A Galvin Hunting We Will Go

  

On our most recent adventure, we heeded the call of the Galvins' (as well as the Ryans') ancestral homeland across the Celtic Sea to the to seek out our closest known relative in the tiny town of Kenmare. We had no trouble immersing ourselves in the land of our ancestors, although actually tracking down a Galvin became akin to trying to spy a leprechaun: everyone claimed to have seen one and there was evidence of their presence but none could be produced upon request.

One of our kinsman's buses just passing by...

Despite our inability to pin down a local relation, we quickly felt a connection to pint-sized Kenmare. Although the town itself only has a half-dozen streets and just a few shops, it seems to have as many pubs as residents, banishing any doubt as to whether we had landed in the right place.

We have no doubt that we will return one day, hopefully with additional familial reinforcements to track down our wily kin.

Searching high & low

...leaving no stone uncovered

Cool-o-rado

A primary motivator for our recent global excursions was to celebrate Unkie Chad aka Chutch Migillicutty aka DJ Chimichanga's recent mastery of business administration. To Boulder we went and convened with some of Chad's biggest fans. While getting in some family QT, were also able hit the slopes, indulge in Colorado's finest brews, make sure the local fish weren't getting too comfortable in their ponds, and treat local diners and hotel guests to the joys of an 8 month old's jet lag. 

Victory over an elusive foe

Super shredder Chad pictured behind the gapers

Rare sleeping moment

Much more common awake moment

Although the trip was way too short, we left confident that Colorado was in good hands with a master administrator (and musical styler) in its midst.

Bouncing Round the Global Room

Apologies for the radio silence! Nevertheless, 4 flights, 18 days, 10,295 miles, 14 family visits, one graduation, one wedding, one dead duck, and many new grey hairs later, we have arrived back in London and blogging will resume! So stay tuned for updates and the most recent adventures of the Texpatriate clan.

Jordanian Journey

Because we like to do things differently, we spent our first Easter as a family in a Muslim country (nevertheless, we actually managed to squeeze in a pretty special religious moment on the trip--more on that here). Visiting Michelle and Joseph in Amman, Jordan allowed us to explore a corner of the world to which we might not have otherwise ventured. After 32 years of friendship with Michelle and many previous trips under my belt, I had an idea that this probably would be a fun-filled whirlwind of a trip.
How an 8 month old would deal with this much excitement was the only mystery to be solved as Joseph had planned out an impressive 5 day tour of the country's highlights.

Awake after a very brief nap. Only 3:54 to go...

Luckily, Dillon rose to the challenge and was quickly nominated MVP for his ability to charm everyone in sight, obtain early hotel check ins and withstand the occasionally non-baby friendly portions of the trip (aka planes, multi-hour hikes, skipped nap times, etc.).







Here are a few photo highlights of the trip:

Our hosts' pad in Amman

Soaking in the Dead Sea's therapeutic mud 

Best buds

Camel Country

Guyz n Style

Not pictured highlights:

• The time when Michelle flagged down a random driver blaring Tupac to give us a ride. After the end o the jam, he inquired if we also liked Michael Buble and proceeded to blast those beats without noticing the slight inconsistency in his musical tastes.
• The time when we almost ran out of gas in the desert and stopped at a fire station for directions. Almost 20 firemen poured out of the building to help, bearing freshly baked treats and offering to siphon gas out of their personal cars. 
• When our personal dance party got so extreme we broke a bench which we then tried to blame on faulty construction

Overall....a trip of a lifetime with great memories and photos to match.

Royal Oak Roundabout

Taking advantage of the nice weather, we "hired" a car to drop Zambezi off for his trial visit at the Country Canine Retreat (more to come on this). Familiar with stylish Eurowagons unavailable stateside (reference our VW Polo or our all-time sexiest ride, the Honda Jazz), we were pretty happy with the Kia Cce'd and its dog friendly "boot."

