Fondy Homecoming, Wedding, and the Big "D"

Hiya Everyone,

My sincerest apologies for my month long absence from the blogosphere.  We got back to London a week ago yesterday from our incredibly fun but exhausting 2 weeks in the States.  It seems as though my temporary retirement has enabled the Sr. Director to multiply my household obligations and I am more busy now than when I was working full time.  This is definitely a case of Taxation without Representation.  Ironically, that was the motto used by the original American colonies when they revolted against the British empire!!

It was so great to be back in the States.  We spent the first couple of days in Fondy hanging out with the Berenz and Mongin clan and we were so lucky to get some quality time with Max.  We took him shopping with us one day as you can see from his modeling photo below!!  My intention was to have a much easier first night than when I arrived last summer in Wisconsin, but we all know that is not really in my DNA.  After a mind-blowing pizza experience at Joe's Fox Hut, we took it to Main Street for a night of shenanigans.  I have to give a shout out to the "Outlaws."  Chad, Shawna, Jobina, Cathy, and I took the family down in a skeeball tourney at Googles.  It was a devastating blow, and they are still feeling their defeat today.  The night does get a little hazy after that (thanks to the Claymakers), but I do recall Chad, Joe, and I's WWE showdown in Chad's basement at about 3am.  In fact, my tailbone finally does not hurt when I sit down.  On Sunday, we had a Packer party at the Mongin's house with all of the finest of Cathy's tailgating delicacies.  We bummed around on Monday with Max and then Senior, Cath, Ann and I had a delicious steak dinner at home on Monday night.  Before we knew it, Thursday had arrived and we were all preparing to head to Kohler for the wedding festivities.  I do have to mention that Chad and I out outdueled Senior and Junior on the golf course on Thursday morning.  They thought that they were untouchable, so it was a sweet sweet victory.  What an amazing wedding that Jeff and Jobina had planned.  It had only been in the making for 16 years to the day:)  They got married in a small clearing near the American Club in Kohler overlooking the Sheboygan River.  It was a pristine Fall day and the leaves were beautiful.  They said their vows in front of about 30 people and had an awesome sit down dinner in a quaint log cabin nestled back in the woods.  They were a stunning bride and groom and the day was perfect.  I was finally introduced to the renowned "Uncle Gary," so that was a real treat as well.  After the wedding and saying our goodbyes to the newlyweds as they departed for Jamaica, the rest of us headed to Sheboygan to stay at Blue Harbour.  Jeff and Cathy rented a great condo for all of us on Lake Michigan.  It was a lovely way to wrap up our time in Wisconsin.  BTW, I never thought the day would come, but Tom Berenz confessed his love for the Republican party;)!!!!  

