Details on the first week of the RowStein reunion and my uncanny ability to inspire language related fear in service workers by merely appearing before them will have to wait for next time however as I still haven't had a chance to cover my last week and a few in the states. So without further ado:
Santa Fe
As I mentioned last installment I was able to spend a handful of days in Sante Fe with two of my closest friends from my music grad school days Chad and Brenda. Despite having seen each other with fair regularity in years since, I realized I had only heard her sing once at a tech rehearsal in Frankfurt over two years ago. Needless to say it was a fantastic experience, and I can't think of a better role to make her American debut than Violetta in La Traviata.
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| Behold the illegally snapped photo of the inside of the theater . . . such is the wanton disregard for the law I possess. |
The theater is a lovely semi-outdoor space with surprisingly good acoustics and even better sunsets.
Other than the evening at the opera, my time was filled with hanging out the two of them, hiking, and stuffing my face with as much mexican food as I could get my hands on. The latter happened too quickly to allow time for photos, but here are some pics of the former:
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| There are worse ways to spend a morning. |
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| The chiles are so you know you're in New Mexico. |
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| The hills around Sante Fe. |
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| A little Where's Waldo with some of the local wildlife for your viewing pleasure. |
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| He's easier to spot in this pic. I doubt I would have even noticed him if Chad hadn't pointed him out. |
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| The hike through the gorge at Tent Rocks National Monument. |
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| Lo! Tent Rocks! |
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| Nearly there, considering we were at 7000 plus feet at baseline I was definitely feeling a bit winded. |
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| The victors surveying their newly conquered domain. |
Portland
The trip to Portland was blessedly less eventful than the trip to Santa Fe had been, and before I knew it I was hanging out with Jess, Ez, Ollie, and the newest addition little Joshua.
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| "What the hell you grinnin' at" |
My time was spent hanging out with the familia. Jess is still on maternity leave, so I was able to spend time with the whole clan which was great. Skype really helps blur the time in between when you see friends and family in person, but I was still shocked to see how much Ollie had grown.
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| Look at that little man! |
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| The other kids are doing fine too :) |
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| It's hard to gauge whether the happiness is the result of a content baby or proximity to macaroons. |
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| Macaroons. Definitely the macaroons. |
Sadly this penchant came back to haunt me in the lead up to my departure for Japan. Knowing that some foods were going to be more difficult to come by in southern Japan I had a bucket list of things I wanted to eat before heading on my way, and one of them was over-the-top greasy American pizza.
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| 20 inches of ridiculousness. |
Unfortunately, it also came with a side of food poisoning . . . 48 hours before a trans-pacific flight. Sufficed to say it was a long couple of days though I'd passed the worst of it before boarding my first plane and was able to shake the remainder by the time the padres arrived.
Rather than leave things on that note however I saved a couple of pictures of cute kids and happy parents in a park :). Enjoy!
More on the first few weeks of travel in Japan soon. For now, thanks for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish.
DW
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