Introducing the Calabreses....

Hi, Everyone. Eric and I are finally back in San Francisco and were lucky enough to make it to Mike & Steph's wedding over the weekend. We had a great time and everyone made us feel so welcome. I'll get back to posting about our travels while in Europe and about our travels on the way home from Europe, but I know there are many ladies in Antwerp chomping at the bit to see wedding pictures, so here goes.....

On our way down from the top of the mountain on Friday night.

And it begins.....


A sweet moment between the bride and groom...

Out having fun at The Red Lion on Friday night...


Stephanie and her mom getting ready on "THE DAY"...

Doesn't she look beautiful?

Steph's mom all dressed up....

Mike escorting his mom up the aisle...
The maid of honor, Shannon and the best man, Roger (see, I told you he'd finally make it on a blog!)...

Steph's nieces make adorable flower girls!

I don't think Jack was as thrilled about his role...
Stephanie and her Dad... what a great moment for both of them.

During the readings....

A video of the bride and groom exchanging vows (I cried, of course I cried):

Steph & Mike's vows from Melanyann Garvin on Vimeo.


I now present Mr. & Mrs. Michael Calabrese:
Their first dance..


Dinner is served...

Father-Daughter Dance....

Mother and Son join in...


Cutting the cake...
The four of us...

All Steph's gal friends that could make it...
The Garvins and the Calabreses:


Steph and her bridesmaids...


We closed down the reception and moved things to the lounge area...

Aren't they so cute? Thanks, Steph and Mike, for letting us be a part of your big day!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Saying Goodbye

We interrupt this incredibly long string of "catching up" posts to bring you our final post from Antwerp................

Eric and I have truly enjoyed our time here in Antwerp, but alas, it has come to an end. We leave this afternoon to return to the states. We have actually planned several stops along the way to enjoy Eric's first non-working vacation since our honeymoon. We'll be spending 9 days in Italy and then two weeks in the Cayman Islands. I will try to post along the way, but it's internet access-dependent.

Until then, I'd like to post a few pictures of the friends we've made here who largely contributed to the great fun we had during our stay.

This is Leo, Brigit, and Kevin. Leo is the reason why we're here. He and Eric worked together in Chicago and have stayed great friends since then. Leo even came to our wedding in 2005. They have been such great "hosts", helping us when we need to translate Flemish to English, inviting us over for dinners, coming to Eric's birthday celebration, and just generally being great to us!
And here's Justin, Leo & Brigit's oldest son. He's showing us what he made with the k'nex-like-thingys he got for his birthday. He also drew us a really great picture of a bird that's safely packed in a box headed back to California.

A cute picture of Leo and Eric:
This past Wednesday I thought I was going to have my last lunch with Stephanie before leaving Antwerp (since she was headed to Stockholm on Thursday). We had planned to go to lunch after our regular gym workout. Little did I know but a going away lunch was being planned for me. We arrived at the restaurant and I was so surprised to see so many of my friends there! I had no idea, nor did I expect anything since we'd been here for such a short time. I, of course, started crying and without the protection of waterproof mascara! Luckily there's no pictures of that. But here are a few of all my sweet friends:

Around the table from left to right: Cristina, Eva, Sunita, Steph, me, Kerstin (with little Sullivan), Christa, Lois and Linda

And, of course, Stephanie, who I suspect was behind the whole lunch plan. She's also my daily gym, lunch, shopping, hanging-out-in-Antwerp partner:

And I have to include this picture too so that Nicole makes an appearance on this blog. She had already returned to the States when we had this lunch, but here we are at a dinner right before she left. She's the one in the bright pink sweater.

And a picture of Joanna (in the purple shirt). She's the one I went to Paris with way back in February for a shopping trip. She was already back in Australia, but I couldn't leave her out either:

There were many other gals that I really enjoyed meeting too. I may not have a picture of them here, but it has to be said that it was so much fun meeting so many neat ladies.

