Now, I’m back in SD and things have quieted down. It’s time to say ‘adieu’ to 2011:

January. Awwh heck. We moved again! from snowy Michigan to sunny San Diego.

Our move doubled as cross-country road trip

with stops in Colorado to hit the slopes at Vail and A-Basin

road-side photo-ops,

and a night in Las Vegas to strike it rich.

February. We experienced plenty of gorgeous 70 degree days our first month in SoCal.

Between bike rides, surfing exploits and afternoons on the beach, we hatched a plan to start our own photography business. San Diego Home Photography was born.

By the end of the month we had landed our first shoot.

March. I made Kirk a double-layer cake from scratch for his 27th birthday.

We went hiking through Cleveland National Forest and I fell in love with my Vibram Fivefinger shoes. Thanks to them, now I run for fun. Seriously.

April/May. During the spring, a few more real estate shoots trickled in.

Kirk’s parents visited us from Michigan for a week. We took them to the San Diego Zoo.

At the end of April, Kirk and I made 10-day trip to Costa Rica to see Natalia and David,

to meet their daughter, Sofía,

and do a little surfing in Manuel Antonio.

June. Kirk’s younger sister Maureen flew out for a visit. We took her on a grand wildlife tour starting with the Point Loma tide pools,

Seal Beach,

and lastly the Safari Park.

Near the end of June, Kirk and I headed east for a few days of camping in the Anza-Borrego Desert.

July. We had two of our largest shoots this month. Incidentally, one of them proved the most dangerous as well. Thanks to a faulty outdoor propane fireplace, Kirk came milliseconds away from a human torching.

August/September. I made the big decision to write a book. To embark on this project, I took a hiatus from California and spent seven weeks back in Wisconsin.

I chatted away many afternoons with my Omi. We talked about her past, how she met my Opa, and their immigration to the United States.

In addition to writing, I squeezed in lots of activities with my family including Summerfest,

pool time,

and a night downtown Milwaukee.

October. My parents and I flew to Germany to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my great aunt and uncle.

The party served as an extended family reunion too. Here’s me and my second cousin Britta,

and my mom with her first cousins.

Besides the party, we sight-seed ourselves out. We toured Bremen,

gaped at the Cologne Cathedral,

cruised the Rhein,

explored Koblenz,

and drank lots of wine. (And my Mom and I went to Paris too! The posts are coming soon!)

November. Kirk and I tried our hands at the export business: shipping motorcycles to Costa Rica. Will it be profitable? We’re still waiting to find out…

December. The holidays. It’s a tradition in Kirk’s family to go out for dinner on Christmas Eve. We ate and enjoyed the sunset at Pacifica Del Mar, a seafood restaurant with an ocean view.

The Berrymans flew in to San Diego to spend the end of the holidays with us. Together we said goodbye to 2011 and welcomed in 2012. ☼

Gondola rides get my adrenaline pumping. Know what else gets me excited? Knowing a secret.

“Gondola number 17 has a glass bottom,” whispers my cousin Britta.

“Only 17? Why not the others?” I ask.

Britta shrugs. “It’s special.”

We’re waiting in line to get on gondola number 17. But we’re not actually in line, we’re off to the side.

“Can we do this? Just jump in line to get on 17?” I ask.

“Normally they don’t like it,” says Kati, my cousin Patrick’s girlfriend. “But I work here. We’re allowed.” She grins.

We count the cars as they come around. Twelve … thirteen. They’re sooo slow … fourteen. Come on. Fifteen.

All of a sudden, a bunch of boys rush up. Sixteen goes by. They flank us. “Seventeen! We have to get on seventeen!” they say to each other. They know.

Seventeen swings around. Britta and I stride toward the door. A couple kids manage to scurry in front of us. They quickly sit down on the glass viewing platform and spread their arms out in an attempt to save seats for the rest of their cronies.

I walk around and plop myself right in between them. Britta grabs the other side. We look across at each other and smile triumphantly. Nice try, punks.

Look at the glee all over my dad’s face. And he wasn’t even looking through the glass bottom.

Gondolas are fun. Even without the skiing.

