Departing is such Sweet Sorrow!!

Sunset on the tour - Tschuss

16 Sep 10 - Today we depart Germany for the US.  It is bitter sweet leaving.  We did not have alot of time once we found out we were leaving to do all we wanted or see everyone to say "See ya Later!!!"  We truly enjoyed our 2 years here - especially with the friendships formed, places visited and new experiences.  We close out this blog with some Top 10s.  Not ranked but still - GREAT stuff.  We maybe missed something but we'll see. 
A special thanks to the many, many, many people who touched our lives this tour in Europe from family, friends, co-workers, team mates, teachers, volunteers, etc.

Top Ten things we will miss:

o Daily visits to backerei (bakery)

o Food, Beer and Wine

o Rigatoni Alforno, Hawaii Pizza, Orange Fanta, McRib

o Fests – Small and Large Christmas markets, Weinfest, Farmer's Market/ Fests, Local Beer Fest Garmish, Town Fest, May Day Fest, etc.

o European Bread

o Family and Friends

o Kim’s two treasurer jobs

o German Grocery stores

o Ability to use and learn more German

o Driving 100mph on the Autobahn

Top ten things excited about getting in the states
o Air Conditioner

o Plain Water

o Foods: Krispy Crème Donuts, 5-guys Hamburgers, Wendy’s frosties

o Watching sports at normal times

o A mall with American fashion clothes

o More than 10 TV channels and reruns

o Country/Christian radio stations

o Commercials

o More than one store to shop for American stuff

o Not showing ID every time you go somewhere!!!

Top 10 Favorite Memories in Europe
o First Trip to Slovakia - Going to meet Tina's family in a country we never visited and knew SOO little about was great.  Meeting families that grew up under Communism, seeing a different culture, meeting Tina's Dad who served in an Army that was an enemy of the US and now we share a daughter, cooking with Babka, hunting mushrooms, Vodka, anniversary boat ride with Slovak navy, cooking goulash, DONUTS!!!, everything - it was just priceless.

o Jamie wins 10 yr old 50m Breaststroke Division Champ - Cannot say more.  It showed Jamie that she CAN win if she puts her mind and ALOT of work into something!!!  VERY proud of her efforts.

o Michael’s Graduation - What a special day.  Being invited to be part of the family at Michael's High School Graduation was wonderful.  It was a very different experience from an American HS graduation but hey!! That is why we were so happy to go!!  What a great event to be apart of!!!

o Travelling Europe Pool by Pool - Visiting England, Spain, Netherlands, Berlin, Belgium and numerous small bases in Germany with the swim team.  We had a great time, had some GREAT food and wonderful memories.

o Europe Tour 2010 with students - What a WONDERFUL event taking the family and our extended family to 9 countries, 15 days, 2,800 miles. 

o Coffee and Cake with Family and Friends - It is truly about friends, food and fun.  Often we would visit German friends and family and talk over coffee and cake.....

o Holiday Meals with Unnold/Arnolds/Stoffels – Truly great events.  We enjoyed the meals we cooked for or shared with our friends.  We cannot share alot of American culture with our European friends but we can share FOOD. Just some of the enjoyable events - there we too many to count!!! 
     4 July 09 - American Meal with Unnold family - ribs, burgers - the works
     4 July 10 - American meal with Stoffel Family - cooked at Michael's - ribs, burgers the works!
     Christmas 08 - German meal with Stoffel family
     Chirstmas 09 - Raclette with Stoffel family
     BBQ meal cooked with Malinak family in PRESOV - we took all the items needed there!!!
     New Years Day 09 - American meal with Stoffel Family
     New Year's Day 10 - American meal with Pecho and Arnold family
     Thanksgiving 09 - American meal with Stoffel Family
     Thanksgiving 10 - American meal with Unnold family - 20 Germans!!
     Sunday lunch with Unnolds - German meal
     Lena Sophie's 16th Birthday - homecooked Greek food with Arnold family
     Slovak Goulash (Hungarian's stole it) cooked with Martin in Presov
     Any meal that Babka Cooked
     Traditional Winepicking Meal with Stoffels - on roadside by wineyard picking grapes :)
     Hunter Meal - German Deer from Eifel cooked by Petra

o Girl Scout trip to Our Chalet in Switzerland - Truly a highlight.  Jamie and the scouts visited the gorgeous Chalet in Adelboden Switzerland, met some wonderful young ladies, earned some patches and enjoyed the international girl scout experience.

o Egypt Trip - WOW.  travelling back thousands of years in time to see what you have always heard about. Nile, Sphinx, Pyramids, Tut's treasures, etc. Food, history it was all there.  Except for the camel ride and Jamie being sick, it was a perfect vacation!!

o Malinak Family Trip to Germany with 3 family reunion at Stoffel’s:  It was truly an honor to have Tina's family ask to spend their yearly vacation with us in Germany.  We visited Strausborg, Rhine River, and teh most special was the day we spent at Michael's.  It was a family reunion - 3 families brought together by fate.  We are truly blessed to have 2 wonderful additions to the Kennedy Family and we enjoy and have the deepest respect for their parents. 

