2015.1.18 Travels with the Boys - Charleston - recovery day

Sunday saw C almost back to normal, downing a quality hotel breakfast of waffles, fruit and more. While I am normally a huge fan of the new Starbucks-style grab and go cafe's found in most Courtyards, the full buffet was a welcome respite this morning. During our preparations, C watched his first ever full episode of Sesame Street. He even got up and danced with the PBS Kids Smart Cat during commercials.

The day brought a boat trip to Ft. Sumter, cold but beautiful. C wasn't interested in listening to the tour guide but he was fascinated by the cannons. We have really kept him away from almost all violence thus far. He doesn't really understand concepts like war or enemies, but cannons? He just knows he likes them. We picked up a Jr. Ranger exam and spent much of the return boat ride home getting the answered filled it, with C writing in 1829 and pentagon where needed. We were treated with two dolphins playing off the bow of the boat.

As walking wasn't part of the plan, we decided it would be a great afternoon for a horse-drawn carriage ride. We bought our tickets, then stopped for a pint at Tommy Condon's Irish Pub. C flirted with the bartender and ate a cookie until it was time to leave. Unfortunately our tour oversold but they got us into another company's tour within 15 minutes. The next hour was a lovely trip through the historic neighborhoods of Charleston, including Market, High St, the French Quarter and the Battery. Our horse was a beautiful and feisty black and white named Carolina. C thought she looked like Oreo, the PY3 bunny at school.

We tried to eat at Coast, one of my favorite haunts from work days with BHC. Unfortunately their kitchen didn't open for 30 minutes so we hit King Street in search of food. End result? Juanita Greenberg's Nacho Royale...seriously. Chips and guac, some yummy margaritas and good food. Nothing fancy just good and lots. Gelato at Pablos and back to the hotel to watch the Patriots crush the Colts.

Interesting reading of the day? The paper reported that the lead car in the marathon made a wrong turn inbetween miles 1 and 2 of the course. They are currently trying to get the course recertified and make corrections to the finish times. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

2015.1.17 Travels with the Boys - Charleston - The Big Day

Beautiful weather, full night of sleep, and just a few follow up coughing fits leftover from the flu. What more could one need when trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon for the third time? 

W was up and out the door for the 8am start, while I tried to wrestle a still-not-quite 100% C out the door. The course ran right by our hotel but we missed W by about 30 seconds. Luckily I saw the warm-up jacket he had tossed onto the hotel grass, picked it up and started the dash across the island. It took some creativity to dash with C in the Bob across the road, still full of many runners, and start the 1.2 mile dash to King Street. We made it just as the pace car and lead runners came through. Less than 10 minutes later, there was W...looking great! C and I then ran against traffic down King, cheering on the runners, getting some calls of 'you are going the wrong way' and 'go momma.' We enjoyed cheering encouragement and getting some whoop, whoops for the great weather. A quick trip into Harris Teeter and we were restocked with breakfast, candy, supplies and signage gear. Round trip back to the hotel for a total of 4 miles to start. 

Then we hopped into the car and drove up the highway to the finish line. C and I then sprinted around the course, cheering W and our MRC friend, Josh Cox, as they ran by miles 20 & 22. Everything looked good though W seemed to be having a tough go. Interesting note - one volunteer who I saw three times reported that the course was measuring long. C and I stopped our run at one intersection to give out LifeSavers and high fives....so much fun! I highly recommend it. 

I stood at mile 25.8 waiting to see our guy. And waited...and worried...and waited some more. Then I ran back to mile 25 to see if he was coming. I waited too long. When I finally saw him, I said 'dig deep babe' and kept up with him as he did, then he rounded the corner and the stroller was just too much. I was hoping as he rounded the finish, but I saw in his eyes that today was not his day. Was it the flu that hit last week? Was it too warm? Had he cracked? After he had his picture taken and collected his medal, he walked up to me and said, "26.67? Seriously? I kept waiting for the finish and it never came." W finished at 26:14, a personal record but 1 minute and 14 seconds outside of a BQ. He missed his goal by less than 75 seconds.

I held back my emotions and bit my tongue. Runners are always lamenting the difference between their finish distances and the course actuals. GPS watches are notoriously incorrect as Runners' World has repeatedly reported. But as we walked, and waited for our friend, many folks around us were murmuring the same type of disbelief. W recovered quickly (and honestly, he looked the best of the finish of any of his three races) and we slowly walked over to cheer for Josh as he completed a PR finish. 

