Latitude 61...Land of the Midnight Sun

My Personal Tour de France

I planned this bike tour of Provence last September, so it seemed to take "forever" to wait for this September to have the time arrive.  Ususally, I try to plan my bike tours for the fall so I have all summer to ride my bike to be prepared for "real" riding, instead of the tour following hours spent indoors in winter spin classes.  No matter how fit I am for the first outdoor ride, climbing real hills feel like a shock to the legs.  Becoming fit for biking this summer was complicated by knee bursitis that began plaguing me in late June, requiring me to completely lay off the bike until September 1!  I crossed my fingers and traveled anyway... hoping I didn't have to ride around in the sag van each day.

I did some "weather homework" for the area and decided that it would be a good idea to knit a light weight sweater to have something warmer to wear in case of cool evenings.  Began knitting it July 4 while watching the Tour de France, which seemed particularly fortuitous.  The pattern is Sprossling, by Anne Hanson, and if you want more details, those are posted on Ravelry here.

Ironically, this sweater would have been perfect for their "normal" weather, but the weather was so unseasonably hot for Fall that I only wore it once.

I had a wonderful time biking 12-40 miles most days, and walking 2-9 miles the other days.  The French can be rightfully proud of their cuisine... I have never had so many consistently delicious meals!

My trip began with 2 days to explore Aix on foot, 4 days to explore the St. Remy area biking to Arles, Les Baux, and the surrounding farmslands and countryside of Les Alpilles.  Then on to 2 days near Avignon with a ride to Pont du Gard one day and Avignon itself the next.  My biggest regret was not being able to see everything!

Fast forward, literally, to Paris by train, a very fast trip for 3 days and nights to explore the city.  For me, it was really a trip of a lifetime.

If you are interested in seeing more about where and how I traveled, you can see the details at Vermont Bicycle Tours.  If you're considering a more active travel vacation, I would highly recommend this tour group.

 

Here are a few photos of Aix.

 

 

 

 

A Belated Good bye to Summer

We took these pictures on our vacation which ended October 4, but it's taken me this long to get the photos posted.  The photos sure show our Alaskan bias. We felt like visitors from the moon!

We visited the Luther Burbank public gardens in Santa Rosa and spent a couple hours drooling over all the lush, fantastic plant, flowers, and unique trees.  Locals strode by without so much as a second glance but for us, where most of these plants won't grow except perhaps in a greenhouse, they were worth viewing and smelling.  Growing up in California, many of these plants were everyday sights so this was a nostalgic trip to the past for me.  I didn't realize what a bias towards roses I have until I looked at all our garden photos.

 
Flying home the following day was a sudden change of season.  California was still enjoying the end of summer, while Anchorage was enjoying the end of Autumn.  We traveled from 80 degrees to 40 degrees in one day!  All the leaves had already dropped from our trees, but I did manage to find one late fall tree still holding onto it's leaves.  Red trees always catch my attention anyway because most of the native trees; cottonwoods, birches, and aspens turn yellow or gold.  This one, a beautiful Mountain Ash, or Rowan is not native to this part of Alaska, although a shrub variety is.

Now... on to knitting.  It was gloomy, cloudy, and dark this last week so I really made progress on my knitting projects.  Last Sunday I finally finished Inishmaan. That gargantuan project that took an unbelievable four and a half months! Then I  finished my lacy wool/silk blend socks today. Between those two projects, I began Henry VIII and made it through half a pattern repeat... I just need to take a picture of it.

Here are my new lace socks.

They are "posed" on our new snowfall. 

I set Inishmaan outdoors to block to try to get better lighting after I washed it and it froze!  No harm done though... it just got a little stiff.

Ooops... somehow this picture didn't load. I probably forgot to save it or something.

It's so true... time does fly when you're having fun!

I can't believe we have been back in Alaska for a month after our vacation and it took me that long to unpack, get well, and then get organized.  I have used up the "average" adult count of colds per year...  three colds this year.  Unfortunately, I had three colds and/or cases of flu in three months, one of those months being our vacation.

We still had a great time in the Santa Rosa area touring the wine country by bike.  I don't have as many pictures as I would like though.I discovered that once I get pedaling on my bike, I hate to stop; even for a great photo op.  The weather was gorgeous... SUN, SUN, and more SUN!  Best of all when we heard that locally it was bucketing down rain in record amounts.  We saw lots of picturesque vineyards and wineries, tasted lots of wine, bicycled a lot even on Highway 1 viewing the ocean, avoided getting too sunburn, and ate too much... in a nutshell... the perfect vacation.

    

This picture proves that we did have a "rest" day!   Needless to say, I got very little knitting finished, but managed to work on my "travel" pair of socks on the plane home.   Two whole weeks without any knitting... I think that's a record for me.