Framing Our Travels: Part 2

We'd always taken our trips with our children. However, once our daughter was working and our son was in college Art thought it was time we actually took a trip on our own.

It felt weird but we did it. I know the kids were rather wistful about not coming along. We went to Paris during my winter holiday break from school and bought this water color painting at an art stall on the way to Sacre Coeur at Montmartre which is the highest point in Paris.

I remember...

* catching a cold almost as soon as we landed.

* having the best pastries we'd ever tasted.

* eating escargot for the first time.

* having a free American Airlines package deal meal at Les Bistro des Deux Theatres that Art had gotten with the flight purchase. It was the BEST meal cuisine we'd ever had on a trip. It also came with a fruit basket and bottle of wine!
I'd ordered Coke and the waiter was aghast. "No Coke. You in Paris," he said. "Wine!" And he brought us full bottles of red and white wine to our shock.

* Being pick pocketed at the flea market at Marche Aux Puces de ST. Ouen. No, they didn't get anything. They just looked in my backpack apparently.

* Going to see the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, Musee de l'Orangerie, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, etc.

* the very nicest desk clerk at our Opera Cadet hotel.

* loving every minute.

After Paris, we decided to go to Florence (Firenze) the following winter holiday break.

We bought this watercolor that an art student was selling near the Ponte Vecchio.

We decided to try a gelato for the first time.

We saw one gelato store that had a long line and opted to go to another one across the street. We did note the gelato seemed rather expensive.

To our surprise, we'd managed to buy over a couple pints of gelato. My tiramisu flavor was not as good as Art's pistachio which he ended up sharing.

We loved Florence and saw many of the surrounding towns as well, but we didn't go to Venice because a friend said not to bother.

That was a mistake we had to rectify three years ago.

In January, 2000 Art took a Father and Son trip to Peru. He and Keola hiked around the ruins of Machu Picchu. They had many adventures. Art bought this (Would you believe?) woven placemat for a couple of dollars and then framed it. Yes, yes... It's true. The frame is much, much, much, much more expensive than the placemat.

In April of 2000, Art and I went to Barcelona and Madrid in Spain. We loved walking along the avenue of Las Ramblas gazing at caged birds, flowers, mimes. We were introduced to Antoni Gaudi's incredible art and architecture. They were still working on the Sagrada Familia cathedral. Ten years later we were able to go back there and see the amazing progress they had made. Ummm... It's still not done.

We learned so much history about the Spanish Inquisition, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. I was able to share so much of what I learned during these trips to my students.

In January-February, 2002, Art visited Keola who was volunteering with the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa. Art brought back a wooden grainary door to commemorate that trip. That was the trip where he and Keola climbed Kilimanjaro. For some reason they like to climb high places.

Later that year and into 2003 during my school winter break Art and I went to Portugal. We picked a couple of porcelain tile work. The other tile piece has our name on it and would take a month to get to Illinois. Yes, yes. The shipping cost from Portugal to Illinois was more than the cost of the tile piece. Sigh....

I remember going absolutely everywhere in Portugal. It was particularly interesting because we have many Portuguese people in Hawaii who arrived before the Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, etc. I still remember how to say, "Obrigado," because I goofed once and said "Gracias." Yikes! There's a little rivalry between Spain and Portugal and they don't like you to mix that up. I only made that mistake once.

OK... That's it for today. I'll finish up tomorrow.