Easter Sunday In The Ardennes

We have been doing a lot of traveling, but until Easter Sunday we had yet to experience the great outdoors in Europe. The southern part of Belgium, otherwise known as Wallonia, is the mountainous part of the country. Well, mountainous for Belgium that is. Let’s not get too carried away. This is an extremely flat country! The landscape contains gently rolling hills, lots of trees, and cute towns situated within river valleys. We chose to go hiking in a town called La Roche-en-Ardenne, one of the more wild and scenic towns in the area. It was a good choice. Although a bit touristy, the town was very picturesque, especially the geographic setting.

We picked up the recommended "Carte de Promenades" from the tourist information office. We chose an 11K walk through the woods above town. The route took us along the Ourthe River and through some other small towns. While we definitely had a good nature experience, the big hike in the mountains turned out to be more of a walk in the woods. We were never too far from civilization. No worries about snakebites or bear attacks here! If you wanted a bite to eat or a cold beverage, however, you were in luck. Restaurants with outdoor terraces were plentiful. The only dangers we could foresee were sunburn and/or drunkenness! Not exactly the intense hiking that we are accustomed to. But it was beautiful nonetheless. I think ICO should seriously look into this!

All kidding aside, we had a fabulous time and we managed to get some exercise. We did walk through a wooded area and the terrain was steep in spots. We also enjoyed some grea views. The region offers a lot of outdoor activities so we are ready to explore some more. We didn’t have time to stop for a beer on this trip so we will have to add it to our itinerary for next time. Boy am I getting soft!

Pictures of Emma And Sophie At Stone Mountain Park (Atlanta)

More Wedding Pictures

Some pictures of the Cohan and Calise families all dressed up.

Pictures of Mark and Tina's Wedding

Back in the U.S.A.

We had a busy, but fun, trip to the U.S. in March. We spent one week in Seattle and one week in Atlanta. The reason we went to Seattle was because Rick’s brother, Mark, got married. The wedding was beautiful and so was the bride, Tina. It was great spending time with the Cohan family and meeting the friends and family of the bride—especially her three awesome daughters. There were a lot of festivities surrounding the wedding so we were always on the go.

Our week in Atlanta was even busier as we tried to visit with a lot of friends and family. Although we felt some of our visits were too brief and we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off, it was wonderful to see everyone and to learn about new and exciting things going on in their lives. The best surprise was when my sister and her 3-year old daughter, Emma, showed up at my grandfather’s house. They flew in from Virginia and stayed for several days. Apparently, my grandfather, Rick, and myself were the only ones in the dark about this. The only bad part was that my other niece and nephew were not able to be there. They would have missed too much school.

Most of our time in both locations was spent eating. What else do you do when you are visiting with people that you haven’t seen in a long time? We miss all of you, but we were feeling a bit bloated when we left Atlanta. We were happy to get back to our normal diet.

Besides the diet, we really didn’t experience much culture shock. We have not been away long enough. The only strange thing for me was hearing English spoken at the airport when we first landed in the U.S. I have gotten accustomed to hearing a lot of background noise, but not understanding much of what people say. It was kind of refreshing to know what people were saying. I wanted to eaves drop just because I could! Also, it took me a little while to remember to say, "excuse me" rather than "pardon-pronounced with a French accent" when trying to get by someone.