...constantly searching to find the best travel deals and places to visit. A never-ending quest for adventure!

Monday, June 28, 2010

cloudy Monday

What is it about homeless people garbage-can diving? As I walked to work this morning, it was a 50 year old lady behind some house...if you're gonna do it, don't tiptoe or sneak around. It's less obvious to those of us who see you that you're probably not supposed to be behind the house. Wish I would have taken a picture but my hands were full of donuts.

Definitely a June Gloom day to start.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Day 6

It's Thursday, and here we are - already the Inaugural is tonight, and all of the guys are out voting for their candidate for Governor. Been a pretty good week overall so far, and tonight is the capstone before the guys begin a day and half of working state government. As far as past Badger Boys State's have gone, I think this one has probably been the smoothest, including the rain we had earlier in the week. Even taking the picture last night went without TOO much of a hitch.

My band has done an outstanding job - I'm always impressed by our first rehearsal and immediate assembly, and now the guys are really into the groove. I have a number that will 'guest' conduct starting tomorrow, so that will be fun too. I'll try to sneak a picture or two tonight and post later. Tonight's speakers include Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, and Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton.

Will be a long night.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Day 4/5

No assembly on Tuesday night - not a bad thing. It's the almost mid-point of the week where everyone is running for offices, getting elected, and finding out how the campaign week works. There's always a buzz of excitement...its fun to see how the guys react to all of this stuff.

I even got to eat some Johnny V's today! Such fun.

Our assembly tonight was a tad bit odd, as we had two counties awol for the start due to the photo, and then the colors were called back early when they weren't supposed to. Oops. Made it through...tomorrow night is Inaugural!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Day 3...more fun

Enjoyable day for the most part, culminating in our evening assembly and featured speaker JB Van Hollen.

Only thing...he was late arriving. I get the word with only one more song to go before we're supposed to start, and am asked to 'stall'. A conductor's worst nightmare in most cases. :) But not in my case - we grabbed another song, and off we went. No problem.

Success!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Day 2...a tad late

Sorry this is a bit later than I thought...was going to post last night but it just got too late.

Our assembly went well last night - no big problems to speak of. The featured speaker was Charles Wiley, a very well-known journalist who is a great speaker for the guys.

Got back and had our post-assembly meeting, and then I tried my best to stay awake and stay up to work on some things and be online...unfortunately tiredness got the better of me.

Now on to Day #3. Looks like I might be able to do lunch with my sister on Tuesday. That will be nice.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Day 1 craziness

Just not feeling right today. Maybe it's the humidity or whatever, but I've had better days. I must persevere though...have no choice. I hope i get out of this funk.

I spent my morning running around and trying to setup my band stuff, although I didn't get much help and ended up hoofing a lot of it myself. That's ok.

Registration was supposed to start at 1pm, except all of a sudden the word came they started 15 minutes early for some reason. Good thing i wasn't in the gym yet (sarcasm). Argh.

Then we were supposed to be done at 3:30 for meetings to start, except that buses were late and i didn't get out until almost 5. Not good, plus i still had to figure out how to seat the 91 guys i have in the band and maybe eat still.

Thankfully, it all came together well tonight and we made it through. Thank goodness.

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Made it

I hate Frontier.

Maybe hate is too strong a word, but I highly dislike it regardless. Reasons?

Well to start, i have yet to not stand in line at the ticket counter for less than 40 minutes to check in. Why do airlines only schedule one person to do check in for a flight of several hundred?

Second, seat rules are dumb. I was sitting in my aisle seat next to a large overweight woman when finally they closed the doors and we were going to leave. In front of me was one guy alone in a row of three to himself. He promptly moved to the window when the door shut. So, a seat open in front of me, I thought it the neighborly thing to do and move up to give this lady (and me) more space. So I moved, got in, and the large lady decides to ask the flight attendant if it's ok her friend moves up to sit next to her. Dumb. Meanwhile on my right, another lady has risen to move to the open seat in front of her opposite me. Now the flight attendant has a problem with all this moving as the friend moves in by the large lady. She tells the person on my right she can't move up because these are the "special" seats, and makes her go back. But, she ends up letting me stay in my new seat...after all of that.

This same flight attendant almost an hour later only gives me ONE chocolate chip cookie...I had to ask to get the second. Dumb.

My flight was slightly delayed in leaving SD, but ive made it safe. Now on to the fun at will commence.

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Friday, June 11, 2010

off again

Packing is always so hard.

Why can't someone invent a machine to just pack a suitcase for you, thereby alleviating the need for you to actually have to sit there and figure out how to fit everything in? Would make life a whole lot simpler.

I'm nearly all together again, having just unpacked and now repacked for the trip back to BBS. I will be updating again while I'm there, as I should have Internet for the entire week.

Here's hoping everything is on time today. A small tear in my eye for the fact I'll be flying on a Frontier plane today called 'Midwest'. Sad.

Started to add pictures...most of the May entries are complete.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

pictures to come

As promised, I will be adding pictures shortly to my various posts from the UK and Germany, so stay tuned for those as they pop up for each. I took over 400 on the trip, so I've got a few to choose from.

Prep for BBS continues...I've got a good head start on my rehearsal schedule, and also planned performance pieces. My flight leaves mid-morning on Friday and arrives later afternoon to Mitchell direct. Pretty happy about that...nothing will get lost.

I've got a few errands to run before I leave...was thinking I might try to get myself another pair of jeans before I go. Its another good excuse to also check out what's new at the Apple Store. :)

I'm also pretty psyched about earning Premier status on United after this last round of flights...no bag fees for all of next year!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

back in SD

Made it back in one piece to San Diego, and back at work today. Ugh. My system is jetlaggin', and all messed up. But hopefully that will subside soon.

