2009 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Mass ascension: Albuquerque 2009 International Balloon Fiesta

It's 600 balloons rising from balloon fiesta park and drifting in this morning's calm blue skies. At least 5,000 people showed up this morning to pay homage to Albuquerque's biggest event - one that attracts balloons from around the world. The park is a lightly marked grid for the ballooning crews to assemble their gear, but completely open to visitors to drift themselves amongst the giants - no backstage passes required. Regular Joe's have free access to converse with the crews, and occasionally you're asked to grab an anchor line - but quickly, to keep the balloon under control during the morning rise. It's a beautiful sight and fantastic to be able look up at any moment and see 20 balloons rising into the cloud of hundreds already gathered. This was the final straw.. I will move back to my roots next year with a suitable dSLR.

Rise and shine! A new interpretation.

An early start, with more early risers behind.

Fantastic: Free walkabouts with no press-pass required.

Anybody bring marshmallows?


Hello, Mr Happy.

This cow has an anatomically-correct ending

Really amazing: two independently-controlled balloons holding hands

YES! PROSIT! Needless to say this is my favorite balloon.

My fav, cropped for your enjoyment.

Deutschland versus the US

I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones working overtime, but lately I am really missing Deutschland. I'm constantly wrapped up in nostalgia, thinking about all the little things that made life in Germany so different from the US. To indulge in this, I've decide to make a list of the stuff I miss, and just so I can keep a balanced perspective, I'm also going to list the things that I like better here.

Things that I miss about Germany:
- Bakeries on every corner. I think I anticipated this one a bit, but good bread and pastries in the US are not easy to come by. Good bread I think just doesn't exist here, and good pastries require great effort to hunt down. In Germany, even the regular supermarket had an amazing bakery as part of the package deal.
- Public transportation. I find myself missing the bus and bahn system in Germany. It was so easy to get around without worrying about driving and traffic and who was going to stay sober (although in my current state, this last worry is non-existent).
- Nice cars. I had conveniently forgotten how many junkers there are in the US. The fact that it's legal to drive a car that spews smoke from the engine, fumes from the tailpipe, is missing its tail lights on one side, and has a bumper held on with duct tape is truly amazing.
- Speaking German. I can't really fault the US here, but I do miss speaking German. After being immersed in a second language for 2 years, speaking English with other English speakers just doesn't seem challenging enough.
- Wasen/Oktoberfest. As my German friends know, I am a sucker for Wasen. Those beer festivals in Germany are so fun. I miss singing silly songs at the top of my lungs and dancing on the table benches. I miss getting served beer in ridiculously large and heavy steins, and I miss eating giant soft pretzels. Sigh.
- Beer. There's no contest when it comes to German vs. American beer. German beer is better tasting, cheaper, has higher alcohol content, and comes in bigger bottles. What's not to love?
- Restaurants in the forest. The whole culture of taking a hike on a Sunday and eating a delicious meal at a tiny restaurant nestled in the woods is entirely missing here.
- Kaffee und Kuchen. The cafes in Europe have us seriously beat in the categories of coffee and cakes. Their desserts are so intricate and amazing, and even compared with the most admirable American joints, the coffee there is simply better.
- Proximity of borders. We were definitely spoiled when driving a couple hours west, south, or east took us to another country entirely. Now we have very few things in short driving distance, and driving to big cities in neighboring states is at least a 10 hour drive.
- Doner Kebab. Possibly the best fast food every invented. The Turkish version of a Gyro. There are doner kebab stands all over Germany, and intense debates can ensue over which ones have the best ones. For a hangover, there is no better cure.
- Ritter Sport. Delicious chocolate bars. Although you can get some flavors here, pretty much all my favorites aren't exported to the US. Guess I can't blame the Germans for keeping the best to themselves.

Things I like better in the US:
- Mexican food. There were so many times that we ate "Mexican" food while in Germany, and it was just never the same. They would get the concept kind of right, but then do things like use kidney beans instead of pinto beans, gouda cheese instead of queso fresco, and ground pepper instead of jalapenos. It was basically a mess. Not to mention that avocados in Germany are nothing to write home about, and salsa there is more sweet than spicy. Here, mexican restaurants are more abundant than stoplights, and pretty much everywhere you go is good. And, things like pan dulce and horchata are easy to come by thanks to the Mexican grocery stores.
- Thai/Sushi/Korean/Vietnamese/Chinese/Indian food. Actually, save for German food and Italian food, the US has Germany beat in almost every ethnic food category. We particularly out-do them when it comes to Asian cuisine.
- Slang. Even though I miss speaking German, it's so nice to be back in the world of slang. In Germany, I hardly ever used English slang words and stuck to a reduced vocabularly to be more easily understood.
- 24/7. It is so nice to not have to worry about the grocery store closing before you can get there after work, or needing eggs on a Sunday when everything is closed. Shopping is so much easier when you don't have to meticulously schedule your shopping trips within skimpy store hours.
- International sections at grocery stores. One great thing about America is that you can get almost any ingredient for any dish of any ethnicity pretty easily. Even Wal-Mart has a decent international section, and if you can't find what you're looking for in a big supermarket, you can almost always find a small specialty market that carries what you need. In Germany, it was really hard to find authentic ingredients for so many things. Although, it was always funny to see what they had in the America aisle....is our cuisine really defined by Pop Tarts, marshmallow creme, and Kraft mac anc cheese?
- Late night food. Hungry for a pizza/burrito/burger at midnight? No problem! America has the late night food thing down pat. In Germany, when the bars close and everyone spills into the streets tired and hungry, there's almost no where to go. We often wondered if we'd be overnight millionaires by selling pizza on street corners at 2am.
- Cookies. Although the Germans are good at making meticulously decorated Christmas cookies, simple drop cookies like oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, and snickerdoodles are non-existent. And when things like chocolate chips and brown sugar aren't sold on the economy, it makes it hard to whip them up at home.

