That's right, Billy, I'm back!

All,

For those of you still checking the blog on a regular basis, I've decided to grace you with a post direct from me. A late Christmas gift perhaps? Amy and I returned from South Africa/England/France on January 1, but I was pretty much running on empty for the first two weeks after the return. A severe chest cold that I contracted in England gradually evolved into pleurisy (inflammation of the lining of my right lung) and two weeks and an ER trip later I'm finally back to bristol condition. By now I hope you've all seen the pictures from all three legs of the trip? If not, please shoot me an email and I'll send you a link to share the slideshow with you.

More to come this week. For real! Blessings,

Nate

Observation of the week: (or the past 3.5 months)

Separated at Birth?
Ben Bernanke-Chairman of the Federal Reserve













Boris the Blade-Uzbek Mobster from "Snatch"

Scenery Pictures

Top to bottom:
Table Mountain view and the "Table Cloth:
Flock of Penguins at Simon's Town
Nate relaxing in Knysna
Plettenberg Bay Beach

animal pictures!

In order:
Azlan the Lion - right? At the safari in Schotia
Nate's favorite, the cheetah (at Spier Winery)
Elephants on Parade, Addo Elephant Park
Perfect Symmetry, Schotia Game Reserve
Cape Cobra!

home safely: but what day/time is it?

hi everyone! we are home safe and sound in seattle and thoroughly happy to be back. don't get me wrong - the trip was fantastic! but it's always so nice to return home to your own bed after a few weeks away!

paris by night was fun. i say "by night" because we didn't see it by day at all... on 12/31, we both spent all day in the hotel room--feeling unwell. i stepped out a couple times to pick up some staples from the boulangerie (ie, baguettes and chocolate pastries!), and also bought a bottle of champagne for NYE (actually, it was prosecco...i come all the way to paris and can only find an italian deli from which to buy sparkling wine).



staying in all day was smart, though, because we had to save our energy for new year's eve! we headed out around 8 pm to meet our friends seth & cara to ring in 2008. walked to the champs elysees, the tree-lined street alit with gorgeous purple 'raindrop' lights; then made our way to a bridge on the seine, looking off to the eiffel tower. this is where we welcomed 2008, passing around a couple bottles of champagne and a huge bag of candy that nate spent way too much on (but it was yummy). made our way back to the PACKED metro -- we let 2 full trains pass us by before squeezing on to the next -- and headed back to our hotel.


the alarm went off much too early at 8, and i was not feeling so well (too much bubbly, too little food -- a classic combo), but we made it to the airport and had relatively uneventful flights home. again, i use my words judiciously: "relatively uneventful" because when we were waiting to board the flight in paris, we had to quickly evacuate the loading area when the workers discovered some unattended baggage. turned out to be nothing, but we were feeling grateful that the concern was taken seriously enough to move all of us, just in case.

i've been downloading pictures off the camera all morning (500!), and intend to send a link to the lot of them at some future point. for now, i'm attaching a few highlights here to encapsulate the trip! (also just posted another posting of pictures-only!)

big love to you all, and thanks for following this while we were abroad!
xo,
*A & N

bon ani!!

oui oui! we are in paris! warning: if there are odd characters or poorly spelled words here blame it on the keyboard!!

we arrived to paris yesterday around 4.30pm and took the metro to our hotel in porte doree. bit of an adventure finding the right metro line and then our hotel, but now we are more aquainted with the system. we checked in to our teensy hotel room and then crashed for a couple hours...no sleeping on the train as there were 3 "chatty" children in our car! our hotel sits above the metro so we hear it rumble by every 5 minutes; similar to a place we stayed at in london a few years ago!

anyhow, we got ahold of our friends from san francisco (seth and cara) who are also here for new years and met them at notre dame, then went for dinner at a random italian place and ended up closing the place down. they just got engaged while here - hurrah!!

this morning i headed downstairs to have breakfast with our other friends (erika, heidi, and tony) who are here from seattle and staying at this hotel too. then wandered the streets to find a drugstore and boulangerie for baguettes and pastries. my french is awful and i keep lapsing into spanish, but so far we have managed (though we now have 3 types of cold and cough medicine as i couldnt figure out what we really needed...!)

poor nate is still not feeling well, and i fear i may be getting something too, but we will try to rally onward into 2008!! our plan is to meet up with the SF folks again tonight and see where the evening takes us - probably to the champs elysees.

xoxoxo and happy new year to all!! can,t wait to see you all soon!!!

48 Hours in London, 44 in Paris

The last 2 days in London have been great! Nate's not feeling well, but he's a super-rallier and rolled with the punches yesterday as we had a very full day: breakfast x2 (first for a hot brekkie for me, then to Sbux for something a little ligher for Nate!), then a bit of shopping for me, off to White Hart Lane to watch the Tottenham Spurs win a thriler (6-4 over Reading), and then hopped back on the tube into the theatre district to catch a whirlwind dinner (with a nice Glaswegian couple we met in line while waiting for dinner -- we opted to merge tables with them to get seated faster), then to see "History Boys." Phew!!!

Now we're in the Hilton lobby getting ready to leave Islington and off to Paris to meet up with some friends to ring in 2008...Looking forward to catching a few winks on the train as we haven't been able to sleep well in this hotel (the walls must be made of paper...)

XO!
*A & N

On the move again

Heading into London tomorrow! Hoping to stroll around the city, find some good meals, and maybe get to a Tottenham Hotspur match on Saturday if all works out. Then off to Paris to meet up with some dear friends for a festive ringing in of 2008!