vacation: Forest Park, Portland, Oregon
We woke up bright and early and packed a delicious picnic lunch. Fresh bubblegum prosciutto di parma, creamy sheeps milk “etoki” cheese, and chewy fresh bread topped off with a strange sweet orange chili mustard we got at the Farmer’s Market. Mmmmmm, this was going to be a great day.
The air was chilly, it wasn’t exactly the warmest weather in Portland. That didn’t stop us from taking a venture out into the wilderness today. But first though, we wanted to pick up some breakfast, so it was time for the Flavour Spot, a waffle cart located at various industrial corners of North Portland. Tom had Nutella and raspberry jam and I had Black Forest ham and smoked gouda. It was heaven in waffle form.
We then proceeded to spend the next 2 hours trying to find the “entrance” to Forest Park. We went up and up hills and found random gates with pictures of hikers, but no real entrance, no information huts. Finally we gave up and just pushed our excursion into the wilderness, something we would not regret. Official entrances were not the point of this park. Exploration was key.
The pathway curved around deep valleys of lush ferns and mossy trees. It felt like we were exploring Jurassic Park. The scenery was quiet and amazingly green. I don’t know if I can do this description justice, but Forest Park was probably the most amazing hike we have ever been on. I think we took forty pictures of trees before deciding it was time to stop and picnic.
Picnicking was not the easiest feat. There were no meadows, no flat and dry spaces. Just forest and cliffs. Tom carefully flipped over a piece of a rotten log and we made ourselves a custom park bench.
Finally it was time to head back. We took a short detour to the McMeniman’s St. John’s Pub. Sipping rose and beer in their sunny courtyard, before venturing to the Rose Garden. The wide variety of roses in bloom inspired picnic lunches with families and couples kissing on park benches.
Dinner at Navarre was probably the most unique dinner we will have all vacation. We walked in to the hustle and bustle of a busy kitchen and a crowded communal dining space. Every wine was available via carafe and the menu, which featured small plates or family platters of three dozen or so items, took some major decoding to understand.
We were not in Portland, we were right back in Europe.
Even after ordering via sushi chit style, checking off the samples we wanted, we had no idea what was coming our way or how much. Our tiny streetside table began to fill up with unusual plates of things, many delicious and some just strange.
We ended our night sipping beers in the movie theater lobby next store, which with 8 microbrews on tap was the best bar on the street. We watched as patron after patron grabbed a large slice of gourmet pizza and an entire pitcher of beer before entering their feature film of the night. A novelty for us, but for them it was natural, it was the way you are supposed to watch movies,¦ and why shouldn’t it be?
Tomorrow: Olympic National Park
vacation: Willamette Valley
Actually, I’d call it our France and Tuscany away from France and Tuscany. If you are in the right sections of Portland and the surrounding Willamette Valley area, looking in the right direction, you can easily trick yourself into thinking you are in a foreign land. Take, for instance, Ken’s Artisan Bakery. While the aesthetic of the baked goods might be a little more rugged and a little more oversized than their French counterparts, if you close your eyes the flaky chocolate croissants and the colorful macarons will send you straight back to the streets of Paris.
We spent the bulk of today exploring the Willamette Valley, Oregon’s famous region for Pinot Noir. We thought it fitting seeing as though last November we had spent a few days in the Burgundy region.
However, the rolling hills of the landscape with the bright green grape leaves reminded us much more of Tuscany, and the wine seemed to follow suit. Sure, they smelled like Pinots and were undeniably rustic in flavor. Even some of the wineries had a location in France. But, these wines were dark and bold and full of a richness that we had not experienced while in Burgundy. This is one area of the wine competition that I feel the New World has a leg up on the Old.
We ventured back to the hotel, happy and hungry. A quick stop at the City Market for picnic supplies was only a teaser. We tasted various cheeses, while our tummies grumbled. It was time to leave the wine behind and immerse ourselves in Portland’s beer culture.
I had a fear that we’d be walking into something touristy at McMeniman’s Kennedy School. I always want to find that hole in the wall, something not in the city guide books. To be honest, after we went there, I think I’d be pressed to find anything “touristy” at all in the Portland area. Everything has been authentic, local, low-key, and enjoyable. Kennedy School was no exception.
The McMeniman’s have made it their business pursuit to take dilapidated buildings and turn them into brew pubs and brew theaters. Kennedy School is an old Elementary school that has been transformed into a hotel, theater, restaurant, fireplace courtyard, and several bars. You are allowed to wander the halls with drinks in hand, but we decided to stay for several hours comfortably seated at the Courtyard Restaurant.
