Daddy, Papa and Me

So, it's Friday. I haven't posted a thing for a week. Why? Because I'm at Family Week in Provincetown sponsored by the Family Equality Council.

Yes, I'm a bad gay parent. Here we are, at a family week for GLBT parents, and me, a gay parent who blogs both on my own personal blog and occasionally (and not much lately :() on the Family Equality Blog, and I have not blogged about it at all. Why oh why am I so negligent?

Unfortunately this is a working vacation. I work from 7 or 8 in the morning and finish around 2, then work late at night. Guy takes Emma in the morning, I take her after two. We go to events and activities with Emma...

Well, if I could only get my computer to access the wireless here in the room, I'd post tons of photos, but alas, it is refurbished and somehow they forgot to make the wireless card strong.

We are in Germany. Have been since Monday morning. After an adjustment to jet lag, we are all enjoying our time here. The first day or two Emma was a bit testy, but so was I (but not so much Guy who is used to strange sleep patterns I guess), so I'm not sure if Emma's behavior difficulties were due as much to her own jet lag-induced testiness as they were to my own. We had a good time those first two days, just a testy-good time :). We are all now in great moods!

Emma is enjoying herself seeing the places she was as a baby and hearing our stories about her first months of life in Germany. She especially loved the story of throwing up in my face. We've seen the castle, went to EMBL where I worked and she went to daycare part time.. and the place where Guy insists she was named after (oh, I haven't told that story?... I guess I'll have to at some point), walked the Hauptstrasse (main street) and old town, did some shopping, ate at a 300 year old student pub (Zum Roten Oxen). Emma had kase spatzle. Since it is basically noodles with cheese, she loved it. She also enjoyed my sauerbraten. Only a few friends are left here, but they are close friends and we are some great time with them.

Funny story. As mentioned, the first day or so, Emma was a bit testy. Near the end of the second day, she explained to Guy that she has been testy because she was afraid that we'd fall in love with Heidelberg again and decided to move back and she wanted to make it a bad enough experience we wouldn't consider that. Ok, so I'm sure it wasn't that, it was the jet lag, but what a creative excuse huh?

Still, I am feeling a bit nostalgic. We absolutely loved it here. Our apartment, the town, Germany, Europe, my job, our friends. Miss it. That said, San Francisco has the same thing (home, country, job, friends), so Emma has nothing to worry about... so, some of the things we love...

Just a quick update. We are having a very nice and relaxing time in Germany. It has been mainly taken up with spending a lot of quality time with friends, old and new. Saturday we spend with a couple we met (he's Belgian, she's Spanish) who lived in San Francisco two years ago (for two years)... and apparently our kids played together in the park, a lot. We just didn't know it at the time because our babysitter took Emma to the park then. Anyway, we spent the day with them in Luisen Park in Mannheim (great park, along the lines of Central Park or Golden Gate on a slightly smaller scale). Then we went to see Mama Mia with another friend. Emma LOVED that movie. She want's the DVD and for me to download the songs on our iPod! LOL. Afterwards we went to dinner with some other friends from when we lived here. Sunday we went to the Heidelberg zoo with yet some other friends we knew when we lived here. Our children had a great time together (their daughter is 3, Emma loves being a big sister ;) ). We then went to a Bier Garten for a long lunch. Today we might just go to Baden Baden.

More what we love/not-so-much about Germany:

So, yesterday we decided to go to for a baden in Baden Baden (bath/swim in Bath Bath :). We took a friend our the three of us. It's about an hour drive south of here. It's a famous town for it's healing water and spas. Even the Romans had a spa here some millenia ago. So, it's been popular for a long time as a place to come for healing waters.

We arrived in the late afternoon and bought tickets for 3 hours in the bath (we went to the newer one: Cara Calla, there is a older one too, nice too, just different and we thought Emma would enjoy this one). Indeed she did. We all did. Pools of hot, warm and cold water, waterfalls, saunas, steambaths, aroma baths, solariums, water massage, etc, etc. We easily spent 3 hours there. Emma especially loved going from the 63 'F water to the 90 'F water baths. She LOVED the cold baths. I think the aroma bath was my favorite, a steam room infused with mint and eucalyptus. My sinuses and breathing was quite clear afterwards. We had a great time.

Then after the relaxing time at the spa, we went to a Bavarian restaurant where we had kase spaetzle (cheese noodles w/ onions), weiss wurst (a Bavarian white sasuage), cabbage and other very Bavarian foods (we are in the state of Baden-Wurtemburg, but it was fun to go to a Bavarian restaurant :). Emma of course got the spaetzle, but she loved my weiss wurst. We loved the food and we lingered.

Even as the church bells struck 10, I thought to myself, this is nice to linger. We left at about 10 after 10.

When we got back to the garage our car was parked, I notice the gate was closed to the back pedestrian entrance. My first thought was to walk all the way around to the front (it's a distance) and then... quite quickly, I remembered... the garage CLOSES AT 10!! Oops, so much for lingering!! We read the sign at the door, you had to call a number to let them out and the fine was... 140 Euro... about 220 dollars!! We checked the cost of a hotel, the nearby hotel owner was kind to us and offered us two rooms at a total of 140 Euro (hmm, exactly the cost of the fine :/), but we thought we'd check around. Emma was really good about it. At first a bit distraught, she very quickly calmed down and took it as the adventure we all decided it was (hoping we wouldn't be sleeping on the streets of Baden Baden for another baden, this time in the rain). We called the number listed to get the car out (if we couldn't find a cheaper hotel), but they never called back or got through, so it looked like had to find a hotel.

We decided to go to the front entrance a ways away to see if there was another number or what hotels we might cross. It took a while (Emma was having a good time walking and running around) and around 10:30pm or so, we passed the spa we had just been at 2 hours earlier. It was closed of course. We walked a block further to the front entrance to check for the other number. It was gated closed of course.

Then, amazingly and serendipitously, two cars came up from inside. It looked to us at first they were also customers where stuck, but no.. they were employees of the spa. We desperately explained our plight and since the woman remembered Emma from at the Spa, she took pity on us. So... Andreas, our friend with us, got into our car and drove up bumper to bumper to one of the employee's cars. She put in her card to open the gate and then they both drove out very fast like they were one car to fool the gate. It closed on top of our car, but bounced, so we got OUT AND FREE!!

Phew. That saved us 200+ dollars thanks to some nice employees from the Cara Calla spa in Baden Baden!!

Overall a great and adventurous time in Baden Baden.

more likes and not-so-likes in Germany after the 'continued'.