Brighton Beach Memoirs

We’ve wanted to get to Brighton for some time now. Last summer it was so rainy we never made it, but one sunny afternoon we packed up the Doodle and headed for the beach. Slightly more than an hour later, we were navigating our way through the rocks (not sure what the allure of rock beaches are) towards the water.

Brighton was a popular health resort town in the 18th century, but today it is sort of like what I imagine Coney Island to be like, but having never been, I can’t say for sure. It’s famous for its fish and chips, amusement rides out on an old wooden pier and is considered the “gay capitol of Briton”. There are quite a few shops and restaurants, we had lunch at The Eagle which I would recommend.

A must see should you find yourself there, is the Royal Pavilion. This spectacular structure was the weekend home of George IV and is full of amazing chinoiserie including lots of chandeliers featuring dragons and snakes. They wouldn’t let me take any photos inside, but you can look at the their web site – doesn’t really do it justice. While my favorite castle exterior is in Sintra, Portugal, this is my favorite castle/palace interior.

The highlight of the day was definitely watching the joy on Morgan’s face as she bounded through the water to catch various sticks. I think it brought her back to her puppyhood memories at Seaside. I am pretty sure she would chased that oar until she drown from exhaustion.

Morgan sunbathing

Wimbledon

A friend of mine from business school just started a job with the USTA and he was able to get some Centre Court tickets for the Gentleman's Quarterfinals. Saw Nadal play a Brit (Andy Murray) and Federer with only one rain delay. Overall it's a great event. Very English. A lot more people are wandering the grounds than I would have thought so it was actually quite crowded trying to walk around during the rain delay. The Centre Court crowd was kinda annoying - over eager to laugh at anything that gets yelled out from the crowd. The squirrel-like movements of the ball boys and girls was quite humorous - it's hard to see on TV, but watch them next time. Anyway, some photos.

Got my strawberries and cream.

Champ-to-be Venus looking bored during the rain delay.

Next year the retractable roof...

Roger dominating.

Big week for Spain.

The non-grandstand courts are pretty sweet - could step over a 3 foot wall and onto the court.

Another Celeb Sighting

Yes, this one is decidedly B list and maybe even further down the alphabet in the US - I am not sure how big she is there these days (I think she and her hubby had a show on MTV at one point).

Anyway, we saw Jordan (aka Katie Price) on her way back from a photo shoot on the beach in Brighton. She is basically the English equivalent of Pam Anderson. I must say, she looked great - jet black hair and crazy neon green and orange knee high stockings. She had a robe on (much to Greg's disappointment), but if I see any photos form the shoot, I will post them.

For anyone who doesn't know her, her is a shot of her with her husband Peter Andre

Istanbul, Turkey (What came first bird or country?)

Turkey (turns out some English bloke misnamed the bird - google it for more details) was on our list of places to see, but pretty far down the list and we were unlikely to make it there if we knocked down our places in order. However, Tiff got rave reviews from a co-worker that had just returned from Istanbul, and she also saw an episode of the Today show featuring Where in the World is Matt Lauer and he happened to be in Istanbul. Next thing you know we’re buying tickets. I must admit, I was reluctant to venture back to Eastern Europe after our Croatia experience, but I figured if that doofus Lauer can do it, then so can I.

Tiff had a business meeting in Switzerland so we met up at the Istanbul airport late on Friday night. The hotel we booked actually sent a guy to pick us up – eventhough it was after midnight which was pretty impressive. The late night desk staff was almost too friendly/helpful. It was 1am and while we did appreciate the sparkling water, we really just wanted to unpack and go to sleep but the guy went through some tour brochures and highlighted the sights on a map. Like I said, I’m sure we would have been more appreciative if it was 1pm vs 1am. Anyway, we stayed at the Sirkeci Konak hotel which is number one on Tripadvisor, and despite the prolonged check in process, I would highly recommend it for the friendly staff, moderate pricing, good restaurant, solid rooms and surprisingly nice fitness and spa facilities. However, if we had to do it over again, I might choose a different place purely due to location. The hotel is located in the “old” (old meaning 500 A.D) part of the city where most of the tourist attractions are located such as the Topkapi Palace, mosques, the Old Bazaar and the Yerebataban Cistern. We did spend one day powering through the touristy things, but we spent more time in the “new” (new meaning 1000 A.D.+) part of the city where the non (or at least less) touristy restaurants are located. We did make very good use of the lightrail system they had to take us across the river and between the two parts of the city. It was great, except that it stopped at the base of the hill on the “new” part of the city – called Beyoglu, so we had to hoof it up and down for every meal. Probably a good thing for the BMI but when it’s 80 and sunny and you’re used to London/Seattle weather it could be a bit much.

