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.

Praha Day 2: Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge

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St. Vitus Cathedral Selfie!

 

Apparently these are the two most popular destinations in all of Czechia. Both attractions were crazy crowded but we were able to see almost everything we wanted.

We elected not to see the Hapsburg Crown Jewels on temporary display at the Old Palace because that involved hours of waiting, even with a ticket. Which meant I didn’t get to see the “1618 Defenestration of Prague” window. But we did get to the St. Vitus Cathedral and St. George Basilica. The architecture and artwork are simply breathtaking, albeit a bit visually cacophonous in some places. The photos don’t do it justice.

We enjoyed an outdoor lunch at the base of the western tower of the Charles bridge, then walked back and forth across the bridge admiring all the statues.

I have to admit I’m kinda scrambling to keep up with all the Czech history I’m seeing. As a child of the Cold War you can imagine we didn’t learn much about this part of the world.

The weather was very pleasant and autumnal, with temperatures around 60F give or take, depending on whether the sun was behind a cloud or not.

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München Day 5 / Praha Day 1: A Really Old Train…and a Really New Funicular

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Guten Morgen! Off to our next adventure!

 

We arrived in Prague around 4:30pm on a really old train (sorry, no photos showing how old the train actually was). Apparently the train company, called “Alex”, buys national carriers’ old discarded cars. Luckily we were able to get a compartment to ourselves for most of the journey. The scenery was beautiful during the 6 hour trip.

We are in a really cool AirBnB just a few hundred meters south of the Prague Castle, and a few tens of meters from the US Embassy (not on purpose)…we used this evening to go exploring the neighborhood.

We enjoyed traditional Czech food with Pilsner Urquell at a restaurant up the street, and while we were waiting for our dinners we learned a nearby funicular at a park that had been closed for two years had their grand reopening today and was running until 10:15pm.

So after dinner (and ice cream in a chimney cake — a flaky cinnamon bread rolled into an ice cream cone), we headed over to the funicular station. We loved the nighttime views of Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge going up and down the track, but from the top of the hill, all you could see were trees and this old wall that encircled the observation area.

Excited to visit Prague Castle tomorrow!

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München Day 4: No Theresienwiese Today

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Tram selfie!

 

Today Dave woke up feeling quite congested so I ventured out on my own with the tour group on a bike tour of Munich. Thanks to our guide Bob, I’m now drowning in interesting facts about the history of the city…and probably rode 7-8 miles. I was particularly interested in Munich’s choices in rebuilding after WWII using war rubble to simply patch some of the historic buildings.

After the tour Dave and I took a tram ride out to do a little shopping…Tim sent us on a wild goose chase for a food product called “ChoViva”: a brand new chocolate substitute made of fermented sunflower seeds and oats (Google it). Rewe (a grocery store chain here) carries the ingredient in some of their store brand snack products. I could only find one product with the ingredient and now I need to make room for a 400g bag of cookies for the trip home.

Massive pizza for dinner — with an early bedtime as we rest up for the next adventure.

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München Day 3: Oktoberfest Day 2

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We got to watch the Costume and Riflemen parade from the front of our hotel, which was pretty cool. It’s a LONG parade so we didn’t stay outside for too long.
 
We started with the Costume and Riflemen’s parade, which is LONG but went right in front of our hotel so we could come and go all morning pretty leisurely.
 
We then visited a small tent in the Wiese for a light lunch of käsespätzele, obazda, and salad. There was a little band that performed while we ate. Lots of families: it was fun watching the kids dancing.
 
For the evening, we got to experience the Schottenhamel tent which is quite the party. It’s the OG Oktoberfest tent, the one where the mayor of Munich taps the first keg to open the festival each year. The band, called “Südhertz” was incredible, playing everything from oompah music to Neil Diamond to Kings of Leon. The food and beer were outstanding.
 
We all noticed that we felt better after 2+ maß of Spatenbräu beer tonight than we did after 2+ maß of Hacker-Pschorr last night. Maybe it was the ginger juice shots we had tonight (and didn’t have last night…). Interesting data point.

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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 D?sseldorf 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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Seeing the Oktoberfest Grounds Before Opening Day

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We walked the outer perimeter of the #Oktoberfest? grounds this afternoon — only employees are allowed inside the perimeter until Saturday. We are in awe of the expanse of the beer halls and the huge carnival rides.

We had the chance to visit the Bavaria statue, along with two memorials right by the main entrance commemorating a September 1980 bombing — by a right-wing extremist — that killed a number of Oktoberfest guests. The 1980 Oktoberfest closed for only one day after that, their philosophy was that if they closed any more than that, the terrorist wins.

I’m glad to have seen those memorials before the crowds really start up on Saturday.

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Wandering Munich While Waiting to Check into Our Hotel

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Wandering Munich while waiting to check into our hotel.
Enjoying cappuccinos to force ourselves to stay awake today.
It’s in the low 60s(F)…not a cloud in the sky. Dave and I feel great in short sleeves yet everyone around us is bundled up as if it’s in the 40s(F).

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