Mannheim

On Saturday some friends of ours gave us a call to see if we were free.  One of them, Penny, had recently changed jobs and was moving from Stuttgart to Heidelberg.  She wanted to know if we wanted to head up there with her and two other friends of ours to check an apartment out, then head over to Mannheim for an Easter Market.  We had nothing else going on, so we said sure.

The apartment we looked at with her was nice, and we think that's the one she's going to go with.  It's a new place, and is only a 5 minute walk from base.  After we were done there, we grabbed a bite to eat, and drove to Mannheim.

The Easter Market was in a park, and it was one we'd never heard of it.  Turns out it's a HUGE park that has flowers, a mini-zoo, a Chinese garden, and large spaces for people to have picnics, relax, or do whatever you want.  There was even a boat ride you could take throughout the park.  The first thing we noticed when we walked in were all the tulips.

After a few minutes of walking around, we came to the indoor area where they had all the Easter Egg vendors set up.  The vendors came from all over Europe...they had signs up from Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and more.  Painted Easter Eggs are a big deal over here...they can be little chicken eggs, or as large as Ostrich eggs..sometimes they are even made from wood.  The prices ranged too...the cheap small ones were a few Euros and larger more intricate ones were several hundred Euros.

We didn't end up buying any eggs because a few days prior Shanna had gotten a great deal on a bunch of eggs that someone was selling on Stuttgart Yard Sales (the local version of Craigslist).  But it was neat to see all the intricate designs and paintings that were there.  Afterwards we walked around the park, then it was time to head home.

The eggs Shanna got look pretty good...she still has some of the metal trees left over from the wedding, and she decorated one at the house and one at her office with the eggs.

There wasn't much else going on this past weekend.  This upcoming weekend kicks off Frühlingfest (Spring Fest), which runs from April 23 - May 15th.  It's basically the same thing as Oktoberfest, but in the Spring time.  And of course, Sunday is Easter.  I'll have a weekend recap up next Monday or Tuesday.

Tonight we're heading to a co-worker of Shanna's house for a cook out.  What makes this outing unique is he's German, so I'll have a chance to practice all night.

We didn't take too many pictures, but there was more then I could post here without it looking cluttered.  You can see them by clicking here or any pictures above.

Schwarzwald and 1 year in Germany

The weather here has been spectacular the past few weeks, and this previous weekend was no exception. On Saturday we had talked about going to an Easter Market in a small medieval town outside of Frankfurt, but then we remembered seeing advertisements all over town for something called Lange Nacht der Museen, or Long Night of the Museums. Once a year Stuttgart keeps all their museums open until 2am, and they provide bus transport between them all. You pay 15 Euros and you get a bracelet to wear that lets you ride the buses and get in to all the museums. The Easter Market was a 2 1/2 hour drive one way, so we decided to just stay local and go to the Museum exhibits. We worked in the yard that day, and that evening we got cleaned up and ready to head out.

We had researched out all the museums we wanted to hit and thought we were set. We saw a "harbor" tour mentioned that looked interesting, especially since we had no idea Stuttgart even had a harbor. We get down town, get our bracelets, then we see it...the HUGE line for the buses that were heading to the harbor. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as us. I noticed on the map that the first bus stop was less then a quarter mile from us, so we walked there thinking the first round of people would get off at that stop, and we could hop on. We waited there for 30 minutes and watched as bus after bus drove by us. We then decided to head back to the first stop and got lucky...we made it on the first bus that stopped there by pushing ourselves on. Once we got to the harbor, we were in another line to get in. We said we'd wait 15 minutes, and if the line didn't move, we'd just leave. 5 minutes later, the line moved substantially. The problem is then it didn't move again for another 30 minutes, but we felt like we had committed so much time already that it'd be a waste to turn around now. We got down to the initial bus station at 7pm, when the whole thing started. We didn't get on the harbor boat for the tour until almost 10 pm. The harbor tour itself was also a huge let down. Basically you sat on the boat and as it took you through a series of canals. They had some light show effects on the buildings you went by, but that was it. Afterwards, we had to wait in another line and got packed into a bus going back. We were finally back at the beginning at 11pm. So 4 hours just to take one short harbor boat ride. At that point we had no desire to go through that again for a museum, so we headed home.

