Quick updates to this blog is all we seem to have time for right now Our being busy this summer, however, has not been a bad thing! I just look forward to when things slow down a little bit and we have some time to digest all we've done over the past few months.
There may be some big changes coming both our ways in the near future. We'll keep you all updated when we have more solid news. If it all works out, Dawn's 2.5 hours of commuting each day will be a thing of the past. That is a great thing!
This weekend Dawn and I will be heading down to Garmisch, Germany to do a bit of camping and hiking. The weather looks like it will actually be decent in that portion of the Alps and we'd like to take advantage of it! Jef is off for Budapest this morning for a week of travel. It sounds like he's got a fun trip planned! His first real solo journey since being here. I'm sure he'll have a great time.
Our trip back to Chicago and Minnesota is approaching fast! We're both really looking forward to it! It will be nice to get back to the US, even if it is just for two weeks.
If you've checked lately, you may have noticed that the link to my photo blog is broken. The new site should be up within the next week.
We'll write more later when we get a chance to breathe. I look forward to sitting down, going through the pictures from our trips and doing a bit of writing about what we experienced in each place. See you all soon!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Week Vacation- Cinque Terre
I suppose it’s my turn to write something, and I have a few minutes while my server is down. Hope you’re all enjoying your summer. Ours has been busy, but exciting. Most of you may know that Nate’s brother Jef is here spending some time travelling with us and on his own, while looking into job possibilities teaching Crossfit.
We spent some time in Cinque Terre, Italy last week. Actually, it was a whole week of vacation, not something we usually get to enjoy. The weather was warmer than we were used to, upper 80s and humid. It seemed no matter where we walked we would sweat for about 10 minutes after stopping. We made sure to swim almost every day in the cool water to combat the heat. Time was also spent kayaking, hiking, and just relaxing on our patio.
Cinque Terre, meaning five towns, includes five small towns in the Italian Riviera. Each town has a unique ambiance and we quickly picked out our favorites. We stayed in Riomaggiore, known by locals as ‘Rio,’ and it quickly felt like home. Having an apartment to stay in was great for watching people from our balcony, and allowed us buy and cook our own food fresh from the gardens in the 5 cities. By the end of the 6 nights we were helping other tourists as if we lived there for years.
The other cities in order north were Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Manarola and Vernazza were my favorites, very peaceful places and fun short hikes to take to beautiful views. There were a few days Nate and I thought we’d ‘take it easy,’ and found ourselves hiking high up for great sunset photos.
The quick hike to Manarola was only 15 minutes and was called the “Lover’s Walk.” We took this many times, because the view was so pretty, and Manarola was good in all light. Many people left locks with their names on them and a tunnel of spray-painted with names and messages. We claimed one, as we didn’t think we really needed to spend 8euro on a lock with people drawn on it.
We discovered the town of Levanto late in the week, just a little farther north from Cinque Terre. The town was more local and less tourists. We took a nice stroll near the beach, took a few pictures, and Jef got a beer, warm of course. It was a little strange to see them selling it out of a booth ion the street, but why not?
We left Friday to head towards the mountains. We planned to camp in Garmisch, but the weather was rainy, so we stayed in the Italian Alps. We found a few towns to wander through and continue our relaxing vacation. We left Brennero and headed home Sunday. It was nice to get in a bit early and unpack and start the huge pile of laundry.
Cinque Terre was a beautiful place to stay, maybe next time in the late fall time period. We also know Italians go to bed after 1am and get up yelling again by 6 or 7am in the morning. Did you know that Italians think driving on the middle line on the freeway is safer because you drive straight? Yeah, that’s what I thought too…
We spent some time in Cinque Terre, Italy last week. Actually, it was a whole week of vacation, not something we usually get to enjoy. The weather was warmer than we were used to, upper 80s and humid. It seemed no matter where we walked we would sweat for about 10 minutes after stopping. We made sure to swim almost every day in the cool water to combat the heat. Time was also spent kayaking, hiking, and just relaxing on our patio.
Cinque Terre, meaning five towns, includes five small towns in the Italian Riviera. Each town has a unique ambiance and we quickly picked out our favorites. We stayed in Riomaggiore, known by locals as ‘Rio,’ and it quickly felt like home. Having an apartment to stay in was great for watching people from our balcony, and allowed us buy and cook our own food fresh from the gardens in the 5 cities. By the end of the 6 nights we were helping other tourists as if we lived there for years.
