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Picnic at Taite Creek

/ Peter Klopp / 12 Comments

An Afternoon with our Son Robert

Photo Judging Contest

Robert having concluded his engineering work at a new silicone processing plant in Tennessee drove in his truck all across the USA to pay us a visit before flying back to Germany, where another assignment is awaiting.

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The sun came out after the rain, and we decided to spend the afternoon at our favorite campsite. On the way Robert’s sharp eyes spotted two bears grazing in the meadows. I quickly took Biene’s camera and hid behind the bush to let the black and tan bears come a little closer, before I snapped the picture above.

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To our surprise the entire campsite was vacant. So we chose our favorite site near the bocce field that many years ago our son Anthony had built for us near the beach below. There we had coffee and tea before playing a round of bocce.

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For supper Biene had prepared a delicious stew and fixed up a salad from the lettuce freshly picked that morning in our garden.

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On the beach Biene discovered a piece of driftwood and her competitive nature challenged us to take a picture of this duck-like wood sculpture.

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Which of the three pictures do you like best? Your participation will be greatly appreciated.

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It was getting late. So I was making a campfire, over which we made two batches of popcorn. What a way to finish a wonderful outing with our son Robert!

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10 days in ‘heavenly’ California!

/ Peter Klopp / Leave a comment

Alok Singhal's avatarThe Learning Curve

I so love traveling to new places – there is something about them that calls me often!

We always wanted to cover the West Cost, a trip that materialized for us early last month (after being in the U.S. for 5 years). We chose to fly with United this time and for rental car I always trust Enterprise.

We had 10 days to see the best of California, and though we wanted to see Grand Canyon and Las Vegas too, that would have made it too hectic for us. So, we took them off the plan and here’s how the layout looked for us – starting with San Francisco and driving clockwise all the way back to it. Essentially, that meant spending at the most 2 days at each major locationhighlighted in the map…had to adjust for travel time too.alok singhal travel blog

I and Saru are Nature lovers, so our outings are…

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Venice: Come Hell or Acqua Alta (Part Two)

/ Peter Klopp / 2 Comments

This is a great story accompanied by some amazing photos on the city of Venice. I decided to reblog it, because in our own family we had similar experiences. In a situation, by which we normally would be shocked, we break out in fits of laughter instead. Eventually even the victim begins to see the funny side of it. Enjoy!

travelsandtomes's avatarTravels and Tomes: One Expat's Amblings and Ramblings

Alternately entitled:  Making a Splash in Venice

To recap from Part One:  “First, the water came up to meet us. . .

. . . and then we went down to meet the water.  Or, at least, my husband did.”

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Before we traveled to Venice, we did a little research.  We knew enough to ask about the acqua alta, to ask if we should pack high boots.  Not to worry, we were told by our hotelier, this is not likely to be a problem while you are here.  And, truly, there was no problem with the acqua alta– it came, it saw, it retreated quickly without particularly hampering our plans or wetting our socks.  Our hotelier did not steer us wrong.  He wasn’t counting, however, on my particular family’s foibles.

And that is a long and perplexing list of foibles. . . so before explaining our second…

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