European Food

Whenever we travel out of the country we always try to make sure that we eat what the locals eat, instead of the normal American food (ie McDonalds). The food is always so much better overseas...or maybe that is because we are always so hungry because all we do is walk all day long as we sightsee. Here are some of the local flavors from our recent European trip...

Yummy....Panekoken (Dutch pancakes). It was so good despite the fact that it was 2 p.m. and I was drinking a Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke) and James was drinking a beer.

A speciality in the Netherlands is raw herring. Little did I know when James said he needed a "snack" that he was going to get this traditional dish. Yes, the herring was served raw, on a bun, with onions. I happened to capture him mid-bite, but despite the picture, he claims he liked it. I, on the other hand, thought that one bite was enough as it was slimy and I ended up smelling like fish for the rest of the day.

Fred says it's been a long time since he was in a post, so this post is for the little buddy. Fred manages to make sure he is always comfortable. Despite that fact I usually kick him off the bed when it's time to make the bed; however, my husband does not agree with that philosophy. He always tells me that Fred is the priority, so as you can tell my this picture (with an unmade bed) that it was James' responsibility to make the bed, but it just didn't get done because of Fred.

Knut the Polar Bear

A few year ago Knut was all the hype. An orphaned baby polar bear warmed all of our hearts as he managed to survive, and was the talk of the world. Knut's home is in Berlin, and so of course I had to make sure we went to the zoo to visit. While it was sad to see him alone in an exhibit without any friends, he did put on quite a show for us. These are just a few of the 100 pictures or so we have of him.

Knut was recently in the news again, as another German zoo (where Knut's father is) wants either Knut or some of the money that the Berlin zoo has made off of Knut. We met a nice Berliner at the zoo (although rather crazy I might add), that had a button that read "Knut forever in Berlin".

A historical trip

We recently took a quick trip to Europe, which included stops in Amsterdam and Berlin. As I find with most European cities, there is so much history attached with them, and these two cities are no exception to this. From the Berlin Wall to the Anne Frank House there was so much to see, and we barely made a dent in exploring both cities. Here are a few favorites:

The Brandenberg Gate, Berlin

The Berlin Wall (side note, the first night we were in Berlin we were in such a hurry to find a hotel before it got dark that we walked right by one of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall and didn't even notice.)

The Anne Frank House

The Moth!

Last fall, we were about to start a fire in our fire pit (see September 2008 posting), but noticed a caterpillar climbing on the side. We saved it, and a few days later it started a cocoon on our deck. We've patiently been awaiting the big day that it would come out and hoped it wouldn't come out while we were at work. Luckily, James had yesterday off, and the big event happened. I made it home just in time to see the moth before it flew away a little later.

Before

During

After (June 12)

He wasn't small either. It was about a 5.5" wingspan in this picture. Isn't mother nature cool?!

Yikes...it's been a month since the last post. Hum...more posts to come soon, including our recent (like we just landed back in the USA 2 hours ago) trip to Europe.

The saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure" couldn't hold more true in the city of Bloomington (MN) this weekend. It's the city's annual dump your junk at the end of your driveway and we'll pick it up free for you weekend. However, while some people had been setting out stuff earlier this week, the real treasure hunt began tonight for more people than I could count.

All evening there were people driving by in pickup trucks and hauling trailers full of these "treasures". So, we decided to get in the game...by putting out something of our own. We had a storage cart we've been using in the garage; however, we gained new cabinets courtsey of my parents a few weeks ago, so we didn't have use for the cart anymore. It wasn't in bad shape, it's just that the cart was made to go in the kitchen, so it didn't work very well for storing garage related items. Well, James quickly cleaned it out and put it at the end of the driveway. Within one minute (no lie!) it was gone. The lucky person who quickly claimed it happened to drive by at just the right time.

Oh the fun!