Back in Munich  for an upcoming busy week. Inerestingly.. this is a time when travelers from Arabic speaking countries tradtionially come here for vacaition. Our hotel is one of the prefereed places to stay.. lots of folks on staff are Arabic speakers..

 

like last year, they set up a special ‘sessha’ resturant.. sheesha is ‘water pipe’.. kinda like a fancy bong. 

My buddy Al, Lisa and I went and checked out their ‘grabe-mint shessha..

grabe-mint.. whata  weird mi.. but it tasted great..

 

I’ve never been a tobacco guy.. in fact. i’ve only smoled three ciggaretes in my life and they all were on Dec 31, 1979 in VIenna on a very cold night…

 

burt.. this water pipe thing is pretty cool.. not that I think tobacco is good for you, but this is pretty interesting. .. and if you don’t do it often..it’s very powerful..i really feel it after a few  … uh.. hits ? tokes ? .. sorry.. my language on this is geared towards my more preferred ‘brand’ . 

 

 

 

Nice being here with Al who’ds a native arabic speaker himself.. he got us ‘the good stuff’ 

 

 

thank goodness we had food.. .. this stuff made me pretty queazy 

 

ok.. time for sleep….. just fell asleep at dinner 🙂 

nite all. nite sam

-me

 

 

On board my favorite flight from DC to Munich. The flight attendant knows my name.. and where I live..

tehy are like old freinds at this ppoint

 

had a great ha;f daty at home. The kids came back rofrom camping at the weddign around 10 and we had brunch .. 

so nice to have all of the family together.. 

 

 

can’t beat that for a sunday !

 

nite all. nite sam

-me

 

 

Such a fun and busy day…

 

dianes alarm went off at 5:30 am. time  to get up and get ready for julia and her bride squad to show up at 6 AM to cut flowers for the wedding. I got up to help … 

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those guys were out the door by 8ish.. then there was about 30 muinutes of peace…until floatapolooza folks started showing up.. Like last year, we let them use our yard, power, compressors.. and anythign alse they needed to get ready. they had 400 folks signed up.. not sure how many were here.. but there were plenty.. !!!!.. Here’s our back yaard about 10AM..

 

 

around 12:30 is.. Mike got everyoen to pick up their floats and head down to the river.. it was so cool and colorful !

 

I happen to know thats all poison ivy down there.. hope they msised it !

 

 

 

 

because we had nate and julia’s wedding.. we could only float for 30 min or so. . but it was worth it.. Max was in town, gabe was home.. so we grabbed floats and jumped in the river too !

 

 

we got back to the house aroudn 1.. and then ruched ot get ready to leave at .. thien it was about a 45 minute drive to ShangriLa in Starksboro where the wedding was … Shangrila belongs ot Garrots aunt.. .. it was a beutiful spot.. 

here’s the setup for the wedding 

 

 

 

 

 

the girls were spreadign rose pettles for julia . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

there were flowers everywhare.. most from our yard !

 

not sure where the roses came from though . 

 

we milled arond waiting for the wedding.. talign to folks. 

 

 

 

 

 

nice having gabe and raya  and max.. we missed becky.. 

 

i have to confess that I lost it when I saw the groomsmen.. I bet Sam would have been here… I wnet off and cried for a bit then felt better… I gave Nate a samstone to carry with him through the service.. 

 

 

then it was time for the weding. Marie palyed music she’d composed.. 

 

 

 

Gabe had made this stone for nate and julia. 

 

 

 

nats uncle .. and our friend.. ted was officxiating as a JP.. 

 

then here they came.. no pictures were allowed during the ceremony.. so you’ll have to use yopur imagination..

 

the ceremony itself was beutiful and olny lasted a few miunutes..  it wasnt long till we were milling around again,.. but noq with wine.. 

 

meg and brad braught Kasey !

 

lots of old freinds of Sam’s.. jared and his BF>. Justin

 

 

julia was having fun !

 

 

 

beets.. hmmm.. i don’t like beets.. but I love diaen..a nd diane likes beets.. so that means I sort of like beets. 

 

jens mom really enjoyed the band !

 

tim and diddier did a joint toast in english and french .. 

 

 

 

 

the Kevin and Liza did too . 

 

 

it was so great having max there.. 

 

 

the groom and tim having a not so private moment.. 

 

the dishes , glasses and silverware were all intnetionally not matching. Diane was so happy that she’d gottoen the peacock plate that she’d so wanted.. ! .. somone was really thinking this out !

 

here are the relatives. 

 

dinner had wonderful appetizers !.. fresh adn beutiful 

 

 

nate and hi mom danced 

 

 

and so did max and gabe.. .. though soemwhat differntly !

 

i was really missing sam all day.. really. really missing him …

 

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then it was tiem fro cake !

 

 

then nate and julia’s first dance.. 

 

then a baloon release 

 

 

 

max did soem really amazing rope dart.. 

whle the Gang of theives.. the so very excellent band played. .we know many of them from around VT.. they are really, really good !

 

 

Kasey loved my new light wand. .

 

 

keving helped sing a song..   then they crowd serfed nate !

 

 

we did a little more fire spinning after the band quit.. 

 

 

what a fantastic day.. We wish Nate and Julia a long and loving life together…

 

ok.. gotta sleep..

nite all, nite sam !

-me

 

Friends,

   Tomorrow is a very big day around here. Tomorrow our friends Nate and Julia get married !..  We’re all really excited about that !

Tomorrow is also Floatapalooza. the annual fundraiser when a bunch of folks jump in the winooski in floats and float all the  way to Richmond. It’s a fund raiser for Chill and its really good fun.. if you want more info.. check out 

https://www.facebook.com/events/198408247340976/

 

here we are in it last year !

Hope to see you there !

 

nite all, nite sam

-me