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Thanks to Easter there were a couple of holidays bookending a weekend here in Germany. To make the most of it (and because we had a teleconference on Thursday) I took Tuesday off as well and decided to head down to Switzerland and the Alps to do some romping around and exploring. I was tossing up a few ideas, but this one seemed to be the easiest and it turned out to be unbelievable.

Work First

That Thursday evening teleconference was pretty good, in that it showed me I can really do some good work over here being at the "headquarters". Speaking the language is a huge benefit and being within an hour or so of all the big global decision makers and access to the right network drives can really be beneficial to my group back in Portland.

With that, and the fact that the project I'm working on has a planned global rollout at the same time, the connection between Germany and the US is going to play a huge role in how this all plays out. I'm hoping I can exploit my vitality working over here to maybe make something more of this rotation. Who know's, I'll have a lot of work to do, but it's up to me to make it happen and be the biggest benefit I can to both companies!

Friday

With an early start, I was up, at 'em, packed, and ready to head off on my adventure. The first stop was a bit round-a-bout, but it was something that's been in the back of my mind (moreso Zack's mind) for a good bit of time.

Zack, Dawn, and I passed through Friedrichshafen on our Christmas Bodensee day trip a little over two years back. When we got into town and walked to the boardwalk, we, especially Zack, wanted to go to the Zeppelin Museum. But due to the ferry times and our plan, it just didn't work out. So, to make things right, and because I was headed in that general vicinity, I made it a part of my road trip.

In preparation for the trip, I downloaded a bunch of podcasts for my driving times. On the way down I listened to the Radiolab episode "23 weeks 6 days", and holy shit. It was a super emotional story about a very prematurely born baby and the family's struggle and fight through the process. It's was really interesting, informative, and engaging, and definitely worth a listen.

I got down to Friedrichshafen, and despite the rainy and overcast day (hello PNW :-) I've missed you), it was a great day to walk around the harbor. I had a short stroll along the quay side and then arrived at the museum. Despite's Zack's wishes, it turned out to be a REALLY cool museum.

The museum is right along the quay side, and once you walk in and go past the tour groups trying to get organized, you go in and BAM there's this huge reproduced section of the Hindenburg hanging above the main room. Along with that, there's replicas, and newspaper clippings (including a few original New York Times articles about the Hindenburg), a full history of Zeppelins from start to today, and even a Zeppelin Maybach from the era. Really cool stuff. Especially the replica comparison of the Hindenburg vs. other large forms of transit throughout history. I never realized just how ridiculously huge those things were!

After enjoying the museum, and learning quite a bit about the history of Zeppelins and how they came in and out of favor with different countries and society as a whole, I departed Friedrichshafen and was on my way further south. Next up, Liechtenstein.

Since I was in the area, and I had a car and could go where I wanted, I figured why not revisit the tiny little country I visited a few years ago? So I did! Crazy, I think I've been to Liechtenstein more times than some people have ever heard of the country.

I drove through a few of the cities (really more the size of villages) and then drove up to behind Schloss Vaduz. That's where the Prince of Liechtenstein lives. You can't go in :-( but I moped around and then took a few pictures. Because I was on vacation, and the gloomy weather seemed fitting, I took a great nap in the car before continuing on my way.

Instead of going directly back to the highway, I went further up the mountain to a couple small villages way high up. It was kinda cool seeing just how tiny the country is, how it's almost all in the mountains and practically hanging off of a cliff, and how even on a grey day, the views are amazing!

From there I had a fairly uneventful drive over to Lucerne. I parked near the water and had a nice walk around town. It was unfortunately quite cloudy and just a bit wet, but I still got to see a good number of things on my short walk around.

From there I found a hostel, got things squared away, and called it an early night.

Saturday

An early rise and early breakfast later, I was completely surprised by the absolutely fabulous weather that decided to show up. At first I was going to head back downtown, but decided to go walk around a lake close to the hostel first to enjoy the early morning. It was quite peaceful and picturesque.

After that, I headed back downtown to cross something off of my bucket list. A wonderful appetizer for preparation however was the beautiful blue skies and sunshine that wouldn't break all day. With that, I headed to the Löwendenkmal, the lion monument.

After I parked I enjoyed a wonderful and quick stroll to the Denkmal, filled with powerful bakery aromas and crisp fresh morning air to accompany me. I arrived, and bam, two huge Chinese tour groups. There would be no quiet enjoyment… I read the plaques and inscriptions and admired the amazing carving right into the stone wall, then all of a sudden, everyone left. I don't know how I managed it, but I had the whole place to myself for a while. What a relaxing way to enjoy a memorial.

This statue was carved and erected in memory of all of the Swiss mercenaries that died during the French Revolution while in service under King Louis XVI. I can't remember when or how I learned about this, but after seeing it in a picture somewhere, I knew I had to see it at some point.

The carving, as I said, was beautiful. Such seamless work and a powerful feature, showing a lion with shields around his body, pierced by a single thorn. It was a really cool monument to witness, and definitely a lesser known thing, but well worth the visit.

From the Lion Monument, I did another (though slightly varied) loop around the Innenstadt to see everything bathed in sunlight. As expected, it was beautiful. Lucerne is quite the gorgeous place.

During my squaring things away the night before, I did a good bit of research of what I wanted to do after Lucerne in the direction of the Alps. Eventually I decided upon a place not all that far from Lucerne with a really great name: Titlis. 85% of the decision was due to the name, the rest was due to what was there. So after I wrapped up my lovely stroll through town I hit the road to get lost in the mountains.

Due to the great weather and season, there was a little traffic on the way up. But I was blown away by the mountains. I always am, but this was a gorgeous ride up. I got suited up and headed to the lift to take me up the hill. After a good bit of confusion between contradictory Internet and ticket machine information and a hectic line to get to the lift (Zack, it was exactly like in Russia. No joke), I was making my way to the top. And the higher the gondola went, the more in awe I was of where I was at.

In comparison to Crystal Mountain and White Pass and places where I've snowboarded before, this place was monstrous, as it seems most places in the Alps are. Seeing all the skiers and snowboarders got me quite jealous, but I was still content with my hiking boots and hiking trails.

I got off and decided on a decent route around (what in the summer would be) a lake, and included some straying from the normal path every now and then. It was super bright and super pretty, and it was awesome wandering around and enjoying the sights.

Some of the highlights: tons of sunshine; a few really cool mountain huts along the way; a couple fly-bys from a medical helicopter (awesome hearing and seeing it zoom through the valley); a few random spatterings of other folks hiking, snowboarding, and chilling out; and of course TONS of views of some beautiful mountains and snow and nature.

After my lovely jaunt around the snow lake, I jumped back on the gondola for the second stretch up to the peak. This just added to the beauty, getting taken further up the mountain and able to see it all from a new and higher perspective.

Well to get to the top top, which was my goal, I had to take another gondola up. But this one wasn't a normal ski gondola, per se. Rather, it was one of those touristy gondola's, with only two cars that go back and forth. Luckily enough, there were a ton of other people that wanted to go up too. An hour of standing in line later, I was on my way up.

Despite the long wait, it was definitely worth it. Wow. About 3100m all the way up, with a peak right beside the observation point and peaks after peaks on the horizon. What a beautiful sight. (I really want to believe that the far-away peak in this first picture is the Matterhorn, but I don't know for sure).

No famously beautiful place is complete without some sort of gimmicky attraction. The offering here? Europe's highest suspension bridge!

Although it was essentially there for people to say they walked across Europe's highest suspension bridge (there was nothing on the other side other than a viewing platform), it was still pretty cool. The view was amazing.

A little tired from the moderate amount of walking and the tons of wind and sun, I ate some snacks at the top, and then made my way slowly on down. But, first I had a nice pit stop at these super chill mountain lounge chairs to enjoy an extremely comfy break before heading all the way down.

Overall, Titlis definitely did not disappoint. An extremely beautiful place on an extremely beautiful day always does a body good. Once I got down to the bottom, I got climatized and found a giant-ass park bench to eat some dinner on and sit in awe of some amazing peaks in front of me.

Ready to go, me and Reggie hopped back on the road off to our next destination. I didn't get too far, because after coming out of Titlis' valley, the highway took us along a super pretty lake. I had to stop and it turned out to be great. A gorgeous lake valley, with a ferry off in the distance doing its thing, huge peaks all around, sunlight slowly fading until it just touches the highest points around, it was a great spot to just sit in awe of what was around me.

Tired and ready to crash, I decided to drive on a bit, still debating if I wanted to find a hostel or go rogue and sleep in my car. Long story short, I chose the latter. After looking on my maps, I found a road that just went up into the mountains, and followed it about 500m up from the valley floor, tried and failed at some night photography, then outfitted Reggie for a full night's sleep in the Alps.

