Today is my mom’s birthday! 

We started the morning with the walk with Ruby and Jasper to the bus stop.  My cough is still raging in the mornings but it calms down by the end of the morning and my voice is coming back.  However, it picks up again each night. 

We then took the train into Offenbach using all the training Candace did with us on using the public transportation system.  

We had about a 15 min walk to the park we were heading to. 

Zoom in to see the interesting art work on the grocery store. 

Today we gave the girls a bunch of options for what we should do and they chose forest parcour aka high ropes course.

I wasn’t sure if either of them would go through with it once we got there but they both jumped right in and did the “bigger kids” courses (2 meters off the ground).  All of these included zip lines which they also enjoyed. 

Esme even tried an intermediate course (4 meters off the ground) before we took a break for lunch. 

After lunch, the girls both did intermediate courses.  They noticed a long zipline and Nova wanted to try it but found out she was too short for it.  Esme was tall enough though and they allowed Nova to go with Esme as long as Esme would help her reach the couple of clips that were too high for her.  This course was 8 meters above the ground. 

It was getting pretty hot.  There was a high today of 91 F and a heat advisory. 

We took the bus to Offenbach Marktplatz and immediately stopped at a grocery store for more cold water. 

We bought a box of creamsicles for under 2 euros and it came with 5.  I said we could give the extra one away but my team was doubtful this could be done without awkwardness. We opened the box of creamsicles inside the store so we could throw away the box.  As soon as we walked out the door, an older gentleman who seemed to be alone walked off the bus.  I asked him “ice cream?” in English, he thought for a moment then said “ja” and took it from me.  We crossed the street and ate ours and looked back to see him sitting on a bench eating his. 

We walked around this area for a while.  There were a lot of discount stores here.  We shopped at TEDi where I found a birthday card for my mom in German and she found some curtains for 2€ each.

Then we went to Woolworth (yes, they still exist here!).  I bought some reusable plastic cutlery here for when we bring snacks and food on our outings. Last we went to TK Maxx.  There is no misspelling there – TJ Maxx is spelled TK here.  I looked it up and so they wouldn’t get confused with some British store that already existed in Europe, they changed the name when they expanded here.  Here I let each girl spend 20€ on clothes.  Esme picked a gold sweater and some mushroom hair clips.  Nova chose an outfit that is a sweatshirt and pleated skirt. 

We took the train back to Candace’s – she picked us up from the station so we could avoid a walk home in 90+ degrees heat.  She made us another lovely dinner, this time grilled chicken, salad, and noodles.

We took a walk to recycle the glass.  I’ll tell you more about German recycling tomorrow.  It is so complicated it almost needs its own post. 

Candace and her family gave my mom a cute “smoker” incense holder for her birthday.  You light incense inside and the smoke comes out of the mouth.  Not a great picture but if I get time I’ll replace it later.