Bora, Bora

Justin and Sarah had non-stop rain the two days they were in Tahiti and were pretty disappointed to say the least.  Being Survivor fans, I pointed out at least they were staying in posh digs rather than outside in the elements!  Kind of the ultimate "First World Problem!"  Fortunately, their move to Bora, Bora brought them the sunshine they were hoping for.  They are staying at Le Méridien Bora Bora  in one of those iconic over the water bungalows.  Justin says Bora Bora is easily the most beautiful place he has ever seen.  Here's a photo of their bungalow with famous Mount Otemanu in the background.  I made this photo my iPhone lock screen wallpaper.  Couldn't be more perfect!

Inside their bungalow showing the glass-bottom floor

Justin going for a swim right off the ladder to their bungalow

Looking through the glass bottom floor as he swims by

Sarah's turn

The Bride

The Groom

Justin Stand-Up Paddleboarding

Spelunking and Little Lambs

I've mentioned before that Sarah is such a great travel planner and finds the most unique places to stay and things to do.   So far, in New Zealand, they went zorbing which is rolling down a hill in a large inflatable globe.  They also went spelunking and rafting in 43 degree water in a glow worm cave- see Black Water Rafting Company.  I'm pretty sure these activities were planned with Justin in mind.  But for Sarah, the main reason they were staying at Kamahi Cottage billed as New Zealand's only 5 star farm accommodation, was so she could pet baby lambs.  Well, she got her wish!

 

Sarah is a vegetarian and I don't see any lamb chops in Justin's future now!  

The Proposal

I never asked if it was okay to post this but I don't think Justin ever looks at my blog anymore so shhh!  The video and color is not good because the room was a little dark but you can hear the words.  The recording didn't begin until a minute or so into his proposal.  What you missed is how he began by telling Sarah how beautiful and amazing she is and how smart...too smart as he put it... she is.  I'm so glad we have this recording!  Thank goodness our cousin Matthew had the presence of mind to grab his cellphone and begin recording once he realized where it was going!

Christmas Miracle

Just kidding... not really a miracle but a long time coming!  Justin and Sarah are engaged!  Saturday night at our family Christmas party, in front of all our loved ones, Justin proposed to Sarah and she said yes!  Justin had told us a few days earlier so it wasn't a surprise for Jeff and I but we kept it quiet not even telling Jessica.  Sarah's parents were at the party and they knew, too, as Justin had gone to their home the day before to ask for their blessing.  Everyone was very moved by Justin's proposal and cousin Matthew had the presence of mind to pull out his cellphone and begin recording a video once he realized where it was going.  He says he will try and get the video to me so when I get it, I'll post it if it's okay with Justin and Sarah.  They just had their 2 year first date anniversary this past week so I think this is good timing for them... long enough to know each other well but not too long to wear out Sarah's patience.  Here's a photo of them taken a little after the proposal.  You can spot the ring on Sarah's finger... it needs to be resized as he did all the shopping on his own.  I'll try to get a better photo of the ring when they are here Christmas Eve.

   Happy Couple!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We will be having the family over today for Thanksgiving.  Jessica, Pat and the boys will be here as well as Jeff's mom and Aunt Joy, and Jeff's dad and Robin.  Justin will be here but Sarah is still in Spain on her 5 week work/vacation.  She is due home on Saturday.  She's been to London, Spain, Portugal, Casablanca, Morocco among other places.  We'll be having the traditional menu of turkey, dressing (this year I'm making dressing with cranberries and apples,) mashed potatoes and gravy, my special yam casserole, Aunt Joy's Zesty Carrots, steamed French green beans with slivered almonds, a kale side dish with asiago cheese in a bechamel sauce, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls and a green salad.  Our dessert is never the traditional pumpkin pie as most of the family can really take it or leave it so I'm auditioning a White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cake from Costco.  If we like it, we'll have it for our Christmas Party next month.  Here's a tiny photo of it from the Costco website.  You can see that it will make a nice Christmas dessert!

