scriggle

Hello friends! I took the whole week after my birthday off from work and did pretty much nothing. It was fantastic. I lunched with friends, spent a day with my mom, had some spa appointments. All in all, a wonderful week.

But here we are back again, to the grind of work and life.

I am ready to turn the heels on the pair of socks i've currently got on the needles. I'm also attempting to learn a new way to do the top of the leg of socks so I don't have to do the blasted ribbing that I can't stand. More news of that later ...

Next Thursday the 10th, The Office is coming back to TV and I am so freakin excited I can't even tell you. Shows have been trickling back and it has been good - but this, THIS is the one I've been waiting for. I will begin the countdown shortly!

Gonna make it short and sweet today. Ta Ta For Now :)

Labels: knitting, television, vacation

Posted by scriggle at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

All of the sudden today I'm very sad to be back home from vacation. I wish so bad that we were back in Germany with the cool air and beautiful scenery. With everything in walking distance, or a couple of U-Bahn stops away. All the fabulous bakeries with their pastries and breads. I miss seeing all the tiny Smart Cars zipping along the roads with the crazy street signs. I wish I could hear the sound of German being spoken all around me.

I guess that's how you know it was a good vacation, because you long to be back there and think of it fondly. We will go back again. I promise.

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

So sorry for the delay in posting that we got home safely! We did :)

My Mom came and picked us up at the airport on Sunday at around 11ish and drove us home. We were so tired we couldn't even think straight. We arrived at the house around Noon and immediately loved on the kitties a whole bunch. We checked the voice mail (nothing but crap) and Hubby started dumping things out of the suitcases, making piles of laundry on the floor. I ran over to Whataburger to get us some good 'ol American junk food and after we ate we pretty much collapsed. Hubby took a shower and just went to bed. I tried to stay awake but ended up falling asleep on the couch at some point. Then Hubby's Mom called at around 3:30pm and it woke me up.

After that I went and took a shower and went to sleep. At 4pm. And woke up at 1am. Apparently we'd just missed each other cuz Hubby had been up at some point when I was asleep. I stayed up for a couple of hours then went back to bed. We continued on with this pattern for the next day or so - sleeping at odd hours and what not. I'm still a little jacked up since I fell asleep on the couch last night at around 7:30 and went up to bed right at 9pm. And I woke up before the alarm at about 5 this morning. Of course I did have a kitty girl laying on me ... So, I just petted her for about an hour before I finally got up at 6am.

Anyway, this must be the most boring post ever! About my sleeping habits after coming home from vacation. *sigh* I'm headed back to work today (ick), but I'll be glad to see all my friends. I really missed them.

I better go get ready now, have a great day everyone!!!

Labels: me, vacation

Posted by scriggle at 6:51 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Sunday, October 21st; 1:50am New York City Time

We are back in the USA! We arrived a little past 11pm last night and got through customs by about midnight. Our flight to Dallas leaves at 7:55am so we are just hanging in the airport waiting for time to check in. I think they'll let us check in at 3am, so here's hoping.

We had SUCH a good time but are SOOOOO glad to be going home! We miss our kitties something awful, and our bed, and shower, and TV, and Tivo, and couch, and cars, and I could go on for a while with this.

I have a few things left to talk about with regards to our trip, but I will have to do those when I'm not half asleep.

So take care everyone, til next time ...

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Thursday, October 18th; 11:45pm Essen Time

Real quick ... here are the games we bought today:

Me ...

• Can't Stop
• Upturn
• Ta Yü

James ...

• Galaxy Trucker
• Agricola
• Man of War

More info and pictures tomorrow ... I'm going to sleep now!

Til next time ...

Labels: games, vacation

Posted by scriggle at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Wednesday, October 17th; 11:03pm Essen Time

Hello! We made it to Essen this afternoon and hooked back up with our friends we are traveling with. The trip here was sorta funny, I'll get to that in a few minutes ....

First, this morning we went to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. The trip there was pretty easy, train and one bus. We got there right after 9am when they open. It was still pretty quiet. We picked up a guide handout with a map and some information and headed off.

I'd been once before when I was 12, with my Grandparents, and was pretty reluctant to go back. But Hubby really wanted to see it and I didn't want him to have to go alone, plus I thought it might be interesting to see it again as an adult. We walked down the road to the front entrance gate, and I was struck at how beautiful this walk was. There was a small river running next to the road and there were gorgeous tall trees on either side. When we got to the front gate it looked rather plain, If you hadn't known what went on there you'd probably not have guessed it. Except, of course, for the "Arbeit Macht Frei" on the black iron gate. "Work Makes Us Free". Right.

