Arriving at Edelweiss, we were excited to see our friends from all over Germany and catch up. Our first day saw me sitting through welcome lectures and then attending the ice-breaker event. This year there was a Halloween theme and with Tiffany's help, I became one enthusiastic Ceiling Fan (see picture below). Tiffany instead took it easy. The week was full of lots of CE classes for me and Tiffany got to hang out with old friends, make plenty of new friends, explore Linderhoff Palace and the Swarofski crystal factory and museum. She also had a massage, and got to hang out with our neighbors, who happened to be on vacation at the same time. The highlight of the week was the Bavarian Night. The entertainment this year was lacking from last year, but the Buffett full of German fare was a big improvement over last year's already delicious spread. The highlight of which was a whole roast pig! The fest was a great night hanging out with our friends, eating and drinking.
The weather cleared up during the week, giving us lots of sunshine and beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. As our week came to a close, we returned to our favorite restaurant from last year. The same group re-united, along with a few new friends for a big, delicious meal in a small cozy German restaurant. While the week seemed to fly by, we had a wonderful time reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. Our drive back to Ramstein was only the 1/3-way-point of our vacation. Our amazing drive home was full of picturesque views of amazing scenery. On the way back home, we dropped by to pick up Oliver, from our awesome babysitter Heidi. Unfortunatly oliver would only be home with us for a very short period as we began the next leg of our journey shortly there after.
The next part of our trip was back to the States for a wedding (Travis') and a baby shower (ours!!!). We arrived back home Friday evening, and early saturday morning I signed us up for our Space A flight back to the states. Upon signing up, i found out that there was a flight that left at 8pm that evening. It would be a stretch, but we didn't know when the next flight would head to BWI and so we decided to aim for the flight that night. After a hectic day of un-packing, re-packing, taking Oliver back to Heidi's, we were at the terminal at 630 pm, and waiting for our names to be called for the flight. After a short wait, we heard our names and excitedly began the check-in process. We were assigned our seats, checked our bags, paid our (dirt-cheap) taxes and fees and were ready to go. Little did-we know that we were still hours away from take-off. We waited for security to open, once everyone was ticked for the flight, and then waited for the flight to be readied for us to board.
Then, around 11 we got on the plane and found our seats among a group of soldiers returning from the middle east, on their way to Hawaii! We settled in, I popped an ambien, Tiff made friends with the Sgt to her left and off we headed towards BWI. We landed just before 1am local time, and groggily made our way through immigration. By the time we got to the rental car it was 3:30, and we arrived at my moms house around 4:30. It was a LONG (14 hours) day of travel but we were happy to be back in the states.
After a very much needed sleep, we began catching up with my mom. The first meal of our trip home had to be, none other then Chipotle!! Of all of the things we could possibly miss about living in the states, it's mainly a few food options. Chipotle and Sweet Frog (Frogurt) are at the top of the list, and so it was fitting that we stopped off for a Burrito Bowl first thing. Just being back in the states was relaxing. The other mission was a search for baby clothes. Something about Germany, but finding true baby clothes (less than 1 year) is hard. The exchange on base has a good selection, but we wanted to find some good sales and better variety.
The other food we were in search of was crab legs! We don't get great seafood in our region of Germany, so we had been in a major seafood-craving for some time. We found a great place in Arlington for all-you-can-eat King Crab Legs. One of Tiffany's old friends from her days at Germanna happened to be living in the area and they got to catch up over dinner. Jeremy even dropped by to say hey and hang out for a bit.
We went shopping with my mom that afternoon, and with Tiffany's mom the next. We snagged a great selection of clothes for our baby girl in the process. We also got to meet up with our Nephews Mason and Tyler. We took them and Seth to Chuck-e-cheese for an afternoon for arcade games and fun. It's was great seeing the boys again, especially since the last time we saw Mason, he was only a few months old. We went down to Fredericksburg for dinner with Tiff's family as well.
Early wednesday morning, Tiff dropped me off at Reagen National for my flight to Omaha for Travis' and Renu's Wedding. Tiffany decided to stay behind to hang out with her mom, shop some more and save a few bucks on plane tickets. I got to see all of my old buds from NOVA. The wedding was very unique, as the entire ceremony was conducted in Sanskrit. There was no formal wedding party, but all of the guys that made up the "groomsmen" wore traditional attire for the wedding and reception. The bride was beautiful, the groom well-dressed, the food tasty and drinks a-plenty. Oh and watching Ben dance was quite the sight to top it all off. While I was in Nebraska, Tiffany spent the day with her new friend Trish, exploring a museum and going out to dinner. She also traveled down to Richmond to meet up with Elizabeth to help her try on wedding dresses and go out for lunch.
Back in VA just in time for our baby shower, thrown by Mrs Boyd and Adrienne. It was great seeing a bunch of old friends, eating good food, relaxing and having a great time. Watching everyone draw pictures on top of their heads was pretty funny. After the celebration, we went downtown to have dinner with a bunch of friends at Capital Ale House, one of our favorite restaurants from Richmond. We are so lucky to have so many great friends, who were so generous with the gifts for our baby girl. Somehow, Tetris master Tiffany managed to fit everything (including a diaper cake, and treasure chest) into our luggage for the ride home. Back in NOVA we enjoyed relaxing and spending time with my mom and polo. On our last day in Fairfax, we brought Chipotle (we couldn't resist one last meal) to my mom at her office and got to meet her co-workers before we headed to the airport. We dropped off the rental car, got booked on a return Space-A flight and settled down to relax before another long night of travel home. Waiting at the terminal, we pulled out the iPad and made a few last facetime calls before heading back to Germany and home.
The trip was long, the travel intense, but the time we spent back in the states with family and friends was great. We had a lot of fun and wish we could have stayed longer, but work and Oliver were calling to us.
Until next time
David, Tiffany and Oliver
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