Re-entry

Due to popular demand (hi Mom), we've decided to continue describing our family's activities now that we've returned to Germany after our year in the US ("Re-Entry").

Pat's been working on a PACKING LIST site: Travacado. It is great if you need to keep track of your packing lists.

Airport pickup

When Georg walked over to a copper-toned Hummer in the Sheraton parking lot, we thought he was pulling our legs. The boys have always been fascinated by Hummers. When he unlocked the driver's door, we thought maybe he rented it for our arrival, but no, it's his. We were pushing four carts with sixteen bags on them. Everything fit! What an exciting airport pickup.

Flight home via Canada

Can check another country off the list of places to visit:) Our flight to Frankfurt took us over Canada.

We were amused by the volunteers wearing Canadian mountie hats in the Calgary airport. We even got to try the famed Tim Horton donuts. Yum.

Enjoyed AirCanada's Airbus video screens (the food? not so much).

Aaron's 4th Birthday

Come full circle. Our last weekend in California, we got to celebrate the last family birthday--Aaron's big #4.

Micki and Ken came up from Arizona, Mary and Mark put on a birthday picnic with scrumptious Togo subs, and then we all had cake and fun at home as well.

Both girl cousins are running around now. And as anyone who was around knows, Aaron's newfound bike skills scare the living daylights out of me!!

Can't believe how they've all grown up in the year we lived close by.

Renting the Pontoon on Cave Run

Grandma rented a pontoon and the cousins had fun sliding down the slide and jumped off the top...more later

Nick turned 17!!!

Hard to believe, but true! Nick turned 17 here in Georgetown. Uncle Steven grilled, Aunt Karyn baked a cake, and we had fun in the pool with cousins Elizabeth and Michael Bennett. Hope the next year is a great one!

At the McKenzies

We made it to Georgetown and have been enjoying the McKenzies' pool with the cousins!

Movie Week

This week we went to Morehead Cinemas 6 four times--two matinees, one evening show, and one free kids' show! In the order I liked them, the movies we saw were: Toy Story 3, The Karate Kid, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Grown Ups.

Toy Story 3 was my favorite because I liked the plot and it was both exciting and funny. Although Grown Ups was my least favorite, it was still entertaining. Mom, Patrick, and Grandma liked The Karate Kid best.

By Nick

Cave Run Lake

Today we went to Cave Run Lake. We left Grandma's house at 2:30, drove for 25 minutes (car entrance fee: $6.35), and stayed there for 3 hours.

We had a lot of fun playing pirates where we had to get the rafts of others. Grandma sat out the first half hour, but after

that she took the big raft. We had an inner tube, but it wasn't as much fun playing with it, so when that got boring, Nick and I tossed the ball back and forth. When we were finished, we got some Sno-Cones and ate at the Pig BBQ restaurant.

(by Pat)

Garden Work with Mosquito Bites

Every day I do some garden work for Grandma. Well...every day I get paid for doing garden work. The first two days I did some weeding and cutting around the house, where there are a lot of mosquitos. So yesterday in bed I realized that I had a bazillion mosquito bites. Luckily Grandma today had a job where I had to pump up the bikes tires, where I don't think I got any mosquito bites.

(by Pat)

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Yesterday we went to the Walmart in Morehead to watch the fireworks. My favorite was such a big golden one.

We had candy corn that had blue, red, and white stripes (it tasted DISGUSTING).

by Michael (photos by Nick)

Swimming at the Morehead Pool

Today we went to the Morehead city pool ($3 for adults, $2.50 for under 12).

Our main goal was to teach Michael how to swim. So we spent most of the time trying to teach Michael. Pat and I also had many competitions like: who can swim faster, or who can run faster to the other side of the pool. I was the only one "brave" enough to jump off the diving board.

Afterwards Grandma treated us to Pizza Hut. I had a pizza Hawaii.

By Nick

Travel Day: Los Altos, CA to Lexington, KY

Mesa Verde

Yesterday we woke up early to get breakfast and then go right on to Mesa Verde. The first tour we took was of the Mesa Verde "Cliff Palace." The ruins were very impressive although the tour guide seemed incompetent.

The next tour we took was called the "Indiana Jones Tour" (officially: the Balcony House tour) because you had to climb, go through tunnels and move your body a lot. The guide for this tour seemed like she knew what she was talking about, but she made the tour seem so scary that some people that were there decided to not join. In fact the tour was not scary or very exhausting at all. However it was a lot of fun.

By Nick

Panorama of the Grand Canyon

On our first day here, Nick and I made a panorama of the Grand Canyon. We took it from the Desert View Watchtower. It was a good location, because we had a big view. The photo was stitched together from eight pictures.

by Pat

Mom has become violent

Mom took a photo of my clone, and it looks like he has a rifle instead of a stick.

It is a bummer on June 26 in the summer that my mom might not let me upload this but who cares?

by Michael

South Kaibab Trail

Today Mom and I went on a hike down the Kaibab Trail. This trail leads all the way down to the bottom of the canyon.

At first we were all planning on getting there early and hiking to the Ooh Aah Point (1-2 hours). However because Pat was sick, we only checked out of the hotel at 11:00 and left him and Michael behind at the visitor's center and did just a short hike.

After 15 minutes of walking down the trail we turned and went up it again for half an hour. It wasn't very exhausting, but we drank a lot of water.

All in all, it was worth it to see the canyon from within.

By Nick

Patrick had a 101.5 degree fever last night. Holiday Inn Express could not extend our stay because they were booked out. But all's well that ends well. Now we have a room at the Canyon Plaza Resort, and Patrick's fever has broken. Nick and I were able to do a shortened hike of the Kaibab Trail, and now we'll still make it to see the sun set over the canyon.

Desert View Watchtower

Our first longer stop at the Grand Canyon was the Desert View vista point with its Watchtower. This tower is 70 ft tall and was built in 1932. Here we stayed at least two hours, shooting lots and lots of photos and videos. Unfortunately I forgot my SD card adapter, so I couldn't download the photos that I took. I also forgot my battery charger, so I won't be able to take any more photos, because my batteries are empty.

By Nick

Vista Points

Today we went to some Grand Canyon vista points, which were interesting at first, but got boring fast since they all looked the same. The canyon didn't look as I imagined, since it wasn't very smooth, which I would expect from a river.

It also rained some, so we didn't get out to take pictures at all of the vista points, and the clouds ruined some of the pictures.

(by Patrick)

The Battle of Grand Canyon

In a land far, far away, named the Grand Canyon (of course), there was a big war. Of course, the clones won, because their enemies were brainless, stupid droids.

(by Michael)

Finally!

We made it! First, a drive to Grand Canyon's Desert View, walk around the Tusayan ruins, climb up the Watchtower, and drive down the east side of the South Rim when it started raining. The canyons were as impressive as I imagined!

Time is flying and I can't believe we'll have to start driving back again after Mesa Verde. No time for Sedona. We'll have to combine that with a visit to Scottsdale one summer!

Bishop to Grand Canyon Village

After a good breakfast with "homemade" waffles at Best Western in Bishop, CA, we started our journey at 9:30 AM. We continued driving until 9:00 PM. On our way we went through Death Valley (it wasn't as hot as I expected) and went by Hoover Dam. The drive wasn't too boring as we listened to an audiobook of "The Book Thief," which takes place in Nazi Germany.

by Nick

We arrived at the "Holiday Inn Express" in Grand Canyon Village after almost twelve hours in the car.

We just arrived, so I can't tell you much about it. But at least the room doesn't stink as much as in the Best Western in Bishop.

by Patrick

Drive through Yosemite

Today we started our drive to the Grand Canyon. Mom got a car upgrade when she saw how much luggage we had and how small the compacts are; we rented a red, full-size Chevrolet Impala. After 7 hours of driving, with 15 minute breaks every 2 hours (1:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m.), we arrived in Bishop, CA. (By Pat)

Road Trip

Today we started our trip to the Grand Canyon. Although our car had air conditioning, not everything was cool. This is because there is only air conditioning in the front two seats. It is still really hot in the back. Because of this, Pat and I rotated our seats every two hours. Poor Michael :(

The temperature outside reached 96° F. Here is a photo of only some of our drinks:

Now we are in Best Western, getting ready for bed.

Nick

Father's Day Paintball

In the German tradition, the men went out for a Father's Day outing--paintball! Paintball was one of Nick's favorite activities in California (only allowed at age 17/18 in Germany), so the guys wanted to fit in a trip to Los Gatos play before we left, and this was the only free date for all families. Bennett and Patrick had never gone. It was a success!

Speedy Patrick

Patrick's ran in Hillview's 7th grade track meet. 210 7th graders at Hillview participated, and he got 2nd place in the 50 yard dash, second in the mile, second in the boy's relay and third in the co-ed relay! I thought that was pretty darn amazing!

Full Circle

Was such a treat to be invited for dinner at Joanne and Mike's our last week here in Menlo Park. Here is where our year "abroad" started, and tonight we met again after so many different experiences in between (for them, Prague, Germany, France, Belgium, England, Palm Desert; for us, Oak Knoll, Hillview, Menlo-Atherton, Stanford!).