By now you’ve probably figured out that I’m not riding this gondola to the top of a snow-capped mountain. Actually, I’m on my way to look at flowers.

For 2011, the city of Koblenz received the honor of hosting the famous Budesgartenshau, Germany’s national horticulture show. Some of the exhibits were located in the city center, but the largest exhibit was located across the Rhein river on top of Ehrenbreitstein mountain.

Sure, a flower exhibition isn’t the adrenaline-pumping thrill I expect and the end of a gondola ride. But that’s not fair to the flowers. They put on a good show. There were acres of them; so colorful and gorgeous. And a handful of them actually freaked me out a little. Seriously, what the heck is this?

I didn’t even know half of these plants existed. So! Many! Flowers! The designers of the show must’ve anticipated flower fatigue. How thoughtful of them to add space-oddessy (?!) chairs to the walking paths.

Besides the flower show, the top of Ehrenbreitstein afforded a sweeping view of Koblenz and the Deutsches Eck. The “German Corner” is a pointy piece of land formed by the Mosel river joining the Rhein.

This was big. The Deutsches Eck is like Germany’s version of America’s Four Corners. Must have a photo of this. Or two. Or three.

Look at these parents of mine. I don’t know who told the joke, but finally! Non-camera smiles! (Factoid: their 29th wedding anniversary was just a few days prior to this.)

Down we go. ☼

The stay at the vineyard, in fact, was a bonus. The reason we decided to travel to Germany in the first place was to celebrate this:

The 50th Wedding Anniversary of my great-uncle and great-aunt, Jürgen and Marianne. (Jürgen is my Omi’s brother.)

Their children, Gudrun and KarlHeinz, organized the big bash. It was so well-planned and so fancy! I felt like I was at an actual wedding reception.

There was dancing,

a four-course dinner (The trio of mini desserts was my favorite!),

my name “in German,”

a couple of random people,

(kidding, those are my ‘rents)

fireworks for the guests of honor,

and even an opera singer!

Relatives from all over Europe and from the US (that’s me and the ‘rents!) traveled to Germany to join in the festivities. Since not everyone spoke German, translations of the speeches were projected onto a screen in English, French and Dutch.

And there’s another technological feat:

Omi unfortunately could not make the trip to Germany to celebrate her brother’s anniversary. Even though she wasn’t actually there, thanks to Skype, she still could attend!

She sat at the head table.

Lots of people came by to say hello. Here is my second cousin Patrick and his girlfriend Kati having a chat with Omi.

She was even introduced to the entire party.

I sat at a table with my great-aunt Christa (Omi’s and Jürgen’s sister) and her husband, my great-uncle Heinz.

On the other side of the table sat Dieter (Christa’s and Heinz’s son), his wife Ingrid, and my parents (involved in what is clearly some riveting conversation).

QUIZ: How is Dieter related to my mom?

Ahhh, made your brain hurt, didn’t I?

They’re cousins. Dieter, my mom, Gudrun & Karlheinz are all first cousins.

Now, Britta here is Dieter’s daughter, so that makes me and Britta second cousins.

And here’s the Italian opera singer again. He was fantastic. I wish you could have heard him sing, Omi!

The party was an amazing reunion of far-flung relatives. Just a handful spoke fluent English, so my mom and I spoke with whoever we could in our hack-job German. It might not have been pretty, but it was wonderful to be able to understand each other.

When’s the next big party, Gudrun? Let me know–I’l be there. ☼

Hmm… not exactly.

It looks like is a polite dinner party, on a unassuming deck, overlooking a vineyard in the Nähe winegrowing region of southwest Germany.

And if we look closer, we see this:

A lovely bottle of Gut Hermannsberg riesling. But one bottle of wine, of course, was no where near enough for a dinner of five people. But two? Surely two would have been sufficient. But just two? Gudrun and Tomas had other ideas.

We started drinking. The sun went down.

And looked pretty on the house.

Specifically the window.

Oh and before the sunset, there was me smiling for this photo:

By the time dusk rolled around, we were in the midst of a rockin’ good time. Gudrun had served a delicious dinner of salmon, potatoes and roasted vegetables.

