Texas, Texas, Yee-Haw

We just returned from three weeks in Texas. It was great to be home for the holidays and to see family and friends (and eat lots of Tex-Mex).

We spent the first part of our trip in the Dallas area.

We were excited to see our niece, Kathryn, who turns seven next month.

Hillary's wearing the earrings Kathryn gave her for Christmas.

We also spent a few days in Kingwood, just north of Houston, where Hillary's family lives.

 Plus we got to go to Chuy's with two of my best friends!



We went to Austin to ring in the New Year.

The night before New Year's Eve, we went to a great new bar in Austin where I won an autographed bottle of our favorite vodka (Tito's) in a skee ball competition!

We finished off the trip by stopping by for some good ol' Texas barbeque in Fort Worth before hopping on the plane home (cattle in photos not actually eaten).

Fall or Winter?

So far, the weather here in Lisbon hasn't been too bad. We were a little worried seeing as we caught the tail end (last February and March) of the worst winter that Lisbon has had in a long time.

There has been a good amount of rain lately, but we've also had plenty of sunny days. I can definitely handle a winter where you don't need to have your fingers, neck and ears covered all the time. Here is a chart which shows the average temps and rainfall for Lisbon.


In the spirit of our fall-like weather here, enjoy some pictures we took recently in a park. I will warn you that these are pretty cheesy pictures. However, we did NOT both wear stripes on purpose!








I told John to try kicking the leaves as I took a picture. It was hilarious, because he completely fell backwards onto the ground after he kicked them. I couldn't stop laughing.

Obama Comes to Town

You may have seen on TV recently that President Obama came to Portugal to meet with the leaders of countries that are members of NATO and with the heads of the European Union. That meant lots of work for us. I got the glorious job of staffing the operations room that we set up in the hotel where Obama and all the White House staff stayed, as well as Hillary Clinton. During the four days leading up to his arrival and the two days he was here, I worked 78 hours.

John had an important job, too. He was in charge of making sure that the meeting between President Obama and the Portuguese Prime Minister went off without a hitch. Because John's also responsible for knowing about and promoting energy at the embassy, he arranged for GM to send two of its prototype electric cars to Lisbon so that the Portuguese delegation and the President of the European Commission could use them to drive to the NATO Summit. Obama had to use his own car for security reasons, but he did stop by to take a look at one of the cars.


But what made all the hard work worthwhile was getting to meet Obama. He came and spoke to all the embassy employees who weren't busy at other locations (like John). He told us that "your President is proud of you," which was pretty cool. And then I got to shake his hand!

See how close we were?





After he left, my friend Rebecca and I were able to sneak up to the podium and take a quick picture.

Happy Birthday Marines

United States Marines around the world celebrate November 10 as their "birthday" to commemorate the founding of the USMC in 1775. We recently celebrated the birthday of the Marines by attending our fourth Marine Corps Birthday Ball, which was hosted by the Marine Security Guard Detachment stationed in Lisbon. It's a great event where the Marines get to show off and commemorate their history. The embassy community tries to support the event, so we've made it a point to attend them so far. Plus they're a lot of fun. Enjoy some photos.

All dressed up


Hillary with our friends, Rebecca and Sgt. Ochoa


Hillary, Rebecca and Abby


Nine years ago, we went to our first Marine Corps Ball in Athens

100 Maneiras

The title of this post is a restaurant we recently tried, and it was so great I wanted to do a post about it.

Last month we had some friends come visit us in Lisbon, traveling here from London, Baghdad, and Warsaw. It was a nice reunion, and they also got to do a little sightseeing while they were here.

We had heard wonderful things about a restaurant here that does a 10 course meal. I thought it would be fun for us to try while they were visiting. There is no menu, and you can't order anything a la carte. However, the total price for this decadent, 10 course meal? Only 35 euros!

The first course was so cute and inventive - bacalhau (dried cod) crackers hung from mini clothespins!




The second course was a foie gras made with chocolate, served with a mango something or other.




After that, I was enjoying everything so much I didn't bother to take any more pictures.

Oh, except I had to take a photo of the wonderful wine we had so we would remember the name. It was one of the best wines I've had since we moved here.




The last 2 courses were dessert. Every single thing served was wonderful, and managed to be delicious and unique at the same time. Here is a group shot of us at the end of our almost 3 hour meal (!)




If you live in Lisbon or visit, definitely make a reservation here!

Prague, Czech Republic

Recently we went to Prague for a conference John attended, and I got to tag along! We were able to go for four days, and John's conference was only for two days, so it was a nice trip. I had been to Prague ten years ago while backpacking, but only for two days. One of the days we took a day trip to Terezin, a former concentration camp about 45 minutes outside of Prague. It was one of the most interesting places I visited while backpacking. But essentially I had only seen a day's worth of the city, so I was excited to go back. Prague has become much more touristy in the past 5-10 years - I definitely noticed that. If it was that crowded at the beginning of October, I'd be afraid to go during the summer! We spent most of our time walking all over the city, and trying out the Czech food and beer - both of which were great. Enjoy the pics.

We got to stay in a really nice hotel called the Alchymist, which was right across the street from the American Embassy there, and near his conference. Although the first night we stayed in a cute attic room of a hotel. The only drawback was no elevator. Here is John after carrying our luggage up four flights!



We stayed very close to the Charles Bridge, which connects the old part of the city to the new. It is lined with licensed vendors and musicians, and is always packed with tourists.



See all those people?



View of the Prague Castle. It is the largest castle complex in the world!



Famous astronomical clock



This was a popular Czech appetizer called beer cheese, which you put on fried toast. Needless to say, it was delicious.



Night view of the river and castle



Apparently Prague has freaky black squirrels with pointy ears and glowing eyes!



Beer



And more beer



A really cool underground cave-like restaurant



Look at all that candle wax!



Awesome steak with potato-stuffed onion!



Bridge with thousands of locks



Here is the famous "Lennon Wall". Since the 1980s, this wall has been graffitied over and over with Beatles-inspired images and lyrics.



I decided to climb to the top of this mini Eiffel tower to see the great view. Yes, Prague has a mini Eiffel tower, too!



While walking around, I found a reflexology place! Since I hadn't had a professional foot massage since Jakarta, I was pretty much in heaven.


The funniest part was the guy outside. If it weren't for him yelling out "massage", I would have walked right by the place. Check him out, you'll see why I definitely noticed him!



Our fancy hotel had a complimentary cheese and wine-tasting hour every evening.



One of the neat things to do in Prague is to see a classical concert in a stunning concert hall or church. These guys were great




I'm sure it would be a great city to see covered in snow. But we were happy that it wasn't too cold and we didn't get rained on during our time there! One last shot - the beautiful Tyn church taken from the top of the Eiffel tower: