France 2011

We spent the 2nd half of our vacation in southern France.  The weather was great, only one day of rain.  And it was cooler than Italy and much drier.  We had a great time and I'm glad the pace of our trip slowed down a bit.

Saturday morning we left Venice early.  Our Easy Jet flight from Venice to Lyon left at 7:55 am but we left the hotel at 5:30 am.  The Marco Polo Airport outside of Venice is very nice and pretty new.  We lucked out, the Easy Jet flight wasn't full and it was a sunny day, so we had good views during the flight.  Lyon is a fairly small airport, 10 or so miles out of town.  It has a brand new fancy train station attached, so all we had to do was pick up our luggage and walk over to catch our train.  We had a couple of hours to kill, but that was OK.  The train south was very crowded, but we had reserved seats, so we got into Avignon on time about 1:30 pm.

The car rental started out as bit of a pain.  We used AutoEurope and they booked us a couple of cars with National/Citer.  Since we'd arrived at the old downtown train station we had to take a taxi out to the airport to pick up our cars.  It turns out that the Avignon airport is a small regional airport and was closed when we arrived.  We found a phone number (boy am I glad my smart phone worked well during our trip) and called their main office.  Then we had to wait about an 1.5 hours for the agent to drive out with our keys.  I really wish we'd been told just to go to the Avignon TGV train station where they have an office that's open all day.  But once we got on the road, things went pretty well.  We followed the instructions, more or less and found our way north to Venesque where we'd rented the 2  connected houses.  (http://www.yourownfrenchhome.com/homes/otherhomes/monette.htm thanks Elizabeth for all your help).  Boy was the view from up on top amazing.  Here are a couple of pics I took from the parking lot.
http://www.beyond.fr/villages/venasque.html

We stopped in St. Didier for a few groceries, and a couple of bottles of wine (well a couple of bottles and a 5 liter plastic jug :-).  Once we got settled and unpacked, we had a nice dinner and just relaxed.  The view from up on top of the hill was beautiful, between the 2 houses we had 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 4 bedrooms with their own baths, and 2 more bedrooms that shared a bath.  Lots of room to spread out which was nice.

Sunday morning we tried to get moving early, but it was 9:30 am by the time we got out of town and headed for L'Isle Sur la Sorgue and their Sunday market.  It was pretty packed, so we set up a meeting point and wandered around.  Lots and lots of stuff to look at, but I mostly was interested in stocking up on groceries.  Bread, cheese, olives, fruits and vegis and an assortment of sausage.  Mmmmm...  We had a great lunch (a bit expensive but still great) and then headed home.  A little wine in the garden, then Linda and Mary made us a vegi lasagna for dinner.  It really was a good day.

Monday was a quiet day, we mostly stayed close to home and rested.  I spent a couple of hours sitting in the garden reading, which was really great.  Mon night Linda and I drove into Avignon and picked up Shari and Val.  They arrived on the 11:15 pm train from Venice/Lyon.

Tue we had a late start.  It's a bit hard to get this big of a group all headed in the same direction :-).  But we took both cars and drove through Gordes.  Cute town that has been totally rebuilt.  Then we went to a nearby Abbe and wandered around for a while.  Then we drove over to Rousillion for lunch and to check out the Ocher mine.  The colors of the soil was pretty amazing to see.  It's been used as a pigment for centuries.
http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/provence-tourism/visit-provence/roussillon-ochre.htm
The road was a bit stressful.  Lots an lots of switchback, no shoulders and idiots on bikes.

Wed we all went into Avignon and checked out the Place of the Popes.   We spent a couple of hours in one of the museums and then had lunch at a restaurant in the main square.  It was hot, so instead of hiking to a tower across the river, I found an Internet cafe and cleared out old e-mail. We didn't get the wi fi at the house working until Thur evening.

Thur was another mostly quiet day.  Went for a walk around the village in the morning.  The village used to be surrounded by small terraced private gardens.  There are a few being maintained but most are very over grown.  We found a lot of squash and fruit trees that were growing mostly wild.  And a few old ruined houses built under the limestone overhangs.

Then we decided to head toward Mount Ventoux.  We stopped in a small town for a great lunch, but then decided to split up.  Lowry took the folks wanting to go up the mountain and I drove the group going to visit a couple of wineries :-).

