Return to Switzerland

Emilie and I flew back to Switzerland last night. Before leaving we went down to the beach in order to try to get some pictures of the sunset. Unfortunately, however, it was overcast and pretty cold.

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The flights were fairly uneventful, though we did get to experience the full body scans that have been all over the news lately. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about (assuming there are no negative long-term health affects, of course). It seems to me that the alternative – the equivalent of a full body massage from a TSA worker – is much worse, right?

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We were welcomed back to Lausanne with some legitimate winter weather. Fortunately, I had stocked up on some new winter clothes back home and was ready for it.

And here’s a picture from the next morning.

Thanksgiving

The weather was absolutely beautiful on Thanksgiving. As a result, Emilie and I decided to walk along the Strand for a bit before the formal festivities began. We started at the Manhattan / Hermosa border and then walked to the Pier before heading back along the water.

Here’s a picture of Emilie walking on beach with pier in the background.

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The Thanksgiving group was small this year, with my uncle Mike and cousin Christian joining the four Careys and Emilie. This made for a nice holiday setting and left plenty of room for gluttony.










The small group also allowed us to actually make use of the dinner table for Thanksgiving for the first time in as long as I can remember.

Overall, I think we gave Emilie a good representation of a true American Thanksgiving (perhaps aside from the unseasonably warm Southern California temperatures).










And here’s a picture of Emilie and Mike discussing the joys for French wines, while Fiona tries to convey the joys of fetch.

San Clemente

Today Emilie and I drove down to San Clemente to meet a couple that Emilie’s family is friends with and who she stayed with during a two-month visit to the U.S. when she was in college.

The restaurant was on the San Clemente pier and we arrived a little early so we decided to walk around a bit to take in the sights. The weather was brisk, but it was still nice out with mostly clear skies.



















Lunch was very nice. Both Emilie and I went with the swordfish, which is a bit hard to find in Switzerland. It was interesting to meet the friends of Emilie’s family and see how random connections can sometimes lead to longer-term friendships. The two families met by chance in Tahiti during the 80s and stayed in touch over the years that followed.

After lunch, Emilie decided to put her feet in the Pacific. Judging by the speed at which she headed in the opposite direction (see picture below), I think that it must have been a bit cold.

The Getty

Today we rounded out our Getty experience with a visit to the J. Paul Getty Museum.

We actually timed our arrival pretty well, as we were able to join the once-daily complimentary guided tour that focuses on the key pieces on display at the museum (e.g., Venus and Adonis by Titian; Irises by Van Gogh).









Some of the pieces had greater cultural significance to Emilie, including the following one that I forced her to take a picture with.

After the tour we went back through the various museum wings at our own pace to see a broader selection of the works on display. Though much larger than the Getty Villa, the Getty Museum is still quite manageable in terms of size and we were able to see the majority of it in a couple of hours.

While the weather wasn’t as nice as it was during our visit to the Villa, we were still treated to some very nice views including both downtown L.A. and the coast in the distance.










There was also a timely exhibition on French manuscripts from 1250 - 1500 that we were able to check out.

After the Getty visit, we grabbed lunch on Sunset Boulevard and then headed to the Hollywood sign in order to take some pictures.

We also stopped at Hollywood Boulevard so Emilie could see the walk of fame and some of the colorful characters that frequent the area.

The Getty Villa

Yesterday Emilie, Erin and I went to Pacific Palisades to see the Getty Villa. During the drive up we stopped for lunch at Moonshadows restaurant in Malibu, which offered a beautiful view of the Pacific.

The food was nice and we basically had the restaurant to ourselves. There was a reason for that, though, as it turned out there was some outdoor seating hidden away. Unfortunately, we noticed it too late to take advantage – aside from a quick round of pictures.










The Getty Villa was definitely worth the trip, with beautiful gardens and a very interesting collection that isn’t overwhelming (at least in the context of what’s actually on public display). And our timing was perfect, as there were sunny skies and temps in the mid-seventies. Given the architecture and the weather, it really felt like we could have been in an Italian Villa.



















The statue in the following picture cracked me up. Well, actually, it was the adjacent sign that highlighted the specific portions of the statue that had been restored back in the 17th century. As can be seen in the graphic, the restorations included head, the hand and the…err…well you can see (though you’ll have to look closely). I wonder how much artistic liberty the restorer was able to take...















After the Getty Villa, we decided to take Sunset Boulevard through the mountains and into West L.A. I figured this would be a good way to show Emilie some of the sights (UCLA, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Melrose) and aside for some manageable traffic here and there it turned out to be a nice drive.

