10 days in Belize

I was standing at a bike rack outside a supermarket in Placencia, a village on the Caribbean coast of Belize, watching some dogs casually walking through the door like they're about to do some grocery shopping. This Canadian guy (let's call him Friendly Drunk Fievel. Not his real name - sadly, he was not in fact a mouse from An American Tail) pulled into the parking lot in a golf cart, struck up a conversation and offered to give me and the bikes a ride back to the hotel. I was not about to get in this golf cart, a tiny bit because I read a book about serial killers on the plane ride, but mostly because he'd rolled up while drinking a beer and was telling this rambling story about smashing his kids' iPads and hiding the TV in the closet because everyone spends too much time on screens, and someone stole his laundry but then brought it back, and the Barefoot Bar in town is his living room or some shit (WTF? I have no idea). Pete had come out of the store at this point and could not make sense of his story either. Thankfully Fievel had forgotten about his offer to give us a ride by this point and drove off with his beer while we biked back to the hotel.

This grocery store was like a nexus of weirdness though because later in the week we stopped here again and ran into the guy who'd sat next to us on the plane ride from Toronto to Belize City. In the 10 minute conversation we had with him while waiting for the plane to take off, he had told us about his house in Canada, his other house in Belize, and his business. He also mentioned how he once bought something in a Belize store and paid in Canadian dollars and the proprietor mistakenly thought that Canadian dollars were equivalent to US dollars (US dollars are accepted most places in Belize because the Belize dollar is pegged to the US dollar so $2BZ equals $1US). At the time of this story, the Canadian dollar was worth less than the US dollar, but our seatmate didn't tell the Belize guy this. Instead, he asked if he could trade in the rest of the Canadian money he had (about $800!) for Belize dollars. So seatmate guy, who owns at least 2 houses and a business, just casually tells us about how he defrauded some unsuspecting Belize guy. Is this what passes for small talk among the rich? "Can you believe this weather? It's almost too hot to casually commit crimes! Harharhar, as if! Every day is a good day for corruption!" When we ran into him at the store, Racketeer Rod (not his real name, probably) stopped to talk to us but thankfully didn't offer us a ride in his truck. I want to get better at calling people out on their shit instead of silently disliking them. I can do it with people I know - I sass Pete constantly. But it's harder with strangers, for some reason. I'm still working on this.

Lest you think Belize is all about running into randos at the grocery store preferred by dogs, let me start from the beginning. Pete and I spent 10 days in Belize at the end of November. We'd found direct flights from Toronto to Belize City that were relatively inexpensive and it was only a 4.5 hour flight (Thanks, Westjet!). Belize is a gorgeous mix of rainforests and beaches and Mayan ruins. At one point, it's estimated that there were a million Mayans living in Belize, but the country's population today is only about 400,000 people. It was invaded by the Spanish (sad face) and colonized by the British (super sad face) so English is the official language of Belize, though most people speak multiple languages (Creole, Spanish and/or some of the 3 dialects of Mayan). Belize gained independence in 1981 and had its first official Pride March in 2017. The National Bird is the toucan! And yes, I did wear my toucan shorts.

Belize has excellent taste in National birds

We booked the trip through Adventure Life, who are always great (we used them when we went to Costa Rica and when I went to the Galapagos Islands). We spent 4 nights inland in the jungle, where we stayed at Pook's Hill Lodge and 6 nights in Placencia, where we stayed at the beachfront Robert's Grove Resort.

Jungle Adventures

I can't say enough good things about Pook's Hill and the amazing guides (Thanks Mike and Mario!), cooks and staff. When we arrived, they said we'd been upgraded to a new room (!) and lead us down this raised walkway to a cute bungalow on stilts. In the jungle. Like really in the jungle, surrounded by trails and the sounds of jungle animals, a 5.5 mile drive down a rocky dirt road away from the nearest main road. There is no WiFi in the bungalows, only in the "happy hour" lounge in the main building, so you can really disconnect and enjoy the surroundings and the delicious meals, which are served family style. Every day, coffee is at 6:30am, breakfast is at 7:00am, happy hour/snack hour is at 6:00pm and dinner is at 7:00pm (they also serve lunch at mid-day but we were out on excursions every day so we didn't eat lunch at the lodge). They even put out almond milk for me, had plenty of vegan/vegetarian options and served us vegan chocolate cake for dessert on our last night! This is also the only hotel where I've ever met, let alone had dinner with, the owner. Vicki is one of the owners at Pook's and she chatted with us at happy hour every day, then she and her friend joined us for dinner on our last night.

