2011-02 Mom's and Grandma's Weekend to Visit Mariah at DU

Mom (Grandma Lois) and Karren (Grandma Karren) joined LeAnn on a trip to visit Mariah at University of Denver.  Karren and LeAnn left from Mpls on an early morning flight to Denver and Mom headed out of Phoenix to meet up with us at the Denver Intl. Airport.  We rented a car so we could get around the area for the weekend.

We went to the DU campus first to see Mariah.  All of us were hungry so Mariah suggested we go to the restaurant “Snooze”. The first restaurant was opened in 2006 by two brothers who were students of the University of Denver.  They now have 4 locations in Colorado which feature breakfast items and are open from early morning until 2:30 pm.  The lines are long since it is a favorite place for the younger crowd.

After our hearty breakfast meal, we headed back to DU for a campus tour.  The weather was warm, but there were still some remains of snow.  Mariah showed us some of the buildings where she takes classes, we checked out the book store, and of course her dorm.  Both Grandmas’ were very impressed with the campus, the beautiful buildings, and all that the university has to offer the students.  We also had tickets for the hockey game on Friday night.  Unfortunately, the Pioneers lost 3-2 to Michigan Tech.

 

On Saturday, we had lunch at Panera on Colorado Blvd., and then headed up to Boulder about an hour north of Denver.  Mariah had heard that Celestial Seasonings gives tours; so we headed there where we could also sample many kinds of tea.  Since it was Saturday, the production lines were not in operation, but it was still a very interesting tour.  They took us to one room that had a garage door that is to remain shut all the time.  They store peppermint, spearmint, and mint leaves in this room and when we went into the room our eyes started to water, so we could only spend a few minutes in the room.  We ended the tour in the gift shop and purchased several different types of teas to bring home.

 

We drove to the Pearl Street Mall which is a four block pedestrian mall with many locally owned shops and restaurants.  You can do a lot of people watching…there was a guy juggling fire and knives, a man in a straight jacket and chains, a contortionist,  and lots of musicians.  After spending a couple hours at Pearl Street Mall, we headed back to Denver and had dinner at the Blue Bennett – a Mexican restaurant.  We took Mariah back to her dorm and then we made our way back to the Holiday Inn.

 

 

 

 

Sunday we got up early so we could take Mariah shopping for some incidentals.  We had to watch our time as we had to head to the airport by 1:00 pm.  Mariah had another good idea for a restaurant for brunch…the 730 South Grill. And then of course we needed dessert – a quick run to Yogurtland before dropping Mariah back off at campus.

Mom’s flight left at 5:00 pm, so we were able to take her to the gate and say goodbye.  Karren and I walked to our gate which was only 4 gates away from Mom’s gate; very convenient for all of us.  We had heard that the weather in Mpls was bad because of a snow storm; they had canceled the afternoon flights except our flight.  Unfortunately, after a few delays, our flight was finally canceled.  We had to arrange for a hotel near the airport and were able to get on a 7:00 am flight the next day.   They had originally said that we wouldn’t be able to get out on a flight until Wednesday.  We all had a really good time spending the weekend together.

2011-02 Bad Oeynhausen Germany

After visiting Singen, Ray went to Bad Oeynhausen in north central Germany. Bad Oeynhausen is about 45 minutes from the airport in Hanover and is connected via the autobahn.  Needless to say it was a fast trip as the driver hit at least 115mph during some stretches.

The term Bad means bath or spa in German and Bad Oeynhausen has developed around spa and health activities.  It is home many hospitals, including a world renown heart clinic.

Even though there were no English language TV channels at the hotel, there were still plenty of American TV shows on which had German soundtracks, including Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, and even older shows such as The Nanny were playing throughout the evening.   One of the most interesting things I ran across was the live Bocce championships on the Eurosport network.  I had never seen bocce on TV before.

I took a walk along the creek and saw an old mill (I think based on the location next to the creek and the 2 large stone wheels laying against the building.  There we also a lot of stone build walls that were about 18 inches wide and up to 3 fee tall.  Most of these were now enclosed in wire to protect them.

Also along the walk I saw a miniature golf course.  It was closed for the winter, but one of the interesting things in the course was a full size plane.  I am pretty sure it did not land there, but it was interesting to see the plane in the middle of the park.

Not too far from the hotel was a park that had a large fenced area that contained a large herd of deer.  There are probably 20 or so deer in the large enclosure and they are maintained by the locals, including a large buck who watched me the entire time I was walking along the edge of the park.  They were originally brought in for an Expo in 2000, but they were not taken out when the expo ended, and the herd has continued to expand

Behind the hotel was another park known as Kurpark, known for its beautiful gardens, large open area, fountain and the home to the G.O.P. theatre, which has ongoing shows and restaurants.  There was also a museum which had some outdoor displays of old outrigger boats.  I was not able to find out anything about the history of the boats or where they were used, but they had a few of them on display

My last night there, I just wanted a quick dinner, so we went to Stahl's Imbiss.  Imbiss is basically a small fast food stand or trailer, which may specialize in items such as bratwurst, schnitzel, spatzle (noodles) and pommes (fries).  The storefront was about 30' wide and the counter was about 4' inside the door from side to side.  There are no chairs and you stand up to eat your meal.  Stahl's only serves bratwurst and fries.  You can have you brat with mustard or ketchup with curry powder.  The fries come with ketchup or mayonnaise.  The brats are cooked on a charcoal grill while you wait.  The food was very good and I really enjoyed the local atmosphere of the place.

2011-02 Singen Germany

Ray made a quick trip to Singen and Bad Oeynhasuen in Germany.  Both these towns are relatively small.  Singen is in southern Germany just north of Swizterland.  The city has a lot of small parks and artwork/sculptures displayed around town.  There was even a large steel ping pong table in one park that utilized a steel net.  It sure would be hard to vandelize. 

