Confession + Mary & Maggi's visit = a new post!

So, I guess I am not going to win a "blogger of the year" award any time soon, right? Oh well. I am living life! And the past couple weeks have been awesome! Pat and I took a quick last minute trip to Venice (love love loved it!), then our great friends Pat & Jen G came to visit us in London, and then the four of us met up in Barcelona. It has been a very full 2 weeks. And now Pat is in Istanbul on his next project and I am getting ready to join him to celebrate our birthdays (they are only 6 days apart!).

I have lots of posts to write and will be posting like a madwoman to try to catch up. My goal is to get them all in before our next visitors arrive in 2 weeks! eek! I better get going! Here is the preview list: my mom & sister's visit (check! see below), the Boat Race, Madrid, St Petersburg, Venice, the G's visit & Barcelona.

Since two of the most important people in my life were threatening to unsubscribe, obviously their trip took precedence. TA DA! HERE IT IS! YOU FINALLY MADE THE BLOG!

My mom & Maggi arrived on a Thursday in mid-April to a sunny, but chilly London (no rain! yay!) and the goal of the day was to keep them awake and moving so they stayed up and then had a good night of sleep before our adventure on Friday (more on that later). We headed to King’s Road which is one of my favorite places to roam. It is one block south of our flat and it has everything! Shoes, paper, clothes, housewares, books, cafes, EVERYTHING! Thus, a great place to spend an afternoon wandering.

We hit that street first, then up to Piccadilly & Oxford Circuses to hit a couple other shops. By the time we got back to the flat (with a few bags) it was time for dinner, so we headed to the 24-hour diner across the street. It has fast become my favorite place to eat in our neighborhood. It has a varied menu, so everyone can find something, they serve breakfast all day, and everything is so yummy (which really is a treasure here). The funniest part of the diner – they have a bouncer after midnight on the weekends! Ha! That is Chelsea for you. My mom & Maggi agreed – the food at the diner gets an A+.

So we tried to come home & go straight to bed, but it just wasn’t working. The three of us don’t get together that often! Then they hit a wall (hello jetlag!) and we realized we had to wake up in 5 hours. Yes, we had a date in Paris on Friday! Along with my siblings, we purchased Eurostar tickets for them as a birthday gift and early Mother’s Day gift. So we basically took a nap and then got up at 3:30 am (yes, you read that correctly) to make it to the train station in time to check-in for our 5:25 am train to Paris. It was weird to be emailing people (Leanne!) who had not gone to bed yet and we were already up for the day.

Since I had just been to Paris about a month prior and had a great tour guide (merci beaucoup Meg!), I mapped out a route for us and left plenty of café time. We started out towards the Opera, which like most of Paris is just gorgeous. Then on to a nearby department store to browse and get some coffee & pain au chocolat (maybe my favorite French food – croissants with chocolate in the middle! Heaven!). Then we went up to the roof to check out views of the city. Here is a picture:



Next we headed towards Place de la Madeleine and La Madeleine church, in honor of Maggi (her formal name is Madeline). It was so so fun to see her name everywhere & we tooks lots of pictures. And the church, wow. It was amazing!





On to the Champs-Élysées – is a trip to Paris complete without a stroll along this famed avenue? I think not! We found a lovely bench nearby and had a great rest break. Here is a picture of us on our bench:



Here is my mom crossing the Champs-Élysées:



Then it was on to the Tour Eiffel. The tourist sight of all tourist sights. We didn’t go up, we just walked around, shot a few pictures and then escaped from all those crazy vendors attacking us with key chains and miniatures.



Before hitting a museum, we needed to fortify ourselves. We found a little café that served extremely good soupe l’oignon. YUM! On to the Musee D’Orsay to admire the great masters of Impressionism. We almost missed getting in, as we were a few minutes past the ticket office closing for the day. Good thing my mom was persistent, we ended getting in for free. Good work Mar!

Next we walked over to the Louvre. One museum was enough for the day, so we just sat in the courtyard and people watched. Especially entertaining were a couple boys trying to do tricks on their bikes on the benches. As entertaining as they were, we only had time for one more sight before heading back to the train station. So of course we walked over to Notre Dame (noh-truh dahm, not no-ter dame). It was closed, but we were able to walk around and admire its unbelievably gorgeous stained glass windows from the outside. Then we had (ok, I had) one more item on the agenda before our visit to Paris could be complete – a nutella crepe (Meg!). Luckily there was a stand nearby and we were able to indulge in one last taste of Paris on our way back to the train station. Yum yum yum! I said it before and I will say it again, living in France would not be good for my girlish figure! Unless of course I spent every day walking the 10 miles we must have walked that day.

Saturday started out a bit slow; partly due to the fact that our train back from Paris was about 2 hours late (by the time we got back to the flat it was close to 2 am and we had been up for almost 24 hours) and partly due to the completely awful weather. It was cold, dark, and rainy (think hats & gloves). In the middle of April, that is just no fun. We couldn’t complain too much though bc our weather in Paris had been perfectly lovely (a stark contrast from the reports).

So we slept in and took our time getting ready for the day. Pat was back from his first trip to Moscow, so the four of us headed to Borough Market. I love love love Borough Market (fresh food vendors & stands) so I just knew that they would too. We had a great time wandering around all the stands and getting tastes here and there. We all found treasures to munch on (and share) for lunch. And then we ended up at a pasta stand where they were cooking their homemade goodies. It was so good that it inspired us to buy some and make dinner at home that night! Here is a picture of us before we left:





Sunday we had lunch reservations at one of the best Indian restaurants in London. Pat & I have always liked Indian, but we have grown to appreciate it even more after moving here (it is hard not to with a “curry house” on every corner). So we were really excited to try this place and compare it to our hole in the wall fav. Maggi was open to the idea, but my mom on the other hand – not so excited. For years and years we have heard the story about my mom’s first visit to England & Ireland. TWA was striking and their flight was canceled at the last minute, so my grandfather secured them all (family of 7 with 5 kids under the age of 13) seats on Air India. Apparently none of them have been able to eat Indian food or even stand the smell of curry since that fateful flight. Aunt Joanie, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Kathy, are you gagging as you read this?? Sorry!

Well, shockingly enough, the restaurant was nothing like that Air India flight from 1963 and my mom enjoyed her lunch. I will not say she loved it, but she was a trooper and tried it and did enjoy it. As a reward, we indulged her by going for fish & chips for dinner that night. This is the 3 of us after our lunch (look, Mar is even smiling!):




It was a great visit and I didn’t want them to leave! We even looked at flights to see how much it would cost to postpone their departure for just a day. In the end we opted to promise to plan another weekend soon. Destination: to be determined!

Our new nephew!

Aunt Becky & Uncle Pat are proud to announce the arrival of our nephew Thomas Blaise! My brother Tommy and sister-in-law Laura welcomed Blaise into the world on Monday. He arrived right on time, on his due date! Here are some of his first photos. Everyone is doing well and home from the hospital. It looks like Blaise is already siding with daddy in the great Cubs vs. Cards debate.





We can't wait to meet him! Just look at those cheeks, how can you resist that adorable little face??

Moscow

I was finally able to visit Pat in Russia for the last week of May (he had been there since the beginning of April and since I had never been there, I was really excited to visit). I arrived on a Friday evening, basically from Maui via LA, Chicago & London, so we decided to order room service and call it a night. We were really hoping to be able to make the most of the weekend, since he did not have to work. The weather, unfortunately, was appropriately “soviet” – cold and rainy. At least, that is what I would consider to be soviet weather. I am sure that many of the people we passed in Red Square would disagree with me (although I can not confirm since we could not understand what they were saying. But they were definitely protesting something).

Anyway, the awful weather was quite a shock to my system, coming from paradise. And it made sightseeing miserable. Even more miserable than it already is in place that stinks. I mean literally, smells very very badly. Pat always teases that I have the nose of the dog, but he wholeheartedly agrees that Moscow is one big ashtray. With a rotting onion in it. EWW. Yes, I will say it again. EWW.

So after you get over the awful smell and miserable weather, Moscow has some very historical and lovely sights to see. On Saturday walked around Red Square and the GUM. During Soviet times the GUM was the state operated department store, now it is a very big, very nice mall with stores ranging from Hermes, Dior, Gucci to Motorola and Zara. The ironic thing is the bathroom, or should I say toilet. Or maybe just hole in the floor. Yep, that is what it was. So after casually sauntering past D&G (guess who won’t let me go inside), I found myself in that line. Luckily I noticed everyone grabbing little sheets of tissue before heading into the stalls (at least there were stalls!). It wasn’t “hole” like outhouse, it was more like a metal rectangle in the ground, with a urinal shaped hole, and a foot outline on either side to show you where to stand. And a little trash bin for your tissue. That’s right, no flusher. It was eerily outdated and hi-tech at the same time. Very odd.

