Taking Off!

I awoke this morning just like other mornings, but this one I was off to the airport where Dad and I took off for our journey. This will be Dad's first trip out of the US (with the exception of Whistler, BC), and my third trip this year alone to Europe. Today we're flying to Nice, France where we'll stay near Antibes in Juan-les-Pins in a chic hotel near the beach. In a few days we will be in Cavagnolo, Italy staying in a small B and B near Tornio for the Slow Food conference, the Salone del Gusto.

Currently we are in the Portland airport where on the overhead speakers they are blarring about the upcoming boarding of our flight to Frankfurt. "Good afternoon ladies and gentelmen...boarding will begin in 10-15 minutes. Please board by row number and wait for your row to be called before attempting to board the plane....flight time today is nine hours forty-eight minutes..."

When asked if I'm getting excited about the trip, I responded as always, "I'll believe it when I see the beaches of the Riviera from the last plane." When travelling on long flights like this you just kind of feel like you're going through the motions and what's waiting at the end is a long ways off - like a mirage. It's hard to realize where you're going until you can see it and touch it, that is when you get excited. I think Dad is feeling about the same way, just going along until the plane stops in Nice and we got off to the beautiful weather, palm trees and waves rolling up on the shore.

This trip will be awesome though, while in Turin we will get a chance to sample some of the best meat, cheese, bread, pastries, wine, beer, coffee, etc. All this, while enjoying the beautiful scenery of Northern Italy and taking in the sights and sounds of another country, immersing ourselves as much as possible to this new culture and surroundings. Hopefully Dad will enjoy this trip, I have every map, hotel phone number, car rental number, etc...to make the trip easier and stress-free.

Also in Turin for the conference is Alan, Bart, David and Krissy so this should be fun, there are many places that are nearby like Asti, Barbara, Barolo, Alba (during the white truffle festival!) and many others. After the conference we are flying down to Sicily to try and rent a motorcycle and drive around the island for a few days then drive back up the coastline and through Rome and Tuscany back to Nice.

Well, they are back on the intercom to welcome us to board our flight so I should go now. I will try to update this everyday, normally I keep a paper copy of a journal for my travels - now I'm going to try using a blog because I can type faster. :)

Off we go!