Moss Landing Camping

Shannon and I drove down to Moss Landing to meet my Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Nick and Mia (oh and of course Peggy) for camping. First trip out in the new RV!

Shannon and I slept in the Prius, but not for lack of room in the RV. That thing has tons of room with the pop-out. We just put a blow up mattress inside the Prius and inflated it when all the seats were laid down. Lots (ok, well some) room. But it was comfy.

We went to the beach a lot, took the dogs around, and finished up by going to another beach on Sunday where we could (attempt) to surf. The water was pretty choppy though.

More photos.

Shannon and I's birthday cakes (with matchstick candles)

Shannon and Mia in the Prius with the mattress blown up.

Moss Landing sunset

Walking to the beach

Mr. Beer

Please forgive the horrible pictures, for Andrew loaned out his camera to a co-worker for a week (yes, you read that right) so I had to use our old, tiny digital camera.

Andrew has started the new hobby of beer brewing. He absolutely loves it (we haven't tasted his first batch though) so if you have any fresh hops in your backyard let us know!

Now, our home improvement projects consist of tapping mini fridges and making room for all the supplies in the garage. I told Teenie to stand on her hind legs so she resembles a beer bottle and then maybe her daddy will pay attention to her.

Traveling in NYC

I'm in New York this week (6/10 through 6/16) for work, and have been having a blast. I'm staying in the Google apartment, and working at the Google office in Chelsea (at least I think thats the name of the area).

I'm here to work with some teams based here, and generally just hang around, but how much work can you really get done with all there is t do here? ;-)

So far I've been to an irish pub, a steakhouse, times square, and a tiny pizza place. I went to Times Square last night after a couple co-workers and I went to a steakhouse. I got to Times Square at about 11:15 pm, and it was still super busy. People everywhere, lights flashing, it was amazing. I spent about an hour just hanging out looking at the lights and taking photos.

The Google apartment that I'm staying in is great. 2bdr, 2 bath, a kitchen, living room, Direct TV, and internet access. That is all great stuff, but all I do is sleep there since I'm online all day at work and off doing things at night.

Tonight I plan to go to the top of the Empire State building (open till 2am) and take some photos of the city. They don't allow tripods though so I'll have to get a little creative to take the shots.

Well, looks like a Drum Band is starting up outside, so I better wrap this up, put on some headphones, and get some work done.

Oh yeah, pictures. (You can see all of them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/hurstdog/NYCTrip.)

The apartment

The view from my building (not my window though)

Three photos from Times Square

Work Out

This morning Bear helped me do my exercise ball workout dvd. I would be flat on the ground with the ball over my head and Bear and Teenie kept dropping toys on me to get me to play with them. By the end of the dvd the dogs were doing "downward dog" positions and loving it.

Bear has been to the dog park two days in a row now. On Saturday, Teenie, LuLu, Bear, and Barley will be meeting up at the dog park at 2pm in Dublin and then we are all going to BBQ back at the Ballands'.

It is going to be tough to give this doggy back!

Baby Bear

We are pet sitting for our friends this week so Teenie and LuLu love their new roomate Bear. Bear wanted to go to the library today so of course we obliged. He loves to read. We love to read to him.

Teenie has finally given up on trying to constantly dangle from his mouth. The poor guy was not amused, but all is well now.

More of Bear to follow.

Eat, Drink, Sleep Praha (Prague)

We've made it to Praha! What a great city. I've had a bad cold so the first two days of Prague were a bit hard to get through, but since I am better today it has been great. Now Andrew is coming down with the cold so I have taken over as tour guide.

*We are currently in a cafe with "super slow" Wi-Fi so we will update Picassa web at the end of our trip from our hotel room*

I will start with some pictures from our trip through Bern and Lucerne in Switzerland:

THE GOOGLE APARTMENT (Zurich, We were the top windows above the bakery)

WE VISITED BERN (bear) AND THERE WERE BEARS

THE SHORTEST TRAM RIDE IN THE WORLD (~100m)

FINE DINING ON EMMENTHANLER CHEESE (Lucerne)

OUR HOTEL ROOM VIEW IN PRAGUE (Wenceslas Square)

WALKING TO PRAGUE CASTLE

ST VITUS CATHEDRAL IN THE CASTLE (we climbed the forward tower, 287 steps)

ANDREW WAS KING FOR A DAY

THE CLOCKWORKS INSIDE THE TOWER (Daddy I thought of you)

WE CROSSED THE CHARLES BRIDGE AND DIDN'T GET PICKPOCKETED

OF COURSE I RAN TO THE LENNON WALL (A memorial to John Lennon)

So here is our breakdown of what we have done in Prague so far:
Day 1: Wenceslas Square, street market, Old Town Square and the clock, ate the best soft serve ice cream

Day 2: Prague Castle (including St. Vitus Cathedral & Story of Prague Castle museum & Basilica of St. George), walked through Mala Strana, went over the famous Charles Bridge, visited the medival torture museum (kinda creepy), looked up at the Dancing Building, sat in a park and got attacked by a bee (Andrew's ok), had dinner, had drinks in the square outside of our hotel (we had absinthe...super fun), walked through a casino, saw a tow-truck pick a whole car up and set it on the flat bed.

Day 3: Slept in, the National Museum (awesome taxidermy & fossils), went to the Communist Museum (I had no idea! Fascinating and now I see the world from a whole different perspective), Sparky's toy store, ate a dessert that had a whipped cream topping that actually tasted like bile (it should be part of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans), and here we are at the internet cafe. We are off to another weird museum, back to the Old Town for a jazz club, and if I am lucky again we will stop for more absinthe.

Here are some last thoughts: smoking is truly disgusting in huge quantities (please send fresh Californian air), send these people some Swiss clothing fast, for we are seeing way too much unnecessary exposure, it is so humid I can't breathe (it started to rain tonight so things have cooled down). Off we go.

Na Shledanou

Itineraries

I forgot to include the daily rundowns on my past posts. Here is what we have done.

Sunday
Arrived in Zurich

Monday
Andrew worked
Shannon shopped downtown
We both went to the clock museum

Tuesday
Andrew worked
Shannon went to the Museum Bellvue, yarn shop, Freitag Handbag gift shop, shopping

Wednesday
Shannon visited an English speaking Day Care (Andrew's co-worker's girlfriend works there), went to the Botanical Gardens at the University of Zurich, stopped by the Skin Disease Museum, met up with Andrew and his co-workers for drinks

Thursday (European Holiday: Acension Day)
Slept in and both of us traveled to Rapperswil and crossed the 3/4 kilometer bridge and shopped downtown (rainy, rainy, rainy). Took the train back to Zurich and hopped on the last boat tour (1.5 hours) around Lake Zurich.

Friday
Took the train (1.5 hours) into Bern. What a great town and tons more to look at and experience than in Zurich. Met up with Andrew's co-worker and his girlfriend. They showed us around the whole town and we rode the smallest cable car up a hill (2 minute ride). We had drinks atop a plexiglass platform above a rushing river. We then walked downtown to eat dinner and of course stopped at a cafe to have coffee (since I don't drink coffee, I ate two desserts). After coffee (remember my desserts were substitutes for the coffee) we stopped at a gelato bar and ate ice cream. Rode the train back to Zurich.

Saturday: We plan to take the train to Luzern (Lucerne). I really hope we get to see those long horns they use in the Ricola ads. By the way, they sell tons of different types of Ricola in cute boxes. If anyone wants some let me know. We will post pictures later on from Bern and Luzern.

Sunday: Fly to Praha (Prague)