Evan's First Vacation

I've been putting off writing the Germany post. It's long and it's mostly a blur.

I found out sometime at the end of February that I would be the robotics expert at the 2012 STEMposium in Oberwesel, Germany. I wasn't totally sure I wanted to go. I hadn't traveled for work since having Evan and I didn't want my first trip to be quite so far away and long. As soon as I told David, though, he started planning his own trip to Germany. There was no way I was turning it down and there was no way he was letting me go without him. And, obviously, we weren't going to leave Evan home to pet sit. 

The months of March and April pretty much don't exist in my memory. For me, it was waiting on travel funds, booking flights and hotel and learning details of the workshop. For David, it was booking matching flights and rental car, learning about the Rhine valley where he and Evan would be tourists for a week and finding a friend to mow the yard and feed the cat. For Evan, it was getting a passport! 

Friday

Our flight left at 1:30 on Friday the 20th. We left the house with two suitcases, a backpack each, my purse and Evan's diaper bag, carseat and base, and stroller. We couldn't really have fit more into the car. You would've thought we were moving to Germany. David dropped me and Evan and all of our stuff off in front of the terminal and went to park the car. Funny thing about my car. It's keyless. And the key can leave the car and it can still be driven, just not locked. So David shows up on the parking shuttle and tells me that he didn't have his own key so he left the car unlocked. In the airport parking lot. While we spent more than a week in Germany. Fantastic.

Guarding the luggage until Daddy gets back. 

The security line was interesting. All I can say is that it's a good thing we're experienced travelers. I have no idea how people who don't know the ins and outs of traveling these days would even do it.

At the airport, waiting on his first flight. 

We were all ready to board early and get settled but quickly learned that USAirways boards "passengers traveling with children under 2" after zone two. Do you know what that means? We board after people who need assistance, after active duty military traveling in uniform, after gold, diamond, platinum and who-gives-a-crap members, after zone one and after zone two. The entire plane was practically onboard before we were allowed to board to our last row seats, carrying a backpack each, a purse, a diaper bag, a carseat and a baby. I was sure to knock some of those platinum members in the skull with the carseat on my way through. I thought this was a stupid Dayton policy, but we learned that it was actually all USAirways flights. They're officially on my list.

Once we got settled, Evan was asleep within seconds of starting to taxi. He slept the whole way except for the last 30 minutes, which was spent looking out the window and munching on pepperoni rolls. By the time all those lovely gold and diamond members deplaned, we were left with just enough time to get to our next gate in Philly. It was then, standing at the gate in Philly, that the guy pushed his chicken pox covered kid by us. And, just our luck, they were sitting just a few seats down. The flight attendants were all over it, shooting me sympathetic looks like, "Can you believe that!" He had some sort of paperwork though that the nurse approved and let them stay on board.

Snoozing on his first flight. 

Trying pepperoni roll for the first time. 

Saturday
It turned Saturday sometime while we were over the Atlantic. Evan was pretty good on the 8 hour flight to Frankfurt. He was very interested in all the new stuff around him-- flight attendants and other passengers walking around, dings and lights and his own TV. He fussed a little bit, but was mostly very good. He didn't sleep much, which was quite frustrating because I wanted to sleep so badly.

Thanks to the 6 hour time difference, it was 6:00am when we got to Frankfurt... yet we felt like it was midnight. Getting through the Frankfurt airport took forever and was only slightly terrible. We all napped hard when we finally got settled in Wiesbaden at the home of one of the STEMposium organizers. I cannot even say how thankful I am for her hospitality. I don't know what we would've done if we had gotten there so early and had to find something to do until we could check into the hotel.

When we woke up around noon, we headed to Oberwesel to get checked into the hotel. It was an hour and a half scenic drive along the Rhine river. That was awesome except for the part where David broke the gear shift in the rental car in the middle of a very busy street in Wiesbaden. Yep, for a few minutes we were broken down. He finally realized that it was just the odd gears and was able to take off in 2nd. We pulled off in a parking lot and my superman husband took the car apart and FIXED IT. He fixed a car, on the fly, in Germany. I knew there was a reason that I married him. Well, except he did break it in the first place.

The hotel was beautiful and the staff was wonderful. The poor kid (owners' son) would not take no for an answer to carrying our luggage up. Our suitcases that were both pushing 50lbs. And he carried them at the same time. The building was old and historic yet the rooms were totally renovated. They even had a crib set up for Evan, which meant more than anything else. This was our room.  The host, who's also the owner, was great to us and loved all over Evan. It felt like home. A very strange, very far away home.

View from our hotel room. 

Chillaxin in his crib.

On Saturday night, we had a group dinner with the other experts, some of the teachers and some others from DoD Education Activity (the people running the show.) The Germans do not speed meals along. That might have been the longest meal of my life. Evan, amazingly, sat and ate snacks and bites of our meals for a good two hours. Everyone commented how good he was and people even commented on it the next day.

Sunday ... Friday
What? You didn't think I was going to detail every day like that, did you?

I worked... a lot. David and Evan toured. Every day, for me, pretty much went like this: After a night of Evan being awake 5 times, I left the two of them snoozing soundly while I went to breakfast. They showed up toward the end of breakfast and I left with the group to go to the STEMposium. I helped high schoolers build robots, ate weird salads and mystery dishes, helped high schoolers again, and drank espresso drinks from a vending machine. David picked me and one or two other experts up when we were done so we didn't have to wait on a ride back to our hotel.

"Hoooo boy! It's hard work
keeping Mom up all night!"

We had some kind of dinner that lasted way too long, except for the two days that I was too late to eat with D & E-- those were 12 and 14 hour days. Yay! One day it was Italian; one day it was burgers; one day it was traditional German. They all took forever. David would tell me,or us when the other experts were with us (4 really great and super smart ladies, btw), about their adventures that day. They saw castles, walked around walled cities, visited churches and graveyards. You know, all the things you'd typically do with a 9 month old.

Tourists

Castle

Another castle

Castle numero tres

Church

And another. (I wasn't there for this,
but I hope this one had a drawbridge
and moat.)

Apparently they also ate pirate ice cream. 

At the Italian restaurant in Germany hearing about
my tourists' day. 

Back to the hotel to fight with Evan to get a bath after he was already way too tired from sitting at dinner. First we tried the sprayer in the shower, which did not go over well. Then we used the extra wide sink, which was better for him but resulted in water everywhere. It was pretty frickin' cute though.

Please excuse the slightly porn star pose. 

And, then we're back to another night of Evan being awake 5 times and it all starts again.

"Oh good, Mom's awake. Now I can rest in peace." 

David was my hero that week. There is no way I would've gone and hung out with a 9 month old in weird village where very few people spoke English. I would have likely spent all my days hanging in the hotel room, just waiting for David to be done working. I'm so glad they got to see and do some stuff.

Friday
We got finished by noon on Friday so the three of us took a cruise on the Rhine river to a neighboring town. It was a beautiful sunny day. We saw castles and ate bratwurst. Evan lost his shoe for about five minutes. For dinner that night, we went to Burger King. We're so classy. Classy Americans.

"I'm on a boat!"

Finally spending some time with my boys. 

Pretty Stuff

  

A barge on the Rhine

Classy American

Saturday
On Saturday, we had to switch hotels. Oberwesel is nowhere near the Frankfurt airport so we had an airport hotel for Saturday night. Packing was an ordeal. We ended up at the Army base in Wiesbaden buying a third suitcase on Saturday afternoon. We also ate Taco Bell. Did I mention how classy we are? We spent most of Saturday cruising the countryside to get to Nurburg, where David got to drive on the Nurburgring, which, according to him, made his life complete.

At the castle in Nurburg

Us

Tuckered out after strolling around Nurburg

When we finally got back to the airport Hilton Garden Inn, well, I've never been so happy to be cramped into such a tiny room.

Also excited for the Hilton Garden Inn

Makeshift crib at the HGI

Sunday
Our flight was delayed 4.5 hours. It wasn't a big deal, really. We got a late checkout and were able to get a leisurely start out of the hotel. We had minimal trouble getting checked in and through security in Frankfurt. It's a pretty big airport though, so lots of walking. Evan was pleasant and was content gawk at the foreigners.

Leisurely Sunday morning

The 9 hour flight from Frankfurt to Philly was good, bad and ugly. Evan slept for the first three hours and then alternated between fun playtime Evan and cranky, fussy Evan. The descent on that flight was the longest descent I've ever experienced and it was bothersome to his ears. He pretty much cried inconsolably the entire time. I was "that mom" with the crying baby.

Reading a book on the flight home

When we got through customs and had to pick up our luggage and transport it to our next terminal and go through security again. Philly is a terrible airport. We got through that relatively quickly (turns out, strollers are a good way to get escorted to the front of the line!) and then had hours to waste in Philly because we had missed out connecting flight. Evan refused to sleep, but luckily wasn't really cranky either. Once we got on the plane and got moving, he was out cold.

We got home Sunday night at midnight... instead of  around 5pm.


All in all, it was a good trip. The STEMposium was great and I think David and Evan had a good time too. I definitely want to go back so I can do some of my own exploring.