Nostalgia: Abandoned Army Barracks

When we went to Germany this past August, one of the first things on my itinerary was to visit where I was stationed in Mannheim from 1998-2001. I had fond memories of a big, bustling military base, spread out over several barracks, and friendly relationships with the local Germans. Imagine my surprise when, a few weeks before the trip, I discovered that a few years ago, the US armed forces in Mannheim had departed, turning the bases back over to the German government. I found city planning websites that detailed their plans for Benjamin Franklin Village, where I had lived, and Taylor Barracks, where I had worked. I knew I HAD to visit the places one last time before they were razed down or repurposed.

First thing we did after arriving at the Frankfurt airport and getting our rental car was to drive the 45 minutes south to Mannheim. The boys were tired and jet-lagged, but I was eager to see my old haunts. When we got there, I was filled with nostalgia. Everything was fenced off and abandoned. Weeds grew rampant. Just being back there brought back a flood of memories. I could close my eyes and practically see and hear the hubbub of daily life. But when I opened them again, all I saw was a ghost town.

I thought I'd take you along my little trip down memory lane with a few pictures.

Here I am just a couple weeks after arriving in the country. I had just gotten my car (shipped over from Georgia) and settled into my apartment on post. Snow had fallen and I was trying out my new ice/snow scraper. My car is parked right in front of my apartment building.

January 1998

Here is my old apartment building today, fenced off:

August 2014

Rear view of my apartment building. My apartment's windows (in the yellow square) are mostly obscured by the tree, but you can make out the different sets of windows-- the first 2 windows (right side, closest to the edge of the building) are my living room, the small center window is my bathroom, and the 2 windows to the left of it are my bedroom.

August 2014

Through my windows, I had a view of the PX (Post Exchange), where many soldiers did their shopping. Here I am in front of the fence guarding the PX, where the overgrown weeds really add an air of abandonment to the shot.

August 2014

After touring where I used to live, we drove down the street to Taylor Barracks, where I used to work.

Here is a shot of the main grassy area during a battalion change of command ceremony:

June 1998

Those same grounds were home to some fun times, like Org Day 1998, with tug of war:

July 1998

... and the Commander's litter race:

July 1998

We didn't just play, though. We worked hard. Here's the 268th Signal Company command team in our motor pool:

(L-R) XO, CO, 2nd PL, 1st PL (me)

And here is Taylor Barracks today. This is the back entrance through which I drove to work every single day. I'd show my ID card to the soldier in the little brown guard shack, drive past the grassy area where we held COC ceremonies...

... past the motor pool...

... past the dining facility and dormitory-style barracks where the soldiers lived...

... and to our offices.

It made me really sad and wistful to see the place where I'd spent some of my formative years lie abandoned, overgrown, neglected, and blocked off. It was such a stark contrast to the thriving community that began after World War II and remained until just a few years ago. But, such is life, I suppose. You cycle through various transitions from one stage to another, always growing, never remaining the same. Still... the fond memories of what used to be will always last!

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

German Food: Lunch and Dinner

My favorite mealtime in Germany is clearly breakfast, as I wrote about last week. But some of the more uniquely German dishes that comprise lunch and/or dinner are worth noting, too!

First up: Bratwurst. I'm sure most people are familiar with this quintessential German food. The delicious, fatty, salty sausage that just melts in your mouth and goes well with a piece of Broetchen fresh from the oven. Most people will eat it with sauerkraut and mustard, but as I'm not partial to either, I prefer mine plain. A lot of the time, the spices in the sausage make it so tasty, you don't need to detract from it with condiments!

Next: Schnitzel. Typically pork or chicken, hammered flat and tenderized before being breaded and fried. My favorite is schnitzel smothered in a brown mushroom sauce, with big pieces of mushroom in it. Delicious!

Most Schnitzel is eaten with (as pictured) french fries, but I prefer mine with...

Spaetzle! This is a noodle made of eggs, so the consistency isn't quite as "tough" as normal pasta. The shape is puffier, and the texture is softer and a little reminiscent of scrambled eggs. It's often served coated in cheese (Kaesespaetzle), but I enjoy it plain, too.

