Saying Goodbye to Summer

It's not as hard to say goodbye to someone you don't know very well. You probably won't miss them, think about them longingly, remembering those good 'ol times. That's how I feel about this summer. This summer, I wore pants nearly every day, I had rain gear with me at all times, and I often found myself looking for a sweatshirt rather than pealing off the layers. And if I were German, I would have worn a scarf pretty much every day. It's sad, but true.

All bundled up...in August!

Maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe I don't need to say goodbye at all. Maybe Summer simply forgot about us - passed us by, and was never here. Maybe he lingered over the US where he dropped a badass heatwave. It's not heat I'm looking for, and not necessarily all sunshine. It's an occasionally dry playground, a bit of warmth in the air, the chance to maybe go to the pool, and, well, yes a little bit of sunshine and warmth.

So Mr. Summer, could you please come next year and bring Mr. Sunshine with you? We are nice people and our kids really love the summer. I want to teach my son that the sky is blue - not gray. Is that too much to ask? I hope not.

P.S. If it's not too much to ask, could you ask Autumn to be extra gentle this year. Or maybe you could tag along and give us a little bit of a late summer - just for a week or so? That would be AWESOME! Thanks.

And we're back...

The last 5 weeks have been jam packed - 3 trips to 4 different countries. Having just gotten back from Sweden on Sunday, it's hard to believe that I was in Cape Town only a month ago. And in between we squeezed in a trip to see friends in Austria.

Simon helping with the chores in Torsby.

All of the trips were fabulous - lots of time with family, friends, meeting new people. But it was also a lot of work! Traveling with a baby, especially on your own, is a lot of work (Martin was with only in Sweden). Simon is a great traveler and I can't really think of one time during all of this where he was fussy or difficult, but still, I had to take care of him. Even when other were there to help, his aunt and grandma couldn't get enough of him in South Africa, it's still a lot to keep track of.

That said, I highly recommend traveling with the kiddos. As much as Simon was a lot of work, he also wasn't at all. He's young enough that we were able to just bring him along on whatever we did, and not worry about if he was bored; kind of like a high maintenance accessory. The great part about Simon at this age is that he is really engaged in his world and absorbing all the time. So while he may not remember seeing lions and giraffes, I know these trips have had an impact on him. It has been so good for him to spend so much time with family, experience new environments, and meet new people.

As a new parent, I think being flexible has been one of the most important things to learn and remember. Life changes in all sorts of crazy ways - ways that no one can prepare you for until you become one. While your old life isn't over, you do have to navigate this new life of yours, that no longer seems to be yours alone. So you can still travel, you just have to be flexible and change your expectations of what it will be like. It's still pretty great! (Working on separate posts for each trip - coming soon!)

Ok. I did the posts and backdated them - so they are all previous to this post.

Sweet, Sweet, Sweden

I am no longer the picky eater I was a child, but going to Sweden can sometimes make me feel like that kid again, begging for chicken fingers and fries. Gravad lax, herring, dill and cream – just not in tune with my palate. But the sweets? The treats? That’s another story. I have grown to love some delicious Swedish sweets that I overindulge in every time I visit.

Luckily, Swedes have built sweets into a formal part of their day. Fika, an afternoon tradition of coffee and cake, is a common practice for most Swedes. When I’m there, I tend to have fika morning noon and night, but I figure I’m making up for all those missed fikas when I’m not there. My favorites? Princess torta is my true obsession (you can get it at Wuollet’s in MN for those of you in the land of 10,000 lakes). A great morning treat – kanel bulle or kardumumma bulle (cinnamon or cardamom rolls). On a hot Swedish day (ok – oxymoron – more like just a great treat) - mjukglass. It’s just softserve ice cream, like Dairy Queen, but I have always had a soft spot for softserve (hehe), and there’s no DQ in Germany. I love it. For my official fika, I might take a choklad biskvi. I especially like the ones they sell at the COOP in Djursholm, but I can’t figure out why they are different. So delicious…Can’t wait to go back.

But enough about food. That’s not what this trip was about. In fact, we decided to go to Sweden this summer so that we could spend some time with Simon’s great grandfather (Nonno - Martin’s morfar) at their cabin in Torsby, Sweden. Nonno is 87 years old, and a truly amazing man, for many reasons. After turning 50, he competed in the Vasaloppet 12 times (90 km cross-country ski race). Every two weeks, he takes care of his wife (Nonna), who spends the other 2 weeks in a nursing home. He doesn’t like eating in restaurants because he doesn’t trust the food. But also, he’s 87, still drives himself 5+ hours to their cabin, and then works his butt off to keep the place up.

