A nice day

Went to Kent Falls State Park , always nice ... they put up some new stone sitting area near base of falls .... I thought it used to be all natural ....that kind of is the suck .....but anyway ...Kent is a beautiful area ...we did a nearby hike ...the  AT , about 2.5 miles...then went to Macedonia State Park ...ate Loris` Salmon Pasta salad in front of a rushing creek .... we hiked 1.5 miles there .... on way home , stopped at Mount Tom ---grabbed a blanket ...went by the water ...fished for a minute ...then I took a nap while Lori read and watched the chipmunks and robins chase eachother around..
Gonna take her out for her birthday dinner.  Might do Bin 228 ...wine bar and apps.

Spring is Here !!!

First warm weekend since we came back from Europe. Hiked at Devils Hopyard State park and saw chapman falls , gushing ...with all the rain y`all got while we were on the other side of the pond.

We went to London 4 nights , Paris 4 days , Venice 2 nights , Florence 2 nights and Rome for 4 nights. We had the best time of our entire lives. We saw every landmark , historical area , every kind of architecture , sculpture , famous paintings ...frescoes , dozens of churches big and small , we saw lavish palaces and gardens , climbed a half dozen landmarks for ridiculous views , every corner we turned was a picture to be had (We took over 2000 pics) ... we ate and drank in the slickest cafes , the hopping-est piazzas , and the most famous squares.
I saved for and planned for this trip for two years, whilst self-educating myself for the last decade in all aspects of history , philosophy , literature , politics , and more recently architecture , art and music.
London - we saw parliament , big ben , westminster abbey , climbed the cathedral , was in the whispering walls of st pauls dome murmuring sweet nothings from 20 feet away from eachother , did a tour of and upon the tower of London ...and explored the entire city of London on foot and thru the well designed Tube .... We saw the Rosetta Stone in the British museum , and the Magna Carta in the british library. We saw great works at the National Gallery and Great People of history at the National Portrait Gallery. We visited Buckingham and Kensington palace and ogled the Crown Jewels ...
Paris- saw the flying buttresses of Notre Dame – and marveled at the gothic St Chapelle , Kissed on the Pont Neuf , strolled the Ile St Louis.... We stayed in St Germaine, next to the two most famous cafes in France , les deux magot and Cafe Flore.. these areas were the haunts of french intellectuals such as Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir ...Oscar Wilde ... Hemingway , Fitzgerald , Gertrude Stein lived in these parts and drank in this area...Lori and I spent a couple of our nights there , drinking wine and eating great meals...
We saw the Mona Lisa in the Louvre as well as Rafael , Michaelangelo and other DA Vinci works in the same halls,we viewed the impressionists paintings of Monet , Manet and Van Gogh in the Musee D`orsay.
We went to the Eiffel Tower , lit up at night....all the obvious places and famous works that were supposed to be such a big deal ... REALLY WERE...I thought the Eiffel would bore me , or the small , dark , behind glass Mona Lisa would underwhelm....They did not ...nothing on this trip ..despite the familiarity of their fame ....failed to absolutely awe us in their presence. We went to the Louvre on 2 separate occassions...this is the greatest museum in the world.

We strolled the Champs d'Elysées , The Rodin Gardens , past Hotel Invalides and through numerous market streets ....we saw seedy pigalle and all its sex clubs...and we spent half a day in the Palace and Gardens of Versailles...
we saw Great views by climbing the Arc de Triomphe , Sacre Couer and the Centre Pompidou
We REALLY enjoyed Paris...

We did this trip , well studied on , the architecture we were to see ,the time periods they represent ....baroque , rococo .. the artists and their great works , the sculptures, greek and roman history as well as their mythology , great understanding of byzantine , early and high renaissance , history and art ...some of the symbolism involved in paintings of these times , The history of kings and emperors and the monuments that still worship them....(Napoleon , Louis XIV , The Tudors and the Stuarts....
This may sound a bit like bragging, but one must understand , I truly studied ...on my own , with no prompting , and no pending degree or potential financial reward ....for over a decade .... all the things I should`ve learned in school...and then found myself with the opportunity to visit the lands where all this history happened.. I will soon publish the Italy aspect of our trip which will take us 2000+ years into our history , which inspired the renaissance and the beautiful works that we were able to see 1500 + years later...

Venice ....
Florence ...
ROME.........