Frikadellen are another favorite that my mother used to cook from time to time. They are basically meat patties, where the ground meat is mixed with egg, chopped onions (my mom's version includes chopped potatoes) and bread crumbs before being molded into balls, flattened slightly, and fried. They're a little more akin to flattened giant meatballs than to hamburger patties :-) But they are infinitely more delicious than either :-9

This next dish is one I've only eaten at our local (now closed) German restaurant, Brummi's, where its owner hailed from East Berlin and provided the best eats: Kartoffelpuffer, or potato pancakes. The closest American equivalent might be hash browns, except that the potatoes are grated to a much finer scale than with hash browns. The outside is fried brown and crispy, leaving the inside soft and mealy. They're best served with a little side of applesauce!

Looking back at my list, I realize that just about every single food item here is fried. Probably not the healthiest to eat frequently, but soooo delicious. Maybe the arteries won't approve, but the taste buds do, and with gusto! :-)

What are your favorite foods?

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

The German Language

Though I grew up in the United States, my first language was actually German. I was born there, and came to the US when I was 4 years old, so I'm not exactly fluent in German, but have enough of a basic background to pick it up again fairly easily.

As I grew up, besides learning English, I also picked up a little bit of Spanish and some high school French. And I've learned one thing: in some respects, German is an easy language to pick up, and in other respects, it's one of the most difficult.

It's easy in the realm of pronunciation and vocabulary. There are set rules governing the pronunciation of German words (they are similar to Spanish), and if you follow these rules, it's fairly easy to pick up spelling and pronunciation. Contrast this to English, where there are more exceptions than rules when it comes to spelling and pronunciation ("i before e", anyone? And how about pronouncing through, enough, plough, cough, and dough?)

In terms of vocabulary, it can be a little tricky to pick up at first, but after a while you start to notice something: those super-long German words? Are easily deciphered by breaking down the individual words. German is pretty literal: the word for something generally describes exactly what it is/does.

Now, when it comes to *grammar*, on the other hand, German is definitely harder to pick up. English is actually pretty easy because we don't have gendered nouns. Languages like French and Spanish, with their masculine and feminine articles for nouns, are a little trickier, but still manageable. Then along comes German, which adds a THIRD (neutral) article to the mix, and somehow dealing with 3 different articles makes the corresponding grammatical rules exponentially more difficult.

Aesthetically-speaking, I've heard non-German-speaking friends tell me they think German sounds harsh and guttural. Not to me. Maybe it's because I'm used to it, but it actually sounds very smooth and clean and... open to me. It's hard to describe except to contrast it to English, which I feel involves more "swallowing" of words and rolling the tongue backward to properly pronounce. A little bit like French, but on a smaller scale. With German, I feel like my tongue and my lips are more... free! It is certainly a language I love :-)

What are your takes on other languages?

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

Pay Toilets

When Mother Nature calls, I've come to take it for granted that there are readily-available restrooms everywhere, especially in places like shopping malls and gas stations. And while that is also true in Germany, there's one key difference: you pay to use the toilet.

The only exception I've seen is restaurants where you are already a patron. But general public toilets in shopping centers, gas stations, and other random spots? They all come with a price tag.

It isn't terribly much-- in the range of 50 to 70 Euro cents. And in some of the larger gas stations that partner with Sanifair, one of the more prevalent restroom-sanitation companies, you get a voucher for 50 cents off any purchase in the attached restaurant or convenience store, making the net cost of going to the bathroom only 20 cents.

Still, it certainly takes a bit to get used to. It's something you have to actively plan for when you travel-- make sure you have enough coins in your purse to cover the cost of toilet fare. And when you're traveling as a family, it really starts to add up after a while!

At first, I found it a bit annoying. I had to actively keep track of coins, and since I wasn't quite used to the various coin denominations, I ended up hoarding coins whenever I could (including 1 Euro and 2 Euro pieces!), which really weighed down my wallet. And just the idea of paying for something that's so freely available in the US took a bit of an attitude shift.

Then I realized what the money was (in theory) going toward-- keeping the restrooms clean and sanitary. "Gas station restroom" typically conjures up images of dank, grimy, smelly, disease-laden pits of hell, but in Germany they were quite nice. One of the neatest things I discovered? Self-sanitizing toilets. There's no need for paper toilet cover seats when this happens at every flush:

After a week in the country, we'd gotten accustomed to paying for toilets everywhere we went. We planned around it-- from paying for wares with certain bills to ensure we got coins back in change, to making sure to take advantage of "free" restrooms in the restaurants where we were dining. And in the end? I actually kind of liked knowing that the restroom I was about to enter was likely cleaner than the average public restroom in the US!

