Christmas in TX - Dec 2012

Shawna and Keith at Christmas Dinner

Because we were heading to Australia for Christmas, we went to Texas for an early Christmas with Keith's family.  Shawna worked from home on the Friday, so Keith went home from work early to pick her up and head to the airport.  Luckily, we were on American out of terminal A so we could grab a Schlotskys and split it before the flight.  Once we got to Keith's parents' house, we were treated to a couple of bottles of wine and the cheese from Zabars that Keith had sent as a Christmas gift (oddly timed to arrive right before we did!).

Josie, Owen, Boone, Lily

We were exhausted, so actually slept in until past 8am on Saturday (with the blackout curtains helping things).  After a quick breakfast of Stollen and honey from Graham's local purveyor Empire Bakery, we headed out for a walk/run around White Rock Lake.  Shawna made it in 1 hour and 45 minutes, one of her best times recently.  We grabbed a quick lunch at Starbucks and then went to the Galleria to do some Christmas shopping for Keith.  It really just took one stop at Banana Republic to get Keith some clothes more suited to his Marketing career!  We also tried to get some work out clothes from REI but they were not stocked up on the type of clothes that we need in Colorado.

Keith and Graham at Lucia's

We headed home to clean up and relax before going out to celebrate Graham's birthday.  After stopping to pick up Margaret, we drove over to Graham and Marissa's to open presents and see baby Boone, now ~9 months old.  We then all drove over to Lucia's, Graham's favorite local restaurant.  There was a bit of a wait before our table was ready so we spent some time at Dude, Sweet - the chocolate shop next door, owned by another friend of Graham's.  The owners of Lucia brought us a bottle of champagne as we were waiting - it really is great to have a brother tapped in to the local restaurant scene.  We shared several appetizers for the table and then we shared an entree - all the food was quite yummy!

Keith and Boone

Graham and Marissa at Lucia

Josie Not Scared of Keith!

On Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with the family.  We had the best of intentions to get up early and work out but getting up late again killed that idea.  So instead, we had another leisurely breakfast and then got ready for Graham & Margaret and the family to come over at 11am.  This was the first time that Josie was not scared of Keith!  It was fun to see Owen/Josie/Lily/Boone.  We had the kids open their presents first, then all had our Christmas lunch, with a home-cooked ham courtesy of Graham as the main course - delicious.  We ended the meal with Steamed Pudding.  Following that, we opened the rest of the gifts.  The final gift was for Keith's mother's 70th birthday next year: Keith, Graham, Margaret, and Dick are arranging a family trip to Seattle and the Herb Farm in the fall of '13 as the birthday gift, similar to the Napa trip that we took Keith's dad for his 70th birthday gift.  Frank Rixen stopped by a few minutes before we had to leave: we were off to the airport at 5:30pm for our flight back to Denver after a whirlwind weekend.

Thanksgiving in LA - Nov 2012

This year we are to spend Thanksgiving in Louisiana and Christmas in Texas.  We considered meeting Shawna's mother for a spa weekend but decided that we needed to spend some time in LA helping with Shawna's grandmother's estate as well.

We took the direct Southwest Airlines flight to New Orleans on Wednesday night and stayed the night at the Fairfield Inn by the airport.  The flight was a bit late so we did not get settled in the hotel until 1am and then were up at 7am to drive up to Moreauville.  After a quick stop at the gas station for breakfast (yum!), we were on the road - taking about 2.5 hours to get there.  Nicole was already at the house with Harmony and Hayden, with Pat, Chet, and their son arriving shortly after we did.  In addition, Jim and Barbara as well as Jean, Ashley and Glenn all arrived for a delicious lunch of fried turkey (in hog fat, not that hippy-liberal peanut oil that we use!), brisket, and all the sides (corn bread dressing, eggplant casserole, corn casserole, and sweet potato casserole).  Everyone left mid-afternoon which allowed Keith to have a tryptophane-induced nap before relaxing in front of the TV that evening.

Friday was quite mellow - other than a two hour work out, we stopped by Jean and Ashley's and had a fun night out with Hope and Craig at the Red River Grill.  Hope is a friend of Shawna's from high school -- we had a great time catching up and reminiscing and we closed down the restaurant!

On Saturday, we worked out and then Shawna spent the rest of the day helping her mom go through her grandparents house, throwing stuff away and then sorting the rest into keep, donate or sell piles.  They made it most of the way through the house, leaving two rooms still to complete when we return again.  That evening we had an awesome gumbo and watched a movie.

On Sunday, we worked out and had leftover gumbo for lunch before we had to head back to New Orleans to fly back home.

Playa del Carmen - Oct 2012

Playa del Carmen Beach

We decided to join John and Joanna in Playa del Carmen for a few days of sun and fun. We called it our practice trip for Cabo which is scheduled for next Spring.

Hotel Pool

Accommodation:

Royal Playa del Carmen - An all inclusive hotel on the beach and in town.  There are several good restaurants in the hotel and the pool area is very nice.  The rooms are interesting with a large jet-tub in the middle of the room and they put two double beds together to make a super-king!

Royal Playa del Carmen

Activities:
We took a direct flight from Denver to Cancun and arrived at the hotel around 5pm on Thursday.  John and Joanna had been there since the weekend prior but had stayed at a different hotel up until this day.  After we checked-in and dumped our luggage in our room, we joined them in their room for a couple of beers before heading to the hotel bar for more drinks and then to dinner.  We capped the evening with more drinks at one of the hotel bars by the beach that had swings to sit on.

Pool Bar

Each day was the same.  We got up and had a light breakfast, worked out for a couple of hours and then plopped down by the pool for the rest of the day, occasionally cooling off with a beer or mojito.  There was interesting people watching at the pool - not surprisingly a lot of people from the Northeast, in particular Long Island.  After a day of relaxing, we napped (because we had such a hard day), showered and then went out to dinner.  On one of the evenings, the hotel put on a fun show in the lobby where they did dance routines from each of the decades.  Prior to this, we attended a wine tasting in the lobby.  Between the food and drink, the trip set us back a few pounds on our diet. 

Wine Tasting

Restaurants:
We ate at all the restaurants in the hotel that allowed shorts. A few of the places required pants in the evening and John had not brought any.

Pelicanos - we ate breakfast here each day.  Big buffet!

Spice - we had lunch and dinner here at this oceanside open air restaurant.  Very yummy.

Tapas & Pintxos - we had dinner here and ordered almost one of everything on the menu.  Very tasty.

Asiana - we had lunch here twice (pants not required for lunch).  They have a mixture of Asian food - Japanenese, Chinese, Thai and Korean.  Also very tasty.

John, Joanna and Keith

Dallas and Houston - Sept 2012

Keith and Graham at Central 214

This weekend in Dallas was a whirl wind quick trip to go to Keith's 25th high school reunion. While there, we decided to cash in on Graham's Christmas gift to us which was dinner at his restaurant and a night at the hotel where the restaurant is located.

Accommodation:
Hotel Palomar - A Kimpton hotel where Graham's restaurant is located. The hotel is very nice with modern decor. We stayed here one night.

Jean and Dick's Chalet - We stayed at Keith's parents house on the Sat night. Can't beat the rate and the service!

Marriott - Keith crashed in Steve's hotel room in Houston - also a good value!

Activities:
We arrived on Fri night just in time to quickly change clothes and head to Graham's restaurant, Central 214, for dinner. Keith had been to the restaurant once but this was the first time for Shawna. We had invited Keith's mother and sister to join us. Graham was able to spend a little time with us at the table. He sent out several dishes for us to try which were all very tasty. We definitely did not leave hungry. After dinner, we crashed in our plush hotel room.

Graham at Central 214

On Sat, we woke early for a day packed with activity. We first stopped by Rebecca's house for breakfast where we had yogurt and bagels. We finally met Thad, Rebecca's husband, and Tucker, her 5 month old baby who is adorable. We also saw Rebecca's sister Jenn for a few minutes as she was babysitting for a few hours that day.  After breakfast, we headed to White Rock Lake where we ran (and partly walked) 9 miles.  It was overcast but the temp was perfect for running. We had hoped that we at least worked off some of our dinner from the prior night!

Rebecca, Keith and Tucker

Sweaty from our run, we then went to Peter's house to see their new pool and to hang out with the kids. We had a light snack for lunch and then hopped into the chilly (it was about 65 degrees outside, 82 degrees in the water) pool for a swim. Keith got more exercise as he battled swimming and diving competitions with Jordan and performed various tricks with her on his shoulders.

We visited with Margaret, Damon and the kids for about an hour and then went to Keith's parents house to take a quick shower before returning to Peter's where we also met up with Khris and his wife Angie.  We all carpooled together to the reunion.  Since we knew the reunion would only have a few snacks, we went to dinner before hand at a great restaurant on Magnolia in Fort Worth.  The reunion was located in the old Texas and Pacific building in downtown Forth Worth which has a tavern with a large outdoor space.  Keith was surprised that he remembered more people than he thought he would and enjoyed catching up with Clark, Chris, Laura, Julie, and Josh.

Keith's 25th High School Reunion

It was great people watching!!  It was funny to see that everyone still hung out in their high school groups: the jocks, the artsy crowd, the nerdy crowd and yes, even the trashy crowd. There were a few women there that based on their attire appeared to be escorts - we guessed that the men they were with still felt they had to make a good impression with their classmates!  Some of the women looked like they belonged on the show GCB.  And some of the people still looked like they were stuck in the 80's.

Shawna, Keith, Khris, Angie

We woke up too early on Sunday when Margaret's kids decided to knock on the door at 6am! They had slept there as Jean had babysat them while Margaret and Damon went out the night before.  We got up around 7 and had a quick breakfast before heading to the airport.  Shawna flew back to Denver while Keith flew to Houston to spend the afternoon/evening with Steve who was in town on business for a few days.

Keith's trip to Houston was quite quick as well - less than 24 hours.  Steve picked him up at the airport and they went back to the hotel before heading to grab a sandwich for lunch and then to the Arboretum for a walk and finally over to Memorial Park for another walk.  Following that was a stop by REI for Steve to get some gifts, then back to Memorial for a run, to the hotel for a shower and then out for dinner....then bed!  On Monday, Keith was up at 4:45am to get a cab to the airport for the flight back to Denver. 

Restaurants:
Central 214 - Graham's restaurant located in Hotel Palomar in Dallas. We had an amazing meal including, octopus, kale salad, arugula salad, zucchini, potatoes, trout, pork chops and a sampler tray of desserts (green tomato pie, creme brûlée, lemon cake and chocolate cake).

Yucatan Taco Stand - A great Mex/Spanish/Cuban place. We shared a few apps (chips with salsa and guacamole, yuca fries and fried plantains) and then had fish tacos and tequila lime chicken salad for dinner.

Rice Epicurean - Keith and Steve grabbed sandwiches at this grocery store.  Very limited options but fairly good. 

Taste of Texas - This steakhouse was recommended by the hotel - about 10 miles from the hotel.  Keith had the 16oz Ribeye with garlic sauce.

San Fran - Sept 2012

Farm Dinner

After our Napa weekend for Keith's dad's 70th birthday, we decided to work out of Rakesh and Simran's house for the week so we could join then for another farm dinner the following weekend. 

Accommodation:
Chez Mehta-Singh - great accommodation, excellent service, and worth it even at 10 times the price!

Activities:
The plan to work out of their house for a week did not quite work out: Keith had to do a trip to San Diego and Shawna had to head to Hartford for a meeting.  So we left Chez Mehta-Singh early on Tuesday morning.  Keith dropped Shawna at the airport and headed down to San Jose, flew to San Diego, and returned on the Wednesday night, with Shawna arriving late on Thursday.  Keith worked from the house on Thurs, taking conference calls and getting caught up - until 2pm.  It was at that time that he was on a call, walked on to the front porch, and closed the door behind him - and was locked out!  He was in shorts and a fleece, with no shoes, and his cell phone died as he was on the call.  So...he was barefoot and homeless for 3 hours - lying on the grass and causing two of Rak and Simran's neighbors to text them saying there was some stranger outside their house!  At one point, Rak sent an email saying that a neighbor had contacted him to say that there was a man sitting on their front porch rubbing his feet.  Simran got a text from another neighbor saying that there was a man on their lawn who didn't look dangerous but was odd!  Later that evening, Keith met up with his parents for dinner as they had stayed in Sebastapol and San Fran a couple of days after the Napa weekend before returning home.

Shawna, Ria and Keith with Donuts

Dancing with the Stars??

On Friday, we worked from the house until 1pm, with Sim working in the basement.  The rest of the day was jammed as we ate our way around the city: we went out for lunch, picked up Ria from school, had donuts and ice cream, then met Rak, Dave and his wife, and another Rakesh for beer and then had dinner.  After dinner, we all adjourned to the house to put Ria to bed and then drank more wine and partied to DJ Mehta's dance mix.  The dancing was hilarious with attempts at 'break dancing' and lots of butt wiggling!  Somewhere in there, a pizza was ordered - totally unnecessary but still fantastic. 

Shawna, Keith, Dave and Rakesh (which one is Rakesh?)

We had planned a light breakfast on Saturday so as not to be full for the farm dinner, but Rak thought that was a terrible idea so we headed out for breakfast, dropped Ria at basketball, and then came back to the house for an hour run around the Presidio.  Later that afternoon, seven of us piled in the car and headed out to the Della Fattoria farm dinner at Weber Ranch, which was at the same place as last year.  There was a group of 10 of us: in addition to Rak/Sim and us, there was New Rakesh, Jill, Anne-Caroline, Rachel, Alison, and Kara.  The setting was beautiful with tables outside decorated with colorful flowers.  The dinner lasted from 3-7pm, so we adjourned back to the house for another evening of dancing, indoor "rock climbing", and other goofiness.  And of course, it would not be a farm dinner without us drinking lots of wine (9 bottles in all) and stealing a gourd or two for the road!

Jill, Simran, Keith, New Rakesh and Rakesh

Before Picture...

...After Picture

On Sunday, we got up a bit late and headed to lunch and then had a slice of pie.  We then went over to see a house for sale which was really nice.  The afternoon saw us with a cheese tray and wine on the porch courtesy of Ria before we had to head to the airport to fly home. 

Restaurants:
Amber India - Per Sim's recommendation Keith went here with his parents.  This is an upscale Indian place (meaning no Christmas lights!) and the lamb vindaloo was announced by Keith's dad as the best he had ever had. 

Namu Gagi - A Korean place where we had lunch - yummo fries (so good we ordered two).

Dynamo Donut - Ria was insistent that she would take us for donuts - as Sim said, it was really a pretext for Ria to get a donut herself!  By the time we got to the stand there were only 4 flavors left - we tried the Cornmeal Rosemary Cherry and the Coconut. 

Smitten Ice Cream - As if donuts were not enough, we went here immediately after donuts and before beers.  This place is really interesting because every scoop is made to order - using liquid nitrogen to freeze the ingredients.  We shared a single scoop with Ria.  Very creamy!

Hayes Valley Biergarten - Great beer garden - all outdoors with a heap of picnic tables and a walk-up bar. 

Arlequin - Had dinner here - a fantastic Lamb Burger and wine purchased from the adjacent shop. 

Out the Door - We had brunch at this Vietnamese restaurant.  We shared several dishes: steamed chicken bun, daikon rice cakes, and fried chicken banh mi.   The perfect cure for a hangover!

Webber Ranch Farm Dinner - The food was similar to last year - heaps of appetizers (cheese, roasted peppers and figs, homemade bread, corn cakes), bruschetta, salad, mixed grill (steak and chicken), rosemary potato gratin and a galette for dessert.

La Taqueria - A total dive but great tacos - on Zagat the place gets a 25 for food and a 9 for decor.  We had chicken and pork tacos with some chips. 

Mission Pie - Shared slices of Walnut Pie and Banana Creme Pie.  Fresh and tasty!

Menu for Farm Dinner

For more photos of this trip:

Napa - Aug 2012

The Dodds Family

For Keith's Dad's 70th birthday, we gave him the gift of a family weekend in Napa and dinner at the French Laundry.  The gift was given in December (at Christmas), was planned for March but rescheduled to Labor Day weekend with the birth of Baby Boone (Dad's birthday was in April).  He really dragged out this birthday celebration! 

Accommodation
We rented a house in Napa - 435 Montecito - from Homeaway.  The house was just off the Silverado Trail so a pretty good location - though we spent most of our time commuting to Yountville. The house had five bedrooms and three baths with OK decor. The house was clean, spacious and functional in a quiet neighborhood.

Activities
We flew out from Denver to Oakland later on the Thursday evening, renting a car and arriving at the house at about midnight. Keith's family had arrived earlier that day so we just headed to our assigned bedroom in the basement and fell asleep.

The Limo Tour of Wineries

Paraduxx Winery

We were the first people up on Friday morning and went out for a walk to get in front of the weekend calories.  Shawna mapped the walk so we would stop by one of the local Starbucks, which we arrived at 45 minutes into the walk.  As we were sitting on the patio nursing our coffees, Keith's parents arrived to get their own round of coffee.  We continued the walk and got back to the house in time to get showered for the limo picking us up.  Hector, the driver, did a great job shuttling us around to a variety of vineyards: Paraduxx, Clif Lede, V Sattui, Heitz, Opus, and Port Works. We loved the ambiance at Paraduxx - we had a whole table to ourselves and a great host named Josh - it was a great tasting.  We liked the wines at Paraduxx and Clif Lede and bought some to ship home and bring to Rak and Sim.  Lunch was the traditional picnic at V Sattui - we got a few cheeses, meats, and french bread and grabbed a table outside.  We finished the day at 4pm and immediately showered and headed out to dinner. 

Lunch at V Sattui

View on Hike - Stebbins Cold Canyon

On Saturday, we hiked Stebbins Cold Canyon along Lake Berryessa - about a one hour drive from the house.  It was a tough but beautiful hike with great views of the lake from the top.  We unfortunately did not bring enough water but no one passed out. The hike was 5 miles long and about 1800 ft in elevation gain, taking 3 hours and 20 minutes. We returned home in time to shower and nap before heading out to the big dinner of the trip.  Prior to walking in to the Laundry, we wandered around the gardens and farm across the road where many of their fruits and vegetables are grown.

Dodds Family on the Hike

We had planned Sunday morning to be leisurely which was a great idea.  We went for walk and then met up for lunch with the family in Yountville. We then did an afternoon bike tour with Napa Valley Bike Tours, stopping for wine tasting at Clos du Val (where the guy who poured our tasting was rude), Monticello (syrah was good) and Silenus - this was a really cool tasting room where it is an aggregation of 12 different vintages in one place.  We went to an early dinner and called it a night.

Ready for the Bike Tour

On Monday, Graham and Margaret headed to the airport at 9:00am and we left shortly after with Keith's parents.  The first stop was the Sonoma Market to grab some cheese, then we drove to Jim and Maryann's house to see them for the day.  After saying our hellos, we quickly made sandwiches for lunch and the six of us headed to Bodega Head at Bodega Bay for a hike.  The last time Keith was in Bodega Bay, he was with his friend Peter in 1989 - a very different experience this time!  The coast was much colder with fog all over - amazing what a difference a few miles makes.  We hiked out to the beach, where Jim and Maryann produced a couple of bottles of wine to accompany the lunch.  We hiked back to the car and then headed back to the house, where we went for a walk around the vineyard and then had some wine on the deck before having rack of lamb for dinner.  We left the house just after 7pm and made it into San Francisco to Rak and Sim's house at a reasonable hour.

Bodega Head

Restaurants
Bouchon - The first of our Thomas Keller meals.  We started with Lobster Salad and Lamb Sausage and shared the Pork Belly with Polenta for an entree.  The restaurant was smaller than we expected.  Great ambiance and food.

Bouchon

Menu at French Laundry

French Laundry - Ah, the main event of the weekend! This is generally considered impossible to get into, but we were able to reserve the private dining room 9 months ahead of time.  The dining format is a tasting menu where we were able to give our dietary restrictions.  While we had many courses, we never felt stuffed - the dinner was outstanding!  Our meal included Oysters and Pearls, Salad of Summer Melon, Sauteed Fillet of Mediterranean Lubina, Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster Mitts, Salmon Creek Farms Pork Belly, Marcho Farm Nature-Fed Veal, Vendeen Bichonne, Plum-Ginger Soda, and Chocolate Pudding Pie.  We requested a wine pairing at a particular price point, so we enjoyed Gaston Chiquet Blanc de Blancs d'Ay Grand Cru MV, Spreitzer Reisling Oestricher Lenchen Kabinett Rheingau 2012, Pazo de Senorans Albarino Rias Baixas 2011, Walter Hansel Chardonnay Estate Russian River Valley 2009, Radio-Coteau Pinot Noir Alberigi Vineyard Russian River Valley 2010, Araujo Meritage Altagracia Napa Valley 2009, Joseph Sabon Chateauneuf-du-Pape Clos du Mont-Olivet Rhone Valle 2009, and Smith-Woodhouse Late-Bottled Vintage Oporto 2000. 

Bouchon Bakery - The rest of the family waited in line for 45 minutes for lunch and we arrived just in time for them to get the food.  Each of us had a tomato, brie and basil baguette. 

Press - This was a game-day call - we had originally planned to go to La Toque but Graham had met the owners at Press when they visited his restaurant a few days prior so we we changed plans.  The dinner was a gorge fest. The owners presented us a bottle of champagne and some apps when we showed up.  We then had heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella and also the bacon sampler which was really just on the bar menu but they allowed in the restaurant.  The bacon dish was literally that - 8 different slices of bacon - heaven!  For our main course we shared walu fish and did the side dishes family style: Truffle Mac, French Fries, Mushrooms, and Corn.  We also shared desserts of strawberry shortcake, cheesecake and a ginormous slice of chocolate cake.  In addition to the champagne, we had a couple of amazing bottles of Kongsgaard, which is one of our favorite chardonnays.

Shawna and Keith @ French Laundry

For more photos of this trip:

Croatia - August 2012

Dubrovnik

While we had traveled with Kim and Tom many times over the years, we had not been overseas with them since 2008 when we went to Italy.  So, it was time to hit Croatia for no particular reason other than it was on "the list".

Accomodation:
Sheraton - Zagreb - This hotel is a bit dated with mostly 70s decor.  However, it was cheap, clean and centrally located.

Hotel Adriana - Zadar - A great hotel outside of town (about 5 miles from the old town) located on the water with a pool and modern decor. 

Hotel Luxe - Split - Another great hotel within three minutes walk from the palace and old town.  Very hip decor with bright colors.

Hotel Amfora - Hvar - This hotel was located within 15 minutes walking distance from town.  It had its own alcove with a pebbly beach and a really nice multi-level pool.  The rooms were small but nice.  This hotel is part of the Suncani chain which includes multiple locations in Hvar town.  You can use your room key to charge food and drinks at all of them to your master account. 

