California (from Alia)

Hey all!

We're having a great time in California.  Busy but fun.

So far, we've spent time with Miranda's
Great grandpa Herb (100 years old!)
Grandparents David and Faye
Great aunts/uncles and their partners
              Bill and Gloria
              Renee and David
              Ruth and Myron
Mom's cousin Heather, husband Micheal and son Zeno

Still to come: Ali, Robert, baby Brandon, Karen (bride), Sean (groom), Shawn, Laura, Theo and Sam.

Karen is having a animal theme wedding, so everyone has been working on their costumes.
Miranda has a dragonfly/butterfly theme with a jacket and parasol covered in them, a silver mask
and stick-on jewels around her eyes.
I'm going as a raven, the way she sees herself: covered in flashy.
Zeno is going to be a scorpion, and we've tried a few things for the tail.
We have high hopes for plaster of paris casting strips to replace papermache.

Ruth's back, so more later.
Alia

creative day, long night flight

On the road again!  This time Miranda and I (Alia) are in San Francisco for my cousin Karen and  Sean's wedding.
I don't think I clued in to the fact that arriving at 10:30 pm would mean it would feel like 2:30 am when I booked those tickets.

The wedding has an animal costume theme, so we headed to Michaels for art supplies.
On the way back we tried a Hawaiian BBQ chain restaurant.   Nice chicken.
Also got sugared tamarind fruit on a stick and ripe plums at a local store. 
The tamarind was full of big seeds, but pretty good.

I made a golden raven mask that ties on to my glasses, and we are working on a papermache
scorpion tail for 7 year old Zeno.  A few details to go on the mask. 
I tried a duct tape version, but the balloon popped and pulled it in on itself.
Fun attempt anyway.

Miranda and Zeno are having a light saber battle on the back porch.
We went to the park in the SUN! (a challenging place to take a good picture).

Tonight we're going out for sushi.
Tomorrow we're visiting San Jose for the Egyptian and Technology museums.
Monday July 4 will be at the Marin County Fair.

I may not get to Chinatown for shopping, but this was much more relaxing.

Alia

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flight home

We're on time, just boarding in Montreal for Ottawa.  We'll be home in St John's at 10:25 pm.
Long day of traveling.  Miranda is tired, and easily put out. 

biking

Rental bikes are widely available, and nice flat surfaces, so Miranda got a lot more confident cycling.

Paris skills -Miranda & Alia

We've had to learn to do some new things here.  Sometimes with instructions in French, sometimes with no instructions.
It's been fun.

1. How to rent a velib' (bicycles stationed all over; pick one up and drop it off at a new place).
Challenge:  am I doing it wrong or is it broken?  Turns out the lock was broken.

2.  Miranda's challenge: ride the bike.  Well done!

3.  Induction cook stove.  Heats the pan with magnets.  Not bad once we: 1. got it on the first time 2. found out it will shut off if the pan is removed for more than a few seconds.  That one took several internet searches, because it would be going fine, and then just stop.

4.  Convection stove/grill/microwave.  Getting better all the time, but lots to learn.

5.  Navigating the Asterix & Obelix theme park website, way too messed up!

6. Using french keyboards in the internet cafe: certain keys are in different places so if you touch type it comes out as something like this: foajeing

7. switching metro lines and since there are different types of trains and there are signs but they aren't all that clear so you can get lost way to easily!



Will post more soon!

videotour of our logements (Miranda and Alia)

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Kate and Owen chefs du poulet

May 2 was a rainy Parisian Monday. After a long walk around the Louvre, we came back to our 4th floor flat to make another fabulous family meal.

Basic Salad

Escarole lettuce
Boston leaf lettuce
Large cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers
Boursin cheese
Balsamic vinaigrette

Tear lettuce and chop tomatoes and cucumbers. Toss or display together on large plate or bowl. Place a round of cheese in the middle. Garnish with herbs, if you wish. Mix the balsamic vinaigrette on the side.

