We're getting ready to go on a real almost-month-long vacation in Europe (mostly Germany). I've never taken this much time off of work before, and I'm a bit nervous about that. I've never spent this much time out of the United States, and I'm also a bit nervous about that. I've also never spent this much money on a trip before, and I'm pretty nervous about that, too, but trying not to think about it. The cast of characters for this trip are Laura (daughter), Barbara (wife), Joe (wife's other man/additional partner/boyfriend/whatever), Cheryl (my sweetheart/additional partner), and myself. First stop is Hamburg, where our dear friends live and whom we have not seen since, well, a long time ago when they came to visit Seattle. Also, Laura is already there, and will be staying for the ... read more

When we were here five years ago, we went to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona memorial. Much has changed since were last were here. The entire visitors center is new; apparently last time, the exhibits and gift shop were housed in temporary tent-like buildings. I do not remember noticing this, but I do know that what's there now is completely different from what was. All, that is, except for the Arizona Memorial, which is the same as it was since it was dedicated in 1962. It is the same rusty hulk lying on the bottom of the harbor and the same tiny trickle of fuel leaking. The experience at Pearl Harbor, for me, pulls up the whole jumble of what I "know" about WWII, perceptions and misconceptions alike. I have had trouble in the ... read more

Well, the flight was long, and since I did not pay $5 to rent the headphones to watch Green Lantern, pretty boring, except for the turbulence, which was not boring, and kept us in our seats for most of the flight. This was fine with me, as I had intended to be in my seat for the entirety of the flight. Interestingly enough, I got stuck in the rear galley hanging on to a stanchion for 10 or 15 minutes while I waited for the beverage cart to clear the aisle. We had what seemed like about a 5-mile hike from our jetway to the baggage claim, but on the bright side, we got to see all the sights at Honolulu airport. We scored a tricked-out Chrysler Town-and-Country minivan from the rental place and were on ... read more

If there is a city in the world which has more tightly tied its fate to the popularity of one Wolfgang Amade Mozart than has Salzburg, I would be be astonished. Were it not for Mozart, I do not think many people at all would even know what country Salzburg was in, and certainly no tourists would go there. I would compare it to St. Joseph, Missouri in size, both population-wise and in its small-townish-ness, and were it not for the Pony Express making its eastern terminus at St. Joseph, no one would ever go there, either. Salzburg is, however, an extremely important town, Mozart notwithstanding, as for most of its history, it was _the_ place to get much-needed salt. Because Europeans like meat, and more importantly, they like non-nasty meat, salt has been an important ... read more

Despite trying to hold sleep off, we ended up conking out at about 9:00 p.m. Since I sleep with a CPAP, I get very good sleep in short amounts of time, so by 2:30 a.m., I was awake and ready for the day. Clearly this was not going to work, even though Cheryl was also awake, so I put the CPAP stuff back on and forced myself back to sleep (a neat trick if you can do it) and made it to 6:30 a.m. After a bite of Früstücks (breakfast) we headed out into the city. Our first destination was the Haus der Musik, which in the descriptions I read was to be a museum all Vienna's rich musical history. As it turns out, most of the museum is like a cross between the Pacific Science ... read more