Feliz Navidad

Christmas 2006 was spent in the beautiful suburb of Buenos Aires called San Isidro. Our friend Ezequiel invited us over to his sister's house (which he was house-sitting) to lounge around the pool and to have Christmas dinner with. It was great to get out of the city and to learn how Christmas is celebrate in Argentina. Here's a quick rundown of the holiday:

1) The whole family gets together and tons of food is eaten.

2) At midnight, there's a champagne toast and the kids open their presents.

3) After midnight, it's party time! The celebration lasts until dawn.

4) Fireworks, Fireworks, Fireworks. The city turns into a War Zone!

For dinner, we fired up the parilla, the Argentinean bbq, and grilled a few beautiful steaks. We drank copious amounts of fantastic red wine and enjoyed a mid-summer meal in the backyard. Not a bad way to celebrate Christmas!


"Ever-lasting" Christmas Trees are so much better for the environment than real ones.


Zeque firing up the parilla.


Gavin with a bottle of bubbly and the pan dulce.

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Gav and I rung in the New Year with the help of 40 of our new friends that we met here in Buenos Aires. The crowd was made up by people from the Spanish Language School that we've been attending plus a few other friends. We had no idea how many people were going to come, but let's just say that the First Annual Gavin & Keau New Year's Toast and Pre-Funk Extravaganza was a huge success!

All of the guests had a great time and even I managed to enjoy myself until I gave the green light for the confetti to come out. What a mistake! It took us 3 hours of cleaning the next day to get the apartment back into shape. Next year, we're either going to hire someone to clean or someone else is hosting the party. :)


Americans, Aussies, Germans, Hungarians, Brazilians, Argentineans and more!


F@ck! What a mess!

New Years BsAs

Buenos Aires ... Six Weeks Later

I can't believe that it was more than 6 weeks ago when Gavin and I boarded our United Airline's flight from Washington DC to Buenos Aires. The time sure has flown by! Three visitors and a month and a half later, I find myself wondering where the time went.

I will attempt to blog and bring you up to date on all of the adventures that we have had in this great city.


The view from our fabulous apartment.


One of the city's many dog walkers (this city is filled with dog poo! who has time to pick up after 8 dogs?) 

Pyromaniacs!

In between Europe and South America, we sandwiched a trip back to Virginia to regroup (that's what Gavin calls it) and to visit the family.

On one chilly Fall evening in Norfolk, Gavin's dad fired up the bbq pit affectionaly named "The Log Waster."

Why do boys love fire so much?


Don't get too close Gav. The fire might singe your manicured eyebrows!


Beer and fire. Grunt Grunt!


Hot Stuff! 

Fall in Washington DC with Rich and Leaf Peeping in Shenandoah National Park

Back in October, Gavin and I spent the Halloween weekend in Washington DC with our good friend Rich who braved a bus ride down from New York City.

We had a great time exploring the city and although we didn't dress up in costume, this was definitely a Halloween to remember.


Rich S and I sitting pretty in our Nation's Capital.


Democracy in action!

Before leaving for Buenos Aires, we took a drive to Shenandoah National Park to check out the fall foliage. I've never done "Leaf Peeping" before, and I was very excited!


My hands are in my pockets because it was freezing cold!

Leaf Peeping

 

Buenos Aires

I'm guilty of it again.

I've managed to let a month pass by and not post a single blog.

We've been in Buenos Aires and it has been nothing short of amazing! I promise to blog about it soon, but we've been busy visitors (Jeff come back soon!).

Promise to blog soon!

Cute Babies, A visit from Jeff and sitting on baskets!

There are few things that I love more than meeting up with friends in new cities. (My mom & brother flew out to NYC to visit and we met up with John L in NYC & London, among others). So you can imagine how excited we were when we found out that Jeff H was going to be in DC the same time we! How bout that?

Check out the pics from our date with Jeff in Washington DC.



Jeff H in leather at the Ethiopian Restaurant. (That's a bottle of mead in my hands!)


Communal eating at its finest.


Gav ate a chili pepper! Gah!

For more pictures, check out my Picasa Web Album below:

Capital Antics

 

Back in the U-S-A

After almost two months in Europe, I was about ready to come home to something familiar. Don't get me wrong, Europe was amazing and I can't wait to go back, but it's only natural for you to miss "home". (Techincally, Gav and I are still homeless, since we don't really have a "home.")

Our flight back home was almost as great as the trip over, and we landed in Washington DC feeling rested and ready to take on the USA!

We spent a few days in Falls Church, VA with Valy, Pink & Keira before going south to Norfolk to visit Gav's fam.

Here are a few pics from the first few days back in the US.


Stars & Stripes


Monkey business at the Washington Monument


Push this button and you'll be added to the "No Fly List".

For more picture, click the picture below!

Back in America

 

Eating Our Way Across the Iberian Penisula

I started doing my blog about a year ago and the number one comment I get from people is that they absolutely love it when I talk about the meals I've had and take pictures of the delicious items that I devour!

We ate really really well while visiting Spain and Portugal. Gavin and I have an uncanny ability to pick out restaurants while we visit new places that end up being fantastic! Nothing gets me more excited than a hole in the wall place where Gav and I are the only ones speaking English. So hot!

This blog entry goes out to all of the people who read my blog and love food!


Finger licking pastries in Porto, Portugal.


Ice cold Spanish beer with a Boca del Rey Burger (hamburger, egg, ham, bacon., lettuce and just a touch of mayo!).


Fresh clamari with herbs and salad in Porto, Portugal.


For more food, check out my Picasa Web Album:

Eating Our Way across the Iberian Peninsula

 

Who ever knew the mid-term elections could be so much fun?

I don't know about you, but I can't get enough coverage of the upcoming mid-term elections! I'm trying not to get too excited about everything, but when CNN and MSNBC both have non-stop stories about how the Dems are poised to take over the House and possibly the Senate (plus some key Governorships around the nation). We're in the home-stretch now. Tuesday will be very interesting!

Oh yeah, we're in Buenos Aires now. I have a bunch of blogs to write and then I'll get to South America!