Lemon thyme chicken stuffed with broccoli and cheese and roasted sweet potatoes

1 small chicken

Marinade:
lemon rind
lemon juice
garlic
chili pepper
salt & pepper
white wine
fresh thyme
minced shallots

Stuffing:
broccoli florettes
emmental cheese (shredded)
shallots finely chopped
garlic finely chopped
white baguette torn into pieces
salt & pepper

Sweet potatoes:
sweet potatoes (or yams) chopped into small pieces
chili peppers
olive oil
salt & pepper

Serve with white wine & crusty baguette

Instructions:

Mix ingredients for marinade and put aside.

Par-boil sweet potatoes.

Lightly sautee shallots, garlic and broccoli florettes. Toss sautee mixture with pieces of white baguette.

Rinse chicken with water. Salt and pepper cavity of bird. Stuff with broccoli stuffing. Place chicken in oven dish and rub marinade over the chicken. Tuck par-boiled sweet potatoes beside chicken. Insert dish in the oven with a foil tent. Cook until the juices run clear.

Sherrill's photos

Sherrill's photos

attempted photo

Gelato flowers

Food blog

Paris food blog

Food is so much a part of this trip, from shopping, to cooking, to snacks, to gourmet, to trying to figure out new appliances in French.  But not everyone wants to hear about it all the time. 

Thus the food blog.  If food blog appears in the title, read or skip as you choose.  With Kate's nut allergy and so many of us trying not to overspend, you'll see a lot of home cooking, but with French ingredients.

 

Apr 28:

Dinner and wine were not listed on the plane tickets, only breakfast, so it ended up being the fourth/fifth meal of the day.  The wine tasted good, but left me feeling like I was going to faint.  Weird.

Apr 29/30

The most messed up time day of my life.  Only appropriate that when both rooms woke up, we both went out and bought strawberries, baguettes, cheese and juice.  Oh well, breakfast and lunch.  I think we forgot to eat dinner on the first day.  Sleep was the priority.  While I have not figured out the microwave/convection oven, we did figure out the automatic setting for pork roast, which was delicious once Kate made gravy.  More baguettes. Since then we have toast chocolate crossants, and made tuna melts, all on the auto setting for pork roast.  I'll figure the rest out eventually.

The shopping superstore across the street (Monoprix) had a section of 3 gallon smelling jars set up, so a demonstrator could teach about the different bouquets of wine: earthy, leather, fruity, preserved fruit, oak and spice.  Red wine progresses through different bouquets as it ages.  The bottles were filled with items like leather, not with wine, so that you can separate them out for teaching.  However, I still can't tell from a bottle what to expect except that young wines are fruity.  They don't have the sweet/dry scale on the labels here either.

We went out for gelato which was very pretty as well as delicious. They press spatulas of gelato on to a narrow cone, and the result looks like a rose.

May 1

Today is MayDay, or labour day.  Many stores are closed, but some bakeries are open.  Sherrill and I again both bought tarts, which were actually bland, but multigrain baguettes warm from the bakery were fabulous.  MayDay is also the day for lilies of the valley which are on the table.  All the plants in the window boxes were dead, so we replaced the kitchen ones with live basil and thyme.  The next challenge was learning to cook on an induction (magnetic) stovetop.  The final result (beef bourguignon ) it still cooking for a few hours, so we will see.

Alia

Alia's airline/hotel blog

Apr 28-29.  Travelling time.

The consequences of weather.

Apr 28 in St John's was light hail and freezing rain, so we had to wait to deice the plane.  Takeoff was delayed 45 minutes, and then there was wind, so we got off the plane with 35 minutes to connect.  They announced to let the connecting flight from St John's to Ottawa off first, but no one bothered since they knew that plane would be held for the 20+ newfs, but didn't announce about us, so deplaning took more time.  Miranda and I, and French family "ont fait la course", a full tilt run and no line at "customs" (glance and stamp the ticket) meant we got there with 5 minutes to board.  I worried about our luggage, but didn't realise it takes almost an hour to put 600 people on a plane.  Miranda and I had middle seats four rows and 7 seats apart, so we saw each other twice the whole flight.  Minimal sleep, lots of movies (Shrek ever after (twice), The King's speech, a report on balancing life with working in medicine, and  I Love you Phillip Morris (which was a gay romance with Jim Carrey the con man, no reference to the tobacco manufacturer).  We boarded St John's at 5:20 pm Apr 28.  At 1 am Newfoundland time I checked the travel map, and we were over Cornerbrook, NL.  Odd.

