4rth of July in Seattle
I must have a lucky charm about Seattle – whenever I go up there the weather is *perfect*. We had a particularly nice 4rth of July in Seattle. Our good friend Katie Lake took us to a party at her friend’s houseboat on Lake Union. Not only was the house super super cool (3 stories with a fire pole to slide down, hot tub, etc), but they had a trapeze hanging over the water! Nothing makes for better party entertainment than people hanging off a trapeze and then dropping into the lake. And as you can tell, we had some pros in the crowd (seriously – a couple who teaches trapeze and had been on national TV with it!) I had a good time trying it out myself, but only got one good run of it – by the second time I tried my arms were already too tired! Gotta work on that upper body stamina…
So what were we doing in Seattle, anyway? Well… Heraldo had never been to Seattle, so it was fun to go check it out. And we had various and sundry awesome friends who we wanted to visit. Liz took us on the grand tour of all things Japanese, and we enjoyed feeding the koi at the Japanese Gardens.
We also did some obligatory sightseeing (especially since it was Heraldo’s first time to Seattle), and got the mandatory “I’m in Seattle, see, it’s the space needle!” photo.
It has now moved on to Arkansas, but they did have a pretty neato traveling exhibit at the Experience Music Project. The EMP is there year-round, and is definitely worth a visit if you’re in the Seattle area. But they had a special Jim Hensen exhibit there as well when we visited. I love seeing some of Hensen’s early work, his work in advertising, and some of the other projects he wanted to do (like a disco??) but never got to finish.
The sky really is bigger in Texas
How is it possible that the sky is really bigger? Is it just that there aren’t skyscapers obstructing the view? Are the clouds somehow farther up in the sky?
Whatever the meteorlogical reasons, Austin’s sky is beautiful. So are a lot of other things about the city – including how Austin seems to embrace the desert. Desert plants figure large in city yards, and there is a relaxed feeling of letting nature take its course in the byways between planted areas. It feels almost like the city is happy to let nature take its course all around the city, instead of feeling the need to control and build up every square inch of land (as the Bay Area feels!)
And if you want to party, don’t miss the downtown district at night. Holy cow, I’d never seen so many clubs, bars, and parties, happening as on the 6th street club district. I was impressed of course with the music and energy, but also with the lack of cover charges (yeah!). But perhaps the best part of my evening out on the town was that I could dance, even dance on my own, and not be harrassed or spilled on or otherwise bothered. I don’t know if this is part of the chivalrous Texan code of honor or something, but I found it a really nice relief that I could go out dancing and be allowed to just dance!
I also enjoyed visiting my college friends, Autumn and Justin, who just had a beautiful baby girl, Osa (meaning little bear in Spanish – she’s a pretty fierce little baby – even punched some nurses in the hospital nursery!) It was great to see this pair in their home before they head back to NYC.
Also great to see another KSL property courtsey of the Decathlon Club. Just like our stay at La Costa in Carlsbad, staying at the Barton Creek hotel is quite a treat. If you need a beautiful place to stay in Austin, check it out. Because it’s up on top of a hill, there’s usually a nice breeze that keeps the place cooler than down in Austin proper. The staff is whipped in super friendly state, and the rooms and view are beautiful. I was a little disappointed at the rather small pool, but the wine bar was fun.
It’s always nice to see a new corner of the world, especially one that still has a distinctive flavor and culture. The tex mex food, BBQ, and lounging at Barton Springs made me really feel like I was in a different place. Austin, definitely worth a visit.
Monterey Sunshine
Yes, I think I did get a little bit of suntan in Monterey, CA. That should be put on record!
I guess it was good that we waited for this time of year to head over and have a quiet weekend, as the weather was beautiful. A little foggy in the morning but otherwise clear and warm and sunny.
