Megan's Birthday Blowout!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!  She thinks she's so clever because she blew out the candles without letting me capture it.



You can tell by the look in her eye...



What do you do when it's cold and rainy on your birthday?  Go to the STRONG MUSEUM OF PLAY! http://www.museumofplay.org/



Did Rachel get really tall or did Megan shrink in her old age?



My favorite action figure.  His name was something like "Johnny No Hands."  I like that you can give him hands, hooks, or a toilet plunger...



Wait, Ghandi action figure is now my favorite toy.  Nothing like pretending to fast to beat the British



Serious business



The mini-Wegman's grocery store is a hit with the kids.  Maybe after a couple more visits, I can get Tachel to pick out the items I like and grocery shop for me instead...



Hosting a cooking show



Mmmmm...  Delicious!



Now flying a helicopter



I don't know who most of these kids are.  Maybe one of them is the one I said "Happy Birthday" to and he responded "Who is this?  What are you talking about?" while on a can phone.  I guess that wasn't the phone Megan was on.



"Tornados" an original play by Rachel Lee Dork.



Man, it's hard to get a cab in Sesame Street.  As you can tell, we get in a lot of trouble.  And, don't remind Megan about me blowing a spit wad at a neighboring table accidently at a local diner not long after this...






It's either the Giant from Jack and the Bean Stalk or Andre the Giant Angel.  I forget...



Rachel and Rich in the fairy tale house



The Berenstain Bears.  A favorite of mine growing up and surprised kids even know what they are.



TO THE NERD ROOM!



Megan vs. Donkey Kong



Rich remembering when they had these at the 7-11



People Magazine isn't something I expected to find at a Toy Museum, but whatever.  The cover story is still relevant today, I guess...



Megan Bell Doll



YIKES!  No wonder I haven't slept well since the museum



Tachel and the Bear



Megan and I along the Genesee River.  No pics of when we went to the Memorial Art Gallery since you can't take photos of the art inside.  Some interesting stuff though.  The upstairs was pretty amazing.  Went to a few restaurants.  Made chips and cheese and drank margaritas while trying to hook up the DVD player to the internet.  I'm sure we'll figure that out.  



Flight Wine Bar in the Corn Hill Neighborhood of Rochester.  Pretty swanky place.  The wine was very good (and I'm not a wine drinker).  



HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!  I hope you had a good birthday weekend despite losing your car for about a week (and counting) and not getting the latest Harry Potter movie!!!



A few pieces of other business.  Man, look how sunny it was when we went to What's Ur Scoop?  Remember what the sun looked like?  There was a time when it didn't rain in Rochester.



Nothing like hanging out at Lollypop Farm waiting for a food delivery and hanging out with a horse until it comes.



United Way's Day of Caring volunteers from a bunch of organizations like Xerox, Rochester Institute of Technology, and many others who came out and worked very hard on Lollypop Farm's landscaping.  Looks great and smelled like fresh cut grass for quite a while!


That's it for now.  Just waiting to see if Megan will ever get her car back.  The gas sensor failed and the headlights just stopped working.  It didn't seem like big issues, but we're still without a car and no one seems to know how to get the headlights to work without setting the car on fire (add a fuse box to the tab).  I remember why I decided to stop owning a car again...

Mike and Megan's Honeymoon: Day 10 - Port Winos

July 7th

We're nothing if not sophisticated... More adventures in Portugal. But, first, we have to do the educational part and work our way into trouble...

The Avenida dos Aliados (Avenue of Allies) from Praça de Liberdade (Liberty Square) featuring King Pedro IV. King Pedro was a Portuguese civil war hero that advocated a limited constitutional monarchy. At the same time, he wanted to remain the Emperor of Brazil. He got it.

Lello & Irmao Bookstore. I really don't know anything more than this place was beautiful and we got a map of the national park area from here. It's in the college part of town and worth checking out. Apparently, The Guardian rated it the 3rd best bookstore in the world.

With books like this, it has to be true!

Illegal photograph. I didn't know I wasn't allowed to take pictures of their beautiful building until another customer got yelled at.

Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos (Clérigos Church and Tower). This is the church...

This is the tower...

Now beware of God's power! Really, that sun will rip you to shreds...

A nice park

Boys 'R Us.

Now this is a drinking fountain!

Drying laundry and Portuguese pride.

São Francisco Church. This place is now a museum and it's crazy on the inside (no pictures allowed here either). Despite having Napoleon raid it during their civil war in the 1800s, it's still covered in nearly a 1,000 lbs. of goldleaf, crazy ornate art of beheaded missionaries, boats, Jesus' family tree, and a million other things that will blow your mind.

São Francisco statue talking with a killer seagull...

Now that we are out of the crazy part, we can take pictures. I guess this is the church boardroom or something.

The ossario (catacombs)!

Yep, those are human remains. Bones stacked on top of bones. This is wear people rotted until they were moved to the boxes you saw earlier.

Praça Infante Dom Henrique (Henry the Navigator Square)

Back in the Ribeira district

They seemed to be filming some kind of morning show that lasted 6 hours a day or something.

St. Pillsbury

Ponte Dom Luís I Bridge by Teofilo Seyfrig, a student of Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower of Paris)

Later on, I'll show you one of Eiffel's own bridges in Porto.

Porto from Vila Nova de Gaia

A nice picture of us before we get ugly...

These were the type of boats they used to transport wine down the Douro River back in the day.

Sandeman Wine. I love that their logo is Zorro drinking wine. Apparently, they are the Budweiser of Port wine. We didn't have theirs, but we're at a bus stop waiting to start our wine tasting tour

W. J. Graham's

We learned so much about Port wine. How it grows, it's history, why it's so strong, and so on and so on...

So many barrels of wine

Apparently, the owner collects wine like baseball cards. These are some of the oldest vintage wines they own.

Now the fun begins!

View from Graham's after the tasting

Ok... Maybe the wine was a little stronger than we expected. It's our honeymoon...

On our way to another wine joint

Here we are at Taylor. This company started in the business of sheep and now makes some of the finest wine. How did they make the transition? Very well...

More views of Porto from another winery

Finally! Going downhill! To another winery...

Croft was pretty good. In hindsight, I should have gotten the Port Shaved Ice drink...

Vasconcellos was awesome. We were the only one's there since it was a Wednesday. We tried the cheap stuff and it was good. We had Port with chocolate and it was really good. They we tried some of the 20 year vintage and it was amazing. This coming from a guy who doesn't really care for wine.

The man in the black shirt was awesome. He loves wine and will make you love wine.

Noval is where that terrible picture of me at the top of this was taken.

Our friend, João, who was great and gave us lots of wine and advice on Porto. He suggested that we eat at Restaurante O Cometa, which we tried to do. But, we couldn't find it. So, if you are ever in Porto, please go to this restaurant and tell us how awesome it is...

Crossing the bridge once again. We ended up having to call it an early night because we're going to Peneda-Gerês National Park tomorrow...