The 2nd week of our trip took us to Dallas for our house hunting adventure.  Ann has spent a little time there for work, but basically, we are complete newbies to the city.  We luckily have some great resources at our disposal through Ann's company and a few connections there that were instrumental in helping us plan.  We stayed at a beautiful hotel in uptown called The Stoneleigh.  It is in a fantastic location near McKinney Ave, which is a cool street with restaurants, bars and a free trolley that runs end to end.  On Sunday afternoon, we walked a good portion of McKinney Ave, and then got in the car and drove out to an area called Lakewood that we had heard a lot about.  We had an incredible Tex-Mex dinner that night at a restaurant called La Duni near the Knox/Henderson area, very close to SMU's campus in Highland Park.  We shared a spicy chorizo queso app and then both had enchiladas.  There is a good possibility that I might turn into a Mexican after living in Dallas because that is how much I love Mexican food and how often that I will be consuming it.  Monday was a work day for Ann and I had some interviews at JCP's head offices in Plano.  Monday night, we had another great dinner at a restaurant in Uptown called Ocean Prime.  Instead of serving bread, they serve white truffle and parmesan popcorn.  This stuff was like crack.  Tuesday was the first of 2 days that we spent with a relocation agent.  Even though our desire is to probably live in a more established neighborhood in the city, we were interested in seeing what kind of homes you could get for your money in the burbs.  We got a pretty thorough tour of Plano, Frisco, and McKinney, which are all north of the city.  We officially got our welcome to the land of strip malls.  This is true for all of Dallas.  Obviously, we are a little bit skewed at this point since we live in the heart of London and don't own a car.  We walk everywhere, including the grocery store, so this was somewhat of a shock to our system!!  It was great though to see what is possible in the land of suburbia.  Tuesday night, we had dinner with Ann's boss and his wife.  They chose this quaint little French restaurant called Rise, coincidentally in a strip mall, that served savory and sweet soufflés.  Ann had a crab meat soufflé and I had a southwest chicken soufflé and then we shared their special pumpkin soufflé for dessert.  These soufflés are so light and delicious.  It will definitely be one of our favorites.  Wednesday, we spent the 2nd day with the relo agent.  This day was dedicated to neighborhoods and homes in the actual city of Dallas.  While we did not necessarily find any homes that wowed us, we discovered some fantastic neighborhoods where we can now focus our search.  On Thursday, my parents flew down to Dallas to see us.  It had been a full year since we had seen them.  The 4 of us had such a blast.  Thursday night, we had reservations at a restaurant called Stephan Pyles.  It was s southwestern menu, and while I highly enjoyed out little gazpacho sampler platter, the rest of the dinner was just ok.  Friday, we had a great lunch at Mi Cocina in Highland Park Village(the brisket tacos were sick!!) and then drove through some of the neighborhoods that we had targeted potential houses.  Friday night, we had an amazing dining experience at a restaurant called Mansion on Turtle Creek.  This place is so unique and the food was spectacular.  We all split the Dover Sole, and it was absolutely brilliant.  Saturday, we toured a few more neighborhoods and also drove through downtown, past Dealey Plaza and the Book Depository.  Saturday night, we had reservations at a steak house called Al Biernat's.  While the steak was absolutely incredible, the ambience was just ok and paled in comparison to our experience on Friday evening.  My dry aged New york Strip Steak just melted in my mouth though.  We said goodbye to my parents on Sunday morning as they headed back to St. Louis, and we started our lengthy journey back to London.

After being in Dallas, we both recognized and discussed that our transition back might be a bit harder than we have anticipated.  We have such a unique lifestyle here in the fact that we can walk everywhere and we have so many cultures, resources, and cuisines at our fingertips.  We are absolutely thrilled about Dallas, but it will be a change.  We are excited for the next challenge though and are so looking forward to getting settled in a house, meeting hopefully some great people, discovering a new city, and starting the next phase of our life.

I guess that is about it.  Ann has been working like crazy the last week.  Fortunately or unfortunately, we had tickets to the Rams v Patriots game at Wembley on Sunday night.  Despite the Rams getting completely killed, we still had an awesome time and it was a great experience to see a NFL game here.  We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend ahead in London before we embark on our crazy last 5 weeks as 2 yanks in London.  We hope that everyone is doing well.  For those on the East Coast, we hope that you have not been badly affected by Sandy and we just want to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween.

Cheers
Kevin
                                 

  

Farewell Final Visitors and Apple

Two significant chapters of our London book close for us this week as we get closer to the start of the sequel, "2 Yanks in Dallas" and our repatriation to the USA.  It is hard to believe that 2 years ago right now, we were planning our relocation to London and looking forward to what the 2 years ahead might hold.  Without a doubt, these 2 years have been an education in life and of the world that far exceeded my first 31 years.  We have been ridiculously lucky to have travelled and seen as much as we have.  We have also grown so much together because beyond all of the great trips that you have seen pics of and read about, Ann and I have pushed each other to succeed in immersing ourselves and adapting to every new culture, place, and communication divide that we encountered both professionally and personally.  It was very hard to be away from family and friends at times, but we did it together, and overcame so many challenges along the way.  We will have thousands of pictures and stories to share with whomever wants to look or listen, but for the two of us, we will have the experiences that unfortunately words and photos do little to capture and no one beyond ourselves will understand.  That is what makes our move back home hard and special at the same time:)

For the first chapter closing this week, we said goodbye last Sunday to what I believe will be our last visitors to London, Nick and Jen Garlie, our extraordinary friends from the Twin Cities.  Every visitor has asked us if we are tired of being tour guides and showing people the same things over and over.  In short, I hope that I never have to give another tour again, but for us, it was not about seeing the same sights, it was about seeing our visitors reactions when they saw these things for the first time.  That was worth standing on the Westminster Bridge over the River Thames staring back at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben for the 100th time!!!  Nick and Jen were no exception.  They were Europe Virgins as well, which makes it even more exciting.  They arrived late last Saturday night, so their official tour kicked off on Sunday.  After a stop at Ottolenghi for scones, croissants, pastries and coffee, we spent the morning walking through Green Park past Buckingham and then through St. James Park towards Westminster.  After crossing the aforementioned Westminster Bridge, we worked our way south to The Imperial War Museum.  Ann and I are not huge museum fans, but this place was beyond imagination.  We had been waiting to go to coincide with visitors, and this worked perfectly.  I will be going back to spend more time there before we leave.  After that, we taxied up to Borough Market and had a few apps and a glass of wine.  We crossed back over the Thames, walked through Covent Garden and stopped at the Cork and Bottle in Soho for another glass of wine.  We had dinner that evening at Zaika, our favourite Indian restaurant, and enjoyed watching the Garlies have their first Indian experience.  Ann sadly had to leave early Monday morning for Normandy, France for work, and the three of us were certainly not high on her list as we stayed up until 3:30am laughing and talking far too loudly!!!  Nick and Jen spent Monday and Tuesday discovering London and they left early Wednesday morning for 2 days in Paris.  Ann returned from her work trip on Thursday night and Nick and Jen returned on Friday evening.  That night, we had a fantastic meal at Maggie Jones, which is a little Kensington haunt that serves game and classic English dishes.  Saturday, Nick and Jen took the must see guided tour of the Houses of Parliament and Ann and I met them after to continue the London circuit.  We ended up back in Borough Market for lunch and then hopped on the Tube and headed west to Notting Hill and Portobello Road.  We had so much fun walking Portobello and for our first time too, we found the little bookstore that Hugh Grant owns in the movie "Notting Hill."(pic of Ann and I below is from across the street from the shop).  From there, we stopped at Kensington Wine bar where for the first time in my life, I think that I was accused of nursing a drink!!!  We had our final dinner together at our favourite Lebanese restaurant around the corner from our flat.  Nick and Jen, we had such a blast and are so happy that you all made the trip across the pond to see us.  We know that it was hard being away from Eli and Zoe, but we are so grateful that you took the leap and pushed yourselves to see so many things and try so many new cuisines (safe to say that Jen is not a fan of lamb!!!).

The other chapter that closes for me this week is Apple.  When we found out that we were in fact coming to London and that I would be leaving Target, I was a slight bit apprehensive about how this might impact my career progression and what position that I would find.  I was so fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to work for Apple here in London.  It has been such an unbelievable experience for me personally and professionally.  The chance to work for the most recognised company in the world in such a global environment and have exposure to our entire European business has been brilliant.  I have loved recruiting for our 34 stores in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales and especially managing an agency team of 14 talent sourcers in Warsaw, Poland.  That was by far the most fulfilling for me.  With sadness and excitement, tomorrow is my last day at Apple.  I am sad that there are no ideal opportunities back in Dallas with Apple, but super excited to discover what new challenge lies ahead for me.  I have learned so much here and have made some outstanding friends.  Most excitingly, and eliciting a great deal of jealousy from the Sr. Director, I am temporarily retired as of tomorrow!!!!  I will be taking the lead on our relocation back to the States, serving as an even more dedicated executive assistant to the Duchess of Fondy, assuming more responsibility as house husband, and continuing to travel the world!!!

I suppose that is about it for me from a cool and rainy London.  We fly back to the States for 2 weeks next Saturday for Jeff and Jobina's wedding in WI and a week long house hunting trip to Dallas.  It has been 14 months since I have set foot on US soil, and I am so stoked.  I am going to get to meet my nephew Max for the first time, and I can't wait to see my parents when they fly down to Dallas to spend a weekend with us there.