So what to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers?  Can't beat a good turkey sandwich with cranberries on the side but if you have a lot of leftovers from all the dressing and side dishes, you can make what I call a "Pilgrim Pie!"  It's similar to the British Shepherd's Pie.  You basically line a casserole dish with leftover dressing, add turkey, top with some gravy, add leftover veggies and make a top "crust" with mashed potatoes.  Here's a more formal recipe but you can pretty much improvise and it'll turn out great!

~ Pilgrim's Pie ~

2 cups leftover stuffing

2 cups cooked turkey

1 cup gravy

2 cups leftover cooked vegetables

2 cups mashed potatoes

Preheat oven to 350°F

Press stuffing into a greased casserole dish

Layer with turkey, chopped into bite sized pieces

Pour gravy over top

Top with leftover cooked vegetables

Finish with a crust of mashed potatoes

Bake in 350°F oven for 30 minutes or until warmed through

Serve with cranberry sauce

Only in LA

I haven't posted lately in my "Only in LA" blog label so I thought I'd share something that recently happened.  Our cousin David (who lives in Taos, New Mexico) is married to an artist Tracy Turner.  I've linked before to her wonderful paintings.  Tracy flew into LA to spend time with her best friend who lives in London.  Her friend participated in one of those "Home Exchanges" like in the movie, "The Holiday."  Her friend has a villa in France and she swapped for a very famous house in the hills of Malibu.  Tracy and her friend stayed in "The Wing House."  It's a home made from the parts of a 747 airplane.  The huge wings serve as a roof and many other parts of the plane were incorporated into the home.  HERE's a link to The Wing House.  It's really quite fabulous and famous!  Scroll down to see all the photos.  We had a really nice dinner with David and Tracy and hope to visit them again in Taos.  David built their home and on the property, Tracy has an artist studio and Aunt Joy (David's mother, Audre's sister) has a casita that she says we are welcome to use anytime.  She only spends one month there in the summer so it's free most of the year.

Speaking of London, Justin's girlfriend Sarah arrived there on Monday for a business trip.  She works for Yum Foods Corporate and they have Taco Bells and KFC's all around the world.  Yesterday she was in a rainy Manchester and posted on Facebook this fun fact:  When ordering "chips" at a Taco Bell in England, you need to clarify if you're asking for fries or nacho chips.  She will be gone for 5 weeks.  She's combining a vacation in Spain with her business trip.  Her aunt will meet her in a couple of weeks and they will travel around Spain and other locales.  

Birthday Week

Saturday was my birthday, Sunday was Audre's (Jeff's mom) birthday, this coming Wednesday is Robin's birthday and Thursday, the 17th, is Ryan's 6th birthday!  To celebrate my birthday, Jeff and I went to a movie and dinner on Saturday night.  We saw Gravity in our Muvico's 21 and over theater.  You can have food and alcoholic beverages in the theater and you get free popcorn.  We saw Gravity in 3D which normally I'm not a big fan of but it doesmake sense for that movie which has stunning cinematography and makes good use of the 3D technology.

We had Audre and he sister, Auntie Joy, over on Sunday night for a birthday dinner for Audre.  Her memory is fading more and more and didn't even remember that it was her birthday.  She stays pleasant and good-natured so that is a plus.  Jeff really has his hands full with helping her to remember things like taking her medications both morning and night and driving her wherever she has to go.

We will be celebrating Ryan's birthday this weekend.  I think he wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  I've promised to buy him a game on my iPad and Jeff is buying him a game on his Kindle on his actual birthday but the rest of his presents will probably wait until the weekend.

My Facebook friends have seen this video but I thought I'd share it here.  After several years, our peahen (female peacock) still resides in our neighborhood.  She pretty much hangs out in the backyards of about six of our neighbors- the three houses at the end of our block and the three that are directly behind us.  This past week, we found her on the balcony off our master bedroom.