Wow, I guess I should've guessed that most of my comparisons would be food based. Especially now that snacking is becoming as involuntary as breathing. :)

Oktoberfest Leftovers

Welcome (back) to the monkey house, I always say. We're planning our fifth annual Clarktoberfest party here on US soil, and in reminiscent fashion I ran across a few nicely forgotten pictures I determined important to share with you all. No apologies, no embarrassing look-aways. Just enjoy and remember that pictures never lie....

Allowing Will to drink Hefeweisen Beer is akin to feeding Mogwai's after midnight.

And when kids are curious...

Voyeurism is alive and well.. in Europe.. because of dirty, dirty Americans.

What started out as a funny joke: "So, I met this chick at Oktoberfest who was really into biting..."

EB photobombed by a video-screen Geico caveman pirate. And no, "I'm on a BOAT" doesn't compute here, either. But nice try.

The Nürburgring

Only months after my racing introduction at the Porsche Leipzig factory, I found myself once again behind the wheel of a race-ready torpedo blastpheming the environmental conscience I try so hard to achieve. Reducing my virtual water quota or using natural power was left in a cloud of carbon smoke and tire bits. Please evereyone raise their glass to the Earth; I promise to continue crusading tomorrow. Prosit!

The Nürburgring is a 22.8km / 12.9m racetrack that was carved thru forest paths. Those of you not from the Midwest should understand that the German terrain here has "elevation", and by that I mean the dips, bumps, drops and other general unevenness that remains when a glacier doesn't void the creativity Bob Ross loved to portray. Changing elevation sprinkled with 73 turns and topped with speed results in one gigantic roller coaster. Multiplying that by you as the passenger almost resulted in aborting what little I ate today. And to you Grand Turismo victors: of course you understand how being spanked feels when reading about it on wikipedia. Try the real thing.. I promise you won't forget it.

To top it off, today was more special than usual: a company named RTS reserved the entire Nürburgring. I'm told a normal race day sees 100 or so cars on the track. Today I don't recall seeing more than 20 cars on the track at any given time. A 13 mile track with maybe 20 cars produces few meet and greets amongst those 73 turns. But nothing felt better than being bitch-slapped by the Porsche GT2 and club Aston Martin Vanquish pushing an extra 30km/h thru those turns you're sliding thru. Try following either of those... I dare ya.

Pictures are on their way, as they are spread amongst variouos equipment - none of which is in my posession at the moment. Also, we have video! Take Dramamine before you watch it tho. With any luck, you'll not just see

our adventure but HEAR the beautiful sound of my patented Nürburgring slide.. followed by Victor's "NICE".

I don't usually dedicate things, but this one goes out to my racing Hardy Boy:

Jim, because I somehow channeled Jim's 16 year old insane driving persona, albeit on a world-famous race track, regained consciousness, and then started driving like a responsible adult..

America Day

Maybe this shouldn't be as amusing as it is....I mean, in America we take it for granted that even Wal-Mart sells specialties from all over the world. But over here in Germany, while European delicacies are abundant, those amazing American inventions like Pop Tarts and Velveeta are hard to come by.

In an effort to compensate, each year ALDI has an America Day where they sell everything worthy of putting an American flag on the package. Things like pancake mix, jelly beans, donut makers, hot dogs, and 2-buck-chuck from California. Nevermind the fact that I don't know anyone in the US with a donut making appliance, or that hot dogs aren't normally packed in a jar. It's still nice to know that those little things we took for granted are again at our fingertips once each year.

Here is the flyer from ALDI showcasing all that makes America great. Particularly funny to me are the tubes of swirled condiments; you can choose between ketchup & mustard, or ketchup & mayo. Why didn't we think of that first?

Børk! Børk! Børk!

We finally see what the Swedish Chef was babbling about all those years. Sweden is awesome!

