Author: Emily Comfort

I got to have nice long visit with my family in Charleston a couple weeks ago.  My first visit to my folks new home in the south.

Brian, Dad, and I went fishing out on the oyster flats in the rain the day I arrived.

Brian took care of the fly fishing.

Dad and I took care of the actually catching fish.

The weather felt familiar for the first few days (cold and rainy), but we got some nicer days towards the end of the week.  We made it out to Capers Island for a picnic.  A different sort of snag forest than I am used too.

 

We had a guest appearance from our good friends, Diana and James.  I dragged them down from North Carolina to run a 10k with Kim and me.  Here is our before shot.

 

A couple shots from the run over the cooper river.

worst selfie ever (but kind of hilarious).

after shot at Minero’s for post race lunch.

My folks and Rocky were nice enough to pick us up in Charleston by boat, so we would not have to take the bus home (the bridge into Charleston was closed for the run).

After the weekend, the crowds cleared out at the Comfort Inn, and Kim, Rocky, my Mom, and I got to go see the Angel live oak.  Pictures do not do justice to what a massive and pretty tree this is.

It was a great trip and I was very sad to say farewell, but it was nice to get home to these two.

Thanks for holding down the fort and taking care of our growing posse of ladies, Bret!

Happy Valentine’s Day all.  We had a great weekend.  We got to see lots of friends and family, we went for a nice hike in Tillamook State Forest, and I ran a 25km run.

Oregon is really green and lovely after all the rain we’ve been getting.

Oval loved the hike, she would have enjoyed the run to if she could have joined me.

 

The mud run run really lived up to its name.  I didn’t get any after pictures, but I was definitely pretty caked in mud.  I never fell on my butt, but there were some real slippery spots, so it was slow going a lot of the time.  I worked off the chocolate cover strawberries Bret greeted me at the end with for sure 🙂

I can’t believe it has been a whole year since we picked this sweet puppy up from a van in the best buy parking lot in Eugene.  It was love at first sight for sure and we love having this crazy, sweet, and very energetic puppy in our little family.

The progression of giant ears

and today!

Love this little monkey.

Before shot…  all geared up and ready to zipline!

a couple of other shots

relaxing with these folks

monkeys and butterflies

the trees don’t love the monkeys so much

Lots of time at the beautiful beaches

We got back and went down to California for a visit with Bret’s Dad.  We got some beautiful, but cold weather.

Then we got to spend a day with these two before heading back to Oregon.

 

Love this guy!  It has been a couple of very excellent years!

Bret and Oval at the beach from Ej Comfort on Vimeo.

 

When I dropped Bret off in Nantes on a rainy day, I felt bad that he would be stuck there for three weeks while I got to travel around.  Turns out I was really glad to have a few days to explore around there myself.  So many cool things in town… a castle with a serious moat, some underground canals as well as some surface level ones that were nice to explore, an old shipping terminal that had been updated with bars and restaurants, lots of cool art all over the town.  However, Les Machines d l’ile really made the visit there special.  Seriously, this place could not be cooler!  We got to ride the elephant.

the inside is big enough for stairs

This is the hall where it lives.  It is an old flea market that was converted to the workshop/ museum for the machines.

The museum was worth a visit as well.  I loved that they had ‘specimen labels’ for all the creations.

I was sad I was too old to ride the carousel.

We are definitely going back to Nantes when the full scale version of this is complete:

We had such a fantastic final week of our European Adventure 2015 in Greece with our friends, Jim and Debbie.

Greece is amazing.  The food is delicious and cheap.  Everyone we met spoke at least a little English which made getting around pretty easy.  Except the buses… apparently you have to watch for your bus number coming, then jump out in front of it to get it to actually stop at a designated bus stop.  We did not do that, so we waited for a long time, then eventually took a different bus that someone else got to stop.

We arrived in Greece in the middle of the night and made it to a hotel neat the Piraeus Port.  After sleeping in the next morning, we jumped on an afternoon ferry to Paros Island.  We celebrated with our first Greek beer!

We made to Paros in time to settle into our bunks on the good ship Morpheus before enjoying an incredible dinner right on the water in Paros.  Did I mention that the food was REALLY, REALLY good!  Standard fair included Tzatziki and pita bread, Greek salad, stuffed grape leaves, so much seafood, and yummy veggie dishes.  We often went for Gyros when we wanted something quick instead of a big meal. mmmmmmmmm.

Day one, the winds were supposed to pick up and our friend, Jim, was itching to get some kite boarding in.  We dropped Jim off at the kite boarding beach and Bret, Debbie, and I circumnavigated the island of Paros.  We stopped for an incredible lunch in a small, beach town (calamari and octopus) and made it to the mountain town mid-afternoon.  Things tend to shut down in the late afternoon in Paros (then they pick up again in the early evening), so there was not much to see other than views of the ocean.  We cruised back to the kite boarding beach and had evening cocktails on the beach.

