Call us crazy, but with all this prime outdoor real estate around here, it just made sense to go spend a few nights under canvas. We were also excited about spending some quality time with Mr. Henry the dog. So, we went to our friendly neighborhood camping outfitter and geared up! Although we plan to eventually do some real backwoods camping carrying everything on our backs, we decided to try the crawl, walk, run approach, so we are starting with car camping first. Axel picked a campground in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness just East of the Pacific Crest Trail at an [View Full Entry]

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Hi, Axel here. I was ordered to Korea to support bilateral exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian from 12-29AUG. While I didn’t get to do a lot of tourism, here are a few pictures of what I saw and did. I was assigned to the staff of U.S. Forces Korea for the duration of the exercise and learned a LOT about Army operations. This was my first experience in Joint operations. Despite the global economic crisis, Korea has prospered enormously in recent years. I took advantage of every opportunity to get off base and experience the local culture. Being assigned to Yongsan Garrison [View Full Entry]

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Since arriving in Seattle 18 months ago, several people have raved to us about Victoria, British Columbia, telling us about the city’s charm and savoir vivre. So, faced with our impending departure from Seattle for good, we decided that now is our chance. Axel did virtually all the planning with a few guiding principles from Laurie: 1.) Good eats is key. 2.) Fun is important. Friday, 10 July 2009 Leaving on Friday morning, we first took Mr. Henry to his hotel, and then headed North to the town of Anacortes where the ferry terminal is located. The two-hour ferry ride to [View Full Entry]

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Today is our last full day in Ireland  We grabbed breakfast in the hotel restaurant which is decorated in very contemporary furnishings and stark whites everywhere… “urban chic.” The Dylan is very trendy, with leather-clad surfaces throughout the elevators and bright red carpeting in the common areas on our floor. When we checked-in yesterday, the “receptionista” simply joined us on a couch in the lobby with her laptop—after all, a counter is so 2000… Today we met up with Patty at her dorm and toured a few of Dublin’s more famous [View Full Entry]

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Today we drove to Dublin, our last stop in the Emerald Isle. As happenstance would have it, Laurie’s younger sister Patty lives in the city where she is studying at Trinity College. We made good time crossing the width of the island on motorways. We made our way straightaway to our hotel, a hip boutique called Dylan located just a few blocks from St. Stephen’s Green. Patty came to find us and took us on a short tour of downtown and Trinity College. Trinity is a world-class university and Ireland’s oldest and most storied, having been founded way back in the [View Full Entry]

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Our home for our time in the Connemara is tended by a British couple, the Skeltons, who have been doing the B & B thing for many years, first in their native Portsmouth and now in Ireland. We really enjoyed interacting with the couple. While Dave is the front man and the one we interacted with most often, it is pretty obvious that Diane rules the roost. Although he is well into his sixties, Dave has not outgrown that decade and continues to wear his hair as long as it probably was when he went to Beatles concerts! Diane keeps an [View Full Entry]

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Our touring day in the Burren highlighted something that we noticed on our very first day in Ireland: the odd system of road signage. On our first day, we observed Laurie’s favorite sign: Walking on Water. The road signs, though, proved even more intriguing. Other than the fact that many intersections have no signage whatsoever and that many small country roads are not numbered, the signs that are present are wholly inconsistent. No two signs seem to agree on something as basic as the spelling of town names. The town we stayed in while in County Clare was variously spelled as [View Full Entry]

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After spending a glorious night with the howling Atlantic outside and a glowing hearth of peat at our bedside, we awoke to radiant sunshine. Breakfast in the sunny veranda room facing the Atlantic was remarkably good. Laurie picked the fluffy pancakes with warm maple syrup and Axel experimented a bit with the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. The salmon was mixed in after the eggs were scrambled to make for one heck of a flavorful combination. The intent for today was to spend the day driving through The Burren and finish up with the Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is a [View Full Entry]

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Having made the reservations, Axel was excited about the next stop on our Irish adventure: Moy House. It certainly looked very romantic online, but sometimes pictures can be deceiving! The four hour drive from Dingle took us up the West coast of Ireland across the River Shannon into County Clare. Crossing the Shannon required a ferry crossing as Ireland still relies on ferries rather than bridges to cross many of its rivers. Despite the fact that we were at least 20 miles inland, the weather front from the previous day made our crossing a windy one. Since we were the first [View Full Entry]

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Howling winds woke us several times during the night. It seemed like the full force of an Atlantic gale was battering the walls of the house. Despite the double-thick window panes, it seemed at times like the wind was blowing straight into the room. In the morning, as we dined on the best breakfast yet, we watched sheets of rain blowing horizontal outside the windows. Given that Dingle is in a well-sheltered natural harbor, we could only imagine what the conditions would be like out on the shore, our intended destination for the day. Emlagh house made us a yummy breakfast. [View Full Entry]

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