New Pergola is Finished!

Hello and welcome to our photoblog. I am taking a break from our pictures of France to show an update on our progress in the backyard. You may recall that last year we built a fence so that Angus would have a place to safely play. The photo below was taken after we completed the fence (but before we stained it). Believe me, that umbrella did not help much when it was 105 degrees last summer!


So our back patio looked pretty barren, as you can see below. Not much fun sitting out there at all, even with a double rainbow to enjoy. As you can tell, dogs have no sense of aesthetics. Angus is looking away from a tremendous view of a double rainbow. I guess if they can't pee on it, it doesn't interest them!

Over the winter, we spent a lot of time researching what we wanted to do in the backyard, and settled on building a pergola. We did a lot of designing and came up with a pretty good idea. So when Dad visited in May, we began our construction. We had a local company come in and set up the posts (which would have taken us a month - they did it in 2 hours). And after letting the concrete cure for a couple of weeks, we began building.

And we finally finished it a couple of weeks ago! It looks great! The small pieces of lattice at the posts are protecting some clematis plants from our over-enthusiastic dog when he is playing with Eba, his doggie girlfriend a couple of houses away.

We are very please with how it turned out. Until the clematis gets big enough to shade the patio (in 2 to 3 years), we can still open the umbrella under it.

We tried to match the design of the arbor when we built the pergola, so there is a consistency in the backyard. We also planted a jasmine to climb up the arbor.

Below, you can see that we are using brass and bronze welding rods to give the clematis something to climb on as they grow up the posts. We just drill a hole in the post at the lower end, then insert and bend the rod around the post until it goes where we want it to and drill another hole for the top end. The clematis just follow the rods up the post!

So nothing like celebrating the completion of a huge job! We had a neighborly get-together last Saturday evening (Aug 7th), with a fire for marshmallows and some great neighbors. Standing up in the blue shirt is Kathy Christiansen. She and Dan are our neighbors from across the street, and are the souls of hospitality and kindness. On the day we moved into our house, with boxes everywhere inside and 15 inches of snow outside, she came over and brought us a supper to welcome us. Seated to the left is Dave Cameron and his wife Mary Jo is seated to the right behind a post. They are Eba's owners (Eba is the brown dog behind Kathy), and Peter is the man standing beside Dave. He is a relative of Dave and Mary Jo's and is visiting for the Seattle to Canada bike ride that Mary Jo and Dave are going to do this weekend (Aug 12-15).

Kathy made this wonderful cake, called a "Midsummer Night's Dream" cake. It was unbelievably good! It took her two days to make it.

When you cut into it, you can see why! In the middle, there's a frozen layer of citrus "ice" that is so good. And the white icing is ice cream!

Even Dave, who normally doesn't eat dessert, cannot resist!

We are happy to have this job finished. Now it's onto the next backyard project, which is to re-landscape an area on the other side of the house so that we can put in some raised bed gardens this fall. Next year we plan to eat more of our own vegetables!

Thanks for reading and take care,

John & Annie

France 3 - Chamonix

Welcome to our 3rd post on our trip to France. In this section of our trip to France, we took the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse - which means "high speed train"), which was amazing. In 2007, one of the TGV trains was clocked at just over 350 mph. I don't thinnk we went that fast, but it was very fast. We took the TGV from Paris to Lyon, and then picked up normal trains up to the Chamonix area.

It was pretty cold and wet in Chamonix, as this trip was late September-early October. However, the clouds gave a beautiful atmosphere to the town. It is a definite "Alps" town with the appropriate architecture. We had a great room in a little "chalet", and just walked around the town. We went to a restaurant and had a fondue dinner, with raclette cheese which tripled our cholesterol numbers! It was so good, but so fattening!

Chamonix is nestled in a narrow valley between huge mountains on both sides of the valley. As you look down the valley, you see mountain after mountain fading off in the distance.

Another view of Chamonix in its valley.

We took a cable care up to the Aguille du Midi, about 3840 meters up. You could actually take a cable car all the way to Italy, across the top of the Mont Blanc Massif.

The Aguille du Midi.

If you go up to the top of the Aguille du Midi and look back at where the above picture was taken from, you see the picture below. The Alps are rugged!

NOTE: The picture below is NOT ours! I copied it from the Wikipedia article on Chamonix. So give credit where credit is due. It is a freely available picture taken by Paul Nash in March 2005. Thanks to Paul for making this photo available for the free use of anyone!

However, I wanted people to see what the valley of Chamonix looks like when the weather is nicer.

Thanks for reading. In our next blog, we go to Provence and the French Riviera.

France 2 - Paris

Hello and welcome to our second blog posting about our trip to France in 1999. We realize that the trip wasn't "recent", but we had a great time and wanted to post our photos so that friends and family could look at them in case they planned a trip to France. If you really want some great travel advice for visiting France (or anywhere else in Europe), please go to Rick Steves' website at: www.ricksteves.com, especially the Graffiti Wall. There is also a great section on travel in France.

We'll start with Paris, because that's where you need to start! We were in Paris for about 3 days at the beginning of the trip and about 3 days at the end of the trip. We have combined the photos from these two visits into one blog, so the last few photos in this blog were actually at the end of the trip.

First a note about France and speaking French. We do not speak French well. John has taken a couple of Conversational French classes back in the 1980s and periodically he goes back and reads some of his class material. However, if you are going to visit France, we urge you to take the time to learn a little bit of French. Be able to say a few phrases in French, such as Sil Vous Plait (please), merci (thank you), bonjour (good day), excusez moi (excuse me), and as much else as you can. This will make your visit much more enjoyable, both for you and your French hosts.

People often complain that the French and Parisians in particular are rude. We did not find that to be true. We think this is somewhat related to our attempt to communicate in their language, and to follow French customs. When you walk into a French business, say "Bonjour!" first, before you ask for anything. Don't just barge in and start demanding service. Take a little time and be sociable. Use "sil vous plait" and "merci" liberally. Try to ask for things in French. Almost all French people speak English MUCH better than we speak French. However, the French are justifiably proud of their beautiful language, and expect visitors to France to attempt to speak in French. We found that after a few sentences of our painful French, people would say "Actually, I do speak English!"

Enough travel advice! Onto Paris! In the first post, we mentioned that we had an overnight flight, and arrived about 6 am. We dropped our bags off at the hotel (we picked a small boutique hotel in the Marais area after reading other travelers' tips on the Rick Steves Graffiti Wall (see links above). We were too early to check in so we went back out and tried to tour Notre Dame. We were so sleepy, we were just sleeping standing up leaning on each other! Finally about noon, we gave up and went back to the hotel, checked in and slept for the rest of the afternoon and night.

The next few days, we went to the Louvre. We didn't go in, as we were limited in our time in Paris and we had tons of things we wanted to see. But we did stop for photos in front of the Pei Pyramid (below).

The amount of detail in the architecture in Europe is amazing. As you looked around the Louvre's walls, every inch of the walls was carved, adorned, or sculpted. None of the plain granite walls that you would see in Washington DC or other American cities. There are millions of stories behind all of these carvings and sculptures. It makes you wish that Robert Langdon (Tom Hank's character in the Dan Brown novels) was real and could take you around to explain what all of these things mean!

In the first post, we mentioned that we like to take boat trips in large cities. You can see below that the French love of beautiful public works extends to their infrastructure also. Even bridge columns are beautifully decorated.

On the boat trip, you got a great view of Notre Dame from the Seine river. You can really see the Rose Window at the end of the transept of the cathedral.

The Luxor Obelisk stands in the Place de la Concord. You can find a little history on this obelisk here. This obelisk is about 3300 years old, and was originally located at the entrance to the Luxor Temple in Luxor, Egypt. It sits on a pedestal which shows how the obelisk was moved from Egypt and erected in the Place de la Concord.

Of course, you can't go to Paris without seeing Napolean's Arc de Triomphe. To get a sense of the size of the Arc, look closely at the very top of the Arc in the picture below. You can see people standing between the crenellations at the top. This thing is big! It's big enough that a French pilot flew his plane through it after World War I in 1919.

