My parents are visiting

Yesterday my parents arrived from Germany to visit me for three weeks. We had a great barbecue yesterday and I cooked some ribs today. Unfortunately the weather won't be so nice during the week.

Miami

The last day we spent in Miami were we visited a couple of beaches and drove around for some time. We concluded our vacation with a great lunch.

And here finally some pictures of the trip :)

Vacation Florida

The everglades

The day after the Epcot cente we planned to go to the Universal Theme Park, however nobody was up to another day of rides. So we went a little shopping and discovering the surrounding. We also watched XMen in the Theater and in the evening we picked up another friends who joined us for the everglades. We spend one and a half day in the everglades seeing lots of wildlife and amazing nature.

Epcot center

We spent a great day at the Epcot Center. In addition to all the nice rides we had some nice German Food in the evening. Lateron we were so exhausted that we just went to bed.

Kennedy Space Center 2

Since we didn't see all exhibtions yesterday we decided to go to the Space Center again. We planned to spend only the morning there and go to the beach in the afternoon, however there was so much to see that we spend the whole day there.

The shuttle start

After a nice morning in Key West we drove up to Orlando and spend the night there. After a relaxing night we were ready for the shuttle start. The bus took as to the Kennedy Space Center first and we had the chance to visit some of the exhibitions there. Afterwards we drove to a viewing space about 6 miles away from the launch pad. The start was on time and very amazing. I didn't expect it to be that loud and bright. Afterwards we had a nice dinner and prepared our stays in the theme parks.

Key West

Yesterday we arrived at Fort Lauderdale and drove down to Key Largo were we spent the night. Today we went down to Marathon and went Snorkeling/Scuba Diving. It was a very easy dive with depth not more than 10 meters. It was my first dive without a dive master/trainer and therefore it was a new experience. Since the 3 other people were less experienced I had to take the lead. Afterwards we continued to drive down to Key West were we watched the Sunset and had an amazing fish dinner afterwards. (Photos will be added later)

Finishing the guest room

Since my parents will visit me in a couple of weeks I had to finish the guest bedroom. Another trip to Ikea and many trips to the local home depot followed. Finally everything is set up. Setting up the ceiling lights caused the most problems because there have never been any and so I had to run new cables. Managed to sprain my neck while doing it :(

More work in the house

I spend a couple of weekends working on the house. Three trips to Ikea later it starts to look inhabitable. Again 2 weeks in Germany for Business.

The first month back

Well, there is not much to tell. I spend three weeks on business related travelling to Germany and Chicago. Have unpacked everything and started some improvements on the house. Still a lot to do.

Return to the US

The last days in India went by quite fast and after a nice goodbye present and a nice cake by my coworkers it was time to fly back. On the way back to the US I spend a couple of days in Germany to celebrate Christmas with my parents and to see my little niece who is now 9 month old. Coming back to the US and seeing all my friends again was great and I'm very happy that a special friend took so much care of my house while I was gone.