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

Historic German Churches

For a country as secular as it is today, Germany sure does have a lot of beautiful, old churches, built in various styles and filled with a rich history. Here are some of the ones we visited during our August family trip (note that some of these photos were taken from the web, since our camera ended up being full of close-up shots and very few far-away shots that captured the entire building!

St. Lorenz Church in Nuremberg
Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lorenz,_Nuremberg

Frauenkirche in Dresden
Photo from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruf_aus_Dresden

Berliner Dom

St Johannis (St John's) church in Lueneburg
Photo from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/34435079

St. Mary's Church in Berlin (Alexanderplatz)

Steeple of St. Mary's Church with TV Tower in the background

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Berlin)

Lambertikirche in Muenster

St. Paul's Cathedral in Muenster, right after the weekly Saturday market closed

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

Public Transportation

In the sprawling metropolis that is Southern California, it's difficult to imagine getting around without a car. Public transportation is woefully lacking here, as it is in most parts of the US (except maybe NYC). Especially compared to places like Germany. And given how idiotic so many drivers seem to be, maybe increased public transportation would be a good thing :-P

When I moved to Germany as a recent college graduate, I brought my brand new Plymouth Neon with me (the Army shipped over my car). It's a compact car that easily gets dwarfed by the SUVs and trucks that seem to dominate the American landscape. But in Germany, it felt huge. Nothing makes your little zippy car feel big like winding through narrow cobblestone streets or trying to squeeze into a parking spot. It really gave me renewed appreciation for how plentiful and vast the public transit system was, especially in large cities.

There was a streetcar and bus station right outside the building where I lived, so it came in very handy after spending a night out on the town with friends, and making it home safely. Whenever I made a trek up north to Muenster to see family friends, I alternated between driving and taking the train. There's nothing quite like zipping along the countryside on the ICE trains! I even got a BahnCard for further discounts on my train ticket purchases.

During our recent summer trip to Germany, we opted to rent a car. We were going to be city-hopping on a daily basis, and it's just easier to have a car when traveling with a kid. It was quite a reality check to realize how expensive it can be to drive in Germany-- between the gas prices (more than twice the US average) and the cost of parking, it really added up. However, in Berlin, the only city where we stayed 2 nights instead of one, we opted to take advantage of its public transit network. From subways to trams (streetcars) to buses, we had it all at our disposal. It was so convenient, and we loved it! Todd especially liked his first ride on a subway :-)

Of note was the "poor man's tour bus", or Bus #100, a double-decker that has stops along many of Berlin's famous tourist sights. And while it certainly made it convenient for us to get from attraction to attraction, we quickly learned that it's a popular bus! At around 5:00pm, when everyone was getting off work, the buses were jam-packed!

I remember coming to Santa Barbara after finishing my active duty tour in Germany. One of the things that UCSB student fees pay for is a bus pass, so I would often ride the bus to school. However, there was only one bus that went by the stop nearest my house, and it only ran every 20 minutes! What a contrast to the bustling lines of German cities, where something came by every few minutes. Made me miss it even more!

You can't easily get by without a car over here. In Germany, I don't see how you can get around anywhere without public transit! :-)

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

German Drivers

One of the things I appreciated most about Germany was its drivers. Many people envision the stereotype of a German driver zipping down the speed-limit-less Autobahn at 100+ mph, but that's rarely the case. You see, in contrast to American drivers (especially those in Southern California), Germans actually respect the road and KNOW how to drive.

I'm sure I've ranted about this before, but my biggest pet peeve when it comes to driving is cruising in the passing lane. Those "slow traffic keep right" signs are there for a reason, people! The left lanes are for passing-- once you've passed the slow car(s) in front of you, you MOVE BACK to the right lane. But Southern Californians seem to think nothing of hogging the left lanes and merrily cruising at the same speed (if not slower!!) as those in the right lanes. What really irks me about this practice is that most So Cal highways, especially in the more populated areas, consist of 3-4 lanes on each side! So there is really no excuse for cruising in the left lane!

