Berlin, Finally

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about our trip to Berlin, which was less than a week before our trip to America. This is probably going to be pretty terse, since it was a while ago and I'm kinda in that just getting it done mode.

On the first day I was there, while Hunter was in conferences and stuff, I took Sadie to the zoo. She walked around a little bit but then eventually fell asleep. I didn't take many pictures of the animals, but this orangutan just looked really badass so I took out the camera, and then I saw the gorilla so I had to get one of him, too.

We saw the Brandenburg Gate, but were there at the time when the light was behind it, so this is the best shot we got:

And then the next two are Sadie and I in front of it.

Sadie and I with the Reichstag in the background:

And some more Reichstag:

Here I am in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall:

And some shots from Checkpoint Charlie:

Berlin seems to have an interesting relationship with its history. At the subway stop near Checkpoint Charlie, there were signs for an English language school that said "We have ways of making you talk" and "You are now entering the English sector" or something like that, which I thought was kind of weird? Like, imagine an ad for Jenga in the NY subway that says, "Don't let these towers fall!" I mean, basically what I'm saying is TOO SOON. But then again, I'm not German so maybe they just don't have the same sensitivities as I do.

They also offer tours around the city in the infamous Trabant and I saw some souvenir stands selling miniature ones. There were posters advertising, and I'm translating here, "East German products with the quality of the Federal Republic!" There is a word, ostalgie, which is a portmanteau of the German words for "east" and "nostalgia," and I definitely saw it there.

So yeah, this post isn't a comprehensive account of what we did and if one of the handful of readers out there has any specific questions, I'd be happy to address them. I just wanted to get these pictures uploaded because we're going on another trip in a week or so, and I don't want to get even more behind.

Trip to America: Highlight Reel, Part Two

I realized after I made the last post that there were some pictures I uploaded but for whatever reason didn't actually get posted. So I will post those and then move on to the California pictures.

Reading to Great-Grandma Bubbles

Ok so now here are some of the pics from the west-coast portion of the trip:

Sadie with her little buddy, Jameson

Sadie was a little scared of Goofy

Got her mouse ears on!

I think Eeyore was her favorite

She liked Winnie before he got too close

This black widow was killing a moth and it was just too cool not to take a picture of

Hanging out in the suitcase

She had a tea party with my mom. I didn't know she could dunk!

Other highlights:

We got to hang out with Hunter's brother, although somehow he managed to avoid all the pictures.

We went on the Tower of Terror, which, after childbirth, is the most I've ever felt like I might actually die.

We hung out with my high school friend Brett (somehow also no pictures) and got 2nd place at trivia in Mariposa (we should have gotten 1st but they had these dumb physical challenges).

Shut down the Dirty Donkey bar in Oakhurst which was both awesome and depressing.

Had a joint birthday celebration with my grandpa, my uncle, and me.

Saw my sister and her boyfriend (and their two cats).

I probably forgot some things. I've just been incredibly overwhelmed and backed up since we returned, so I had to make this brief. But seriously, if anyone wants more details on anything, let me know and I'll be happy to write more! I just wanted to get something down before I forgot.

Sadie's First Parade!

So, I have to apologize up front about the lack of pictures. I didn't bring my camera to the parade for a few reasons:

1) I kinda assumed Sadie would be in the carrier the whole time.

2) I wasn't sure what the parade would be like, if it would even be picture-worthy.

3) I didn't know if it would be weird for me to be taking pictures, if it was a photography-friendly environment.

I know these aren't really excuses, because I could have just brought the camera and not taken it out. But anyway.

"Karneval" here isn't really family-friendly like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. There is really only one parade for kids, and then the rest is basically like Bourbon Street. So the day after we got back from Wuerzburg, we took Sadie to the kid's parade.

Most kids and their parents were wearing costumes. I wish I had thought to bring Sadie's but again, I thought she would be in the carrier the whole time and her costume is too bulky to fit in there with her. We did end up taking her out; I assumed she would try to run into the parade but it turns out she wanted to stay with us because everything was a bit overwhelming to her. When the first float came by, and things were thrown, she freaked out a little bit, but she got used to it pretty quickly and seemed to enjoy looking at everything.

I was standing a little in front of Hunter, so when she wanted to be adventurous she would get me to hold her and then when she wanted to feel safe she would have Hunter hold her. It was really cute just watching her take everything in.

The kinds of things they throw are different from Mardi Gras throws, in that it was almost all edible. Like, we saw someone throwing a loaf of bread! We mostly got candy, as well as a 500g package of Lebkuchen (which is basically like gingerbread). There were a few bands in the parade, but nothing like the ones in New Orleans. Hunter said the parade could probably compete with Krewe de Lul, which I obviously have never seen, but yeah, there wasn't the same extravagance of floats or anything.

It was an enjoyable afternoon, and I really hope next year we can take her to New Orleans Mardi Gras.*

*Neutral Ground side 4LYFE!!

A Trip to Wurzburg

Last week, Hunter had a small conference in Wurzburg, so Sadie and I went along for the ride. It's about a four hour train trip from Aachen, and Sadie did great! She slept a bit on the longest leg, but even when she was awake she wasn't too much trouble.

Hunter's conference started not long after we arrived, so Sadie and I walked around to explore a little bit. We mostly just wandered and saw a few buildings from the outside. Hunter called to say that there was a dinner scheduled for the attendees that night, so I took Sadie to a Chinese buffet right by our hotel. I haven't seen too many buffets in Germany, and had never seen a Chinese one. It wasn't bad, and they even had a high chair for Sadie. She behaved really well during the dinner. We went back to the hotel and mostly just watched TV/played around until she fell asleep.