Here is a picture of us in front of St Basil’s, one of the most photographed things in Moscow. It seems so out of place to me, being that it is so colorful and playful looking. But it is truly beautiful. The inside, however, ick. You guessed it, stinky! I can barely look at that picture without the stench coming back to me. It is not one big space, but 9 separate churches, so very small and enclosed spaces.

You have to look very closely, but we are barely in this picture to the bottom-left of St Basil's:



Here is the Red Square:



Sunday we walked around the inside mall a little bit, just to look at the stores and gasp at the prices. It is underground and was between our hotel and Red Square. And yes, uper stinkalicious.

Then we went to visit Lenin. Sorry comrade, but capitalism is now at work in your name! There was a huge line and the mausoleum was only open for another 45 minutes so we were worried about making it in time. Then a guy with a badge came up to us, and in perfect English he offered his services: if we paid him to be our guide, we would supposedly skip the line. It was only $10 each, so we took the chance. The funny thing is that he only “guided” to where we had to check our cameras, water bottles, & big bags, took us to the front of the line and then he was gone. That was it. His sole purpose was to get us to take us to the guards at the front of the line. And he had a badge, so this was an official capacity, not some self-nominated position. A little ironic, ay? From there we were on our own to make the walk down the length of Red Square, past many busts of other comrades. Then we finally arrived at the actual mausoleum and there are military guards everywhere, lots. It was very very dark, with a red glow. He is in a glass case in the middle of the room, you walk around 3 sides of him. And you are not allowed to stop. The people in front of us did and were berated by the scary Russian military guys. There was no music, no information about him, his life, his death, the revolution. Nothing! Just his weird body (which to me look more like just a head & arms) and that red glow.

We couldn't take a picture of Lenin, but here is a picture from the web and he hasn't moved much.



We stayed at 2 great hotels during my week in Moscow and went to couple yummy dinners. Here is a picture of the view from our breakfast table at the first hotel:



This is us at the rooftop sushi restaurant at our second hotel. Check out those cool chairs!



Here is a view from the roof after dinner. It is hard to tell with this picture, but it was really light out even though it was almost midnight. In the summer, parts of Russia have only a couple hours of night, while in the winter they have only a couple hours of daylight. It was so weird!



This is us at a cool restaurant in Moscow. It was very Versaille; the décor and the servers’ clothing was all “Marie Antionette”, but the menu however, was quite eclectic – Asian and European, but not French! This is us in front of the moving centerpiece in the main dining room. A couple days later we saw the original at the Hermitage!



More on Russia later . . . we spent an amazing weekend in St Petersburg (the anti-Moscow!).

USA

I’m back! IN LONDON! YAY! After a whirlwind couple of weeks traveling, we are finally home! Pat has been in Moscow for work and was able to get back to the states twice for important no-miss events. I spent a couple weeks in the states before heading to meet him in Moscow. I apologize for not doing a better job of keeping this blog updated, but internet access was not always easy to come by. And also I didn’t want to waste my precious time with family and friends sitting in front of my computer. I guess I am not a true McC yet!

Sweet Home Chicago!

The first weekend in May we were back in Chicago (to celebrate our good friends Matt & Carrie’s wedding!). It was an awesome weekend. We made it to Wrigley, a couple of our favorite restaurants with family & friends, all the wonderful wedding festivities, and a baby shower for my sister-in-law Laura & brother Tommy. You’re right, sleep was not on the agenda. Here are a couple pictures of the beautiful and happy happy couple. And the baby shower too!















O-H-I-O
The following week I went home to O-H-I-O to visit my family. It was a great week. We had a birthday party for my Grandma which was super fun! We all danced the night away. When I get the pictures from that night (I was off-duty) I will add a couple. The next day we had another baby shower for Tommy & Laura. We played the infamous “dirty diaper” game which was super fun. I highly recommend it, everyone enjoyed it!











Maui
The next weekend I was in Maui for my good friend Leanne’s wedding. It was an amazing weekend. I really think that it might be one of my favorite spots on earth. I was sad to be there without Pat since that is where we honeymooned and I tried to convince him to make it our next stop on our global rotation. It doesn’t look good (since there is no office there) but maybe we can open it up! I will keep you posted! Anyway, the whole weekend was a dream and the beautiful couple was so happy. It was the perfect weekend! Well, despite the fact that most of our girls were not able to make the trip. Shane, Jen, Heater, Kellie, & Annie, you were all missed! Check out these beautiful pictures: