We are back in Deutschland after our long trip back to the US, and we are still missing all our friends and family!
We almost didn’t make it back at all after driving almost all the way to Dulles Airport before realizing we had forgotten our passports at my parents’ house! Our family had to split into two cars for the ride there, and we each thought the other had grabbed them! This has been a recurring nightmare of mine for many years. A memory of the dream made me think of the missing passports while we were still driving. Thank God for so many things: that Alli and Chad were still at my parents, that we had left early, and that we knew right where they were. I called Alli right away, and she located the passports. Chad jumped in the car to rush them up to us.
Meanwhile, we turned around and raced back to the halfway point, where we met Chad, and then sped back to the airport! We made it just in time to board the plane! This was not an experience or stress that I am eager to repeat in the near future, but I am so glad it all worked out!
We arrived back in Stuttgart by 10 a.m. Monday morning, we were home by 10:30. We had enough time to unpack before Matt went to pick up the dogs, and I headed back to the eye doctor for a follow-up appointment.
Monday was my doctor’s last day before a month-long holiday, so it was my only chance to see her and assess how things were going. Over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed my eyesight improving as my eye heals. Happily, my doctor confirmed my right eye is now seeing 20/20! And my left eye is not much worse. Although I can tell a slight difference between the two, it’s not enough at this point to warrant another procedure. I’ll go back in three months to confirm all is well; hopefully, that’s the end of that saga.
Coming back home wasn’t such an easy adjustment. Unfortunately, when we tried to shower after getting home from the airport, we discovered the boiler had malfunctioned again, and we had no hot water! Luckily, the plumber could come on Thursday and fix the boiler, and we only had to take a couple of cold showers. They were frigid, though! The boiler was reading that the water was 16C!
On Tuesday, we tried to wash a load of clothes, and the washer errored out with the door locked and all our clothes stuck inside! We got it open the next day but at the cost of flooding the utility room with the water contents. After a few days of drying out the room, we are happy to report the washer is now working properly again!
We spent the week catching up on sleep and relaxing around the house. Brooklyn did her final trial with the Stuttgart Reds softball team and was invited to join! She jumped back into piano lessons, and Ryan jumped back into Boy Scouts.
We all worked hard all week to get back on a regular sleep schedule. We were totally off track and continued waking up super early and falling asleep at dinner, which was super weird because that’s the opposite of what it should have been with the time change. Regardless, we seemed to be almost back on schedule by the time the weekend came.
Friday, Ryan attended one of his friend’s birthday parties at the Rutesheim ropes course. It was supposed to storm all day, but they ended up with gorgeous weather for swinging around the Black Forest.
After he was home, we surprised the kids with a visit to the Stuttgart Escape Room. We (I’ve) wanted to do one for a long time, and it was so much fun! It was HARD, though! We managed to escape the room, but only with the help of several hints from the quiz master. We are ready to go back another time, though, and try another of the scenarios.
After the escape room, we had an early birthday dinner for Ryan at Abacco’s Steakhouse.
On Saturday, we hosted an early birthday party for Ryan’s friends at the laser tag arena. After that, we had several boys back at our house, where they alternated between video games and biking around the neighborhood.
We got a big group of friends together for a night in the Biergarten on Saturday night. We are at the halfway point of summer, so almost everyone is in town. The early travelers are back from their home leave, and the other half are getting ready to leave for theirs. We had a great time catching up while everyone was here and are looking forward to seeing everyone again at the end of summer. After the biergarten, Ryan had a friend spend the night.
On Sunday, we visited Tripsdrill, another German amusement park we’ve wanted to visit for some time!
Tripsdrill is only about 45 minutes away and is in the middle of a valley in beautiful wine country. The park itself is beautiful and well-kept. It is pretty small and can easily be covered in a day. It had the perfect mix of big and small rides, including a couple of water rides, which helped us cool down after it got above 80F.
After we got back from Tripsdrill, we had a short rest then met friends in the biergarten for some drinks and to catch the Euros final match.
This year was pretty cool as Germany was the host nation, and Stuttgart hosted several matches. Sadly, we missed all of the Stuttgart matches during our trip back to the US, and Germany was eliminated before our return, but we still had fun watching from afar and catching the final matches.
Next week, we are hopeful about being back on some form of a normal schedule and getting back into travel around Europe!
Gilcrests Abroad 