Bitche, France

20 Feb - We cooked full American breakfast for our guests Alex and Laura - eggs, grits, bacon, biscuits, sausage gravy.....yum!!! Our #2 Favorite Slovak friend from Den Haag was coming to spend that night and wanted us to cook steak. As we prepared the menu, we discovered we did not have any fresh bread. Soo we packed up and drove the 45 minutes to Bitche France to get fresh French Baguette bread and have lunch.....of course!!!!

We stopped at the local Citadel (French for HUGE fort!!) at the center of the town. Google the town and see an arial photo. Then we stopped at a resturant and had a beer, bought chocolate and pasteries and then had a Turkish Donner for lunch. Not much open on a Saturday in France in February. We drove home and cooked steaks, King crab legs, some Great Australian wine from our friends, and Kim cooked a FANTASTIC Ooey, Gooey Butter cake!!!! I'll die early for eating that for sure!!

French Pasteries

Bitche Citadel

European Championship

12-15 Feb - We traveled to Eindhoven, Netherlands. Jamie qualified to swim in 2 events in the European Forces Swim League 2010 Championships. She was also picked up to swim in 4 other events. We drove up on 12 Feb and had no trouble. For dinner, we ate at a restaurant that had a traditional Rice Table. We shared it and enjoyed it all.

13-14 Feb - Jamie swam 6 events and had personal best times in all six. She did not finished higher than 14 out of 20 in any of the events but we are very proud of her for qualifying for the championships and for improving in all her events. It was very cold and we had snow the whole weekend.

50m Butterfly - She improved 1 second

50m Breast - She improved 1 second, earned 3 points for the team

200m Freestyle - She improved 0.12 seconds

200m Individual Medley - Improved 7 seconds

50m Freestyle - Improved 0.5 seconds

100m Freestyle - Improved 2 seconds and scored 1 point for the team.

Kaiserslautern won the event - AGAIN and are European Champs.

14 Feb - We at dinner at a local Greek resturant and it was really good!! However, it was Karnival (same at Mardi Gras time) in Europe so we were the ONLY people in the resturant NOT in a costume unless you say our costume was "American Tourtist" :) We had a good time and Baklava for dessert :). Of course Kim does not drive in the snow so I could only have 1 beer with dinner :( We stayed up rather late with friends on the team in the bar watching the Olympics and driving tall, cold, frothy, wheat and barley derivative, alcohol enhanced adult beverages. Alot of Belgian beer!!

15 Feb - We planned on going thru Brussells on the way home but with all the snow and it being a holiday for most Catholics, we just drove on home.

Jamie with US Olympian Steve Genter, Silver Medalist in the 1972 Olympics. He won the Silver, behind Mark Spitz, a week after having surgery to repair a collapsed lung. While he was swimming, his stitches broke, he lost a pint of blood and had to be pulled from the water AFTER he finished his swim that won him the Silver Medal. He is a good role model for the kids.

Jamie's name on the scoreboard after the 50m Butterfly

Rice Table - yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Food at the Greek Resturant - Pork Tenderloin.....yummy!!!!