Back Home Again

After 284 pictures, we have arrived back home from San Antonio. The flights were good coming and going. We only had turbulence going into San Antonio, only because the pilot was trying to divert around a thunderstorm.

The fourth of July was spent at SeaWorld where we were drenched not once but twice by the wonderful downpour. We never made it to see the penguins and find the free beer.

In front of the Budweiser cart.

This picture was after our first drenching.

In between SeaWorld and the Riverwalk, we played games in the arcade park next to our hotel. Josh and Tony won 3,000 tickets. Where he exchanged them in for these lovely braclets and other random items.

In the evening, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe along the Riverwalk. Then we walked the Riverwalk and took the boatride along the walk.

Waiting for dinner along the Riverwalk.

Hubby posing in front of a stage and the bells that represent the 5 missions of San Antonio.


On Saturday, we attended James and Jennette's wedding. It was beautiful. They were married at St. Gregory's Catholic Church in San Antonio and the reception was held at the Embassy Suites.

A very cool part of the wedding was that a mariachi band came in and played for an hour. Laura has now decided that she wants one for her wedding.


On Sunday morning, we checked out of our rooms and headed back downtown. We took in the Alamo and shopped in the little shops around the Alamo.

Then we headed off to find the Cheesecake Factory. I had a divine piece of Dutch Apple Caramel Streusel cheesecake. It was probably enough calories for two days! Then we dropped the rental car back off and boarded our plane. We were back home by midnight.

The funny thing is that hubby turns to me on the airplane to Detroit and says, "We have to fly again somewhere." This is the same person who grips the seat in terror as we take off and land because he is scared to death to fly. Huh?

All Packed

I have everything printed out. So after a few more errands and a few more items into the suitcase, we are officially packed. It seemed so much easier to pack this time around. Hubby said it was because we are going into 90+ degree weather and we don't need much clothing. :-)

Jenni, the cat, has also decided that she needs to be packed:

I hope everyone has a safe and happy fourth of July!

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

~Louis D. Brandeis

England Please

Nope I'm not going to England, but my sister Rosie should be on her way. The technical word is "should" because they should have been on their way yesterday. She is going to England with her friend, whose husband is stationed for the next three years in England. Rosie was helping her friend out with the baby. All Rosie had to do was pay the sales tax on the tickets because her friend's sister is a flight attendant and I guess that is how the tickets work.

Anyway back to England. Rosie was supposed to leave at 6:30 Chicago time and arrive in England at 8 AM their time. Well they were on the plane and they were going down the runway, the wheels and the nose of the airplane lifted up off the ground and then the pilot steered it back to the ground. The plane was having technical difficulties.

So they taxied back to the gate and hauled everyone off the plane and said sorry folks were not leaving tonight. The plane needs to be fixed. So here is a hotel room come back in the morning and maybe we will leave tomorrow.

Needless to say Rosie is not pleased because on every flight she ever tries to get on it is always delayed for an enormous amount of time. (My dad mentioned to me that he is sticking Rosie on a different plane for San Antonio because of her luck with flights!) She told my dad that if she does not leave off of the ground today (4 PM) she is renting a car and coming back home.

I am guessing that she is on her way because I haven't heard anything.

Say hello for me to jolly ol' England Rosie because I have a feeling Rosie is not going to be jolly! :)

Look out San Antonio!

We have finally booked our flight for my cousin's wedding over the 4th of July weekend. The plus side is that we found tickets for $180 roundtrip! How awesome is that! The even best part is that we leave straight out of South Bend and then switch in Detroit. We leave Thursday afternoon and arrive in San Antonio around 11 at night. Then we have the fourth of July to wander around San Antonio. Then the wedding is on Saturday. Then a quick second later it will be Sunday and we fly out in the afternoon. Now we just have the hotel rooms to book!

