Well, what did you expect? Pictures!

Okay, here's the Haug family; Melanie, Debora, Christiane and Rainer. We all went to Besigheim(sp?) to this festival, I can't remember how they spelled it in German, but it was a celebration of the new wine. If you've never had new wine, or know exactly what it is, don't be ashamed, I had no idea that it was non-alcoholic until Christiane was downing. I felt silly, but oh well. The festival was fun, lots of music, most of which was American. The musicians were very lively bunch of mixed people.

This picture has the Mayor's house in it, and if you can bare to stare at the screen longer, you might be able to see the dancers from Hungry.




This is just a random picture of a Cafe. It was quite nice.

There wasn't much time for me to take many pictures, plus people kept on bumping into me(blurry pictures don't get you comments) so I raised my camera up above my head and took a shot. Didn't turn out to bad for not seeing what I was getting.


This is an old tower attached to the cities wall, that still exsiste, but is in rather turn conditions.



The average garden.

Germany

Its already been a week here, and I haven't written a stitch! Sorry for that.

We'll start from the beginning...
The flight from P.A. to Frankfurt was two hours behind schedule, long and boring. I had no chance to call Melanie and tell her the flight would be late, so when I got into Frankfurt I was confused by the time difference and being two hours late didn't help either. It took awhile for me to figure out where the baggage claim was(everything being in German, sometimes with English on the bottom of the sign) and trying to find Melanie in the process. She said she had made a sign with my name on it and that she would be in the terminal I got off at, so she would have been easy to spot, but she was nowhere in sight! I seachered everwhere possible(within reason) until I was about ready to sit down and cry. First time overseas traveler who doesn't understand any German. I'm sure they would forgive me for breaking down....it had been a long two days.
Back to the story, while I picked up again and searched more I found a U.S. Military man who offered his cell phone for me to call Melanie. I wanted to hug him. And cry. I finally got ahold of Melanie and half an hour later we found each other. It took me a total of two or more hours to find her.

I've never experianced jet-lag before, and I was bobbing my head the whole car ride back to their house. From what I remember its very beautiful country side here, hills apon hills of vineyards, orchards, corn and tons of small or large gardens. Of course there were also the old buildings, villages, and towns too. Bietigheim isn't as small as I thought it would be. I'd roughly say its between the sizes of Chehalis/Centralia or Portland. The town looks old, but in some areas its very modern looking. The town Centre is nice, has many types of stores; grocery, market, clothes, traveling agencies, book store, etc. The book store is quaint, but I can't read or understand German yet so its kinda pointless for me...
When we finally reached their house, I got my things in my room and settled in. Its a large house with lots of stairs(probably good thing for me, Germany being quite the place for chocolate an such) and a basement. The house is very modern looking and has a lovely garden outside. In the morning, at noon and in the evening the Catholic church bells ring and its very beautiful to listen to.
Well, as of the moment I need to start picking up on the day again. Thanks for all your prayers, I'll start trying to write more often!

Book Stores and Soaking

So I've decided to take pictures of all the Book Stores I come across, this one is in Ocracoke. It's very quaint little book store, and the choices of books aren't that bad either.

Okay, sunsets on the Atlantic are so beautiful!(course, it really doesn't set in the Atlantic) I still have to see the sunrise, Sarah and I were going to see it on Saturday, but we slept in. Sarah and I spent the whole day together on Saturday and spent it in Ocracoke. We had to take the ferry there and back, which was fun and I'll have a story to tell after I get these pictures up. Sarah and I were being silly in some of the pictures;)







Okay, so Sarah and I were on the ride back on the ferry and we decided to stand on the front of the ferry, straight in the middle. By the way, there's a tropical storm going on this weekend till about Monday-Tuesday, so the water was really rockin'. Anyways, we're having fun, laughing and all the sudden the ferry lifts up high and drops down right as the waves came up, and SPALSH! Sarah and I were soaking wet. It went about 3 feet above us. And we were the only ones that got soaked.
Anywho, we ended up laughing so hard we about toppled over.

Photo Central

So here's the ship we saw, Elizabeth II. It was so beautiful, not as big as it looks though. And of course, its only the replica.



We also went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, I don't have many pictures because it was the last thing Sarah and I did for the day with Gabrielle and Joshua, who insisted we push them in their strollers through the whole thing, and we were very, very tired.



Okay, this is just me and Josh hanging out at the park.



This is Sarah and Gabrielle playing dress-up in Elizabethian clothes, at the Elizabethian Museum.















And here are some photo's from the Elizabethian Garden and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Also, Sarah and I, and Gabrielle pretending to sleep on a beach in the park.

So Far

Well, first I should probably start with introductions; the who, why, where and what. I'm staying with Sarah, who's staying with the Pettie family consisting of Ron, Kathy, Gabrille, and Joshua. Sarah's their nanny for the summer and will be coming back home in October some time.
Okay, now I think I can continue on with my story. Today, like yesterday, Sarah, the kids and I went to a town called Manteo and spent the whole day visiting, playing in the parks, going to museums, aquariums, and ice cream pallors( in this weather it calls for ice cream on a daily basis). Yesterday we went on the "Elizabeth II" ship. It was pretty awesome, and when I finally download pictures I'll post them.
Today was the 'fish farm'(aquarium) as I dubbed them and spent a lovely morning petting the Sting Rays and watching the scuba divers clean the glass walls. Gab absolutely loved the Sea Otters and would spend a good 15 minutes giggling over them each time we passed through.
Went through the Elizabethian museum, which had lots of hands on things for kids to do. There were a few places that let the kids dress up in clothes from back in the day, and of cours, Sarah and, I being previously home schooled, dressed up as well. Yet again, the pictures will come soon.
Other than busy days and smoldering humidity, its been nice here. The sunsets are amazing, pink, orange, red, yellow, you name it. Tomorrow Sarah and I are getting up early to see the sunrise. So with that(and looking at the time) its time for me to go to bed. Prayers for Melanie, Rainer, Christiane, and Debora...my little german familie.

N. Carolina

So the first flight, which was at 6:30am(and we had to get up at 3:30!) was nice...enough. Other than stupid me forgetting to pack my soaps, lotion, among other liquids that size that shouldn't be in carry-ons, it went by nicely.
Once we all got packed into the metal contraption called plane, the older gentlemen next to me thought it would be nice to chat. So after the second or third time I dozed during this exciting conversation, he gave up on me and snored his way til landing. There was a lot of turbulence on that flight, yuck. My starting point was Portland to Dallas, Texas. You could tell you were in Texas by the big hair and twang.
That flight was nice as far as sleeping goes. Flying over N. Carolina was cool, the scenery was beautiful. Sarah, Kathy and the kiddos were there to pick me up. They had things they needed to do before we left town, so by the time we got back to the house it was 1:30am. Makes for a very long trip if you ask me.
Now that this is all done(almost!) I've decided that I highly dislike being on airplanes.

...And when you kick up your heels, you don't know where the wind will take you.