Bring on the Wine Fests

So we arrived in Germany at the perfect time. All the little villages are having wine festivals. And our 2nd weekend here we went to one with our friends the Halls. It was one highly recommended by the Ramstein Military ward because of the amazing fire work show. Speaking of which there are 2 military wards in this area. 2! Anyways more on that later back to the wine fest. So we drove through the rolling hills and windy roads out to Bernkastel-Kues. It was very crowded but gorgeous. 

A view of the rolling hills on our way there. So many trees!

At Bernkastel-Kues there were fields of grapes that went up these hills. It was really cool.

You can kind of see part of the town.

They had a castle there and the fire work show was kind of representing a battle from the river that ran though the middle of the town and the castle. 

Now don't worry about us buying any wine, cause we didn't. We did get a foot long bratwurst and German crepes and giant pretzels and a bonsai tree. Mostly though we spent our time walking up and down looking at the stands and just having fun. There was a lot to see including the bands that were playing along the street. 

A swan just hanging out in the river that runs through the town.

Eventually the firework show stared and it was amazing!!! Definitely the best I ever remember seeing. 

Thanks again to the Halls for hanging with us while there! It was a blast!!!

This is something that we definitely want to do again next year. Hopefully we'll a little more German by then.

Traveling

After our 2 week vacation we had to fly back to Texas so that we could fly to Germany. Sounds weird right? Well this is our first time moving with the Air Force and they said we either could fly out of Abilene for free, or make our own way to Baltimore and get reimbursed. 

Since our extra funds were scarce we opted for the cheaper choice of flying back to Dallas and getting a ride back to Abilene so we could fly out of there. Luckily we have some absolutely amazing friends who took pity on us and came and got us from the Dallas airport at 11:30 pm and drove us the 3 hours back to Abilene and even let us crash on their couch. They even let us borrow their car in the morning so we could make our flight from Abilene to Dallas. (If you're wondering, yes we know now.) Then from Dallas to Baltimore where we were also very lucky to have wonderful friends willing to come pick us up and let us stay with them, then drive us to the airport again in the morning. They even drove us around the DC area and I got to see the Washington monument form afar. Thanks again to both the Bayley's and the Wilson's for taking in the homeless and getting us to where we needed to be. You guys are the absolute best!!!!

Finally though we get checked in for our flight from Baltimore to Germany. It was delayed a couple of hours due to a thunder storm but finally we took off. I have to admit I was too excited to sleep and taking a sleeping pill didn't help, in fact it made me even more antsy and go figure when we landed was about the time the pill started kicking in. I was the walking dead for my first day in Germany. I don't remember much more then windy roads, eating some food, nearly falling asleep while standing up, oh and that our hotel wouldn't let us check in when we got there because we were 2 hours early for regular check in time. When we finally did check in I crashed. 

My first week in Germany was spent making sure I stayed awake during the day so that I could sleep through the night. I got it easy, Ricky had to start some of his in-processing and take his driving test and go get a rental car so that we wouldn't be stranded at the hotel over the weekend. He is pretty amazing cause he got all the he could done and in the end we had a rental car, a crappy rental car but a rental car all the same. 

Two Week Vacation Part 4 (The Finale)

 Sorry it's taken so long for me to update some more on here but not having internet has made it difficult. We don't really have good internet now, we have one of those internet sticks that only works for a few days then it takes almost an 30 mins to load any page. Luckily we are back to the few faster days. So as we continue on the saga that is mine and Ricky's two week vacation I bring to you to the part were we left the beautiful Oregon Coast and started making our way back towards Idaho.
I do have to say that Allen is pretty amazing at road trips in making sure we get to see a lot of stuff, most of it really interesting! For instance we went and saw an amazing air and space museum. *Please forgive me for not remembering the names to anything in this post. It's been over a month and there's no one here to help me remember.*
The really cool thing about this museum is that it had the spruce goose. Granted before this trip the only other place I had heard about the spruce goose was from Phineas and Ferb (don't judge, it's a good show) but I did get to learn more about it and many many other planes from WW1 WW2 and the  Vietnam war. All the tours guides were retired veterans and because it was such a military friendly place, Ricky was able to get us all in for free!
The Spruce Goose took up almost the entire hanger.

There are a ton of pictures from there but I don't want to add them all and not have anything to say about them so I'm going to continue on with our story.
The next stop was at this water fall. Once again the name for it has completely left my mind but it's a really pretty one with a hiking trail that leads up to the very top. We (Ricky and I) went all the way up. It was gorgeous and definitely worth the climb.

That waterfall.

The rest of the trip was spent enjoying the ride. Ricky and I made sure to have fun and here are a few photos to prove it.
Us in aviators. How cool are we?!?

So Ricky has kind of been obsessed with mustaches for a while and he found a vending machine that had fake mustaches, so of course he had to buy one.

We had about 2 hours worth of entertainment from that 50 cent toy.

After making it back to Idaho we spent the last couple of days with Ricky's family. We went to lunch with his dad, and I even got to meet an Uncle that I haven't met before. But mostly we got to spend time with his mom and Ken and Gunner, and of that time most of it was spent on the River. They have a boat and so we got to learn how to knee board. Ricky was way better at it then me.

We got to go tubing! Always a blast!

And Ricky even tried to learn how to slalom ski. Unfortunately due to how many photos we'd taken on our trip we ran out of memory. It was all enjoyable, but the best part was just getting to spend so much time with family before we headed off to Germany.

Two Week Vacation Part 3

After the family reunion, my mother and Allen took Ricky and I to go see the Oregon Coast. I had never seen the ocean before (seeing it from an airplane doesn't count) and since we were so close we took the time to go spend about 3 days there. We stopped at a few places on the way there. Ricky's favorites were the Bonneville Locks with the fish ladder and the Salmon Fish Hatchery. If you didn't know, he likes fish. 

The fish ladder. It was cool to watch even though it was the right season there were still some fish going over.

 This was one of the huge sturgeon at the fish hatchery.

When we made it to the ocean first thing Ricky and I did, (after helping Mom and Allen check in and take our bags up to the room) was go out and walk along the beach.
My first photo of me on the beach!

We were there for 2 nights, and really only 1 full day. But I loved every minute of it. I would absolutely love for our next duty station to be near the beach! Most of our time was spent near the beach. We spent every morning before breakfast out there just enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells. The full day that we were there we went to Newport and spent the day touring the area. They had an interactive museum inside their visitors center, a light house you could tour (we didn't cause the line was forever long) a cobble beach that you could walk along and see seals, and tide pools (they were kind of washed out but still pretty cool) with a few things to look at.
The light house.

 That night after touring the area and exploring a few other areas Ricky decided he would get crazy with me (I was feeling adventurous, cause "Adventures out there!(thumbs up)")* and go out into the ocean. It was absolutely freezing!!!! As soon as my legs touched the water they went numb.

 If you're wondering why I'm not looking up for the photo, the wave coming in surprised me cause it got up to my waist. After we got the photo we ran for the indoor pool and sauna the condo had. All in all it was a wonderful trip and I was sad when we had to leave. Luckily I know that we will get to see the ocean again someday and get to spend more time there.
*(Movie quote, Name that movie!!!)