     

Spur of the Moment

We had a quick little trip up to Morro Bay over the weekend.  George and Robin were on their way down from a Washington/Canada trip and called and asked if we might want to meet up with them in Morro Bay.  Jeff's grandparents built a home there many years ago and it is still in the family so we had a nice place to stay.  It was our first road trip with the dogs in the new Prius.  Remember I showed you the liner that Jeff made to protect the back area when the seats are down?  The dogs are great travelers and they had so much fun hiking and going to the beach.  Here's a photo of a trail we took high above the Morro Bay area.  Off in the distance, you will see the big Morro Rock in the water that is a landmark for the area.  My physical therapist would freak out if she knew I did this strenuous uphill climb!

We've visited Morro Bay a lot over the years but this weekend was, without a doubt, the best weather I've ever experienced there.  It's so often foggy and cool but, as you can see, it was sunny and clear with temps in the mid-80's!  We did this hike with Jeff's cousin Susan and her husband Greg and their 12 year old Golden Retriever, Sophie.  We had a nice BBQ back at the house that George and Robin fixed for us all.  Delicious tritip steaks, George's famous twice-baked potatoes, salad, and apple pie a la mode.  The following night, we went out to a Mexican restaurant.  

Jeff, Kanan and Cooper at Morro Bay beach

Cute Sandpipers running in the soup

Otters Galore!

Catching Up

Sorry to go missing again but I am struggling with mixed feelings about blogging.  I guess I'm just plain tired of writing posts after 11 years of pretty consistent posting.  I'm not tired of my blog friends or reading their posts at all though and I miss you all and think about you often!  So I'll do a quick catch up of what's been going on.  As you know it's a busy month filled with birthdays and an anniversary.

I started Physical Therapy last week and will go twice weekly for 6 weeks.  I thought it would be mostly core-strengthening exercises but I'm also getting the little electrode zappers and the best part... a nice massage!  I'm feeling pretty close back to normal although they tell me that sciatica nerve may take a while to completely calm down.  

Ryan is back in school and doesn't get home until almost 3 PM so I only have a little over an hour with him each day.  Jacob, on the other hand, is here all the time.  He's still really good about his "Quiet Time" so he's in the downstairs bedroom with cartoons turned on at low volume and has my iPad and Jeff's Kindle.  9 times out of 10, he falls asleep so he's usually in there from 1 to 3 PM.  He was resistant to taking naps but since he falls asleep so often, it's pretty obvious he still needs naps... as long as we don't call it nap time!

Justin and Jessica both had their birthdays and Justin had some interesting developments at work.  The computer projects he's been doing for the last 10 years were winding down so he was beginning to wonder if he was going to need to dust off his resume and start looking for something else.  He was given the opportunity to do some work as a "Business Analyst" and really loved it.  He's a very good writer and in addition to his Computer Science degree, he has a Communications degree from UCLA so he was able to apply those skills to the Business Analyst work.  He had a big interview for a Business Analyst position within his company, Computer Sciences Corporation, and he got it.  The project is out of the Boston office but he will be able to work from home!  He and Sarah are going to San Francisco and Santa Rosa (Wine Country area) this weekend (the trip a birthday present from Sarah) and we will be dog sitting Sierra while he's gone.

Speaking of wine... remember my wine glass chandelier from Pottery Barn?  I found this at HomeGoods to hang on the wall.

What I love about shopping at HomeGoods is I usually go there with nothing special in mind and it's fun to find something unexpected.  I also got some really nice fillable seeded glass lamps there for our bedroom. Don't think I'll fill them with anything but I like the way the glass sparkles.  The shades are burlap  and I have them on a dimmer switch.  Lamps like this cost 3 times as much at Pottery Barn!  I often shop at PB or PB online for ideas and find similar items for much less at HG's! 

   

My comment above about finding something unexpected reminded me of the word Serendipity.  It's a word that I love and always reminds me of our dear friend Elizabeth whose first blog was named Serendipity. "Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; a fortunate mistake. Specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it. The word has been voted one of the ten English words hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company."  Serendipity is also the name of that fabulous restaurant in Manhattan where you can get Frozen Hot Chocolates.  And don't forget the movie Serendipity!

Boys Will Be Boys

Bet you thought this post was going to be about Ryan and Jacob.  Nope, no matter their age, boys like fast cars and dirty things.  Jeff, Justin and Chris went racing on Sunday at the track at Ventura Fairgrounds and Liz and I cheered them on from the stands.  We didn't realize the track was going to be dirt and the stands were covered in a layer of dirt and dirt chunks.  Went really well with my pristine white blouse I was wearing.  Here's a photo of the guys suited up in their racing gear.

The track is at the beach, hence the palm trees in the background.  I took a video of each of the guys racing around the track but they decided it looked way too slow to show anyone.  While speeding around the track, each of them thought they were surely breaking track records for speed.  I guess the sensation of actually being in the car seems a lot faster than it appears from the spectator point of view.  Here's a shot of Chris in the red car going around the track.

They all agreed it was a fun time and we capped it off with a trip to an Irish pub- Dargan's Pub- on Main Street in Ventura for lunch and a few brews and an exchange of war stories about their racing adventure.  Liz and I insisted on a nice lunch to reward us for sitting in those dirty bleachers!

Ergonomic!

Jeff suggested that my desk chair may not be as ergonomic as it could be and that perhaps a better chair would make sitting at the computer more comfortable.  So I googled ergonomic office chairs and teased Jeff that I found the perfect chair for me!  What do ya think?

How hilarious would this be?!

Actually I did get a new chair at Staples that was on sale for only $99.00.  I figured it can't hurt and it has a way more padded seat than my current leather chair.  They also sell these really nice cushions at Costco and at Bed, Bath & Beyond so I may get one of those, too.

The boys are enjoying the spa and they love their "swimming uniforms!"  That's what Ryan calls them.  Here they are in the spa together.

  

Weekend Plans:  Justin and Sarah are coming this weekend.  Jeff, Justin and Chris are going to go race cars.  They bought a Groupon for this a while ago so they finally found a time to schedule it.  It's the Cory Kruseman Sprint Car and Midget Driving School in Ventura.  I guess they get lessons first and then they take 15 laps around the course.  Not sure if the girls will be cheering them on or just shopping and lunching in Ventura.  Have a great weekend!

Hot Mamas

We had a super hot Mother's Day!  As I write this on Sunday afternoon, it's 102 degrees!  As I mentioned, we celebrated on Saturday and we had a really nice day with lots of good food that Jeff fixed for us.  In addition to our taco salad, Jeff BBQ'd two pork loin roasts.  You can never go wrong with those...they are always good and tender unlike a beef roast which can be hit or miss.  Ryan had a great time with Uncle Justin talking all about Star Wars.  Ryan is usually a little shy around Justin because he doesn't see him that often so it was nice they could nerd bond over Star Wars!  I neglected to take any photos but I do have one of Ryan and Jacob from Friday.  We are going to be watching them a lot more for a while because Pat started a new job.  I have found a summer program that Jacob might be able to attend but in the meantime, I'm entertaining them with fun things and a few educational things tossed in.  They are still into "The Avengers" big time so I found some coloring pages and masks online to download and print.  Here's a photo of Jacob and Ryan as Captain America and Ironman.  

Annie's back surgery is tomorrow so sending prayers and good wishes her way for a successful outcome and speedy recovery!

Mom

Kim has started a weekly meme called Wednesday Chatter and this weeks topic is Mom since Mother's Day (in the US) is this Sunday.  Typical for us, we are celebrating Mother's Day on Saturday.  Justin is driving Sarah to the airport for a business trip and since LAX is half way here from his house, he asked if we could celebrate on Saturday.  Jeff will fix us dinner and we have 4 moms coming:  me, Jessica, Jeff's mom and Jeff's aunt.  George and Robin will be here, too.  Jessica requested taco salad so we'll have that along with a BBQ of something... not sure yet.  And for dessert, Costco's tiramisu cake!  We only have dessert on special occasions.

