Thanksgiving in Cleveland

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving in Cleveland. We had a wonderful time thanks to parents and cousins of our sister-in-law Maureen. Hope you enjoy the pictures Mo!








And here's a picture of the outfit, Mom. Verdict?

Niagara Falls and Halloween

Since Teri spent the last week puffy cheeked and bleary eyed recovering from wisdom teeth extraction (ahem, no pictures), here are some pictures of our recent trip to Niagara Falls and our Halloween pie.

Inspired by the Jim and Pam wedding on "The Office," we decided to drive up to Niagara Falls and pay a visit to our friendly Neighbors to the North.We stayed on the Canadian side of The Falls and enjoyed a crisp, sunny day exploring this natural marvel. In full tourist fashion, we took a ferry boat ride to the base of The Falls. We learned that there are, in fact, three water falls that make up Niagara Falls: American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horseshoe Falls. It was pretty spectacular to observe the volume of water that constantly passes over.

We also took advantage of the "Behind the Falls Tour" which lead down dank tunnels embedded in the rock behind Horseshoe Falls.

Back in Cleveland... We "ain't got no home in this world anymore"... at least not at the moment, so the gracious parents of our favorite sister-in-law invited us over to hand out candy and bake in a real kitchen.
Armed with Grandma Wanda's recipe, we baked up a deliciously rich Jack-o-lantern pumpkin pie and enjoyed good company.

Lucy and Matt, your Grandma Beanie sends her love!

La luna e piena. Parte due.

We spent a wonderful twenty days in Sardinia, Italy, in August. We went horseback riding with Georgia our friendly guide who said, "I love America!" Also, we learned that other countries can be more lax on safety precautions than the US. At one point during our ride, Georgia turned and asked us if we wanted to trot. "Sure!" And with a simple "trotto," our horses took off while we were clinging onto our saddles with fingertips. Georgia found it amusing and we tried the "trotto" twice before giving up.

One of our favorite beaches on the Costa Smeralda was called Baja Sardinia and was a beautifully expansive white-sand beach with lots of rental umbrellas and room for families. We spent many days swimming in this turqoise water and sipping lemoncello at the nearby cafe.
Some of the beaches on the island required a bit of a hike to get there.
The Costa Smeralda is full of luxurious ports. This night, we dined with Matt's coworkers at a beautiful cove port called Poltu Quatu. We had delicious fresh oysters and great pasta.We also dined amongst the fabulous guests of Hotel Cala di Volpe.Here is a picture of our (more modest) hotel, called Hotel Nibaru. The groundskeeper, Mario, cheered us up everyday with a handshake and an Italian lesson. Hence, "La luna e piena." The room also came with one free espresso and one capucino per day. Italians love their coffee and so did we!We only spent one day at this hard-to-find beach called Liscia di Vacca, but we had a memorable time....... mainly because we got a parking ticket! After living in Greece, we became lazy about parking rules because there don't seem to be any. Thanks to a good friend currently living in Italy we were able to pay our debt to the Italian government. Phew. Thanks Oonagh!
The water was very salty and it was easy to float and swim for hours. Here's Matt finding his bouyancy equilibrium point.One day we caught the dive boat out to a lighthouse and snorkled around. There weren't many fish, but it was fun to be out on the water.

Here's a picture of an insalata caprese we prepared for Matt's co-workers. We were inspired by Italia.Our favorite beach was called Capricolli and we went every chance we got, even during lunch breaks in the middle of the day. It was great!Ahh, the beach...fun times are afoot. We liked the beach so much, we went back even after Matt tangled with a "medusa," or jellyfish which left big welts on his forearm. The friendly pharmacy ladies helped us out with topical treatments that drew the interest of the curious customers. Italians seem to have a different sense of personal space!Even though the ports of Costa Smeralda were full of fancy restaurants, the locals recommended some country restaurants that often required a curvy drive on dark roads back into the interior of the island. On warm nights, the patios were packed with gussied up Sardinians. We had to take a photo of a Florentine steak we ordered, (vegeterians avert your eyes) which came very rare and required further cooking on a hotplate at the table.

Alas, La Luna e peina. This was the August full moon which is reportedly the largest, as the moon is at its closest point in its orbit. The moon rose over the horizon to the applause of our fellow on lookers.

Buona Notte!!

La luna e piena. The moon is full.

It has been a while since our last post. So long, in fact, that we have since celebrated our third wedding anniversary, Teri's 29th birthday, traveled to Sardinia, welcomed friends from Portland to Athens on their honeymoon, and come "home" to Cleveland via New York. Now that we've settled in a little, we will try to update our long overdue blog. First things first: Italy.

In August, we were so lucky as to get to spend time on the Italian island of Sardinia. We were warned that Sardinia could be a "wild" place, but couldn't appreciate what that meant until we arrived at our little rental villa at the top of a hill. The dry, dusty roads leading up to the villa were just big enough to accommodate our little Fiat. We spent a splendid two weeks in this little apartment adjacent to our hosts, The Spellman's. From our hilltop we had views of the "Costa Smeralda," or Emerald Coast, and were privy to warm, dry winds that smelled of dried rosemary, sounds of horses, and even a wild pig! Here is a video of the road to our hilltop home, "Villa Cervo":

These videos took a REALLY long time to load, so we'll try to put up some still pictures of the trip in a second installment.

Delphi, Center of the World

Last weekend we ventured up into the mountains and to Delphi, which ancient Greeks thought was the center of the world. It certainly was special anyway!
On the advice of our Greek teacher, we stayed in a small beach town called Galaxidi. We stayed at a lovely little bed and breakfast in an old sea captain's house (here, called ahrontiko). They even made their own jams! It was a great breakfast.


Then we made our way up to Delphi. The ruins are pretty much, well, ruined, but we were able to use our map to imagine what it must have been like thousands of years ago.
Teri was on a mission to find exactly where the oracle sat when she gave her prophecies. We thought it must be up up up the mountain in a cave or something, but, after exhausting ourselves climbing up the hillside in the sun, the park guide told us that she sat in the Temple of Apollo. Oh well. We were in a hurry to get back to Athens to meet a friend for dinner, so we hustled up the "Sacred Way" at Delphi and then literally speed walked down to the Temple of Athena. It was a good way to work off remnants of the previous night's celebration.