PandaBytes

Day Trip to Annecy, France

Adam — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:00:46 +0000

Hi folks! It’s been a bit since our last update, and Spring is now in the air! We’ve been staying active here in Geneva, enjoying the lake, the weekend farmer’s markets and continuing with our weekly French lessons, which have been going well. At the beginning of April we also made an all-to-brief trip back to Chicago for a week to run lots of errands and catch up with friends and family. Unfortunately, a week just isn’t enough time to see everyone and we were a bit sorry to have to go!

Last Saturday we took the Geneva Coach Station bus south over the Swiss border into France and visited the charming city of Annecy (

Rolling Green Hills of La Gruyère

Adam — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:00:39 +0000

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.

The area is also well-known for it’s famous Gruyère cheese, which is made from cow’s milk, and has a sweet but slightly salty flavor that varies widely with age. Of course, once I found out about this, we made a point of visiting the La Maison du Gruyère (cheese dairy) to see where it’s made and score some free samples

So, we had hopped on a train in Geneva on Friday and after a few hours we arrived at the small capital town of the district called Bulle, where we then took a taxi through the mountains until we reached our hotel in the nearby small Swiss village of Charmey (

Biking to Mt. Salève

Adam — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:00:24 +0000

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

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One Weekend, Three Languages

Adam — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:00:05 +0000

I looked at our blog and realized the last few posts were about food. So I thought it might be time for a little female intervention. I’ve taken over the posting duties for our first weekend getaway to the Swiss cities of Zurich and Lugano.

Friday started out a promising day and we weren’t disappointed. Bright and sunny, it was the perfect day for a train ride through the countryside of Switzerland. Our adventure started with a 2.5 hour train ride from Geneva to Zurich. The route hugs the coast of Lake Geneva then runs across the countryside until it rolls into the vibrant city of Zurich

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The banking center of Switzerland, Zurich is surprisingly “unstuffy”. (Zurich is also ranked #1 in Mercer’s 2008 world-wide quality of life survey. Geneva ranks #2.) After a short detour on the tram (we got lost) we enjoyed drinks at the “Jules Verne Panoramic Bar” (ok, touristy but a good view). Dinner was an all vegetarian restaurant that was a cross between a buffet, a nightclub, and a singles scene.

Saturday we hopped back on the train and travelled south to the city of Lugano. Snuggling up to the Italian border, it’s hard to believe you are not in Italy when you are in Lugano. A beautiful lake, mountains, winding streets and hills, good food and great wine – it’s all here. And don’t forget the snow covered Alps surrounding it all. Sunday we travelled to Bre’ Passe which is a mountain village just above Lugano. The clear sunny weather held out and we were treated to some breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains with towns and villages dotting the hillsides. Lugano and the lake rests just down below. Also of interest is Bre’ village, an extremely old but still functioning village, which sits at the top of the mountain.

By the end of the weekend we were exhausted and admittedly a bit tongue-tied. Switzerland has three languages – French, German, and Italian. Geneva is French, Zurich is German, and Lugano is Italian. By Sunday our phrase books were as worn out as we were!

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The Great Blizzard Comes to Town

Adam — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:48:52 +0000

The Great Blizzard of 2011 has come to town and apparently Moviagrar 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

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Libertyville Christmas Tree Lighting

Adam — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 23:08:26 +0000

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

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We’ve Moved!

Adam — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:16:38 +0000

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!

Deep Sea Fishing in Miami

Adam — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:29:36 +0000

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

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Happy New Year!

Adam — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:04:23 +0000

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

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Croatia: Swimming with Odysseus

Paula — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:57:22 +0000

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.

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The walled city of Dubrovnik, Croatia on the Adriatic Sea

We made the most of our trip with both land and sea adventures. On our first day we visited the Old Town which is a large walled portion of the city dating back to the 1400’s. The remainder of our days were spent in or near the water. Although the water was still a bit chilly, the days were hot and sunny. We hired a private boat charter which took us to several neighboring islands and allowed us to explore the interesting “nooks and crannies” of the islands, including a few caves. One of the caves we visited is called “The Cave of Odysseus” by locals because according to legend it is the cave Odysseus spent 7 years in after being shipwrecked. The cave is not accessible by boat, so we had to jump out and swim in. Once past the entrance (which is partially underwater) the cave opens up and is open on the top, so the sun shines in and gives the cave the effect of a giant swimming pool. (Unfortunately, we didn’t have a waterproof camera, so we have no pictures.) On the same day we also visited Mljet which is a Croatian National Park with two salt water lakes. We hiked around the island a bit and swam in the larger of the two lakes. We also had lunch on the island at a restaurant where the “fresh catch of the day” was both fresh and caught that day - we watched them walk to the front of the restaurant and catch the fish!

The other main highlight of our trip was the seaside stone cottage we stayed in. We spent most mornings and evenings on the terrace overlooking the bay, eating feta and olives and drinking red wine.

We’re ready to go back to Croatia. Who’s in?

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