the amazing keillor european extravaganza

PARIS

2008-10-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

And so we come to our final destination! paris france! we drove to paris and had to say good bye to joey the kangoo at the airport and caught a taxi to our apartment in the latin quarter! we have no pics. of our apt. because they were lost in an unfortunate unplugging accident. i know, i'm completely bummed.....well, not completely! anyway, it was a very fun little apartment with the tiniest of kitchens, i know, i was bummed......well, not completely! Paris was splendid! it was clean and sunny and the people dress so nicely and there were tons of tourists but the city wasn't that crowded because all of the parisians were off on holiday!

our first stop of course was the louvre! so off we went past Notre Dame, over the ile de la cite', past st. chapelle.... it was magical!

we saw all our favorite louvre art works! winged victory, venus de milo, leonardo's 5 biggies (including mona, but my favorite was john the baptist), some more of michelangelo's slaves, the enormous neoclassical coronation of napoleon(where he is crowning himself emperor), and that brought us right up to the romantic period with liberty leading her people! it was like an art history lesson wrapped in a palace baked in a croissant!

after all that culture we needed a little levity so....... there was a mini fair going on in the jardin de tuileries,

(just like there was a mini french riviera going on along the banks of the seine by notre dame! these people know how to live!)

which way to the beach?

so we hopped a ferris wheel and had a peak around! we spotted the musee d'orsay and decided to continue the history lesson chronologically. talk about all your favorite paintings!!

and some new favorites!

ok, so then we were completely fried, hit the subterranean grocery store, went home, made diinner and got a good night's sleep. next day was POMPIDOU, it's almost as much fun to say as it is to see!

modern art is so much fun, and interactive, too!

haley was the first to notice there were no kandinsky's apparently, they were all in munich...we'd driven right past them! zut allors! we got over the monumental disappointment and then took our time walking home poking in the groovie shops near rue de rivoli. we were too exhausted to see notre dame so went home for a rest and dinner and decided to see the famous church that night. what an amazing treat! so perfect at night!!

the eiffel tower has a sparkling fit for ten minutes every hour on the hour, erin called it seizure inducing, i liked it but did have to look away after a bit!

the following day found us in versailles!! louies 14's palace was a lovely diversion,..... thank goodness there was someplace to check my lipstick!

we really liked biking to marie antoinette's hamlet! it was SO adorable, her own little disneyland of peasant life!

next day we hopped on the metro to visit the eiffel tower, arc de triomphe and champs elyse'es

awesome music on the metro!

we realised we would be going home soon and that meant back to reality, back to school! and you know what that means!!! back to school shopping and back to school haircuts!

but for those not dictated by the confines of everyday obligations ... a nice book in one of hemingway's favorite cafe's ....

and so it was we spent our last days in paris walking through the parks,

enjoying our neighborhood, a night out....

and then back to the airport, and then another airport... and finally, home!

the end

steckleberg

2008-10-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

it's fun to say and it's in switzerland! so from the sunny mediteranean we headed to the sunny alps for a little more walking! we were sad to say good bye to italy it truly had been a most welcoming and warm visit! Steckelberg was dramatic and rugged and homey and cheesy all at the same time! and we love all those things especially the cheese!

we took a lovely hike the first day up the mountain that was right behind our "nature friend house" (like a hostel but more earth friendly-awesome vegetable garden!)

it was amazing how much elevation we gained.

lots of stops along the way!

and then walked into the most delightful town! we made friends along the way.

we took the tram down- the same tram 007 rode in "live and let die" it was intense it, was daring, it was off the hook! not literally.

The Cinqueterre

2008-10-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

The cinqueterre is a series of five towns just south of the rivierra that are connected by footpath, train or boat only. they are a protected marine area and national park and they are spectacular. "think mediteranean kauii"! we stayed in the town of Fontona, near Levanto the city just north of the five towns.

after the heat of rome, we cooled off at our nearby riviera style beach. but, the next day...

found us doing the thing we came to do! we hoppedp on a train to the town farthest south and hiked along lover's lane to town number 2 :manarolla. upon arriving in manarola i found a note taped to the wall that explained the town was celebrating their feast day..... with a waterfight!! i love this place! we located the town swimmin hole! it was surrounded by the most beautiful people on the planet. we played merpeople for a while and then went into town for lunch! the water fight commenced! this is far better than dinner theatre! grown men and women with large buckets of water dousing unsuspecting tourists and in the know revelers. you could tell the shop across the street and the restaurant we were in had enjoyed this war for generations! after our meal we were thrown out into the streets to fend for ourselves.....it was quite refreshing so we walked to the next town corniglia, and the next.... vernaza. there was a swimming area which was well needed for the hike to vernaza is greuling.....and we took the easy route! the day was coming to an end and we had seen the 5th town (monterosso)from the road so we dragged ourselves onto the train to levanto and trudged our way home. so amazing to now have had so many "homes" in such beautiful and interesting places, but really that's how it felt! we had neighbors:

and home cooked meals, and pets!

Roma

2008-10-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

we loved rome!

off we went south to rome in our little kangoo and a little train, too!

we stayed in the most magnificent apartment belonging to some friends from portland

everyone should have such brilliant friends!

it was in the heart of rome very near the pantheon. we were so anxious to get out and explore, i had to keep saying "keep your pants on, we'll get to the pantheon!" which everyone enjoyed every single time i said it! The pantheon is MASSIVE these pictures hardly do it justice. in the outside shot, the incredible dome (bigger but not higher than the duomo in firenze) is simply lost in its own brilliance. inside we found the ancient building (constructed for worshipping the roman gods) in amazing shape, thanks to the quick embrace of christianity after the fall.

"zeus is gonna be mad"

there was, however, a small chunk taken out by brunelleschi so he could resurrect the ancient secrets of dome architecture in the renaisance!

our apartment was beautiful! we were warned not to flood the upstairs because of the priceless frescoes below!!! how cool is that!?!

it was the perfect spot for a cup of coffee with a view!

or just enjoying a nice chianti after a full day of sights

our neighborhood was so friendly and lively and stylish and conveniently located to.....

a fabulous restaurant that inspired pigeon hugger art!

trevi fountain

piazza navonna, the tiber river and vatican city, and

ancient rome!!!

Firenze and Pontasieve....this is Italia!

2008-10-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

we said ciao to venice and meandered our way south to Firenze to visit my cousin Jane, her husband Mario and their beautiful family. We not only got family we got friends! and an amazing welcome to tuscan living.

Mario's sister Marisa and brother in law Fabrizio (an amazing chef!)were visiting that friday so we were treated to cooking lessons

and incredible food. Jane's neighbor made an amazing dish called panzanella that was so simple and delicious i've made it here twice but it's not quite the same.

we felt so welcome and the people the place and the food were all so beautiful! the girls absolutely loved our tuscan experience.... they said it was better than the movies! i agree heartily! thank you so much, jane and mario.

next day we were off to sthe Academia museum (michelangelo's breathtaking david ,and the slaves), brunelleschi's ginormous duomo, and san lorenzo, the medici's parish church. it was stunning, packed with michelangelo sculptures marking the graves of medici family members, inlaid stone everywhere and a large fresco depicting the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (as we would say it) who was grilled alive (he asked the ceasar to turn him over, he was done on that side, during his execution). under the church are more medici graves and a reliquery (a room filled with small ornate cabinets,many made of gold, that held the bits of saints, brinna's favorite was an entire hand, i preferred the fingers, the femur bothered me a bit.

That night we had another delightful meal, this time with francesco, jane and mario's son. jane prepped us for our trip to the ufizzi the next day which was so incredibly helpful and turned our museum tour into a treasure hunt.....SO MUCH FUN!

we were off to rome for a few days only to return for a fun filled evening with Julia, jane's eldest, at Kitsch!!

look at this!! yummy food, animal prints, really fun people! Thanks Julia!

next day it was off to the Cinque Terre for us, so we loaded up joey and headed west!

venicia!

