Location: Garmisch, Germany, Day 3

While we were in Garmisch dad and I kept trying and trying to catch a sunrise coming over the mountains but we just never seemed to wake up early enough. Finally on the last day, right before we were going to drive home we caught it.
It was funny, dad and I were in different rooms, but we both went out on our balconies and the whole time I was taking pictures I kept hearing something click but I couldn't figure out WHAT it was.

It was an amazing way to finish out the weekend in Garmisch.

That was it for my time in Germany. So where was I off to next? Stay tuned. Maybe you'll still see more from Germany...

So where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know.

Location: Dachau, Germany

If there is anything that Germans hate about their history it's the halocaust. If you were to mention Hitler to an old man he would start going off about Hitler was not German, but in fact Austrian. Yet, I am a firm believer that if you go to Germany, no matter how long, and do not go to a concentration camp then you have wasted a good trip. There are so many to be found in Germany and Dachau is located near Munich and was one of the bigger camps in Germany. It housed the man who repeatedly tried to assasinate Hitler, coming close numerous times.

I have been to Dachau a couple times before but this time I made my way down to the creamatory and the location of the ashes they found left in the building. So, enough words; PICTURES!

The bell rings at the top of every hour for a good amount of time, amazing sounds! So of course the holocaust focused primarily on the Jewish faith, but it should not be forgotten that more religions and lifestyles were also targetted. This statue just makes me smile; I think he's a cute old man... Not sure who he is though. A shot of the Creamoty When the American's took over Dachau and found the ashes in the Creamotory they didn't know what to do with the ashes, so they spread them around the site in a nice garden even in the flower beds.

A solemn experience is what Dachau can bring. Yes, it is a sad thing to see, but it's a part of history and I believe everyone needs to see the sadness and sorrows that were held here.

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know.

Location: Munich, Germany

So in continuing with my late entries of where all I went this summer (not even in the states yet...) we come to Munich, home of the olympics sometime in the 80s.

Now I've been here a couple times, but it's still ajoy to go re-visit a city if you can and find new adventures and spend it with different people. This time it was with my parents and siblings.

Whenever anyone asks me about Munich and what is there I automatically think, Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel is the big kookoo clock that sits atop the Rathaus or 'city hall'. No joke this thing is massive and old! Though it runs all day long and chimes at the top of every hour it only 'plays' once a day (3 times during the summer).

This is a picture of the Rathaus taken from a tower on the other side of the square.

A close up of the figures that dance for us. This clock has 43 bells and more than 30 LIFE SIZE figures that dance, spin and even JOUST!

And just showing how the clock tower looks. Now of course there is a story to this!!

There are two different sections. The top part has knights on horse back that joust. This is in honor of a local duke, who also founded the hofbrahaus (which is probably why he's the most famous), and his marriage to a lady of another area of Germany. To celebrate their marriage the knights each wear different colors. Bavaria, where the duke is from, wears blue and white. The land where the lady is from wears red and white. Now, being that Munich is IN Bavaria, the Bavarian knight always wins of course ;)

The bottom half is a celebration of the Coopers' dance. During the 16th century Germany and particularly this area was hit by plagues and everyone went into hiding and would not socialize with anyone outside of those that lived in their house. The first members of this area to come out of hiding were barrell makers and to show everyone that it was ok to come out they danced in the street. The duke at the time ws so happy to see this and to see everyone out again that he commanded that this dance be done every 7 years, which it still continues today. Can be seen during Fausching in Munich, but not until 2012.

So the tower we watched the clock from was a little high up there and it was a little cold. As you can see from the picture, Simeon REFUSED to leave that window sill. He would not let go of it for anything!

We had all tried to get Alex to go to the top with us, but after seeing Simeon not enjoy it, it was probably good that he stayed on the ground with Mom, he hid inside her coat due to the chilliness (THIS WAS IN JUNE!!!)

This clock is so amazing and if you have the chance to ever see it or if you haven't seen it yet you need to. Google the times, but it's usually at 11 as well as noon and 5 during the summer.

But wait, what is this I see? Oh, it couldn't be could it? A FOUNTAIN??? Of course it is!

