Category: Family

Dad’s German Trip

A couple of months ago Dad went on a length trip to his homeland of Germany. After he returned I asked for some photos to put on this blog. He sent them, but sadly the post was delayed due to recent events.

That delay is now over! I present to you:

Aloysius in Bergische Land

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This (and the next three) are where my dad was born and grew up. It’s almost alarmingly beautiful and pastoral. I wonder how much, if at all, it has changed since dad was born there last century.

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That’s dad next to a statue of a man that used to mint coins in Wipperfuerth (Dad’s home town). Even in this shot, the background looks very ‘German’ to me!

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Dad and three of his brothers playing cards. Did the eldest win I wonder?

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That’s Sonia, who I believe is a cousin of mine. The strangely small horses are hers as well, and apparently pull wagons for a living!

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A German breakfast as served by my aunt Brigitte.

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An early example of my or my brothers artistic skills. This is a home made Christmas decoration sent from the Australians to the Germans. I’m intrigued by what we’re playing with in the photograph. I wonder if my brother remembers.

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Dad’s comment to this one was:

A beautiful foal of a Clydesdale mother

And there we have it! Notable in their absence are photos of beer, sauerkraut or sausage. I see no shots of lederhosen, accordians or culturally embarrassing yet technically beautiful Nazi architecture. No shots of lindwurms, trolls or Elwetritsch. And – despite him claiming he visited Switzerland during his odyssey – not even a single glimpse of edelweiss.

Maybe a sequel post is forthcoming 🙂

Look What I Found!

This particular blog has been going now for over five years, all the way back to July 2006.

However it was preceded by another blog, which is still lurking online.

Check it out here!

Yep, that’s the blog I kept during out third Japan trip, back in 2006. It looks like we had a lot of fun.

And, for no reason other than it made me smile…

Check out something crazy I did 4 years ago 🙂

It’s rare I re-read any of my blog entries (951 and counting!). Maybe I should start digging through them. Who knows, it may make for a good blog entry 😉

San Diego: Fish Bears

And on my last day in San Diego I went on this:

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It was great! Truly worth the money and a fun trip!

After a drive around the waterfront for a bit we ended up like this:

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At which point I had view like this:

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And then after not too long the above view was replace with a bunch of fish-bears!

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And when I say a bunch, I mean a whole big bunch!

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They moved and growled and did bear-y things!

Ooops! I gave away that I did in fact know that they were not bears at all, but sea lions! They hang out on the top of a mostly-submerged holding tank for baby fish, which is there to attract bigger predator fish into the harbour for fishing. Every now and then the babies are released, which makes for good feeding for these guys.

Out boat/car got so close I felt like I could have reached out and grabbed one.

On the way back we saw this:

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Click on it to view it full size. That’s a shot of the dolphin training facility run by the navy. You can even see a dolphin in the photograph. They are trained for security and espionage. I thought at first our host was pulling our legs but it is true, and has been occuring for 50 years!

We also drove/sailed past this:

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That big cylinder is something I was quite a fan of as a child. It’s the RP Flip naval research vessel. The cylinder is pumped full of water which then sinks and flips the entire vessel 90 degrees to search as a research platform on the ocean. Here’s a series of shots of it working:

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(Like the dolphins) it’s almost 50 years old!

The last thing I saw on my way back from the sea lions was an honest to god SEA MONSTER! Now I’ve seen UFOs, ghosts and possibly even an Esper, but I’ve never had the privilege of seeing a sea monster before, so this was mighty exciting. I’d say it was more like the ‘sea cow’ style of beast (such as those seen in lakes) rather than a true serpent (such as occasionally sighted in the open ocean). I only sighted it briefly, when one of it’s front flippers fins broke the surface before the Zalophus californianus unidentified beast dove down again, but I was lucky to snap a high quality image.

Judge for yourself:

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