Return of the Jedi; Julia's First Princess Ball

The rest of the clan is back in town and we've been making the most of the winter weather by spending lots of time together. Jen, Julia and Luke are still recovering from their long transatlantic trip from California so we've opted to stay local for a few weeks. Here's what we've been up to:

Our son, Luke "Skywalker" Baldwin, marked his 1 year birthday with a return to the hospital where he was born. Take a look:

January 2009: Can't you see the excitement in his sweet face?

January 2008: Will someone wake this kid up?

Here he is a few hours before...much more awake (and messy)

With Luke's birthday in the rear view mirror, attention returned to Julia. She and I attended our very first father-daughter dance together last night. It was a princess theme so naturally Julia was thrilled (girl walked away with no less than 4 tiaras!). Good times. Here are some random pix:

A little less than six months to go on our three year euro vacation. Time is flying by and there's still lots of travel left to do. Bavaria and Ireland are next up followed by springtime tulips in Holland. I'll keep you posted!

Alpine Ski Mission

Heaven found atop the Alpenspitz, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

With only a few days leftbefore Jen and the family make their triumphant return to Germany, I hit the autobahn and headed for the Alps for a ski mission. On Sunday morning at 0' dark thirty I piled into the Trailblazer, set the GPS for Garmish Partenkirchen in Bavaria, and drove as fast as I possibly could. Garmisch, a picturesque town at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, is definitely the place to be in a miserably cold German winter. While the rest of the country hibernates and complain about our former president, a lucky few souls brave the elements and hit the slopes.

Rather than slide down the alps on my snowboard, I dedcided to rent some skis for a change. I made the switch to snowboarding about 12 years ago and hadn't skied since. After a few minutes that old familiar feeling came rushing back and it's like I'd been skiing the day before. I forgot how much skiing trashes one's thighs so needless to say, I was looking forward to a night of jacuzzi and bier on Sunday night. Fully recharged, I was ready for some more abuse the next day. We left Garmish in the rear view mirror and crossed the border into Austria. There we skied the juicy powder of Ehrwald until my legs were ready to fall off.

Thankfully I had a great wingman for this mission. My buddy Brett came along for the trip and he's an old friend I knew from Luke AFB. A good time was had by all. Luckily he had the guts to bring his gucci camera with him during our ski sessions so as soon as I get his pix, I'll post them on the blog.

Quick note: The German DJs in that part of the country love the song "Rehab" by Rhianna. I must have heard that song a dozen times this weekend. Good song but is it really worthy of heavy rotation? They also played a song in honor of President Obama. While the song begins with the Chorous, "Give us hope, Obama", it quickly devolved into "Give us Dope, Obama". Those nutty Germans.


More to come!

Gondola to the top of the Hausberg Mountain

Eastern Exposure: Budapest!

Just returned from a long weekend in Hungary. Since Jen has let it be known she doesn't do Eastern Block countries, this was my big chance to head out on a little adventure behind the old iron curtain. Was it cold? Uh huh. Was the hearty Hungarian food tasty? And then some. Was it worth it? Definitely!

Here are some pix from the trip:

Parliament Building/Icy Danube: If this looks cold, you would be right.

I froze by butt off on Sunday. At the foot of Castle Hill in Buda. In the backgound is Matthias Church and Fishermen's Bastion which was built to honor the Magyar (Hungarian) defeat of the Turks

Statue inside the Széchenyi Baths: Look closely--the boy is taking a leak on his dad.

Transylvannia Castle in the Main City Park--there were no less than 5 architectural styles included in this amazing building

Me and a relic of the Evil Empire--the Trabant. These were the original Smart Cars.

Soviet Statue relocated to the new Momento Park. Rather than melt down/destroy all of the Soviet monuments, the Hugarians tore them out of the city and put them in a park on the outskirts of town where tourists pay good money to check them out. That's capitalism at it's best! What a 180.

Tank Driving ad. Only in Hungary.

Out on the pub crawl. Ran into a group of French & international students from Tolouse who couldn't have been nicer people. Great cultural exchange over some good Hungarian beer and gulash. This guy (alcohol-induced memory loss...can't remember the name) was originally from Tunisia but grew up in France while his girlfriend was from Columbia. Some of the other folks in the group were from Norway and Argentina (not to mention native French). Our guide for the night was Hungarian. I told them I felt like I was in the United Nations.

Not just any Micky D's. This was the first one opened behind the Iron Curtain.

On the way home from Hungary, I am convinced Jen would have had a good time. The Hungarians reminded me a lot of the Germans. Sorta formal but not stuffy. Also, the place was pretty cheap. They haven't yet converted to the Euro which made everything about half price other other countries in Europe. For example, I got a great meal w/wine at a hip retro restaurant called Menza in the heart of the city for around 15 dollars. Who knows? Maybe I will return again with family in tow.

Video of Our Village

With the winter chill setting in, I found some time to slap together short video on Youtube. This "film" shows some of the sights and sounds of Bann--our village here in Germany. Take a look and let me know what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbKKYLXnuKA

It's tough not to think about warmer weather during the "dog days of winter" here in Germany. Here is a pix of Luke and I in a much warmer Paris from last summer.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

The video above was taken last night just after midnight struck here in Bann. For Germans, New Years is their 4th of July. The entire city erupts like a war zone. The last time Bann looked and sounded like this was 1945 compliments of the Allied Air Forces.

This was my third consecutive New Years Eve here in Bann. I always seem to be on call these nights (lucky me). Even with family back in the states, I still entered the new year with a kiss from our dog Reagan at the stroke of midnight.

Not sure about all of you but I've had it with 2008. I've got a great feeling that 09 will be much better. We'll wait and see. 2009 will be our last here in Europe so as far as travel, we are going to make the most of our limited time here. We hope to go back to Ireland, Italy, and France this year to close out our "Three Year Eurotrip". Glucklish Neues Jahr!

Walking in the footsteps of history

Gen Eisenhower and Gen Fairchild at Maxwell

Ah, it's so nice to be back in the USA! Even though I'm stuck here in Montgomery, Alabama for the time being, it's still home. Montgomery isn't all bad though. Yes, Maxwell AFB is in a bad neighborhood but the place more than makes up for it with it's sweet tea, friendly people, and incredible history. History buffs will recall that Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy, the home of MLK's church, and the launching pad for the civil rights movement derived from Rosa Park's refusal to give up her seat on a city bus. I stumbled across many historical markers that commenorated these events when I took a four hour "urban hike" through downtown.

Montgomery is also home to Maxwell AFB. Maxwell is close to a site where the Wright brothers established America's first flying school. Maxwell is also home Air University--the school I'm currently attending. It was here where airpower ledgends in the making such as Spatz, Lemay and Fairchild devised the aerial war plans to bring down Nazi Germany. It's a great feeling to walk in the footsteps of these heroes. Who knows; maybe the fifty years from now people will look back with pride at the work my colleages and I have done here at Maxwell. Is this history in the making? Only time will tell.

On a different note, Christmas is coming and I couldn't be more excited to spend it with friends and family in sunny California. Last year we spent Christmas in Germany and even though we had some family in town, it simply wasn't the same. This Chirstmas promises to be a great one. I haven't left all of Germany behind, however. I did manage to pack some Gluwein, hefeweisen, and other German goodies for all of us to enjoy. Only ten days to go!

Cheerio Chap! Thanksgiving in London

If we can’t be home in CA for Thanksgiving, we figured we would at least spend it in an English speaking country. That’s right; we spent our Thanksgiving in Jolly ol’ England. Ironic, eh?

This was a quick turn trip. Why? This place is pricy! Even with the exchange rate much higher against the Pound, London is still a very expensive city. For a day pass on their Tube, it set us back around 25 bucks. The same thing in Paris would be around half of that. A week in this city would send us to the poorhouse. We opted for a 48 hour tour de force of London instead.