While I was here, I was lucky enough to find a GREAT Mandarin tutor so I could continue my studies. We met nearly every week when we were both in town and I learned so much from Carmen. Eric has said he notices I have a lot more confidence speaking Chinese since starting lessons with her. I just hope I can find another teacher as great as Carmen back in California. Carmen and her husband, Kim, are from Malaysia and working here until the end of the year.

We met them in Chinatown last week for dinner, and they surprised us by TREATING us to dinner. It was such a thoughtful gesture. Thanks, guys! Here we are after our yummy dim sum meal:

And even though Eric doesn't really blog, here's a picture of him and some of his gang. They meet up to watch all sorts of European (and American) sports pretty much weekly. This is Eric with Mike and Sean, but there's also Andrew, Adrian, and Silas too.

And I simply must include one last picture of Oscar. I thought this was the best picture since it's how I'll remember him, looking up and waiting for someone, anyone, to drop some food:


Thank you to all of you who have touched our lives. You have made a big difference and we feel blessed to have met you all. We wish everyone the best and hope to see you again! There's always a place for you in San Francisco!

Goodbye, Antwerp!

London....

A mere day's rest and then we set out for London. Just the three of us because it was Tuesday, April 8th, and so Eric was of course working. My dad got to check off another train from the list. This time we rode the Eurostar, a high-speed train between Brussels and the St. Pancras Station in London. The route takes you under the English Channel, through the chunnel (channel tunnel), so for 31 miles or about 17 minutes, there's no view because you're 280 ft below the water.

Here's Mom and Dad enjoying the ride:
And after we arrived in London:
A view of St. Pancras Station:

We hit the ATM to get some pounds and then headed for the hotel. We were using the reciprocal benefits of Dad's Marine Memorial Club membership to stay at the Royal Air Force Club situated on Picadilly near Hyde Park. This would end up being a great location to catch the tour bus the following day.

Mom hadn't been feeling so hot since the day before - I think she may have overdone it during the weekend (translation - the trek to the Chapel in Paris forced upon her by her unfeeling daughter was catching up with her) - so she decided to stay at the hotel and rest while Dad and I went to the Imperial War Museum. This was a highlight destination for my Dad who had heard about this museum since he was a child. They have a large collection of military weapons, vehicles and planes along with exhibits for each World War and conflicts since the great wars. I was impressed and fascinated by the Holocaust Exhibit and could have spent several more hours taking it all in. Here are a few pictures from our visit:
Isn't my Dad so cute?

This is not such a great shot of me (with my eyes nearly shut), but it's the only one I got of the two of us:

After the museum we went back to the hotel, rested for a bit, and then had a really nice dinner in the dining room of the hotel. Wednesday morning we had a traditional English breakfast at the hotel. I think my Dad had some sort of salted fish - herring, maybe? We decided to go with the tour bus again since we had such limited time in London and wanted to see as much as possible. There was a stop for The Original Tour right outside our hotel where we hopped on and were even able to enjoy the live audio guide from the top deck of the bus. The weather was beautiful which was a nice change from the weather we encountered in Paris and Germany over the weekend.

Here's our tourguide:
M & D enjoying the tour:
The Marble Arch was originally built in 1828 as the primary entrance to Buckingham Palace, but when the Palace was extended in the 1850s, the Arch was moved and became the entrance to Hyde Park:

Westminster Abbey:

Just past Westminster Abbey, we got off the tour bus and took a City Cruise tour along the Thames River. We walked right past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament on our way to catch the boat.




And here are some of the views we enjoyed from the river cruise:

The London Eye was built to celebrate the millennium and opened on 12/31/99:

The Tower Bridge:
The Tower of London:
The Gherkin is a modern office building in the financial district of London. It's the second tallest building in the city:

M & D basking in the sunlight on the cruise boat:

We disembarked the boat at the Tower Bridge so we could visit the Tower of London, or as as it is often called, the White Tower. The White Tower was built in 1078 by William the Conquerer, but it's actually just a part of a whole complex of buildings built within the fort, protected by two stone walls and a moat. Throughout history, within the complex, there was the royal palace, a royal chapel, a prison(housing royal prisoners), a hospital, and, at one time, even a zoo. Today, the White Tower houses displays from the Royal Armouries' collection.