We tried burgers and beer, which weren’t necessarily the best we’ve ever had, but everything tasted better in the ambience. As we stared at the wall of liquor, Tom decided he had never had a cocktail with Hot Damn in it before. We decided to be adventurous and make up our own drinks.
Tom’s Hot Tamale
2 parts Hot Damn and Gin
1 part Rose’s Lime and Triple Sec
Dash of Grenadine
Serve over ice
Marti’s Fudgesicle
2 parts Chambord, Frangelico, and milk
1 part Crema de Cacao
Serve in a martini glass topped with cocoa powder
Tomorrow is Labor Day. We will wake up and have our first wine and cheese picnic in Forest Park. I can already tell this will be a vacation to remember.
vacation: Portland, Oregon
Portland is an unusual place. From the minute we stepped off the plane, we could tell that it was a little different. The airport smelled like moth balls and old musty people, and yet there right at the terminal was a Rogue Ale House with 20 microbrewed beers on tap. The rest of Portland would pretty much be the same as that. A mix of gourmet lifestyle with an edge of rugged rather than pristine.
We started off our journey by visiting the Portland Farmer’s Market. Within a few blocks of approaching the Portland State University Campus, the buzz of political discourse was already in the air. We got approached by a girl evangelizing Barak Obama, which seemed like a waste of time… in Portland… on a college campus… at the farmer’s market. Passerby after passerby uttered the same phrase, “Thanks, but he already has my vote.”
The colors of the market were glorious. Large, shiny and delicious looking produce. I felt bad that we hadn’t rented a kitchenette or something where we could enjoy them. Instead we had to opt for the wood-oven roasted lamb pizza and freshly made raspberry lemonade. Everything around us, from the soda pop and wine to the vinegar and sausage, all shared the same label: “Local”.
Next we decided to take a bicycle adventure to Laurelhurst Park and Mt. Tabor. We walked by what looked like dozens of resistance movements waiting to happen along the waterfront, army clad beard sporting groups gathered in circles under the large trees. We happened upon a bicycle shop without bicycles to rent. Turns out the whole city was rented out. Luckily, a few people came to return their bikes just as we were getting fitted for a tandem, which the shop owner admitted might not be the best bike to get us up the mountain.
We whizzed easily across the river and through the Portland neighborhoods. The backroad streets were owned by bikes. You would hardly ever see a car, unless it was parked. The portrait of a Portland neighborhood between downtown and Mt. Tabor is this… think Ann Arbor only even more so. Craftsman-style houses in various states of repair, landscaped lawns in various states of overgrown, and fairly odd 70s vehicles in various states of rust.
While some houses were purposefully decaying, it was hard to deny the beauty of the explosive bushes of roses and hydrangea on every corner and on every street. The city was covered in flowers.
We made our way up to the top of the mountain, slowly but surely. A couple was having a 1920s themed wedding at the top, and even the little kids were sporting authentic clothes from the decade. The tall trees blocked much of the view, but created a sense of majesty and peace. We soaked it in until we decided it was time to come back down.
We had dinner at Park Kitchen near our hotel. Everything on the menu was, again, local and unique. The strange cocktails featured unusual berries and loads of mint which could be sipped from a metal straw. The food was exquisite. We got to try pig ear and papardelle, something new for us and quite tasty. Blueberry sauce over crispy and tender duck, and a finish with a chocolate plum pudding.
We wandered back to our hotel, tired from the long journey, and feeling connected. Everything we had eaten and touched and viewed today was from this place, and no other.
Tomorrow: Willamette Valley
travel: Northern Michigan
My blog frequency has steadily declined as my work blog frequency has increased. I don’t anticipate this to change, as I have very recently taken over as Executive Editor of the ThreeMinds blog for Organic. This means a lot more responsibility and a lot more exposure. So, I think I’m going to have an even harder time with RecentlyConsumed, unless I can train myself to write shorter blogs. I’ll try and work on that.
While I haven’t been blogging much lately, what I have been doing is experiencing the wonders of Northern Michigan, which is a pretty amazing reason to live within this sometimes depressed mitten state. It’s easy to forget when you drive the drive from Canton to Bloomfield everyday just how absolutely beautiful this state really is in the summertime. I almost leaped out of my seat the other day when a girl at my work said, “Michigan just doesn’t have any good beaches”. After 2 weekends up North, I have been feeling some major Michigan pride and understanding why SE Michiganders head up their in droves every weekend.
