Riding on Tricky

So Matt decided to go on a ride and for once I agreed to accompany him. First we had to fill up. It was a beautiful evening. The funny part was that his bike got overheated and we had to stop and stay for a while on the side of the road. The nice part was that we had a gorgeous view of the sunset on the Neckar River in Heidelberg.
This is one of the reason we love leaving in Europe. It is so nice to just being able to pop in and go enjoy the view of a beautiful town.

Lazise, Lake Di Garda Italy

On the morning of the 18th of May, I read that there were a old “XV century Carmelite monastery” that was supposed to be way cool and had a gorgeous view over the lake and all that good stuff that will my HTF super happy! So I drove to Garda small cute town on the North East part of the lake and went to the Tourist office. They were very pleasant and helpful; they gave me a map and said that it was “around” there! AH AH well let me tell you something…. AROUND, mean “couldn’t possibly be found” except maybe by stopping and asking local who only speak Italian...( scusa il mio italiano non è così buono come il mio francese o inglese) I drove and went up and down, looking for some kind of sign. Normally even if it isn’t well indicated on the main road, it get at least one sign as you drove toward the “right” pass. Well, I drove and drove and looked like a stupid lost tourist that I was and NEVER found it. Well actually, I did finally found it, on Bing map, and if it is the building that I think it is… I wasn’t even CLOSE to it. Well I was close, but not on the road that go to it.
Anyway, so since I couldn’t find it. I decided to drive back toward a little town that I saw while going up to Garda.

The town of Lazise, I was impressed by the towers while driving near it, so…. I stopped and parked, and went on a walk around town. I found out that: This fortified town was first mentioned in a document dated 983 AD. The castle was at one time protected by Draw-bridges and heavy gates which you can still find traces of. A very cute little port was apparently a military port.

Next to it you can find the Medieval Church of Saint Nicolo that date from the twelfth century, and where you can see some very cool Fresco that date from this time.

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Second Celebration of my 20th birthday!

On May 17th 2010, I was celebrating my 20th Birthday for the second time. ;-)


I like BIG number. With it comes: “Experience, Wisdom, Intelligence, Maturity, Responsibility….” Bla bla bla

So now that I am 40 years young. (The new 30 right?) I can think of what that came with it.

Experience: Yes, definitely. I do believe I got that checked out of my bucket list.
Wisdom: Not so much… Or at least I don’t think so! So… Still working on that one!
Intelligence: well, let see, sometime I do believe I got some, and sometime I am definitely not as smarter as a 5th grader. LOL But, I do consider myself “stress sassy” so…. I guess in my own way, I am smart! LOL
Maturity: hmmmmm!!!!! Well obviously with the age comes maturity after all the definition is: mature state: the condition of being ripe, fully aged, or fully grown, especially mentally or emotionally BUT, I will have to say that I still have to checkmark the mentally and emotionally. Oh wait! Maybe not since 40 is the new 30! LOL!
Responsibility: well I think I am pretty responsible. I have 3 kids and cats to take care of, I don’t think they are considered maltreated. So… in that case I am responsible. However, I know that I need to work on that. So still uncheck!

So looking back, out of 5, I only have 1 fully checked one! That is BAD, don’t you think??

Anyhow. Now that I made a fool out of myself and showed the world that I am just a weird silly irresponsible young adult at heart. Let me tell you about my birthday day.

I was in Italy as you could have guess from the previous post, and my friend Miss Charm went to her conference leaving me on my own for the day. You can see what my day was on my previous post: Hills are alive
So on the late afternoon after the conference,
Miss Charm and I went to the little town that I drove through during the day called: Desenzano del Garda. Very cute little Italian town next to the lake. Gorgeous view of the Alps Mountain and the water. Old villas and typical fountains and gelato! Did I mention I LOVE Italy? ;-) So we park the car and walked around.

Took tones of pictures (you know my HTF right) and had a very nice meal looking at the sunset over the lake over the mountains. MAGNIFICO!


The only downside of the day was that I wasn’t with my family. I would have loved to have them with me, but the I thought that once in a while I could go and enjoy one Birthday without them, and since it was in Italy, how could I NOT go?



OH, and I found the PERFECT Villa for retirement! LOVE IT!!!

