Eurotrip 2007 - Paris

The whole point of our trip initially was to see the French Open. We applied for tickets late last year and when we were finally told we got them, we planned out the trip around the French Open.
We stayed only 3 nights in Paris and one of those days was at Roland Garros so our time in Paris was very limited. But as they say, it's quality, not quantity. We will never forget our first night in Paris.

Our first night was wet and cold but our hotel was very close to the Arc de Triomphe so we still went out to see some sites near the hotel.

The Champs Elysees


We climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It doesn't look that tall, but there are some serious stairs. When we finally got to the top, we had no idea the view would be so amazing.




It was here that I proposed to Donna, and she said yes!

Look how happy we look right after we came back down.


So, from one memorable day right to the next: the French Open. This is what we came here for. We had tickets for the third and final day of the first round.


When we first got the tickets, we were hoping that we'd get to see just one of Roger Federer or Raphael Nadal. We knew they wouldn't both play on the same day so there was a 1 in 3 chance that we wouldn't get either of them. When we got to Europe, the weather was horrible. The forecast said rain pretty much everyday and we were really worried that our day would get rained out. But to make up for the cruddy weather we had all trip, the rain Gods decided to rain hard on the first two days of the Open so almost all the matches got canceled and then the weather cleared up completely on day 3. That meant that we got to see all 3 days worth of matches including both Federer and Nadal. A bunch of other top name players also got pushed out to the smaller outer courts so we got to see them up close.

Nicole Vaidisova


Mr. Federer


Lleyton Hewitt


Rafa


Us at Court Philippe Chatrier


I still can't believe how lucky we got with the matches being canceled before and then having perfect weather on the day we were there.

With just one full day left in Paris, we did the most abbreviated tour of the Louvre you can imagine. In just about 2 hours flat, we saw the top 5 highlights of the Louvre and got the heck out of there. Hey, we were short on time.


Goofing off outside the Louvre later that night.


The time we picked to go up the Eiffel tower also had the worst rain of the entire trip. It was a downpour and gave us very little opportunity to take pictures.


From the top, there were just brief periods when the rain would lighten up enough for us to take out our camera and get a little visibility.


There was so much more we want to see in Paris, we will have to do another trip back.


Click on the albums to see more pictures!

Paris - May 28-31, 2007

Roland Garros - May 29, 2007

Eurotrip 2007 - Amsterdam

For our summer vacation, we took two weeks off to go to Europe. Our trip started with Amsterdam, but we flew in and out of London. We had to travel around to several cities in our trip so we decided to carry backpacks instead of trying to roll around luggage. Our flight from Chicago landed in Heathrow early morning but we were flying to Amsterdam out of Gatwick so we had some time to look around London.

10 pounds for the train into the city and then 4 pounds for a 5 stop subway ride? How do people afford to live here?


We had enough time between flights to do some quick sightseeing.


A short flight later, we were in Amsterdam. We stayed 4 nights and did all the usual tourist things. Before leaving for the trip, I asked Kush for a recommendation on where to eat in Amsterdam. He told me I had to eat at Maoz. It turns out it's a chain of falafel sandwich stores and stands. Who sends someone to a falafel store when you ask for a restaurant recommendation in a city half way around the world? Well, it turns out it really was the best falafel sandwich I ever had and I crave it all the time now.


Over the next 4 days, we saw a lot of Amsterdam.

The red light district.


We took a canal boat tour to see the disturbingly crooked buildings.


Another fine example of a house I would not feel comfortable in. If you stare long enough, you think you can actually see it tipping over.


Me in my size 50s.


Amsterdam was every bit as beautiful as people said it'd be.


The canals at night.


We knew they liked to ride their bikes in Amsterdam, but this was just crazy. They all look identical!


Some people told us we had to see the Heineken Museum. It turned out to be one of the better surprises of the whole trip. The Heineken bottle simulator is a must.

Rock Star.


Decoration at one of the 3 bars found inside the museum.


For 11 euros, you get a really fun tour, 3 free beers (extra fresh), and a really cool souvenir to take home. An excellent deal even if you went there just for the beers.

We also did a day tour outside of the city to see the countryside.
We saw some windmills


and stopped to see a clog factory


and also visited a cheese farm.


Other highlights of Amsterdam included the Van Gogh Museum and the Ann Frank House. I wanted to, but I could not get myself to try the raw herring sandwich. Perhaps next time.