Some of the pictures are not ideal because we forgot our digital camera and bought a disposable for the weekend, but here is a run down of my favorite in North Michigan experiences…
BOWMAN LAKE
For 4th of July weekend, we drove out to Baldwin area, a nowhere town a few miles east of Ludington. We experienced hiking around Bowman Lake for hours without another human being in sight. We did, however, run into two very sleepy and scared baby raccoons lying right in the walking path (adorable). They arched there back like little kittens trying to look fierce as we approached them.
Bowman Lake represented my near ideal campground: highly wooded, highly secluded, a crystal clear lake, hiking trails. We ended up staying at Gleason’s Landing, which was also fairly gorgeous, despite it being mosquito mating season.
ARCADIA BEACH
I love mild weather beaches… I love them more than warm weather beaches. I would take rolling sand dunes with tall grasses any day over flat and sunny Florida or California beaches. Perhaps I’ll find a love for Hawaii beaches someday, but ultimately my heart belongs to Lake Michigan, a constant reminder of my childhood. There is something more peaceful to me about that scenery. Every year, my friends and I will spend a full day at the beach, grilling and swimming (if we dare, it can be chilly), playing trackball, making a fire, and watching the always remarkable sunset.
NORTH MICHIGAN WINE
I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but Northern Michigan has some great wine. Why I’m surprised is that before these two weekend visits, I had judged Michigan wine solely on some experience with southwest Michigan. The cooler Northern climate does quite well for the off-dry whites, the fruit wines, and the sparkling wines.
While I still find that there isn’t a good red wine to be found, and that some of the drier whites fail to pack much flavor, I was thoroughly impressed by many of the wines I tried… and certainly impressed by the price. Whereas Long Island wine has similar characteristics, good and bad, to N. Michigan, their bottles range from $30-50. At L. Mawby, Tom and I picked up some incredible sparkling whites in the $10-20 range.
LOCAVORE MOVEMENT
This was something I hadn’t even thought to notice before, but after finally finishing The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I was paying close attention. I have been inspired to try and eat more locally grown food, but now that I no longer work in Ann Arbor, my ability to buy local food has been greatly diminished to my own backyard. As soon as you step up North though, you will start to see signs everywhere. It’s all about sustainable restaurants and locally grown, seasonal cuisine. Restaurants and shops proudly feature foods and wines from the area. Even the gas station in Arcadia had bottles of local milk (the chocolate milk tasted like melted ice cream, yummm).
With the quaint towns and the vast amounts of nature and available land, it’s hard not to fall in love with up North. The locals show a good amount of pride and for good reason. As winter comes and as the snow makes my already ugly drive even longer and harder, I will look back on this blog and remind myself of just a few of the reasons why living in Michigan is still worthwhile.
technorati tags: lake michigan, locavore, northern michigan
life experience: Camp Organic
“Life is moving at 500 mph, but I feel like I’ve been put on pause.” - Stacy
I can identify a lot with Stacy’s feelings. It has been more than month since I’ve put up a new blog post, but that isn’t from a lack of things going on in my life. What it has been missing is a lack of things that inspire me, things I’m passionate about, and certainly a lack of time to write about them. Intense workload, social schedule, and a few weekends of marathon gardening have left me sunburnt, tired, and passionately paused. Still, life is good… I’m young… the opportunities are exciting… and spending many hours last week analyzing the troubles in Stacy’s life, I have returned home humbled and inspired to appreciate the freedom I have.
So, who is Stacy?
Stacy is 39, a working mother of 2, living in Elmhurst, Illinois. Stacy is drowning in the hectic schedule of everyday life. She has a really hard time admitting she gets angry, and instead distracts herself with retail therapy and convinces herself she is invincible, after all she’s a super-mom. But lately, she’s been wondering why it has to be this way, where is her help, and why she has to always be the one “put on pause”.
Oh… and Stacy isn’t real. Her story is the result of an intense Las Vegas training exercise Organic puts its employees through called CAMP ORGANIC. It’s probably the best 72 hours without sleep that I have spent in my life. Painful, exhilarating, draining, challenging and everything I love about Organic with none of the limitations (no clients!).
