France - July 2007

Carcassone

For Keith's parent's 40th anniversary, they hosted a Dodds family vacation near Carcassone, France.  It was a big contingent: in addition to us were Jean/Dick, Margaret/Damon/Owen, and Graham/Amy/Max/Lily. 

Accommodations:

Rented Villa (Carcassone) - This was a huge house 12 miles up a windy road in the hills southeast of Carcassone.  It had five bedrooms, cribs/highchairs, a massive lounge that could have been 20x50 feet, a table that seats 12, and an outdoor pool. 

Park Hyatt Vendome - A gorgeous hotel overlooking the Rue de la Paix where Keith and Shawna stayed our last night in France. 

Activities:

We flew to Toulouse via Paris on Friday July 20th, arriving in Paris on the Saturday morning in time to catch a connection to Toulouse.  We arrived a couple hours after the rest of the family, so we rented a tiny car and headed to the villa.  Keith's parents had rented a 9 person van for the trip, and Graham also had a car for his family to tool around.  By the time we arrived at the villa, Keith's parents had already been by Carrefour to stock up on beer, wine, and all the food staples needed.  Since the day was mostly gone, we just relaxed at the house that night over a dinner of wine, cheese, BBQ chicken, and salads. 

Tour de France

We started the next day with breakfast on the big table, with fresh croissants that Dick fetched from the village - he did this every morning of the trip (maybe to get out of the house for a while?).  As luck would have it that day, the Tour de France passed 12 miles from where we stayed so we all navigated narrow country roads and showed up an hour before the cyclists.  It was pretty cool to see them powering by in their colorful jerseys (as they were going uphill) so we watched for a while.  Once they had all passed, we headed into the town of Carcassone and grabbed moule frites for lunch before heading back to the house.

Monday, we headed out to see the weekly market at Mirepoix, a 10th century village about 30 miles away.  We walked the market, had some lunch, then headed back to the house.  The babysitter arrived in the early evening so that all the adults could abandon the gremlins so we could go to a nice restaurant for Jean and Dick's anniversary. 

Mirepoix

On Tuesday, we headed to the coast to the salt town of Gruissan.  We went to a small salt museum, went for a walk, and then looked for a place for lunch.  It was tricky to find - many places were closed by the time we were looking at 2pm - in fact we sat at one, ordered drinks, and then found out that they had stopped serving lunch.  We eventually found another place on the harbor that served multiple versions of moules frites - so were satiated!  That evening we headed to dinner for "sibling night" - Keith's parents babysat while the sibs went out for dinner.

On Wednesday, we all split up for the day: Margaret/Damon headed to Cannes (sans Owen), Graham/Amy/Max/Lily headed out for a side trip,  and we headed out to Carcassone ourselves.  It was a nice day exploring the expansive and well preserved fortress, taking a tour of the castle and walking around the grounds and walls of the fort.  We returned to the villa to a steak dinner cooked by Keith's dad.

On the Thursday, it was just us, along with Jean/Dick and Owen.  Keith carried Owen in the backpack all day as we followed the river Aude through the gorge and explored some of the small towns.  We stopped in Limoux, had a fantastic lunch in Quillan on the banks of the river, and went on to a beautiful castle called Puylaurans which we walked up.  We hosted dinner that night, with a meal of cheese ravioli and wine.

During the next two days, we went for a few hikes in the nearby valleys, toured a couple of old castles and forts and wandered around some of the cute towns along the way.

We left the family on the Sunday morning to head to Paris.  We checked in to the hotel and had time to walk around a bit, and with remarkable coincidence, we saw that the Tour de France was wrapping up at the Arc de Triomphe that day.  We watched for an hour or so and then continued our walk.  When back at the hotel we asked the concierge for a restaurant recommendation.  He asked "traditional or trendy?" - and as Keith motioned to his Duke shorts and torn t-shirt he responded "trendy, of course!". 

On Monday, we walked around the city, seeing many of the sites including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Seine, and the Louvre.  Later that day, we jumped on the plane and headed home, back to Raleigh and to work. 