Tiff in front of the Blue Mosque (the Matt Lauer shot)



Tiff inside the Yerebataban Cistern




The Grand Bazaar


The Sultan's greeting room at the Harem of the Topkapi Palace



Me in the Harem


Eating a Turkish bagel. Tasty.


The first day we spent really just walking around getting our bearings. Hit a Starbucks (there were probably a half dozen we saw) for breakfast. Met an overly friendly (sensing a theme here?) Turkish guy who walked a few blocks with us and then pointed out the souvenir shop where he works. We quickly kept moving past the shop and kept walking across the river to Beyoglu. We stopped off at the Galata House restaurant for lunch. The food (Russian inspired) was OK, but it was a great setting because at first it was just us and the chef (who spoke very little English). After we ordered we were joined by a pretty annoying Englishman and his Russian girlfriend, but they provided some entertainment. After walking around Beyoglu we stopped into the House Café (really cool ambiance) for some cool/fruity drinks and then walked back to the hotel to get cleaned up. After being on our feet all day we decided to take advantage of our complimentary dinner at the hotel – it was actually really good. I must say that after the first day, I wasn’t loving Istanbul. It was hard to tell if the people were really friendly or if they were trying to lure you in and rob you, the men were pretty ripe and would just stare at women, the city is pretty dirty, and many of the restaurants had guys outside aggressively trying to get you in which can be pretty annoying.

Drinks at the House Cafe




Dinner at the hotel. They made me a delicious bass.


The plan the next day was to hit a couple of sights in the morning and then find a pool in the afternoon because Tiff was jonesing for some pool time. I guess that Muslims believe that standing water is dirty (they’re probably right) so there aren’t a lot of outdoor pools in Istanbul and the ones that are available are at very high end hotels that charged non-guests ~$100 / day to hang out. We hit Tokyo for lunch (Tiff was also jonesing for yakisoba after having some in Lisbon a couple weeks ago) but it clouded over in the afternoon so we powered through the rest of the sights we wanted to see, hit the hotel pool, sauna and hamam and then returned to Beyoglu for dinner at one of Istanbul’s many rooftop restaurants – 360. We wrapped up the day by sitting outside in a little alley where one of the local bars had set up a big screen for the Turkey v. Czech Republic football game. I had a couple of Efes Pilsens and Tiff tried some raki – which tasted to me like ouzo. We only stayed for the first half because Tiff had some work to do and the riot police were out so I thought it might be better if we were closer to the hotel. I was surprised at how subdued the crowd was during the first half. Some emotion when Turkey missed a good chance and also when Czech scored, but it was pretty limited. Of course Turkey came back from 0-2 by scoring the levelling and go-ahead goals in the span of 3 minutes. Update: Turkey repeated their miracle comeback by tying Croatia in the 31st minute of extra time. Actually, there was only supposed to be 1 minute of injury time and the clock read 31:04 when the ball was in the back of the net, so if anyone is reading this that really understands soccer please explain this to me in a comment. Anyway, Turkey is now in the semis of the Euro Cup and it was very cool to be there and see the energy of the city after Turkey’s victory.


Rooftop dinner at 360.


We spent the last day just soaking in the city. The sun came and went behind clouds so we never made it to the pool, but we stopped by Cremeria Milano for some of the best gelato I’ve had outside of Italy and we ventured out to the Bosphorus Villages for drinks at House Cafe and dinner at Banyan along the river. To me, this is when I really came to appreciate Istanbul and overcame my negative/culture shock initial impressions. It was really a stunning setting to be right on the Bosphorus at a well designed restaurant (the Turks must have inherited their design eye from the Italians) with the Asian continent on the other side of the bridge, the mosques dotting the skyline and the prayer chants filling the background. Not sure if we’ll have time, but we’d love to make it back Istanbul.


