Rehoboth Beach

Last weekend we went to Rehoboth Beach for our 4th visit in a year! We drove down after work on the Friday night and checked into the Atlantis Inn. This was the 3rd time we'd stayed here and the room wasn't quite as nice as on our other stays but it was still fine.

We decided to try the British fish and chip shop for dinner that night. When we got down to the ocean front the whole boardwalk was absolutely packed. There was a great band playing in the bandstand which we listened to while waiting for our food. They don't seem to understand the concept of fish and chips being fast food and it was about half an hour before we finally got our food! It was pretty good fish and chips but they didn't know what a battered sausage was despite it being on the menu!




On Saturday morning we headed straight for the beach and spent a few hours sunbathing and reading our books. Chris had a swim in the sea but the waves looked a bit to rough for me to venture out there. We saw quite a few dolphins swimming up and down the beach though. We left the beach at about 2pm and we realised then how busy it was. There was hardly any sand showing, there were people, chairs and umbrellas everywhere. After cooling down with some frozen custard we headed over to the outlet malls to do some shopping and Chris found a golf store which he got a bit carried away in!




In the evening we ate at Lupo Di Mare which was lovely. There are so many nice restaurants to choose from in Rehoboth. We're trying to go somewhere different for every meal. After dinner we had a wonder around the shops then had a sit down by the beach.


We started Sunday with pancakes then headed back to the beach for another couple of hours before doing a bit more shopping. Just outside Rehoboth is a ice cream place which we'd been meaning to stop at for ages so on our way home we finally got around to it. It's on a dairy farm and the cows there supply the milk for Land O Lakes which is a popular brand of butter over here. I had pineapple sherbet and Chris had mint choc chip - yummy! After our ice cream we braved the flies that were everywhere and went to have a look at the cows. There were baby calves that must have been really young because they still couldn't walk, it was so cute watching them trying to learn to walk!

US Open

This year's US Open Golf was held at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda which is about a 10 minute drive from our house. We went to watch the British Open in Troon in 2004 and really enjoyed it so when we found out that this tournament was just up the road we decided to get some tickets.

We got up really early on Friday morning and got on the public bus from right outside our apartment block with Nick my colleague from work. We arrived at club at about 6.45am and went straight to the stands around the 10th hole. Play started at 7am and we had a great view watching the players hit a par 3 hole over water. After about an hour we moved on and followed some of the players around the course.

As the day went on it got hotter and hotter then at 4pm we found ourselves a prime spot back in the stands by the 10th hole. We settled down to wait for Lee Westwood and some of the other big names to get to us. We'd only been in our seats for about 5 minutes and they put out a weather warning and we all had to evacuate the stand. As soon as we stood up it started chucking it down with rain. Luckily we had just been in the ridiculously huge merchandise tent and as Chris can never resist buying loads of stuff he had a cap that I could borrow and a towel which I turned into a handy cape! It managed to keep me surprising dry.

The rain only lasted about 10 minutes and then we found ourselves a great spot on the grass right in front of the 10th green. The towel came in handy again keeping our bums dry! After all the big names had played the hole we moved on to the 6th hole where we had another great view of the green.

This photo of the 10th hole is not one of mine - no cameras were allowed on the day so this comes from the US Open website.


After watching 12 hours of golf we finally left at about 7pm after a very long but fun day! We got to see loads of golf and all the big names. The course was nice and very convenient to us but I don't think it was necessarily the best choice for hosting such a large tournament. At times it was difficult to move around and see with all the crowds. And with an initiation fee of over $100,000 + monthly fees, it's not a club Chris will ever be joining!

Rio de Janeiro

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to Rio last week for work. It wasn't really somewhere that we had ever thought about going before but as it was a great chance to see the city, Chris decided to take some leave and come with me.

You think it wouldn't be too far to fly from America to Brazil but it actually takes longer to fly from Washington to Rio, than it would from London! I hadn't realised until recently how big Brazil is, it's a huge country, not far off the size of the US. We flew overnight on the Tuesday and arrived early on the Wednesday morning. We headed straight for our hotel on beautiful Copacabana Beach.


