philly

we spent the labor day weekend in the city of brotherly love.  i don't know why it's known as such.   do you?

we visited some historical sites. the husband learned what the liberty bell is.  i learned that what they taught us about the liberty bell in school is a lie.  

i got a little bit of a work out...

...gosh that's heavy.

we also indulged. heavily.  i recommend a visit to morimoto (a restaurant of one of the japanese iron chefs) if you ever make it to philadelphia.  if you don't know what an iron chef is, i'm not sure we can be friends.   

just kidding.  

kind of.

the town of fiskars

crafters, gardeners, or even those that have a particular affection for scissors (and maybe knives) may be familiar with the brand fiskars.  they make a wide range of products for the aforementioned group, but probably few realize that not only is it a finnish company, it is also named after the town of fiskars in finland.  its' history reaches as far back as 1649, where the company began by manufacturing a variety of iron products.  since then, it has changed hands several times evolved considerably into the international company it is now.

today, fiskars is a cute little artisan town, with cafes, restaurants, and many shops featuring unique artisan products.   you can also visit several artisan workshops, such as a blacksmith and a glass blowing studio.   it is an easy day trip, only about an hour and a half drive from helsinki.   this was my third trip to the town, and it was a chilly, cloudy day- a nice respite from the sunny, semi-hot days we had been experiencing.   between and after lunch and a coffee break, we leisurely perused familiar shops, studios, and an art exhibit.

i have horns.

i bought a 5 euro book about fiskar's history, and learned some interesting information about their signature orange handled scissors.  apparently, the color was chosen quite by accident.  the company had recently produced another product and was left with an excess of orange pigment, which was then used as a prototype for the scissors.   later the color was put to a vote, and the orange color was here to stay.  

good choice, i think, since orange is my favorite color!  

do you use fiskars products?  did you know that it was named after a finnish town?
did you also know that the company nokia was named after the town of nokia?

marimekko unikko skirt

i have a tendency to buy multiples of clothing and shoes i am particularly fond of.  after making my marimekko samovaari elastic waist skirt (which, btw, had a dye-wash mini disaster... a story for another day), i thought it'd be nice to have two.  i whipped up one using marimekko unikko fabric and black elastic before we left for our trip to finland.  it seems so fitting to flounce around town and the cottage (as pictured here) in such a nationally recognized fabric.  for those of you unfamiliar with this pattern, it has been in print in different color and size variations since the 50s.  

these photos were taken in the woods by the family cottage (in finland), and is a very typical scene in finnish nature. i am always particularly struck by the beauty of birch trees.  i think they may very well be my favorite type of tree. 

so tall and sleek! it's difficult to say whether the finnish countryside is most beautiful at the height of summer or in the dead of winter... although i'd choose the summer temperatures over the winter in a heartbeat.  

land of the midnight sun

there is something nearly magical about finnish summer.  the hours of daylight linger on and on, never quite fading in some parts of the country, even in the dead of the night.    here, i am standing at midnight, on the pier of the family cottage.   it is the perfect place for quiet introspection, for joyful reflections, or melancholy brooding.

memorial day weekend recap

we made a rather last minute decision to make a quick road trip up to maine this past long weekend.   one of the greatest things about new england is that everything is so close.  we didn't venture too far into the state, but saw a few lighthouses, and simply enjoyed the outdoors.  

how do you like to spend your long weekends? are you the type to go on spontaneous trips?

more crafts to come soon- i have a tutorial or two up my sleeve.

je ju island, south korea

it's getting a bit late to blog about this, so i'll make it brief. after our visit to taiwan, we headed straight to south korea to visit family friends.  our lovely hosts had arranged that we leave immediately to je ju island, an island at the very south.   we spent three days there, exploring the island with a private tour guide/photographer. our hosts had arranged our itinerary down to the T, and so all we had to do was follow. it was a mixture of indulgence (had a couple extremely rigorous massages given by tiny ladies and enjoyed some spa time) and sight-seeing. our activities ranged from seeing an elephant show to walks along the coast, eating tasty korean food, and even a surprise wedding shoot for my parents.  i played bridesmaid, while my parents dressed up as the bride and groom. our friend told me that she had arranged the photo shoot so that my parents could feel like newlyweds again.  how cute is she?  it may be one of the top 10 funniest activities of my life.   while i won't share any wedding shoot photos, here are few others from the trip.    

new fabric

don't ask me what the sign says.  i can recognize two characters in the shop name.  "bird" and "fabric".  i also know that on the far left it says "japanese import fabric".  

i ate my way through taiwan

i had a few objectives during my trip to taiwan:

1) spend quality time with relatives
2) sight see (for once)
3) eat as much great food as humanly possible

if given a letter grade for how well each objective was met, i'd give myself a B- for numbers one and two, but a solid, golden A for number three.  i have to thank my cousins for my triumphant grade, as they absolutely excel at eating.  in fact, i had forgotten how much more they love food than i do- something i think most people who know me would find difficult to believe.

