Our Adventures

Simon's 10 and 11 month photos

2011-12-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

We've been a little behind (as usual) on keeping up on blog posts, but we remembered to take some photos of Simon at his 10 and 11 month marks. Since the last update he has started to walk - everywhere! Each month it is getting more and more difficult to keep him in one spot long enough to snap a photo. His mom is really sad that he will soon leave the "baby" room at school and move to the "toddler" room.

Halloween

2011-12-13T23:04:00.000-05:00

To celebrate his first Halloween, Simon chose to dress as a penguin. He really enjoyed all the commotion around the neighborhood, but wasn't so crazy about having to wear a hat.

Simon invited his cousin Asher over for trick-or-treating.

Aunt Audrey and Uncle Bryan also came to join in the festivities.

Simon's Day at the Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-04T17:12:00.000-04:00

We found a gorgeous day in October to take Simon to the pumpkin patch. We're not sure why, but he really likes pumpkins. Especially standing next them and hitting them. Some friends told us about Russell Farms in Noblesville, so we headed across town on a Saturday afternoon.

In addition to wandering around the corn maze and visiting with some of the animals on the farm, we took the hay ride to the pumpkin patch, and got pictures taken as a scarecrow.

2nd Annual End of Summer BBQ Spectacular

2011-11-04T15:50:00.001-04:00

For the second year in our home here in Central Indiana, we invited as many people as we could over to cookout, relax, and visit (back in September). Everyone had a great time, and it's shocking to see the number and age of kids increase every year. Even Simon had a guest list!

We're very much looking forward to the 3rd annual bash next year, and even more one-handed pushups and freestyle yoga!

Kiawah Island - Beach Weekend 2011

2011-10-09T19:29:00.002-04:00

Good friend Claire organized a weekend for a bunch of Duke friends at her parents' house on Kiawah Island, SC for Labor Day weekend. Simon was especially excited because he flew on a plane for the very first time! He did such a good job playing and sleeping on the plane, that all the other passengers were surprised there was a baby even there.

We had great fun at the beach on Saturday, and even though it rained part of the day on Sunday, Adam and big Simon played golf, dodging alligators on the course.

Little Simon had a couple of photo sessions with friends Katie and Brittany. As soon as we have those shots, we'll definitely share them.

All three of us are looking forward to Beach Weekend 2012!

Simon's 8 and 9 month photos

2011-10-09T19:29:00.001-04:00

Since we've been busy with work and life, the blog has unfortunately taken a backseat. However, we did remember to take Simon's monthly photos each of the last 2 months. Since last update, Simon has gotten even more mobile - crawling on all fours, walking around the table, or pushing chairs around the kitchen. His bottom two teeth are almost fully in and the top two have just started to make an appearance.

Look Mom, no hands!

Simon's 7 Month Photo Shoot

2011-08-20T15:17:00.000-04:00

We took some photos back at the end of July for Simon's 7 month session, but are just now getting around to posting them. His big move in the past month is pulling up - on the chair, on the coffee table, in his crib...

We also had some professional family shots taken in July, so I've included some of the better shots from that session as well.

Hilton Head Island, SC

2011-07-30T23:49:00.000-04:00

For the Fourth of July, the extended Zeckel clan headed south to the beach for a week with the family.

Simon did really well on the 14 hour car ride down (and back), but we were definitely happy to get out of the car when we arrived. The house had a pool out back, and we were about 2 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. Simon and cousin Asher had a great time playing together and hanging out in the pool or on the beach.

When we weren't having dinner and playing games with the family at the house, we got out and explored all that Hilton Head has to offer. We visited the lighthouse (and definitely the playground nearby) as well as the island winery for an afternoon tasting with Audrey and Brian. One night we were able to leave the boys with Grammy and Grampy and head out for a great seafood dinner on the harbor.

Finally, before the vacation could end, we had to have a family trip to play miniature golf. Needless to say, Simon absolutely loved it!

Simon is 1/2!

2011-06-26T17:18:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe, but little man is 6 months old today. We have a professional photography session scheduled for a couple weeks from now, but we wanted to post the obligatory shots of him at 6 months. He is now getting up on "all fours" and rocking back and forth. He hasn't quite gotten the crawling thing down, but looks like he'll get it any day now.

Funday Sunday

2011-06-19T17:03:00.000-04:00

We took advantage of the nice weather last weekend to take Simon over to the park near our house. It turns out that he LOVES the swing. Here is a selection of the photographs we took.

Simon at the Playground Jun 12, 2011

May Update (and 5-month photos)

2011-05-30T18:52:00.000-04:00

May is always a busy month in Indianapolis, and this one has been no exception. The month started with the running of the Indianapolis Mini Marathon. This was the first year with seriously stiff competition in our household, but Lindsay rocked her way to a 1:45 time to edge out my 1:47. We've already signed up for next year...

Next came a trip to Las Vegas for Lindsay with friends. The trip coincided with the Infosys Consulting All Hands meeting in Palm Springs, which meant Simon got to spend the weekend with Grandma.

We did find some time in May to take some 5-month photos of Simon. In the last couple of weeks, he has started eating solid foods - rice cereal and sweet potatoes so far. He has started to really enjoy spending time in his exer-saucer, and scarily looks at times like he's about to start crawling.

Video Confirmation

2011-05-01T13:07:00.000-04:00

We knew Simon had figured out how to get his shoulder out of the way and roll over to his stomach after we found him in his crib face down. Lindsay took this video so we could share this milestone with all of you. Before long he's going to be crawling! Also, an update on his 4 month appointment stats: 25 1/4 inches long and 14 lbs 14 oz.

4 months already?!?!

2011-04-24T17:52:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe, but Simon has his 4-month appointment this week. He gets bigger every week, and is dangerously close to rolling over at any given moment. Not much else has changed since last month. We're still gearing up for the mini-marathon and several trips at the beginning of May. Here are the results of this month's photo shoot:

Loving Tummy Time

Almost Over!

Discovering New Friends in the Swing

Another Month, Another Update

2011-04-02T17:17:00.000-04:00

March was a big month at the Zeckel household. While Adam continues to fly to Dallas each week for his project at work, Lindsay started back to her job mid-month. And Simon started daycare. So far he seems to enjoy it just fine, and his teachers are really taken with him. He went to his 3-month doctor appointment this past week. He's up to 13 lbs. 4 oz, good for 50th percentile weight, but he is 70th percentile in height.

Simon at 3-months

Shameless butt shot

Training for the mini marathon in May has kicked into high gear around our house, but luckily Grammy and Grampy like spending time with Simon on Saturday mornings. Stay tuned for next month!

Simon is 2 months old!

2011-02-26T19:10:00.000-05:00

We finally found some time to update the blog and make sure we get a post in before the end of February. Between taking care of the little one, Adam's weekly trips to Dallas, and a seemingly endless amount of snow and ice to continue clearing off our driveway, we've been keeping very busy.

We thought it would be nice to document each month as Simon grows up (or at least until we get bored with it). So here are some choice shots from each of his first 2 monthly photo sessions.

