Major Mom

My name is Patricia, but in the blogging world I became known as "Major Mom" thanks to a friend in the Air Force Reserves. As soon as he had said it, the David Bowie song "Space Oddity" went through my mind. I am a mother and wife first - an Air Force wife, that is. My husband proudly serves in the Air Force as a weather officer. I also continue to serve my country as a Major in the Air Force Reserves. It's a wonderful double-life I lead. It was a very difficult decision for me -- I had our second son in early 2005 just before the 10-year-point in my career. It was already tough having to turn my oldest son over to a child care center every duty day -- 50 hours per week. So in spring 2005 I took advantage of a Reserves job opening for which I was qualified in Norfolk, Virginia -- my hometown! It's truly wonderful getting to see my sons grow up, and be able to help out at their school, on their sports teams (I've coached soccer before) and as a Cub Scout den leader. I'm not sure I'd have had time for that if I had remained on active duty. We currently live in Navarre, Florida, while my wonderful husband is assigned to Hurlburt Field, Florida. We've also lived in the following locations since we graduated from Penn State University in 1995: Fort Polk, Louisiana, 1995-1998 Yongsan Army Installation, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 1998-2000 Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, 2000-2002 Patrick AFB, Florida, 2002-2005 Raleigh, North Carolina (Dave was assigned to North Carolina State University), 2005-2008 Offutt AFB, Nebraska, 2008-2010 Hurlburt Field, Florida, 2010-present I started this blog in December 2007, thanks to suggestions from friends. We're in our third home since I started the blog. I used to send out captioned photo albums -- from AOL Pictures to Shutterfly albums to Picasaweb albums. Instead of flooding everyone with photos, now I can use this blog to send out the highlights. I'll talk about anything on here -- usually I'm talking about the kids, but I'll also delve into the local scene wherever we're living, and you'll also see some great posts about the two military moves (PCS: Permanent Changes of Station) we've had. Sometimes I talk about utter nonsense, such as finding a product called "Piggies in Pancakes" in a grocery store in South Carolina. In my spare time I write for the parenting blog GeekMom.com, I serve on the board of the Hurlburt Spouses' Club, and I'm a Cub Scout den leader. I also enjoy running and playing the violin.

München Day 2: Oktoberfest opening day!

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Greetings from the Poschner’s Tent — our opening night experience was so delightful!
Oktoberfest opening day! We started with the opening parade, where the wagons of beer are pulled by horses into the Theresienwiese to kick off the event.
We met up with one of our USAFA sponsor cadets who is on exchange at the French Air Force Academy this semester. We also met her classmates from Canada, Japan, and Germany.
After wandering the festival grounds in the afternoon, we had dinner in the smaller Poshner tent — famous for their roast duck — where we made friends with literally everyone in the tent. What a party after dinner! It was delightful!

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München Day 1: Arrival and the Augustiner-Keller Biergarten

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Greetings from the Augustiner-Keller Biergarten!

Munich Day 1: We had an early start out of Amsterdam. For some unknown reason, our train got to Düsseldorf 2 minutes after our connection left so we put ourselves on the next ICE train to Munich, which was packed.

We had to wander a little to find unreserved seats (we had reserved seats on the original train). We lucked out and found a couple free seats in a “quiet” compartment for most of the journey.

We got to Munich in time to meet up with our tour group for a welcome dinner in the absolutely massive Augustiner-Keller Biergarten just north of the train station.

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Amsterdam Day 4: Van Gogh Museum and Dutch Pancakes

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Museum Selfie!

 

We spent the morning at the Van Gogh Museum, seeing the world’s largest collection of Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork, including one of the five “Sunflowers” pieces. The museum also has numerous other artifacts, including the full collection of nearly 900 letters he wrote to his brother Theo. Some of those letters are displayed on a rotational basis.

I remember learning in school that Van Gogh cut off his ear “over a woman” but that was wasn’t quite accurate. He cut off his ear in a fit of rage, after a fight with Paul Gauguin, and then he presented the ear to a girl, a 17 year old working as a cleaning girl, at a nearby brothel.

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Amsterdam Day 3 (Which Wasn’t in Amsterdam): Gouda

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It was an easy train ride. A very pretty train ride, too.

 

We took the train about 50 minutes south of the city to the beautiful town of Gouda (which they pronounce more like “HOW-dah”). The home of Dave’s favorite cheese.

Here we visited the stunning Sint-Janskerk (St. John’s Church) with some 60 massive stained glass windows dating back to 1555. They were taken down and hidden during WWII, buried in sand dunes on the coast!

Then we toured a Gouda cheese facility (run by the Vergeer cheese company based on the branding) and the Kamphuisen “siroopwafel” factory — featuring a treacle-based syrup center based on a recipe that pre-dates the better known “stroopwafels”.

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Amsterdam Day 2, Part 2: The Bloemenmarkt, Anne Frank House, and Kaasbar

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Awaiting our much-needed salads for lunch. We were so full of cheese, stroopwafels, and fries with mayo sauces from Monday.

 

After the canal cruise we wandered around until our 5:15pm Anne Frank House entry time.

We enjoyed an outdoor canal-side cafe for lunch, the floating flower market, the Delft shop, and the Lego store (full of really cute Netherlands-themed builds). Dave met a salesman in the Lego store, Mark, who is as big a Lord of the Rings fan as he is; Mark showed Dave the colossal Minas Tirith he got to help build.

The Anne Frank House is a must see, and if you’re like me and hadn’t read the book in 40 years, I recommend the ticket that includes the 30 min introductory lecture. No photography inside the museum itself, but it’s quite powerful.

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Amsterdam Day 2, Part 1: Canal Boat Tour

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There were only 4 of us + the Captain, Fokko, on the boat.

 

Today is our busier day, with things scheduled/reserved.

We took a morning boat tour of the canals. There were just six of us on a smaller boat, captained by Fokko. I’m glad we did this instead of one of the bigger tour boats. We meandered through several canals, learning the history of Amsterdam, its unique architecture, and how the city’s geography survives at 2m below sea level.

I’m especially intrigued at how the buildings sag and sink; Fokko said that there’s a city ordinance that you cannot modify the front facades when renovating/improving buildings.

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Amsterdam Day 1: Greetings from Amsterdam!

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From the canal our AirBnB is on.

 

Like we normally do with flights that land in the morning, we try to power thru staying awake till Central European Time bedtime, which is getting more difficult as we get older.

We are staying in an AirBnB about 1/2 km south of the Amsterdam Centraal train station, built in 1590, right on a canal. It’s small and full of quirks, but will be perfect for us these next few days.

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UK 2024: London Day 1 – The Duchess

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You can see the Lord Nelson statue on the right edge of the photo. Love that we got a double decker bus behind us ?

I don’t think I’ve seen a more-serious play like this since I was in high school. The Duchess is based on The Duchess of Malfi, a 1623 play by a Shakespeare contemporary: John Webster. Really really dark.

This play reimagines the setting into the 1950s, but most of the dialogue is preserved. The Trafalgar Theatre is a small intimate venue and I might have been fangirling a little at getting to see Jodie Whittaker perform live.

The theater is adjacent to Trafalgar Square, it was cool to walk around it at sunset just before the show.

#travelswithdaveandpatricia ??????

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UK 2024: London Bound!

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Mission planning for the next leg of our journey! #travelswithdaveandpatricia #gwr #greatwesternrailway #londonbound??