It was a little different than I remembered, of course it had been 24 years. There is a museum of sorts now in the main Maintenance Building with lots of photos and information. We didn't have a ton of time so we only read some of the boards. Towards then end when they started in with the pictures and stories of the torture and human medical experiments I had a hard time and didn't read much more. Then we went to the bunker, which is where most of the torture and experiments happened. There wasn't much there really, but you could see the small cells where they would keep the prisoners who they were "interrogating" and what not. So inhumane. It makes me physically ill to think that there were people who could do such things to their fellow humans. I am so sad that there are people like this in the world.

Because of my feet - blisters! - I have been walking pretty slow the past few days, and since we were short on time, James went on to see the last part without me. See, it was alllllll the way on the other side of the camp. Plus it was the part that has pretty much haunted me since I was there 24 years ago. He visited the "Krematorium", where the gas chamber was for mass executions and the ovens to burn the bodies.

Enough about that. We then headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and catch a train to the airport for our flight to Dusseldorf. That was uneventful and we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to have some lunch before our flight. The time came for our flight to begin boarding so we passed over our tickets and went through the little gate thingy .... and down 4 flights of stairs .... to a BUS. Uhm. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be flying to Dusseldorf. Ha! The bus loaded up and then we drove, and drove, and drove, oh yeah, and then drove some more. To a tarmac where there was a plane waiting with steps leading up to the doors. So weird! We climbed the steps and found our seats. Luckily it wasn't very crowded so we got to stretch out some.

After we arrived in Dusseldorf, we decided to chill and wait for our friends who were arriving a couple of hours after us. They showed up and we caught a train to Essen. The wrong train. Oops! Not too much of a biggie, we got off and found the right train and got here just a little late. We checked in to our rooms (nicer than London, not quite as nice as Munich) and then went to eat at a good Italian place close by called Alfredo's.

Now we are back and about to head off to sleepy land so we can get up in the morning and head off to Spiel Essen!!! The "main" reason for this entire trip :)

Check out all the newest pictures on my Flickr page (of course).

Til next time ...

p.s. it's raining here and 50 degrees!

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Wednesday, October 17th; 7:05 am Munich Time

I only have a few minutes as we are trying to get up and packed and out the door by about 8 to head over to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial this morning before our flight out at 3pm today.

Yesterday we toured Schloss Linderhof, Oberammergau and Schloss Neuschwanstein. Wow. That's all I can really say. All of the places were beautiful and our guide was a hoot. I will tell lots more later, when I have time to let it all sink in! I did upload all the pictures though, so you can check those out, as always, on my Flickr page.

OK, time to pack and be on our way! Have a great day everyone :)

Til next time...

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Monday, October 15th; 3:25pm Munich Time

We made it to Munich, and only with a couple of minor hitches. We couldn't get the doors open off the train at our stop - and nobody would help, nice - so we had to go one more and then turn around and come back. Then we couldn't get out of the train station once we got off the train! But we obviously made it out in the long run.

This hotel is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY nicer than the one in London. We just now arrived so we haven't explored too much. We are going to rest a bit and then clean up some before we head out on the town for a little bit.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, so we are going to make it a semi-early night.

Til next time ...

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Sunday, October 14th; 9 pm London Time

Goodness, lots to tell this time. First off, last night we went on this Sinister London tour and it was FANTASTIC! Easily the best thing we've done in London. It was a private tour, or at least that's what it turned out to be. Just the 4 of us and the guide, Lawrence.

He took us to a bunch of different places and told us about some sinister happenings around town back in the day. We saw some places where Jack the Ripper trolled and did his killings, we saw places that inspired Charles Dickens' and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing. We spent most of our time in the East End of town which was always the poorest part, its where the Black Plague broke out and we went to the hospital where most of those who suffered from the Plague went to die. There is a beautiful little round circle drive with gorgeous trees all over - it was a Plague pit where they threw the dead, and sometimes the almost dead.

Near that very spot is where William Wallace was drawn and quartered (like in Braveheart), also where the first body snatchers worked - not the alien kind - the medical students from the hospital would go steal fresh corpses from the church next door after the wakes and learn from them and how they died. Which sounds horrible but helped with huge advances in medicine. Just a few steps down from there were still some scars on the walls and sidewalk from the Blitzkrieg of WW2 by the Nazi's.

But I think the coolest part of the whole tour was that we learned the origins of a bunch of sayings like where "hangover" comes from (drunks being hung over a rope by inn keepers when the bar closed), and "one for the road" as well as "on the wagon" about not drinking (both came from the last ride on a horse pulled wagon that prisoners from Northgate Prison took to the hanging tree - they'd stop along the way and let them have one final drink. It was a long road, so their drink was "one for the road" and when they got to the pub they'd fall of the wagon and go in for their beer. I love that kind of stuff, and this guy had a TON of them.

It was a late night but we had so much fun! The only bad thing was that it was dark during the whole tour so I didn't get many pictures taken :(

Then, this morning we got up and headed over to the Tower of London. We took the tour with a Beefeater Guide and then checked out the Crown Jewels, the Bloody Tower and the White Tower where the armories are now kept.

After that we headed over to Harrods Department Store and OMG that place is ENORMOUS! Seriously, we didn't even see 1/5th of it. We did stop and have a milkshake in the Chocolate Shop and checked out the amazingly over priced items. 55 pounds for a regular Polo pullover shirt. With the exchange rate as it is now, that would translate to about oh, $125. We decided we couldn't afford that at all, so we left!


After that, the geeks of us came out and we headed over to King's Cross station to see Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter fame ... they've got a cool little thing set up so we took pictures and totally dug on it.


As always, all new pictures can be seen on my Flickr page!

Then it was back to the hotel to rest, pack and get some sleep. Tomorrow we head out to Munich!

Til next time ...

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Saturday, October 13th; 6:10 pm London Time

Just a few minutes before we run out to our Sinister London tour, but I wanted to drop in and say hello and that I've put up new pictures from today up until this point.

Today we went to Covent Garden, Cleopatra's Needle, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey and Buckingham Palace. Take a look at them on my Flickr page!

A couple of observations:

1. Apparently the English (or at least not the Londoners) haven't gotten the memo about cigarettes causing lung cancer.

2. The Tube is *always* crowded. But a genius invention. Wish we had one.

3. Pounds are weird. The bills are different sizes and there are like 8 different coins. 1 pence, 1 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound and 2 pounds. About the time I get used to it then we'll be on to Germany where I will have to learn all over again with the Euro.

4. The disabled are screwed in this town. No ramps, not many lifts (elevators), stairs EVERYWHERE.

That's about all for now, off to our tour!

Til next time ...

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Saturday, October 13th; 1:30 am London Time

OK so we've slept for a little bit and aren't as delirious anymore, but we are still jacked up with our time schedule. We are both sitting here wide awake and it is 1:30 in the morning.

After a long day of traveling, we rested for a bit and then headed out to see some sights. We headed over to the Lancaster Gate tube stop right off of Hyde Park and got some tickets. We hopped on the tube and went to Leicester Square so that our friends could get some tickets to see a show (they saw Spamalot). Then we walked around and ended up over at Trafalgar Square with the big fountains. That was pretty cool and quite busy.

After I stalked some pigeons for their picture, we headed off to Picadilly Circus and let me tell you - they aren't kidding! That place is crazy. There were like a jillion people and signs like in Times Square. Drivers here are nuts, they will just about run you over. Thank goodness on the streets they have painted "Look Right" or "Look Left" or else we'd be smooshed on the road right now for sure.

We walked forever and ended up eating at a little diner type place. I had bangers & mash (sausage and mashed potatoes for you yankees) with some sort of bread/cake thing with custard and jam for dessert. After a few more stops on the tube we were back at the hotel and ready to fall dead away.

Not exactly sure what we'll do tomorrow, but you can be sure I'll take more pictures and have an update as soon as possible!

See all the pictures on my Flickr page. Til next time ...

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Friday, October 12th; 2:30 pm London Time ... What an ordeal!

Our flight left DFW on time and although mostly full it wasn't too uncomfortable. As we were approaching NYC the captain told us that there were bad thunderstorms in the city and the landing would be bumpy. Well, it was and I was terrified!!! And then it got smooth again but I noticed we weren't on the ground. About half way through the landing we hit wind shear so they aborted the landing and were diverting us to a different airport ..... IN PHILADELPHIA. Yeah. I KNOW!

So we spent about 2 hours in Philly waiting for the weather to clear up in NYC so we could land. They let us off the plane for a bit and we got some food - thank goodness cuz we were starved. Then we finally got the go ahead to take off and away we went.

