Seattle Patriot

Round 2 - Friday afternoon after many many hours of flying we arrive in Munich. After being up for over 24 hours-ish, we now have to make ourselves stay up for another 8 hours - yikes!! So we head out to an open-air market in the heart of Munich (via U-Bahn underground rail system, which was clean, punctual, and otherwise awesome!). You’ll see we encountered lots of meats, not all yummy looking, but tried some of the award winning Weisswurst (”Vice-vurst”) which was sort of an extremely mild version of Brautwurst.

Saturday we left early to catch an U-Bahn to Die Welt (aka “Bimmerworld”) to pick up the car. We got quite a tour, a tasty breakfast, and finally, the car, which we literally drove right out of the showroom… but not before I snagged an apple streudel on my quest to find the best apfel streudel in Munich. We then took our maiden voyage out to Dachau concentration camp. It was a very interesting bit of history, and there was a lot to see and reflect on, beginning with the iron doors at the entryway, reading (in German): “Work shall set you free.”

Sunday the entire day was taken driving out to Neuschwanstein castle and hiking up the three mile trail, which was somewhat icy (too icy for busses, which is why we all walked), leading to the castle. We then took an hour tour of the castle, and someone’s camera “accidentally” took a few pictures from inside the castle, which was otherwise not allowed. We concluded the day at a hole in the wall restaurant near Neuschwanstein, which took first place in the apfel struedel competition. Monday morning we left around 5 AM for home, bring our whirlwind adventure to an end.

After a short month and a half, I’m finally getting my photos up from my trip to Wisconsin, Illinois, and Munich (to follow). We arrived in Wisconsin on Wednesday for Grandpa David’s birthday, and also got to visit his new offices on Thursday. On Thursday, we had breakfast with Aunt Ginny, tea with Grandma Mary, and also had the time to visit several of the houses Dad lived in growing up, his old school, and the ice rink where he used to spend time in the winters. That was all before heading down to see Uncle Bill in Illinois for lunch! The last photos are of us heading off to Munich in the O’Hare airport.

The rest of the pictures from our family vacation - since I didn’t take most of these, I’m actually in some of them! Photo credit to my Mom.

Upon learning that our long-anticipated trip to Holden was going to be thwarted due to forest fire requiring evacuation of the Village just the day before we were to leave, we decided that we would have to make other arrangements, and quickly set to work on the planning. Unable to decide the details for a 5 day trip in fewer than 24 hours, we decided just to get a head start, and figure out the rest along the way - quite the undertaking for a family of advance planners. We packed up and headed to Victoria, Canada for our first stop.

We visited all the major attractions, saw Butchart Gardens our first day (pictures pending from Mom’s camera) and decided there was no way we could fit Victoria into 20 hours, so decided to stay another day, in which we got in some light hiking, played games, took in the sights and sounds of the beautiful city.

Next, we moved on to Winthrop, Washington. I’d never been to Winthrop before, and couldn’t imagine what a town with a population of about 350 people could offer, but off on the adventure we went. It was GREAT! Similar to Leavenworth’s Bavarian theme, Winthrop has adopted a western theme, and it was just like visiting the old west without the scary old west things (e.g. bandits, random shootings, etc.). We took a walk at night and could see all the stars. It would be a great place to come back for a honeymoon, and Ciara tells me it has great cross-country skiing in the winter. I’m sure I’ll be back! On our way out of town, we also went horseback riding in the hill country and it was fantastic. Second only to our ride in Ireland, the horses were very responsive and we got a great amount of trotting and even some cantering up the hills (go Ben!).

Our last stop was Grand Coulee, to see the Grand Coulee Dam, which none of us had ever seen before. It is truly an amazing feat of engineering, and really puts almost all the other dams of the world to shame (and is happy to tell you how much better it is). We saw a “slaser” show - where they let water spill over the falls and played a giant laser show (music and designs circa 1981). It was hilarious and informative all at once. Hope you all enjoy the photos! (And video likely to follow!)