This Summer’s vacation started out with a flight into San Francisco. We then continued on to South Lake Tahoe, took the Tioga Pass to the Yosemite and Sequoia Parks, where we spend a total of 3 days among giant trees and breathtaking woods.  From there the road took us to Los Angeles where we explored Hollywood, Beverly Hills, the USC and Santa Monica. Las Vegas was next with an incredible show at the Wynn (’Le Reve’) and an exploration of the Hoover Dam. The last stop before we headed through Sedona to the Phoenix airport was the Grand Canyon. We let mules take us to Indian Garden in 110 degrees and couldn’t even look forward to a cool hotel room, since there was not going to be any air conditioning.

But even knowing what experiences we would have, we would do it all again, including sitting on a Mule for eight hours, smelling like one too and having the feet dangling over a 300 foot drop.

Andrea and Louis came to visit us shortly before Christmas and then Fred with Family and the six of us headed to Florida with two cars. We had rented a large house with smimming pool and used it as a base to visit all the local haunts. Andrea and I took the kids to Miami for an overnight trip that allowed us to see the beach and the Everglades as well.

Herding three families with a total of eight kids was less of a challenge than we expected and we had a ton of fun. We’d do it all over again.

In August we made our first ever road trip, in this case to Corpus Christi, Texas. On the way we saw Memphis, New Orleans, and New Braunfels. Coming back we hit Wichita Falls, Wichita and Des Moines.

We had a great time in Berlin this past month. The weather was fabulous and Berlin as always interesting, quirky, big-hearted and full of good food, old friends and opportunities to spend money. See our photo album for a few impressions.

… or for sitting cuddled up by a fire with a hot drink to warm your hands and insides. We did both last weekend, though the kids preferred the snow and the adults the coffee and ‘Apple Betty’. Thank goodness for the Internet, so Christmas shopping was a breeze. Now we can just enjoy the holidays as they were meant to treat us: With comfort, friends and joy.