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Hills are alive

How fun my last week was…
So as I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to a trip with my friend Miss Charm. Italy was the destination. Hotel was in Castelnuovo Di Garda, not too far from Verona. Hotel was also next to Gardaland, which is similar as Six Flags or something like that (since I have never been to Six Flags or to Gardaland, I am not a very good specialist to tell you about neither one! LOL
Anyway. We left on Sunday morning, drove toward Switzerland where Miss Charm HAD to sing the song! You know the one with The hills are alive with the sound of music
…. Ladi lada!! Well I am sorry to report that Miss Charm, who (don’t get me wrong here) has a beautiful voice, didn’t sound that good. LOL! As soon as we passed the border, here came the sound of music. LOL (which I could totally envision Miss Charm doing exactly what this chick is going to do)

I thought it was so funny!! Anyway… enough singing. So here we are in rainy germany going down in rainy Switzerland, and as soon as we pass the San Bernadino Tunnel.

It was AMAZING how sunshine could change the look of a panorama such as the mountain. Something that was Pretty became Gorgeous. So then after a long ride. We made it to the hotel, and were greeted by a beautiful view of the sunset. Checked in, settled in and went to rest after a long day! The next morning, Miss Charm had her conference to attempt to. So I took off and went on a discovery of the area. I asked the front desk as where I could find some cool site and the young woman said that I should go to see “Salo” “Moniga” “Sirmione” “Lazise” and “Garda”. So I decided to go on the West side of the lake the destination was “Salo”. I took the small road that leaded there. I saw some very beautiful view and discover a little town just before Salo.

San Felice del Benaco. So cute. I parked the car and then walked toward the church. When I grew up, we always use to go visit churches, and I realized that one can always find the most beautiful art in European churches. I wasn’t disappointed with San Felice’s church.
From the outside the church didn’t look so great. But as you stepped inside, it was something completely different. “…should point out the Parish Church of Saints Felice and Adauto, which houses an altar piece by the Brescian painter Romanino in the apse, and also has an isolated bell tower from the Scaligero castle tower of which there remain only a few parts of the wall.Of notable interest also is the Santuario della Madonna del Carmine, built in 1452 in the late gothic style. On the extreme point of the promontory stands the little church of San Fermo from the XV century, built on the ruins of a large Roman villa.”
I went to visit the cemetery since it was just right there. And was surprise to see how small it was and the fact that they didn’t have many tombstones. As you can see in the pictures, most of the graves are on top of each other. Probably to keep the cemetery small and inside the city next to the church, but that is again pure speculation on my part.
Anyway, here are a few of the pics that I took over my little first escapade in the morning/early afternoon. Hope you enjoy them.
Beautiful Panorama over the Lake, just pure beauty.

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Adventure in Alsace, or what not to do!

I had the most interesting time this morning. Yesterday I decided that I needed some of my French cookie (I love them SO much that I am willing to drive over 1 hour to get them. LOL)
So, I went to my neighbor who shall remain nameless! ;-) Asked her if she wanted to come along or wanted something from me to bring her back.
She said, sure I’ll go to France anytime with you!
So this morning we took out after the kids left for school! I had everything covered in case I didn’t make it on time for Rafael coming home. Got a friend to make sure he was taken care of, and got Damien to take his key. So off we went.
The drive was GORGEOUS! It snowed over the past few days and the snow was a fluffy powder, the kind that stick in the tree and just look like winter wonderland! So we were just chitchatting over our little short drive (only 117km away) and arrived near the French border (which is on the spot we decided to take only the crossing of the river.) The traffic was pretty backed up and we were just enjoying each other company. But then my friend asked me very seriously:

(Nameless friend): “I don’t need my passport to pass the border right??”

(Me): “Well yes you do.”

(Nameless friend): “OMG!! I forgot to take mine!” (Panic face)

(Me): “It is OK, I am sure we will be fine we went several time in France with other friends and never got inspected, so we should be good!”

(Nameless friend): “No, you don’t understand every time that I forget something like that I get stopped!”

(Me): “Nah!! We’ll be fine, don’t worry!!”

So we continue driving along, pass the border and the GPS is telling me to take the second turn after the circle. OK! Then the traffic got slower!! Hmmmm! What is going on!! I looked in front of a big truck and there is a police car parked near the intersection!! I started laughing and told my friend.
OMG!!! She was LIVID!! I was laughing and say, we should be fine. And of course!! We weren’t!!
LOL!! The police signaled me to stop:

“Bonjour contrôle d’ identités!”