Owen and Kate's plane was to have a four hour layover in Toronto, but that same wicked wind storm that caused all those deadly tornados in the US meant that they were even later for their plane.  They lost the seats with the extra leg room that mom had paid for, and their luggage comes today.  Miranda lent Kate clothes, and Owen just called it Urban Camping.  The hotel gave them toothpaste that was so old it came out as chunks and dust. 

It was raining lightly in Paris, and we were tired, so we spent the extra $20 and took a taxi instead of the metro to the hotel.  We missed all the early spring flowers, so "Paris in Spring" looks like thousands of dead tulips. 

Experiences in the bathroom of a "4 star". 

My Priceline booking was screwed up.  Wrong dates, and there are no rooms in this hotel with two beds, only a sofa bed.  They fixed the dates, and told us it would be $260 for the second room, no negotiations although I said we would go elsewhere.  Since there were only four 4-star hotels in this district, I tried priceline again, and got a room down the hall for $105.  The hotel "upgraded" us, so we got two singles (my feet touch the end) and a little sitting area, where we had bread, cheese, fruit and juice after a 7 hour nap.  We played Trouble until midnight so we would sleep again, watched two minutes of the Royal Wedding, and crashed until morning.  How do people do 3 day total business trips to Europe?

I understand when a building is old and awkward, but this is the new part of town.  I would have expected and did not get: a tub that fills fast enough for me not to get so bored I give up, a toilet seat where the pieces line up, and toilet paper that doesn't remind me of junior high.  Single ply, not pleated, but stamped over and over with a blue Kleenex brand mark.  I guess that is to imply that's the best you can get, so don't whine.  Similar bathrooms in the mall, but dirty too.  Speedy jet hand driers though. 

Internet in the lobby for free, so I'll send this now (as well as post it to Miranda's blog) and hit the hotel gym and sauna before breakfast.  Hopefully they will earn the stars.

Alia

PS Very nice steam room.  Everyone got connected up, but it took until midday May 1 to get Owen and Kate's luggage.

Leaving today!

Packing and repacking. We are nearly ready to leave for the airport. My brother is making sandwiches. Three hours to Toronto. Seven hours to Paris. I hope the battery on my eReader lasts that long! It should, on a full charge. Just to be certain to have reading material, I'm bringing a normal book.


These days I'm reading the Guardians of Gahoole series. This is the story about owls that they made a major motion picture out of. I read the back of the book for an idea of what it's about. There are two barn owls who live in this one place and they've never flown before. Then they get kidnapped and taken to an "orphanage" that isn't really. It's evil. They escape somehow, but I don't know how yet, and they join up with two other owls and decide that the best way to get back to Owl City is to find the Guardians of Gahoole. The Guardians are basically Owl crime-fighters. More later!


I also nearly finished two weeks of homework that my teacher gave me. Thanks, Madame! I have a duotang of Paris homework sheets about the city to fill out when I get there.


Mom is taking her "Paris for Dummies" book with her on the plane. Maybe there are some ideas for where to go when we get there.


I'm nervous and feeling feverish with excitement! I'll write again from Paris.


Bye for now,
Miranda

Starting a Blog for a trip to Paris

It's the day before Good Friday, spring break has almost started and, IT SNOWED! But, that doesn't matter because in 7 more sleeps I'm off to Paris with my mom, my grandmother, my uncle and my aunt. 


Where we're all from: first off, me and my mom live in Newfoundland. My grandmother lives in Manitoba, and my Aunt and Uncle live in Ottawa.  We are all very exited for this trip and have been planning for months!


I will be posting on this blog to outline some of the finer details of the trip and also as an aide-memoir. I will also be posting about other trips like this in the future!


PS: I got my last baby tooth pulled out at the dentists today!