Michael had a great time building Lego Grand Prix cars with their grandchildren, and we all, including Joanne's daughter whom we'd met already our first week on Evergreen Street when she welcomed us with homemade banana bread, enjoyed tasty grilled salmon, decadent desserts, and got to see the great slideshow Mike put together of their time in our house in Germany.

Amazingly, Mike had already done a watercolor of Eppstein Castle and gave us a print, which will have a place of honor in my study in Eppstein; the shades of dark green remind me of Germany and put me in the mood for our return!

International Shipment of the M-Bag

My M-Bag arrived in Germany from the US in less than two weeks (the same day as the second box sent regular mail), but the boxes inside were really beaten up (the woman at the counter said, no, the M-Bag contents wouldn't be more beaten up than regular boxes shipped internationally).

The M-Bag arrived with a hole in the bottom and was left on the doorstep in the rain by the German package service. Luckily I had put the books in garbage bags within the boxes or they would have gotten wet. The books actually turned out fine, but you can see the shape the boxes (white) arrived in (compared to the brown box sent regular mail). The garbage bag kept the books from falling out, so if you send books via M-Bag to Germany, pack well!

How to ship boxes to Germany??

Since everything is pretty much packed, I have no place to keep scraps of paper with the info for how best ship the boxes now. So I'll try to track it here. So confusing. Everyone wrote on the Web that the M-Bag is the best way to ship books to Germany, but the post office doesn't seem to know about the great rates people have mentioned. So let me research a bit.

M-Bags

Now I've found something with rates per pound for books going in M-bags (Postage Statement-International M-Bag)

Let's see, if I mailed 25 lbs, I would be charged $11.55 per sack and 14 lbs x 1.05=$14.70, so $26.25. That would be great. I wonder if it's true. (7/6/10 note: it's not--old information still on the Web)

The USPS woman (Menlo Park-Bohannan-650-323-2701) definitely did not quote anything that low, I think because she said M-bags now have to go airmail. She thought you could fit two file boxes of books in an M-bag, although she seemed to think they might rip the bag. That's strange because somewhere I read the contents could be up to 66 pounds. It's really hard to find anything about M-bag rates on the USPS website, just information about what can go in them, but now I see this:

Airmail M-bags (260) —

Direct Sack to One Addressee Price Group 5

Weight not over 11 lbs. Each additional pound or fraction of a pound	$35.75 3.25
Weight Limit: 66 pounds

Hmm, for 25 lbs, $35.75 base + $3.25 x 14 lbs or $45.50 + 35.75= $81.25. That's a lot more than I calculated with the postage statement, but this is airmail, and maybe the other does go surface after all. What a labyrinth of information on the U.S. post office's website. (Note: the woman from the post office says this is old information too)

Now I've gone to the post office to see how big the M-bags are (see photo). One bag would fit two file boxes of books. For 60 lbs, I was quoted $195. Oh my.

262.12 Economy (Surface) M-bags is what I want if I can get it, but then it can't be insured and the bags take a beating apparently. Is it worth the risk?

In any case, Germany is Price Group 5

General USPS parcel post to Germany (is this information from the Web accurate?):

5 lbs-$23

10 lbs-$32.75

20 lbs-$49.75

Use bubble wrap to avoid too much damage.

The woman on the phone said if something is less than 20 lbs, there is a flat-rate box for $43.45 (11 x 8 x 5 1/2) Hmm, how big is that?

Bigger flat-rate box (12 x 12 x 5 1/2) $55.95

Now I've been to the p.o. Those are teeny sized boxes. Won't work for me.

If I mail my file box (11 x 17 x 13), it'll be $101.20 for 25 lbs (using the price calculator)

FedEx

10 and 25 kg box

I think they don't do small or slow shipments either--just the $250 rate for express delivery of a 25 lb box!

UPS

UPS's website is Greek to me. I think they don't do small shipments to Germany either.

DHL

DHL seems to need Dimensional Weight and Actual Weight to calculate rates. Dimensional weight is LxWxH/ 166. The higher weight is used for the calculation.

Germany is Zone C.

For some reason, I don't think DHL is for small shipments, but to calculate: www.dhl-usa.com

United Airlines Extra Baggage

1 free bag; 62 linear inches, 50 pounds

2nd bag $50

What's the third bag? $200 (ouch!)

Extra baggage is looking like the best option, but how would we get it all to and from the airports along with ourselves and our regular baggage?!

Thought a website like Seven Seas Worldwide, which does baggage shipping might have some good rates, but $199 for a book box from CA to Germany!

Any advice is welcome....