Simon's First Week

2011-01-07T10:15:00.000-05:00

We finally pulled together most of the pictures we took with the little guy in his first week of life. They're all on picasa now, so check them out here:

Simon Liam

Simon Liam

2010-12-27T10:28:00.005-05:00

He's here! Simon and Lindsay are doing great 24 hours later. Simon was born at exactly 9am on December 26th, was 21 inches long, and weighed in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. We were pretty certain of our name choices, but we wanted to wait until we saw the little guy to make our final decision. The name Simon is one we liked because it's classic, yet not all that popular or trendy. Liam is another name we really liked as a twist on a classic name and also after my deceased father William Goldsmith. Plus, when he does start to talk, we're really hoping he has a British accent!

For some reason the hospital network blocks picasaweb, but once we're able, I'll link the full album of photos here.

BIG yawn - yup, that's about all he does that's exciting right now

Nursery Photos

2010-12-25T19:18:00.001-05:00

So here we are, the evening before the big day. The nursery is all ready, and the allen wrenches have all been put away. For the first few nights at home, he'll stay down on the main floor with Mom and Dad, but when he's ready here's the room that he'll call his own:

Entry from Hallway	Crib and Book Shelves

Notice Lindsay's Custom Art	Jack 'n Jill Bath

Special thanks to grandma and grandpa Z for the crib and dresser and to everyone else for their generous gifts!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-19T15:57:00.001-05:00

We took our new camera over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year. We both need lots of practice with the digital SLR, but hopefully with some new lenses and advice from more experienced photographers we'll get some good photos of the baby next week :)

Indianapolis Monumental (Half) Marathon

2010-12-19T15:00:00.004-05:00

I decided last summer when I started running again that I should sign up for a race to prepare for the "real" race in May. I landed on November 5th, downtown Indy for the Monumental. Ever since we moved I have been doing well at keeping my mileage up, though I haven't really focused on speed or time at all. I just wanted to get this race under my belt and start focusing on the mini. Since I had a free night at any Starwood property, Lindsay and I decided to make an evening of it and stay downtown at the Westin on Friday night before the race. We got to take our time at the race expo and then had a nice dinner out downtown at the Palomino. It was a little intimidating being able to see the start/finish line on the street below our hotel room. But, it was really nice being able to wake up and get some breakfast from the lounge and hang out in the lobby right up until a few minutes before the start in 20 degree weather. Despite the weather (and 32 weeks of pregnancy), Lindsay made it out to say hi at mile 5 and was waiting at the finish line.

My goal (as it has been the last few times I've run the mini) was to break 2 hours. It must have been the cool weather, because I came in at 1:52:32 far surpassing what I thought I could possibly run. Now it's time to train a little harder and look forward to May 7th.

Baby Updates

2010-12-06T18:22:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official - at least as official as it can be. We expect the little one to arrive on December 26th (as soon as we hear back from the hospital that they are scheduling surgeries for the 26th). Of course he could always decide to come earlier (and make Lindsay very happy)! The ultrasound from this morning shows that nothing has moved enough to enable a natural delivery, so c-section is the way we'll have to go. Here are the updated belly pics for those of you following along at home. You can also see that we purchased a new camera between weeks 32 and 36 :)

32 Weeks	36 Weeks

Halloween

2010-11-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

Friends Phil and Michelle threw a Halloween party at their house in Carmel. It doubled as a benefit for the March of Dimes. Andy even made some beer for the occasion.

As for costumes, I dressed up as NBA great Vlade Divac. Lindsay was the referee. Unfortunately, as the night went on the calls didn't go my way.

Beach Week(end) 2010

2010-10-13T11:09:00.001-04:00

At the end of each year at Duke, MBA students choose a beach in the Southeast within driving distance and all rent houses in the same town for a week. To commemorate our last beach week a year and a half ago, we made our way to Isle of Palms, South Carolina for a brief getaway with friends the last weekend of September. With our busy work schedules and impending addition to our family, it's probably the last vacation we'll have for a while. Needless to say, ending this beach season with our Duke friends was the perfect way to do it.

We both flew to Charleston on Thursday evening (Lindsay from Indy and Adam from Cincinnati). The house we rented for the weekend was great - just a block from the beach and plenty of room for everyone to have their own room and bathroom (not to mention the great deck and pool out back.)

Friday morning we lounged around and caught up on whatever work we all needed to complete for the day, then headed to the beach for the afternoon. Friday night we had a nice "family dinner" and played a marathon game of trivial pursuit.

Saturday brought more of the same, only this time there was college football to be watched on the beach. Justin brought along his satellite dish, flat screen TV, marine battery, and tent to provide the necessary shade. We had a great day of playing bocce and checking on the various games.

That night we had another amazing dinner at the house on Saturday night. When someone put Meatloaf on the ipod, an impromptu dance party broke out. Unfortunately, we had to turn in a bit earlier than we would have liked to catch our 7am flights back to the real world on Sunday morning.

More Baby Updates

2010-10-08T17:58:00.004-04:00

We had another ultrasound today for Lindsay's 28 week appointment. No real news to share other than that the doctor has started to prepare us for the possibility of a c-section 1-week before the due date (which is also known as Christmas Eve - which is also known as Lindsay's birthday). We still have 12 weeks to go, though, so anything is possible!

Earles - Hall Nuptials

2010-09-29T17:03:00.003-04:00

Mid-September found us road tripping south to Evansville, IN for Jeremy and Addy's wedding. We met up with friends at Le Merigot hotel across the street from Casino Aztar and then headed to Addy's parents' house for the reception. It was a little warm for September, but the setup was great for an outdoor wedding.

Dinner and dancing followed the reception at a local country club. After all the excitement of the reception, we headed back to the riverfront and Lindsay got some much needed rest while I headed to the casino to win a quick $50 before turning in.

Baby Updates

2010-09-19T21:06:00.007-04:00

It's about time we provided some updated photos of baby Zeckel. Lindsay is doing really well, and has just passed 25 weeks. The 20 week ultrasound went really well and we found out we're having a little boy!

And as our little boy grows, so does Lindsay's belly!

20 Weeks

24 Weeks

More photos coming soon, including the nursery once we finish getting all the furniture set up.

Fourth of July Trip to Lake Cumberland

2010-09-14T18:25:00.008-04:00

This post is a few months delayed but I wanted to make sure to get our annual Zeckel family vacation catalogued before moving on to other posts. Each year Adam's immediate family travels somewhere on vacation. In recent years that location has been a rented house somewhere near a body of water. This year's location was Lake Cumberland, KY.

We drove down on the 4th of July to a great house situated on the lake. Unfortunately, the Army Corps of Engineers has been working on the dam at Lake Cumberland for the last several years. The result is that the lake is down at least 40 feet and our lake-side rental home instead sat on a cliff above the lake.

We did take the time to drive to a marina not so far away to rent a pontoon boat for the day. We puttered around for a few hours, anchored in a quiet little cove, and did some swimming.

The rest of the days we filled with walks through the neighborhood, tennis, golf, and of course evenings of catch phrase and other fun family board games.

On the drive back to Indy, Lindsay was kind enough to allow us a brief stop at the Woodford Reserver Bourbon Distillery. We've driven through Bourbon country many times, but never took the time to stop and check out any of the distilleries. It was raining when we arrived, but luckily much of the tour was indoors. They showed us the triple copper distilling process, led us through the aging house (where the air is filled with the sweet smell of bourbon) and even gave us a small taste at the end (pregnant ladies excluded, of course).

