Living it Up...

...While we still can!   Only a few weeks left of our excellent three year adventure, so we are doing all we can to savor the moments.

We spent Memorial Day at Shumate's house for a barbeque.  We had good food, good company, and the kids went to the Miseau pool.  

We had to leave after just a couple of hours because we were expecting the movers to be here by today and had so much to still sort through.  We found out on Wednesday that the movers would be delayed a week or two.  More on that later...

On Monday evening Scott arrived back at our house after spending the weekend in Oppenau for the Air Fest thingey.  He said it was a lot of fun and he did a "first" for Germany.  He jumped with two wing suit guys and he used a very fast canopy and the comes down and stands on the back of one of the wing suit guys.  

The next day we drove up to Vianden, Luxembourg to see the castle we had hoped to go to last week.  It's about a two hour drive to the northern border of Luxembourg.  I was so happy to find it a charming, picturesque little village with a beautifully restored castle sitting up on the hill.  The castle was first constructed from the 11th to the 14th century on the foundations of a Roman fort.  It was the influential seat of the counts of Vianden until the early 15th century.  In 1820, ti was sold piece by piece and fell into a state of ruin.  In the 70's it was returned to state ownership and is being restored to it's former glory.

Scott and Mike on the way up to the castle

The ceiling of the little stone chapel

This was a beautiful room with these open windows on both sides.

Weapons

A really good model of the castle in its heyday

Scott looking down the very deep well

A view from the top of the castle

This was the Kellar or basement.   Now used for a restaurant.

Vianden Castle

After touring the castle, we walked through the village and then found a place for a snack...

Along the river

An old church in Vianden

A mailbox in Vianden

Scott having some ice cream

It was a fun day trip and most of all I just really enjoyed spending time with my boy, Scott.  We just don't see him often enough, so I cherished every minute!  Thanks for coming to visit Scotty!  See you in Prague in a couple of weeks.


 Friday was the day to hand out yearbooks at the high school.  Travis was on yearbook staff again this year and he was one of the editors.  He designed the cover of it and I must say it is "awesome!".   

Travis playing with the used up boxes

Friday evening was our annual Hail and Farewell Barbeque Ward Party.  It was so sad to think we were the ones being "farewelled" this time.  It's always a fun party and a chance to sit and visit, eat some great food and watch the kids play.

Since the movers decided to delay us a while, Mike and I decided to hit the antique markets hard and see if we could find that illusive creature...the old farm table.  We went to Metz, France on Saturday...no luck.  We went to the ROB bazaar that afternoon and had a great visit with my favorite antique dealer, Olaf...no luck. On Sunday we took a family drive up to Tongeren, Belgium to see the famous Tongeren Antique Marekt.   We don't shop on Sundays but I've always wanted to see this market.  The town is full of antique shops and on every Sunday, they put everything out on the streets from 6 a.m.-noon.  It's an almost three hour drive to Tongeren, so we got up early and got there by 8:30 just in time for the skies to open up and downpour.  It rained buckets and the vendors were scarce and much of the stuff was still sitting in the vans or in the tiny stores.  NOT the experience I was anticipating, but we had fun anyway.  

Rained out vendors in Tongeren

 On our way home, we had a defining "Palmer's Adventures" moment.  Let's say you want to go to McDonalds. What do you do?  Get in your car, drive to the nearest Mickey D's..probably no more than a few blocks away, drive through the drive thru or maybe park in the large parking lot that provided for all of their customers..right?
 Well over here McDonalds is different.  We like to patronize them when possible because of a few things: decent bathrooms, free wifi, and ice.  The adventure comes in when you try to locate a McD while driving down the autobahn and using your handy but not always reliable GPS/nav system.  So..yesterday...driving down the autobahn in Belgium.  Punch in "nearest McDonalds".  It says 5 kilometers in the proper direction.  Let's go!  

 We exit, we wind our way through many little roundabouts and narrow streets and find ourselves smack downtown in Verviers, Belgium.

Train Station in Verviers, Belgium

Open...Open...Open..

 There it is!  Yep, smack downtown and of course not a parking spot in sight.  Mike manages to turn up a  very old, bumpy cobblestone road ( and I hesitate to call it a road)  and doesn't get too far before we realize it's a dead end and yes...we are pulling a utility trailer behind us.  He manages to park, we get out and walk back to the main city square and pull on the door of McD's and it's closed.   Doesn't open until 11:00 and it's five til.  We wait a few minutes and then Mike convinces the manager to let him in when he pulls the "I need to use the bathroom" card.  It works like a charm...we're in.  Then we have to wait for them to fire up the grill.  Finally after all of that, we eat our meal in peace and take endless pleasure in our ice.   Next time you go to McDonalds...think of the adventures you could be having!!

Travis' favorite mode of travel...he's watching a movie!

Last bit of info...We had the movers come today to do a walk through. They think they will be coming to pack us out at the end of the week.  We have a crazy weekend with a Dining Out and Mike has a camp out on Saturday, so we are hoping they can come Monday and Tuesday instead.  Once they come...my computer will be on it's way to Eagle.  I'm not exactly sure what that will be mean to my blog.  I will continue it at least until we are back home and our stuff arrives sometime in September.  Just not sure how often I will get to do an entry.

For now...the adventure continues!

love and miss you all,
-corri