Our jungle bungalow (jungalow?)

Happy hour/hammock lounge

Moon over jungalow

Tarantula coming to happy hour

One of the guides from Pook's picked us up from the Belize City airport and we stopped at the Belize Zoo on the way to the lodge. I have mixed feelings about zoos but this one at least only had animals native to Belize and they were all either rescues of some sort or the offspring of the rescues. We saw monkeys, tapirs (kinda like a rhino without a horn), coatimundi, a jabiru (a large, beautiful stork), jaguars and this macaw that came over to us and crooned "Hello" ("from the other side. I must have called a thousand times..." I hope he got a writing credit on that Adele song).

Tapirs: up to 500 lbs of cuteness!

There were a bunch of excursion options (day trips from Pook's with the guides) and we had picked Cave Tubing & Ziplining, Black Hole Drop and Mountain Pine Ridge.

The cave tubing and ziplining was at this place run by a company called Butts Up. We did an easy 30 minute hike on a trail through a cave system, carrying our inner tubes and helmets, then lazy rivered our way through the dark caves and turquoise waters of the Cave's Branch River. We had lunch onsite, then did the ziplining, which was fun but the easiest ziplining I've ever done. These 2 guides accompanied us the whole way and hooked us up at each zipline (the other ziplines we've done have been more like high ropes courses and you have to hook up all the carabiners and do all the work yourself). It was also the only zipline place I've been to where there were no waivers to sign, no weight limits, and no real instructions other than to go fast and only brake if/when they tell you to.

The black hole drop was my absolute favorite thing we did in Belize (other than all the burrito and fajita and chips & guac eating). Pete and I got dropped off at Ian Anderson's Cave's Branch lodge, then three guides took us on a semi-strenuous hike through the jungle and up to the edge of a collapsed limestone cave system, where we rappelled over a 300ft cliff. We got to eat lunch on the cavern floor before hiking back up through caves, up a ladder and on jungle trails back to the start. Along the way we saw a 4ft black tailed indigo snake (not venomous and actually eats poisonous snakes). At one point going up a trail, Ching stopped us and said "put your hand here and your foot here and don't touch this root - the sap is poisonous and will eat away your skin." Which makes rappelling into the void on ropes attached to ancient looking trees seem easy and not at all terrifying after you've survived a forest of killer plants and snakes (plus also their antidotes, conveniently! The rainforest is a magical, albeit slightly murdery, ecosystem).

A lot of things can kill you here! But also cure you!

Going over the edge!

Into the void

Rappellin' Pete

Cave Man

This species of ladder is not indigenous to jungle

In the Mountain Pine Ridge area, we went to an overlook to see Thousand Feet Falls, then got to swim at Rio On Pools and Big Rock Falls. The water was "refreshing," as Mario said when I asked if it was cold. But the weather was warm and humid and we had the pools and waterfalls practically to ourselves so it was a great day. The busy tourist season in Belize doesn't start until December so we came at the perfect time.

Mario drove us from Pook's to Robert's Grove in Placencia on our last day and we stopped at St. Herman's Blue Hole on the way. Another amazing natural pool to swim in. Also "refreshing."

