Walk, Don't Run

I've posted most of the pics from this past weekend so I guess I should do a blog entry to go along with them.

Nikki had Thursday afternoon free so she and I went shopping in Mannheim. We poked around the main shopping area in the middle of town for several hours and then ended up at an Irish pub called Murphy's Law for Irish coffee, beer and fish and chips. It was 9:30pm when we got home completely satisfied with our afternoon and evening. It was the first opportunity since I got here that she and I had had to go out, just the two of us, and catch up on some much needed 'Mom and me time'. We kept marveling at the fact that I'm not just here for a visit, that we will be able to do this whenever we want to!

When the kids were in elementary school at Ramstein Air Base I think I was the queen of the field trip moms. With three kids so close together in age their classes went to a lot of the same places, though usually not at the same time. My work schedule was very flexible so I chaperoned a lot of school trips. The kids and I still laugh about how many times I went to the dinosaur museum in Frankfurt and to the planetarium and Luisenpark in Mannheim. They each went once a year, but I would go 2, sometimes 3 times each year!
On Friday afternoon Nikki and I decided to take a little trip down memory lane. We went to Luisenpark. It was a gorgeous fall day and I had forgotten how beautiful it is there. We simply strolled through the park admiring the brilliant autumn colors. Down one path, over to another and back on another. We had packed sandwiches so we found a couple of chairs in the sunshine and were entertained by a couple of free roaming storks who were hoping for handouts while we ate our lunch. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died after just a few pictures so I missed some beautiful shots but it was a wonderful afternoon. The Strassenbahn (streetcar) let us off and picked us up right outside the front gate of the park. This was such a different experience from my previous trips to Luisenpark. Very relaxing compared to my memories of herding a group of overly excited 7 or 8 or 9 year olds, trying to make sure that they all had fun but also that nobody fell into the water or took off from the group, never to be seen again!

On Saurday we met up with Nikki and Bert's friends Benjamin and Miriam for another afternoon of easy wandering through the wine fields. They brought their 6 week old baby who just enchanted us all. If you look at the pictures you'll see that Bert is pushing the carriage most of the time. He had such fun. And the baby was so cute!

As if we hadn't had enough walking, on Sunday the three of us set out again. This time to the Odenwald, a beautiful forested area just east of here. It was so peaceful and once again the changing colors of the season visually filled us to overflowing. Unexpectedly, we found an old Jewish cemetary within the forest. It was fenced to prevent intruders but up close we marveled at how old the grave markers appeared to be. Nikki could actually read a couple of the names written in Hebrew. I looked it up online the next day and found out that it was established in the 17th century! The cemetary has over 1000 graves and was still in use well into the early 1900's.

I haven't posted the pictures from Sunday's walk in the woods yet but I will soon. Walking is a national pastime here. It's what everyone, young and old, does to spend time outside together and enjoy the beautiful country in which they live. Because of that there are countless number of walking trails all over, all very accessible and very well maintained. I wasn't much of a walking enthusiast the last time I lived in Germany but this time I plan on wearing out some shoes!

Belated Wishes

Yesterday was Wade and Sarah's 14th anniversary! Happiness in a family is contagious. Yours spills over to us all. Big hugs to you both and here's to growing old together!

Somebody Down Here, Too....

I've been so busy the last few weeks that I haven't had time to acknowledge the death of one of our greatest actors....Paul Newman died on Sept. 26th. The man had class....

German/American Relations

Bert's mom, Regina, arrived for a visit Saturday after Nikki and Bert returned from Baden Baden. Nik had planned Regina's visit as part of Bert's birthday weekend. He and his mom are really close. So it was the perfect surprise. After introductions, showing Regina the new apartment and having coffee on the balcony, we walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was a very pleasant evening.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then drove to die Weinstrasse (the famous German wine road), very near to where Nikki lived during her first year in Germany, for an afternoon of wine sampling and walking through the vineyards. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon, perfect for meandering and taking in all the brilliant fall colors. The wine was pretty good, too. I, of course, couldn't pass up the opportunity for more Neuer Wein.
At the end of the afternoon we said goodbye to Regina. She had about a three hour drive home to southern Germany. Nikki, Bert and I took the train in the other direction back to Ludwigshafen, our backpacks laden with several bottles of wine.

It was a pleasure to meet Bert's mom and I can see why Nikki likes her so much. I'm sure we'll see more of each other in the future. And as my German improves we'll get to know one another better. I've posted pictures of the afternoon under The Colors Of My World on the sidebar.

Happy Birthday Bert!

Today is Bert's 30th birthday. Last night Nikki, Bert and I met up with a couple of their friends, Basti and Martin, at 'Josephine' for a celebration that included a complimentary bottle of champagne from the establishment at midnight. Josephine is a cute little bar located very near to their old apt so Nik and Bert are well known there.

The evening's conversation was a mixture of English and German. Nikki, Bert and Basti are all fluent in both languages and Martin's English is better than my German but he is shy about using it. So I spoke English, Martin spoke German and the other three flipped back and forth. I am amazed at how much I understand, even after being gone for 15 years. I would say I get about 85% of what is being said in any given situation. If only I could produce at that percentage! But Nik says that's very normal (I know that as well). Understanding increases by leaps and bounds, whereas production must be coaxed and cojoled (here kitty, kitty, kitty...come here..)

As a surprise for Bert, Nik planned an overnight birthday getaway to Baden Baden. They left this afternoon about 2pm and I think she was not planning to tell him exactly where they were going until their train arrives at their destination. Baden Baden is a very well known spa city. Nena and I went there once, years ago, along with her friend, Julie. It was heavenly and the spa was so relaxing. Nikki booked a nice hotel and plans to take her sweetie to dinner this evening. I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time. Bert has another surprise coming tomorrow. About an hour after they get back from Baden Baden his mom will arrive from southern Germany for an overnight visit. I'm looking forward to meeting her.

Sooo....Happy Birthday Berti! Thanks for making my little girl so happy. I think you're pretty great!

I'm Here!

Lucy and I have made it successfully and safely across the pond. We were all a little worried about how she would do given that she is 18 years old but once we finally arrived at Nikki and Bert's apt and opened the door to her kennel she came strolling out and immediately began exploring. She has never been a timid cat and has never exhibited normal cat behavior such as hiding under or behind something for a while when presented with new surroundings. She thoroughly investigated every room in the apt and it didn't take her long to decide that she approved. She has settled in quite nicely in the past 3 days. N&B's friend Nadja came over for dinner last night and, by the end of the evening, was trying to figure out how to hide Lucy in her bag when she left.

After breakfast on Saturday Bert left for an over night camping trip with a couple of his friends so Nik and I went to the Farmers Market down the street and came home laden with fresh fruits and vegetables including half of a fresh pumpkin that Nikki used to make a delicious pumpkin soup for dinner last night. Around midafternoon we headed out for the weinlesefest (wine harvest festival) in Neustadt.

The best part about arriving in Germany at this time of year is that I'm just in time for the Neuer Wein (new wine). It is the first press of the wine before it has gone through all the filtering processes that prepare it for final bottling. It is cloudy, sweet and packs a real punch. Nik and I ate and drank our way through the Fest and then did some window shopping (and lots of yakking!) before returning to Ludwigshafen on the train.

Yesterday we slept in and puttered around the apt until about 2pm when it was time to go check out my potential new apt in Mannheim (Mannheim and Ludwighafen sit side by side, separated only by the Rhine river). One of Nikki's colleagues at the Business College in Heidelberg had mentioned in conversation that the small apt above her house is seldom used anymore because her grown children don't visit as much as they used to. Lots of houses here look like single family homes but are actually divided into three separate apartments. Barbara and her partner, Peter, live in the ground floor apt and they rent the lower apt to a young couple with a baby. So when we began seriously talking about my moving to Germany Nikki thought of Barbara's comment and asked her if they would consider renting the top floor apt to me for the duration of my stay. Barbara said, "Sure, bring your mother to look at it when she gets here." So we made an appt to be there yesterday at 3:30pm. I wasn't getting my hopes up about it before we looked at it. We hadn't discussed the cost of rent or whether it would be OK to have a cat or if there was internet access or any other particulars.

It is the cutest apt! It's fully furnished, right down to dishes and linens. The largest bedroom is as big as the living room. The kitchen is small but very well designed. There are hardwood floors throughout and the bathroom was recently renovated. The overall feel of the place is just very cozy. Perfect for one person, but with room for guests (hint, hint!). There is internet access in the apt, cable TV that even includes a few English language channels, Lucy is welcome and in the basement there are two washers (one for each of the two smaller apts) and a shared dryer. The stairs to the attic are right outside the apt door with plenty of room for extra storage.
And the cost for this most perfect apartment? 300 euros (about $450) a month which includes internet, cable and all utilities!! OMG! What a steal, uh, I mean deal. I think the reason the rent is so low is that, unlike the lower level apt, they have never used this apt to generate income. It's always just been for visiting family so all they are really asking for is the cost of utilities and a bit extra. Lucky me! I'm very excited about my new apartment. Lucy and I will be so comfy. Door to door from Nikki's place to mine will be about 45 minutes via Strassenbahn (streetcar). I agreed with Barbara to take the apartment in January.