Germans, on the other hand, take this very seriously. Most German highways are only 2 lanes on each side, possibly 3 in bigger cities. And they're very conscientious about using the left lane ONLY for passing. You pull out, quickly overtake the car(s) you're trying to pass, and then pop straight back into the right lane. This keeps traffic flowing smoothly. If you make the mistake of cruising in the passing lane, irate drivers will not hesitate to let you know! The only times I've come up on someone doing that was when the car bore plates from another country. Never a German car. Driving along the long stretches of open German road was actually quite refreshing and relaxing!

Fast-lane cruisers have always annoyed me in So Cal, but after coming back from our trip last month, and having driven on the glorious Autobahn with its more-considerate drivers, I've found myself even more annoyed by these same awful driving habits here at home.

Another annoyance is traffic circles. In all fairness, roundabouts are such a rarity in So Cal that I don't blame many people for being unsure of how to correctly use them. But here in SB, they are starting to become more numerous, and I love them! They're really good for keeping the traffic flowing... IF people use them properly. I've lost track of how many times I've had to honk at someone IN the circle who tried to slow down to let people outside the circle in. That's NOT the way it works, buddy!!

In Germany, traffic circles were definitely more commonplace, and I loved them not only for traffic flow, but for an easy way to make a U-turn. Drivers go in and know what they're doing, and where they're doing (it does help that German roundabout signs are more clearly marked and a little more idiot-proof than American signs). Case in point: the huge, multi-lane roundabout surrounding the Siegessauele (Victory Column) in Berlin. Great opportunity for confusion, but Germans take it in stride!

The #1 thing I miss about Germany is the food (as you've seen from my previous post on breakfast, and as you'll see about upcoming posts on other German foods). The #2 thing is the driving/drivers. If we could import even half the common sense of German drivers into American drivers, we'd really cut down on the road rage that runs rampant! 

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

German Food: Breakfast

Ask just about anyone to name something unique and memorable about Germany, and the answer usually revolves around food and drink. From bratwurst to beer, I could probably go on for days about German food, but today I'll focus on one thing: breakfast.

On our most recent trip to Germany this past August, one of the things I most looked forward to was a good, filling German breakfast. I made sure to book only lodging that offered breakfast buffets. And they did not disappoint!

What constitutes a good German breakfast?

Well, the main staple is bread. And I'm not talking that white Wonder bread crap. I'm talking freshly-baked Broetchen and hearty Vollkornbrot. Soft and warm on the inside, crackling and crispy on the outside, a good bread just begs to be spread with butter and and topped with your favorite "toppings".

As far as the "toppings" go, your options are practically limitless.

In the mood for something sweet? Try wild honey, a number of different fruit preserves, or Nutella.

In the mood for something savory? Try various cheeses-- both sliced and creamy, sliced meats like ham and salami, or various liverwurst spreads.

You can then top off your breakfast with more typical American fare, such as cereal with milk, boiled eggs, fresh fruit, and yogurt. And of course, coffee, tea, or fruit juices.

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. By German standards, I'd say that's true. And what better way to start it off than with some really hearty fare? :-9

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

31 Days of Germany

Well, hello, blog. How have you been? Long time no see! 
After well over a year-long absence on my part, Tabitha has once again inspired me to begin writing-- with one of those month-long challenges, no less!

This month, as part of the October 31-day challenge, I'm going to delve into 31 daily posts on a specific theme/topic. My chosen topic? The lovely country of Germany! 

Why Germany? Because it's one of my favorite places to live and travel. I was actually born in Germany (my parents were students at universities there), and came to the US when I was 4 years old. After graduating from college, I was commissioned into the US Army and spent the next 4 years stationed in Germany. After that, I only had a couple of subsequent visits -- a week with my grad school advisor, collaborating with his colleagues in Berlin, and a week traveling with my boys this past summer, doing a whirlwind sightseeing tour as well as visiting old friends.

For the next 31 days, I'm hoping to write more about the country I would call my second home if I were to uproot from sunny Santa Barbara. Things I enjoy about it, things I don't like about it, anecdotes about my own time there-- as a child, as a young adult, and as a wife and mother, photo dumps, anything that catches my fancy!

