EUROPE TRIP: Germany

As we were planning for this trip we knew we wanted to visit the Black Forest Region of Germany.  So with a host like Rochelle, she made that happen!  We drove about two hours to the Schwarzwald district to the town of Triberg, which is right in the middle of the Black Forest area.  This area is home to the cuckoo bird and is known for the rich forests and all the wood working.  We were excited to explore this region as we were excited to buy an authentic cuckoo clock!  A shop owner reminded me that they have been making these clocks longer than America has been in existence.  I had to think about that for a minute.  Haha!  We walked around and went in all the shops and even went back to a few shops to look at the clocks again.  Rochelle and Liza were so patient with us as we spent nearly 4 hours learning about them and picking out the perfect one.  It was nice to be inside the shops though because it was cold outside!!

 

Triberg, Germany

 

 

Nick loved this clock because of the hunting riffles and the dead animals hanging down.  This clock was almost $30,000 US dollars!!!  It goes without saying that we didn't buy that clock. :)



 

 

Instead we bought the clock that Nick is pointing to, and even then I couldn't believe how expensive they were.  We got one that is hand carved and has an enamel face time piece.  I was happy to finally agree on this one because it was testing my patience.  Being that it takes 6 weeks to deliver, we still haven't received it but I'm excited to get it soon.

Here is a close up of the clock we bought.

This is the store where we bought our clock.  Nick and the owner talked clocks FOREVER.  He wanted this photo to remember the store.

Every shop we went in to had clocks and more clocks.  By the end of the end I was able to start seeing the difference in workmanship.

 

How's this for an outdoor clock?



 

And more clocks!



 

 

Triberg has a series of waterfalls in the town that are the tallest in Germany.  You can ride up to the top, but it was way too cold for that outside.

 

The waterfalls our into the river that run through the town.

 

I like how all the homes look as though they are stacked up the hill.



One of the MANY ornate shops

 

I think this building was a hotel, but I loved how the vines were growing up the building.

It's no secret that I have a sweet tooth so I wanted to try authentic black forest cake made in the black forest.  One word, DISGUSTING!  Wow, maybe it is true that we use a lot of sugar in the USA.  This was not sweet at all and it tasted like they soaked the cake layers in liquor.  I think I will stick to only pastries in Europe from now on.

 

This is my "I'm acting like this tastes good" face.  haha

 

Despite it being cold, it was still beautiful and very green.  Such a cute town.

We couldn't visit the cuckoo capital of the world an not see the biggest cuckoo clock in existence!!  We were lucky to arrive a few minutes before the hour so were anxiously awaiting what we thought would be this awesome chime and display, but...

 

This is all the happened.  It was so lame.  Haha, I'm laughing just writing this.  It was so underwhelming.  The little cuckoo bird popped out and a chime was rang and then 10 seconds later it was gone. No way would I wait an hour to see that again!  We just looked at each other and thought, really?!

 

Despite the weak "cuckoo and chime" the actual clock itself was beautiful.  You can pay to go inside to see the back of the clock with all the working parts,  but we decided it wasn't worth it.

 

The drive back was through the German countryside.  It was breathtaking!!!  I could not believe how green everything was, the softly rolling his, the blue sky--just beautiful.  We had to pull over to take a few photos, and I'm so glad we did.

 

Thank you Germany for a beautiful day



EUROPE TRIP: France

Last year when Domenic graduated from ASU we wanted to do a big trip, but let's be honest we didn't have the money for that!  But with both of us working this last year and time to plan and save we decided we were doing it!  Why, not?!? 

A roommate of mine from BYU, Rochelle, lives in Switzerland now with her family and Domenic has an old mission companion from England, Nathan, so we decided we would travel Europe and visit good friends.  So with that, we booked the tickets and waited anxiously until April 20th when we left!

Since we both started on opposite coasts of the United States we met in Philadelphia to make our connection to Zurich, Switzerland.  It was an overnight flight that was certainly looooong!!  I had gotten sick 4 days before we left and so despite feeling better I still had all the drainage/sinus junk that made sleeping impossible.  I left AZ at 8am Saturday morning and we got to Switzerland at 8am Sunday morning!  I was tired to say the least, but everyone we talked to said to stay up the first day so that night we would just pass out.  We planned accordingly and after meeting Rochelle at the airport, a nice breakfast at their house, and a little freshening up, we were on our way to start our adventures.  :)

 

After a long 4+ hour flight from Phoenix to Philly I met up with Nick and we were boarded to fly over the ocean (something I must admit I was a little nervous about).  We are ready for take off!