Sunday was a much more relaxing day. After we ate lunch we got a call from one of Shanna's co-workers. He was in the city and wanted to know if we wanted to meet somewhere to grab a bite to eat. We had already eaten, but we met him up because the place he was going sells some great beer. It was a warm sunny day, so perfect for sitting outside and enjoying both the nice weather and good beer. Yes..we went to our favorite place, Zum Paulaner.

We were there most of the afternoon, then we took the train back to our house. We've been talking forever about trying this Turkish place by our house, and we figured now was finally the time to do it. It was DELICIOUS. To any of you reading this who visit us, if you're feeling adventurous and want to try Turkish, we are definitely taking you there.

Before Shanna's co-worker called us, I had thrown out the idea of going for a drive through Der Schwarzwald, or The Black Forest. It wasn't too far from the house. We'd have to first drive to Baden-Baden, which is a little over an hour away, then we could take the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, which is the road that runs through the Black Forest, up a mountain. When you get to the top you have an amazing view. Shanna has a tendency to go to sleep as soon we start long car drives, so that got shot down. But Monday was another beautiful day, so I decided I'd just go by myself. I loaded the dogs up in the car, and we went for a drive. The first stop was in Baden-Baden so I could adjust the GPS to force it to take me the scenic route home. The town itself was neat little town. Every one was out because of the nice weather, and it had an authentic medieval feel to it. I definitely want to go back there. Once that was done, I hit the road.

The drive was, simply put, amazing. It reminded me of driving through Austria in the sense that it was hard to focus both on the road and the scenery around me. There were several points along the way where I could pull over, get out, and take pictures. There weren't many places to pull over for the dogs that also had a view, but we stopped at a few along the way. I can now say our dogs have gone to the bathroom in the Black Forest.

On my way back to Stuttgart to pick up Shanna from work I went through another town I'd like to come back and visit, Horb a.N., or the long version, Horb am Neckar, which means Horb on the Neckar (river). It looked like fun small German town that would be a fun day trip.

The timing worked out perfectly, and I pulled up at Shanna's office 10 minutes before she got off work.

And finally, a note about today, April 12th. Today marks the 1 year anniversary of us landing in Germany. It's hard to believe that an entire year has gone by. We are mini-celebrating it tonight by going to the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived for dinner, brining the dogs, and meeting our friend Penny who we first met because she was also staying in the hotel a year ago after having just moved here.

As Spring warms the area up, Shanna & I have some travels planned for the next month, so you'll see plenty of blog posts about it. The first weekend in May we are driving to Maastricht, NL, for Queens Day weekend. We were in Amsterdam for Queens Day a few years back and had a blast, so we're both looking forward to this. I'm going to Rome a week & a half later to visit some friends of ours who are vacationing down there. Shanna can't get the time off, but since she's been before and I haven't, I'm going. And finally, at the end of May for Memorial Day weekend, we had talked about visiting our friend from DC who was going to be in Lithuania that weekend, but the airfare prices were astronomical, so we had to pass. With that being the case, Shanna is going to take a few extra days off and we're going to drive to Vienna, Austria and spend two days there, then drive on to Bratislava, Slovakia, and spend 3 days there.

So a busy month coming up! On top of all that traveling, Frühlingfest starts at the end of April.

The Zum Paulaner picture above will take you to a higher res version if you click on it, the other two pictures will take you to the album with the Black Forest pictures. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of myself, but with two dogs and no where to really set the camera up for a timed shot, it just wasn't possible. Alternately, you can click here to see the pictures.

Picture update

Adam just sent me the pictures from our recent Münich meeting and I've added them to our previous pictures.  Click here or the picture below to see them!

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was the first beautiful weekend we've had of the Spring.  We've had some nice weather in the mid 60's, but this was past weekend was sunny and 75 degrees on both days, so we took full advantage of it.  We started off on Saturday meeting up with our friend Katia and her golden retriever, Heidi, at the dog park on the base near our house.  We'd taken the dogs there last fall and they loved it.  It's an enormous outdoor area completely fenced in, so the dogs can run all over the place without us having to worry about them getting out.  Heidi is Katia's first dog, so she was a little uncomfortable with how the other dogs at the park were playing rough with her, and after about 10 minutes she was too worried, so she took Heidi home.  Since we've had Milo for a year & a half now, we've gotten to know both his and Murphy's various barks & growls, so we knew when it was time to pull the dogs apart and when it was ok to just let them be.  The dogs at the dog park this past weekend were a playful group, so we ended up talking with the owners while the dogs ran around the park chasing each other and wrestling.  Both Milo & Murphy are naturally fast dogs, so it usually ended up being Milo taking the lead while all the other dogs chased him.