The Story of Camp Organic
It’s much like a reality TV show challenge. In fact, when explaining it to my friends, I started using terms like “QuickFire Challenge” and “Elimination Challenge”. Organic sends 40 employees out to Vegas a couple times a year and gives them 36 hours to develop a product. Like every good reality show, there are limitations and surprises along the way. The ingredients are a demographic, a sin, and a product. The product is the only thing that is the same between the 7 competing teams. And at the end of the time limit, you must demonstrate an inspired presentation (in a semi-delirious state) to a room full of your peers.
The idea is to practice what Organic preaches, empathy inspired web experiences. It’s to encourage as many employees to drink and rejoice in the Organic brand kool-aid, and come back inspired to do better work. But rather than try to explain the idea in detail, you could just watch the documentary:
Our Assignment
Our Demographic: Female, 35-45, Married, Kids, 100K+ HHI
Our Sin: Anger
Our Product: Well… that’s where it gets interesting
The “twist” this time is that there is no product that we need to create. In the past it has been anything from energy drinks to timepieces to financial programs. However, this Camp Organic, we needed to create a BRAND MOVEMENT. Confused yet? Think Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty. Think GE’s Ecomagination. The idea is to take a brand and make it more than a brand… make it not just something people purchase, but something that people rally behind, gather around, spread, live, breathe.
Tough enough? Now add in a tight deadline and a city of people who are not terribly interested in talking to you.
My Not-So Typical 72 Hours in Vegas
(Not the full story, just the good bits aka what I would have Twittered given time)
WED MAY 14th
9:00 AM
My team looks tired, maybe we’re just conserving energy? Allard is an EM from NY, previously Netherlands. Andrew is a copywriter from Toronto. Govid is IT from San Fran. We’re like the united nations of Camp O.
11:00 AM
Quickfire Challenge to create a decked out basement for family of four, but ceilings only 5 feet high. We forget the constraints, don’t leave time to develop a presentation. Ouch we are rusty, maybe we are just saving our good ideas for the real challenge?
3:00 PM
Trip to the Boneyard under 95 degree sun. Diversion or inspiration? Whatever the intent, the heat is killer and we are all ancy to get our sins.
5:00 PM
The twist this season is “Brand Movement”. Sounds reasonably complicated. Brand movements require common values, community support, growth mechanisms, authenticity, and a solid launch plan. Just think for a second how easy that truly is to build for your current clients. Piece of cake!!
5:15 PM
Whatever it is, don’t let it be anger. Don’t let it be anger! Team 7 = ANGER.
6:00 PM
Talking about planning a plan. My strategist weakness is revealed. Until I have a diagram or timeline on paper, my heart is not going to start beating at a normal rate.
7:00 PM
Phew!! We have a plan, and some timeline goals… but wait, here comes counselor Sam. He says we are already ONE HOUR BEHIND all the other groups. Way to get us scrambling early. Time to diverge.
7:30 PM
At the airport, who’s brilliant idea was it to interview people at the Airport (Organic). They are interested in coming or going, not talking.
8:00 PM
First interview a smashing success, probably best of the whole lot. Woman going on a girls’ vacation for the first time in 13 years. Today her babysitter cancelled and her father scheduled a surgery, she barely made it to the airport and one of her friends didn’t. She is probably sitting on the beach in Santa Barbara right now having Margaritas. I wanted to give her a hug.
8:30 PM
Dual interview with interior designers. One young mother gives us the golden quote that she does 80% while her husband only does 20%. Way to hit it home with percentages. Airport is fertile ground for mom’s alone, without social influence.
10:00 PM
On Sam’s suggestion, on the hunt for mom’s in packs. Waitress suggests some clubs. Use the power of Twitter to get some more recommendations.
11:00 PM
Found a pack at the lounge in Caesar’s Palace on their yearly vacation to Vegas. They are happy and ready to talk. They don’t get angry, they can’t get angry. They need to teach their kids not to dwell in angry. Instead they escape. One lady goes to the gym everyday although she works 65 hours a week. Retail therapy. I don’t know that I believe that these moms don’t get angry, but they sure seem convinced with cocktails in hand.
11:45 PM
Regroup with rest of team, converge near jumping bugs outside Bellagio. They had a completely different experience. We are still energized to find some more mom groups while there is still time.
1:00 AM
Party is dead at Pollyster’s at Stratosphere. No mom’s in sight and quite a ways off course. It hurts to feel like you’ve wasted so much time, and the mom packs are thinning out by the minute.
