Grand Rapids, Michigan December 2010

The week between Christmas and New Year's I found myself once again in the city of Grand Rapids. I was there to conduct training sessions for my clients. I'd been really apprehensive about going up there at this time of year because that part of the country had been getting a lot of snow and bad weather. I booked a hotel right in downtown, where the training facility was located, so that I wouldn't have to drive far.
My hotel was right off highway 131. Every time I see this sign I think of the Glen Miller song - "K A L A M A Z O Oh what a gal, a real pippero, I'm going to Michigan to see the sweetest gal in Kalamazoo". I know, I'm a dork.

But seriously, my hotel was in a great location. It was right on the edge of downtown next to the Grand River.
This is a view of the Grand River on my side (the hotel side) of the bridge. The building is the Grand Rapids public museum. There is an old fashioned carousel inside that you can ride. Across the street from my hotel was the Gerald R Ford Museum.
A view of the Grand Rapids Public Museum from the downtown side of the bridge. Since Grand Rapids had experienced a lot of snow, I fully expected the roads to be treacherous for driving but I must have hit the sweet spot in the weather. The streets were perfectly dry and very easy to drive on. It was, however, really REALLY cold. I believe the temperature was about 27 degrees.
My training class finished up a little early on the first day so I walked around downtown for about an hour before I went back to the hotel to finish up working for the day. They had a skating rink downtown - like a little mini Rockefeller center.
I don't know why but I thought this sign was kind of funny. Notice the ground is dry here. There's not even any leftover snow!
St. Mark's Episcopal Church was built back in the late 1840's and is the oldest public building still standing in downtown Grand Rapids. The walls were built from stones that were brought up from the Grand River. When I drove to the training site in the morning, you could see this church all lit up (it was still dark outside) and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop and take pictures.

Driving through downtown, I noticed that it had a real nostalgic feeling. It made me think of downtown El Paso when I was younger. The buildings were still decorated for Christmas (which I also didn't have time to photograph) and it just really had that old-timey feel. I liked it.

Apparently, Grand Rapids is known as "Furniture City". There were a lot of immigrants that came into the city looking for work. The working conditions were bad and the wages were low. In 1911, the furniture workers went on strike. The statue above is in commemoration of that strike. It's right outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum.

There are a lot of things that I would like to have done while I was here. As always when I travel on business, there's not a lot of opportunity to be a tourist. I generally get out of my client meetings after museums have closed, etc. I would sincerely like to come back here for a weekend where I could spend some time exploring the city.

I headed back home on the 29th. I was really concerned that I might get stuck here due to the weather conditions elsewhere. I had to fly through Chicago and they were getting weather later that evening. Luckily, I made it home without any problems. While I was on the flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago, I took some pictures.
The sun appears to be setting. The clouds just looked like you could reach out and touch. It made me wonder - what does a cloud feel like?
This I thought was just beautiful. The colors and the way the light is shining through made me think maybe God was letting me get a quick peek inside. The clouds here were also amazing. This was above Chicago where we had to fly around for about 10 minutes in a big circle. When we finally began our decent into Chicago, we went through that thick group of clouds. It got noticeably colder as we went through the clouds.

It was a really good trip.

Christmas 2010 Part I

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with the Chaneys. We go to 5:00 Mass (which is the Children's Mass - meaning the children's choir sings). It's always fun to listen to the kids sing.

After Mass, we go back to the Chaney compound and we have the traditional Christmas pizza. This year was a real treat because David & Tanya were able to join us. This is Dylan's first Christmas and we were very excited that we got to participate in that.
The Chaney Family Christmas Tree.
Mia & Brendan watching to see where Santa is.
Tanya, Dylan and James.
I'm not sure what we were watching but it must have been really interesting. These two are totally engrossed.
I think A Christmas Story must have been on.
After pizza, we started opening gifts. Grandpa got a hat from one of the boys and Mia is helping hand out presents.
I think Dylan is unsure about what to make of this. Since this is his first Christmas, I can see where he'd be confused. I bet by next Christmas, he'll have the hang of things.
James, however, is an old pro at this. I think he was happy to get this....
"Santa", aka John, is handing out presents.
Dylan is cleaning up! He's surrounded by gifts.
Mia created a present stack which she then proceeded to go through. Based on the size of that present stack, I'd say she did pretty well this year.
Dylan is enjoying his new rattle.

We all had a great time hanging out and opening gifts. Let's do it again next year!

