Months after the fact, here are the pictures I took this summer while in Halstatt, Austria. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. It’s a beautiful place. I was reluctant to leave and look forward to going back at some point.
Prague
This year, for the first time since moving to Europe, I am not traveling to the US for summer vacation. Instead we spend our vacation in Europe where we were joined for two weeks by my parents and my brother Ben and his wife Heather. We spent the first week in Prague, where we rented an apartment big enough for all eight of us.
This was the first time any of us had been to Prague with the exception of Lisbeth who’d been there last at a teenager and didn’t remember much about it except that it left a positive impression. It’s a very pretty city Read More →
Istanbul
It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s been almost twenty five years since my second attempt at college.
The first attempt was brief, in 1987, immediately after graduating college. In retrospect I simply had no motivation. I dropped out and took a number of strange jobs. Some were fun but there was nothing that I cared to make a career out of. And so, two years later, I was ready to go back, and this time I was motivated — knowing full-well what the alternatives looked like.
My second attempt was entirely different than the first. I learned a lot, and met a lot of interesting people. One of these people was Emrah, a fellow student in the Computer Science department at Highlands University in my hometown. Emrah and I became friends even though it was, at times, humbling to hang out with the guy. He despised programming and math but was unquestioningly better than I was at both of them. He often encouraged me to have fun with him instead of studying for exams, but then he’d ace the exams and I’d barely get by.
After graduating from college, Emrah alternatively lived in California and his native Istanbul, where I have long intended to visit him, especially after moving to Denmark (Istanbul is only a three and a half hour flight away.) I finally managed it over Easter. It had been sixteen years since I’d seen Emrah. A lot has changed, but I still enjoy his company a great deal.
Two rays of sunshine
Two rays of sunshine on a cold, grey Sunday morning.
Christmas 2013
This year, for the first time, I traveled to New Mexico to visit family taking only Ellen along. It was a really good trip. Not only is Ellen old enough to be away from her mother for two weeks, but she proved to be a fun and affable traveler.
Ellen had a great time, but the highlight was the “River of Lights” at the Albuquerque Botanic Garden, which we saw with Ben and Heather. At one point she stopped running around and asked me, “Will we ever see this again?” I said I didn’t know — maybe we wouldn’t. She got sad, and has mentioned this possibility to her mother since we returned, so we’d better plan to return.
We had a mix of weather, but generally it was warm and sunny, which was a welcome relief from the damp and dark of Denmark. We also had a bit of snow, so it’s not like it was so warm that we forgot it was Christmas.
A cyclist is born
In Febuary, for Ellen’s fourth birthday, we bought her a bike. She picked it out herself, and seemed very pleased. But it soon became clear that her pleasure was mostly derived from ownership itself. She had no real interest in riding it. Every few weekends or so we’d take her out to the street and she would object, and say she couldn’t, and whine about going inside.
And the, a couple weeks ago — out of nowhere — she asked me if she could ride her bike when we got home. I helped her get it out of the garage, and within ten minutes she was starting and stopping on her own (her balance was learned long ago, on a “running bike”, or bike without pedals.) Now she’s on to experiment with things like balancing while stopped, and making u-turns without putting her feet down.
Crazy all the way around
It’s hard to imagine, before you have your second child, how anyone could compete with your first. That’s partly because you’re surprised by how crazy you are about the first and can’t imaging being that crazy about another kid. But it’s also partly because you can’t possibly be prepared for how different the second is from the first. You can’t imagine how fully and completely the second child is their own person.
Far from being just a smaller version of Ellen, June is June. She’s fearless, almost violently affectionate, and apparently feels pain to a much lesser degree than most humans. She’s unstoppable and unflappable. June is a whole different experience than Ellen, and I’m every bit as crazy about her as I am about Ellen.
Ebeltoft
In Denmark there is a efterårsferie (“fall vacation”) — a week in the fall when people often travel or stay at a summer house. This year Lisbeth’s parents rented a house on the beach near Ebeltoft (about an hour from Århus and about four hours from Copenhagen.)
I’ve heard a lot about the whole summer house experience, but this was really the first time I’d tried it for myself. Unfortunately I had a deadline at work that, coupled with a vicious migraine, prevented me from enjoying myself as much as I’d like, but I can see the appeal. Good food, family, leisurely walks — not much to complain about.
One thing that struck me was how much my perception of size has changed. Read More →
Scenes from the grind
I’ve never been so busy in my life. There isn’t enough time in the day. Time flies. And other cliches.
I’ve never been so busy in my life. But I’ve also never been so motivated. It’s not easy, but it’s very much worth it.
Summer Vacation 2013
This summer, our vacation was a little different. Instead of flying directly to the US from Copenhagen, we flew to Frankfurt first, where we had a five hour layover before flying on to Denver.
A five hour layover is something I would have liked to avoid before I had kids, but a layover is your friend when you’re traveling with energetic little people who are used to being able to run around all day long.
Except for a few minutes of icy fear caused by “ESTA” (the for-profit private agency that handles US Visas) when they refused to let Lisbeth board the flight despite the fact that she had a valid visa, it was a pleasant time. But the best part of this itinerary was that once we made the long flight to the US, we were done. That’s a lot nicer than having to face a domestic flight after the Atlantic flight.
In Denver we stayed with my cousin Sarah and her husband Troy. Read More →
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