Time for an announcement!

2010-07-18T20:48:00.003-04:00

We are happy to announce that we are expecting! Lindsay is pregnant, and the baby is due New Year's Eve. It's been a really hectic couple of months with moving and finding out about the baby, but we couldn't be happier and are so excited for everything that is yet to come. Luckily the previous owners of our house had one room painted pink and one room painted blue, so we shouldn't have to do too much work to get the nursery ready for a little one. The picture is from the 8 week ultrasound just before our move, so it's a little out of date, but how can you have a blog post without an ultrasound picture? Anyway, we should find out in about 4 weeks what the sex of the baby is, so stay tuned!

We Moved!

2010-07-13T12:17:00.004-04:00

June was a really busy month for us. We left Atlanta the Friday before Memorial Day just in time to make it to Indy in time for the race. We closed on our new house that following Tuesday and spent the rest of the week moving in and shopping for furniture, a washer and dryer, and many other things we haven't needed during our adventures in North Carolina and Georgia.

I had anticipated being around the house this summer as I was scheduled to be working on an internal project for work. Unfortunately that came to an abrupt halt as I was sent to Minneapolis at the last minute to do some work for a client up there. The middle of June was especially challenging as Lindsay traveled to Florence, Italy for her new role at Lilly.

We've been working tirelessly to get all the things we need for our slice of suburbia, not to mention all the yard work. We found a great dining room table at Pottery Barn and recently bought some living room furniture for our great room. Lindsay has been working hard on some custom roman shades as well. It will take time to get each room in order, but here's a few shots of the new place. We'll add more in the future as we get things set up.

Dining Room

Kitchen View 1

Kitchen View 2

Boca

2010-05-23T14:20:00.009-04:00

Infosys graciously offered to host us in Boca Raton, FL for a few days, so we flew down on Wednesday night after work for our stay at the Waldorf Astoria resort. Lindsay had the freedom to spend the day on Thursday lounging by the pool, but I had to attend some company meetings. One big surprise was at check-in when I picked up the "gift" that everyone got - a Flip video camera.

Thursday evening we boarded a shuttle over to the beach club - a separate hotel part of the same resort - for a sunset reception on the beach, dinner, and then the "Battle of the Bands." It was nice to be able to introduce Lindsay to many of the people I have been working with over the last several months since we're never all in the same city at one time. The battle of the bands was also a great opportunity to test out our new toy. It's not often that the top 3 members of a company get up on stage to sing a Rolling Stones song.

Friday's meetings were slightly more subdued, and luckily they ended early enough in the day for me to be able to fit in a round of golf. Dinner at the resort that night was tasty, if not just a bit expensive when not on the company tab. Saturday we spent lounging by the pool, and of course snuck in a trip to the gym.

It was a nice getaway before the storm that is going to be this week. Now it's time to pack up our condo in Atlanta to get ready for the movers on Thursday and Friday. By this time next week, we'll be in Indy (and almost homeowners).

House Hunting in Indy, Surprise!

2010-04-28T15:20:00.004-04:00

Lindsay's job is taking us back to where it all began - Indianapolis! Although the relocation package is nice, we have very little time between now and and the end of May when we leave Atlanta for Indiana. So, on a weekend in mid-April we flew up on a house hunting trip. Little did I know, but Lindsay had been scheming and planning a surprise party for my 30th birthday.

Good friends Andy & Michele Meyer graciously hosted the event at their new home. I was lured there after a birthday dinner with my family thinking it would just be a few high school buddies, but even my parents were in on it. There were snacks, beers, cake, and even a few mustaches. Good times!

We spent the entire day on Saturday (and most of Sunday) looking at 30 plus houses in the Indianapolis area. We found one that we absolutely loved - but it was being sold in foreclosure at a fraction of the value. We immediately put in an offer at list, but the bank asked us to come back with our "highest and best" offer. One week later, we were disappointed that our best offer wasn't good enough. Back to the drawing board! We head back up to Indy this weekend with a revised shopping list and more focus than the first time around.

Stone Mountain

2010-04-28T11:46:00.004-04:00

We took advantage of a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in April to head out to Stone Mountain Park just east of Atlanta. The hike to the top from the parking lot is about a mile and some parts are fairly steep. Although for the less adventurous they do have a gondola that will carry you to the summit. From the top we were able to see the sprawling Atlanta skyline through the yellow haze of pollen.

On the way out of the park we stopped to take a picture of the carving in the side of the mountain. The figures are of confederate heroes Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. In true southern fashion, they have a laser lightshow at the site during the summer months.

Orange Beach, AL - "The Dirty Thirty" Weekend

2010-04-28T10:37:00.010-04:00

Work has kept us busy the last couple of months. I have been staffed locally in Atlanta, so now Lindsay and I both spend a good part of our days in Atlanta traffic. All the more reason why our beach getaway the first weekend in April was so great. My birthday fell on a Monday this year, so the weekend prior we packed up the car with beach gear and Susan & Michael and headed down I-85 to south Alabama.

We had dinner Friday night at Bubba's - which can only be described as a local hot spot for vacationers and fried seafood. Saturday brought plenty of time on the beach, a relaxing lunch at the Fairfield Inn hot tub, and a spring break inspired frozen t-shirt contest at which Michael and I failed miserably.

Saturday night we headed for Flora-Bama, a bar that sits on the beach and on the border between Florida and Alabama. The crowd was interesting, to say the least, but we enjoyed ourselves with plenty of frozen Bushwackers and some interesting eye wear. Oh, and Duke basketball was on - the Blue Devils crushed West Virginia on their way to an NCAA Championship the following Monday.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans

2010-02-22T14:55:00.009-05:00

It took a few weeks for the sting of the Colts' superbowl loss to wear off (or at least subside), but now that it has we can finally get around to posting about our trip to New Orleans. Lindsay was in New Orleans the week after the superbowl for work, so we decided to head down the weekend before and see the city during Mardi Gras season. As it turned out, the hometown saints were playing our beloved Colts that Sunday in Superbowl XLIV.

When we arrived on Friday evening the taxi couldn't get us all the way to our hotel because a parade was underway and roads were blocked off. After we finally made it, we had a traditional creole dinner at a local bistro. We spent the day on Saturday wandering through the French Quarter. We had breakfast and beignets at an outdoor cafe on Bourbon Street, then had a few beverages as we watched the parades come through. We even saw a street performing dog!

The weather was chilly for New Orleans, so we couldn't spend that much time outdoors. After a low key dinner, we decided to go to Harrah's Casino so that we could at least be warm. We even won a little money playing blackjack! Sunday we tried to lay low to avoid all the Saints hysteria, but we did venture out into the city a little and watched a parade before hunkering down in the hotel room to watch the game. After the saints had won, we had to hear cheers and honking horns from the streets below all through the night and into the next morning.

Lindsay stayed on in New Orleans for work and even attended the Saints victory parade. Luckily for her, she was able to venture to some other, nicer parts of the city that we hadn't made it to in our short 2 days.

The weekend after New Orleans, my sister Audrey and her husband Bryan came to Atlanta to visit us. Unfortunately for them, it was the one weekend of the year when it decided to snow in Atlanta. We had some good meals and were able to catch up, though. Only one week later it was in upper 60's and we were once again able to venture out into the park for a Saturday morning run. We also took the chance on Sunday during some rare downtime to go see Avatar in 3D.

