Last we talked (I talked, you might have listened, I really have no idea) we spent the day in Rothenburg. Since it was literally just a few hours ago, I am forgoing a recap.

Since I am behind and the next entry will be better than ever, I am combining Sunday and Monday. Easter Sunday was beautiful. The weather, the church, the music – all of it. The fact that we had NO clue what was being said makes no difference. Once mass was done we literally stepped out of church and into the Easter Market. It was great and cemented my desire to make it to a Christmas Market even more. I will say that if you want socks, that Market is THE place to go! It also had amazing bratwurst and small sausages (I will just let that go because I am a mature adult). One thing we learned on one of our tours is that guards would slip small sausages through the keyhole to feed the wealthier inmates. We didn’t leave that alone. We weren’t mature adults. But I won’t say anything more about it.

I am going to admit that I started this at 3:30 in the morning and rereading it makes me wonder what I was thinking. But know what, I am leaving it because I want you to have the full experience.

We had dinner at a truly authentic restaurant – an Italian place. After that we went to another truly authentic place, Finnegan’s Pub. It was such a great place that we went back the next night. We chatted with the bartenders (from Ireland) and Tim made a new friend from South Africa. My kid can make a tree talk – it is totally a Coffey trait. I think it is taught in the womb.

On Monday we went on a tour on the old castle- and there were more freaking steps. It was a fantastic tour – but the steps to the tower. We all decided that we had climbed enough for three vacations. But it was worth it. We have also just done a lot of wandering. And laughing. Lots and lots of laughing.

I am sure – positive- that I have skipped over things but I will add pictures here and more later after the trip. But, for now…. Tschüss!!

Why did anyone bother trying to attack each other when they *knew* hills ans stairs were involved? And most likely a moat? I mean, really? I am all for staying in shape and all but at some point ya just have to cry uncle. Wave the white flag. Give up. Whatever. Just stop with the conquering – if for nothing else, the stupid hills amd stairs!

But that isn’t the point of this whole thing. We last left you in…. I totally forgot. I think the forst night in Nuremberg. Yes! With the urinal. Yeah, just wait until you hear about what this airb&b has. Minds were ***BLOWN***!!!

We spent our time in Nuremberg over the Easter weekend which was great and interesting. Since Bavaria don’t of shuts down for Easter, we had to plan correctly- like getting food in the train station or at the festival..

So, our day trip was to one of my favorite places. But I either don’t remember it clearly or didn’t partake in the hell climb. We spent the afternoon in Rothenburg and it was just as perfect as I remembered. I joked with the boys about getting lost – and just having to follow the wall. I am not going to name names but two of my high school friends might have gotten “misplaced” when we were there. Thankfully there was no repeat because I promised the other two moms that I would make sure the boys were returned in one piece. 

But the stairs. We were happy and content walking along the wall when we saw a sign that said you could climb the stairs up to the tower. Some smart ass decided we needed to do it after we passed the door and saw you have to pay. I believe the quote was something like, “We didn’t come this far to be outmaneuvered by 3€.” I can honestly say that looking back, I would have been very happy to be outsmarted by 3€. I would even go up to 10€. By Sunday I would push it to 25€.

Thankfully the rest of the day was basically stair free or those boys would be earning their keep and carrying me.  We really had a fantastic day – filled with more laughter than anything else. Lots of quotes, pictures, and stories to be told in a slightly more private space!

I know this is long but we have been doing a lot. I know I have said this to people about a million times but I could not have hand picked better friends for either of my boys. They each have a solid group that will havw their backs no matter what and for that I will be forever thankful.

Now – before I completely fall asleep I need to add some pictures.    ((OH, we made it to Innsbruck today))

I am actually starting to fall asleep while I am typing so I think I need to put my phone down!

I am not going to write every single day. I mean, really, how could I possibly have enough content with these three to figure out something to tell all of you about every.single.day.

Oh, yeah. That is how. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited they were when they saw that our airb&b has a urinal. I will also say that I am not the only mean and horrible mom that refused to get one when the boys were younger. I am *shocked* that none of these poor children aren’t in therapy because of it. (I am playing my tiny violin but it might be too tiny for you to even see it)

And, yes, Ausfahrt made us all laugh. Traveling with adult boys is spectacular. I highly recommend it everyone!

And this is just day two.

So, I am sure you are wondering why I have decided now – of all times- to start this silly blog up again. Well, one reason is because I couldn’t get back into my What the Buck Blog. The other reason is this trio of sweet innocent children.

Back to my point of the blog. A year ago Timmy and and the other 2/3 of his brain decided that they were going to study in Galway this spring. So here we are. Timmy, Marty, and Brooks have been in Ireland since Jan 7 and are living their best lives; which is really saying something since they live a dang good life together with the rest of their gang at Hobart.

Rich and I decided to make this a belated anniversary trip and a “make sure the boys are alive trip” which also turned into a take the boys somewhere for their spring break trip. We asked them where they wanted to go and our beloved nerds said Germany. I added Austria – just because I loved it when I was there in high school.

So, over the next couple of weeks I will (hopefully) be somewhat entertaining and keep all y’all (that was for Brooks) updated with what we are doing. I am just exhausted now so I am going to say peace out for the night. Tomorrow we fly to Munich and then take the train to Nuremberg. Let’s just all cross our fingers that those sweet innocent children are awake when we have to leave.

