Colorado Fun 2012

Jennifer and I recently returned from a week long trip to Colorado. Unfortunately I think both of us are still there mentally. We were able to do it on a short budget thanks to the help of some amazing friends. The first half of our stay was with an old high-school buddy, Jamie Walbright. He welcomed us into his  house and gave us an amazingly relaxed stay in Denver. Walbright gave us our own room with our own private bathroom and all the relaxation we could handle. Halfway through the week, we ventured up to Steamboat Springs to meet with Farley and Jess. We would be staying with Jess' cousins, who we never met before. It was very generous of them to welcome us into their house as complete strangers. Jennifer and I couldn't be more thankful to both Walbright and the Gatton family.

We arrived early on Sunday morning, and met Walbright and Michelle at the airport. Immediate we stopped for a bite to eat at a local mexican sports bar / restaurant with rooftop party area. It's amazing how big of a football town Denver is. The entire restaurant was all watching the Buffalo Bills game vs. New York Jets (ie. Tim Tebow's new team) and it was PACKED!

We hung around that day and just relaxed. Later that evening, Walbright took Jennifer and I to a Denver Bronco's game... Yeah, THE Denver Bronco's game... The one where Payton Manning started his career as a Bronco. Yeah, the season opener against the Steelers! Apparently, tickets were a pretty hot item and we were there! Walbright totally hooked us up! His buddy had season tickets and wasn't able to make the game, so he sold them to us at face value. Whoever you are, thanks man! We had a blast! It's a memory that we will have forever.

On Monday, Jennifer and Michelle did a little shopping while I worked at a local Starbucks. Around 5pm we got our rental car which we would have for the rest of the week: a Fiat 500 (aka: The JLo).

Tuesday was pretty fun. I worked until noon at a local coffee shop, then Jennifer and hoped in the car and headed up to Estes Park. We had a BLAST! We saw a herd of Elk overtaking the town. They started in the grassy area of the Stanley Hotel (ie. Stephen King's - The Shining), and meandered their way down toward the local shopping center. Jennifer and I spent the afternoon shopping for souvenirs and just enjoying the drizzly day. It was a lot of fun, we just took our time and had no real schedule. The sites and scenery was simply remarkable. Nothing like Ohio!

Jennifer and I have spent the last 9 years decorating our house to mimic a cabin in the woods. Here we were consumed in it. It was all around us. We were in our element. Every store we went into was filled with trinkets and decor just for us. We shopped til around 7pm, then made our way back toward Walbright's house in the rain. When we arrived back at the Walbrights, Jennifer went to bed and I hung out with Walbright, watching TV and hacking on my laptop til around 3am.

Wednesday morning was very fast paced. Jennifer and I packed up the Fiat and began our journey to Steamboat Springs to meet up with Farley and Jess at Jess' cousin's condo. I let Jennifer drive while I hacked all the way through the mountains. It was a perfect mix. Jennifer took her time through the mountains and I had my laptop open debugging code. I got an amazing amount of work done which meant we didn't have to dip into "fun time" in Steamboat Springs... and we had a blast! Of course we stopping at various spots along the way to take pictures and smell the fresh mountain air.

We arrived in Steamboat Springs around 1pm or so and immediately hit a Starbucks so I could check in my code and be done with work for the week. Upon upload, I rejoiced and began my stressless vacation with my wife. Jennifer and I did some shopping and dropped some money on some fun items. Later we met up with our friends at a local sports bar and had some drinks. We finally got to meet Joe and Debra (the couple who is opening their house to us for the next 3 days).

Thursday was yet another fun day. We all headed to Leadville for a fun hike. Actually, Jess and Jennifer did some shopping in Vail while Joe, Debra, Farley, and I all headed to Leadville to summit Hope Pass. It was a bit adventurous, but we made it to 11,000 ft before turning around and heading back down the mountain. It was one of the most beautiful (and challenging) hikes I've ever done. At times, I found it quite a challenge to catch my breath.

