Portugal Days 3 and 4

On Tuesday, our third day in Portugal we stayed in Lisboa and visited the monastery of Jeronimos. A giant monastery that stretches imposingly along the shore line. It was quietly beautiful with arched ceilings and architecture in the Manueline style.

Afterwards we ate at a cool sandwich shop that literally had sandwiches in every style possible. Qix and I ordered falafel which was very delish. In the evening we went to the largest mall in Portugal and Spain. It was massive. We wandered around in a daze popping into various shops until we took an espresso break. Qix and I became fans of their national custard pastry call pastel de nata and took every opportunity to eat some!

On Wednesday our legs were beginning to ache so we decided to take the day a bit slower. We clambered aboard a small trolley, in a teeny tiny alley, crammed full full of tourists to an area called Chiado. At the top was a beautiful lookout point with a man selling his canvas paintings. Naturally, we could not resist purchasing some of his exquisite artwork!

Our journey then took us to Sao Roque, a catholic church. The inside was breathtaking, and we probably would have meandered around if not for the service in progress. It was quite serious, lots of prayer and singing involved, and may have been more interesting had we been able to understand it, but instead it was hilarious to listen too. Everyone with their solemn faces and voices droning on in chants.

With much regret, we left the priest and his followers to go to the ruins of a convent. The convent arches towered above us in an open ceiling. It is amazing how ornate and incredibly huge the convent was. Qix got to see her first mummy on display there!

An Update

As you can probably tell from the previous post on Qix and Mox, Mara Unni and Qix are in Portugal. So exciting for them! They will be updating the blog when they can.

Arrival and First Day in Lisboa

We stumbled off the plane and into Mediterranean Lisboa. We weren't able to check into our hotel so we dusted off a bit and then went out to explore the city in true European fashion - without having showered for several days. First off was Castelo Sao Jorge.

The weather is absolutely beautiful with blue skies and a lovely mild coastal breeze. We've seen lots of palm and orange trees which have been quite fun. We decided we will be quite sad to leave.

Fete du Citron-Lemon Festival

This looks like a super fun festival to attend!

When we were in St. Louis, we went to the Art Museum in Forest Park. The stairs in the back of the museum have mirrors on both sides of the wall, and when you look in it you see yourself x thousand. It's pretty neat!

A Day in St. Louis

Two weeks ago, Mara Unni, Exie, Havalah, and I went to St. Louis to celebrate Rachel's birthday. Hosanna and Havalah had a lot of fun playing together-so much so, that when it was time for us to leave, Havalah was almost in tears.

Rachel wanted to eat at Jilly's Cupcake Bar for lunch. We all got sandwiches or quesadillas and the serving sizes were so large it was almost impossible to finish! The cupcakes were absolutely amazing. Sadly, I can no longer remember the names of the cupcakes we bought, but one (maybe this one?) was lime, another one lemon (possibly the one below) and the third some sort of aloha islandy flavor. :D

Yesterday I went to St. Louis with Mara Unni, Exie, and Havalah for Rachel's birthday. On our way to meet Rachel at the Container Store, we stopped at Whole Foods Market and stocked up on (delicious) vegan jerky! Per Rachel's request, we ate lunch at Jilly's Cupcake Bar & Cafe (the cupcakes were AMAZING!) and then went to the St. Louis Art Museum! At the art museum there was a painting of fishes swimming in the Hao river and a placard was beneath it with this dialogue:


Zhuangzi: "See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That's what fish really enjoy!"


Huizi: "You are not a fish, how do you know what fish enjoy?"


Zhuangzi: "You are not I-so how do you know I don't know what fish enjoy?"


Huizi: "I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. On the other hand, you're certainly not a fish-so that still proves you don't know what fish enjoy!"


Zhuangzi: "Let's go back to your original question, please. You asked me how I know what fish enjoy-so you already knew I knew it when you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao."




p.s. pictures of the trip will be posted sometime next week, because Exie has the camera and is attending a horse camp!