Hotel Amfora

Hotel Bellevue - Dubrovnik - This hotel was also located within 15 minutes walking distance from the old town; however, the return trip back to the hotel was uphill all the way.  The hotel is very nice and modern with its own beach area.  It is perched on a cliff, with all the rooms facing the water and an elevator that goes all the way down to the beach.

Beach at Hotel Bellevue

Activities:
Our flight departed at 6:00pm to Frankfurt, so we carpooled to work in the morning, with Keith picking up Shawna right before 3pm so she could take a 30 minute conference call on the way to the airport.  Keith had not changed yet, so he used the Wally Park lot to change from his work clothes to shorts/tshirt for traveling.  The check in with Lufthansa was quick and we were at at the gate 2 hours early.  Instead of waiting for plane food, we grabbed a couple of Originals at Schlotzskys in the terminal area.  The flight was pretty good - we got a bit of sleep after watching the movie The Lucky One and drinking three complimentary glasses of wine to help us get to sleep.  One interesting thing on the flight was that the toilets were all at the back of the plane "downstairs" - we had never seen this before as far as we can remember.  We had two more legs of the flight after arriving in Frankfurt - to Munich and then to Zagreb.  In Munich, the airline decided that Shawna's luggage was too big to carry on, so we had some nervous moments at baggage claim hoping that the bag would make it and alas it did!

We arrived in Zagreb where Kim and Tom picked us up in the rental car - this time a bit bigger than the car in Italy - so a lot more room for luggage.  They had arrived earlier in the day and had already toured a bit of the city.  We checked in to our hotel, took a shower and then met in the lobby for a couple of beers.  We then walked around old town, had dinner and had a few more drinks.  We found one street where there were a ton of bars so we plopped down at the Oliver Twist Pub, had one too many beers and people watched for a few hours.

Breakfast at the Market in Zagreb

The following morning, we went to the market to grab some breakfast.  The pastries certainly looked better than they tasted - Tom had particular disgust for the leek one he bought!  We bought some fruit to take with us which was very juicy and flavorful.  We then drove to Plitvice National Park (UNESCO World Heritage site) where we walked for about 4 hours around the park seeing both the upper and lower lakes - it was quite beautiful but also very hot and crowded.  Apparently we were not the only ones with vacation plans in August!  The colors of the lakes were amazing -- a bright aqua color and crystal clear that you could see all the way to the bottom.  The path was a well-done wooden platform with enough room to pass one person, and most of the traffic goes in one direction.  We picked the "H" hike, which included a bus to the start, a boat ride in the middle, and a bus at the end.  After a day here, we drove to Zadar and had dinner and drinks at the hotel that evening.  At dinner, we chatted with the restaurant manager who was quite funny - he had quite a disdain for Slovenia for some reason.

Plitvice National Park

Drinks in Zadar

After a great breakfast at the hotel, we went to Paklenica National Park which is about an hour drive from Zadar.  The park is famous for rock climbing so we saw many climbers there.  We hiked in the park for about 6 hours.  While the hiking was not challenging, it was crazy hot so it slowed us down quite a bit.  We hiked up to a cool (cool as in interesting and cool as in temperature) cave that we toured for about 30 minutes - Tom beat us all to the top and reminded us of it throughout the trip!  After the tour, we hiked further to a village that had been converted to a lodge.  Kim wanted to take a different route back but we were warned about viper snakes (assumed that these are bad) on that path so we chose to hike back the same way that we came.  That evening, we had drinks at the hotel and in old town followed by dinner at a pizzeria in old town.  We then took a quick stop to see the Sea Organ (holes drilled into the steps by the sea that makes a sound when the waves come in) and Sun Salutation (lights in the floor of the promenade that are fueled by the sun and waves) before we returned to our hotel.

Paklenica National Park

The following day, we walked around the old town of Zadar, climbing the belfry to see the views of the town and visiting the Church of St Donat (we could not go in b/c we were wearing shorts) and the Roman Forum (which is where they used to pillar and stone people).  We had our first gelato which was quite refreshing in the heat.

Roman Forum in Zadar

Peristyle in Split

On our way to Split, we stopped in Sibenik, a very cute medieval town on the water.  We visited the Cathedral of St James and St Michael's Fortress where Tom stubbed his toe, later claiming it was a shark bite from his adventures at sea!  When we got to Split, the GPS did not have the street for our hotel so we ended up lost on narrow streets in a not so good part of town.  When the GPS said we had arrived at our hotel, we were looking at a dilapidated home no where near anything touristy.  Thankfully, we figured out where we needed to go and found our hotel.  After a quick shower, we walked along the waterfront which is packed with cafes and had drinks at one of the places that overlooked the water.  We then walked around the old town and had dinner at one of the touristy restaurants on the main square -- the food was not that great but what a great location.  After dinner, we sat in the Peristyle of the old palace and had drinks while we listened to two people playing great live music outside the Luxor Restaurant, watched kids and adults dancing and watched street performers.  It was great people watching - including 2 scantily clad Russian girls strutting their stuff on the dance floor.

