Day 3

As I sit to write this post, I have just looked at Hurricane Gustav and realized that it is more severe that I thought and that it will hit right in my "homeland." I am anxious and worried about all of my family and friends and pray all will be well....

Today has been wonderful! We got a very late start to the day, but as usual, we packed it full. We left the house about 10:30a.m. (meant to leave around 9:00) and headed to Rudesheim. It sits on the Rhine River and has the most wonderful "river view." Rudesheim is the beginning of the wine country of Germany. There are vineyards everywhere! It is also a quaint town that offers many restaurants, boutiques, and sight seeing.


The main objective for today was to visit the Kathe Wohlfahrt store. This store is known for Christmas things...ornaments, nutcrackers, Smokers (insense type thing), and linens. It is very typical German custom design and depicts common people during Christmastime. The original Nutcracker figure originated with this company (or so I was told) and today offers many different variations. I wanted the "original" and I got it. Mission accomplished.

After a lengthy stop in the Kathe Wohlfahrt store, we took the kids on a Gondola ride up the mountain (like a ski lift, but is a basket instead of a bench). It was breathtakingly beautiful! We rode over vineyards and noticed that each plot of land was owned by different people and offered many different color of grapes....need to do a little wine research, I guess.



After coming down off the mountain, Mattie was in desperate search of Eis (Gelato). We found a place on a side street with the cutest guy working the Gelato stand. He was a young, college aged student and he was very interested in talking to us because he could tell we were American....shocker, I know! The reason, we later found out, was that he was studying film technology at a Univeristy in Frankfurt and was preparing to study in Dallas, Texas for the next few months. He was very excited to tell us about his upcoming trip and talk with people who lived in the States. His English was incredible and we were so glad to find someone that we could actually converse with! We talked long enough for the kids to get a 2nd round of Gelato! God is good all the time ;)

After our Gelato fix, it was time to "experience" the Rhine River....we quickly made our way back to the car. Kids loaded and buckled in, hats on, everything "loose" in the truck. It's time to lower the roof and let the sunshine in!

The scenery up and down the River is quite breathtaking. It looks just like something in a book!! The city is built right on the River and just above the cities on the mountain sides are castles....and lots of them! This area has the most concentration of castles in a defined area than anywhere else in Germany. Norman Rockwell could not have painted a more perfect cityscape with all the colors, FLOWERS, and people. The people of Germany do not have a lot of garden space or grassy yard of any kind. But what they do have are window boxes FULL of sprawling color....Geraniums seem to be most popular. The main colors used in these boxes are red and pink. Occasionally you'll see white mixed in for some variety.

Another interesting sight along the way is the Mermaid of Loriley. This is the mythological tale of how a mermaid would sit on an island in the middle of the Rhine and sing to the ship captains as they made their way down river. Her singing would distract the captains and crash them into the island's shore. There is a monument of this mermaid indicating the exact spot where she would sit. It's right in a curve of the river, too....

Before we were 5 minutes out of Rudeheim, both kids were asleep. Heather and I automatically felt like teenagers again and turned the music way up! (No, it did not wake up the kids). We were not as cool as we thought we were, but we sure had fun! I wouldn't trade that drive for anything! It was worth whatever it took to get the car today....memories of a lifetime. I tried taking pics up and down the River, but most of them did not turn out well. The sun was very bright and drowned most of the color from my pics. However, I do have a couple that turned out okay....but I blinked and will remember these forever in my mind's eye.

After an hour and a half of joyriding, it was time to head home. We decided not to do much for dinner since we had such a big once at lunchtime. The goal was to get the kids to bed earlier so that we could actually sit and visit without interruption. Goal accomplished. Kids were in bed by 9:00 and we were downloading pictures by 9:15. It was good to look back through the pictures...we didn't get them all labeled and organized, but we had a good time looking back through them!

Before going to bed, I called mother at Lawrence Co Hospital to check on the family...sounds like they have a housefull of Ockmon's. They have been friends of our family's for years and live in Thibedeaux, LA and are right in Gustav's path. They brought everything they could fit into trailers, car trunks, and truck beds....including horses and cows! Mom and Dad are glad to have them because we know they will be safe. They also cook like only a true cajun can and you know what that means......

Good night and Godspeed,
SS