Tubingen

We enjoyed your spring festival, your kase schnitzel, your local goodies, and your warm sunshine.

You never disappoint.

Bad Vilbel (a month and a day later)

I don't know if it's me or jet lag but I just haven't been myself lately.

Is it possible to be jet lagged for almost two weeks?

I'm not sure but I think I'll continue blaming our trip to California for my mood.

Anyways, prior to coming to California, my mom and myself drove up to visit her friend in Bad Vilbel. Oh. You didn't know my mom has friends all over the world? Shame on you. She does.

Stefanie being one of them.

Stefanie from Bad Vilbel, Germany to be exact.

My mom and her have corresponded since last Septemberish after meeting at the Passion Play.

Stefanie is a lovely woman.

She welcomed us into her beautiful home, showed us around her quaint little town, baked us a delicious cake AND took us to downtown Frankfurt to visit a few sights.

I hate to admit that I forgot my camera in the car when we went to Frankfurt but at least I was able to snap a few photos of the town of Bad Vilbel.

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Bad Vilbel is a lovely little town. It sits on quite a few mineral springs so apparently they have multiple spas in the area. We, unfortunately, didn't get to take advantage of those but that's okay.

They use this old castle as a theater in the summertime.

Behind the 'theater' there was a pretty massive park with a lot of interesting sculptures.

This statue below was built to remember what life was like in early Bad Vilbel.

The Rathaus or 'town hall.'

And of course Rhett was the most cooperative and easy to please man on this trip.

And the only man but who's counting.

That's all for now.

Oh and...

Today and everyday we are able to do what we do

thanks to the men and women who did and continue to do what they have to do.

Thanks for your service.

Happy Memorial Day.

Sunday

It's been a busy weekend.

So today, we rest.

Happy Sunday.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week. -Joseph Addison

One person's trash

... is another person's treasure.

I never noticed them before, but this year I did.

I also felt the need to take photos of them

and post them here for your viewing pleasure.

So enjoy the garbage cans of Fruhlingsfest 2011.

Germans... a creative bunch.

Fest Food at it's best.

I knew when I received an email that said "Amy, I want to come visit, I want to EAT!" from my dear friend, Angela, that she meant business. It just so happened that coinciding with their visit was Stuttgart's Fruhlingsfest, aka, the PERFECT opportunity to fulfill Angela's request to EAT. She actually got the notion of visiting and eating from posts on this very blog. I'm so glad that they were able to visit and take advantage of one of my favorite festivals but most importantly I hope they left satisfied with their German food experience.

Schupfnudeln (kraut and noodles) on a dog, steak sandwich with onions, corn on the cob with herb butter, chiliwurst with mustard, langos, fresh fruit cup, and the dampfnudel (dumpling) with vanilla and cherry sauce. Yum!

It was a successful fest food extravaganza.

May 21st means... (updated)

Rhett is 9 months old!

Unbelievable...

but so true.

Please excuse the peas on his face...

it's his 9 month birthday and he'll have pea face if he wants to.

It also means my brother is old. Ha! Kidding.

He is a year older though. Happy birthday brother!

I hope it's wonderful!

April 21st....

meant two trips to the airport. One to pick up my friend Angela and her husband, Ben. And another to pick up my mom. They both flew into Stuttgart so it was a 5 minute drive and they were spread out enough in the day so that Angela, Ben and myself could spend some time downtown before picking up my mom. Their flight came in at 9 am so we had to do something to help fight the jet lag.

The next day we all hopped in the car and drove 2 and a half hours south to stay at Schloss Berg Hotel on the Starnberger See. It's the lake where King Ludwig II died mysteriously. We enjoyed ice cream sundaes, shopping, and a boat ride on the lake.

It was a lovely way to spend the Easter weekend.

Angela brought me a suitcase (this is no exaggeration) of Trader Joe's goodies.

King Ludwig's Monument

Rhett's Easter Best!

The.End.