2 Days Early, Happy Birthday Daddy!

We continued the Birthday month with, you guessed it. eating. As if there was anything else to do! We started off with an adult's only gorging at PF Changs to celebrate Lynn (61) and Blake's (31) birthday.

Did you know that they sell fried Green Beans at PF changs? They are AWESOME. Usually eat until you want to throw up gorgings take place with my family, it's not a Vacek-type thing to do, but they went all in on this one. Maybe I'm rubbing off?

We went for a quick trip to our old house (wierd to drive by your old house and not live there by the way). Our old next door neighboor Andrew was turning one!

His parents Roger and Amy had Ruffles the clown come to entertain all tke kids at the party. We tried to paint Emmy's face around Halloween and it was an epic fail. We couldn't wait to see what happened when she a) got near Ruffles the clown and b) Ruffles tried to put paint on her. She started out a little hesitant,

but by the time Ruffles was through she told me. "I want paint on ALL emmy's body." We'll have to have a discussion about tattoos. She and Ruffles were best friends by the end of the party. Mommy maintained a safe distance. You know how I feel about clowns.

We headed from the party to... eat more! After a yummy lunch at Kasra (Blake's favorite place for lamb) we headed over for dessert at Ruggles Green. Blake is starting to get a little spoiled with all this partying in one weekend.

Emmy's getting pretty good at Happy Birthday now (she'll sing it 7 times this month), but since this is a special one, we had to include another version just for Daddy.

Spring Break

It was too nice to be inside, so even thought a trip to the beach is probably not on the approved list of tonsil removal recovery activies, we did it anyway! We're counting this as our spring break because there's not really anything else coming =) Don't worry, there are no pictures of me in a maternity swimsuit. I guess I'm going to have to break down and buy one this year but I am NOT excited about it.

This is the first official trip to "Gigi's beach" this year. Emmy likes it again.. A LOT. She spent a couple hours transferring sand, pouring sand, and stomping castles.

Emmy loses her tonsils and paints her toenails

After three months of not sleeping more than two hours consecutively and five rounds of antibiotics, we were all almost excited to go in for Emmy's big surgery on Friday. Her first round of tubes also fell out and she immediately got fluid in her ears, so we decided to get tubes round 2. Just to really finish it off, she also got a "Sinus powerwash." We headed to Texas Children's for the big day. They gave Emmy her own pair of Baby scrubs to wear during her procedure.

The surgery took literally less than 20 minutes. I thought they had decided not to do it when they called us back to the back. They had told us we were going to have to spend the night in the hospital after the surgery. Emmy had other ideas. They said if she could drink a whole juice box and eat a few popsicles they might let us go home. After two hours, Emmy had eaten almost FIVE orange popsicles, drank a juicebox and half a Sprite, and had led everybody in a few rounds of songs. They let us go home! Hooray!

She's doing well, but she still has her moments. She's going to stay home all week with a different family member every day. She's eating lots of popsicles.

Today (I HAD to get out of the house) I took her to get her first Mani/pedi. We went and picked out some new sparkly flipflops for the occasion. She actually sat there and let them paint her nails and her toes. I was amazed! After the lady buffed her nails, she turned around and told me "See it. It looks better." Of course she picked blue, but oh well! It matched her outfit!This will most likely be the first of many. I might have cried if she didn't like it. Pedis are too important in my life ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!

Happy 58th Birthday...

...From Your Favorite Granddaughter!

Famous People You Share A Birthday With Include:

Ron Howard, Alan Thicke, Harry Caray, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Chris Webber and Justin Bieber

Goodbye Praha Beach!

We woke this morning to plummeting temperatures and snow flurries.

With the tempeeratures not expected out of the 20's all day, the final day in Prague would be the coldest one so far. After grabbing a quick and unhealthy breakfast snack at Starbucks (I needed a double shot of espresso as a pick me up and nothing else was really open on Sunday), we met our tour guide for the morning, Jana Hronkova, for a trip through the Jewish Quarter in Prague. For those of you who don't know, the Jewish section of Prague is the largest in Europe.

As many of you are aware, the Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years, and it only continues today. The Christian majority in Prague allowed the Jews to inhabit a certain section of the city in the old town that no one wanted due to its flooding problems. The Jews were forced to live in this section only, and had curfews and limited rights beyond its borders. A series of synagogues were built and life was generally difficult due to continued over-crowding and issues with disease, fire and whatever else could spread quickly. It was funny to learn that the Christians that so persecuted the Jews looked to them even then for loans because it was believed that charging someone interest on money borrowed was a component of the deadly sin greed. The Jews, however, had no issues. Later, we would learn that as the restrictions on Jews loosened and they were able to leave the ghetto and function as normal members of Prague society, they would look to the Christians to cook food for them on the Sabbath, as it was against their beliefs to do so. Finding a way around the rules went both ways. It was also interesting to learn that many times the government would borrow money from the Jews to fund wars and other works and re-pay them by giving in to more freedoms.