We had a gift certificate to the lovely Martine Inn, which I highly recommend. The staff was sweet and uber professional. The room was a little stuffy until we opened the windows, but was very cute and interesting to look at all the antiques. The view from the dining room was awesome, and they had wine in the evening and tea and coffee and other snacks out all the time. The breakfast in the morning was very tasty and definitely held us till later in the day (very rich french toast, berries, sausage, etc)! The only thing I would say is to bring your own shampoo and conditioner. The stuff they offer is just fine, it certainly does the job. But I think whoever is in charge of selecting these things is a “man’s man” and chose really strongly “male” scented items. I sort of felt like I was washing my head with my dad’s aftershave. I wonder if guy’s get just as annoyed when forced to shampoo with flowery scented stuff? Well, perhaps that’s the bane of good B&B owners – who should they cater to? But anyways, if you don’t want to wash your hair with “Brut” maybe bring your own bottle.
To continue the eating tour, we had a fantastic lunch at Maha’s Lebanese cuisine in downtown Monterey. I highly recommend it to anyone who might be heading down there. The fare was very flavorful and tasty 
without being too much in any way. I had a stuffed pepper (huge!), with sides of baba ghanoush, salad, tabouli, etc. And make sure to try the jhallub, a sweet but refreshing raisen drink (sort of like Lebanese lemonade). They toss some pine nuts on the top and the whole thing smells and tastes a little like roses. The owners were super nice and gave us extras (coffee and baklava). The coffee was *crazy* strong but tasty (again with the roses), and the baklava was home-made, not too sweet like a lot of store bought versions. It actually had a balanced flavor of pastry, walnut, rose, and honey.
Oh – and all you bellydancers, they are looking to hire more entertainment staff. They already have a girl who dances Friday and Saturday night, but if you’re down some other time…
While we were still stuffed from Maha’s, we ran back across a tiny tea shop off the rec trail, quite near the Aquarium. It’s part of the Wave Street Studio, a TV recording studio / yoga studio / dance studio / general hippie hangout. The Quock Mui Tea Room had an impressive listing of teas on the menu, many of which smelled quite nice. Since we had just spiked ourselves with crazy Turkish coffee, we stuck to the herbals. I enjoyed my vanilla cream rooibus – nice when iced. If you find yourself in Monterey, make sure to stop into the tea house and enjoy the heated bench and waterfall.
Overall it was just nice to get away and remember to relax. It is so easy in the silicon valley to feel always in a rush. As soon as I finish one project, I look immediately to what I should be doing next. I feel like there must always be another impending deadline, something to rush off to. It’s very hard for me to settle down and remember that I do not always have to pack every moment of the day with the next thing. It’s fun to look at the Monterey photos and see this foreign look on my face – I look relaxed! I should probably do that more often…
Backpacking Rocks
So I’d never been backpacking before.
Camping, yes.
Hiking, yes.
But never backpacking. And it sounded like fun – so after sending a shout out to various friends who I thought might be interested, I ended up making reservations through Big Basin to hike the Skyline to Sea Trail with 10 of my friends.
And it was awesome – I think I have found a new hobby (like I needed more things to do??) I enjoyed the social time with friends – especially over spam fry in the morning or a plastic cup of wine at night. I enjoyed the occasionally scary adventure aspect – just fyi rattlesnakes can make some of the most frightening noises I’ve ever heard. And even if your big brother is standing in between the hissing and rattling snake den and you with a big stick, it is still quite unnerving. I enjoyed the creativity that necessity makes us invent – including the 3 person carrying sedan the same big brother and corp of engineers built to carry Rainbow when she twisted her ankle. I enjoyed the beauty of Castle Rock and Big Basin parks, especially the gorgeous series of waterfalls during the 3rd day. I enjoyed the quiet alone time with the woods – I haven’t been doing nearly enough of that kind of thing. It was great to get out into nature, even when nature came with so many mosquitos we needed to hide in our tents until night fell.
So thanks to all who helped with preparations and carried all the masses of extra food that I thought we would eat (hey – so I get hungry – k?). Shouts out to all who started the trip, and the 5 survivors who made it all the way down to Waddell Beach.
Exact routing and more details to follow when I’ve had more sleep..