2008-10-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

well, we got on a train (joey was bummed because he couldn't sit with us) to begin our journey into Italia. drove off the train, into italy, to Mestre, parked the car and took a barge to VENICE! that was three modes of transportation in one day and each one magical and mystical and majestic!

we met with our landlady who showed us the way to our apartment in the old jewish ghetto neighborhood. we crossed many bridges on our way and took many tiny streets saw all the boats parked on the curb of the city's water streets! it is a completely unique way of life, we had road construction out our window, but it was a kind of floating watery road construction!

that night we took a stroll

next day plaza st. marco! stunning....everywhere! they decorate with large colorful pieces of marble, some carved into statues of breathtaking beauty from many era, some just standing in their natural polished loveliness.a word of caution here! if you are working on this clocktower at the top of the hour, watch out for these guys, they might knock you off while they are hammering the bell (totally happened)

The following evening we took a gondola ride,

pretty much everybody found their favorites just walking aroundvenicia!

Bad-gas time!

2008-10-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

we weren't done with austria after salzburg, so we traveled to badgastein, a beautiful town perched in a dramatic valley with a waterfall rushing right through the middle of town. walking down the block was a serious understatement here... you think the streets are steep in San Francisco.....

on the way to our hostel , (which was more like a really cool old hotel) we stopped at a small town that was having it's summer festival! we went to their all-town-garage-sale

(actually in the town square) and picked up some outfits,

then to the little town park for oompa music and lunch!

In Badgastein we had a beautiful hike and made friends with a lovely butterfly, he took turns landing on all of us!

Then kevin took haley and brinna on a spectacular canyoning adventure. Erin and i wandered around town....

and took in an open air concert

we had such a lovely day

meanwhile the canyoners.... you know what canyoning is, right? you put on a wetsuit and p.f.d. and float the rapids! this includes waterfalls...........lots of waterfalls! the pictures in the advertisement had everyone harnessed as they were traverssing the rapids, so i said ok. apparently the harness picture is just for the mom...so she'll say ok! anyway, they had an amazing time and i swear the adrenaline was still coursing through their veins two days later! in fact, erin and i got a contact adrenaline rush, so that was nice for us. we did have to pick up a souvenir for brinna, but we managed to get the crutches in her favorite color, purple, so that's nice too!

This is St. Marks Square in Venice!

Alrighty Then!

2008-09-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

alrighty then! so, yes, now we are home and the kids are back in school and kevin has set up an office and i'm cleaning up my garden and helping at the clinic and school, but hey! i'm not done with the blog and i'm very task oriented so i have to do this, in the words of my sister in law kathy....posthumously! i love big words! especially ones that don't look like they sound. and i love stretching their meaning just to the edge of respectability! see!

so anyway, off we went to frankfurt germany where we promptly came face to face with the massai warriors who had been our guests in the fall of last year! ok they were in a photo for some ad in the airport but for reals! there they were! we took a picture.....of the picture!

then! off to pick up our Kangoo, the vehicle in which we would be transported into the history and majesty of the european continent (we named him Joey). Got on the autobahn, and headed for Rothenberg. can't say enough about rothenberg....too much fun! sorry. it was disneylandesque in it's medieval, christmassy, cobblestoned way. but it's real! real churches real politics, real creepy museum of crime and punishment, real history, real nice people.

we hated to leave rothenberg but austria was calling so off we went!

we stopped in dachau. a very sobering experience, the ovens are still there. there was a healing ceremony going on in a small area by the famous sculpture, a museum, some of the old buildings with really good commentary in many languages, and then a lot of space (the place was frighteningly huge). you needed all that space to take it in, and process.

Joey was waiting for us when we were finished and he and kevin got us to our lovely b and b in salzburg on strasse strasse strasse! (little inside joke from the "navigator")

Salzburg was beautiful and sounded real nice! mozart spent some time there we think. we went on the sound of music bike tour and just had such fun!

we also met some folks that had been in salzberg forever. they weren't super talkative but very friendly

and generous!

we enjoyed some gelato....

and then kissed salzberg goodbye!

yes, i really like this picture!

a farewell and an invitation

2008-09-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

And so we bid farewell to the land of my formothers and forfathers, with one last look at the irish sea, a promise return, and a sincere wish that we would soon receive visitors from the emerald isle!

but wait! we weren't finished with ireland! plus!

