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Antigua

  After a week of moving from casa to casa, we have finally arrived in Antigua.  This is a quaint little town with colourful buildings, artisian shops, and many great places to eat.


  We have found our favorite place for lunch already.  It’s a taqueria that has a street cart parked inside the restaurant that serves a variety of Mexican fare that a street cart is capable of making.  We have quickly become friends with the pint-sized Guatemalan chef who tolerates my Español.

  We spent day one exploring our new home and marvelled at all the buildings that have been scarred by earthquakes and age.

  That afternoon we passed out in our room trying to catch up on our sleep thanks to the nightmare night bus we took to get there.  That night we found a roof top patio and shared a pre-dinner drink before heading next door for Indian food.  Well, Guatemalan Indian food.  When I get home next week, I’m heading to the Mango Tree.  Sorry DawnO.
  Here are some more of our favorite pics:

  I heard this happens when new mothers hear a baby cry.

  Our last evening with Roxanne, she made it home safe and sound.

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Last Arabian Night

We are on our way home right now, which is quite a long process, but we do have some parting pictures to show.  On our last day we headed to the city of Jerash where we walked around the old town site.  It still has many impressive ruins from back when the Romans were in power.  Take a look:

So now we have come to the end of another vacation.  We will for sure be blogging again in March when DawnO goes to Guatemala, and then Spain.  There may be one between now and then, who knows.

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The City of Petra

We arrived in Wadi Musa two days ago and have had some time to explore the nearby wonder of the world known as the City of Petra.  I was first introduced to Petra on the big screen when Indiana Jones  went there to find the Holy Grail.  Ever since then I put it on my bucket list of places to see.

The above picture is known as the treasury and is one of many places carved out of the solid rock walls of this amazing place.  This rewarding view is revealed after you wind your way through a kilometer of twisting rock walls on either side of you (this pathway is called the Siq).  There are several spectacular places to see after the Treasury, including the Theatre, the Royal Tombs, Colonnaded Street, and the Ad-Deir (the Monestary).
In Jordan it tends to get a tad hot around this time of the year so we have had to go twice a day. We come back to our hotel during the hottest part of the day which is somewhere in the +40C range.  Going in the morning and evening has afforded us some pretty unique views of this ancient city.

Tonight we went to an event simply called Petra at Night.  Lanterns light the way from the visitor center, through the Siq and end in front of the Treasury.  DawnO and I completely nailed it by going really early and watching them set up.  We were fortunate enough to get some great photos with no people!  Once the crowd arrived we sat around the candles and listened to Bedouin artists play music, sing songs, and tell stories about Petra and their way of life.  

We are heading to Wadi Rum tomorrow and rumour has it that we may not have internet access for a couple of days.  So don’t panic, moms.  We are safe and alive and will send a message when we can.

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Cappadocia eye candy

Yesterday DawnO and I had a pretty low key day by our standards.  We knew we had to save our energy for what was to come.  We spent our day walking around our town and we stopped long enough to have a nap before the evening.  For dinner we had an amazing dish that they cook in a clay pot.  When they bring it to your table they have to crack it open with a knife.  

After dinner we walked to the top of a cliff on the edge of town to watch the sunset.  This also gave us a great opportunity to take some more pictures of the surrounding landscape in an ideal light.

In the top left corner of the following picture you can see the cliff’s platform:

Once the sun went down we went straight to bed because our morning was going to begin at 4am.  We were scheduled to watch the sunrise from 700 meters in the air…

Our favourite Cappadocian, who arranged our hotel and this balloon trip, ended up being our hot air balloon pilot.  It seems like Mustafa can do anything, but I bet he can’t sing a solo in a Community Musical Theatre production… where was I?  Oh yes, pictures.
Finally, here is a shot of us with Mustafa.  

This is our last day in Turkey.  We head to Istanbul this evening and then to Jordan (The Kingdom) tomorrow.
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Bloggle Bloggle -part II of a double blog

I can’t get enough of this picture:

Today DawnO celebrated her 36th birthday in magnificent fashion.  It all started with a Turkish bath.  And yes, we both got the full meal deal. You can read DawnO’s blog ‘Keblog’ for her experience.  Mine got a little awkward.

We each got sent into separate areas as the bath houses are segregated.  They took me to a little change room and told me to take off everything and wrap myself in a tea-towel and slip on a pair of wooden slippers.  I was led into this room:
I was told to relax and enjoy the sauna while I await my man.  Now at this point I was the only one in this huge room which was quite a cool place to be with nothing but your postage stamp of a towel and your thoughts.  Eventually the door opened and this was the scene:

It all started with a massage and streches, which included this dude trying to make my heel touch my back.  I may have yelped, but I did not let him see me cry.  I was then led to the sinks where I was scrubbed with an abrasive oven mit and washed with something that looked like a soaped up mop-head.  Up to this point my tea-towel was doing a better-than-expected job of covering my bits and cracks.  But it all came unravelled during my final rinse.  Soap was in my eyes so I lost sight of things…  When I finally opened them, I was free-balling it.  Unphased, my man finished the rinse cycle while I scrambled to cover up.  Afterwards he let me do some necessary self-rinsing and then met me outside the bathing room to wrap me in warm towels.  All-in-all, I would highly recommend a Turkish bath.