Springtime in Switzerland
I love traveling to new countries – and this time around it was Switzerland and Austria. We began by staying with Heraldo’s sister and her boyfriend outside Zurich (really cute small town called Schindelegi). I loved the tiny streets of the old town in Zurich. We had fun hiking to Rapperswil, enjoying the 13th Century monestary and castle (complete with chicken coop built in 1250 and still in use). We spent some quality time on trains and buses (that arrived and departed with Swiss efficiency). I most enjoyed the day trip to Teecino – the southern part of Switzerland that is definitely Italian in flavor (and language). Not only were the gardens, lakes, and stores beautiful in Lugano, but I enjoyed the mixture of Italian and Swiss culture. The Italian culture has such vitality, exuberance, love, art, and passion. The Swiss culture has a love for organization, cleanliness, modern-ness, and healthy outdoor living. The combination of the two makes for a very pleasant style.
Then Heraldo and I jumped a plane to Vienna. After taking about an hour to get checked into our hostel (you get what you pay for) we enjoyed the city very much. The beautiful old buildings are amazing, and we even got a little waltz and polka in when we found an accordian player playing in the city gardens.
Salzburg was similarly spectacular with more castles and churches than you can shake a stick at. Make sure to hit up the Afro Cafe if you’re in town, the food was awesome and the ambiance was quite impressive.
It was nice to see Heraldo’s family again – his mother and father made the trip all the way over from Brazil, and his sister and Jonas were such fab hosts. Next reunion – Boston!!
Older Travel Bits
I’m always happy to do some traveling -
it’s very refreshing to see new places (or return to old haunts). Here’s a little history on my last few trips…
Vacationing at home is quite nice. Heraldo and I did a mini-vacation in San Francisco a few weeks back. If you haven’t yet experienced the Japanese baths at Kabuki Spa in Japantown, they are well worth a visit. Just make sure to get there when they open so you don’t have to wait too long.
Also amazingly charming (and affordable!) is the Queen Anne Inn – conveniently located near Japantown, birthday parties, and the Fillmore area. Of course best of all was seeing friends and I really enjoyed a West African dance class at Mission Dance Theater – what a great studio!
Ballroom comps are a lot more fun with a posse to hang out with. I road tripped down with Heraldo to L.A. to dance at Calopen with Gavin. We learned that driving down to Irvine on a Friday afternoon is a baaaaaad idea in traffic land.
After being so late I had to do my hair and makeup in the dark in a moving car, I’m going to leave more time for travel next time! However the dancing on Saturday went really well, and it was great to see some old friends who have disappeared to LA (like Julie Goldman who is now dancing some crazy bad ass salsa.
It was super fun to have Gavin and Meghan and Heraldo to hang out with – and get a chance to visit other friends in the LA area, as well as visit a new tea house Royal T that combines Japanese tea house, full Japanese food menu, cute Japanese waitresses in anime style French maid outfits, and modern Japanese pop art gallery. Googley eyes everywhere make everything way cuter. If you’re near Culver City, definitely worth a trip.
Anna and Heraldo just did a short jaunt down to San Diego / Carlsbad. Anna gets a super freakin’ awesome deal when staying at KSL properties (Thank you Decathlon!) and thus Heraldo and Anna stayed at La Costa in Carlsbad for the long weekend. They did a day trip with Kaye and Christian to Balboa Park for photo taking, flower sniffing, and general good times, and visited a new tea house in La Jolla. Excellent
food, decent tea (could be stored better to retain freshness) and bizarre service. Anna very much enjoyed the lounging by the pool in the beautiful San Diego sun, and is excited that the next set of travels are people coming here to San Francisco! More San Diego photos are here.
In November, the ever traveling pair trekked up to the North Bay for their
third weekend away. Karen and Scott had planned a lovely weekend through the “Wine and Food Affair” of
the greater Healdsburg area. The happy wine and food tasters scurried from tasting room to
tasting room on Saturday in the middle of a rainy afternoon. Despite the weather they
managed to hit 7 wine tasting rooms and stay quite warm with the food pairings that were
offered at each. FYI to all vegetarians – apparently wine pairings involve lots of meat,
so BYOS (bring your own snacks). The quartet did do some winery touring by bike the following day
when the weather was a little better. They stopped at 6 wineries, enough for all involved to
be a little worried about Anna’s capabilities to ride her bicycle straight forward.
None the less both solo bikers and the tandem made it safely back to the hotel. With a stop in Napa, the party returned to Oakland for Heraldo’s bladesmithing class and Irish Ceili dancing in Alameda.