After our hike, we all met back up with Jess and Jennifer for some delicious Mexican in Vail. Around 7pm we headed back to Steamboat Springs (a 2+ hr drive) on a beautiful starlit night. On our way there, we stopped out in some remote area deep in the rocky mountains and turned off the cars. We could see every single star in the sky... Yes. Every. Single. Star. :) Ok, we saw a lot though... It was a moment I won't forget for a long time, I'd never seen so many stars at once in my whole life. Amazing.

Friday was an easy day. We woke up early so that we could all get a good nights sleep that night. We headed down to the starting line of Run Rabbit Run so that we could see the 100 milers start their race. It was amazing to see the spread of runners of all different levels. Some were young, some were old. Some were tall, some were short. All were anxious to get started... The "tortoises" took off at 8am, and it was neat to see them all take off knowing that slowest of the runners had until that next night at 9pm to finish their race. We came back to see the "hares" start their race at 1pm. These runners were all eligible for the $10,000 cash prize for the first place finish.

After seeing them start their race, we all split up and did our separate things. Farley and I got some lunch and did some running around. Jennifer, Debra, and Jess went out for Margarita's, and Joe did "Joe things" somewhere (?). :) After lunch, Farley and I prepared our "race do's" for battle! I have this weird thing where I have to have a mohawk for my big races. It's weird, but it's my thing... and my girls like it too; they think their Daddy looks cool. :)

Later that night, two more of Joe and Debra's friends showed up to join us in this huge house party. Scott and Susan drove up from Boulder and were going to be working the aid station with the girls.

Saturday was race day (wait for the next blog post).

Sunday was Funday with Jennifer. Her and I travelled to Breckenridge to do some site seeing and shopping at a leisurely pace. We were in no hurry and just took our time enjoying the beautiful weather. The weather was absolutely perfect! It was mid 60's and sunny. Jennifer and I went from shop to shop and found a few bargains. I hobbled mostly everywhere and I'm sure people were talking, but I just did m'thang... slowly.

Best yet, it turned out that the day we were there was their Octoberfest and we got to enjoy some street partying in between shopping. We ate pork sandwiches and bavarian pretzels. The streets were alive with party people Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. Just look at the views of our shopping day:

Monday was travel day. We got back into Ohio around 11pm after a full day of travel and just hanging out. This trip was supposed to be a huge race trip, but it really turned out to be a second honeymoon with Jennifer. We got to hang out with friends and enjoy beautiful Colorado with each other. Family vacations are one thing, but every now and then Mommy's and Daddy's need Mommy and Daddy time.  This trip was long overdue for us. We vowed that we won't wait for another 12 years to do this again. Next time... maybe Vancouver? San Diego? Tahoe? :)

A HUGE thank you goes out to Jamie Walbright and the Gatton family for welcoming us into your homes. You were both amazing hosts and we learned quite a lot about what it means to be good hosts. If any of you ever venture to Newark, Ohio to fulfill your dreams of seeing a large basket building, you have an entire 1,100 sq ft basement all to yourselves! We'll never forget your hospitality and generosity during our stay in the beautiful state of Colorado.

Dusseldorf, Germany - Day 14

Today was a great day. I woke up around 10 am and took a nice slow run through the forrest in Cologne for the last time. I left the camera at home and simply enjoyed the peaceful run. It was muddy and perfect. When I returned, we had a quick breakfast of breads and spreads, and I (of course) had Rita's delicious cappuccino to wash it all down with.

