Back in May, Eric and I ventured to Raleigh to wander through an arts festival and experience the giant hand-sewn plastic tent that is Mirazozo. Photos below.

Eric and I have been diligently booking flights to all sorts of places after a summer of relative calm. Can you believe that we’ve stayed in NC for a solid two months? Crazy! :)

I’ve updated the sidebar with our 2010 destinations; we are looking forward to seeing family and friends in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle before taking off on our 2nd Annual Thanksgiving in Europe trip. Lots of posts coming up this fall, so stay tuned.

So, I think it’s obvious from the photos that we drank quite a lot of beer on this trip and very rarely did we come across something that we didn’t like. Here’s the entire list and where we tried each beer.

L’Estiminet (Bruges)
Leffe bruin

De Garre (Bruges)
De Garre Tripel (house beer),  Gulden Draak

Cambrinus (Bruges)
Duchesse de Bourgogne, Gauloise, Tongerlo Bruin, Petrus Dubbel Bruin

Oud Brugge (Bruges)
Brugse Zot (blonde and bruin – only beer brewed in Bruges)

Smatch Grocery Store (Bruges)
Lindeman’s Framboise, Timmerman’s Peach Lambic

O’Reilly’s Irish Pub (Brussels)
Guinness, Strongbow (what? it counts!)

Delirium Cafe (Brussels)
OMER., Trapistes Rochefort 10, Delirium Tremens (house beer), Floris Kriek Lambic, Buffalo Belgian Stout

Poechenellekelder (Brussels)
Nostradamus, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Forestinne Primoria

Royal Brasserie (Brussels)
Bourgogne de Flanders, Maredsous Bruin

A La Mort Subite (Brussels)
Grimbergen Bruin, Westmalle Dubbel, Ciney Blonde, Mort Subite Framboise (house lambic)

That makes a grand total of 27 different beers!  We paced ourselves well and I’d like to think that all the walking we did counteracted some of the alcohol. :) My second favorite part (drinking beer is the best part, of course) was getting a special glass for each beer.

Cheers!

Quick recap: We got absolutely soaked photographing waterfalls, saw a few iguanas, had a beach all to ourselves, snorkeled in protected waters and ate some delicious food. Photos coming soon!

You know how, most of the time, when you stop to look at birds they scatter or fly away? Well… sometimes they make a beeline right for you.

I actually had to back away from this character because my camera wouldn’t focus that close!

These American Coots were all over the Bahia property and me taking photos of them did nothing to curb their appetite for the clover flowers.

It’s been a crazy year in a lot of ways, so here’s a quick recap of what Eric, Riesling and I have been up to this year…

January—Eric started a new job at Syngenta Biotech and I celebrated the first anniversary of my web design business. Obama was inaugurated and it snowed in NC.

February—We enjoyed many beaches in St Maarten.

March—Visited friends in Berlin and my folks in Florida.

April—I got a new passport, drank some wine in Napa Valley and ate at the world famous French Laundry!

May—We tried three local restaurants for Triangle Restaurant Week,  got a fancy new grill, Eric gained a year and poor Riesling was attacked at the dog park.

June—Went to Seattle to see a friend get married and found some new Washington wineries.

July—Tried some Long Island wine on the 4th, partied with my sister’s friends in Chicago and got a complimentary wine tasting via Twitter.

August—I turned 33, finally got to see The Bean and my little sister got married.

September—Acquired multiple insect bites at one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, celebrated our 8 year anniversary, got completely soaked during our waterfall trip to Asheville and had a much deserved spa day.

October—Celebrated SchOctoberFest, saw U2 in concert, bought a new washing machine, had to rebook our Brussels flight after being stranded overnight in Atlanta and spent some quality time with Ryan and April in a beautiful setting.

November—Ate one of the best meals ever with family, and visited the two closest capital cities in Europe over Thanksgiving.

December—Drove 37 hours to visit family for the holidays and Riesling met her first lizard.

Happy New Year everyone!

Sunday was our last day in Vienna, and we spent most of it on a “day of culture.”  We started the morning by attending mass at Hofmusikkapelle, home of the Vienna Boys Choir. Thanks to the helpful concierge desk at Le Meridian we were able to book tickets earlier in the week and walked past the line of people queued for tickets that morning, the first Sunday of Advent. The cathedral is rather small, the chairs are hard, and most everything is in German, but the singing is beautiful. On some of the songs I enjoyed the men’s choir even more then than the boys choir…

Coming out of the service we noticed that it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a trip out of the city to Schönbrunner Park.

After hiking around the grounds for a few hours, we discovered another Christmas market where we enjoyed a huge soft pretzel and sissipunch, our favorite warm concoction of the trip: white wine, apple cider, sugar, cinnamon, clove and a dash of rum. Delicious!

hmm, sissipunch :)

After warming up our insides, we took full advantage of our 24-hour metro passes and headed out to photograph another estate, Belvedere Palace.

After the sun went down, we went back to our hotel room to thaw out and pack before heading back to the Schönbrunn Orangerie for a Mozart and Strauss concert. The 90 minute show was performed beautifully by a six-piece ensemble and was punctuated with singing and dancing. This was a bit of a splurge for us and a touch touristy, but it was a great way to experience a little classical music by two composers closely linked to Vienna.

Just a quick hello from Bratislava, Slovakia! We have been taking photos, visiting Christmas markets, drinking some fantastic local wines and watching the sun set over the Danube. More to come… :)

Despite all of the rain on Saturday, we still managed to photograph a few waterfalls (although after the Linville Falls incident, pup remained in the car). Plus, there were some lovely cascades along the Blue Ridge Parkway, so I guess rain does have it’s good points sometimes.

After our second mile-long trek in the damp, we decided to scrap hiking for the rest of the day and hit Jack of the Wood, a brew pub in downtown Asheville. We warmed up with a Green Man porter and ESB which went ever so nicely with the basket of chips with scallion blue cheese dip and ploughman’s lunch. Mmmm. We figured we would retrace our steps on Sunday and hit the waterfalls we missed in some better weather!

Hola! We are back from our whirlwind vacation to Lima and Machu Picchu in Peru just in time to celebrate our eight year wedding anniversary!

It all started with a trip to Hawaii eight years ago…

(Big Island, Hawaii – September 20, 2001 – OMG, how young do we look?)

(Machu Picchu, Peru – September 6, 2009 – OMG, how tired do we look?)

More photos of our recent Peru trip to come!