Size of the ghetto was an issue that could be seen in the Jewish cemetery. If there was no way to gain land for living, land for the dead was limited even more. The Jews would continually stack the dead in the same cemetery. Over time, it has been said that at least 20K people were buried in the cemetery that takes up a small portion of the land that they were allowed to utilize. As can be seen in the picture, the headstones fill every possible space, every nook, every cranny. Obviously, with the snow coming down and covering the grounds and stones, it only added to the experience.

We listened to Jana as she provided information on life of the Prague Jews as well as background on the Jewish religion itself. Much like Czechoslovakia, the Czech Jew has had a difficult time maintaining their identity. As we learned again today, not too long after they found equality amongst the Czech people, the Jews lives were again shattered by the German occupation and subsequent attempted extermination at the hands of the Nazis. Side note. Europe's oldest synagogue resides in Prague. When asked why the Germans did not tear it down during occupation, Jana replied that they had planned on using it as part of a museum for extinct races. The world can be quite sickening. We also saw a unique Hebrew clock. Just like Hebrew is read"backward", so is the clock. You can see with the modern clock above, it's exactly opposite.

We couldn't take pictures in the synagogues, but we left excited about learning something new. This sounds pretty "well la-de-da" but old churches start looking the same after a while.

At the start of the 19th century, they leveled the ghetto and built an area they call "New Paris." At the end of the street the communists placed a GIGANTIC, and I mean Gigantic, statue of Stalin. Once communism fell they put this equally gigantic metronome. Fun Fact: Michael Jackson once started his world tour in Prague and he put a gigantic statue of himself in the same place (1996 HIStory Tour, look it up, totally true). Hmmm... questionable...

We finished up a little shopping, Blake took 500 more pictures of the Charles Bridge from different points in the city,

and we hiked down river to take this picture of the "Dancing House." It looks like Fred Aistaire and Ginger Rogers! I had this great plan to take a picture with my leg up leaning against Blake. It was going to be great except, there was no one around and we'd have to stand in the middle of the highway, so that didn't so much happen.

Next we decided to put the "Fun" in Funicular and ride up Petrin Hill.

We hopped on the Cable Car for a short trek WAY up to the very top of Prague. Petrin Hill is the Central Park (or one of them) of Prague. In the summer it's a gorgeous green space to take picnics and get panoramic views of the city. In the winter it's just freaking cold (about 18 degrees at this point.) It's topped with a mini-Eiffel tower that you can climb. They closed five minutes before we got up there. Nothing makes me madder than that. Way up at the top of the hill, it did give us some gorgeous views of Prague at night and the Castle.

When we couldn't feel our fingers or faces anymore, we headed down and off to our last night in Prague. One more good dinner, beer, and we we're done. Goodbye Prague!

Our car comes at 4 am, so we're pondering ways to spend the next two hours.... midnight polar bear run around Prague? It's only about 10 degrees...Who knows!

Praha: Day 3

We've been amazed at the empty streets of Prague over the first couple of days of our trip. We expected it to be low season, but low is an understatement of epic proportions. We actually started seeing the same people all over town. How is that possible? I guess there are only 50 tourists in the city and we all seem to be going to the same places. Well that changed today! The streets are packed. The bridges are packed. The shops are busy. I am so glad we didn't decide to come in the summer. I can't even imagine how miserable that would be. We also got a few snow flurries today! Not enough to stick, but enough to make it a little romantic.

We took in many of the more touristy parts of Prague today. We took a daytime trip across the Charles Bridge, along with all 500 new tourists. Then we headed down to the Old Town Square. Prague is unique in that both sides (Axis/Allies)decided not to bomb Prague during WWII. All of the architecture is actually original. Jan Haus, a national hero and Hussite church leader (he wanted everyone to be able to take wine at communion) presides over the square.

The Tyn (pronounced teen) church was where he preached, until the Catholics took it over after they chopped his head off. It looks like a monster church about to eat the square.

The other main feature of the square is the astromonomical clock.

