We started our family blog in 2009, our year in CA. Hard to believe this is the fourth year we've kept a blog, but it is. Our photo albums are nowhere near this up-to-date.

The upcoming school year promises to be one of changes: Nick will start college and his internships at Hewlett-Packard, Patrick will be commuting to a new school, Michael will begin taking French, I will get a new car, and our house cat Celine will be allowed to go outdoors. To keep up with our 2012-13 school year, click here.

Hiking and Camping at Tahoe (by Patrick)

A couple weeks ago, Nick and I went hiking and camping with Uncle Mark at Tahoe.

After we had completed the 5 hour car ride (Nick and I were sleeping most of the time), we got out our three packs and started hiking. We didn't have to hike too long (but the path was quite rocky at times) until we got to Suzie Lake. Here we found a camping ground and built  our tent. Nick and I then built a chair from rocks and ate. After that, we went into the tent and went to sleep.

On the next day, we were woken up quite early by the sun. We ate breakfast and hiked up a mountain with one pack. There was no path up to the peek of the mountain so we just had to climb up the rocks.

<--the mountain we climbed up

us on top of the mounain -->

When we finally got down we went back to Suzie Lake and ate lunch. Every meal we had was quite spartan and we only got 2000 calories a day. Once we were finished, we took down the tent (which we left there while we climbed the mountain) and continued on hiking to Heather Lake. There we built up the tent again, ate and went to sleep at about 7pm.

Just like Suzie Lake, Heather Lake had very clear but cold water.                            Heather Lake -->

On the last day we had quite a long hike planned. We packed everything and started hiking to Mount Tallac which is over 8000 feet high. The first couple miles we hiked on real paths, but as we got closer to the summit they stopped and we had to climb up the rocks. At the top we stopped and ate lunch.    



<--- us eating on Mount Tallac. Uncle Mark was standing on the very top of Tallac as he took the photo.



After this we started our very long descent down to the car. We had to climb down all the rocks again, walk to this zig-zag path, then we had a snack at a very little lake, then go along a very narrow and path until it ended and we had to climb and jump down some big rocks until we arrived at a road. We only had to follow the road for a mile but it felt like 10. We got into the car and drove to a restaurant. We were so happy to have a real meal again after eating the bare minimum for 2 days. Then we drove home.

2024/ A cool website for hiking packing lists is https://travacado.com/ Wish it had been available then! Then we could even have coordinated our packing.

Visiting Workplaces

One of the highlights of our California trips is always visiting the uncles' workplaces. On the morning of our flight, Bennett gave us the grand tour of his new Tesla workplace in Palo Alto, and we joined Mark for lunch at Google in the early afternoon. I was surprised by how big Tesla has gotten and its big open office space; the boys got a kick out of the multi-colored bicycles for the use by Google employees in Mountain View.


Thanks to the uncles for squeezing in our visits into their busy workdays!

Camping at Costanoa

 Having heard about "car camping" from both Tiffany and Mary over the past year, we were eager to try. Mary and Mark organized an overnight on Costanoa, near where we saw the elephant seals with Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Al one summer. 


Despite a few mishaps (our leaving one of Bennett's sleeping bags in the rental car we did not drive, light rain falling in our faces during the night, case of carsickness on the windy roads for me), I'd say the trip was a success. 


Was nice to be at the ocean and see Nick and Patrick playing frisbee with Mark while the younger ones ran away from the waves. We all enjoyed our barbecued hamburgers in the evening and s'mores for dessert. The hot chocolate and scrambled eggs, as well as the slow-cooking bacon, were a nice morning treat.


Thank you Mary and Mark for all the planning, shopping, and sleeping bag rolling, drying, and rerolling!

Meeting Leo Laporte

Patrick listens to Leo Laporte podcasts almost every day to keep up with the latest in tech. Because I generally hear this avuncular voice playing over Pat's speakers when I go upstairs to say goodnight, I've come to call the Emmy Award winning broadcaster "Uncle Leo."


"You talking with Uncle Leo again?"


All four of us were on board when Patrick started asking whether we could attend one of Laporte's live podcasts while in CA. I wasn't sure how we were going to fit a trip up to Petaluma in our short visit, but when Tiffany mentioned Elise and Sam would be at camp Tuesday morning and Patrick mentioned that's when Leo tapes MacBreak Weekly, it seemed the opportunity was there.

Some of the best things in life are free! We had a great time being part of the MacBreak studio audience, testing the new Chirp app on the one-year anniversary of Laporte's new studio, the Brick House. Leo's dog kept us company while we waited for the videocast to begin.

To watch the videocast: click here.

San Francisco

We spent three days with the Oakland Spragues, Oakland serving as the perfect location for excursions to San Francisco and Petaluma. Patrick was keen on doing San Francisco's Advanced Segway Tour, only available to participants having completed the first Segway tour, the attraction being the chance to go down San Francisco's "crookedest street" on Segways. Bennett took the day off and we drove in two cars to the piers, where Nick and Patrick took their Segway tour while Sam, Elise, and Michael played in the sand and Bennett, Tiffany, and I caught up.

On the tour, Nick and Patrick found out that Lombard Street is actually not the crookedest street in San Francisco, Vermont Street is, so with Bennett's prodding, fearful Laura ended up driving all around San Francisco, so we could go down that street. 

California Visit

Here we all are on our last weekend in California after some delicious tacos and brownies prepared by Mary and Mark. You can see the 6-and-unders were hamming it up. What fun we had. I'll post photos of all our activities soon!

Waterskiing

Nick and Patrick went waterskiing on the California Delta with Mark, his friend George, and George's girlfriend Hannah. Mom thought Nick was the one being dragged along in the end, so obviously the video needs a little annotating. Hannah is the one doing the one-foot skiing (shaking off the ski) and George is the one at the end trying to do some barefoot skiing, also the mystery pro in the beginning! I'll ask the boys to label the sequences; it is kind of hard to differentiate everyone wearing the same wetsuit, which they were happy George brought because the water was cold despite the 90-degree temperatures.

Segway in San Francisco

in front of Golden Gate Bridge

In front of Alcatraz

In front of SF

Hot fudge Sundae at Ghirardelli's

Frankfurt Day

With Nick and Patrick in the US, I took Michael with me to work. We enjoyed getting our latte and hot chocolate in the Rotunde Café; Michael was my door-opener and used the transponder to get us into my office and the department kitchen. We stopped by Rm. 17, the room where we instructors leave papers and Scheine (report cards) for students, and the department head's office.


I was surprised to find a little package in my in-box--a packet from a former student who had been teaching at a boarding school in England for the last ten months. The student was sending a note to thank me for writing his recommendation and enclosed two paper models: Shakespeare's house on Stratford-on-Avon and the Globe Theatre. Michael had the perfect activity while I finished my end-of-the-semester chores!


We then went to our favorite sushi place with conveyer belt transporting different little Japanese specialties around the dining room, including Michael's favorite of the day--duck! On our walk to the train station, we passed the European Central Bank (see photo), where there are still Blockupy tents and banners set up.


Now it's time for us to do our daily weeding.

VIP Day

This morning we got to the airport at 8 to drop Nick and Pat off for their FRA-CA flight; the line was long, but we realized we could do electronic check-in and walk straight to the Bag Drop, while everyone else stood in the main line for their boarding passes.


We were cutting it a LITTLE close, enjoying bacon McMuffins before seeing Nick and Pat off to their gates, only to find an incredibly long line before Passport Control. Oh dear. That's when we noticed there was one counter for EU citizens with basically no one in the line. Nick and Pat whipped out their German passports and were on their way.


On the way home, Michael and I stopped by Lidl for milk. We were waiting to put our basketful of of food onto the conveyer belt when a cashier called out she was opening a register and we should come with her.


We basically cut three lines without even a VIP pass! Let's hope our luck holds for Michael and my travel day.

Nick is 19!

Hard to believe that Nick is 19! What an exciting upcoming year he'll have working for Hewlett-Packard and studying for his International Management for Business and Information Technology degree in Mannheim. The lucky boy has the summer off until October 1!


The weather was good enough to sit on the balcony with our tortellini salad and fruit shortcake. Then he opened his gifts and especially enjoyed opening the model of an Audi R8 from Patrick and Michael.

Mom and Elizabeth Fly Back

On Monday Mom and Elizabeth with the endlessly long legs flew back to the US. The visit was great fun. Our guests left their mark--Mom got some of the weeding and hedge trimming done in the yard, while Elizabeth's stories of the evil clown now have Michael afraid to be in his room in the dark! Seriously, it was nice to spend so much quality time together, and we hope we can repeat the fun again soon!

