Posted by Adam, February 2nd, 2011 at 6:48 pm
The Great Blizzard of 2011 has come to town and apparently Mother Nature wanted to remind us all who wears the pants around here. Things started to get messy Tuesday afternoon and continued until late Wednesday morning. Overall, we accumulated over 21 inches of snow in less than 24 hours! Some of the snow drifts here were almost taller than me. Despite being snowed in, losing power for several hours and listening to the wind howl all night long, we were finally able to dig ourselves out after a few hours on Wednesday morning with our fancy new snow blower (one of the best investments we’ve ever made!). Paula later whipped up a batch of “snow cream” (I’m guessing this is a Southern thing, but picture tasty vanilla ice cream - made with snow! 
), and we enjoyed a relaxing snow day indoors. The roads are still too unsafe to travel on, but we expect things to return back to business as usual by tomorrow. Check out the link below for all the blizzard pics.
A view out our front door as the 2011 blizzard sweeps the land
Click Here to View All Blizzard Pics!
Tags: blizzard, libertyville, snow, snow blower, snow cream, thunder snow
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by Adam, December 11th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Well, it has certainly been a busy fall and it’s hard to believe winter 2010 is already upon us! Paula and I recently had a chance to join other Libertyville residents downtown for the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was pretty chilly out, so we bundled up and stuffed our clothes and boots with instant pocket heaters and made the short walk on over. The tree lighting is quite a big deal here, and hundreds of families turned out this year to watch Santa ride in on a bright red fire engine and light a huge three story Christmas tree in the town square. Afterward, a long line of kids formed to get their picture taken with Santa and Miss Libertyville. It was very much like a scene right out of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” The village also opened up the historic Ansel B. Cook House in the square, which was the first residence built here in 1878. Paula and I enjoyed walking around the house and then hanging out in the park and meeting other folks in our new community!
Libertyville Christmas Tree Lighting
Click Here to view the pics!
Tags: ansel b cook house, christmas, libertyville, santa, tree
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by Adam, July 14th, 2010 at 9:16 am
We’ve moved! It’s true! On July 2nd we made the move from the big city to our new house in Libertville, IL!!!
Libertyville is located 40 miles north of Chicago and 5 miles west of Lake Michigan. From downtown Chicago, it’s about an hour drive or a short Metra train ride on the Milwaukee District North line.
The community is extremely charming, with a turn of the centry historic downtown, many interesting local shops and restaurants, bike paths and parks. There is always something going on in town, from parades, outdoor concerts, farmer’s markets and even “dog days” (for dog owners ). Here is the official community site for your reading pleasure: http://www.libertyville.com/
Paula and I have enjoyed making a start in Chicago, and are excited about this next chapter of our lives in Libertyville. We look forward to having our friends and family come out and visit in the near future (and even spend the night, now that we have a little more room.. or roomS I should say, haha). We’ll try to get some pictures posted soon too of our new house once we’re a bit more moved in!
Tags: illinois, libertyville, moving
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Adam, May 12th, 2010 at 7:29 am
A few weekends back in March we escaped the cold and headed down to the Miami sunshine for a spectacular outdoor wedding between our good friends Diana and Jose. The day before the wedding while the girls were away at the spa, the guys chartered a deep sea fishing boat and spent the day roughing it on the high seas. Amongst our exciting catches were a huge hammerhead shark (which we released) and several mackerel, which (not so lucky) were later cooked up at a fun family picnic down by the water.
A ferocious hammerhead shark caught while deep sea fishing near Bal Harbour, Florida
Click Here to View All Deep Sea Fishing Pics!
Tags: bal harbour, fishing, florida, hammerhead shark, mackerel, miami, picnic
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by Adam, January 29th, 2010 at 10:04 am
This year we celebrated the new year on January 1, 2010 by hosting a little get together with some good friends. Highlights included Paula’s fabulous Bloody Mary bar, and a delicious spread of honey baked ham, fried chicken, collard greens and black eyed peas. Happy New Year!
Paula's tasty Bloody Mary bar is just the thing to welcome in the New Year
CLICK HERE to View All New Year’s Day Pics!
Tags: black eyed peas, bloody mary bar, collard greens, new year
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by Adam, July 28th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
We rented city bicycles for the weekend and biked over the border into neighboring France where we then took a (rather scary) cableway up to the top of Mt. Salève (1380m). Mt. Salève is the first ridge of the Alps rising just southeast of Geneva. Fortunately, it was a clear day and from the top we had an extraordinary view for miles over the entire city where we could easily see the lake and even the famous Jet d’Eau fountain! There are also footpaths galore up top (which become cross-country skiing trails in winter), which we hiked along for a bit. We then settled down to enjoy a tasty picnic lunch on the mountain side, where we had fun watching the paragliders run and jump off over the cliff’s edge only to suddenly plummet down… before catching the next breeze and rising high up in the sky.
Paragliders on Mt. Salève looking out over Geneva
CLICK HERE to View All Mt. Salève Pics!
Tags: alps, biking, france, geneva, hiking, jet d'eau, mountains, mt. salève, paragliders, picnic, switzerland
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted by Paula, July 23rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
In late May we visited the Mediterranean city of Dubrovnik, Croatia (map). Situated in the southern end of Croatia, on the Adriatic, Dubrovnik is a popular vacation destination for much of Europe.
The walled city of Dubrovnik, Croatia on the Adriatic Sea
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: adriatic sea, croatia, dubrovnik, feta, mljet, national park, odysseus, old town, olives, swimming, wine
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted by Adam, June 28th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
We enjoyed the first weekend of May visiting Budapest (map), which is the capital city of Hungary. Budapest is a huge modern European city that has been around since Roman times and is centered around the Danube River. The river actually splits the city into two separate cities (Buda on the West bank and Pest on the right bank). Famous sites include the Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge, which crosses the Danube, along with plenty of old statues and interesting architecture.
The Danube River and Chain Bridge in Budapest
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: buda castle, budapest, chain bridge, danube river, hungary, jazz, matryoshka dolls, paprika
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Adam, June 5th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Hello folks! It seems we’ve gone an entire month without an update, and that’s because we’ve been busy traveling around and visiting new exciting places. So in case you were going through PandaBytes withdrawal, fear not! We have several exciting updates on the way.. starting… now!
La Gruyère is a district of Switzerland just northeast of Lake Geneva, where we ventured to for a weekend trip at the end of April. The area is well-known as a popular skiing destination and also a great place to get a peek of Swiss countryside life. And without a doubt, the region contains some of the most breathtaking pre-alpine landscape I have ever seen, and you can easily picture Heidi (from the popular children’s stories) playing about on the lush green mountainsides.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: baths, bulle, castle, charmey, cheese, cows, fondue, gruyère, heidi, hr giger, la gruyère, museum, spa, switzerland
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Posted by Adam, April 30th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Last Wednesday we spent a fun April evening at the huge Stade De Geneve (Geneva Stadium) where we watched the local soccer team called the Servette FC play against the FC Saint Gallen. FC stands for “football club”, which makes sense once you realize that what we’ve been calling soccer in the US is more commonly known by the rest of the world as football. And from what I can tell, American football is not very big over here… instead they have rugby, which is basically the same sport, but without all the protective gear and more blood and guts
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: football, geneva, servette fc, stade de geneve, switzerland
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
