batteh blog-o-rama

We just got back from a wonderful trip to St. Maarten/St. Martin. The island is shared by the Dutch and the French with free passage between the two sides. The goal for this trip was to a) snorkel and b) relax on the beach. Our typical day was to do something in the morning (snorkel, shop, etc.) and then sit by the beach to read and relax under the umbrella while enjoying the nice breeze and some cold beverages (thanks to Chaz who recommended and loaned me the first two Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell- I’m hooked). We had a great time and would definitely go back!! Here is a link to our flickr photo gallery with all the pictures from the trip:

PHOTO GALLERY

Also, you can click on the various links throughout the text to see a selected relevant photo- it’ll pop up in an overlay and you can navigate the pictures via the arrows which show up when you hover over the middle right and left sides of the picture and close it when you are finished so you don’t have to keep going back and forth between the photo and the text.

Our trip started with an early flight to Fort Lauderdale on Friday. For some reason, there was a delay on our flight to St. Maarten- odd that the pilot never mentioned why we sat on the runway for an hour. The landing in St. Maarten is pretty incredible- over water until right at the last minute where you fly over a beach with people on it just before touching down. Just to let you know what the landing looks like from the beach, check out this video:

The rental car place wasn’t all that efficient but we finally got our tiny little Hyundai Getz for touring around the island (to get up some of the hills, we had to turn off the AC to get a little turbo boost). We drove from the Dutch to the French side where we were staying at La Plantation (official site), a nice little inn with detached groups of 3 rooms, a large suite in the middle with two studios on the sides. We stayed in the studio and the room was quite large with nice stenciling on the walls. We were about a 5 minute walk from Orient Beach and wandered down to check it out. Orient Beach is about a mile long with fine white sand and beautiful water. It is a full scale nude beach on one end and more conservative towards our end (but not too conservative, it is on the French side after all). We were hungry and tired so we took a short walk to a little village to eat at a French restaurant Cote Plages.
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We left on Friday and had a long travel day. First we flew from Detroit to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Vienna. Next we took a bus to the Westbanhof train station. We’d counted on some travel delays and thus had to wait in the train station for a couple of hours before our train left from Vienna to Salzburg. The train ride was about 3 hours and was very pleasant. We then walked about 10 minute to our hotel, The Allstadt Residenz. We were on the third floor and there was no elevator but the poor bellhop grabbed the bags and started right up. We very much liked this hotel. Since it was only about 5PM, we headed out to explore a little. The city is very compact and you can walk everywhere. We had a lovely dinner at Der Eulenspiegel. After dinner, we walked around a little more and then headed back to the hotel. That was one seemingly long day!!
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We had a great time in the Pacific Northwest this past week (be sure to check out our photo gallery). We flew into Seattle, rented a sweet electric blue Focus, and then drove to Selah to visit Joan for the weekend. The drive to Selah made for a long day but we stopped into Cle Elum for a late (Eastern time) snack and coffee. After arriving at Joan’s, we quickly hit the sack to prepare for the excitement of the following day- a visit to Mt. St. Helens. The drive to Mt. St. Helens was long, but the trip was well worth it. We got a great view of the newly-growing lava dome from the Johnston Visitor’s Center. It was amazing to see the gaping crater left by the eruption and learn more about the destruction and subsequent regrowth. The drive home was equally long but mostly uneventful save for the elk that darted across the road safely in front of us. The next morning we drove out to Whistling Jack’s Lodge for a yummy breakfast. Joan then took us to the cherry packing plant where we went on a fascinating tour. We got to see the process from the initial cooling wash, sorting, and finally packaging and labeling. Very cool!! We left with a contraband box of delicious cherries. Joan then cooked us some delicious baby back ribs for dinner. Yummy!! We truly enjoyed our weekend visit with Joan and her five dogs (my favorite was Weiner Dog aka Meyer)- thanks Joan!!
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We took a trip to Niagara Falls this Easter weekend. After arriving via the Canadian route, we stopped for a bit on the Canadian side of the falls. The sky was overcast and the weather a bit rainy so we didn’t get much of a view. We then headed over to the US side and checked into our B&B, Manchester House. We really enjoyed staying at the historic B&B- Lis and Carl were wonderful hosts and really made us feel at home. After resting for a while, we went to Buzzy’s Pizza for dinner. The pizza was awesome!! We then drove around town and saw Liz’s parents first house (no more redwood fence), the house where the grandparents Tabak lived, and also Sal Maglie’s old house (now huge due to some additions).

After enjoying a delicioius breakfast of french toast and apples at the B&B, we headed to the US side of the falls. We parked on Goat Island (more…)

A group of us attended Nate and Dana’s wedding in Chicago this weekend. Annie, Chaz, Liz, and I enjoyed our ride on Amtrak (great idea, Annie). After arriving in Chicago, we did a little exploring in the Lincoln Park area. We found some interesting shops- including a super cool spice shop. Before the wedding, we met Jennifer and Chris for dinner at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian churrascaria. If you ever get a chance to eat there, you definitely should. Basically, it is an all-you-can-eat restaurant where the staff continues to bring you a variety of roasted meats as long as the puck next to your plate is green (they also have a salad bar, bread, mashed potatoes, polenta, and fried plantains). We ate a ridiculous amount of beef, pork, sausage, chicken, etc. Chris was definitely the eating champion and taught us all about “meat sweats.”

After eating our fill, we headed over to the wedding at the Swedish American Museum. The location was unique (be sure to check out our interaction with the various exhibits in the photo gallery), and the wedding was very beautiful. It was great seeing Nate and Dana again on this joyous occasion, and we had a tremendous time. Congratulations- thanks for letting us share in your special day!!

On Sunday, we ate a hearty breakfast and then explored downtown Chicago. We traversed the Magnificent Mile and also checked out Millenium Park. We then headed to Union Station to take the train back. Liz was excited to stand on the staircase made famous in “The Untouchables”, and Chaz discovered the indentions in the marble steps near the railings from years of use. The ride home was again relaxing- no driving required and lots of time for snacking. Train travel is sweet!!

Check out the photo gallery for some photos from our weekend in Chicago. Feel free to add your comments.

Photo Gallery

Liz had a business trip to California so we tagged a trip to Santa Barbara on the back end. It was surprisingly difficult to find a place to stay (places were booked) but we found a great place- Mason Beach Inn. We drove up to Santa Barbara on Thursday evening. Subsequently we found out that the first Amgen Tour of California professional bike race (ala Tour de France) was scheduled to finish stage 5 in Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon and then start stage 6 on Saturday morning. Cool!!

On Friday we took an early walk to downtown Santa Barbara and visited the Court House. Then we took the bus to the Santa Barbara Mission and took a walking tour. We then walked back to downtown and saw a bit more of the Court House. After lunch at the Harbor View restaurant, we took in the finish line of the race, visiting the various tents and mingling with the large crowd. We were able to watch the big screen as the riders crested the summit of their climb in San Marcos Pass and began their descent into Santa Barbara. It was a sprint to the finish with George Hincapie of Discovery Channel finishing first though Floyd Landis maintained his overall lead (and eventually won the race). It is unbelievable how fast they were riding, even after 105 miles. After being out in the sun all day, we enjoyed the pool and hot tub (both heated). Relaxing!!

On Saturday, we got up to watch the start of Stage 6. This time we were able to get a prime spot about 20 feet from the starting line and got a good view of the lead riders from the front. Based on a recommendation from one of Liz’s co-workers, we drove out to La Purisima Mission. We took a short hike up the Via Las Cruces trail to get a good view of the mission. This mission is no longer used as a church and you could really walk through it. We then hit a couple of wineries in the area- Fess Parker and Firestone where we took a short tour. Santa Barbara County is famous for their wineries. In fact, the movie “Sideways” was filmed there and both of these wineries were featured in the movie. We sampled lots of good wines and bought a bottle to take home. We drove back to Santa Barbara and had dinner at Chuck’s Harbor Grill restaurant- a nice, quiet place on the harbor. Well, it was quiet until these six guys sat down. They were really loud- turns out it was one of the Nebraska Powerball winners and five of his brothers. So, we cut them some slack. Another evening in the hot tub ended a great day.

On Sunday we went back to visit the wineries- this time with Gina and her husband Mike. We hit several wineries (Zaca Mesa, Consilience, Beckmen, Brander, and Mosby). Lots of good wines again (all but Beckmen). We came back with six bottles total- a Viognier (Fess Parker), Syrah (Zaca Mesa) , Sangiovese (Mosby) , Traminer (Mosby), Sauvignon Blanc (Brander) and Zinfandel Port (Consilience)- along with wine glasses from our tastings. Thanks to Gina and Mike for touring with us (and to Mike for driving).

Monday was our last day and the first day of bad weather (rainy as opposed to 70 and sunny). We went back to downtown Santa Barbara and toured El Presidio. Following a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant, we drove back to LA to catch our flight back. We arrived early on Tuesday morning and got back to the house at 2AM where we got a bit of sleep before heading back to work. A great trip!!

See photo gallery for some pictures from our trip.

Photo Gallery

Here is the travel log from our recent Alaska trip. Be sure to click on the hyperlinks to see the linked photos. Also, here is a gallery of all the photos referenced in the log (note that there are multiple pages). It might be easier to navigate if you open up two windows- one where you can read and the other to view the photo gallery (the photos in the gallery are roughly in the correct order). Feel free to comment, give suggestions, ask questions, etc. as we’ll be sure to answer. We had an amazing time and highly recommend a trip to explore Alaska’s wonders.
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Our plans for the Alaska trip in July are starting to come together. The first night in Anchorage, we are staying at Homestead B&B. After that we have made reservations for 5 nights at two places around Denali National Park. First we are staying at the EarthSong Lodge and then in log cabins at Park’s Edge. We are excited about both places as they look like they offer great views of the mountains. We have also made reservations at two places around Seward. First we are staying at Dairy Hill B&B near downtown Seward. Then we are staying at Alaska Saltwater Lodge just outside of Seward. Both places should offer nice views of the bay and of the mountains. Now that we have places to stay we are working on our itinerary- I’ll post an update when the plans begin to crystallize.