We stayed there for about an hour, then walked over to the community center where the 52nd Signal Command was having a fund raiser BBQ.  We got some great food and contributed to their cause.

That evening we had some friends over for dinner.  Shanna & I had gone through our cookbook and picked out a bunch of things we wanted to make both Saturday night, as well as the rest of this week.  For Saturday night Shanna made a taco meat casserole, lettuce wedge salad, and home made ice cream and cupcakes for dessert.  I was ecstatic because for the first time since we've been here, I saw genuine American Microbrew beer on base.  Rogue is one of my favorite breweries, based out of Oregon.  The case below was the last one they had in stock, and I couldn't grab it fast enough.

So Saturday afternoon I finished cleaning up the house while Shanna cooked everything.  That afternoon I drove down to the bottom of the hill to pick up our friend Penny who helped us out by looking after the dogs for part of the time we were in the U.S., and our friend Jesse.  Jesse is one of those "small world" stories.  I met him the same time I met Shanna when we played kickball together back in DC.  We were all friends for about a year, then he took a job in Miami and moved down there.  A month before we were getting ready to move to Germany he posted on Facebook that he had taken a new job and would be moving to Heidelberg, Germany.  He landed 2 weeks after we did.  For those not familiar with the area, Heidelberg is about an hour and 15 minute drive from us.  So we saw each other a couple times over the last year, but not much.  Two months ago he mentioned that his contract in Heidelberg was not going to be renewed, so he started looking for jobs in Stuttgart, and was able to transfer.  He got a place on the Marienplatz, where we live, and now, 4 years after we met and 3 years after he moved away from the DC area, he's only a 5 minute walk from our place.

Dinner was delicious.  The home made salad dressing Shanna made for the salad was delicious, as was the taco meat casserole.  And of course, home made ice cream from the kitchen aid is always delicious.  Plus it was our first chance since the fall to eat outside on the back deck.  Since the fall we'd gotten new deck furniture, so it was nice to be able to use it for the first time with guests.

The next day Shanna & I watched the Butler/VCU game from the night before, then hopped in the car and headed up to the Stuttgart Fernsehturm, or Stuttgart TV Tower.  It was built in 1956 and at the time was the largest TV tower in the world at 217 meters (711 feet) high.  If you remember some earlier blog posts, you'll recall that I went there last year shortly after we got here.  At the time, though, it was only me exploring, so Shanna hadn't been yet.  We figured with it being a beautiful day, this was the time to go.

There really isn't too much to describe about the tower.  You go inside, pay the 5 Euro fee, and then take the elevator to the top.  Last year when I went they had a descriptive panel going around the fence at the top of the tower that had various landmarks and the names of the cities you were seeing from up there, but for some reason they've since removed it.  I'm not sure why, that was useful the last time.  Now we had to rely on our knowledge of the terrain to find various landmarks.  We were able to spot the Hauptbahnhof, the Schlossplatz, the Rathaus, and our house.  Below are two pictures...the perspective of the TV tower from our house, then below it the perspective of our house from the TV tower.

Once we had seen enough we took the elevator back down and headed out.  The rest of the day was spent with all the windows open in the house, relaxing and enjoying the nice weather.

I'll have another post next week because this weekend Shanna & I are heading up to a town outside of Frankfurt called Seligenstadt for their annual Spring Market.

Click here to see larger Hi-Res pictures, or click any picture in the post above.

Weekend trip to Münich

This past weekend a good friend of ours and former room mate, Adam, was in Münich for work.  He didn't have to be there until Tuesday, but we had arranged to meet him Saturday morning in town and spend the weekend there so he came out a little early.