Around 12:30 or so, we all hopped in the car and headed toward Dusseldorf. The plan was to drop off my bags at the hotel and then go take a quick tour of the city before the Ghobads made their way back home. As I stated before, I like chilly weather when touring new cities. Well, today was no exception. It was very windy and actually thunder stormed at times. A few times we took shelter under various structures to protect ourselves from the freezing rain... Yeah, the freezing rain! :)

Around 4pm we headed to a local brewery / restaurant and we all ordered Curry Wurst for lunch. I actually chased mine down with 2 beers from the brewery and everybody else had apple juice. Since the restaurant WAS the brewery, the beer was very fresh and perfectly served. During lunch, I got to have a few more laughs with my new friend, Nouchine. I actually had her laughing pretty hard a few times it was a lot of fun! We sure had a lot of fun this week: story time @ night, morning game time on Saturday, German speech lessons throughout the week, and a loyal dinner-buddy every night. :)

Me and my buddy, Nouchine.

The Ghobads dropped me back off at my hotel around 5 pm and I got my bags unpacked and my hotel room organized for the most part. I was able to chat with Jennifer for quite a bit as well and just relaxed for a few hours. I watched some movie with Skeet Ulrich and Leslie Nielson and it was in German. I didn't understand any of it, but it looked like a pretty funny movie. Again, I was just unwinding and relaxing for a while before starting to think about dinner...

Around 7 pm Bob called me and wanted to know if I wanted to get some dinner at a nearby restaurant with him and his wife (Michelle). How could I resist?? :) They met me out front of my hotel a bit later and we all walked to a nice German restaurant that is about 200 meters from the hotel. :) Yeah, the hotel is in a great location! Anyway, I had no idea what to get, so I let them translate the menu for me and Bob ended up ordering an authentic German dish for me. It was some form of a "shnitzel" and it was "the shnitzel". :) It was a big slab of breaded pork that sat atop a mound of french fries. It also came with a side dish of a dark mushroom gravy that you could pour over everything to help it all slide down. Wow, delicious!

We all enjoyed some Altstadt beers and just sat around and talked for a while afterwards. I can tell this is going to be a fun two weeks. Bob asked if there was anything that I'd like to see while I'm here and I thought for a moment and realized that the only thing I'd like to see are more German pubs. :) Outside of that, I think I got all the tourism out of my system... I'm ready to start living like a local and enjoying some delicious German beers and dishes.

Michelle and Bob

Quick Fact: While in Cologne, the beers are typically a Kolsch beer, whereas here in Dusseldorf (~100 km north), it's mostly Altstadt beer. It's a friendly rivalry, but you should never order a Kolsch in Dusseldorf, just like you should never order an Altstadt in Cologne. :) If I had to choose between the two, I think I may be a bit more partial to the Altstadt flavor though. It's a bit more dark and has a nice full flavor for my taste buds.

As of now, I'm basically done with my vacation and I'm prepared to work for the next 2 weeks! We have some exciting things going on right now at InfoPlanIT, and we will begin working on them while I'm here in Dusseldorf. It sounds crazy, but I'm ready to get back to coding again. I've actually got an all new look to kick off the first day of "post vacation" meetings.

Linz, Germany - Day 13

Today was an extremely fun day!! I woke up around 8am after a long night sleep. The plan was to meet Dariush upstairs so he and I could go to some fund raising event and I could see where he worked. We were to leave the house at 9 am sharp.

I came upstairs around 8:45 to find only Nouchine playing in a dark / quiet house in her pajamas. I realized at that moment that our plans had changed. I just enjoyed the morning with her and her amazing knowledge of the German language. :) I'm convinced that she still doesn't realize that I don't understand her. Regardless, I just go with it and think she is the cutest thing ever! I'm like her Pet-American that she likes to sit next to at meals and pull around by my finger everywhere we go.