Great Moments in Niece/Nephew History

I have several nieces and nephews. My brother-in-law & sister-in-law have four boys. My other brother-in-law and sister-in-law have a boy and a girl and my sister has a boy and a girl.

I always wanted to be one of those aunts that the kids wanted to hang out with. I find it difficult to cultivate that kind of relationship because we live far away from all of them.

When they are small, they are all so sweet. The little things they do really make your day. Below are some of my fondest memories - the ones that really made my day.

Moment 1 -

My sister lives in Arizona so we don't see her often. My nephew, Atticus, is all about Grandma. I think she is his favorite person - EVER. My mom & I went out there when he turned 2. We were walking out to the car and Atticus stopped and turned around and started walking to us (me & mom). My mom didn't want to carry him because he was too heavy for her to lift so she kind of hid behind my sister. Not to worry - he walked straight to me and said 'up, up, up?'.

Moment 2 -

My brother-in-law & sister-in-law live in Houston so we don't see them often. My niece, Mia, is kind of shy. The shyness coupled with the fact that we don't see her often means that she doesn't come and sit with us (John & I) often. One Thanksgiving, they came up to spend the holiday with us. They stayed at our house so we got so spend some time with Mia. One evening, i had a small bowl of ice cream. Mia promptly came over and sat in my lap and shared my ice cream with me. You gotta love that.

Moment 3 -

My niece, Harper, also lives in Arizona. She's another one that I don't see near enough. When she turned 2, my mom & I went out there for her birthday. We spent a lot of quality time together. John & I went back to Arizona in July. When we pulled up in front of the house, Harper ran out of the house right up to me and stopped short. I think she wasn't sure what my reaction would be. I opened my arms and said "Well come on" and she jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug. How can you not love it when they come and jump into your arms that way.

Moment 4 -

When John & I first started dating, I went to dinner with his family at a Chinese buffet. We met his family there. When we got there, Paul, who was about 2 or 3 at time, ran to John yelling "Uncle John!" and jumped into his arms. I think that was the the sealing of the deal for me.

Moment 5 -

My dad recently passed away. My sister brought her kids with her to the service. My step-mother & I picked them up at the bus stop. Harper was asleep but was kind of waking up. My sister told her, "Sister's here to pick us up" or something like that. She promptly jumped out of the car and came straight to me.

Moment 6 -

I was going to take my final test for the CPA exam. John had gone to Houston to see a concert with his brother. The next day they were taking my niece to the zoo. John had called to wish me good luck on the exam. Mia got on the phone and told me they were going to the zoo. She told me they were going to see the meer cats. According to John, she wanted to talk to me.

John & I don't have kids so we relish the times when our nieces and nephews glom on to us for any reason. We love all of our nieces and nephews. But we both have one of these special memories with each of them.

Texas Longhorns vs OSU Cowboys

A few months ago, John & I were watching the Longhorn game on tv and we thought - wouldn't it be cool to go down to Austin for a weekend and see a game at UT? We thought it over for about 10- minutes then I had credit card in hand and I was buying tickets. Because of work schedules, etc, the only game that we could actually go to was the game this weekend.

Since the time we actually bought the tickets and game time, the Longhorns have decided that this is a 'rebuilding' year - meaning, they aren't doing very well. But, it's still a weekend getaway so....