Typical bar snacks



Tiff at Banyan


Tiff calls this the "money shot"

Just Saying No in Lisbon

Portugal has been near the top of our list to visit for some time and it didn't disappoint. While we only made it to Lisbon and Sintra, we will definitely be back at some point to visit some smaller towns and beaches.

While yes, there are many San Francisco like elements, it reminded me more of a cross between Miami and New Orleans from an architecture perspective. While many of the buildings are abandoned they still have a ton of charm and the tiles and iron work was really beautiful. I also loved these Jacaranda trees all over the city with their beautiful purple flowers. The food was delicious and there was just enough to do to fill three days with a day trip to Sintra (could have done a day trip to the beaches but the weather was pretty so so) without exhausting ourselves.


We stayed at the Sofitel Lisbon. I am not generally a huge fan of the chain hotels, the HP employee discount was good and it ended up being a nice hotel in a great location - I would recommend it. Other highlights should you find yourself in Lisbon include a visit to the Confeitaria de Belem in Belem for 'pasteis da nata' which are little custard tarts. They sell them all over, but this place is suppose to have the best - supposedly they are cranking out up to 20K a day of these on a weekend day. We decided earn our treat buy running the 4ish miles to their location west of down town, but took the lightrail back which was easy enough.

Another must try is the gambas a bras which is a paella-like dish but rather than rice, it's made with julienned crispy potatoes with onion, egg and shrimp. We had this twice a restaurant called Ribadouro (just up the hill one block from the hotel) which was delicious. Other restaurants we tried included Luca which had a good atmosphere, but the food was so so - probably better for a drink instead of dinner. We also ate at the Royale Cafe (perfect for breakfast or a quick lunch in a cool atmosphere. We also had our first Brazilian food in Lisbon at a cute spot called Comida de Santo with great food and service.

Our day trip to Sintra was also fun. We took a train to out to this UNESCO world heritage site and a bus to two different palaces - Palacio National and probably my favorite castle in Europe thus far, Palacio de Pena. de Palacio Pena has really different architecture then most castles with gargoyles and this very cool Triton.


The only sort of creepy part of Lisbon is the drug scene. The first night we were there Greg was propositioned quite openly nearly ten times. First they would try to interest them with hash and when he declined that they would offer up cocaine. We wondered if he is just so skinny they figured he was an addict or what as we didn't really see anyone else getting quite the same level of attention. Once he said no to both offers, they left us alone so we never really felt scared, just thought it was odd.

It was another great trip and we will be back sometime in the future.

Home Sweet Home

It's hard to believe that we went nearly nine months without a trip to the states/home, but at the end of April we headed back to the West Coast for Greg's brother's wedding. We were both able to tag a week of work on which helped us really maximize our trip with lots of quality time with friends, family and some hardcore shopping.

I was very excited to be back in Seattle but also a bit nervous - what if I didn't 'fit in' at work or with my friends anymore. Thankfully, that wasn't an issue, and in many ways, it felt like we never left. For the most part, not all that much has changed in Seattle since we left. The biggest exception being that they FINALLY finished the flipping of the house next door to ours- I'd say this will help our property value considerably!

Our first week back was hectic with trying to work, managing doctor appointments and seeing friends but it was well worth it. Several of our friends had children before we left and it was amazing to see how much they had grown over the past year. It was really fun to see get to know their personalities.

We were fully de-jetlagged in time to enjoy the second week of the trip where we were officially on vacation and things were considerably less hectic. One of the many highlights of the trip was a group dinner with most of our closest friends at Herb Farm. Karen secured us a private room and we manged to behave ourselves for the most part. A few of us stayed over at Willows Lodge, which was really nice - very relaxing and a great spot for a future weekend away.

Early in the second week, Greg set off for a boys golf trip to Bandon Dunes (see photo below) which granted me some great girl time with my sister Nicole. She had the week off and came up to Seattle for a few days to hang out. We had a fun time shopping around and being 'ladies that lunch'. It was also really nice to finally introduce her to many of my Seattle girlfriends after hearing about each other over the years.

Mid-week, Nicole and I headed down to Portland. After a bit of tax free shopping, I made my way out (way, way out :-)) to Forest Grove for a great dinner with Nikki. They recently built a beautiful new home - I don't know if I envy her farm sink or home theater room more...it's tough to see their 'posh' new home when our flat in London doesn't even have a clothes dryer!

The next day Nicole treated me to a lovely spa day at her fabulous new gym. It was great preparation for the wedding festivities that kicked off that night. Saturday we were able to meet up with my dad and Jan and hear about their preparation and plans to spend three months on the boat this summer in Canada - I sure hope they both make it back in one piece!

Greg's brother, Todd and his beautiful wife, Sarah, had a lovely ceremony at the Benson. They had to have been the most relaxed bride and groom I've ever met. It was fun night, and I must say, Greg did a fantastic job with his speech - I was quite proud. It was fun to catch up with folks and meet some new people.



It was a busy trip, but we really felt fortunate to be able to see as many friends and family members as we did. It's a bit weird not having any visitors or trips home scheduled until we return in November, so don't hesitate to come over and see us!

Our trip wouldn't have been nearly as fun without the support of so many of our friends and family, and a few special thank you's are in order:

- Verhasselts - I had a great time hanging out with you guys. Thank you for driving me all over the Seattle metropolitan area and, as always, for the great conversation - even you T!

- Pannonis - Your seeming ease at amazingly gracious hospitality always amazes me. Thank you again for letting us stay (Nicole too), feeding us (especially the carne asada!) and introducing us to Guitar Hero!

- Tottens - I can't believe you changed the oil and re-newed our tags! Thank you for taking such good care of little H. Can't wait to see catch up over a good Chianti in July.

- MorDees - I had such a good time hanging out together! I soo needed that spa day. Not even sure where to start about the t-shirt - rocks.

- Hueys - Thank you for collecting all my packages :-). It was good to see you but when are you going to come visit?

- Newlyweds - We had such a great time at your wedding. It was a memorable night and we are thrilled for you guys - ditto on the visit for you guys too!

- Dees - I appreciate you making the effort to drive from Cathlamet. I know you guys are busy, so it means a lot.

-Huhs - Thank you for organizing HF and for the A - it saved my life! It was fun to meet Wasabi!

-Matthews - Thanks for a delicious dinner and a fun night - You MUST come visit!

We know how lucky we are to have you in our lives and feel really appreciative of all your love and support!!

Scotland Golf Day 2 and Days 3-7

Day 2 - The Old Course

We wake up to a glorious morning (it’s a little cold and pretty windy but no rain) and head downstairs for breakfast. There is a Starbucks in the town, but the concierge told us it didn’t open until after 9am “or so”. Sounded suspect to me, but we suck it up and figure we can pay the £18 fee for breakfast once during our stay. DW dives in with the full English Breakfast with baked beans and sausages. I snag a couple of apples for food on the course, but Dave has the brilliant idea of grabbing a couple of (small) boxes of cereal as well as a chocolate muffin. After a pot of coffee between the two of us, we are awake enough to grab the hotel shuttle in time for our golf lesson. Now, DW is normally anti-lesson because his swing is pretty fundamentally sound. In contrast, my swing is a little more temperamental shall we say. However, when I was booking the golf winter package (3 days of golf for £120 including one round on the Old Course) they were also marketing an hour long lesson where you could learn how to play links style golf. DW and I were both thinking learning to hit 50 yard putts, chipping with a fairway wood, playing the bump and run, knockdown 3 irons, etc. Lesson starts and the pro (David Armitage – nice guy but couldn’t have been more than 28) asks what we want to focus on. We say how to play links golf and his response was don’t play when it’s really windy and avoid the bunkers. After that, it was just a normal lesson, a good lesson, but nothing unique to links golf whatsoever. To DW’s utter surprise, the pro did not fall to his knees and praise DW’s swing. He actually had a few material changes. After hitting some balls, we headed inside for a putting lesson with a fancy laser-based system. DW made about 5 putts with his faulty form while I didn’t make one with far superior form. This is a trend that needs to stop. Anyway, the major change the pro makes to my stroke is my grip – I’ve “got Tiger’s grip now”. He makes about 6 changes to DW’s swing, the final change being the grip and to my disappointment – he is also given Tiger’s grip. Oh yeah, from the small talk, we learn that the pro goes to Starbucks every morning. I ask what time it opens and he says, “early – I get there at 7 and they’re already open.” So much for that concierge – although everything worked out in the end as it turns out the breakfast was included in the rate so we spent each morning loading for the day. It was little things like that falling into place that made us feel like we had karma on our side.

Onto the course. We ask the pro how to get to the first tee of the Old Course. We were expecting them to have some fancy shuttle or something, but he basically says – walk along the 16th and 17th and cut across the 18th fairway and you’ll run into the starter’s booth. Our first insight into Scottish golf – they are much less formal/judgemental than Americans in terms of golf. No fancy clubhouses, manicured grounds, fences keeping the public out, etc. – in fact, there’s a road – a public road – that leads to the beach that runs right through the 18th fairway of the Old Course. Crazy. Here we are on our way to the starter.

The Old Course was solid. It wasn’t what I expected at all. Playing it the first time, you don’t think it’s that hard because the fairways are pretty wide and the rough isn’t a foot tall. We’ve been told that the more you play it, the more you come to appreciate the strategy and shot making that is required. Anyway, we had to play off of these fairway mats (basically a small strip of driving range mat that we carried around with us), but you didn’t have to use them if you were 5 feet off the fairway. I’d say that we applied this exception liberally. I didn’t feel too badly about it, because the rule was only supposed to be in effect for a few more days. The greens were enormous which led to a lot of greens-in-regulation, but also a lot of 3 putts. Play was fairly slow so we joined up with a father-son twosome. They were locals so they pay £125 for a year of golfing. As soon as we heard that we put St. Andrews on my possible list of retirement locations. They were also the first of many to make a couple of comments that we heard multiple times: first – “are you guys students?” and second – “Seattle? I love that Frasier.”

Tally for the Old Course:
GSH: 87, 12 GIRs and a whopping 45 putts.
DWT: Need from DWT.
Skins: GH – 10, DW – 8

First tee

Don't worry about that hernia - take plenty of sand...

DW bangin' one off the hotel back into the fairway

Need to focus to hit the 18th fairway

Back to work...

Day 3 - The New Course
OK, I’ll state the obvious and admit that I’m very late in posting this, but I gotta get it written before we leave and our time in London is quickly coming to an end. Also, there were some complaints that I created a new post for Day 2 and thus causing confusion, so I’ve just added the rest of the days to the Day 2 post. Shouldn’t be too bad as my guess is that the rest of the posts will be considerably shorter since I can barely remember what I had for breakfast much less what happened 6 months ago. Anyway, onto the posting…

We head down for breakfast and it’s another “full English breakfast” for DWT along with a couple of muffins for the course. Dave has officially earned himself the new nickname of Muffin Top for the remainder of the trip. Today it’s the New Course and a couple of weathered Scots are teeing off in front of us complete with plaid knickers and everything. As we are getting set to tee off, a couple of guys come tearing up to the tee in a golf cart. This was the only cart we saw at St. Andrews as most people hire caddies or just carry their clubs (they don’t even allow carts on the Old Course). Anyway “the DBs in the cart” – as they came to be known, were tragic. They drove up near the greens, in the rough and alongside the bunkers and were right up on us eventhough there was nowhere to go. It seemed like they were in a huge hurry like they were trying to squeeze in a round before a flight or something. Muffin Top and I grew tired of their antics and decided to offer to let them play through. They quickly accepted the offer and we enjoyed the role reversal of playing right up behind them because when they asked the old Scots whether they could play through they were met with a chuckling “piss off” (or maybe it was something a little more colourful).

Fired up for the New Course

Not bad huh

The DBs in the cart

I saw another really cool thing on the New Course that illustrates the difference between Scottish golf and American golf. A couple of guys in the fairway over had their dog with them. He was just trotting along next to his owner. Now, I don’t think I’d try this with Morgan because she would try to chase after the ball, but they’d never allow this on a course the stature of St. Andrews in the U.S.

