Family, Friends, and Memories

I once read an article about a couple in their 60s that were traveling the world. The man had made a comment about his life: he spent his 30s focused on making money; his 40s focused on "making"/acquiring things; his 50s focused on making friendships; and his 60s had been focused on making memories. I think Eric and I have put our 30s and 40s well behind us in this context (we have actually been trying actively to get rid of things!), and have definitely been cherishing our family and friends, while packing in a lot of memories!

August and September had been planned to be quiet - my mother was going to come to visit, but after trips to the US, Sweden and Norway (and a packed spring schedule) Eric and I left the rest of the summer empty. We knew we would be "traveled-out", and I would have a work trip to California in there as well. Just hanging out in Basel with the kids seemed like just the right prescription. But alas, as much as we love planning, one must always be ready to change plans to take advantage of great opportunities...

So it started with Eric. He has joined a group of "Housemen" here in Basel - due to the large ex-pat community, with many women sent here on assignments, there is a large group of men who stay at home to take care of the kids and to keep the households running. Ironically, being in "conservative" Switzerland, Eric finds it is much more acceptable to be a stay-at-home dad here. As work visas provide extra complications, no one asks him here when he is going to find a job - these housemen can have stay-at-home roles without a lot of expectation / judgement that something else has to come to validate their choice. It will be curious to see how this goes when Eric comes home...

Anyway, the Housemen were the first to break into our September calm - in late spring a trip was put on the calendar for the guys to take a weekend visit to Amsterdam. I was excited that Eric had a "boys" weekend planned, so seemed like a good reason to change our plans.

Next came Eric's visit to Ohio in July for the wedding of his ex in-law niece. Eric had been married before, and was very close to his ex-wife's family (with 12 brothers and sisters, there was lots of family to be close to!) At the wedding, Eric got invited to a final family hurrah at his ex brother-in-law's house in France before he sold it - everyone was going to come, and it could not be missed - put that one on the calendar for early September!

So now our quiet September included a trip back to California, a trip to Amsterdam, and a trip to France - what had happened? Ah, if it had only stopped there...

Jumping to August: my mother arrived to all of our delight. She had been having problems with her knees, and with all of our steps in our house we were really worried that she would cancel. Luckily the knee got better to get her here; unfortunately, it acted up when she got here. It did not stop us from getting a chance to show her Basel, but the best times were just visiting, cooking (she made 5 cakes in less than a week!), doing puzzles - hanging out with Oma was a real special treat for all of us.

We also tucked in a few visits with nearby relatives, the first being an excursion up into the Black Forest to visit my cousin/my mom's nephew and his family - meeting in Rottweil (home of the beloved dog) for a great traditional german meal. My mom was figuratively (and maybe literally...) drooling into her spaetzle with fresh pfifferlinge sauce (homemade pasta with chanterelles). It was awesome to have our third visit since being here with Michael and his family - it is always great to get together and connect.

It is interesting to note that I grew up with my family in California, but every living relative we had was in Germany. Back in my childhood, travel was beyond my family's means, so I grew up without seeing my relatives except for rare visits when they came to see the golden state. At the time I thought this was great - no boring visits to grandma and grandpa or distant aunts and uncles(remember, this was an era of kids being seen and not heard). Now I can imagine what was missed, but a nice outcome is that we all really cherish our visits together, and there is no historical baggage to weigh down the experience.

Next up in August was a last-minute planned weekend trip to my aunt, uncle, and cousins north of Frankfurt. An easy car ride with my mom brought us to a weekend of great food, demonstrations of police dog training from my cousin Antja (always a big hit with the boys - all three of them!), and a great visit with my other aunt and uncle who came down for Saturday lunch. It was great to see everyone - especially as my Onkel Klaus is having a difficult time recovering from heart surgery 9 months ago; my Tante Gerda is the inspiring vision at 85 going strong, despite her role rehabilitating her husband, and overcoming the loss of her daughter to cancer just a few years ago. I am so proud of the women in my family, and I hope I have inherited even a fraction of their energy, drive, and positive outlook in life so I too can stay fit and active well into my later years.

So then here comes another blow to our September calendar: my Tante Gabi and Onkel Gunter are going to Croatia for the month of September - can't we possibly come down and visit them on their sailboat? How could we say no? So now with the month positively overflowing...

Trip #1: Loubressac, France. We carved out a long weekend to join Eric's ex-relatives (20+ strong) in a visit of eating, hiking, catching up and card tricks...Loubressac lies on the edge of the Dordogne Valley - neither Eric or I had been here previously, but I have to say it is one of the prettiest places I have ever been to in France. Tiny medieval villages strung across rolling hills; this area is know as the "stomach" of France: one of our many hikes had the kids eating grapes on long forgotten vines, apples, blackberries, walnuts, pears; every morning our hosts, Ronnie and Ed had bags of fresh croissants and pan au chocolat waiting at each house. Ronnie is a professional chef, and so the event would not be complete without a special made dinner of duck breast and potatoes cooked in duck fat (they were so good that I said I was taking them to bed with me to sleep with...) - diet be gone!


The weekend was also special for the boys - a family friend also along on the trip took the time out to teach the boys their first card tricks - but in true magician spirit he showed them a few tricks where he refused to show them how it was done. This drove them crazy, but still left them with enough tricks to practice to keep them busy for a while to come... It was great to catch up with the Ferrato family, and we felt very honored to be invited to this family event.

Trip # 2: Punat, Croatia. We practiced our great "amazing race" skills on this one: I was returning from California, and met Eric and the boys in Zurich to catch our flight to Zagreb. We have had a bad set of luck lately with missing flights, mechanical difficulty, but we decided the risk was worth it, and Eric had instructions if I didn't make it to go without me...

But all worked out with Swiss precision. We made the flights, spent the night in Zagreb, and then got down to Punat the next day. We got two almost too-hot days that meant the only releif was to go in the water - which was amazingly warm (29C/85F)and amazingly clean. Going out on my aunt and uncle's sailboat was an amazing treat, getting to enjoy the Croatian coast line and swimming in a hidden cove. This was the way to live life...

On day 3 we had forecasts for rain, so said goodbye to the coast and my aunt and uncle and headed inland to Plitvice National Park - and our pictures can not do it justice. Eric thought it might be the most beautiful park he has been to in the world - turquoise water and endless waterfalls - it was unreal, and truly unexpected in this part of the world (not that I would not expect beautiful things in Croatia, but it seemed like we were in Hawaii...). The only downer was the rain - we had started the day avoiding the downpours in caves or shelters - by afternoon, coupled with the fact that we lost our way, we just had to keep moving despite the now constant downfall. Karl lost it - he broke down crying that his new shoes were ruined, with me and Eric ready to rip his head off as we needed to keep going. Promises of new shoes - multiple pairs! - finally got him through his low point and kept the family progressing to the car - we ended up driving with a tight timeline to get to the airport, all soaked to the bone. We drove in various states of undress to catch our flight and gain back our body heat - funniest of all is that we had to repack so all of our carry on was just soaking wet clothes and shoes. If security had looked, I don't know what we would have said...

Trip #3: Amsterdam. Now I am not stupid - I know what goes on in Amsterdam - but was glad that Eric could get a break from the kids (and me!) and have a relaxing weekend with the guys. They had a great time renting scooters and touring a great city. I am sure they also had a little more fun, but what happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam, no? Eric now has a set of friends that span the globe...

So where does that leave us? Great times with family and friends. LOTS of new memories - amazing places, amazing experiences. We truly are blessed. But can we slow down in October? Afraid not, as here comes our long planned trip to Egypt...