In the meantime, Nik and I have hatched another scheme. We had originally decided that I could do 'private' English tutoring as a means of support. But without the proper training and qualifications I wouldn't be able to do anything official (the way Nik does). Then Nikki found a four week program from Cambridge University that is taught at the Berlin School of English (in Berlin, of course). It is called CELTA (Certification for English Language Teaching to Adults). To qualify for English language teaching positions a person must either have a university degree or be certified to teach English to adults. CELTA is, worldwide, one of the most widely recognised certification programs. With CELTA certification I could teach anywhere except at a university. The cost is a bit pricey but doable for me and it is something that I could use in the future as well as while I'm here in Germany. So I have already requested an application package for the class that begins on November 10th and runs through December 5th. If I am accepted, I will spend the next month here in Ludwigshafen with Nikki and Bert and then the following month in Berlin. Just a couple of weeks later will be time for Christmas at Ruth and Bill's in Colorado with all the kids.

My other goal while I am here is to improve my German. The last time I lived in Germany I could get by with my limited German, because we were here with the military and part of such a large American community. My language skills are sufficient to 'get by' but not to function comfortably in a total immersion environment. I'll probably take actual German language classes but, at the very least, Nikki is going begin tutoring me at home.


So, those are my plans for the next couple of months. Never a dull moment, these days!

Lucy In The Sky.....

The Bitty is on her way! I dropped her off at the airport this morning at 6am. No problems this time. The shipping company picked up all of my boxes on Tuesday and the next door neighbors bought my car yesterday. So all that is left is for me to get on the plane myself this afternoon!

New Brothers

My father had two younger sons (different mothers) who were never told who their biological father was. Dad told me about them when we got to know each other in 1995. I think my Aunt Carmen was the only other family member who knew about the two younger boys. One was raised by his mother and her husband (who, of course, will always be his dad). The other was given up for adoption. They both grew up in Santa Rosa and Dad was able to keep track of them as they grew but out of respect for their mothers he never approached either son. Since my dad named them both as beneficiaries in his estate we needed to find them and inform each of them of their pending inheritance. The only information we had were their mothers names. The estate attorney ended up hiring a private investigator to do the job. It only took him a couple of months to find them both. Paul is about 3 years younger than I am and still lives in Santa Rosa. Daryl is about 15 years younger than me and now lives in Folsom, Ca. So now I have cousins named Daryl and Paul and brothers named Daryl and Paul!

Daryl and I talked for a couple of hours on the phone the other night. What a nice guy. He has taken this all in stride. As he says, it doesn't change who he is or his relationship with his family. But he's open to the new situation, too. He and Paul met several months ago after the DNA results came back. Daryl says they look a lot alike and even have some very similar mannerisms. They are both accountants, too.

Wow, just as I finished the last paragraph my phone rang. It was the other brother, Paul! We talked for about an hour. He was just as open and friendly as Daryl was. I had called each of them a few days ago and left a message on their voice mail letting them know who I was along with my phone number. I was kind of glad that neither one was home when I called. That way they each had the option of calling me back if they wanted....or not. But they both did. So now we have at least met over the phone. I hope to be able to meet them both in person some day. In the meantime, they both asked about pictures of Dad. So, once I get settled, I'll copy what I have for them.

I told them both about dad and what a genuinely nice man he was and that, even though he didn't get to raise any of us, he loved all of us. I was just lucky enough to have been able to find that out firsthand. To this day I don't know what moved me to pick up my phone in 1995 and reach out to him but I am so glad I did. To my younger brothers he will forever be just a name and a picture. But, lucky me, he was My Dad.

Down To The Wire

Well, I'm almost there. The shipping company is coming tomorrow afternoon to get my boxes. Lucy is rescheduled to fly on Thursday morning at 8am. The sale of the car happens later that morning and then I fly at 3pm that afternoon. I have a few errands to run tomorrow morning and I'm going to try to get in for a haircut on Wednesday. But that's it!

Sherry's family got together last Friday evening to throw me a little going away party. There were about 25 people there and we had a really fun time. I've been coming to Pittsburgh every year for the last 10 years to be here for Steve's birthday in September (he turned 17 on the 18th!) so I've gotten to know the whole family over the years and I've also gotten to see all the kids in the family grow up. Everyone was very welcoming when I got here last February and I can't express how much support I got this past spring when I was facing surgery. It makes me very happy to know that Steve is growing up in the midst of this huge close-knit extended family. I'll miss them all when I leave.

Calgon, Take Me Away!!

This has been a very frustrating day. Let me back up a little. The paperwork that I had gotten done for Lucy before I left Tucson doesn't apply for Germany so I took her to the vet 10 days ago to get the proper paperwork completed. It should have been easy enough. After all she already had her rabies shot and her microchip implanted by the vet in Tucson. Just have the vet here in Pittsburgh fill out the right forms, make a flight reservation and go.
Famous last words! Turns out we need an actual rabies certificate for her to enter Germany, not just the info recorded on the health certificate by the vet. The other glitch was that the microchip scanner that the Pittsburgh vet had wouldn't read Lucy's chip. Dr. Muliken said I should call Dr. Stern in Tucson, have him send a rabies certificate and find out the brand name of the chip so I could rent the proper scanner to send with her when she flies. That should be easy enough. Yeah, right. Dr. Stern said he thought we had already left and had purged the file. He had nothing to give me. Said it would probably be easiest to just get her another rabies shot. He was able to tell me the chip manufacturer, though. So I took Lucy back to Dr. Muliken for another rabies shot with certificate and ordered a scanner for the chip through an online company. I then had to FedEx all of Lucy's paperwork to the USDA in Harrisburg for authorization. The vet there stamped it A-OK and FedExed it back to me.

Thinking all was fine, I left on Friday for Virginia (I had a great time, by the way). When I got home on Monday afternoon the scanner had arrived so I tried it out. Nothing. Tried again and again and again. Nothing. Called the company and was assured that it should work. Perhaps I should take the scanner and my cat to the vet (for the third time in a week) and let them do it. So back we go to Dr. Muliken. She can't get it to read, either! By this time I'm starting to panic a bit. It's Tuesday and Lucy is supposed to fly on Thursday. The only option is to implant another microchip that this scanner will be able to read. It won't read the ones that Dr. Muliken has so she called another vet clinic here in town and explained our dilema. After getting past the idiot at the front desk the vet there said I could bring the scanner over and see if it would read their chips. If it did he agreed to see us that evening and put in the new chip. So Lucy and I hop back in the car and drive over. I scanned one of their chips and Viola! It worked. So now we just had to wait for the vet to squeeze us in. He was very understanding. Problem solved, right? Not so fast. Now the chip number didn't jive with the paperwork. And there wasn't enough time to resubmit it to Harrisburg. Thank goodness Dr. Muliken has a good working relationship with the USDA vet. He said yes, we could just add the new chip number to our paperwork along with the number of the unreadable chip. As long as the scanner could pick up one of them, we were OK. So yesterday I had to take the paperwork back to Dr. Muliken so she could ammend it in her hand writing. Talk about cutting it close. I needed to have Lucy to Delta Cargo by 5am this morning and I finally got all the paperwork square at 3pm yesterday. Whew! OK, close but OK.
We're not done with this saga yet, but let's start on the other.....

When I got in my car yesterday morning the power steering made a god awful noise. I know enough to know that it needed power steering fluid so I added to the full line and all was fine except that then I heard a strange tapping coming from the engine. I texted Paul and he said to first check the oil. That was fine so he told me it might just be a sticky lifter and to "take it out and run the piss out of it for a few minutes and it might clear up". It did. Thank goodness. I'm selling the car in a week. It's always run great and I sure didn't need any problems now. I went about my business for the day but later in the afternoon I noticed smoke or steam or some kind of vapor coming from under the hood. Shit, that can't be good. I needed to leave for the airport at 4:30am so I had no choice but to get the car to a mechanic right then. Yep, power steering fluid leaking onto the exhaust. They couldn't do anything right then but if I wanted to bring it back in the morning.....But, but, I have to go to the airport at 4:30am! Fortunately, Sherry let me use her car to take Lucy to the airport this morning and said she would follow me down to drop the car off when the mechanic opened at 8am.