If you look closely you might see the dog

The New Course was another great course at St. Andrews, but if memory serves, we liked the Old Course a little bit more. I had a nice front nine, but the back was tough.

Tally for the New Course:
GSH: 86, 5 GIRs and a pedestrian 36 putts.
DWT: Need from DWT.
Skins: GH – 7, DW – 10

Day 4 - Rain, Wind and Jubilee Course
So, as we were driving from Edinburgh to St. Andrews I heard something on the radio about “gale force winds” and today was the day that the storm hit. As we came to learn, gale force is actually a technical term (google it) where your “progress is generally impeded”. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just windy. It was pouring down rain so we dressed as warmly and dryly as we could, stuffed our pockets with “little hottie” hand warmers and headed out to the Jubilee course. We should have known it was gonna be a tough day when we were greeted in the first fairway by a foursome of locals heading back to the clubhouse saying, “got the course to yourselves lads!”

Could be a tough day

I actually started out OK although the wind was comical. Most memorable shot I hit was a 3 wood from an elevated tee on a 140 yard par 3. Had to aim about 100 yards right. Two putt for par. After that, I learned first hand the meaning of “water resistant” versus “water proof” pants. After about 45 minutes my pants had soaked through, and while it was uncomfortable to have wet underwear, the worst part was that I couldn’t keep my hands warm by putting them in my pockets. Pretty soon I was whining incessantly. Tried to do everything to keep warm including jumping jacks but it was a lost cause. Probably funniest point was when I was taking a practice swing and I lost a hold of the club. It looked like I had thrown the club into the sea. Luckily there was a lower tee box where I was able to retrieve my 5 iron. That’s about all I remember about the Jubilee course. My scorecard disintegrated, but DW had me down for a 43/51 for a big old 94. I was just happy that I didn’t lose any fingers to frost bite.

We drove on the road that cuts through the 18th fairway of the Old Course and then headed back to Edinburgh with the heat on high. We also established some theme music to the trip because the radio station kept playing “Don’t Go Breakin My Heart” and we heard the ridiculous “United States of Whatever”. It was gonna be tough to dry out our stuff, but I spotted and snagged a space heater from the hall and that was huge. Needless to say, I immediately put waterproof pants on my Christmas list.

Strategy #1 for drying our stuff

Luckily, I snagged the space heater...

Day 5 - North Berwick - sweet!
After drying out the clothes and doing a bit of a pub-crawl in Edinburgh we headed east to North Berwick. This course was recommended to me by the pro at West Seattle and I have to say this was the most enjoyable round of golf I’ve ever had. The course was great, the people were really friendly and it was just a ton of fun. It was really really really windy again so scoring was pretty difficult, but there was no rain so no whining out of me on this day. I’m not poetic enough to do the place justice so I’ll just throw in a bunch of photos.

A wee bit of wind lads

If you look closely you can see the rock wall that snakes through the course

The wall is pretty big factor on this hole

Tally for North Berwick:
GSH: 94 (ugh, thought I had done better), 6 GIRs and too many (40) putts.
DWT: Need from DWT.
Skins: GH – 4, DW – 14

Day 6 - Carnoustie and last day in Scotland
Headed up north to Dundee to play Carnoustie. I must say, I didn’t love this course. Could have been that it just didn’t compare to North Berwick in its character. Also, they had a temporary green set up on the famous 18th so that was a bummer. Probably didn’t help that my swing was an absolute mess on the front nine – leading to a mind boggling 53. For me, the most memorable part of this course were the bunkers and the train that runs right next to the course. Anyway, I clearly was out of it because my score card doesn’t have any stats – just a 53 on the front and 44 on the back. At least I broke 100.

Number 1 at Carnoustie

Sadly our time in Scotland had come to an end. We made it back to the airport with time for a couple of last pints as Dave tried to get his PC to power up. It was a fantastic trip where everything seemed to go right (except for the rain on day 4, but we really can’t complain because it started snowing right after we left) but at the same time it was good to get back to London to see Tiff and the Doodle. Dave’s flight back home was the next day but we were able to squeeze in a round at Royal Wimbledon before I dropped him off on the Picadilly line to Heathrow. Hopefully we get a chance to make it back to Scotland soon.