That's the end of Amsterdam.


Please click on the albums to see more pictures!

Amsterdam - May 24-28, 2007

Zaanse Schans, Volendam, Marken - May 26, 2007

Next up, Paris!

Arcade Fire concert - May 20, 2007

The highly anticipated, sold out (all 3 nights!) Arcade Fire show was awesome! We got main floor tickets for Sunday night at the Chicago Theatre and the energy in the building was amazing! They are really good live!
Here is the setlist (they played so many songs!):

1. Wake Up
2. Keep The Car Running
3. (Antichrist Television Blues)
4. Black Mirror
5. No Cars Go
6. Haiti
7. Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)
8. Intervention
9. Neon Bible
10. My Body Is A Cage
11. Windowsill
12. The Well and The Lighthouse
13. Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)
14. Rebellion (Lies) <- this one was my absolute favourite!

Encore: Ocean of Noise, Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)

Chicago Bulls playoff game!

We got a chance to see the Bulls this year in Round 2 Game 4 of their playoffs! They weren't doing so well playing the Pistons but they did manage to win when we went to see them! Ben's fro was a little lopsided but it didn't affect his game too much. We got some Luol Deng towels and I even got a Bulls balloon hat (Christine has that picture... it was fun for a while)!

Oh well... next year maybe!

Vancouver, Whistler trip!

Post-exam de-stress was much needed so we tacked on a vacation, leaving for Vancouver the day after my exam! Jason, Diana, and Trung took care of transportation and eating! Special thanks to Jason for taking care of accommodations and driving us everywhere! Without you, planning vacation would've been more stressful :)

The first few days in Vancouver were particularly rainy. In fact, the first day was so rainy and traffic was so bad that we didn't actually get to do too much. No matter since we got to go eat at this place called Shabusen that had all-you-can-eat sushi, Korean bbq, and hot pot! We didn't do the hot pot part but we took care of business in satisfying our cravings for fresh sushi by starting with 20 pieces of salmon sashimi! Score!


Lately, we've been a little obsessed with SteepandCheap and with all the Arc'teryx stuff that passes through there, we took the opportunity (of a rainy day) to go to the Arc'teryx factory store! Yes, we were very excited.


So excited that we bought a lot of stuff. Well, we got good deals... seriously, I don't know if I can pay retail anymore!

After the big splurge, it was still raining but we soldiered on to make the most of our day. Jason took us to Granville Island via a little tugboat ferry to get to this little shack called Go Fish. The chowder and the fish & chips were truly amazing!


We also walked a bit of the Seawall to get to the Inukshuk...


... and continued walking on to Stanley Park to get to the totem poles (which we had to revisit on our last day due to the rain and general gloominess of the weather).

Our epic walk of the day ended with an epic dinner at one of Vancouver's more popular trends, the Japanese tapas. Trung took us to this place called Zakushi where his friend worked and we had all sorts of delicious and funky tapas, one of which was this octopus wasabi salad type mix!


It was delicious (as weird as the concept may be)!

Friday, it rained again but it didn't matter. With our trusty rain jackets that we recently bought, we headed north to the Lynn Canyon. It was awesome as there was no one there.


Jason braved the rain with us as we did a mini hike around the canyon (over the suspension bridge, down some woods to Twin Falls and back up).

In the evening, we had another sushi dinner and headed up to Whistler for the weekend as the skies began to clear.
View out of Jason and Diana's balcony:


All the rain in the last week meant that Blackcomb (Whistler is closed for the season) got fresh snow! Since it was only open on the weekends, we would've been the first to the freshies so we got up early Saturday morning to take advantage of it. Boy was it worth it!




It was quite icy mid-mountain but by the second day, it had warmed up quite a bit so it was a little more wet and melty. Snowboarding was a lot of fun though... it's a great way to start my summer!

Back in Vancouver, the sun peaked out finally and we took advantage of our last sunny morning there. JJ was able to grab this fantastic shot before we headed to the airport.


To see all our photos, check out our album!

Apr 25-30, 2007 - Vancouver, Whistler

Lollapalooza tickets!

Guess who's going to Lollapalooza!


Yes, you read that right! Tickets were $60 each!
(For those who don't know, the early-birds are currently selling for $165.)

JJ is the number one tennis player!

Only in the Virtua Tennis 3 world hahaha