1:30 AM
Have an anti-persona interview at the Wynn that proves more useful than you’d think. 2 young women just graduated college admitted to having the least responsibility now than they have ever had in their life. Nobody expects anything of them, except what they expect from themselves. They are in-between places with such specific hopes and dreams and expectations for the future. They sure don’t have a problem talking to strangers and are also getting hit on more and more by the minute.
3:00 AM
Unload onto the wall. Look for patterns… motherhood is a pressure-cooker, anger is present when things go out of balance. Anger is resolved through denial or escape. Either the anger is buried or the mind is distracted. We build questions tomorrow to delve deeper. We need to get these mom’s to admit they get angry. When was the last time you cried or yelled? Who was it at, strangers, loved ones? What gets under your skin?
3:30 AM
We are getting a little moody. Time for bed.
4:00 AM
Can’t sleep. Mind races with tomorrow’s events.
THURS MAY 15th
8:30 AM
Can barely eat hotel breakfast. Ready to get moving. Not a moment to spare. Today’s plan is to find moms actually with their kids, observe and probe deeper. Sam freaks me out again saying we need artifacts. I forgot completely about artifacts. Diverge.
9:30 AM
Apparently Casino day care doesn’t get hopping until the evening hours. Scratch that plan.
10:00 AM
Hunting for mom’s in Macy’s. Rejection, rejection, rejection. “I can’t talk, I have kids”. We get physically mom-blocked by a stroller. Moms are either non-existent or not interested. Tick, tick, tick.
10:00 AM (meanwhile for Andrew and Govid)
Children’s museum does not take too kindly to our social experiment and kicks my teammates to the curb.
10:30 AM
Getting my skin analyzed while I interview a young mom who works at the mall. Sam suggests “you have to give a little to get a little”. No real insights here, only that her escape is into a journal. Will not admit she gets angry.
11:30 AM
Adventuredome at Circus Circus. Finally caught a mom sitting down. She is so distracted by watching her son, she cannot answer the simplest questions. “So, what do you like to do to stay calm? what do you like to do in your alone time?” She fidgets and is physically uncomfortable, as if saying “are we done yet? are we done yet?” with every inch of her body.
12:00 PM
Observe Mommy-radar in full force with the stroller brigade. It’s like driving a car, check mirrors, check speed. Only it goes left, right, baby, straight-ahead, baby. Sam says we should hard stop at 1:00 PM. He says we have much more than we think we do. With no good interviews at all today, I hope he’s right!!
12:15 PM
Even taxi time is valuable time. Allard tries an IM interview and I e-mail Julie, a colleague and friend of mine. Trying all angles.
12:30 PM
More nervous moms at GameWorks and M&M store. Body is always positioned with an escape route in mind. They read books, sometimes they yell at the dog… there has to be more than this. One tidbit from shy mom, says she is always in control of her emotions, angry people show a lack of control. Her body language says “am I answering this right? is this what you want?”.
2:00 PM
Converge over room service. Unload more stickies onto the wall of various colors. We don’t even know where to begin. There is so much left to do.
3:30 PM
Starting to put stickies we really like on one wall away from other stickies. Is this progress?
4:00 PM
Our main feeling now is that our insight has to revolve around loss of self. Denial and escape are both methods to satisfy anger, but they both don’t help this “loss of self”. Starting to feel a movement in here somewhere.
4:30 PM
Still hunting for the gift. Think we have it narrowed down to a couple solid thoughts. “I’m on pause”, “I can’t talk I have kids”, or “It’s not about me, but it can be”.
6:00 PM
Time is flying, but it feels like not much is happening. We have tested out our three gifts with some 100 mph brainstorms. Feels like we are swirling and just putting up more stickies on the wall. What does it mean to be paused? Is this helping? No… let’s pick and go. We decide on “It’s not about me, but it can be”. Phew, time for a break!!
6:30 PM
Sam says our “gift” is not a gift but a tagline, but we can worry about that later. We should have fun and think about our presentation. Sigh.
7:00 PM
All we know about our presentation is that we want drama and as few slides as possible. I guess that’s a consensus.
7:30 PM
Ooops… can’t forget to flush out that persona in full. I distract us for about half an hour to do that.
8:00 PM
Swirling, swirling, swirling. Andrew wants to get into product, Allard wants to talk about launch, Govid probably wants to go home, and I keep saying “wait, wait, wait”. My strategist brain is killing our momentum right now, so I decide to diverge myself out of the picture.
