I can think of much better ways of spending my birthday than 7 hours of nausea and fever in the car, culminating with a bout of stomach flu. Regardless, now we are back and I am oh so glad to be here. Sweden, even with a thick cloud cover and pouring rain, never looked so good as when we crossed the bridge from Denmark and knew we were nearly home. Although maybe it was partly the comparison with eastern Germany where we spent the weekend that helped.

We left my brother's place on Friday and drove to a little town just south of Berlin, to a hotel in a depressed and apparently abandoned industrial park. It was quite creepy, actually, though the hotel was fine. We spent all day Saturday at Tropical Islands, which was lots of fun. We had to practically drag the kids out of the lagoon at the end of the day...even 12 hours of swimming and playing was not enough for them. It was such a cool place that I, who have not had a swimsuit on in so many years I've lost count, actually went in the pool, too. We had a superb Mongolian Barbeque for dinner at one of the many restaurants under the dome and by evening, both kids had red rings around their eyes from their swim goggles. We highly recommend it for anyone in the area!



Pretty Pretty Poetry-Filled Birthday Wishes to Dana Lynn!