New Orleans

After visiting aunt Pat and uncle Tom in Birmingham last week, we headed south to New Orleans for a couple nights. It was blistering hot but it's impossible not to have a good time in New Orleans, no matter what the conditions. Here are a few pics from the trip highlighting my growing obsession with door and windows - I'm sure Claire will provide a more detailed and entertaining account of the trip later.

- Jim

Amsterdam by Jim

Note: To those expecting a steamy blog about the seedy red light district or visits to coffee shops, you will be very disappointed in this blog. However, if you're interested in Amsterdam's more mundane side including great architecture, bike rides along canals and a secret village of tiny houses hidden away in the woods, then read on!

So, with a weekend to spare before my flight back to the U.S. to meet up with Claire & Evie, I decided to hop over to one of my favorite cities - Amsterdam. Flights were cheap and with just myself to take care of I figured I could get away with the "Europe on $20 a day" scheme that seemed to work back in college. Oh how wrong I was.

On the way to the airport in East London I made a quick pit-stop to take a few photos of the Thames barrier structure - an engineering (and design) masterpiece! I've seen lots of pictures but have always wanted to see it up close. Pretty amazing. It's the world's second largest flood barrier and was built to prevent London from being flooded. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Barrier

After arriving at Schipol airport, I took the train to Amsterdam's Central Station, by-passed the busy part of town and headed straight for Hotel Von Onna in the Jordaan district, a great little minimalist hotel I've been staying in for years. The owner, Liuek, is one of the nicest people I know and is always willing to sit down and chat or give a tour the neighborhood. The best part of the hotel is the breakfast - good coffee, ham, cheese, four slices of bread, butter, hard-boiled egg and, of course, toast with chocolate sprinkles.

Central Station, Amsterdam

Liuek, owner of Hotel Van Onna

Summer is here

Somewhere in the Jordaan

Toast with chocolate sprinkles!

The first thing I did after settling in was to rent a bike and head out. The weather was great the first day so there were plenty of people on the canals drinking beers and enjoying the summer. After getting to grips with riding a bike in the city I decided to venture for a park outside the city, Amsterdamse Bos. It was more like a huge nature reserve with bike paths through the woods and a was great place to get lost. About thirty minutes into my ride, I noticed a few people walking through some narrow paths in the woods and decided to follow them. After a few turns the path opened up into what looked like a little neighborhood of tiny wooden houses hidden in the woods. After poking around a bit Isoon realised that this WAS a little neighborhood of tiny wooden houses hidden in the woods! The houses were no bigger and 25' square and all had emaculate gardens and there were no cars (paths not big enough). It had a commune feel to it - neighbors helping other neighbors load things into bike/trailors. Locals repairing some of the paths, etc. I managed to get off a few pictures but you have to visit to get a good feeling for the place:

Just before heading into the woods...

Tiny house #1

Tiny house #2

Tiny neighborhood along canals

The next two days were spent doing more of the same. Riding bike through neighborhoods, beer breaks, a few photographs and eating. My type of break.

Ice cream while riding bike while taking pictures

Vondelpark

Heron in the street

America Part 1

After saying a sniffly goodbye to Jim at Heathrow, Evie and I had a pretty good flight to Houston. There were lots of other kids on the plane and she was really happy for the entire trip. The first five hours of the flight flew by and the second half...not so much. But, we made it and Evie saved her very best meltdown for the very long customs line in Houston, thus getting us bumped up to the front. Very strategically played, Evie!


There's nothing like grandparent time! Evie and Papa had a great time splashing around on the top step of the pool on our first evening in town.


And the next day we had a very hot, but fun walk to the lake with Nana. Evie and Nana enjoyed looking at the trained turtles, who thought we had food and swam up eagerly with their heads poking out of the water. Actually, Evie was slightly freaked out by the turtles, having never really seen turtles in action before (the ones we saw in Provence were mostly in their shells asleep).


A break on a bench with Nana:

Running!


Sadly, Evie came down with conjunctivitis and a fever later that day, but has since recovered and puts up a major fight when it comes to having drops put into her eyes. Alas, we have four more days of drops to go...

In preparation for being a big sister, Evie is sharpening her stroller skills.


And a shady play in the greenbelt on a HOT day.


Tonight Lala and Grandpa arrive! More grandparent fun to come!

Evie and FInchley

Yesterday during breakfast, Evie and I looked up to find Finchley on the roof of the conservatory/sunroom (depending on what country you come from). Now that he can get up there, thanks to a new storage shed next door, he thinks he's king of the mountain. Good thing it's thick glass.


Evie loves to be with Finchley. Finchley enjoys the attention, but sometimes likes his alone time. Tonight they happily coexisted on the heated floor without anyone pushing any boundaries and invading any personal space or placing any toys onto anyone else. Progress!

Rain is ok every once in a while...

because it makes puddles!!!!

London Philharmonic Fun

Today we went to our first London Philharmonic Orchestra's Funharmonics Family Concert (whew...that's a mouthful). It was wonderful to be able to go hear classical music with Evie in a huge auditorium, which was filled to the brim with children and their families. The environment was great and even the orchestra seemed to be very relaxed and enjoying themselves.


We were on the second row, so we got a very up close look at the strings section. Jim attempted to put Evie on the stage next to some cellos and, of course, she immediately reached out and grabbed one of them and they were politely asked to move by one of the ushers. The cellos were beautiful, though.


The theme was Journeys and the MC, a host of one of the shows on the BBC's toddler channel, told stories of the composers traveling to far away lands and being inspired by music in America and other places. There was also one piece being performed for the first time and a story that some 8 year olds had helped write and illustrate was told over the music.

Pre-show:


Evie was mesmerized by the music and was only squirmy towards the end, but even then she stayed quiet and mostly focused.


Hooray for he orchestra!


Outside the Southbank Centre on a bridge the crosses the Thames:


In order to whet our appetites for the Tex-Mex to come, we decided to get some Mexican food for lunch. Evie charmed the entire staff of the restaurant and even danced with one of the waitresses. It is fun to have such a happy child around all the time! As we made our way home today a random guy stopped us and said, "She's so happy that she makes everyone else happy, too." (and he was a normal non-creepy young guy with his girlfriend). What a nice thing to hear and a nice way to be...we should all try a little harder to be so happy that we make everyone else happy, too!

Wedding Season

Another weekend, another wedding. We took the train to the Cotswolds to celebrate the wedding of our friends Charlie and David.


When we got to the train station in Kemble, we called a cab, but had a while to wait (this wasn't London, after all), so Evie burned some of her never ending energy while running around a pub garden.




It was very rural...almost as rural as Tallulah!


We're not sure if we've ever been to the Cotswolds before on one of our walks, but it was, typically, beautiful English countryside sprinkled with little villages, old pubs, occasional B&Bs and proud, friendly residents. The area that we were in is known for its lakes and water parks. Unfortunately, as usual, we always seem to end up in places that are known for summery things at the wrong times of the year or when a cold front is coming through, but it's nice to know that it is there in case we want to go back sometime.

The wedding was held at a beautiful abbey not far from where we were staying. It occurred to me that if we were going to take Evie to a wedding and stay out late, she definitely needed a nap, so she and I stayed home during the ceremony to catch up on our beauty sleep and Jim went to the wedding with our friends Victoria and Eddie.


En route to the wedding, the bride's antique car broke down, so they had to relocated to another antique car...which also broke down. In desperation, she and her bridesmaids hopped into a taxi...and got pulled over by a cop for speeding. During all of this, the groom was looking more and more nervous, but eventually they did get married.


After the wedding, as promised, the torrential rain began. Just in time for Evie and me to make our way to the reception!


We got there and danced a little to the steel drum band before taking Evie up to the creche and sitting down for dinner:



The reception was in an old rectory that had been turned into a hotel and was very elegant and beautifully decorated. Jim and I sat at a table of the bride's friends from Oxford and enjoyed a delicious dinner and some funny conversations. We've met so many interesting people at weddings over the past few weeks!


After dinner and the toasts, Evie and the other children were invited back down to party on the dance floor. Despite being very tired, Evie found her second wind (via over tiredness) and entertained everyone with her dance moves...and her balloon.

I could hardly keep up with her!


The next morning it was not only rainy, but also cold. Desperate to stretch our legs, we decided to bundle up and take a little walk around one of the hotel lakes.


There were a few birds chirping in the bushes, but even the ducks were hiding out from the unappealing weather. Evie, as usual, was thoroughly enjoying herself, the puddles, her wellies and picking up rocks--her newest obsession.


There was not much to do, under the circumstances, so we did what we do best and went to get something to eat a a local pub. The food was delicious and Evie had her first Sunday roast (the plate in front of me is the CHILD's portion. HUGE! I had vegetarian chili and Jim had a Moroccan lamb dish). She loves beef, peas, potatoes, yorkshire pudding and she does not love cabbage. She also loves Sticky Toffee Pudding and vanilla ice cream...as do the rest of us.

Playing in the beer garden was also fun:


On our last morning, we enjoyed a family breakfast of shreddies before heading to the train station. Our cab driver was late and we only made our train by about 2 minutes, but we managed to get back to London and enjoyed the rest of the bank holiday in the comfort of our flat and grumbling about the horrible weather. It was a nice, relaxing weekend of celebrating happy times, but hopefully spring will really be here soon.