We played the game "Memory" where you had to flip over cards and match the pictures. She was clearly making up the rules as we went and I (again) went along with it. :) Who matches a mushroom to a bird and gets a second turn? Nouchine! :) During this time, she also taught me the German number system: ein, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, etc... She got a pretty big kick out of my "accent" and we had a blast! :)

Around 9:30 or so, the rest of the house started to wake up. Nouchine took me next door to the bakery with a piece of paper filled out by Rita and Dariush that described exactly what to get. I felt like royalty walking into the bakery with Nouchine in her urban-hippie get-up attached to my finger. She jabbered the whole time, but I just smiled and agreed with her on everything. I handed the paper to the baker and we left with a lot more than we were supposed to. I think it was my fault, because I tried to improvise when I learned they were out of plain croisants. Whatever!! :) We all enjoyed a fun breakfast of breads with various spreads and some cappuccino for the American.

After breakfast, Nouchine and I took Dariush for a train ride to downtown Cologne so he could pick up a rental car for the day. We were all going to be taking another adventure out to the countryside again this afternoon. None of us knew where we were going, and it couldn't have been a better plan. These are always the best plans; no plans.

Dariush got a really cool car actually!! It's a new Ford Focus and it's decked out to the nines. It has all kinds of sensors and computerized aspects to it. The coolest feature is that when you are at a stop light or something, it automatically turns off to save gas. It starts back up as soon as you put your foot on the clutch to put it in 1st gear. Perhaps this is standard these days, but it was the first time I'd seen anything like it. Literally, everything on this car was computerized though, very cool!! +1 for America. Go Ford!

We came back to the house and picked up Jonathan and Rita, and then headed to the south down the Rhein River. Our first stop was an old castle on a hill named Drachenfels (ie. Dragon's Rock). It was amazing! The climb was kind of tough, but the delivery at the top was well worth the 30 minute climb. About half way up the hill, Rita took Nouchine and Jonathan back down. It was pretty cold and was beginning to rain. Once Dariush and I reached the top, it was pretty cold, wet, and windy. However, the view from the top, was simply amazing and I was blown away by how high up we were.

The ruins were built in 1138 and was built for protection for Cologne from the south. It was strategically built here for the unobstructed view of the Rein River in both directions. Simply amazing!! Check out this clip I took from the top:

From the ruins, we headed further south down the Rhein to a very old village by the name of Linz (aka: Linz am Rhein). This was an old village that was built back in the 800's (~1200 years ago!). It was simply. Awesome. Around every corner, I felt the history of the place. I could picture people living in the little houses, and I could also picture the town square filled with market people and all the stuff you read about and see in the movies.

We ate at a really cool restaurant which was literally a cave. We descended a bunch of steps from the street into a cave, and then we went to the "lower" floor (down more steps) to another cave where I got to try an authentic German dish by the name of "Sausage Blood". It was... ok. :) I ate it, but... it was ok. :) After eating we walked around the village for about an hour and enjoyed the day. We walked up and down all the streets and went into a few souvenir shops.

At one point, we all sat in the village square and ate ice cream. I know that the village is all decked out for tourists, but I couldn't get past the fact that it used to be a thriving village. The clocked rang at every 30 minute interval, and that sound alone threw me back to the midieval times. :) Sounds silly, but I was really intrigued by this place.

Around 6 pm, we headed back home as it was getting to be close to the kids bed time and we were all pretty well spent from walking so much. I went to the basement and passed some time by talking with Jennifer for a while and surfing the web. This gave Dariush and Rita some time to do family things (ie. get the kids to bed, power nap, etc..).

Around 8pm, I headed back upstairs and wanted to see if there were any plans. The plan was to go to a night-club (invite only) near Dusseldorf. Rita had planned to stay home with the kids and relax, while Dariush and I went to experience some nightlife. Apparently it was "80's night", so that was exciting. As it turned out. Neither of us were really up for the 45 minute drive to get there, nor the 45 minute drive home... again, it was already 8pm and we'd had a full day.

We decided to drive into Cologne and get some burgers and then stroll the "Bevarian District", which was basically an active strip of Cologne full of night life. There were all kinds of different clubs ranging from high-class to no-class. We walked the strip one way, then back the other and then decided to call it a night. We arrived back home around midnight and called it a night!

