August 31, 2004
Stateside - San Antonio
The reason for being back in the States in mid-August was for a conference Steph had in San Antonio. I was able to go just for fun. Ethan stayed at his Grandparents in Peoria, Illinois while we were down South. We'll get a few pics on the site from his trip soon. Meanwhile, here are some pics from our San Antonio time. This trip was expecially poignant for us since, quite surprisingly, our dear friend, Kevin Kuluvar happened to be there as well. After a long three-plus years of "desertion" and being pretty much "M-I-A", it was good to air things out and get back to good times, and good times were had by all. So, most of the pics here include Kev. Which is how it should be!
"My mouth is bigger than yours! No way!"
Dave Nutt, Susan and Steph
Tailgating in style at the Dave Matthews Band show
Steph and Lynne, from Wales, at DMB show - her first live music concert!
Kev, Dan and the Nutts about town
Keely, Steph and Dan tailgating before the Dave Matthews Band show
Keely, Steph, Dawn and Lynne
View image
No shots inside the DMB show. Tickets said no cams - bugger!
August 30, 2004
Stateside - Phoenix
Here are some recent pics from our visit to Phoenix (Aug 19 - 22) to see the Wolff clan...
Click on the pictures to enlarge them
Steph, (Great) Grandpa Walter, Ethan and (Grandpa) Steve
Aunt Kim and Ethan
Aunt Vivian cooking up the good German Strudel
Aunt Kim, Steph and Aunt Barb
Ethan is a professional photographer!
Kathy Putz, Steph, Aunt Kim, Cousin Lisa, Aunt Barb
Steph, Ethan, The Infamous Auntie Kimmie and Grandpa Wolff
Ethan giving Great Grandpa Walter a hand
August 03, 2004
Vive l'France - Part 2
Sorry for the long time between entries about our trip to France. Since we now live in rural England, we no longer have the luxury of Broadband Internet. We are now blazing at a top speed average of about 45.2 kbps - about 10 times slower! Sizzling!
Ok, so we've established that we are in France, we’ve found accommodation in an incredible medieval village, we are surrounded by almost nothing but vineyards and we’ve witnessed a stage of the most historic Tour de France ever. At this point we might as well pack up and return home feeling pretty proud of our good fortune. No way. We still had six days of this to endure. Somehow, I thought we’d manage.
Basically, the plan was to try not to have a plan as much as possible. Outside of the Tour de France, there really was no schedule to follow. That, my friends, seemed to make a huge positive impact on the relaxation and enjoyment of the week. I could write at excruciating length about every minute detail of this week, but I figured that I would simply go day by day, throwing out little tidbits and some photos. Here it goes…
Monday, July 19th…
Today was total beach day. The beach, Vias Plage, (“Vias” is the name of the coastal village and “plage” is the French word for beach) was nice but not spectacular. Being France, actually Europe for that matter, for women, swimsuit tops are optional. (Sorry, no pictures. I don’t think you’d appreciate the view anyway, if you get my drift.) Ethan LOVED the beach and the ocean. We did too, until we had to clean him of sand. Oh well, small price to pay. What made this day particularly memorable, though, was after the fun and sun. We went to one of the many small seaside restaurants to partake in the local specialty – “Moules avec frites” – “Mussels with fries”. Nine Euros (about $11.00 or so) bought us all you can eat mussels and fries. Bowl by bowl, plate by plate we consumed well more than our money’s worth. These are no little bitty excuses for mussels, either. These are big, juicy, mouth-watering mussels. Fantastic. After gorging on mussels (funny, I don’t feel stronger) Steph decided on getting a henna tattoo, a temporary tattoo that supposedly lasts up to three weeks. Instead, it lasted until the next morning’s shower. That was Monday. Nothing else really happened. What a great day! I think Ethan thought it was pretty cool, too!
Tuesday, July 20th…
Today was the day for wine. Before going to places like Italy, Spain or France, I try to do a little research in Wine Spectator to learn about the region. I then take the name of a recommended or highly rated wine to search for, or search for the winery to visit. This way, I feel a little more guided. Going and drinking anything is fantastic and a great experience in the first place. But I am trying to take advantage of our time living in Europe by buying wine that is special to us and worthy of aging properly for a number of years. Otherwise, we be satisfied to just bring back all kinds of stuff and drink it all relatively quickly and be content with that. Vineyards are more common in France than cornfields are in Iowa – no joke. Even next to a highway rest stop there are rows of vine. You can, then, imagine how daunting it may be to just blindly search for wine that may or may not be special. That in mind, in the late morning we set out for Chateau La Roque, an inexpensive but highly rated winery I had read up on. After about four hours and numerous exasperated sighs of despair, we finally found the winery nesteld in the shadows of Pic Saint Loup in the Coteaux du Languedoc. Driving up the drive, we wondered if they even had a tasting room, since there were no cars except for a couple, which we assumed belonged to employees. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. I walked up the steps of this “Gone With The Wind”-style plantation mansion and knocked on the door – which heralded the ferocious and “threatening” rant of the resident poodle (poodles are everywhere). Imagine my surprise when the winery proprietor, Jack Boutin, who I read about and saw a picture of previously, answers the door. He with no English and me with no French, Mr. Boutin directed us to a small door on the side of the house. Another gentleman opens that door for us and inside was a cavernous tasting room. There Steph and I tasted the fruits of the Chateau La Roque labor. What made this special was the fact that neither we nor the gentleman could speak the others’ language. But, we could mime what we were trying to say in true “charades” style. It turned out to be fun for both the Frenchie and for us. Once we left Chateau La Roque, it was back to Nezignan by way of Montpellier and a little seaside village of Bouzigues for dinner. A nice little village that was abuzz with the type of energy you feel on a hot summer evening at dinner time. The kind of feeling that occurs when people are happy and content, the sun dipping below the horizon, kids running and laughing, etc. We were hungry, so we had to get Ethan away from the water in order to find a place to eat. Sitting at a place just adjacent to the water, we had more mussels, clams and escargot. Yes, snails. A fantastic dinner in a fantastic setting.
That's it for now. I will write about Wednesday, July 21st through Saturday, July 24th next time.