Anyone who’s been to London knows there is no way you can really do this place in a day an a half so we didn’t even try. We set our sights on a few sights and focused our time on those. We hit up the London Eye (pix above is taken atop this huge ferris wheel), Tower of London, and Imperial War Museum during our time. We also were determined to see some of the shops we see on Sky TV (this is the only English language alternative to the Armed Forces Network here in Germany). The rest of the time was spent soaking up the English culture.

Speaking of culture, Londoners struck us as very polite folks. While they all seemed in to be in a huge hurry all the time, they were always polite. Also, I fell in love Englishisms: Words like brilliant, mate, cheers seem to make the English language more pleasant.

While England is definitely distinct from the US in many ways, London has much of the same stuff we would see in a big US city: Starbucks on every corner, Quiznos, Dominos Pizza, KFC, Krispy Kream, etc. Also, the diversity in London is similar to what you would see in a big city such as LA or NYC. While there was an occasional pasty white Brit running around, they were mixed in with a huge melting pot with Indians, Pakistanis, Eastern Europeans, Africans, etc. Finally, did I happen to mention how much Jen and I loved to be in an English speaking country? This familiarity was a great feeling!

Check out some of our pix:

Julia with the Kings Table Ale
Jen and Luke in front of the Tower of London's Martin tower (Where her Irish Catholic ancestors were imprisoned?) Jen and some bloke standing guard over the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London

Ye ol Chap in the Imperial War Museum

Julia's 1st time Ice Skating!

Yesterday we headed to downtown Kaiserslautern to take Julia ice skating. They set up an indoor rink complete with lights and music. Since Greg's a much better skater than I am he took JJ out on the ice while Luke and I looked on from the sidelines. They had a great time and Julia says that she wants to try again...First we have to wait for Greg's back to recover from all that leaning over and holding Julia up!! Here are some pics from our day!

Julia modeling in her skates

Greg and Julia take the ice

Luke takes a spin around the ice...He so wanted to skate by himself

Med Cruise Revisited

Not much commentary...Just pix: JJ and me in Corfu

Mykonos Love




Two things: I have a son who loves his chocolate ice cream and I have a wife with the prettiest green eyes.

Thanks to our travel partners Gary and Lauretta for taking these pix!

Got Snow?

The mercury on our thermometer is barely there which means the snow is only weeks (or days) away. In fact I had to scrape the ice off of my car for the first time yesterday morning. Definitely won't miss that when I move back to the US. For most, this is bad news. In general, Europe is a downer in the dead of winter. Sure, the Gluhwein and Christmasmarkts are nice but this place simply shuts down for about four months.

For us skiiers/snowboarders, this is good news! Bring on the white fluffy stuff. I would much rather have snow than the various shades of dark blue and gray that dominate the environment these days. Anyhow, snowboarding in Europe is great. The lift tix are about half price over here and the lift lines aren't bad. There are plenty of mountains to choose from and the Apres Ski scene is legendary. Here are some of my favorite pix from my past snowboarding trip here in Europe:

Catching some air...I was on my arse a couple seconds after this pix was taken (Austria, 2007)


Chillin with my Ski Buddy, Brent (Austria, 2007)
A warm Apres Ski coctail with the Zugspitze mountain as a backdrop (Garmisch, Germany 2006)

Visions of the Cold War

So if you read the headlines these days, you would have never known the cold war is over. Russia is now back to their old tricks and the Castro brothers are seeking a new alliance with them. All things come full circle, right?

Anyhow, I’ve always been fascinated by Eastern Europe. Unlike WWI and WWII, I can clearly remember the days of the DDR, Gorbachev, and the Iron Curtain. These vivid memories makes travel to the former Soviet satellite countries so much more interesting. We haven’t seen much but we have been to the former East Germany, Czech Republic, and most recently Croatia. Before I head back to the US, I hope to at least go to Poland and Hungary (Jen, however, said I can count her out for these trips).

