Go Kart Driving

11 Apr - Well, she ain't no Danica Patrick but Jamie had fun today. We went to a local indoor go-kart racing. It was the first time she drove anything. She crashed two times on the first lap because she was driving slow. She finally got some confindence. She drove for 30 minutes and had fun. She finally passed someone - he was many 7 years old but she passed him!! She is a BLURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

West Wall Site Visits

10 April - Jamie and I visited two sites along the famous West Wall or Seigfried Line. This was a defensive belt that Hitler built to prevent any French invasion of Germany. It was basically the counterpart to the French Maginot Line. One difference is that Hitler knew he would one day invade France, the French never had any intentions to invade Germany after WWI. Constructing the West Wall gave Hitler a few things: motivation of the people to protect against a French Invastion. The Germans were still made from the results of WWI. It also gave him a way to employ people after he rose to power. A political truism is - People with jobs love the people that created those jobs - no matter what the job. Some other differences are that while the Maginot Line is not a connected line but a series of fortresses at certain points and all along the French-German border. The West wall was mostly a continual line of dragons teeth, tank trenches, pill boxes, artillery positions, road barricades, bunkers. The fortresses are much smaller than the Maginot Line but just as effective.

We visited the West Wall Museum just south of Pirmesans. It was very well done and preserved. Only part of the fortress is open. The museum has a very good display of vehicles and weapons and how they lived in the fort. We enjoyed it.

Next we drove about 30 minutes north to see some of the dragon teeth. These were ALL along the border. They were built by an organization called Organization Todt with was all civilians with military leadership. After the way, Germany destroyed alot of the pilboxes and pulled up the dragon teeth in the fields and near cities. Only a few places remain in the woods. Across the street is a network of trenches covering the road from franch. This one is about 25 minutes west of our house.

Jamie at some Dragon's Teeth

West Wall museum entrance

Jamie with a German Schutzenpanzerwagon (Infantry Armored Car)

Model of West Wall fortress.

Dinner at Castle

3 April - After a day of trips, we met at Burg Lichtenberg Castle for Dinner. Kim and Jamie took the Gregoires on a Rhine River cruise. James took the Groom Girls on a trip to Belgium to Bastogne and some of the Battle of the Bulge area. Everyone enjoyed dinner. Photos below.

Appel Strudel

French Toast with ice cream - only $10 :)

White Asparagus with potatos

Everyone at dinner

Pork tenderloins and Spaetzle

Easter

4 April - EASTER! We had the Gregoire clan plus Laura Groom, from Berlin, and Mez all dined with us for lunch. Kim fixed a good southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs, grits, bacon and sausage. We went to church and came home to fix lunch. We had ham, sweet potato souffle (a demand from the Groom girls), cheese bread, summer succotash, and a 5-cup cake that Laura made with the girls. It is an Australian receipe. It was soooooooooooooooo goouuuuuuud. Of course we had Stoffel wine with the meal. We finished the day with an Easter Egg hunt in the rain.

Dinner is served. Groom girls, Kim and Gregoire Clan.

Paris!

28 Mar - We went to Paris with The Gregoire's and Mez Groom from Australia. Mez is working for a year in England. Her family lived beside us in Fairfax for a few years. We got up EARLY and departed at 0500 to drive to Tourcy France where we caught the train in the Paris. It is a 4 hr drive and a 1 hr train to the Eifel tower. The train was FUN!! Especially in all French and us not knowing any French!! yeah.................. We arrived at the Eifel Tower and went to the second level. The third was closed due to the wind and clouds. There was a little rain but we enjoyed it and the view of what we could see. After we descended, we went across the Seine River to take some photos. We had lunch at a small resturant. We had 3 bowls of veggie soup, 2 cokes, 1 ham-cheese baggett sandwich - not bad for $60!!! The weather cleared up and was nice the rest of the day. We walked to the Arc de Triumph, down the Champes Elysses and ALL the shopping, past the Obelisk from Egypt's Luxor Temple, then to the Louvre Museum, down to Notre Dame and then on a boat cruise on the River Seine and dinner. We departed Paris at 8:30pm and arrived home at 2am. It was a very nice trip, a LONG day but LOTS of memories! Kennedy's and Mez at the Eifel Tower.

Mez and Jamie at the Louvre Museum.

Kim and Jamie on the Seine River Cruise

Kennedys and Merrilyn at the Arc de Triumph

Jamie, Betty and Audry at Notre Dame.

Jamie on the Champs Elysees