Pooks Canyon

Today we drove around the Provencal countryside, stopping in the old stacked rock village outside of Gourdes where we found shells, pottery shards, and tomato paste cans from the 1990's. It was archaeological. Jon wore this jaunty straw hat that was found in the crazy house with many rooms. It keeps us in the mood. We stopped at a roadside wineryfor a little degustation (wine tasting). We rang the bell at the small hut and out came an idiosyncratic French vintner to pour the wines. After a few wines he noticed Leah looked somewhat bored. He looked toward a field and let out several whistles, presumably to call his dog. We all expectantly looked in that direction for a dog to come trotting out and, instead, out came a donkey at full gallop. I nearly fell off my chair at the hilarity. Then the donkey began braying and egging us on until we laughed so hard that Axel started to cry. If you ever expect dog and get donkey you'll see exactly how comical this can be. We dr...

Ménerbes Yesterday we bid farewell to Casa Brujas and spent the last 2 days driving through France. We are now just shy of the Mediterranean coast in the Provencal hilltop village of Ménerbes. This is our alternative the the Venice/Greece trip that was to include Cyclocross World Championships. We couldn't be more pleased! Even if you disregard the fact that it is warm and sunny, it smells like lavender, we are close to Marseilles, Nice, and Monaco and we can see Mont Ventoux there is still the matter of the house. It is c-o-o-l. The story: I wanted to rent half of this house but the owner seemed to think it would be hard to access the top half's front door with children, strollers, etc. So he gave us the bottom half for free! We all have our own rooms (plus much to spare) with full run of this ancient 5 story house with cave-like stairwells, exterior wooden shutters, and beautiful views out all the windows! Somewhere there is an old beehive stone oven but I haven...

Even musicians are doping now? Read the NY Times article here Will they need to give back their Grammys?

For those wondering what the Beast (Jon) has been up to in his recovery period, this is it: He is playing 5 minute blitz chess online against puzzlegeeks (copyright Jason B) from all over the world.

On Wednesday Jon drove us all to the 7 Towers Children's farm in the Brugge suburbs. The working farm had free admission and all sorts of things to do (including a cafe with kids friendly food and grownup friendly beer). There was also a 16th century dove cote, chickens, sheep, a playground, tractors and anything else a farm should have. It even had a bunny enclosure, which Axel enjoyed most thoroughly. This little piggy went to the farm. The doves. The 16th century dove cote from a distance. Lead me to the chickens. Silly daddy. Leah and Jon liked this rooster, they thought it was very attractive. The tractor was fun to climb on.

The ferry to Dover departs from a pier about 20 minutes from our house, so Jon and I took the kids for a 2 night trip. We stayed at the Alkham Court Farmhouse because Jon said he wanted to see sheep or goats out the window in the morning. He did. During our stay we visited Dover Castle and saw the secret tunnels that are burrowed into the cliffs. We also went to Canterbury and listened to the Chaucer tales as well as visiting the cathedral from the story. Leah and Axel on a drawbridge at the castle. Axel climbs around some medieval looking device on the castle grounds. Leah perched on the ramparts. Axel in a garden in Canterbury Leah and Axel get hands-on at the Dover Museum. Did you know they have a 4000 year old boat there? Oldest sea-faring boat in the world; they found it when digging around to build a new road.

Amsterdam is a CRAZY place to be on New Year's Eve. Duh. Jon and I hopped on a train on Old Year's morning (Dec 31) and chugged up into Amsterdam and found a memorable time. First we did the bag drag from the train station to our hotel. Though it was only 400 meters from the station, we walked much further as navigating A-Dam can be a bit tricky for the uninitiated. The smell of weed hung thick in the air on Nieuwendijk and Damrack, where "coffee-shops" were on every street corner ("coffee" = weed or hash). But we made our way through the haze to our hotel, left our bags, and set off. First stop, a coffee shop of course. They have very good orange juice. Then, around 2pm, we wandered around the Old Church and did some sightseeing. People familiar with Amsterdam will know what sightseeing at the Old Church entails; let's just say there are different kinds of organs and stained glass. Next we took the tram down to the Van Gogh museum and saw their...