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-James

Cruising around the world! (ie. Europe)

Posted by james on Sept. 3, 2008

21 pictures.

Yay, we're married! I'm typing from the pool deck while we're docked in Italy. We just came back from a trip to Pisa, where (yes) we saw the leaning tower. You wouldn't believe how many unimaginative, conformist tourists were taking those lame "Look, I'm holding up the tower" photos. We had to wait in line to take ours.

The cruise has been good so far. We were so excited about the food (room service 24/7!), but we were horribly surprised to find out the quality of the restaurants onboard. We had a cheesecake that looked (and tasted) like it was squeezed out of a tube onto the crust, some old crusty hamburgers, and "hot wings" that were sweet/teriyaki without a hint of hot sauce. But thankfully, we've found some good things on board, and some of later meals were decent. There's a steakhouse restaurant on board that's actually quite good, so we've enjoyed that a lot.

We've also discovered that we're not very touristy people, so we're not as into the whole "look at old important things" deal here. It's still enjoyable, thankfully. All in all, this has been a good trip, with some disappointments but still good. I think next time we might choose something a little closer to home, with more of a focus on the younger crowd (under 40).

And while we're really looking forward to getting back home, I know we're going to really enjoy the next few days.

England!

Posted by james on Aug. 23, 2008

I'm writing this from our paid-for 90-minute internet access, from our old/traditional hotel in London. It's been fun here, especially seeing Gil and Liz/Wyatt. We got to see a few downtown London streets, some cheap clothing stores, a couple of restaurants, and even walk around a bit. The funny thing is, I haven't heard many british accents while being here. We've mostly run into german/russian people at restaurants or stores, so I've heard plenty of those. The pound is 1/2 to a dollar... which means everything is double-priced, which just depresses me. How awesome would it be to come traveling were it the other way around; I'd definitely try to stock up on gear, maybe even hunt down some of the crazy non-US keyboards I've been researching.

Today we're off to the port to grab the boat. I'm definitely looking forward to it, and I can't wait to see what it's like. And we'll see how much internet access is there, too...

Wedding!

Posted by james on Aug. 18, 2008

So it's finally happened... the wedding is over! What an amazing amount of planning, time, and money all on a half-day event, the most complicated and elaborate party I will ever plan in my life. Crazy. I was overwhelmed with the love and support that everyone showed us this past Saturday, and I'm still amazed at everything. I've never seen my then-fiance so beautiful, more so than I ever imagined. And I love the people I had there around me, it was great. And now I can finally start recovering from the 3-hours of sleep I had every night leading up to the wedding. Sleep and food, that'll do it.