Will Sitch online » Vacation

Vacation in South-East France

Will — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:04:17 +0000

My folks rented a country farmhouse in Southern France, near Perpignan. Extended family gathered. A good time was had by all.

We visited small towns up and down the Costa Brava.

Did some wine-tasting at French chateaus.

Visited churches.

Hiked the Tour de Massif (Madeloc) and the Tour de Massanel.

Spent a lot of time hanging out by the pool trying to convince Bea to jump in.

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Vacation in Barcelona, Spain

Will — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:50:43 +0000

Babymoon! Sara and I found the time and money for two amazing weeks in Spain and France. The first few days of our trip we chilled out in Barcelona. What a fantastic city! We found an amazing hotel right in the Barri Gotic just next to the Placa de Catalunya, the transportation center of the downtown region.

We visited churches and checked out the amazing stained glass windows…

…and visited the Guell Park, a famous Gaudi site.

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Sitch Family Thanksgiving in Ottawa

Will — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:49:23 +0000

The Sitch clan returned to Ottawa for a long weekend Thanksgiving at home. Ben + Allison drove up from Toronto, Joe flew in from Calgary (H couldn’t attend, bummer), and Sara and I flew in from SF. Ottawa’s miserable summer broke for this one glorious weekend.

The trip was perfect: morning 10k runs, a Gatineau leaf-viewing expedition, several hundred hands of bridge, Kettleman’s bagels, a home-made turkey dinner, some incredible wine, NY steaks over a wood charcoal BBQ, and a miserable game of risk. Note to Sara and Ben: the box calls it “The Game of World Domination”, not “The Game of Global Compromise (After Will is Dominated)”.

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Visiting our old family house in Sheffield, England

Will — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:29:38 +0000

I was in the UK and Ireland on business and had a meeting with a lab manager at the University of Sheffield. When our family lived in England we lived in Sheffield! I swung by our old house and it’s funny how much I remember.

The coal chute was filled in, and the factory wall behind the house was a lot shorter than I remembered, and the school which seemed like miles away turned out to be a block and a half. However the street and trees were exactly where I thought they would be.

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New York family vacation

Will — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:31:26 +0000

My family has suddenly discovered that vacations are fun. It all started with a two week vacation in Italy for John’s 60th in April 2008. I met Bekks and John in Brussels on business in September, then Ben + Allison and Joe flew out to California for Christmas and New Years. Who knew traveling was so cool?

June of 2009 had us all getting together again in New York! Ben + Allison, Allison’s sister Jess, Joe + H, Bekks + John, Jane, Jessica + Gabriel, B and Freda, Zoe + Hopelet. Sara just started a new job and couldn’t come; bummer.

We met in New York because Jessica was 5 months into her engagement with The Norman Conquests, a play on Broadway. I guess it was previously at The Old Vic in England, and was successful enough to warrant a NY version.

Bekks and John arranged a large apartment for us in TriBeCa, which is a trendy neighbourhood in southern Manhattan. We found it on Craigslist and it looked great on the photos. Unfortunately in person it didn’t look as good. In fact it looked bad. “Grotty” was the term used. Two days before I arrived we all got the dreaded text message: “Apt grotty. Looking for new lodging. Come anyway.”

It turned out to be a blessing. Bekks and John found a nice place. Jess’ friends loaned Ben + Ali, Jess, Joe + H, and me an incredible two-story penthouse apartment on Canal street. I think in the end we actually saved several thousand bucks on rental fees.

We walked around a lot. We went shopping. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge and had pizza at Grimaldi’s.

We flipped each other.

We did a Manhattan boat tour. Saw the WTC ‘ground zero’. Shopped at Century 21.

Next: a farmhouse in the South of France in the summer of 2010!

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The perfect birthday present: Riding our new Triumph Speed Triple home from Long Beach

Will — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:00:47 +0000

Sara outdid herself this year. This ranks up there with “best present ever”.

We bought the bike from pretty much the nicest guy in the whole world, John in Long Beach, and rode home over the long weekend. It’s the bike I’ve been dreaming about, lusting over. It’s a 1050cc Triumph Speed Triple, a monster hooligan machine that sounds, well, kinda awesome.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel in Pismo Beach, halfway up the California coastline. It was really warm and nice. In the middle of January! It’s supposed to be raining cats and dogs! Global warming rules.

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Christmas 2008 in San Francisco and Tahoe with brothers Ben (+ Allison) and Joe

Will — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:33:30 +0000

Joe flew in first for some extended bonding time. We had a nice Christmas in Napa with Sara’s extended family.

Ben and Allison joined us Christmas evening. Yes, our small 1-bedroom apartment will happily sleep 5. That’s Joe in his hallway/bedroom.

Winetasting in Napa was followed by a week of snowboarding in Tahoe. Awesome!

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