacular they were? Watching the lions hunting with such raw power, the giraffes eating high up in the trees, the massive elephants lumbering along, hippos swimming in their own stinky water and gazelles gracefully dashing in the grasslands. It was truly the most amazing experience to date.

Moving on to Europe, we couldn't leave out our journey to Ireland, which was our first real European trip. Missing our connecting flight, having to hop on a train instead to meet up with Mary and Chris. Oh, and not to mention our train car having an electrical fire/smoke en route?! Ireland was a beautiful place to visit - breathtaking. Sheep anyone...

How about the long flight after watching our poor cats board the plane on there way to England? Then the joy of welcoming them to the flat.

Ah, Paris. There is not much to say except that it is the city you expect it to be - beautiful, romantic and alive. Next time we go, we promise to learn some French beforehand!

Another good day was when Steph found an extra ticket to an Arsenal Champions League football match that allowed me to attend. To top it off, Arsenal won 7 – 0.

Then, Thanksgiving day in London with the family, but without turkey and dressing. That family visit was capped by a fun, albeit rainy, weekend in Venice.

Honorable mention goes to riding the Zorb which was an adrenaline fun-filled 45 seconds. And let the record show that we recommended it before the Today Show!

What a ride!

Finally to look ahead to 2008. Some of the trips we are planning include visits to Switzerland, Amsterdam, Rome for Easter, an Italian cooking class and wine tours in Tuscany and then to Germany. If you can believe it that just gets us to June! Plus, we have many friends and family who are planning to visit this coming year. We can't wait to see everybody and hopefully share some of these fabulous travel experiences with them.

2008 promises to be even better so stay tuned...

Now to Celebrate Hogmanay

By the time we arrived, Edinburgh was already decked out for the Hogmanay celebration with Princes Street closed to traffic and workers everywhere finishing the last minute touches. There was a massive stage at the foot of the castle with a few other minor stages on surrounding streets. There were also a lot of carnival rides decorating the city center.

For us the festivities began on the night of the 30th. Georges Street was closed for a street party full of singing, dancing and other performing arts. One of the most amusing was a pair of non-talking, costumed hairdressers who were making creative masterpieces of peoples' hair. They would silently point to someone in the crowd to come on stage. Then they underwent a hair transformation, most resembling Dr. Seuss styled hair, complete with color spray, hair glitter, pipe cleaners and an assortment of plastic dinosaurs that were wired into the hair.

One impressive style included someones hair turning in to the red and green dinosaur that killed Seinfeld's "Newman" character (remember, when he was running away with the dino DNA, and this little dino looked innocent until he flipped up his bright red and green collar and started hissing?!) Yes, this guy's long hair was transformed into this dino! And topped with a little plastic figurine of the same dino for effect (in case you didn't recognise it!). I tried to get on stage but I am guessing my hair was too short as these styles were mile high and outrageous!

New Years Eve was no less exciting. The street was packed and as it got closer to time you were essentially a sardine on the street! Initially we planned to make our way over to the stage where the Red Hot Chili Pipers were playing. Yes, bag pipe rock! Don't believe me check out this video. Unfortunately navigating the crowd took longer than expected so we just got in to a good position to watch the fireworks.

Amazingly, there was no big announcement or countdown...we heard the crowd start a half-hearted countdown around 5 seconds before - and then the castle went up in a glitter of fireworks! The show was nice but short. And like most public celebrations, the crowd dispersed to the bars, clubs and pubs fairly quickly.

As large as the celebration seemed, we found out that about 100K people attend Hogmanay whereas about 1 million attend NYC! Regardless of the relative size of the event, we had a blast and it was a great way to welcome in the new year and celebrate being another year wiser.

Celebration In Edinburgh

After a whirlwind trip to the US for Christmas we flew back to London, lugged our suitcases full of gifts home, greeted the cats, took a much needed nap (I know it's bad for jet lag but it couldn't be helped), spent the evening unpacking and repacking and flew out the next morning at 7 am. Between the overnight flight back to the UK and the short nights sleep it was a quick few days.

The trip to Edinburgh was marked by two occasions, my birthday and New Years Eve, also known as Hogmanay in Scotland.

The first thing that strikes you about Edinburgh is the castle sitting up on the hill. A dominating presence overlooking the rather historic but modern and hip city. Standing on Princes Street all you want to do is gaze and take pictures of it. It has such old world charm and is still in impressive form. In its day you just know it was a formidable challenge for any opposition standing down below. "Go on lads, try and take that castle..."

After checking into Rick's our boutique hotel and dropping off our luggage we headed toward the castle to start sightseeing. One time saving note for future travellers, if you are in city center wanting to visit the castle just start walking up the hill. Don't try and find a bus that will take you close because they do not take you that close from there as one driver thankfully pointed out. Its only a 5 min walk albeit up the hill.

From the castle you are struck by a great view from the top. Even though parts date back to the 9th century most of its structures date from 16th century forward except for one chapel from the 12th century. Keeping with our celebration theme we watched the new years fireworks display being set up on the tour.

Check out Josh in the castle and with another huge cannon called Mons Meg.

Afterwards we started a conversation with a Scottish whiskey salesman when I was looking at a bottle of whiskey as old as we are (1980!). He pointed out the Whiskey Bible (rating book for the world's whiskeys) and he was telling us one was highly rated. Josh flipped through quickly and found that KY bourbon Woodford Reserve was the same high rating. Proud of our KY heritage, we thanked him and moved on.

Leading up to the castle is The Royal Mile lined with interesting shops and pubs (AKA - tourist traps). Anyone for a kilt?

We tried to visit The Royal Yacht Britannia. Its located on the outskirts of the city at the Ocean Terminal so after a bus ride there it had already closed due to it being new years eve. Instead we had a nice lunch for my birthday where we got the lovely picture above.

So much for sightseeing - its time for the next celebration, Hogmanay...

Happy New Year!

I know its a day late but Happy New Year everyone! We are back from Edinburgh, Scotland and had a rockin' New Years eve. The Hogmanay celebrations were worth the trip!

We celebrated Steph's birthday in style and she had a blast.

Best wishes to all in 2008. It's going to be another great year!

Timeout for Snowboarding

While I was home for the holidays and since we were in West Virgina only a few minute drive from Winterplace Ski Resort, Garland and I decided we would have a guys night out and learn to snowboard.

We had an hour and a half intro lesson that taught us the basics of stopping, using the edges of the board to control your speed while you are moving in all directions and how to get on and off the lift without making a fool of yourself.

To make a long story short snowboarding is much tougher than it looks. We spent a lot of time on the snow and our ski gear was soaked when we left. If you are new to snowboarding expect to fall a lot and to be sore the next few days.

Garland took to it like a natural. By the end of the night he was doing tricks and going down the mountain in style. Check out this video of him snowboarding. We had a great relaxing night of fun.

Here are a few photos of us on the mountain.

I know it's not quite Switzerland but that trip is right around the corner. However, it will be on skis...

There's no place like home for the holidays....!

That song had a new meaning for us this year. There really is no place like home for the holidays! We had a great time in West Virginia and Lexington seeing our friends and family. It was a whirlwind trip going from one Christmas event to the next. And every moment was great!

We are back in London safe and sound already having unpacked and repacked for Edinburgh. The cats were glad to see us but are going to be upset again tomorrow.

We want to thank all of our friends and families that helped to accommodate our crazy schedule.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Absolut Ice Bar Review

On Tuesday night Zac, Tara, Steph and I decided it would be fun to visit the Absolut London Ice Bar so here is my take on the experience.

First a little background, the temperature inside the bar is kept at a constant 5 degrees and everything is made from water (ice) frozen from the Torne River in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden.

To get into the bar you book a 40 minute time slot that costs £12 during the week and £15 on the weekends to get in. Its a bit expensive but the entry fee does include a designer thermal cape to keep you warm, an ice glass and one cocktail.

Initially we were excited to get into the cold but after getting our drink and taking a look around we realized the bar itself wasn't all that impressive. Other than some music blaring there wasn't much to enhance the experience. The bar itself was a dark modern gray that was amplified by the ice. There was just something missing.

They had some ice seats covered in fake animal skin so you could sit down without sitting straight on the ice.

One cool thing however was the ice cup you were given for your drink. It was a neat to drink out of a hollowed block of ice.

In summary it is something I'm glad I could experience but probably won't do again.

Ice Bar Photos

Back From Venice

Sadly, the family reunion in London and Venice is over. Everybody is back in KY getting back to normal life preparing for Christmas. I'm sorry the post is a bit late but we had to recover from the hectic pace and put in a few extra hours to make up for the last few weeks (sleep and work!).

We started at the Tower of London, home to the royal crown jewels. They were a spectacular sight and included the world's largest cut diamond, the Star of Africa. Sorry Steph, that diamond wasn't for sale when I bought your ring, shame...

Another cool siting at the Tower of London were the ravens which have been on the grounds since 1865. It is said that if the ravens leave the tower the kingdom would fall. They are fairly spooky birds flying and hovering around. Especially since it was dark, rainy and foggy.

The following day it was cold, windy and rainy which turned out to be a theme for the week. Since it was typical British November weather we decided to visit Harrods, which was all geared up for Christmas. They ladies did plenty of shopping and us men found the pub in the basement.

Monday Steph and I went back to work for the week while everyone else did more touring in London. As we didn't go with them I will let them tell the stories but they visited the British Museum (finding Zac's portrait on the wall), the London eye, the south bank of Parliament, and toured the Chelsea Football Club grounds.

Their week in London was capped off with a Thanksgiving dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. Amazingly, dozens of places serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in London, however, Hard Rock's meal turned out to be not so traditional (in our opinion) so we all ate other things off the Americanized menu - yum! Our "Thanksgiving dinner", minus the turkey and trimmings, is captured in the group photo above.

More to come...

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Eat extra turkey and stuffing for us. Steph's craving some of Kathy's sweet potato souffle and oh how I would love a big helping of my Mum's pineapple casserole...

Unfortunately its not a holiday in the UK so Steph and I are at work counting the hours until we can get our fill of turkey tonight. Thankfully we have some family over to help us celebrate which is a great added bonus. I will hopefully blog more about our adventures this past week or so after we get back from Venice.

Tonight we have reservations at the original Hard Rock Cafe in London to have our Thanksgiving meal. Its not exactly home cooked but it should be entertaining. Plus it gave me a good excuse to use that image above.

In any event here's what the Hard Rock's website says about their menu tonight, "Join us this Thanksgiving for turkey with all the trimmings.... Turkey dinner, pumpkin pie and an infamous rock n roll atmosphere." Hopefully they will ROCK the turkey...

In honor of the day we want to say how thankful we are for those we have in our lives at the present and for the memories we have of those who are no longer with us.

Happy turkey day to all, gobble gobble gobble...

They made it

I just want to let everybody know that Kenny & Lois made it over without a hitch and have had a great start to the trip.

A Few Weekend Photos

After they landed on Friday we toured London seeing the main sights of Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Oxford Street which is already decorated for Christmas. We decided that Christmas here starts after Halloween without Thanksgiving to hold things up a bit. All of the Christmas decorations and commercial blitz have already started which is another reason to dig Thanksgiving, bring on the turkey and stuffing...

On Saturday we took the train back into London touring the Borough Market where we had some tasty treats and then watched the fireworks over the Thames for the Lord Mayor's celebrations. Finally, we hit a pub for fish and chips.

After sending them on the Eurostar to Paris yesterday I just spoke to them and they arrived in Paris as expected. Here's wishing them a Happy 30th Anniversary!

That's all from here until Zac and Tara arrive and when things really pick up. Any experienced travelers be sure to throw any pub suggestions my way.

See you soon bro, I can't wait...

We have exorciiiiiiised the (kitty) demons!

Mia has been plagued by a demon recently. She has been spending the majority of the day in the bedroom and most times being under the bed in the bedroom. She might start in a lovey mood in the bedroom and I would carry her in to the living room and sit on the couch....then she would look around in a panic, jump off my lap and run hunching low to the ground, back to the bedroom. What on earth is wrong with Mia?

