Switzerland

leafturner — Sat, 2 Jun 2012 07:22:00 GMT

Our first stop was Rainer's hometown of Basel, Switzerland. Haley and her boyfriend, Eric, joined us for the first week and we hit the ground running. We went to an FC Basel soccer game the night we arrived. I've learned to share Rainer's heart with this team. It was an especially exciting night as they had just won the Swiss championship. After the game we joined thousands of fans walking a couple of miles to the city center for celebrations. Rainer also introduced Haley and Eric to their first Turkish Dueruem Doener (like a gyro, but different) which I think would be of great interest to Anthony Bordane. The next day Rainer gave us quite a tour of Basel. It's a great combination of old and new and clean is an understatement. I think Haley was the one that said the 3 second rule is the 20 minute rule in Switzerland.

Rainer's mother also joined us in Basel, and on to Grindelwald which was really nice. I felt like Heidi walking through a story book. Fields of wild flowers, chalets, grazing cows with bells ringing, and of course the snow capped Alps. I could not quit giggling. The Eiger was right outside our balcony! We took a gondola to the Männlichen and hiked down the mountain through magical forests and on to a train back to town. The next day river rafting in ice cold water (wet suits) and all survived.

The only thing that could have made those 3 days better would be having my mom there. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see this with all my friends and family, but I especially felt like she should have been with us. Maybe next year. :)

We then headed back to Basel to the Zoo (one of Michael Jacksons old hang outs), to the Muenster, and hanging out with Rainer's friends. After one short week, we had to say goodbye to Haley and Eric. What a bummer.

Rainer and I headed on to Zurich to visit more of his friends for a few days. We were spoiled by all and my pants were definately tighter. Züri G'schnätzlets! Google it.

Indiana, Minnesota and South Carolina

leafturner — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:31:00 GMT

Well, it's alredy been a wild ride and we're not even to Africa yet. The week after leaving our jobs we drove to Hoosierland to see some of my dearest friends and family. We were a bit spoiled with the homecooked food(love Mom's baked steak), Oyster Bar (thanks Dad and Bev), Casa's (blessed evil friend Sara). Afterwards, headed North to have some good Indian food with our friend in Chicago. Then rolled our fat bellies on to Minnesota to stay with our lovely Haley and attend her graduation. Woooohoooooo! She's graduated from nursing school AND landed a job. Thanks to Haley and Eric, Rainer got to really fish for the first time. I know all my hoosier friends are saying "no way!" Two words... city boy. We caught a boatload of fish that weekend and thanks to a very feisty Northern that I caught (then screamed like a little girl for help), Eric was treated to a short trip to the ER to have a hook removed from his thumb. That's what memories are made of.

Next stop was Charleston, SC to visit the organization that Rainer and I will be volunteering with. We decided we love Charleston and are putting it in our list of potential places we might want to live in this lifetime. Pretty, clean, lush, beachy and just darn cute.

And finally a few days at home in NJ before skipping the country. Packing last minute and hitting the last 50 or so things on the ToDo list. Ugh! Off to Europe.

One year out and about...

Switzerland

Indiana, Minnesota and South Carolina