Periodically during the meal, Gudrun would look at Tomas and say something like, “Oh we simply must have that bottle of such-and-such from France!” or Tomas would say, “Wait, I have something…” And each of them would scurry off and procure yet another bottle from the ‘Maurer Schatzkammer.’

Tomas and Gudrun have wines from just about everywhere. And they have (quite) a few bottles of the stiffer variety too.

This resulted in a parade of wine and cognac bottles across our dinner table.

In addition to the first bottle of Gut Hermannsberg riesling, we also drank a

• German pinot noir
• French ‘port’ (hey–it’s in quotes, you wine snobs, I know a real port can only be from Portugal)
• Italian ‘port’ (stings, doesn’t it?)
• “Tomas & Gudrun” cognac (you can’t refuse liquor when you know the people who’s names are on the label)

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think my relatives were trying to get me schnockered. (And yes, that word, in its present tense, is a real word.)

All of these bottles all over the table wouldn’t have been a big deal, if the wine wasn’t so darn good.

By this time, we were slowing down. I was not (thank goodness) that I recall (oh dear) acting too weird by this point. But if I was, then lucky for me that more food came ’round…

Cheese plate!

I LOVE cheese. When you’re feeling tipsy actually kind of drunk, eating a fancy cheeseboard (not the board) is one of my favorite ways to nip a hangover in the bud.

But the bottle parade was not over. Tomas went and dug up this beast:

Scary. (As if we I needed more alcohol.)

But I just had to try this 15-year old bottle of cognac. (By the way, doesn’t it look much older?) And so, the cork was popped.

That did me in. Early the next morning, Gudrun, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and dressed in running pants and tennis shoes, was ready to play adventue guide for us up and down the hills of the vineyard. (How can I compete with someone who lives and works on a vineyard? It’s just not possible. Read: it’s her job to drink wine.)

Are you coming? they asked. My parents, the early-morning-every-day-no-matter-the-weather walkers they are, joined Gudrun for some lovely fresh air. I think not, I said.

No sir. On that particular morning, I did not care for fresh air. I preferred that my head stay in bed.

However, it could have been much worse. It was a bit of a headache, and nothing else.

And for that, I thank the cheese plate. ☼

I exaggerate. There’s no mayhem, per se, but the events calendar here at the Schroeder household has definitely been jam-packed.

Case(s) in point:

Summerfest. Too many years have gone by (five?) since the last time I’ve been in Wisconsin for Summerfest. In case you’re out of the loop, Summerfest is The World’s Largest Music Festival. That’s right, you heard me. It’s The Big Gig, baby. Over 700 bands perform over an 11 day period, on 11 stages throughout the park on Milwaukee’s lakefront. Nearly 1 million people attend each year. Nothing makes me more proud to be a Wisconsinite. Other than the Packers. Or my love for cheese.

Dad and I drink Leine’s while we wait for the Goo Goo Dolls. Favorite band? Not exactly, but their stage happened to be near the place with pulled pork sandwiches.

Lil’ Sis and Mom.

The crowd packs in.

Dinner table before, concert-viewing platform after.

Photography Lessons. What’s this now? Baby birds?

My mom recently bought a Canon Rebel XS, her very first SLR camera. I’ve been teaching her about aperture, shutter speed and how they relate to exposure. Mommy Robin decided to build her nest in the dwarf crabapple tree next to our front porch. A measly three feet off the ground. Naturally, these babies are an easy target subject. Sorry about your lack of proper attire guys, but your fifteen minutes of fame have started.

Nature is a popular subject:

On one of our brisk morning walks, Mom and I saw a bunch of toads sunning themselves next to the water pooled in the cul de sac ditches. When we got back home, I made her get her camera and ride back via bicycle (and I, via my sister’s old scooter) to get some shots.

She also caught this slinky guy warming himself on the stones in our front yard.

And her skills with the macro lens are, dare I say, blooming? (Ouch, I know.)

Freeman Friday Night Live. On Friday nights in the summer, businesses stay open late and the music is live in downtown Waukesha. While the bands rock out, the retail shops spill their wares onto the sidewalks, and people come to drink and be merry.

