Santa Cruz

The lineup in Santa Cruz was crazy for Memorial Day weekend and there were no waves to boot. The boot is me practicing my Canadian before we go to Vancouver in July. We spent the day on the beach and a little time in the water....I mean a real little time since the water temperature was 59 degrees, what a big difference from the ocean temperature in San Diego. Fortunately they had showers on the beach so we finally got clean after not showering for awhile. Susi and I really enjoy the California weather and relaxing on the beach. I think I have read more books on this trip then I did my whole college career, that's not really saying much though.

Sea Lions

After spending three days in Santa Barbara we drove North and off the highway we saw a drive-in movie theater so we stopped and watched two movies for a mere $12. This was the first drive-in movie Susi has ever been too and we had a great time eating dinner in Lulu and watching the movies. We have been driving up the coast along the Pacific 1 Highway and taking our time enjoying the water and the sites. The photo is of a beach were hundreds of sea lions come out of the ocean too relax and catch a few rays California style.

Happy B-Day Susi

Today is Susi's birthday .......Happy Birthday!!!!! so we headed up the coast and went wine tasting. The morning looked gloomy but as soon as we crossed over the mountains into the valley the clouds broke. A perfect day of sampling wines and eating cheese and crackers. The day won't be complete without seeing Star Wars so we drove back over the mountain and went to the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara to watch the film. The movie theatre was reminisicent of an old opera theatre decorated in terra cotta tiles and tapestries.

Baja

In the photo above from left to right is "Chocolate thunder", Katelyn, Susi and our sweet "lightning Lulu". Spent the weekend on the Baja relaxing and catching some rays and reading books. Thanks Hal and Katelyn for letting us stay at your place for the last week we had an awesome time and will hopefully meet up with you guys soon. I am also tired of hearing that I am the champion scrabble player from Susi....we played a tournament and well she won and I don't know if I will hear the end of it for the rest of my life.

Rodeo?

Well folks we are here on the West Coast, San Diego to be exact, after three separate planes and 16 hours in the air we finally made it back to our sweet Lulu. We are staying with Hal and Katelyn for a couple of days before we start heading North up the coast. Change in plans we are going to head South down the Baja with “Chocolate Thunder” Hal’s VW and “Lulu” but first we are going to a rodeo to see an old friend from grade school days, Matt Deskovick. None of the photos from the rodeo came out but it was fun and I ate my first and last fried pickles. Thanks Matt and Carly (correct me if I spelled your name wrong) for having us and hope you enjoy the chocolate. The baby in the picture is Madison their now 5 week old baby. One last correction while I am on the subject...Jay and Lisa's sons name is Donald Patrick....sorry guys.

Goodbye Germany

The photo is of Susi's parents in a garden at the Schloss Steinhoefel. We said our last goodbyes to friends and family and we are looking forward to traveling with Susi's parents in the fall. Wish we had more time to visit with everyone. We can't thank you enough Mutti and Papa for the great time we both had and how I look forward to more visits in the future with you. Vielen, Vielen Dank fuer alles!!!

Reichstag

The photo is of Susi and her sister Kati at the Reichstag in Berlin. You can walk up the spiral walkway and get a panoramic view of the entire city of Berlin. We went to see the blue man group and met up with Anne-Maria in Berlin. Thanks again Kati for the tickets Susi and I had a fun time and really enjoyed ourselves. Anne-Maria next time we will hopefully get more time to visit.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Mom and Mutti!!! We drove with the family today to the Niederfinow boat lift an engineering marvel.....yes I still am a geek at heart. This is the view from the top of the boat lift. As you can see from the photo the boats are lining up to get lifted from the lower Oder to the highest point on the Oder-Havel canal. Quite and engineering feat considering the ships are being lifted approximately 36 meters and weigh thousand of tons. The lifting process only takes 20 minutes which reduced the time required previously by utilizing the locks system. Very, very impressive!!!

We are in Germanz!!!

Sorrz about the lack of updates we are experiencing some technical difficulties please stand bz...........I need to find a wireless location in Berlin so we can update the page with photos. We are currentlz transferring data about approximatelz 2bits per second and the German kezboard is different than in America so I am going completelz nuts trzing to tzpe. If zou ever want to plaz a funnz game on someone just buz a German kezboard and install on one of zour coworkers computer.

Stop the tax!!!

Times must have been tough here in Germany when the king was taxing you for the number of windows you had in your house and the size of your home. This was the smallest home in the village. As you can see I had to bend down to get into the doorway and if I would have slept here my feet would have had to hang out a window so that I would be able to stretch out.

Harz

Here we are in the Harz mountains taking a hike. From left to right is well me then Kleine Oma, Papa and Mutti. Kleine Oma did a 10 mile hike the previous day with the family so today we thought we would take it easy on her and only do 5 miles. Quite impressive considering she will be turning 70 in a few months. We spent four days with the family hiking around in the Harz what a great time thanks again Papa and Mutti.

Brocken

Hiked today with Susi her mom (Mutti in German) and Papa (quite explanatory) and Kleina Oma (Small Grandmother) to the top of the Brocken. The hike was 10 miles long and we could of taken the train but that would be too easy so we did the hike. Rob I thought you would like this photo I took so I decided to post it. One of the great things about Germany is at the top of alot of the mountains is a resturaunt where you can sit down and have some great German beer.