We (were) famous

Kim was googling her maiden name and this popped up. A couple of July 4th's ago a thunderstorm forced us to evacuate the Washington Mall. We sought refuge in one of the museums and bumped into reporter. Forgot about this until we found the documentation.

First Snow!!

It just started to snow!!

Maybe we'll have some pictures to post tomorrow...

Almost time to "Fall Back"

Wow, it's been a long time since our last post. We have been very busy beavers the past 3 1/2 months. Here's what we've been up to...

• Hiking in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland
• Belated honeymoon in Santorini, Greece 
• Belgium Beer Festival in Brussels
• Champagne tasting in Reims, France
• Columbus Day getaway in Alicante, Spain (where and when the Volvo Ocean Race kicked off)

Oh yeah, and we worked a little bit in there too. There's plenty of pics online - enjoy at your leisure.

Santorini was fabulous - we did NOT want to leave. Our hotel was on the cliff side, which faces directly west. So we watched the sunset from the pool deck every single night. We rented a motor-scooter and went to just about every beach on the island. Each beach was different - because the island is essentially an erupted volcano, the sand was different colors depending on which part of the island you were on. There was a red beach, several black beaches, some with sand, some with pebbles. The food was terrific, too. In addition to some great seafood, we definitely had our fair share of Greek salads, eggplant and olive oil. If you are ever in the market for a cool vacation destination, we highly recommend Santorini!

Jill & Dan's visit

Our friends from MD visited for a week -- and so we took off for Bavaria. We visited Berchtesgaden in the southeast corner of Germany. It was absolutely beautiful!! Just check out the pics...

We stayed in a B&B for cheap with an extremely nice hostess. We did a bit of short hiking around the Eagle's Nest (Kehlstein) and the Königsee (King's Lake auf Englisch), toured a working salt mine, and even hit up Salzburg, Austria (only 20 minutes away).

A fun trip and great visit. We were sad to see them go =(

Look forward to my folk's visit in September -- and, of course, Oktoberfest!! For now, we'll settle for the many wine fests in the Rheingau...

-John

Mmmm...leather!

We can hardly believe it - our furniture is finally here! It is beautiful and was well worth the wait (total time from purchase to home delivery = 123 days). Next on the furniture list is a dining room table. We will probably check out what Belgium has to offer on that front - lots of good antiques there...and waffles.

John finished 3rd in the Rheinblick Open on Sunday - I'm so proud! We celebrated with some friends (and margaritas) that night. Way to go Johnny!

My copy of Gardening for Dummies arrived today and so I embark on my journey toward a green thumb. The balcony of our apartment has built-in planters which came stocked with a few rose bushes and boxwood bushes that need some love. I also plan to add other pretty flowers and start an herb garden. Should be fun.

-Kim

Weather's nice in .de

Finally posted some pics from our trip to Prague (Czech Republic) back in April. Debating whether to publish our bar-hopping photos...can you say incriminating?

So Kim and I are finally settled back in Germany after being apart for 3+ weeks -- my golf trip to NC and her work training in the States. We finally got our pictures back from framing and we're getting our furniture delivered on Monday -- so the pad is getting some touch-ups. The weather has been awesome here for the whole month of May: mid-60s to mid-70s every day. Awesome golf weather!!

Speaking of golf, I'm playing in a tournament this weekend. Shot a 71 in round 1. I think I'm in 2nd - I played with a German guy who shot 68 with 7 birdies and a hole-out from 160yds for eagle (that's a skin). Not efficient scoring but he's up 3 on me... I'll let you know how I fair after tomorrow's final round.

We're hosting a margarita party tomorrow night -- to keep the Germans up since we have Monday off. Keep your eyes peeled for some fun photos...

--John

Tulips in spring

Had a last-minute visit from Chuck (MN high school friend). We took a day off and went up to Holland -- "isn't that vierd". Posted lots of pictures of flowers from Keukenhof Gardens. Weather was kinda crappy but the flowers were amazing. We may go back in a few weeks when all the outdoor flowers will have bloomed.

Went bar-hopping in Amsterdam Friday night. We were part of a dance club experience at Sugar Factory: dancing blind-folded, interactive photo booths, dancing with Polish chicks, etc. You know, the usual... Lots of bikes in Amsterdam. We, of course, hit up the Red Light District -- for Chuck's sake ;-) Amsterdam has the feel of Venice (canals, but larger city) with a northern European influence (buildings, styles). We gotta go back when it's nicer weather. Anyone wanna come with us?

Here's a cool site with 360 panoramas around Wiesbaden.