One of the first things that I noticed in Rio was that nobody speaks English! I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised but I think I've just got used to traveling around and everyone speaking English. As my Portuguese is limited to please and thank you, it was a bit of struggle to communicate sometimes.

After settling into our hotel, we met up with some of my colleagues and went for lunch at an Arabic restaurant. After lunch, Chris and I went to explore the city with two guys from my team based in New York. We got in a taxi and were hoping to go to see some interesting buildings but after looking around a church we couldn't find much else interesting to see in the central area so we got back in a cab and went to Sugarloaf Mountain.

I had said that I wasn't going to go up the mountain as you need to go in a cable car but I bowed to peer pressure and before I knew it we were on our way up. The cable car goes up in 2 stages and I was happy to just go to the first mountain and waited there while the others went up the higher peak in another cable car. The views of the city were great even from where I was but unfortunately it was just a bit foggy and it meant that we couldn't see the Christo Redentor statue (aka Big Jesus).



We finished our first day in Rio with a meal with my colleagues at Garota de Ipanema which is the bar where the song Girl from Ipanema was written.

On Thursday I was working all day so Chris spent the day exploring the area. In the afternoon he arranged a surf lesson on Ipanema Beach. It was the first time that he had been surfing and he found it really difficult but enjoyed it. I think he managed to get up on to his knees before falling in the sea.

In the evening I went for a team meal at Porcao which is a Churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse). We have one called Fogo De Chao's in DC which we really like and this one was even better. The waiters bring meat to your table and you indicate with a card whether you want more meat (card is green) or if you want them to stop (card is red).

I was working all day on Friday again so Chris went on a jeep rainforest tour at the Tijuca National Park. He really enjoyed it and got to see some monkeys and parrots as well as some great views across the city.


On Friday evening we joined some of my colleagues in a samba bar Rio Scenarium in Lapa. It was strange bar, the walls are lined with really random antiques. It was so much fun and after a few caipirinhas we were all dancing to the band.

On Saturday morning I finally got some time to see Rio myself. Chris had another surfing lesson in the morning so I went with him to watch. It was really windy so the instructor was considering cancelling the lesson. In the end they still went in the sea but Chris said he found it really hard.
Here he is practising on the beach first...





On Saturday afternoon we had a wonder around Copacabana and bought about a million pairs of Haviana flip flops - they are crazy cheap in Brazil and you can get so many different colours. In the evening we went over to Leblon to see my colleague Nick's family (his wife's brother in law works at the Consulate) so we went over to their lovely apartment then out for a meal.

On Sunday morning we got up early to see the 'Big Jesus'. All week we had been waiting to see this statue and of course the day that we plan to go up it started raining. We were really lucky though as Nick's brother in law offered to drive us up to the statue, normally you would have to get a train and bus or taxi and bus but with his diplomatic plates he is allowed to drive all the way up the hill.

When we got to the top of the mountain it had just about stopped raining but it was still looking very grey. We took a few photos then we started to see patches of blue sky appearing. We waited patiently for another 10 minutes and the sky turned completely blue! We had great views of the city and Sugar Loaf mountain.






After seeing the 'Big Jesus' we drove to the Hippie Market where we had a wonder around the stalls and managed to pick up a nice painting.

Our last stop in Rio was Escadaria Selaron. This is a set of steps which the artist Selaron has decorated using pieces of tiles. People give him tiles from all over the world and he encorporates them into the art.





We spent our last few hours in Rio on Copacabana Beach drinking from coconuts and watching surfers catching the biggest waves that I have ever seen!



We finally dragged ourselves away from the beach and started the mammouth journey back to DC, another night flight unfortunately. We were lucky enough to get 3 seats to ourselves so I lay down and actually got a few hours sleep which was handy because at 10am we were back in DC and on our way into the office ready for the start of another week!