Back from Europe

Wow!! It has been a full week since I returned home from my trip (July 8 to 25) to Europe--enough time to recover from the jet lag, but nowhere near enough to come down from an exhilarating and rewarding experience, both personally and professionally. I was very excited to return home to Audrey and the boys, but at the same time it was very difficult to leave Italy, Austria, and Germany behind. It was something of a whirlwind: three days on my own exploring beer gardens and more in Munich, a week with colleagues at the Salzburg Global Seminar, and a final four days in Liguria with cousins. But I don't think I could have packed any more variety or depth into my experience. Just a great, great trip, full of places and people both new and familiar.

Maybe I'll make the time and find the energy to write a more detailed summary account of my trip. Or maybe not. (We're traveling up north next week, and then the Fall semester starts shortly after that.) But I at least have added a rather large selection of photos--from a total pool of more that a thousand--to my Flickr site. The four below provide just a taste.

The Perfect "Gita"

With the school year now complete for all of us, summer has officially begun. An annual rite of summer for us is the short trip (the Italian gita might be the best word) down to northern San Diego County. It's a short drive away--only 90 minutes to Carlsbad without traffic--yet very much feels like an escape to a distinctive and appealing section of the California coast. Most importantly, Carlsbad is home to two of our family's favorite attractions: Legoland and Pizza Port. We never have a bad time at either place, but everything just seemed to click. The weather was spectacular, the mid-week traffic was amazingly non-existent, the day at Legoland was perhaps the best one we've had there yet, the pizza and beer at Pizza Port was likewise as good as they've ever been, and the Comfort Inn even worked out perfectly, as we all got the surprisingly warm pool to ourselves. It was a pretty simple itinerary: drive down Tuesday morning, Legoland until closing, Pizza Port afterwards, morning swim on Wednesday, search for some letterboxes at local lagoons, and then drive home in time for the boys' afternoon Tae Kwon Do. Even the letterboxing worked out great, as the boys and I recorded our first three finds, ever, after going 0 for 2 last weekend in El Segundo. If only every family trip and activity could go so smoothly. (As always, the photos below are just a sample of many more that have been posted to my Flickr site.)

The Year in Pictures: February 2007

February proved to be a much more memorable month for the Morris family, "anchored" as it was by a Presidents' Day weekend trip to San Francisco. The trip included a much too rare visit with Aunt Kari and Uncle Eric, at their old place on Russian Hill, and some good exploring of the city on foot and by cable car--something the boys had never really done before. The official occasion of the weekend getaway, though, was a double treat for Pete: beer and bicycles.



The beer event was the annual California Homebrew Club of the Year Celebration hosted by San Francisco's own Anchor Brewery. And Pete's club, Pacific Gravity, was the winner for the second year in a row! This was a not-to-be-missed party, featuring endless supplies of the whole slate of Anchor beers and a delicious BBQ lunch all served up by Anchor employees smack dab in the middle of their brew house. Great beer, great food, and an unsurpassed view of the city from Potrero Hill. After a refreshing cab ride back into the heart of San Francisco, it was off to a nostalgia-laced, pesto-coated dinner at Caffe Michelangelo in North Beach, an old favorite of ours that we can happily say has changed very little in the last two decades.



The bicycle event was Sunday's opening Prologue Time Trial, along the Embarcadero waterfront, of the second annual Tour of California. The threatening rain held off, and while a bit cool and windy, it proved to be a nice day to hang outside and watch the spectacle of professional bike racing flash by--including a first-ever appearance by Italian superstar Paolo Bettini in the United States, in the world champion's rainbow jersey, no less! It wasn't quite the same thrill as drinking in the Anchor Brewery, but it wasn't a bad encore either.

The Tour was only getting started that weekend, of course, and like the year before, we (or at least Everett and I) went to see the final stage the following weekend here in the Southland. This year, the race ended with a 10-lap circuit race through the Long Beach waterfront. The cool, somewhat blustery weather continued, but it still was a chance to see the famous--at least in our household--Jelly Belly team car parade behind the peleton.