We were moving quite slowly the following morning as we had stayed up past midnight for 4 nights straight.  We opted to meet for a later breakfast and then caught the 10:30 am walking tour of Diocletian's Palace.  It is amazing how much of the Palace is still preserved.  Inside the Palace and old town, there are tons of shops, cafes and restaurants -- it reminded us of the old part of Venice.  After the tour, we went inside the Cathedral of St Domnius and the Temple of Jupiter and also walked up the bell tower to see the views of the city.  For lunch, we opted for a pizza slice (known locally as pizza cut) and gelato and then we went back to the hotel for a nap - the past 4 nights had finally caught up with us!  Later that evening, we had drinks on the promenade, had dinner in the palace at a great restaurant and returned to the main square to listen to more live music, drink more and do some more people watching.  We met a German couple who were traveling with their very cute son so we got a few hours of entertainment watching the son dance and chase other little girls.  We were amazed at how late these parents allowed the kids to stay up!

Hvar

We had to get up very early to catch the 2 hour Jadrolinija car ferry to Hvar (actually the ferry goes to Stari Grad and then we drove the 14 kilometers to Hvar) - luckily, we were able to make the first one that we tried to catch since they do not allow reservations.  When we got to our hotel in Hvar, the rooms were not yet ready so we stored our luggage and walked along the ocean into town.  We grabbed lunch in the main square - had an awesome greek salad and pizza.  After touring around, we returned to our hotel and swam at the beach and in the pool.  Keith and Tom enjoyed gawking at the few women who went topless at the beach and we had lots of laughs while each of us tried to walk out of the water on the pebbly beach - we couldn't believe how much it hurt walking on those rocks!  That evening, we went for drinks at a roof top bar at a sister hotel.  We wanted to go to a restaurant that we had picked out earlier in the day but they were full so we made a reservation there for the following night and ended up at another restaurant which was not great.

Harbor in Hvar

Green Cave on Vis Island

We spent our last day in Hvar on a full-day sailing trip.  There were only 9 tourists on the boat, including us and the tour took us to Vis island where we swam in the green cave and around one of the beaches.  The cave was quite cool as there was one hole at the top where the sun rays would come down and light up the water - the light was quite green, but looking back to the ocean it was a brilliant blue color.  It was here that Keith decided to prove his manhood by climbing the rock to the top of the cave and jumping 25 feet (Keith seems to think it was 30+ feet) into the water.  There were several other men who also followed suit but decided to show off even more by doing flips with their jumps and then landing in what seemed to be very uncomfortable positions.  We had lunch on the boat - salad, chicken and potatoes and then sailed back, passing the Pakleni Islands.  After we cleaned up at the hotel, Kim and Tom climbed to the top of the fort to watch the sunset while we relaxed a little and then had a drink again at the rooftop bar.  We later met up with them for dinner and had one of the best meals of the trip.  Hvar is a stunning city - for us it rivaled Portofino with all the beauty and less of the pretense.

Keith Jumping From the Top of the Green Cave

The next day was another early morning as we had to drive about 2 hours to Sucuraj on the eastern end of the island to catch a different ferry back to Drvenik on the mainland.  While we arrived in time, this ferry was much smaller and we just missed the one that we wanted to take by one car.  Luckily, another one came about 45 minutes later and then we were on our way to the last part of the trip, Dubrovnik.  The drive from Drvnik to Dubrovnik along the Dalmatian Coast took two hours and was stunning.  We all agreed it rivaled or beat the views of the Pacific Coast Highway and the Italian/French Riviera.  As part of this drive we actually passed through Bosnia for all of about 10 minutes.  The final drive in to town is stunning - over the bridge to see towering cruise ships and the gorgeous orange roofs perched along the cliffs.

Coastline

After checking in to our hotel, we walked down to the old walled town and had pizza for lunch at one of the cafes.  We were amazed at how many people were touring - many of the cruise ships dock in Dubrovnik so you do have to manage the hoards of people milling around.  We had a little time to kill before the walking tour that we wanted to do so we visited the Dominican Monastery, the War Photo Museum and the Franciscan Monastery.  The War Photo Museum in particular was powerful - showing the tragedy of the Balkans ~20 years ago.  We opted to buy two walking tours with Dubrovnik Walks - one of which we were going to take that evening of the Walls of the old town.  The tour took 2 hours (it was about 1.5 hours too long) and none of us could understand a word that the guide told us, except for the fact that he kept repeating that there was a great earthquake of 1667.  We enjoyed walking the Walls but did not like the guide.

View from the Walls in Dubrovnik

The plan was to return to the hotel to clean up for the evening but we all got too lazy to hike the 1.3 km back up the hill so we stayed out for the evening in our sweaty clothes.  We had dinner at a really good restaurant and b/c three bottles of wine was not enough, we went to a wine bar and had two more bottles.  We met up with two American girls who had also done the walking tour with us but they were smart and left the tour early so they had been drinking for quite some time.  Still being lazy after all the drinking, we took a cab back to the hotel.

Drinks at Wine Bar in Dubrovnik

For our last day, we were supposed to do the 10am walking tour of the old town but when we showed up, we realized that we would have the same guide as the day before.  So, we opted to purchase the audio tour instead.  The tour took us around the old town, pointing out about 36 sights along the way.  After the tour, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon eating and drinking our way through town - we grabbed lunch, then had a few beers at a popular spot along the rocks of the Walls overlooking the water, and then used our last bit of money to buy gelatos.  This time, we did walk back to the hotel as we thought we probably could use some exercise!

Old Town Dubrovnik

We checked email at the hotel and found out that Romney had picked Paul Ryan as his running mate - still getting the news from home.  We headed down to the ocean for a swim, but Keith decided the water was too cold (or the air was not warm enough) so we bagged that idea and headed to the spa - which unfortunately was booked.  So, instead we relaxed before heading to dinner at the restaurant in the hotel - we decided we were too lazy to walk back into town.

Dinner at Vapor (Hotel Bellevue) in Dubrovnik

On the Sunday, we had to get up at the ungodly hour of 3am in order to get to the airport and catch our Croatian Airlines flight to Frankfurt, then to Toronto and then back to Denver by 4pm.

Observations:

1. Hardly any place takes credit card so plan on taking out cash.  Lots of cash. 
2. In most places, the wine is not yet chilled so you need to order the next bottle when the first one is opened (assuming like us you keep consuming multiple bottles of wine).
3. The women who sell the walking tour tickets speak English very well but the actual tour guides do not.
4. It's crazy hot in August!
5. Croatia is stunningly first world.  Since most of what we Americans have heard about the Balkans involves the war in the '90s, it was just a disconnect to see a country that is as western and beautiful as anywhere else in Europe. 

Posing with the Guards in Split

Restaurants/Bars:

Boban - Zagreb - An Italian restaurant in old town.  Food was not that great - our veal parm was little more than some pasta with veal bits in it. 

Oliver Twist Pub - Zagreb - Great pub on a busy street with tons of bars and people watching. 

Hotel Adriana - Zadar - We ate at the hotel restaurant one night as dinner was included.  Although it was a buffet, the meal was quite good.  We especially liked the beef goulash that we had as an appetizer.  We also had 4 bottles of wine - we really enjoyed the second 2 bottles which was a white wine from the Istria region called CO; although we are not quite sure if we truly enjoyed them since we already had 2 bottles to drink!

The Garden - Zadar - Great location on the walls of old town with a nice view of the water.  Drinks were OK and pricey.

Konoba Trattoria Bajamont - Split - This is a small restaurant down one of the small streets in the palace serving local food.  We had the Dalmatian goulash which was very tasty.  We had to make a reservation as it's a popular place.

The Top - Hvar - A rooftop bar at Hotel Adriana along the water.  While the music was a bit cluby for us, they had fairly decent mojitos and a great view of the harbour.

Passarola - Hvar - An awesome restaurant down one of the small side streets in town.  It had a great terrace and the food was amazing.  It was also the first time that we actually got wine that was already chilled!  We split a lamb dish that was very tasty!

Defne - Dubrovnik - Another great restaurant with a beautiful terrace.  The food is Mediterranean with dishes featured from Italy, Greece and Turkey.  We shared a few mezzes for the table and then Keith and I shared the beef tenderloin and baklava.  The wine was also very good here.

Taj Mahal - Dubrovnik - We attempted to go to this place three times but only got a table the third time as it's quite popular.  They serve Bosnian food which is a lot like Turkish food.  We grabbed lunch here where Keith and I shared their specialty which was lamb and mushrooms cooked in a phyllo pastry.

D'Vino - Dubrovnik - A popular wine bar just off the main street in old town.

Buza - Dubrovnik - A bar perched along the rocks right outside the Wall overlooking the sea.  A friend of ours, who had proposed to his wife here a few years earlier, had recommended it.  A great spot to grab a few beers and chill!

Vapor at Hotel Bellevue - Dubrovnik - We sat outside on the terrace overlooking the cliffs and water.  Food was very good.

For more photos of this trip: