At the end of June we took a weekend trip to Alsace with friends of ours whose son is friends with Bloggerboy Junior. Neither son was along, but Fräulein Bloggerboy accompanied us with her boyfriend of over one year. We've been going to the Alsace with our friends since 1998 at irregular intervals -- ouch, that's fourteen years. Traditionally we arrive late on Friday afternoon and enjoy a nice meal in one of the local restaurants. On Saturday, we stock up on local goodies and hike into the nearby hills for a picnic, and then we hike back to town and taste wines. We had a nice visit and enjoyed our picnic. I think this was at least our sixth trip to Alsace with our friends.
One of the nearby Alsatian villages
On Friday evening I had Peter's Fish (aka John Dory) as my main course,
washed down with an excellent Grand Cru Riesling from
the surrounding vineyards. Peter's Fish is considered the
best fish for making Bouillabaisse. Just at the top of the picture:
Frau Bloggerboy's frog's legs with spätzle.
On Saturday we hiked through the vineyards above the village
to our traditional picnic spot in the hills.
Did I mention that Frau Bloggerboy tends to overdo it
on picnics? Our friends had one backpack for two
persons and a limited menu. We had three backpacks and a large
shopping bag for four persons. That was my first hike with
a shopping bag! Notice I brought my Opinel knife back to
its home country for a visit. A perfect picnic knife.
After we returned home, I looked up our first visit to Alsace with our friends and found this [redacted] journal entry from a time when Fräulein Bloggerboy was about two and Bloggerboy Junior about five:
"Friday was
a bad day with the kids. We visited
Chateau Haute-Koenigsbourg. It was
crowded. Bloggerboy Junior had a good
time, but Fräulein Bloggerboy was miserable.
I went to get the car, and when I came back, Bloggerboy Junior was
whining for a toy that Frau Bloggerboy had refused to buy him, and the rest of
the day went downhill. We drove into
Sélestat and had lunch in front of the Gothic Church. After that we walked through the old part of
town. Bloggerboy Junior was
impossible. We had a hilarious scene in
a cafe, with Fräulein Bloggerboy kicking and screaming. I ended up eating two ice cream cones, one of
which Bloggerboy Junior had used all of his ingenuity to obtain -- and then wanted
to discard. Then we headed home,
exhausted and demoralized. Later, we
went to dinner. Our friends were going
to show up later. Fräulein Bloggerboy
was a monster the whole time. She would
not sit in her high chair. I had to keep
taking her out to the patio to walk around to keep her out of the kitchen or
off the other guests' tables. I was
exhausted and had trouble enjoying my food.
Fräulein
Bloggerboy rode on my back in the children's backpack that my parents had
brought over from the States during their last visit. She slept
most of the way to our picnic spot, only to wake up just in time to sing in my
ear as we walked the final 300 meters.
She really liked being on Papa's back and hummed most of the way home."
Strangely, I can barely remember the stressful incidents, but the sound of Fräulein Bloggerboy's singing still rings in my ears.