I love fountains!!!

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know.

Location: Garmisch, Germany, Day 2

I went Skydiving, I went Rocky Mountain climbing; ok, maybe not mountain climbing and maybe not skydiving (not this post) but I did go paragliding :)

What an experience is all I have to say; not as much of a rush but it is so amazing to feel that sensation that all you have to hold you up is a canopy and it's your job to get it up and carrying you.

So if you notice these houses at the bottom of the hills; they were what we were expected to run to. We were told to sprint straight on for these houses and hope that the wind catches your chute and pulls you up. The thing that sucks is that once the chute goes up you feel like you hit a brick wall and it takes everything in you to try and keep going.
This is the amazing Cindy who told me about the paragliding; see, she's runing, you run, run, run, run and run until your legs don't touch the ground anymore. Then up it pulls you; try not to fall though as you are running because that might be problematic as it was for her ;)
And yes, I took pictures while gliding down, this is only ONE of the many. I also took pictures of Garmisch and my shoes of course. It was really cool and I highly suggest it if ever you get a chance, just go somewhere that has an amazing view like this one (Oh, and it was cold but it did feel nice).

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know.

Location: Garmisch, Germany

After spending the previous day driving and in Neuschwanstein, we had arrived in Garmisch finally!

Garmisch is what we Americans that get to live in Germany while with the military escape to; it's basically a resort. During the winters it gets to be CRAZY busy since there are some amazing ski runs in the area, including the Zugspitze which I was fortunate enough to get a first hand view of in a way not many do (post on that is next.)

We spent the weekend in the pool, walking around the town of Garmisch and really just enjoying the weekend we had together. After this we weren't going to see Michelle anymore, she was leaving after that weekend and Cody was due to deploy shortly there after; so we tried especially hard to enjoy the weekend.

We were also blessed to have Grandma Norton and Cousin Kimmy (oh, she's going to kill me)... I mean Cousin K-dawg with us at Garmisch.

Us enjoying the weekend with family included dad taking even MORE pictures of the family... I think we have enough now... I enjoy that he did it, I think it was for a good cause it has been a really long time since we've had that many of our family members together, but too many family portraits is what causes us going from a nice picture of our family like this one...

To a rough and tumbly kind of picture like this one...Ah, it is love...

We did get a lot of family pics that were cute and I'm happy to share some of them with you :)

One of the mom and grandma:

One of just the Ray girls (minus Michelle who was off trying to keep Cody safe):

One of just the Ray boys (minus Cody who was off galavanting somewhere):

Another of just the Ray girls (again without Michelle, but these are just the monkey-Ray girls):One of just the Mom and Dad, I like it!!!!: One of just the females on the trip (where is MICHELLE?) PS, like I'm a full head taller than everyone? Oh, and that's WITH mom wearing heels:

So dad and I, we couldn't help ourselves... we just had to have a sword fight in the middle of town; took a couple pictures of this and in some of them you get an awesome look of bystanders just LOOKING at us :)

We saw this really cute dog, but we weren't allowed to touch him, he was working:

Look, I found Cody and Michelle:

And finally, anyone who reads my blog a total of two times will come to see that I have a fascination with fountains, if there is a fountain in a city, I will find it... why should Garmisch be ANY different?

So there you have it, another post CLOSER to being caught up, though I still have the whole summer to go through...

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know.

Location: Neuschwanstein, Germany

After Stephani's high school graduation (congrats to her) we headed down to Bavaria, yeah, Bavaria is not that great... hehe, have you been there?

First stop, Stuttgart to get Cody of course. While there we had to wait for mom and dad to get gas in their car so we had a LITTLE fun with picking on Steph and her bear. It's not our fault. Don't make such a big deal about it and we won't torment you so. We made him ride outside the car... don't worry, he still made it to Garmisch with us! (Dont' judge me!)