We'll that's it folks.  We've wrapped up 26+ months on this tour and a lifetime of memories.  If we left out something, we are sorry but let us know!!!!  Everything was special!!!!!!!

A special thanks to the many many many people who touched our lives this tour in Europe from family, friends, co-workers, team mates, teachers, scouts, volunteers, etc.  This tour was sooo special and we are much better people and family because of each of you.

As we say in our family,

Good Bye
Tschuss
Ahoj
An Jung

The Kennedy's

Auf Weidersein Deustchland!!!

Stay Tuned for our new blog - Kennedy's adventures in Washington, DC----coming soon to a computer screen near you..

Dinner at Stoffel's

12 Sep - We visited Michael, Alfons and Petra to say "See you Later".  We had a WONDERFUL dinner of fresh mushroom soup, doe, yes doe, a deer, a female deer - called Rhea in German, Red cababge (Rot Kraut), and homemade bread dumplings and pear with cranberries and a wine creme dessert with Dornfelder grapes - YUMMY!!!!! as always.  Petra and Alfons were wonderful hosts again. 

We are very proud of Michael.  He will attend the University of Karlsruhe starting 4 October to study Business Engineering!!  He already has an apartment arranged, a car and learning to wash clothes :)  He will do very well in his studies!!!!

We will miss the Stoffel family very much.  We enjoyed our time with them so much and the many activities we did with them.  We learned soooo much more of the Germany culture and life than you can ever read or hear about.

We cannot wait to have Michael come home to Fairfax and have Alfons and Petra visit us for food and touring of the DC area.

The answer - Petra of course!!!

Dinner - YUMMY!!!

the Family :)

At dinner - Family - Food - Fun!!

Bad Durkheim Weinfest

12 Sep - The Kennedy's don't let a little thing like moving to the US in 5 days stop of from enjoying Germany!!  We visited the Largest Wine Fest in the World that is only 45 minutes from our town.  We rode rides, ate some good food, had wine and shopped at the booths that were there.  The winefest is similiar the Oktoberfest except with wine, smaller tents and the whole thing is about 5 time smaller than Oktoberfest.  They only sell wine in .5L or 1/2 quart glasses.  Of course we had a crepe - strawberry and chocolate!!

Jamie and Laura are in the last green seats - 100m up!!

Jamie at the Winefest

eating and wine :)

Schweinfleisch mit Bratkartoffel und sausse - YUMMY!!

WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!!

Visits

10-11 Sep - Laura, our Aussie Friend from Berlin, came for the weekend to visit.  She arrived on 10 Sep.  Hannah, our friend from Cologne came on 11 Sep for the day.  We took them around Ramstein Airbase to see what "Little America" looks like.  We had lunch at the sports bar so Dominic could have an American Burger and ribs.  We showed them the BX and commissary.  It is not that much different than Germany stores but is gave them a little idea of how Americans live here.

Jamie and Laura

Hannah - shopping!!!

Packing the house

7-10 Sep - We spent all week with the packers loading all our stuff in boxes and crates.  It is much harder for an Overseas move.  We just unpacked from our move on base the past weekend!!!!  We had a good crew that did a great job.  We will see our stuff in about 2 months.  We received loaner furniture from the govt for the weekend.  Because we fly on Thur, the govt will only pay for 3 nights in a hotel.  We had no furniture so we got the temp furniture on Fri and it will be picked up on Monday then to the hotel. - That's life :)  We spent alot of the time while they were packing looking at used cars and houses to rent online. 

Our life all wrapped up in boxes!!!

Bastogne, Belgium

Sep - We took Jamie and her friend, Julia, to see the Bastogne Museum and tour the town.  On the way, we stopped at the Luxembourg American Cemetary near Luxembourg City. 

Bastogne is the central focus of a a great battle of WWII - The Battle of the Bulge.

The girls enjoyed the museum.  We had lunch in town - Jamie had Mussels and fries :) of course.  The girls rode a Ferris Wheel.  We had a Belgiun Waffle with chocolate :) and bought some beer to bring home and no - I don't share!!!!

Kim, Julia and Jamie in Bastogne

Jamie and Julia at the Bastogne Historical Center

Jamie at LTG George Patton's Grave

Waffles :))))))))

Stoffel Visit

2 Sep - Michael, Alfons and Petra visited us for a tour of Ramstein AirBase. We drove around and showed them the "Little America" that is a military base.  We saw housing, schools, Commissary (Grocery store) and the PX - Mall.  We had dinner at Chili's.  It was quite different for Petra and Alfons - food, pace, color of houses, and what was available on base. 

They had a good time and enjoyed the Honey Chipotle chicken with fries and corn on the cob and the refills that kept coming!!!!