Officially American

On Friday, we went to Munich for the day. I had to get some work done on my passport, and we had to take care of some paperwork for Quinn, so that he could be an 'American'.

Below Quinn is taking his first escalator ride, courtesy of the Munich subway system.
We generally knew where we had to go, but didn't know the exact street location. After looking for a while, we saw this building with barriers, fences, and security: that must be the US Consulate.
The whole experience was unbelivably painless and extremely customer friendly. I prepared everything beforehand and sent it in. We made an appointment that would work best with my work schedule, and showed up. Our contact at the Consulate merely checked our original documents, we signed the docs, and then paid. Everything was done in 20 minutes: Passport, US Birth Certificate, and Social Security number. The passport and US Birth Certificate comes in about 2 weeks.

I actually got my passport back the next day in the mail.

Overall, a great and painless experience.
To celebrate Quinn's first day as an official 'American', we had coffee at Starbucks.
Another first for Quinn: he used his grabbing reflex to hold this wooden ring. He loved how it made sounds when he moved his hand...

Berchtesgaden with the Parents

After coming back to Erlangen and having a few days to rest and relax, we drove to Berchtesgaden with my parents. Eva and I would only stay one night, and my parents would stay for almost a week.

This way my parents first time in Germany, alone, without us paving the way for them. Needless to say, Eva and I were both a bit worried that something bad would happen, but they did a great job, had a great time, even made a side trip to Salzburg, and made it home safe.

The day that we were there, we had fantastic weather. We were hoping for some snow, but sunny, blue skies are always welcome.

Above is the view from near the center of the city, looking into the valley.
After bumming around in the city for a bit, we went to the nearby lake, Königssee, to get a bit of fresh air and to go deeper into the national park.
Alongside the lake, there is a bobsled and luge track. We were stoked that people were actually riding, and after about 30 tries, we finally able to catch a pic of a bobsled racing by. From the sound, it sounds like they are going relatively slow, then they whip around the corners really fast.
You can actually pay to ride the bobs through the track...but we'll do that next time when Eva is not pregnant. Despite not having ridden the bobs, we still felt compelled to take a pic on top of the podium (with my parents on my left).
The two of us on the edge of Königssee.
On our ride home, we stopped by to see Keith and Manuela in Munich. It was great to stop by their place and to spend a few relaxing moments with friends during Christmastime.

They had prepared a 'Weißwurstfrühstück' - typical of Munich and even Bavaria - which consists of pretzels, white sausages, sweet mustard, and most importantly - Weißbier (Wheat Beer).

Eva drove the rest of the way home...

The Wedding - the week prior

The next few posts will be wedding related. It was really hard to pare down the almost 3000 pictures that we have of the wedding (many were sent to us by you). I'm sure I'll miss a few key pictures, but I hope I've got the essentials. We were fortunate to have many friends and family come from great distances to our wedding. Luckily for us, many of our American friends came a few days early, and we took a mini vacation together.


A pic of us on a short picture break on the way to Munich.

Here's the gang at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. From left to right: Rob, Eva, BW, Anita, Ize, Stacy, and Justin.

This is the last known picture of Justin smiling for the next 24 hours. Everyone did a great job: they landed in Frankfurt, we roadtripped to Munich (4+ hours), had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus. Of course, I asked the gang if they wanted a nightcap. 3 said yes.

It was one liter too many for Justin. He got one of his signature hangovers the next day, and he didn't make it to Neuschwanstein the next day with us. Eva, to this day, hasn't forgiven me.

The guy on the left is BW's 'friend' Tony. Long story...but those of you that were there will remember.

A picture of Ize, myself, and BW with Neuschwanstein in the background. If it looks familiar, it is the castle that Walt Disney used to model his 'Magic Kingdom'.