We got on the road about 11 and headed out. It was a beautiful day.
We're always looking for a weekend getaway. When driving at home, we're in a hurry to get where we're going. I rarely pay attention to the Dallas skyline. This is downtown Dallas as we are heading South on I-35. One of these days, I'm going get my camera and my tri-pod and just drive around and take pictures. It's hard to get a nice photo in a moving car.
Fall foliage - Texas-style. Sitting in the passenger's seat going from Dallas to Austin, I noticed that we have some fall colors this year in our own home state. I saw some really pretty reds and yellows.
Lots of farmland between here and there.
As we get closer to Austin (or farther from Dallas), the landscape becomes very hilly and green. I thought this was a very nice view. (Pretend the cars aren't there and it becomes a nicer view).
So we stayed at the Marriot Renaissance Hotel over by the Arboretum. Not the location we were looking for but when I looked on line to book a hotel a few months ago, everything downtown was booked! Since we were only staying for one night, it would do. Our room had a view of the hotel atrium. Again, not great but - it beat sleeping in the truck.
Once we dropped off our stuff, we headed out toward the stadium. Rumor had it that if we didn't get there early, we were going to have a hard time parking. So, the plan was to head over there, find a place to park and then find a place to eat. Luckily, we found a great parking spot not far from the capital. Unfortunately, we discovered that the only thing college kids want to eat is pizza from chain restaurants.
We found a sandwich place and grabbed a bite and then went walking around the campus. Here's the University of Texas Tower. I didn't realize that you could go up. It's mesmerizing.
I thought the only place they actually printed the Onion was in Madison.
We decided to head over to the stadium and hang around there until kickoff. When we got to the top there was a beautiful view of the campus. The sun was beginning to go down.
Depending on the angle of the camera, you could get a really pretty glow of the sunset.
Hanging out before the game.
This was one of my favorite pictures. This was right before the sun fully set.
We were way the heck up in the nosebleed section. Overall, not really bad seats. We could see just fine but it was pretty cold up there.
In some cases, it was hard to distinguish the Texas fans from the OSU fans because the colors were so similar. The only way that you could really tell them apart was because the OSU fans kept standing up and cheering. (Their team was winning.....)
It was pretty windy up in the stands too. Still, it was fun.
Right before kickoff.
We stayed through the half-time show. It was just pitiful! The game, not the band. At half-time, the score was 26-3 OSU. When we left our seats, this is what we saw. This picture does NOT do it justice. Taking pictures at night requires a tri-pod or a really steady hand, neither of which I had. This was the best one out of the 20 shots I took.
This one wasn't too bad. A little un-crisp but did I mention how cold it was?
Walking back to the car, you could see the capital building all lit up. There was one picture that I tried to get but it just didn't come out. I was walking past a glass building and there was the reflection of the capital in the glass. It looked really cool.
I kept trying to get a picture like this but my hands kept moving and I was getting junk - plus I was standing in the middle of the street so I eventually had to move when traffic started up. John drove me around to the other side of the building so that I was able to get this photo. Still, the picture does not do justice to reality.
The next morning after breakfast, we went back downtown to look around. I had never been to the capital so we decided to walk around there. It really is a beautiful building.
The cupola - looking up from the bottom floor.
So we were wandering around and found this room. This is where the state representatives meet.
The Texas Senate Chamber.
Sam Houston. So they had portraits of all the past Governors of Texas. No portrait of Rick Perry. We realized it was because he was still in office. You'd think that would be incentive for him to let someone else have a chance. As soon as he goes away, he gets a nice portrait on the wall.
I thought this was a nice view. I was on the second level up.
The Texas Supreme Court.
The library. You could look down into the room but you couldn't actually go in the room. Awe inspiring. John was saying that he wanted to get a law degree...

There are tours that you can take of the capital. They are about 45 minutes long. We were going to take one but we realized that we didn't have enough money in the parking meter. After we walked around the capital, we decided to head back home.

We are definitely going back. I hope the next time we go, we can stay a couple of days and we can stay downtown. I want to bring my tri-pod with me so that I can take pictures at night. The city is beautiful when it's all lit up.

Aside from the fact that the Longhorns lost, it was a pretty nice little get away.

Last thing: I love the Texas Marching Band. Here's the show they did before the game. It's about 2 minutes.

Amsterdam-Brussels September 2010

Our 10 year anniversary trip was 12 days in Amsterdam & Brussels.

Grand Amrath Hotel, Amsterdam.

Outside cafe where we had dinner.
Houseboats along one of the canals.

Anne Frank House. John got it right when he said it was sobering. It's hard to believe that 8 people lived in this tiny space for 2 years. They never got to go outside and get fresh air.
The Anne Frank House. No photographs allowed inside.

Everyone here rides bikes. Well, not everyone because there are cars here as well but there is a parking garage just for bikes at the Central train station and it's very hard to get a spot there. The bike traffic is equal to the car traffic. The cars will at least slow down and let you pass though. Bikers? not so much.
These bikes are all parked on the corner next to the restaurant where we were eating.

The canal cruise was about an hour long and took us around the city of Amsterdam.
Narrowest house in Amsterdam (with the white bay window).

Houseboats are also very popular there. The location is primo. Everyone wants to live in the city along the canal so they are willing to pay the high prices. We saw a houseboat for sale that was pretty similar to this one and it was 375,000 Euro. According to the tour guide they go up to 1,750,000 Euro. This particular houseboat has a balcony but I don't think I'd be willing to step out on it.
Canal houses, some of which have doors that open right onto the canal.

"Grand Tour of Holland" -5 cities in 9 hours. We went to Aalsmeer, which is where the big flower markets are. This is a very big business for the The Netherlands.

