Our flight left the runway late so we got in at about 6am.  We did not sleep much.  Esme slept on the first flight only, Nova and I slept about 2 hrs on the second flight and my mom didn’t sleep at all even though she drank her complementary champagne and I made her drink most of mine too.  We flew Condor and it was a really nice experience.  Candace picked us up at the airport and drove us back to her place.  We will be spending a week with my sister Candace, my brother-in-law Stephan, and niece and nephew: Ruby, and Jasper. 

We got stuck at a train for about a half hour.  Candace explained that the reason is complicated but basically the German government wants people to take trains so rather than build a bridge over the tracks, they make people wait. 

We got back just in time to see Ruby and Jasper before they left for day camp.  Ruby was so excited to see ya that she woke up at 5am!  We stopped at a bakery and got our first baguette of the trip and some pretzels when we walked them to their bus stop.

It was a rough day of jet lag and very pitiful kids who did not want to stay awake.  We didn’t want to nap too much because it makes it harder to break the jet lag.  I noticed a broken filling on our first flight but lucky for us, Stephan’s sister is a dentist!  Candace was able to arrange an appointment for me today.  She fixed my tooth quickly and painlessly.  Unfortunately, she noticed another filling about to fail so I will go back Friday to have that one fixed as well. 

Some of our first treats we bought in Germany: 

Candace and I went grocery shopping and then she took us to a youth farm which is a great place for kids to learn and create and practice some life skills.  Here they are doing some rock painting. 

They also checked out a playground/collection of forts at the farm made exclusively by children. They have animals there including ducks, chickens, and sheep. 

Candace made a wonderful lunch today but my mouth was too numb to eat and I wasn’t really hungry from being awake so long and eating so much on the plane.  Luckily my appetite was back for dinner.  Candace is a great chef and we are lucky to have her cook for us.

We went on an after dinner walk to Ruby and Jasper’s school.  We took a little basket and the kids picked up snails and took them on the walk.  There were lots of slugs around too and we also found a little toad. 

We also saw lots of beautiful houses. 

We ended the day with some ice cream.  I thought I published this one but when I went into the app to write today’s blog post, I saw it in drafts with a sentence half finished.  I must have fallen asleep mid-sentence!