Retirement101: October 2008

Thanksgiving-08

David lost his first tooth- Byron is putting an addition to hsi house for mother-in-law(Toni) and we had lots & lots to eat at Byron & Brent's places

Part 2-Still cont'd-Germany-Bingen(on the Rhine)

We spent our last day & a half at Bingen & Rudesheim(across the river) David's son Victor took us with his car to Bingen to a hotel that he had researched on the internet-made the reservation and carried our luggage up to our room.

Part 2-continued in central Germany!

David Penner-fellow in the grey suit(holding D's hand-bottom picture) came with his son to pick us up. We arrived at his place after 9 pm and a large crowd was there to greet these "canadians". We attended a German Baptist church but it was all in Russian that Sunday...lunch was Schaschlik-pork kabobs on a "grill" We spent the next 5 days being "grilled" but again not in English although some of the school-age children tried their English on us...but we again ate wonderful food, were escorted to scenic locations and had a terrific time that left us drained. We now had 2 days left before our flight back to Canada.

Part 2 -Europe(SouthernGermany)

Two years ago, a number of families(Gertrude in particular-in mauve sweater) who had recently immigrated from Russia to Germany contacted Dolores looking for info about the David Penner(her grandfather's) family. Her Grampa Penner was the only brother of 6(?) to come to Canada in 1926.[It's complicated because of step-siblings] Now Dolores was in contact-letters & phonecalls and since we had to fly via Frankfurt, we decided to take some of her family history to them. We were hosted lavishly by the busdriver couple and spent 3 days in Bad Waldsee close to the Swiss border. They treated us like Royalty...food, lodging & sightseeing...only one problem...they speak Russian, Low German, High German....in that order but we managed to communicate even tho it stretched my "comfort" level![It's hard work esp for a hard of hearing guy] then another "David Penner"...my age came to pick us up(a 4 hr oneway trip) and took us back to central Germany...see next blog!

Off to "Mennonite Story in Poland" tour

I found the farm where I spent my first 2.5 years, my birthplace(the village church-Montau) as we toured the northern Poland area in a bus with othe Mennos from across North America!

A visit to the "old farm" in Snowflake

Since flying to Toronto is SO much cheaper from a "next to"province when you are doing it on "airmiles"- we combined it to a visit to Snowflake-our farmstead and saw family & friends in Manitoba as well!

D & A's deck needed replacing

We had a Janzen wedding in Edmonton in August and so we combined it with another project in Calgary and replaced a very weathered deck with a new one(treated wood this time)