Trip to Massachusetts, USA

We started off our two week trip back to the States with a week at Todd's parents house in Plymouth.  The flight over wasn't too bad, and the kids were pretty darn good.  But neither of them slept, and once we got the rental car in Boston, they were OUT COLD.

 

Poor kiddos.  We didn't do much on Friday because by the time we fought Cape traffic on Route 3, it was already 6 pm (which was midnight on our body time).  Time for dinner, a bath and bed!

 

 

For many weeks (months!) Carole, Helen and Kathleen have been planning a surprise 80th birthday party for Warren!  They almost didn't pull it off as he's pretty good at guessing these kinds of surprises.  But I'm pretty sure we surprised him!  Here he is with his sister Betty and brother Eddie.

 

 

Steve even flew in from Baltimore, and his niece Beth came in from Connecticut and nephew Bill came in from Arizona!  (We still won "longest traveled to get to the party!")

 

 

Warren greeting his guests.

 

 

Betty, Eddie, Beth, Warren and Bill.  Beth and Bill are Uncle Jimmy's kids (kids!)

 

 

Steve, Helen, Kathleen and Todd.  They clean up pretty well!

 

 

We had an excellent lunch - here is Steve saying the prayer before we ate.

 

 

Todd, Helen and I had fun in Bamberg in May coming up with some fun questions for some Warren Bailey trivia. 

 

 

Kathleen put together a fantastic video made of pictures of Warren over the years. 
 



 

Kathleen ALSO made him a cake! She's a mighty machine, ladies and gentlemen!

 

Natalie has met her second cousin Lily (Beth's daughter) a few years ago and for a VERY long time afterward, she talked about Lily and her brother Charlie and how great they were.  Lily is going into 3rd grade (Natalie into 4th) but they picked right back up as if they saw each other last week!  Natalie even spent two nights over at Aunt Betty's to hang out with Lily!  Here they are putting on a show for us, which included a song they wrote and performed!

 

 

Charlie was trying out some of his magic tricks on Warren.  (Todd and Steve were there to help him refine his game!)

 

 

On Sunday, the family threw a little birthday party for Natalie since everyone was together.  Kathleen, as if she didn't have ENOUGH to do, made Natalie this super cool cake!  Surrounded by her favorite thing... cupcakes!

 

 We didn't have much time to see a lot of friends when we were in Massachusetts, but we set aside one evening to see our friends Heather, Dave, Michele, and Sara.  We just went over to Heather and Dave's house and grilled out and hung out for a while.  I hadn't seen Heather, Sara and Michele since our trip to the Amalfi Coast in April!

Me and my girlies! (Damn iPhone and your crappy indoor photos!)

 

There was one day that was cloudy and sort of cool (hey Massachusetts!  Good to see you again!) so we went to lunch at British Beer Company, and then went for ice cream!  Peach ice cream = yum!  In fact, Natalie ordered some kind of weird birthday cake or something like that, and wound up not liking it, so she stole my peach cone!  Punk!

 

Afterward, we played 18 holes of mini golf on the Cape!  Here's my littlest lefty hitting the links!  But here, he's golfing right handed!  Like his mama! (FINALLY!)  Todd quickly corrected him.  Boo.

 

 

Since Natalie turned 9 in Germany a few days before we left on our trip, we decided to invite some of her best friends from Metrowest to a small dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (originally to be held at American Girl next door, but it turns out their café closes at 5!)  Above, Ava, Morgan, Natalie (behind the centerpiece decoration I stole from my mother-in-law!) and Lili.

 

 

Nope. I just couldn't get them to do a normal face.  We have Morgan, Natalie and Lili on the left and Emily (in the back) and Lila on the right.  Ava was in the bathroom!  I was really happy that my friends Heather and Kirsten could join me for dinner, too!

 

 

The next day, I did promise to take Natalie to the American Girl store so we could have lunch at the café.  She got to do a little shopping with her birthday money and I even let her have a milkshake!  (Damn, I'm a good mom!)

 

 While Mommy and Natalie were having fun at the American Girl store in Natick, Daddy and Grant hit up White Horse Beach again.  They built a really cool fort around a sand and rock castle.  You can see how far out the water line was at this point.
 

 

Later, after we got back from Natick, we joined the boys at White Horse.   Now you can see a) just how silly my husband is and b) how far up the water has come - because it is flooding the fort and the castle!

 

 

We also made it to Grammi and Bean's outdoor pool!  The water wasn't too cold, and the sun was out but Grant is always cold, so he laid down on the deck with his airplanes and bag of popcorn and tried to warm up!  Silly boy.

 

 

Snack time with Grammi and Bean!

 

 

Our last evening there, we were able to drive into Boston and meet up with the Wilmington crew at Smith and Wollensky.  Here's Mike, Todd, Rybo, Rob and Cooch having drinks before dinner.

 

And here we are, folks.  Kern, Rob, Karen, Dorothy, me, Nadia, Mike, Todd, Rybo and Cooch.  It's not the whole crew, but it's a lot of them!
 

 

Kern always knows how to tell a story!  I'm sure it was wildly inappropriate!

 

 

The bill was over $850 for all of us (ha!) but that's because we HAD to have dessert!  This chocolate cake was as big as Karen's head!  (Nice Kern.  Real nice.)

 

(FYI, my favorite part of this bill is that someone added "angry shrimp!")

Until next time, Massachusetts! 

Kelheim and Kloster Weltenberg, Germany

Although the forecast was for an 80% chance of rain, we decided to brave it and head down to Kelheim, Germany to see the famous Weltenberg Abbey and cruise along the Danube for the afternoon.  The Danube River is the longest in Europe, at 1,785 miles.  Many consider the Volga River in Russia to be the longest river in Europe, but since Russia isn't a part of the EU, most believe the Danube is the longest.  Political versus geographical.
 

While it ACTUALLY stayed dry for once, you can see how much the recent rains have been raising the Danube.  Here it's come out of it's banks and is almost crossing the road!
 

So this particular dock was certainly NOT in service.
 

Up on the hill, away from the floods is Liberation Hall.  While there is a nice little tram service that can get you up there, we didn't have time to see it on this trip.  It is a Memorial to victories over Napoleon in the Wars of Liberation, with allegories of Germanic tribes. 
 

We needed to eat before we got on the boat, so we stopped at La Bella Vita in Kelheim and the food was really way better than we expected!  Here is Natalie meditating over the pasta she had just eaten.  These two were the absolute best of friends on this trip, but they were wildly loud and obnoxious!
 

The Organ Museum of Kelheim is located here in the former Franciscan monastery.
  

They laughed literally the entire day on this boat, at who knows what!
 

Naturally, they had to get a BIG SANDWICH!!!!
 

Cruising down the Danube.  We found out when we bought the tickets that we *could* get off at the Weltenberg Abbey, but there was no guarantee that there would be another boat up to retrieve us because the water levels were so high and the current was so strong.  So we decided to just take the boat, enjoy the scenery and enjoy some of Weltenberg Abbey's finest brews.
 

This is Germany, so of course, there's lots of beer and prosting on the boat.
 

Waving hello to the neighboring boat.
 

The Danube Gorge and it's high rock formations.
 

 

Looking back from whence we came toward Liberation Hall.

 

Sunny day selfie with my hubs.
 

The Jungfrau - a girl who lived in the area who was cursed by a local witch and turned to stone!  The horror!
 

The most narrow part of the Danube Gorge is only about 350 feet wide and about 250 feet tall!
 

The Bailey family on the boat to Weltenburg Abbey.
 

Once we arrived at Weltenburg Abbey, this is what we saw looking back downstream.
 

 

Suddenly besties, telling secrets.

 

Weltenburg Abbey from the Danube.  Since we were told we might not have a ride back, we opted to stay on the boat and have another drink!
 

Tall limestone rock formations that the Danube (or the Donau, as they call it in Germany) was carved into.
 

See these little green signs?  These are posted all over and tell you how many kilometers away the mouth of the river is in the Black Sea!
 

The river was flowing mighty fast today, and it took us about half the time to get back to the docks as it did for us to get to the Abbey.
 

This is the Hermit's Cave and Chapel... also known as Hermitage Klösterl was built by hermits in honor of St. Nicholas in 1454 until it was dissolved in 1802.  The chapel is still there and many say the caves are worth a visit.  Naturally, there's also a biergarten!
 

The very beginning of the Ludwig Canal. This canal connected the Main River and the Danube, and therefore linked the North Sea with the Black Sea in the 1800s. 
 

After we deboarded in Kelheim, we drove out to Weltenburg Abbey.
  

Why hello there.  I didn't see you.  I was busy mending fences, one of the many things I do here on the ranch.
 

Entering Weltenburg Abbey.
 

The outside of the church at Weltenburg Abbey, completed in 1751.
 

This was the reason we didn't stay very long.  There were more mosquitoes here than I've ever seen in Maine, and that is saying something!
 

Behind the abbey is a "beach" area with a ton of small little rocks.  The kids both learned how to skip rocks across the Danube, but none of us were as good as Todd!
 

Quiet beach at Weltenburg Abbey on the banks of the Danube.
 

Friends cooling their feet off in the Danube.
 

Ahhh!  High water marks with Grant for scale.  The Danube is to the right in this picture.  Look at 1845 and 1999!
 

On our way out, we saw this really sad engraved stone commemorating fallen US soldiers.  It reads, "In memory of three soldiers of the US Army who lost their lives at this spot in the Danube on September 16, 1975.  They met their deaths on active service for our freedom.  Dennis M. Relihan   5-2-1940 - Robert S. Adams 3-1-1954 - Lucky J. Cordle 16-8-1954."

Until next time, Weltenberg Abbey and Kelheim!