2008-08-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

on the way to dingle...

we visited the swiss cottage a tiny jewel of a place! it is neither swiss nor meant to provide overnight accomodation. it was a playhouse for the wealthy Butler family to "get away from it all"for the day.... with their servants (marie antoinette started the cottage orne' trend with her Hamlet at versailles, more on that later tho!)

Gallarus Oratory, not neolithic but old and amazing anyway!
it's on the Dingle peninsula!

But wait we weren't finished with ireland!

because even though we had to leave for germany after that last posting i still hadn't told you about dingle and doolin and patricia (murray)thyne in ennis! and now we are in rome and i've already had the most wonderful visit with jane and mario borghini and their two most amazing and grown up children in firenze!!!! and in between all that we hit germany and brinna is on crutches from canyoning in austria, but she is ok. so, you see, we've been busy and had very little computer time and i promise to write again soon and send pictures but for now.......

just lots of love!

ok! so i had to leave that bit in because it just illustrates the reality of blogging on the road and it totally captured the rapid acceleration our trip took after leaving beautiful ireland. so, yes, we went to Dingle to listen to music and see the sea and learn about island life off the west coast and it was magical.

then, it was up to doolin with us for more music, another hostel (very hostelly), the cliffs of Moher and THE BURREN. but on the way we stopped to visit with Patricia, a cousin on my mother's father's side. we had such a wonderful visit with her and Kevin and their boys, Kieran and Eoghan

and patrick only a wee bairn! Patricia had photos of our wedding we had never seen, and we had such a lovely visit. the girls got to do a bit more curling and we climbed up to this amazing fort (probably neolithic) with the boys, it was right on the edge of the atlantic and had that incredible edge of the world feel.

Patricia had recommmended we visit the burren also. WHAT A PLACE! barren and cracked with a most diverse population of plants struggling to survive in the fissures, it's like scuba diving without the water

......for a botanist.

and! there was a Wedge Tomb (stone/bronze age)

after more of patricia and kevin's fabulous hospitality we headed back to our home away from home in maynooth...

THE FAMILY!!!

2008-07-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

we went to kilkenny and inquired of this fellow about the dwyer or lacey family. he was no help.

then......

i finally got to meet some of my mom's family in Ireland! And my girls got to meet their Irish cousins! And Kevin got to hang out with some of the most amazing and wonderful people in ireland. and they are so much fun. they made us feel so welcome and it felt like i was coming home in a way.

First, we met Anne at Kilkenny castle. Kevin and I had spent time with Anne when she was in the bay area (during our courting days a bazillion katrillion years ago). Anne had us follow her to the family home about 20 minutes from kilkenny so we wouldn't get lost. she says "there is a lot of guess work involved in driving in ireland!"

Then,

we met Kitty, Anne's mom and Anne's brother Seanie. now mind, these are people of legend in my family. my mom and dad visited Kitty and John and their children once and the smile that would come to their faces (especially mom) when they spoke of their time here still warms my heart.

they had the most delightful supper for us. we all felt so welcome, relaxed and happy!

and we met: Lena and Morris, whose daughter

Kathy was just then honeymooning in the US

and was at that very instant (or close enough) meeting my family in the bay area!

and we met: Jimmy and Breda and Tom and Maggie and John and ......i know i'm going to miss people because it's like 2 in the morning and i also know i am masacreing people's names and i so completely apologize and if you just blog me i'll fix it because the computer is an amazing thing...

and we met: Niamh and Ciara and Aoife and Sean and we missed Willie and Nora but we had the most exquisite time!

And the girls got to go home with maggie and all her crowd and so did Jillian and Emily (two of Jimmy and Breda's daughters). so, of course, next day there were many smiles and we got to see our first hurling match! and Jerpoint Abbey (which is incredible and very medievally). And that evening they had mass in the town cemetary and blessed all the graves and we got to pay our respects to John and all the kids decorated his beautiful grave with the little white and black pebbles that cover his plot and it was all very good. and now i must head for bed and it's off to germany tomorrow (or rather today).

Love to you all and thank you for being in our lives.

weeks 3 thru 4ish Ireland

2008-07-18T04:16:00.000-07:00

we waved goodbye to scotland in pitlochry and hopped a plane to ireland.........

IRELAND! WE ARE HERE!!!! spent our first day recuperating and our second day at castletown house, a lovely manor home just a half hour away from ourlovely, and conveniently located home away from home in maynooth. there is an 18th century seminary AND an amazing castle ruin right in our town. THE STUFF'S EVERYWHERE, IT'S LIKE IT'S JUST LYING AROUND

DAY 3 DUBLIN: Trinity college, St. Stevens Green, Grafton St. Temple Bar, Molly Mallone. Subway home.....erin liked the grafiti best.

don't know who this rogue lad is.... he was lying in wait to get into peoples pictures! i like that!.......wonder how many tourist's photos he is in and in how many countries

the following day it was back in time again to the neolithic sites of knowth and newgrange. absolutely amazing carved rocks and passage tombs

our 5th day out, we ventured into to Dublin. where we met RICHIE POWERS and had a very fun lunch, he pointed us in the right direction to the kilmainam goal and we got all the family news.........BUT, I DIDN'T GET A PICTURE! what is up with that??!!

kilmainam goal is an amazing place and i have better picures but the computer is acting up (not me this time) so i'm just going to post these (hopefully) now and edit later!

then it was off to visit the land of saint kevin! GLENDALOUGH!
it was windy there

but beautiful

still to come: KILKENNY!

Days 12-17 Scotland contd.

2008-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

it is our last night in edinburgh:( we have so enjoyed our time here. it's like a castle rolled in a city rolled in a medeival ghost story... with lots of chewy nougat! SWEET! hand me a digestive biscuit!

Days 12 to 17!!!!! More of Scotland

On our way from edinburgh to our hostel on the wild island of Mull we stopped for a brief dose of history at stirling castle. Absolutely beautiful!and this is it! the final resting place of the last unicorn. they are all about unicorns here! and gargoyles....lots of gargoyles! and i love both! so i was in gargoyle and unicorn heaven of course!

me and haley in gargoyle purgatory, and all of us in gargoyle and unicorn heaven pictured above

Then we were wisked off by ferry and a rather a long car ride to the town of Tobermory....

we left the girls at the hostel after dinner and visited the quaint pub next door! Mishnish! what a magical name......

we met some lovely young people from ireland who had just arrived in their sailboat. they insisted we roust the girls! so in the girls came for their first pub experience which ended in a sing-along and circle dance! when i got back to the pub after returning the girls to their bunks i found out we'd been asked to stop dancing..... what's wrong with my moves??!!

next day found us on a ferry to Iona, the mystical island where st. columba was monk-ing around. had picnic on the beach with seagulls who have a diferent language from those at home ( i swear it, they sound different!) and truly enjoyed this peaceful monastery island.

ok this is getting way too wordy. the next day we visited standing stones and got some more album cover shots,

left the island, drove past some magical train line, and arrived in fort william!

the following day was back to school day. but apparently some people don't want to cut their summer holidays short even if it is to go to hogwarts!

So, we took a nice hike!

we also went in search of nessie at the loch! all we found was this lousy castle,

fun dress ups tho!

our last stop in scotland was Pitlochry! we visited the tiniest scotch distillery in the world and had the tiniest taste! brinna found a lovely place for a haircut, nobody wanted to risk it. after all, next day was on to ireland to visit the rellys for the first time! but that is for another blog!

2008-06-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

ok. having too much fun to blog! must make short text ....send many pictures...

Day 4?: went to hampton court palace, the place where henry 8 took 4 of his 6 wives on honeymoon (what a sweetheart) really fun! had smell-o-vision in the kitchens with lots of meat being cooked, so for us vegetarians it was especially effective. also, brinna was wearing

something kind of medieval looking so that somehow makes it even more fun. there were also

actors staging different points in the palace's history throughout the day and this was very effective -we chose meeting one of the queens handmaids and got caught up in catherine howard's demise. went through a maze, found the center, went back out again.....it was ok but the gardens were spectacular and we played name the genus and species....I WON! love winning!

