Giving Thanks

Today I wrapped up my road trip to Nom nirvana (aka my parents’ house), starting with a quick easy micro:
"The Lighter Side Of Retail"

Over

Through

La Moine Pop N Squat

To

Yes, to…

… and wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season!

Christmas Caching

Ah…. the rush is over and the holiday is here! What better way to celebrate than by geocaching?

I’ll be in the Bakersfield area today, meeting my sister to exchange presents, then finding a few basic caches before returning south through the Grapevine and over the Tejon Pass. The weather is dry currently in Southern California, so it should be clear and beautiful.

‘Tis the season for snow on the mountains surrounding greater Los Angeles:

(taken on a hike with f0t0m0m last week)

‘Tis also the season to be on the lookout for decorations. I think these folks bought out the local stores for their front yard!

(taken on the recent run with OLdweeb)

I was not available to participate, but f00tm0m and the Ventura Kids joined some cachers in San Luis Obispo for the local Christmas parade, and were part of the geocaching float, which was also a geocaching event, of course!
Cachers on Parade

(video by the Ventura Kids)

I’ll be geocaching on Christmas day with a few of the locals around the Pasadena area, then heading to Monterey Park for dinner, probably Chinese food as those restaurants tend to be open on the holiday. If anyone cares to join us for all or part of the festivities, just let me know – or just show up! I’ll be logging in live on Twitter and the list will have a public bookmark. (Check GC14XB6 to find that.)

I hope you all have a wonderful, cacheful holiday!

**************************
Luke 2:8-14
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Germany and the magic of Christmas

Welcome to 2009, and a new year of geoblogs, geopix, and geoadventures!

Back in 1977, I was an AFS exchange student in Northern Germany, and I decided to revisit the family again this year for Christmas. I’ve stayed in touch, especially when I lived and worked in Germany about 15 years ago. Of course, this trip presented an opportunity to find my first caches in Europe, and I even got to three different countries!

I landed in Frankfurt and was met by my exchange sister, Gerlinde, who helped me find my first cache in the Vaterland:
Goethes Vater – Jugendkulturkirche St. Peter

She’s since become a geocacher herself, and went and bought a Nüvi for it!

My first errand upon arrival:

Old Opera House, Frankfurt

New building in Frankfurt – funky hole in it! Is it art?

Things to see in Frankfurt:

Authentic cuisine in Frankfurt:

Kaffeehaus

We spent two nights with her friend, Annagret, and their family in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. There’s a cache in these old millwheels:
Neue Mühle

The town’s manger scene had real sheep!

The town square had an oversized Christmas decoration:

This is the main street:

Houses dating from 1609:

The town is on a canal:

Speaking of canals, we found one near the Kiel canal:

There’s a cache up this hill:
Die zwei Berge

with this view:

We found a cache in Eutin that was installed in the armrest of a public bench, but it had been put back in wrong, and we couldn’t retrieve it, even with Gerlinde’s handy tool set:
De jure

This is a cache hide in Burg am Fehmarn:
Grössenwahn??

It’s next door to this church:

and around the corner from these chickens:

Other caches we found in Germany:
Forelle – Fische & Schiffe
Stoer-Faktoren
Wallenstein Eiche
Droped! Red12
Itzehoer Denkmäler – Eisenbahn

On Christmas Eve, we went to the North Pole. It’s only a few miles from where I visted – who knew?
Nordpol

There a certain magic to being in Germany for Christmas. There’s not so much commercialism, and the mood is much more relaxed. Every town has a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market)

where you can enjoy a glass of Glühwein (hot mulled wine)

Next stop…. Denmark! … and the cache placed just for me!