Baltic Cruise - St. Petersburg and a few other places

As many of you have heard, our time in Europe is coming to an end. And one of the things we wanted to do before we left is see how many cruises we could fit into a year. Looks like it's going to be three.

This most recent cruise was #2, a seven-day Baltic boatride from Oslo to Copenhagen to Tallinn (Estonia) to St. Petersburg and back. Once again, the cruise didn't disappoint. We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas, a ship which gets an A+ for its determination to stuff us silly while entertaining and transporting us across the seas. And as an added bonus, it was also nice to re-live a few memories from 2005, when Kate and I went on this same ship for our honeymoon cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage.

Elizabeth loved it too, despite having no previous memories of the ship. She especially liked the bottomless bowls of butter pads available at the buffet. This girl loves her butter.

We took many snappy snaps on our adventure, so I'll make this "snappy" by shutting up and showing you some photos. But first, here's a movie showing Elizabeth's awesome antics:

Copenhagen (It rained. So we just went to Tivoli ... which is the best part anyway):

Kate with Hans Christian Anderson; we took a similar shot last time we were there.

E liked that the ice cream at Tivoli had a similar taste/texture to butter

Kate's moms' group friend Stine (center in above pic) and daughter met us there

(she's Danish)

Waiting for the bus. This is probably Kate's favorite picture.

Tallinn (Cuter than you'd expect):

Note the Texas shop

This is probably my favorite shot.

We ate at a garlic-themed restaurant where even dessert (ice cream) had garlic in it

St. Petersburg (Not cute, but very impressive. Opulent and run down at the same time):

She's not crazy; she's waving to E on the bus. OK, maybe she's crazy.

That's a Picasso I think looks like Kate, who had a hair-ache this day.

Oslo (Small, nature-y, expensive, and very international):

"Just going for a walk with my stick. See you at the summit."

E actually took this picture after we told her which button to press.

Buttercups. Again, we're pretty sure she's not crazy.

On the cruise:

Shadow puppet theater

E really wanted to play in the pool, but babies weren't allowed. So we splashed instead.

We broke out the nautical attire.

Outtakes:

Check out the record-setting wisps. She's trying to be like Kramer.

Snack O'Clock but no snacks!

I'm a bit too douchey for words.

The Russian girls visiting the Hermitage all posed like slutty dancers while their friends took pictures. I was showing what they looked like.

E didn't like that the marshmellow was so fluffy. She apparently got used to it because she wanted more immediately after crying.

Weekend Update

Spring in Germany has been grim this year. Temps have been low, rains have been high, and we all blame the ash cloud. This past weekend, we were fortunately granted a respite, and we took full advantage of the beautiful weather.
We kicked off the weekend by participating in a yard sale at Justin's work on Friday. Elizabeth filled buckets with rocks and tucked flowers behind her ears while Justin and I hawked our old CDs for 25 cents a pop. Overall, the event was a success. We spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the beautiful weather in Kaiserslautern with Jay and Linda. On Saturday we visited the Japenese garden. The highlight of this destiniation was feeding the Koi. Elizabeth had great fun dropping handfuls of Koi food in the water at the shoreline while the fish hungrily circled five feet away, unaware of the feast she was serving. Regardless, she had fun, and we all had fun watching her.

We spent the rest of the afternoon discovering the marvels of the Gartenschau. Here, we found stretches of beautiful green grass, numerous parks for children of all ages (sand, water, pirate ships, huge slides, and more). Elizabeth was blown away just by the sight of the place.

Elizabeth spent most of her time enjoying the water park and wading in the natural stream. The rest of us lounged in the grass and on chairs just enjoying the weather and the sounds of children giggling. I think I even fell asleep for a little bit.

Heady from the joys that Saturday brought, we could not be contained on Sunday, so the five of us headed out to the Kaiserslautern zoo. The highlight of this zoo were the goat kids in the petting zoo. They were so soft and Elizabeth kept excitedly declaring "maaaaa" and throwing her arms in the air.

Elizabeth and I also got to meet with a Peruvian compadre in the form of a llama. He was also very soft.

Overall, it was an awesome weekend. I hope yours was, too.

The guy trip to CERN. All about big bangs.

In late April, seven reasonably nerdy and inherently immature men set out on a weekend road trip to Switzerland. The purpose, ostensibly, was to see the particle accellerator at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research. The real reason was to drink like fish and come up with innovative ways to use phrases like "big bang" and "black hole."

It was as close to a stag party you can get without an actual marriage. We all saw it as our responsibility to drink irresponsibly and our duty (doodie?) to use inappropriate humor at the most inappropriate times. The baser, the better.

As part of that pledge that we as guys all take the first time we belch the first few letters of the alphabet, we saw it as our birthright to insult each other in the most immature and indecent ways, share shocking details of each others' private lives, and use humiliating names for each other.

To comply with this credo, I took it upon myself to create magnets that I declared must be posted on our vehicle (the sausage mobile ... or "sausmo" for short) at all times. These magnets depicted each member of our crew in an embarrassing pose with a shamefully degrading fake quote about having sub-particle-sized bits between his legs or some such nerdy yet humiliating line.

Here are a few of the ones I can show publicly.

Before the trip, we thought that the one thing that would keep our heads above the shallow waters of complete juvenility was the fact that we were interested in particle physics. But, in reality, that just added to the list of things to poke fun at.

In addition to drinking, we did actually find a place in France where the naked ladies dance. (There was no hole in the wall, just a 20 euro cover charge.)

Here are few shots from the excursion. Enjoy.

Me at CERN. It's not as exciting as it looks. And it looks rather drab.

A few of us snowshoeing.

On the way back, we discovered another way to use the phrase "big bang," and that was to describe the unfortunate explosions that occured in transmission gearbox when it literally shattered with a loud boom going back down the Alps.

Here's the spot where it exploded, which was actually quite picturesque, were it not completely socked in with clouds, as it was when we were stranded.And here's us getting ready to board the train in that small valley town in southern Switzerland.