happy birthday, kara!

Yesterday Katy hosted a breakfast for her wonderful friend, Kara. She invited a few of Kara's closest friends from the dorm and I helped her pull it all together.

Katy's other gift to Kara was another one of her amazing creations - a journal. She took an old book and turned it into something that Kara can write in.

She did a beautiful job and these pictures I hurriedly took of a few of the pages as the girls were going out the door actually give you no idea of what an amazing work of art this book really is!

down by the bay

We live in a very unique part of the world where three countries come together in what they call a "Three Country Corner". There's a marker not far from our town which marks this exact "corner". It's a lovely spot.

The German flag is on the side you can't see in this picture.

a busy weekend

Yesterday was the annual BFA track meet with home soccer games as well. The fans were out in force!

The teams played well and worked hard.



The students are always so good to come out and cheer their friends on.



Not many places in the world have a castle overlooking a soccer field.

Today we had the remainder of the Palm girls over for lunch. Usually we only have the seniors each year but because we are leaving we didn't want to leave anyone out.
We had a lovely time.
They thanked us again and again for the good food and said that the memory of the wonderful meal would keep them happy for the entire week! Now that is what I call encouraging! :)

manfred

Today we buried a special friend. Manfred, a kind-hearted, distinguished Swiss man, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's five years ago. He suddenly took a turn for the worse about 3 weeks ago and now he's gone. He was only 68.

As we drove home from the funeral today we went down to the docks in Basel and as the sun was setting I noticed how it showed off the rooster on the top of this Catholic church. How do I know it was a Catholic church? It's because Manfred told us several years ago that if we saw a rooster on the top of a church it was Catholic; a cross means it is Protestant; both: the church is shared by two congregations. I will never forget that and I will never forget the kind Swiss man with a twinkle in his eye who took a special interest in us and our family. We will miss him.

it's that time again

While Katy and I were shopping on Saturday for a dress for her last banquet, Howard took my camera and wandered the streets of Freiburg. It's another lovely German city and is never a disappointment.

These Swiss folk were playing their Alpenhorns with much skill and great gusto.



The flowers are always so happy!

A pretty impressive manhole.



The city is full of these little canals. I enjoyed watching these little girls giving their balloons a bath.

the wall

Rothenburg has a great wall that goes completely around the old town core.