Where in the world?

A long overdue post - maybe the final one (is anyone still blogging or has the convenience of Facebook taken over? Seems I've missed a lot being on the road.) And I've got some explaining to do. For those who don't know, we're not in Berlin anymore. We're not even in Germany anymore! For a variety of reasons which I won't get into here (Matthias' green card status among them) we decided to come back to the States again. We are currently in.......drum roll, please.......Portland, Oregon!

Lots of rain makes for pretty waterfalls

Long story short (just the fun stuff here), we took some time to visit with the family in Florida and then packed up the van (thanks for the use of the van, mom and dad!) and drove out west. So, before I get into what we might or might not be doing here in Portland, I get to describe another escapade!

Matthias on the beach in Biloxi, MS

The experience driving across the U.S. actually turned out to be right up there with our other adventures. We took the southernmost route to try to avoid some of the nasty winter storms, and ended up going through (and stopping in) Biloxi MS; New Orleans, LA; Austin, TX, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Davis, CA; and up the Northern California and Oregon Coast.

Austin, TX

We took about three weeks to make the journey, staying in cheap motels and campsites (when it wasn't too cold) along the way. Throughout the trip, the scenery - even from the car - was fantastic. New Orleans (of course) was a highlight, although it was below freezing when we were there. And we were absolutely WOWed by Austin, Texas, where we had a fun night out on the town listening to live music. Naturally our tour of Texas also included a stop in the BBQ capital of Texas (and therefore the world, some would say) where we feasted on simply awesome BBQ. As a matter of fact, we really enjoyed just about everywhere we went in Texas - Matthias being a huge fan of the wild west culture, I often caught him in a dreamy-eyed look, and I knew he was imagining himself riding through the countryside on horseback, meeting up with Judge Roy Bean on the Pecos River or Davy Crocket at the Alamo....

Judy and a real "Texas Toothpick" (and I thought food was big in Bavaria!)

Matthias feeling right at home west of the Pecos

After quite a bit of time in Texas, we stopped in Phoenix to see our good friend Patrick and had a fantastic visit (thanks, Patrick, for taking us around!) Then it was on to Vegas, which was...well....Vegas, and then California. We missed seeing Sue in Davis, but got to visit with Lisa, Noah, Eli and Michael, which was great (but I forgot to take pictures, dammit!)

Matthias, Keith and Patrick next to a typical Saguaro cactus


View of Sedona from the car

After Davis, we drove up the breathtaking Northern California coastline, through the Redwood forest and along the Oregon Coast. At long last we arrived in Portland and have found a temporary place to stay until we can settle in. And Portland hasn't disappointed either! It's everything we expected: it's an extremely bike-friendly city, it's laid-back but still interesting, they love their beer, and yes, it rains all the time. Just like Germany!

California Coast


Oregon Coast

So now we would like to stay here but I guess you never know with us. Our first step is to find work...not an easy task in this day and age. And that's one major reason I've come out of the dark and let people know where we are - I'm going to be bugging my work contacts soon for references and the like. Yes, Stu is helping me out with the latest job search/networking technology like pointing me toward LinkedIn. Being out of the workforce for so long, I guess I missed that one - so look me up if you don't hear from me first!

And for the full online trip photo album:

X-America Trip