Nice August weekend

This weekend was wonderful. We had 85-90 degree weather in late August. On Saturday we rode our bikes down to the river and jumped in. Well... the kids jumped in.

 The Official Safety Committee watched closely.

 Lovely day and the water was very cool and crisp. But then - it appears a leech or something similar found Julia.

 Is that blood?

 It turns out, several swimmers had the critters on their body. David was best able to describe the "pain".
Sunday brought another incredible day of 90+ degree weather so we headed back to our waterfall in the mountains by Krueth where we took our 2009 Christmas card photo.

 Clear skies and cool temperatures in the morning.

George was in heaven. Here is David posing while Brian is with Joachim.

 Some of the trails were tight but we made it work.

 This photo prompted the Official Safety Commission into action. Slippery rocks, moss, water, waterfall,.... what could go wrong on the rocks?

Brian doesn't seem to see the same issues as the OSC.
Here's a video of the fun.

Back in Munich

We are all reassembled back in Munich. Beautiful summer day: 75 degrees, sunny, without a cloud in the sky. Off to the bier garden in the late Sunday afternoon.

 The only problem was the entire Bayern Munchen fan club behind David. When he stood up, they noticed his Barcelona team shirt with Messi's name and they loudly booed him. The entire beer garden was watching. Dave was a good sport.

 Look at the sun streaming through. Even with the jet-lag, our group did just fine.

It would appear some beers were consumed. I love the fact that we need a custom vehicle for clearing liters of beer.

Brian's soccer

Brian is the goalie for his soccer team. I tried to capture a moment in the game.

He is taking after his Uncle.

 I love the smile. Also note: no glasses. He still was the star of the game and made several impressive saves.

After the game, Julia made me feel like she has totally integrated into Germany by ordering corn on her pizza. Next, Daphne told me she thinks she might like Austrian white wine more than California. Yikes!

Charity

 One of the more enjoyable parts to the trip was a visit to a local orphanage. We met a woman who was fund raising and decided to accept her trip to come visit the house.

 The charity, together for Cambodia, takes care of 40 orphans, provides a stable home, supports their education and teaches English. We stopped at the store to buy both home products (soap, tooth paste, etc.) and some fun things (soccer balls).

We were not allowed to take pictures of the kids due to laws protecting them from predators at all charities. I was allowed to take a distant picture of our kids playing volleyball with the other children. 

A very impressive operation doing good work. Helped to remind us of how lucky we all are.

Temples 2

Second trip of temples brought us to two more incredible sites. The first site is Ankor Wat built in the early 12th century as a mausoleum for the king. Today, the site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It also is on the Cambodian flag and more than 50% of all visitors to Cambodia visit the site.

With a huge moat and walls to protect the temple, it clearly shows the power of the Khmer King.

The temple is the central point of the 1000 temples in the province that was the largest pre-industrial city in history with an estimated one million people.

All of our pictures struggle to capture people and the scope of the temple. But at least they don't show us sweating.

To reach the inner palace, they have constructed modern stairs which cover the worn, stone steps. They are steep.

David did not see why his mother was making him hold the hand rail. He's going to make a great test pilot. Check out the confidence.

Not shown here - the carvings on every surface of this massive site. Every wall, column, ceiling, landing, ...everything.

The second site was Ankor Thom which was a late 12th century temple. It is famous for the faces carved in stone that adorn the gates and towers.

The same face  is found throughout the temple is believed to be either the face of the king, God, or a combination. There are over 200 huge faces throughout the site.

 A fun implication is that you can stand "face-to-face" with these huge carvings as Julia demonstrated.

 You can see that there are dozens of these faces behind David.

Look at how excited Brian was to participate in this photo. It was hot. Really hot. Brian wilted and we had to go home for a swim. Incredible.

Temples 1

Our first trip into the jungle was to visit Ta Prohm or the 'tomb raider' temple. The temple was built in 1181 as the Khmer kingdom was strong.  The king built the temple for his family with the most important buildings for his mother. 

After the fall of the Khmer empire in the 15th century, the temple of Ta Prohm was abandoned and neglected for centuries.

The site was left to the jungle and the jungle took over. "Rediscovered" in the early 20th century, the trees had become an impressive addition/destroyer to the temple. The silk-cotton trees' roots look like snakes coiling around everything.

 Julia did her best impression of the carvings.

 The visual images are impressive at every turn. The temple preservation organization has decided to leave the temple in the current condition instead of trying to rebuild to preserve the picturesque nature of the grounds.

 The movie Tomb Raider was filmed at the site and took advantage of the eerie feel of the site.

Cambodia

 Stop two on the trip was to Siem Reap, Cambodia to visit the temples of Angkor Wat.

Yes - we are all smiles on arrival.

The next morning was a bit rough but Julia was trying to put her best smile on for the camera. Nice place for breakfast.

The boys didn't seem too impressed with the impressive hotel and pool. Brian's face clearly transmits his feeling.

 Once the swimming started, the moods improved dramatically.

 Great place.

Night swimming was a highlight for the kids but I turned out to be the main course for some enterprising mosquitoes.

I loved the open air eating and drinking areas. Impressive. We should be ready to tackle the temples.