An Unhappy Return...

A couple of weeks ago it was time to put out our Thanksgiving Day decorations. Since we only have a single set of Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers the process was pretty straightforward. When I went down into the basement I found my Pilgrim couple shaking in their buckle shoes. They were very unhappy to say the least to be back in Europe. Hadn’t they escaped Europe centuries ago on the Mayflower?

Mannheim...

Around here Mannheim, at least with the people I talk to, is known for one thing, Ikea. Everyone loves Ikea for their own reasons Sam for the Sweetish meatballs, Laura for the chance to ride on the flatbed for its actual merchandise, but yesterday we decided to check out Mannheim sans Ikea. Next week we will be catching the cruise bus to Italy in Mannheim and took the opportunity to scout out the parking situation as the perfect excuse to check out the city. A few of the German travel books grant Mannheim a sentence or two, but most completely skip over the city. So clues on what to expect were hard to come by. We had heard that there was a lot of great non tourist shopping in the city and were curious to see what we would discover.

In the background is the large Train station, the bus stops are off to the left. We will be parking our car under this station when we go on our cruise.

Laura at the restaurant we stopped at for a late lunch. She is sporting her new scarf a very European look!



The city also has a ton of public transportation, including a street car system.

Mannheim has a University.

These are the dorms, I thought the stair case was very cool!

Our Annual Plans...

In a week we will be leaving for our annual Thanksgiving Day Cruise, yes since this is the second year I believe I can officially call it annual. We started this tradition to get out of cooking and traveling via land or air during the busy holiday rush. Traveling by boat over Thanksgiving seemed to be the perfect solution. Last year we took a short sea excursion, this year we have amped it up a bit. On our cruise we will spend seven nights at sea and visit four different countries. Some individuals have told us they would never cruise around Europe for various reasons, we obviously feel different. For our small family the most stressful parts of a vacation can be how we will get to our destination, where we will sleep and what we will eat once checked into our hotel that probably took some extensive research to find. For us a cruise solves all these problems it gets us, in this case, from country to country while we enjoy some boat downtime with plenty of onboard choices of where to eat.

The MSC Magnifica

Our cruise starts in Venice, Italy and from there hits Bari, Italy, Olympia, Greece, Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey, and finally Dubrovnik, Croatia before returning to Venice. While the weather this time of year will probably be chillier then traditional cruise weather, the scenery should more than make up for that.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Originally Dunbrovnik was not a city we were excited about visiting, but after reading some travel books we have changed our tune!

Past Halloween...

The day after Halloween, November 1st, is always kind of a disappointment for Laura. She is coming down off the excitement of wearing a costume and of course all the sugar from the treats. During her sugar detox Laura always reminds me of the light at the end of the tunnel, Christmas. She is always disappointed when I remind her that first comes Thanksgiving, this is hitting her especially hard this year seeing as the Germans do not celebrate our Thanksgiving and keep asking “Lor-ah” if she is ready for Christmas. This year the day after Halloween has me also in a somber mood, although I enjoy candy just as much as any kid I am more disappointed to see that we are one more year closer to Laura not dressing up in cute costumes. Since moving out of a state with only one season I have enjoyed fall, watching the leaves change and feeling the temperatures drop, but I never really appreciated Halloween until Laura graced us with her presents. Her first Halloween, I did not go all out she wore a cute little pumpkin bib and hat.

Laura’s second Halloween was when things really got interesting. I was ready to dress her up in a very girly costume, I had put together what I thought was an adorable fairy princess costume. She immediately hated it and hated me for making her try it on.

To avoid being brought up on child abuse charges, I quickly came up with plan B. A little face paint and a buccaneer’s football jersey she was transformed into a miniature football player.


When Laura was two, I figured since she was a whole year older I would try again at a costume. But since the year before was still fresh in my mind, I proceeded cautiously. There would be no wings or crown just a tutu and tights for my baby ballerina.


The next year was crazy and since we waited until the last minute to find a costume, Laura went as one of Tinkerbelle’s friends. A lesser known fairy named Rosealitta. This was also the year that Mom went overboard with the glitter.


It seemed that Laura had finally gotten the hang of Halloween. The following year I was taken ill with the dreaded morning sickness and gently nudged Laura towards an easy costume. Sam took Laura to Target and came home with a black cat.

The next year as promised we let Laura be anything that she wanted. We all know what followed!

This year I was overcome with the need to use Laura’s very realistic wand and my love for Harry Potter. It was easy to get Laura to dress up as smarty pants Hermione Granger.