Part I: Au revoir les Etats-Unis

We left this past weekend and arrived midmorning on Saturday in Geneva. We flew on British Airways and it turned out to be just OK–nothing terribly noteworthy. For some stupid reason, I decided to book us a window and a middle seat rather than an aisle and a window seat. So there was this little college boy who ended up swiping the aisle seat that I should have had, but was too dumb to reserve. Another thing…the economy seats in BA are so small! I could barely fit in one and for the first time ever had my knees almost hit the seat in front of me. I was worried that I was going to have a miserable flight–fortunately, things did work out in the end. BA has a great in-flight entertainment system and I took a sleeping pill after dinner, which allowed me to sleep for about 6 hours straight. Before I knew it, we were landing at Heathrow and on our way to Geneva. Or so I thought. The transit line for people connecting in Heathrow turned out to be dreadfully long. We had to go through security again and the whole process took 90 minutes. Luckily, our connecting plane was delayed by snow in Amsterdam; otherwise, we would have missed our flight to Geneva.

We landed in Geneva and I was extremely impressed by the customs line. There was no line at all! It took us <5 minutes to pick up our bags and meet Gloria outside the customs area. They basically looked at our passports and said “Welcome to Switzerland.”

Since we were left with a few hours of daylight, we headed back to the apartment where we dropped our bags and proceeded to hit the town. We strolled through Old Town and visited lots of little shops. We had some fantastic hot chocolate (made with real Swiss chocolate and not the powder type) and headed back to the apartment around 6pm. While Gloria ran to the grocery store, Diane and I just crashed on the couch and bed. After a good 30-minute power nap, we were both ready to go. Since most things in Switzerland shut down around 5pm and lots of restaurants don’t open until after 6:30pm, we patiently waited until this Italian joint down the street opened up. We both ordered pizzas, devoured them, and then hung out at home until 10:30pm when we finally crashed.

 

By Lake Geneva

Flower Clock at the English Gardens

Overlooking Geneva

Gloria and Fernando at the local cathedral

Swiss chocolate!

Got Greek?

The night before we left for Switzerland, we made a quick stop by the Greek Festival in Houston. It’s a pretty big deal here (42 years strong). While we didn’t get to see much, we did enjoy the food. I opted for the souvlaki (kabob) and Diane ate and gyro. We shared some honey balls, which were also very delicious.

Movie Tavern

I was driving home one day and I heard about the Movie Tavern. There are two locations in the Houston area and what they do is make one of my dreams a reality. Well, sorta. I’ve always disliked the food options at movie theaters. Five-dollar hot dogs and six-dollar popcorn isn’t what I call a bargain or even remotely filling. The Movie Tavern aimed to solve this problem by offering a full dinner menu that could be eaten while watching a movie. Doesn’t that sound fantastic?!

We headed up north to catch the latest James Bond flick: Quantum of Solace (OK movie, but still worth watching if you like Bond). We arrived a little bit early and chilled in the lobby. It didn’t smell fantastic. I thought it was a little gross; Diane thought it smelled like yeast, which she happened to like for some reason. Eventually, we got in and were able to pick out seats. We opted for the typical movie-style seats rather than the leather office chairs. In front of us was a table and a menu.

The menu actually wasn’t bad. There was enough variety between the appetizers, salads, entrees, and desserts. Our problem was that we ordered too much food. An appetizer and an entree (per person) was way more food that we actually wanted to eat during the movie (even though this was our initial intention). One other problem is they brought all of our food at the same time. The third “problem” was that we were kinda absorbed into the action of the film that we found it difficult to eat. My eyes were glued to the screen and I didn’t want to look down to make sure the food wasn’t falling on my lap.

Lessons Learned

• Eat only an appetizer and dessert
• Order one item at a time; when you’re ready for more food, place your menu (upright position) on the table and the waiter will take your next order (course)
• Food was moderately priced (yay!) — $35-$40 (including tip) for an appetizer, two entrees and two desserts

Overall, we still enjoyed the experience and plan to go back some day when we find another movie worth watching.

10 Days and Counting

I was at the gym this evening when it dawned on me that in just 10 days, Diane and I will be flying across the Atlantic to Geneva! Originally, we wanted to take a cruise with some friends out of Galveston, but we were met with a less than enthusiastic response. Rather than stay at home and miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as a young, childless couple, we decided to take the plunge and buy some tickets. We will be gone for 9 days and will be spending it with my sister, Gloria. We’re very excited to explore Switzerland and Southern France. 🙂

Happy Veteran's Day

A blog that I enjoy reading on a regular basis is On Life and Lybberty by my former roommate, Jake. It is a politically oriented blog, so maybe it’s not your cup of tea, but he had a great post about Veteran’s Day and the 233rd anniversary of the Marines Corps. Rather than rehash what he said, I’ll just point you there:

• Remember the Vets
• Happy 223rd Bday, Marine Corps

Just remember that there are many veterans out there who served our country well. Many of these veterans have come back with life-changing physical and pyschological effects. Many of these veterans are living off Social Security and little else. Please take some time to donate some money to  a charity serving our veterans. Valour IT is one such organiation.

Trunk or Treat

Being on the activities committee gave us a good excuse to get dressed up and head to our ward’s trunk or treat. And we’re so glad we did, because otherwise we wouldn’t have seen some really cool costumes. The game  that I was in charge of (musical chairs) flopped since we didn’t have one minor detail (a working radio), so we just handed out candy and got our picture taken with Ronald McDonald!