The long slow death of summer

Is anyone else just ready for a cloudy day and temperatures to dip out of the 90's? I don't think I'm asking for much since we are just a few days away from OCTOBER.
Seriously, my "reverse-seasonal depression" is well and alive right now. I feel I can't escape the blinding sun and repressive heat unless I'm tucked away in my bedroom with the windows drawn and the a/c down to 70.
When will there be clouds and breeze and crisp air and boots and scarves and stews and slippers and cold noses?
Right now I feel it's as far away as Easter baskets. What I wouldn't give for a "Winter Home."

Tiny Moment

One of my many (many) goals for this season of retirement, is making sure I carve out time for meditation, prayer, and journaling. You'd think it would be an easy goal since I also seem to have time to watch 3 episodes of RHONJ back to back, but not so much.
Setting aside time to just be still, is probably one of the most challenging parts of my day. So to help, I've set up a little nook in our bedroom.
It's just an old coffee table that I've pushed against the window. There is no room for a chair, and it is literally wedged between our dressers, so it involves me crawling on my knees to get there. But that is another part of its charm.
And I do feel hidden away in this corner, and all I have is the view of sky out the window and a few books, journals, and flowers on my "desk."
Like everything else about this stage of life, it's a bit uncomfortable, new, and bare. But it is quickly becoming one of my favorite places.

Do you have a hiding place that helps you step away from the world for awhile? Where do you go when you need to get away for a bit?

August in Paris

After our friendly reunion in Spain, James and I jetted off, just the two of us, for Paris. Since we were down to only two photographers, we didn't get as many pictures, but here are a few of us exploring the city of lights:

 Like the good little tourist sheep we are, we spent a hectic day at the Louvre, that is, us, and apparently every resident of Japan.

 I was most impressed by the Greek and Roman sculpture collection (mythology nerd alert!).

 James refused to leave the Louvre until we found The Code of Hammurabi (tax lawyer nerd alert!).

Since we don't handle stress exceptionally well, we found the Louvre a tad overwhelming. But we were glad to see the epic art pieces for ourselves.

Travel Tip: If you do get the chance to traipse through Paris, make time to visit The Orsay Museum. Filled with the works of Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas, Courbet, and many other geniuses, it is sensory overload. Plus, it is not nearly as crowded as the Louvre, so you can enjoy the works for longer.

Bicycle Trip to Versailles

Without a doubt, our favorite experience in France was our day trip to Versailles. Once again, Fat Tire was the way to go.

Before we got to the grounds, we stopped by a local market and picked up baguettes, meats and cheeses, and a bottle of wine for a picnic on the Versailles grounds.

The rest of the day was spent bicycling around the gorgeous grounds and exploring Marie Antoinette's old stomping grounds.

 This little guy is just one of the smaller chateaus built for Louis XV's mistress. She was obviously in it for love to live in such a dump.

Due to the large sides of the lakes, the gardeners weren't able to keep all the fountains on at once, so they worked out a system using red flags to warn each other when the king was about to turn a corner so as to turn one fountain off and another on before he saw it.

I use the same system for hiding Anthropologie purchases from James.

 Picnicking on the grounds, French royalty style.

 We also got to tour the Chateau as well. Apparently, Louis XIV was all about his calves, as they showcased his power, so James added a Longhorn twist to Louis' signature move.

 Although the Chateau was all grandeur and wonder, the outside grounds were our favorite. The manicured gardens have been shaped to mimic what they looked like in the 18th century.

Trying to take a picture without sunglasses, now reminded why I take pictures with sunglasses.

With a few days left in Paris, we managed to tour the Catacombs as well. The cemeteries were similar to New Orleans in that they had mostly above ground, elaborate graves.

The catacombs were something out of a nightmare. There were miniature sculptures designed by prisoners, gothic poetry etched into walls, and art made out of bones.

After resurfacing, we set our tourist goals on loftier sites and headed to Notre Dame Cathedral. Unfortunately, there was a large crowd, so I was only able to grab a couple of snapshots.