Every hour throngs of visitors (and pickpockets) gather to watch the show. The clock was built in the 1700's and tells time in about 17 different ways: Bohemian time, roman time, the zodaic, and regular time. It must've been REALLY fancy in it's day. The show was about ten seconds long. While I'm happy I saw it, I'm ok not to do it again =) We realized quickly that you can climb the clock tower so guess what we did?! When we got inside we realized you can actually take an elevator (a first for climbing experiences), but we climbed anayway! The views were actually MUCH better than from the castle.

Attached to the clock tower is the old town hall. There is not much of it left as the Germans bulldozed it with their tanks as they left the city near the end of the war. Interesting to note that this was one thing that actually ignited cheers from the local Czech people towards the Nazis. Apparently, the building was ugly and was despised by many. You can see the jagged edges of the remains of the building on the backside of the clock tower.

After a quick Starbucks break, we wandered down to the "new town" and on the way stopped at Halveca Market. Let's just say we got a little sidetracked here. I got some new art for the house and some gifts. Everything is more fun when it's at a street market. One day we are hoping to find some original art at a street market that actually increases in value...still buying, waiting and hoping...

We headed to St. Wenceslas sqaure. We've been wondering where the "Real Prague" was with real stores, etc. and we found it.

There is a controversial artisist here in Prague named David Cherny. He likes to make really stragne controversial art. For example, this is King Wenceslas, nation hero, riding an upside down horse, hanging from the ceiling in a shopping mall. Evidently the prank is to steal the toungue.

And here a gigantic scary faced babies crawling around one of the national building. When CR had the EU presidency, he built a giantic work of art that was offensive to every country in the EU and hung it across the street from the EU building. VERY WEIRD!

Of course after all the walking I got thirsty and needed a beer. Kristen and I found a place called U Medvidku that had traditional Czech beers as well as several they brewed themselves.

If you are a fan of Anthony Bourdain, he went to this place and had a drink and beer cheese. Well, in Anthony's honor, I did the same. Kristen stayed away from the cheese and opted for onion soup. The Czech Budweiser (Budvar) is a dark lager, full of flavor, that complimented the cheese rather nicely. Kristen laughed and snapped a shot of the beer next to her coke. Can you figure out which is which? I know, me neither.

With fried bread, beer and beer cheese in my belly, we walked through the crowds and back across the river for some quiet time at the hotel before our next adventure, the opera. Kristen has talked about going since we arrived, so after a short nap we got ready and crossed the river to the Narodniho Divadla (National Theater) for "L'elsisir d'amore" (The Elixir of Love).

The story follows a sad sack of a man as he mopes about the beautiful woman in his town not loving him. Later, a "doctor" arrives in the town and begins selling elixirs to cure all ailments and talks this broken man into buying a love potion. Of course, it does not work and the woman decides to marry a Sergeant in the armed forces. So, in order to get more money for additional elxir, the sad man sells himself into the service. He buys more elixir, drinks it, and all of a sudden all ladies start loving him. Not because of the elixir, but because his uncle died and left him an inheritance that makes him the wealthiest man around. In the end, the love of his life decides to dump the Sarge and buy his contract out of the armed forces and they live happily ever after. Which leads me to the point of the opera, women love money, even if that money comes from a sad, overweight man that had been disregarded his whole life. Its all about the Benjamins...OUCH! Stop hitting me Kristen! By the way, the inside of the theatre was beautiful!

But seriously, the opera was enjoyable, more enjoyable than I believed it would be and it was cheap. Again, low season. Tickets in the first gallery, less than $20/each. World class entertainment at rock bottom prices. Not much better than that.

A late dinner at an Italian joint near our hotel (thanks for taking credit cards) after and we have decided to call it a night. We both need some sleep after the first three days of this vacation.

Sadly, tomorrow will be our last day in Prague. We have plans to meet with a personal guide to tour the Jewish Ghetto in the city. Much history to be discovered and understood. After the morning, who knows...beer...pork...its all a possibility! Until then...

A Day of Opposites

We had great plans of waking up at 7 am to head off for our day trip to Terezin, a Jewish internment camp. We got the wake-up call just fine, and we ignored it JUST as well! We woke up at 11:15...oh crap...the jet lag won! The train station itself is an hour away from our hotel, then it's another hour bus trip. Everything in Terezin closes by 4:30, so we started Amazing Race: Prague Edition!