Sunday

I gotta say it, Reggie turned out to be much better than I expected functioning as a bedroom. He's tiny, but I shuffled things around to make it work and actually got some really good sleep that night. I think it helps with what I woke up to as well.

As I opened my car door, I spooked a few deer on the other side of the field, so I hushed up and took in the beautiful view above the valley. Again, peaks like woah, and the sun was slowly trying to hurdle over some to bring some light to the area. It didn't happen, but it was gorgeous regardless.

Eventually I got my butt into gear and headed back down the road. Along the way I went through a 17km tunnel. It was super long! As I was driving through it, I had the lingering thought that Switzerland rigs their tunnels with explosives in case of military invasion, but later found out that they removed all of them a couple of years ago. Whew!

One cool thing about the end of tunnels is that you're finally back in daylight! Well, at the other end of this tunnel wasn't just daylight, but also a completely different region. I was still in Switzerland, but the environment changed a good bit, in that all signs were no longer in German, but rather now in Italian! How cool that a quick 17km tunnel through the Alps would transport you from one world to another! Definitely wasn't expecting that kind of change, but I welcomed the new world!

To enjoy the scenery, I stopped off at a rest stop and made myself a respectable feast of sammiches. It was a notably hazy day, but that didn't stop me from really taking in all that I could see, breath, and enjoy.

Next stop? Monte San Giorgio. A UNESCO World Heritage site at close to the southern tip of Switzerland. I was ready for some hiking. I drove through Lugano and by stroke of luck happened upon the right road up to Monte San Giorgio. I initially planned on doing the whole loop around the mountain as well as the summit, but upon getting to the summit decided against the loop in the interest of time.

Well, the landscape was way different than what I had the day before, with bare trees and leaves all over the place. Got up to the summit and was pretty blown away. Despite the haze hanging over the whole area, what a beautiful view and awesome place for a house. The summit overlooks an entire lake with two or three fingers and you can see Italy on more than a few sides from up there. Just gorgeous.

While at the top there was a number of Italian hikers there, and the Italian language is absolutely fun to listen to. It's so expressive and bubbly and full of emotion. Awesome stuff. I couldn't help but smile listening to them talk.

A nice victory break was had at the top enjoying the beautiful view. Kinda cool being able to look on a few countries from a point high up on a mountain!

The hike back down was fairly routine and enjoyable, with a few more good sights along the way. I got back to the car, ate a little something, then was back on my way. Luckily the road took me through a few small villages, and I made a few pit stops, including seeing a Swiss flag right next to a palm tree. Not exactly two things you'd understand being a pair, but I have photographic evidence of the existence!

Overall, my quick jog through Italy went by fairly quickly. I did have a terrible encounter with an Italian gas station because it was Sunday. It wouldn't take credit cards, so I put in 40€, pumped 30€ of gas, and expected my 10€ in change. Little did I know, since there was no attendant on site, I would have to wait until an attendant showed up, likely the next day, to redeem my receipt for change. Then, the two people I ran into afterwards were as far from helpful as possible. One lived right fucking across the street and wouldn't accept the 1-for-1 trade. What a Douche.

That stupid experience aside, the drive was pretty, but then I got back into Switzerland, got away from the high toll prices and those super unhelpful people and went back to enjoying the mountains.

This stretch of the drive took me over Simplon Pass, which was very much still in winter mode. The visibility was low, snow was coming down, and it must have been super cold outside. But warm and cozy in Reggie listening to some podcasts, I slowly made my way over the pass to some more great views before coming into Brig.

From Brig I continued on and then took a left once I got to the right road and valley leading up to Zermatt. Unfortunately cars aren't allowed in Zermatt, so I got up to Täsch, the next village down, and decided to find somewhere to stay. Unfortunately, but also fortunately, there aren't any hostels in Täsch, so I had to make a decision again - stay somewhere or camp out in Reggie.

I made the right decision. After calling around and seeing what kind of offer I could get, I settled upon the Hotel Wallerishof, with not only the best price I could find, but also a sauna, hot-tub, swimming pool for use and an excellent breakfast in the morning. The receptionist walked me to a room to make sure it was in order, and I ended up getting one on the top floor with a good view of the town and a homely feel.

Basking in the first hotel room I'd ever (privately) paid for by myself on a trip, I made the most of all of it. A good hour jumping between the sauna, pool, and hot-tub, followed by a relaxing dinner and preparation for my hiking the following day, it was just what the doctor ordered to get me refueled and ready for another big day.

Monday

Holy shit. The Matterhorn. Just nuts.

Well, let me rewind first. I woke up to a great surprise, clear skies and sunlight!!! I was a little nervous the greyness from the previous day would hold, but nope! What a treat! Excited and ready for a great day, I filled up on some great breakfast, packed up, and was on my way.

Riding a relaxing high from the night before and proud of my great decision making, I was ready for what the day had in store for me. I made my way onto the train and enjoyed the short trip up to Zermatt. Upon arrival, I went to the info center to check on the trails I was looking for and to confirm some suspicions.

With their help, I decided some snowshoeing was in store. Since I was on a roll of great decisions, this just built on top of the others. I went to the nearest rental shop, grabbed me some snowshoes and trekking poles, and was ready for a helluva day. After walking out of the store and back to the train to take me halfway up the mountain, BAM.

I made the great decision of jumping on the Gornergratt Bahn to take me up to Riffelberg to start my ascent. Along the way though, I got hit with some amazing views of the Matterhorn.

At Riffelberg, all dressed, fit, and ready to work, I started my way up to the Gornergratt Observatory. The start was really windy, hiking up the ski hill. But eventually I ducked behind one of the peaks along a cliff ridge, and the wind died down. There were some moments where I stopped and the wind was completely gone. In those moments with nothing but the stillness of mountains and snow, it was pure bliss. Such a relaxing moment with absolutely no movement, no sound, just rest. It was pretty cool.

Once I got up to the ridgeline, that's when I really became awestruck. The ridge followed one side of the valley, getting up to about 500m above the valley floor. On the other side were a good handful of other peaks with glaciers riddled in between. I was blown away by all of it. The peaks were super high, the glaciers were gigantic, and all of it was just so still and peaceful but so massive and daunting. All this paired with a great workout slowly making my way up the hill, it was better than what I could've asked for in a day in the mountains.

Eventually I got to some spot and my quick stop turned into about 45 minutes of just sitting in awe of the mountains around me. It seemed like the whole valley and mountains and glaciers were just there for me to soak in. On this, a HUGE shoutout to my Uncle Al for the gift of binoculars, because these came in handy hardcore on this break. Being able to inspect all of the little details of the many features in front of me while stepping back and seeing it all as a whole was a truly awesome experience.

During this break and being lost in the nature around me, a flock off birds decided to fly by and say hi! They came super close and it was really cool. A few then decided to land nearby and say hi. They were expecting me to feed them, I got the feeling, but it was nice having a few feathered companions along the way to enjoy the Neature all around me. This was where I was at, for those interested.

I made this for my mom and sisters, but if you'd like a view, take a peek! (Hello from Zermatt!!!) As they say, onward and upward. It was just a short little hike from that spot up to the Observatory. A couple hours and 500m vertical later and I made it. What a hike! Worth every second and I honestly wish it could have gone on for a while longer. It was easily the best way I could have spent that day, and definitely helped make this the best day of the trip.

I romped around up top for a bit, took a break inside, and kept admiring the amazing views. Eventually though, I jumped into the train and headed down the mountain. I could never get mountain-ed or glacier-ed or nature-ed out or anything of that sort, but my journey was about to move a little weiter nach vorne. I said thank you to my snowshoes and trekking poles, said Tschüss to Zermatt, and said see you again soon to the Matterhorn. With that, I jumped on the train to Täsch, picked up Reggie (squeezed in a free shower at the hotel), and was on my way.

From there I thought I had a long way around the Alps to get to Interlaken, but was hit with a surprise that would take me from one amazing, trip-defining experience to another, potentially life-defining experience. To get to Interlaken from Zermatt is not easy. On the east side, there's one stretch of pass that's closed, and to go around the west side is a huge detour, practically all the way over to Lausanne and then back over on the other side through to Interlaken. But PUMP THE BRAKES. Google maps done changed the game.

There is a Train that will take you inside of your car and deliver you through the Alps. Literally take you right through it all. It's like the coolest shortcut ever. This third option, obviously I went with, and holy hell was it an AWESOME experience.

The road to get up to the place is great in and of itself. The first 7 km of road go up almost 600m. Switch backs for days. Then, coming out of one of the tunnels along the road, there's bridges crossing over all over the place and spirals and who knows what else. You're ushered through to a cashier stand to pay for the journey (not cheap, but SO worth it) and then you wait in line.

Wait in line for what, you ask? An empty flatbed train to unload the cars coming from Kandersteg, and then load up with all the cars going to Kandersteg (that's me). Holy shit, so cool. It's awesome. It's kinda like a ferry, really. The cars are queued up, then eventually you get on. I was the third car onto my train, so I got to drive all the way up on the train to the front. The I turned off my car, and waited.

Eventually we filled up, waited for another train to go ahead, and then all of a sudden, we slowly started to move. I'm not sure why I found this so fucking cool, but it was sooooo fucking cool!!! I'm in a car, sitting on a train, that is going through this long ass tunnel, to take me from one side of a mountain to another.

A really quick 15 minutes later and BAM we came out of the other side of the mountains. What a cool way to travel! And to top it off, the weather on the other side was gorgeous! Blue skies and tastes of sunlight were still bathing the sky. After getting off the train, I wanted to go explore up into the hills of Kandersteg. I took Reggie as far as I could and as far as he would go, but he's not the best with the combination of thick snow and windy roads. We got a good ways up, but eventually had to turn around and continue on. So ein Pech.

From Kandersteg I drove my way over to Interlaken, but took another lake-view pitstop along the way.

From there I made my way over to Interlaken and checked into a hostel. I was planning on rounding off such a great day with an order of Raclette, but was not gonna blow $35 on a meal at that point in time. So, Döner in hand, I did some research of what I wanted to do with the receptionist's advice as a starting point. Satiated and a good bit tired from my amazing day, I hit the sack.

Tuesday

A very subpar hostel breakfast later, I was out the door and ready for my last day of adventuring in Switzerland. Before going straight up to the mountains, I drove around the town of Interlaken a bit, stopped by the lake for a breath of some wonderful mountain-fresh air and some beautiful views, and then made my way towards Lauterbrunnen.

After a brief stop in the town of Lauterbrunnen, I made my way to the Trümmelbachfälle. This awesome place is really just a path up the mountain, but it also goes into the mountain and by some waterfalls inside this giant mountain. The views along the way of the valley were pretty great.

Then once you get inside the mountain, it's pretty impressive seeing and hearing the crazy rush of water coming down from three peaks/glaciers (Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau) above. There's a series of 10 falls, and each one was unique and cool. Unfortunately I wasn't there at the greatest time of year (high time is towards the end of June/July), but although the flow was not very strong, the environment in and of itself was cool to explore.

On the way out I asked the lady at the booth about the place and the high season, and it turned into a delightful conversation about what it's like when the water really starts flowing. She said that even during a rain storm, about a half hour after the rain starts coming down, they see the water level dramatically rise and have to close down part of the walk due to water flowing over the walkway. It was a great conversation, and she even showed me pictures of what happens! The extrovert in me sometimes comes out to play and it's great when it results in such lovely conversations!

Afterwards, I made myself a real breakfast in the parking lot and watched a wild animal meander around the field next to the parking lot. Breakfast was yummy and the animal was not too skittish for me to come fairly close and snap a few pictures of him.

I'm not sure why, but it took a good half hour to an hour to decide what I wanted to do next. I drove up the road to the end of the valley/road, saw the cool gondola that went straight up the cliff, and was about to pull the trigger, but saw that you had to pay for parking. That shut me off and I kept driving around.

Eventually I said fuck it, and went back anyways to take the cable ride up to Gimmelwald and Mürren. Good thing I did, it was worth it.

At the top was the tiny little village of Gimmelwald, one of the few places in Switzerland that is still not accessible by car. I walked around the village a bit, then started off on my short trek over to Mürren, the bigger village up on the cliff (it has a grocery store!).

The walk was nice. Relaxing, not too strenuous, still a little snow on the road, no cars zooming by, and there were informational signs about avalanches and how mountain villages like Gimmelwald and Mürren deal with them. Super interesting! The whole way led a little higher up along the cliff and in constant view of a few glaciers and some more awesome mountain peaks.

I made it over to Mürren, and walked a little bit around the town. I mostly went to the train station, took some pictures of the train coming in and out of the station, and enjoyed the great views all along the way. Unfortunately I had to cut my time a little short because of plans for the evening.

With that, I wandered my way back to Gimmelwald for the gondola back down the mountain. Waiting for the next one though, I found a great bench along the path back to the station and enjoyed the serenity of the mountain village. So peaceful, so pretty.

As with all things, this little adventure was slowly coming to an end. From Gimmelwald and the gondola down, I jumped back in Reggie and we slowly made our way back to Germany.