So Martin, Simon and I were there to help. Of course, with Simon there it was more like Martin was there to help. I laid in the grass with Simon and read a book in 2 days, which felt really good. It had been a LONG time since I had done that. 

I digress. Martin and Nonno spent the better part of 3 days mowing the lawn, raking, and mowing the lawn again, as it had been 2 months since anyone had been at the cabin. Nonno, who has a bum knee and walks with hand crutches, could also be seen climbing a ladder to the roof, crouching under the riding lawn mower, raking grass, or manning the trimmer (which he eventually forbade Martin to do). 

But it wasn’t all just work. Nonno got to play and bond with his great-grandson – and they both seemed to love every minute of it. They even shared a first experience – eating their first smore together.

We actually fit quite a lot into this trip, as Torsby was not the only part. We met up with an old Mac friend at his family’s summer house in the Swedish archipelago, hung out with some of Martin’s old childhood friends, and got to see Martin’s siblings (and Simon’s cousins) in Stockholm. Even though we usually don’t have a lot of time to spend with people when we visit Stockholm, it means a lot to reconnect face-to-face for even just a couple of hours. It makes it seem like we don’t live so far away, like our lives aren’t so disconnected.

In so many ways, this was a really, really sweet trip. We hope to do it again next year.

Pics here.

Ignorance is bliss

Normally, I am not so sure I adhere to the notion that ignorance is bliss – but in this case it really worked to my advantage. When my friend Eva told me she and he daughter Ella (Simon’s buddy) were going to be staying with her in-laws in Austria for a month, we agreed that we needed to come up with a plan to see each other during that time. So Simon and I bought our tickets to Klagenfurt, Austria knowing it would be great to see Eva and Ella.

Sand and swim at the Worthersee

We had gotten back from South Africa only a week before, so things had been pretty busy and hectic. And when you are going to visit a friend, you don’t really worry about what you are going to do and all that. I knew there was a  lake, but I didn’t really know too much else about where we were going. This made for a fantastic surprise on my flight as I looked out the window to see beautiful jagged peaks, some still with snow. Eventually a long and blue-green lake appeared – the Worthersee. Home for the next 4 days – woohoo!

Klagenfurt is an outdoors person’s paradise. A beautiful, clean lake for swimming in the summer, surrounded by mountains for hiking and biking in the summer, and skiing in the winter. No wonder Eva was going for a month. I wish I could have stayed for 2!

A little lower...to the right...

We spent our days watching the Ironman (always inspirational), swimming at the beach, taking a boat ride the length of the Worthersee (17 km), and hanging out in the beautiful garden of her in-laws. (They keep bees!! Respect!) We were there on the 4^th of July, so I honored the occasion by making smores, although we had to get creative. We had no fire, no gas stove, and no microwave. So we put them in the oven until they were big and puffy and then scraped them onto some crackers to make the smores. It was a great effort.

Now I am trying to figure out how I can make a living in Klagenfurt. Or maybe I will just reitre there.

Pics here.

Road Trip! - My Blended Family (Part 2)

aOne of the joys of not planning a trip, is that everything feels like a surprise. While Rebecca had diligently planned the trip and sent us great itineraries, I didn't really always know what to expect. I might know where we were going, but not what was there. Port Elizabeth was the beginning of our Road Trip, making our way (over 4 days) along the Garden Route to Cape Town! (I mapped it in google maps if you want to check it out!)

First stop: Schotia Safari Game Reserve. I was giddy! I was about to see real live giraffes and lions and warthogs! We got there at 3 in the afternoon on a chilly, overcast day. Given the weather we wisely chose the safari truck with windows, rather than totally open. Simon was snugly attached to my chest on the Ergo, where he couldn't move around but he could see everything that was going on, including the animals. Our drive started off a bit slow, although we didn't really know it. We saw a water buffalo (probably not a water buffalo, but that's what I'm calling it) and we all took tons of photos of this one single animal. We thought it was really cool. Gradually we saw big groups of different animals, antelope types, and that was more exciting. We saw some warthogs with their little warthog babies and they were so cute! Maybe it's the Lion King effect, but I really loved them. We saw some zebras - now it was starting to feel a bit more exotic! Then we stopped for dinner and had a great meal and warmed ourselves by the big, open fire.

