I cannot express how much I have missed the beach. I also, cannot express how much I miss the complete lack of traffic in Columbia, MO. Traffic sucks. But the beach makes it all worthwile. We drove to the "Duck House," my parents beach house this weekend and had so much fun. Friday we had crab cakes and beers and wine and stayed up late talking and playing cards and listening to the sound of the water. I wish I could live on the porch listening to the sounds of the water lapping up on the shore. Saturday was a perfect [View Full Entry]

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As a quasi grad school graduation gift to Axel, Laurie decided to take him for an exciting day in St. Louis. We started the day by strolling through some of the cute downtown neighborhood and checking out the flooding situation near the Arch. Because of the massive amount of rain and flooding, the parking area on the levy by the St. Louis arch was completely under water. It really brought home the impact of this natural disaster and its effect on all of the local farmers and homes. The highlight of the day was the St. Louis City Museum http://www.citymuseum.org/home.asp . [View Full Entry]

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Cabo San Lucas is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. We began the day bright and early with a little B and E. Forget brunch. We are more into breaking and entering. We had most of the day free and decided to explore the lavish mansions on the hillside. What we didn’t realize until we got up the first 5 massive hills (I’m talking 60 degree inclines here), was that the community was gated. Not a problem for us! We waited until we saw someone leaving and caught the gate behind her as if we belonged. I [View Full Entry]

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An appropriate theme for our honeymoon would definitely be "Mule" or “donkey.” In Mazatlan, we took a ferry to a small island off the coast and stayed at a beach for the day. It was a bit overcast, but interesting nonetheless. We spent most of the day lounging by the shore. After lunch we did the next most obvious thing… we took a short excursion riding more donkeys around the island. This time, I had a donkey willing to behave itself.... These donkeys or mules of whatever they are made us sad, though. They just looked overworked and underfed. I wanted [View Full Entry]

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Today was THE most amazing day ever! Today was Puerto Vallarta. We started by taking a rhib to another part of Puerto Vallarta. The boat seemed so fragile - and really was, no shoes allowed. As the boat cruised across the water, we all held for dear life. They man operating the boat kept shuffling us around so that there was enough weight in the front of the boat to prevent it from flipping up at high speeds. I somehow ended up all the way forward holding on to the air filled walls of the boat for dear life. And this [View Full Entry]

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Monday was the greatest day ever. We slept past 10am, had room service for breakfast and sunbathed all day. By sunbathe, I mean that we laid on the top deck of the ship and slept for a few more hours. I even left my pajamas on. I have no shame! After a tough day of sleeping in the sun, we repeated the previous night and were out cold by 10:30. Tuesday we tried a little harder to join the land of the living. It was hot out, so we sunbathed (I even wore my swim suit) on the top deck, had [View Full Entry]

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Laurie was able to spend about a week in San Diego with Axel while he was there for the summer working. San Diego is rich in history, culture and food. There was much to explore. First stop, after fixing axel's cell phone, was Balboa Park and its gardens. Balboa Park is renowned for the lush landscaping and lovely gardens on its 1,200 acres, offering a magnificent backdrop for the cultural attractions. The Park was ranked among the Best Parks in the World by the Project for Public Places in 2003 (13 out of 24) for its mixture of horticulture and art [View Full Entry]

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After waking up in Barstow, we made a beeline for San Diego. We checked in to the BOQ at 32nd Street Naval Station and took off so that Axel could show Laurie all of the San Diego sights. Firs stop - Point Loma. It was on Point Loma that we learned a very valuable lesson: water and cell phones don’t mix. We decided to take pictures from the cliffs despite the fact that high tide was quickly coming in. Just as a nice couple was warning us of the rogue waves that have been crashing high onto the cliffs every few [View Full Entry]

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Today we drove from Vail, Colorado to Barstow, California. Along the way we made stops in Utah to bear witness to the glorious mesas and Las Vegas to experience the thrill of gluttony and overconsumption at its best. We started the morning at our cozy Vail B&B. From there it took almost 3 hours to make it back down the west side of the Rockies. Between fits of fear of “falling off the side of the mountain,” Laurie forced us to stop at every single spot off the side of the road to take pictures of the landscape. It was absolutely [View Full Entry]

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Kansas is a very flat, very wide state. Much of the day was spent crossing it from Topeka. It was fun for us city slickers to see the vast expanse of land that surrounded us. After Axel was convinced that no - we don’t need to go visit every abandoned missile silo along the way we moved at a pretty good pace into Colorado. It was really fun to see how Denver just opened up in front of us as we approached it from afar. This was Laurie’s foray into real mountains. It was a bit nerve wracking to drive along [View Full Entry]

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