The hotel room was pretty big, especially by European standards, and the only outlet Sadie could reach was easily blocked by a heavy chair. This meant she could roam pretty freely throughout the room, moving things from table to table and bag to bag, sorted by a logic I'm sure she understands but I certainly don't.

The next day, Sadie and I went to check out the botanical gardens. They are open in winter, although I think they would be a lot more spectacular in spring. But it is free, and we got a nice walk out of it. I walked probably several hours each day, listening to an audiobook, so that was pretty fun. After that, I headed back and got doner (gyro) for lunch. I had had a headache at that point pretty much since we arrived in Wurzburg, so we spent the rest of the day just kind of laying around. There isn't so much to do there that I felt like we were wasting precious time, and we were saving the big stuff to do with Hunter on Saturday.

So, Thursday night we all went out to dinner together. Unlike most cities in Germany, where beer is like the main drink, wine is really popular and local to Wurzburg. It's served in a distinctively-shaped bottle:

So we had some rather large glasses of wine and a pretty tasty dinner, during which Sadie behaved beautifully, again. She is really growing up and it gave me a lot of hope for our forthcoming trips to Berlin and America. After dinner, we planned to take some pictures, but while I did remember to bring the real camera this time, I forgot to put the memory card in. Don't worry, we bought a new one, we just don't have any pictures from that night.

The next day, I went to check out some art at the Museum im Kulturspeicher. I had seen posters up advertising it and it was a pretty quick walk from the hotel. It had a lot of pretty cool stuff--I am not sure if I'd heard of any of the artists exhibited, but I really liked the art. It was a lot of geometric designs, or at least those were the ones that stuck out to me most. Sadie fell asleep as I was walking through, so she didn't disturb anyone there.

I still wasn't feeling great so once again, Sadie and I just kinda chilled in the room until Hunter got back--his stuff ended at 2:00. We went out to do some sight-seeing; the first thing we went to see was Rontgen's labaratory (Rontgen is the person who discovered X-Rays).

If you plan to go see this, there are some things you should know: it's just in a university building; the house is marked as being important, but the entrance is just a door that isn't marked as being very special. We weren't really sure we were in the right place, but eventually we just went in and saw there were a few exhibits. They have some of the vacuum tubes he used (because apparently you need those for x-rays? I don't know) and a recreation of his laboratory, as well as some other artifacts. 

We saw their cathedral, which is not all original. Wurzburg was almost completely destroyed in the war, but there were some bits and pieces that survived. Most of the stuff in the main part of the cathedral is very modern though, which I liked and made it look rather different from many of the other cathedrals we've visited.

We also went to buy a memory card, so we do have some pictures from that night!

You may notice that in that picture, I'm just holding Sadie; she isn't in her carrier! While I still put her in the carrier 95% of the time, we took her out so she could walk across a bridge with us. I have a babyleash, which I always judged people for but Sadie is a runner so I wouldn't let her down without it. And of course she got admired while she walked because she is THE CUTEST!

And here is the best night-pic of the fortress on the hill. You can't really see the hills, but they are covered in vineyards. We didn't go up there because I read the bus only runs March-October, and I didn't think I could do the walk while carrying Sadie.

For that night's dinner, we basically just wandered around until we found something. It was kinda funny, I looked at the menu of a place and told Hunter it was "typical German." He took this, logically, to mean, I don't know, sausages and potatoes and German food. But what I meant was that it had spaghetti bolognese, various baguettes and pizzas, the typical random mishmash of food German cafes have. Anyway, it was cheap and tasty and the waitstaff was in love with Sadie so it worked out well.

On Saturday, our last day, we did the main event--the Residence. It's a palace that's similar in some ways to Versailles. There are also some gardens that would probably be really amazing during the spring and summer. Hunter did take a few pictures of statues and things:

One Pan a-piping

Frozen Fountain

Eye of Providence

So anyway we did the English tour and it was really cool. There is a huge ceiling fresco that made it through the war, and some other pretty impressive stuff. Sadie isn't crazy about tours because people are paying attention to someone else, plus it was right before lunch, so we had to go pretty quickly through the self-guided portion.

Near the Residence is a new-ish Protestant church, which has pretty cool architecture:

Anyway, we grabbed lunch at the train station before heading back home. Sadie handled that trip really well, too. At home, she didn't go to sleep quite as immediately as usual--I think she had gotten used to being with us--but she is back into her routine now.

The day after our trip, we went to the children's parade so keep your eyes open for a post about that!

Mom's Visit

A few weeks ago, Hunter went to Trieste, Italy for a conference. We decided it wouldn't really be efficient or cost-effective for Sadie and me to go with him. My mom came to visit for the time he was gone, as well as a few days after he got back. I know I *could* have handled Sadie by myself, but having mom there just made it so relaxing. I could actually get rest during the day, and I think I only had one headache the whole time she was there.

Sadie loved her instantly, and they played together a lot. She would usually want me back eventually, but I think they had so much fun! 

We got to eat lots of exciting food...

Get into all kinds of mischief...

Go out on adventures...

Just goof around...

And relax every once in a while!

We also got to go see the Harry Potter exhibition in Cologne, where they have a bunch of props and stuff from the movies. I would call this a must-see for Potter fans. They had tons of stuff you could see up close. My favorite was all the different wands--it was amazing how the designers made each one different! We also got to sit in Hagrid's chair:

And I had to get a picture of us all at Hogwarts!

We also visited the Cologne cathedral, which is pretty impressive.

Sadie loved posing for the camera!

Of course she was glad when her daddy got home...

But us girls sure had a good time! I can't wait until we go to visit my mom and dad this April!