Our blog is moving one last time

I have decided to create a new blog on our own domain (condons-aborad.net) because it will allow me to do some fancy things like add an interactive travel map (still a work in progress). I promise that this is the last time that our blog will be moving! Please update your links and RSS subscriptions. Our new blog can be accessed at http://www.condons-abroad.net.

Skylar's First Time Trick or Treating

For the first time since Skylar has been born, he went trick or treating for Halloween. He dressed up in a Red Power Ranger costume that Grandma Pat gave him. He was very excited to wear the costume because he LOVES the Power Rangers! Stephanie was on Army Reserve duty that night so I took him to the Army base and met up with a coworker of mine and his kids. Most of the residences on the base had little trick or treating stands setup outside the residendial buildings so that the kids did not have to go inside and go door-to-door. This made it very easy to get lots of treats. After trick or treating for a couple of hours, Skylar and I met Stephanie for dinner at the Italian restaurant on base. Click here to see the complete set of Halloween pictures.

This is a test of posting to our blog from Google Docs. Google Docs and Spreadsheets is like a free online version of MS Office Word and Excel. You can create documents, save them online, share them with other people, and save the documents in many different formats including PDF.

More Pictures from W&A's Wedding

I finally got around to posting some more pictures from William and Aleksandra's wedding and the party at the Summer house the next day.

You can view the rest of the pictures here.

Pippi Longstockings and Tallinn

Tom and I spent Labor Day weekend in the lovely Baltic Seaport of Tallinn, Estonia. We visited a friend and former co-worker, Pille Pakane, who generously showed us around town for three days solid. We ate some wonderful food, went to an outdoor museum, wandered through the city streets admiring the architecture and the incredible churches, and found lots of ways to spend our money. Pille even got me a birthday cake on my birthday, and we sat around that morning eating cake and watching Pippi Longstockings, which was playing in English on Estonian TV. What a cute movie!

Pille offered the guest room of her apartment for the duration of our stay, so we didn't have to find a hotel room. We ate traditional Estonian breakfast foods with her each morning, such as pickled herring, smoked and jellied eel, and raw salmon. Also oatmeal and the breakfast food they serve in Germany- tomatoes, cucumber, cold cuts, cheese, and bread. Estonia is not as expensive as Germany, but it's heading in that direction since it joined the EU. Once the EURO comes, prices will certainly go way up. Unfortunately, Estonian salaries will probably not go up nearly as much.

This will be our last adventure around Europe for a while, as Skylar returns to Germany in a week. It will be so nice to have him home again. Tom's mother Pat and her husband Pete will be here for three weeks, so it will give Skylar some transition time from being with them to being with us again.

Interested in reading more about Tallinn? Wikipedia has a good article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallinn.

Bathing Like Kings

For our anniversary, Tom and I spent the weekend in Baden-Baden, the legendary spa city dating back to Roman times. Baden-Baden is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos river, in the region of Karlsruhe. To this day it remains one of the prettiest little cities in Germany.

We stayed at the Dorint Sofitel Maison Messmer which has it's own spa/pool/sauna, and had a health and wellness package for the weekend that included several spa services. Baden-Baden is only a little over an hour away, making it a convenient place to visit. There was horse-racing while we were there, and all the rich from all over Europe were visiting. Amazing hats, shoes from designers we couldn't begin to pronounce, and the nicest cars were in abundance. A nice, relaxing way to spend a weekend.

With this ring...

William and Aleksandra's Wedding by Stephanie Condon

Saturday, 5 August, 1600: William and Aleksandra got married in a traditional Polish Catholic ceremony. Aleksandra wore a slightly off-white empire waist dress with short ballet-cap sleeves. William wore a nice suit, with a vest and a slightly off-white tie. The church is the church where Aleksandra grew up, so there were lots of her family and friends there. William's family included Daddy, Tom and me, and he had some friends from his college in Finland as well. Aleksandra's brother served as her witness, and I was William's. Most of the ceremony was in Polish, but some Bible passages and William's vows were in English. After the wedding, people lined up outside to wish the bride and groom well, and everyone gives flowers and throws small change, which the bride and groom have to pick up before departing the church. After the wedding, we went to a restaurant, and started the dinner party. Apparently a tradition is for the bride and groom to drink a glass of champagne each, then throw them over their shoulders and hope that they break all over the floor- it's bad luck if they don't break. Then came many courses of excellent Polish food, lots of Vodka, wine and beer, singing and dancing, that all lasted until the early hours of the morning.

Sunday, 6 August, 1600: Garden party at the summer house, about 20 kilometers outside of town. This would have been a lot more fun if it hadn't been raining like crazy the whole afternoon. It cleared up once or twice, but the rain was a steady companion. We got to meet other members of Aleksandra's family who didn't make it to the party after the wedding. Daddy and Aleksandra's father got along really well, even though there was a marked language barrier. There was lots of great food, cakes, Polish sausage, etc… William and Aleksandra got some nice gifts, including a complete set of dishes and a very nice set of cookware.

Monday, 7 August, all day: We all drove home from Poland. William, Aleksandra, and Daddy drove my car, and Tom and I were in his car. It ended up being a 14 hour trip home. Still, better than flying with all the stuff we had to bring up and back, and all the craziness and cost of the airlines. We even got back in time to put in four hours of work on Monday.