What struck me about each of these countries is how much they now embrace capitalism. I’m convinced the only reason they keep the old Soviet area crap around is that it attracts tourists from the West who are willing to pay big money for the Commie experience. Now they’ve had a chance to prosper under capitalism, it’s clear there is no going back.

Another thing that I found is that the people in these areas are much more reserved and stoic. Our friend Lena is from the Ukraine and she stated the reason for this is that under the Soviet thumb, the people were urged not to show emotion. No crying, no smiling, no public displays of affection. How depressing. While many folks rushed to a new economic system, many did not embrace the notion of free expression unfortunately. I understand this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just different than what I’m accustomed to. We’ll see what happens with the newer generations. Maybe there’s a smile to be found in the future.

Here are some pix from our travels behind the old iron curtain, Comrade:

Architectural mural depicting the citizens of Prague welcoming their Soviet Liberators (June 07)

Croatian (formerly Yugoslavia) countryside (Oct 08)

Now I'm not an expert in the Croation language but I'm pretty sure this reads, "You are now leaving the American sector..."

Julia checking out a record player and wine that were both manufactured by the State at the DDR Museum in Berlin (Feb 07)

On a different note, I am glad the election is finally over. Now that Obama has been elected, the Europeans love America again. Imagine that! It happened almost overnight. Regardless, politics gives me a headache. That’s all I have to say about that for now.

The Feta Cheese and Tex Mex Connection

Lots to catch up on with this post. I've noticed that it's been nearly a month since our last post and this can be chalked up to three things:

1. Luke isn't exactly sleeping through the night

2. Our internet has been down for three weeks

3. We just got back from our Med Cruise!

Yup, we headed down to Venice Italy last month and set sail for Greece and Croatia. You simply cannot beat mid seventies in the last week of October. The weather was perfect and the cruise was just what we needed. The journey started with a couple days in the Aviano area before we boarded our ship. Aviano is home to the 31st Fighter Wing (and cheap AF lodging) so we decided to explore this area which lies at the foot of the Dolomite Mountains. We spent an evening in the town of Pordenone experiencing what the Italians call a "pasagato". In other words, a pasagato is simply a stroll down the walkplatz area of their old town while checking out the scene. People watching is a national passtime in Italy and it wasn't hard to see why. Italians are live out loud people who are very entertaining to watch. Also, they are extremely well-dressed in my opinion. I'm sure we looked really sloppy compared to these Prada sporting people. We capped the night as any self respecting Italian would: By sipping an espresso and munching on bits of chocolate.

Jen and Luke in Pordenone, Italy

Soon thereafer we boarded our ship in Venice and we were on our way! After a day at sea, we found ourselves in Athens. Ever since I took my first architecture class at Texas Tech, I've always wanted to visit Athens--home of the Acropolis. This city didn't disappoint. The Acropolis and Parthenon were fantastic. Next port was Katakolon which is just outside the ancient city of Olypia. We skipped the trek out to the ancient olypic ruins and opted to stay on the beach while sipping Mythos greek beer. We then sailed to the ports of Mykonos and Corfu in Greece and then on to Split in Croatia. Here are some pix:

Formal Night on the Cruise Ship

More Formal Night with our Glamorous Daughter Athena (I mean Julia)

Athens: Feeling the Groove at the Parthenon

Prince Luke Surveying his Kingdom of Athens

Lazy Afternoon in Mykonos under the Bougainvillia

I Should have hit the tanning booth before the trip

Grandma and Grandpa Martin with their "escort" Julia in Split, Croatia

So what does all of this have to do with Tex Mex? Well, yesterday we found out we will be headed to San Antonio, home of the Riverwalk (see below), for our next tour of duty. As I explained to my family earlier today, this is a bittersweet assignment. We were hoping for California but Texas was as far west as we could get. On the brighter side, we regard Texas as our second home. I put in 4 1/2 years there during college and Jen spent 3. Reagan is from there and Jen has lots of family in the Lubbock area. Also, many of our friends are in Texas so this is going to be a great assignment for us. Germany has been great but the sunshine of San Antonio beckons.