So I got up at 3:45 and Lucy and I were out the door by 4:15 along with all of our hard fought paperwork. I'm worrying about my car all the way there but I tell myself I'll get Lucy on her way and deal with the car when I get home. When we walk in the door I pull out the golden paperwork, hand it to the guy, and lift Lucy (in her kennel) onto the counter. He then tells me that I am missing the "acclimation statement" from the vet AND that her kennel is not big enough for international travel. Fine for domestic travel but not for international. The acclimation statement just says what tempurature limits the animal can handle (DUH! It has to be written out?). The bottom line was that Lucy wasn't going anywhere today. (this is getting pathetic, isn't it?) So I haul her back out to Sherry's car and we drive home feeling VERY frustrated. I crawl back into bed at about 5:30am to try for a couple more hours of sleep before I have to take the car in. Sherry followed me to the auto shop and, of course, they said they would call me when they got to it. I was so hoping that it was just a loose hose or something similarly simple and maybe, just maybe, they could get it done before my Dr. appt at 1:30 this afternoon. Yeah right....Sherry let me use her car again and they called while I was on my way to the V.A. There is a hole in the steering line and they don't really want to tackle it so I should have it towed to the dealer. Oh great! What else? Is a moose going to jump out in front me? Is a meteor going to hit me? Just shoot me now, please! There's nothing I can do until I get back from my appt so all I can do is grit my teeth and say, "Thanks, I'll have AAA come get it this afternoon". So that's my shitty day. Tomorrow I have to go get the stupid acclimation statement from the vet, go buy a bigger kennel (in Sherry's car again) and rebook Lucy's flight for Monday. The car is at the Mercury dealer now and, of course, it got there too late for them to look at it today. So they'll call me tomorrow. Please, please, please, let tomorrow be a better day than today!

Seventeen Days And Counting

I leave for Germany in seventeen days! I bought a one way ticket for October 2nd. There's not too much more to do to get ready. Sherry's next door neighbors are going to buy my car and they have agreed to wait to do the transfer until the day before I leave.

I completed all the needed paperwork for Lucy to go to Scotland with me before I left Tucson. But, of course, we need different paperwork to get her into Germany. So I had to start from square one. I've had the necessary papers filled out by the vet here in Pittsburgh and I FedExed it to the USDA in Harrisburg today to be authorized. When I get it back later this week then I can make her travel arrangements. I'm going to send her a week before I go. Nikki has agreed to pick her up from the Frankfurt airport when she arrives.

How funny that Lucy was born in Germany 18 years ago and now she's going back. I don't know how much longer we'll have *The Bitty*. Her diabetes is well controlled but ever since she had a minor surgery to remove a fairly large cyst from her neck last December she has really slowed down. Before that nobody would have ever guessed her age but, even though she came through the surgery just fine, since then she has slowed down considerably. Now she acts like an old cat. Add to that the fact that she has something going on with her left eye that may be or may not be some type of cancer. It doesn't seem to give her any pain and the only way to know for sure what it is would be to see a feline opthamologist. Because of her age and her diabetes I asked the vet who did her health check to do some extra bloodwork to check her glucose level and her liver and kidney function. Her glucose level came back fine and her kidney functions are really good considering her age but there is some enzyme in her liver that is elevated. The vet called the lab today to ask them to do another test on Lucy's blood sample that will tell us whether it's being caused by a thyroid condition. If it is we can probably control it with medication.

Given all of this, some people might not go to the expense and trouble to take her to Germany. Some might think now would be the time to throw in the towel but I'm not ready to go there yet. Yes, she's old and she doesn't always get her ass all the way into the litter box (I have to put puppy pee pads down in front of her litter box) but her diabetes is under control and the other things are still just maybes at this point. She sleeps a lot and moves slowly but her appetite is still good and she is still as needy and affectionate as ever. After 18 years together I'd rather go on the assumption that she's still got a few more years left in her. So I'll buy her a plane ticket next week and then find her a good vet when we get to Germany.

I'm going to Virginia this weekend. One more chance to hang out with my cousin for a couple of days before I leave. I'm sure there will be no drinking or tomfoolery involved. We'll probably just watch the Home and Garden channel on TV, play with the dog and maybe make a couple of trips to Walmart. Yeah, riiiight.....

Woman's Suffrage

My thanks to Amy for this email......


After your recent blog post, I thought you'd like to see this. I remember hearing about Iron Jawed Angels a few years ago but never got around to seeing it... maybe I should do a screening.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

THIS IS MOVING. HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET, IF WE EVER KNEW....

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE.

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920
that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking
for the vote.

(Lucy Burns)
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing
went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of
'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above
her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping
for air.

(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her
head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate,
Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,
when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his
guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because
they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right
to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory. loc.gov/ammem/ collections/ suffrage/ nwp/prisoners. pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because...why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'


We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

Michael and Me

Michael was here over this past weekend. We had such a good time together. He landed on Saturday morning and after a brief stop at the house to drop off his bag we headed for Cleveland, Ohio, of all places! It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Pittsburgh and that's where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located. W were so excited we were like a couple of kids on a really cool fieldtrip. The Hall of Fame did not disappoint! We spent 7 1/2 hours wandering through all the nooks and cubbies of all 6 floors, studying all the exhibits and absorbing all things Rock and Roll. We saw a couple of really good films on the history and social impact of R&R and a 60 minute film about all of the Hall of Fame inductees. The music in the films was fantastic. It was impossible to sit still in our chairs. The whole day was fabulous. I'm glad I got to go with Michael. It was a great experience for just the two of us to share.

On Sunday we went to the National Aviary here in Pittsburgh and then to the Carnegie Science Center to see the Titanic exhibition. They were both pretty cool and we enjoyed the entire day but the highlight of Michael's whirlwind visit was definitely our trip through Rock and Roll history.

He flew back to Seattle at noon on Monday. It was a short visit but any time I get to spend with one of my kids is wonderful. I love to be with all three of them together but just as important to me are the times when I get one on one time with each of them.

Yesterday's Dream Lives On

Today is the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's most famous speech, the words of which are just as stirring today as they were when Dr. King first delivered them from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of 250,000 people gathered on the Washington Mall. Take a moment to read this most historic and inspiring speech.....

I Have a Dream

August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.

Watch the Full 16-min video of Martin Luther King's famous I Have a Dream Speach

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. [Applause]

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

My Right To Vote

Eighty-eight years ago today US Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification of the nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution.

That amendment reads:

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

The women of 19th century America struggled for more than 70 years, beginning in 1848, for the right to vote. The women of 21st century America are the beneficiaries of their victory. Our right to vote is a gift from our great great grandmothers.

As November approaches remember their struggle. When election day arrives celebrate their victory. Vote! Anyone who knows me knows my political preference. I'm not saying here "Vote for my candidate". I'm simply saying "Vote". It is your right as an American woman.

A Detour

Definition: An alternate path of travel used while a regular path of travel is temporarily closed.

I had planned on being in Scotland by now to start school on September 1st. The first year student orientation was this past weekend. But, as we all know, Life has a way of sometimes throwing us a curveball. I was banking on the fact that my dad's house would sell over the summer and we could have gotten his estate all wrapped up by the time I needed to leave. No such luck in this current crappy real estate market. So I got a deferment from the University of the Highlands and Islands until the fall of '09. As you can imagine, I'm very disappointed about not being able to get to Scotland this year but I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason and, for some reason, I'm just not meant to go this year. That being said, the next question is "What the hell do I do with myself for the next year?" Well....

Option #1
Seattle
After all I do have kids there. It would be nice to be close to Michael and Shauna for a while and since I'm originally from the Pacific Northwest it would feel very much like going home. But I feel like spending the next year in Seattle would be just marking time. And, to be truthful, that's why I hatched this hair-brained scheme of mine. Because I saw my life not really going anywhere. I was just marking time, plodding along from one day to the next, living somewhere because that's where Life and circumstances had dropped me. Not really living life but simply existing in life. I had reached my own point of critical mass. It was time to take control of my life and do what I wanted instead of just following the path of least resistance.
Just because things have not followed my predetermined timeline does not mean that I'm going to go back to killing time. So, as much as I would love to be near a couple of my kids, Seattle is not the place for me.

Option #2
Vieques.
It really is like paradise and Karen could sure put me to work there. It would also be fun to look back afterward and say, "Yeah, I did that. I spent a year living and working on a small Caribbean island." But, honestly, as much as I love to visit there, Vieques is not the place for me either. The ever present intense level of humidity would get to me and I think I'd go island crazy before too long.

Option # 3
Germany!
It would, at least put me back in Europe, where I really want to be. I've lived there before and loved it and, again, I have a kid there. Nik and I talked about it a lot while I was visiting in June. The rules for getting a long term visa are not as strict in Germany as they are in the UK (in my case, virtually impossible until I'm a student). We brainstormed about how I could earn a living while I'm there. My German language skills are OK but not good enough to just jump into total immersion and function at a competent level. So it's not like I could just walk in and apply for a job somewhere. But there is a need for native English speakers. Germans learning English need an avenue by which to practice what they are learning in structured classes. It's called English for Conversation. Since Nikki is an English teacher she sees the need firsthand. She already has several potential clients for me once I get there.
It will also be a pretty good Life skill for me....to do more listening and less talking! I watched Nikki with a couple of her students at an informal appt over lunch one day. She contributed just enough to the conversation to keep it going but encouraged her students to do most of the talking by asking them questions. In learning a new language understanding comes much quicker than production so learners need the opportunity to speak the new language in a practice situation much more than they need to hear it. What a fun way to make a living. Spend time with people from another culture and help them with their English skills! And it's not like the German culture is a foreign one to me. The six year period when I lived there the first time was a wonderful experience. Even though my ultimate goal is to live in Scotland I'm very excited about just getting back to Europe. There just isn't anywhere here in the States that calls to me and says, "Come here. You should live here." It really hit me one day when I was sitting at a cafe at the Castle above Heidelberg a couple of months ago. I was sitting there soaking in the view and thinking about how happy I was to be back in Europe and I suddenly realized just how ready I am to leave the States again on a long term basis. I knew that, even though I still had some really fun summer travels ahead of me, I would be counting the weeks or months til I could get on a plane again headed back across the Atlantic. That's why I'm going back to Germany for the next year. I'm not choosing Nikki over Shauna and Michael. I'm choosing Europe over the States. At least for the next 5 years. I'm sure I'll come back at some point to live here again but now is not the time. Now is the time for me to get my second European adventure started with a year in Germany and then to realize my ultimate dream of 4 years in Scotland.

