Back up...Road Trip from Washington D.C. to the Midwest (May 2011)

As I was going through some old photos, I stumbled upon pictures of covered bridges from May 2011 when I flew to D.C. and drove my brother's M3 back to the Midwest.

A few pictures...

Glessner Bridge

Burkholder Bridge

Shanksville, Pennsylvania 911 Memorial (in 2011)

Trostletown Bridge

Typical Tourists in Memphis

We were the typical tourists in Memphis...

• Civil Rights Museum
• Botanical Gardens
• Rode the trolleys / streetcars
• Beale Street
• BBQ - we chose A&R, YUM!
• Ducks at the Peabody Hotel

 The view from our room was of Mud Island.

 Sunset from the room

The botanical gardens

 If you fake like you're going to toss in food, the carp come swimming up quickly!

Civil Rights Museum

The ducks making their way from the 'penthouse' down the elevator and on the red carpet before landing in the central fountain

New Orleans, Louisiana

We entered into a friendly competition.  I planned New Orleans and it was going to be great!  I planned our trip to coincide with the first weekend of Jazz Fest and bought tickets for Sunday evening because John Mayer was playing.  And then...he had nodules on his vocal chords and cancelled.  Boo.  Now, I needed to make the rest of the trip even better now that my 'sure thing' was out the window.

We did the usual...

• St. Charles Trolley to the Garden District and strolled the sidewalks looking at lovely homes
• Picked up a muffeletta at Central Grocery, which btw, I think is gross, but Chuck liked it.
• Walk and drank our way down Bourbon Street
• Took a cooking class and learned how to make gumbo, red beans and rice, pecan pie and pralines
• Strolled the botanical gardens and sculpture garden
• Gambled a bit at Harrah's...gambled poorly, I might add
• Watched the performers on Bourbon Street (and yes, the chick in the background is a staple here)

Make sure you choose your hotel wisely.  Here is a hotel on Bourbon Street (at night)....

and at 7am...after the street cleaners/washers (with soap) went through

The activity on Bourbon Street is starting to pick up

Jackson Square

The French Quarter

In two words...Incredible Italia

(from May)

We just returned from 6 days in Rome. Our Incredible Italia vacation started with 4 days in Sorrento, Italy (with side trips to Capri and Positano) and then ended with 6 days in Rome.

This summer our Incredible Italia experience will continue with several weeks of incredible-ness in Venice, Bologna, Firenze, Tuscany, Cinque Terre and the Lake Como area. 2009 is the year of Italy!

Rome is a wonderful city, rich with culture, history, amazing culinary smells, fabulous food, and cobblestone alleys filled with wonderful music.

Rome is a very 'walkable' city. Home base for us was near Campo di fiori and from there we could walk under 30 minutes and get to just about every site in Rome (Vatican, Coliseum, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Trevi fountain, Pantheon, Villa Borghese....).

Here's what we did...

• Trevi Fountain - it is bustling with hundreds of people from about 9am until late in the evening. If you want nice photos, arrive by 7:30 for some beautiful early morning pictures.
• Piazza Navona - is a wonderful piazza surrounded by restaurants with umbrella covered tables. It is a great place to watch life pass you by; however it is one of the more touristy-locations and thus expensive.
• National Museum (near Piazza Navona)
• Galleria Borghese (art museum in Villa Borghese)
• Pantheon
• Coliseum
• Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
• Campo di Fiori
• Spanish Steps
• Villa Borghese
• Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
• St. Peter's Basilica
• Papal Address
  

Along the way we had a few hiccups in Rome...

• We worked so hard at not getting ripped off in the rip off capital of the world (Beijing), that no sooner did we get to the train station in Rome and get in a cab did we get ripped off. The cabbie had several meters in his car and the 'official' one started at 15 Euro, when it should have started at 5 Euro. A 9-10Euro cab ride, metered at 30Euro. After a heated discussion, he said 25 Euro was good. As I started writing down his license plate number and cabbie number, he came down to 20Euro. My first impression with Rome and Italians was not very positive.


• The apartment we rented 'lost power' for 24 hours (due to the owner not paying the electric bill since NOVEMBER)...I'm not done dealing with that one and will blog more later.

Despite the hiccups, our time in Rome and the surrounding area was amazing. I cannot wait until our 3 week tour of Italy in July!

Recent slideshows

While on the road, I didn't have a 'great' internet connection, so uploading and posting slideshows wasn't on the top of my list.

I've made good progress in the past few days (and will finish up in the next day or so). Each slideshow has about 30 pictures. Depending upon your computer / internet speed, it may take some time to load and play.

Here they are (and there are links to the right under Photos and Slideshows)...

• Denmark and southern Sweden - my parents visited us over Easter. Lots of castles, 3 countries, walking and climbing...or as my dad said, 'training for the Olympics', many cities.
• Great Wall of China (Mutianyu section) - Chuck and I visited the Wall on a cloudy day, so some of the pictures have a morning fog to them, which is quite mystical. I returned a few days later with Marianne for some nice sunny-day pictures.
• Various sights in Beijing - Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, and the Hutongs
• Various Parks, People, and Culture in Beijing
• Pompeii, Italy
• Amalfi Coast, Italy - Home base was Sorrento, Italy, but we managed to fit in some day trips to the island of Capri and then a drive along the Amalfi Coast to Positano.
• Capri, Italy
• Vatican City, Italy
• Rome, Italy

Exploring Beijing

We had great fun exploring Beijing the last few days. In our short time there, we...

• Walked around Tiananmen Square
• Explored the Forbidden City
• Met the nephew of the Last Emporer and had him sign a beautiful wall hanging
• Sat gridlocked in rush hour traffic
• Walked through the Hutongs
• Saw the Temple of Heaven
• Shopped at the Pearl Market, on Silk Street, and Yaxiu Market
• Got lost in the embassy district...stopped by a guard and told to show my passport
• Walked the Great Wall (Mutianyu section) on a very cloudy / foggy day...then went back on a sunny day to get some nice pictures!
• Rode in the same gondola at the Great Wall as President Clinton in 1998
• Took a tobaggon ride down from the Great Wall
• Went on a culinary market tour in the Hutongs
• Saw dancers and performers at Ritan park
• Walked around the Summer Palace
• Walked through some amazing parks (Ritan, Jingshan, Beihai)
• Watched the flying acrobatic show in the Chaoyang district
• Bought some tea on Tea Street

A few pictures (until I get a chance to upload slideshows)....

The shopkeeper in one of the stalls at Yaxiu market, my favorite market.

The flying acrobatic show in the Chaoyang District.

Beihai park

Aerial view of Forbidden City; taken from Jingshan park. This is the north gate entrance (south gate entrance is near Tianenmen Square).

Jingshan park

The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall

Shopping at the market in one of the Hutongs