Mountain Valley Home

Mountain Valley Home

Most people, when they think of Estes Park, Colorado, think of The Shining. If they don't know any better, then they just assume that going to the Stanley Hotel means that they'll be staying in that swanky hotel that they saw in Kubrick's movie.Okay, this place is in Oregon, not Colorado.If one were to stay at the Stanley Hotel, what they would actually get is an overpriced room overlooking the McDonald's and the Safeway parking lot. It's there. You can see it if you squint.As tempted as we were by the grandeur of the golden arches & the wildlife milling about at Safeway, Olivier & I instead spent a night of our U.S. tour at Mountain Valley Home B&B.We came in and got comfortable... ...uh, well...really comfortable......like, Tony Montana comfortable.Then we headed down to the Tuscan Wine Room - which I'm sorry that I don't have pictures of, but it can be seen on their website.Olivier and I, along with a...
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The Giant Spoon and Skinny Streets of Spain

So, what did you do today?I went to SPAIN!Yep, after a day of lounging around on the beach, Olivier and I got up bright and early, left the cat in the apartment at La Grande Motte and hit the road to spend the day in Spain. After a few hours on the highway, we reached the French/Spanish border.We went to Figueres and our first priority was of course, to find food. We found a tiny place that served tiny, microwaved frozen burritos and other frozen crap. Oh, well... we ate it... and yes, I would pay for it later. There is a Salvador Dali museum in Figueres and we headed back to the car so that we could make an attempt at finding it. On the way back to the parking garage, we happened upon a the biggest absinthe spoon ever.However, there wasn't a glass or bottle of the green stuff to go along with it. We happened upon the museum on our...
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Landing on The Big Mound

Landing on The Big Mound

Okay... so, after the feline vomit, bovine ass-slides and canine crap, we made our way down south to the coast until we reached the resort of La Grande Motte, which I learned means "The Big Mound." Big mound of what, I have no idea. All three of us were so happy to arrive, that we all took part in a raucous dance of joy.After all of that nonsense, we decided to head out to a pizza place nearby to stuff ourselves with pizza, rosé wine, sangria, fried calamari and shrimp. We decided to work off a few calories after our display of gluttony, so we stopped to shoot a few zombies.After the long car ride from Parensol to La Grande Motte, the dancing jackasses, the gluttonous feast and zombie killing, everyone had pretty much had their asses kicked for the day and had rendered themselves useless for the rest of the evening....
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Puking Peril on the Way to Parensol

Puking Peril on the Way to Parensol

The first day of our vacation, Olivier and I were riding in the stuffed rental car with our yowling cat in the backseat on our way to Parensol in central France to spend the weekend with Olivier's parents. Cat was safely snuggled in her little traveling bag. About 30 minutes into the trip, we were on the Périphérique heading away from Paris when she began her signature "I'm about to blow chunks" wail. No hot, meaty smell wafted from behind, so we assumed that all was well. That was fucking stupid.We stopped a couple of hours later at a rest stop to eat. I held Cat's bag in my lap while trying to feed her bites of turkey through a wee hole near her head. She didn't seem to interested. We walked to the building to grab some coffee and have a pee, taking turns holding Cat's bag as we went inside. When I came outside, Olivier announced that he had discovered...
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