Lacey circus acts

Beach Adventures

Robert's Grove is more of a traditional hotel than Pook's, in that our room had air conditioning, a TV and WiFi. It was a beautiful place, with a beach and three pools, and the staff was very nice. The only downside is that it's 4 miles from the town of Placencia. The hotel offers a free shuttle to town at 10am and 3pm, but then you have to pay for a taxi or bus ride back. Or rent a golf cart for $65. Or call Friendly Drunk Fievel I guess. The day we arrived, we borrowed bikes from RG and rode into town and back, but the bikes don't have lights so they told us to be back at the hotel by 5pm. On Thanksgiving/National Day of Mourning, I ran to town (wearing my toucan shorts obvi!), had a delicious coconut milk frappuccino at Brewed Awakenings (a coffee/smoothie place with an excellent name), then ran back to the hotel. It was super hot and humid and I seriously considered taking the bus back, but I made it. I'm not sure if anyone owns any of the dogs in Belize or if they just kind of belong to everyone. Part of me hopes it's the second one. Wouldn't it be nice if we all belonged to and took care of everyone?

The view from our room at RG

This cat joined us for breakfast at RG every day

We spent our time in Placencia swimming in the sea, walking around town, eating, relaxing and watching HGTV (we don't have cable at home so the only time I see HGTV is at hotels. We watched this one episode of Property Brothers where they were renovating a house and found a huge snake in the wall! I mean, snakes are cool and all. In the outdoors. Where they live. Not so much lurking inside the walls. Nope Nope Nope!). One afternoon, after we'd been swimming on a particularly windy/wavy day, Pete was in the Pool and Raffi (a guide from RG) was like "Oh on days like this, the water is full of sting rays. We had a lady get stung here last week." So the sea is also full of things that can kill you. Good murdery times all around!

We took a snorkeling trip to Laughing Bird Caye (pronounced "key"), where we saw some beautiful coral, fish and pelicans. I also got sunburned on the entire back side of my body, despite wearing sunscreen (it was reef safe sunscreen, but apparently not Jen safe). Though the hot pain of the sunburn made me forget about the itchiness of my mosquito bites, so tiny silver lining I guess.

From RG, we also did a day trip to Nim Li Punit Mayan ruins and the Akte 'Il Ha Cacao Farm. Nim Li Punit is Kekchi Mayan for "Big Hat," so called because a sculpture was found there depicting a king wearing a large headdress. The site was discovered by oil prospectors in 1976. The Mayans occupied it from around 400-850AD. At the chocolate farm, we got to see how the chocolate is made by hand (and eat some too!).

The guy with the big hat

Crushing up those cacao beans

All of the excursions we did in Belize were with licensed guides (presumably because they don't wanting tourists ruining the rainforests or coral or dying from snake bite/tree poison/sting rays), which was great because we got to hear stories about their lives and Belize culture. The best part of travel is having conversations about different ways of living and thinking and being a person in the world. I am continually learning about how other people experience the world differently than I do (but also how we all have some things in common). I now realize how some things I learned from school or absorbed from Western culture/society are biased or just plain incorrect and how some of the opinions I once had were problematic or ignorant. Embarrassingly, before this trip I didn't even know that Mayan people still existed in the world. I don't remember ever learning about them in school, other than about how they were killed by European colonizers. But most of the local people we met in Belize were Mayan and they knew so much about the plants and animals around them, it was really cool. Though I'm kind of glad it's too cold at home for all the poisonous things, except stupid poison ivy and Lyme disease infested ticks. Mike and Mario were also really into bird-watching, which I had no idea was actually like a competitive sport with rankings and everything. And the best part of the Nim Li Punit tour was Raffi telling us about his grandma who was an expert in Mayan medicines and could apparently levitate. I would like some of that medicine myself!

Every trip we take, I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to explore new places, learn new things and do cool shit like repelling into a collapsed cave. And I get to experience it all with my favorite adventure partner/husband man.

Flying over Belize in a tiny plane!

On our last morning in Placencia, we flew out of the tiny local airport on this like 10-person plane to Belize City. The twenty minute flight in this tiny plane was one of my favorite things we did. I also liked running by this airport while we were staying in town. It's right on the main road and there's only a tiny gate in the road that comes down to stop traffic while planes take off (this gate is a relatively recent addition after a plane crashed into a car during takeoff a couple years ago. No one was hurt, thankfully). We flew from Belize City to Toronto, then drove home to Rochester. Then woke up and shoveled snow. From the rainforest back to the tundra. So it goes. I hope my body and my mind (and let's be honest, my bank account) will be up for many more future travels. And that Pete and Jen's excellent adventures will continue for decades to come.