Onward to Garmisch, pitstopping in Neuschwanstein, aka, Cinderella's castle. So it's my second time going, it is pretty cool, I mean the drive is nice, but you can't take pictures inside the castle... or can you??? Ask my dad whether or not you can... this is his pride and joy... he was being a little bit of a rebel and took a picture inside, funny thing is he did it without looking through the eye piece, without focusing it, without even aiming and he got a good picture. Too bad it flashed and he got a little embarassed about that...So Neuschwanstein was cool, but we were all a little tired and needing some sleep, it was later in the afternoon and we still needed to check into our hotel... OH OH, while at Neuschwanstein my dad got a little timed phot happy and made us take about 20 family pictures... quite literally we were taking family portraits every 10 feet or something. Probably my favorite:It was a good first day, with so many more to come.

Where in the world is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know (late, but you still know!)

Location: Way far away, Germany; High school graduation

Alright, so I'm playing MAJOR catch up, forgive me, but someday I'll be able to balance school, traveling, blogging and hopefully working.

So it was a crazy day when I graduated, but not 4 years (almost to the day) later I'm headed down to some German city out in the middle of nowhere near Pirmasens... yes, it was a drive and even then we were still limited to seats. Still a touchy subject for our family; anyhow!

So we get to this little theater, it was nice, definitely more grand than most stages for high school graduates and we wait in the hot back side of the theater for that oh familiar (in my eyes overplayed) song of Pomp and Circumstance. The crowd rises and in walk the grads, you can imagien my surprise when I realize that her graduating class was much bigger than mine. We take our seats and let the LONG program begin.

I loved living in Germany, really I did. But I HATED having to do things for TWO countries. For example, at the beginning of the ceremony a senior sang the American national anthem, yay, we can sit, Oh wait, no, not yet, listen to the German national anthem. Oh, now you want to sit? Just kidding, time for the invocation (which makes me wonder, if there's an invocation why do most places NOT do a benediction? I know, spoiled Mormon over here), after the invocation, ok, now you can sit.

Welcome to the Kaiserslautern American High School graduation of 2009! Cheers errupt, but oh wait, what is that in the background? The same thing... in GERMAN! Are we going to do this for everything? I know we are in Germany, but it's an AMERICAN high school. You just said that!

**Side note... when I graduated from a foreign country I don't think we translated the welcoming. Granted it might have been way too hot, but still!!**

So we go through this whole speach done in english and then we have to listen to it in German (yes I can speak German, but I don't think ANYONE needed to hear it in German!). So imagine the fear when I thought that we would be there for 17 hours listening to people say one thing in English and then in German. I was hoping they wouldn't need to translate the names of the graduates... How dumb would that be? Ezekiel Graham... Azikehl G(rolling r)ahaaaam... I'd be pissed!

So we watch as the pool of red, seniors, await for their turn to stand, walk to the side, wait in line for their name to be called, receive their diploma, pose for pictures, return to their seats and sit. Was my graduation that bad? NO! it wasn't, I will tell you why!!!

At this graduation they would say, Ezekiel Graham (was that even a real person? I don't know...) and then, Ezekiel's favorite memory is blah blah blah blah blah blah blah he is headed to such and such school to study blah blah blah blah blah where he hopes to persue blah blah blah blah blah... cheers... Next... can you see why it took about an hour and a half to get through 100 kids???

Needless to say when Stephani's turn came I waited for it to get quiet then yelled at the top of my lungs, LOVE YOU ANI! Did she hear? NO! What a waste of breath that could have been saved for my death bed Steph!

Lucky for us because R is towards the end of the alphabet after watching Steph walk we were near the end. I feel bad for the Valedictorian or Salutatrian or even anyone whose last name is Adams! They see their kid walk and then it's like... BORING! Yawn fest over here!

After they all walked they did the hat toss, Steph did NOT throw her hat... good ole Ray tradition (I wonder what would happen if nobody threw their hat.. what a lame picture...)

We made our way out the doors and through the hoards of masses that thought it would be a good idea to mingle IN the foyer instead of in the courtyard just outside the building and finally found Steph, not easy when looking for a midget! It's almost like it'd be easier to lay on the ground and look for her between people's legs.
What a happy day, welcome to the real world Steph... and don't worry, I won't post pictures of you and Erik holding hands at the Ice cream parlor we all went to after ya'lls graduation. ;)

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know!