One of the best spots to catch the live music is out on the patio of Sprizzo Caffe’. The biggest band of the night sets up right across the street. Being at just the right distance, you can enjoy the music and hold a conversation at the same time.

Plus, there’s waitstaff to bring you tasty refreshments like this one:

After dinner and drinks, we perused the shops.

Artsy stuff was everywhere. Like this giant knit garbage can koozie.

Sweets make me loopy.

After catching some music another Friday night, we headed indoors to Sakura for sushi. My aunt Lindy joined us.

The sushi was good, but the dessert was my favorite. This is the first time I’ve had Mo Chi ice cream, and it was fascinating. It wasn’t indulgent like chocolate cake or comforting like warm apple pie, but rather, it was smooth and refreshing, chilly and minty. The green tea ice cream was surrounded with a sweet rice cake, although the “cake” was more the consistency of gelatin. It sounds weird, because it was weird. It was a leap for the palate. But it was good, it was new, and I liked it.

Cooking at Home. Ok so we’ve eaten out quite a bit (definitely more than I eat out normally) but I’ve also cooked for my parents a handful of times too. (And here’s where all of my not eating out has come in handy: I’ve had lots of time to practice in the kitchen.)

Matched with a sauvignon blanc (that Dad and I had to quick grab from the convenience store upon the discovery that not a single bottle of white existed in the house), my pad thai was delicious. Recipe curtousy of iowasthinking.com.

We’ve also cooked out on the grill. We actually had porterhouse steaks, corn on the cob, grilled veggies, and cab, twice. Kudos to Dad, he cooked the steaks to medium-rare perfection.

Quality Time with the Relatives. A visit to Wisconsin wouldn’t be complete without a Schroeder family gathering. This time, the event was my cousin Colin’s high school graduation party. No matter the occasion, the same raucous behavior, witty wordplay and jesting lampoonery (is that a word? if not, it is now) is expected from my dad and his brothers and sisters. They’re like eight Abbott and Costellos all talking at once. And trying to get them to all cut it out (much less smile) for one picture? Ha. Good freakin’ luck.

Triplets-sitting. My mom has been babysitting for this trio (who belong to a family in our church) since they were born. If I happen to be home in Wisconsin when Mom has a date set to babysit, I tag along with her. This time, my mom, her friend Ann and I all went swimming with the girls.

Wisconsin State Fair. My fondness for the Wisconsin State Fair is right on par with Summerfest. As soon as I found out that the fair would coincide with my trip, I told my parents that we had to go. Believe it or not, the main reason I wanted to go wasn’t to drink beer, listen to music, or eat deep-fried food (although we did all of those things).

I was hell-bent on teaching my mom how to use her camera, and the midway at dusk is one of my favorite subjects. And, the blurring rides make the concept of shutter speed easier to understand.

Dinner & A Movie. Since Mom and I will be spending five days in Paris at the end of our trip to Germany (which we leave for in less than two weeks!), we had to see the movie Midnight in Paris. We had dinner beforehand at Roots, a farmer-chef owned restaurant. While we were eating the bartender came out to pluck some fresh mint growing next to our table to make mojitos.

The food was exactly the way I like it: small portions and absolutely freakin delicious.

Although, the onion rings weren’t so small…

The movie was playing at the beautiful Oriental Theater on the Eastside in Milwaukee.

And the verdict? Two thumbs up. Especially if you’ve read A Moveable Feast. The movie takes you back in time to meet Hemingway, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the rest of the expat writers of the 1920′s.

I Stole the Rebel. It was time I tried out Mom’s SLR myself. I used her macro to get this Mexican Sunflower.

And this little guy. I’m a sucker for tiny toads. (Or is he a frog?)

Oh by the way, the baby birds grew up. (At least now they have feathers.) Mom got this shot.

Out on the Town. My Uncle Dave and Aunt Jayne trekked from Madison to spend a weekend with us. Saturday night we went downtown Milwaukee for drinks at the Ale House, a stroll on the Riverwalk, and dinner at Ryan Braun’s Graffito, a restaurant that does “scratch Italian cooking.”

Granted, I haven’t been writing every minute of every day. But, first of all, that’s impossible. And more importantly, it’s been wonderful to spend time with my family. ☼