I'll also be using this post as a landing page to collect the entire series' worth. So check back and check often! :-)

Day 1: this post. Haha! ;-)
Day 2: German Food: Breakfast!
Day 3: Drivers: the Good and the Bad 
Day 4: Public Transportation 
Day 5: Historic Churches and Cathedrals
Day 6: Paying for Restroom Usage 
Day 7: The German Language
Day 8: German Food: the good, the fried and the fatty
Day 9: Nostalgia: Army Days, Then and Now
Day 10: Nostalgia 2: Living in Mannheim 
Day 11: German beds and bedding
Day 12: Eco-friendly Germany
Day 13: Muenster: Revisiting my old childhood home
Day 14: German Food: Snacks and Desserts
Day 15: Tuition-Free Education
Day 16: Berlin in Pictures
Day 17: Militaries all over the world
Day 18: German Houses
Day 19: Rothenburg's Medieval Crime Museum
Day 20: German Drinks: bring on the fizz!
Day 21: Dresden in Pictures 
Day 22: German Food: Traditional Holiday Treats
Day 23: Historic German Castles
Day 24: A Mobile Shop on Every Corner 
Day 25: The German language, in full force and full hilarity! 
Day 26: Sit to Pee: Standing is verboten! 
Day 27: Different Hotels in Germany, and all family-friendly! 
Day 28: Oh, wie schön ist Panama, aka one of my favorite childhood books!

The "Lens of Love" reapplied

A few years ago I wrote a post that was driven by a conversation we had with a friend of ours from church, one where I came to the conclusion that the core of Christianity can be summed up by one directive: Love God (and, in doing so, love your neighbor). Everything else naturally stems from it.

Since I believe that God is love and anything that is of love is of God (and vice versa!), I brought up the concept of a "lens of love" through which your actions can be filtered: do your actions pass the test of love?

At the time, I applied the post mainly to the issue of whether or not homosexuality is a sin. Recently, however, I was engaged in some debate about another part of Scripture that insists that only men can be pastors/elders in the church, and, as an offshoot, that women must submit to their husbands.

Now, either side can pick apart specific verses to make their case. One can point to the creation story of Adam and Eve as evidence of a "created order". Or one can argue that the historical context addresses false teachings (that happened to be done by women who had likewise been taught wrong) and not women themselves as a whole.

I do believe it's important to consider the historical and cultural context in which a verse in question was written. EVERYONE does this to some degree. I don't think there's anyone who really takes the Bible 100% literally, or we'd all be following a bunch of arcane rules about wearing jewelry, mixing fabrics, and dealing with women on the rag.

In this case, for instance, I'd argue that Scripture says masters should treat their slaves well, and that slaves should submit to their masters, but that doesn't mean the Bible condones slavery-- it was just addressing examples of godly living for the circumstances of the day. Circumstances that include not only slavery but a very patriarchal society, one where women had few rights and were fully dependent on their husbands. In those days, "submit to your man" was very much the norm, maybe even a downright survival mechanism for women.

But where do you draw the line? 

After all, one could argue, even applying context is just another form of human (i.e. fallible) interpretation, so when you encounter specific guidance like this, where do you draw the line between applying contextual interpretation, and taking it literally (ignoring, for the moment, that even literal interpretation involves linguistic context)?

Well, that's where the "lens of love" comes into play.

No matter how you slice and dice it, claiming that only men can be pastors and that husbands must be heads of the household says only one glaringly obvious thing: that women are inferior to men. The "best" arguments I've seen in favor of these principles are always quick to defend themselves against this charge, insisting that men and women are indeed equal beings in the eyes of the Lord, they just have different roles to play. Biologically, that may be true-- Schwarzenegger's "Junior" notwithstanding, women are the ones who bear children.

But we're more than just biological beings, aren't we? That's the whole point of having a spirit and a soul, the whole point of being created in God's image.

So if you're saying that men and women are equal in the eyes of the Lord but have different roles to play, you're basically saying that men and women are "separate but equal". Gee-- why does that sound so familiar? That didn't really fly too well during the civil rights movement, and it doesn't really fly too well today. And for good reason:

When you examine this claim, that one fellow human being is inferior to you, through the "lens of love", it is most decidedly NOT a loving claim. By any stretch of the imagination. It fails the "love" test. You cannot claim that men and women have equal worth and yet relegate them to specific roles within the church and family based solely on gender. Therefore, I reject the notion that only men can be pastors or that women should submit to their husbands. Not because I'm part of a culture that promotes feminist ideals, but because those notions are the antithesis to love.