The other cities in order north were Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Manarola and Vernazza were my favorites, very peaceful places and fun short hikes to take to beautiful views. There were a few days Nate and I thought we’d ‘take it easy,’ and found ourselves hiking high up for great sunset photos.
The quick hike to Manarola was only 15 minutes and was called the “Lover’s Walk.” We took this many times, because the view was so pretty, and Manarola was good in all light. Many people left locks with their names on them and a tunnel of spray-painted with names and messages. We claimed one, as we didn’t think we really needed to spend 8euro on a lock with people drawn on it.
We discovered the town of Levanto late in the week, just a little farther north from Cinque Terre. The town was more local and less tourists. We took a nice stroll near the beach, took a few pictures, and Jef got a beer, warm of course. It was a little strange to see them selling it out of a booth ion the street, but why not?
We left Friday to head towards the mountains. We planned to camp in Garmisch, but the weather was rainy, so we stayed in the Italian Alps. We found a few towns to wander through and continue our relaxing vacation. We left Brennero and headed home Sunday. It was nice to get in a bit early and unpack and start the huge pile of laundry.
Cinque Terre was a beautiful place to stay, maybe next time in the late fall time period. We also know Italians go to bed after 1am and get up yelling again by 6 or 7am in the morning. Did you know that Italians think driving on the middle line on the freeway is safer because you drive straight? Yeah, that’s what I thought too…
Thursday, July 8, 2010
One conference and one trip down
Hey all! I just wanted to write a quick update while I had a few minutes. As reported in my last post, things have been very, very busy for us. Last week saw us at a conference for work up in Grafenwoehr. Not really much to say about that as it was work after all and I'd rather not have to relive the experience by writing about it. However, after cutting out on a Thursday meeting early, we did manage to make our way up to Amsterdam for the long July 4th weekend. What a great, great, great city that is! Dawn, Jef and I all had a fantastic time up there and really hope we can go back soon.
The highlight of the trip to A-dam had to be experiencing the jubilation and utter craziness that ensued when Holland beat Brazil in the World Cup. Having lived in Germany during the WC four years ago, seeing celebrations when a big win has occurred is nothing new to me. However, this was different. The entire city went absolutely bonkers, and for the most part, it was pretty civilized. No overturned cop cars, no looting or burning of private property, and only one little scuffle that we witnessed. It was really cool to see so many people so damn happy. I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but I love the spirit of the World Cup. Quite possibly one of the coolest sporting events on the planet.
I did take many, many pictures on the trip (600+) but it's going to take some time before I get through them. I just have no time right now. We leave for the Tuscany region of Italy tomorrow evening and will be gone for 9 days total. I'm going to be so backlogged on pictures by the time this summer is over......... Well, it will give me something to do when the weather inevitably turns bad in Germany!
I hope everyone is doing well!
The highlight of the trip to A-dam had to be experiencing the jubilation and utter craziness that ensued when Holland beat Brazil in the World Cup. Having lived in Germany during the WC four years ago, seeing celebrations when a big win has occurred is nothing new to me. However, this was different. The entire city went absolutely bonkers, and for the most part, it was pretty civilized. No overturned cop cars, no looting or burning of private property, and only one little scuffle that we witnessed. It was really cool to see so many people so damn happy. I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but I love the spirit of the World Cup. Quite possibly one of the coolest sporting events on the planet.
I did take many, many pictures on the trip (600+) but it's going to take some time before I get through them. I just have no time right now. We leave for the Tuscany region of Italy tomorrow evening and will be gone for 9 days total. I'm going to be so backlogged on pictures by the time this summer is over......... Well, it will give me something to do when the weather inevitably turns bad in Germany!
I hope everyone is doing well!
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Busy, Busy Summer Begins
Today can be seen as the day that marks the start to our very chaotic and hectic summer. This is not necessarily a bad thing at all - we are both very excited for all of the trips and travel we have planned. It will definitely keep us on our toes! On some of the trips, we will also have an additional traveling partner. As some of you know, my brother, Jef, is staying with us for the next three months.
Here's a quick rundown of what's ahead: Next week Dawn and I have a work conference to attend. Jef may or may not join us for a night or two in Weiden. Next Thursday, Dawn and I are cutting out a bit early, meeting Jef south of Regensburg, and then heading to the Munich airport to board a flight for Amsterdam where we'll be spending the holiday weekend. Upon our return from Holland, Dawn and I head back to work while Jef does whatever Jef wants to do. At the end of the week, we hop back in the car and head for southern Austria and the Brenner Pass. The next day sees us driving to Cinque Terre, Italy. We'll be spending six relaxing days in this beautiful area, hiking, biking, swimming and simply taking in this unique coastal area of Tuscany and the Italian Riviera. On the drive back to Germany, we'll be stopping in Garmisch to spend two nights camping with friends who will be meeting us there.
In August, Dawn and I will be heading to Chicago for another work conference. After Chicago, it's off to Minnesota, Dawn's home state. We will be having a belated stateside wedding reception here. About 100 of Dawn's family members will be in attendance. Me? Only two. It should be a great time, though, and I'm looking forward to checking out Dawn's home and meeting more of her family.
Anyway, the summer is going to be a busy one! Once September rolls around, we do have some other plans including seeing a concert at Neuschwanstein Castle and also attending Oktoberfest in Munich. Then, things get interesting. I have no idea what's going to happen with my job right now and probably won't until early September.
Time for me to take it easy. Sleep did not come easy last night and the 2.5 hours I did sleep was not nearly enough! Have a great weekend!
Here's a quick rundown of what's ahead: Next week Dawn and I have a work conference to attend. Jef may or may not join us for a night or two in Weiden. Next Thursday, Dawn and I are cutting out a bit early, meeting Jef south of Regensburg, and then heading to the Munich airport to board a flight for Amsterdam where we'll be spending the holiday weekend. Upon our return from Holland, Dawn and I head back to work while Jef does whatever Jef wants to do. At the end of the week, we hop back in the car and head for southern Austria and the Brenner Pass. The next day sees us driving to Cinque Terre, Italy. We'll be spending six relaxing days in this beautiful area, hiking, biking, swimming and simply taking in this unique coastal area of Tuscany and the Italian Riviera. On the drive back to Germany, we'll be stopping in Garmisch to spend two nights camping with friends who will be meeting us there.
In August, Dawn and I will be heading to Chicago for another work conference. After Chicago, it's off to Minnesota, Dawn's home state. We will be having a belated stateside wedding reception here. About 100 of Dawn's family members will be in attendance. Me? Only two. It should be a great time, though, and I'm looking forward to checking out Dawn's home and meeting more of her family.
Anyway, the summer is going to be a busy one! Once September rolls around, we do have some other plans including seeing a concert at Neuschwanstein Castle and also attending Oktoberfest in Munich. Then, things get interesting. I have no idea what's going to happen with my job right now and probably won't until early September.
Time for me to take it easy. Sleep did not come easy last night and the 2.5 hours I did sleep was not nearly enough! Have a great weekend!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Dawn and Osu cuddling on the couch
For a dog, Osu finds some very interesting positions to sit in. This evening, he found leaning back against Dawn to be the most comfortable position and stayed this way for at least twenty minutes. Sometimes he sits certain ways that look painfully uncomfortable, but it just doesn't seem to bother him. He's our little yoga dog.
PS - Is anyone reading this blog anymore???
Sunday, June 6, 2010
A fine weekend in Germany (and finally some sun!)
A quick post here to share a few photos. I haven't gone through the photos from the BBQ we had at the house yesterday, but did go through the ones I took today so I could post the below photos. Basically, with it being so nice out again today, we decided to find a nice spot where we could take Osu swimming. We finally found a spot along the Schwarze Laaber near our house. Not only was it a good spot to throw sticks for Osu to retrieve in the water, but there was also a log spanning the width of the creek. Dawn couldn't resist testing her gymnastic prowess on the downed log, and surprisingly, Osu followed her. After successfully making it across the creek on the log, Dawn needed some room to turn around but Osu just wouldn't give her any space. So, since Osu was already wet, she gently shoved him off the log and in to the water. Later, Dawn decided to go back out on the log but Osu wanted nothing to do with it this time. However, after a couple of minutes of prodding, he finally did approach the log, eventually running out on to it to get to Dawn. Alas, in one of the funniest things I've seen this dog do, he slipped off of the log falling in to the water on his side. I didn't get any pictures as I was laughing too hard at his misfortune!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
What's up!
It’s once again been a long time since a post, especially for me. I don’t know how it seems like we got busier, but I think about posting. The last few weeks we haven’t gone anywhere far, but we’ve been getting a lot done. I’ve been going to the arts and crafts shop a few Saturdays to make frames for our new prints and paintings we bought on our ventures. Nate has been busy making posters out of older pictures he had, with a few trips in there to get new towns and vantage points. Lots of new posters to check out on the website. We counted about 104 last night!
We have a fun weekend planned for an extended Memorial weekend. Chamonix, France. I think most of you saw some pictures from last time, but we are really looking forward to this trip. We’ve been thinking about all the places we want to go back to and places we can get other good pictures. Hoping for some sunshine and pretty mountains scenes. Osu doesn’t know yet, but he’ll be excited to go too.
In other news, Nashville is not happening anymore for work. We had planned to have our wedding reception after our work conference in Nashville, but Nashville flooded. So, we are still eagerly waiting for the decision if Chicago will be happening August 23-27th. We are very hopeful, as we need these hours of flying to extend our trip to see everyone. We are supposed to know this week, but no news yet.
In other more fun news, I’m making a GIANT cake for our work SRP Conference here in Germany. It needs to feed 120 people, so it’s either 8- 8x8 cakes or 8- 10x10 cakes. They will be two layers with the logo drawn in the middle and other fun stuff around the sides. I made a tester for work this week, and it turned out really well…especially for 10 pm. Maybe I can get Nate to upload the picture for me too, the small one for now. The real test will be the last week of June when I put it together and move it from our house to Graf, a lovely hour plus ride.
I’d like to say my garden is going well, but it’s hard to tell. We’ve been having lots of rain and little sun. The strawberries are getting flowers, but the pepper and tomato plants haven’t done much. It hasn’t frozen, just lots of rain. I can’t tell much what the blueberry bushes are doing, cuz I’ve never had those before, but they don’t seem to be growing much above the ground. Hope I didn’t plant stuff too early, last year we missed the whole planting time.
One more thing before I go… We’ll have Jef out here starting June 21st. We’re really excited to have him here and do some traveling; Amsterdam for the 4th of July is already waiting for us.
We have a fun weekend planned for an extended Memorial weekend. Chamonix, France. I think most of you saw some pictures from last time, but we are really looking forward to this trip. We’ve been thinking about all the places we want to go back to and places we can get other good pictures. Hoping for some sunshine and pretty mountains scenes. Osu doesn’t know yet, but he’ll be excited to go too.
In other news, Nashville is not happening anymore for work. We had planned to have our wedding reception after our work conference in Nashville, but Nashville flooded. So, we are still eagerly waiting for the decision if Chicago will be happening August 23-27th. We are very hopeful, as we need these hours of flying to extend our trip to see everyone. We are supposed to know this week, but no news yet.
In other more fun news, I’m making a GIANT cake for our work SRP Conference here in Germany. It needs to feed 120 people, so it’s either 8- 8x8 cakes or 8- 10x10 cakes. They will be two layers with the logo drawn in the middle and other fun stuff around the sides. I made a tester for work this week, and it turned out really well…especially for 10 pm. Maybe I can get Nate to upload the picture for me too, the small one for now. The real test will be the last week of June when I put it together and move it from our house to Graf, a lovely hour plus ride.
I’d like to say my garden is going well, but it’s hard to tell. We’ve been having lots of rain and little sun. The strawberries are getting flowers, but the pepper and tomato plants haven’t done much. It hasn’t frozen, just lots of rain. I can’t tell much what the blueberry bushes are doing, cuz I’ve never had those before, but they don’t seem to be growing much above the ground. Hope I didn’t plant stuff too early, last year we missed the whole planting time.
One more thing before I go… We’ll have Jef out here starting June 21st. We’re really excited to have him here and do some traveling; Amsterdam for the 4th of July is already waiting for us.
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