Day two, Bret was feeling a little under the weather and the winds were up.  Debbie, Bret, and I again dropped Jim off for some kite surfing and we hopped on the ferry to Antiparos (claim to fame…  Tom Hanks has a house there).  We had a nice lunch in the ferry town, then explored a giant cave.  The cave is apparently home to the oldest stalagmite in Europe!  It has been an attraction since the late 1600s and there are signatures from all sorts of visitors all over the cave.  The oldest date we could find was 1776.

We made it back to town in time for sunset cocktails.

The next day, the winds were still up and the forecast was looking at more of the same for at least a few more days.  It wood be at best uncomfortable and at worst dangerous to try to sail outside of the protected port in Paros.  It looked like our best chance to see another island would be to take a ferry, so Bret and I jumped on a ferry for the island of Ios.  We stayed at a nice hotel in the port town and hiked up to the mountain town for dinner. We stumbled upon the prime sunset watching spot at exactly the right time.

We ate dinner at Sally’s place!

The next day, we hiked over to a really beautiful beach for a morning swim before we caught the afternoon ferry.

We had a long ferry ride back to Paros, but it gave us a chance to see some other islands (and put them on the list of places we need to get back to someday!).  Don’t worry, we made it back into for sunset cocktails!

The weather, stubbornly, remained unchanged for our final two days in the Cyclades.   Luckily, there was plenty to do on Paros to keep us happy.  We even went for a couple of train runs along the coast.  We ate well, and enjoyed a couple more incredible sunsets before heading back to Piraeus on the ferry.

After a long, crowded ferry ride, we had a really nice afternoon in Athens.  We explored the ancient Agora and had great views of the Acropolis and saw lots of torsos.

There was lots of good and bad graffiti near our hotel.  From our window we could see this homage to both my mother and my niece!

We got our last sunset cocktail on the roof of our hotel… pretty sweet view.

After another dinner that could not be beat, we flew back to Paris the following morning and started the long journey home.  Pretty nice view of the Alps from the plane though.

We can’t thank Jim and Debbie enough for hosting us on their beautiful sailboat.  Although it would have been real fun to get to sail around on Morpheus… the gods were not on our side.  Or maybe they were, Paros was a pretty nice place to be ‘stuck’ for a week.

I wrote this post on my phone a couple weeks ago, but I could never get it to upload… more coming soon!

 

It has been a couple weeks with lots of fun and adventures!!

I was in Saulieu for my last post, two weeks ago. I drove from there to Geneva, passing through Pommard. I didn’t stop for wine, but the Pommard pinot noir clone is pretty popular back in Oregon.

It seemed like a lovely little town!

I had such a fabulous time in Geneva with my cousin, Cinda, and her family.
I saw the sights…

The jet D’eau

Where Lac Leman turns into the Rhone river.

Morrison and Quentin after their back to school haircuts.

After a wonderful weekend, I hit the road again. Next stop Chateauneuf du Papes.

I loved! Wish I could have stayed longer (and drank more wine)!

I then stayed two nights in Carcassonne. It is a medieval castle town near Toulouse. It was pretty neat, but apparently a lot of people thought so, because it was also very crowded.

Glass of wine and cassoulet with a view

From Carcassonne, I started making my way north and stopped a couple days in St. Cirq Lapopie. It was a sort of random stop I chose from the map. It looked like a nice stop between Carcassonne and Saumer (where I was meeting back up with Bret) where I would be able to find some nice hiking and few crowds. It was absolutely spectacular. My hotel was actually across the river from the ancient town, but had great views and offered an evening shuttle to a couple restaurants for dinner.

I had a really nice time wandering in the woods and eating delicious food!

After my mellow days in nature, it was time to meet back up With Bret and taste some Lorre Valley wines! Bret and his colleague, Belinda, met me in Saumer just in time to celebrate his birthday! I had so much fun, I forgot to take any pictures… So I will leave that up to Bret.

From there, we headed back to Nantes for a few last days in France, but I will give Nantes its own post because it is really a neat town with lots of cool stuff.

Today, we took the train out of Nantes to Paris and now we are waiting to board our flight to Athens!!! Next adventure has already begun.

 

 

We arrived in Paris on Saturday.  Although we left Portland and arrived in Paris at similar times, we took different flights.  Bret went through New York City and I went through Minneapolis because Bret’s flight was booked by his employer and I booked the cheapest similar flight I could find.  Luckily, there were no problems.  The widespread availability of wifi makes communication pretty easy these days.

We jumped on the train and headed to our hotel in downtown Paris.  I highly recommend the Hotel Victoria Chatelet.  It is located in the actual Theatre du Chatelet.  It was relatively inexpensive, the staff were so nice, and the location could not be beat.  Just a few minutes to Notre Dame and the Seine.

