Baseball and Berg

While I try to not get too down on the sometimes crappy weather here, the weather last weekend was downright crappy. The temps were in the 50', cloudy, and I actually had to put on long pants.

But, we tried to have a good weekend nonetheless.

I took a trip (literally) down the street with Quinn and Emily to catch a White Sox game. The baseball is decent, the stadium reminds me of the little league stadiums at home, and they have a great deal for the kids: when there is a foul ball, the kid who gets the ball and turns it in, gets a few baseball cards.

Quinn has a ton of baseball cards now.
Looking at a fountain during Altstadtfest.
We also did a bit of caching: here is Quinn with our first T4 cache...
A few weeks ago, I finally broke down and got a huge 2TB external drive to clear up some space on our computer. 2TB is huge! In the transfer process, I came across some pics from Easter that I thought I nuked with Quinn, Emily, and I at the soccer field at Eva's parents.
Emily did a great job playing as well...
As with every year, our local bierfestival, Bergkirchweih came (and went) a few weeks ago. I wanted to go with Quinn...and was thankfully able to convince Eva to come, so Emily could join us. Normally I have no problems being alone with two kids...but if you knew Berg, then you'd understand.

I got to go on a huge ride (above).
The weather was less than ideal...but we tried our best to enjoy Berg despite the rain and cold.
Lest you think that it is always cold and rainy, we have had a few days were the kiddoes could cool off with the sprinkler (naturally, during the week).
Another soccer pic from Easter...

Post Ride Tourism

BW and I got back from our Alpine Tour with Rene Friday early afternoon. As odd as it sounds, I really wanted to go for a short ride with BW so that I could show him the beautiful area in which I get to ride every day.

I didn't think I could convince him to join me (after all that riding in the Alps), so I told him there was a great Biergarten on the way that wasn't too far from home.
The view is great, and their homemade Adlizer Bratwürste with kraut were the great end to a great week of riding.

As luck would have it, our local bierfest was finishing up its 16 event: what we call the '5th' season in our town. Ther is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Berg (the name of the festival).

There is tons of great food, music, and about 100,000 people per day for 16 days. I think BW was expecting more 'traditional' music (which does play in the early afternoons). But, in the evening, it is full on party and dancing on the tables.
After a day of rainy tourism in Nürnberg on Saturday, the end of a great week was among us, and it was time to take BW to the airport. The great thing about true friends is that the time can pass by, but the friendship remains strong.

It was great to have BW visit us in Germany, and it was great to have continued shared experiences with a great friend...even after all these years and all of the miles, we can still have a great time. We drink a lot fewer margs these days, we have less and grayer hair, and we are a bit older (possibly more mature ?!?), but we can still have a great time.

Eva and I love having visitors, and we are looking forward to the next visitors to join us for a short (or long) visit at our home...

Der Berg ruft !!!

The 'fifth' Erlangen season officially opened on Thursday: Bergkirchweih. Erlangen's beer festival. 16 days, over 1 million visitors. Countless liters of beer. Dancing on the beer benches. Carnival rides...

...so Quinn stayed home with his mother while I met with some coworkers.
Here I am trying to be like the waitresses that can carry seemingly countless liters of beer with two hands. They have forearms bigger than my thighs. I could do 6 liters relatively easy, but I don't think they were full with beer.
...here's the dancing on the beer benches part.