Lyrics of the moment (For Steve & Mookie): "He was guiding me, love, his own way. Now the man (dog) of the hour is taking his final bow. As the curtain comes down, I feel that this is just goodbye for now..."   "I'll ride the wave where it takes me. I'll hold the pain, release me..." ~Pearl Jam "Man of the Hour" and "Release Me"

A Low Key (West) Holiday

Pete and I spent last week in Key West, Florida having a non-religious, non-traditional holiday filled with sunshine, ocean breezes and key lime pie. (And copious cocks. Key West is full of feral chickens. Roaming roosters emit a near-constant cacophony of crowing, Just a tip: bring ear plugs if you don't want to be woken up by alarm cocks). It was a restful, stress-free trip. These are some memorable moments from the week:

Running to the Southernmost point in the continental U.S. on Christmas Eve morning. Taking pictures along the way of the palm trees lit up with Christmas lights. Suddenly realizing that my military ID must have fallen out of the Spi belt when I took out my phone. Starting to panic. (We had rented a vacation condo on the Navy base. It's a sweet 3 bedroom with a full kitchen and washer/dryer and it's way cheaper than any of the hotels in town. It's a nice perk for military members and their families. But the base is guarded by an armed sentry, and I wouldn't have been able to get back on base without my military ID card or without calling Pete to come to the gate and get me in with his ID. Not to mention, it wouldn't be good if someone else found my ID and tried to use it). Sprinting back to the place where I'd pulled out my phone and luckily finding my ID still on the ground where I'd inadvertently dropped it. Feeling relieved that it was still early enough that no one else was really around and thankful for this minor Christmas miracle - I found my ID and I'd actually done speed work (kind of). Still making it to the Southernmost point in time to see the sunrise. And at the same time as two other tourists who offered to take my picture and asked me to take theirs.

The Southernmost Point. Yes, I will do all the touristy things. 

Site of my lost ID card/only speedwork of 2018

Eating all the key lime pie (it is so good!) My recommendations: Kermit's for chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick, and Moondog and The Cafe for vegan key lime cheesecake. Drinking all the frozen coffee I could since it's going to be many months before it'll be warm enough at home for me to want anything other than piping hot drinks.

Randomly wandering into an art gallery, where I was mesmerized by the underwater scenes in Andres Franke's The Sinking World (check it out, it's cool) and even more mesmerized by an old English Bulldog who I immediately befriended.

Key West trees are amazing. I wanted to climb all of them!

Climbing the tower at the Shipwreck Museum and announcing to Pete at the top "Well, now it's officially vacation since I made you climb a tall thing!" (On our previous trip to Key West in December 2016, we'd climbed the lighthouse tower, which also has great views). Inside the Shipwreck museum, lifting the 64 lb authentic silver bar. The guide only asked Pete if he wanted to lift it, apparently assuming that I wouldn't be able to (not cool, tour guide lady). So Pete lifted it easily and then told the guide that I'd be able to lift it too and how I'd even lifted him in the past (technically this is true, but it was only a couple of centimeters off the ground for a couple of seconds). The guide looked super skeptical, but I lifted the silver bar easily (It's not hard to do. The bar is in a case, presumably so no one can steal it, so you can really only lift it a couple of inches anyway).

Shipwreck museum tower

We climbed the tower. We did not spot any shipwrecks. 

Doing the Truman Little White House tour (It was somewhat interesting, but I liked Hemingway's house better, which we visited in 2016. But it's not Truman's fault - it's hard to compete with 6 toed cats).

Going to the Naval Air Station on Boca Chica Key, where there's a nice little beach and bar & grill at the marina. Eating lunch and swimming, watching the fighter jets practice their jetting (Or whatever it is they do. All I know is that jetting creates maximum surround-sound level roaring noises).

Big roaring sound. Tiny little fighter jet.

Running with Pete on Christmas morning, followed by coffee and breakfast on the screened-in porch of our rental unit. Exploring Fort Zachary Taylor State Park (The fort has a lot of cannons. The beach is beautiful, but bring your own chairs as it costs $30 to rent beach chairs and an umbrella there. Damn, Zachary Taylor, that's too rich for my blood. If I'm going to pay $30 for a chair, it had better be a massage chair. Or in a helicopter. I'm not picky).