8:30 PM
Somehow our diverge turned into a nice sushi dinner for two of us (not me), and food court food for the rest of us.
9:30 PM
Too happy, sushi-filled teammates come back to the room with a notebook full of good ideas. The Great Mommy Strike of 2008. Detailed integrations with lots and lots of products. OMG!!! Yeah!! I can do wonders with clutter, but I freak out at a blank slate. This is where I feel comfortable. I’m starting to think for the first time all competition that we are on the right track (yeah, I’m a pessimist).
10:00 PM
The room is filling and filling with really useful stickies. We are flushing out ideas rather than creating new ones. We are pulling weeds rather that rototilling a new garden.
10:30 PM
The room is filled with counselors. I present the persona to some happy faces. We decide to not even delve into our master plan. Yeah… we are filling that confident. To our joy, the counselors don’t question it too much, but offer some good advice. CREATE DRAMA. Teresa says she loves our persona already, we just need to bring her alive.
11:00 PM
After I go to the bathroom for the 10th time today to wipe the tears out of my eyes… not due to stress, but due to the dry Vegas air and stale smoke, the team decides that my red-eyed female voice is probably the best voice to embody Stacy. We have now moved on to creating the presentation.
12:00 AM
I put up the all important “Path To Bed” stickies on the wall. Structure to presentation, build slides, assign roles, rehearse, improve (that’s a good one!), then BED. We all agree to the plan.
1:00 AM
Allard brings out our inner actors. My Acting 101 classes come rushing back. He challenges me to embody lettuce. Are we geniuses or madmen at this point? Definitely both.
1:30 AM
Take our acting challenge out into the hallway. Keep getting interrupted by elevators full of hookers. Only in Vegas.
2:00 AM
Time to diverge. I work on scouring Flickr for those lovely full-slide images. Keep it simple. 6 slides, one picture, one caption. That is all.
2:45 AM
Did Allard fall asleep? Where is he?
3:30 AM
He emerges just in time to do a few rehearsals before bed. We are getting better and better each time, but we are dangerously close to that 20 minute mark.
4:30 AM
Nitpicking breaks out over each other’s sections as we try and make sure we are under 20 minutes. I call bedtime. We need to keep the spirits high. Each person responsible for rocking their own territory. I’m certainly excited to rock mine.
5:00 AM
Too excited to sleep. Dammit brain.
FRI MAY 16th
8:00 AM
One more rehearsal before breakfast. We meet our timing mark, but we are low on energy this morning. We’re just conserving right? I get nervous again.
9:00 AM
Energy slows to a crawl. Call Sam over for a pep boost and sufficiently freak him out. No, really… we are solid on our presentation, we are just a bit tired. We’ll come around (I hope!).
10:30 AM
Two presentations in. One with an Elvis impersonator!! Found the excitement again. I’m ready to present now. No luck, the honor goes to Greed and Gluttony.
11:30 AM
Two more presentations… one that took us out into the hall for a diversion, one with a great punchline “why does she feel so worthless?”. Impressive. One more presentation to squeeze in before lunch, I hope it isn’t Anger. Oh… so of course it is. I need to keep my mouth shut.
11:40 AM
Team begins pacing around the room. Pacing and pacing and pacing. Alright… I feel the energy, it is show time!!!
12:15 PM
Phew!! Feeling good. Channeled my inner-mom. The whole team was even better than last night. Govid saves the end, doesn’t go over. We use every last second of our 20 minutes. Now we can relax.
2:00 PM
Presentations done. End on some great skits (someone found time for humor) and interesting artifacts (letters, blogs). Spend the judge’s deliberation taking all the stickies down from my room. So much less rewarding coming down than going up.
3:00 PM
Yes, yes… best Camp O ever. They say that every time. Don’t make us wait any longer!!
3:30 PM
They drag out more time by analyzing each of our presentations individually. Probably the most rewarding part of the experience, sure sure, but still on to the winners.
3:45 PM
Drum-roll please. The top team is… ANGER!!! Wooooooooo.
4:00 PM and beyond
A blur of experiences recounted, sharing, congratulating, and winding down from one of the most intense experiences of my Organic life.
Am I glad I did it?
Hell yeah!! Not for the faint of heart or people who can’t easily swallow the kool-aid. But, definitely an amazing and empowering experience I couldn’t have had anywhere else.