Lindsay is off to Indianapolis for work this week and is extending her trip a couple days to get in some preliminarly house hunting. We plan to move to Indy sometime this June, so it will be nice to know what's on the market.

Holidays 2009

2010-01-09T20:36:00.013-05:00

We trust everyone had a happy holiday season. We did quite a bit of travelling, but it was nice to see our extended families. After a trip up to Indiana for Thanksgiving, we didn't make it back up for the Zeckel family Hanukkah celebration. We did however deck out our condo in Atlanta with all kinds of holiday decorations.

Before heading back up to Indiana the week of Christmas, Susan and Michael had us over for their 2nd annual tacky holiday sweater party. I opted to reuse my homemade Hanukkah t-shirt in lieu of a more fantastic winter wonderland knit sweater.

We spent Christmas morning opening presents in Carmel and then visited lots of Lindsay's family in Shelbyville. There was plenty of time for euchre and catch phrase as well.

Before leaving Indy to get back to Atlanta, we decided to visit the new stadium and see the 14-0 Colts take on the NY Jets. It was a really snowy, nasty day, but we really enjoyed the chance to see them play live - at least for the first 2 1/2 quarters. Much to the displeasure of the home crowd, the Colts decided to pull their starters in the 3rd quarter and ended up giving the game away to the Jets.

To finish off the holiday season we accompanied Susan and Michael up Roswell for a get-together at Mike and Shannon's house. They are friends of Katie and Patrick (Susan's sister and brother-in-law) who we met when we went up to Helen, GA in October. It was a fun night of food, drinks, and even some live music. We watched the peach drop on TV and rang in 2010.

The Zeckels Explore Atlanta

2009-12-19T16:14:00.009-05:00

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, my parents came to visit us in Atlanta. We were happy to have our first official visitors in our place here. We also got to use their visit as an excuse to do some of the things around town that we haven't done on our own.

After a morning walk through Piedmont Park, we headed out to see the sites. We went to World of Coca Cola Museum where we experienced the 4D theater and got to try coke brands from around the world.

We walked across Centennial Park and visited the CNN Center. We had dinner at One Midtown Kitchen and even got to watch the first half of the Colts' game on Sunday at Taco Mac. It was great to have family in town and experience the city of Atlanta!

Halloween

2009-12-09T19:25:00.011-05:00

A little late, but here are some pics from the halloween party that we threw at our condo in Atlanta. We had quite the crowd - business school friends, friends of friends ... even Mario and Luigi showed up!

Late night included the emergance of guitar hero and even an appearance by Penguin Manning.

Oktoberfest - Helen, GA

2009-10-29T11:42:00.005-04:00

This past weekend, we headed up to the north Georgia foothills with the Clements.

Helen, GA has been hosting Oktoberfest since 1970 (or at least that's what it says on their street signs). People from all over the area flock there on the weekends in the fall to drink beer, listen to live music, and enjoy all the town has to offer (like Putt-Putt).

We drove up on Saturday and met Susan's sister and brother-in-law and a couple of their friends at the "cabin" we rented for the night. The local bars all offer a plastic Miller Lite branded "stein" that offers discounted refills, so we made sure to visit a few establishments Saturday evening.

Doody-Doran Nuptials

2009-10-26T17:04:00.005-04:00

True to form we have been lax in blogging the last few weeks. This "work" stuff isn't as great as it was cracked up to be while in the comfy confines of MBA school the last couple of years. We have both been travelling a great deal lately for work - Lindsay spent almost 3 weeks in Indianapolis for Sales Training and Adam has been flying to Columbus, OH every Monday through Thursday for the last month or so.

In the midst of all of this we were able to see many of our business school friends two weeks ago at Colleen and Jeff's wedding in Kiawah Island, SC. A mere 6 hour drive from Atlanta (or flight from Indianapolis), Kiawah is right off the coast of Charleston. Fourteen of us rented a gorgeous house on the island and spent much of the day on Saturday lounging by the pool or on the beach (after a "get the jitters out" 5k in the morning of course).

The ceremony and reception were at one of the golf courses on the island. The drink of choice at the reception was a modified version of a southern specialty called the Arnold Palmer (lemonade and sweet tea) but this one substituted in Sweat Tea flavored Vodka (maybe it's called the John Daly?). Because of a mis-hap at the end of the India trip, our camera's LCD screen was cracked and we didn't have a camera at the wedding. So the pictures here are just from the iPhone and not that great. We had someone else take our picture, but we think it's on Ken and Steph's camera so we may never see it. Oh well.

India

2009-09-01T09:49:00.001-04:00

I started work three weeks ago for Infosys Consulting, a division of Infosys Technologies - a highly successful Indian IT services company. While the consulting arm is still quite small (less than 500 people), the parent company has more than 100,000 employees in India. As part of my on-boarding and training, I had the opportunity to travel to Hyderabad (हैदराबाद), India and stay at the Infosys campus with a few other Americans for two weeks. The company is based in Bangalore, but the Hyderabad location is also quite large.

My room at the employee hostel didn't measure up to the W by American standards, but it was roomy enough to act as home base for two weeks. The campus itself is quite large - it seemed to be about a mile or more in circumference when I ran around it one morning. It has 2 large cafeterias, two gyms, and many recreational facilities including tennis, basketball, and volleyball courts, ping pong and pool tables, a swimming pool, and of course a large cricket field. Every day at 5pm everything is packed with the 14,000 or so people that work on campus.

Monday through Friday of both weeks we spent in various training sessions, venturing out in the evenings for dinner at some local restaurants. Most times, we bartered our way onto 3 wheel motorized rickshaws that weaved in and out of traffic on the dusty roads. My throat burned from dust and exhaust every time. The surrounding areas showed stark contrasts - from high-rise buildings to the blue tarp tents in the slums. It was also common to see cows and goats roaming the streets.

On the weekend, we were able to rent a car and driver for the day to take us around to some of the various sites. On Saturday we went to Golconda fort and hiked to the top to see the surrounding city. Then we went to an area of town called Charminar after the large monument built in the center. We did some shopping there for Hyderabad pearls, but the busyness and rain convinced us to head back to campus.

Sunday we went for an all-inclusive brunch at the Taj hotel in City Center. The food was ok, but the drinks seemed to be the main attraction. Afterward, we walked across the street to an "English Pub" called Frangi Pani where we drank Kingfisher beer and listened to American music. We also made sure to stop by McDonald's before heading back.

All-in-all it was a really great trip. I got to meet a lot of people and experienced the local culture in Hyderabad. Swine flu was a major concern in India, and most of us came down with some sort of bug after our big weekend out. However, everyone survived and but for a little jet lag everything is normal back in the USA. Click here to see the full picture album from my trip.

Braves' Game

2009-09-01T09:04:00.000-04:00

Keeping with our trend of much overdo blog posts, we ventured out into the city for our first ever Atlanta Braves' game a few weeks ago. My uncle was kind enough to purchase us some tickets for our graduation, so we found the closest Braves fans that we could and headed out to see Manny and the Dodgers.