After coming out of the Alps and traversing a small plain region, the freeway headed back up another smaller mountain range to take me back to Germany. But along the way up to the south the sky was clear enough to see the Alps saying their last goodbye. It was a stunning and great way to say 'until next time' to such a beautiful region of the world!

Soon enough I'd made my way to Freiburg. What was I doing there? Visiting Thad, of course! Thad, a buddy from my CBYX program, is currently living in Freiburg working for a medical device company and really living it up! It was great to see him and catch up, and hear just how great things are going for him. He's really killing it over here!

After grabbing dinner at the Holy Taco Shack, me and Reggie made the last little stretch of drive home. Five days, five countries, 1600km, and a helluva lot of beautiful places later, my excellent journey through the Alps had come to a close.

Quick Thoughts - Switzerland

• One thing Switzerland has a huge one-up on Germany is the existence of free toilets. In Germany and most places in Europe you've got to pay to pinkel. How lame and stupid is that? Well, in Switzerland they know mother nature is nothing to mess with. You're free to do your thing free-of-charge. Hell yeah.
• One thing Switzerland is lame with is motorway rest stops with views. Although a place may be PERFECT for a photo op along the freeway, trees and no clear view are in the way. How do you fail to maintain a place with a great view for people to enjoy? This makes no sense to me and was extremely frustrating to me on the drive. Something they need to work on for sure.
• While at Titlis, it had been a very long time since I heard so many languages and seen so many different cultural groups in one spot. It was pretty crazy how much intercultural exposure there was at Titlis, and seems to be the case with Switzerland, or at least in the Alps. It's really cool and quite interesting.
• Overall, Switzerland reminds me a LOT of Norway. Nature-wise, they're quite similar. Huge mountains and spatterings of lakes and the contrast of the two side by side. Also, everything is hellishly expensive. Either way though, two extremely awesome countries.

Portrait Preference

After trips I go through the pictures I've taken. When I do so, I have a rating scale that I put all the pictures in:

1. Star - deleted
2. Star - kept but usually not a great quality picture
3. Star - good quality, normal picture
4. Star - high quality, something cool and notable
5. Star - the best of the best

For some reason, it may just be my preference and artistic tendencies, I seem to have a way higher percentage of 4s and 5s that are portrait (vertical) orientation in comparison to landscape orientation. Every time I realize this, I feel kind of bad for landscape, like I'm giving way too much of a preference to portrait.

ISO, damnit

On both of my hiking/snow/snowshoeing days, I fucked up on my camera. I forgot that I set the ISO setting high and didn't change it. Because of that, most of the pictures turned out fuzzy and shitty.

As I was going back through them, I actually felt really stupid and shitty because of that. There are a number of decent pictures that were ruined because I was stupid and unaware of what my camera was set on. Stupid me. Pisses me off...

Switzerland, land of Great Names

Let's recap some of the awesomely great names that I crossed paths with during the trip:

• Gotthard
• Wankdorf
• Titlis

Sometimes still being a two year old really adds to the wonder of what crosses your path :-)

Frisbee Fun!

The week after my trip was pretty good, but on the Sunday following (the day I wrote all this stuff), I got to join the mixed team here in Karlsruhe at the Mixed Rhein-Neckar Tournament. We had 14 people, and had a perfect day for some frisbee. Three games were on the slate, and we ended up taking all of them: 13-6 against Heidelberg, 13-11 against Darmstadt, and then 13-11 against Stuttgart. We had an absolute great day, and a great time.

One thing that made it even more fun for me was that I played pretty well. It feels like it's been quite a while since I had a truly successful tournament day, and this was pretty great. A couple great layout grabs (including a sick layout grab for the score), one or two good Ds, some great backhand breaks, and just an overall great day. I'm hoping this'll be a good warmup for what's coming up next!

Up Next

What's up next?

• Monday - work, Swing Dancing, mixed practice
• Tuesday - work
• Wednesday - work, open practice, laundry
• Thursday - work, Stammtisch, Dortmund vs. Liverpool
• Friday - work THEN OFF TO THE PHILIPPINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday will be a great day. This week I've got to pack and get prepared, but Friday around 15:00 I leave for the airport to go fly to the Philippines for two weeks. Oh baby I'm pumped! The next post won't come until a while after that trip, so in the meantime, I hope every one has some wonderful days, some learning experiences, and lots of fun over the next few weeks!!!

Original Publish Date: April 3rd, 2016