A well planned weekend, but now Heraldo and Anna are glad to be home and have a few weekends to
catch up on laundry.
Heraldo and Anna took for a major whirlwind tour of the Boston area in October. They visited with his brother, Andre, at Boston University. The Brazilian bakery was well worth a stop, and they managed to not get too lost in Boston’s traffic center.
They also visited Anna’s grandmother in Duxbury, overlapping with Anna’s mom, cousin Doug and his new baby Jack. It was exciting to meet the newest member of the Wunsch clan and the first of the next generation (photos of everyone are here).
The impetus for the whole trip, of course, were the wedding nuptials of Jacob
Grigolia-Rosenbaum and Jocelyn Aframe. Heraldo and Anna greatly enjoyed their most
splendid wedding that involved not only super food, drink, and friends, but a sword
fight between the groomsmen and groom with the bride saving the day. Anna greatly
enjoyed getting to see all her college friends again and can’t wait till the next wedding…
Anna and Heraldo had a lovely trip down to Santa Monica / Studio City / the Huntington Gardens in October. They were very lucky to stay with their friend Genny in Studio City (and are quite happy that the megadoses of B are doing such a good job!) As always, the Huntington Gardens were lovely, if you haven’t visited them, we highly recommend it (and I recommend Heraldo’s lovely photography that captures my hair in SuperRed Mode. The Chinese Gardens are growing in quite well, and even though the Chinese tea snacks still aren’t that great, it’s a beautiful place for a cup of tea.
Anna had about 24 hrs. turn about time between camping and Florida for nationals, and most of that was spent at the doctor’s trying to get some antibiotics for her flu. Equipped with drugs and lots of ballroom dance gear, Anna and Gavin headed out to Orlando for some humidity and the American National Ballroom Dance Championships. They danced on Tuesday (very sick) Rising Star Rhythm and the smooth section of the 9 dance competition. On Wednesday (slightly less sick) they danced the Rising Star Smooth and the rhythm section of the 9 dance competition. They were very happy not to fall down in front of the judges considering how sick they were, and are hoping for major bonus points on “improvement” the next time the judges see them. However, a good time was had by all, and Gavin and Anna enjoyed seeing their friends and coaches dancing.
Heraldo and Anna’s August trip was to Black Rock City for some camping. We had a lovely time and met lots of new friends and visited with some old ones. Unfortunately, Anna got very sick on Tuesday and was sick through the rest of the trip. Blech! Even with that, it was good to get out to nature.
In July 08 there was a brief detour to Vegas for a bachelorette party (including a pretty talented balloon animal maker who could swing dance on stilts!!) (And there will be another Vegas trip for a ballroom dance competition in August). But Anna doesn’t really count Vegas as “travel”.
Anna was thrilled to join Heraldo for a week in Japan in June. Heraldo headed out for a Google trip to the Tokyo office, and Anna went along… why not?? Both Anna and Heraldo studied Japanese before they met and traveled to Japan as exchanged students. However this was their first time visiting the country together, and they enjoyed staying in
ryokan (Japanese style inns), visiting beautiful Japanese temples (see Heraldo’s amazing photographs), and soaking in onsen (Japanese traditional baths). Although it is nice to be home, the recent travels have been great.
In May 08, Anna and Heraldo headed on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Mexico with
19 of their friends.
Woohoo! The cruise was an amazing time – horseback riding through the most scenic parts of Cabo San Lucas, swing dancing on the streets of Mazatlan (and nearly losing Gavin and Bryan to the cactus patch), and zip lining through the jungles of Puerto Vallerta (more photos here).
Anna was so happy that so many friends were able to join her to ring in her birthday with
pirate style.
Heraldo and Anna headed down to Brazil in March 08 to visit Heraldo’s family.
They spent a wonderful week in the south of Brazil with Heraldo’s mother, father, and maternal family.
They then headed up to Sao Paolo for a week with his paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin.
Anna greatly enjoyed spending more time with everyone, and was happy that Andre and Marilia were able
to visit at the same time (photo evidence here. Anna thanks her Portuguese teacher, Narima, for helping prepare her for
the trip but needs to practice a whole lot more!!
