Surf Trip to France - Spring Break 2011

Spring Break 2011 - Felix and I drive his van down to the southern atlantic coast of France for a surf trip.

The drive took abut 13 hours from Frankfurt - we started after work on Friday, slept somewhere off the highway just past Paris, and continued the next morning after our first pain au chocolat. We made it by the late afternoon to Anglet, the little town just on the coast from Bayonne.

The beach at Anglet

Felix has been coming to France on surf trips for years, and kept talking about the bakery in Anglet which makes "the world's best pain au chocolat" but I had no idea what I was in for. Here it is. I think we averaged about 2 per day. Fresh out of the oven, it just melts in your mouth!

We spent the next 10 days surfing on the coast, checking out the beaches, camping in the van, and...eating pain au chocolat. This was a good reef break just south of Biarritz.

One day we drove down to San Sebastian, just across the border in Spain. It's a beautiful town on the ocean, large old buildings - some of which reminded me of the area around Big Ben in London. This was our camping place just south of the city.

Not a bad view to wake up to!

On our drive back towards Anglet, we took a long hike up the highest peak in the area. A little train takes you to the top, or you can hike on a lovely little trail with horses.

The view from the top, looking north towards Bayonne.

The hike down through a little valley.

One major mission was to find a good wetsuit to replace the one I bought in undergrad for $15 at St. Vinny's in Marquette. It was so old that the neon pink and blue from the 80's is now back in fashion! Our quest for the right one took us to a "big sale at the Rip Curl outlet in Hossegor" - which turned out to be an enormous 4 day event with 60,000 people/day (mostly Spanish) who came with their camper vans and parked in huge open fields and stood in security-guard regulated lines with beer in plastic cups and sun umbrellas. When we first arrived we thought we were at a music festival but couldn't find the stages. We didn't get in line!

I have fond memories playing Milee Bornes as a kid - it's a French card game about car racing. I never thought I'd end up diving around France playing the same game at some point...

Hanging out in the van at the beach in Moilets.

The beach in Capbreton

We didn't take any surfing photos - no videos of catching big waves, not even a snapshot of a surfboard. I guess the bottom half of a wetsuit will have to suffice!

At the beach in Capbreton

And a long weekend in Chamonix!

After New Years, I headed to Chamonix for a long weekend of snowboarding with Felix and Ryan. The snow was quite thin, but we found some good stuff up on top and had some really warm, lovely weather! I really like snowboarding in Chamonix because the mountains are so steep into the valley so you are really skiing on the edge of a cliff and have a wonderful view of the mountains across the way. Great off-piste riding when there is powder!

New Years in Portugal!

For New Years, Alex and I flew to Lisbon and hung out with Katinka and Fabian in Cascias. They had a lovely dinner at their house with good friends and we drove up the hill to watch the fireworks over Lisbon. Over the next few days we used one of their vans and drove down the coast, hiking, exploring, camping, surfing.

New Years Day hike to the little beach just north of Cabo da Roca.

We took a hike high up in the mountains in Parque Natural da Arrabia (near Sesimbra). I think all of Portugal was enveloped in a low layer of fog that day, but we managed to drive high enough up the mountain to meet beautiful blue skies.

Overlooking Portinho da Arrabida as the fog momentarily thins.

This was our camping spot the second night where a group of Portuguese singers serenaded us in the middle of the night with rounds of religious chanting. How very peculiar (and so were my dreams that night)

A great hike along the coast just north of Vila Nova de Milfontes

We found a cow-sized birds nest on top of this great cliff! Who raised their children with such a view?

Beef Stroganoff a la Van (yes, Dad, I eat the mushrooms now!)

Christmas in Michigan Makes Me Happy!

This was the first Christmas I have spent at home in a few years with everyone back - Chelsea and Dave from Seattle, Pete from Chile - and it was so good to be home and see friends and family!

Denny, me, Pete, Mom, and Chelsea - this piece of ice looked exactly like the lower peninsula of Michigan, so I was making the upper peninsula with my new turtle glove.

Denny, Pete, Chelsea, me, and Dave on Lake Michigan

Mom and Denny on Lake Michigan

It's a bloody mary Christmas!

Greta loves putting up the Christmas tree and eating hotwings!

Picking out the perfect tree!

Jane and I went cross country skiing at Boyne Mountain. Here we are with our trusty, well traveled vehicles!

Fall Break II - The first snow in Leipzig!

During November I spent a long weekend in Leipzig with Alex. He just moved to Leipzig from Berlin to start a new job so it was fun in explore the city a bit.

We also took a long day trip on the train to Elbsandsteingeberge, which is a big forested area on the edge of the Czech Republic that is famous for hard core traditional climbing using only knotted ropes for gear, no chalk, no bolts. der Blick von der Bastei im Elbsandsteingeberge (Kurort Rathen)

The rocks where climbing began in Germany!

The view from the Bastei in Elbsandsteingeberge (Kurort Rathen)

(this adventure was brought to you by Ritter Sport!)