Cheers
Kevin                                  

            

Ciao a Tutti

The US will always be home for us, but Italia could easily be our adopted country.  I think that it was finally Wednesday last week when blood was once again coursing through my veins instead of wine and cheese.  At the height of my gluttony, I even ate gelato 3 times in one day, including breakfast.  Italy is truly a place to indulge in everything fine in life…food, wine, food, wine and ravishing landscapes that were brilliantly captured by our Japanese contingent (Sayuri aka Ann and Yoshi aka Patrick).  Susie and I made fun of them a lot darting around with multiple cameras, but we are so thankful that they were able to capture our unforgettable 10 days.  The Kings hardly need an introduction, but they are our tree hugging, ACLU card-carrying friends from Minneapolis!!!  Sadly, I informed them that after our move to Texas, they will no longer be suitable friends.  After their visit a year ago to London and Ireland, we began planning the 2012 Knapp-King Reunion in Italy.  We hashed out a rough itinerary and then each couple was responsible for planning our respective halves of the trip.  When travelling in Europe, especially Italy by car, there can be many things that can go askew, but for the amount of travelling that we did, it was one of the most uncomplicated trips that I have taken.  It always helps when there are others in the car to lighten the mood when you are lost or yelling at your spouse for their backseat driving or questionable navigation skills!!  In retrospect, we probably packed in a little too much, but there is not one regret (besides Genova).  I will do my best to recount the best, the worst, and the many highlights from our adventure:

-       Day 1 – Bologna - We had an fantastic first meal at Vicolo Colombina including a ridiculous Salami platter as an appetizer.

-       Day 2 – Santarcangelo - Susie has recently re-connected with the Italian side of her family and they invited us to visit them in their hometown where her parents had visited many years ago.  We were welcomed with unspeakable generosity.  Her cousins, Gastone and Valentino, who are close to our age, and their friend Nicola (THE INTERPRETER) welcomed us into their home for a traditional Italian lunch and to meet the extended family, gave us a tour of Santarcangelo and the nearby Republic of San Marino, and treated us to an amazing meal on Saturday night.  There are many highlights, but the unforgettable one has to do with Nicola, our new friend and interpreter.  Nicola was awesome and certainly made our interaction with everyone so much easier.  He also had the whole “good looking Italian” thing going on for himself.  Anyway, we are out at a bar after dinner with Gastone, Valentino, and Nicola and we were planning to maybe hit the beach before we left the next day.  Nicola mentioned that he might not wear his speedo, and out of nowhere, Ann and Susie, in unison, said, “No, no, you can wear your speedo.”  CLASSIC!!!

-       Day 3 – Florence – We arrived in Florence on Sunday afternoon.  Patrick did a fantastic job of negotiating the windy roads through the mountainous national park as well as the one-way streets of Florence.  The first highlight was definitely getting pulled over by the Caribinieri as we are trying to return the car by way of the largest pedestrian walk in Florence.  They were not amused that we were driving down this street amidst thousands of people, but were understanding once we explained where we were coming from!!  The rest of Sunday proceeded seamlessly as we made our way around the Duomo, visited the Accademia and Michelangelo’s David, and had a really fun dinner.  We decided to hit an Italian Club after dinner.  We ended up roped off inside their “VIP” section, which consisted of 2 couches and 2 tables, but apparently plenty of space for Susie to invite some new friends who I had to entertain!!  The final highlight of the night was me getting pickpocketed on our way home at about 2am.  In all of my travels, I have amazingly never fallen victim, but these little Italians bastards caught me off guard and I was the sacrificial lamb.  Luckily, I realized it within about 2 or 3 minutes, and we were able to cancel all of my cards.  Sadly, I lost my driver’s license, some pride, and most meaningful to me, my last Clemson Student IDL

-       Day 4 - Florence – After waking up with considerable hangovers and the complete realization that I had in fact no wallet, we recovered quickly to continue to discover Florence.  The highlight of the day was definitely our dinner, probably our best in Italy.  We encountered a restaurant called La Giostra.  We were all introduced to a new cheese called Burrata, which is essentially a mozzarella cheese shell stuffed with cream.  They served it with drizzled honey, and let me just say that it was food ecstasy.  The entire dinner was incredible and was a great way to end our time in Florence.

-       Day 5 – Genova and The Cinque Terre – We picked up the compact diesel “Benz” in Florence and made our way from Tuscany to Liguria, all along the Mediterranean Coast and the Cinque Terre.  The Cinque Terre literally means “Five Hills” and is composed of five villages along the coast.  The Villages are accessible by road, train, and can also be reached by hiking trails, which are amazing.  We had a fantastic lunch in the first village called Riomaggiore.  At this point, I will take full responsibility for my planning screw up.  I had booked us into a hotel in Genova for 2 nights, which was a huge disappointment, and not nearly as close to the Cinque Terre as I had thought.  We spent one night in Genova, which by the way, we had the best pizza of the trip, and we were able to find a hotel in the village of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre for the 2^nd next night.  Thanks to Ann and Susie for the last minute research and making this happen.

-       Day 6 – Vernazza and Corniglia, Cinque Terre – We left Genova early that morning in the “Benz” and made our way back to the Cinque Terre.  The mountain drive along the Cinque Terre has endless captivating views.  We negotiated treacherously narrow and winding mountain roads to the village of Vernazza, but made it in one piece.  The village had sadly been devastated last year by floods.  The destruction is still evident in the roads and upper village, but the seaside was untouched and is extraordinarily breathtaking.  The highlight of the day was our hike from Vernazza to Corniglia where we had lunch and swam in the sea.  It was an awesome adventure.  It was pretty warm and the hike was fairly challenging, but it is absolutely the way to experience the Cinque Terre and all of its dramatic views high above the sea.

-       Day 7 – Bergamo – We sadly awoke in Vernazza to find that Susie had fallen victim to food poisoning from dinner the night before.  She was definitely down for the count.  I do have to mention this incredible pastry shop that Ann, Patrick, and I found for breakfast that morning in Vernazza though.  It was called Il Pirata, a Sicilian bakery just below our hotel.  We had some of the best pastries that I have ever tasted and Patrick and I both had this amazing watermelon slushy.  After breakfast, we managed to get Susie to the car and headed towards Bergamo.  We stopped for lunch in a small town called Cremona, which happened to be the home of the violin.  We left poor Susie in the car while the three of us walked around and grabbed a quick Panini.  We pulled into Bergamo in the late afternoon and in my mind, discovered one of the gems of our trip.  Bergamo is an ancient Roman city that sits just northeast of Milan in the foothills of the Alps and surrounded by vineyards.  The view from our balconies in our B&B was of grape vineyards.  It was awesome.  Ann, Patrick, and I ventured through the extremely quaint old town in the afternoon and had a fantastic dinner at a local place Trattoria La Colombina.  Bergamo was a complete surprise for me.

-       Day 8 and Day 9 – Lake Como -  With Susie back in action, the fearless foursome were again at full strength and pumped for the final push to Lake Como.  It is hard to describe in words the beauty and majesticness of this stunning part of Italy.  Como di Lago is a glacial lake dotted with aristocratic and pastel painted villages, palaces and ornate villas sitting at the base of snowcapped mountains.  We stayed in Mennagio and hopped back and forth by car and ferry between Bellagio, Varenna, and Tremezzo.  We found one of the coolest wine bars in Bellagio called Cava Turacciolo and one in Tremezzo called Cantina Follie.  We also found the best gelato that we had in Italy in Menaggio.  It was an awesome end to the trip.  We were somewhat disappointed that we did not get an invitation for dinner at George’s villa, but after Ann and Susie’s performance around “Speedo Nic,” Patrick and I would have been fearful of their behavior!!!

10 days, 4 Regions, 7 Cities, 2 Cars, 1 Wallet and many shared hotel rooms and bathrooms later, The Kings and The Knapps emerged unscathed and full of the most exquisite pasta, pizza, gelato, compari, wine, and a plethora of memories to last a lifetime.  Thanks to all of my travel companions for their patience, courage, laughter, love, and of course to Patrick for his proficient use of the Spanish language.  Perhaps next trip we will choose a country where that will actually be useful!!!  Patrick and Susie, we are so lucky to have you all as friends, and we can’t wait to see you on the next Knapp-King adventure.

As I am quite tired of writing, and I probably lost you all as readers long ago, I am going to wrap this up.   We have fully recovered from Italy and are looking forward to a last couple of busy months in London.  Ann is flying to Moscow this week for work and we are so excited to have our good friends Nick and Jenny Garlie arrive next weekend from St Paul to spend a week here in London and Paris.

Ciao Amore!!

Kevin