best weekend in the bay area

last weekend i went to the bay area and saw some friends that i haven't seen since the vienna airport or outside of the jerusalem center where we were sobbing at two in the morning and we drove away in our buses into the abyss of the night.

and then we met up in the sunny sunny land of the bay area where street photography is fun again:

also, i knew i was obsessed with mary, but i didn't know she was in like every picture i took of our friends:



eating our weight in chocolate at victoria's dad's chocolate factory:



fascinating conversation at the beach in carmel:




mmm. great weekend. thanks friends!

Chocolate, waffles, chocolate waffles, waffle chocolates, and flavored beer.

I didn't drink the beer. But I did buy it because I owed Ericka a couple of euros. The bottle looked like a soda bottle, so I didn't even feel rebellious at all. But it was raspberry flavored, which is why Ericka wanted to try it, because she doesn't really like beer. But she does want to be a wine connoisseur. How pretentious.

Bruges



The minute we got off the train, we walked into the station and saw a waffle stand, a fry stand, and three chocolate stores. We chocolate hopped everywhere. Finally in Brussels we found a store that had samples and two locations. We went there three times.

I convinced Ericka that we needed to try every version of the mocha-flavored Leonidas. Of course she liked the dark chocolate. And of course I liked the white chocolate, because that is what I have been eating for the past like seven years.

we struggled so much to take good pictures:

Ericka ice skated in the market square in Bruges. I took pictures of her. We both enjoyed our respective activities. Plus there was about a fourth of an inch layer of water above the ice. So if a slip happened...well, I didn't even bring different pants to wear the next day. SO.

look it: socks.

Pretty Church in Bruges. Their relic: a vial of Christ's blood that you can touch for a small donation. We weren't there when they were having a viewing though. Unfortunately.

Ericka taking her Senior Pics:



So excited to eat my Belgian waffle. For the third time.



I was so tired in Bruges it was embarrassing. When we were both so tired that we stopped talking and started walking really slowly, we went to a bar that was established in 1515 and played Boggle.

Bruges

Brussels

Pretty gazebo in the park in Brussels:

I told you. An aMAZing trip. But actually, yeah. It was pretty good. :)

A few pictures from Belgium...

iphoto was being dumb, so these are all so small.

aMAZing TRIP!!! if you haven't been to these places your life is NOT complete!!!!!!!!

if you didn't catch any irony, read this.

view of brussels

on the bell tower in Bruges.

yep. i am the boy in this pic. great.

Vomit.

There comes a time in trip planning when "OMG we're going to GREECE!!!" just doesn't cut it anymore. This is the part where I look at my bank account, and I tell myself, "okay. I can either go to Santorini, or eat this week." And some how, no matter how hard I try, I keep choosing the eating part. It's when you feel sick, when you just say, I could spend five-hundred dollars and go to Greece, and have to figure out the ferry schedule, and how to get from place to place, maybe have to take a couple of taxis I didn't budget for, stay at pretty grimy hostels, and look at Greece in it's perhaps stormy and rainy weather, and imagine it in all of it's summer glory. Or, I could spend as much money as I need right now. Actually afford to buy gifts for the people I wanted to buy gifts for, be able to eat and enjoy french cuisine and not just french bananas and yogurt. And not feel guilty for spending money here. Every. Single. Time. I am coming to Provo for four days before Oregon, and I just realized that I have not budgeted a cent for that as of yet. And suddenly going straight home on December 7 just sounds so easy, being able to curl up on my parents' couch and drink hot chocolate and play with Ellie and talk to Rachel and eat without worrying about money and help my mom put up the Christmas decorations and go golfing with my dad at the marshy golf course and breathe in the beautiful smell that is wet Oregon. Wet dirt and wet pine trees and wet pavement and damp sky.

But, I don't really have a choice now. If only my bank account would magically fill up, and if only Madame would ask us if we were going to Greece, and if we were, that she would actually love it if we kept our luggage here, and that of course she wouldn't be going to her country house and getting the apartment painted until we left.

At the moment, this is the only thing that is motivating me to navigate any of this (and the fact that all of my plane tickets are bought already):

it almost makes me happy because the picture was taken in december.

I felt like this in London before going to Italy and Ireland, and so did Lori, and Whitney, and Roxanne.

please tell me that it will be worth it.

tell me to suck it up and stop being a baby.

tell me that I am a spoiled brat and you were throwing up reading this and you hate me and there is no reason I should be complaining right now.

and tell St. Nickolaus to deposit his coins into my bank account, because I won't be there to put out my shoes.

Chartres last thursday.

adam doing what he does best...

liz and angela doing what they do best.

marc doing what he does best...

and cami doing what she does best.

Secret to traveling in Europe:

Actually, he's not much of a secret anymore. I have met a surprising amount of people who are Rick Steves fans.

Rick's in my left hand. Thanks Pam! (and i know what you're thinking...i usually try to put flattering pictures of myself on this, since it is all in my control. but. i have made an exception. and anyway, it's just the shape of the gelato making my face look completely round...oh yeah, and bourbon creams, and digestives, and cadbury, and trifle, and john bennion, and gelato.)

we looked for a restaurant in Rome that looked good, and this one looked cute, and then we saw in the window that it was Rick Steves recommended, and then we looked in our Rick Steves book and found out that the owner's daughter is learning English, and then we looked around the restaurant and every table had a very familiar blue book.

Because of Rick Steves, we have spent countless hours listening to my mother read his useful condensed history, laughing at his corny metaphors and descriptions and telling my mother to read more while we drive in the car through Swiss valleys, or drive on the top of the Slovenian Alps, or while we walk in the middle of Polish cities, or whisper in Gothic cathedrals. Rick has been with us since our family lived in Germany in 1995, and he has helped us plan all of our trips around Europe since then. This is the man I'm talking about:

And now, I seriously see Rick Steves everywhere in Paris. At the Saint Chappelle, at Notre Dame, at Versailles, at Restaraunts, at Hotel de Ville, at the Louvre. He is everywhere. And I hid him in my purse when I was in Southern France by myself, secretly reading it, dog-earring pages, and smiling at the couple across from me on the train to the market village; the woman holding the hand of her husband in one hand, and Rick Steves in the other.

He says things like:

-Be forewarned, Ireland is seductive.
-In one fell swoop, Shakespeare made the language of everyday people as important as Latin. In the process, he gave us phrases like "one fell swoop" that we quote without knowing it's Shakespeare.
- While Bruges is one of Europe's most delightful medieval towns, to me it means sugar buzz.

Anyway, this man is infamous in my family. We all laugh and joke about him, and my uncles and aunts and grandparents are in on it as well. He has a show where he memorizes lots of lines and talks while he is walking around in beautiful European villages and he looks like a hilarious American man with glasses, a goofy haircut, and a bit of a gut. One particular show is legendary in my family. I had never seen it, only heard it quoted, until dear Leslie told me you can download Rick Steves podcasts! So I did, and I watched the video my family has been talking about for the past fifteen years. This is that show:

(about one minute and fourteen seconds in, you will be so glad you are watching this.)

Even how dorky Rick is in his videos, and all of the ridiculous things he says in his books, when we come home from trips, or when we scrounge for a room late at night because some disaster happened, and we find Rick Steves hotels that talk about friendly owners, or when we get off a bus and have no idea where we're supposed to go and we're in a foreign country and we have no idea what's going on and Rick says "you can find the TI just behind the bus station," or "walk to your right to find _____ hotel," we can't help but say in the words of my dad, "Rick Steves, you've done it again."