So about my mom.  She was the quintessential mom of the 50's... a real June Cleaver!  On Wednesday, the Harris Poll announced that once again, June Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver) was number 1 on the Top 10 list of Best TV moms.  Just like June, my mom was a stay-at-home mom who always wore a pretty dress even while doing housework.  She was calm, nurturing and never raised her voice.  The only concern I had growing up about my mom was that she was an older mom.  While most of my friends had moms who were in their 20's and 30's, my mom was almost 40 when she had me.  I always worried that she was going to die and leave me but boy was I wrong!  She lived to be 90 and saw both her grandchildren grow up and graduate from college.  They loved Nana and she was every bit as good as a grandmother as she was a mother.  No one could ask for a better mom and role model.  I should scan a photo but I do have this one on my computer that looks to be from the 1930's.  She would've been too young for it to be the Roaring 20's!

\

  Happy Mother's Day!

Roller Coaster Ride

Yesterday was a "bad back day!"  I am getting so frustrated with my herniated disk problem.  I've been going to physical therapy 3 mornings a week for 4 weeks now and I still have good days and bad days.  When I feel good I get encouraged and think I'm getting better and then I'll have a bad day, like yesterday, and I feel like there's been no progress at all.  It's such a roller coaster ride.  I do know what is bad for me and what makes things worse and that is sitting.  In fact, I think a lot of my problem may be all the time I spend at the computer sitting.  So I'm trying to limit my computer time.  There's times I think I should take a blog break but it's really not that time consuming to write a quick post and make a few visits so I'll hang in there a while longer.  I'm giving myself until June (when I see the doctor again) and if there's still no major improvement, I'll probably have to have the back surgery.  It's not that big of a deal- it's a 90 minute microsurgery procedure with little downtime so we'll see.  At least I'll know I tried my best to help it through physical therapy first.  Waiting any longer than 6 months would be bad as I could have permanent nerve damage.

Thought I'd post a quick photo of Jacob.  Jessica was at the store the other day and Jacob saw a little plastic watering can in the shape of a duck!  He just HAD to have it.  It was only 99 cents so Jessica bought it for him,  She should enjoy these days when he will be happy with such a simple little toy!  He loves helping me water, too.

First World Problems

Jeff has been a little sick this past weekend...started with a sore throat and now a bit of a cough so we didn't get out for a nice long drive in the new car like we had planned.  It's a bit of a Southern California tradition when you get a new car to take a drive up the coast to Santa Barbara for lunch.  That will have to wait for a few days.  I was looking forward to playing around with the navigation system while on the road.  Instead, I read the manuals but not sure how much sunk in... it's so much better to "learn by doing" as I learned when I was teaching.  I had a bit of a panic moment over what could've been a catastrophe!  I plugged in my iPhone (via it's lightning cable) to the USB port that's down inside the center console.  The port is real deep down so it's hard to see if you're plugging it in correctly.  All was fine as I was setting up the bluetooth until I tried to remove the cable from the USB port.  It was stuck!  I wasn't about to pull it hard and wreck the USB port in our brand new car so I called Jeff to come take a look.  He couldn't get it out either but questioned me if I was sure I put it in correctly.  Well, usually they only go in one way so I thought I had but it's too far down to really see what you're doing.  We decided we better not try to force it out and take it into the Toyota dealer the next day.  In the meantime, I googled, "My iPhone 5 lightning cable got stuck in the USB port of my brand new Prius" and sure enough I came up with a lot of links.  Apparently, the iPhone 5 lightning cable has issues with getting stuck in all sorts of USB ports- laptops, computers, cars, etc...  HERE's the link that helped me:  How to Unstick your Stuck Lightning Cable from a USB Port complete with a video.  The solution involved using a stay (the little thin plastic tabs) that the dry cleaners put in collars of dress shirts to help dislodge the cable.  I told Jeff what to do, we had a little white collar stay and the tip worked like a charm!  Bad Apple!  This is a known problem and they've done nothing to correct it.  We had to go buy a new lightning cable made by another company that will easily go in and out of the USB port.

I posted about this on Facebook and gave the link to the site that helped me which is called Wonder HowTo.   It's a cool site and as they say a, "Wonderland for Your Inner Nerd!"  My post said, "Thanks to this site for helping me unstick my iPhone 5 cable from our brand new Prius USB port to which Justin commented. "First world problems..."  If you haven't seen the First World Problems site, it's pretty hilarious. It's a site with a collection of people whining about the most trivial things that you'd only hear in non-third world countries.  Here's one of my favorites:  My iPad 3 doesn't warm my lap as much as my MacBook Pro."  I submitted my first world problem:  "My iPhone 5 cable got stuck in the USB port of my brand new Prius!"    Waaaah!

Souvenirs

We are all getting a lot of souvenirs from Justin and Sarah's travels.  Today, we are going down to visit Justin and pick up souvenirs that they have for Jessica and Pat and for the boys.  We will also see their trip photos and hear about their adventures.  We're taking the dogs and will go to the Huntington Beach Dog Beach, have dinner with Justin and Sarah, watch Survivor and then come back home.  When we picked them up at the airport, they gave us our souvenir that they bought in Venice.  They are Comedy and Tragedy Masks.  I put them on my console table in the living room.  Here's a photo.

The little silver compact in the photo is a gift from their trip last year to Istanbul.  I have placemats and coasters from Sarah's Vietnam/Thailand trip and a wine bottle holder from their Costa Rica trip last August.  We also have refrigerator magnets from exotic places they've visited.  Since they only travel with carry-on luggage, they have to keep their souvenirs small.

I saw my Orthopedic doctor on Monday and told him that, unfortunately, the cortisone shot didn't really help much.  He'd like me to have microsurgery because he's concerned about nerve damage if this herniated disk keeps pressing on my nerve.  The last three toes on my right foot tingle all the time like they're asleep which is a sign that it's affecting the nerve.  I'd like to give it more time to see if it gets better on it's own because it often does after 6 months or so and it's only been 3 months.  I'll try and wait until after summer before I consider surgery.  In the meantime, I'm going for physical therapy and I begin that on Friday.  Besides what they want to do for the disk, I want them to tell me what exercises I can safely do because I'm used to exercising 3 times a week and have been afraid to do that for fear of further injuring my back.  I'm not happy losing the muscle tone I've worked hard to maintain. 

Rattlesnake Aversion Clinic

Cooper and Kanan are going to a Rattlesnake Aversion Clinic at The Barkley this afternoon.  We have lots of rattlesnakes in the local hills and the trails where we take them hiking.  The training involves wearing "bark collars" and introducing them to live muzzled rattlesnakes.  You can read about it HERE.  We asked if it would be okay to bring Ryan and Jacob along to watch as they are always so worried about rattlesnakes at the parks since they have "Beware of Rattlesnake" signs.  I wasn't sure if The Barkley would think this appropriate but they said it would be fine for them to come and watch.  I think it will be good for them to see what a real rattlesnake looks like and be aware they are to be avoided.

Justin and Sarah are back from their whirlwind European Adventure.  I thought I'd end my version of their travelogue with a wonderful photo of them in Paris!  Have a great weekend, Happy Easter and see you in April!

  

King's Landing

 On Saturday, Justin and Sarah (after taking trains and planes) arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  They splurged here and stayed in a luxury hotel:  The Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik.  They were so fortunate to have a sunny, warm, clear day as you'll see in the photos where Justin is in short sleeves.  This was the part of the trip Justin was most looking forward to as I mentioned before as it is the location site of King's Landing in one of his favorite shows, Game of Thrones.  Dubrovnik did not disappoint!  All he could say was, "Wow...just wow!"  The walls and fortresses date back to the early Middle Ages!