I took my French ID card and gave it to him, he looked at my friend. She gives him her US ID!! LOL!! He asked if she had a passport. “No I am so sorry, I forgot it at home!”
He looked at me and told me to follow the car to the “Station” and he would then give me our cards back!
Oki Doki!! Well what he didn’t mention was that the flipping “station” was about 10miles away, in the middle of the boonies!! LOL
So of we are following the French police, and my friend is now totally flipping out.

(Nameless Friend): "OMG!! OMG!!! My husband is going to be so mad at me!! "

(Me): "It will be fine, they are probably going to write down that you tried to enter and tell you to stay in Germany."

(Nameless friend): "OMG!! I am so sorry about that, I should have remember to take my passport!"

(Me): "It is fine don’t worry about it, it will be our adventure of the day!!"

(Nameless friend): Silent… trying to breath!!

(Me): "Come on, it isn’t like they are going to arrest you and put you in jail!! (not sure if they can do that or not) I learned that with the police you just need to stay calm, be polite and friendly and everything will be fine!!"

(Nameless friend): Silent…. Turning a little pale! LOL!!

We arrived at our destination!! ;-) Parked and follow the police in the “Station” after a few minutes of writing down all the information on paper!! (OH OH!!! Now they did ask some very… interesting question!!) LOL!! They get us in a “back” office!!

(Me thinking): Oh Oh!! This is going to be the “interrogation/torture” room!! LOL!!

Oh BTW, I am still LMAO during the all time!

There is 2 desks and 2 police officers, one empty chair next to one of the desk. One of them point at it and tell me to tell her to take a sit! They give us another chair and tell me to sit down. Me smiling the whole time and joking around.
Anyway, after about 40mn of joking around with them and of course getting question asked, translating those questions, getting the answers and translating the answers. We have to sign a paper saying that my dear nameless neighbor (who is a “saint” and wouldn’t do anything bad) is a very naughty lady because she tried to pass the border without her passport! But they did mention that I was as guilty because I tried to get her in!! LOL!! They turned us to the German Polizei across the street! LOL!

The German officer told my friend some blaberish (of course it was something in german) and… we just understood, ID card not valid in France. Please take your passport next time (or something similar!)

So now I just need to do this:

Note to self: When travelling to France with non EU resident, make sure that those travelers are holding a valid passport with their ID card, it might be helpful and you might not be arrested for trying to pass some illegal alien through the border! LOL!!

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From France

Well the election have passed, and since I am a French citizen and I can’t vote so it doesn’t really matter who I would or wouldn’t have voted for, I thought I would put some cartoon that I found online on the French web!! I’ll translate for those of you who don’t understand French.

"Obama, Obama, I am for Obama!

"So you are for a black president?" ... "oui, oui, oui..."

"...In America"

"With Obama, America is Communist, the russian evade Europe and the Gay have the right to abortion"
"My God, so like with Mitterrand here?!"

"Obama is going to be elected Mr President."

Then the Prince Charming woke up the beautiful America that a terrible sorcerer had bewitched for 8 years

Exhausted Volunteer

Damien has had an assignment on Global study to go volunteer on a farm, so we went to our good friend Esther who has a Farm near Mechanicsville, IA she raise chickens and turkeys and rabbits and goats, not counting the all vegetables thing that is going on over there. That chick isn’t lazy, She is working it hard and on top of it she home-school her son. My hat is coming down to her feet just for the entire thing she does… OH and did I mention she is also a GREAT friend?
So When I mention to her about Damien and his need of volunteering, she told me to bring him on.

Here are a few pictures of him and his sister helping around. He did a little more than Morgane cause he did put fresh hay and drag the nastiness out of the chickens coop. Needless to tell that their face was priceless when they were told they had to get the Sh.. out of the chicken coop.

After that was done Damien went to get one of the Goat sheared.

His job

was to hold the goat so that she didn’t jerk out for Esther’s to shear the wool.

After a few minutes he got tired of having the goat by the horn

standing over, so we had to lay her flat on the side for him to just hold it. It did took 1h30mn just to cut a few inches around for the wool not to drag down in the dirt, but they kept some on because the winter month are coming so fast!

When it was done he told Esther that he was EXHAUSTED!! I guess I should send him there for the summer… then he will know what Exhausted is right?

Rock Mohawk

My baby boy (the last one mind you) love to be silly and love to imitate “rock Stars” or so what he think the rock stars attitude should be! Anyway… Oh of the Rock Star thing is that he should ALWAYS have a Mohawk, so whenever he can he always ends up coming out of the bath with his sister like this!!
I had to take the pictures, especially since his shadow was also so Rock Stareesh”