No Friday

We’ve been taking it fairly easy since getting back from Africa, adjusting to life, post-wedding and honeymoon. I think I’m finally starting to feel normal. Normal enough, at least, to write a long blog post.

We got into Boston a few Saturdays ago, the afternoon of August 16th, and, after clearing customs and catching a cab to Meagan’s parents place, we were greeted both by family and the fourth quarter of an Olympic water polo game - the US Men’s team’s first round against Croatia. I’m a former water polo player (high school and college), and the Olympics are pretty much the only time ever to watch water polo, so we delayed catching up with the family in order to watch the US hold on and upset Croatia - it was a great game, and the US went on to win the silver medal, which is way better than anyone expected.

Our time in Africa was fantastic, as I’ll soon write about, but it was nice to be back in a more familiar setting. Saturday night, we had a nice dinner (during which I was made fun of for almost falling asleep several times). After dinner, despite being exhausted, I forced myself to stay up, which was aided by the promise of seeing Phelps win his eighth gold medal and seeing Usain Bolt win gold and break the world record in the 100m dash.

Sunday, due to jet lag effects we got up brutally early, but we had a leisure morning, stopping at the awesome Flour Bakery, followed by chilling in Cambridge, including hanging with Meagan’s college friend, Ken. We then wrapped up our day and a half “layover” in Boston and caught an evening plane back to Seattle.

The first week home was mostly a blur. On Monday, I decided to remind my team of my existence by stopping at Top Pot donuts to pick up a dozen. But mostly, I felt out of it the entire week. At work, I caught up on things; at home, I struggled to stay awake until ten, aided by watching random Olympic sports with Meagan - gotta love Synchronized Swimming. I couldn’t have been happier when Friday arrived.

After work, we enjoyed some happy hour wine bottles and grub at Black Bottle (a Belltown place that I liked when it first opened, then loved to hate for its then nascent popularity, and now finally admit it’s still pretty cool), followed by dinner at Cafe Lago in Montlake with Melissa and Alex. I love Italian food and can’t believe I haven’t been there before - their lasagna was amazing - simple, but delicious, with perfect noodles, a great homemade marinara, and wonderful ricotta. I’ll be going back for more.

Saturday was fantastic, with no real commitments for the first time since our return. We slept in a bit, then had breakfast the the Portage Bay Cafe, which is quickly becoming my favorite breakfast spot. We then spent the afternoon and evening on the boat with our friends Val and Andrew. Being on the water was perfect, simply cruising around, enjoying beverages and sunshine, and desperately trying to maintain our vacation color. We capped off the day with dinner at I Love Sushi. I think I define my non-adventure times too much by places we eat…

The past week was mostly another survival routine - sleeping a little better, but still not feeling “quite right”. Most evenings, I spent playing with the ~2500 pictures I took in Africa, trying to make some sense of things. Based on some reviews, I decided to give Adobe Lightroom 2 a try, and so far, I’m liking it a lot. I don’t pretend to know much yet about good photography or photo editing, but I like playing. I’ve been cataloging, tagging, flagging, and rejecting like mad, and am hopeful that Lightroom will help me in my quest to streamline my photo organization. I’m also playing around with some different software and services for managing photos on the web, so I’m pretty much overhauling the entire photo operation. I’m close to having things in a happy enough state.

Labor Day weekend started with the wedding of our friends Ben & Stina. It was our first wedding as a married couple, and it was definitely refreshing to be on the other side and be able to relax and enjoy the event - although, due to my slightly late departure from work, the start was slightly less than relaxing as I drove like made and we made it just a few minutes before the ceremony started. Theirs was really fun and unique, especially in the music department - Moby for the processional, AC/DC’s Thunderstruck for the recessional. Awesome.

Saturday, we had breakfast at Macrina in Belltown, followed by chilling at Vivace in South Lake Union - starting the weekend long theme of continued photo tinkering. Saturday night, we had dinner at home with Tim & Elizabeth - I think this is the first time I cooked something substantial since returning. We had a “Cooking Light” recipe of steak frites, but I don’t think they quite intended the portions I made. We roamed around the Ballard Market on Sunday, picking up a lot of vegetables and some salmon. Labor Day was even more laid back.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I was able to realize the primary fringe benefit of marrying Meagan (and the first official use of our marriage certificate) - membership at the UW gym. Woohoo! We’ll see if I work out with any regularity - snowboard season is around the corner, which is a bit of an incentive.

I am sure I have rambled on too much with the minutiae of post-vacation life, but I hope to pick up the pace and spice things up a bit in the next few weeks. Now that I have the wedding and Africa photos down to a manageable size, I’m planning on posting some more photos, accompanied by a few stories about the wedding and our adventures in Tanzania. Stay tuned!

I’ve finally posted pictures from our honeymoon to Tanzania on nofriday.com.

• Part 1
• Part 2

I’ve only done minimal filtering, so there are a lot to go through. I have lots of stories to tell, so in the upcoming weeks, I hope to sort through the pictures, highlight the special ones, and narrate our trip.