This rooster wants coffee and breakfast too

Spending Christmas night on the Ghosts and Gravestones Trolley Tour, hearing about all the ghost stories of Key West. Apparently, Key West is one of the most haunted cities in the U.S. and apparently yes, someone does keep track of these things and rank cities in terms of ghostliness. The tour wasn't scary but the guide did tell us a few creepy stories, the creepiest of which was the tale of Carl Tanzler. Creepy Carl stole his patient's body and lived with her corpse for years, until he was caught. Before this weird corpse bride shit, he had abandoned his wife and kids and changed his name to Count Carl von Cosel. Super creepy, Carl.

If you enjoy riding a trolley while hearing about creepy dudes, this tour is for you.

Watching the sunset from a glass bottom boat at sea. This was supposed to be a tour out to the coral reef, where we'd be able to see everything from the glass bottom of the boat. But due to high winds and choppy seas, they switched it to a harbor tour instead. Initially I was disappointed, but it would be super lame to complain about being privileged enough to be out on a boat on a beautiful sunny 82 degree day in December in Monroe County (Monroe County, Florida that is. A beautiful sunny 82 degree day would never happen in Monroe County, New York. If it did, we'd have far bigger problems, mainly that global warming has fucked things up beyond all repair).

We're on a boat

Renting bikes and riding around town. Well, first trying to rent bikes and being told they were all out for the morning, but we could try back in the afternoon or rent hybrid bikes which were more expensive than the one-speed cruisers. While we were deciding what to do, two cruisers were fortuitously returned and we rented those. While she was taking our information, the rental lady asked where we were staying, Pete told her on the Navy base and she said "Do you have a military ID? Show that everywhere in this town. We put service members first. I would have canceled someone else's reservation and given you their bikes." Which I guess is nice of her, but we'd rather not get bikes at all than take someone else's reservation away from them.

Looking for a restaurant to eat dinner on our last night in Key West, we browsed a menu at one place, but everything had meat or fish in it so there was nothing I could eat. We went to a restaurant across the street instead. I tried to order a salad but the waiter said they were out of salad, so I ordered the veggie wrap (which was 75% spinach and was basically a salad inside a wrap so not sure how they were out of salad? But anyways, nutrients were had by all). When the waiter said they were out of salad, Pete said we could just go somewhere else if I wanted. This was the second place we'd tried for dinner. We were both tired and hungry and he was just casually like we can go somewhere else, not irritated or inconvenienced like other people can get sometimes. Pete eats meat and fish and pretty much everything besides onions. He doesn't really understand why I don't eat animals, in that he doesn't feel the same way about it that I do. But he accepts it and accepts me, without hesitation or annoyance. I'm not a grand gestures kind of person. It's the small, ordinary moments like this where I feel like I got the best life partner for me. I'm a difficult person to love. I don't mean that in a self-deprecating way. I don't think I'm unlovable. Everyone is inherently lovable. But I'm stubborn and strong-willed and fiercely independent. I have strong convictions and high expectations about who I want to be and how I want to live my life. I am a lot of motion and words and ridiculousness compressed into human form. It's too much for some people and that's ok. Pete and I are different in some ways but there is space enough for each of us to be who we are and I am thankful for that.

There were many more moments that I'm forgetting here, but suffice it to say Key West is a fun place, an island of cocks and seamen and pie. What more could you want from a vacation?

We are weird

The sun sets on another adventure

Lyric of the moment: "And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last. I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself to hold on to these moments as they pass..." ~ Counting Crows "A Long December"

Adventures in France & Monaco

The guttural wails reverberated through the aisles, rendering useless my ear plugs and the over-the-counter sleep aid I'd consumed. Either there was an extremely unhappy baby on this plane or someone was staging a very convincing re-enactment of The Exorcist. This was not a normal crying baby sound. It was a relentless piercing, raspy howl, more gargoyle-like than human. Pete and I had driven to Toronto Friday afternoon for an overnight flight to Paris, where we would catch a short flight to our final destination, Nice. I had expected a long, sleepless flight. Cramped airplane seats are not conducive to quality sleep, or really any sleep for me. And especially not with this demon baby on board. But the sounds emanating from this tiny gargoyle were so bizarre that we found it more funny than irritating (plus I also felt really bad for this baby that was either in pain or just really hated air travel).

Once we arrived on Saturday at our Airbnb rental in Nice, a 3 hour car ride, 7 hour flight, 1.5 hour flight, 20 minute bus ride, 7 minute walk and 2 very overtired bodies later, it was all totally worth it. The best adventures typically require a bit of discomfort. And I love everything about France - the language, the architecture, the ease of public transportation, the fact that people bring their dogs everywhere. (Except for the prevalence of perfume and smoking, both smells that I find intolerable and give me a headache). While I really love the kind of adventure vacations that involve long runs on new-to-me trails, this was going to be more of the walking all over/taking pictures of everything because everything is so beautiful and old and amazing/eating all the bread and gelato kind of adventure. I did a few short runs along the Promenade des Anglais but mostly I walked and ate a lot of crepes and laughed and slept. And I actually really enjoyed it. Maybe I am finally learning how to rest. I might have to add some "France mode" into my running routine at home, where once a month I take a week to cut back on running, walk more and eat crepes and croissants.

We arrived in Nice on Saturday afternoon to beautiful sunny skies (Nice typically gets 300 sunny days a year! Dogs and sunshine and carbs - this is my kind of place). After a much needed nap, we walked around town towards the waterfront and ate dinner at one of the many outdoor restaurants (we ate nearly every meal outside, which was great except for when there were people smoking nearby). Seated next to us was a couple from the UK who were traveling around Europe in their sports car to celebrate the husband's 70th birthday (so cute!). Our Airbnb was perfectly located only 0.25 miles from the train station and 0.5 miles from the Mediterranean Sea so we could easily walk or take the train everywhere we wanted to go.  Basically, every day we picked a town or two to explore, then walked around finding cool things to do there.

Sunday morning we walked to the train station, grabbed some coffee, a croissant (Pete) and pain au chocolat (me) and took the train west to Cannes (you can buy a roundtrip ticket between 2 destinations, like Nice and Cannes, then get off at any of the stops in between that day). Cannes is filled with high-end designer shops and it's so fancy even the buildings have Rolexes (seriously, we saw a hotel building with a giant Rolex clock built into it).

Fancy Cannes Hotel with Rolex

Fancy Cannes Giraffe

Fancy Cannes Helicopter

We walked around for a bit, then took the train back towards Nice, stopping in Antibes. We wandered the streets, ate lunch (or actually a second breakfast since I ordered a sandwich but the waiter brought me eggs, bread and jam instead. I felt bad correcting him so I just ate the bread and jam - it was really good bread. He ended up giving our order to a couple at another table and they didn't correct him either). After lunch we checked out the Picasso museum, which I found underwhelming (but maybe that's just because I don't understand art. Pete and I joked that we couldn't tell if some of the art was done by Picasso or a 5th grader).

Antibes

"All around the world statues crumble for me. Who
knows how long I've loved you..."

How is this dude's head looking at his butt. And what
is he doing with those sheep? 

We took the train back to Nice and ended up eating an overpriced fancy dinner. I never enjoy expensive food, it just never seems worth it to me. But I ignored my instincts because the menu had something called a vegan salad and I just really needed to eat some vegetables. The salad sounded and looked delicious but sadly tasted kinda meh (it was just missing something, namely flavor - which I totally realize is a very First World problem). I was just mad at myself for wasting too much money on food that I didn't really enjoy. Pete's dinner was basically 3 meatballs and a teaspoon of mashed potatoes. He also ordered a bottle of wine that he thought was a small bottle but in fact turned out to be a large bottle. But he drank the whole thing because it cost 30 Euros. After dinner we found a crepes/gelato place where Pete wanted to order both crepes and gelato. He was all "This is what happens when I drink a bottle of wine and my dinner is only 3 meatballs." And I said "So, basically you turn into me?" We ordered crepes, which turned out to be huge and delicious and then Pete decided against gelato since he needed 2 hands to eat the crepes.