Restaurants:

La Barbacane - A Michelin star ranked restaurant where we went for Jean and Dick's 40th anniversary dinner.

Chateau de Cavanac - This is a vineyard/hotel/restaurant we went to for "sibling night".  We ate outside and had a huge five course dinner with paired wine. 

La Fargo - A great restaurant with an open air terrace - food and wine was delicious.


For more photos of this trip:

Acadia National Park - July 2007

Acadia National Park

We decided to spend the July 4th holiday in Acadia National Park in Maine.  While the weather was not cooperative (it rained for most of the time), the park and surrounding area was absolutely beautiful.

Accommodations:
Bar Harbor Regency Holiday Inn - Located a few miles outside of town, this hotel is a nice place located on the water.

Bar Harbor

Activities:
We spend an afternoon exploring the town of Bar Harbor, including a walk along the Shore Path which winds along the shoreline and has great views of the harbor and of the massive homes that face the water.

Hike along the Shore Path

We spent a day driving along the Park Loop Road, which is a 20-mile drive around the island with great views of the rugged shoreline.  We stopped along the way to see some of the cute harbor towns.

Drive along Park Loop Road

We also did one of the shortest hikes ever to the top of Flying Mountain which has a whopping elevation of 284 feet.  While the hike was short, the views were gorgeous - you could see all around the island and the bay.

The Strenuous Ascent - Flying Mountain

Restaurants:

Bar Harbor Inn

George's - I small restaurant that was hard to find but had great food.  It has since closed.

Havana - A great Cuban restaurant - highly recommend it.

The Reading Room at Bar Harbor Inn - A stuffy restaurant located in the Bar Harbor Inn.  Located right on the water, it has great views of the bay.  The food was pretty good.

Thurston's Lobster Pound - Located in Bernard on the water, this is a great place to go to get some fresh boiled lobster.  We had lunch here.

Key West - New Year's - Jan 2007

The Gang on New Year's Eve

The NC gang decided to spend a week in Key West to celebrate New Year's.  It was a very relaxing and fun time.  The people who went on this trip include: Keith, Shawna, John, Joanna, Keith, Kate, Steve, John, Julie, Kristen, Dan, Kim, Jonathan and Dave (aka #13).

Accommodation:
The Truman Annex - We rented several apartments here.  The place is basic but clean, affordable and convenient (only a couple of blocks off of Duval).

The Gang Sailing

Activities:
When we arrived, Chris picked us up at the airport and drove us to the apartments.  She also drove a few of us to get groceries for the week which consisted more of alcoholic beverages than anything else.

The week consisted of getting up late, grabbing brunch, doing some fun activity in the afternoon or napping and then going out to dinner/bars at night.  We walked around town, went to one of the beaches, and watched the sunset at Mallory Square.  On New Year's Eve, we bought a bunch of pizzas and key lime pie and ate in the condo to avoid the mad crowds at dinner and then we headed out to several bars and watched the 'shoe' drop outside one of the bars - Duvall Street was quite crowded!  On New Year's Day, the gang went sailing, snorkeling and kayaking.  Shawna was a tad bit hungover and since she does not do too well on boats, she opted to skip this activity and spent the day with Chris instead.

The Girls...

...And the boys

We found ourselves at Sloppy Joe's and Two Friends on several nights -- the former great for live bands and the latter great for karaoke!  At karaoke, we all displayed our talents (or lack thereof) - Shawna even got Kim to get up and do a routine - although their routine did not include singing but rather a rendition of the chicken dance!

Karaoke at Two Friends

Restaurants/Bars:
Sloppy Joe's - great bar for live music.

Two Friends - great bar with karaoke.

Cafe Square One - had a nice lunch here.

Old Town Mexican Cafe - had a yummy dinner here.

Fat Tuesday - great daiquiris.

Upper Crust - where we got pizza for our dinner on New Year's Eve.

Key Lime Pie Company - great pie!

Ricks' Bar and Restaurant - had drinks here.

Blue Heaven - best brunch place with rustic picnic tables outside surrounded by chickens.

Dante's - Bar with pool.

BO's Fish Wagon - hole in the wall place with great fish!

For more photos of this trip: