A few months ago, Rob took on a volunteer role as the new community organizer for a group called SFUR, promoting trail riding in San Francisco. It has been fun watching him build a network of supporters through pancake breakfasts, speaking at City Hall and trail work events. He asked me to help host a dinner party…

Life seems to be finally returning to normal now that we’ve been back home for three weeks from Europe. I’ve been going to farmer’s market, even threw my first dinner party. Last week, I was invited out to a friend’s for a screening party for Miss Represented and used a surplus of ripe blackberries to make bit sized…

We’re back! The jet lag is receding, a huge surge of client branding work is starting to slow down, souvenirs are distributed to friends. Almost back to real life…with the exception of two very special visitors. As we do almost every year, we’ve taken on two of Rob’s nephews for a week in the “big city. This…

After six weeks of traveling, it was finally almost time to head back to the states. This trip had been eventful to say the least. There were so many great memories, and a couple really challenging ones. We need to get our mojo back after the dog situation. Rob decided we should finish strong. Time to take to the skies…

After our day of cheese hiking with the very fancy French cows in Semnoz, Rob and I set off on a new cheese-based adventure the next day. Our goal was to find an ideal specimen of tartiflette – a regional dish made with Haute Savoie’s reblochon cheese. We drove from Annecy into the mountains at the…

Rob coined the term “cheese hiking” to perfectly describe the experience of trekking across high alpine wildflower meadows dotted with farmhouse fromage shops. Welcome to Semnoz! This was one of my favorite days of our whole trip. Semnoz is just 30 minutes drive from Annecy – up a steep cycling route that Rob would tackle…

It was a cloudy, but still warm day on Monday in the Haute Savoie. Perfect weather to take a paddleboat out on Lake Annecy without burning up in the hot alpine sun. Rob and I picked a vendor right off the main town gardens. You leave your ID and pay when the boat is returned,…

Just south of the old city in Annecy, there’s a massive public green space called the “Foret Communale D’Annecy.” Apparently, after decades of cutting for lumber, the community felt bad about its ecologic misdeeds and replanted the entire forest by hand, resulting today in a lush hiking and mountain biking area for (mostly) locals. The red “vous…

Welcome to Annecy! After our very “eventful” stay in Geneva and the French suburbs, Rob and I rented a car and drove to Annecy for the last week of our trip. This small city is known as the “Venice of France” for its canals running through the old pedestrian city. We’re staying in a converted…

There is a particular French way of resigned sighing when a situation is terrible and awful and there’s nothing to be done about it. You pucker slightly, fill your cheeks with air and quickly “poof” out the air between the center of your lips, even better if you can widen your eyes and rock back a bit…