day 5: picnic at AVEBURY! incredible! relaxing! sunny every now and then!
had a picnic on the neolithic-man-made ridge. went to the small friendly hands-on museums. read lovely and not so lovely things about kevin's distant relative. it's harder to 'get' what you are seeing at the site because basically, it is stonehenge on steroids, so the rocks are further from each other, and the stone circle is a quarter mile across, so standing on the ridge to see this neolithic cathedral is the way to go. we are talking 850 years Before Christ!!! the west kennet long barrow, a short drive and then quick walk through (wheat?) fields was amazing too. a burial chamber.... again 800 b.c. a little creepy but mostly fascinating and we were literally walking through someone's fields. lots of skipping and twirling rolling down grassy hills. frolicking, really! thank you kevin's naughty relative for preserving this sight and thank you all who bought his marmalade!!

Day 6: british museum, camden locks market, evensong at st. pauls, midsummer nights dream at the globe! too much to say

Day 7: hyde park, tea at the orangery, museum of natural history (road the escalator), Harrods at closing time! no pictures, sorry! tea at the orangery near kensington palace very nice if you focus on the fact that you are at a real princesses' palace, also everyone else there is doing the same fantasy (the girls in front of us in line were from the u.s. an had gotten very dressed up for their tea) so it makes it all the more fun (kind of like watching the faces of the people, young and old, taking pictures at platform 9 and 3/4s we're all in the same fantasy) the goodies table at the entrance was sumptuous, the china and table setting-disappointing (although the tiny orange trees with real oranges on each table was fun.

Day 8: kevin went to wimbledon! the girls and i stayed home (john and colleen boselli's beautiful place! we watched holiday a movie filmed in the area and packed! brinna and erin played tennis in honor of their dad! delightful!

Day 9: off to edinburgh!!!!! Scotland is very different! love it tons. train ride was nice.

Day 9: shopping, writers museum, museum of childhood (kind of creepy-fun!), kevin and i went to scottish parliament, (beautiful new building in this ancient feeling city). in the evening we went on a spooky underground ghost tour. THERE IS A HIDDEN CITY UNDER EDINBURGH!

Day ??: Edinburgh Castle! Beautiful, fun, lots of soldiery stuff. not sure if the smell-o-vision is piped in (no pun intended) or just part of the place.

......not able to edit...... must post blog......have to go to isle of mull.....

FOR MY FRIENDS AT BEND SPAY AND NEUTER!

week 1 England!!

2008-06-23T02:12:00.000-07:00

BOODABUS IS BOOTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY ASKED KEVIN FOR LEGAL ADVICE AND WANTED HIM TO STAY A WHILE LONGER BUT HE SAID WE WERE ON VACATION AND THEY'D HAVE TO CATCH HIM LATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

day one: arrive! john and colleen's awesome home and hospitality. hot tub to soak away the miles. foxes, bunnies, and tree houses!

day two: big bus, spooky (not) walking tour, trafalgar square (where we saw someone kick a pigeon, it's illegal to feed the birds as my hero mary poppins suggests. THEY CARRY DISEASE! i'm suggesting birthcontrol in their feed because they would be really difficult to spay or neuter and am planning my speach for speakers corner but that is for day 7) the big bus was a great way to get in all the sights while seated! PLUS, at this level (top of the topless bus) you get an awesome view of all the relief on the buildings and the shop signs that hang over the sidewalks!

from bus level! it's on the second story! who else could see her?

from street level! they are a bit more imposing i'm supposing!

spooky tour was really a pub crawl. we saw the sherlock holmes pub that had a room set up like the fictitious sleuth's study, a few other charming (but not spooky) pubs. then the few teens in the group suggested we go to fleet street for the spooks, which was perfect for we got to see the actual underground tunnel where the fictitious demon barber sent the dead bodies for mrs. lovett's recipes! delightful! we got a picture.

day three: tower of london! we got right in! not very crowded! perfect weather, yummy scones, impressive armour (suspect henry 8 had an inflated opinion of his physique). ...3 hours later..... we really liked the tower and grounds -lots of stories, lots of different architecural styles. imagine that in a building from the 1600's! very castley, too! with it's torture thingys and gate thingys.

thought of my brother michael!

ok! today is day 8 and i haven't downloaded pictures from the past 5 days so i have to stop now, plus i'm getting punchy. visit again soon!