 

 

First up: France!

We went to the northeastern area of France known as the Alsace region, where most people actually speak German.  We visited the village of Eguisheim.  This area is known for very high end wine and most of the tourists are on winery tours.  Being that we don't drink wine, Rochelle had heard it had such a cute town and center that we wanted to check it out.  It did not disappoint!  The narrow cobblestone streets and old colorful buildings was just what I expected in an old European city. We enjoyed hot pretzels smothered with locally made cheese and macaroons!  Yum!

 



 

I was so in love with these cute little streets

 

Jeremy, Rochelle, and Liza.  They were such great hosts.  They had never been to this little town so it was fun exploring together.

 

 

I kept asking if people really lived in these homes, and sure enough we saw people leaving their houses.  There were a few for rent so we were checking out the prices.  It just didn't seem real that people lived here.  haha, yes, we are so American.

This town is known for all the stork birds that nest in the town center.  In fact, a shop owner told us that this is where the story of the stork bird delivering babies to parents began.  And due to the large quantity of these birds everywhere I think I believe the story.  The nests were huge and snuggled into all the buildings.

How is this for a narrow street!  Domenic could barely fit!

This street!!  I just can't get over it.

 

We bought a snack from this street vendor.  The smell of freshly made pretzels tempted us.  It had the most delicious cheese melted on top with cured meat, so good.  This was also my first experience trying to pay with francs.  Haha, it was hilarious!  I didn't know what any of the coins were and the lady working only spoke German.  I still have no idea what this snack cost us.  Lol.

I loved all the fountains and flowers everywhere.  Nick was not amused to pose for this picture.

 

The town center had great fountains and a few of the most adorable old churches.  Can you spot the birds nest?

 

Nick probably took 25 pictures along of the stork birds all over the place!



France had such a pretty countryside. It was great driving around and I couldn't get over how green everything was.  I think I made that comment 50 times!

 

Next up we ventured to see some free roaming monkeys!  Seriously, I don't think I can ever go to a zoo again and see an animal in a cage and be impressed. Montagne des Singes or "Monkey Mountain" as everyone calls it, is a sanctuary for Barbary Macaques in the Alsace.  The monkeys are native to northern Africa, but were brought here in the 1960's when they became endangered to do research and to breed.  You pay to get into the park, a guide goes over a few rules, you get several handfuls of popcorn to feed the monkeys, and then you are off into their territory.  The only big rule was to not look them in the eye, that is a threat to them, but otherwise you hold out your hand and they will come right up to you.  It was crazy!

 

I had my popcorn out ready to go!

 

The monkeys were so cute, loved popcorn, and didn't mind having a few pictures taken.



 

The park had a huge loop to walk around, but it took us forever because we couldn't walk away from the little things.

 

I love this picture, it captures the initial reaction we had to the first monkey who took the popcorn right from us.

These baby monkeys were just adorable, and interestingly the male monkeys mostly take care of them.

After Nick took this picture and I saw these big sharp teeth I was second guessing how close we were to them...haha!



Despite being totally jet lagged and dozing on and off in the car we loved all that the Alsace region of France had to offer.  We debating going to Paris, but we didn't want to rush our time there and try to do it in a day, so Paris will have to wait!  Oh, France I think I love you!

Vegas Trip: Work Edition

Yes, I'm still posting things that happened in that crazy 4 weeks I mentioned like 3 or 4 posts ago!  Literally, I'm still trying to figure out how my body survived it all.  And then it was off to Vegas, which is where the exhaustion really sunk in...lol.  My bosses decided that we had such a great 2012 and worked so hard that we earned a fun weekend trip.  I would think that most people leave work and want nothing to do with their co-workers, but we are all really like a 2nd family to each other.  I love them all and an all expense paid trip to Vegas only let us all bond and have even more fun.

We had to meet at 6am for our early morning flight!!  Seriously, exhausted is the only word that keeps coming to mind.  haha.  We arrived in Vegas to a party bus that picked us all up and took us the Palazzo hotel where we were staying.  Talk about niiiice!  It is connected to the Venetian where they have the gondola rides and all the shops, not to mention the amazing pool.  When we first arrived the bosses took us to the slot machines and gave us $5 to play a game--who could lose the money the fastest on the penny slots. It was sooooo funny!!!  The winner got to pick an envelope first, which contained our spending money.  As if the all paid trip wasn't enough we got spending money to go shopping!  I decided to pocket my $75 and head to the pool.  After a little tanning and napping, we all met up for dinner and a show.  The show was a variety show and our group was so crazy loud and annoying that both of our bosses got called on to stage and were part of the entertainment.  It was sooo funny, I wish they would have allowed pictures to be taken in the theater.  We danced the night, had late night treats and sushi, and found time for a little sleep before our morning flight back to AZ.  Such a great trip.  I love my AFDC family and my bosses who make working for them stressful, crazy, and fun all at the same time :)

Caitlin and I were partners in the slot machine game.

 Alli, Brindee, and I decided to save our $ and spend time at the pool

 Lindsey and I heading to dinner--it was an all black kind of night apparently

 Dinner with the entire gang

 Everyone after the show

Serendipity frozen hot chocolate..yummy

This is what 2am looks like when your feet hurt...lol

 Sadly, two of our co-workers didn't come, but we were sure to bring them for photo ops!  Here is Lindsey and I and "Kristina" aka the best hygiene team around!

The next morning in the Vegas airport!  We survived 30 hours of fun.  Thank you docs!

April and THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

April started off great and only got better as the month went on!  When Nick is out of town I get to have lots of girlfriend time in AZ.  It was fun going out and celebrating Alli's birthday at Oregano's.

 As much as I love spending time with my girlfriends, it is even better when Nick is in Arizona.  He had to come for a quick visit for new impressions for his invisalign.  We went to a nice dinner with friends one night, and before I knew it the weekend was over!!

Let's be honest, me talking about Louisville basketball really deserves its own post, but I'm sure by now everyone is sick of hearing about it!  Oh well :)  I was soooo excited to make it to the final four, so when we made it play the championship game against Michigan it warranted a 'selfie'  I'm such a proud fan.

 You would have to live under a rock by now to not know that Louisville won the championship game; the last time we won was 1986!!  This was long over due.  I was jumping up and down of course and may have burst into tears and laughter when I got a text from my sister that said, "are you crying yet".  Oh my, she knows me too well.  So proud of my team.  And thankful for my sister in law, Rachel, who saw championship shirts on sale the next day and called to ask me how many she should buy for me (notice she didn't ask me if I wanted them, but how many)!!  Again, she know me too well!

Gotta love the courierjournals home page the next day!!  I read it on-line regularly to see the sports section, but this of course topped it all.  Go Cards, let's do it again next year.

Wilmington Spring Visit

Straight from Denver I headed to NC. (Are you getting the idea how this month was so insane???!!!)  I was so excited to not only see Nick, but to have a little relaxation.  People always ask me what do you do when Nick is working all day, my response is "whatever I want".

This has become on of my favorite places.  It is Smith Creek Park.  This area is so pretty that it is hard for me to believe the beach is just 10 minutes from here.  They have a walking trail around the lake which is about 1.5 miles.  I love going running down here, and watching out for gators.

 It seems that a least once a week Nick has some kind of work dinner/ gathering with co-workers.  As much as I hated it at first, it has become a lot of fun.  It's nice to get to know the people he works with and no one can argue a free meal.  This night we were at buffalo wild wings at it happened to be during the NCAA tournament.  Of course it was a lot of fun because of my love for basketball.

 I was in NC for Easter.  We got together with 6 other couples at a beach house and had a big feast!  Not only that, but Louisville was playing against Duke in the Elite 8 basketball game.  It was such a fun night.  Not the best picture of us, but you can't turn down the chance to take a picture at a beach house. Oh, how I have loved our time in NC.

I didn't make a trip to North Carolina in April because we had a few more exciting places to visit.  Europe trip posts are coming up!!!