Back to the car and then to the hotel. It was a quiet ride, followed by a quiet lunch of leftover pizza. C was bouncing off the walls at this point and still barely eating. I crawled into his little couch bed with him while still in my running clothes. Then came a first, he clutched my hand and fell asleep. We have kept C out of our bed deliberately since he was a baby and couldn't get him to sleep with us if we wanted to. But today, he did. Everyone napped for about an hour, then we set out in the Courtyard van for some sustenance. Molly Darcy's was the recommendation for a good pub. We relaxed and taught C how to play foosball, then caught up with Josh. Some good gelato and we all hit the hay. Tomorrow would come quickly with a 4 year old in the room. It was time for sleep. Decisions would come later. 

Spring Break 2009 Day 3

March 28th, 2009

On Saturday, we woke up to somewhat clear skies so we decided to head to Grandfather Mountain. This is a privately owned mountain that mimics a national park, complete with bears, river otters, deer and eagle preserve. We did stop and visit with the bears. It was so foggy and wet that you could barely see them atop a bunch of boulders! Then we stopped at the store for some fudge.

By the time we finished with the bears, it was pouring down rain and blowing at about 60mph...not really conducive to exploring atop the Mile High Bridge! You can see my photo at left. Click on this link to see what it looks like when it's clear! W braved the winds to cross it but I had to turn back at about a third of the way across - the winds and the lack of visibility caused some serious vertigo. Next time....

We slowly made our way back into Blowing Rock, passing by 'Forrest Gump' curve on the way down. (Check out 2:53 - 59 in the clip.) Too bad we didn't have the Mini!

We warmed up and dried off at Six Pence Pub while watching Maryland get...um....hosed by the official during the MD / UVA lacrosse game. That would be the nice way to put it. A little shopping downtown and we headed back to the cabin to check up on the puppies. It was still raining but we saw a ton of waterfalls on Route 105 on the way back. This is definitely an area to return to for great photos!

For dinner we tried Peppers in Boone, an unassuming restaurant in a shopping center. It came highly recommended as a cool little bar which was non-smoking and had live entertainment. (Non-smoking is a rarity in the High Country unfortunately.) We hung out and listened to the band for awhile, then satisfied our sweet tooth at Marble Slab, rented a movie (Wanted) and headed back to the cabin. Magic Hat and Oreo's on the futon while the puppies played ball.

Day 5 in Portland

Our fifth day in Portland comprised of two main activites, the Widmer Brewery tour and the wedding of our friends Eric and Katherine. It was a relative scorcher in Portland (80 degrees by 10am and 90 plus by 4pm) so we had a quick workout in the hotel gym.

Then we hopped in the car for what should have been a quick trip across the river to the Widmer Brewery. Unfortunately we got stuck behind the same slow train twice and ended up getting to the factory and gasthaus a few minutes after the video. At the nice hour of 11am, we were sampling Widmer's award winning Hefeweizen, winner of the Gold Medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup. We also tried the Halo IPA, Drop Top Amber, and the Crimson Wheat seasonal. Then we were off to tour the brewery. (Pictures to be posted later.) It was a great start to the morning that we finished with lunch at the gasthaus with some nice beers. You gotta love beer at noon! Even better, we received free Widmer beer glasses and bottle openers just for attending the tour! (Tours are given on Fridays and Saturdays only. Reservations are required.)

After lunch, we drove over to visit the store version of my favorite catalogue, Title 9 Sports. I had the chance to try on and purchase some running gear that I drooled over in the catalogue months ago while W patiently waited and gave fit advice. We need a Title 9 in Chapel Hill!!!

We ran back to the hotel to freshen up and change for the wedding, setting out at a little before 4pm for our short walk to Eric and Katherine's wedding site on the waterfront. It was a lovely ceremony with about 60 people in attendance from all over the country. We hopped on the eco-shuttle for the trip to McMenamin's Edgefield, the reception site. We met up with the honeymooning couple, Brian and Meredith, and stopped at the winery on site for a quick tasting before the arrival of the wedding party. Dinner and dancing ensued on the 3rd floor of the Power Station, where we met some new transplants to Chapel Hill - Kristin and John. We caught up with friends both new and old, and partied late into the evening with the bride and groom at Jerry's Icehouse and the Distillery Bar. Late in the evening (or early in the morning depending on your point of view) we caught up with a friendly cabbie and went back to our hotel in Portland.

