Huntington Beach

I recently went to Huntington Beach with three of my friends. While we were there, we got to watch (for free) the U.S. Open for Surfing. I had fun taking pictures with my tiny camera right next to professional cameramen with their lens that were almost longer than me! My friends and I had a good time boogie boarding, walking on the beach, eating fried zucchini at Ruby's and watching "Batman: Dark Knight".

L to R: Me, Bre, Nikki, and Sandra

The waves were really big and close to shore. This picture is of me heading back into the dangerous water. I actually did get caught up by a wave and slammed down on my head.

Me and my board

Unfortunately my zoom is not very good, but you can kind of see the surfer if you look really hard. Ruby's is in the background. Great Restaurant.

This is a really cool picture, you just have to click on it to see it!

Oculus Reparo

My glasses of 2.5 years have finally died. I went to clean them and they snapped in half. I hurried to Walmart to see if they still had the frames but they didn't. So, I made an appointment to get my eyes check and get contact lenses (since glasses take a week) before I head to HB. Fortunately, I have prescription sunglasses so I can still drive. I have also figured out how to place my broken glasses on my face so that I can read or watch TV. Other than that everything is a blur. Where is Hermoine when you need her?

Ireland

I finally figured out how to make a slide show of my Ireland pictures. Ireland was amazing. I really enjoyed the scenery, people, and weather. I would love to go again some day. There are 50 pictures in the slide show and I would of put more if there hadn't been a limit! Slide show is below.

Check out my Slide Show!

Debris = Dead Cows

So, I am on my way to Greeley to do some apartment hunting and I had a pretty interesting experience. I am about 3 miles outside of Greeley and I am driving behind a truck. I had the thought that I probably shouldn't get to close to the truck because the debris in the back looked like it could fall out. Boy, was I surprise to discover that it was not debris in the back of the truck, but DEAD COWS. I took numerous pictures with my cell phone camera while I was driving (so, I don't win the safe driver award today), sorry the picture isn't better. Only in Greeley!

Deutschland Part 2

While we were in Germany we did a little sight seeing, went to a friend's wedding, and indulge ourselves at numerous Backeries. After getting our rental car, Susan and I headed to Cochem, a small city northwest of Frankfurt on the Mosel River. My friends and I had stumbled on it when I was there in 05. We went to the Castle and had a delicious lunch of Bratwurst mit Brotchen und Pom Frites. Oh, and I also had a "REAL" Fanta (very different then American). I am not sure why this underline, nor do I know how to fix it.This is the castle that is siutated on a hill in the center of town.

Here is Cochem from the castle.

This is the lock for the door. It was designed this way so that if you were drunk you could slide your key around until you found the key hole. It came in handy on our trip.

This was another castle we went to called Burg Eltz (Burg meaning castle). It took five hundered years to build and is still owned by the Eltz family.

This is Marrienburg Fortress in Wurzburg, where we use to live. We didn't go up there this time, but Susan took a picture as we tried to navigate our way through town.

We also went to Rothenburg, which a medieval town that still has the wall around it. It is a tourist mecca in Germany. At night there is a man who dressed up as a watchmen and gives tours, which was a lot of fun. We also went to Kathe Wohlfahrts, which is my Christmas ornaments mecca.

We also went to a second medieval town, Dinklesbuhl, which Susan and I had never been too. It is picturesque, but that is about all. It did have a cool cathedral and a yummy bakerie.

Deutschland...Part 1

I had mixed emotions about being in Germany again. It was fun to see where we had lived, but also sad to see it empty. Both the army bases we lived on our closing this summer.

This was our building when we lived in Wurzburg from 1982-1986. We lived on the 2nd floor. This is where my Ninja training began.

This was our favorite backerie while we lived in Wurzburg. It was about a 3 min. walk from our house. I spent many Deutsch Marks there.

This was our house in Hanau. We lived there from 1992-1995. I loved it in the spring because our street was lined with Cherry trees and their blossoms where so beautiful.


I am not sure how to rotate pictures, so tilt your head. This was my bedroom in Hanau. My parents put me on the second floor so I wouldn't sneak out.

This the high school I graduated from in 1994. It is closed now, this was its last year.

One thing I did while we were Hanau is I went jogging on the old route that my Coach and I use to run. This is were I ran my first 5k. We would run through a small town and along the river. It was quite a beautiful route and I had fun reliving some good memories.

I use to think this hill was a monster, but this is where I discovered that I like running hills

Chicago...the City of Confusion

I just got back from three weeks in Germany and Ireland, but before I get to that adventure, I thought I would briefly write about our experience in Chicago. Someone once told me to avoid Chicago O'Hare if I could and now I see why. My step-mom, Susan, and I were delayed in Denver so we missed our connecting flight to Frankfurt, Germany by three minutes. This is where the adventure began.

8:05 pm -- call American Airlines help line to be informed that we are now on a U.S. Airway flight that leaves the next day at 10:30. Our new flight is also stopping in Philadelphia for a couple of hours.
8:07 pm -- rush to another gate, which was 10 minutes away, to try and get on a flight to London that is then flying onto Frankfurt
8:17 pm -- told London flight is booked
8:20 pm -- go outside of security to talk with American Airlines Agent who tells us that we need to pick up our luggage but that it won't be ready for about an hour
8:25 pm -- head over to the USO (which is another terminal) and get some snacks
9:25 pm -- head back to American Airlines to get our luggage
9:30 pm told that our luggage is not there and that they have no idea where it is
9:35 pm -- head to U.S. Airways to see if they have our luggage (which is in the same terminal as the USO)
9:40 pm -- nice lady at U.S. Airways tells us that since United is the only airline that scans their luggage we have no way of knowing where our luggage is, but that U.S. Airways is now responsible for making sure we get our luggage
9:55 pm -- walk over to the Holiday Inn shuttle (which was unclearly marked, but luckily we found the right one)
10:15 pm -- arrive at Holiday Inn
10:25 pm -- buy dinner
10:45 pm -- turn out the lights

Next Day

8:00 am -- head back to Chicago O'Hare
8:20 am -- check one more time for 0ur luggage (American still has no idea where it is)
8:35 am -- check in (with no luggage)
8:50 am -- get through security and flight delayed till 11:00 am
11:00 am -- get on plane...plane sits on tarmac
11:30 am -- take off
12:30 pm -- land in Philly
12:45 pm -- get to connecting gate, flight delayed
3:15 pm -- take off for Frankfurt
7:15 am -- arrive in Germany
7:40 am -- make it through customs and head to baggage claim
7:50 am -- tender mercy from the Lord, our luggage made it
8:15 am -- pick up our Mercedes (well a very small one) from Thrifty and head to Cochem for a day of sight seeing

I guess this wasn't so brief, but it was quite the adventure!