Saturday morning we got off to a great start.  We were packed & out the door 20 minutes before I estimated we needed to be to be in Münich by 11am.  We dropped the dogs off at the kennel, and for the first time Murphy didn't stand at the gate staring at us as we drove off.  He & Milo ran off and started playing with the other dogs, so we felt good about that.  We hope we can find a kennel like this back in the US when we move back home, the dogs absolutely love going there because they have all day to run around in a giant fenced in field and play with other dogs.  We hopped on the A8, and just had to stay on it all the way into Münich.  About 30 minutes in is when we hit a problem.  We came to a complete stop on the Autobahn in a traffic jam that stretch as far as I could see.  After 45 minutes we'd only moved about a kilometer.  At that point I pulled out my phone and found an App that gave Stau (German word for Traffic Jam) information.  The traffic jam we were in stretched for 6KM and so far we'd only gone 1.  According what I could read (it was in German) they had closed a section of the A8 off entirely for construction and were routing traffic through several small towns.  So you had all the traffic that drives on one of the busiest stretches of the Autobahn being singled down to a one lane exit that had a traffic light.  So you can imagine how slow going this was.  We eventually made it through, but thank goodness I could email back & forth with Adam because there was no way we were making the 11am meet time.  We didn't end up rolling into town until about 1:45.  What should have been a 2 hour drive ended up being 5 hours.  It ended up sort of working out, though, because it meant Adam could take a nap to fight off some of the jet lag.

Once we checked in to the hotel and met up in Adam's room, we hit the town.  First up was lunch, we were all hungry.  I'd checked on the map the day before and found an Augustiner Brew Pub around the corner, so we went there.  It was busy, but the food was delicious.  I had a quarter duck, quarter chicken and a kartoffel knoedel.  It's hard to describe the kartoffel knoedel...in fact, I've re-written this sentence five times trying to describe it and I just don't have the words other then it's a ball...made of potatoes.  How about a picture?

After that we took the train to the BMW museum.  The first thing I noticed about Münich's U-Bahn & S-Bahn system is how huge it is.  True, we were in the heart of the city, but the trains and the stations were enormous.  MUCH bigger the Stuttgart's.  Eventually we made it to the museum.

Shanna & I aren't big car people, but we both wanted to visit the "Big 3" while in Germany.  We'd been to Porche and Mercedes, which were located in Stuttgart, so now we had the last one to visit, BMW.  It was a neat museum.  If I had to rank the three, the Mercedes was by far the most impressive, then the BMW one, and finally the Porche museum.  One of the neat cars that stood out to me was this one below, the car Pierce Brosnan drove in the 1999 Bond film The World is Not Enough (notice the license plate).

At the end of the museum the had a special temporary exhibit where they had given BMW cars to artists and basically told them to use the car as their canvas.   They even had one that Andy Worhol had hand painted.

After the museum we went to a Paulaner restaurant.  I'd read that they were having a big Starkbier festival, but when we got there, it didn't seem like anything special was going on.  We had one drink, then decided to leave & head back to the hotel.  Once back at the hotel we asked the staff about the Starkbier fest.  Apparently it's outside town and only accessible by cab or car.  At this point it was almost 8pm and we didn't feel like going that far out when there was a good chance it'd be too packed to get in.  So I'd found a Hacker-Pschorr brewpub right around the corner.  We went in and this place was HUGE.  It also had a fancy sports bar in the back.  They had a special seasonal beer on tap called a Helles Weizenbock that was DELICIOUS.  One of the best German beers I've ever had.

After dinner we walked to the back where the sports bar was and caught the last 20 minutes of the Germany Vs. Kazakstan soccer game.  There was a pretty big crowd in there watching.  I'm not a big soccer fan, but when you're watching any sport with a passionate group it's hard not to have fun and cheer for Germany.  We ended up staying there the whole night because the service was fast, the beer was great, and it was nice to sit and catch up with Adam.

The next morning we got up and headed down to the S-bahn.  Adam had heard about a "Science Museum" he wanted to visit.  After doing some research I found it was called the Deutsches Museum and wasn't too far away.  This museum was absolutely enormous.  There wasn't enough time in the day to go through the entire thing.  It would easily take several trips.  They had some neat things in there, including Sputnik 1.  I'm not sure if it's a replica or the same thing...there was nothing on the sign to indicate it wasn't the real thing, but I've heard (and read on Wikipedia) that the real one is in the UN Building in New York.  They also had a training plane that the Wright Bro's used.

One of the neatest things there was the desk used by Ernest Walton and John Cockroft when they split the atom for the first time.

