German Gem! Heidelberg Holiday!

My hotel room in Heidelberg was one of the ones you see here, Peking. Each room done in the style and furnishings of that part of the world. Very Hip, in fact, that is the name of the hotel....HipHotel. Then, a delicious Weinerschnitzel meal topped off the evening. Fabulous! I crossed this wonderful bridge from one side of the Neckar River to the other, and went all through this lovely, historical city. I walked up to the Schloss, or the castle, which is so prominent in the valley, overlooking the entire populace. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries, it is almost like a parent overlooking the family. The haunting view of bombed out parts of the ancient castle, dating back to the 1300s, I believe, is overwhelming. It sits high up on the side of the mountain, making its defense much easier. I took a picture of one of the typical German houses which rests under the shadow of the castle. This was the first of five trips that I will take to Heidelberg this summer, to work with a client there. It is like going to Disneyland every time I go.

My 6th Grade Class picture

Here is a great picture of our 6th Grade class photo, sent to my by one of my classmates, Karen Bsumek, who is standing right in front of me. That will give you a hint of where I am in the photo. Too much fun! I remember like it was just 75 years ago! Two neighbors, one on either side of our house on Sycamore Lane are in the photo also. What sweet memories.

Our house in Sandhurst, under the weather a bit

Okay, so now I am getting this blog thingee a bit more. Here are some photos of what our garden (back yard to you non-English folks) looked like two weeks ago. I thought a garden company was going to be taking care of it, and in the wet English weather, boy do things grow. The grass got to be more than 2 feet high, and out of control. My home teacher, Gareth Prior thought it would be a great youth service project, so he invited the young men to come over and pull weeds, mow the grass and generally hang around until they got the refreshments.

You can see Bishop Terry reading some newspaper near where he had chopped down most of two trees, actually just trimmed the areas that were blocking the back of the property. Simon Roberts is mowing, then Oliver Terry is posing a bit, and Ashley Robinson took over the mowing. Hope I have these in correct order. We had a couple of young American boys, Gareth Prior, and our Dutch YM Counsellor, Frederick Elzinga, helping out. Great evening's work. Then I got down to brass tacks and really mowed it the rest of the way. Took me about 7 hours of pretty hard work to get it almost under control. Sent the mower we have here out for servicing, and borrowed one to cut it. I went back and forth about 6 times over each area to get it cut. Ain't easy, I can attest to that.

Nauvoo with Grandma Rogers

On June 2, 2009, Connie and Grandma Rogers (85 yrs young) and I travelled to Nauvoo for 2 1/2 days of wonder. Visiting all the important Church history sights and sites. I was absolutely amazed at Grandma's vitality and energy. She didn't miss a step, and with her fabulous walker she was everywhere. Even when Connie ran out of gas, Grandma kept on keeping on. There was so much to see, feel and experience. Wouldn't have missed it for anything. I think Grandma regained 20 years of excitement and hopefully this will be just the start. She wants to go to Italy next! What a great time. And when we got back, we were treated to a picnic at Maggiano's restaurant, where we had dined four times in six nights. They were extraordinarily kind to us, as we ate out on the hood of our rental car. What a great finale to our trip.

My 1962 Bug Eye Sprite

In 1964, my brother John and I bought a 1962 Bug Eye Sprite, a wonderful, extremely light, and surprisingly fast, English Sports Car. It was small enough that John and I could bounce it around in the garage, and by pushing and bouncing it, we could completely turn it around with the garage door down, all inside the garage. We thought that was pretty impressive, when dad had a huge Cadillac, and mom had an even larger 1959 Plymouth Station wagon.
In any case, I saw this one in Road and Track magazine, took a picture, and thought it would be fun to have the family see the first car that I ever owned. I went on my mission, John totalled it into a tree, and all my dreams were smashed along with it. Woe, woe, woe.

Random, Mercy's cousins, Denmark riding my bike to work, and Warsaw, Poland

January in Mexico, and February at the base of the Pedronas Towers, tallest in the world

Places and People

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, then Notre Dame in Paris and lastlly Annabelle and Ben last year

Leaving on a Jet Plane

This is the first time that I have tried to post anything to this blog. I plan to have it as a place where families and friends can check out my wanderings.