We started thinking about it and Mia was definitely not happy in the living room. What's new in the living room? Nothing really. Then tonight we thought about the toy Josh bought them while I was in the US. He bought a kitty toy consisting of a foot-long piece of feather boa that was hanging from a string on a pole. So waving it around it kind of looked like a bird or squirrel (the boa makes it look like a squirrel). Simply enough, right? All cats love feathery, fuzzy things tied to a pole, right? We've had "birders" before - two long, stiff feathers tied to a string on a pole and they loved it.

Well, when I got home from the US Josh said, "Hey, look. I bought them this toy but Mia acts really weird with it." So, he pulled it out of the desk drawer (which is in the living room) and Mia freezes. She watches it fly around, then hisses! And when he put it on the ground for her to approach she would hiss more and make this awful low growl!! She acted as if she wanted to absolutely kill it - and not in a I'm-a-cat-and-I-love-to-play-hunt kind of way.....I'm talking a this-is-the-most-wretched-thing-I-have-ever-seen-and-I-want-to-annihilate-it!

So, Wednesday night I theorized that she is avoiding the living room because she knows this thing is in the desk drawer (she was eyeing it down still in a fit when Josh put it away that day). I suggested we bring it out in the hall, (grab her from under the bed first!), show it to her then throw it in the guest room. We always keep our guest room door closed - the kitties are not allowed in there (so guests can rest in a cat allergy free and hair free environment).

Well, we did. We let her growl over it, bite it and hiss at it for about 10 minutes in the hall and then I took and with her eyeing me down suspiciously, I opened the guest room door and threw it in. She jumped as if to chase after it but I closed the door and we all left the hall.

It being Saturday morning now, I am glad to saw we have, in fact, exorcised that demon. Mia has been in the living non-stop, hanging out with us again like normal. I think we need to write a letter to that toy manufacturer - that was a scary incident! haha!

Last Minute Arsenal Game

I received a great phone call from Steph Tuesday at work about a coworker that had an extra ticket to the nights Arsenal Champions League Game. Wow what a great surprise because I have been wanting to go to a game since we moved. Thanks Steph!

The game was at 7:45 so I left work a bit early, drove home, caught the train to London Bridge, and hopped on the tube getting off at the Arsenal stop. It was a journey but worth it.

My seat was in the upper deck of gate D behind Arsenal's second half attacking goal. They scored 4 second half goals right in front of us to win going away 7-0. Are you kidding me? 7 goals?! That just doesn't happen very often. Lucky me. It equaled the biggest Champions League win in history.

Since tickets are so hard to get a hold of I hope this isn't the last game I will have a chance to see but if it is I sure picked a good one.

Here are the photos I took from my seat including a nice one of a corner kick in the second half.

One final note because I don't want anybody to get confused where my loyalties lie. I am still true blue. Go Cats!

Steph's Back in the UK

Just a quick post to let everyone know Steph made it back safe. Her flight left half an hour late and arrived half an hour early thanks to a big tail wind.

Now the only thing left to do is unpack...

Kentucky Upsets #1 LSU

What a game! Down by 13 in the 3rd quarter the cats came back to win in 3 overtimes. The best thing about it is that I was able to watch it all live and in color thanks to my shiny new Slingbox.

I was practically there jumping and yelling at every big moment. That is if you make exceptions for the fact that I woke up my neighbors because its 1:30 AM, stepped on one of my cats who were scared out of their minds at my crazy behavior, and had the Rugby World Cup on the tele to see England advance to the finals. Ha!

The Slingbox purchase has officially been justified.

Lucky Steph sure picked a good football game to attend. Lets just hope she didn't get in trouble trying to tear down the goal posts...

Before I go I need to give a big shout out to my cool nephew Garland who's West Jessamine football team beat their cross town rivals, East, to make it to the playoffs. Good luck in the playoffs G!

Finally a big thanks to Jamo for turning on the Slingbox today so I could watch the game.

I am so wound up, luckily I don't have to work tomorrow. GO CATS!!!

Cats Win! Cats Win!