It doesn’t get much better than crossing a third item off my bucket list this year – sharing a cold one with friends at the 183rd Munich Oktoberfest. Munich throws the world’s largest beer party each fall over a two-week period and the sheer volume of celebratory beer, food and music makes SEC Saturday game days pale in… Read More
Once again our family participated in the 2016 Frantic Frog Triathlon. The Scottsboro TriSport Club hosts the triathlon annually on the weekend after labor day. This year we had seven participants to challenge the frog. Thankfully, the weather at Goose Pond Colony was perfect. The race started promptly at 8am with a 400-meter swim in Lake Guntersville; followed… Read More
April is Tulip Time in Amsterdam and Keukenhof Gardens showcases tulips like no other place on earth. Every spring over 800,000+ visitors from around the globe travel to Keukenhof to enjoy the seasonal spectacle of 7 million bulbs in bloom. Due to the tulip’s limited blooming window, the gardens are only open during an 8-week period beginning in March. The… Read More
While in Amsterdam, we met friends and former neighbors, Mark and Claudia, for a fun filled weekend. Mark suggested we stay at the Amsterdam Hilton, an iconic landmark that sits alongside the Noorder Amstelkanaal in the beautiful Apollobuurt section of Amsterdam. Positioned just outside the city center, it’s a 15 minute walk from Museum Square and VondelPark. It… Read More
You can’t go to Peking without tasting the duck, so after our long day on the Great Wall we treated ourselves to a fine dinner at Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. Quanjude is a classic Beijing establishment with a long standing culinary tradition. It’s been serving up portions of plump boneless duck daily since 1864 and is a perfect place to experience this avian culinary treasure. The… Read More
One of the highlights of Beijing was completing a bucket list entry – visiting the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall is one of the new ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ and a UNESCO World Heritage site. According to China’s Cultural Heritage Administration the original wall is over 2,000 years old and 13,170 miles. Legend has it… Read More