Thanks to another cheap flight deal on TUIfly, Andy and I were able to hop on a plane to the Land of Vikings for a weekend trip to see our long-lost friend Therese. Let me tell you, it was a super fun to have a Swedish friend as a tour guide. She totally hooked us up and introduced us to all the best Swedish stuff....from Viking Museums to cheeses to the ever classic Swedish meatballs (which she made for us herself!).

The trip started with a yummy dinner at a very nice Swedish restaurant. I had some delicious, super-fresh fish, and Andy and Therese both got a kind of giant veal meatball served with berry sauce. Sooooo good. I still can't decide though if dinner or dessert was better....but maybe that's my sweet tooth talking.

The amazing dessert. Oh, and some crazy tourists that jumped into the picture...

The next day we let Therese catch up on sleep (she's a wild-and-crazy world traveling consultant) while we headed to see The Vasa. It's a super cool ship, all made out of beautifully carved black walnut and, with its size and grandeur, dwarfing all the tiny humans there to gaze upon it. Too bad The Vasa had a tragic fate; it sunk after just 20 minutes at sea. As our guide said, "In fact, this tour will last longer than The Vasa's maiden voyage." Indeed. After resting at sea for 333 years, the Vasa was resurfaced in the 60s, masterfully restored for the next 25 years or so, and then made into a museum. Apparently, the reason it sunk was simply that it didn't have a sufficient ballast (the rocks in the bottom of the ship used as a counterweight). So, it was top heavy and when a gust of wind caught its sails, it tipped over enough that the gun ports filled with water and....well....that was that.

Ships along the canal near Therese's place

Huge sunken treasure: The Vasa

After getting our fill of the giant war ship, we met up with Therese for a stroll through the city center and Stockholm's old town. Very nice. The city's buildings are really very pretty.

We decided to forego another restaurant meal for dinner, and instead opted to have a feast at Therese's place. Good choice! She picked out all sorts of wonderful things for us to sample...cheeses, meats, cured salmon with dill honey mustard, fruits, it was heaven. She even shared with us a very nice bottle of champagne that had been a birthday gift from her mom. It was seriously delicious.

Awesome Swedish feast at Therese's place

And the goodies continued, as the next morning Therese made us some Swedish waffles (yum!) and let us sample some cloudberry jam. Fat and happy, we headed over to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, followed by a visit that afternoon to the History Museum. I tell you what, those vikings knew how to pillage. There is a huge gold collection there! We even got to see the 9,000-year-old skeleton of a 40-year-old woman who had given birth to 12 children! If that doesn't give insight into the strength of the vikings, I don't know what does.

Cool window at the Viking Museum....kind of looks like a Viking muppet

We're eager to have a chance to visit Sweden again, to explore the countryside, enjoy some more delicious foods, and sail along the coast in the bright sunshine, but until then, we'll just have to cook homemade meatballs as a memento. Børk! Børk! Børk!

Sprachen Espanien and Unravellin'

I break for spicy Spaniards.. Sorry kid.

Take life up a notch. Why set a rendezvous at the seedy diner on the other side of town when a weekend double-date in Barcelona is within your reach? That was our thought when close friends of ours were taking some time away from their studies to visit Scotland. Combined with the allure of the Sea (not to mention the sea-FOOD), the imaginative architectures of Antoni Gaudi, and possibly the largest open market in Europe, and I'd call that a pretty damn good date weekend. :)

Four days brought us to five Antoni Gaudi creations (La Padrera, the Segrada Familia yet-unfinished House of God, the school house, Park Guell, and a wicked-cool townhouse), a visit to the Port of Barcelona along the water front, Tapas galore, possibly 20 miles of good ole' walkin, four visits to that monster market called La Bocqueria, and just one afternoonish relaxing to catch our breaths. That break was nestled between a long city & garden walk, stumbling across a ginormous cultural market (not just stands.. we're talking tents with handmade textiles and diverse foods), but before heading out again for an evening Flamenco show at the local culture house. Actually "community" is more in order here, as it was a walled city converted into an artists community. Visiting these places with Rob and Jen made it all the more worthwhile, and we're secretly awaiting our next visit with them as it can only get better.

Together on the roof of Gaudi's La Padrera.. Camera thiefs can't run far on a roof..

I leave you with some pictures to give an idea of this adventure, but neither my writing nor pictures can give you a real idea of how awesome that weekend was.

Sure, sure, take all that fruit for granted.. wait.. are those gigantic freaking artichokes? Holy Jesus.

By the way, if you find yourself at an open market choosing between a fresh Blackberry drink and a coconut one, take my hint and avoid the one more likely to contain seeds.. and I do mean seeds.. possibly 10 tablespoons worth!

Port of Barcelona: We came, we saw, we were pooped on by seagulls (just kidding)

Not kidding about those seeds, kids. Reach for the Kiwi, at least the seeds are chewable.

From the Park Guell Lizard: See kids, Crayons ARE toxic.