Usually we're not intimidated by the subway or trains. It's a little different here because the language looks a little like someone sat on a keyboard. Going from tram stops at Ujezd to Malostranska to Vitavska is a little different than say even Paris where you would get on at Tour Eiffel and end up at Sacre Coueur. Even tonight, I was looking for a bar named Hospudka Na Cevtoce! What? My Spanish is broken, my French is limited, but my Czech is non-existent. After finally figuring out where to buy tickets and what general direction we were to go, we made our way down the river on the tram (which is an excellent way to travel by the way) and to the train station appropriately called Holesovice. We grabbed some sketchy pastry-looking lunch/breakfast (The ONLY thing we ate until 8 o'clcok) at the station and began the 30 minute wait for the bus.

We paid the driver, grabbed a seat and took off for Terezin. Now, Prague has been quiet. February is the end of the low season in Europe. But Terezin was desolete. Barren. Crickets. I think we had a second "oh crap" moment when no one except us on the bus to Terezin got off the bus at Terezin. Later, we would find out that it was probably the best thing that could have happened for the experience at the camp. It really set the perfect mood for viewing the site. This was Terezin's (empty) main square.

We walked in the Ghetto Museum, bought tickets and toured the history of how Terezin came to be. If you research the camp, you will find out that it was a holding facility for Jews before they were transported mainly to Auschwitz which was still under construction when the camp opened. Terezin, previously, was a walled city designed to keep out the Prussians, but the Nazis assumed ownership as they blew through CZ.

The history of the camp is of course, bleak, sad and troubling. The Nazis were cruel and sadistic. Most of those that were at the camp at some point did not survive the holocaust.

We left the museum and visited the barracks. Apparently, Terezin was a location that the Nazis brought Jews that they deemed worthy or valuable through their trade such as doctors, lawyers, writers, artists and other high profile positions. The Nazi's used Terezin as a propoganda tool during the war and even had a Red Cross visit about halfway through the war. The poor Jews had to beautify the camp, put on plays and sporting events, and pretend everything was ok. The Red Cross representatives bought it hook, line, and sinker. Even though they were encarcarated, the Jews there managed to continue producing amazing works of art, producing plays, magazines, and compsing music. It is amazing the concentration of artisits and creative people they had within the walls, and such a shame that most of them persished. A particualr focus was on the artwork of the children in the camp. They allowed the Jews to run schools and much of the children's art was on display. That was particularly hard.

There are places we've been that just feel as if they have ghosts. Walking around Terezin, you felt the sadness. The fact that people actually live here now is astounding to me. We took a hike outside the city walls to the "small fortress" or the Gestapo prison. Talk about ghosts. We were the ONLY people inside the entire prison.

There were rooms that when I walked in the hair stood up on the back of my neck.

The Nazi prisons and camps were often plastered with the words "Arbiect Macht Frie" meaning "Work will set you free".

Maybe it was the cold and the isolation, but the whole place just felt evil. This is a sample of the Red Cross efforts I mentioned above. The sinks were built, but the pipes were never run to make them work. It was all fake.

We kept the creepy up walking through solitary cells, group showers (where they got the Jews used to group showering so they would be compliant when they got to Auschwitz and subsequently gassed) and even saw the mass grave where they dug up 601 of the deceased and the execution grounds where they and many others were murdered. Outside the prison is a large cemetery. Most of the graves in the Jewish section towards the fortress walls just have numbers, unknown casualties of a horrible moment in the world's history...

After visiting the small fortress, we hauled it back across town to try and make it to the crematorium before it closed. We were too late, but we did see this. It's a remnant of the train tracks the Nazis forced their Jewish prisoners to build. The Nazis didn't want the Jews walking from the next town to the camp, so they forced them to build a railroad that came right up to the camp. Down these tracks was Auschwitz...

It was an amazing experience to get to see something like this. Even though it was a heavy day, it was something we won't ever forget. It's so sad to think of what these people might have done had they not met this fate.

To balance out the day, we decided to have a bit lighter night. We had dinner in our hotel's restauraunt, which is REALLY nice. Our taxi driver said our hotel looked like someone threw-up baroque and he was right. Look at how gaudy this room in the restauraunt is! The walls are mosaic mirrors. LOVE it! Dinner was A-mazing. I ate duck and actually liked it!

Since we have pretty much let the jet lag win, of course we weren't tired at 10:30. We headed out to look for a beer and for some reason the whole city is closed! We found this cute wine bar and of course, ate some more.

We tried the mulled wine, ate brie and honey, and you know Blake found some sausage.

So here we are, 2 o'clock in the morning and wondering what we should do. We're bound and determined to make it up in the morning for breakfast and some of the more toursity areas. I'm sure Blake will find some pig too....