Go To A Museum

If you read our blog in the morning (I know you all do, we have a readership like the NY Times) and are looking for something to do today, we may have a good lead for you. Helene and I are lucky to live in the Washington D.C. area where we don't only have a plethora of museums that we can go to, but we can also go to the Smithsonian museums for free any time. Well, today, the Smithsonian is bringing that to the rest of the country. Today is Museum Day, sponsored by The Smithsonian and TIAA Cref. A number of museums around the country will have free admission today with the printable coupon found on the website. We are going to take advantage of this and hit a train museum up in Baltimore we have never been to and maybe the small aviation museum in College Park.

The Best Chocolate In The World

I know, I know. This sounds a little over the top...but I am dead serious. So last Friday night, when I was in Munich, I was escorted to a place that was claimed to be the greatest chocolate on earth. Now, the guy that was leading me here really has traveled all over the world, so I knew that there might be some truth to this claim. I, however, am a fairly large fan of chocolate, and Curtis is known for both over exaggeration and under exaggeration (he was the one that said "oh, the Alps"). I ordered a little tort called the Sinfonie. Dark chocolate covering a chocolate ganache. I was almost brought to tears. This truly was the greatest chocolate I had ever had the pleasure of tasting. For a chocoholic, this was a religious experience. The picture with this post is the Sinfonie, exactly what I ate. Dear reader, truly I have had the greatest chocolate in the world. If you can read German or just want to click on links to see the chocolate, you can go to the website for Maeser Luksch.

Take Your Fish For A Walk

From the website Hacked Gadgets, a fish controlled robot. Give your fish the chance to move about the earth. If only Pub could have lived to see this wonder for fish everywhere.

Late From Munich

The Cathedral Church Towers
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

So, haven't posted much throughout the week. Was a tough week of work and I didn't get out much other than Oktoberfest one night, which was amazing. Got to head out this afternoon and enjoy an evening in the Old City in Munich. Pictures have been added to the Germany photoset on Flickr. Flying home tomorrow. Long flight but will be very glad to be home and with my wife.

What A Castle

Neuschwanstein From Below
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

We went to Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein yesterday. A really magnificant site to see. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I also accidently navigated us into Austria, so now I can check off having also been in Austria. We have been doing a lot of traveling into some really neat German villages. Neat to see the consistency between villages. They all have the central big steeple for their church and they all have Maypoles that are several stories high. Thats all for now, have to head into work. Not sure about tonight, but Oktober Fest tomorrow!

Oh, The Alps (Oh, Die Alpen)

Seeing The Alps
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Had to get a post in for the day. My flakey internet connection at the hotel is working now so I am going to go ahead and get some pictures up to Flickr. Hope everyone enjoys! The title for this entry comes from the fact that when we turned a corner on the Autobahn, suddenly the alps came into view. I said, "Ohh! Wow! That is gorgeous!". To which my cohort's (who has been all over the alps) simple reply was, "What? Oh, the Alps".

Time to get some much needed sleep to eliminate my jet lag. Off to Neuschwanstein Castle tomorrow. I will definitly get pictures of that. Everyone would probably recognize it as looking similar to the Disney castle, which makes sense since it was the inspiration.

14 hours of flying down....

Brian survived the flight!!! He even got a little sleep on the way there.

I just heard from him, and he said he was eating lunch and drinking a beer in the Alps outside Munich.

Seeing the world....

So Brian is on he second of two flights right now. Today alone he will have seen the following things:
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Sierra Nevada Mountains
Rocky Mountains
Appalachian Mountians
The Alps
North America
Europe
USA
Ireland
England
Germany
LA
DC
Munich

He said he survived the first of his flights, but was annoyed that Dulles didn't have more power outlets to charge his ipod and laptop. Oh and United didn't put him as Frequent Flyer standby for business class, so he didn't get the upgrade that he was hoping. But he still got a good seat(exit row near the front). He was talking about visiting Strausburg sometime this weekend.

As for me I have no real plans for this weekend, just cleaning house and mowing the lawn(if the rain lets up). I might go see my sister's marching band competition in Westminster tomorrow. Talk to you all later!!!
Helene

Congratulations Are In Order

Congratulations to David and Julia on their Engagement!

Leaving LA

Off to Munich early tomorrow morning. Well, not so early Mountain or Central time, and definitely not so early East Coast time, and downright late Munich time. I leave LA 8AM PDT, which will be 5PM in Germany, and I get into Germany 8AM there time on Saturday. This could be really interesting. Ich gebe mehr von Munchen bekannt!

Long Journey

Okay. So today I (Brian) set out on a long journey. I fly to LA today, I am in LA till Friday morning, and then up to Munich, Germany till the following Saturday. I know Helene would love to hear from folks while I am gone. Look for pictures from Germany starting next weekend!

Renn Fest

Helene At Renn Fest
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

Helene and I went to the Maryland Renn fest yesterday. We had a great time, as we always do at the festivals. Enjoy our pictures!

Baking

So if you looked under our interests you will have seen that we have baking as an interest. Well, we actually have two different interest. I am interested in trying to learn about baking. Making the actual cakes and that kind of thing. Alton Brown really shows the science of baking well and it has caught my interest. Helene has been watching these big cake decorating shows on The Food Network and has really taken an interest in that. So, we find we might have a crossing of hobbies. I am going to try my hand at baking cakes, and Helene will try her hand at decorating. These pictures are our first attempt, we started with cupcakes, figured we would start small.

Begin At The Beginning

Antigua - Helene & Brian At The Fort
Originally uploaded by bjmclaughlin.

The first post. Wanted to let everyone know that our blog will have a perpetual link to our Flickr photo sets. The link can be found on the right sidebar. Check out the pictures on a map link too. Shows where we took pictures and you can zoom in to see a spread of photo over an area (like if you zoom in on the Caribbean you will see which islands have pictures, and some even where on the island). There is also a link to a "favorite links" area. These are really my (Brian's) bookmarks but you might find some neat little jems in amongst them. I post new links all the time.