I'll be in Pittsburgh until the end of September. Steve's birthday is on the 18th (he'll be 17!) and I want to get back to Virginia to see Paul one more time before I leave. After that....pull out the passport and pack the cat!

Happy Birthday To Me!

August 25th, 1957.
How many times in my life have a written that date? Who knows! I have to be careful when I have to write "today's date" on something on my birthday. I'll write August 25th and if I'm not thinking about what I'm doing, instead of writing the current year, I'll just continue with 1957 (I sure hope I'm not the only person who does such a dorky thing).

I played around and found out that, not only do I share a birthday with the incomparable Scottish actor Sean Connery, but also....

Tim Burton
Elvis Costello
Gene Simmons
Regis Philbin
Monty Hall
Leonard Bernstein
Ludwig II (the mad king of Bavaria!)
and, last but not least,....
Ivan the Terrible (first Tzar of Russia)

I wonder if any of them make (or made!) the same mistake when writing "today's date"?
Maybe I should call Sean and we could go for a drink and discuss it......

Today is also National Parks Day. In honor of my birthday (I'm sure that's the reason) you can visit any national park today without having to pay the normal entrance fee!

The End of Summer

It sure has been a great summer. I started my travels the middle of June in Virginia at Paul's with extended family. From there I went to visit Nikki and Bert in Germany where Nik and I made a little side trip to Paris. Two days after I landed back in Pittsburgh I was off to Paul's again for a couple of days before I flew to Seattle to see all my kids there. Then it was on another plane to Colorado to spend a week with Ruth and Bill. After a one night layover back in Seattle I flew back to D.C. for another weekend with Paul and a day out on the boat. That Monday I drove back to Pittsburgh for another 'one overnight' and left for Vieques the next morning. Two weeks on a small Caribbean island is definitely a very good way to end the summer.

So here I am, back in the Burgh with summer coming to a close. Some of you may be wondering when I'm leaving for Scotland. Well, there is a little detour in the coming year.....

Hola de Veiques

I hope you have a few minutes 'cause this is a long one.....

So here I am, sitting on the beach in Vieques staring out over the Carribean Ocean. This island is so peaceful and a world away from, well, the rest of the world. Vieques has so far escaped the
over-developement that has engulfed most of the Carribean Islands. It's only about 20 miles long and 5 miles wide and most tourists get no closer to Vieques than the main island of Puerto Rico which is about 6 miles to the north of this sleepy little island. Those who do find their way here do so because they are looking for the peace and tranquility that can't be found on the more well known islands, such as St. Thomas, St. Crouix, Antiguia or Barbados.

Vieques has no nightclubs, no Starbucks, no McDonalds, no malls, no golf courses, no casinos, no resorts, and no highrise condominiums. Not even a movie theater. What it does have is 56 miles of gorgeous coastline that includes dozens of inlets, bays and breathtaking beaches. Because most of the rest of the world has yet to discover Vieques it is not unusual to find yourself the only person on whatever beach you have chosen for the day, especially during the week when the local residents are mostly working and the kids are in school.

The *hub* of the island is the town of Isabel Segunda which has everything one would expect to find in a small town: a bank, schools, a police station, a medical clinic, family owned restaurants, etc. There are a handful of grocery stores (not supermarkets) on the island as well as hardware stores, several small beauty salons, a couple of gas stations and whatever else the local population deems necessary for daily living.
On the other side of the island from Isabel II is the even smaller town of Esperanza with its open air restaurant/bars that face the water.

The tourists who do come and the people who live here have 2 choices of transportation to get to and from the Big Island: a small 8-10 passenger plane that makes 3 or 4 trips a day or the ferry which also runs several times a day (both times I've been here I've flown in on the little *puddle jumper* plane from San Juan).

Catering to the tourists are a couple of car rental places, locally owned and operated sightseeing/tour businesses, small hotels/guesthouses and a fair number of pretty pricey vacation rental houses. These houses are mostly located in the hills that make up the ridge that runs about center of the island from one end to the other.

My friend, Karen, is a transplant from Arizona who moved to Vieques almost 6 years ago. She has built herself quite a nice business here by *managing* 17 of these vacation homes for the absentee owners. She has a team of about 9 people who work for her and she sees to the the care and maintenence of the houses when they are empty as well as readying them for the arrival of the owners coming for vacation or renters who have contracted with the homeowners for the use of the house, usually for about a week at a time. Most of the houses that Karen manages are used as vacation rentals on a regular basis. She also does the meet and greet for the arriving guests and is their contact should they need information or assistance during their stay. After they leave she and her team clean and close up the house OR work like madmen to turn it around and ready it for the next group or family who sometimes arrive later that same day. She stays very busy to say the least! The owners of these beautiful houses range from nationally known politicians to people in the entertainment industry or big business to just plain people with big bucks.

As luck would have it, just as I was planning my visit to the island, Karen, on behalf of the owners, was arranging for some outside plastering to be done to one of the houses as well as the installation of some new windows. With all of the scaffolding up the owners were a little uncomfortable with the house being unoccupied while the work was being done. But they couldn't very well have scaffolding up and workmen around while they had paying guests. "Weeell," says Karen, "I have just the solution for that".
So......guess who gets to stay at this lovely big house with its beautiful hilltop ocean view? The work is going on at the back of the house and I'm gone most of the day anyway so I hardly even notice that anything is being done. I just wanted to come visit my friend in paradise and here she sets me up with a gorgeous house and even made an arrangement with one of her other clients for my use of their car while I'm here!

It's been really nice to see Karen again. We've stayed in touch since she left Tucson (she better than me) and she's a really good friend. I've been promising her that I would come back to visit ever since she moved here; about 5 months after the first time I came with her (my first time, not hers) to visit her cousin, Colleen, who has now lived on Veiques for about 20 years. I'm just wondering why it took me 6 years to get back here. But I'm here now and savoring every minute of my visit.

Life is good!

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One Of Life's Little Nuggets

I left Colorado last Thursday. After a one night stopover back in Seattle I flew to D.C. on Friday. To fly to Seattle and back on my free ticket from Alaska Airlines I had to leave from Washington D.C. because Alaska doesn't fly out of Pittsburgh. That was OK with me. It just gave me a reason to spend a couple of days with Paul and company before I left and again after I got back. So I left my car with them in Haymarket and my cousin played airport taxi for me.

Paul picked me up from Reagan National Airport Friday night and we got back to his house around 10:30pm. Genelle had planned a suprise birthday luncheon for her mother, Wanda, on Saturday afternoon so her sister and two little nephews had flown in from Los Angeles for the the weekend. Julianne and the boys had the guest room upstairs so I slept on the futon in the *man cave*(Paul's recording studio in the basement). I guess nobody thought to tell Zach about the sleeping arrangements 'cause the next morning he said he spent most of the night sleeping on the couch in the living room until he somehow realized that I wasn't sleeping in his room like the last time they had a houseful of people (for his graduation party in June). That weekend Paul's parents were in the master bedroom, Paul and Genelle moved upstairs to the guest room, Paul's sister Shelley and her husband Steve were in the man cave and I got Zach's room. Not quite so much juggling to do this weekend but somehow poor Zach never got the room assignments!

As usual, after everyone else turned in, Paul and I ended staying up till the wee hours of the morning drinking beer, listening to music and hanging out in the man cave. It was a lot of fun but the next morning I was definately feeling it. By the time we left for Wanda's party I was pretty sure I could keep food down but I knew I wasn't drinking anything that day. Paul kept trying to get me to have a beer with lunch and after I said I just couldn't for about the 10th time he made me say out loud, "I'm a wienee". So after making me verbally humiliate myself, did he quit? Noooo........then he wanted me to do a shot of tequila with him in the bar. After about 6 No's I finally said OK. You should have seen how he twisted my arm! After a while Zach comes to find us. He has this accusing look on his face and says, "You left me alone......with all old people". I had to laugh. He did it with such a straight face.

That night Genelle, Julianne, Austin and I got into a very weird game of some kind of gin rummy while Paul snored on the couch. We didn't finish until after 1:30am so it was another late night for me.