The wedding whirlwind of the summer is officially over....next stop Huntsville, Alabama for Arch and Sarah's wedding in November!

Day 4 in Portland

We decided to forego the Residence Inn breakfast and try a local favorite this morning....Voodoo Donuts. It is located in a rather questionable area of town, but is highly worth the hype and the view!!!

Brad Pitt may be a fan of the maple donut with bacon, but I'm sold on the Voodoo Doll donut, a man shaped donut with (ahem....) an anatomical addition via pretzel stick, with iced face and filled with rasberry jelly. W had the triple chocolate penetration, a chocolate angel food cake donut with chocolate frosting and Coco Puffs on top. What a sugar rush we had on our journey to the Oregon coast!

Sights along the 90 minute journey on Route 26 west included signs warning of elk, car washes, tall hills, and lots of trees. It appeared as if many areas were strategically logged or burned. You can see the famous Haystack Rock and the ocean from the highway. We stopped in the town of Cannon Beach and headed to Bill's Tavern & Brewhouse, based on a recommendation from our friend Jason. Great find!!! W is a huge proponent of the 'don't fruit the beer' rule, but a sample of the Blackberry Beauty may have expanded his horizons slightly. A nice wheat beer with just a hint of berry taste, it was perfect for sipping out on the porch while eating lunch and watching the world go by. I stuck with a simple turkey sandwich while W ate the largest chili dog we'd ever seen. It was more a plate of chili with cheese and onions, with a hot dog sort of sitting in the middle. A knife and fork were necessary.

We then wandered around the Cannon Beach shops, found some peppermint ice cream and drove down to the parking area for the beach. You can see by my hair that it was extremly windy down at the shore, with gusts of up to 40mph and temperatures in the 50's. Very different from what we are used to on the east coast beaches....Shortly after, we headed back to Portland.

It turned out that we picked the ideal hotel for this wedding! While my choice was partially dictated by Marriott points, and partly on the recommendations of Heather and Jason, it turned out that the rehearsal dinner and wedding ceremony are both a two minute walk from the hotel! Katherine and Eric's rehearsal dinner was held at Thirst, a local wine bar. We had the chance to meet lots of Katherine's friends from Penn State, childhood friends of Eric's, along with everyone's family. A nice surprise were the researchers there that W has attended conference with over the years. We also had the chance to catch up with our friend Steve, who we spent a week with at the Outer Banks a few summers back. It was a great evening of wine and people watching, with just a short walk back to our hotel.

Day 2 in Portland, Oregon

Day two of our vacation started with breakfast at the hotel and lots of reading about local trails. We chose to visit Saddle Mountain on the way out to Cannon Beach along the Oregon coast. Luckily, W took a look at the website while I was dealing with a small work issue, and discovered that the trail was closed. Some quick reading and a text to Heather sent us in the opposite direction to Multnomah Falls. We detoured to Target for water bottles and other supplies, arriving at the trailhead at around noon on Wednesday.

We had no idea what was in store for us.

The trip began on Trail 442 heading West to Wahkeena Falls. The trail ascended quickly, passing small waterfalls (and a slug) along the way. Past Wahkeena Falls, we moved up the mountain via a series of sharp switchbacks on Trail 400 / 420, paved to make things easier - but still a challenge for the heart, lungs and legs! I took a break under Fairy Falls and got soaked.

We traveled up to Wakheena Springs to the see the start of all of the waterfalls we saw along the way. Then we hiked up a nearly completely overgrown path to a summit of 2400 feet at Devils Rest. Both Mt. St. Helens (what is left) and Mt. Rainier are visible from this high peak. The rest was all downhill, past Ecola Falls and Weisendanger Falls and to the Multnomah Falls Overlook, the most visited tourist attraction in Oregon. It was an 8.5 mile trip that lasted until nearly 6pm! We took over 100 photos and had a wonderful time looking at waterfalls, wildflowers and the nearby mountains.

We decided to forego the highway and follow the Historic Columbia River Highway back to town. What a great choice! We stumbled upon both Bridal Veil State Park and the gorgeous falls there, as well as Latourelle Falls and the Vista House at Crown Point.

