Berlin, Germany

Then, in early March we drove the 4 hours north to Berlin for the weekend. Berlin was interesing since it was such a stark contrast to the quaint German villages we're used to seeing. There was tons to see there...The Reichstag Building, Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, The Brandenburg Gate, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Church that was damaged during WW2 bombing raids. We really enjoyed it all. Our favorite part of the trip was walking the 1km stretch of what's left of the Berlin Wall. Standing next to it really gives you the sense of what it was like for the Germans who lived during that period. Different graffiti artists have covered the wall with tons of murals and Doug and I loved checking out all of their art.

Currently we're planning a trip to Venice and Lake Garda this weekend, which we're really looking forward to. And more importantly, we're still waiting on Doug's new orders to find out where we'll be moving to next...hopefully those will come in the next week or two. We are keeping busy as always though. We're super pumped for the next few weeks because we signed up for PADI scuba diving certification classes that start on April 22nd. We're going to travel to Munich on the weekends to do our closed water dives at a huge indoor dive resort there that has crazy water tunnels that you can scuba through. Then our open water dives we'll be doing at different lakes in the area. Hopefully it starts to warm up soon or that is going to be a frigid experience!

Dublin, Ireland

So I figured it was about time I updated you all on the happenings of our life.....



Doug and I have been pretty busy the past couple months. We took a trip to Dublin over Valentines Day weekend and had a blast. We went bar hopping in a few Irish pubs and watched a live rugby game with the locals....that was definitely an experience! Then we took a daytrip to the Wicklow Mountains and visited Glendalough which was an old monastery and had fun exploring all the trails and lakes. And we also go to see where Braveheart and, more importantly, PS I Love You were filmed =)



Pictures of Doug and I at Glendalough and St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin

BEST rasberry cheesecake EVER!

Temple Bar

Military Ball 2009

Just wanted to update this really quick with some new pictures. Doug and I are doing well. He recently had his re-deployment ball, which was a great time. We got dressed up and had a wonderful time dining and dancing with all our friends. Right now, we're looking forward to a weekend trip to Dublin on Feb 13th and the following weekend we have a snowboard trip planned. We're staying busy and enjoying every second of our time here in Europe! Hope all is well with you all, and I'll continue to keep this updated =)

One of my favorite pics we took of the Colosseum after I photoshopped it a bit

Rome, Italy =)

Well, Doug and I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We missed our family and friends, but we were happy to be spending it with each other. We're also happy to be back in Germany. After traveling for most of December, it's nice to be back at home! A few people have been asking us to post our Rome pictures, so sorry for the delay but they're up now. Just follow this link and you can check them all out. http://public.fotki.com/122305/

Rome was wonderful! It's hard to describe how amazing I felt looking around and seeing ruins and monuments everywhere dating back to before Christ. There was history everywhere you looked, and we could have stayed there a whole month without seeing everything. Our hotel was the perfect location right in the middle of Rome, and we were able to walk everywhere, we didnt have to deal with public transportation at all! We stayed for 7days and it was the perfect amount of time; we got to see everything we wanted to and more, plus we got in a nap a few days and didnt feel too rushed. Doug enjoyed the Sistine Chapel (which was breathtaking!) and the tour of the Colosseum the most, while my favorite daytime spot was the Roman Forum...just because of the old monuments and statues and just the amount of ruins everywhere, it was incredible. At night, we had fun buying a bottle of wine and just sitting ouside the Colosseum and people watching. Of course, I can't forget the Gelato...we had pistachio gelato probably a few times daily and I can safely say every single time we had it, it tasted better than the last, absolutely delicious =) And we made sure to toss our coins into the Trevi Fountain to ensure we would return to Rome one day!!!

Hakuna Matata

Well, unfortunately our trip to Africa has come to an end. We had an amazing time, and would definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone! We flew out on Dec 1, and after a 14 hour flight, we arrived in Cape Town around 11 pm. We had rented a car and Doug had the challenge of driving it...it was a right hand drive car and they drive on the left there (luckily we were able to rent an automatic so that was one less thing he had to worry about). We safely arrived at our hotel without too much confusion. The first day there we just spent exploring the V&A waterfront and eating wonderful food. Then the second day we drove down to Camps Bay to take some awesome pics of the "12 Apostles" which is really 12 peaks in a row on the mountain top and it is amazing looking. Then we tried to take the mountainside road along the cliffs, but it was closed due to high winds, so instead we drove south to Boulder Beach to see the penguins. After spending some time with the wild penguins, we drove further south to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We had an adventure here when a family of wild baboons was walking the road in front of us and we rolled down our window to take a picture. Suddenly two young baboons jumped on the hood of our car wrestling, while we're rushing to roll up the window!!! It was definitely an exciting moment...we got it on video too, so ill upload that soon, its a good laugh! The next few days we spent exploring Cape Town, we went up on top of Table Mountain because we wanted to repel down the side of it, but then everyone got evacuated off it b/c of winds. It was seriously the most wind I have ever experienced...it was neat though b/c we were literally in the clouds. I took two pictures of Doug up there and the second one you can barely see him through the cloud cover!

We checked out of Cape Town on Dec. 6 and flew to Port Elizabeth where we were driven to our Safari lodge. Our lodge was located on a private game reserve that is close to 30,000 acres and home to all the big 5 animals. Upon arrival at the office, we met our ranger, Barend, and we hopped up on his LandRover so he could drive us to the main lodge and our chalet. After only 3 minutes of the drive we rounded a curve, and there was an elephant in the middle of the road! So Barend took us on a quick 20 min drive and we saw another elephant and some giraffe!! Then we went to the lodge.We were blown away at arrival. Everyone on staff was waiting for us outside and they had welcome drinks for us, somekind of watermelon cocktail that was delicious, then they took our bags to our room and we were given a tour of the place and then taken to our room. Our room was unbelievable and we had a deck that had a private plunge pool that overlooked the watering hole. Throughout our stay we saw elephants come and bathe in the water from our deck and a hippo and giraffe. It was AMAZING. Barend was really awesome, he knew so much about the animals and we had him all to ourselves. There were only 2 other couples at the lodge and we each had our own ranger and own truck so every drive we got our own private tour! Our days consisted of waking up at 5am, then we had morning tea and muffins til 530, followed by the morning game drive which we usually came back to the lodge around 930 and then we sat down for a WONDERFUL breakfast. Then we usually swam in our pool and just hung out or took a nap until 1 was lunchtime, and at 4pm was high tea and cake, followed by the evening drive which lasted 4 hours and came back for dinner and drinks. The staff was amazing and they went over the top in everything they did, food was amazing and we got to try a ton of African cuisine that we never would have tried anywhere else and everything was delicious! We definitely highly HIGHLY recommend them. http://www.kichaka.co.za/

All together we took over 1500 pictures and Ive sorted through them and picked the better ones and posted them on snapfish to share with you all. So just click on this link and it should bring you to the picture website. http://public.fotki.com/122305/ Once you're on the main page there should be two different albums from our trip that you can open up and view. Hope you enjoy them all!!!!!

Exploring Regensburg =)

Yesterday, we took a train to Regensburg, Germany to explore the city. It was chilly out, but thankfully no rain! We just wandered around and were able to go inside the cathedral, which had some stunning stained glass windows and also spent some time walking across the 800 year old stone bridge that goes across the Danube. It was a fun, relaxing day, and of course we took some neat pictures too!