Paul and his friend Scott (who I've met before and like very much) both own speed boats so the next day we had 8 adults, 3 teenagers and 4 littler kids out on the Potomac river on the 2 boats. Add one tube to pull behind one of the boats and you have the makings for a really fun day. Those who didn't want to ride the tube stayed on Scott's boat which was anchored in one place. Those who wanted to ride got on Paul's boat. The women all elected to stay stationary but this just looked like too much fun to me. Never one to turn down a new experience, I had to try it! The tube holds 2 people so the first time I rode Paul went with me and Scott drove the boat. The second time Scott went with me and Paul drove. Of course, both times, whichever one was driving, they each did their best to scare the crap out of me without actually dumping me into the river. I think it worked, too. It was all I could do to keep myself from screaming like a girl as the boat would make a tight circle and the tube would go flying out to the side in reaction to it. I'm not sure exactly how fast we were going but from where I sat it was plenty fast enough! And I would just like to say now that Paul and Scott both got thrown out while I managed to stay IN the tube both times I rode ( I think the only reason I didn't get thrown was because I had a death grip on the handles! But don't tell my cousin that) . What a blast!!

When we finally called it a day Genelle, her sister and kids and Austin went to Genelle's parents house for the evening and Paul and I went home to shower, eat pizza and watch the Redskins play the Colts in the Hall of Fame game. The Redskins won.

You never know what nuggets Life will hand to you when you least expect them. Who would have thought that, in losing my dad, I would meet my cousin for the first time at his memorial, that we would hit it off so completely that first day and that I would then end up so close to him on the East Coast? Or that over the last few months we would have gotten to know each other, not just as cousins, but as really good friends? I think Paul will be one of the people I miss the most when I leave for Europe. But the good part is that, no matter what, he will always be my cousin and we'll always be friends.

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Higher And Higher

It's been over a week since I last visited my blog and I think it's time for a little catch up.

Let's see, where was I?... Oh yes, I was in Colorado with Ruth and Bill. It was a great visit, as usual. Ruth and I went to Glenwood Springs three different times. Driving through the Glenwood Canyon still just leaves me in awe. The first time I traveled through that amazing corridor it was a good thing that I wasn't driving. It was still just a narrow and winding 2 lane road that hugged the earth between the side of the canyon and the river. And there I was hanging out the car window with my camera, snapping pictures at every turn, trying to capture every nuance of the visual feast that Mother Nature had laid out before me. I still experience that same sense of wonder whenever I go through the canyon. The towering cliffs on either side are an amazing shade of red with just enough green trees to set off the hue of earth. These days, though, it's no longer a little 2 lane road but a continuation of Interstate 70 with 2 lanes in either direction, the westbound lanes sometimes elevated above the eastbound. And it is still a feast for the eyes.

I got to see some new places, too. One day Ruth took me up over Cottonwood Pass. I have heard the pass mentioned over the years and wanted to see it for myself. For the first 10 miles or so it's just a very pretty drive on a paved road up and up around the mountain just to the south of Glenwood Canyon. Nothing but cattle ranches and natural terrain for as far as the eye can see with the monstrous Mt. Sopris off in the distance. Very serene......until the *maintained* road runs out. By this time you're up pretty high and the dirt road starts getting really rough. It hugs the side of the mountain with a sheer drop on the other side. I can't imagine what one does if another car comes from the other direction. Fortunately I didn't have to find out. Once you reach the summit the road starts to gently descend the other side and eventually gets easier to travel again. More cattle ranches. And then you see the valley up behind Gypsum spreading before you. You pop out on Gypsum Creek Rd. just a couple of miles from the house. Pretty cool!

Ruth also took me up Brush Creek to Sylvan Lake, another area I have heard about but had never seen. It's a beautiful drive and once again I had my camera earning its keep!

We had lots of time to just hang around the house too. I got my political fix watching politcs on TV with Bill and discussing the election. During my week stay the 3 of us also managed to get to the antiques show at Beaver Creek over the weekend and drive up to the quaint little town of Redstone for lunch on another day.

Ruth and I had planned on doing a lot of hiking but 2 days after I arrived she broke her kneecap by falling when she tripped on a rock! Fortunately she won't need surgery but she will spend the next 4-6 weeks in a leg brace that goes from the top of her thigh down to the middle of her calf. So hiking was definately out but, as you can tell, we still found plenty to do! The hard part was and still is to convince Ruth to try to stay off her leg. There she is every day out back taking care of her yard and all her gardens. She can't get down on her knees and pull weeds so she brought out a long handled hoe. The one big thing that she has had to give up for the duration is her yoga, which she usually does every morning. It's a little hard to turn yourself into a pretzel when you can't bend one leg!

The kids and are all going back for Christmas this year, with Steve and Bert in tow. Winter wonderland, here we come!

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Rocky Mountain High

There is something almost magical about this part of Colorado, from Vail all the way west through the canyon and to Glenwood Springs. I've been coming here for almost 30 years now and it never seems to lose its wonder. I'm not sure if I love it more when the valley is in all of its 'Winter Wonderland' glory with several feet of snow quietly blanketing the landscape or at this time of year, the heighth of a perfect summer. As I sit here on the patio I hear several different kinds of birds calling out. A dozen or so hummingbirds are buzzing around their little feeders and Ruth's gardens are all basking in their summer beauty. No matter what the season, it seems, this is such a peaceful retreat from the rest of the world.

Of course, I'm sure a lot of the atmosphere here has to do with who we come to visit. Ruth and Bill have created this nature filled oasis, just outside of Gypsum, bit by bit, since they bought this house and two acres 27 years ago. The flower gardens, vegetable gardens, chickens, goats, dogs and cats have all flourished under their loving and constant care. They are the reason my kids and I keep coming back to the valley in which their father and his seven brothers and sisters were raised. My (former) mother-in-law is truly my hero. At 76 years young Ruth still amazes me. She has the energy and physical stamina that would put most 30 year olds to shame and even after eight kids she has a better figure than I ever dreamed of having. She hikes all over these mountains during the summer and in the winter dons her cross country skis or snowshoes.

Ruth and Wades father Dale moved their large family from Wisconsin to Vail 40 years ago and, though all but one of her children have left this part of Colorado, Ruth has continued to thrive here in the life that she and Bill have built over the almost 3 decades that they have been married. I have been fortunate to see my friendship with her strengthen and continue to grow over the years and I am always so pleased when we find similarities between the two of us. Other than my children, her opinion of me is probably more important to me than is that of anyone else in my life. I can't express how loved I feel when she introduces me to someone and says that I'm like another daughter to them.

Though Ruth was married to Dale for the first 30 years of her adult life, she found her mate when she met Bill Moran shortly after her divorce. Bill shares her love of Colorado, dogs and their home. This Rocky Mountain Retreat that continues to draw my kids and me back year after year has been a joint labor of love between the two of them. It would not have been possible for either of them alone to create, but together they have coaxed their common dream into reality.

And so here I am, in one of my favorite places with two of my favorite people.

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The Travels Continue......

I'm sitting on Ruth and Bill's back patio up on this beautiful hill just outside of Gypsum Colorado. Today is Monday and I arrived here last Tuesday from Seattle.

I had such a good time spending two weeks in Seattle with all of my kids. Nikki flew out to Green Bay on the same day that I flew to Denver. On Saturday of the last weekend all 3 kids, Steve and I went downtown to do the obligitory Seattle Harbor tour. They had all taken the tour before but I hadn't and it was a perfect day to be out on the water. So we bought our tickets, boarded the boat and found great seats on the upper deck in preparation for the 1 hour tour. The running commentary from the guide was very interesting but the young woman with the microphone had the most annoying voice! Everyone has their own personal cadence when speaking and this girl was very slow and deliberate. It seemed like she drew out every word to twice its natural length. Aside from that it was an enjoyable hour. We even got to see 3 bald eagles, 2 adults and a juvenile, sitting on a barge that was anchored out in the harbor. After the tour we poked around Pike Place Market for several hours. There was lots to see and do.

The next day we drove over to the peninsula to Sequim, Wa. to the annual Lavender Festival. We visited four different lavender farms and I think we ate our way through each one! We had lavender sausages, lavender chicken, lavender grilled salmon, lavender ice cream, lavender cheesecake and let's not forget the lavender margueritas!! Lavender has a very light flavor and who knew you could use it the same way you use any other garden herb? Well, evidently just about everybody except me. I thought it was used only to make things smell good. I had no idea you could cook with it, too! The last thing we did was to visit one of
U-Pick fields so Shauna could take home her own little bundle of freshly picked fragrance.

On Monday evening we grilled at Steve and Shauna's with Ron and his younger brother, Orrie. After dinner Amy came over. She stayed the night so to be there in the morning to take Nikki and me to the airport. I didn't get to spend as much time with Amy as I would have liked to this visit. Michael and 2 others are still renting her townhouse but Amy herself moved in with John several months ago and now lives in Issiquah, which is a bit south of Seattle. So it was nice for Nikki and me to get a little more time with her just before leaving town.
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Public Transportation and Free Food

Seattle is one of those cities that has a great bus system. People here ride the bus, not because their car is broken down or because they don't own one or because they've had their license suspended for one too many DUIs; they ride the bus because it is economical, environmentally responsible and available. The transit system website is easy to use. So figuring out which bus to catch and where to make your transfer is just a piece of cake. Nikki and I have ridden the bus all over town this week while all of our peeps were occupied with their daily obligations. We rarely had to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for the next bus to come along. Of course, Nik is used to public transit. She rides the Strassenbahn (streetcar) in Ludwigshafen every day. It is her primary mode of transportation. I remember riding the city bus as a teenager in Salem and I've used public transportation in lots of European cities but, as an adult, I've not lived in an American city that has a decent bus system. I know lots of cities in the Northeast have mass transit systems that are integral parts of their personalities but few cities in the West can make the same claim. Hooray to Seattle and her citizens!