Michael and I went to the seats on the 1st baseline but Susan and Lindsay weren't ever actually interested in watching the game. As it turns out, the Braves lost 5-0 and only had 2 hits, so it wasn't a great game to watch anyway. Instead, they went to the Chophouse bar behind center field where we found them sometime in the 7th inning.

Lindsay's First Post: DIY Crafting at Home

2009-08-31T19:45:00.000-04:00

Since Adam keeps giving me a hard time about not posting to the blog (in subtle ways, like putting the ridiculous picture of me in my rafting gear in his last post), I decided to post with some of the house stuff I’ve been doing with my time before starting work. I am all about bargains, and have no choice really, since the Zeckel household hasn’t had income in 2 years. I didn’t take many “before” photos, but at least we have the “afters”! Sorry this is a long post!

Dining Room: We were lucky in that the owners left us a fabulous dining table. I found the corner chair at an antique store for about $20 years ago in Indy – I painted it black and covered it with red fabric to match my décor at the time. But it needed a facelift for the new room. I re-covered it in fabric that was on clearance ($3). I did a little hand sewing (no sewing machine yet) to create the pillow and used ribbon I already had to complete the look. I also used existing frames and some wrapping paper my friend Claire gave me for some super cheap wall art!

Entry: The clock was $8 at IKEA. I love that place. The vase I’m quite proud of – when I bought it, it was an ugly brown color with a teal sponge-paint treatment. I spray painted it white and found the twigs on clearance at TJ Maxx – total cost for vase, paint, and twigs: $25! I also want an entry table and have been checking Craig’s List for the perfect fixer-upper.

Fireplace Area: We also lucked out in that the owners left us these awesome chairs. Same twigs – this is how they came originally – I just ripped some out for the vase for the entry and put the rest by the fireplace! I’m not totally satisfied with the bookshelf, but it works. The frames I got for $10 each on clearance at Marshalls. When I bought them they had dark matting and ugly photos. I flipped the matting and got 8 x 10 reprints of some photos Adam took in Italy and voila - $23 for wall art!

Master bedroom: A couple of crafty things here…first, the lamps. I hate to admit it but these guys came from walmart.com! I embellished with some blue ribbon. We have one window by my bed (in addition to a sliding glass door to the left of the bed) – The walls are nearly impossible to drill into, so I decided to use a spring rod in the frame. The “curtain” is a $3 sheet from Walmart – I just used iron-on hemming tape! I think it looks pretty decent and will definitely get us through our year here.

Yea - first Lindsay blog post complete!

MacKenzie-Robinson Nuptials

2009-08-28T08:42:00.000-04:00

We've fallen behind on blogging recently, but to be fair, there has been quite a bit of travel involved. August 6-9 we made the trip west to witness the marriage of b-school buddy Katie MacKenzie to her fiance Simon Robinson. We also got to catch up with friends that we left after graduation in May.

The wedding was beautifully situated at the top of Keystone mountain in the Rockies just west of Denver. 18 of us from Duke stayed in a couple ski condos in the village and rode the gondolas up the mountain for the wedding and the reception.

On Friday morning we hiked around the top of the mountain with a guide, and then headed down the mountain to get ready for our whitewater rafting trip. The river is low this time of year, but we still had some fun with class III rapids. Of our group of 13, Lindsay and Colleen were the only two to get involuntarily tossed from any of the rafts, but they had a good time with it.

The weather stayed dry and warm for the ceremony, so luckily no one was too cold. We took a second gondola to the reception location and had a good time drinking wine, eating steak, and dancing. I think it might be fun to visit Keystone when there's actually snow on the ground! Our full album of pictures can be found here.

Family Vacation, Michigan Style

2009-07-04T17:11:00.000-04:00

We spent the last week at a house in South Haven, Michigan. The weather didn't really accomodate our high hopes of a week spent on the beach or at the pool, but we managed to have some good old fashioned fun at the local wineries with mom, Audrey, Bryan and Bryan's parents.

We visited 5 wineries in one afternoon, but the last one had the best sign ever forewarning parents about unruly children.

Our last night there, the "kids" decided to experience some of the local culture at Captain Lou's and even stopped at some roadside rocking chairs on the walk home for a group photo op.

Hotlanta

2009-06-25T09:28:00.000-04:00

So, it's taken a couple of weeks, but we finally feel like our place is coming together. We even have stuff on the walls! The movers packed our stuff in Durham, but it took a full week for them to make it to Atlanta (even though it took us 5 hours). We lived at the Marriott Suites in Midtown for a week as it was just down the street from our new home. Speaking of our new home, here's some pictures!

Great Room and View to Kitchen

Master Bedroom and Bathroom

Dining Room and Patio

Guest Bedroom/Office and Guest Bathroom

Next up for us is a two week "vacation" to Indianapolis and South Haven, Michigan.

Things we wish we knew when planning a trip to Europe

2009-06-08T17:31:00.000-04:00

First, a little background. We planned a trip to France and Italy for May 2009 by ourselves, soliciting help from friends who had been and from various internet sites. We are married, in our late 20’s and had a couple of weeks to travel but wanted to save money wherever possible (not to mention the USD/EURO conversion rate was about 1.4) - so we didn’t join and guided tours or pay a travel agent. While in Europe, we realized that there were many things that we wish we had known when we were planning our trip. There are so many resources available on the web, but with all that information, some things tend to get lost in the shuffle of which sites to see and how to get from A to B. We created this list on a train and added to it throughout our trip. Hopefully you’ll find it helpful if you’re planning a trip. In no particular order:

Helpful things to pack – There are lots of packing lists available out there, but here’s a few items that we found particularly helpful not to forget (in addition to everything else)
- Visiting many countries can make packing difficult. Even within one city, spring can be volatile. One week in Rome temperatures were in the 90s and the following week they were in the 60s and raining. In general, most places will tell you that light layers are good to have.
- Outlet converter – most electronics nowadays are capable of handling the voltage differences between the US and Europe. However, double check your devices to make sure they are able to take 220 volts. Get an outlet converter to charge your iphone, laptop, camera batteries, etc, but check to ensure that your plugs fit in it. We had an issue with a hair straightener with a grounded plug (one prong bigger than the other) that wouldn’t fit in our converter. If you’re really interested in electricity, here’s a good site to visit: http://www.enjoy-europe.com/hte/chap11/electric.htm
- Extra camera battery – If you are going to be taking a lot of pictures, don’t get stuck at the Louvre with a dead camera battery. We carried a second battery fully charged. When one died, we would swap and then charge it up that night.
- Camera cable – We brought a laptop, but forgot to bring the cable to connect the camera to it. It would have been nice to backup all the shots we were taking, but also on a longer trip you might fill up your memory card.
- Medicine – Two really helpful things to have: Advil and Imodium. Advil for headaches after too much wine, and for curing those pains from walking 8 hours a day. Imodium because WCs can be hard to find or have long lines and that’s not something you want to mess around with.
- Corkscrew – You can find travel corkscrews for very cheap. If you want to buy wine from the grocery store, this is a key thing to have. I’ve never had a problem carrying a small plastic corkscrew in my carryon in the US, but on one flight in Europe we were told that it wasn’t allowed. If you’re concerned, throw it in your checked luggage.
- Bug spray – This was more helpful outside the cities, but parks and other hot spots can be really buggy in the summer.