So that, in a sloppily written nutshell, is the overview of our European trek. It was worth the money, time, and indigestion, and I would highly recommend that if you ever plan a trip to Europe, do the EXACT SAME THINGS WE DID. Otherwise you will hate it.

So until next time, Au Revoir and/or Adios! We will resume our regular North American posts shortly!

There was no rain in Spain!

Finally, here are some pictures from our trip to Europe. I have not yet figured out how to upload my phone onto my new computer (#moderndaylivingfail), but here are the pictures from our "real" camera.

I'm breaking this trip up into two posts. This first one is about our jaunt to Spain with our lovely friends from Scotland, Austin, and Houston!

First, here's a picture of all of us:

(excuse the arrows, I stole this off of my facebook page)

So from left to right, we have: 

Eric and Brian. Brian went to UT Law with Greg and was in Houston for awhile, but he and Eric now live in Austin. 

Next, are Greg and Liz. They were our besties until they abandoned us for the exotic life in Scotland! Then there's us- obviously the most color-coordinated of the couples.

To the right of us are Alison and Andrew. Andrew works with James and is also good friends with Greg  and Brian, and Alison just moved to Houston after graduating law school, and I am so excited to have another girl friend in town!

And then there is sweet Julia and Troy. They joined us for the Barcelona leg of the trip, and I'm so glad they did! And if you ever want someone to take an amazing picture of you on an iPhone, Troy is your guy.

Ok, now that everyone's been introduced, here's a bit of info about the first part of our trip:

Sitges, Spain:

Sitges is a sleepy little beach town about 30 minutes outside of Barcelona. This was a great way to start our vacation since all we did was lay about by the hotel pool, sun on the shore of the Mediterranean, and drink Sangria while mingling with the locals. Muy Bueno!

 This was the view from Brian and Eric's hotel room! They had an amazing balcony which we took advantage of for pre-dinner cocktails and late night dance parties!

We also enjoyed the beach as well. I didn't know what to expect of the Mediterranean, but I'm certainly spoiled now. Calm, blue waters and picturesque mountain scanes will make it hard to enjoy Galveston (well, it's still hard to enjoy Galveston even if you haven't seen the Mediterranean).

 That guy's tank top is epic. I would totally rock it with Lululemon yoga pants and a bright head band.

And Sitges was so picture perfect, that I went ahead and took everyone's holiday card pictures while we were there. You're welcome!

Don't we have good looking, preppy little friends?! We also tried to do a girls picture and a guys pictures. The girl one was pretty easy to pull off:

But the guy picture was a process. It involved lots of "Jantz dance" and yelling. Here's a photo montage:

Like I said, the girl picture turned out great.

Once we thoroughly wrecked Sitges, our merry little group headed on to Barcelona. There, we met up with Troy and Julia:

Barcelona was fascinating. We got to know the city by taking a Fat Tire Bicycle tour with our uber cool guide, Buddha (seriously). Here are a few shots of Buddha and what all we got to see on our bike tour.

 I would take the time to label the buildings and what makes them special, but lets not kid ourselves, I barely cared at the time, and you definitely don't care now. 

(These are the steps where Columbus met Queen Isabella after discovering the New World aka Near Where Houston Is)

 Buddha! This picture does not do justice to his epic dreadlocks.

The classic monument to the NBA. Another favorite of Columbus.

Our tour ended at the beach in Barcelona. And interesting fact about that, is the sand has all been shipped in from the Sahara dessert, because there was no original sand at the beach.

Oh, and one of our group bikers, Rosie, got hit in the face by a soccer ball while we were there. It was quite the talk of the group for awhile, but I showed some restraint and didn't take her picture.

On our last full day, we went to Montserrat where James lit a candle for his grandfather, and then we toured two wineries:

 "The Amontillado! Ah yes, the Amontillado!" Edgar Allan Poe, anyone? Anyone?

If you've never been before, you need to put Barcelona on your bucket list. These pictures just do not even begin to capture how beautiful it was. We loved every minute we were there, and it would certainly be worth the effort to visit again someday.

Next up, Paris . . .