We were determined to do better with the jetlag on this trip than we did when we arrived in Ireland (it took us about two weeks to adjust), so we really pushed through the exhaustion to stay awake until after 9pm. Our philosophy was to just keep moving…

So we walked all around our neighborhood, ate some food, walked some more, ate some more. We even had some wine with dinner, although we were worried that it would just put us to sleep… when in Paris 🙂

The next morning, we actually slept later than we expected.  We grabbed some breakfast, then met up with a family friend, Jo Ann.

We had a lovely morning exploring Paris.  We walked along a beautiful greenway on a converted elevated train track.  We went to a market near the Bastille.  Then we got to see Jo Ann’s home, across from an 11th century church that was converted to a science and technology museum (several centuries ago, but I can’t remember the details exactly).

After a lovely lunch with Jo Ann and her family, we were off to explore again.  I have a strange love for boat tours and the day before I had seen a river boat go by with couch seats in all the windows.  I thought that would be a relaxing way to spend the evening.  Bret and I walked down to the Eiffel Tower along the river, but we could not figure out which boat offered such a cruise.  All the ones we found were really packed in with people or included dinner, which we were not interested in.  Eventually, we gave up on the idea and continued to stroll along the Seine.  We made it to the Statue of Liberty on the Ile aux Cygnes.  It is a 35 ft replica of the original commissioned by some Americans living in Paris.  We started making our way back from there.

Here are some pictures of the Eiffel Tower from every angle.

and some pictures of how I spent most of the afternoon… watching Bret trying to get the perfect shot (I am sure his pictures will be much better than mine when he posts them).

and then again after dinner…

We were pretty exhausted when we got back to the hotel… according to my watch, we walked around 17 miles through Paris in all that day!

The next morning, we slept late then got some food before we caught the high speed train to Nantes.

Bret will be in Nantes for the next few weeks, working, while I explore France and visit my cousin in Geneva.

First stop for me, Saulieu in the Parc Naturel Régional du Morvan.  This town looked much smaller when I was booking my hotel, but I have enjoyed my stay here so far.

The area is very rural and is marketed as a mountain biking destination.  I hiked along a mountain biking trail.  Which was mostly a walk on very quiet country roads and rocky, former roads.  It was very nice!

I also found a beautiful wool shop!  The shop keeper keeps her own herd of Angora goats and makes the most beautiful wool and some hand knit scarfs.  I would have loved to buy everything in the store, but I managed to leave with only a few skeins of soft yarn.

Today, I am off to Geneva on the no tolls route… should be interesting!

Bret was nice enough to stay home and watch over the garden and the puppy so I could go to Colorado for  a lovely, long weekend!

I got to stay with my good friends, Kirsten and Matt, at their lovely home just under the Flatirons in Boulder.  We were able to enjoy a beautiful hike in Boulder’s open space right from the back door!  Of course, I forgot to take any pictures.

I also got to revisit many of my favorite places and reconnect with fabulous friends that I have not seen in much too long.

The main event was a trail run in Golden Gate State Park.  We had to get up pretty early to get there in time to take a shuttle about 9 miles from the parking area to the race start. Shuttles were supposed to run every half hour from 5:30am to 8am for runners and spectators, but the first shuttle did not show up until 7:15 (the second one never actually showed up)!  Lucky for us, we got there around 7, so we did not have to wait too long for the shuttle bus. The shuttle bus driver was a pretty adorable old man who had no idea were he was going.  Needless to day, the 8am start time for the race was pushed back about 20 minutes to make sure that all the runners were able to get to the start line.

Kirsten and I before the race.

The race itself was really gorgeous!  It was a little crowed right at the start, since it was about a mile of single track with about 100 other 10k runners.

The first three miles were pretty tough… about 1100 ft uphill!

The last three miles were all downhill though, so I was able to take in the scenery and not just concentrate on breathing the oxygen-deficient air.

I took this selfie.

and a second later, did this

oops… probably should pay attention when running on rocky trails!

After the race, Kirsten and I were happy to sit in the shade for a bit and drink our post-race beer.

We were not quite as happy about the long wait for the shuttle bus to get back to the car.  Turns out the adorable old man bus driver got lost between the parking lot and the trail head (one turn).  Luckily, they started loading up suvs and shuttling people back to their cars.

We finally got back to Kirsten’s car around noon!  A bit of a long day for 10k, but it was worth it.  We were still feeling good, so we drove uphill a little further to Avon, Colorado to have lunch with another friend from my colorado days.  It was a super blue sky day, so the drive was really nice.

Sunday, we had a nice lazy day of brunching, lounging in the shade, and swimming in the pool before I had to head back home.

It was, of course, great to get home to these guys (old pics).