Back into our safari truck for our night drive. Our driver had the beam flashing, and Mary with her incredible eye for animals spotted some giraffes in the dark. It was exciting, but of course in the dark we couldn't really see that much. Simon quickly fell asleep on my chest, so I was relieved not to have to worry about a screaming child disturbing everyone's safari - or the animals. Things quickly got exciting when we saw a lion lounging by the side of the road. It was soooo close, and just sat there, totally unphased by our huge beam light. We watched for a while, and then moved on to find mama lion with her 5 cubs chewing on a warthog head. It was AMAZING!! Totally unbelievable. The next morning got even better with clear blue skies and sunlight - we saw it all. A lion regally perched on a hillside roaring his morning roar. We found mama and the cubs still dragging around that poor warthog head. We saw lions and zebras hanging out. And we saw rhinos!! And by 10 o'clock the next morning, we were moving on.

We checked out elephants at Addo National Park, and then moved on to Storms River where we took a hike at Tsitsikamma National Park. We continued along the coast to the town of Wilderness, where we stayed at a beautiful B&B and wished we had longer to explore. However, Cape Town was next and we had a long drive ahead of us.

Our big stop on the way was passing through Oudtshoorn which is famous for its ostrich farms. I was not convinced that I was going to ride one, until I saw the look on Marie's face when the ostrich took off with her on its back. She was laughing so hard at the pure preposterousness of the situation that I knew I couldn't miss out. And it really was a highlight of the trip because it was so ridiculous and you felt so precarious with your legs tucked under their wings and it just running around in circles...You must try if you get the chance. (And Simon was really cute because he cried as soon as he saw me get on and stopped when I got off - he was worried about his mama!)

Yup. Riding an ostrich.

We arrived late in Cape Town to a beautiful house right on the water. We spent the next five days at Table Mountain, Cape Point, visiting the African Penguins in Simons Town, touring South African vineyards, and grilling LOTS of meat at our house. (If you know the Mazwi's, you get the idea.)

By the end of our trip, we really were a blended family. We have fantastic memories - and more importantly relationships - that will last a lifetime. Mike and Simon are even planning on grabbing a drink on Simon's 21st birthday (we won't mention how old Mike will be). We hope to make this into something we can do regularly all over the globe!

My Blended Family (Part 1)

You might be wondering, how did this great trip to Mozambique and South Africa come about? Well, it comes down to my blended family. My sister Marie's husband Khiza is originally from Zimbabwe. A close family friend from Zim was getting married in Mozambique, so the Mazwi clan decided to make into a big, blended family trip! All families were invited (i.e. - sister of sister-in-law) relational distinctions are unimportant - we're all family! I have tried to illustrate it below.

Simon was so excited to see his Aunt Marie and Uncle Khiza - whom he hadn't seen in just over a year - since he was just an itty bitty guy. We all reunited in the Jo'berg airport and managed to get everyone and all our luggage checked through to Mozambique. Let the adventures begin!

We spent 5 days in Vilanculos at Archipelago Resort. It was winter there, so the days were short, and the weather was pleasant but not too warm. The Mazwi's reconnected with old friends from Zim, and the rest of us made new friends. The highlight was definitely the boat ride to some of the big, sandy islands in Bazaruto National Park. On board were 2 babies and no life jackets, but the waters inside the reef weren't too rough, and the rocking waters and humming motors lulled the little ones to sleep. Some opted for a snorkeling trip (including 5 month-old-Hanna), which turned out to be a bigger (and not so welcome) adventure. We headed out to large swells at 2 mile reef, and when the driver said "hop in," we did, but quickly realized this was not the safest situation. Marie and I agreed to just hold hands the whole time, if not we would lose each other within 10 seconds. We often couldn't find the boat among the large swells, and were relieved when they rounded us all up and headed back to the island.

So while the snorkel trip was a bit of a bust, the following picnic lunch was not. I would show you pics, but I lost my camera on the last day of the whole trip. :(

The day after the wedding (we were there for a wedding - Mazwi family friends) we headed back to the airport for a full day of travel to get to Port Elizabeth, where our South Africa adventures began. (See next post.)

Castles along the Rhein

One of the best things about living in Düsseldorf is its central location in Europe. Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Berlin - they're all just around the corner. This weekend we took advantage of a long weekend to explore a beautiful part of Germany known as the Mittelrhein, a UNESCO world heritage site covering 45 miles of the Rhein valley. Around each bend it seems another stunning castle appears, and below a quaint German village.

View from above Boppard.

We stayed in the small village of Boppard, and spent the first day hiking through the hills and taking a chair lift to a scenic overlook. Pappa was definitely more nervous on the chairlift than Simon. The next day we took a 2 hour boat ride along the Rhein, from Bacharach to Boppard, and got to see the castles from the river and enjoy some beautiful sunshine! Simon was sick the whole trip - but he didn't let that get in the way. We were home by 5:30 on Saturday - it was just an overnight trip, but it was perfect!

Family photo!

Pics here.