Anniversary Wishes...

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents!! :)

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for the many treasured memories you've helped to create for our family. I am truly grateful to have such loving and supportive parents. I've always looked up to you in so many ways, and as the years go by, I still continue to do so. The two of you have created such a solid, strong, and loving bond within our family, and I feel truly blessed to be a part of it... I strive daily to create that type of relationship and bond in my own family (well, my small "family" consisting of Brian and I... oh, and Riley too! :)).

And, with that said, I want to wish you a very Happy Anniversary and many, many more years of happiness!! I love you!!

There Went June...

Wow!! I can't believe that June is almost over!! It flew by so quickly... Yikes!! Too bad only about one week out of the entire month was actually sunny and warm here... The rest of the time it felt like March... Yuck! Maybe that's why it seems to have gone by so quickly... Considering it feels like summer just started in these parts! :)

Brian and I managed to keep ourselves quite busy over the past month (hence the reason for the lack of blogging I've been doing recently! :))... Between work, our travels, the World Cup (let me just say that it's a HUGE deal over here, and everything literally stops once a game begins... Crazy!), coffee dates, hot air balloon rides (pictures will be posted at a later date), dinners with friends, visiting friends, bike rides when the sun actually shines, rock climbing, etc... Needless to say, we haven't been home much over the past month. So, since I've been so bad about blogging about everything, I figured I'd simply post a few pics of some of things we've been doing in June...

We wanted to show our Patriotic spirit for the World Cup... Go USA!! :) (Unfortunately, they're already out... But, they played well while they were still contenders! :))

And, of course, we wanted to share in the German pride too... :)

I got into the World Cup spirit and did some "decorating" in the apartment! :)

Sorry about the not so good quality of the picture... But, here's more of my World Cup decor! :)

I was asked to make a diaper cake for a friend's baby shower... So, here it is... My very first diaper cake... Kinda cute, isn't it?? :)

And, of course, it's spargel time here... YUM!! So, we've been eating spargel (i.e. asparagus) with (and in) everything... Delicious! :)

Our spargel pizza... Quite yummy! :)

And, when there's spargel, there's also strawberries!! :) It's Strawberry Time here in Deutschland and we've been eating our fair share of them... They're just so good!! :) I'm actually surprised that our skin hasn't turned red or pink yet! :)

So, that's just a little snippet into what our June looked like... And, by the looks of things, July is going to be just as busy! This weekend we're heading to Berlin, the following weekend is already booked, Seehasenfest will soon be starting up (best festival in this area! :)), we've got a couple of concerts that we'll be attending over the next two weeks, and then I head home (back to the U.S.) for two weeks on July 18th (yay!)... Wow!! Looks like we'd better get ready for a fun-filled July! :)

Paris - The City of Light

Here they are, in all of their glory, the pictures from our adventure in Paris... Enjoy! :)

Instead of driving to Paris, we opted to take the high-speed train... It took us 6 hours to get there... It was so fast! Brian estimated that it sped along at speeds of about 130 mph!! Also, when we purchased our tickets, they were having a special on the first class tickets... The first class tickets were actually cheaper than second class tickets... Crazy! So, we ended up travelling to Paris on the high-speed train, all the while sitting in first class... Nice! :)

Arriving in Paris...

The French flag...

French macaroons... Delicious! :)

We saw this sign and had to snap a picture of it! :) For those of you that know Brian and his feelings towards diamonds/DeBeers... You'll truly appreciate this picture! :)

Walking through the Place du Carrousel gardens towards the Louvre...

Carrousel Arch... Built between 1808 - 1808, it was intended to celebrate the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1805.

The Grand Louvre... Magnificent! :)

Standing inside the museum...

The infamous Louvre pyramids in the background...

The mobs of people trying to get a glimpse of the Mona Lisa... Crazy! I was just shocked by how small the picture actually is! I was expecting something much larger! :) You can see it on the far wall in this picture... It's the very small painting hanging in the center of the wall... Yep, that's the infamous Mona Lisa! :)

The Mona Lisa... It really is quite remarkable up close! :)

Inside the Louvre Museum...

Venus de Milo... The interesting thing about this statue is that no one has ever found out who made it...

Brian really liked this picture... He was taking a picture of a picture of people taking/painting pictures inside the Louvre... :)

The Greek Statue called the Victory of Samothrace...

The painting "Liberty Guiding the People" painted by the French artist, Eugene Delacroix...

Outside of the Louvre...

We stopped for lunch at a little cafe in the gardens surrounding the Louvre... And, as they say, "When in Rome, do as the Romans"... Well, "When in France, eat like the French" was my motto... So, I tried one of their famous French crepes filled with mushrooms... Delicious!! :)

The gardens of Place du Carrousel... Gorgeous!

