InOnce we committed to coming to the Olympics, we knew that we would need some place to cool our heels in between Jeff’s two race walk events 6 days apart. I love Paris, but I don’t love crowds. I knew that we would be well advised to get the hell out of dodge for a few days to recharge, but where? Any easy day trip would not be far enough to lose the crowds or to be interesting enough to spend multiple days. Hopping to more than one town seemed unwise. While I yearned to return to the Cote D’Azure, it is far, expensive and would be mobbed with the whole of France on vacation (at least anyone not staying in Paris for the Games). An exhaustive search left me spinning in circles. I finally settled on what appeared to be a sleepy town at the end of the TGV Line on the Atlantic Coast- Le Croisic. I settled on a gorgeous hotel Le Fort de L’Ocean. After the transportation woes we experienced getting to Paris I was concerned not to have anything go sideways for this leg of the trip. As we settled in on the TGV, I began […]
Disclaimer, this is a One Dress story without actually taking a wedding dress shot. Don’t worry, the dress will come out shortly. Jeff and I used to discuss whether or not we might apply for the Amazing Race early in our marriage. Life then got in the way, then the Pandemic, and next thing we knew we blinked and were married for 16 years. This year saw the return of our travel adventures, dress project, and the unexpected. As we booked this trip, I had some trepidation about my role as translator and navigator for the Paris Olympics. My French is a bit rusty, and it had been 30 years since my days living in Paris and trekking through Europe by train. I planned to brush up on my French and I paid attention to booking our travel in and out of Paris, as I knew that Paris during the Olympics would be a chaotic zoo. We would endure the madness for the race walk and then get the hell out of the city. After an exhaustive search of destinations easily assessable from the TGV (European High Speed Train), I settled on the picturesque, coastal town of Le Croisic. While […]
En Route to the Olympics, we decided to stop in Brussls. Our first few hours in Brussels were a bit of a challenge in terms of navigation. We bought train tickets but after about 45 minutes we became concerned that we seemed to be getting farther from civilization not closer to a city hub. When we finally jumped off the train and realized we were not remotely in the right spot. The inquisitive part of this experience is that we were instructed to get back on the same train traveling the same direction on the same track where we just hopped off…Not at all sure how we got to Brussels….very Blair Witch. What we did learn though is if the spelling of the stop you are headed to isn’t exact, perhaps you should ask for assistance. The 25 minute trek with luggage from the central train station was not too bad because it was downhill. However, ask me how we feel after our hike back up! We easily found our boutique hotel, Made in Catherine (https://madeincatherine.com/en/). It was quaint and well cared for. We were greeted to a very warm welcome at reception. Their one concern was that our room […]
After quite a hiatus, the Salvage clan grew this spring in the form of Cody- AKA- Commander Cody to Dad or CodyChrome to Mom. Cody is the beautiful product of a chocolate litter from Hidden Pond Kennels that will steal any heart as well as your shoes and socks. When it comes to puppies they are the most exquisite of joys and the most exhausting endeavor one can undertake outside of having human children. While much of our day consists of potty runs, training and removing all forms of unmentionables from Cody’s jaws, we took a paws to have a little fun in our yard. Unlike her cousin before her, Cody has no fear of different surfaces, noises or obstacles. Cody was very compliant for about two minutes until she blew the hoosegow.
It has been almost four years since we took a vacation in February of 2020 right before pandemic began. While it is not a long period of time per se the world has changed and so have we. Long gone was my organized system of a packing list but the way I saw it we were going to Aruba for a week so what could we really need? Fishing out my island attire and snorkeling equipment was no small task. As we sorted through old gear some of which had long expired, I was gifted a pair of old water shoes hiding in my swim fins that I have been searching for since our trip to Australia. Our flight down to our 51st country since getting married was simple and easy. We actually just crossed 500,000 kilometers of travel. Arrival to “one happy Island” was easy as was navigating to our Airbnb hotel. Our accommodation at Modern Boca Catalina was exactly as described, comfortable, well-appointed and situated on a quiet part of the island. We took a walk to the beach which was as close as expected. Our next stop was a pleasant hike to dinner at the California Lighthouse […]
After nearly twelve years of often off the beaten path travel, we decided to indulge our inner child and break with our more traditional travel plans and headed down to Disney World for a combination twelfth anniversary celebration and to see the new Star Wars rides and attractions. To state that everything Disney is pure commercialism and regulation is an understatement. From the beginning of our planning there were endless hurdles to circumvent. Their electronic infrastructure is horrible for a company of this size. There were countless challenges to book the activities we wanted. Their website was frequently sluggish, buggy, and overly restrictive. Phone support was rarely an option with hold times over an hour. We tried contacting Disney’s media relations and although all we wanted was information (we probably could have requested free passes) that was like pulling teeth. They blatantly didn’t read our initial emails and returned canned one liners. When they did respond with some detail, they give incorrect information. It was easy booking our trip to Mongolia for the summer than a “simple” trip to Disney World. Given the nature of what we were shooting, we decided to step up our game and modify the wedding […]
For many reasons the last two months have been two of the most stressful months of our lives. We had real issues as opposed to the many 1st world aggravations one normally deals with. We are happy to say we are on the other side of them and deciding to go to Bermuda to combine a bit of work and play seemed like the perfect short Christmas vacation. We went to Bermuda to catch up with our friends and plan future race walking efforts on the Island as well of course to take a few wedding dress photos. It was a perfect time to do it, because the direct short flight meant instead of adding to our stress and spending a day in the airport on either end it was a quick jump to the wonderful island and country of Bermuda. It’s also the low season and while it means chillier days, it also means significantly less people (especially right before Christmas) and much lower rates for hotels (over half off their peak prices). We actually didn’t realize we were miscounting countries all these years and this was our 50th country with the dress. We had many great photos planned, […]
We almost got to ride in the Goodyear Blimp thanks to our friend Mike R. and Pep Boys. He won a contest and we were literally headed out on the tarmac when they called it. We did get to sit in the inflated blimp, so technically wedding dress shot #294, but not quite as an exhilarating experience as we were hoping for.
While we had a lovely stay in Northern Spain and hope to publish a few of the photos in a magazine we are waiting to publish them here. Please bear with us for the release of these two special places at Playa de Cathedrales and San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. Let’s just say that seven days of rain in Spain was not part of our original plan. Moving on to London, it was nice to hear English again. Since they speak a different dialect in Northern Spain all my study of Spanish was rendered useless. But, London is a massive city and I am not generally fond of a huge urban metropolis. Arriving in the sun, softened the blow and the naturally friendly, chipper outlook of the people is something I had forgotten. I think it is fair to say that Jeff has been anticipating this part of the trip far more than myself. In part, because he has some work to do here documenting the women and men’s race walk events at the IAAF World Championships, but more due to our appointment with Madame Trousseau’s of London (please help us by voting for your favorites at the end of this post). […]