Friday almost everyone stayed home, but Mom, Val and I drove down to NimesNimes was a pain, but we made it.  We stopped at the Pont du Gard on our way back to Venesque.
http://www.pontdugard.fr/page.php?langue=GB&m=12_1

Saturday I stayed home in the morning and did some laundry, etc.  Then we went to lunch over in St. Didier and walked around Le Beaucet looking for Penny and Val.  Le Beaucet is an old medieval village.  The older houses are build under the cliff, very interesting to see.

Sunday I got up early and took Linda and Lowry to the train station in Avignon.  Their train left at 7:12 am for Amsterdam.  It was pouring rain on the way back, so I stopped in Monteaux at a bakery and got breakfast for everyone.  Boy it smelled good with all those goodies fresh out of the oven :-).  I really liked the small bakeries in each of the town, much more fun and better products, than going to a big grocery store.

Late Sunday morning the rain let up and we decided to drive up to Chateauneuf du Pape for lunch.  It was still overcast and we got there late so almost everything was closed.  It was also the first day anyone felt cold.  After lunch we went into Orange to see the Roman Theater (very interesting) and a Roman Arch.  Then it was time to head home and get everything cleaned up and packed.

Monday was sunny, but rather windy.  We got going fairly early and were out on the road by 9:45 AM.  I really didn't want to drive south on the A7 so we took secondary road and headed toward Marseille.  We got there just fine, the MRS airport is a quite a way out of town, which was fine with me.   I didn't want to get stuck in city traffic.  We found a hotel right at the airport, and then drove down to Carry le-Rouet for lunch.  It's a small town right on the water.  We had lunch at restaurant on the harbor.  Good food and a great view.  A nice way to wrap up our trip.  We got back to the airport about 6 pm, and turned in the cars.  That went well so we got a couple of bottles of wine and sat around in the hotels breakfast room, chatting and looking at pictures for a couple of hours.

Tue we were up early.  Mom, me, Penny and Virg left the hotel at 3:45 am.  The shuttle driver didn't start until 5 am so we had to walk, but it really wasn't very far.  Just across a big parking lot.  After checking in we tried to get coffee at the airport, but none of the restaurants or shops opened until 6 am, which was too late.  By then we were boarding.  We flew to Frankfurt, had breakfast there and then caught our Condor flight back to Anchorage.  Once we got on board, we were delayed an hour due to the fog and other late flights.  But it wasn't too bad.  The flight to Anchorage wasn't too crowded, which was nice.  We got into Anchorage only an hour late, and picked up my car and headed home.

Last vacation meal....

This morning we had to check out of our houses in Venesque. We were on the road by 9:45 am. We stayed of the A7 and drove south to Marseille on secondary roads. We got checked in to our airport hotel and then drove south 30 Mon to Carry le Rouet for lunch. It is a tiny town on the coast with a small habit full of private boats. Sunny but very windy. We had a great long lunch before driving back to the airport and turning in the rental cars. We plan to meet in the lobby at 4 am Here was the way I finished my last vacation meal...

Glace..Gelato...Ice Cream in Orange

Glace.....Gelato....Ice Cream in Orange... We had quite the rain storm last night and this morning. The temp dropped at least 20 degrees. But its been really dry so I guess I'm glad we got the rain. I got up and took Linda and Lowry to the train station in Avignon this am, we had to leave Venesque at 5:30 am. So after breakfast and a nap we decided to drive over to Orange and look at the old Roman theater. It was great. Pics.to follow when I get home.

Lunch in St. Didier

So I'm trying to figure out how to post to my blog through email from my phone. I hope it works. We are having a late lunch and a couple of beers.

Venice

I'm sitting here in Venesque France, it's just a wonderful morning.  Not too hot yet, and I'm trying to remember all the things we did in Venice last week.  It seems a long time ago, I guess that means this vacation has done what it was supposed too :-).

We were supposed to take the train from Ravenna to Venice at 11:30 am. But on Monday when I went to double check the train time, I found out that the train crews were going on strike. I've never really understood the scheduled strikes in Italy and France, but there has been at least one each time I've made a trip.
Anyway, the trains were going to be on strike Tue from 9 am to 5 pm, so our only train option was a 6:20 am. YUCK. I did a little searching on line and found a couple of bus transfer companies, but they were pretty expensive.  They really stick it too the cruise ship passengers who rely on these transfers. Then I talked to the front desk at our hotel. The lady working there found us an 8 passenger van that picked us up at 10:00 am and was 1/2 the cost of the other companies.  So keep that in mind when you are traveling.  I love booking things on line but the locals can often find you a better deal at the last minute.

I was a little worried about all our luggage, but it all fit. And the van had a/c and was very comfortable. It was a 2 hour trip from Ravenna to Venice which was a lot shorter than taking the train and changing in Bologna.  Venice was beautiful & sunny when we arrived.  We got dropped off in the bus parking lot and had to carry out luggage over the bridge and down to the train station plaza.  But what a wonderful sight, sunny skies & the Grand Canal.  And it was busy, people & boats every where.  We were a couple of hours early but our rooms were ready so we checked in and went to have lunch.  It was really HOT and a bit muggy so we didn't search too hard.  Ended up at a rather expensive and not so good place, but it worked out.  We did have some better meals later in our trip.

Wed morning we all met in the hotel breakfast room.  It was very small and the coffee was pretty bad, so we ended up going to Restaurant Brek the next few mornings.  Though we liked the location of Hotel Florida and the rooms were just fine.  Anyway, we had a guide set up for Wed morning.  Caterina met us at the hotel a 9:30 am and we wandered through the back streets, over to the Rialto Market. 
http://www.venicewithaguide.com/  (we found her using out Rick Steves guide to Venice :-).

We learned a lot about Venice from her, and we ended up at St. Marks.  She took us inside, it was nice to skip the long line and showed us around.  The mosaics inside are really beautiful, all 90,000 sq feet of them.  Mom didn't feel like walking but she and Mary took the Vapparetto over to St. Marks and met us there. 

After St. Marks we walked over to a small square by the hospital and had a nice long lunch.  Then we all split up and went different places. 

Thursday morning we got up and met at Brek for breakfast.  http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187870-d775192-Reviews-Brek-Venice_Veneto.html  Then we bought Vapparetto passes and all went out to Murano.  I really like all the glass shops and Murano is a lot quieter than Venice.  It was a little overcast but muggy & hot.  We spent the day at Murano and all went back to Venice at different times.  But we met for dinner and had to say good-bye to Sachiko.  She was going back to Seattle early on Friday morning. 

Friday we all did different things.  I ended up going back to Murano with Linda and Lowry.  We got to see 2 glass blowing demonstrations which were very interesting.  Then after lunch I wandered around the between the train station & St. Marks, just looking around.  Linda had a nap, she has a bad cold.  Lowry got over to the art museum and got some amazing pictures.

Saturday morning we had an early flight from Marco Polo to Lyon with Easy Jet.  We ended up having a porter meet us at the hotel at 5:30 am and take us to meet a taxi van on the other side of the train station.  It was a fairly quick but very expensive taxi ride to the airport.  We'd tried to set up a water taxi but couldn't get anyone to commit to picking us up that early so we ended up in the van instead.

Ravenna

Sunday morning we took off for Ravenna.  The train trip across the mountains was great.  We had a nice dinner that night and Mon morning we walked up to the Basilica di San Vitale and the Mausoleo di Galla after breakfast.  Ravenna is known for it's Byzantine mosaics, and the examples we found in these 2 places were totally amazing.  I've always like the frescos, but they're usually really faded out.  But since the mosaics are made out of glass tiles and stone, they can get dirty but the color doesn't seem to fade.  And what amazing colors.  Lots and lots of gold leaf, greens and blues.  Even some great reds.  Some of the floors in the Basilica were re-done in the 1960's.  There wasn't a lot left to go by, but any floor needs new tile occationally :-).  The results were pretty great.
http://www.ravennamosaici.it/index3.html

And the mausoleum for Galla Placidia is also amazing.  She was the sister to a Roman Emporer and mother to another.  I think she was actually buried in Rome, but the blues of the ceiling of her mausoleum are breathtaking. 

Then we wandered down to the Domus dei Tapetti di Pietra.  It's a museaum for mosaic'd floors found in Ravenna.  It has some really great things to see.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187806-d1458446/Ravenna:Italy:Domus.Dei.Tappeti.Di.Pietra.html

As you can see, I'm using amazing a lot.  I really liked Ravenna.  I could have spent another couple of days there.  We only went because Shari and Val are taking a week long mosaic course in Ravenna, but I'm really glad we got to wander around a look.