Back home again

Well we made it back home two days ago and I am still recovering. Switzerland was gorgeous. Definately the place where I would love to spend all of my time in. The place we went to was called Murren. We drove four hours from Germany into Switzerland. We parked the car down on the mountainside and then had to take cable cars up 5000 feet. The weather was a bit chilly and it was raining. Heck I didn't care because I was in the Alps! When we made it up to the sleepy little town of Murren we checked into our "lodge" and then went to explore a bit before we found dinner. I had the best chicken and salad dinner plus these very delicious strawberries and melon! By the time that we left dinner it was pouring so we went back to the lodge only to fall asleep early. When we woke up the next day, we were still in the middle of a cloud. Yes a cloud....how cool is that. We had slept with our window open and in the light you could see the mist falling into the room. Way cool! Later that morning we took the tram up to the next little town above us and hiked around for a little while and then ate a little cafe on the way down and just took in the beautiful scenary. When we finally hiked our way back down the "hill" we did some tourist shopping and then went out to dinner and I had the best spaghetti. It was even better than the spaghetti that I had had in Italy. Kinda hard to imagine. Then the rain came through again and it was downpouring by the time we got back to the lodge. The next day, we checked out and headed our way back north. My aunt and uncle suprised us by taking a little detour into France! We stopped at a little town called Colmar. This town is nicknamed the "little venice" because of the waterways that surround the town. Colmar was gorgeous as well and had a ton of flowers all over the place. We ate lunch in France at a crepe restuarant. This was the most delicious lunch I had had. It was a chicken and creamy sauce crepe. It literally melted in your mouth! We did a little shopping after lunch and then got back in the car and headed back to Germany. On Monday we went to the next town over via train and did some shopping at the mall that was there. I got the new Harry Potter book (the British version) so I was able to read it on the plane ride home.

Laura and I came home Tuesday and I was home by 11:15 PM just in time to see my hubby and the pile of mail left on the kitchen table! So now I am slowly working my way through the pile, unpacking, and doing laundry. I was very productive yesterday and put together an online scrapbook. I placed the order last night and hope to receive the book sometime next week. The price just about shocked me...around $120. However I figured if I took the time to print all of my pictures (550 of them) and then bought a scrapbook and the supplies to allow me to scrapbook it probably would have been around the same price. So I went with the online book, the only reason why it cost so much was because I had 63 pages! You receive the first 20 pages for $29.99 and then $1.99 a page after that. In my mind I had thought it was the first 40 pages for $29.99 and then $1.99 after. Gee was I wrong. However I had a ton of fun putting it together and providing information about the places we went to. This way I will always remember and the album is finished before things get crazy here again. I just received the letter from school saying the school is open for working in our classrooms and we can come in anytime. Heck it is still July....I am not going anywhere near Plymouth until August. On a sad note I do start school in less than 20 days...I guess all good things have to come to an end.

Hello all!

So now that I have been in Germany for almost a week...it has been a very long and exciting week. When we arrived last Friday morning we stayed up until about 10 o'clock Germany time so I was going almost 24 hours with about 2 hours of sleep. I was quite proud of myself. Laura and I visited the next town over and walked around with my cousin and Putzi my aunt and uncle's cute little dog and then went out to dinner. I had flamflugen (i know it is misspelled) it was a type of thin pizza with ham, goat cheese, and onions. It was pretty good. Laura and I crashed that night and woke up at noon on Saturday. We then went to visit a quaint little medieval town where a festival was going on. Very cool! Then we went onward to Heidleburg and walked around the town where another festival was going on and we watched fireworks with the castle in the backgrond.

Sunday was a kind of lazy day. We went to see Harry Potter in English in Frankfurt and walked around Frankfurt in the boiling heat. Then my aunt made dinner for us that night....very yummy.

Monday night Laura and I we flew into Rome at about 11 pm. So we went to bed and got up at 8 on Tuesday and just explored the city. So Tuesday we cramed in the Trevi Fountain, numerous fountains, the lions mouth, colliseum and the ancient ruins. We got a tour guide for the Colliseum and the ruins. Such a great guide for both. Laura and I were total tourists even though she hates to be. We also spent an hour getting lost going back to the hotel...that is when we saw the numerous fountains of Rome!

Wednesday we joined a tour group for the Vatican and it was possibly the best tour guide I have ever had anywhere. He was the same man who did the ancient ruins tour...very knowledable and well worth the moeny! I learned so much about the stories behind the Sistine Chapel and the Last Judgement painting in the Sistine Chapel. How wonderful these were! We then jumped on a tour bus to take us around the city where we could hop on and off at anytime. That allowed us to see things that we might have missed so it was great! Again we got lost going back to the hotel but we were not lost that long! It was an improvement!

So here we are back in Germany where my aunt is making an authentic German dish whose name escapes me at the moment. Then getting a good nights sleep because tomorrow we are off to Switzerland! We are going to a hotel in the mountains where we have to drive to a certain point and then park the car and take cable cars the rest of the way up because it is too steep to drive. Plus we also have to walk about 10-20 minutes to get to our lodging! How cool is that!

I cannot wait to get home and post pictures; I've taken over 300 of them already!!!