Bayrischer Wald 2011

Ok. I'll admit it, we felt a bit excessive with our vacation 'week'.  First, we had the weekend in Athens, then we land, and drive to the Bayerischer Wald (Bavarian Forest) for a week with the kids and my inlaws.  But, we had this week in the Bavarian Forest planned for a while...it's not our fault that a friend got married, right?

Unfortunately, the weather was less than idea.  Rather cool and rainy.  But, as Eva would say:  there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.  Well, we had our rainy day clothes packed.

We stayed at our favorite place near Lam:  a family farm / B&B where the whole family pitches in.  The family is super nice, and they have two kids about the same ages as our children.  They added a nice playroom upstairs in the main house, which both kids love to play in.

The eldest daugher remembered Quinn.  We were there 16 months ago.  I guess I just find that amazing.  I can't remember what I did yesterday.

After feeding the deer with old bread and apples that had fallen from the apple tree, we played with sticks for a long, long time (the family uses wood pellets for their heating).

We had one somewhat stressful walk / hike in the rain.  The weather on Tuesday was at least dry, but cool and cloudy.  So, we headed to a sort of Nature Park and Trail, which had a lot of nature and science exhibits for kids...and an pond that had an underwater observation platform.

Lots of wooden stuff...including a dinosaur.  And a nude statue.  You would NEVER see a naked woman wooden sculpture in a kids park in the US.  Minor cultural difference ;-)

Emily at a park!

Since Oma and Opa were there, Eva and I took advantage of the built in babysitters, and we went on a few hikes - something we very much love doing, and enjoy doing it as a twosome from time to time.  This time, we went on a 20km hike from Eck to Kleiner Arbersee.  There were about 8x 1000m peaks along the way (no chuckling, Colorado folks).

Each peak had a cache as well.  Combining hiking and caching is tons of fun.

I'm pretty sure the kiddoes and the grandparents had a blast as well.

We still did hikes as a family.  With Emily approaching 2, she's starting to get pretty heavy to carry.  I think that she'll have to start carrying her own weight starting Spring.  Thankfully, she's getting more interesting in walking herself.

Of course, there is a pretty popular bobsled course (Sommerrodelbahn) along one of the hiking paths.  Quinn was a champ and hiked about 6km - definitely a record for him.  He started getting a bit cranky at the end (understandibly), but we chopped up the hike with some nice breaks...and bribed him with riding the bobsled at the end.

He went down with Eva first - a course she's gone down since she was a child.  I kidded with her and told her not to break.  When it was my turn, I was the one that ended up breaking a bit.  That course is FAST.

Apparently, when Eva tried to brake, Quinn forced the brake lever forward, to disengage the brake so that he could go faster.

Family pic along the hike.

We thought that Emily was too young to ride the bobsled.  She was MAD when she found out that Quinn could go and she couldn't.  Eva and I decided to give it a try.  All the way up to the course (you have to take a gondola to the top of the bobsled course), she kept pointing to the course yelling 'rutschen' (sledding).

I thought she would be a bit scared with the speed and turns, but she literally vibrated with joy the whole way down.  She might be a speed demon as well.

Nina joined us on Thursday for the remainder of the weekend...and we went on a half day hike to the Osser, which is literally on the German / Czech border.

The view from the top of the Osser.

Quinn loves taking pictures, and we let him use our small camera from time to time.  Without us knowing it, he brought the camera into the bathroom while he was taking a dump (AA machen).  When we noticed that both Quinn and the camera had disappeared together, we all chuckled a bit...curious about the results.

Thankfully, there were no pictures of male body parts or poop.  But, I thought that this self pick while pooping was interesting.  I'm also thankful that the camera didn't end up with the poop.

Hiking with Tante Nina.

There was a cache along one of the hikes we wanted to do.  So, we packed the headlamp for Quinn, and he and Nina found it together.

I love pics that show Quinn in this sort of mode.

Emily actually fed me some of her ice cream.

Quinn eating ice cream.

A typical Bayerwald hotel and cafe.  The weather finally got super nice by Friday.

Family pic.

Emily grabbed Quinn's backpack...and it actually sorta fits.

So...that is the end of vacation for a while.  We had another great trip to Bayerwald, and had some great quality AND quantity time with the kids.  Next time, we just hope the weather is a bit better.

Did I mention that Monday is a public holiday in Germany ;-)

Big Fat Greek Wedding

When Eva and I found out that our good friend Tom was getting married and that we were invited to their wedding (US) and the blessing (Greece), we tried to erase the obvious term 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' from our vocabulary.

