Znojmo

We left Prague with Pavel in his mini-van at about 8am for our trip to Vienna with a planned stop at Mikulov for some sightseeing. It was snowing when we left and only got worse and about an hour out of town we hit standstill traffic. We believe the highway was closed so we managed to get off the main road and headed straight south through the countryside. The snow gradually turned to rain as we got closer to Austria and we decided to visit a little medieval town called Znojmo. It was a quick visit but a very pretty town. We arrive at our extremely spacious apartment in Vienna at 2:30 and have been snacking and getting ready to go out for dinner since.

Charles Bridge

We have crossed this bridge a dozen times now and their is always something interesting going on. We are heading back over it tonight for dinner the back again with gelato in hand no doubt.

Jewish Cemetary

We toured the Jewish quarter of Prague this afternoon and then had lunch at a very Czech restaurant. It has gotten cold, but the sun was out for a lot of the day. We could spend another couple days here but it's on to Vienna in the morning.

Spring in Prague

From the Prague Castle.

Golem

We met a Golem on the way down from St. Vitus. Got up there early and did a nice walk thru the cathedral, golden walk and the palace. Taking a short break before heading to the Jewish quarter.

Terezin Walk

We have gotten a lot of walking in the last couple days. My dogs are barking.

Terezin

Too much to communicate in this blog about the Terezin camps but we learned a lot in our tour with Pavel Batel. He picked us up at 8am in Prague and told stories for the entire 40 minute trip north to Terezin. He has written a book about the camps and filled us with a ton of information about what went on there from the Middle Ages to Soviet Occupation. Most of the tour focused on the Nazi occupation and the use of the camps. Fascinating stuff but we didn't get back until 4:30 and we were tired.

Family Selfie

We had a great visit to the castle this morning then took a little time to recuperate then took the funicular to the top of Petrin Hill where we walked up four hundred stairs to the top of a tower overlooking the city. We also climbed the 300 stairs of the bell tower in the castle so are legs are feeling pretty good right now. It's been a great full day in the city and we have a reservation at a great Italian restaurant tonight. It's number 10 out of 2418 restaurants in Prague according to Trip Advisor.

Trdelnik

The boys favorite me food.

Old Town Square

They have an Easter Market going on. I have a feeling we will be back but first, sleep.

Winging it

We had two really smooth and on time flights from DC to Geneva and then to Prague after a morning of a lot of commotion of getting new passports for the boys in a record setting 5 hours. We found out about 22 hours before the flight to Geneva that the boys passports were invalid for entering most of Europe because they were set to expire in two months. They needed to be valid for three months. That set up a harried slew of events at the passport offices and new documents about 4 hours before take off. The passport office was extremely helpful and professional and we couldn't be happier with the help we got there but are still amazed that we only found out about the rule when checking into the flight and blame united airlines for that. Come on, they knew the boys were traveling on that ticket and had the passport info on their record. We got here but man are we tired.

We're Off

We made it, with some serious complications, but we made it. Btw, renew your passport even if it has a few months left on it. More on that later.

Spring is Winning

Got home at 2 today. It was nice to pock the boys up. Spring is popping up around here.

Heading Home

After 4 days in Denver for our twice yearly national meeting. It was spring like the entire time I was there with highs in the 70's. I'm going home to chillier weather and then off to Central Europe for a while. I'm happy to be on a plane home.

Bragging Rights

I think the teachers win the 6th grade vs. staff every year. I think the staff is significantly taller but this class only lost by 10 points. Sam is teacher height and scored 24 while Dylan is almost teacher height and scored 8 in a 79-69 loss. They had fun.

Basketball Bake Sale

The big 6th grade vs. teachers basketball game and bake sale is on Friday. Nicole has been had at work creating stuff to sell. Sam and Dylan have been talking trash about how they are going to take the teachers to the hoop.

Twin twins

Jack and Zack Everly are buddies from school and a pair of the four twin sets in the boys class at school. They were going thru evaluations for baseball this morning. Dylan and Sam both did well on the fielding and pitching part. They didn't bat all that well in the cage but the pitching machine was set for shorter kids. They had to swing at pitches below at their knees. They should go in a high round of the draft.

Longesh Week

Lots going on at work this week and while the boys were athletic team practice free, we did go to two rec games. We went to our travel coaches 2nd grade teams game on Tuesday and our friends 6th grade rec team championship game on Wednesday. They were both exciting games and the 6th grade team won. It's odd to be between sports but baseball tryouts are tomorrow and the basketball team starts up again soon to prate for some spring tournaments and the summer league.

Fire season is getting short but I'm going to squeeze a few more in this spring, including tonight.

Sent from my iPad

Patriots Party

While basketball season never really ends anymore, we celebrated the end of the winter league games tonight. The boys had a good season and really started gelling as a team. We will play a few tournaments this spring and jump into the Fairfax summer league in June. It's basketball all the time for these boys.

Ready for Action

More hitting and pitching instruction today. They are a little out of baseball shape but it's coming a along.

Warming Boots

The boots needed to dry out after some sledding this afternoon. Warm temps are coming and the fie season only has a few more weeks left.

Snow Fun

The boys finally made it outside.

Toasty Warm

Nicole brought in some firewood and then went at the driveway. I offered to help but she didn't want me touching "her" snow. The boys were too busy playing Minecraft.

Snowy Day

Woke up this morning to school, work and government shutdowns but no snow. It started coming down at about 8am. Good call to close stuff, the less people driving around the better.

Next Sport

With the county basketball season over and just some tournaments left for that sport, it's time to start getting ready for the spring ritual. The boys spent a couple hours hitting and pitching tonight.

14 Years Plus a Day

Nicole and I celebrated our 14th anniversary yesterday by going to work, then leaving the boys by themselves and having dinner in Alexandria. Hard to believe 14 years have gone by but we are still having a good time and partnering to raise some pretty terrific children. At least we think so.

W are waiting for another winter storm tonight and very likely another day of school closing. The boys are getting some hitting and pitching instruction in at Strike Zone. Baseball tryouts are just days away.

Sent from my iPad

In like a Lion

We are starting out March with an ice storm. Winter started out kinda slow but has been delivering something new every few days lately.