A perfect but Hot Weekend

Something something something… Labor Day 3 day weekend.

Rock climbing and ice cream

Giants game, a first for the kids, which I am pretty sure they only liked for the food.

Lunch at Granny Fran’s

I love my happy life and family.  Things are good.

And That’s a Wrap

After 8 plus weeks of no school or routine and 5 plus weeks of no work, the kids have gone back to school and summer is officially over. 

And I must say we had a good one. We did it all: Pillsbury, Europe, local adventures including the Oakland Zoo, Alva’s Birthday, 3 weeks with the in laws in San Francisco, summer camps of Legos and well, I am still not quite sure what Alva did at her camp but she had fun, and then one last week at Dunsmuir.

After having so much time with the kids I dare say I got a little sad when prepping for their first day back on Monday. And I definitely got a little teary eyed during the first grade ceremony for Oskar’s class on the first day of school. As a side note, first grade is a super big deal in German culture complete with a formal ceremony and a schultuete (school cone) for each kid filled with school supplies, little toys and some candy. Or, as my colleague pointed out a German piñata.

But how quickly do we slip back into our routines. By Tuesday the German grandparents had left, Wednesday I wrapped up quarter end earnings and by the following week, after what felt like never ending chaos since January (what between the holidays, year-end, April road trips, the month of covid and then summer) I was finally back into a routine. And man it feels good.

Birthday girl wearing her new dress-up dress... she hasn't taken it off since

Date night with Martin while the inlaws were in town

First day of school photo 

Proud parents

Oskar and his schultuete

Date night with the family to celebrate the first week of school

Date night with the family to celebrate the first week of school

A Trip of Revelations

In San Francisco, summer camp registration starts in March and the process is, to say the least, overwhelming.  This was our first summer without day care, options were limited for 4 year olds (most were geared towards kids entering first grade or older) and I had a few other things on my plate, so instead of stressing about the situation, I decided to not really work this summer and Martin and I could figure it out between vacations, a week or two of camp and re-enforcements from the grandparents.  Included in this grand plan were 3 weeks in Europe!

We just got back from our Euro-trip and it was everything I was hoping for. We split our time evenly between one week in Germany with family, one week in Switzerland with family and then one week in France with just us.  The three weeks were exactly what Martin and I needed to fully disconnect from work and relax into the routine of vacation life.  And with the kids being a little older, we were able to do more, see more and enjoy the time together a little more.

Having been so long since we last travelled internationally together (2.5 years to be exact), I had quite a few revelations about family, travel and my life.  Below are the stories from the trip and my many revelations.

Revelations 14 to 19 in Alsace Lorraine

 Revelation14: Do I really need to stay in wine country if I don’t plan on wine tasting?  

One of the reasons I couldn’t find a house that suited the Breuers or me is because I was hoping for something along the lines of Tuscany (too far of a drive for my likes), Piedmont (nothing available) or the Alsace region between France and Germany (too far for the rest of the family). If you are unfamiliar with the last one it is also a well-known wine region… For my Euro Trip, I wanted water and wine. I got the “water” with Walensee lake near Amden so I figured we could get the “wine” on the last week of the trip with just our family. Alsace also happens to be on the way back to the Frankfurt airport so I had some logic to the decision.  While adamant that I wanted a wine region for the trip, we did not go wine tasting, or even really drink wine the entire time we were there. And I was okay with that.  What we did do was still amazing, including a trip to Mulhouse to see a car museum (for Oskar), a trip to a butterfly garden (for Alva), a day in the city of Strassbourg (for me) and two days at a nearby lake which, while lacking the beautiful surroundings of Switzerland, provided a shallow, kid friendly lake for the kids to splash and swim in. 

Revelation 15: As diligent as I was about chronicling my travels and shenanigans while living in Zurich, I was very light on the actual details like where I stayed, what I ate and what I saw.  Erin and I spent a weekend in Colmar in 2008 and I have no idea what we actually did. For future reference, on this trip we stayed in a town called Achenheim, had lunch at a restaurant called Square Delicatessen in Strassbourg and the lake we loved was called Plan d’eau du Lac Achard.

Revelation 16: With a German husband who speaks some French, Italian and Spanish I have gotten lazy in my travels.  It used to be that I would learn how to say the basics in the language of where I was travelling and yet this trip I couldn’t even ask for the toilets in French.

Revelation 17: There is a big difference between junk and trash. Junk is a term I have endearingly given to antiques found at flea markets. For example, I went to the Alameda Flea Market to buy some junk. Trash is the mass produced touristy crap you can find in every city whether it is the shot glass, tea towel or key chain that every shop tries to sell you to remember your trip.  I taught this lesson to the kids during our day in the city.  Strassbourg has a very small antique market on Wednesdays, so I conveniently choose our “city day” to be on Wednesday and we headed to the market when we got into town.  I told each kid they could have EUR 5 to buy whatever they wanted and they chose well.  Alva bought a cute rose metal pendant to wear as a necklace and Oskar bought a cool old Rolls Royce toy car from the 50s. Both were such a better use of EUR 5 than the things we found for sale outside the Cathedral Notre Dame just a few blocks away.  

Revelation 18:  It took me exactly 19 days of enjoying the local foods and regional dishes to crave Mexican food. It also took me less than 6 days of straight meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner before I hit my limit and needed a vegetarian meal.  Luckily for me, we were heading home soon so I could get my fill of both and in the meantime, on Day 19 Martin bought me a bag of chips and a jar of queso to hold me over until then. 

Revelation 19: Travelling with the kids is becoming so much easier and the fun factor is definitely outweighing the work factor more and more every trip.  I can’t wait for our next big adventure!