This is also why I continue to circle back to the single, lone directive in the Bible that is completely free of cultural and historical context: Love God, love your neighbor. Everything else just follows. And in this case, loving your neighbor means treating them and valuing them as human beings of equal worth to your own, no more, no less.

N'est-ce-pas?

Birthday Fun

Last week I celebrated my 36th birthday. It's not exactly a milestone, unless you count the Chinese zodiac, in which case, yes-- after 36 years, it's cycled back to my sign, the year of the Snake :-)

But it was probably THE most fun I've ever had!

It started out on Thursday, the actual day OF my birthday, when, in keeping with office tradition, my co-workers broke out the cake and ice cream, and we hung out in the conference room, chatting, snacking, and relaxing for an hour.

The next day, Friday, I took the day off work so I could accompany Todd at "Grandparents/Special Guests Day" at his school. I'm extra glad I took the time to go, because the look on his face when he saw me arrive for the flag salute in the morning was priceless. He was soooo excited to lead me to his classroom and partake of the planned activities together.

All the special guests got to sit in the kids' seats, and together we worked on making "quilt squares" out of construction paper together. Each quilt square consisted of cutout traces of our hands, common personality traits, favorite Bible verse, and a picture of a favorite memory. Afterward, we enjoyed a mid-morning snack together and then watched the kids perform a musical they'd been working on all semester. Here are some shots of the day: me seated at a kid's desk, our quilt square, and Todd right after the performance:

Traits on common: Sense of Humor and Love of Animals. Favorite memory: Fun trips together: Strawberry Festival (hence the strawberry), California Adventure (hence the turtle) and Universal Studios (hence the Hollywood sign on the hills)

After the performance, we headed to UCSB for lunch. It was the start of Staff Appreciation Week on campus, and Friday was a chancellor's luncheon on the grass by the lagoon. I set up our picnic blanket and settled Todd in with a sack lunch while I got my food. As it just so happened, another, unrelated group had set up bouncy castles on the same lawn, so Todd got to play on some of them! I took a turn once, too, and quickly realized why these things are meant for kids :-P

A bouncy sparring ring, with Storke Tower in the background

After lunch, we headed home to change and pack up... for a hike! Since Allan was still battling a bad bout of the flu, and since the hot weather meant that the rest of our friends preferred the beach or staying home, Todd and I went by ourselves. It actually ended up working out great, even though we'd never hiked that trail before. Since it was such a hot day, we could take our time deviating from the trail at various points along the way, splashing in the San Ysidro Creek to cool off.

That ice cold water was refreshing! Too bad every bug in creation had the same idea-- we had to fight them for clear spots of water!

Though I was a little concerned with the fact that we would be hiking alone, the trail was pretty straightforward and easy to follow, and we encountered plenty of other hikers/runners along the way. We ended up spending so much time playing in the creek that we had to turn around after going less than 2 miles up the trail, as it was starting to get late!

That evening, after returning home and washing up, Todd and I went out for dinner at Denny's-- again, just the two of us.

Overall, Friday was probably one of the best and most enjoyable days I'd ever spent. It was great to be able to spend an entire day with my little boy, and do all kinds of fun things together, by ourselves. And since it just happened to be the day after my birthday, I considered it part of my birthday celebration with my son :-)

The next night, though, was the adult party :-) We hired a sitter, reserved a couple of tables at our favorite karaoke spot-- Old Town Tavern, brought in sandwiches and cake, and celebrated with 17 friends!

I had fun with my dance and singing partners, respectively (aka the "other men" in my life) :

Our party practically took over the whole place! While there were a handful of other people at the beginning of the night, by about 10-11pm most of them had vanished, leaving only our big group to sing, dance, and patronize the bar :-) What a blast!

Despite the fact that I'm apparently staring off into space in the above photo, I had a good time, honest! You can tell how much by the gamut that my facial expressions ran:

All in all, I'd say this was one of the best birthday celebrations I'd ever had. One day was spent entirely with my son, the other was spent in the company of good friends, with lots of fun and laughter. Completely different types of fun, but both left me feeling pretty cheered and satisfied by the end of the weekend :-)

Now... what to plan for that upcoming milestone of 40!