After lunch we did some more walking.  We saw another church and an art exhibit about how mosaics and glass tiles were made.  It was all very colorful and fun to see.  Then we had another nice dinner and packed up so we could depart for Venice in the morning.

Tuscany & Florence Part 2

We've been gone about 10 days and have really seen a lot.  I'm a bit behind with my blog so I'm trying to catch up before we go to France.

Sat Sept 2nd we did a lot of sightseeing in Florence.  We started out a the San Lorenzo market.  Mary & Virg got to spend some time looking at all the leather vendors.  They were looking for wallets and sandals. 

We also found the Medici burial chapel (Opera Medicea Laurenziana).  Wow, there was some amazing marble work inside, though photos weren't allowed.  Then we continued through the San Lorenzo Market and had lunch inside the food market.  What a great lunch, we all ordered a different item and shared.  It was great fun.

Then we went back to the apartment and picked up mom.  She was having a quiet morning at home.  We went over to the Pitti Palace, about 2 blocks from our apartment.  What a huge building.  Unfortunately most of the really old things were gone.  Bonaparte had the whole place remodeled when he conquered Florence.  But there was a lot to see and I really enjoyed the State Apartments.  We also did some walking in the garden but only saw a very small portion of it.

Sunday we got up early and took a couple of taxis to the train station.  We caught a small regional train from Florence to Faenza, instead of the fast train through Bologna.  We went up over the mountains, through some pretty wild area full of chestnut trees.  Down the other side it was all fruit orchards & and very flat.  We had a sandwich lunch in Faenza, waiting for the train to Ravenna.  I was really surprised that there was NO luggage storage.  We had 2 hours and I'd planned to check in our luggage and walk a few blocks into town to look around.  That was a bit of a bummer.

Anyway, we got into Ravenna about 2:30 pm.  It really wasn't too far to our hotel but we took a couple of taxis because we have a lot of luggage :-).  Shari & Val were waiting for us in a little cafe about 1/2 block from the hotel.  So we sat with them for a while and then did some exploring.  Linda & Lowry arrived a few hours later.  They had some trouble finding their hotel, but managed to meet up with us for dinner about 7:30 pm.  That was great fun, and the food was wonderful.  What a great first night in Ravenna. 

Water fountain at Pitti Palace

Our hotel was the Hotel Central Bryon.  Cute old place, but it was clean, had an elevator AND air conditioning.  It was HOT in Ravenna and had been HOT in Florence.  Upper 90's is too much for me these days.  So having A/C in Ravenna was great.  Plus their breakfast (included) was very good.  Quite a nice selection of breads,  rolls, sandwich meat, yogurt, cereal and of course, cappuccino.

Tuscany & Florence

Our trip to Italy and France started out pretty well. All 6 of us got to Florence on schedule. Sachiko's luggage was lost for 2 days but we all lent her a few things and her suitcase came in today.

Wed night we just went out to dinner and had some wine. Then Thur AM, Penny & Sachiko got up early and took a 12 hour tour of the Cinque Terre. What a beautiful tour they had, hiking part of it and taking a boat back.

Meanwhile Mary, Mom, Virg & I had a quick breakfast and walked across the Ponte Vecchio, up to the Piazza dela Signora and then to the Dumo. After looking around the Dumo for a bit we walked up to the Medici Chapels and checked them out. Then we went back to our apartment for lunch.

Mom decided the jet lag was still hanging on and she had a nap, but Mary, Virg and I walked over to Santa Croce and toured there for a couple of hours. A lot of the restoration that was going on in 2006 is done, but the whole front of the Nave is still under restoration. Guess I'll need to come back in 5 or 6 years to see how it comes out.

Then we walked back to the Dumo to see the inside of the Baptistery. I really love the mosaic'd ceiling in there.

Today we got up and had coffee, then met Luca (Hills & Roads) at 9:30 am. He took us out of town and toured around several small towns with medieval roots. We did a very nice wine tasting at Sant Appiane. Their wines were great and they were very nice people. They do rent rooms so a trip to stay in one of their apartments for a week would be great fun.

Then we went to lunch at San Leo. Patrice was great. All the food she served us comes from her 'farm'. She produces her own olive oil and honey, has a huge garden, and raises pigs. She also rents apartments. So many choices and so little time...argh!