Strolling down Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe... When we headed from the Louvre towards the Arch, it didn't look like it was all that far of a walk... Well, after an hour of walking straight down the street, we finally arrived! :)

The Arc de Triomphe... Unfortunately it was under construction so you couldn't see too much of the outside... So, we walked up to the top to check out the view of the city...

What a view!!

Standing on top of the Arch, looking back towards the Louvre (far in the distance) where we had just walked from...

Brian with the Eiffel Tower in the background... :)

Our next stop was the Cathedral de Notre Dame... It was a beautiful cathedral! :) (But, I think we've been spoiled by our many trips to Strasbourg, France to see their Cathedral de Notre Dame... This Cathedral wasn't quite as remarkable as the one in Strasbourg... But, don't get me wrong... It's still beautiful... Just not the "take my breath away" beautiful as the one in Strasbourg. :))

Inside the Cathedral...

I love the stained glass! :)

A view from the side...

We saw this sign and thought it was fitting based on all of my "visa experiences" here in Germany! :)

Beaubourg (Centre Georges Pompidou)... This modern art building definitely does not fit in with the rest of the Paris cityscape! :)

The Metro... We became very familiar with this after our first day in Paris! It's almost necessary to use in order to see Paris in a short time...

We checked out the Eiffel Tower at night... They have a light show every night at five minutes past the hour until 1 a.m.... The light show makes the tower appear to sparkle!! It was so pretty! :) We sat in the park and stared up at the tower for what seemed like hours... I felt completely awestruck to be sitting there and looking at the Eiffel Tower! :)

Magnificent!!

Brian and I on our way back to the hotel... It was freezing that night!! :)

Our French breakfast... Yum! :)

Sacre-Coeur... Simply gorgeous!!

And, of course, a trip to Paris isn't complete without a trip to the Moulin Rouge - The home of the "Can Can"! :) I do have to admit, it wasn't quite as glamorous as I was expecting! That, and the fact, that it was located in the more "seedy" area of the city. :)

And, then we headed back to the Eiffel Tower for some more photo ops! :)

It felt so surreal to simply be there staring up at the Eiffel Tower... Needless to say, we couldn't get enough of it! :) Hence the reason for our many pictures of the Eiffel Tower, viewed from almost every angle imaginable! :)

Standing under the Eiffel Tower... Remarkable!

Thought this was fitting considering my students have a tendency to shorten my last name to this! :) This was actually the sign for the Museum de Orsay... The Impressionist Museum we visited... What a cool place. It houses paintings from Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, and a variety of other Impressionist painters...

My attempt at a self-portrait! :)

Paris traffic... Thank goodness we didn't drive! :)

And, yes, another photo op in front of the Eiffel Tower... :)

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower...

The city of Paris...

Inside the Eiffel Tower...

I love this picture! :)

Standing in the Place de la Concorde (where many beheadings took place back in the days of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette... Yikes!)...

Ok, so here's an interesting story... On our first day in Paris, we were walking around for ages... I was in dire need of a restroom, but was unable to find one. We couldn't find a cafe to stop at, so I found one of these public toilettes located on the street near a very busy intersection... Basically, you push a button and go inside and then you're timed for 10 minutes... After the 10 minutes is up, the door automatically opens and the bathroom is washed from the inside. So, me being desperate for a bathroom, I ran into it. I was in there for no more than 1 minute, and was doing my business when the door randomly opened on me! I tried desperately to hold it shut, but to no avail, and it proceeded to open up and put me on display for all of the cars passing by on that busy street... Lovely! Needless to say, I've never moved so fast in my entire life!! Brian caught the tail end of it, and according to him, h didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary... He just thought that the bathroom must have been gross and I was in a hurry to get out of there! :) Let's just say, I was extremely mortified after that experience, and I refused to use one of those toilettes again! :)

So, after my mortifying experience in the toilette, I still had to find another one (seeing as how mine got cut short! :))... So, we found this cafe and I ran in to use their restroom... Meanwhile we had to order two cappuccinos just so I could use it... We got our bill and had to laugh... Two cappuccinos cost us 11 euro... Yikes! :) So, we basically paid 11 euro to use the restaurant's restroom... Lovely! :)

On our way home...

So, overall, our trip to Paris was quite a memorable experience... Between our restroom shenanigans and my inability to figure out what language I was supposed to use ( After living and traveling in a foreign countries for a while, it tends to get somewhat confusing in regards to what language you should speak when traveling... For some reason, while we were in Paris, I kept transitioning between English, German, Italian, and even Spanish... What's up with that?! :)), it was almost like a comedy of errors! :) But, nonetheless, we had a great time and it was quite amazing to see so many sights that we've always dreamed of seeing, but never thought that we'd actually get to see in person! :) We feel so very fortunate to have had such a wonderful opportunity!