Royal Oak Pub #1

The drive appeared to be a straight shot through the village of Dorking (actual name) and down a few country roads. True to stereotype, the directions to the country retreat were based around a local pub. I plotted our route on Google Maps and happily, the pub popped up right away. We arrived without a problem but the directions onward to the retreat didn't add up from there. After much circling around, several phone calls to the owner and consultations with local residents, we determined that we were a town over, at the wrong Royal Oak pub. I re-googled the location, not relying on the apparently-common pub name this time and typed in the street name instead. Off we went. To yet another wrong pub, on a street with the exact same name, again just a village over from our destination. Back in the car. Although the third time was in fact the charm, we weren't able to locate the country retreat without at least six more u-turns and one incident in which the driver might have been driving on the American side of the road (oops).  

This makes me feel a bit better...

Upon finally arriving at the retreat, we unloaded the dog and immediately headed back up to the nearest Royal Oak for a calming pint and much-overdue lunch. Unfortunately although the pub offered tractor races, pantomime horses and allowed guests to sleep in the back garden, there was no food on offer other than the basket of duck eggs on the bar (which the barkeep said you could take home, hatch, raise the duck, kill it, and then bring back in August for the DIY roast. True story.).

The final Royal Oak

Just a short few months until lunch will be served... 

We sat outside in the sunshine and made the best of the situation by enjoying a picnic lunch of crisps, peanuts, and Dillon's baby biscuits. We arrived back in London as the sun was setting- starving, yet assured that Zambezi was "a friendly chap" and confident we would be just fine without driving for another four months.  

The village's finest

Joie de Vivre

For our first international excursion, we felt we had to head to the City of Lights. Armed with two additional helpers, Eurostar tickets and what we felt was the bare minimum amount of baby gear, we hit the road....er, tracks.

The journey from London to Paris takes just over two hours by train, with the highlight being the passage through the famed "chunnel."  Unfortunately, we were so excited about the existence of the bar car, that we didn't even notice the passage through the chunnel on the outbound voyage.  A bit anti-climatic but we were unphased.

We arrived into Paris on a beautiful spring day and were able to perceive an apparent difference in work ethic between Londoners and their Gallic cousins.  The parks were packed almost to capacity with people of all ages doing nothing other than sitting in chairs facing the sun.  On a Thursday. At 2 pm.  Clearly this was not a city where something as trivial as a traditional work day would get in the way of  excellent weather.

We quickly caught on to the local mentality and bought a bottle of Bordeaux for our sunset stroll around the Eiffel Tower (luckily no one in the group had any interest in waiting in a seemingly interminable line to actually go up into the tower).

For the next two days, we spent our time strolling around the city, eating and drinking well, and doing our best to get the Parisians to understand our incredibly basic French (i.e. about 7 words).  

I could tell you all of the wonderful things we ate, saw, and drank on our trip, but lets be honest--it would be better if you just booked a trip yourself. Overall, it was a great start to our, hopefully, many Eurotrips to come and gave us a taste of the famed joie de vivre just south of our new border. 

Just one instance of a member of the group witnessed skipping in delight

30 and still Keeping it Weird

That's right, this past weekend, I reached the big 3-0.  To celebrate, we headed to Austin for some fun in the sun and good times with the fam.  Turns out I am so popular that our usual crash pad (aka Kelly's house) was packed to the brim with out-of-town guests.  No worries on that front, as Jared had booked us a room at one of Austin's quirkiest institutions, the Austin Motel, smack dab in the middle of South Congress:



The infamously-shaped logo

Unusual signage to keep the guests in check

Although some rooms at the hotel allow pets, ours unfortunately did not.  Lucky for Zambezi, there was plenty of dog-action going on at Kelly's house, although I think that he might have been missing the luxuries of our apartment's central air conditioning as this is where he hung out for most of the visit:

Although the weekend was full of surprises and gifts for yours truly (another post to come), not having to do the 6am bathroom run with our little bundle of joy turned out to be one of the best presents of all...

Rotation Location Desitination- Round 3

That's right... your favorite traveling Texans are on the move again!  That means you've got about 4-6 weeks to head out west before our sweet apartment has to be handed over to new tenants who are sure to be less appreciative of the forbidden roof views. 

More to details to come on the upcoming placement, but be sure that the SF uniform of fleece and jeans will get a much needed rest.  Bring on the breathable fabric because its about to get sweaty!

Escape to LA

My lovely hosts

Only two weeks back in SF and a week into the new job (more to come on that one...) and I was already ready for a serious vacation!  Luckily, Whitney, Nicole and their posse are only a short plane ride away and MLK was a great man deserving of a national holiday.  Enter a 3-day weekend of fun in the sun and corresponding wardrobe makeover courtesy of my pint-sized friend (SF uniform of hoodie and jeans just wouldn't do on the Venice boardwalk).