Tomorrow is my last day with Ghobad's and I can't begin to thank them enough for having me in their house. I know exactly how difficult it is to keep a routine of "school, lunch, nap, dinner,  bedtime". Honestly, I do!! It sounds very strait-forward for some, but I know first hand that it can be extremely stressful and draining to just go through this process every single day. Notice, I left out "family time" and "time for yourself". Again, it's tough... especially with an active toddler.

Here, I showed up on a Monday evening right in the middle of this process and they seamlessly weaved me into their days without any stress or signs of strain. I never felt like a burden, and they went out of their way at every step to see to it that I had everything I needed. They assured me that I had complete freedom to do as I pleased. With this freedom, I tried to help out as much as I could, while also making sure that I gave them their own space when I knew they needed it.

Dariush and Rita have built a beautiful family that is based on love, kindness, patience, and understanding. Kisses and hugs are an everyday thing around here with the kids and each other. While some might consider me a young "veteran" in the marriage department, I've absolutely learned a lot from this family. If all families shared their values, then this world would be a much better place.

Thank you Ghobads for a wonderful week here in Cologne. You showed me exactly what I wanted to see in Germany, and I didn't even know it at the time. You're wonderful hosts, and amazing parents! Stay happy and stay funky.

Rita, Nouchine, Jonathan, and Dariush (aka. The Ghobad's)

Please come visit us in Ohio soon!!

Cologne, Germany - Day 12

Wonderful day! I woke @ 9 am (after only 4 hours of sleep) and did some last minute computer stuff before starting the day. I snuck snack out of the fridge that I bought the other day, and "borrowed" a bottle of water from the cabinet. Did some chores in the basement, and then headed upstairs around 12 pm and had lunch with Rita and Jonathan.

My intention was to simply take a quick shower and then head out for some lunch. I knew Rita had a full day and would probably want to take a nap. The last thing I want to do is get in the way and be a nuisance. She asked me if she could make me a cappuccino or cook me a pizza or something. I insisted that I was just fine, but she insisted that I had to be hungry and that she would figure something out. To my surprise, she made me a full course lunch with a heaping bowl of tortolini with ham and some italian sauce and a piping hot cup of cappuccino. Way too kind. It was delicious, but I could only eat about 3/4 of it.

After my mid-day feast, Rita laid Jonathan down for a nap, and I was going to go out for a walk around the neighborhood. To my surprise, I found my girls were online and I was able to talk to them instead. Awesome trade-off!! We talked about everything and nothing. It was great! They were all getting ready for school and Jennifer was taking turns getting one ready while the other two would talk to me. It was almost as if I was there, but I wasn't.

Daizi, Lizzie, and Jazzy getting ready for school

Once the girls had to get off the computer, I headed back upstairs. Rita and I were were going to pick up Nouchine from school and Dariush from work. We got "Johny Boy" packed up and headed to the Kindergarden to retrieve Nouchine first. When we got there, Nouchine was eager to show Rita her fancy art projects that she did. It was so cute to see her show off her art and get so excited about it. She was very proud of them, and rightfully so. On the drive to pick up Dariush, I really got to looking at the painting and it was actually really (I mean, really) good, with some pretty cool details!! They may have an art prodigy on their hands here. :)

We picked up Dariush at his office around 2:45 or so. It was at this time that I found out that we were all going to take a nice leisurely drive through the countryside of Bergisch Gladbach. This is an area that is exactly north of Theilenbruch and consumes a pretty vast area of countryside. The drive was beautiful and I took a lot of pictures. However, the pictures do it no justice and it was impossible to capture the beauty of the countryside in a digital picture. I just loved seeing all the little german villages scattered throughout the rolling country side.