Would I ever do it again if I could?
Camp Organic is much like a wedding. When it finally comes together, you feel pride and excitement. But for all of the blood, sweat, and tears, it will probably take you a couple of years out before you feel up for the challenge again.
website: France & Italy - Tom & Marta’s European Vacation 2007
You might remember, before I left for my trip to Europe, I decided that “it was about time to push my scrapbooking pursuits into the 21st century”. So, in order to do that, I began collecting digital artifacts of my journey. Those artifacts included twitter feeds, Flickr images, YouTube videos, blog journal entries, Google maps, GPX data, mp3 jukeboxes, and an RSS feed of useful links.
I assembled all those artifacts into a website, where users can take a tour through the daily experiences of our trip. Beyond that, I used a very amazing new tool called Sprout to create a “widget” that included the essence of some of this content… a slide show, a video, a jukebox, etc. By taking this content into the world of widgets, I was able to extend the experience beyond the special site and into things like my MySpace page, my Facebook page, NetVibes, and the various blogs I contribute to.
So, in order to avoid over explaining something that is supposed to be experiential, I will stop here. Please enjoy our digital scrapbook!!
cities: firenze, sam gimignano, siena, orvieto, roma
We have returned from our trip, returned to work, but certainly not returned to our old way of life. Things will never be the same. Cooking will never be the same, breakfast, coffee, drinking wine. The urge to say “grazie” often and to everbody has been hard to overcome. While I’m working on cataloging our photos and transferring my journal entries to blog articles, I figured I’d finish up my mini-blogs with the final days of our trip, which represent a polarity of the best and worst of Italian life. From nirvana-inducing meals of Florentine steak and SuperTuscans to an onslaught of tourist traps, crappy pizza joints, and loud Americans.
FIRENZE
Arrive in Firenze by train at night, just enough time to see the statues at night over some thick cups of cocoa. This is a city of art. Such beauty and effort put into every muscle and expression. Visited the Uffizi in the morning to see ornate ceilings and paintings from various eras, it’s overwhemling.
Grab some picnic supplies (we’ve become addicted to fresh prosciutto parma) and head across river to high grounds. Get a great view from the Boboli Gardens, a great divide with the city of Firenze on one side with its duomo and honking horns and the gorgeous green landscape of the Tuscan hills on the other side.
Sunset, wine, nap. Awake to nightime Firenze filled with people and the smell of food.
SIENA / TOSCANA
Firenze killed our digital camera. 500 pictures in one day and our camera gives up its life, we hear the death throttle in the middle of the night. Have to visit “Media World” to get a new one, then off to Tuscany. First stop is Sam Gimignano, famous for its white wines and ancient towers. Then to Siena, where we check into our “apartment” which is gloriously huge with a full kitchen. We go into town to get a night time view of the famous Piazza del Campo.
Siena makes a good home base for exploring Tuscany. Much (a lot actually) is closed for the season. Chuiso fino a marzo. Our Garmin waivers between not working at all and dumping us into a vineyard, like actually into the vines. However, we finally find all that we are looking for at Castello Brolio… incredible Chianti Classico and SuperTuscans (the best wines of our trip), an ancient castle with a view of the bright yellow autumn hillside, and a steak twice the size of my head and twice the price of fairly great bottle of wine.
The steak was our only meal for the entire day that day, but we were able to use the kitchenette at least once. Using some goodies we picked up from around Tuscany, I made a meal of pappardelle with sundried tomatoes and porcini. We taste our first Brunello di Montalcino at Enoteca Italia, and my mouth will never forget the thick dark liquid and its explosive flavor.
MONTALCINO
On our journey to Roma, we stop in the town where Brunello comes from. We taste several more through out the day, both at Enoteca Fortezza and Castello Banfi, but none compare to the first Brunello we had, one that we snagged for a mere 23 euro (about 33 USD), which is a ridiculous bargain even at the terrible exchange rate. Tom attempts to eat fresh olives from the trees, which are everywhere, and isn’t too pleased with the results.
ORVIETO
After an amazing six course lunch (only place we could find that was open), we visit Orvieto, another city known for its white wines and ancient structures. Orvieto is a hillside town known for the “city” underneath the city, which consists of ancient rooms that were used for various purposes including making olive oil and storing pigeons.
