Where am I this week?

Well, another trip to another European capital completed. This time I was off to Stockholm to visit the Swedish Air Force. Their hospitality was unparalleled! I only had a chance to spend one day walking around downtown, but here are some pictures of the old town, a rather curious stairway and of course me in front of old town! Great trip, and timely, since I'm betting by the end of October you would only see a parka in that photo and not a sport coat!

I didn't realize that Stockholm is considered the "Venice of the north" The capital is spread across several islands in the mouth of Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea. A beautiful town to walk around and explore.

Critters in the night

Imagine my surprise the other night as I relaxed in the hot tub after a tough day, and I hear scratching along the fence. Off goes the family dog to defend his yard and raise a rucus along the fence line. After retrieving our fearless guardian Lebette informs me the "Oh, that is just Blossom" Blossom I ask? "Don't you remember when you were in Afghanistan and I told you we had a 'possum?" she replied. So here is a picture of Blossom our pet 'possum that Bacchus does NOT like. Thankfully Blossom just hangs out on the fence and lets Bacchus bark at her. (let's hope she doesn't have baby possums under her coat).

Home improvement part deux

Well, I finally got a chance to see my parents after 18 months, so of course we spent lots of quality time catching up on past events, family, and sight-seeing.....obviously you don't know my family very well. The entire week my parents were in town we spent doing home improvement projects, to include ripping up the tile of our guest bathroom. Once the old tile was up, imagine our surprise to find another layer of tile down there. Once that was up, we retiled the bath, replaced the comode, vanity and sink top. Finally we replastered the walls and repainted. This was all two months ago, and I am finally getting around to putting the molding back up and painting the trim! Aah the joys of home ownership!

Here are the photos of two layers of tile and the old wall, then the new tile and threshold and the new vanity/sink/mirror

Anniversary

Lebette and I celebrated our anniversary by visiting the birthplace of our nation...Philadelphia Penn. We decided to make an adventure of it and took an Amtrak train up there from our local train station. How cool was that....no lines, not having to remove my shoes & belt for security, $20 bucks to upgrade to business class, no seatbelts, plenty of room to roam, and wine and food from the minute we left until we pulled into Philly...very fun. We are already planning our Boston run.

We spent three days wandering around the town enjoying the sites, eating wonderful food (yes, even a cheese steak or two), and celebrating my bride not knocking me off after all these years. We both feel great that we are better Americans for visiting Independence Hall, seeing the Liberty Bell and seeing the very chair George Washington sat in over 300 years ago!
The weather cooperated nicely and was wonderful the whole time we were in Philly.

Here are a few pictures of the Hall, Ole Glory flying outside, and the Liberty Bell.

RIAT & Farnborough Airshow

After my trips to Berlin and London this spring, I quickly returned 4 weeks later to attend the Royal International Air Tattoo (www.airtattoo.com) and Farnborough Airshow (www.farnborough.com) in the UK. In my international affairs job, I had the opportunity to attend senior USAF leadership meetings with the leaders of 17 other Air Forces around the world. Oh, and by the way, I got to watch a lot of flying demos, drink champagne, and sweat in the 104 degree heat in my suit. (One of their hottest summers on record I'm told). The pictures are of the RAF Red Arrow show at RIAT, the cockpit of the Airbus 380, and a booth (chalet) at the Farnborough air show where corporations rent out spaces to hold meetings and working lunches.

I went straight from the Berlin Air Show to London England for a conference for 4 days. I won't complain since the weather held out wonderfully in London!

Here is Hyde park in the spring, along with a good ole' pub to down a few pints!

Well,


It has been an interesting spring. First I went to Warsaw (see the last blog) and was home for a few weeks before going to the Berlin Airshow in May!! Here is a picture of one of the cathedrals in downtown Berlin....




and the Airbus going through its demo flight. The weather was rainy and overcast most of the days we were there, but the show put on by the big aircraft was impressive. I wouldn't want to be on the Airbus during this demo flight.

Where in the world....

This month finds me in Warsaw Poland. I'm visiting as part of my job, and will have to spend 10 wonderful days here in Poland. I spent the afternoon of the first day wandering around the "old downtown" area of Warsaw. This town is full of history and beautiful old buildings. I walked through the Saski park and visited on the Polish Tomb of the unknowns before getting to the downtown district. And of course, you can't enjoy downtown life without a good Polish beer.