Travel Log

I´m back! Physically at least... my brain is still stuck somewhere between the U.S. and German time difference . There is so much to tell but I am not going to write everything here, knowing that it would take hours. Still, I am posting some pictures and am going to summarize our travels and doings for all those who are interested. Everyone else: jump to directly to the pictures! ;)

Day 1: Arrival in D.C., luggage got lost in France, rainy and stormy weather, finding Annie´s home late at night after several detours of getting lost. ;)

2: Attending the awesome Kensington Ward Sunday services and seeing lots of great people again; going back to the Visitor´s Center for the first time in years and loving it, at the same time bawling like a baby because I missed it so much after the mish and suddenly being back again in my old home area. Ahhh, it hurt so good ;). Dinner with the sweetest family, the Pincocks.

3: Luggage arrives in the wee early hours of day (3 or 4 in the morning)... yes, CLEAN clothes and my deodorant! Life is grand! During daytime: 1- THE Thriftstore that we were frequently visiting as Sisters, the best place for cheap vintage and strange and normal clothing and other random oddities of all kinds. 2- The Mall in Washington D.C., the Smithsonians (Air and Space + Natural History museums), buying hot-dogs and ice cream, visiting the Jefferson Memorial and checking out the souvenier booths; 3- Georgetown with Annie and Matt, checking out cute little craft stores and having dinner at an Italian restaurant.

4: Sunny day in Kensington, MD. The V.C. again and the Temple. Meeting with Sis. Moon at the V.C., spending money at the 'This is the Place' Bookstore ;), dinner with the Poetker family and then visiting Emma and her mom. Packing our suitcases at night, Charlie (=Annie´s cat) carefully inspecting them all the while.

5: Flying to SLC, UT. Luggage ARRIVES with us this time ;). Meeting with the rest of the family; Going up to Park City

6: Having brunch and then hiking with the dear Paxmans in the 'Twin Peaks (<-- thought of you all the time, Chrie) Wilderness'.

7: Decorating for my brother´s wedding reception; dinner with my aunt and the relatives; meeting with Mary Pope and her husband :), good times!

8: Martin and Steph`s big day: the sealing in the morning and the wedding reception in the late afternoon, lunch with the extended family in between (all you can eat... and boy, DID I eat!); Meeting SO MANY people who used to live in Germany for a while. It was so great seeing them again. You get so attached to everyone... ; get-together with Laura, Uwe and Ruben in the evening. It was soooo good to see you again. I´ve missed you so much!

9: Church with my grandma and then lunch at her place, with my other uncle and his daughter, dinner with the family.

10: Memorial Day spent with my uncle Klaus, going down into the desert, through Heureka, to an old pony express changing station and campground, havin a campfire, grilled sausage and marshmallows, roasted over the fire :). Simpson Springs desert and then visiting the great Salt Lake. Beautiful day trip. dinner with my cousin Chris and his family, Jennifer and cute-as-a-button Meagan! I miss you already!

11: A day with Christy and Matt (hooray, it was so cool!) downtown SLC, on the endless search for the Ben and Jerry´s Ice Cream place ;), and visiting the Square and the art exhibit there. Neat! Sleeping over at the Marriott for free for a night, dangling our sore feet into the outside hot tub of the hotel, getting sugar high on the ice cream Matt constantly fed us and discussing feet pictures. I laughed so much my cheeks hurt in the end!

12: Martin and Stephanie are heading home for Germany. We spent the day with the awesome Harpers from Idaho! Thanks for the books, you rock! And eating out was fun :)! Dinner at the Lone Star restaurant with my aunt and uncle and family

13: My parents and sisters were flying back to Germany; shopping day at the D.I., in Park City and then dinner with Sis. Hinckley; later: visiting the wonderful Wirthlins. It was so good to get together with them and to see they are doing just great.

14: My brother´s birthday, V.C. Sisters Reunion at Jensie´s place. I HAD SO MUCH FUN :). What a wonderful evening. I hope you are all doing awesome. It meant the world to me to hang out with you again for a while. Long live the combination of Root Beer floats and German chocolate!! Next time the reunion will be at my place, alright? ;)

15: I love Walmart, K-Mart and Target! Meeting one of my husband´s friends, Tua, and having lunch together... the Blue Plate diner it is! Then, making sure the Weight Watchers won´t ever go out of business, by adding the HUGE Iceberg milkshakes to our stomach´s content. It was my uncle´s birthday that day. Later I got together with Andrea, the awesomest greenie in the whole wide world. It was great to see you, my friend! We visited Nate up in Provo that night and then took a detour to the MTC on the way back. Sentimental pictures taken at the entrance, stopped at Taco Bell (heavenly chalupas, I miss you!) and headed back home and to Walmart again. I love those opening hours. Yes, I DO want stores to be open here until midnight or longer!

16: Attending church at my aunt and uncle´s and then having lunch with them.... then: Dani and my roadtrip begins... and so do the few days we´ve had to ourselves. We travelled down to Price to stay with the sweet Arnolds. I love the Desert in a strange way. I don´t think I could ever live there (I´d get a severe 'where-are-the-trees?-fever' within a few weeks) but it is a truly amazing place. So out of this world. I felt like on a whole different planet. Very bizarrly beautiful. I really enjoyed it. Dinner with Arnolds that night :). They spoiled us rotten during our stay there!

17: Daytrip to the desert with the Arnolds, to the St. Raphael river, seing a dinosaur footprint in sandstone, having a picnic, hering the millions of cicadas in the bushes, observing amazing pictographs and petroglyphs etched in canyonwalls and stone by the Native Americans many, many years ago;

18: Rafting on the Colorado River through a Canyon by Moab in the desert, then: Arches National Park, amazing place. We hiked up to Delicate Arch and others and took what feels like a million pictures; back to Arnold´s at night

19: Leaving the Arnolds, heading back to Salt Lake, via the coolest place: Goblin Valley with surreal rock formations, being grilled... it was so hot, going up to the Fishlake Mountains and National Forest (*cough, cough*, there were mostly larger bushes and a FEW trees there...), then heading back, going by little towns who almost looked deserted or like ghost towns but with people actually living there. Reminded my slightly of the movie 'Cars'. Now I´ve seen the rural Utah towns, haha. Fun. We arrived in Salt Lake at my uncle´s place late at night, TIRED but happy.

20: Checking out some bookstores and then packing our suitcases. Time went by too fast. Visited my granny again before we left and then went back to my aunt´s place. Having a luncheon with my Aunt and relatives before she dropped us off at the airport. I drank as much Rootbeer as I could, literally, knowing that I will have it again who knows when... . Checking in and ready for take-off...

21: Landing in Paris in the early noon times, flight delay, waiting, waiting, wanting a shower and bed but instead boarding the plane already, arriving in Munich, catching a train, catching another, arriving at home in our town late night.

22 + ... : HOMESICKNESS, missing my family and friends there on the other side of the ocean. Ouch, it hurts!! Getting used to different sleep rythm (soon I hope, still adjusting here.... it´s never been that terrible to re-adjust to 'normal time' for me before. I am cruelly reminded of the sleep-awake-mess I was when I had rotating night-day-and midshifts working for the police); trying not to freeze too much here, although there is no airconditioning here, it´s the relatively cold weather that gets me, after enjoying the desert climate!

Looking back I recall being busy almost like it was on the mission. But I loved it! I had such a great time and it seemed like such a short amount of time. Well, it was. But I hope that next time we go, we´ll have a bit more time and won´t be as rushed and will get to meet with EVERYONE that time. I am sorry for not being able to meet with all of you. I wish I could have. But our time was limited and with my brother´s wedding, things were really tight. I actually carried a planner with me, that I used, otherways I there would have been no way for me to remember what-where-when. I am getting old ;). Well, I am filled with new inspiration and ideas and I have this long-needed creative flow again. I feel great (except for the tiredness and missing you, of course) and this travel time was a wonderful blessing! :) Till we meet again!

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