In the downtown area, the streets are dedicated to pedestrians and shopping, although small delivery cars or vehicles occasionally drive down the streets.  The city had done a series of statues of bears that were customized by various businesses, much like the Snoopy statures that were done in St. Paul years ago.

On the outskirts of town is a large volcanic upheaval called Hohentwiel,  with old ruins of a fortress originally built in 914 on the very top, which is over 800' above the surrounding area.

About 40 miles west of town on Lake Constance is the Meersburg Castle.  This castle was originally built in 630.  It is amazing how old some of the original settlements are in this area,  It was open for tours, and since it was getting late, it was very dark inside.  There is some electrical lighting, but it is minimal, so some of the items and artifacts were very hard to see, and even harder to photograph since you could not use flash. 

Going up the streets to the castle, we saw neckties strung on lines between the buildings.  This was decorations for the upcoming carnival time.  One area had ties while another had material squares.  The tradition is to use linen to make the carnival flags, and the ties were just a special case.

After the castle tour we stopped and ate at Im Truben,  a small local weinkeller (wine cellar).  This wine cellar was built into the hill side and had the shape of a cave on the inside with arched walls and ceilings.  We had a light German dinner consisting of Flammkuchen.  This is dish was originally made with leftovers from the days big meal, and is similar to a thin crust pizza.  Instead of cheese, they spread schmeckt (which is somewhat similar to sour cream) on the crust and then cover with toppings.  Ours had ham and onions and was delicious. 

This is quiet season in the area so there were not many places open.  With the nearby Lake Constance, this is a very busy place in the summer.

2010-12 Merry Christmas

 

December 14, 2010

Merry Christmas,

We hope you had a good year in 2010.  Christmas is close at hand and it will be a white Christmas this year here in Minnesota as we had almost a foot and a half of snow last weekend.  I was glad I got the lights checked out and put up before the really big snows came.

Mariah (19) is a sophomore at the University of Denver.  She is studying International Business and Spanish.  She loves the school and the Denver area.  Over the summer, she worked for the City of Bloomington in the Parks and Recreation Department coordinating and conducting crafts and projects at the local city parks.  Last spring break, she made a surprise visit home for Ray and Kara’s birthdays.  She kept the secret from all of us, so it was a great surprise.  Next year she is planning on studying abroad in Mendoza, Argentina from July to December.  She is involved in the student programming board and plays club volleyball and intramurals besides keeping up on her studies.

Kara (16) is a junior at Eagan High School.  During spring break, she went to Puerto Rico with the high school band, played a couple of concerts and did a lot of site seeing.  During the spring, she was on the varsity golf team and is looking forward to playing again next spring.  During the summer she went on a mission trip to Cortez, Colorado where they helped in the local community painting houses and providing daycare.  She also played soccer and is currently playing on an indoor league. 

Hailey (14) is a freshman at Eagan High School.  She transitioned well into high school and has been able to keep up with added homework and activities.  She was on the swim team last spring, and played volleyball for Eagan this fall.  This fall and winter she is playing indoor soccer.  She does some babysitting in the neighborhood and keeps a busy social life.

Ray rode his bike for 5 days as part of the RAGBRAI bike ride across Iowa during the last week of July.  Even though it doesn’t sound fun, he has a great time seeing the countryside and meeting all the great people along the way.  He also enjoys golfing, but never gets out enough.  Ray celebrated his 20^th year with Advantek this summer, and has continued to travel to Asia every couple of months.  A couple of highlights of the trips this year were going to a Taiwan professional baseball game and the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

LeAnn and Ray celebrated their 20^th anniversary with a trip to Las Vegas.  They attended performances by Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil.  They also went to the old downtown, stratosphere and walked the strip.

This summer we traveled to Florida for a summer vacation.  We stayed in the Clearwater-St. Petersburg area.  While there, we took in a Tampa Rays baseball game, celebrated LeAnn’s birthday, watched fireworks on the beach, went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure theme parks in Orlando, then down to Fort De Soto to explore the island and snorkel.  We also spent time relaxing at the beach and by the pool.

Last weekend we celebrated Ray’s mom’s 80^th birthday with a gathering of long time friends and family.  LeAnn’s mom is still splitting time between Iowa in the summer and Arizona in the winter.

We have our tree up and decorated, and will be having Ray’s family over on Christmas Eve before heading to LeAnn’s sister’s house on Christmas Day. 

We hope you have a great Christmas season and a Happy New Year.

Email:  bloom2511@hotmail.com  

Blog: http://www.bloom2511.blogspot.com/                                                                                                       

2010-10 Halloween Pumpkins

The pumpkins are carved and the kids are coming for their candy.  Lots of great costumes on the little kids this year.  We had one abstract pumpkin and one traditional pumpkin.  Lots of work to carve through the thick pumpkins. 

2009-10 Picking Apples

On Sunday, we headed down near Webster, MN to pick some apples.  Besides LeAnn, Kara and Hailey, Ray's mom joined us.  It was a beautiful Sunday morning with bright sun and no wind.  Even though the temperature was in the 40's and 50's, it felt much warmer.

We first picked some of the apples that were right behind the barn, but there were only a couple of varieties.  We then took a tractor ride out to a couple of other orchard areas with a lot more apples to choose from.  There were over 10 different varieties to pick, both tart and sweet.  The trees were loaded with apples, so there was no issue on finding good ones. 

There has been a lot of rain down in that area, and one of the fields that had been planted with pumpkins was under water, and many of the pumpkins were floating in the water.  A second area of pumpkins was planted up by the barn, so they still had some pumpkins to sell.