Oh and we actually drove through Heidi Klum's hometown on our way there. She's kind of a "home town hero" around here I guess. Jazzy would be pleased to know this, as a fashionista herself... <3

We stopped at a delicious restaurant in a nice residential area in the hills and ordered some delicious waffles. This area is actually known for their waffles and I now know why. They were probably the best waffles I'd ever had. I topped them with chopped up strawberry's and vanilla ice cream, and then chased them down with a nice black coffee. You can take the boy out of the states, but you can't take the states out of the boy. :)

From the restaurant, we spent some relaxing time at a really cool church by the name of Altenburg Cathedral. The church was built in 1259. It was built in order to replace another Romanesque building which had been consecrated in 1145. Pretty neat knowing that this Church has been around for about 800 years. Wow.

We really relaxed and took our time here. The weather was great and the kids were playing so cute. We literally just soaked up the day and had nowhere else to be. These are the best days in life. No schedule, no tasks, just soaking in the fresh air and listening to the birds chirping... Deedle daddle doodle (ie. this is a Yoe-nah-ton bird). :)

After the church, we headed back home and decided it was a great evening to have another cook out. Dariush fired up the grill and we all feasted on meat and bread. The grown ups also had some red wine. It was a great dinner and I walked away very full.

While Dariush and Rita put the kids to bed, I went downstairs and killed some time checking email and stuff. After about 30 minutes or so, I retrieved Dariush and we headed back out to the Eis Cafe to get some authentic Italian Gilato. :) When we returned, we tried to watch another episode of the Pink Panther, but I was spent and kept dozing off. I ended up going to bed early. I was actually in bed / lights out by 10 pm. What a great day!!

Cologne, Germany - Day 11

Very busy and exhausting (in the best way) day today. Dariush took the day off of work and was going to show me around downtown Cologne. My alarm went off at 8 am, but I didn't actually wake up until Dariush was knocking on my door at 8:45 am. Nouchine had to be to school in 15 minutes, and the drive alone is 10 minutes. He said "Lucas, take your time, but hurry up." :) Apparently my alarm went off and I turned it off in my sleep. Doh!!

I woke up, brushed my teeth, organized my bed-head situation, and got everything ready for a full day in Cologne in about 5 minutes. By the time I got upstairs, I was able to join in on the Ghobad chaos of getting both kids ready for "kindergarten" before we rushed out the door around 8:55 am. Nouchine and Jonathan were both late for kindergarten, but (according to Dariush), this is very normal. :)

Nouchine, Mia, and Mila

After dropping off Nouchine at school, Dariush and I drove back to the train station and parked the car for the day. Our mission was to spend a full day in Cologne just looking around and being 100% bonafide tourists. We arrived at the train station and got a front row seat on the first car headed to Kohlner Dom.

Upon arriving, I mentioned to Dariush that I simply love cold / rainy weather when I visit foreign cities. When I was an exchange student with NHS, we always travelled to France in February. Therefore, it was typically windy, rainy, and cold everywhere we went. The same was true for my last visit to Europe as well. Also, I think it's safe to say that "cold / windy" is an adequate description for my time in Siberia as well. After all these experiences what some might call gross weather, I've learned to associate it with tourism. I honestly love wet and windy weather when visiting foreign places. Lucky for me, today was pretty much gross! :)

Yoda

When we got out of the train station, the temps were in the low-mid 50's (fahrenheit) with a strong blustery winds. The streets were scatted with puddles and the sky was overcast. All the tourists were bundled for the cold weather and snapping pictures of each other. It literally put me in a great mood, and I was ready to discover all the amazing sites of Cologne, Germany.

Our first stop was an authentic German Dunkin Donuts. :) From there we hit a few souvenir shops and walked around the area a little bit before we actually entered the Koln Dom (ie. Cologne Dome).

We spent a few minutes looking around the first couple floors of the Kohl Dom and then began our journey to the top of the cathedral. Luckily the calories from the donuts were more than burnt by about the 1/2 way point of our ascent. Our legs were burning and our hearts were pounding once we reached the top. We were both pretty well spent by the time we hit the top of the cathedral, so we hung out and snapped some pics. Dariush pointed out various places throughout the city that were significant to Cologne's great history. We could actually see the Dusseldorf skyline from up here too.

