Off to Germany

There's alot to be said for having a large family. Well, I only have two siblings, my brother Dave and my sister Judy. But I have LOTs of first cousins, fifty or something like that. I'm starting to get them confused with my cousins's KID'S, so I lost track of the exact number a long time ago. And even though I have only two neices and two nephews, all four of them have it going on. Which leads me (FINALLY) to why I'm in Baumholder, Germany.

My nephew Chris is a Captain in the US Army, (as opposed to the Russian Army or the Army of the Phillipines.) He's stationed here in SW Germany honing his skills for a second trip to Iraq. His wife Mindy and son Luke are here too...And when I say Mindy is here I mean she's REALLY here. You can't miss her cause she's 14 months pregnant. She says there's only one baby in there but it must be one BIG baby. Because even though she's still as beautiful as ever, her belly is ready to get on with this thing.

Anyway, I guess you CAN miss Mindy because HER mother-in-law and MY sister Judy missed her enough to cross the Atlantic on Saturday for a one month visit. (Well I think Judy missed 19-month old Luke just a little too, maybe even Chris) Which leads me to why I'M here in Germany...I came along with Judy to make sure she didn't get lost on the way. Who knows where she would've ended up...We flew in to Frankfurt, arriving Saturday morning. Chris, Mindy, AND Luke, got up at 3am to meet us there. Pretty impressive I think. Even though it turns out that Mindy only came along just in case she had the baby that day..After all, we passed right by the hospital Baby Bee (thats what she calls it) will be born in. It would've been ashamed to waste an extra trip.

On to the highlights. Saturday activities were limited to a nice dinner not far from Chris and Mindy's apartment. But on Sunday we managed to drag Judy out of bed (she is no help at all with Luke and would've slept away at least her first week in Europe.) and went to see Burg Lichtenberg, a really groovy medival castle (aren't they all medival) not far from the town of Kusel, a half hour away from the base here at Baumholder. I'll have some pictures of that trip posted soon and they're good photos, mostly because it was a BEAUTIFUL day with just enough medival mist to make the whole day a little spooky. And the other reason they're good photos is that Luke was there and he makes cute faces. Especially when he's ready for the WC.

Okay and then we came home and slept and stuff. (and even though I couldn't sleep well I was lucky because the NFL playoffs were on LIVE in the middle of the night which gave me something to do.

Today I took a bus to the town of Idar Oberstein. And I can say without doubt now that in Germany the buses DO run on time. To the second as a matter of fact. I had a great lunch in a restaurant at 377 Hauptstrasse called Badischer Hof, just below a five hundred year old church carved halfway up a mountain, which is another story for when I'm not so tired of typing. I had the Spiesbraten, the local specialty. It is cooked over wood and I chose the pork...Real flavorful let me tell you.....Then I did some other things and now I'm tired of blogging and will tell you about it all later...And by the way, I'm going home tomorrow.....Tschus for now....