My favorite photo.  Those doors are so intriguing!

The unluckiest boat in Dubrovnik!

Another beautiful photo!

Later this week, I should have photos from the final legs of this epic journey:  Dublin and Paris. 

Ryan has mastered riding his two-wheeler. At first he could only turn one direction but now he can do figure 8's! Way to go Ryan! The video should straighten out when viewed. For some reason, I can't directly upload iPhone videos to blogger so have to go through Vimeo.

Castles in Germany and Slovenia

Justin and Sarah are visiting a lot of castles and they will end their European vacation with a stay at a castle in Dublin.  They've been taking trains through the countryside and visited Neuschwanstein Castle in Southwest Bavaria, Germany.  Didn't the dark clouds give it an eerie Dracula's Castle-like look?

Justin & Sarah at Neuschwanstein Castle

After visiting the castle, they took an overnight train to Lake Bled in Slovenia, arriving at 6 AM.  They were able to check right into their hotel overlooking the lake and they had a beautiful, sunny day for exploring this glacial lake in the Julian Alps in northwestern Slovenia.  The lake surrounds Bled Island which has several buildings, the main one being the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary, built in the 15th century, where weddings are held regularly. The church has a 52 m (171 ft) tower and there is a stairway with 99 steps leading up to the building. Traditionally it is considered good luck for the groom to carry his bride up the 99 steps on the day of their wedding before ringing the bell and making a wish inside the church.

Lake Bled and the island

Medieval Bled Castle in the background, swans in the foreground

Snow on the ground

Boat ride to Bled Island

Lake Bled Island and Pilgrimage Church

Justin checking out those ancient 99 steps!

Next stop, Dubrovnik, on the Adraitic Sea coast of Croatia.  As a huge fan of the HBO series Game of Thrones, Justin is most excited to visit this city which is the location of King's Landing in the series.  For any GoT fans, HERE's a site "Winter is Coming" that shows the location sites and a preview of what Justin and Sarah will be seeing in Dubrovnik.   

The Race Continues...

If you didn't see my last post, it's where Justin and Sarah's Amazing Race through Europe begins with photos of Amsterdam, Venice and Prague.  Continuing here with more photos of Prague.  Prague is famous for it's Gothic architecture and you can see the beautiful Tyn Church in Old Town Prague.  Tyn Church was founded in 1385.  Legend has it that Tyn Church gave Walt Disney the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle.  Here's a closeup of Tyn Church.

  

Another famous landmark in Old Town Prague is the Astronomical Clock which dates from the 15th Century and is the oldest working astronomical clock in the world.  Every hour on the hour, you can see "The Walk of the Apostles" in which figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures—notably a figure of Death (represented by a skeleton) striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.  Below is a photo of this famous clock.

Justin and Sarah in Old Town Prague (above) and sipping tea in an outdoor cafe (below)

Prague at night

 

After their stay in Prague, they took a evening train to Plzeň (Pilsen) also in the Czech Republic and visited a  brewery famous for being the birthplace of pilsner beer. And the only place in the world to get unfiltered, unpasturized pilsner beer. Delicious, and only 2 bucks a pint, according to Justin.  Here's what I assume to be the "Before and After" photos of their visit to Plzeň and it's brewery.

Before

Lovely light dusting of snow

After

Looks like Sarah is critiquing Justin's Czech/German drinking song

After their tour of Pilsen, they took a train to Munich, Germany where they are now as I write this entry.  In the next few days, they will be on more trains on their way to Mittenwald and Innsbruck in the Bavarian Alps.

This just in... a video Justin posted on Facebook.  They have arrived in Munich and are on their way to the Hofbrauhaus for beer and schnitzel.