door to Door

Hey All! It's Tuesday. Who knew? It has been easy for me to lose track of the days since we've been on vacation. Today, after spending two wonderful weeks with Brenda's parents, we packed up the car and headed to Door County. As I'm sure most of you know, Door County is a very special place for Brenda and me. Brenda has been vacationing here since she was a kid and we've been coming here together for the past several years. Not to mention that we tied the knot here! We are spending the next two nights at one of our favorite places in Door County, the Blacksmith Inn. You can see a picture of the two buildings that make up this beautiful bed & breakfast below.

We don't have a strict schedule for our time here, just a list of things we want to do before we leave. Our list includes: seeing a double feature at the drive-in, hitting the links at Pirate's Cove mini-golf, eating frozen custard from Not Licked Yet, canoeing and/or kayaking, hiking and visiting some of the many art galleries. Oh, and we'll eat at Al Johnson's. How can we miss seeing the goats?

A picture of our room at the B&B.

Brenda enjoying the hammock on our balcony.

Brenda walking out to the inn's dock in Bailey's Harbor.

The two of us lounging on the dock and enjoying the evening.

When I write to you next we should be in Minneapolis. Until then, have a great week!

Prepare the Ark

Hey All! Time is flying. We've been back in the US for almost 2 weeks now and we've been having a great time with Brenda's family in Appleton. There has been an unbelievable amount of rainfall here but that hasn't prevented us from enjoying ourselves. It is, however, preventing Jim and Joanne's newly landscaped yard from prospering. There was even hail one night which left its mark on the side of their house. In the rare dry moments, we've enjoyed biking (both in Appleton and in Door County), laying on the beach (Lake Michigan) and taking advantage of the gym at Lawrence University. We also spent a couple of fun days with Brenda's aunts, Nancy and Marilyn, who came to Appleton after a trip to Door County. On Tuesday, we all went down to Milwaukee to visit Brenda's great aunt Barbie who Brenda and I hadn't had the pleasure of seeing since our wedding.

There are so many things that Brenda and I enjoy about being in the US. There are the obvious things: family, friends, being home, etc. Then there are the less obvious things: screens on windows, Target, Baked Ruffles (Brenda), Mountain Dew (me), and small talk.

For whatever reason, Brenda and I had really been missing small talk in our last few months in Germany. And not just any small talk. We missed small talk with strangers, i.e. the checker at the grocery store, the barista, etc. Our interactions with people in those positions in Germany tend to be more down to business, which could, admittedly, be because they can tell German is not our native language and so they avoid chatting about the weather. Whatever the reason, we are taking full advantage of our opportunities to talk about the weather with complete strangers while we're back in the US. With all of this rain we've been having in Appleton, we've got a lot to talk about.

I wish I had some pictures to post for you but I'm afraid that I made a couple of errors in the picture department recently. First, I left the computer cord that I need to get pictures off of our camera in Germany. Second, I dropped our camera on a rather hard tile floor in Rome and it has been upset with me ever since. However, I will try to take more pictures with Brenda's iPhone so you can have a few glimpses at where we've been. I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll talk to you next week!

Having fun in Appleton

Hey All! We are still in lovely Wisconsin having a great time with Brenda's family. I am going to keep this short for now but rest assured that we are enjoying our vacation. I hope you are also well and I will talk to you soon!

Chenda in Appleton

Hey All! I've got good news, we made it out of the Atlanta airport. We arrived in Des Moines around 1 am and promptly went to sleep. We spent the next day acclimating to our new timezone and spending time with my family. Yesterday, we drove to Appleton by way of Iowa City and Madison. We made stops in both cities to catch up with some friends we haven't seen in way too long. Now we're in Appleton and we're not leaving for 2 whole weeks!

It is wonderful to be back in the US. In fact, it is hard to believe we haven't been here for almost 10 months. We've had a few funny moments since being back that were strong reminders that we are no longer in Germany. For instance, when we go places everyone speaks English. That's kind of weird actually. I have to be more careful about what I say because the people around me here can definitely understand what I'm yapping about. Also, when I look at a menu I don't have to start figuring out how I'm going to order my entree in German. I can just, you know, speak English.

Anyway, the next several weeks will be filled with a lot of family time, which we are both very excited about and grateful for. After we leave Appleton our travels will take us to Door county, Minneapolis and then back again to Ankeny. I will continue to give you weekly updates on what we're doing even though we're not technically Chenda in Germany. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you soon!

Stranded in Atlanta

Hey All! We made it to the US. WOOHOO! The catch is, we're stuck in Atlanta. There are worse things, of course. Atlanta is home to such wonderful things as Coca Cola, the Braves and other stuff, I'm sure. However, we'd really like to be back in Iowa and, most of all, asleep in bed. It has been a long day of traveling and, at this point, I'm just hoping we get out of here tonight and make it safely to Des Moines.

Rome was a lot of fun. Brenda spent 4 hours a day in Italian class while I slept in. After her class was over we usually wandered around Rome, took in the sights and tried out the local eateries.

Sounds like the flight is still a go. I guess we'll find out in an hour when we're supposed to begin boarding. I hope you all have a nice weekend and I'll talk to you soon!

In Italy without interwebs

Hey all! We are in Italy and without Internet. I am writing this from Brenda's iPhone which is probably costing about 20 euro a letter. I hope you are all well and I will talk to you when we are stateside. Ciao!