More Memories, End of an Era, and a Purple tree

We've thought of two more memories not mentioned in the previous post that are just too good not to share.

• In the Irish restaurant in Garmisch, dad wasn't sure what he wanted to eat. The menu of course was in German, but the last time we were there the nice Irish lady helped us figure out what everything was. Her German husband was helping us that night and wasn't great at sprechening English, along with our young German waitress. So, when dad saw something go by to another table that looked yummy, he wanted to know what it was. He asked the waitress "Was ... are they eating?" Was (pronounced 'vas') is "What" in German. How cute! We cracked up! He tried at least. I will have to say that my mom did a nice job earlier in the evening also asking "Haben sie riesling?" (Have you reisling?) It was so fun seeing them try to use their German. We are definitely the same way still, so I can't laugh too hard!
• Dad and Carl's adventure in the sauna in our hotel in Garmisch. If this sounds bad, it kind of is. Apparently, two over-sized German guys were already completely smushed into the sauna together, in their Speedos, of course, and kept trying to talk to Dad and Carl as they sat in the hot tub. Needless to say, that little trip didn't last too long before they were rejoining mom and me in the hotel room!

End of an era: Last night was the final evening of bowling league. The Stike Masters are no more... well, until next season anyway, and even then, I have a feeling the team may not be the same. They came in third overall for the season, and in two weeks at the awards dinner may actually win some money out of it! We had fun all season and it's kind of funny and sad to think that now it's over. Believe it or not, that league started just two weeks after we arrived here. So, it was pretty much the first thing we got involved in. At first I couldn't believe it would last till April, and there were a few times we were just plain aggravated that Carl was still stuck going to that stupid league every Tuesday night!! -- but all in all, it was a great experience. It brought us so much closer to Lira and her kids as well as Regina and Dan, and also Ray who was a sub, but then ended up being an official team member since he came so often, sometimes even just to watch. Carl has his own bowling shoes and will most likely be getting a ball this summer. His high game for the season came about a month ago when he bowled a 256. He plans to continue bowling and join the league again next year for sure. For me, well, I just enjoyed pizza night and the fact that the guys at the snack bar got to know me so well I didn't even have to order anymore - they'd call in my order when they saw me walking up, and sometimes even gave me free extra cheese or only charged me for the small pizza instead of a large. :) We took a team photo on Lira's camera last night so I hope to get that from her soon and post it.

Purple Tree: Tonight, we had a funny experience. The doorbell rang about 6:30 p.m. or so. I answered it to find a German guy and his 7-year-old son on the front porch. In broken German and English, we figured out that he was asking if we had a big purple tree in our garden. As a matter of fact we do, back behind the extra building in our vineyard, we have several large lilac trees. Apparently, his wife and son saw the tree from the side road and just wanted to see it up close (his wife was too embarrassed to come to the door so she was still in the car!) I told them sure, we can walk back there, so we went back to the vineyard. His wife, who is Canadian and speaks great English, was so excited and kept saying "She's beautiful!" over and over about the trees! So we ended up chatting with them for a good 20 minutes. They live up the street and she runs a shoe store around the corner in town! (Yes!! shoes and shoe repair!) They were super friendly and invited us to stop by any time we needed anything or just wanted to chat, and I let her take some lilac home and she was thrilled. I guess I will have to get some fresh lilac for the house now, too!

Pictures: Don't forget about our Flickr page! Be sure to check it out again because Dad has loaded lots of pictures from their camera on there now, too! http://flickr.com/photos/kristenandcarl