And now to free food.....as you all know (because I have bragged ad nauseam), Shauna works for Google. One of the many perks of being a Googler is that there is free food everywhere all the time. All the snack foods (both healthy and not so healthy) you can imagine, drinks of every kind and what they call micro kitchens containing quick and easy foods should anyone get hungry in between the free breakfast, lunch and dinner that is offered every day. Needless to say, Shauna doesn't do much cooking at home. She eats at work. I joined her for lunch last Thursday. The salmon was delicious. Yesterday Michael, Nikki and I had dinner with her. BBQ ribs! Nikki and I were downtown this afternoon when Shauna texted us to say that tonight's main dinner entree would be prime rib. Would we care to join her? We absolutely made a point of being there at the appointed hour. Hooray to Google and her chefs!

Hangin' In Seattle

I love the Pacific Northwest! Since I grew up in Oregon, coming to Washington always feels a little like coming home. It's been very interesting spending the last several months on the East Coast. There is definitely a difference in the day to day atmosphere of life between the two sides of this huge country of ours. I don't think I'm articulate enough to put it into words but anyone who has lived on both coasts knows what I'm talking about. Neither one is right or wrong, better or worse, just different. It's all in what you're used to, I guess, and except for my six years in Germany I have spent my life on the West Coast. I've lived in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. Even though I spent more years in Arizona then in any of the other states my formative years were spent in the NW, so no matter where life takes me this will always be 'where I'm from'.

I arrived in Seattle on Wednesday last week and Nikki got here the next evening. On Saturday we toured the Boeing factory (Michael has worked at Boeing since early April). It was pretty cool to see the whole process of putting planes together. The assembly hangar is huge. It's divided into five different bays but the whole building is so big that you could put the entire Disneyland park inside of it and still have twelve acres left over for parking!

On Sunday Nikki, Shauna and I went to the Highland Games in Skagit County about an hour north of Seattle. Americans and Canadians of Scottish ancestry but the music was fairly authentic and they had lots of men in kilts throwing big heavy things so we could, at least, pretend we were in Scotland! That evening the three of us and Michael went to the Space Needle to oooo and ahhhh at the view of Seattle and the surrounding area from 520 ft up. We saw the Cascade mountains to the east and the Olympic mountains to the west. It was a really clear evening so Mt. Baker and Mt. Ranier were both visible. We watched the ferries cross Elliott Bay and looked through the telescope to Shauna's apt across Lake Union. We texted Steve at home so he and his friend, Josh, went up to the roof and waved like madmen at us. We waved back but I don't think they saw us back. We were up there long enough to watch the sun go down and see Seattle light up after dark.

Shauna lives on one side of Lake Union and her office is about three miles away on the other side of the lake. She jokes that if she owned a kayak commuting would be really easy! As it is, though, she usually walks (or takes the bus if the weather is bad). Nikki and I have walked her to work each day this week. It's a really nice walk there and back. We stop at the Starbucks around the corner for our morning coffee and just yak, yak, yak all the way to Google. About half of the way there and back is a walking/ biking path that hugs the perimeter of the lake. We are going to meet her at work this evening for dinner. Google feeds its employees (and their occasional guests) for free three times a day. BBQ ribs tonight! After dinner we'll meet Michael and Steve at Hale's Ales!

Amy moved way to the other side of Seattle so Nik and I haven't gotten to see her yet, but she is going to take Friday off (she works at Microsoft) and the three of us will go hiking.

This coming Saturday we are going back up to Skagit County to the annual Lavender Festival and then on Sunday we're going to do the Harbor Tour. Last time I was here it was Xmas and cold. Not the kind of weather in which to even think about going out on the water (brrrr!) but it's gorgeous this time of year!

Arlington National Cemetary

I'm back in D.C. I drove over from Pittsburgh to Paul's house in Haymarket, Va. yesterday. We had a fun evening. Paul's band had practice last night. He has a recording studio in his basement that I have dubbed 'The Man Cave'. But you can't just say it normally. You have to deepen your voice and say it in a 'manly' manner. Anyway, it's been a long time since I've sat around and watched a band rehearse. It was a lot of fun. We all shared the two bottles of Weisen Bier that I brought back from Germany. The guys loved it. Bert, you would have been so proud of my pour!
Paul dropped me off at Arlington around noon today. I didn't get to see it when I was here in April so it was a good way for me to spend the afternoon while Paul was working. I saw the burial site of JFK, the Tomb of the Unknowns and did a tour of Arlington House, the home of Robert E. Lee and his wife before the civil war. It is all quite interesting and very historic. The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns is very solemn and moving to say the least. I also visited the Women in Military Service Memorial. It is its own building and tells the story of women in service from the Revolutionary War until the present. Though my time in the Air Force was relatively short, I was proud to be standing in that building knowing that I was a part of that story.
I'll spend this evening with Paul and Genelle (Zach and Austin are out of town), then Paul will take me to the airport tomorrow morning to catch my flight to Seattle. But first, we have two more bottles of good German beer to drink!
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Observations

A word about blogging.... I just spent some time cruising through Amy's blog and then Steve Randall's blog. They both have a certain flavor in common with Nikki's blog that I admire. Nikki, Amy and Steve all use their blogs to not only record what they're doing but also what they're thinking. They blog about their observations of their surroundings, the people they come in contact with and just their thoughts on life in general. Sometimes the posts are thought provoking and sometimes they are just entertaining. I laughed out loud at Steve's post called To Own The Day (from June 29th) where he compares his actions with that of Jack Bauer from the TV show 24. Amy's post on July 3rd titled Fie on 'clean' is very self examining in a way that causes the reader to examine their own thoughts on the merits of cleaning. And, of course, I'm always a huge fan of everything Nikki writes.

My blog, on the other hand, seems to be merely a record of what I'm doing. "First I did this, then I did that". I'd like to do more observing within the framework of blogging and not just recording. I don't know if it's a matter of practice or if perhaps these three are just more introspective than I am. Maybe I care too much what other people think to put my naked thoughts out there to be analyzed, with all their blemishes and cottage cheese thighs, by anyone who happens by (or worse yet by people who know me!). I'm not sure, but it's something I would like to try a bit more of in the future. For now, though, it's almost midnight and the only thing I need to observe is my pillow! Thoughtfulness and introspection will have to wait until tomorrow!

Life Is What Happens......

Happy (day after) 4th of July everyone! I spent the day yesterday traveling back from Germany but I hope you all enjoyed your celebrations, whatever you did.

So here I am, back in Pittsburgh, and missing Nikki already. I really had a great visit with her and Bert. It was good to see Nik in the day to day life that she has made for herself. When she went to Germany in Sept of '06 it was for 9 months. None of us really thought she would be ready to leave after so short a stay so it wasn't surprising when she began looking for permanent work that would allow her to stay longer. And there was the little matter of that tall handsome German to whom her heart was not willing to say good-bye! Love doesn't always show up only when and where it is most convenient. So she just left her return date open ended. She wasn't sure when she would *come home* but eventually..... And I think, without realizing it until now, that's how I've continued to think of her stay in Germany. Longer than a year but still just temporary. Until now. Funny how Life has a way of its own. After spending a couple of weeks with her it is evident that there is nothing temporary about this new life of hers. It just IS her life. Though she misses her family, she has no problem signing a two year cell phone contract or buying furniture with Bert or doing any of the myriad of other things that one does in their daily life when they are settled in somewhere. That's not to say that she will never live in the States again. Who knows? But it's pretty certain that it won't be any time soon. Nikki is not just marking time over there or *having the experience* of living in another country for a while. This is her life and she's happy. And as her mother I could wish for nothing more!

The Week That Was

Well, it has been a very busy week since Nikki and I returned from Paris last Sunday. That evening Bert, Nikki and I went with their friend, Nadja, to an outdoor beer garden to watch Germany play Turkey in the European semifinal soccer match. The restaurant had set up a big screen outside and the atmosphere was very festive. We ate, drank and cheered our team on to victory and a place in the final match. The walk home after the game was absolutely wild with excitement! People spilled into the streets to celebrate. Cars filled with exuberant fans waving flags and honking horns zoomed all through the town. It was a beautiful summer night and the celebrations lasted well into the wee hours of the morning.
The final Championship match was played last night between Germany and Spain. We watched the match with Nadja again, at the same biergarten. Alas, a victory for Germany was not in the cards. The final score was 1-0 in favor of Spain.