Drew

One afternoon at Rachel's house, Exie and Drew went for a walk. Drew was being very adorable and so Exie kept snapping photos of him. I guess he just loves his aunt.

 

Rachel made 10 dozen cookies while we stayed with her and we got to eat some. They were delicious. :D

Bento Box Lunches

For our trip down to Missouri, Mara made these lovely bento boxes. Not only did they look beautiful, but they tasted wonderful.

This had sliced jicama (even one in the shape of a heart!), hard boiled eggs cooked in soy sauce, various kinds of sushi rolls, radish, and lettuce to divide the different kinds of food.

This one tasted very good with fake chicken (for lack of a better word), swiss cheese, egg hard boiled in soy sauce, jicama, radish, and lettuce.
Mara got her inspiration from Just Bento, a blog by Makiko Itoh, a Japanese woman born in Tokyo who currently resides in Switzerland. The blog focuses on simple healthy bento lunches. Also, check out her cookbook here.

Things I Love ....

Pegasus Bridge. One of my new favorite bands.

My strawberry softlips chapstick. The fresh burst of strawberry always give me a bit of energy when I put it on at work.

My copy of To Catch a Thief by David Dodge. I absolutely love everything about the book. The way the outside cover reminds me of an elderly man wearing tweeds. The fact that chapters don't have titles or even numbers but rather are marked with a little star. Chapter one has one star, chapter two has two stars and so on. The faint whiff of mellow cigarette smoke I smell when I flip through the pages. That I bought it for one dollar at Half Price Books. And of course, the writing its self:

"The newspaper headline was: Has Le Chat Returned? Underneath there was a blurry picture of himself, taken in the courtroom of the Cour d'Assises in 1939. The article which went with the picture put a series of questions, only suggesting some of the answers. It was an American paper and had no right to insult the French Surete Nationale. The French papers did that later, when they reprinted the article."



This website about Emma Pillsbury from Glee. So cute and creative!

This golden snitch from Etsy which I want so badly.

This real life Up House. How cool is that?!

A jar of sparkles. I think it's the sweetest thing ever.

This recipe which I will be making for work this week.

This is Naive's, Lo-Fi travel guides . It makes me want to go exploring!

Guest blogging. This has been a fun experiment for me. Thanks so much for letting me share. :-)

This last video, because I love them all and it's just so hard to pick my favorite.

~ Mara

A Weekend Trip

I'm very excited because tomorrow Ian, Qixi, Exie, and I will be going on a little weekend trip. We are traveling to Rolla, Missouri, where my sister Rachel lives. While we are there, we will be attending the last performance of Seussical the Musical which I have been looking forward to these past two weeks. Mara visited us today and she brought homemade Bento boxes for us to eat on our trip down. Also, she made a CD we are not allowed to listen to until we get in the car and start traveling down the highway. I wonder what kind of songs it will have on it? Mara will be guest blogging, so enjoy!

A different kind of week

These next few days will be rather different, because this morning, Mom and Mara Unni left for Paris. Dad drove them to Chicago where they met Rachel and they all boarded a plane for Montreal. From Montreal, they'll be flying directly into Paris! This is the first time Mom has traveled out of the country, so it's a fun and exciting new experience! Qixi and I are running the house, so we'll be having a bit of an adventure as well. Today went smoothly, so I was very happy about that. Qixi and I had classes in the morning and mid-afternoon. When we got home, our siblings had already finished their school, so we cleaned a bit and played outside because it was so nice today. Then we had supper, prepared by Qixi (a yummy pot roast with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots), and spent an enjoyable evening. Exie and I even watched two episodes of a Korean drama Mara Unni is lending us!

P.S.
Here are some pictures of Paris in black and white!

Firehouse Antiques in New Harmony

Where has time gone? It seems to have flown by, and I hardly know where to start. I guess I should begin with where I left off (which was quite awhile ago). For Mara's birthday, we went to New Harmony, which is a little town in southern Indiana, and spent the weekend there. We strolled through antique stores, drank coffee, watched kdrama late at night in our little cabin, and took walks in the state park. It was a lot of fun!