up north at 32 weeks

we had our long weekend up north almost three (!) weeks ago and it's already feeling like a lifetime since we returned. it was lovely though. the cabin we rented was just perfect. small and cozy with a nice kitchen and the couch right in front of the glass doors looking down to the lake. the path to the lake was short, though sadly swarming with mosquitoes.

freddie was in heaven. and we were pretty smitten too.

we went for a lovely hike on the superior hiking trail on saturday. we weren't sure where to go hiking but we found a book called "gentle hikes" in the cabin and the notes on the oberg loop trail said it was the best. so we headed that way. it was sunny and hot and there were beautiful views of lake superior, and little oberg lake. after that, i seized the feeling of being hot and jumped in the lake at the cabin, caribou lake (oh there are so many lakes here!). it wasn't nearly as cold as i had feared, being pretty shallow where our dock was. i swam around for a bit and was very pleased that my vacation dream of swimming had come true.

we cooked and snacked and read books and talked and knitted and watched a movie every night. it was really quite dreamy. we even stopped in duluth on the way home and treated ourselves to lots of new music at the electric fetus.

even though that feeling of utter relaxation and no obligations already feels so far away. when i close my eyes, i can take myself right back to it. and that will stay with me.

more photos in film coming soon...
 

at the beach

before i say anything else, i want to thank you all for your super sweet comments on my last post. one of the joys of sharing this news really has been the enthusiasm of everyone around us. that has definitely lifted us up (even though we are already pretty enthusiastic ourselves!). i'll be sure to share more bits and pieces of this journey here with you all over the coming months. xoxo

a couple of weeks ago, we returned from a long visit to new york. for the first time in years (or ever, for jared) we made time to spend the weekend at my parent's house in long island. it was nice to have a quiet weekend away after a busy week of preparing for and hosting a seder and running around the city seeing friends and family. my family has had this house for almost my entire life and i have so many memories of time spent there. from waking up early in the summers, eating cheerios as we drove my dad into town to catch the train back to the city on a monday morning while we stayed out there for weeks at a time. to bringing friends out to spend a weekend in middle school. and heading out there for a few early summer days with my crew right after my high school prom.

the weather was nice, but still a bit chilly. we cooked dinner, slept in, went out for a delicious japanese dinner, watched movies, knitted, walked on the beach, and just chilled out.

i didn't take many photos on our trip, but i was glad that i had decided to pack my polaroid spectra at the last minute so i could catch these beach photos.

london london

whoops, didn't mean to be gone for a whole month! life just got in the way, i guess. here's the last bit of my trip report and then i'll be back to regularly scheduled blogging again. i miss being here!

the last leg of our trip was five days in london (it should have been six, but it was shortened due to the aforementioned flat tire (tyre) to visit jared's good friend, rae. i'll admit that i wasn't really looking forward to spending that long in london. jared and i had both been there before (separately and together, on our last trip to europe six years ago), and we had already been away for two weeks. but given rae's schedule, we decided to stay for five days so we'd have time to spend together. and let me say, it was worth it. since we had already been there, we didn't really feel the need to do anything touristy or make sure we saw all there was to see.

we spent a day in battersea park, which was close to rae's flat. it's a beautiful big park and i had just read about the opening of a brand new garden the day we were going. i was excited to see it- i read about all kinds of flowers and herbs that had been planted. when we got there, we were stopped at the gate by a security guard. apparently they were having a big opening party that we weren't invited to. instead, we headed to the herb and vegetable garden where i proceeded to blow about three rolls of film. it was incredibly beautiful and inspiring. there were wonderful signs detailing some of the different medicinal herbs and i loved seeing the different ways that the vegetables were planted. the interplantings of different veggies and herbs and flowers, interesting trellises, beautiful cold frames, and i totally had to stop myself from the "plants for sale" table. (ahem, we were nowhere close to home).

i also got a chance to stop by liberty of london and peruse the beautiful fabrics. i held back and only splurged on a couple of remnants. i also went over to cloth house, on the recommendation of eireann. it was an absolutely beautiful shop and i especially loved the exclusively dyed fabrics. sadly, i just couldn't think of what to use it for and i didn't buy anything there.

oddly, we had the best weather of the entire trip while we were in london. we walked around a lot, hung out in rae's flat, which had the most incredible view of the city, and spent some time with jared's very very good friend who we hadn't seen in over six years (hopefully it's not that long before we see her again!)

all in all, it was a truly wonderful trip. i'd love to go back to all the places we went, and it definitely reminded me how important it is to get away from it all. i know we can't go to europe for two and a half weeks every year, but even weekends away up north can do the trick. must remember that.

most of the photos i took in london were at battersea park, you can see more of those and the rest of my trip photos here.

oh, scotland

after our time in stockholm, we hopped a plane to edinburgh, scotland. we had been to edinburgh once before (six years ago, on our last trip to europe) and we were both excited to return to a delicious vegetarian restaurant that we had discovered last time, henderson's. i'm not ashamed to say that we ate their twice in two days, and stocked up on goodies from their little shop. if you're ever in edinburgh, i highly recommend it. and if you don't have time to eat a whole meal there, you at least must get a package of their shortbread. the best i've ever had.

anyways, i digress. we spent one low key evening in edinburgh and hopped a train the next day to glasgow to meet some friends of friends at the airport for the drive to crear, where we would spend the weekend attending the wedding of one of my very oldest and dearest friends. there is so much to say about this wedding. it was beautiful. it was fun. i met some wonderful people. saw a lot of kilts and danced my butt off. i was so incredibly happy to be there for my friend, despite my nervousness about being asked last minute (well, last minute to me- apparently i don't remember being asked months ago) to give a speech along with the father of the bride and brother of the groom. while i was a bit nervous, i was also so grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the past 18 years of my friendship with charlotte and put some of my favorite memories along with some of the things i love the most about her and my wishes for her future with her husband into words and share that with her and all the wonderful people there.

the location of the wedding was absolutely incredible. not really convenient for anyone, but i absolutely understand why they chose it. it was beautiful. the view from the farmhouse, on a clear day, revealed some of the islands off the west coast of scotland. as the fog rolled in, the water and the sky were the same color, making the mountainous islands appear to float. as it became more and more cloudy, it was as though there were not islands at all.

the day after the wedding, there happened to be sheep dog trials taking place in a field next to the farmhouse. i was intrigued, of course. we wandered over to watch this spectacle of (mostly) old men sheepherders whistling and shouting at their sheepdogs who were herding sets of four sheep through a course of gates. just as gabriella said "i fail to see the drama in this activity" i was on the edge of my seat wondering if the sheep would go in the pen as the old man in tweed was directing them to. it was around that time that we befriended an older gentleman who explained all the rules and offered us some whisky out of the back of his car.

as it began, our trip to scotland ended with some travel hiccups. a flat tire (or tyre) about 30 minutes from glasgow delayed our train ride to london by a day. luckily we broke down in quite a nice spot, just next to loch lomond.

our second time in scotland (the first also involved visiting charlotte) was as lovely as i could have imagined. the wedding, our new friends, spending that lovely time with old friends who are practically family, and the absolutely beautiful setting.

love. love. love.

more photos here

stockholm's archipelago: svartsö

on the last day of our time in stockholm, we took a day trip out into the archipelago. for everything that had been recommended to us to do in stockholm, this was the activity i was most excited about. we hadn't wanted to do it on the last day, but decided to because that day had the best weather forecast of our entire stay (no rain! sunny and seventies!) and in the end, i'm really glad that we rounded out our little honeymoon with this adventure.

stockholm itself is made up of islands and just a short boat ride out of the city into the baltic sea brings you into a sea of islands that makes up the archipelago. even after spending hours on a ferry boat riding through all of these islands, it wasn't until we were on the plane the next morning that i could see just how many of these islands, some very tiny and some larger, dotted the seascape.

after reading about some of the different islands, and knowing that we only had one day for this excursion (if we ever go back, i would definitely plan to spend a night or two on an island), we chose to visit svartsö. it was just an hour and a half each way from stockholm and not touristy at all. there is one restaurant on the island, a campground, a general store, and a small village with a school and a library. the rest of the island is made up of houses and forest. we spent a few hours walking along a gravel road that at times turned into a full on footpath through the forest. we passed beautiful houses and boat docks, saw a deer, fields full of red clover (jared wouldn't let me pick any to bring home), vegetable gardens, and picked the most deliciously sweet and tiny wild strawberries. we got a little lost due to a very poor map of the island that we picked up at the general store, but still managed to make it back to the ferry with plenty of time to eat some lunch that we had brought.

we didn't really talk to anyone on the island, but spent a lot of time speculating about the people who live there (it's definitely a year-round resident and not summer community). even though this island was pretty small (we walked around half of it in about two and a half hours), it was definitely the largest of some of the islands around it. this was clear by all the folks who pulled up to the dock in their little motor boats with bags of recycling to drop off and then headed into the general store to do their shopping. i'll admit that i fantasized a little bit about what it would be like to live in a place like that. even if only for a short while...

this little excursion out into the archipelago was really fun, and was a great way to end our time in stockholm. back soon with the next leg of our trip:: scotland!

as always, even more photos over on flickr...