On Tuesday I went with Nikki to Heidelberg. She teaches classes in Business English at the Fachhochschule (a university of applied sciences) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her time was committed from 9:30am until 2:30pm so I busied myself in the pedestrian shopping area with a bit of window shopping, a bite to eat and then a visit to the castle which is one of those must see venues to anyone playing tourist in this part of Germany. When I worked for the USO our tour to the Heidelberg Castle was one of our most popular. It's construction was begun in the early 13th century and it has a history of destruction and rebuilding over the next 500 years or so. The castle sits on a hill overlooking the town and it is a 262 ft. climb to get there. You can reach the castle by way of 3 different routes. You can walk a cobblestone path, climb the stairs or you can take the tram.
The castle hosts over 3,000,000 visitors a year, mostly from the U.S. and Japan and boasts the world's largest wine barrel. The barrel is over 27 ft long and 24 ft high and has a capacity of 55,345 gallons of wine! I took a one hour guided tour of the castle and then poked around a while on my own afterward until it was time to meet up with Nikki back down in the center of town. We chose one of the many outdoor cafes and enjoyed a late lunch before returning to Ludwigshafen on the train.

On Mondays and Wednesdays Nikki teaches English (at various levels) to employees of the chemical company BASF, which has its world headquarters here in Ludwighafen. One of her classes is comprised of only 2 students who knew very little English when she began with them. Nikki normally meets with Swen and Wolfgang in one of the classrooms on the BASF campus (it's huge!) but since it's summertime and the weather is so beautiful she and they decided to meet outdoors for lunch this week. Their goal is to become proficient at conversational English so chatting over lunch becomes not only instructional but a practical experience. And by having me along it gave them both the opportunity to speak English with someone unknown to them as well as their instructor. Swen and Wolfgang are friends outside of work and like to travel. On their agenda in the next couple of years is a trip to Scotland for a week of hiking! We had a very enjoyable lunch and it was fun to watch Nikki teach under the guise of conversation.

On Thursday afternoon Bert took off from work a couple of hours early and he and I went bike riding along the Neckar river. We biked about 10 miles and stopped in a little town called Ladenburg. The town was on the other side of the river so we crossed with our bikes by ferry. The ferry was big enough to carry 2 or 3 cars plus a number of people. We left our bikes in the middle of the town and spent about an hour exploring the medieval town by foot. Though the evidence is not concrete, Ladenburg claims to be one of the oldest towns in Germany. It was lovely and we took some wonderful pictures. After a while we stopped at a little outdoor cafe for something to drink and to just sit and enjoy the early evening. We boarded the train, with our bikes, a little after 8pm. Nikki had just finished up with a meeting in Mannheim so she hopped on our train when we pulled into the station and the three of us finished the ride to Ludwighafen together.
After returning home Nikki and I decided to go for a walk. We walked over the the Park Insel (island) and spent about an hour just strolling around the perimeter (a couple of miles) and talking (of course!). When we left the Park Insel we wandered back across the bridge and settled ourselves at an outdoor table of yet another cafe for some coffee and tea. When our waitress heard my accent she asked if I was from America. She told us her boyfriend is an American soldier from North Carolina. He is stationed here but has been deployed to Iraq since September. We had quite a long conversation with her in a mixture of English and German. Most of my conversations with anyone but Nikki and Bert tend to be a mish mash of the two languages.

Nik has no teaching obligations on Fridays. She usually uses the day to prepare lessons for the following week but this Friday was consumed with packing in preparation for the big move to their new apartment the next day. Bert had already packed most of the living room so I tackled the kitchen while Nikki concentrated on the bedroom and bathroom. This small one bedroom apt was quite sufficient for Bert when he lived alone but since Nikki moved in a year ago it has just gotten more and more crowded. Time for a bigger apt!

We were up early on Saturday and ready to get started by the time about half dozen of their friends arrived to help with the move. Moving day is always a lot of work but when there is a group of people helping it can also be a lot of fun. I really like Nikki and Bert's friends. We all worked hard and the English and German just sort of floated around amidst the laughter. Around noon Nikki and Nadja and I walked to the grocery store from the new apt and picked up picnic food to feed the troops. We laid out quite a spread and everyone took a break for lunch. Then it was back to work! Once everything had been transported and everyone had been thoroughly thanked, hugged and plied with beer before they departed, it was time to put the furniture back together. Martin stayed behind to help Bert with the bedroom wardrobe. German bedrooms don't have built in closets. So the closet is a free standing piece of furniture. And this one is enormous! It covers one entire wall with doors and drawers and hanging spaces and a full length mirror.

This apt is wonderful. Much bigger than the one they just left. It's a split floor plan with the master bedroom and bathroom on one side, a large living room, kitchen and dining area in the middle and the second bedroom and bathroom on the other side. The floors are a very nice light hardwood and Nikki chose very pretty warm paint colors for the walls. Since Nikki does so much work at home preparing for classes she is just giddy about having her own office where she can retreat and spread out. She feels a little guilty about claiming the extra room for herself since Bert doesn't get an equal space but Bert is already calling it 'Nik's office' and insists that it be so. It will, of course, double as a guest room when family and friends visit but its purpose is to give Nikki somewhere to work other than a corner in their bedroom.
They are on the second floor of the building and the living room and both bedrooms all have double glass doors that open onto a balcony which runs the full width of the apartment. The whole place is filled with natural light and has a very open and airy feel to it. The view from the balcony is very pretty and quite peaceful. It's also going to be a great place to entertain! Nikki and Bert are very excited about their new home and it's really sweet to watch them as they settle in and plan what they will do in this room and what they will buy for that room. I help when I can but also try to just stay out of the way sometimes and let the two of them build their nest together. It's wonderful to see Nikki so happy.

Three Days In Paris

I'm in Germany! I landed last Thursday morning in Frankfurt. After going through customs and collecting my bags I hopped the train for Mannheim to be met there by Nikki and Bert. The three of us then continued across the river to their apt in Ludwigshafen. We had a little breakfast and then Nikki and I headed back to the train station. Three and a half hours later we arrived in Paris! After a short ride on the Metro, which is the Paris subway, we emerged from the underground about half a block from our hotel. Nikki found a great deal. To find anything decent for 100 euro ($165) a night in Paris is really hard. But through her diligence she found a room for us at the Hotel de Paris for 55 euro a night!! It wasn't fancy by any means but it was, to use a military term, "clean, dry and serviceable". We spent just enough time there to shower and catch 6 or 7 hours of sleep each of the three nights we were in the city. The rest of the time we were riding the Metro all over Paris to see the sights.

As most of you already know, during the time that we lived in Germany back in the late '80's and early '90's I worked for the USO. I wore a couple of different hats during my 4 and a half years with the organization. One was that of tour guide. And one of my favorite tours to lead was to Paris....of course!! What nut wouldn't want to go to Paris as often as possible? I had the great fortune of going at least a dozen times or more. I just had to take anywhere from 20 to 40 other people on the train with me! But, Hey!, I was getting paid to go to Paris!! (Me! A kid who grew up dirt poor, dreaming of Europe (no kidding), a place where, in my child's mind, only rich people went). All that was over a decade and a half ago, though. So I was just as excited as Nikki about our 3 days in The City of Light. She went once when she was about 12 but her memories of that first visit are rather vague and are kind of snapshotish so we were excited together.

After checking into our hotel, getting some coffee, buying Metro passes and making a plan of attack we were off to see Notre Dame, the magnificent 12th century Gothic cathedral that sits on an island in the River Seine. Bridges connect the island to both the Right and Left Bank of the Seine. We elected not to ride the metro all the way to the cathedral but to get off at the river's edge so we could walk across the bridge known as the Pont de Neuf. The bridges of Paris are wonderful in themselves and should be experienced and not just viewed from the riverbank or from the window of a car or a bus. As we turned a corner and Notre Dame came into view Nikki and I said in unison, "Wow!" It is such an imposing structure. There is definitely nothing delicate about Notre Dame but its beauty is in the workmanship of the stone masons who labored for decades and sometimes died to bring into being this miracle of medieval engineering.

Next on our agenda was a stroll down the Champs Elysees, known as one of the most famous streets in the world and the second most expensive strip of real estate just behind Fifth Avenue in New York City. We began at one end at the Place de la Concorde, the largest Place, or square, in Paris. The Champs Elysees is about a mile and a quarter long and at the other end stands the Arc de Triomphe. Speaking of expensive, a stroll down the Champs Elysees should include a stop at one of the many sidewalk cafes along the way, if only for a cup of coffee and some people watching. But, Beware. We had one cup of coffee and one cup of tea and it cost us 18 euro (with tip 20 euro). That's about $33!!!!! To be fair, though, we did sit down at one of the most expensive cafes along the Avenue. But it was beautiful and perfectly located and the little sponge cakes that came with our drinks were very tasty! We sat for about an hour in the late afternoon and just watched all the people going by.

When we finally decided it was time to resume our stroll we continued in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe. The Arch was built by Napolean Bonaparte at the beginning of the 19th century to commemorate his military victories. The best part of visiting this Parisian monument is standing at the top of it and watching the crazy drivers below. About 6 or 7 streets all meet at this point like the spokes of a wheel with the Arch as the hub. The cars enter the traffic circle surrounding the monument and jockey for position to exit the circle at any of the other intersecting streets. There are no lanes and seemingly no rules. It's kind of like a grand prix free-for-all. And it's an awful lot of fun to watch! Fortunately, pedestrians access the Arc de Triomphe by way of tunnels that run under this racetrack. The alternative is harrowing just to think about!

It was almost 9pm by the time we reentered the Metro heading for our final destination of the day.....the Eiffel Tower. As with Notre Dame we could have gotten off the Metro very close to the tower but I wanted Nikki to see it from a particular vantage point so we got off at the Trocadero stop instead. From this direction you walk through the center platz of a beautiful theater, along a tree lined path on the other side that is surrounded by grassy slopes which are occupied by lots of people just hanging out and enjoying the end of the day. There is also a huge rectangular fountain that at times is alive with spouting water and spotlights after dark. Place de Trocadero is a gorgeous area with the Eiffel Tower looming at the end of the park and just across the river. The tower is huge! And the closer you get, the huger it gets until you are standing directly under it craning your neck to see the top. We paid our 12 euro each and waited in line for the glassed in elevator that would take us 180 meters (about 550 ft.) to the top of the tower. From this open air deck you can circle the peak of the tower to see the city in all its glory. It's an impressive view no matter the time of day but truly the best time to find yourself at the top of the Eiffel Tower is after dark. Paris is called the City of Light. It is always alive and awake. Consequently the entire city is lit up after dark. All of the major buildings and monuments are illuminated and easily recognized from this particular vantage point. And what a sight to behold! It was so much fun to watch Nik and see her reactions to this very unique experience. The night was warm and the wind was calm. We stayed for quite a while occasionally moving to a new position to see a different part of the city or to watch the boats cruising down the river (another activity that, in my opinion, is best experienced at night). After finally taking the elevator back down to terra firma we retraced our steps back across the river and to Place de Trocadero. To me even leaving the Eiffel Tower and walking through this open airy park setting is somehow more magical at night. Even at 11:30 on a Thursday night it is alive with people. As we headed back to our hotel on the opposite side of the city we were tired and hungry yet fully satisfied with the day. Earlier in the day we had seen a small simple cafe located next to our hotel and we were looking forward to sitting at one of the sidewalk tables and leisurely ending our day with hot food. It was 1:30am before we finally tumbled into bed that first night.

We got a bit of a late start on day two but we had only one destination....the Palace of Versailles, about 12 miles and an easy train ride from downtown Paris. Begun as a hunting lodge by Louis XIII in 1624, it was enlarged and transformed to a sumptuous chateau by Louis XIV. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived here at the time of the French Revolution in 1789. The palace is a massive example of 17th and 18th century French luxury with all of the art and statues and painted ceilings. It is a feast for the eye, especially the Hall of Mirrors. I was most anxious to explore the grounds, though. It seemed that whenever I had the opportunity to visit Versailles in the past I either didn't have enough time or it was raining or just too blasted hot to be wandering around outside and I was determined this time to see the grounds. It was a beautiful day so Nikki and I set our speedometers to stroll and set out down the path along the Grand Canal. We passed statues and fountains and gardens and groves of perfectly groomed trees. By 3pm we still hadn't seen all there was to see but I was satisfied for the time being and we needed at least a couple of hours to see the inside of the palace. So we stopped at a food stand on the grounds for one of my favorite foods in Paris, a baggette with jambon and fromagge (ham and cheese on a long chewy roll) and ate on our way back to the palace. When we had finished touring the inside we hopped on a little tram that took us to another part of the grounds and Marie Antoinette's private gardens and playground. After a very full day we departed through the gates of Versailles about 7pm. We once again ended our day at the little sidewalk cafe near our hotel, tired, happy and full.

Day three began at Sainte Chapelle, a chapel built by Louis IV in the mid 13th century. I wanted Nikki to see Sainte Chapelle after seeing Notre Dame. As beautiful as the stained glass windows are in Notre Dame, they pale in comparison to what you see when you emerge from the staircase into the upper chapel of Sainte Chapelle. 600 square meters (6456 sq. ft) of beautiful stained glass windows. Two-thirds of this stained glass is original, over 700 years old and in pristine condition. The windows of the chapel were removed and safely stored away during the revolution in 1789 and then again during WWII in anticipation of the German invasion of Paris.

From Sainte Chapelle we made our way to the Musee Rodin. I'm not really much of an art lover. I can look at a famous painting and think, "Oh, OK, that's nice, but..." I never really understand what all the fuss is about. I've been to several of the art museums in Paris, including the Louvre, but more just because I thought I should go rather than out of a real desire. That was probably the reason I went to the Rodin museum the first time, too. I don't remember. What I do remember is the way the sculptures of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) just took my breath away. For the first time in my life I was actually moved by something artistic! I could have spent hours wandering through what was once the sculptor's home, studying the minute details of his creations which were displayed throughout the house, upstairs and downstairs. I fell in love with a life sized white marble sculpture simply called The Kiss, not realizing at the time that this was one of his most famous pieces along with The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. The Thinker was the only one I had ever heard of, but before that day could not even have told you the name of the artist. Auguste Rodin was the first and so far the only artist to actually make me stop dead in my tracks and whisper a long drawn out "Wow". He was such a student of the human form. The Kiss which is made of cold white marble shows such tenderness between these two people held in each other's embrace. The man's hand laid gently on his lover's hip is one of my favorite parts of this sculpture. I wanted Nikki, who loves all forms of art, to see this artist's legacy to the world. And I wanted to go back there myself to see if Rodin's sculptures truly did move me the way I remembered or if perhaps I had just romanticized the experience over the years. They did and I hadn't! We wandered from room to room oooing and aaawing over each new discovery and pointing out little nuances as we detected them. One time I crossed the room to Nikki to say, "Oh Nik, come look at this one!" To which she looked a little perplexed and pointing to the sculpture in front of her said,"But...but...I'm looking at this one." I guess I was getting a little carried away. After satisfying our hunger for art we decided to satisfy our hunger for food at the cafe located within the gardens of the museum.

From Sculptures to Skeletons....We went from the Musee Rodin to the Paris Catacombs. Toward the end of the 18th century the population of Paris was burgeoning and more building space was needed. The cemeteries were also becoming overcrowded and because of mass open graves, improper burials and earth saturated with decomposing organic matter the residents near some of these cemeteries were getting sick. To solve both issues it was decided to close all existing cemeteries within the city and restrict new burials to 3 new cemeteries located outside of the city limits. The remains of the dead which were buried in the condemned cemeteries were disinterred, some of them hundreds of years old, and transported under the cover of darkness to a section of the underground mining tunnels beneath the city. This macabre sight has been open to the public since the late 19th century. To reach the Catacombs you first descend about 60 ft underground via a narrow stone stairway. There you begin walking through a series of tunnels which are perhaps 5 ft wide and 8 ft tall. Eventually you come to a tunnel with a sign over the entrance which reads in French Here Lies the Kingdom of the Dead. As you enter this tunnel you see stacks and stacks and stacks of human bones, mostly arm and leg bones with human skulls used to create patterns or designs in these subterranean burial walls. It is quite a sight and something definitely off the beaten path of most tourist attractions. The last time I was in Paris there was no line to get into the Catacombs. This time, however, the line of people waiting to wander through The Kingdom of the Dead was quite long. The tunnel floors were also a bit muddy back in the early '90's but now they have a nice layer of fine gravel upon which to tread. And the whole experience is just as creepy as ever.

The last thing on our agenda was to take a boat ride down the Seine River. This is also best experienced after dark so we had bought our tickets earlier in the day and planned to catch the last cruise at 10:30pm. After the Catacombs we had enough time to go back to the hotel, freshen up and grab our jackets before heading back to the docks. Did I mention that last Saturday was the Summer Solstice? In celebration of the longest day of the year there were city wide music festivals all day long and into the night. Everyone was celebrating. As we cruised along the Seine on the open air upper deck of the boat it seemed that the entire Paris population was lined along the banks of the river and both sides of every bridge traversing it. They would yell and cheer to the boat passengers as we slowly cruised past them so, of course, we would yell and cheer back at them. It was such a party atmosphere and as usual the whole city was lit up. The commentary on the boat was given in several languages and pointed out those monuments and historic buildings that were spotlighted and easily seen from the river. The river cruise lasted an hour and it was once again 11:30pm before we called it a day and returned to our hotel....with a stop at our little cafe for a late night dinner before turning in.

We left Paris at 9am on Sunday morning and settled in for a pleasant 3 1/2 hour train ride back to Germany. Fortunately the train was not crowded so Nikki and I were both able to stretch out and catch up on a little sleep before arriving in Ludwigshafen where Bert met us at the train station for the short walk back to their apartment. It was such a fun trip and totally satisfying. I have wanted to go back to Paris for so long and to be able to go with Nikki just made it all the better!

We took a ton of pictures but haven't gone through them yet. I'll post them as soon as I can.