Our flight out of NYC to London was supposed to leave at 8:01 pm and we arrived in NYC at a little after 7 pm. So you'd think it would be OK right? Wrong! Since we were changing airlines and a bunch of other jazz we had to go and reclaim our checked bags and then take a train to the international terminal and by the time we got over there it was like 8:30 pm. They said the flight we were booked on was already closed but that they could put us on another flight leaving at 11:15 pm and it wasn't full at all so we said sure. We go through security and walk to the gate for our new flight. And they call the final boarding for our ORIGINAL FLIGHT! We totally could have made it but whatever. We were looking forward to the empty flight.

When we get to the gate area it is very crowded, we soon learn because of a different flight leaving from the adjoining gate going to Vancouver and then on to Hong Kong. Oh my goodness there were a TON of Chinese people on that flight. And more babies than I've ever seen at once in my life. None of whom were happy either. But I won't go on about that.

Finally it was our turn to board and there were seriously less than 40 people on the entire flight. On a 747. A HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE airplane. So, we each got our own whole entire row of seats. We were able to stretch out and lay down to sleep across the row and that made it a nicer flight. Soon, we were landing in London and met up with our friends - who we were supposed to meet up with in New York, but they actually caught the original flight we were booked on - but turns out they were delayed a long while and really only got into London about an hour before we did!!

We met up and got a train to Paddington Station and walked a few blocks to our hotel. When we arrived there was nobody at the front desk and the door was locked. Yikes! But after a little bit a girl showed up and we checked in and walked down what only can be described as a ladder, to our rooms in the basement. They are tiiiiiiiiiiiiny and weirdly laid out. I will take some pictures when I can.

We are about to get out and explore a bit now that we've showered and unpacked a few things ... I'll take pictures!!!

Til next time :)

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Although we've only made it as far as the airport so far! I am going to try and post pictures and info from our travels so check back often for updates!

This first leg will take us from DFW to JFK airport in New York City. Stay tuned ...

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

til vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Monday morning brought more sunshine and relaxation. We got up around 10am or so and wandered down to the beach where some of the family had gathered. We got 2 umbrellas and 4 chairs and plopped down our stuff and headed out into the water - that is me, hubby and the uncle. Mother-in-law and the aunt stayed on dry land lounging under the umbrellas and waving at us.

We remembered to apply plenty of massive sunblock before heading down to the beach which I think saved us some burning and pain, so that's good. We waded out into the waves, the water was sorta chilly at first but you got used to it after a bit. There wasn't any seaweed or anything like that floating around which made it much more pleasant for me. I'm not typically one to get into water where I can't see my feet, but I was trying to be brave so I went for it. We jumped around in the waves for quite a while, it was a lot of fun! I got knocked off my feet a couple of times and ended up with a mouth/nose full of salt water at least once but that's the way it goes. After we were exhausted from the never ending waves, we all climbed out and hubby and I collapsed on the chairs under the umbrella for a while. Mother-in-law and the aunt & uncle went off for a walk down the beach while hubby read his book and I enjoyed the sound of the waves. I probably would have stayed all day long except that hubby isn't much of a sun person and we were both getting hungry as we'd not eaten anything yet. So, after some resting and drying off we all headed back up to the aunt & uncle's condo where there was food and had some lunch.

After we'd filled our bellies, hubby and I went off wandering. We window shopped and actually bought a couple of things. Being thoroughly shopped out, we went back to our condo and napped. I love vacation. You can nap whenever you want and nobody bugs you about it. The aunt & uncle were making yummy spaghetti for dinner so we went down to their condo to have some grub with the family later, then the cousins came back with hubby and I to watch some TV on our big screen! It was time to pack up as we were heading home the next day.

I'm going to go ahead and include the last day in this post because it wasn't horribly exciting as it basically consisted of us waking up, driving to the airport and flying home. Whoopdee Doo! The trip home was very uneventful, which is good, and we were more than ready to get back to our own house, sleep in our own bed, and see our fabulous kitties who we missed terribly. All in all, it was a great vacation. We had a fabulous time, got to see lots of family, hang on the beach and rest a lot. What else could you want in a vacation?

Now its all building up to the big vaca in October .... stay tuned!

Labels: family, vacation

Posted by scriggle at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Sunday began with us sleeping in til nearly 10am which was fabulous - and very apt since that's what Hubby and I like to do when we aren't working, sleep in. Mother-in-law awoke at 7am as usual and exited quietly to go over to her sister's condo and begin with the wedding preparations.

After we shook the sleepies off we headed over to the WORLD'S WORST McDONALDS! This was located right next to the condos we were staying in, and apparently everyone else on the island decided to go to this particular McDonalds right at the same moment that we did. We got in and placed our order .. while we were waiting for our beverages we noticed that the coffee pot was brewing away some nice fresh hot coffee. Into nothing. No pot, no cups, nothing. Just flowing all over the heated base of the coffee thingy and all over the floor. Several employees walked past it (since it was right next to the soda machine) and looked at it and did NOTHING. We finally pointed it out to our order taker and he laughed and then put a pot under the flowing liquid. Nice. I must also mention that people really do not take notice of how they are dressed while wandering around South Padre Island. They will go into any location half dressed and dripping wet with no shoes on, its kinda nasty. But I digress. Once we did get our food, it was very tasty - they are just slow and extremely disorganized.

After the McDonalds experience, we headed back to the room to get on our swimming gear and head down to the beach to meet up with the cousins. As we walked down the path to the beach, we had to pass one of the pools ... and lo and behold, there were the cousins in the pool! So, we stopped there and jumped in with them. It was awesome, the pool was not crowded and we were able to talk and laugh and have a great time visiting with them, all the while getting some rays and enjoying the beautiful day. It wasn't til about 45 minutes after we got there and were swimming that we realized we hadn't put any of the sunblock on .. the sunblock that I had to buy with my hard earned money from the worst store chain on the planet. Hubby jumped out and put some on himself since he will get a sunburn from watching Baywatch on TV. I didn't put any on that time, because I am less sensitive. But I did have a pink face later on and for the rest of the weekend. Its now a toasty brown :) After a while the cousins needed to get out .. one to go put her little one down for a nap and the bride to go help the mom's with setting up the deck for the reception. So, we all got out and dried off and went in.

After dressing and resting a little while, Hubby and I decided to go take a walk. We headed out from the condos down the main strip of the island. Not with anything really in mind, just exploring. We stopped in a couple of the shops along the side of the road ... you know, the ones that say things like "Everything $7.99 or Less!" or "Beach Towels $2.99!" and "Prada, Louis Vuitton and Gucci - Half Price!". I tried to get hubby to get his hair braided with beads to get into the beach spirit but he didn't go for it. We also contemplated getting either an airbrush or henna tattoo but the decision proved to be too difficult so we chose to forgo either option. After wandering for about 20 minutes we turned to head back to the condo (returning down the beach, which was much better to walk on than the road) to rest and get ready for the wedding.

We knew the wedding would be casual, so we put on our comfy clothes and flip flops and headed down to the beach. It was really beautiful, they'd set up an arch with greenery and flowers and chairs for people to sit in. Soon after, the groom and best man came down and took their positions. The preacher looked like a total hippy, it was awesome. The atmosphere was so relaxed, it was probably the best wedding I'd ever been to - save my own of course. A little bit later here came the bride and maid of honor. Everyone looked beautiful. The groom's sister was the photographer and videographer (she's just graduated from film school at USC), I can't wait to see all the official pictures! The ceremony took about 10 minutes, all in all we were on the beach for maybe 25 or 30 minutes. After some pictures, we all headed back up to the condo's for the reception.

The reception was held on the 7th floor outdoor deck of the condo building. We had a nice dinner catered in by a local place - chicken, beef or shrimp kabobs! They were really good. The cakes were yummy and everyone had a fun time dancing and visiting. There were bubbles and poppers for the kids to play with. Although at one point a security guard from the condos came up to let us know that one of the kids was throwing dinner rolls off the balcony down into the pool below! Ha :) After much dancing, drinking, eating and merriment we were beat and headed off back to our room to let the younger folks party the night away. And so they did, we heard that many of them were out partying til after 3am. There is no way I would have made that!

Another wonderful day in sunny South Padre, and a beautiful wedding to boot. We were so happy to have been there to help celebrate. And tomorrow was going to be even better!

Padre, Part 3: Surf, Sand and Sun .... coming soon!

Labels: family, vacation

Posted by scriggle at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

We've been back from our mini-vacation for several days now, and as it seems to always go, life swept me up into itself so I'm only just now able to sit down and put the recap into words. Hubby and I plus mother-in-law headed down to South Padre Island, TX for 4 days to attend Hubby's cousin's wedding. I don't believe I've ever been to South Padre before, or if I had it was a long time ago when I was a wee child.

We left Saturday morning from home about 10:30am to head towards the airport. Our flight didn't leave until 1pm but we had a few errands to run on the way. Getting to the airport was pretty uneventful - in fact, the entire trip was uneventful in a "disaster" kind of way. So, if you are waiting for that you will be sorely disappointed :). This was the first time in her life that my mother-in-law had ever flown anywhere on an airplane! I couldn't believe that when she first told me ... but she did really well, wasn't freaked out by the flight at all. I was more scared than she was! Of course I do have a bit of an irrational fear of flying - but that is a post for another time.

