Saturday, May 17, 2008









It was May Day in Leavenworth over Mother's Day weekend so I went with my mom's to see the parade and the May Pole dancing. Since I spent a lot of years growing up in Germany it was really fun to see the Maibaum there in Leavenworth. I've always felt strong ties to the German culture because of my growing up there and now since Scarlet's transplant, I feel a renewed and even stronger tie and love for Germany. If you don't know already, Scarlet's donor is a man from Germany. The whole time I was watching the dancing I felt really emotional because I am so grateful for him who gave so much to our family half a world away. I took several different videos of the dancing but this one was my favorite because it reminded me of one of the few family "vacations" we had ever taken growing up. I think I was around 10 yrs. old when we all went to Berchtesgaden, Germany. We took this train into a mountain to get to the salt mine, if you could call it that, it was more like a kiddie ride at a fair, but really old and no protective anything, like seatbelts or sides to keep you from falling out. I remember clinging to whoever was in front of me and being really scared, first of the dark and secondly of falling off. I can relate a lot to the people on the boat on Willie Wonka going down the river, it was dark and you could feel that there wasn't a lot of space and there would be flashes of light randomly through the tunnel into the mountain. So when you see the men crouching in their dance, they really had to crouch in those mines! When the train stopped though, and this is where it gets even more like Willie Wonka, the tour guide said you could lick the walls because it was a salt mine and the walls were of salt. I'm sure snozzberries tasted a lot better than those salt walls. Then we took this wooden raft over a small lake of salt water from there, it was really Harry Potter like. I really don't remember how we got out of the mountain. The whole experience was a little traumatizing but it was so amazing. Sorry, didn't mean to make this blog a flashback, but once I started I had to keep going. :) You understand.

8 comments:

Brits said...

I'm SO jealous! I've always wanted to go there.

Brits said...

Paul Peterson? That's SO funny!!

Dickson Family said...

how fun for you to get to do that. as i was reading i read that you went pole dancing...i was like wow kati, now i get it...note to self no not skim read blogs perhaps this is how rumors start! :) love the pictures.

Dickson Family said...

ps i was looking for your links to friends and couldn't find one. where did all your friends go?

Mitchell Family said...

Hi! My husband did the Race to the Border and showed me the picture of Scarlet you passed out. She's a beauty! If you're interested in checking out my blog, I'm at www.mitchellfamilyjournal.blogspot.com. I'll keep an eye on your blog!

Ashley C said...

I enjoyed your story. Pretty funny. I like Leavenworth too! And I didn't know her donor was from Germany. How interesting. If she loves sausage and beer when she grows up, you'll know why. :) Ha ha, I couldn't even think of a single food from Germany.

Feki Pouha said...

Aloha from our 'ohana,

Just wanted to say Hi and hope that everything is going well.

Feki, Kieiki, Kia'i, and Lai'ku Po'uha

ohanapouha.blogspot.com

J D C and N said...

Fun to catch up on your blog! That's pretty neat that Scarlett's donor is from Germany. That is a neat tie you have with him. All your pics are too cute!