ACL Music Festival

I'm way behind in my blogging, and I haven't had time to get my camera connected recently. But one of the things we've done since returning from Europe was to go to the Austin City Limits Music Festival again. It was another sweltering three days of great Austin music. My parents even attended this year, and our friend Dave flew in for the event too. Here's a picture my dad captured:

London: Saturday

Well, we've accomplished London in a day, as best as one can with a four month old in tote. What have we learned? Much the same as we learned in Rome in a day: there's way too much to see, and we will have to come back. But it's not clear we can afford to come back. We spent the day pretending the prices were actually all in dollars (and even then, things weren't cheap...). Let's start things off with a sample picture (for those crazy Americans just asking to be run over):


Tim had a plan, and we managed to hit everything we intended to get to. We started early, with breakfast at a greasy spoon and a stop at a supermarket for baby wipes. Then we headed over to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We went inside the abbey and did the entire tour; very impressive and very much worth the cost of admission.





From there, we headed on up north to Trafalgar Square. We went into the National Gallery for about a half an hour; saw the highlights (Tim had pre-researched some paintings he wanted to see; I just wanted to see the impressionist rooms). It was getting on about lunchtime, so we headed into the Covent Garden area, saw the markets, and had a fantastic lunch (with pints) at an upscale pub. I had Shepherd's Pie; Tim had Venison, Beef, and Red Currant Pie. He had beer; I had cider. Yum.



After lunch, we caught the Underground and went to Saint Paul's Cathedral. We peeked inside, but didn't pay the admission to tour the entire place.



We walked down to the next Underground station and headed for the Tower of London. We did pay to go inside here, and we took the Beefeater-guided tour. Fantastically amusing. We didn't take a lot of time to look at the buildings aside from this tour; there was a lot to see that we missed. From here, we went out and grabbed a quick view of the Tower Bridge, and then walked along the Thames to the London Bridge.





The next stop was the Monument; Tim wanted to climb it to get some good views of London. But the Monument is closed for renovation until December, so we had to forego that stop. We instead grabbed another Underground and went towards Buckingham Palace. We walked along the mall, and ended up at the Palace. We didn't go in (it was too late by now), but we got some good views all around.



After a brief stop in Saint James park for a rest, we headed back to the hotel to get everything repacked and ready to go for the morning.



Jamie came in this evening (she was good and stayed for the entire conference in Croatia), so we met up with her and grabbed some Indian food for dinner. Very good. Tim and Jamie are "having a pint" now; I brought Maya back to the hotel for bed. Our wakeup call comes in less than 7 hours, and then its back to Austin.

Croatia: Friday

First, the news to celebrate: this morning we found out that our paper won a best paper award at the conference! Yay!

I went to the morning session of the conference, while Tim and Maya went on a walk. They walked up to a cemetary and mausoleum that overlook Cavtat. Here are some photos from their walk:





I met them late morning, and we checked out of the Hotel Croatia. Here are some pictures of the hotel:



It turns out it wasn't the greatest hotel; it definitely wasn't worth the 5 stars. The staff was usually very helpful, but on several occasions, they had quite sassy responses to requests. The three of us walked into Cavtat, did some shopping, and had a fantastic lunch at an out of the way restaurant that was recommended by both our tourbook and the guy next to Tim on the airplane:


This afternoon, we flew to London. When we finally got to our hotel (it seemed to take forever to get through immigration and ticket lines), we were more than pleasantly surprised. It's a lovely place that we got for a great price (especially for central London), and we can see the Houses of Parliament from our window. And they have free (reliable) internet access. Yippee!!

Depending on how tired we are tomorrow evening, we might give you an update on our day in London.

Croatia: Thursday

Today was a slower day. This morning, Tim got up early to run against all of the SE crowd in a 5K. Not surprisingly, he won the race, which was an unexpected complication for the organizers. He got a small prize. Here's a photo.

Maya was still sleeping, so I had to stay and sleep in with her. Bummer, eh? Here's Maya ready for a new day after a good sleep:


More conference for me today. I did give Tim a babysitting break during one of my breaks today, and he went for a walk along the coastal cliffs. These are the only real photos from today:



Jamie presented our paper today; we enjoyed a celebratory drink after the fabulous presentation (and also in celebration of Drew's great presentation earlier in the week):


The area had their first big rainstorm in four months, so Tim and Maya were trapped in the hotel this afternoon. Then we went to the conference banquet.

We leave tomorrow afternoon for London; there might not be any more posts until we get back to the US since I don't know if we'll have Internet access at the hotel there.

Croatia: Wednesday

Whew. Today was the first day of the conference (the real reason that we are, after all, here). I had a day of that, though there's nothing really to share about it. Tim and Maya cooled their heels around the hotel this morning (and when I say "around the hotel" I mean on the shore outside and around the hotel). Here are some pictures from their walk:



Then the two of them went into Dubrovnik again. They went to a museum (the Rector's Palace) and then on a couple of walks with great views. Some more pictures:






The conference excursion this evening was into the old city of Dubrovnik, so we took a bus in to meet them (we were supposed to take a boat, but the winds made the crossing impossible again today). We went to a conference reception and then out to dinner with Jamie and my student Drew:

Croatia: Tuesday

The internet access is not good. Here's a quick update this morning while I do have some connectivty.

Yesterday, we spent the morning at the beach and at the pool. It turns out that Maya's a little waterbug. She loves it. We spent the morning with Jamie who arrived late the night before. Then we took a taxi to Dubrovnik (it was too windy to take the boat safely). We wandered around Dubrovnik, then stopped to have some dinner. The tour book claimed this was the best pizza in Dubrovnik, and it was fantastic. We then caught a taxi back and made an early night of it (if 10:30 can be considered "early"). Here is a smattering of photos:

The view from our room:


A street in Dubrovnik:


Boats in Dubrovnik's Old Port:


The sunset over the sea:

Croatia: Monday

Today we spent most of the day in Dubrovnik. It's only a few miles away, but it's not the easiest place to get to. This morning, we went over in a bus that stops at all of the hotels along the way (I think our hotel is the first), so it took about 45 minutes. We spent the day walking the old city walls. It's not that far in distance, but there's a lot of up and down stairs. While' I'll blame it on the fact that I was carrying Maya most of the way, the truth is I am woefully out of shape. Here are some great views from the walls:






We then had a lovely lunch in a Dubrovnik restaurant and wandered around the city some more. Here's Maya at lunch:


Maya also had a couple of firsts this afternoon: her first boat ride, and her first swim (the pools here are saltwater, which is fun for something different). Here's a picture on the boat (not great, but for what it's worth):


And a picture of Cavtat (where we're staying) from the boat:


And a set of (progressively deeper) swimming shots: