travel

Women’s retreat at Tahoe

February 3, 2020 filed under: holidays, recap, travel, weekend

My friend Susi invited me along for a girls’ weekend with some of her mom friends from German School. We were headed to Tahoe over the MLK holiday weekend and stayed at U’s vacation home in Truckee. I was thrilled to get up to the mountains during winter time and very thankful that I was invited to come along.

It’s always a little awkward when you join a group of people that you mostly don’t know and my introverted self was a little bit anxious, but as so often, the worry was unnecessary and dissipated quickly once we had all introduced each other. We ended up having a really great time.

We arrived around 6 pm at Friday night in a winter wonderland. I couldn’t have been happier.

We had previously talked about things we wanted to do while we were there, and besides some outdoor activities during the day, we had all agreed on just hanging out at the house, cooking together, puzzling, reading, knitting/crocheting, and just enjoying each others’ company.

We also played Cards Against Humanity, which I had heard about, but had never played before. Well, let’s just say that it’s true that it’s “a party game for horrible people”, because some of the card statements made me either blush or drop my jaw. However, I am wondering what it says about me that I didn’t just win this game once, but twice over the weekend.

As J noted: still waters run deep.

Some of the women went cross country skiing on Saturday, while Susi and I and C hung out at the house. We went on a nice snow walk around the neighborhood and then started (the first of two) puzzle(s) when we got back.

The puzzle was really cool: the posters of all the U.S. National Parks.

We started a second puzzle in the evening and everybody got involved.

On Sunday, Susi and I had planned to go downhill skiing, but the week before the getaway, Susi had injured her knee and couldn’t participate in any sporting activities. As I didn’t know if anyone else wanted to go, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to go skiing after all, but luckily, three others wanted to go and so we headed over to Homewood Mountain Resort on the western shore of Lake Tahoe in the morning.

I have my ski boots here in California, but don’t own skis anymore, so I had to rent them and I almost toppled over backwards when I heard that they wanted $99 for just the ski rental for the day. Gosh, Tahoe’s expensive. But hey, there was no backing out now.

Luckily, I had already bought the lift ticket for a discount at REI.

I was a little taken aback by the “outdatedness” of the ski resort. The ticket had to be scanned by hand (I was used to automatic scanners that read the ski ticket through your jacket) and when we got to the chair lift, it didn’t have a safety bar. I’ve never seen that in the Alps.

BUT: once I hit the slopes, it was blissful. Originally, we had planned to ski for a half day, but in the end, we spent 6 hours on the slopes. The others were beginners, so we took the easier runs most of the time, but that was fine with me. I was just happy to be skiing! The day was a little overcast, which was great because the snow stayed great the whole time.

And the views! Just amazing! We kept going back for more and spent 6 hours on the slopes!

Sunday night was for a movie, a delicious dinner, and face masks before we all headed to bed. We had planned to head back home early on Martin Luther King Jr Day to beat the holiday traffic, so the last night was an early night for all of us.

It was a really great weekend though and I am so glad I was asked to come along!

Did you do something fun over the long holiday weekend?

23: Some Ventura Love

November 23, 2019 filed under: NaBloPoMo, travel, USA

Last weekend, Jon and I went down to Southern California to spend some time with Jons family. Jon grew up in Ventura, which – if you’re not familiar – is a beach town between LA and Santa Barbara.

We briefly even lived there when we transitioned from LA back to Sacramento and even though it was a short time, I really have good memories of our apartment and the time we had there.

I miss being close to the beach. I would usually consider myself a mountain person (if asked, because I grew up skiing in the Alps), but there is something about the beach that I also love. Can one be a mountain and beach person at the same time? I’d vote YES.

Let me share some impressions from our weekend. The sunsets were amazing!

Saturday morning, I went running along the beach. I had been looking forward to this for weeks, to be honest, and it was just the perfect way to start the day. It was warm and sunny at 8 a.m. already and there were so many other runners and bikers out, not to forget all the surfers at Surfer’s Point.

In the afternoon, we went up to the “Serra Cross“, a hilltop overlook above Ventura. Many people were there for the sunset!

Sunday morning, I took the opportunity for another walk on the beach and on the Ventura Pier! I knew we couldn’t leave without having put my feet in the sand for a little bit. It was unusually warm last weekend (90F/30C), but the Pacific, as usual, was pretty cold and it was just tad windy.

Our visit to Ventura wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to the “Busy Bee Café”, a 50’s diner right on Main Street. I remember when Jon first took me there many, many years ago! It was nice to be back!

This was just a short weekend trip and therefore a very small glimpse of Ventura. I hope we’ll go back soon and I can share more!

Have you been to – or heard of – Ventura?

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2019

How to pull off a birthday surprise

October 21, 2019 filed under: birthday, family, Germany, travel

Remember when I said that I was keeping a secret?

You probably didn’t notice that it was quiet around here for the last couple of weeks. I had prepared a couple of posts to automatically post during my absence (I am not always that prepared, mind you), so you couldn’t know that Jon and I were actually spending time in a different time zone.

On October 1, J and I got on a plane to Germany to surprise my parents for their 70th birthdays. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought that it was a possibility. I had just been in Germany in May. My parents’ birthdays are 2,5 weeks apart and there was no way I could get time off long enough to be there for both their birthdays. But when my Mom called at the end of August, saying that they had changed their minds about not having a party and were planning one for October 3rd (her actual birthday and a German public holiday), the wheels in my head started turning.

70 is a milestone birthday. My parents are not getting any younger (although I’d like to think of them as perpetually young-ish). I remembered that I was in Germany for their 60th birthdays. How could I miss this big event in my parents’ life and not go? So, I decided that we would go. Just like that.

Well, not really ‘just like that’. I talked with Jon (he was instantly on board!), I talked with my supervisor at work (to request time off), I checked flight prices, and then we just went ahead and booked tickets.

When I told my sister that we were planning on coming, she was beyond thrilled, as she hadn’t really thought that this would be a possibility either. My parents, of course, had no clue that we had booked tickets. In fact, nobody knew anything besides my sister. We were so paranoid that someone would slip up and ruin the surprise.
Believe me, it was hard enough to keep the secret for about 4 weeks myself, as I talk to my parents a few times every week. I made sure to complain plenty about the fact how much we hated that we weren’t going to be there for the party, that we would miss out on the amazing food, and how much it sucked sometimes to live so far away. At the same time, I hoped that I wasn’t coming off too strong and making them suspicious.

Finally, the day of our departure was here and as far as we could tell, the secret was still safe. We arrived in Germany on October 2, my sister had arranged for someone to pick us up from the airport and take us to her house, and then we surprised my parents in the evening before the party.

We had first thought about just “showing up” at the party the next day, but a) I didn’t want to give my parents a heart attack on the day of their party and b) we didn’t want to take away the focus from their birthday celebrations, as it was their day, not ours. (I mean, plenty of people still were surprised to see us, but at least my parents weren’t completely emotionally overwhelmed and could focus on their other guests instead of just us.)

My sister drove us and the kids over to my parents’ house in the evening, but dropped us off at the street corner so that she could see them alone first (pretending that she was bringing over some last minute things for the party). We had taken a picture with the kids in her backyard earlier in the afternoon, which she was going to show them. Since J hadn’t been in Germany with me for a while, they’d hopefully notice instantly that the picture was very current.

Meanwhile, we and the kids had walked up to the front door of my parents’ house and were waiting for them to realize what was going on.

Of course, I wish I could have actually seen my parents’ faces when they caught on to what was happening. My sister tried to capture the moment while trying not to seem suspicious when she started filming them. Haha.

Finally, the door opened and they came outside. My Mom was crying and I could tell that even my Dad, even though he doesn’t get emotional quickly, was moved to see us. I’d like to think: the surprise was a definite success and it felt amazing that we had been able to pull this off!

When I asked my parents if they had suspected something… anything… they said no. Of course, they had hoped and wished that we could be there with them for their birthdays, but both of them didn’t think that it was a possibility because of my limited amount of vacation time (comparatively speaking), the fact that I had just visited for three weeks in the spring, and the fact that flying in from California is not a simple train ride into town.

I am just so, so glad we went. I cannot explain how much it means to me to know that we were able to spend this time with them. I’ll tell you all about the actual birthday party (Octoberfest-themed!) and the rest of our stay (we stayed for 11 days) in another post, but just wanted to let you in on my little secret.

An overnight trip to the North Bay

August 28, 2019 filed under: California, travel, weekend

J and I had talked about an overnight trip for who knows how long. So a couple of weeks ago, we finally just said, enough, let’s go. Since it was going to be a hot weekend in Sacramento, it was a good time to get away.

Saturday morning, we headed out to the North Bay (which is the area north of the Golden Gate Bridge). We headed out around 11 a.m. and all roadtrips ask for fast food lunches, am I right? So we stopped at In’n’Out for a quick bite.

We had booked a small hotel. the North Bay Inn, in San Rafael and took State Highway 37 along San Pablo Bay. Unfortunately, we hit a bit of weekend traffic, but made it to the hotel by 2 pm.

On our way to the Golden Gate Bridge, we stopped at Philz Coffeeshop for a quick caffeine fix. Jon had never tried Philz Coffee, so it was a good time to give it a try.

Originally, we had planned to drive to the Golden Gate Vista Point on the west side of the bridge, but the exit and a whole stretch of the road was closed. So we ended up driving down to Fort Baker, on the east side of the bridge, which actually provides a really nice view angle of the bridge.

We got superlucky, too. Although it was kinda overcast, the Golden Gate Bridge was not covered by Karl, the fog. I repeat, the Golden Gate was not shrouded in fog. That was not a given at this time of year!

It was fun taking some pictures, we even saw a seal, but we didn’t stay very long as it was windy and kinda chilly.

We decided to head over to Sausalito and walk around for a bit. As always, Sausalito was full of tourists…. we heard a lot of German, French, Italian, and other languages.

There were also a gazillion people on bikes. They’ve done the Golden Gate Bike Tour and were catching the ferry back from Sausalito to San Francisco. One of these days, I’d love to do that bike tour with J as well.

Since we only had an early lunch, we were cold and hungry by 6 p.m. and decided to pick up a pizza, head back to the hotel, and take advantage of the HBO channel. Ha. Our hotel was nothing fancy, but the room was clean, the bed was firm and comfortable, and I loved the bed sheets. (There are few things I despise more than top sheets, scratchy woolen blankets and dingy bed covers.) All this to say, we had a good night’s rest.

Sunday morning, we checked out at 10 am and decided to drive over to Muir Beach. We hadn’t been to the North Coast in a while and I wanted to put my toes in the sand for a little bit before heading back home.

As the day before, it was quite cool and windy, but at least the sun peeked out a little bit and we saw patches of blue sky! And as they say, there is nothing better than standing at the edge of the ocean and taking some deep breaths!

Disregard my crazy hair. Did I mention that it was windy?

On our way back, we stopped at “Philz Coffee” again to get a hot drink and a bagel, since we hadn’t really had breakfast yet.

In order to beat traffic, we headed home around mid-day, but we definitely want to go out explore more soon!

My trip home

June 17, 2019 filed under: Expat stories, family, food, Germany, reminiscence, travel

I can’t believe it’s been ~~four~~ almost five weeks since I returned from my long-anticipated visit back home with my family. Time just won’t slow down and it’s been hard to get back into my blogging game (as you can tell).

I had an absolutely wonderful time and soaked up every minute. I can also say that I was able to almost check everything of my Germany Bucket List.

Like,

… spending time with my niece and nephew (and the rest of the family)

You know what was really, really nice about this trip? That I really enjoyed being at home at my parents’ house and that I was part of everyone’s daily routine. Since my sister and BIL were working and the kids were in school, we didn’t do a whole lot of “adventuring” or “vacation stuff”, but it was nice to pretend that I was always part of their daily routines for a while.