Find the grocery store – meals can be very expensive, particularly near tourist areas. Many places we stayed offered breakfast, so we would fill up at breakfast and head out for the day. We might split a sandwich for lunch, but we found the grocery store for bread, cheese, fruit, and the all important diet coke. It’s a great way to save a lot of money, especially on wine. Instead of ordering a bottle of wine at dinner for 15-20 euros we would buy a 4 euro bottle at the store and have a glass or two before dinner (and after if any was left).

“WCs” or “Toilettes” in France and most of Italy – Public restrooms are few and far between in most cities. You want to stay hydrated with all the walking, so plan on bathroom breaks. If you are paying admission to a museum, that’s probably the cleanest, best place to go. Public toilettes at train stations and at major tourist sites often require payment (50 euro cents or so). Restaurants may or may not have restrooms for patrons, but cafes or take-out places rarely do. Inter-city trains usually have serviceable restrooms as well.

Water bottles are refillable – In France and Italy, the water is safe to drink from the tap. Therefore, no need to spend a bunch of money on bottled water, and you can be kinder to the environment. One caution – EasyJet made us throw away empty water bottles or pack them in our checked luggage. I think this is less of a security issue and more likely because they want you to buy the 3 euro thimble of water from them on the plane. We had no issue carrying empty bottles through security for Air France or Al Italia.

Train tickets
- Whenever possible, buy your tickets ahead of time. We tried to catch a tight connection in La Spezia, Italy and ran into long ticket lines and a down computer system. If you board a train without a ticket, you can be fined 50 euros or more.
- Get a schedule book, or know various times of trains. We tried to leave our schedule open in case we wanted to stay somewhere longer than we planned. Knowing what times trains leave is really helpful for changing your plans last minute.
- Ticket machines speak English, tellers may or may not. Once we realized that the self service machines were so user friendly, we never stood in line again. Especially in Italy, this made life a lot easier.

Rick Steves’ knows all. We used his “Best of Europe 2009” book all through France and Italy, but he also has other books with more detail for pretty much every city in Europe. Most of our planning was done using his advice and reading reviews on www.tripadvisor.com. One caution – Even using the most current edition, prices had gone up by a few euros across the board for major sites, train tickets, etc.

Speaking of Rick Steves’ he has a bunch of podcasts available on iTunes for many hotspots in Europe. Downloading these before you go will not only give you a free audio tour of sites, but will also allow you to use your own headphones instead of paying 5 or 10 euro to rent the audio guides at the different sites. In France and Italy, we listened to his guides for the Louvre and Versailles in Paris, Grand Canal in Venice, the David in Florence, and the coliseum and the Sistine Chapel in Rome. We didn’t have an earphone splitter, though that would have been nice for two of us instead of sharing one set of headphones.

Driving – We read a lot about driving in Europe and decided that renting a car to go to the country would be easier and a little cheaper than using trains. This turned out to be partially true.
- First thing is the international driving permit. If you listen to AAA, they will tell you that you can’t drive anywhere without one. However, I think it’s mostly a ploy for them to make money off of you. The thing really serves no purpose. Hertz told me that I had to have one to rent in Italy, so I paid $25 to get one ($15 fee + the cost of passport photos). No one asked to see it anywhere in Italy or in France, not even at Hertz. I also think that if I had been pulled over, any police officer would have scoffed at the ridiculous booklet.
- Toll roads have hefty tolls. The Autoroute in France and the Autostrada in Italy are the most direct ways to get around by car. However, they can be expensive. Our 3 hour drive from Paris to Dijon came with a 20 euro toll. The drive from Florence to Rome was about the same
- Gas is expensive. When we were there we paid the equivalent of around $7/gallon where gas in the US was less than $2.50/gallon.

Banking
- Do call your bank before you leave the country to let them know where you’ll be travelling. We had issues withdrawing cash in Venice, which we found out was related to a particular bank machine being flagged for fraud. You may not have issues, but calling before will help your peace of mind. Also find out how to contact them from abroad if you need to. Most banks have an international collect number.
- Banks charge you to convert currency. I don’t remember paying these fees the last time I travelled abroad, but banks seem to have gotten more creative on charging fees. Our credit cards charged 3% to convert charges from euros to USD (both Chase and Citi). Our checking account bank is usually very good about not charging fees but even they levied the 3% on our cash withdrawals. On a side note, I saw an ingenious plan at Hertz. They offer a service that will charge you in USD so you don’t pay these fees. Guess how much it costs … that’s right, 3%. Someone could make a lot of money converting currency for 2.5%.
- Still, you will get the best exchange rates by charging or withdrawing cash. Change kiosks take even more than 3% in the exchange spread.

Internet can be hard to find or extremely expensive. This is entirely dependent on where you are, however. We found that the rural places where we stayed offered free internet, while the Marriott in Paris charged 20 euros per day. Internet cafes are easy enough to find, as long as you’re willing to pay a few euros for an hour to satisfy your internet addiction. We found the iPhone incredibly helpful in finding free wifi in cities. Even though we didn’t have the phone part turned on we were able to find various free wifi zones.

You don’t have to speak the local language, but a common phrase book will be helpful, particularly decoding menus at restaurants.

Restaurants
- Many restaurants will ask you if you want water, and then ask if you prefer flat or sparkling. If you respond, they will charge you the 5 euros or so for the bottle they bring. In France, we found it fairly easy to ask for a carafe de l’eau, which means a carafe of tap water which they don’t charge for. Italy seemed much more difficult to get tap water for the table.
- Tipping is not often done. Americans are used to tipping 15%, but most restaurants include service in the cost of your meal.
- Some restaurants will charge a cover charge and additional service charges. You can always ask ahead of time, but in touristy parts of Rome, just expect to get additional charges on your bill as a tourist tax. If you’re smart, you’ll avoid these places and eat a couple blocks away and likely get better food for a cheaper price.

Places will close at random times and on random days of the week. Twice during our 2 ½ week visit there were mid-week holidays that closed many of the shops and the grocery stores. Also, Europeans on average only work 35-hour work weeks, so expect restaurants and shops to close during the middle of the day or on certain days of the week. This is even more common on the weekend. One museum we planned to go to wasn’t open on Mondays so we had to alter our schedule for that Monday.

See the most of cities and save a lot of money by walking. Paris by metro isn’t all that interesting, but getting lost in some of the neighborhoods can be. Many of the museums are close enough together anyway that if you’re staying in a fairly central location you may never need to use public transportation (except to get to Versailles).

When you book places to stay, double check to make sure they have air conditioning. It can get really hot during the spring and summer, so it may be worth paying a little more to ensure that you will have air conditioning. A lot of this info can be found on www.tripadvisor.com.

Research airport transfer options before you go. Taxis are outrageously expensive in Paris and Rome, costing 70 euros or more. In Paris, there are few public transportation options from Charles De Gaulle airport (Roissy). Air France operates busses to various parts of town for a reasonable price. In Rome, the trains run frequently (and for 5 euros) to Leonardo da Vinci airport (Fiumicino) but don’t start service until after 6am. We had a 7am flight so had to hire a private car to get us there to the tune of 55 euros.

