Welcome to Wellington

Posted on January 8, 2014
Wellington, New Zealand: We’ve made it to New Zealand, our new home for a month! It’s a country Thomas & I agreed would be perfect for our first stop in a year of living abroad. It’s been on the top of our lists of places to visit, and with dear friends Catherine & Terence here to host us, we could not be starting off in a more welcoming place.

We left Düsseldorf on Sunday night, connected in Abu Dhabi on Monday morning, arrived in Sydney on Tuesday morning, and then finally made it to Wellington on Tuesday afternoon. We cleared quarantine, our bag arrived as planned, Terence picked us up and brought us to the cutest apartment in downtown Wellington (thank you Terence & Catherine!!). Such a treat to be staying here while we recover from jet lag and explore this capital city.

The view out our front window is of the harbor and all the cross-island ferries coming in. On our first day, we ventured along the water, then over & up thousands of stairs to Mount Victoria. The views of the city were stunning, and we couldn’t help but notice how much Wellington reminds us of San Francisco. Lots of hills, which may need to be navigated later in the trip once our jet lag has worn off (notice a napping Thomas amongst these photos).
Categories: New Zealand

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Silvester

Posted on January 1, 2014
Wuppertal, Germany: We were back here in Wuppertal at Mattias & Andrea’s beautiful home overlooking the valley.  New Years Eve is done differently in Germany than it is in the US.  Here, it’s called Silvester, and the Germans celebrate with fireworks.  It seemed nearly every household in Wuppertal set off a series of fireworks between midnight at 1am.  The valley lit up and together we drank to the New Year & new adventures ahead.
Categories: Germany

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Glück mit guten Freunden

Posted on December 29, 2013

9Wuppertal, Germany:  Andrea & Mattias hosted Frank, Eddie, Thomas & me at their beautiful home here in Wuppertal on 29 December. It was a wonderful coming together of old friends on a very special night. Andrea, Frank & Thomas had gone to art school and traveled together throughout Italy working on photography projects over the years. To have Frank & Eddie in from Cologne, and Melissa & Thomas visiting from the US, here in Wuppertal with Andrea & Mattias made for a very warm reunion.

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4The meal Andrea & Mattias put together was perfect for a post-Weihnachten detox: Butternut-Kürbis mit Zwiebeln Suppe, Karotten mit Sesamkörner, Brokkoli mit Kapern, sehr lekker Linsen, Pilze, Kohlrabi mit Rüben und mehr und mehr (bitte entschuldigen Sie alle grammatikalische Fehler und Germanglish. Melissa ist noch Deutsche lernen).  Alles sind sehr lekker. Unsere Bäuche waren voll.

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10Their home is filled with both Mattias’s and Andrea’s art.  Mattias created the piece above by scanning plants & flowers from their garden on a scanner. And Andrea’s captivating plant photography is below. It’s not tough to imagine a warm summer night at Andrea & Mattias’s home, coming in from their spectacular garden, pieces of which make their way onto the walls and onto the dinner table. We were surrounded by the beauty of nature and all the elements Andrea & Mattias have taken from the valley and incorporated in to their beautiful home.

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Categories: Germany

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Colorado

Posted on November 18, 2013



Fort Collins, Colorado, USA:  We made our way up from Moab through Steamboat Springs, CO and on to Fort Collins where my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew live.  The weather was perfect for a hike up Horsetooth Mountain with the entire family (and their very adept trail dog, Carmella). Elijah (9 years old) & Evalina (6 years old) seem to have been born wearing hiking boots and with endless amounts of energy because even as the adults had to stop to adjust to the altitude (7,225 ft at the peak), those two ran ahead. The view at the top was stunning. Yet another moment of peace & awe we discovered on this beautiful trip.

Categories: Colorado, United States

150 million years ago

Posted on November 15, 2013
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Moab, Utah, USA:  On this trip, we’ve been doing lots of wondering about early settlers and how they’d managed given their limited resources. We’d say to each other, ‘Can you imagine being in a Conestoga wagon, making your way across the vast expanse of the plains and then happen up something like THIS?’  Pioneers in search of a better life (or perhaps it was gold) risked everything to head west nearly 200 years ago.  It’s tough to imagine what that might have been like.

And then one visits a place like Arches National Park in Utah, and sees the natural formations from 150 million years ago. Forget the Westward Expansion 200 years ago.  To be in the shadows of something like this really puts time in perspective. It’s almost beyond comprehension.  Thomas & I were like kids, full of wonder and awe.  In addition to our complete incredulity of its origin, we were overwhelmed by its scale. We’d seen shots of the arches before, but it’s nearly impossible to conceptualize the size of these formations through photography.  The size, the color, the shadows, the eerie silence, the howling of the wind through the sandstone towers – unique sensory experiences tough to capture with words or images on this blog.  Needless to say, we loved this park.  We hiked all morning & afternoon, and wished we could have for a few more sunrises and sunsets.
Categories: United States

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Discovery

Posted on November 10, 2013
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Route 50, USA:  The American West is strikingly beautiful. Discovering new landscapes was one of the surprises of our trip. A few people had recommended we chose Route 50 for crossing Nevada and Utah into Colorado, and we were glad we did.  It’s called ‘The Loneliest Road in America’ and while true – it’s a two-lane road and there are very few cars traversing the West this way – it wasn’t necessarily lonely.  It was stark and quiet, but full of intrigue.
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Most days, we’d be driving with the low-hanging winter sun beside us, make a wide turn and happen upon the most spectacular landscape. We felt like we’d discovered something new.  This is the joy of traveling without a map or concrete plan.  If we’d had our noses down, buried in an atlas, we might have known wide expanses of salt flats would be near.  Or, we might have been prepared for the enormity of Castle Valley in Utah. Instead, we decided to go without a plan, and we were so happy we did.  Out on Route 50 with barely a cell signal, we really didn’t know where exactly we were.  And with each turn in the road, we were able to experience the excitement of discovery.
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Categories: United States

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Heading west

Posted on November 5, 2013

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IMG_3375Lake Tahoe, California, USA:  We left Brooklyn on November 1, heading west to California. Thomas & I have both lived in San Francisco, and decided it would be a new adventure to drive quasi-cross-country to explore parts we’d yet to see out West. After spending some time in SF and Oakland, we drove east to the gorgeous Lake Tahoe. Our morning hike was beautiful, and we were surrounded by the fresh smells of pine and crisp clean air being swept off the water.

And here is where Thomas started documenting the beauty of barren trees.  While the spring and autumn are gorgeous with the lushness of leaves and rich colors, there is something hauntingly eerie and romantic about the starkness & severity of a barren tree set against the blue winter sky.  Thomas has an eye for finding the most beautiful & unique of them.

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Categories: California, United States

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