In our family, the birthday person gets to choose the dinner meal. Abbie chose McDonalds. Brendan wasn't very particular. He said we could go to any restaurant. It just had to be in Germany.
I'd heard that the Bodensee area was beautiful, so we decided to do a day trip to the German side of the lake. Switzerland, Germany, and Austria border the lake. We drove to the town of Friedrichshafen, about 2 hours away. In honor of Brendan's birthday, we let the kids watch a movie in the car. The in-car DVD player is growing on me, as John and I had a nice time talking while we were driving and there weren't any whiny children interrupting us! Even Lucky came along for the ride. We didn't think we could leave her at home for over 12 hours, and we didn't have anyone who could come let her out. Upon arrival in Friedrichshafen, we walked around for a bit, quickly deciding that the best thing to do in the town would be a boat ride. The very friendly lady at the tourist center informed us that the best boat option would be a catamaran trip to Constanz, in Switzerland. Actually, it was the only place left where we could take a boat. She even insisted that Abbie was 5, as children under 6 travel for free. (Abbie was a bit concerned that we were cheating and it wasn't right, but we assured her that we had been 100% honest with the ticket agent and it was her decision to "hear" that Abbie was 5. I guess some lessons in honesty and integrity are sticking!) We took the ferry across the lake to Constanz, which is a beautiful town (and about half the travel distance as Friedrichshafen). We had a pizza lunch and then walked around -- first the town area and later a walking path by the water. The kids even stopped to play at a playground. In the late afternoon, we headed back to Friedrichshafen and drove to a restaurant by the Zeppelen hangar. I was hoping that we'd be able to see one of the blimps take off or land, but it wasn't in the cards. The kids enjoyed dinner, though, and Brendan even got a free cocktail. (I did check to make sure it would be non-alcoholic!) Some kids might be bitter that they asked to go Germany for their birthday and we spent most of the day in Switzerland, but Brendan enthusiastically said, "I got to go to Germany TWICE for my birthday!" That's the attitude I like to see! It's just one of the things I love about my 9 year old! I also love his determination, his intelligence, and his ability to set goals. Ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, and he will tell you with 100% confidence that he's going to be a CEO. In fact, he's a bit irked that our good friend Ray won't write the code for the virtual reality gaming system he has designed.
Brendan's birthday pictures.
2 comments:
And I thought with you moving thousands of miles away the pressure would be off to code Brendan and Neil's game :-)
We've tried to explain the idea of a team of programmers working for months around the clock to put out a new game, but apparently, Brendan thinks you're good enough to do it solo in your free time. Maybe you could whip it out on your next flight to Saudi.
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