ROMA
Roma is busy from the moment we arrive. No traffic laws, vespas everywhere. The city is thick with tourists, and over the next 24 hours, they grate on my state of Tuscan bliss. We find solace by spending much of our time in the back alleys of Navona, hopping from wine bar to wine bar, sampling all that the Roman nightlife has to offer. One of our favorite (although highly popular) daily stops was Della Roma, whose claim to fame is the 100 flavors of gelato of which we were only able to conquer 12 before our time in the city ended.
Roma was probably our least favorite place on our trip, but we still made the most of what it had to offer. Beyond the enjoyable nightlife, Roma is quite interesting for being an ancient city within a modern city. Wherever you turn, you see fountains, sculptures, and ruins against the shops and billboards. Some of it is strikingly beautiful, some of it is downright ugly. This all exhibited best in the “old city” where the Colosseum is located.
Boring day at the Vatican, rained out of the park… our best Rome experiences really happened in the evening. Still, it was fun to rent a motorized bike cart to roam around Villa Borghese. We had our final picnic under the roof of our bike cart, in the pouring rain, bundled up in hoodies. Still the Raboso never tasted so good.
Arrivaderci Italia. We will miss you. We are not terribly happy about the wine that the Italian KLM agent confiscated from our belongings (luckily she only got 3 of our 8), but we won’t hold it against you as a country.
Italy was very different from France. So much of the everyday is about “la vita bella” or the good life. It becomes part of their entire culture in both good and bad ways. Non che problema, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow, the motto does not work so well when it comes to preserving the ancient, organizing road systems, making sense of airport regulations or public transportation. However, when it comes to sitting back and indulging in the gifts of the land, the freshest tasting olive oil, the pungent porcini mushrooms… the meat, the wine, the cheese… they have it figured out, they own it better than anywhere else on the planet.
cities: fontainebleau, beaune, lyon, venice
More fun to report on our lengthy trip. Can’t believe we have done this much and still have so much to go. It’s getting a little ridiculous, and I miss our home and our cats… and friends and family too. But of course, that doesn’t stop my enjoyment and collection of stories, pictures, and experiences just because part of me really wants to snuggle Ollie, he’s such a fluffy fucker. Anyway…
ILE DE FRANCE
On our way out of Paris and to Burgundy, we explored a little more of the “Ile de France†or the area surrounding Paris. We attempted to go to two famous Chateaus. Vaux-le-Vicomte had just that day closed for holiday season, and we missed the entrance to Fontainebleau by one minute. Such is life.
Instead we drove to a hidden area in the Forest of Fontainebleau, parked with a view of the pretty colors, and had a picnic inside our car. We munched on bread and cheese, and watched the hunters wander the forest.
BEAUNE / BURGUNDY
Beaune is a small town built on wine tourism, nothing but fancy restaurants and wine shops. Reminded me of a French Sonoma or Napa. At Marche aux Vins, you went down into their ancient cellars and had some self-regulated tastings off of barrels by candelight.
Burgundy outside of Beaune was a lot of small hillside towns and chateaus. Looked for signs that say “degustation†for some more wine tasting.
FETE DE BEAUJOLAIS
The new Beaujolais has arrived. One of the most unique experiences of our trip. 4 euro for a wine glass gave you all you could drink all night long. We snacked on cheese and sausages in bagette (French version of a hot dog) in the village square with people from all over the world.
A local bar had a very French accordion player and we made friends with the locals, some good stories there. At midnight they lit up torches, set off fireworks, and welcomed the new vintage of Beaujolais.
LYON
Like a mini-Paris but bitterly cold. Lyon is a peninsula with a big hill to one side of the river that you can climb up to get a view of the city. The hill is much bigger than it appears in this picture and was quite the workout getting up to the top. Beautiful fall colors and good shopping that is pretty reasonable compared to Paris.
VENICE
Alps look like whipped cream poking through the clouds. They served mozzarella and tomato skewers on our Flybaboo flight, must be on our way to Italy.
Venice is ugly from the outside, but once we were on Vaperetto 1… we were cruising down the Grand Canal to much beauty.
Italian wines dark and flavorful, and they go well with our first meal in Italy: an incredible cheese and meat plate. Too many tourists, Americans, flower sellers, mask shops, and pushy pizza restaurants. The best Venice experience is wandering the back alleys looking for hidden gelaterias and gastronomias. One fun tourist activity definitely worth 1 euro is buying food for the pigeons in Piazza San Marco.
Coming up next… Florence, Tuscany, Rome and then home
RECENT WINES