Day 6: Corfu, Greece

On day six we ported at Corfu, Greece. We rented a couple of cars and drove around the island. We visited the Achilleion Palace in Paleokastritsa. It is a palace built by Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 1891. It was beautiful. We got to play in the water and just see how wonderful the area is.

Sunset out of Corfu

On the beach in Corfu

Achilleion Palace court yard

Panoramic view of Corfu

Corfu from the ship as we depart

France Ski Trip

We have returned from a great vacation. We spent a week in Chamonix, France skiing in the French Alps. It was pretty amazing. We went with 9 other people from the squadron and had a blast. Owen skied the most (5 days), I went 3. We did the bunnies first until we were comfortable and then tried out the blues. It has been quite a few years since either of us had skied. It wasn't to hard to catch onto again. It was beautiful weather most of the time, snowing Wednesday and Thursday, giving us a great day of powder skiing on Friday. Monday was pretty awful. We all went out and all day we struggled just trying to see in front of us. We had zero visibility most of the day. Tuesday I spent the day touring the village with another couple while Owen enjoyed a sunny day on the slopes. I was a little bummed I didn't go. Wednesday we all went up again and had a better day with a little more sunshine and then some snow, but at least we could see most of the time. Thursday we took the day off and went and did some more site seeing. Our chalet that we stayed in was fabulous. It can hold up to 15 people. It had a fireplace and hot tub and best of all an in house cook. She was amazing. She prepared 3 course meals for us every night except for Tuesday(her day off). We had things like salmon, duck, chicken, pork, and wonderful desserts. Each day after we had been skiing we would come back and she would have bread and a cake for us to snack on before supper. So you can say we were well taken care of and ate way too much. The Tuesday she was off we went out for the evening and enjoyed a wine tasting class, learning about the different French wines. Then had a wonderful French supper with lots and lots of cheese. Below are a few pics so enjoy.

Our Chalet in Chamonix (Andrea and Kyle)

Our Menu for Saturday- each meal was like this

Our group and a few other guest waiting for supper

Living room (projector tv)

Andrea and I (the only 2 girls on the trip)

Trying to figure out which way to go, we couldn't see anything

This is how bad it was on Monday

One of the ski resorts- Le Tour

Downtown Chamonix - This guys carriage said Dr. on it

My first taste of Susi- absolutely didn't like it

Wine tasting- pretty good wine

Look at the table behind and notice how much cheese they are eating

At supper having raclette(meat, cheese and potato) and an assortment of meats w/ sauces (cook yourself)

Our Restaurant

On top of a mountain having lunch (didn't ski down it was a black)

A view of Chamonix from the top

Mt. Blanc- highest mt in France- a view from our chalet

Another view of some mountains from the chalet

These pics are from Geneva, Switzerland- We flew in and out of there and were able to tour a little bit. The fountain in the back is-
Jet d’Eau fountain: the height of the jet is an incredible 140m, with 500 litres of water forced out of the nozzle every second at about 200kph. Each drop takes sixteen seconds to complete the round-trip from nozzle to lake

A very tiny cop car

Clock- made out of flowers

big checkers and chess boards

Central Perk in Geneva

The last couple of months!!!!!!!!

Boy oh Boy has it just been forever. Time has just flown by and before I knew it it was February. So lets back up a couple of months to Christmas. Owen and I hosted Christmas again this year. We through in a little twist to the traditional Christmas. We decided to host an all English Dinner. We had goose, ham, parsnips, roasted potatoes, mushy peas, brussels sprouts, Christmas pudding, English Trifle, and anything else you could think of for Christmas. We had a wonderful time with friends but truly missed all of you back home.
We spent New Year's Eve at a friends house playing games and just having a wonderful time bringing in the new year.
Now for the New Year boy have we just been crazy busy. Owen has been flying a lot but nothing too exciting just a lot of local flights. His squadron is preparing for upcoming inspections so he has been working long hours. Along with them doing inspections that also effects us at the CDC. They work long hours so we work long hours. I have been taking over as the closing supervisor the last few weeks and working until 7. It has been a busy 2 months for us. When we aren't working we are hanging out with our friends, bowling or going to the movies. I went to London for my birthday with two girlfriends and we saw the show Wicked. Oh was it amazing. Oh and Owen broke down and bought me a wii for my birthday. We have spent quite a bit of time playing it just the two of us, quite entertaining.
As for some good news, we are getting out of here for a week to go skiing in Chamonix, France. We leave on the 1st of March. There is a group of 10 of us so it should be really fun. So excited. We also just booked a cruise for May. It is a 7 night Mediterranean Cruise out of Venice, Italy. We are going with 2 other couples. We are pretty excited about that. Than lastly we have a trip home planned for the last 2 weeks of July, if all goes accordingly, so we hope to get to see a lot of you when we are back.
That just about catches you all up to date with us. Hope you are all doing well and not keeping too busy. Keep in touch and we will update you on the ski trip when we return.

Christmas 2008

Santa on his sleigh on pulled by a car

Owen and his friend Taco playing "don't break the ice"

Desserts

goose and ham

mushy peas, parsnips, roasted potatoes, brussel sprouts

We Three Kings!!!!

New Year's Eve (Sarina, Christina, and me)

New Year's Eve

Wicked in London

Sarina, me, and Christina in London @ Wicked

England Remembrance Day Parade

Yesterday Owen participated in a Remembrance Day parade. The British do it every year to remember all who served in the wars. It was located in a village called Dickleburgh. They and other groups of England came to march and show their respect for the fallen soldiers. They marched down the street and then there was a short reading of the names of the soldiers. Then each group placed a wreath of poppies at the memorial site. We all then went into the church for a memorial service. It was a wonderful event and it was great to see so many people show up and support such an event. If you want to read more about the events and the meaning behind it all this site gives a description of everything. It is rather interesting.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Remembrance.html

http://www.100bgmus.org.uk/html/intro.html

this site is about the bloody 100th which is what Owen's squadron is called it just gives a little history for you about how they got their name

Just copy and paste to view.
Enjoy the pics sorry some are kind of dark
Talk to you later,
Sara and Owen

At the Parade

The memorial site where the wreaths were laid

English men that served in the wars

100th OG (Owen's Group)

Owen is the 3rd one back in the row closest

The Chaplain and Owen's squadron commander are the one's in uniform

In front of the church

Reading the names

Not sure what group these boys belong to just thought their outfits were neat(especially the hats)

These boys were a type of boy scouts group

not sure of these either but thought the way they marched was interesting. they really swung their arms

100 OG

A band that lead the parade