Maui

When my daughter married her second husband, his parents, my wife and I were invited along on their honeymoon on Maui. It was a great fun trip. The Hawaiian Islands are a wonderful place to take a vacation. One of the best things about our stay in Maui was the hotel. The lobby was partially outdoors. Across from the front desk was a pond with goldfish and a waterfall.

There is a path that winds its way between the five swimming pools and lovely gardens. This picture was taken on the path.

Here is the view from our room.

The mountains in the picture are volcanic. Next are some scenes driving up them. First is the astronomical observatory. The second is the caldera of the volcano.

And of course there is the Pacific Ocean. One of the fun things to do is to take a ride on a catamaran.

Another is to watch the breakers hit the rocks.

A couple of local men caught an octopus.

And I'll end this with a beautiful sunset.

Seattle Washington 1978

One of my daughters lives in Seattle, Washington, a great place to visit. The following pictures were taken on one of the trips to visit her. Above is a view of downtown Seattle. The locks are between Lake Washington and Puget Sound.

We visited a Bavarian Village in Leavenworth. Leavenworth was once the center of logging and sawmill industries. When the railroad was rerouted, it became a dying community. To save the town in the 1960s, the community leaders to change the appearance to that of an Alpine village. They remodeled the downtown area into a the illusion of Bavaria. Since then the town has a thriving tourist industry.

And of course, no trip to Seattle would be complete without a visit to Mount Rainier. Here are three pictures taken from different points on the way and on the mountain. In the last three, my daughters are sitting on part of the mountain.

We also visited a game farm where the animals run loose and the people view them from their cars. As you can see, the animals are curious too.

Germany Trip

In 1976, my wife, daughters and I visited my oldest daughter and her first husband, who was stationed at Kaiserlautern, Germany. My ex-son-in-law and I hired a van, and we toured several interesting tourist attractions. We also took a bus tour of Paris and the French wine country. Here is a picture of the Arc de Triumphe.

We visited with old and new German friends. Here we are enjoying a meal together.

Afterwards we began our drive tour. The first place we visited was Heidelberg. Here is the ruined castle on the bluffs overlooking the Rhein River.

We continued southeast on what is known as the Romantic Road (Romantikstrasse). Here we are standing in front of a wood carving shop in the village of wood carvers. The altar in the local church is beautifully carved from wood.

Here is the beautiful fairy castle built by King Ludwig in 1832 called Neuschweinstein Castle. It is open to tourists to view the gorgeous interior.

Also on the Romantic Road is a medieval walled village.

We also visited the city of Munich. There are two must sees in Munich. The Glockenspiel is a clock on the city hall in the middle of the central square which has figures that appear and march around the clock as it strikes the hour.

The second is The Hoffbrau Haus, famous for its beer and potato pancakes.

We continued our tour by driving up to the Zugpitz, the highest mountain in Germany in the Alps.

Finally, we drove into Austria. There we enjoyed awesome scenery and visited Innsbruck, the site of the 1976 Winter Olympics.