A peak inside

Oh so much has happened and not happened since I last blogged.

I went to Fairbanks, St. Louis, Phoenix, Chicago, and best of all, Portland, Oregon.

It was beautiful.

Regular blogging will continue shortly...

Ode to Southwest

Photo taken on Mother's day. Not-so-subtle, see!

Recently I had the luxury of flying Southwest on both Mother's day and Memorial day. Weeks before Mother's day I was on another Southwest flight and saw this not-so-subtle advertisement for free drinks on these upcoming holidays. I was psyched!

I was also nervous. When the flight attendants did their spiel, they didn't change it for the holidays. They pretended drinks were still all $5. They reminded us that they don't take cash. I began to sweat.

Each time my flight attendant gets to me and asks for my drink order, I order a Bloody Mary with gin (also known as a Red Snapper, a Ruddy Mary, or as one bitchy male bartender once told me and I can't confirm, a British Mary). She/he silently nods, takes down my order, and carries on. No asking for my coupon or my credit card. Just... acceptance. And delivery.

I felt like shouting from the wingtips, DON'T BE FOOLED, EVERYONE - THE DRINKS ARE FREE!!!!

You can't fool me, Southwest.

As I flew on Delta recently and the flight attendants were snooty and disengaged, and as I wait for this flight on Frontier which charges extra for coffee, carry-on luggage, and cc's of oxygen, I miss you my sweet, sweet Southwest.

My trip to Anchorage

A couple of weeks ago work sent me to Anchorage, AK. Rough, I know. In my time off I did a short hike starting at the Glen Alps trailhead in Chugach State Park. It was the perfect taste of nature. It woke me up. It said, I'm nature! Remember me? 

And now, my best hike pictures from my trusty Canon PowerShot SD 600 (kisses fingertips and throws them up into the air)...

Free desktop wallpaper! ;)

And another free desktop background!

Here I'm looking at motherfucking GLACIERS! for the first time.

Looking at the city of Anchorage, low clouds, and a motherfucking GLACIER.

I don't even have to say it.

OK, back to work....

Outside of Belgium

It's time to finish scrapblogging my European vacation.

Without haste, some experiences outside of Belgium...

First stop, a bag drop at our hotel, Hotel Alexandra. This is my kinda stylin to a T. OK, not a T. Maybe an S. Very close to a T. After the bag drop, a wet walk around Copenhagen.

Orienting in Copenhagen and straight to Amsterdam! On the first morning there, the botanical garden, by way of a street fair and bike rides.

Oh hello little one.

Amsterdam in October

Scene from a coffee shop

And here lies Belgium... which ended with a Eurostar to London!

I had such a whirlwind couple of days in London. I loved the convenience of their trains. My feet were disappointingly not too happy by this point in the trip, so every block on a train was useful. I will one day have a post devoted to European vacation footwear.

Liberty London, come to mama. I could have spent a while meandering through this store's inspirational treasure trove. I could also use that time drinking draft ales in dark bars. Yum.

And we're back in Copenhagen! One more night and one more morning before departure home. This last 24 hours in Denmark was remarkable - perhaps the best single day of travel. It took a while, but I finally felt really in the groove. Was it just just knowing it was the final day? Next time I vacate I want to hit the groove much, much sooner.

Bikes, and another reason to come back. Soon after this, inspired by a public park, I was dead set on traveling Europe with a dedicated focus on art and nature... and culture too of course, of course.

Late night fridge finds, not too dissimilar to the US convenient store down the corner.

Morning flowers at the Torvehallerne.

Inside I'm dying for the ability to postpone departure and dive into this city mouth first.

Heading to the airport. Feels like home already. 

Speaking of amateur photography

"Antwerpen" This picture is so, so bad. I cut off the main point of this sculpture, which is some sick homicidal severed hand-in-hand thing up top. I kinda love this picture.

Two weeks ago I revealed that I went on a European vacation, from where my main souvenirs were pictures. Here are those bad pictures! I find them particularly wonderful.

We went from the US to Copenhagen to Amsterdam to 4 cities in Belgium then to London and back to Copenhagen then home. This post will focus on Belgium.

We entered Belgium by train from Amsterdam. The first stop was Antwerp, just a quick peep, and then we were onto Ghent. We spent two nights in Ghent, during which time there was a day trip to Bruges. After Ghent there was one night in Brussels, before the train to London. Pffhew!

First meal in Belgium was a sandwich that I knew had goat cheese and "thinly sliced beef". I took a gamble and won. It turned out to be this cured, aged, very lean cow flesh. Notice the awesome beer list and the ever-present ashtray. Lots of smokers in Europe in all age brackets. That sucks for you, Europe. Good thing you have amazing beer, food, outdoor cafe ambiance, and health care.

Looking down on Ghent from atop the Gravensteen castle. Fun fact - latrines from the middle ages still smell really bad! The castle is right up in the center of town, like the Edinburgh one. (Don't I sound like a world traveler by saying it like that? In fact, my only other time in Europe was a month in Scotland for work. In fall, just like this trip.) This one is a little dinky in comparison. Rick warned me.(Of course I mean Rick Steves. He went on our trip as well.)

And they know it! This motherfucking baby is giving everyone the finger outside the castle entry area. No explanation in English.

Like every place I went, a river runs through it. Man, there's a lot of brown in this picture.

Went to this hole in the wall gin joint and got pre-schooled in gin vs. jenever. This jenever above was the proprietor's favorite. My mouth, throat, and esophagus definitely saw the appeal. Schluuurrrpp. I only wish I got his smirky/smiley face in the photo. He was posing for it, but I worried it rude to capture his face when I only asked to take a pic of the label. If you ever see this label on a bottle for sale, buy me one! For my second jenever I asked for whatever might be smokey or wood-like, and was given this shot glass of amber comfort. If the place wasn't crammed with drunk college kids I would have asked for a pic of that bottle as well. 

Obligatory picture of weird American chip flavors when they sail overseas.

"Sauces" Gotta say, I dutifully ate pommes frites all over Belgium and none of them beat Hopleaf in Chicago. 

Lots of clothing stores for kids and lots of kid mannequins. It's like kids matter as much as adults here, even though they can't afford to shop without their parents. 

The Design Museum in Ghent was weird. It was like a hodgepodge of designy stuff. Luckily it was cheap to walk through and it satisfied my need to better understand the design of this region, which seems highly influential to the stylists and designers that I follow (i.e. like). Chevron floors anyone? We missed out on going to the better design museum in Copenhagen. Next time!

I love it when needs and artistry combine, like this fucking amazing fireplace and wall-to-wall shelving unit (which goes like 15 feet to the left and right from what you see here). Bulky and dark, yes, but that green surround? I mean, come on now.

The next time I'm in Belgium I'm going to buy A LOT more chocolate. I didn't think it'd blow me away like it did. The Belgian chocolate I've bought in the US is half as good and three times as expensive. If you buy a plane ticket to Belgium, don't leave without 50 bucks worth of Belgian chocolate, at least. Take it from me.

Lounging at the original Gruut brewery in Ghent. Gruut beers use all kinds of bittering agents in place of traditional hops (sometimes in addition to). They taste good for me. Fortifying. Like everywhere I drank, I could have stayed here a lot longer. Is this picture worth showing? No, it's junk. I just wanted to talk about the beer.

A shower to remember (in Brussels).

Here is one corner of the Grote Markt (Grand Place) in Brussels. On the walk to this square we passed a little open square and I remarked, "This is it?" No. No, Eve. A few blocks further THIS is it! It was absolutely breathtaking. When we got there (the first time) it was nighttime and a band was playing "Sultans of Swing". It brought a wide smile to my face to hear familiar English.

Gray and gold

I wanted mussels in Brussels (or anywhere in Belgium really, I just wanted a taste). Not knowing where they might knock our socks off, we went with a place Rick said would be good, affordable, and authentic. I did order the traditional style and liked them. The broth was like a celery-infused salt water. No white wine. No cream. Not too much garlic. It was simple. Quite good. And the fries with mayo? Yes please! Cross this experience off the list.

Beer! Beer was like, the point of the trip. Belgium, ahh Belgium. I like you. Since I've been back I've been stockpiling this beer that we had while in Brussels (from the brewery we toured in Bruges). 

So there you have it! Missing you already, Belgium. Missing you already.

Ladies to remember

The beauty of Red Butte, Salt Lake City

As we crank into November, it dawns on me that I did two major bucket-listy things this year. I drove cross-country (ok, just 50% of the way, but all new territory), and I went on a multi-city European vacation. Go me!

On travel I try not to pick up physical keepsakes. One or two small, beautiful/practical/unique things is understandable. But if I don't stumble on them naturally, or if I don't pull the trigger when in range, no biggie. I hardly kick myself for this minimalism very long.

What I know I'll always have are a few amateur pictures. Pictures that I'm so excited to capture, even though I know they have little chance of being framed. I'm really photographing a future memory jog. Oh yeah, I was there! That was beautiful!

This blog post will serve to jog a couple memories, but what about the rest?

Saying goodbye to Copenhagen

I believe the concept I'm grasping at is scrapbooking. Or scrapblogging rather.

I'm afraid the excuses I will use to not scrapbook will be plentiful.