almost everything that passed through my lips during the trip was delicious (and really, no exaggeration here).  i think it was a combination of my family's good taste, my genetic predisposition to love taiwanese food (if there is such a thing), and the icky asian food that i've had to put up with since our move to boston.  hearing me proclaim that i planned on gaining twenty pounds on my trip, my cousins accepted the challenge  seriously.  they did quite a bit of strategic planning, that often called for random stops on the road so they could wait in an absurdly long line for an interesting beverage or other street vendor food.  we would then all share a portion to ensure that we wouldn't get too full before the next food stop.  

one of the best places to eat a wide range of delicious goodies is at the night markets.  i also really enjoy being able to watch as my food is prepared.  here's a brief glimpse of some of the goodies we devoured.

hot hot hot scallion pancakes

i watched in fascination while this man made incredibly thin wraps (ours had a variety of vegetables inside) with just the twist of his fist.

i tried one of these for the first time - a thin crepe like shell with a red bean filling. we also tried ones with  cream filling and vegetable filling. mmm. so. good.  

globe trotting: taiwan

several weeks ago, i was talking to my mother on the phone about her upcoming plans to visit taiwan. during our conversation i mentally counted the years it had been since i had last gone with her and spent time with my relatives. it came out to be nearly ten years. i counted again. could it really have been that long?

the years really do go by with a blink of the eye.

so i did what i should have done several years ago. i invited myself to go along.

i had the best time ever.

the food. the family. everything.

here are some photos from my trip. it appears that i forgot to take pictures of taipei, which has become quite the city. as for the food, i think i'll have to save those photos for an entry of their own. most of the pictures below are from outside taipei.

a six person bicycle. loads of fun.

on travel, airports, and ICN

be warned. this blog will have a grand total of zero photos.
zero. none. ZILCH.

i mean it.

i remember in the early 2000s when people wrote blogs mainly for their friends and families. i had such a blog, and i often wrote about mundane daily things, so ordinary i won't even bore you by listing them here now. these blogs rarely ever contained photos. flash forward a decade, and you find millions of blogs written for strangers, chock-full of images.

not only do i revert to an image-less entry, but i also digress....

because this is not today's topic.

today i want to talk about airports. if you haven't noticed by now, i love to travel. i travel at every chance i can (reasonably) get, and when i was still working, strategically mapping out the use of my generous vacation allowance was one of my favorite games. but like many other travelers, the love of travel is often tainted by airports and airport security. i dread the security line like you might dread kissing your aunt mildred- you think it's really gross, but it just can't be avoided.

don't get me wrong. i have no issues with the idea of my luggage being scanned (my body, though, is a different story). i get it, there are lots of crazy people in the world, some precautions have to be made. however, every time i go through one of these lines, i am disgusted by how unsanitary everything is.

first, i have to take off my shoes for flights to and from the USA, and walk on a dirty floor. gross. then, i have to put my shoes in a bin. a bin that people also put their laptops, jackets, and other personal items. which means... my personal items are going to bins where other people's dirty shoes have been. and i have no idea where their bacteria infested shoes have walked. my thoughts are consumed with this every time i go into one of these security lines... and once i am through, all i want to do is to disinfect everything that has touched one of these bins.

do you feel my pain?

i was mulling over this as i was preparing to go through the line at seoul, korea's ICN airport, when i noticed that they had two types of bins. shoe bins and everything else bins. i perked up. then i noticed a large, boxy, refrigerator-like container with transparent doors, with a sign that said "shoe disinfection" (or something like that). now i started to get excited. i took a closer look, and inside were rows of slippers. i looked again at the shoe bins sitting out. every bin had a pair of disinfected slippers for passengers to put on while they put their street shoes in the bin.

total love.

i believe this is the first airport i have ever flown through with such a smart, sanitary system. have you ever encountered such airport brilliance?

sweet bora bora

ah. sweet bora bora. initially i had doubts over the island- surely, the beauty must be much exaggerated? surely, the waters aren't really that blue?

wrong. and wrong again.

yes, bora bora really is that beautiful. and yes, the waters are that blue. my photos hardly do it justice. we stayed at the st. regis, which was luxury and beauty through and through. this is hardly our normal traveling style, but let me tell you, it certainly is something i could get used to...

snorkeling in moorea, french polynesia

 
aside from our honeymoon and a few short weekend trips around the texas coastline, we never go on 'beach vacations'. but after a year of travels full of activity, where i often found my physical limits stretched (allthough, don't get me wrong, i usually had a blast)  i thought perhaps it was time for one.  so, as i mentioned two posts ago, for the last holiday of 2010, we went the relaxing and luxurious route, and found ourselves in beautiful french polynesia.

we spent the first three days in moorea, and filled our time with relaxation and snorkeling. snorkeling may very well be one of my top favorite activities of all times. we snorkeled everyday, sometimes twice, and it was always difficult to tear ourselves out of the water. it never failed to amaze me that all i had to do is float and put my face into the water to see a whole different world, teeming with life- and when i lifted my head, it was just gone.

hello, 2011

we were one of the last people to welcome 2011, on the beach in the middle of the pacific in french polynesia.  it was the perfect way to end 2010 and begin 2011. i hope your year started off with a bang (a good one)!

two days in d.c.

the husband + i recently went on a quick trip to d.c. for a mini-family reunion. we were able to see a couple of old friends and spend a day with his brother (visiting from finland).

don't underestimate all the things you can do in two days.

you can....

dushanbe tea house - boulder, colorado

when i travel, i probably spend as much time researching food as i do attractions. we had several noteworthy meals in boulder, but the most interesting was afternoon tea at dushanbe tea house (you might remember my great affection for this tradition).

 

a weekend getaway to boulder

long weekends are excellent opportunities for short getaways, and the husband and i escaped this past labor day weekend on a quick trip to boulder, colorado. inspired by a couple friends, the trip destination was actually a surprise for him. he was very pleased and excited when he finally looked up at the display at our departure gate. there is nothing he enjoys more than time spent in nature.

it was a surprisingly hot weekend- a high of 96 on sunday, the day we took our longest hike in chataugua park. the altitude and dry air was a bit difficult for me, but it was worth it, because we saw FIVE chipmunks. yes, i counted.

the trail was about five miles long and ascended about kilometer upward.

the royal arch was the reward.  the rest of the trip was spent on more hikes, exploring the center, and of course, eating (sadly, the fires started the day we left...).
to be continued!

globetrotting in iceland: floating in a glacier lagoon

in the sparsely populated southeast iceland, lays vatnajökull, the largest glacier in europe. driving in this area of the country, you are exposed to glacier tongue after glacier tongue, so many that in a short time you lose count.  many of these are receding; a famous one, breidamerkurjökull has been melting into a glacier lagoon, jökulsárlón, only since the 1930s.

we took a 45 minute boat trip around the lagoon littered with little icebergs. never mind that the vessel was uncomfortably overflowing with people.  peering out at the water, you quickly forget the strangers practically pressing up against you. instead, you stare out in wide-eyed wonder, trying to understand how something so eerily beautiful exists.

the lagoon constantly changes. even in the short time we were there, we saw giant boulders of ice collapse and move before our eyes. it was mystical and absolutely breathtaking.

globetrotting in iceland: the horse not named frida

"what was the name of your horse?" the guide asked cheerfully, pen poised to jot it down onto my certificate.

"um, i'm not sure...she was solid white and i think it started with a F." i replied.

after a moment's thought, her eyes lit up and she scribbled down the name and triumphantly reported that my horse's name was frida.

my horse was most certainly NOT named frida. but as my certificate now clearly stated so, i decided not to argue.

maybe i should back up a little. the husband and i were just in iceland, on a 10 day vacation around the country. it was the second day of our trip, and we had just completed a little icelandic horse excursion right outside of reykjavik. although in general possessing lukewarm feelings toward horses, i had become somewhat enamoured by the idea of icelandic horses. therefore, i was very enthusiastic about this excursion, and had a made a point to book it early in the trip planning process. it wasn't until the end of our drive to the ishestar center (they conveniently picked us up at our hotel for the tour) when i decended from the mini-bus and hit my head on the door frame, that i began to wonder if this was actually a good idea.

globetrotting: the shearing shed in waitomo, new zealand

disclaimer: no rabbits were harmed during this photo shoot.
---

on one of the final days of our vacation, we visited the glow worm and ruakuri caves in waitomo, a few hours outside of auckland. en route, we happened to notice a quirky little red building called the shearing shed, advertising angora rabbit products and a free demonstration. i love demonstrations. i took a quick look in our lonely planet book, and saw that the place had a rabbit shearing demo everyday at 12.45pm. at 11.55am we found ourselves done with the first cave, with plenty of time before we were scheduled for the next one. so, we had a quick lunch next door at the huhu cafe and headed on over to the shearing shed, right on time.

how cute is he??

globetrotting: crafting at hell's gate

we began our second week in new zealand in rotorua, famous for their geothermal activity. during our last day there, we enjoyed the hell's gate geothermal park. little did we expect, the park ended with an optional craft activity!

we were given the opportunity to try a little wood carving, an important craft to the maori people. unfortunately, we didn't have so much time to learn about the tradition and history of maori wood-carving, but it was fun to try the craft.

we had a choice of the following designs. i chose a kiwi for the husband, and he chose a ponga for me. we were handed a little piece of wood with the image drawn on, plus a rubber mallet and chisel. the chisel had a v-shaped groove in it (images below). the maori wood-carving instructor gave us a brief demo and we were ready to test out our wood-carving skills.