Anyway, tomorrow we're off to a market and then to the Pitti Palace after lunch. It's been very hot, tomorrow should be 97 which is a bit much for this mostly Alaska group. But we're having a great time and I'll post some more pictures in a few days.

Steel Support Painting Part 2

Well this project went on way too long.  I know I'm a bit obsessive, so I ended up putting on 4 coats of the rust converter.  I got the first 3 on last R&R, with lots of scraping & sanding in-between each coat.  When I got home and looked at it on Monday, there were a few new rust flecks, so I went a head and scraped it with a scotch brite, and then put on the 4th coat.  It dried over night and actually looked pretty good this morning.  So I went a head and painted with some Rustoleum glossy black for metal.  It went on pretty well and really covered the posts.  I really hope it 'takes' and I don't have to re-do this project for a LONG time.

Wasn't today BEAUTIFUL. Look at all that blue sky (ignore the wild 'yard', I'll do something with it next summer).

Heated Island Counter Top

Boy, today was a day to get a couple of projects finished, which is why it's almost midnight and I'm still not finished packing for my trip to Europe tomorrow.  But that's not the topic of the blog.

Back when we were tossing around design ideas for my house, I came across an article about heating concrete & granite counter tops.  I thought it was a good idea but when I decided to go with the metal top, instead of concrete the whole idea was sort of dropped.  However, after 2 winters with a metal counter top, that can be quite chilly, I decided it was time to revisit the heated idea.  So I did some reading on line.  And then decided to give this product from Thermosoft a try.  It sounded easy to install so I talked to one of the sales guys on line and ordered enough to heat the 'table' half of my kitchen island.

It's basically a felt pad with some heating wires.  They also sent me un-wired pad as filler for the un-heated portions.  Sunday Paul came by and showed me how to get the metal top moved off to expose the wood counter top underneath.  Last night I laid out the padding, and then Don (electrician) came over today and wired it all in.  This required moving an electrical outlet under the counter and installing a thermostat, but it seems to have gone pretty smoothly.

And I have say that I'm going to really like it.  It's not a dramatic change, but it's certainly warmer.  Takes the chill off the metal which will be great this winter.  So I'm happy that this project is done and that I have my island back :-)

Visa Signature Perks Sweepstakes - Facebook - Amazon Kindle

Well, here it is.  I got my mail all opened up this evening and in one of my boxes was an Amazon Kindle, Wi-Fi only, 6 inch display.  It's really light, only weighs 8.5 ounces.

I looked it up on the Amazon web site.  $114 which isn't bad. It will have some advertising screen savers on it, but that's not a bother.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Special-Offers-Wireless-Reader/dp/B004HFS6Z0/ref=amb_link_357186542_3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0PW1PDYF80GPQEH0Y0H9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1315433422&pf_rd_i=507846

I actually have a couple of books loaded on my phone and was reading one of them in the airport last night.  It's kind of cool so I'm going to charge this baby up and try to load a couple of books on it.  This means I'll have to get my Wi-Fi router out of the closet and hook it up to my broadband connection tomorrow.  But if it all works I'll download a couple of books and try it out on this trip starting Tue.

Thank you to Visa Signature Perks Match and Win Game, and to Facebook :-)

Trip Planning & Itinerary - Italy & France 2011

The seeds of this trip were planted last year when Shari decided she wanted to go Ravenna and take a Mosaic class. http://www.sira.it/mosaic/studio.htm
(Ravenna has great Byzantine mosaics, I'm really looking forward to seeing them.) Mom wanted to go along and see a bit of Italy. So I was going to join them for a week. Then we started talking about it and more & more people wanted to go. We haven't been to Italy since our trip in 2006, so I guess we were due :-).

Anyway, the trip grew from 1 week in Ravenna to a 3 week tour of Italy in Southern France.
Here is our planned itinerary:

Tue: Mom, me, Penny & Virg are flying out of Anchorage together on Tuesday afternoon. We are flying Condor from Anchorage into Frankfurt, then Lufthansa from Frankfurt into Florence. 13.5 hours total trip time, as long as the flights are on time :-). It will actually be Wed evening local time when we get to Florence. The over the North Pole trip is great because it's a lot shorter then going to Seattle or the East Coast first.
Mary & Sachiko are also flying out on the 30th, they'll both get into Florence on the 31st, a few hours before we do.

