Friday, July 31, 2009
Paul Shaffer . . .
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Tallulah and the Pyrenees
Before
Executive summary in 50 words: We weren’t prepared. No one spoke English; only Catalan. And because we didn’t know Catalan we accidentally ordered grossness like liver, pork ribs with baby-poop sauce, actual pigs feet, etc. Our unpreparedness, however, meant fate took over. And that’s how
Day 1:
One of the most striking towns I’ve ever seen. For those of you unfamiliar with
After three hours of snaking up mountain roads, we arrived at our “Allotjament rural,” which if you type it into google/translate just means “lodging.” Anyway, the place we stayed at was on the northern side (read: ski-slopey side) of the Pyrenees, but it had good views, quality amenities, and a gross breakfast composed of wet bread (by ways of tomato juice) and various thinly sliced cold meats (liver, pancreas, cat).
It was also tucked away down a road that kept tapering. Here’s a video of us driving the last few hundred narrow feet.
Day 2: We’ll be coming ‘round the mountain
Although our drive was nice, we didn’t exactly find this. Instead, we came upon the “Famous Cathar Trail,” to us was neither famour nor a trail. Here’s E and K standing by one part of it.
Day 3: Hiking with Tallulah
Finally, we figured out where we were AND, more importantly, where we wanted to go. After about 30 minutes we got to a town named Estana on the edge of the little known Cadi-Moixero national park. There, at the a hikers’ parking lot in the town square, a squat auburn German Shepherd we named Tallulah sauntered up to us and offered to become our local tour guide through the woods. Gladly, we accepted and took a glorious 1.5 hour hike, following Tallulah the whole way up a mountain, much to
On our way back into the town, we were stopped by a large truck with a photographer, a translator, and a driver – all of whom wanted nothing more than to take pictures of our happy family (dog included) for the local tourist office, which was trying to expose these mountains to the tourism industry.
So we agreed, posing with Elizabeth and Tallulah while the mountains provided a scenic backdrop. One of the poses they asked us to do was me squatting down to take a picture of Kate and Elizabeth while Tallulah sat by my side. Here’s one of several of those photos.
Day 4: The return trip.
We stopped at a beautiful French town called Ax les Thermes, well known in the region for skiing and thermal baths. We also saw the scariest town we’ve ever seen, called Frejoiux, which actually had a free public internet window with the keyboard and mouse outside while the monitor was pressed against the glass on the inside. I checked my gmail.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Milestone Mania
Crawling Day 1
First attempt at pulling up
Peek-a-boo player
The fruit bandit strikes again!
Naked explorer