In the interim, here are some ones I quickly pulled out. I have many more wildlife pictures to show - this series mostly focuses on some non-native mammals.

It’s Sunday morning in Boston. We’re relaxing at Meagan’s parents’ place with some coffee and pastries. Tonight, we complete the return home to Seattle.

The trip has and honeymoon has been fantastic, but I must admit to being a bit homesick for friends, modern conveniences, good food, and my own bed, so it’s good to be back in some ways.

We’re on Zanzibar for another four nights. We’ve been here for five days but internet hasn’t been working. Such is life here, we haven’t missed it a lot.

Safari was fantastic, too much to tell right now - I have lots of pictures and words when I get back.

The last five nights we’ve been in Matemwe Beach, on the northeast part of the island. After days of being in a dusty vehicle hunting for leopards (figuratively, of course), we’ve done little here besides lounge by the poolside, drink passionfruit cocktails, swim a bit, and read a lot. I’ve tried teaching Meagan some water polo skills.

Today, we head to Stone Town for some urban adventure and then two more nights at a beach on the south part of the island.

Today we spent our third and final day in Moshi, again hanging out with Greg and checking out one of the projects he’s worked with, this time a vocational school outside of Moshi. Too many things to write about now, the highlights were helping them install soccer goals, meeting the wonderful Sister Clarissa, eating the best avocado I’ve ever had, being stuffed into a daladala (more on that when I get home) and being chauferred on a bicycle by a fifteen year old (four miles from the bus drop-off to the school). More on that later too - fortunately Meagan got a picture of it.

Tomorrow we’re off on safari, so incommunicado for about a week.

Meagan and I have been in Moshi, Tanzania for the last two days - it’s been an overwhelming blast so far. We’ve been tagging along with our friend Greg, who has spent two years here, and he’s been shepherding us from one project to another. Yesterday we checked out the town itself, including two local markets. Today, we visited a local hospital and stopped by a town called Himo outside of Moshi. It’s hard to pick a highlight so far, but hanging out at an outdoor bar with four folks that Greg used to work with would be up there. Great people here.

Tomorrow we’re off to visit a vocational school and help install some soccer nets and netball court, and then Saturday we’re off on Safari for a few days. I’ll write more about everything when we get home.

Meagan and I just arrived at our hotel in Moshi, Tanzania. It’s Tuesday night here. We left Boston Monday night (with a bit of a close call), transferred in Amsterdam, and now are in Africa. More details to come. Our friend Greg graciously met us at the airport and took us in a cab to our hotel. Things are great so far. We’re here until Saturday and then off to the Serengeti.

[Originally intendend to be posted on Friday afternoon (7/25)]

The days leading up to wedding weekend have been a blast.

The fun started on Tuesday night when I left Seattle after a furious packing effort (packing for both a wedding and an Africa trip is a bit challenging). One minor glitch was, of course, leaving my suit in the living room when the cab arrived. 1/3 of the way to the airport I realized my gaffe, had the cab turn around, retrieved the bag, then sweated for 20 minutes hoping I’d make the flight I was already cutting a little close. $72 and, fortunately, a slightly delayed flight later, I made it.

I arrived in Boston Wednesday morning. Meagan and I relaxed at her parents’ place and made an afternoon departure for Vermont. We checked into the Inn and settled in. In the evening, we drove through the pouring rain to St. Johnsbury, where we met most of the Valerios - my parents, brother, grandmother, and several aunts and uncles at Elements. The food was fantastic, but even better was spending time with family in the middle of Vermont. It promised to be the start of a great weekend.

Yesterday, we fought through jet lag and had breakfast at the Inn - we had a great kale and spinach omelet with a sweet potato hash and a cinnamon bun. Fred wouldn’t tell me how to make the sweet potato hash, but it’s something I’ll be trying to recreate. More of the Valerios dropped by the Inn on Thursday afternoon. Afterwards, Meagan, her mom, and I headed into town to run some errands, the first of which was to get our marriage license - it was good to get that minor detail out of the way. Afterwards, we loaded up on food, beer, wine, and liquor. When Meagan and her mom were pushing two shopping carts full of supplies from the liquor store, they prompted several “where are you guys going?” comments. Awesome.

After that, we headed to the recently reopened River Garden Cafe in East Burke for dinner. They were closed due to a flood several months ago. The food was delicious - Brian and I were both loving the sweet maple syrup balsamic vinaigrette. Last night’s dinner was just with our immediate families, and it was good to have a smaller gathering before the festivities start in earnest. After dinner, the rest of the Valerio crew joined us at our room, and we had some fun post-dinner festivities.

Today is Friday, we had another great breakfast (waffles with lemon butter and stewed apples today). Meagan and the mothers are off to have their nails done, and I am waiting for my brother, dad, and uncles to pick me up for a bike ride. The weather is finally clearing - it’s been raining since we arrived. Hopefully the sunshine will stay, but if not, I am sure it will be a good time…

Finishing packing, waiting for cab, heading east…great things await.

At last night’s Mariners/Red Sox game:

Start of a resurgent trend? Bring back the rat tail!

Oh, and, go Sox!