Posts Tagged ‘travel’

We Ran Away to Spain…

Posted on November 6th, 2012 by Tonia 1 Comment

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you saw that I have been in Spain for the past week with Mike and two friends of ours.

The trip was kind of shotgun {the four of us were out to dinner together, eating pizza and talking about traveling, decided we should all go on a trip together ASAP, planned it in one day and bought our tickets before we could think too hard about it.} It was a thrill to just up-and-go somewhere, even though it was kind of bad timing {work is crazy right now…} and made the whole trip feel romantic and spontaneous.

Of course, the romantic feeling could also have been due to how incredibly romantic Spain is. Have you ever witnessed the blushing, throbbing passion of live Flamenco? We did. And, wow.


We started off in Vejer de la Frontera- a small town in the region of Andelucia, on the Atlantic coast {Morocco’s just a one hour ferry ride away.} We stayed in a little cottage on a farm {found via VRBO.com} owned by a British couple.

It was so quiet and relaxing, and we ate fresh eggs and potatoes for breakfast every day. The days were warm and sunny, but at night the temps dropped so we took advantage of the little woodstove in the cottage and sat around its radiant warmth, sipping wine and reading.


After a few days in Vejer, we jumped a bus to Cadiz, situated right on the Straights of Gibraltar. It’s usually a beach-vacation destination but we were there at the wrong time of year for that. We walked around and enjoyed the ancient architecture {it’s one of the oldest cities in all of Europe} and the GIANT Rubber trees in the park.

I ate churros in Cadiz, and was pretty excited about it. They lived up to all my fried-doughy-goodness expectations.

From Cadiz we continued by train to Seville, where we stayed for three days. The name of the game in Seville is tappas and Flamenco music, and we enjoyed both to the max. I was blown away by the intensity and talent of the flamenco performers- never seen anything quite like it!

Other things I loved about Spain:
The obscene amounts of cafe con leche we consumed. Mannnnn oh man I am going to miss the cafe con leches! / The Thyssen-Bornemisza art museum in Madrid. I got to see works by all of my favorite Impressionist and Fauvist artists- really special! / The hotel we stayed at in Seville, La Casa de Maestro- so much character and so comfy! / The fresh-squeezed “zumo de naranja” {orange juice}. Holy yum. / The hot, sweet roasted chestnuts you can buy on the street and peal and eat while you walk around. So delicious. / The hot Spanish guys. What?

We got back late last night and, as usual, it feels really freakin good to be home. We owe a huge thank you to our neighbors Bob and Sarah who held down the fort for us {they even changed the cat litter-box and watered our house plants! Neighbors of The Year Award.} THANK YOU!!

I have more photos {like, real CAMERA photos} and stories from the trip, but they’ll have to wait. This week is going to be n-u-t-s, catching up on work and household stuff after being gone. I promise, though…hog butchering post/photos coming soon! Thank you all for your comments and interest on the subject. I’m looking forward to sharing the process and discussing the whole idea of raising animals for food with you. Hasta luego!

Malibu-bound

Posted on September 4th, 2012 by Tonia 2 Comments

Photo credit: tobysx70’s flikr stream

Mike and I are off to CA for a photo-shoot for a client. It’s going to be eight days of crazy-hard work, but I’m looking forward to ending each day with an incredible meal at one of the thousands of awesome places to eat in LA (any suggestions??). I can’t wait to indulge in the things that are hard to find in Northern Wisconsin: ethnic food, fresh seafood and tropical fruits. Mmmm!

Sunny Malibu with its aqua-blue ocean and tan citizens and salty air will provide the perfect grand-finale to summer. I’m packing sandals and light dresses and breezy tops to work in, because we’ll mostly be outside in the heat…and of course my bathing-suit, because I’ll be damned if I don’t get to jump in the ocean at least once!

When we return, we’ll be coming home to the best time of year here in the north: FALL! I can barely wait for crisp evenings, cider pressing, garden harvesting, and the leaves changing colors.

Catch you all on the flip side!

The Great Italian Adventure: Another Breathtaking Tuscan Town, No Big Deal.

Posted on June 21st, 2012 by Tonia 1 Comment

Another day-trip away from Montepulciano: We found ourselves at the top of another small mountain, in another gorgeous little town, saying to ourselves again, “Is this real or are we in a movie set?”