We were in the museum all morning and a large chunk of the afternoon.  Afterwards we decided to have a late lunch since we hadn't eaten yet and headed over to the Marienplatz.  That's the location of the famous Hofbrauhaus.

We were lucky and got a table immediately despite it being packed.  Lunch was great beer and traditional German food.

Afterwards we walked around the Marienplatz for a bit, but since it was raining we didn't stay long.

That was it...we headed back to the hotel, said our goodbyes to Adam, then drove home.  Thankfully the trip home didn't take nearly as long, only the expected 2 hours.  But we did drive by the same spot we got held up at, and it was still backed up for just as long.  I was glad we didn't have to sit in that both directions.

Click here to see the pictures, or any picture above.  There are more coming.  Adam took pictures with his camera, so when he gets back home and uploads them I'll merge them with our pictures and post an update that they are available for viewing.

Trip Home Part 2

We landed in Shreveport, LA, right on time despite the delayed take off.  The weather was GREAT, but I had dressed for the cool DC temperatures that morning and was a little hot in the 80 degree weather in Shreveport, but it sure was a nice change of pace from the cold temperatures we'd experienced so far.  As soon as we exited the secure area of the airport we went down the escalator to the baggage claim area and saw Shanna's parents, her sister Nikki, and all five nieces & nephews waiting for us.  They had all wanted to come meet us at the airport, so they took two SUV's to meet us.  After our baggage was unloaded we loaded them up in the cars and headed to dinner.

As I've said in previous blogs, the two types of food we miss the most are Mexican & Seafood.  We'd gotten our share of Mexican back in DC, but with us landing in Louisiana, we couldn't pass up local seafood.  We stopped at a Joe's Crabshack on the way back for dinner on the Shreveport waterfront, and it was delicious.  It's been years since I last had good crawfish.  After dinner we headed back home to Texarkana.  It was evening by the time we got back to her parent's house, so we called it an early night.

The next day Shanna's brother picked up his kids to take them home and we spent the day with Nikki and her two kids, Alex & Alyssa.  Alyssa, Nikki, Shanna, and her Mom went shopping while Alex, myself, and her Dad stayed behind to watch March Madness.  After all the running around we did in DC visiting as many people as possible, it was nice to just sit around with no one to visit, watching my Bracket slowly get busted game after game.  I can't believe I picked Louisville to go to the championship game...  When they got back home, in addition to getting some clothes & shoes for Shanna, they even picked me up a pair of nice brown shoes.  I couldn't believe they had found size 14 in the store, but they had, and the shoes fit great.  That night dinner was good old fashioned steaks on the grill.

Friday was the day the kids had been the most excited about...making German donuts.  Shanna had taken a German cooking class last month and one of the things they made were Berliners, a.k.a German donuts.  She saved the recipe, and before we left we bought all the ingredients that you couldn't get in the US and brought them back with us.  Friday morning after Shanna's brother Scott came by with his kids, they all made the donuts.

For those that have heard their names and want to put a face to them, the boy in the blue shirt on the far right is Alex.  Heading around the table, next to him is Ryan, then Shanna, Alyssa, Cody (in the green shirt), and the youngest, Brady.  The person behind Alyssa is Shanna's Mom, Pattie, and you can see Shanna's Dad in the background on the left.  The donuts turned out great!  That afternoon Scott & his wife Amy came over, and we had one of the most relaxing afternoons of the trip...sitting on the back porch, sipping a beer in 80 degree weather, and just talking about anything & everything.  The kids even convinced me to go out & push them on the tire swing in the backyard.  One thing they'd been doing the entire time we were there was asking us how to say words in German.  When I was pushing them on the tire swing, when it was getting time for someone else's turn to swing, I'd count down pushes left start at 10.  Then I started counting down in German and they loved it, repeating the word every time I said it.  Dinner that night was hamburgers on the grill outside.

Saturday was just another lazy day watching basketball while the girls went out shopping.  That afternoon we showered, got cleaned up, and headed downtown to Zappatta's.  It's a great little Mexican restaurant in downtown Texarkana that we usually go to everytime we are back there visiting.  We met up with Shanna's friends Kimber & Josh and Matt & Amber.  Shanna has known Kimber & Matt since at least high school (I think maybe even longer), so it was good seeing them again.  Matt & Amber have two kids, Addison and Mason, but they were staying with Amber's Mom while we had dinner.  Afterwards they left a little early to go pick the kids up, and we all met back up at Matt & Amber's place.  The last time we were there was last March after they had just bought the house.  The previous owner was an older lady who smoked, and you could tell that as soon as you walked in.  They hadn't moved into the house yet as of March of last year, so it smelled smoky and looked like it hadn't been updated in a long long time.  This time, though, the house looked completely different.  The smoke smell was gone and everything looked new & fresh.  We had gotten Addison and Mason some spring toys and they couldn't stop playing with them.  They are literally hand carved animals attached to a spring that makes them bounce up & down.  The picture below is a friend in DC's daughter who we also got one for playing with hers.

We ended up spending most of the night there, not leaving until around midnight.  When we walked outside the huge super moon everyone had been talking about was out.  It was so bright outside that the birds were confused about the time of day and were chirping left & right.

The next day, Sunday, was our last full day in TX.  We started the day running some errands, then went to the retirement home to visit Shanna's Grandpa.  I've met him several times before, and always enjoy talking with him.  He has a great sense of humor, and is fun to talk with.  I even got to help him out with his computer because he wanted to do something on it, but wasn't sure quite how.  That afternoon Scott, Amy, and their kids came over for Sunday dinner (a delicious roast with biscuits and mashed potatoes), and we said our goodbyes to all the nieces & nephews.  We packed up for the next morning, and headed to bed early since we had to be up early the next morning.

The trip back to Germany wasn't too bad, but it WAS long.  No matter how much you bring with you to occupy the time, 9 hours still is a long time to be in an airplane.  We got lucky with the exit rows, though, because we were able to get exit row seating for both of us on both legs.  After having breakfast at the airport with Shanna's parents we flew to Atlanta.  We had a 5 hour layover there, so we spent it enjoying the last bit of American cuisine we could...we ate lunch at the Sam Adam's brewpub in the terminal and enjoyed some Sam Adam's specialty beers.  Then, at 5:35, we took off, heading back to Germany.

While in flight we could see the moon outside our window.  It was huge, and lit up the entire Atlantic Ocean.  Unlike Shanna, I can't sleep on planes, so I was awake almost the entire time.  While it made the time go by slowly, I did get see some neat things.  I tried taking a picture of the moon from our window.  I thought with how big it was outside it'd turn out, but you can barely see it.  As we flew over Ireland they had a plane tracker up on all the screens in the plane showing where we were.  It showed us being right over Belfast, so I looked outside and you could see the sun starting to come up and clouds below us leading right up to the city, then the clouds broke and all the lights in the city were still on.  It was a beautiful site, I just wish I could have captured it on camera.  We finally landed at 7:40am local time (2:40am EST).  All of our luggage made it back in one piece, then we took the train back home.  After unloading at the house, we went to pick the dogs up.  It was great seeing them after two weeks away.  Our friend who looked after them the last part of the trip had to take them to the kennel Friday because they were barking so much while she was at work that the German's were threating to call the police for animal cruelty.  So when we got to the kennel, they first brought Milo out.  He flew up to us and was so excited he didn't know who to jump on.  First he jumped up on me, then Shanna, then back to me.  Next they let Murphy out and the dogs were practically falling over themselves trying to jump up on us.  That evening we cracked open the beer I brewed from the kit Shanna bought me for Christmas.  It wasn't bad...there wasn't a ton of flavor, but it was carbonated and definitely beer.  Considering it was made from a pre-fab kit, and it was my first time, I'm considering it a success!  I can't wait to start batch #2.  After a long day of making our selves stay awake, we finally went to bed around 6pm last night and slept all through the night.

Over all it was great seeing everyone.  It was weird getting used to "the little things" that are different in the US, like not having the metric system, seeing road signs on the interstate that are green with white lettering (they are blue with white lettering here) and of course, the biggest thing, seeing & hearing English every where.  It was such a weird experience when we walked into the first store when we were back and heard people only talking in English.

We're not sure when we're going to be back next, but we're both counting down the days to when we can see everyone again.  In the mean time, keep checking the blog for more adventures over here!

You can click on the pictures in this post or here to see all of the pictures taken.

Trip Home Part 1

I have some down time while Shanna, her sister, niece, and Mom are out shopping, so I thought I'd put up a post about the first half of our trip home while it's still fresh.  Our trip home was from March 9th to March 21st, with the first half being in DC where my family lives, and the second half being in Texas where Shanna's family lives.

Our flight to DC was a long one.  The flight out of Stuttgart was delayed by an hour, and we had a short layover in Amsterdam, so I was nervous.  The last thing I wanted was for us to be stuck over night in Schipol Airport.  We made up time in the air when we finally took off and ran across the airport to get to our gate.  We got through the passport section and the flight crew was literally waiting on us before they closed the door to the plane.  Our scheduled lift off time was 2:10pm, and we walked on the plane at 2:05pm.  They told us as we boarded that the odds of our bags making it on the plane were slim, but we still held out hope.  The flight time should have been 8 hours, but due to strong head winds over the Atlantic, and being redirected around DC because the air space was full, it added an extra hour to the trip.  We finally landed 9 hours after takeoff.  Our baggage did not make it, but we were told it would be there the following evening.

That night was just a relaxed night.  We stopped at Walmart on the way home to get a few essentials that we would need to hold us over until our luggage arrived, then came home to American beer and home cooked tacos...a great way to end a long day of travelling.

The next day we hit the ground running.  We had lunch at the Buffalo Wing Factory (I've missed good wings in Germany), went to the Army/Navy club to pick up some golf clubs for Dad, then went down to DC to visit our friend Abby and her new born son Phillip.  Her husband, Paul, was at work, but at least we got to play with Phillip and see Abby.  Phillip has the biggest eyes I've ever seen on an infant, but he was in a good mood and was all smiles and playing.  I think Abby enjoyed having adult conversation for a few hours too.

After spending some time there we headed back home for dinner with my parents and my brother.  That evening we got a call from the airport at 7pm saying our luggage had arrived and would be there within 2-3 hours.  We were still jet lagged, but I wanted to stay up to make sure all the bags arrived.  Eventually at midnight the bags showed up.  All our luggage made it safe & sound, including some specialty Belgian beer we'd brought back.  This particular kind of beer can only be sold at the brewery that makes it, but we were able to find some at a hole in the wall store in Amsterdam.  We bought some for ourselves, as well as for several friends back home who had requested it.  They weren't cheap, costing approx. $20 per 11 oz bottle.  The bottles had to survive a flight from Amsterdam to Stuttgart, then a month later from Stuttgart back to Amsterdam, then on to DC.  Thanks to the creative packaging material used to get it to Stuttgart (diapers pictured below), and lots of bubble wrap for the flight to DC, every bottle made it safely.

The next day we started on our trip to Snowshoe, WV.  We made great time getting there, arriving in a little over 4 hours.  The problem then became getting to the house.  For some reason the town of Snowshoe is determined to make finding anything there as difficult as possible.  No roads have street names, just wooden signs to indicate the name of the area you are in.  That means you can put your GPS away...it's useless.  The friend of ours who planned the trip had provided a map, but unfortunately marked landmarks incorrectly so it was impossible to use it to find the house.  Cell phone coverage is also practically non-existant there, so we ended up driving around for close to 3 hours before we finally found a general store where the guy behind the counter let us use his phone.  We had a phone number for the house phone, and called that.  Eventually it all worked out, and we made it to the house.

It was great seeing everyone.  It's been a year since we last did, but as soon as we arrived it felt like no time had passed.  It was technically a ski trip weekend, and about half the people at the house went skiing/snowboarding over the weekend, but we were just there to relax and spend time with everyone.  There was snow on the ground the day we arrived, but the next day it got up to 50 degrees and almost all of the snow melted.  Below is a picture I took from our bedroom window before it started to melt.

We got there on Friday, and left Sunday morning.  In that time it was great catching up with everybody, as well as meeting some new people.

Sunday morning we left a little early because we had someone to meet in the afternoon.  The trip back went slower because we went a different route that took us up & down mountains.  We eventually made it back in to NoVA and stopped at some old friends house.  I've known Jeffrey since 6th grade, and his wife Erin since 11th grade.  We've been friends for a long time, and after years of trying, they finally had a baby boy, Jordan, last October.  While it didn't work out this way, for awhile the doctor's projected due date for them was October 17th, our anniversary.  Jordan was Mr. Playful.  He kept trying to jump around in Shanna's arms, and made a million expressions with his face the entire time we were there.  It was also good to talk with Jeffrey & Erin again.  Eventually it was nap time for Jordan, and we could tell it was also nap time for Jeffrey & Erin.  We said our goodbyes, then headed home.