After some extensive cleanup, we headed into Northwest Portland for the New Old Lompoc brewery and pubhouse, where W had an amazing mac&cheese dinner with ham, tomatoes & scallions. Mac & cheese seems to be on every menu here so he figured he had to try it. Then we wandered down the street for a quick peak at what we would be drinking on Saturday evening, by going into one of McMenamin's many Portland watering holes. McMenamin's started in the 80's with some beer loving brothers opening up a pub and has grown into an entertainment and beer staple of the Pacific Northwest. From schools renovated into hotels and pubs to beer halls that show movies, they have it all. Eric & Katherine's wedding will take place in two days at McMenamin's in Edgefield.

Visit to Portland, Oregon - July 8th, 2008

After an unreasonably easy and pain-free set of flights, W and I arrived in Portland for some much needed vacation and the wedding of our friends Eric & Katherine.

Upon arrival, we grabbed our car and headed downtown to the Residence Inn on the riverfront. We laced up our running shoes and headed out for a 3 mile run along the waterfront and across some of Portland's many bridges.

Then upon the recommendation of my friend and local resident, Heather, we set out for the Pearl District of Portland on the streetcar, to the newly opened Deschutes Brewery and Pub. We had a great dinner that included our own personalized flights of beer. We browsed around some of the downtown stores, including a gigantic REI, the Puma store, and the North Face, wandered through the Pearl and found ourselves at a local gelato cafe. We grabbed something sweet and planned to catch the streetcar back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, everytime we arrived at a streetcar stop, the LED sign indicated that the ride was over 10 minutes away....so we just kept walking. We hit the Safeway for some sodas and snacks....and walked some more. We were approached by many of the locals who were interested in some spare change....so we walked some more, eventually walking all the way back to our hotel - a 3 plus mile journey. We figured we'd rest later. It was a great introduction to Portland...we're looking forward to our next adventure tomorrow!

London Day 7: Greenwich

After sleeping in, we awoke to what was the clearest day of our week in London. We decided to take a city cruise from the Tower of London down to the town of Greenwich. This was a half hour journey on the top deck of a riverboat cruiser. We'd taken one during our first London walk but this was a little different due to the fact that it wasn't raining!!! Under the Tower Bridge, past Canary Wharf and on to the home of the town that we all set our clocks by - Greenwich, England.




W and I visited the Old Royal Naval College, a masterpiece of English architecture originally planned by Sir Christopher Wren as a resource for seamen and their families. In the Royal Hospital for Seamen is found the most elaborate dining hall in the entire world, the Painted Hall. Of course like nearly all British historical sites in the winter, the Naval College hosts an ice skating rink for kids and families!!! After that we viewed the Observatory, the keeper of Greenwich Mean Time and the big red ball that has been dropping faithfully at 1pm since 1833.

Next on to our final pub of the trip, the Spanish Galleon. We finally watched a football match in a pub with the British! W enjoyed a new beer, a Bishops Finger Ale. I finally got out the postcards I'd been carrying around in my backpack all week! After fish & chips, we took the Docklands Light Rail (a driverless subway style train) back to central London and our flat where we packed up. Later that evening, we took our final London Walk, a Ghost Walk! Unfortunately, it was SOOOO cold that the walk wasn't as fun as it might have been. But we got one last look around St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Whitehall and Trafalgar Square. One last beer at the flat and then off to bed for us. Farewell to London! We've enjoyed every minute!

London Day 4: And the rain came down....

We've been in London for almost four days and the rain (and wind) finally made an appearance. Unlike Bermuda, where we were expecting nice weather and didn't get much, we were mentally and physically prepared for total crap weather wise here in London. We were pleasantly surprised by the first three days and expecting today to finally come.

Turned out that it didn't begin to rain until we stood in line at 10am at the TKTS booth at the south end of Leicester Square. 45 minutes and £25 Chicago 4:30 matinee tickets later, we'd changed our plans from a walk through the neighborhoods around Chelsea to a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum off of the South Kensington Tube station. We joined what seemed like all area schoolchildren and their parents in the looooong walk from the train to the exit (see yesterday's post about the distance from tunnel to train and stairs), but luckily nearly all of them departed for the National History Museum.

The Victoria & Albert was just what we needed on a rainy day for several hours of viewing interesting sculpture, historical artifacts, clothing, painting, furniture and more from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and many other eras in human history. I even tried on a hoop skirt (and tried to sit in it!)

We wandered around downtown for awhile then hopped on a VERY crowded Tube back to Paddington and on to the Bakerloo line for our ride to the flat. W and I stopped at the Tesco again for a refill on soda, beer (Strongbow Cider for me!), sponges for the flat (aka wash ups in the UK), digestive cookies for our friend Katherine, and some afternoon snacks. While waiting outside we noticed a dog barking its head off down the street. Turned out to be a woman having her afternoon tea outside with some Bichon type fuzzy white thing and a shop owner yelling at her about calling the police. It seemed the shop owner and the woman were in disagreement about the dog's behavior and the shop owner wanted her to leave. She refused. Police dispatched. Ahhh...nice to know that people are people no matter where you go.

After a snack and a change of clothes, we took off on a mad dash for the West End and a production of Chicago with a bunch of BBC stars like Ian Kelsey and reality TV stars like Aoife Mulholldand. Not bad for a 4:30 matinee!!! Choreographed by Ann Reinking, one of my heroes, the dancing was great! The only bother was that many of the leads and minor characters kept varying between a slightly Southern / Texan accent and their native Irish / English / Scottish brogues. It seems that the instruction on how to be American includes adopt a twang!!! Otherwise, really nice production!

Spent the rest of the nice at a local hip chain All Bar One. More about that tomorrow. Early day at Portobello Road in Notting Hill tomorrow (in more forecasted rain.) Pictures and details to follow....

We spent the evening after the theatre at All Bar One, a restaurant/bar chain designed specifically to give women a place where they can feel comfortable ordering a drink and having a bite. Open and airy with large seating areas with tables and couches, pillows and stools, this is an obvious 20-30 something locale. One of the oddest things for W and I is the fact that only quite expensive restaurants have table service with waitstaff. Most places like the Porterhouse and All Bar One, while serving decent food, require you to order and pay at the bar. Then based on your table number, typically carved or stickered onto the edge of your table, the staff will deliver your meal. Want another drink? Go back to the bar. We enjoyed several types of beers and some tapas (not real tapas, more lots of little appetizers.) If this is a chain, I'd like to franchise it in the US! One funny moment came when I ordered a 'red beer' for W, intending to receive an amber ale. No such thing really in the UK, at least at All Bar One. Bitters, ales, lagers, ciders, whites - yes. But ask for a red beer in London and you'll get what I got and sent back, a framboise or strawberry flavored beer, much like the Fruli that I enjoyed our first night. While I would have liked it, I had already received my cider so I promptly ordered W a lager. Hilarity inducing for the English lad next to me at the bar. The barkeep was understanding and I was reminded by the observer NOT TO TIP! We sat, ate, drank and people watched for the rest of the evening.

London: Day 2 Walking, walking, walking

Aaaaah! Life is good after 12 hours of sleep. After a quick breakfast at the flat, we took the tube to the Whitehall area around 11am. We walked in a very, very cold London to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. A little too expensive for a museum, we moved on down Whitehall Street to the Horses' Guard Parade Grounds and had our photos taken with what looked like Her Royal Majesty's 12-16 year old guards on horseback. Then through the archways to the largest open space in London, the actual Parade Grounds. This large pebble landscape is next to the very modest home of the Prime Minister and backs up to St. James Park. The lovely stretch of green, complete with joggers, fountains and swans, looked like a small stretch of Central Park.

Walking on, we reached Westminster Abbey where for 10 pounds and less than a ten minute wait, we were treated to some of the most impressive architecture we've ever seen. The Abbey, still a working church, is the gravesite and memorial to royal subjects and contributors to art, literature, politics and even science. In Poet's Corner, most people paid attention to the memorials of Dickens, Keats and W.H. Auden, but missed the crypt of Goeffrey Chaucer behind them. We moved outside into the Cloisters (photo coming soon) and into the narthex, lighting a candle and asking a very polite guide where the memorial to Sir Isaac Newton might be. Interestingly, the globe and sculpture memorial stands above his grave and nearby is the barely noticable tomb of Charles Darwin.

After Westminster Abbey, we walked around the Whitehall area a little more and viewed the London Eye, Big Ben and Parliament. "Look Kids - Big Ben....Parliament" Clark Griswold.

