We Came for the Submarine and Stayed for the OMSI

One of the first things we noticed about Portland was all the bridges.  Probably the second thing we noticed was that from one of those bridges you can see a submarine!  Turns out, it's a submarine you can tour at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). We totally had to do the tour.

Before you go aboard, they actually make everyone step through this little hole, so you know you're in for fun.

It was basically the most fun we've ever had and now all I want to do is tour so many more submarines. Any Westbrooks want to take a trip to Cleveland?!

We went for the Submarine tour, but turns out the OMSI is no slouch either.

Eddy especially liked the name of this restaurant in the museum.

Also, he forced me to collaborate with him to assemble this wooden puzzle.

The man loves puzzles.

Nothing works up a thirst like a day full of Science, so we ended up here at Chapel Pub (or beer church, as I like to call it.) This joint is totally homey. Rumor has it they have delicious tots. Also, it's in our new neighborhood, so we might as well just have all of our mail forwarded here.

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Some of This and Some of That

After all that *hard work* we did in Montepulciano for the DP^2 wedding, we needed to take it easy for a few days in Florence before heading home.  We did a little of this:

And some of that:

But mostly this:

Then we went home because, boy, were we tired!

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Karakuchi, Wan-Wan and Sticking Our Heads Through Stuff

Eddy and I have been hankering to go back to Japan lately--craving Japanese breakfast, talking about ticket meals, looking longingly at our waving kitteez. Thank goodness Houston has a Japanese Festival each year. It's not nearly as wicked cool as the St. Louis version, which is just amazing beyond words. But it did satisfy our desire for karakuchi.

We also saw some ikebana demonstrations

and some kamishibai

When we were listening to kamishibai we learned that in Japan dogs say "wan-wan" so we are trying to teach Norman. Finally, we partook in the much-loved Japanese tradition of sticking your face through cut outs.

Sticking one's head through stuff is an important Asian tradition, both in Hawaii and Japan.  I swear.  

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Fredericksbeer

When we finally made it to Fredericksburg, we focused our time on beer. We stayed at Fredericksburg Brewing Co.

They have themed rooms there and we stayed in the Admiral's quarters.

In addition to beer, Fredericksburg also has a Japanese Garden,

some interesting shopping,

and statues

all of which we chose to mock.

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Our Favorite STL Haunts

Recently, I whisked Eddy away to St. Louis to celebrate our anniversary. While there, we went to the same ole places. Well, the same ole places that we loved when we lived there. Here's our old apartment.

When we visit STL, we always stay about a block away from our old place, so we always swing by. Speaking of our old hood, we hung out in the loop of course.

We ate at Blueberry Hill not once,

but twice.

Even though it was freaking freezing, we also made it out to Ted Drewes.

And we couldn't call it a trip to St. Lou unless without a trip to Mangia, where we were married.

Stay tuned because we did actually do more than just eat things on this trip.

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School's Out for the Winter!

I graduated from Library School! I took my last final on December 6th and a celebration ensued.

Today I am enjoying my last College Release Monday off of work before I have to start working 5 whole days a week like a normal person. I am also applying for my first librarian job! Wish me luck!

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Cards Lose Yet Again

Last Monday, we went to the Astros vs. Cards game on a bit of a whim. Cards lost again. *sigh*

Ah well, at least there was beer.

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Edinburgh -- Once More

So, apparently there are a lot of programming languages related conferences in Edinburgh. I have been there once, twice... and I just came back from my third time there in the past year. You can be sure the kitties didn't want me to go:

This time, however, I only gave myself two actual non-travel days, to go to the LFMTP and LfSA workshops at the big FLoC mega-conference. This didn't give me much time for fun. In fact, mostly I stayed in my room working on a paper:

although I looked longingly out the window:

But it was not all boring. I did get some awesome, spicy Indian food in my room:

and, as a treat, I passed by a place on my walk to the conference that sold gooseberries!

I had never had gooseberries before, so I got some, and they were delicious! Kind of like grapes, but different.

And, of course, no trip to Scotland is complete without a dinner with beer; the food was from the dorm cafeteria (they put us up in dorms at the University of Edinburgh), but the beer made it all better:

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Happy Easter Everyone!!!

So, yesterday was Easter. Being the heathens that we are, we thought we would just ignore the resurrection of Our Lord.We tried; we spent the whole morning running errands. In the end, though, even we couldn't treat this day like a normal Sunday. So we did what you are supposed to do during Easter: we enjoyed ourselves!

First, we went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. The movie ended up being kind-of disappointing; Tim Burton, why have you become such a sell-out?!? It was fun, though, and see how cool we look with 3D glasses on:

Then we went to Rudyard's, our favorite Houston bar, to sit outside and enjoy both the beautiful weather and each other's company (aww) over some beer and cheese-sticks. Look at us with our drinks (we had some super-sweet videos of us enjoying our beers, but Nicci deleted them... bad Nicci):

Then, after dark, we went by our favorite fountain. It is pretty neat: it has 8 different water spouts, which synchronize in different patterns:



Look at it go!

It was, all in all, a super-good day. Just look at how happy I was at the end of it:

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We Got Pastier

Every time we fly into IAH we end up going through customs with some flight from the Bahamas. We always joke that on our vacations, we actually get more pasty rather than more tan. So here's another of those trips.

Eddy attended a meeting in Oxford, so of course I had to join him. Oxford was beautiful--sunny, warm, quaint, gorgeous! I enjoyed the Bodleian and the Ashmolean on my own.

Then we went to the botanical gardens. One of our favorite sites was J.R.R. Tolkein's favorite tree, topped only by the carnivorous plants room.

We topped it off with one of the best meals we have ever had! We ate at Jaime's Italian--owned by Jaime Oliver.

We started with the most delicious appetizer of freshly made buffalo mozzarella topped with a potent pesto. Then we each had a delectable pasta.

We also stopped off at the Eagle and Child where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein used to meet with their Inklings group.

Then we hopped a bus to London for a few days. After quaint, sunny Oxford, London was a bit of a rude awakening. The weather was chilly and damp and the crowds were a bit overwhelming. Still, we had a great time at the aquarium

and the London Eye.

We also managed to stumble onto a international chocolate festival. Can't go wrong there.

We made it to Tate Modern and my beloved V&A.

Finally, we celebrated our return to warm, sunny Texas with a trip to the pool where we attempted to get at least a little less pasty.

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