Der Junge Turns 30 29

My parents first visit to Germany overlapped with my 30th 29th birthday. Worked out well, as we also had a bank holiday at work.

In honor of Einstein spending some time locally, die Mutter decided to try his hairstyle during the visit.

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After a long day in Nürnberg the day before and plans to travel to Ulm the next day, we decided to take Saturday pretty easy.

Saturday morning was a trip to the market and to the Real grocery store.

Fresh flowers at the market.

Fresh veggies from the weekly Saturday morning market.

Me, der Hund, and das Madchen walking the tough streets of  Heidenheim.

USA! USA!

After the day at the market, we all went out to a nice dinner. In fact, it was the same dinner place that I took the Madchen back in February for her birthday. Now in summer we were to sit in the back garden.

Last time we were there for das Madchen's birthday, we asked the waitress in broken English if she could just pick us something good: anything for me and something vegetarian for die Madchen.

I got a delicious chicken salad.
Die Madchen got some steaks which, I only had the heart to to tell her months later, were actually liver steaks.

Well, this time, no need to guess and check. Maybe it was the NY accent on die Mutter's "dunk-a", but somehow the waiter figured out that our German was nicht so gut. And, furthermore, we lucky that a friend of the owner was there that night and he was quite fond of learning English. In fact, he spoke perfect English. Andy proceeded to read us the entire menu, help us select a bottle of wine and, in the end, was our photographer.

Photograph by Andy

In fact, being our maître d', waiter, and photographer is not so different from another experience in our life with Michael: our Chaplin, witness, and also photographer.

Official wedding photograph

Later the next day, after Ulm, we got a home cooked birthday cake from das Madchen. In addition, she got me the book:

This gives me no time a full year to learn these 30 things! The book has such helpful tips as how to cure a hangover, how to ask for a raise, and how to take good pictures. Here is our of some photos.

Good photo

Bad photo.

Here are some pictures of cake which, according to das Madchen based on self assessment, didn't make the cut.

Camera 1

Camera 2

In the end, we had to say goodbye. The next morning we drove back to Ulm for a goodbye coffee.

Goodbye from the train station!