We've been having major rain here in DFW for the past, oh I don't know, 80 days or so, so we were a bit concerned of storms hindering our departure. We did leave about 10 minutes late which put us arriving at our destination about 20 minutes late but all in all that isn't bad. We were flying from Dallas Love Field to Harlingen with one stop in Austin. Upon arrival in Harlingen we walked into SUMMER! It was hot and humidy and sunny and rainless. Just what you would think June in Texas to be like. Finally! Weather for swimming in. An exit was missed on the way to South Padre Island from the airport so we actually went on a detour through lovely Brownsville, TX. Ha! Oh well, worse things have happened.

And did. I had to do something that I hate doing with every ounce of energy in my entire body. Those of you that know me, know that I would not have done this if I had any other choice. We needed to stop and pick up a few things before getting to the condo. We were in Brownsville. There were few choices. Then it happened. We arrived in the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart Supercenter. I won't go into much detail because I'm about to go eat lunch and would really like to enjoy my food. Let's just say that every reason that I hate Wal-Mart is still there, and magnified 10 times over. It was dirty and dark and there were screaming children and rude adults and we were accosted by a group (literally standing in between the exit door and the parking lot) of people as we left attempting to guilt us into buying these crosses made out of wood and giant nails to raise money for some youth organization so they could go to church camp. *Sigh*. The only upside I can think of is that this particular location had self checkout which I opted to use so I wouldn't have to interact with any employee at all. Thank goodness. But, lets move on to happier things.

We got to the condos and checked into our room - after only a slight key mishap. These are privately owned condos that the owners rent out during the summer so they are all decorated differently. And might I say, we hit the jackpot. We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo with us in one room and mother-in-law in the other room. It was 2 stories, bedrooms/bathrooms downstairs and living areas upstairs. We had a phenomenal view of the beach and our condo looked like it had been recently decorated with not many expenses spared. All the furniture was beautiful as well as the linens in the bedrooms. There were gorgeous 12" tiles laid in the entire upstairs. We had granite counter tops in the kitchen as well as a large screen TV. These people knew how to have a beach condo! We got settled in and rested for a bit and then all went off for a "rehearsal" dinner, even though there really wasn't a rehearsal :)

We ended up at a restaurant called Scampi's which was pretty nice. Now .... I am not a seafood eater. At all. Ever. And being as how we were on an ISLAND at a restaurant with the name Scampi's I was pretty sure this was going to be a seafood restaurant. However, as with most seafood places I've ever been to (which admittedly is not many) they offered steak for those of us who aren't friends with the food from the sea. I had a lovely steak and baked tater and all was good. There were lots of people there and we had a really good time visiting with everyone and meeting this new extended part of our family. After a lot of food and fun, visiting and pictures, we headed back to the condos to collapse and get ready for a full and fun day of sun worshiping and wedding festivities.

Padre, Part 2: Sun, Swimming and Wedding .... coming soon!

Labels: family, vacation

Posted by scriggle at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I've been a trip booking fool today!

First off, the big fall trip ... Just booked the flight from DFW to JFK which will get us going and get us home as we are flying to London from JFK because of the much better choices of flight departure times. Our friends that we are going with also are picking up our tickets to get from Düsseldorf back to London so we can then fly home very sadly when the trip is all over. Booooooo! But, that means that except for getting from London to Munich and Munich to Düsseldorf we are pretty much ALL SET!!!

Now, we also have a mini-vacation coming up in 2 weeks. Hubby's cousin is getting married on South Padre Island so we are going to go down for a long weekend. That'll be fun, plus the wedding is ON the beach, how cool is that? We are going to ride horses on the beach and hopefully do some shopping and laying on the beach. I'm excited!

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Another step in our vacation plans has been completed. "Another step?" you say. Yes, I realize I've not discussed this here yet, so sorry! Step 1 was getting our passport stuff submitted, which was completed last week and should arrive to us by early July. Plenty of time before our trip in October. Yesterday I made the first airline reservations, NYC to London! We will be meeting our friends in NYC to fly together over the ocean. There are still several details to work out but I am feeling good about the planning so far - so yay!!!! We're going to London BABY!!!! (in my best Joey voice, from Friends ... I miss that show.)

Labels: vacation

Posted by scriggle at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post