Europe Then and Now

After class one afternoon in our apartment in Lubbock, Jen and I impulsively hatched a plan to take a trip to Europe. It was 1996 and we college students on the rice and ramen budget but I had a few bucks from selling my truck. We decided if not now, when? And so a few months later we boarded an AA jet from LAX to Heathrow Airport. Here are a few pix of our trip then compared to modern day pix:

Then: Jen in Paris 1996...Now: Jen in Paris 2008Then: Piazza del Poppolo 1996

...Now: Piazza del Poppolo 2009

Then: Greg in Piazza del Poppolo, New Years Eve 1996

...Now: Greg (and my kiddos in pix 2) in the same spot in 2009

Bringing a bit of Europe to Texas

Europe withdrawal. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a clinical diagnosis but I'm pretty sure I'm suffering from it. To ease the transition, I put a few European touches in our Texas home. First is the Talavera tile kitchen table. These handpainted tiles originated from a small town in central Spain (although I'm guessing many of ours came from Mexico) and bring much needed color into our kitchen.

Outside is a different story. South Texas is the land of oak trees and grassland. To remind us of our time in Italy, I planted a "pasta garden" of sorts. Our humble farm consists of eggplant, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, lettuce, and some other stuff for good measure. Before long all of this stuff will be on our table for an Italian dinner.

Finally, here are our kiddies at the Frederickburg Oktoberfest!