Monday morning we were planning to take the train East to Ventimiglia, Italy and eat pizza for lunch. But when we arrived at the train station, we found out the workers were on strike (to protest the government's proposed labor reforms) and all stops East of Monaco had been canceled due to electrical problems. Pete looked crestfallen as he said "So I'm not going to eat pizza in Italy for lunch?" C'est la vie. Sometimes adventure requires a change in plans. So we decided to explore Nice instead, via the Hop On Hop Off Bus. First we explored the neighboring town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, including the 16th-century Saint Elme Citadel (now the site of the Town Hall), the Roux Museum (a collection of hundreds of figurines depicting Renaissance/Middle Ages life) and the Chappelle de Saint Pierre (Saint Peter, patron saint of fishermen). This was one of my favorite towns we visited during our trip. The winding stone streets and colorful old buildings were gorgeous, the ice cream was delicious and admission to everything was free. It was overcast with a 50% chance of rain all day but it only sprinkled a bit here and there. We rode on the top of the double decker Hop On Hop Off Bus all day. 

Villefranche-sur-Mer

Mood

Peter in front of Saint Peter's Chapel

Roux Collection

Heading back towards metropolitan Nice, we saw LaTête Carrée, a giant square headed statue designed by Sacha Sosno and housing the offices of the municipal library (sadly, you're not allowed to go inside the head, which looks like solid stone from far away, but if you get closer you can see through to the shelves of books inside it). We also saw the 7 Statues of the Massena Square, which look like 7 people sitting on tall poles (Created by the artist Jaume Plensa and called Conversation à Nice, the statues represent the 7 continents and communication between different societies). Next we hopped off at the Matisse Museum, which I liked better than the Picasso Museum) and then later at the Promenade des Anglais along the waterfront. I picked a Mediterranean restaurant for our late lunch/early dinner and it was the best meal I ate during the trip, including the best dolmades I think I've ever eaten. 

Square Head

The 7 Statues

Delicious plate of vegetarian Mediterranean foods

Matisse Museum

On Tuesday we tried to go to Italy again, this time with great success! There was still a strike but no more electrical problems, so we made it to Ventimiglia, walked around exploring the town and Pete finally got his pizza lunch. 

Ventimiglia

Jen & ice cream

Pete & Pizza

After lunch we took the train headed back towards Nice and decided to stop at Roquebrune Cap Martin because I'd read there was a castle there. It was supposedly a 20-30 minute walk from the train station to the Château Médieval de Roquebrune (a fortified castle built in 970 by Conrad the 1st, Count of Vintimiglia). Pete was initially skeptical of the climb and the route we should take, whereas I was all like "Look, you can see it way up there, this is a small town, we'll just walk uphill and find it." Pete looked up the Google Map directions, but it was basically just walk uphill and climb this really neat old stone stairway for 20 minutes. It was not a strenuous walk - I did it in flipflops, proclaiming at the top "It wouldn't be vacation if I didn't make you climb something" - and it was totally worth it. The castle was one of my favorite things we did during the whole trip, and there was hardly anyone else there. The views from the top were well worth the climb (but then again, I always think the climb is worth it). 

Castle up top

That view though

Wednesday morning we boarded a van at the train station for a day trip tour to Canyon du Verdon (Europe's biggest canyon). I had originally wanted to run the trails there, but we would have had to rent a car and also Pete isn't really very excited about running right now, so we decided to do the small group tour instead. The van drove us the 2.5 hours from Nice to the canyon, around the canyon to several scenic overlooks, and finally to the village of Moustiers Sainte Marie, where we had free time to explore. The gorges were gorgeous (more Letchworth-esque than Grand Canyon-esque). 

Moustiers was one of my favorite places we visited. I took so many pictures on this trip because everything was just so interesting and aesthetically pleasing. There's a gold star hanging from a chain over the Notre-Dame de Beauvoir chapel, high atop the village. Legend has it that the star was originally hung by the knight Bozon de Blacas after he returned from a long imprisonment by the Saracens. The star itself has been replaced several times since then. We climbed up to see the chapel (of course! another climb!), ate lunch, accidentally left our backpack at the restaurant, were nicely chased down by the waiter who returned the backpack, and checked out a few of the shops. Then it was back on the van for the return trip to Nice. 