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Ivy Leagues and Major Leagues

Yesterday DawnO and I celebrated our anniversary ‘Boston Style’ and it was wicked awesome.  DawnO started off her morning with a phone in radio interview and I got to sleep in a bit.  I informed Dawn that her anniversary present is waiting for her when we get home.  It’s a Venus fly trap!  I know, I know, it’s hard to believe how I came up with a gift that was practical and romantic.  (Thanks to Claire for finding it and taking care of it until we get home.)

We eventually got organized and headed to Harvard with both sets of parents.  We took a tour of the grounds which were quite lovely.  It was interesting to learn about all their traditions, superstitions and history.  For example, women didn’t receive the same degree as men until 1999.  How do you like them apples?
Afterwards we made our way to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox take on the NY Yankees.  We got there early so we could enjoy our time at Fenway.  DawnO got to have her foot long dog (happy anniversary, indeed) and ‘crack beer’ while I enjoyed some park nachos and ‘gluten friendly’ pizza.  The game was great, though the Sox ended up losing.  The crowd was the most entertaining part for us.  I’d tell stories but I’m trying to keep this PG-13.
All-in-all we had a great day.  Tonight we’re going to have our official anniversary dinner  while our parents go to the ‘Book of Mormon’ musical.  I plan on having some New England clam chowdah.
And now for the pictures!
Apparently touching this dude’s foot brings good luck.  Immediately afterwards, DawnO lost her subway pass.  Good luck?  You decide.
The red chair marks the longest home run ever hit at Fenway.

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TNT, they’re dynamite

We’re sitting in the shade, enjoying our last couple of hours of 30 degree weather before our flight back to the Canadian winter. We have enjoyed our week in Huatulco. Though the ‘all-inclusive’ travel is different than our usual, we took full advantage, filling our days with tennis, ping pong, sea kayaking, sailing, swimming, yoga, dancing, reading, eating guacamole, drinking Piña coladas, and eating more guacamole. RobO planned a super date bike ride into town and to see a lighthouse. We spent lots of time with RobO’s family, including our main reason for being here… the wedding of cousin Tyler and his bride Tara (TnT). We didn’t take many photos, so here’s the meagre best of the bunch…

 

 

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Pretty fly for a couple of Gringos

This vacation has been pretty amazing.  We are definitely fans of Zihuatanejo and will be sad to leave on Sunday.  Since we last blogged DawnO and I have had some pretty cool experiences including a couple of bucket list items that have now been checked off.

On January 1, DawnO went fly boarding.  If you haven’t  heard of it, I suggest you google it and watch a few videos.  It’s a board that allows you to hover over the water like the Green Goblin.  Dawn said the experience was comparable to bathing the elephant in Nepal.  In both cases she got a face full of water that was salty for different reasons.

This morning I got to take a turn and it was quite fun.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get up, but once I got the hang of it, it was quite easy to manoeuvre around.  I would definitely recommend it.


DawnO also took a surfing lesson.  She got up on her first attempt.  Nailed it.  She then proceeded to get up 80% of the time after that.  I don’t know if being a yoga Jedi helps, but it definitely doesn’t hurt.

All-in-all we have had a great trip.  We head back to the great white north tomorrow afternoon, but we will be back in Mexico at the end of January.  We will be in Huatuco with my extended family for an Olson wedding!  We will probably blog then.

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Sports Weekend in Chicago

Hey blog fans.  We just had an incredible sports-filled weekend in Chicago with our friends Nick and Meg.  One of the few things on my bucket list was checked off today when I went to a tailgate party followed by a Bears game at Soldier Field.  If that wasn’t enough, we went to the Madhouse on Madison to watch the Blackhawks play the Oilers 4 hours later.  But that’s not all… I got to play hockey with Nick last night on his rec league team.  I may have gotten my first penalty of the year due to a rather weak call.  DawnO wants to note that she agreed with the call.  Traitor.  Anyway, as you can probably imagine I’m a bit exhausted so I will leave you with some pictures.  Tomorrow we fly home!
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SFO –> YYC


We are heading back to Calgary this afternoon after spending a few days in Palo Alto with friends.  I thought I’d write a quick blog showing you some of the highlights.

We took a trip to the Great Basin to see some giant redwood trees.  We rode bikes around Stanford and saw some amazing Rodin statues.  We also went to the top of the bell tower and got a pretty nice view of Palo Alto.  Last but not least, we got to test out our español skills at a taqueria and ordered up some amazing Mexican food.  We’ll be back in the Hat until next month when we head to Chicago!