 LA might be a lot of things, but no one ever called it dreary...

Enjoying memorable food & conversation at Gjelina



J'Adore Paris!

That's right folks, that's me, in the shadow of one of the most famous buildings in the world, shivering, with frozen toes and a steely reserve not to wait in line to ascend to the top of the tower to gaze upon the snow covered city below.

My week-long trip to Paris to visit Michelle and Joseph, students of the French language and tour guides extraordinaries, was too short to say the least. Despite Michelle's ability to keep me awake for longer than I had ever thought possible, I still feel as though I barely scratched the surface of the culture-packed French capital.  Visits to major museums, shows, excellent restaurants, cathedrals, monuments, and innumerable wine bars only left me with the feeling that I must come back.  And that I must learn a bit more French before doing so. 

Here are a few photo highlights from the trip:

Les amoureux at the Arc de Triomphe

The IM Pei pyramid at the Louvre

Checking in with some of the 6 million residents in the Paris catacombs

Running on pure adrenaline (and a bit of champagne) after lots of traveling and little sleeping

Too hungover for more champagne the next morning at Moet & Chandon?

Never!

Le Moulin Rouge

Feeling the love in the City of Lights

Bon Voyage to Me!

Oui, that is correct j'irai a Paris on December 15th!  I have decided that there is really no reason to sit around and hope a job is going to simply appear- especially during the holiday season- and the prudent thing for someone in my situation to do is to go on an extravagant trip. Although I am pretty sure this is going to have  negative effects on the "money" category in my performance metrics, my   incredibly generous and persuasive cousin convinced me there was really no other option.

Upon booking my trip, I immediately focused on the bare essentials: how to order a bottle of wine (didn't think ordering just a glass would come up that often), how to say: "I am a typical American. I do not speak French," and what to wear on my voyage francais.

Initial reports from the Parisienne front show that it is FREEZING and sometimes even snowing.  This definitely will affect my packing so I decided to do a bit of research to figure out what a Parisienne might wear in such weather.  After perusing Paris street fashion blogs for the winter season, I present some initial results:

A severe but weather appropriate option as it calls to mind a bed quilt. Might need to start scheduling hair appointments to get this look in time...

Whimsical, yes, but could lead to difficulties in tight spaces

 

Sort of a futuristic Russian look, which is never really out of fashion

Fewer than 300 baby foxes were harmed in the making of this coat, making it a surprisingly eco-friendly option.



Although each of these options present a strong case, I feel that it is likely that my search will continue for the perfect Parisienne winter get up. Feel free to help me out by sending links to any additional outfit options that you feel would really help me blend in while ordering wine only by the bottle and reinforcing stereotypes of Americans' lack of linguistic abilities in the land of the bidet.

Texas Two Step

I've been lucky to have had not one but two trips to la patria in the past month.  The first trip was strictly a ladies weekend, full of wine drinking, outfit changing, and artistic photos.

The second visit was to celebrate the wedding of two of Jared's MBA pals: Sam Brown and Melissa Sprinkle.  Being an MBA event, the party wouldn't have been complete without a theme and corresponding costumes.

 

The Texas-themed rehearsal dinner had more than a few interpretations of what a "Texan" might wear, but I still feel pretty confident about our choice to go dressed as the "Jean King and Queen."

 

Down yonder in Texas town, we ran into few familiar faces and had a few laughs.

Sometimes Willie just puts it best, so to Texas we say: if you've got the money, honey, we've always got the time...

King of the World on a Boat Like Leo

Pop Quiz:  What is the deepest lake in the U.S.and the 9th deepest in the world?  If you answered Lake Tahoe that would be incorrect.  But good guess.  Crater Lake in Oregon at 1,949 ft is the winner.  Tahoe is pretty weak at 1,644 ft deep, good for the silver medal in the U.S. but a loser-esque 16th place in the global rankings.  Despite its depth lameness, we decided to give it a whirl for Labor Day weekend at our friend Ali's place.  Turned out to be a pretty solid gamble.

The Host

The House

The Crew

The Bartender  

The Badass