After 20 minutes or so, we descended the steps and enjoyed the huffing and puffing from the walkers making their way up to the top... Been there. Done that. Dariush and I fought the urge to tell them that they were "almost there" as we got closer to the bottom. :) This really was an amazing experience and it let me look at the Kohl Dom with a new set of eyes each time I saw it throughout the rest of the day.

Form the Kohl Dom, Dariush and I hit a few souvenir shops and then decided to watch the Philharmonic Orchestra put on a free public show at a local concert hall. It was exactly what we needed after pounding our quads for the last 2 hours up and down ancient staircases.

The show was simply beautiful. It made me realize that I need to take my girls to one of these shows in the states. They watch so many Disney movies with this "concert symphonic music", but have no ideas which instruments make which sounds, nor how beautiful this music is in real life. This is now on my list of things to show my children. The show was amazing!... The composer explained to the crowd (in German) that the pieces being played were from an old Tchaikovski archive that had been lost and it was the first time it had been played in Germany. Awesome!

After the show, Dariush and I walked around some more and visited a few more shops and various other sites throughout the city. We stopped for lunch and had some pizza and beer in a small restaurant inside the GlobeTrotter shopping center (very cool store). We then did some shopping and then made our way to the Cologne Microsoft building, the Lindt chocolate museum, and a few other stores which I don't know the names of. All in all, this was a fun-filled day with Dariush. We had a blast and did a lot of laughing today. I was so happy he took the day off to do this with me today. I feel like I got the full tourist experience of "Cologne, Germany" after today.

Me and Dariush enjoying pastries on a side-street.

Around 5pm or later, Dariush and I headed back to the house with all of our gifts and got ready for dinner with the family. Before dinner, we all had a quick chat with Jennifer and Daizi. Jennifer finally got to meet Jonathan, and see exactly how big Nouchine has gotten since her first visit to the states. Daizi and Nouchine showed each other their favorite stuffed animals in the camera (cyooooot).

For dinner we had scrambled eggs with fried vegetables in them. I LOVED it! This is one of my favorite meals at home (eggs of any kind). I also had a nice Reissdorf Kolsch and some bread. After dinner, Dariush, Nouchine, and I all snuck some chocolates while Rita put Jonathan down for bed. :) I got to read a book to Nouchine before she went to bed, and I really enjoyed that. She's opened up to me and was repeating the English words I would say in the story. It was a lot of fun to see her brain working with these new words.

Around 8 pm, Dariush and I headed back out to the train station and attended a very fancy party at the Peek & Cloppenburg store. This was a fashion-show party and you could only get in by invitation only. Dariush was invited through his work and he took me. Needless to say we were a bit out of our element, but who else to be out of our elements with than each other. :) We made the best of it and simply had a blast. We didn't know what to expect, so I think that even made it better knowing that it was something neither of us had any experience with.

There a lot of very high-class people there who looked like the had a few dollars in their pockets. There were a lot of fashion models there as well. All the drinks were free. All the food was free. There were  games, speakers, and even a live band that kicked butt. It was a LOT of fun. Dariush and I just walked around and "mingled" with each other mostly. Upon leaving, everybody was given a high-dollar goody bag of products and merchandise. This event was off the charts, and they sent us home with some pretty cool stuff.

From the party, we tried to make our way to another bar, and ended up in a Greek restaurant where we just relaxed and talked. We each had the Gyro dish with authentic Tzadziki. :) I would have never known what this was had I not been in Greece last week. Anyway, it was a great way to end a fun day in an amazing city with a great friend.

The night ended around 2 am when we returned home to a quiet house. Dariush had to be at work in the morning, and I will be sleeping in a little bit. Thanks for the great day, Dariush!