Wed: The 6 of us have 4 nights in Florence. We rented a 3 bedroom apartment through VRBO. It's located close to the Arno River, only a few blocks from the Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens.
http://www.vrbo.com/254189

Thurs - Penny & Sachiko are going hiking on the Cinque Terre. The rest of us are going to do some sightseeing in Florence.

Fri - Luca with Hills & Roads is going to pick us up at 9:30 am and take us out into the country for a day of sightseeing in Tuscany. We'll get a winery tour, see a couple of old villages and have lunch at a working farm and tour their olive mill. We used Luca's travel company the last time we were in Italy. Penny, Virg & I had a driver for 2 days and toured Tuscany between Florence & Siena. We really had a great time.
http://www.hillsandroads.com/

Sat - More sightseeing and a chance to do some shopping. I'm planning to spend most of the afternoon at the Pitti Place & Boboli Gardens.
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence-151105/Things_To_Do-Florence-Pitti_Palace_Boboli_Gardens-BR-1.html

Sun - we're taking the regional train from Florence to Faenza. This is a little train that goes up through a national park, stopping a little towns along the way. It's about 2.5 hour trip, and should be very scenic. Then we'll spend a couple of hours in Faenza and continue on to Ravenna. There we'll meet up with Shari & Val, who are going to be in class M-F. And Linda & Lowry are flying from London into Bologna and will take the train to Ravenna on Sunday. We should all be able to meet for cocktails & dinner.

Mon - sightseeing in Ravenna
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Italy/Emilia_Romagna/Ravenna-145052/Things_To_Do-Ravenna-Mosaics-BR-1.html

Tue - we'll take the train to Venice, probably late morning. Shari & Val will stay in Ravenna, they'll be in class.

Wed - we have a guided tour set up to see the highlights of Venice. Caterina will meet us at our hotel at 9:30 am. We'll have a 3 hour walking tour, starting at the Rialto market, taking in some of the back streets, and ending up at St. Marks. We can then tour St Marks at our leisure and find a nice place for lunch.
http://www.venicewithaguide.com/home.html

Thur - Day trip to Murano to see the glass shops.
http://www.fossilfly.com/blog/archives/16

Fri - We have nothing in particular planned. I'm sure there will a lot of shopping & sitting in cafes. Sachiko has to leave for home on Friday, so our party will drop by 1.

Sat - A very early morning. Our Easy Jet flight from the Marco Polo Airport to Lyon France departs at 7:55 am. We'll take a water taxi to the airport which should be fun. Once we get to Lyon we'll take the high speed train to Avignon. That's about 1.5 hour trip. In Avignon we pick up 2 rental cars. We've rented 2 houses that share a courtyard & garden in the town of Venasque. I'm guessing it will be 4 or 5 pm by the time we get checked in. Then it will be time to find a nice dinner and relax after a full day of traveling.
http://www.yourownfrenchhome.com/homes/otherhomes/monette.htm; http://www.beyond.fr/villages/venasque.html

Sun - I really want to go to the Sunday Market at L'Isle sur la Sorge. This means getting up pretty early and trying to be on the road about 8am. I'm not sure if everyone will go, but it should be a fun morning. We can pick up some fresh food to bring home, and have lunch in a café by the river.
http://www.provence-hideaway.com/214.html

Mon - no plans yet, I'm sure sightseeing will be involved,

Tue - Shari & Val arrive in Avignon Tue night. Once they're done with class in Ravenna they're going to Venice for a few days. They are going to take the train from Venice to Avignon, which is about an 18 hour trip. Lots of great scenery to see along the way though.

Wed - Sat - Lots of sightseeing and few evenings sitting in the garden telling stories & drinking wine. We have 2 cars so we can all go places together or split up. Places & things on my list to see (in no particular order) are:
Arles - I'd like to see the old town and do the Van Gogh self guided walking tour
http://www.tourisme.ville-arles.fr/us/a1/a1.htm
Avignon - walk through the old city. Find a nice café for lunch. Check out the Pont du Gard
http://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/avignon-city-orientation-tour-4629.html
Cotes du Rhone - drive around this area and see the scenery & stop at a few wineries. In fact we might stop at Chateauneuf Du Pape, just because it's probably the most well know winery in the area. A walk through the old town part of Orange could be fun too.
http://www.chateauneuf.com/english/
Morning Market in Aix-en-Provence (Tue/Thur/Sat).
Ochre Cliffs of Roussillon
http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/vaucluse/roussill/roussill.htm
Nice   -   http://www.google.com/search?q=nice+france+pictures&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8
Perfume Factory in Grasse.
http://www.galimard.com/html/1sommaire.html
And at least part, if not all of our party is going to Monte Carlo for a night.