I took my niece to her riding lesson and we had a movie night at my sister’s house and various afternoons and dinners where we just hung out together.

… spending time with my best friend

I didn’t get to spend as much time with my friend as I had hoped to. Shortly after I arrived, she left for an almost two-week stay at a pain clinic (for chronic headaches) where a spot had just opened up. Of course, she had to take it. I wish I could have spent more time with her and build her up a bit more, but I am glad we got to see each other at all. Every hour is precious.

… attending one of my best friends’ wedding

I was stoked that I was able to attend one of my best friend’s wedding during my visit. We met many moons ago on the Internet, but have become really close over the years and to be able to be there for her (and her new husband) on their wedding day was such a treat (for me and for her!). (Separate recap to come.)

… my nephew’s first communion.

Last time I visited for my niece’s first communion, so of course I had to make sure that I am there for my nephew’s as well. So glad I could make this happen. (Separate recap to come.)

… eating all the food

My Mom went above and beyond to fulfill all my food cravings. Every day, I made a new request for lunch or dinner and she made it all.

Mettbrötchen (rolls with freshly minced meat, salt, pepper and onions – OMG!) – pork roast with crackling with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes – Schnibbelskuchen (baked potato wedges with eggs on whole grain bread with sugar beet syrup)

potato pancakes – green bean soup with sausages – herring in cream sauce with potatoes and bacon bits

meatballs with kohlrabi and potatoes – waffles with strawberries and ice cream – bratwurst with red cabbage and potatoes

Not pictured: goulash and dumplings, pizza, and ALL THE FRESH BREAD + ROLLS all day, every day.

… walking with my Mom

My Mom has been getting into a regular morning walk routine since I last visited and I did not only join her for one, but many walks (I think five!). It was so great to get out and walk with her, which also gave us the opportunity to talk and just spend time together. I ended up only running once, but the walks were far more important to me this time.

… going for a run with my cousin (and maybe my sister?)

Unfortunately that didn’t happen and I blame two things: a) bad weather (it rained a lot while I was there!) and b) timing (my cousin and my sister had to work, so there wasn’t as much opportunity), but I still got out for a run around my hometown!

… working out with my Dad

Unfortunately, that also didn’t happen, because my Dad had issues with his shoulder and couldn’t go to the gym with me (and subsequently had surgery scheduled two weeks after I left).

… having some quality time with my sister

I got to spend two nights at my sister’s house and I wish I could do that more often. It’s just so nice to hang out, sleep in the same bed and then have breakfast together the next morning (including fancy out-of-the-shower-towel-turbans, ha!) – as if we do that every Saturday. I mean, at least it felt like that… even if in reality, it’s such a rare event.

… seeing an old friend from high school

Timing was difficult because she had to work and my weekends were already filled up with family stuff, but I did get to see my high school friend for a few hours one evening during the week and I am so glad we both were able to make the time to reconnect.

… spending a day with a dear friend in Köln

I did get to meet up with one of my longest, dearest friends in Cologne again and we got to spend some time in our favorite city. (Separate recap to come.)

… seeing a few other dear (family) friends (BONUS!)

I was able to squeeze in a couple more friends (I got to have coffee with an old pen friend that I hadn’t seen in 20 years and I also was able to reconnect with a dear friend, who lives in Hamburg now) and we saw two family friends for a few hours and I am so glad we were able to make it happen.

… shopping for items to bring back to my US home.

Of course, I did shop for some stuff to bring back home (I believe, every expat does!) and even though my must-get list has gotten shorter, there is definitely a few things I always bring back. Wanna know what these things are? I might write a separate post about it, if you’re interested. (Or you can hop on Instagram and Facebook to see the “Germany hauls” some people post, although I am not bringing half of that stuff that other people are bringing back. Just sayin’.)

My time back home was packed full of awesome people, awesome food and I returned to the US with a really full heart.