Gold Star

Pete made a friend

Thursday we did another day tour, this one to Monaco and Eze. On the way there and back our driver/guide, Victor, stopped at some amazing scenic overlook areas. Eze was one of the towns I most wanted to visit, but I kind of wish we had just taken the train here ourselves. The tour involved a stop at Parfumerie Fragonard, which was less a tour and more of a sales pitch (at one point our perfume guide told us that everyone over the age of 25 needs this serum for their face, as if it was some epic tragedy or horrible failure to be or appear to be older than 25. I am quite content to not pay 100 Euros for a kit of face creams and serums to fix my apparently unacceptably old and flawed face). Aside from the make-you-feel-insecure-so-you-buy-our-"beauty"-products sales pitch that I did not care for, perfume gives me a terrible headache. I wish I had just asked to wander around outside instead of going on the 30 minute tour of terrible awful no good very bad smells (not the official tour title). After being released from the perfume prison (not the official name), Victor dropped us off at the part of town where cars aren't allowed and we got to explore the non-perfumy parts of Eze. Which were far better and more candy filled. 

Then we headed to Monaco, the second smallest country in the world (and one of the richest). The yachts in Monaco were several times bigger than our house. Pete was like "I've just accepted that's a life I'll never have." And I was like "That's a life I never want to have." It just seems like an empty, super expensive life to me. I'd rather be rich in friendships and non-yachting adventures. Victor drove us along the route of the Monaco Grand Prix Formula 1 race (which had just taken place earlier in the week so they were still in the process of taking down all the stands/fancy 800 Euro seats). We also went to the Monte Carlo Casino and another casino where Pete lost 20 Euro at Roulette. Casinos are not my thing because if I'm going to lose money, I like to get candy in return. 

The Prince's Palace Guard

Monte Carlo Casino

The entire country of Monaco 

Grand Prix Route

Pete & Balls

Jen & Birds

Victor dropped us off back in Nice and we took the train back to Antibes to go to a restaurant called Key West that Pete had seen on our first trip there. We wanted to see if the key lime pie from the French Key West tasted as good as the key lime pie from the Florida Key West. I'm happy to say that the pie definitely did not disappoint. And that pie is a good way to end vacation. 

That Key Lime pie though

We had a disagreement when Pete "surprised" me by upgrading our return flight from Paris to Toronto to Economy Plus. I still think it was way too much money and not really worth it, but I have to admit that the seats were very nice. We were in the first row behind the wall separating the First Class passengers and I got to sit with my feet stretched out on the wall, plus the flight attendants kept giving us things like face wipes, snacks, candy and drinks. And I really can't begrudge Pete wanting additional leg room. The man is a giant and regular plane seats aren't made for giants. (Plus we got home late Friday night and he had to get up early Saturday and Sunday morning to do his Navy Reserves work). While we were waiting to takeoff we heard a familiar raspy cry and Pete said "Is that the demon baby?" It was, though he was surprisingly less upset on this flight and I don't remember hearing his wails again after that. Though maybe I was just distracted by that Economy Plus life, laid back, sippin' on ginger ale. 

But for serious, I am living a very fortunate life and I feel infinitely grateful for the places I get to go, the things I get to do and especially the people I get to know. I spent a lot of time feeling like I had no idea what I was doing with my life. Hell, I still feel like I am failing at most things most of the time. But I got to spend a week in the French Riviera/Côte d'Azur, I get to be married to a person who says things like "I love everything about you, even when you're frustrated" (though I don't know how that could possibly be true) and I get to come home to weekend runs and weird conversations and delicious breakfasts with friends. And that is worth more than all the yachts in the world. 

Lyric of the moment: "May the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows. And may the road less paved be the road that you follow...Here's to the lives that you're gonna change. Here's to the infinite possible ways to love you..." ~Jason Mraz "Have it All"