Tuscany has a surreal feeling to it. Maybe it’s because you can look out from your perch on a Medieval castle wall and see for miles and miles; the atmospheric perspective giving the rolling vineyards and poppy fields a dream-like quality and the perfect puffy clouds hovering neatly, as if they were painted there. Or maybe because the pictures we’d seen of this place many times just don’t do the real thing justice. You go there thinking you know what to expect, and then your brain explodes.

Anyway, here we were looking out at the incredible view in disbelief and wonder. And then a little sun-shower started up and a rainbow appeared in the hills. And I could have cried, it was so over-the-top beautiful.

Yes, that is a photo {taken on my dad’s iPhone} not a painting!

Lunch that day was at a little Trattoria that was well reviewed and didn’t disappoint. I had to take a photo of the pork that my mom ordered because I want to attempt it here at home. Apricots, blanched almonds, and a balsamic and honey reduction…Good Lord it was tasty!

I ordered pasta for almost every meal. I couldn’t get enough of it. Fresh handmade pasta is so incredibley tender, chewy and flavorful compared to the dried stuff…In fact, we haven’t eaten any dried pasta since returning home {it would be such a let-down, now that we know what we’re missing with the fresh stuff.} I’m more motivated than ever to perfect my pasta-making technique so that we never have to go back to boxed pasta!

Arugula + radicchio + tomatoes + olive oil + balsamic= the perfect spring salad. Mike was in heaven…he looooves arugula and it was in season while we were there.

My cute parents…full of good food and happy.

Can we talk about gelato for a sec? WHY IS IT SO MUCH BETTER THAN REGULAR ICE CREAM? Early on in the trip, Mike announced unapologetically, “I think I’m just going to get gelato whenever I feel like it.” Ok! Count me in on that plan. And so we did.

There are other parts of the trip worth sharing as well…like the 6km hike we took on dusty farm roads, winding through vineyards and ancient olive groves, or the awesome butcher shop we stopped at in Panzano in Chianti where we ate our hearts’ delight of thick slices of salami on fresh bread. But really, we’d be here for weeks if I tried to tell you everything.

Thanks for coming along on my little virtual tour! I hope you get a chance to get to Italy and see all of this for yourself someday- as good as it looks in photos, it’s 1000 times more awesome in real life. Buonasera!

The End.

Home Again Home Again

Posted on June 4th, 2012 by Tonia 3 Comments

We were welcomed home from Italy by grass that needed to be cut, a pig, cat, two turkeys and 12 chickens who are much bigger than when we left {my turklets are HUGE! All growed up….*sniffle*}, and gray dazzling Lake Superior.

Day one back at home we headed straight to the beach with the dogs. This was Jack’s first time swimming, and he was slightly awkward about it, but the instincts of his breed kicked in and he had a raging good time.

We ran into friends and their dog and we decided that the party should continue back at our house. We grilled out, made fresh strawberry and lime margaritas in the blender and sat on the back porch soaking in the late evening air.

An unexpected phenomenon of travel is that you gain a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for your own home upon returning to it. I love this feeling. I love seeing this place through fresh eyes.

Italy was, as you will see in the photos we took {although, photographs truly don’t capture the real magic of the place- you have to see it with your own eyes}, unbelievably beautiful. I was constantly ooh-ing and aah-ing over everything…the food, the view, the architecture…But a funny thing happened toward the end of the trip: I desperately wanted Home.

And a cold beer. Turns out- much to the consternation of my family- that I’m not a great wine lover like the rest of them. Even after all that delicious food we had the enormous pleasure of eating in Italy, Mike and I stopped at Angry Minnow Brewing Co. on our way north from the Minneapolis airport and downed a pulled-pork sandwich and a few beers like two people who’d been stranded in a desert for weeks.

As much as I like to go around boasting that “I’m 50% Italian, you know…” I guess I’m really very much American afterall.

But I’ll save the rest of my discoveries and stories for the post about Italy. For now, all I really wanted to say is that I love being home and am grateful for everything we have going on here. Traveling is lovely, but being where you belong- the place that hugs you up and tells you with every last thing about itself that you’re meant to be here- is even lovelier.