Payback

I think that one of the most intimidating experiences in the world has to be meeting your boyfriend or girlfriend’s parents / family / close friends en masse for the first time (and that’s before factoring in a language barrier, which magnifies the intimidation factor exponentially). Thus, I was really looking forward to bringing Emilie to the U.S. in part so she could get a taste of the (self-imposed) intimidation that I had felt over the course of the past 16 or so months while meeting her family and friends.

While I could only hope that my family / friends would leave as favorable an impression on her as that left on me by hers, I nonetheless would relish the pressure that she would feel in meeting all those who are important to me. And though Emilie doesn’t suffer from the language barrier that I do, she’d be meeting everyone in such a concentrated period of time that I could finally consider us “even”.

And over the course of the various wedding-related events (the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself, the subsequent brunch) as well as the large family / friends get-together that my parents held, Emilie was definitely thrown to the wolves. But she handled it well – very well, actually (far better than I would have, that’s for sure) – and didn’t display any of the telltale signs of intimidation / unease (e.g., the deer in the headlights blank stare that I’ve mastered) while facing the gauntlet.

Was it at least a good vintage?

Today Emilie and I flew to L.A., where we’ll be spending the next 10 days. One of my best friends (Bill) is getting married this weekend and we decided to make an extended trip out of it by staying for Thanksgiving (Emilie’s first) as well.

The flights went relatively smoothly, though we were nonetheless exhausted by the time that we arrived at LAX as it was around 3am Lausanne time (6pm local time). We had been up for nearly 20 hours and still needed to tough it out for the rest of the night in order to fend off jet lag.

The whole flights "went relatively smoothly" thing unfortunately did not apply to one piece of our checked luggage, however. While our suitcases came out quite quickly -- positioning us to get a leg up on most of the other passengers with respect to the lengthy customs check line -- a healthy dose of reality set in when we heard the following words: “Sir, your bag is leaking”.

Let’s take a few steps back…

When Emilie and I visited the Burgundy wine region in France, I bought some bottles to give as x-mas gifts for my friends back home. Due to customs limits (or to be more precise, my fear of being caught exceeding them), we were limited to two bottles per person so that I could bring in the full haul before x-mas.

Anyway, we bubble-wrapped the bottles and took seemingly sufficient precautions so that there would be no surprises upon our arrival to LAX. But the LAX baggage handlers ultimately showed us who’s boss as one of the bottles in Emilie’s checked luggage cracked at the neck under the label and began leaking in (and out of) her bag.

At that point we went into triage mode while Emilie spewed forth her best assortment of French profanity. We expected the worst while hoping for the best -- and the end result ultimately fell somewhere in between. Thank God the dress for the wedding went unscathed (don’t ask why we packed bottles of red wine with anything remotely important…).

During the clean-up process – which took place in full view of nearly every person arriving on an international flight at the time – there were incredibly helpful people. Some offered their napkins and/or Kleenex while others pointed me to the nearest restroom for hand towels.

But a special few were not so helpful…like the guy who cracked a smile and went out of his way to ask: “So, was it at least a good vintage?” Or the guy who smirked and gave us a “that sucks” in a condescending tone (this nearly resulted in the breaking of bottle No. 2 over his head).

Weekend Update

The weather has been terrible lately, with cold temperatures and a lot of rain. But it was beautiful this morning – the sun was out and there wasn’t a hint of wind. As a result, I walked down to the lake for a bit and took some pictures as well.

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The weather deteriorated a little in the afternoon, but it was still comfortable. Emilie and I decided to take a short drive to Chexbres, which is just east of Lausanne along Lac Léman and in the heart of the Lavaux wine region. This is the local train station.

The area is perfect to explore by foot since the hilly terrain offers beautiful views of the Alps on the other side of the lake. It’s also a bit of a workout (at least on the walk back up) given the relatively steep slope down towards the lake.












The vine terraces date back to the 11th century when monasteries controlled the area. It’s a bit hard to fathom that people have been growing grapes there for wine for nearly a millennium.

The vineyards definitely had a “Fall” look to them, with a lot of yellow and orange colors. Since the grape harvest was back in September / October, the vines were pretty much bare. That said, there were actually some grapes still growing in a few instances and Emilie gave some a try.










We also saw some nice houses during the walk. They're scattered throughout the vineyards and have incredible views.

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After heading back to Lausanne we arrived in time for a nice sunset. It would have been great to see what it looked like over the lake, but the view from Emilie’s apartment was still pretty nice.

The evening was spent finishing the first season of Mad Men – my new favorite show – on DVD. Both Emilie and I are late to join the Mad Men bandwagon, as it hasn’t made its way to European TV yet. Fortunately, Emilie’s aunt had the DVD for the first season and let us borrow it.