Back up Whitehall Street to the Silver Cross (a traditional English pub) for lunch of fish & chips and tempura battered chicken. And of course, beer. Strongbow Cider for me and an IPA and a Bombadier for W. The second one was free as they ran out 3/4 of the way into W's pour. There was a half hour wait on food and only one bartender. When I asked politely if they were understaffed, the unflappable bartender replied, "No - only undermanaged." We smirked as we watched a French family yell at the staff about the slow service. It seems as if half of the French population is here on holiday as that is the main language we heard at the Abbey and at local restaurants and shops.

By the time we reached Trafalgar Square, it was nearly sundown at 4pm. We wandered through and took pictures before entering the National Gallery. The crush of people inside this free museum was incredible. And they kep closing gallery after gallery, making it even more crowded. We did find some respite in the basement at the Manet to Picasso Exhibition. W really liked the work of Pissaro, Manet and Degas. We were waiting around for the free 6:30pm tour and asked at the information desk about it. Good thing we did as we found that it was cancelled (and the portions of galleries shutting down) due to 'industrial action' by the staff. English politeness for a strike. Now we understood why curiously no one could tell us which galleries were closed or why?

We left the National Gallery around 6pm and spent the next several hours criss-crossing through central London and the West End, stopping at the Times Square craziness that is Picadilly Circus, browsing the markets at Covent Garden, viewing the Americanized Leicester Square and accidentally wandering into a gentleman's area in Soho (whoops!)

We finally settled on a little Turkish restaurant that sat about 12 people, Opuz Kitchen, for kebabs and beer. At about 9:30pm we stumbled home, chatted with our fellow Elon roomies and wandered back out to Robert Browning's pub in our neighborhood (Little Venice) for a final pint courtesy of Sam Smith's brewery.

Back in the U.S. W has now decided that I can swear at home, but only in an English accent. It just sounds cuter and more sophisticated.

London: Travel and Day 1 - Can we just find a pub?

Also known as Damn that Marky Mark

Because of his flowing hair, abnormally large biceps and underdog working class Philly story, W and I got stuck watching Invincible on the plane for the first two hours over and barely slept a wink. We soldiered on in London, deciding to stay up until at least 9pm to fight the looming jet lag. After successfully navigating the tube pricing, maps and international travellers with little regard for personal space, we arrived at the hotel that gave us our flat keys. We weren't in the mood for more tube stops with luggage so we took an official black cab to our flat at 29-31 Clifton Gardens. These are two old buildings combined into a series of rental flats. We have a two floor flat with one bath, two bedrooms and a combined kitchen and living area (approximate sq. footage of 600). W and I decided to be nice and give the two twins to our incoming Elon flatmates and took the bunk beds for ourselves. It's like camp, but in England and free!

First adventure: the London Underground and a trip to Bond and Oxford Streets. And we thought that Times Square was crazy!!! Never have we seen such a melting pot of people and cultures all in search of one thing....a post-holiday sale. We experienced British department stores such as Selfridges at 50% off (still expensive) and all pulsating with 3am type club music. More people watching and less shopping due to the horrible exchange rate.

After wandering through the shopping district, we landed at The Three Tuns for an afternoon snack of beer, potato wedges with cheese and yummy roasted tomato soup. W had a Guinness and I discovered a new favorite in Kronenbourg Blanc, a Belgian style white beer from France! Warm fire, super friendly barkeeps calling us dear and love and some food kept us going another couple of hours.

After nearly falling asleep on the tube, W and I visited the Tesco Express - a mini grocery store down the block from us for some cereal, juice, soda and bananas. And although we're not in New England and it's not Easter, he found his favorite breakfast treat - hot cross buns. Hooray!!

So a shower to wake us up and we set out again from the flat for a traditional English pub style dinner. We tried the Prince Albert, a recognized favorite among Elon students, but the food was a bit out there and dear for us. So then we tried the Robert Browning pub on the other side of our flat, but they weren't serving food on Boxing Day. What does a person have to do to get gastro-pub food on Boxing Day?!?! We ended up across the street at Cafe Rouge, a French cafe style 'fast food' restaurant described by Frommers as so 'uncool' that it has become 'almost fashionable' again. Didn't seem fast food to us....great baguettes with chicken or steak and special sauces inside, true French servers with barely passing mastery of the English language and the best fries since the Fryeburg Fair in Maine according to W. Of course I discovered another new beer called Fruli, a wonderfully light strawberry flavored drink. Cringe at will you beer snobs...I'm happy with my beer adventures.

Off to sleep in the bunk beds for us....more to follow!