Nonetheless, we were stoked to hear that Tom finally found his life's partner, and we were excited that we were honored to be invited to the blessing outside of Athens.


Thankfully, we were able to swing the somewhat difficult logistics in able to make the trip for the weekend.  We felt like jet setters and bad parents...all in one.

The great weather, blue skies, and great views from our hotel room in downtown Athens certainly helped.

The blessing was at a winery outside of Athens in a super cool location, with great views of the valley.

I love olive trees.

Who's that old fat guy in the pic?  I have to drop a few pounds after all this is over.  It is probably Eva's polka dots and the warm weather that is making me look like a bloated pig ;-)

Tom and Stella.  Happily married...but probably looking forward to getting finished with the week long festivities across two continents to head to their honeymoon.

Hard to believe that we've known each other for almost 20 years.  Even harder to believe (per the picture) that Tom was my first little brother in the fraternity.

Loved the older Greeks when they danced solo to traditional music.  Definitely cool to see this part of the very happy greek culture.  

After the wedding, we slept in until 11am (yes, it was a long night) and played tourist for a while.   Above, one of the open air markets of Athens.

Our hotel room (literally called Economy Hotel) was, well, economy.  But, it was clean, the staff was very helpful, and the location was great:  only about a 10 minute walk to the base of the Acropolis.

Even if you hate doing what everyone else does, as a tourist in Athens, you have to go to the Acropolis.

The pictures do not do justice to the amazing sights.

Above is the temple of Zeus, and the church below is just down the hill from the Acropolis, in the area that was one of the main trading areas of Athens

Of course, we did some caching.  Close to our hotel, we found our first nano cache (technically, the smallest cache is called a micro, which is the size of a 35mm film container).  This thing was tiny, and the logbook was tightly rolled. 

Near sunset, we climbed the Lycabettus Hill to see the Athens valley at sunset.

There is a small church and a restaurant on top...and a couple was even getting married when we reached the top.

It has been a while since our last sunset together (was probably in Hawaii), and this was a great event with great views.


At 630am on Sunday morning, we headed back home to begin our (already planned) vacation in the Bavarian forest with the kiddoes and my inlaws.


More on that part of the vacation in the next post...

Vater Kind Zelten

After quite a bit of dreaming and planning, the time was finally here: the Father / Child Camping weekend. Four fathers and sons from Quinn's kindergarten went together to the Fränkische Schweiz near Pottenstein for 2 nights of nature, fun, fire, and camping!

I had some T-Shirts made up for the event, which we wore the whole weekend (and they were pretty dirty after all was said and done).

Emily wanted to get in the action. I'm hoping she can join us next year. As we drove away, she cried like a stuck pig. Man, she was mad that we left without her.

Each of the fathers had some pretty decent equipment, so we were set with the basics ... as well as some luxury items. P.S. the American Flag chairs were not mine...odd seing one of the German fathers unpacking those chairs.

We went on two night hikes with torches. Boys - big and small - love fire.

The view from our tents.

Another great view from our tents. As you can imagine, it took about 5 minutes for the first soccer ball to land in the water.

On Saturday morning, we headed to a nearby ropes course (Kletterwald).

The four boys with their gear.

Quinn on the zip line. All in all, he did a great job, and he showed his climbing capabilities...he just needs to be a few inches taller in order to be able to clip and out himself. But, the fathers were around to help.

Quinn ran around with the camera taking pictures. I still find it amazing what he takes pics of ... somewhat defining what he sees as being important.

In the pic below, I doubt he was trying to take as self portrait...and frankly, I don't know what he was doing. Perhaps he wanted to see what the camera did from the other end when it took pics.

A view of the campground with the sunny skies. While the mornings were cool, we had great, hot, sunny weather.

The boys even had quiet time near the campfire...reading a new book together.

Of course, Eva tried to make sure that Emily had a good time while we were gone...by taking a trip to feed the pigs.

Emily has some great facial features these days...and our little girl isn't so little anymore.

Quinn, I, the other fathers and kids had a great weekend. We kinda spoiled them, but we also spent some great quality AND quantity with our sons. Hopefully, Quinn will begin to love the mountains and nature as much as Eva and I do.

Perhaps he'll always have a soft spot in his heart for camping (as I do).

As a small sidenote: I brought a pillow this time. The last few times I went camping, my neck was killing me the next day. Eva's comment: you're getting old ;-)