On Hiking

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a blog post that expanded upon why I disliked running so much, to the point that we created a religion where "Thou shalt nor run" was one of its core tenets. In a nutshell, I grew to dislike it after having experienced it in the Army. My friend Wayne made an observation in the comments section, wondering if the reason I hated it was because I was being forced to, and that I might change my tune if I were to try running purely for myself, for enjoyment.

Well, I tried it. And sad to say, but no, running and I are still not on good terms. It's hard on my knees, and being so out of breath makes it really hard to enjoy anything. Plus I'm not naturally a fast runner-- even when I was in top form during my Army days, and could knock out pushups and situps like nobody's business, my fastest time for the 2-mile run was still somewhere between 16-17 minutes.

I felt the same way about hiking, too-- until recently. I thought about what Wayne said, and it occurred to me that, indeed, my idea of "hiking" was largely shaped by my Army experiences-- traipsing through thick brush, wearing my long-sleeved, long-pants camouflage uniform, heavy Kevlar helmet, face smeared in camo paint, wielding an M-16 rifle in my hands, and lugging a rucksack on my back that weighed at least half as much as I did. The concept of hiking in shorts or walking on a beaten trail free of foliage was totally foreign to me. Add to that the fact that my sudden overexposure to the outdoors when I started my military training caused previously-nonexistent allergies to develop, and you can see why I was so averse to anything related to the outdoors after that.

Several years later, however, my allergies finally abated, and I no longer needed to regularly pop Benadryl or Claritin at the first sign of spring. I also began to appreciate what a beautiful place I lived in, with both oceans:

Campus Point and Goleta Beach

and mountains:

View along Tunnel Trail

just a few short miles away!

When my friend Tabitha began actively taking up hiking again, we decided to join in! And I realized-- Wayne was right. It was all about attitude. Now I'm looking forward to what has become a weekly endeavor. For the past 2 months, we've managed to tackle some sort of hike every single week. Most of them are the standard uphill/downhill trail hikes. We did a couple of long beach walks. And a rock-hopping excursion was pretty fun, too!

And you know what I've discovered? I've been thoroughly enjoying myself! I just can't get enough of the beautiful outdoors, especially when you're rewarded with magnificent views of the coastline and the mountains, both during the hike and at the end of it. Even the canyons provide shade and a quiet, sanctuary-like forest feel. And if it's not too dry, running creeks and water cascades! I love feeling like I'm on top of the world when I reach a summit on the mountain. I love the smell of the ocean when I'm walking near it. I love the sound of running water through the trees in the canyons.

I've always said that I find breathtaking beauty in nature's creations, and now that I've rediscovered the outdoors, this concept has extended from animals to the wilderness they inhabit. Nothing makes me feel closer to God than when I'm admiring his handiwork and pondering just how magnificent and huge it all is.

So here's to more hikes, with seals!!

Seal Sanctuary at Carpinteria Bluffs

 Pretty wildflowers in the spring (even if they're shrouded in fog):

Cold Spring Trail, East Fork

Pools, cascades and creeks:

Along Cold Spring Trail, East Fork

Views of our beautiful coastal city:

Goleta, the SB airport, and Santa Cruz Island from Lizard's Mouth

Santa Barbara and the Harbor, from Montecito Overlook

And a magnificent, breathtaking mountain ranges. Maybe it's not as big or as towering as other ranges, but compared to an average-sized human, it's still pretty impressive!

Santa Ynez Mountains (ridgeline is Camino Cielo Rd) from Montecito Peak

Where else in the world can you get both a mountain view AND an ocean view all in one shot/spot?

Part of Santa Ynez mountains plus Carpinteria and the Pacific Ocean, from the USGS marker at Montecito Peak

It's also terrific exercise! My pants and shorts fit me better now, and I feel better all around. I've slowly been getting into better shape-- after nearly 2 months of 3-3.5 mile hikes (and longer walks on level terrain), we managed to tackle an almost-5-mile hike yesterday, and I'm not too sore today!

Looking forward to many more, and to exploring all this beautiful country has to offer!