Oh the places we went... in France

We spent 8 days in France; 7 days in Paris and 1 day in Caen. The French culture is one I think all should experience. They love life, their heritage, relationships, food, and leisure time. There is even a different kind of respect for historical artifacts.  I know many statues and monuments have had graffiti on them or been damaged in the past but we did not see that during our time there.

First I will just say that eating was an activity all on it's own.  You sit for hours to have dinner, you sit and enjoy your breakfast, and you sit and relax in the park while having lunch.  Maybe after you've finished lunch you continue chatting with a friend, take a nap, or read a book but whatever it is you enjoy it. Lunch time is a nice little break from work, from the demands of the world.  Even dinner is a time that business and cell phones go away.  You reconnect with your friends and family after a day of work and break bread. 

Even though we only spent a day in Caen I will start there.  Since we only spent a day and not even a whole day (major disappointment) we only went to the Memorial de Caen. However, the memorial was worth spending the day indoors for, worth the train ride, and even worth the taxi and later bus ride. We started our tour off chatting a bit between exhibits and plaques but quickly fell silent while trying to take it all in.  We both have studied World War II in school and independently but seeing the information shared form a different country's and different culture's point of view is fascinating and overwhelming all at the same time.  The memorial is organized chronologically and starts with a little bit of WWI information and continues with a little post WWI information before moving on to the events leading up to WWII. While I have read many books on the subject matter and a few even first hand accounts it was different to hear, read, and see first hand accounts of civilians and soldiers who were experiencing this war on their own soil.  

A framed newspaper announcing Oahu being bombed.

The top of the US garden at the WW2 Memorial. 

In Paris we did a lot of the typical touristy things.  We went to the Louvre, sat on the steps in front of Sacre Coeur, saw the Eiffel Tower, walked along Champs Elysees,   saw the Arc de Triomphe, walked along the River Seine, visited Versailles and the gardens, saw Notre Dame, walked through the Catacombs, saw Moulin Rouge light up at night, put a lock on the love bridge, and walked through many public gardens.  The gardens were my absolute favorite, I completely forgot I was in a city once I walked through the gates.

Sacre Coeur

     

Looking down over Paris from Sacre Coeur

Us, the River Seine, and the Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

Tomb of the unknown soldier 

View of Versailles from the Grand Canal 

The Grand Canal 

Notre Dame

One of the front doors of Notre Dame

The Rose Window at Notre Dame

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The Catacombs where I freaked out thinking about just how far underground we really were.

Moulin Rouge

I loved this style of sign for the Metro

One of the two Love Lock Bridges

Dairy Free Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken Tikka Masala was the first curry I ever tried, loved, or cooked.  It might truly be a British dish instead of an authentic Indian curry but even with it's cloudy origins it holds a special place in my heart.  There are bottles of masala sauce at the grocery stores and it always tempts me, because it's slightly better than getting it from a restaurant, right?  I decided I would rather try making the sauce on my own, how hard could it be?  Well, when I started searching cooking books and the internet I discovered that there are hundreds of recipes, all with a decent amount of good reviews, and all with different ingredients.  I picked a few that I thought had some great reviews and decided to try a blend of the different recipes.

The first time I made the recipe it tasted good but not quite what I had in mind.  So the next time I tweaked the recipe a bit more, and this last time was my favorite. Last night I made it with coconut milk instead of milk/cream and yogurt.  We are trying to limit our dairy and I thought coconut milk might just do the trick, plus I enjoy coconut milk in other curries so why not try it.

I like having a little more sauce in my curry so if you prefer less sauce just add more chicken to it or freeze the extra sauce for a later date!

Ingredients: 

• 2 chicken breasts (cut into chunks)
• 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled
• 1 clove of garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/3 cup of cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 lemon
• 1/3 of a large red onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons garam masala
• 2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 (13 oz) can of coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• ground black pepper
• olive oil

Directions:

1. In a bowl place the cut up chicken, grate 1/2 of the ginger and zest the lemon.  Then add the pressed or minced garlic, the chopped cilantro, juice from 1/2 the lemon, a bit of ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon of coconut milk, and a tablespoon of olive oil. Set that aside and let it marinade. 
   
2. In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  While heating the skillet and oil, chop the remaining ginger.  Add the ginger and onion to the skillet once heated.  Continue cooking the onion and ginger over medium heat for about 10 minutes.  Then add in all spices and cook for another 2-3 minutes.  Remove the onion mixture from the skillet and set aside in a bowl. 
   
3. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the chicken and marinade to the skillet.  Cook the chicken until browned but still tender. 
   
4. Once the chicken is cooked return the onion mixture to the skillet.  Then add the rest of the coconut milk and the tomato paste. Mix and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Add salt or additional lemon juice if desired and then serve over rice. 
   
   
   
   

You can't eat it or travel to it... but it does make exploring the outdoors a bit better!

A little over a month ago I was asked if I would test out calf sleeves with reflective strips on them for Tagline Sports (their facebook page).  I figured why not, I love to run, cycle, hike, and mountain bike and I do a lot of these things during dawn or dusk but I was skeptical.  Seriously, would some compression sleeves on my calves really help how tight my calves always get?  I stretch and do yoga after every run, hike, mountain bike trip, hike, and cycling trip and my calves always get tight and a little uncomfortable.  At least I would have something else reflective on me though, right?

Well let's fast forward a month and I'm in love with these things, in LOVE! When I first got them I noticed how soft they were and the fact that they were fitted but didn't feel very tight.  I started by wearing them after my short runs for 30-60 minutes and noticed that my calves weren't feeling tight the day after my run. Also, I didn't need to stop and stretch my calves out a half mile into my run like normal. OMG, am I going to be able to build my mileage without my calves being an issue this time?

I even started wearing them after I went bike riding or hiking because they really were helping my calves.  I noticed my recovery time (for my calves anyways) decreased.  Why had I been a non-believer for so long?  When Kai, Kona, and I went on a 17.5 mile hike recently I had my calve sleeves with me and put them on as soon as we got to the car.  The next day, calves felt great, my hamstrings and quads were a different story.
While I don't think the reflective strip is enough to wear nothing else reflective I like the added detail.  I feel like it's something else to help a driver see you, keeps you a little safer.  I plan on wearing them on my long runs, multi-day hikes, and multi-day bike rides once the temps drop a bit (I get way too hot already) and will keep wearing them for recovery after my runs, hikes, and rides.  Looks like I will be visiting Tagline Sports to order some custom order calf sleeves as soon as their Amazon store launches!

Bear Mountin, the Appalachian Trail, and an awesomely yummy deli

So Saturday started off with this crazy idea of mine. I wanted to drive to Rhode Island, "hike" (read: walk) the extremely short distance to the top of Jerimoth Hill (highest peak in RI), get back in the car and drive to Bear Mountain.  From there we were going to hike to the top of Bear Mountain, Connecticut's highest summit, then find this not well marked trail that would bring us out to the Mount Frissell Trail.  The summit of Mount Frissell is actually in Massachusetts but the trail has CT's highest point AND a tri-state marker (MA, CT, NY) and I thought that would be pretty cool.  Needless to say we decided to do Jerimoth Hill on the way home but didn't feel like doing the extra 1 1/2 hours of driving and we never found that not so well marked trail to bring us to the Mount Frissell Trail.  We did however hike the very well marked trail to the summit of Bear Mountain and then followed the Appalachian Trail for several miles into MA before heading back.
Trying to find online information or trail maps for Bear Mountain was difficult.  There wasn't even a decent map posted at the trail head but the Undermountain Trail, Paradise Lane Trail, and the Appalachian Trail were all very well marked.  We parked in the Route 41 parking lot in Salisbury, CT and started up the Undermountain Trail. This trail is listed as strenuous. I guess I can understand that rating but I would say it's more moderate to moderately strenuous. Yes, there were some steep climbs and some rocks to scramble up but it wasn't undo able.   I found it work but fun to hike to the summit.  We stayed left on the Undermountain Trail when we arrived at the Undermountain Trail and Paradise Lane Trail junction.  Shortly after passing that junction we came to the Undermountain Trail and the AT junction.  We turned north to continue to the summit.  There were several people at the summit.  There were a couple through hikers and several day hikers.  There is a tower of rocks at the summit and there were many people sitting up there but we managed to find a spot to stand to take a pic of us there.
From here we continued over the summit and down the other side. We again came to a junction for Paradise Lane Trail but we weren't ready to head back to the car.  We were still thinking about trying to find that not well marked trail that would bring us to Mt. Frissell. Climbing down from the summit was fun.  There were a lot of rocks to scramble down and it was a little slow moving through that section.  We soon realized it might be hard to find that trail and we decided that if we couldn't find it we would just continue on the AT until we decided to turn around.
While I liked hiking to the summit of Bear Mountain the AT was my favorite part of that afternoon hike.  It was simply gorgeous.  There was a small but very pretty waterfall, several stream crossings, some with log bridges and some without, and a few sections were rocks became staircases.  Kona loved that the trail followed the stream and that there were many opportunities for him to go for a swim.  Not only does he love to swim but we took his backpack off when he went in, although he didn't seem to mind that he was made to carry his own food and water.
On the way back we simply back tracked along the AT until we came to the junction for the summit and Paradise Lane Trail.  We took Paradise Lane Trail which was a little narrow and over grown but pretty flat and easy.  We were able to move quickly even running for a while on that trail before joining back up with the Undermountain Trail to return to the car. On our drive back home we stopped at a little sandwich shop called Marty and Jim's in Great Barrington before getting on the highway.  It was sooo good! They make the soups, salads, and even meats for the sandwiches.  We had their beef and barley soup which was super tasty as well as two sandwiches.  One was turkey, cheese, bacon, garlic aioli, lettuce, onion, and tomato on a tomato wrap (this one was my favorite), the other was chicken breast (not sliced but a large piece of chicken cut into strips) with cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato, and a chipotle type sauce.  Both were good and left my belly very happy. It was a great day, 17.5 miles in 6 1/4-1/2 hours, yummy food, and a very sleepy puppy.

 Have you hiked the AT or part of it before? What's been your favorite hike?