The Sea of Boulders

 Just five minutes down the street from Georg's is the Felsenmeer, or Sea of Boulders. The boys had been several times, but not I. The boulders are what's left from the Ice Age when a glacier left them in its wake (or something like that). 

The Romans used them to make columns and monuments. Some of their creations got cracked and were left. You can see how the path of boulders goes up a hill; there are something like six levels; Michael and I climbed up two (very strenuous!), while Nick and Elizabeth made it to the bridge at the top of the third. We'll definitely go again!

Meeting up with Georg for German wine and food

Yesterday we drove to Bensheim to visit Georg and enjoy a meal at one of the traditional garden restaurants on the Bergstraße, known for its wine. 


Mom mentioned earlier in the week her dream of a convertible, so Georg took Elizabeth and Mom back to his place on a wild Porsche convertible ride. 

Forest Adventure Trail

On Friday, Mom, Elizabeth, Michael, and I drove over to check out Eppstein-Bremthal's "Forest Adventure Trail" for our afternoon walk. It is a 3-kilometer trail, but we just walked an hour's worth of it, stopping at the various "activities." 

Elizabeth and Michael walked barefoot, with their eyes closed through the Fühlpfad (sensory path). The square with the pine cones was the most painful; the big rocks were the most pleasant. In the photo on the right, Elizabeth is feeling the bark of a tree to see whether it matches up with the bark from a "Guess Me" station. We had fun spotting the Wichteln (dwarves) on the trees along the path.

Meeting in Frankfurt for the University Musical

Yesterday evening Nick, Patrick, Michael, and Elizabeth came by train to meet me in Frankfurt to see the student-written musical production at the university. Elizabeth and Michael had seen it with my colleagues, Grandma and me the weekend before and wanted to see it again. Patrick was curious to see what he missed, which meant we had to go on Thursday because today, Friday, he was going to Georg's. Nick thought if everyone else is going, he didn't want to miss anything! We also met up with Dorothee and Kristine.


It was fun seeing two of my students act and sing, one former student play the percussion instruments, and two more students serve the drinks. Patrick was most impressed by the keyboardist (truly amazing); Nick thought the group did a particularly good  job with the choreography; Elizabeth liked Charlotte's voice best, and Michael enjoyed it overall.


The script was similar to Glee's and had a very diverse cast of characters: the cute, blonde law student, the uptight girlfriend-boyfriend pair, the red-haired delinquent, the guy who loves Shakespeare, the gal who is always promoting a cause, the popular flirt, the stuttering gay boy, the girl who talks like a baby, and so forth. The atmosphere was great; yesterday the students even got a standing ovation.

Games

Every evening, and sometimes during the day, we've been playing games. Grandma's favorite is Rummikub, mine has been 6 Nimmt. Tonight Nick, Elizabeth, Michael and I played Bohnanza, which can be pretty exciting...bartering, bargaining, hard feelings, everything. We are teaching Elizabeth NOT to be so nice!


While I was at work today, those at home played Rat-a-Tat-Cat, a game Kathy and Mike gave Nick one year as a Christmas gift. We've also refreshed our memory as to how to play Elfer Raus, a game Michael liked in elementary school. Grandma has got Michael playing solitaire again, and he actually beat her in chess. The living room table has been the game table, where we go after watching our after-dinner episode of 30 Rock, Glee, or West Wing.


We still have many games to go through and we are running out of time!!

Hike to Kaisertempel for Dinner

 Yesterday we hiked to the Kaisertempel, the Italian restaurant perched on the top of our Eppstein mountain. The weather was gorgeous and so were the views. While waiting for our pasta to arrive, Elizabeth, Michael, and I walked to the Mendelssohn monument in honor of the composer's spending ten years off and on in Eppstein.  We topped off our meal with our favorite dessert, panne cotta, and the way down the mountain went quite a bit faster than the way up!

Frankfurt Day

Busy day showing Elizabeth the "big city." We walked down the eight floors of the Galeries mall on the Zeil and then down the floors of the modern MeinZeil mall, where we also waited in line for Hollister. Was my first time there. With six of us ages 11-73 walking around, it was too cumbersome to actually shop, but we did enjoy some Asian food for lunch and some ice cream cones on the Main River. Tomorrow will be a close-to-home day for the family (work for me) after an extended weekend's worth of activities.