A year or two ago a friend of Shanna's & mine, Patrick, was here by himself for Thanksgiving, so when my parents found out, they invited him over with us.  They liked him, and when it came up that he had recently gotten married, they wanted to have him & his wife, Janelle, over for dinner.  So Sunday night they both came over.  If you recall back to a previous blog post, Patrick was the friend I met up with in Luxembourg while he was there for work.  He might be in Lithuania for work in a few months, so if that happens, I'm definitely meeting him up out there.

Monday we got started early by meeting a good friend and former co-worker, Justin, at the Dogfish Head Alehouse.  Dogfish Head beer is one of my favorites, and their tavern in Chantilly has an amazing sandwich called The Steak Bomb.  So we met up with him there for lunch.  We talked about work, where I got caught up on all the changes of the past year, as well as what he's been up to.  His birthday is in May, so since I knew I wouldn't be here for it, I brought him back some German beer.  There was a three pack I picked up with some of the strongest German beers available.  Two were %13, and one was %16.  Next up Shanna wanted to visit Target.  Some of the little things in life that we used to take for granted (Target, Walmart, etc...) are places we can't wait to visit now.

Seafood is a hard thing to find in Stuttgart.  The Germans aren't real big on putting preservatives in food and transporting them around the country, so unless you live up north around Hamburg, Bremen, etc... where it borders water, it's hard to find seafood.  One of Shanna's favorite places to get crabcakes is Chadwick's in Old Town Alexandria.  I like the place because they have a good beer selection.  Monday night we met up with a group of friends I know through Shanna there for dinner & drinks.  Some people from the ski trip were there, as well as some people who hadn't been able to make the ski trip.  Abby even made it out with her husband, Paul.  I was glad they did since we hadn't been able to see Paul a few days prior when we went to their house.

Tuesday was our last full day in Northern VA.  The day started with Shanna taking a trip down to Potomac Mills to the oulets to go shopping.  I stayed home and a friend I've known since high school, Tim, picked me up to head out to lunch.  Before we moved I'd been keeping up on a new brew pub that was scheduled to open in the Falls Church area.  We left before it opened, but now it's been open & running for a bit.  Tim liked both the beer & food, so I was excited about trying it.  When we got there we were the only ones there.  I started off with a Scotch Ale, and it was DELICIOUS.  They had a great deal on beer samplers, where you got four 4 oz glasses of beers of your choice for $6.  One thing I miss living in Germany is good American micro brew, and this place sure hit the spot.  The food was delicious too.  I had a pizza for lunch that was topped with bacon, pepperoni, goat cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic slices, and hot sauce.  In addition to the good food & beer, it was also good catching up with Tim over the beer.  After lunch Tim dropped me back off at home & I took a nap.

That evening we drove out to Tysons to meet up our friends Pat, Luzette, their daughter Marella, and that group of friends.  All told there was about 15 people there.  Ever since we moved to Germany I've been looking for some utensils to get for Marella.  When my brother & I were little kids we had neighbors from Germany who got us these things that we called "Pushers".  They look like little "garden hoes" but are used by young kids before they can use a knife to push food on to a fork or spoon.  It took us forever, but we eventually found a set a few weeks before our trip home.  Marella took to the pusher immediately!

It was great seeing everyone again, including our friends Ryan & Christina who I mentioned in a previous post because they visited us in Stuttgart while they were in Germany on vacation back in December.

Like all vacations, Tuesday night came to a close and the vacation in Northern VA came to a close entirely too fast.  The next day we went out to lunch with my Mom and then drove to the airport.  We had some delays flying to Texas, but by the time we landed we were only a few minutes late, so it ended up being no big deal.

We are still in Texas enjoying 80 degree weather and seeing family down here.  I'll post all about this part of the trip next week when we are back in Germany.

The pictures above will take you to a larger hi-res version if you click on them, and the two places where I mentioned "previous blog posts" are clickable links to those blog posts in case you want a refresher.