Friday I'm off to BBS...whirlwind week of travel.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Bon voyage

We're about to board...all on time so far.

Next stahallte: Philadelphia


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Winding down

A little hard to believe that it's already Sunday and the trip is winding down. Time flew by but I think G&G had a really fun time.

My time in Heidelberg was good...missed Leah but I know she's living it up in Poland. Was nice to have a little me time and relax. I walked for a while yesterday and just enjoyed the time to check out the town again. So many little shops to choose from. Couldn't find many wine shops though...too bad.

Tomorrow we leave not too early in the morning for frankfurt's airport and our ride back home. I'm sure thankful I was able to do this trip. Will write more from Frankfurt when we get checked in. I hope the flights are all one time

Quite a bit to when i get back before I head out to BBS on Friday. Busy busy.


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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Here we go to Oberammergau

Friday so far...and into Saturday:

1. Got up on time - 3am is early

2. Forgot printed out train sheet at house (argh)

3. Left contacts at house in bathroom.

4. Made it to Munich but train track work meant schedules were all mixed up. (sigh)

5. Met man at station who just flew back from Riyadh and Doha, Qatar. :-)

6. After all that still on time to make it for check in.

7. Anyone going to the play should be required to shower before it starts. It was a very smelly night for me between two large guys.

8. Free Wifi at the hotel made me very happy.

9. Here for the first two sunny days in three weeks of rain = score for us.

10. Dinner at the restaurant - we were joined by three little old ladies from Norway, one of whom was from the same area in Norway where i need to do my genealogy! Remarkable coincidence. And info exchanged.

11. The play was awesome. Very well done. G&G were so glad they could come. Me too.


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Thursday, June 3, 2010

On the road again...

Thurs 10:38a

...and off to Karlsruhe and our next stop. No problems getting on the train this morning, and it will be about five hours to get there.

Probably wont have a ton of time to write tonight, as we will need to sleep early and be up to catch the train to Oberammergau at 4:00a. That's not going to be fun.

We made it safely to Otto's house, and of course received a warm welcome. They are also so very happy to have us come and stay, and just being able to visit I think is very special. They have quite the greenery around their house too...


Excellent wine was also consumed by all. After all, we are in Germany.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Country


Oof, was it hard to wake up this morning. Not sure why, but I could have slept in all day today. Was kinda blah and not feeling well either this morning, fortunately am doing better now. I blame the spargel.

After a nice breakfast this morning, we were up and out for some local fare. First stop was Aldi. I'm not sure exactly what the fascination is with Aldi, and I don't think I've shopped there once in my life. But G&G sure do like it. It just seems to me to be a jumbled mess of products all smushed together on shelves. We also stopped so grandma could get some Rennie.

Next we were on to the local outdoor market, that was actually very full of people and vendors. It was fun to see the neat German cakes and other food...fish from Amsterdam! Was a bit cool though...no sun this morning.

In the afternoon Ruth took us to Detmold to see the castle and the sun finally came out. We had a cranky old tour guide guy lead us, who also chided me for taking pictures. I took a few anyway. Just because he was cranky. (one highlight from the tour was seeing a clavichord that Brahms used to give lessons when he was in residence). Then afterwards we drove back to another small town and stopped for a quick break to have some cake at Haus Berkenkamp. Strawberry. Yum.

The resident cat :)
Tonight after dinner, as a surprise we went to Burg Sparrenberg which overlooks Bielefeld. Got many good pictures that I will share later (Below). And soon, it will be time for schlafen.

Overall, not a bad day. Tomorrow we leave for Karlsruhe.

PS - Did I mention Ruth has an amazing house? Pictures below.
Backyard


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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

10 items of note for the trip so far

Figured it might fun to share, in no particular order.

1. I really like European breakfasts. Just something about the rolls, meat, and kuchen. That being said...

2. ...I've had so much spargel this trip it might just be coming out of my ears. Whole spargel, cooked spargel, even spargel soup. Wanna guess what dinner was tonight? More spargel.

3. Coke definitely tastes better over here. Not yet sure why...might have to google it later.

4. All this ethnic environment over here, yet we have to listen to "Eternal Flame" on the radio during our first fancy lunch with Erika.

5. Breakfast this morning at the Pommern Zentrum was to "The Ketchup Song". Yikes.

6. Watching grandma look out on the countryside as we zipped along.

7. I'm 6/6 on train catching so far (knocking on wood)

8. Only one iPad battery charge needed.

9. I really do like well-prepared Schnitzel.

10. Not having the ability to upload pics from my camera is a little frustrating.

Next stop, Bielefeld


10:45a

Currently zipping along at 200 km/hr on an ICE train to Bielefeld, and figured I'd write a quick note. We've made our connections well so far, and this is our longest ride of the day. We'll make one more stop in Hannover before switching to the last train. I think G&G's friend will pick us up when we get there. Not sure what food for tonight will be.

Everyone sure likes the train scenery so far. Many of the planted fields are just coming up and the farmers are out.

Sleep last night was so great. I zonked out right away. Woke up this morning, showered and got ready before we quickly went to the church on the property because Erika wanted me to meet the Dr. guy who plays the organ at the church. The organ there was very nice, and unfortunately I didn't have anything along to play. But the Dr. guy whipped out one of Bach's Orgelwerks books and did quite the demo. Woulda needed some practice time for that. I think he was quite pleased.

After a nice breakfast spread of meat and bread, we parted ways with Erika to the train. She was so happy we could come. Soon to be to our next adventure.


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