Sun - Linda & Lowry are leaving for Amsterdam on Sunday morning.

Mon - We need to be check out of the house by 10 am on Monday. We're flying out of Marseille on Tuesday at 6 am. So we'll drive down toward Marseille (the airport is out side of town) and find a hotel. Then do some sightseeing in that area and turn in the rental cars. That way we won't have to mess with the cars early in the morning.

Tue - 6 am flight out of Marseille to Frankfurt, then Condor from Frankfurt back into Anchorage.

Our new module is in place!

Our new module was moved off the barge and onto it's support pilings yesterday.  The move went smoothly and the weather cooperated.  I guess if you haven't seen it, you might not get it.  But moving that huge, heavy building into it spot within 1/16 of an inch really amazes me.  I would have liked to have been on the island to see it, but I the folks out there kept me up to date and sent a few pictures.

Here is the new module on the barge once the other freight has been unloaded.

Close up of trailers in place.



All trailers in place.



Mod almost to the dock.  See the pilings it will sit on?

Mod just hitting the dock face.

New module is at the dock.

Our weather had been pretty nasty over the weekend, but the wind and seas died down quite a bit yesterday.  So Crowley delivered the barge with our new module to our dock face last night.  There is still a lot of prep work to do, but I believe the current plans is to move the module from the barge, to the island tomorrow.

In order to move it off the barge and put it in place, we've contracted a specialty heavy lifting company, Mammoet.  These are the Scheurerle Trailers they shipped up to move our module.  These are specialty trailers that raise up a bit.  And each set of wheels can be turned independently from the others.  So the end up with a lot of control for making small adjustments and they maneuver the mod into place.  I've been looking at the Mammoet web site, it looks like the driver attaches controls to the front of the trailer(s) and controls them with a joy stick.  That would be intersting to see.

However, I'll be here on shore.  I'll just have to rely on Guy to send me pics, like these he sent me today.  Thanks Guy!

Europe 2011 Trip

Well, it's been a long time since I've blogged a big trip.  That last long trip I took was to Italy in 2006.  But here we go again.  We're headed to Italy & France 2 weeks from today.  We've been planning this trip for months.  But it's almost time to start enjoying the results of all that planning.

And I'm looking forward to some good weather.  We've had a cold & cloudy summer.   In fact it's 40 degrees and foggy here at work.  But it's HOT in Italy & France.  YAY!!!

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Florence+Italy+FLR:9
We'll start out in Florence on Aug 31st, so I've added the weather forecast, which I'll keep track of these next 2 weeks. And I'll be posting more info as our departure time gets closer.

New Module - Northstar Island

Our new module arrived on a barge last night.  It's a 6 story, 7 million pound building that contains a 50 man camp, office, control room etc.  It will probably sit a few miles off shore for the next few days to a week while we finish getting the island ready to receive it.

I won't get to go out to the island and watch the off load from the barge, but I'm sure I'll be able to scam some pictures from the crew on island (like I did with this picture).  

It's a VERY busy time, lots of people going back & forth.   Once the module is unloaded from the barge and set in place, it will take several months to get it all hooked up to our existing facilities and ready to be occupied.

Propane & Propane Delivery...ARGH!

When I built my house, I put in a high efficiency Buderus propane boiler to provide hot water for my in floor heat, etc. There were pro's & con's but I liked that exhaust is mostly water. Since I do roof catchment of rain water for my drinking water, I didn't want a furnace smokestack dumping ash and other contaminates on my roof.

But I certainly didn't do enough research on the propane provider. I just went with the one that convenient. They're office is located on the main road into Homer, so I drive past them when ever I go into town. But it really hasn't been easy. They can't set up an auto pay, which is really a pain since I travel a lot. Though I have to say they've never let me run out of propane. But the cost really keeps going up. I know all kinds of fuel keep rising, but this is getting ridiculous.