Here's a view of the White Tower, over the fortress walls from the Thames River:

And another view of The Tower of London:

I love this picture that has the old and new in one shot:

Here's where the moat used to be:
A close up of the White Tower:
At the Tower of London you can take a tour with a Yeoman Warder as your guide. We tagged along for a little while, but there were so many people that it was hard to hear. What we did hear of the tour was really cute and funny. Here's a Yeoman Warder, also called Beefeaters:
Here's a picture of the Queen's House where the Queen used to reside when this was still used as a fortified residence. Every now and then the guard would do a little march back and forth, I guess to keep from falling asleep!

Also in the Tower of London, you can see the Crown Jewels (sorry, no pictures allowed in there). But here's a picture of the building within the complex where the Jewels are kept:

And the guard outside the Crown Jewels. I felt kinda bad for him because there were a lot of kids standing right in front of him giving him a mean stare down. And every time he did his little march to keep from falling asleep, all the kids would follow him back and forth, back and forth.

We also saw the Bloody Tower which is so called because it's believed that two young princes were killed there. The princes, Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, were declared illegitimate in 1483 and placed in the tower by their uncle Richard III of England. Records show that they were seen in the courtyards up until the summer of 1483 and then never seen again. In 1674, during renovations of the White Tower, skeletons of two children were discovered under a staircase leading to the royal chapel. It's all a very interesting story that the Yeoman talked about during their tour. If you want to find out more about it and the potential suspects, you can read about it here.

Here's a view from the Bloody Tower:

After our visit to the Tower of London, we hopped back on the tour bus and enjoyed a few more sights of London before getting off to enjoy lunch at The Sherlock Holmes Restaurant. It was a really cute little place and has a replica of Holmes' and Watsons' sitting room and study above the restaurant.

A quick lunch and then back on the bus to finish out our tour before we had to head back to the train station. Here are the last couple of sights we saw.......

Nelson's Column stands in the center of Trafalgar Square which commemorates the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar when the British Navy defeated Napolean's forces.

There are four lions (that tourists love to have their picture taken on) at the bottom on Nelson's Column said to guard it.

On one side of Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery housing a vast art collection and FREE to the public. I noticed that about many of the museums in London - FREE. Also noteworthy about the square is that it is often selected as the site of political demonstrations. "Bloody Sunday" occurred here in 1887.

We also drove past the Eros Statue. It is not actually the Greek God of Love, but the Angel of Christian Charity and was erected in 1892 as a memorial to Lord Shaftesbury, a London Philanthropist.
Our time in London was quickly coming to an end, so we rode the tour bus back to the stop that was right in front of our hotel, picked up our bags, and took a cab to the train station. Dad had wanted to look into upgrading to first class since we probably won't be back on the Eurostar anytime soon, and luckily, there were first class seats available. In fact, we got an entire car to ourselves - talk about relaxing!

Mom & Dad enjoying their first class meals:


We transferred from the Eurostar to another train in Brussels to get us home to Antwerp at around midnight. Boy did we pack A LOT in to two days! I really enjoyed London and hope to spend more time there exploring in the future.

Thursday night, April 10th, we met up with friends for dinner again at Las Manas. I wanted Mom & Dad to be able to meet some of the friends who have made our time here so much fun. Dad wasn't feeling great, so he didn't stay for the whole night, but here are the rest of us:

And, I have to post this picture just to give Mike a hard time about being on the Blackberry during dinner. It really wasn't too bad (as you can see he was already done with his meal), but I told him I was going to post this picture, so here it is!

I'm still nearly two months behind, but progress is progress, people!