When you are at the top, you have an unmatched view of Paris. 12 avenues converge at the Arc, and you can just stand and get a panoramic view of all of Paris. In the picture below, you are looking towards the Montmartre area (the setting for the moving "Amelie", which we highly recommend watching).

Of course, the real entertainment at the Arc is to watch the traffic going around it. In the picture below, only the outside cars are moving. Everyone else has stopped for a chat! When we were driving around in France, there were different rules for different roundabouts. In some, the cars that were already in the roundabout had the right of way and entering cars had to wait to enter. However, in others the cars that were entering the roundabout had the right of way and if you were already in the roundabout, you had to let other cars enter ahead of you!

You have to go up the Eiffel Tower, when in Paris. We went up late in the evening, so that it was dark by the time we got to the top. The sign on the Eiffel Tower in the picture below says "100 days before the Year 2000".

The rest of the pictures below are from the end of our trip. We visited the Musee d'Orsay, a fantastic art museum. The works of art are stunning, but the building itself rivals the artwork. There's a place where you can climb up to look out of the huge clock in the Musee d'Orsay to see the Louvre (below).

As we said before, the Museum is amazing. It's a converted railway station, and is stunningly beautiful.

Almost all of our lunches were picnics. Here, we are in the garden areas below the Eiffel Tower on our last day in France. It's strange, but one of the best places in Paris to get sandwiches are the tobacco shops (look for buildings named "Le Tabac"). They make some very good sandwiches!

Next, we will go to Chamonix, a small town in the French Alps where the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924.

Thanks for reading!

France 1 - Introduction

Hello and welcome back to our photoblog. Since our last two trips were in the Eastern Hemisphere, we decided to go to Europe with this next few blogs. In 1999 we visited France, one of John's life goals. John has dreamed of going to Paris since he first read about Paris growing up. He had hoped to get there in the 1980s, even taking conversational French courses when he was living in Longview, TX.

So just to set the mood, here's a picture of a Paris icon. We decided to go up the Eiffel Tower at night to see the City of Lights.


Below is a map of France showing where we went. We landed in Paris and stayed there for a few days. We then took a train trip to Chamonix in the French Alps, where we stayed for 4 days. We then traveled down to the Arles where we picked up a rental car and drove to the French Riviera. Then back to Arles for a few days of ancient Roman culture. Finally we went back to Paris for a few more days before flying home.






Of course, in Paris you have to see the tourist standards. Hey they are touristy, but they are also breathtaking. Below is Notre Dame.

Here is I. M. Pei's Pyramid in the Courtyard of the Louvre. We thought is was pretty cool, not a "scar on the face of Paris!" as Jean Reno said in "The Da Vince Code". Unfortunately, our trip was way before "The Da Vinci Code", so we didn't get to look for the Holy Grail!

One of the great things to do in any European city is to take a boat trip on a river. We enjoyed a great trip on the Seine.

In Provence we stayed in Gordes, a great town on a hilltop. When we get to that part of the photoblog, we will tell you about a great dinner in Gordes.

In Arles we saw ancient Roman ruins and visited a great museum showing what Arles looked like in Roman times. For any fans of Lindsay Davis' series on Marcus Didius Falco, here is a picture showing what Silver Pigs look like! These are probably more lead than silver, but this is what they looked like.

So we will have different photoblogs on Paris, Chamonix, the Riviera, Provence, and Arles. We hope you enjoy them. As always all comments or suggestions are welcome.

John & Annie

Japan 4 - Kyoto

Hello and welcome to our last post on our trip to Japan in 2004. As in the previous post, we are staying in Nara, but took a 20 minute train ride into Kyoto for a daytrip. Not on the train below, which was the latest bullet train (Shinkansen) that Japan had at that time. We had a little commuter train which looked alot like an older subway train.

First off, a little history and language lesson. Kyoto became the capital of Japan in 794, when the capital was moved from Nara to get away from an increasingly powerful Buddhist clergy. Kyo-to means "Capital City". Kyoto remained the capital city of Japan until 1868, when the capital was moved to Tokyo (Eastern Capital). Even during the Edo period, Kyoto remained the home of the Imperial Family even though the political power center was Edo (the former name of Tokyo).

The railway station in Kyoto is simply stunning as you can see in the picture above. We walked around for an hour just looking at the architecture.

I can't decide which of these pictures of the bamboo forest I like better, so I put them both in. There are not many places left in Japan where these large bamboo forests are still thriving. Kyoto has several small forests around the city. Some of these bamboo are 8 to 10 inches in diameter!

I'm not really sure how many people today remember James Clavell's "Shogun", but it really is a very good book about Japanese history and culture. In the book, the chief Japanese protagonist was Lord Toranaga, who conquered all the other clans and became Shogun of Japan. In real life, the Japanese chief was named Tokugawa. He maintained a castle known as Nijo-jo in Kyoto (you can see the entry gate into his castle below).

We toured around the castle and it was fantastic. It had "nightingale" floors, which are designed to squeak loudly if any is trying to sneak around. Almost everyone in the tour group - Japanese and Western - tried their best to walk across the floors without making a sound and it was impossible. No way a ninja could make it across that floor without being heard! Here's a link with a little more information on Nijo-jo.

Behind the castle was the water gardens, which were as beautiful as any Japanese gardens. The design of the gardens makes you think you are out in an unspoiled countryside, not in the middle of a huge metropolitan city.

So after our day trip to Kyoto, we headed back to Nara, then took a train back to Tokyo to fly home. Annie took the picture below as we flashed by all of these beautiful little farms. According to different things I have read, these farmers occupy some extraordinarily valuable land that there are always political arguments over. Some say that it would be better to use the land for housing and cities, but the farmers are very powerful politically. I would hate to see these farms destroyed, as they really add to the beauty of Japan.

Thanks for reading through all of these posts on Japan. I'll have to think a bit to see what pictures to post next. Maybe we will have to post something from Europe next.

Take care!

John & Annie

Japan 3 - Nara

Welcome to the third post about our trip to Japan. In this post, we have taken the bullet train (Shinkansen) down to Nara. Nara was the capital city of Japan from around 710 AD to 794 AD when the capital was shifted to Kyoto, about 20 minutes away by train.


Nara-koen (Nara Park) has a herd of about 1200 deer that roam throughout the park. There are little dispensers (like candy machines) all over the park where you can put in three 50-yen coins and get some food for the deer. The little guy below was pretty worried about hand-feeding this fawn.

It's a good thing this park is not in the US. I could easily imagine a hunter "bagging" a 12-point buck.

Todai-ji is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan, and the central building (Daibatsu-den) is the largest wooden structures in the world. The picture below is just the entry gate, known as Nandai-mon. It has some fierce statues in each side, called Nio Guardians that were carved in the 13th century by the sculptor Unkei.

As you can tell from the size of the people in the picture, Todai-ji is huge. The amazing thing is that this building was rebuilt in 1709 after a fire destroyed the first one. The rebuilt temple is only two-thirds the size of the first one!

Inside the Todai-ji is the Daibatsu (the Great Buddha). It's a little over 16 meters high. So pay attention to the Buddha's head and especially the nose. See how small the nostrils on the nose seem from this picture angle?

Towards the back of the Great Buddha is a column with a hole cut out (see below). This hole is the size of one of the Great Buddha's nostrils. If you can squeeze through this hole in the wooden column, you are ensure of enlightenment. It was a riot watching all of the people who wriggled through this hole! These two guys were pretty spry for their age, and I must say that enlightenment is on the way for both of them.

In Nara, there is a great Japanese garden known as Isui-en, which dates from the Meiji era. Every view is fantastic. Small hidden areas where you can peacefully sit and contemplate your navel.

A view of the tea-house in Isui-en.

Well, that's it for Nara. It was a great few days there. Next we show some pictures from a day trip we took to Kyoto while we stayed in Nara.

Thanks for reading!