June 2014 Round-up

Happy Monday! It seems like June has just flown by, which means it's time for my monthly round-up. These are some of the highlights of the past month:

• Traveling out to Marble Falls and Pedernales Falls State Park one weekend. I really enjoyed my cherry pie at the Bluebonnet Cafe, and it was fun to explore such a beautiful part of the Hill Country at Pedernales Falls.
• Cheering the Spurs onto victory in the NBA Finals. After the heartbreak of last year, it was wonderful to see them win number five this year.
• Spying new wildlife right outside my apartment window — this month I saw longhorns, two deer, two cats, and several bunnies.
• Getting my live skating fix at the Bluebonnet Open in Cedar Park. It's been way too long!
• Having Paul, Esther, and Grace visit me one weekend. We drove down to San Antonio since Grace had never been and toured the Alamo and Riverwalk. On the way home, we stopped at the San Marcos outlets and the UT campus.
• Enjoying the past week of rainy weather. It's never fun to get out in the rain, but it's always great to see it falling when you're safely inside.
• Meeting my friend Michelle (and her boyfriend Clint) for dinner at Thai Cuisine one evening after work.
• Treating myself to a long pedicure and pretty pink peonies last Friday.

Books I read: Alice I Have Been (Melanie Benjamin); The Light Between Oceans (M.L. Stedman); China Dolls (Lisa See)

Movies I watched: The Fault in Our Stars, About Time (DVD), The Invisible Woman (DVD), The Vow (DVD), Calendar Girls (DVD), The Book Thief (DVD)

TV: NBA playoffs, Castle reruns, Parenthood (Season 1 DVD)

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About My Monthly Round-Ups
At the end of each month, I take a look back and write a post about the month's highlights, as well as what I read and watched. To see all of my round-up posts, visit this page.

European Adventure | Day 8

On Sunday, April 13, Mom and I said au revoir to France as we took the Eurostar train to England. We left the boat at 7:45 that morning to get to Gare du Nord (North Station) in Paris. Once there, we checked our luggage and went through customs to gain entry into the United Kingdom. Our train left at 10:09, so we were soon on our way.

The Eurostar train is extremely fast, and the scenery outside, while beautiful, just whizzes by. The journey under the Channel was also so quick that Mom didn't realize we had gone under (I remembered a little bit from last time). We gained an hour along the way, so we arrived at St. Pancras Station around noon. After a little confusion, we found our Viking guide and made our way to the coach for the London city tour.

The London Marathon was taking place this Sunday, so we weren't able to see as many things as usual. We did get out around the London Eye, where we had a good view of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey on the other side of the Thames. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and Mom and I had to keep pinching ourselves to believe we were actually in London together.






After leaving London, we drove on to Oxford, our home base for the next three days. We stayed at the Old Bank Hotel, which was quite nice. We spent a little time enjoying the fast internet (Instagram didn't freeze! Blogs came through with images!) before going out to explore. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we decided to try a pub called The Crown. We had some difficulty ordering since they were out of so many things, but our main dishes (fish and chips for Mom, chicken burger for me) were really good. Afterward we stopped in a few of the little shops then joined the Viking group attending Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral.



This Sunday was Palm Sunday, so the Evensong service was especially meaningful. The music was absolutely gorgeous, and I loved gazing at the stained glass windows and the sanctuary as a whole. I would definitely have trouble concentrating on the service each week when surrounded by such beauty.

We came back to the room afterward and turned in early. Our first day in England was definitely a memorable one.

Skate Austin Bluebonnet Open

This past weekend, I attended the 2014 Skate Austin Bluebonnet Open at the Cedar Park Center. I only went for a few hours on Saturday night to see the senior and junior ladies (and one novice man). Two of the ladies in the senior competition — Amber Glenn and Ashley Shin — are the reigning junior national champion and bronze medalist, respectively. They both live in the Dallas area. Claire Untalan, the other senior lady, competes for the Philippines.

It was fun to try out my camera lens, since I haven't had it at other competitions.

Amber Glenn

Claire Untalan

Ashley Shin

All in all, it was a nice way to spend my Saturday night, and it was definitely much cooler inside the arena than it was outside.

European Adventure | Day 7

During our last full day in France, Mom and I walked more than 26,000 steps. Oh, and we toured Versailles and spent a few more hours in Paris.

(But those steps, right? That's 12 miles, in case you were wondering.)

We left the boat early so we would be one of the first groups inside of Versailles, but we still had to wait to get in. Once we made it inside, it was extremely crowded. Other tourists would dart in front of us without looking, and it sometimes felt like they were pushing us out of the way on purpose. This made it difficult to take everything in, but what I saw was quite opulent. The Hall of Mirrors was especially impressive.







After our guided tour ended at 11 a.m., Mom and I looked around on our own and explored the gardens. The gardens seemed to go on forever, but unfortunately, no flowers were in bloom. Mom and I did a lot of our walking for the day here as we strolled up and down the garden paths. The highlight of our visit was seeing a mother duck swimming with her eleven baby ducklings in one of the fountains.







Once we finished looking around the gardens, we walked into the town of Versailles and ate lunch at a café. Both of us had been craving pizza, so we ordered a Margherita pizza to share. It was basically a plain cheese pizza, but it was so, so good. Afterward, we walked around the town and then headed back to catch the bus at 3 p.m.

We had a short trip into Paris with one other couple. Once we arrived in the city, Mom and I walked over to the Musée d'Orsay and finally made it inside. We had to rush through because the museum was closing at 6 p.m., but we saw most of the Impressionist art and the other paintings mentioned in my trusty Rick Steves book. After we left the museum, we walked down the Champs d'Elysees until our feet couldn't take it any more. We made it back to the bus early, so our guide took us to Les Invalides for a photo stop. We then drove slowly back to the boat and arrived there around 7:15 p.m.





That evening we decided not to eat dinner on the boat because we were so tired. Instead, we rested in our room for a little bit before going out to hunt for bread and cheese. We found both at separate places and came back to our room to enjoy them. Both were wonderful, but the cheese ended up being very stinky. After we finished eating, Mom took the leftovers up to one of the communal trash cans so we wouldn't have to smell it.

Our last day in France was long, but it was a nice way to say au revoir to the country we had enjoyed exploring over the last week. Now it was on to England!

Weekend Adventure | Marble Falls & Pedernales Falls

Last Saturday I went on a mini-adventure, and it all started with pie.

Really.

Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls has some of the best pie around, and ever since my mom and I ate there last year, I've been wanting to get back. This weekend finally seemed like the perfect time, so I headed out early on Saturday morning to drive to Marble Falls. I made it to the restaurant a little after 11 and got in line. The line moved very quickly, and once I made it inside, the lady handling the seating asked me if I'd mind sitting at the counter. That didn't sound bad, so I followed her to the counter and placed my order. It was only 11:30 at this point, much earlier than I expected to make it in.

I ordered fried catfish for lunch, but the best part — you guessed it — was the pie. Cherry pie to be exact. I asked for a to-go box for my lunch so I could savor that entire piece of pie. It was wonderful.

Afterward, I realized I had a lot more time in the day than I originally expected. I checked Google Maps on my phone and realized Pedernales Falls State Park was only 30 minutes away. I've been wanting to visit, so I drove over to the park. I wasn't dressed for hiking at all (I was wearing Keds), and I didn't have my hat or any sunscreen, but I decided to make the best of it.

The falls were really beautiful, and it was fun to climb out on the rocks to see everything up close. I had to use my best rock climbing skills to move between the different areas and did pretty well until my feet slipped completely into the water between two rocks (yep, wet feet). Things got even better when I had to walk across sand a few minutes later. Luckily, I had seen everything by that point, so I headed back to my car to clean up and cool off as best I could.







After I left the park, I drove back to Marble Falls so I could go to Walmart for a new pair of shoes. I then started back to Austin and made a quick stop at Pottery Ranch, where I met Pancho and Lefty and one of the largest metal chickens I've ever seen. I also stopped at the Knot Hole when I passed through Burnet before coming home.




The moral of the story: sometimes good things come from pie.

European Adventure | Day 6

After all of the excitement of the beaches at Normandy the day before, we had a quiet day on Friday (April 11). Our stop that day was in Les Andelys, one of the smallest towns we visited on the trip. Since we didn't arrive there until the afternoon, we had a lot of time to relax around the boat and attend the disembarkation session in the morning.


Mom and I ate lunch on board so we could explore the town as soon as we arrived. We thought it was going to be cool, so we bundled up in coats and scarves but soon had to take them off. There were only two shops in town: one with pretty housewares and another with scarves and bags. We visited both and ended up buying a few things at each. (I bought one of my favorite souvenirs, a polka dot market bag, at the second place.)





The guided tour of the town started soon after we finished shopping, so we joined the group. Annika, the boat's program director, led us through the town and then up the hill to Château Galliard. It was a steep hike but not too difficult (yay for climbing the stairs every day at work!), and the view was amazing at the top.





Once Mom and I climbed back down the hill, we boarded the boat again to head to Conflans, our destination the next day. During the afternoon, we had French tea, and I enjoyed reading in the lounge while Mom took a short nap. That evening we had the final night activities with the Captain's Dinner and crew introductions. We ended up sitting with the same couple from the night before, and I was excited to learn that the woman was a big figure skating fan too. (We had a lot to talk about, for sure.) The food at dinner was especially wonderful with Beef Wellington and Crème Brûlée the true highlights. At this point, it was so hard to believe that our cruise was almost over!