Anyway, this years lock in price for winter deliveries is $5.09 per gallon. My last fill up was in May, I'm 99% sure I paid $3.89. So this is a big jump. I was grousing about it to my neighbor, who used the other propane company. She said her lock in quote was $4.37 for this winter. And that's a big difference. So I've been doing some research trying to figure out why. Here is what I've found:


1. Propane delivery companies don't post their prices. I'm so used to gas prices being posted & competitive that I didn't realize that propane prices aren't regulated. The delivery companies can charge what ever they want. And since they don't post their prices, most people don't realize that there can be quite a bit of difference. Shopping around can really pay off.


2. I did some Googling and ran across some documents from the Gas 4 Alaska conference last April. Approx 30% of the propane sold in AK comes AK sources. From what I can tell, mostly from the Tesoro refinery in Nikiski (about 100 miles from my house, not really that far). The rest is shipped up from either Edmonton, Canada or Washington. Argh! This is ridiculous too. We shouldn't have to ship propane, gas, jet fuel or diesel into AK from 'outside'.


And I did a bunch of looking for retail propane prices, but without much luck. The Federal Government posts weekly prices for the East Coast & Mid West, but not for the West or AK. These are only reported Oct-March. March 2011 the average weekly rate in Kansas City was $1.90, up from $1.403 in 2010. That's a LOT less then we're paying up here. I found a posting on a tracking forum for a residential delivery in Seattle, for $3.55 per gallon. That's still a lot less than $5.09.


While I can go on & on about how crazy it is that AK is paying such high propane prices, it still doesn’t tell me why the 2 local companies have 2 such different prices. As far as I know, propane is propane and it should burn the same in my furnace, no matter who I purchase it from. Am I paying $.72 per gallon more because the customer service is better? Boy I hope not.


If anyone can shed some light on this for me, please do so. I'm very seriously considering having my rented tank (another rip off) removed and replaced by the 2nd company. So I'm also interested in any pro's or con's for either propane delivery company on the Kenai Peninsula.

Steel Support Painting Part 1

I've been meaning to get these steel support beams painted for 2 summers.  Last summer it was just to wet, and earlier this summer was just too cold.  So I finally got started yesterday.  It's not going as quickly or as well as I'd like.  So if anyone has suggestions, I'm looking for help.

Starting Out

Friday I stopped at the Gear Shed and purchased some Ospho, which is supposed to convert the rust on the beams to something or other, so I can paint over the top.  Yesterday, following the instructions from the guys at the Gear Shed, I scraped down the rusty beams with a couple of scotch brite scouring pads to get all the loose paint & rust off.  This went fairly well and I used a brass brush on the weld seams & other hard to reach areas.  Then I mixed the Ospho about 40/60 with water in a spray bottle, and sprayed the mixture on the beams.  As you can see, it looked to me like it was working.  After a bit I was getting the white powdery residue that I was expecting.

Rust Close Up

However when I looked at it this morning, there was a LOT of rust still visible.  I thought I'd have to put on a 2nd coat.  And I'd used up all my Scotch brite scrub pads so I got out the sanding paper.  Every pass with the sanding paper revealed rust.  So I spent hours sanding & scraping and re-applied the Ospho full strength. 6 hours after I finished, it still not dry.  So the rust conversion should still be going on.  But I can see orange rust spots all over, though not as many as this morning.

1st application of Ospho

Sunday Morning

Close up white residue

I'm now wondering if the beams were covered with something besides scratched paint that didn't react as I expected with the Ospho.  Anyway, if you have any ideas on how to proceed, please let me know. I really don't want to spend another 6 hours tomorrow sanding and re-applying the Ospho, but I don't want to paint over the rust either.

Sunday afternoon after 2nd application.

Security System

I finally got around to getting a security system installed.  Then it set for a couple of weeks, I just sort of ignored it.  Today I finally got on line and set up my account and practiced with the alarms.  It's pretty easy to use.  And I downloaded the app that lets me arm it, dis-arm it and monitor it on my new phone.

Deck Extension

Paul got to started on the 2nd 1/2 of my deck last week.  The railing system is on order, so I should have a finished deck in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, here are a few pics of the current progress.

New support poured.

Support beam added.

Decking being added.