Picture Albums from Europe

2009-06-05T17:56:00.000-04:00

We've uploaded our photos from our trip. The trip home was mostly uneventful, though we were lucky to catch an earlier flight out of Detroit and avoid one of our 5 hour layovers.

Paris	Burgundy	Venice

Cinque Terre	Pisa	Florence

Tuscany	Rome

When in Rome

2009-06-01T08:44:00.000-04:00

Well, our luck with the weather finally ran out after 2 weeks of gorgeous sunshine. We left the agriturismo yesterday as the rain started to come down. We drove through pockets of it, but luckily it was dry for about two hours in Montepulciano where we toured the town and snacked on bruschetta and local wine.

We eventually made it down to return the car at the Rome airport and took the train to our hotel. It is a bit in the suburbs, so they have an hourly shuttle to the metro near Vatican City. We used that last night to grab dinner and visit the Spanish steps and Trevi fountain. It was supposed to rain all evening, but we made it back before the rain started again.

This morning we braved steady rain as we made our way to the Coloseum, forum, pantheon and other ancient ruins. At lunch another American told us about a plane crash, but he didn't know the details. Since we're flying from Rome to Paris to Detroit to Durham in two days we went looking for free wifi to find out what is going on. It is an Air France plane, though it seems to have disappeared off Brazil.

This afternoon we're wandering across Rome. We had planned to see the national museum, but realized that it's closed on Mondays. We plan to try tomorrow afternoon after we visit the Vatican in the morning. Lindsay has a bit of a cold that started yesterday. She's pushing through with pseudafed and advil. Hard to believe that these two and a half weeks are almost up, though we're both looking forward to the creature comforts of home.

Tuscany

2009-05-30T11:09:00.000-04:00

Dinner last night was so good and the wine went down so easily that we decided to take it a little easier today. We had a relaxed breakfast and loaded into the car to make our way to some of the nearby towns. First was San Gimignano about an hour from the agriturismo. It looked a little like a town inside a castle from the outside, but the best part was definitely the views of surrounding hillsides. We took a bunch of pictures though the one here is just one I grabbed with the iphone.

Next we drove the 30 minutes down to Sienna. Interesting fact - the colors of the buildings there gave name to a famous crayon - burnt sienna. Anyway, we looked around the city and it's medieval gothic churches. Il Campo at the town center is from the opening scene of the latest James Bond movie where the horses race around the square while thousands of people crowd to watch. Nothing like that going on today, just a lazy stroll through the streets, a slice of pizza and a piccolo gelato. We took the scenic country roads back instead of the autostrada and only had to turn around twice for missed turns. Who needs a GPS when you've got a map written all in Italian with no road names?

We're staying at the agriturismo for dinner again tonight before heading out in the morning. We plan to stop in Montalcino and/or Montalpulciano to try some brunello wines before dropping the car off in Rome. We spend our last three nights on our Europe trip in Rome. We hope to find internet access there, but if we don't we'll have to update everyone when we make it back to the states on June 3rd.

Firenze & Tuscany

2009-05-29T13:29:00.000-04:00

This morning we had a great breakfast of croissants, muffins, etc. and headed for Piazza Michaelangelo which overlooks all of Florence. We took some good pictures and made our way to Galleria Academia where we had reservations to see "David." The line was around the block, but that's why they tell you to make reservations. We listened to another Rick Steves' podcast and took in the artwork. Pictures were forbidden, but I snuck in one on my phone.

Afterwards, we made our way to the train station and found our way out into the Tuscan countryside. We picked up our Ford Fiesta from the rental car place and drove out to Agriturismo Savernano. Basically, it's a farm-house that doubles as a bed & breakfast. We lounged by the pool (pictured below) and are getting ready for dinner served here. The menu for tonight is spaghetti aglio pepero and veal livonese.

We're not entirely sure what we plan to do tomorrow, but we're going to drive and see some of the sites in Tuscay before making our way down to Rome on Sunday evening.

Pisa and Firenze

2009-05-29T13:06:00.000-04:00

We left cinque terre yesterday morning with the hopes of catching a quick train connection to Pisa. Without tickets, however, we didn't have time to wait in line and spent about 90 minutes in La Spezia waiting for the next train. This experience, however, has spurred a forthcoming blog entitled "What I wish I had known before coming to Europe." It's still in the works and we'll wait till we get back to post it, but I know everyone planning on travelling here wouldn't mind having some tips.

We finally found a train to Pisa where we stopped long enough to walk the 20 minutes from the train station to the tower (luggage in tow) to take the requisite pictures and back. We then caught the next train to Florence.

If America made a city in Europe, I think it would be Florence. Of course the 800 year-old churches would stick out, but nowhere else have we been have we seen so many Americans, particularly college-age women travelling in packs. We even witnessed a beer pong game that broke out in a bar down the street from the Duomo where Michaelangelo grew up.

We spent the evening walking the streets and watching the sunset on Ponte Vecchio to an Italian-English version of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" by a street performer. Dinner was housemade pasta and bruschetta at a restaurant that the B&B owner recommended.

How we earned our gelato today

2009-05-27T11:59:00.000-04:00

We got up this morning and purchased the Cinque Terre park pass for 5 euros each. This gave us access to the mountainous path that connects the five towns. Since we are staying in town #4 of 5, we decided to walk down through three of the other towns and take the train all the way back to the other side and walk from that town back to Vernazza. What took the better part of five hours to walk was a 16 minute train ride…

The views we saw were so spectacular, but the trail was really difficult at times. On the southern end between the towns, the trail was mostly a paved path with a railing along the water. However, the paths surrounding Vernazza were anything but, climbing high into the surrounding hills, traversing ridges along the way. We grabbed lunch in one of the towns along the way, but welcomed a double scoop of gelato when we arrived back in Vernazza.

Tomorrow, we decided to try to take the early train out of town to get to Pisa around noon. We’ll literally hop off the train, walk to the tower and back, and get on another train to Florence.

Arrival in Cinque Terre

2009-05-27T11:58:00.000-04:00

We spent the day on trains through northern Italy, swapping trains in Milan and again in Monterosso to catch the local train one stop down to Vernazza. Our room here is a step down from the lodgings we’ve grown accustomed to, but the view out over the harbor is FANTASTIC.

We had barter some internet time from the local internet café (we had no more euros and they didn’t take visa) because we are having problems with the bank allowing us to withdraw money. Note to self: next time, call the bank and arrange ahead of time. Thankfully, we contacted the bank and all has been resolved.

Dinner was at the top of the hill above the square at a place with an amazing view. The seafood risotto was pretty decent as well. Afterwards, of course, we made our way to the gelato stand on the square for our dessert. We plan to spend tomorrow walking the towns of Cinque Terre and exploring. We have another half a day here on Thursday before we catch the train to Florence.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Vaporetti

2009-05-27T11:56:00.000-04:00

We spent Sunday morning in Beaune before heading out on our drive back to Paris. We should have realized that many others would be heading back into the city after a weekend in the country. Traffic held us up by about an hour and a half, but luckily we had left early enough to catch our EasyJet flight to Venice (and enough time to grab a Royal Cheese from a Charles de Gaulle McDonald’s)

Once in Venice we made our way from the airport by bus to the island itself. We then hopped on a vaporetto (basically a ferry for the canal) that dropped us near our hotel. We ventured out to St. Mark’s square which was nearly deserted (and much neater) at night. Unfortunately, Venice had little to offer in the way of Internet connection, so we’ve been lax on the blogging.

The next day in Venice we spent “getting lost” which was a great way to see the city. We took the slow vaporetto around the great canal and listened to Rick Steve’s pod-cast to learn about the sites along the way. Overall, though, Venice was really crowded with cruise goers throughout the day. We had pizza (not to mention some amazing prosecco) for dinner and turned in early for the morning walk to the train station and a day of travel to Cinque Terre.

Bike ride through Bourgogne

2009-05-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

Today we had breakfast at our B&B and headed out on the bikes we rented for the day. First we stopped at the supermarket for shelf-stable sandwiches, a baguette, and some stinky cheese. Then we headed out on the Route des Grands Crus directly from Beaune. We had amazing weather and cruised through the various vineyards and several picturesque small towns. I think that all-in-all we biked more than 20 miles round trip. Things were very quiet in each of the towns, and many of the local wineries did not seem to be open which we thought was because it was Saturday. However, the bike shop owner told us that they are always quiet. We trudged up the ridge and found a great view and spot to rest and eat our picnic style lunch.

We were able to taste some wines at a couple of places, and one woman was very helpful in explaining about the various vineyards and how the wines were graded. Wines here in Burgundy are either blanc (made from chardonnay grapes) or rouge (made from pinot noir grapes) but the difference in bottles ranges from 10 euros to more than 300 based primarily on the plot where they are grown. We purchased two "regional" bottles (i.e. not that expensive) and made it back to our room late in the afternoon, much in need of a shower. The trail was really hilly and even Lindsay said that it was not the "free bird" experience she talked about in Tybee. At 6pm we had a wine tasting with the owners of the place where we are staying.

Tomorrow we head to Italy, but not before spending the morning exploring some more of Beaune and undertaking the drive back to Paris.

Beaune - beautiful AND full of internet (and boeuf)

2009-05-22T16:37:00.000-04:00

The drive down to Beaune from Paris was slightly longer than we expected - not to mention the unexpected 17 euro toll. We stopped in Dijon for a couple of hours to revisit where Lindsay spent six months during undergrad. We walked the streets and even stopped for a crepe filled with chocolate and bananas.

This is the view outside of our room here in Beaune. We're right off the main part of town, but the owners of this little winery also operate a bed and breakfast. The gardens face back away from town, so everything is very quiet and peaceful. The room is also amazing - if anyone is headed to Bourgogne, we would highly recommend les Jardins de Lois as a place to stay. We were a little concerned when we left the opulence of the Marriott Champs-Elysee and circled Beaune a few times when we got lost on our our way here. However, Philippe was very welcoming when we finally arrived.

For dinner, we walked down the street for some boeuf bourgogne (beef burgondy) at a little place called Piqu' Boeuf. Tomorrow we will get up bright and early to have our breakfast and pick up the bikes we have rented for the day. There's a 20k trail that visits six wineries in the area that we hope to complete. At 6pm we are having a wine tasting back here with the owners. All in all, we plan to drink a lot of wine :)

p.s. I updated the previous posts with a few pictures from the iPhone. Our best shots will have to wait until we're back in the states because we forgot the cable to hook the camera to the laptop.

More from Paris...

2009-05-21T13:34:00.000-04:00

We've had a couple big days in Paris. We hiked to the top of Notre Dame and then wandered through the city towards the Rodin museum, home to many of his statues but most famously "the thinker." Then we made it over to Napoleon's tomb before walking back to the hotel (stopping to get some camembert, jam, wine, and a baguette on the way.) A special thanks to Rick Steves (well, his book) for telling us about the Paris museum pass. Without it we probably would have skipped many sites because each has its own admission price. After a snack and a nap we headed to the Eiffel tower again, this time after sunset, for some more pictures and then on to a late dinner.

Today we headed to Versailles. Unfortunately most everyone else in France did too and it was really crowded. After a lot more walking we came back to Paris and headed to the Pompidou museum (modern art) where we found not only weird art but also free wifi :). Next we're off to dinner. Tomorrow we pick up a rental car and head out to Dijon then Beaune in the countryside for a weekend of riding bikes and visiting wineries. We've had really good weather so far so we're hoping that trend continues. On a more serious side note: my feet are KILLING me from the 20 or so miles of walking the last 2 1/2 days.

Je suis en Paris

2009-05-20T07:29:00.000-04:00

We made it to Paris yesterday and have discovered that Parisians do a good job securing wireless Internet connections. Our hotel is right on Champs-Elysee and charges 20 euro per day for Internet. At any rate we're taking a lunch break from sightseeing and found a free 20 minute connection on the iPhone

After leaving Nick Lachey at the airport (Lindsay swears it was him waiting for his bag) we went to the hotel. We walked around a bit to the Arc de Triomph and the Eiffel Tower. Had dinner at a cafe near there and went to watch the sunset. Unfortunately the sun stayed up longer than we were able to so we headed back and were asleep by 10:15.

Today is Paris museum day: the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, etc. Off to Notre Dame now. Tomorrow is Versailles and then to Burgondy Friday afternoon. We hope to post more (and pictures) as soon as we find better Internet access!

Saying Goodbye

2009-05-16T19:21:00.000-04:00

It's definitely been a bitter sweet week in terms of saying goodbye (or at least "see ya later") to all the friends we've made over the last two years in Durham. While it's time to begin the next phase of our lives, we'll always have fond memories of this time at Duke. Somewhat fitting, then, that today we said goodbye (for good) to our old car. It's the car that I bought after my first BMW was totaled by a woman running a red light. This was back in '04 (the year Lindsay and I met). At any rate, it now belongs to the fine people at CarMax in Raleigh, NC. It only took them an hour and a half to process the paper work, too :)

Tonight we're off to have Sushi with and say "see ya later" to a few more friends before beginning the hardcore packing for Europe.

New Wheels!

2009-05-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

We drove out to Greensboro this afternoon to pick up our new ride. We hemmed and hawed over how to replace our aging BMW and settled on this Mercedes C300 sport. Since there were only a handful of manual transmission C300s on the East Coast, the dealer had to ship this one in yesterday from Columbus, GA. Tomorrow we plan to put the old car out to pasture (a.k.a. CarMax).

Graduation Day

2009-05-10T16:41:00.000-04:00

End of a long weekend! Lindsay and I are happy to have completed our MBAs at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. On Friday, we had the Health Sector Management ceremony and a couple of receptions to attend. Saturday morning we had our class picture and each of us walked across the stage inside Cameron Indoor Stadium to receive a ceremonial scroll. We weren't able to get our actual diplomas until after the larger Duke commencement ceremony Sunday morning in Wallace Wade Stadium.

This morning we proceeded into the stadium to hear Oprah Winfrey give her commencement address. Each of the schools was also represented by a student. Greg Paulus of Duke Basketball fame was chosen to represent the Trinity School's bachelors of arts. I'm not sure who the guy was who represented the business school, but I heard he was an executive graduate. Now we get to focus on preparing for our trip to France and Italy and our impending move to Atlanta!

Check out our graduation picasa album for a more complete view of the past weekend.