Aalsmeer flower market.

We went to Rotterdam, which is the second largest city;

The harbor at Rotterdam. This is the Erasmus bridge (also called the Swan Bridge). During WWII, Rotterdam was basically destroyed by the Germans. Instead of rebuilding the old stuff, they chose to start clean. The buildings here are very modern.
Rotterdam Harbor. The Prince William Bridge.

Delft, which is where they hand make all the pottery;

This is the Delft pottery shop where they hand make the blue & white Delftware. It's really pretty but expensive. We spent an over an hour here when we could have been hanging out in the town square which would have been much more interesting.

Delft City Hall. Over the door is the coat of arms of William the Silent.

The Hague, which is where the city government is and where Queen Beatrix lives;

This is the Peace Palace in The Hague where the International Court of Justice is. I tried to take a picture of the Palace where Queen Beatrix is but it was on the other side of the bus and the driver wouldn't let us out to take a picture.

Scheveningen, which is a beach resort town along the North Sea;

The beach at Scheveningen. We couldn't get off the bus here either.

Madourodam, which really isn't a city at all. Madourodam is an exhibit where they have all the important "things" in Holland in miniature.

All the of the important monuments and buildings are represented here. The miniature city was named after George Maduro, who fought in World War II in the Dutch resistance.

There are several working windmills in The Netherlands. This is two of the "Three Sisters" in Groningen.

The Red Light District in Amsterdam. They have a wide range of shows in this area. I think almost anything goes in Amsterdam.

The canal at night in the Red Light District - Amsterdam. In all of the windows outlined in red there are prostitutes that will tap on the glass to get the attention of a potential customer.

Rembrandt's House.

A coffeeshop in Amsterdam. One of the many where you can buy and smoke pot.

Amsterdam Centraal Station.

Haarlem canal. Haarlem is a smaller village outside of Amsterdam. Just as picturesque but closed on Sunday.
"The Dam" lit up at night.
Centraal Station lit up at night.
The "bicycle garage" by Centraal Station. It's hard to tell in this picture but this garage holds 40,000 bikes and, according to our tour guide, it's always full.Countryside - view from the train on the way from Amsterdam to Brussels.John on the train from Amsterdam to Brussels. We were in first class and we had the whole car to ourselves for most of the ride. Nice.

Holland countryside. There is a lot of farmland outside the cities. This is between Amsterdam & Brussels.

In Brussels, this is a monument to those who fought in World War I and World War II.

The dome over the Palace of Justice in Brussels.

The Arch of Triumph - Brussels, commissions by Leopold II and built in 1880.

Cinquantenaire Park Brussels.

Royal Palace where the King & Queen of Brussels work. They live on the other side of town. When the flag is up, the King & Queen are in town.

Atomium in Brussels. Built for the 1958 World's Fair. You can actually go in to 5 of the spheres.

Town Hall in Grand Place Brussels. King Louis XIV used the spire of this building as a target to bomb the city. Most of the buildings were destroyed, except the outer walls of the town hall. They are still original dating back to the 1400's.

The Guild Houses in Grand Place. The original buildings were destroyed in the bombing by King Louis XIV in 1695. All of these buildings date back to about 1698. There are symbols along the tops of the doors to represent the guilds the met in the different houses.

The famed Mannikin-Pis.

Brussels at night. The tall spire is that of the Town Hall in Grand Place.

Belfry in Bruges. This was in the movie In Bruges. There are 366 steps to the top of the Belfry and it is supposed to have the best view of the city. After climbing all 366 steps, we found that the Belfry was under renovation and the views were obstructed.

Scenes from the canal tour in Bruges. Bruges is about an hour train ride from Brussels.

Scene from the canal tour in Bruges. I thought it interesting that the steps went right to the water.
Windmill in Bruges.
One of the three towers of Ghent: St. Bavo's Cathedral - Ghent Belgium.
View of Ghent from the top of the balfort.
St. Nicholas Church - Ghent.
The Balfort in Ghent. This bell tower had an elevator to the top and the view was fantastic. We were able to go up as high as the four turrets above the clock.
Gravensteen Castle - home to the Count of Flanders - Ghent.
The three towers of Ghent: St. Nicholas Church, The Balfort, St. Bavo's Cathedral.
The Graslei - Ghent.
Canal tour - Ghent.

All in all, we took four canal tours on this trip. Two in Amsterdam, one in Bruges and one in Ghent. It was a great time and I'd go back in a heartbeat.