All packed up...barely!

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Thursday, June 10th:

Today was going to be a day filled with shopping for last minute items (chocolate!!) and souvenirs. Of course…Kenya HAD to get one more box of Legos…how many is that now!!!???  I was just a slight bit worried about the process of starting to pack! Let’s see…we came with two suitcases and two backpacks. We bought that shopping cart in Florence, and another backpack in Paris, so we had those too. Plus my aunt had bought tons of chocolate for us to bring home…yummm…we WILL make it fit! In the afternoon, we were going to go to my uncle’s restaurant for lunch/dinner. He is a French chef actually, married to my mom’s cousin Renate. His restaurant is pretty well known in Germany. His name is very French sounding too: Jean-Claude. My dad loves going to eat there because he serves frog legs…I shudder at the thought! Whenever family comes to the restaurant, he goes all out and serves like a 7 course meal! But it was not going to happen today, unfortunately! You see, my Tante Lorie had surgery on her eye that morning, and my aunt (who is Lorie’s daughter) was pretty consumed with that. But she did come over with my other uncle Helmut, (my grandfather’s nephew) and I was astonished how much he looked like my grandfather!!! He was the spitting image! It was really nice to catch up with them and hear about their lives.

I spent the rest of the late afternoon sorting and packing…ugh…all of Kenya’s Legos (taken apart and out of the boxes) all fit into the backpack we purchased in Paris….over 5000 pieces! Our plan was to check in both of the suitcases, so that we each could carry on a backpack (Kenya-two of them) and our rolling shopping cart. My mom’s eyes were rolling…she knows me so well!!!
That afternoon, my mom and I spent walking around Bitburg, and its shopping area. We walked into a garden shop, and my mom found the cutest garden sculpture (she had been admiring one at my aunt’s house since we arrived). It was going to be my mom’s birthday Monday, so I decided to buy it for her…it would be an excellent birthday gift, plus, it would be an awesome reminder of our trip to see when we have family get-togethers. Part of the sculpture was on a long stake (about 3 feet), and my mom was a little worried about how she was going to pack it. My dad saved the day when he figured out that it unscrewed half way down, making the sculpture almost half its size. She had a great bag to use to carry it on the plane!

That night, I was nearly all packed, but I found that I absolutely could not fit my toiletries bag or my hairbrush…my luggage was busting at the seams…I asked my mom and dad to pack it with their stuff and while, again, rolling their eyes, they happily complied! LOL

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Hello Christina
Enjoy your travels. Many of us read along.

[Travelinggirl]

Thank you!!!
It's my first attempt, so it's a little rough, but I wanted the memories fresh for my daughter and myself! :) Can't wait for the next trip!