So guess what happens when you are tired and finish writing a boring blog post? Nothing. Because you forget to hit the little publish button. And with that, I will try and be a tad more entertaining and I will also try and figure out how to change the picture of the sunset to something a little more fitting for a trip around Germany and Austria. Then again, maybe I won’t.

 

I am telling you now – this is long. I loved our tour and the history of Ybor City. I am also leaving A LOT out – you are welcome. But, please, read it! Here is a link to a more detailed version of Ybor’s history!   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ybor_City 

Since we weren’t tired enough after the time with King Tim or swimming (kind of) with manatees; we decided to spend the next day swimming in the pool, the Gulf – and then headed to Ybor City for a Ghost Tour. Mom and dad didn’t come with us – they had a big night out with Sue-Sue and Uncle David….Doo-Wap singers and walkers, wooo hooo! Oh, in case anyone is wondering – there were no bras or underwear thrown on stage. Nobody wanted to throw a hip or tear a rotator cuff. I am sure that everyone was happy with the decision to keep the hips and rotator cuffs in (semi) working order.

Now, we have been to Ybor City before – during the day. We aren’t stupid and know Ybor’s reputation. So that is why we went a little early and got dinner. We had scoped out a few places online and had seen an Italian place – pretty safe. Dang – we didn’t realize that according to the boys we would be walking into the Taj Mahal of restaurants. They actually looked at the cloth napkin like it was a foreign object. OK, I will be honest and say that our restaurant experiences typically tend to lean toward casual/sports bar/family type places BUT…..they have been to nice places and we ****DO**** have cloth napkins (lots of them in many colors as Rich likes to point out) at home and we DO use them. Heck, the boys have even helped set the table when we have nicer meals and need a true place setting. I just shook my head because, well…..they are too old to drop off at a fire station  But, come on. Really? I swear, we aren’t THAT caveman-ish!

So, after a filling and fancy meal (eyeroll), we strolled around Ybor a bit. Thankfully the boys have been exposed to a few things already and know enough not to stare. They also know that if they want to ask a question, they ask it quietly. Unfortunately, they also learned that I love the smell of cigars. And Ybor City is the perfect place for me to be. Brief history…

Mr. Ybor was a cigar maker and in the 1880s he needed a new place to build his factory. He got the land outside of the little town of Tampa (less than 1000 people at that point) pretty cheap because the Tampa councilmen came to his aid and gave him some money to meet the landowners price. Mr. Ybor and the owner were stubborn businessmen and the Tampa councilmen were desperate for extra money/business/people to be near them. Mr. Ybor brought not only the cigar factory but the workers – mainly Cuban, Spanish, and Italian…then German. Why? They were needed for the boxes! In order to make it more appealing for the workers, he built houses, stores, schools….and most importantly – social clubs. The cool thing is that each ethnicity had their own social club so customs and traditions could be kept. Even better – everyone got along.

The funny part is that the state of Florida had NO idea that Ybor City existed. Part of the deal that Mr. Ybor made with the City of Tampa was that Tampa police stayed out. Ybor was upfront and warned them that Ybor City would be different – not the Bible belt/religious/Puritan ways that the Tampa people were used to. There would be gambling, prostitutes, drinking, smoking, “strange” religions…..it wasn’t long before the people of Tampa decided that they would visit Ybor. I think Vegas stole their tagline – “What happens in Ybor, stays in Ybor”.

Ybor was a very colorful city and was a major cigar manufacturer. As with any colorful city, there are more than a handful of colorful people. So began our ghost tour! Our guide was fantastic – he is a fifth generation Ybor City resident. I would love to go back and hear his history tour. Anyway…we got to hear about a crazy, egotistical, brilliant doctor who divorced and shipped his wife and five kids back to Cuba so he could marry his 15-year-old mistress. Since he got rid of his wife, he needed a nurse – so he ‘taught’ his 15 yr old wife how to administer anesthesia and then how to deliver babies. I knew my kids were slackers! When the second wife got old (and he was WAY older), he divorced her and threw her out on the street…..but her spirit never left the hospital.

The best part of the tour was when we got to go into the Cuban Social Club. It is a beautiful building! We were able to tour the whole place from top to bottom – with ‘ghost meters’. The meters went off in weird areas and the guide was upfront about not listening to it when near the window with the power lines or the electrical box.In each area we got some history and in some places we got some spirit stories. A murder happened in the board room but since it was committed by THE main dude, nobody spoke up. There have been many spirits seen and felt in the lovely auditorium. But the BEST was the basement. Back in the day – like way back – the basement had a basketball court, weights, track, and a little dunking type pool – which was a big plus during Florida summers. Unfortunately one day a little eight year old boy named Jimmy sneaked down and drowned in the pool. Right after that the pool was filled in. Jimmy is still there…..and played with T. T hasn’t stopped talking about it.

Ok – I am sure you are wondering about the cryogenic cats. What – it isn’t something YOU hear all of the time? Pffft! What circles are you in? I talk about it all….ok, I can’t keep going. So the last place that we talked about was the more recent hospital turned hotel and the social club across the street. This social club was different from the others – many people (men) gathered here. Rich men. Important men. A few lived there. Even more important, “party girls” were invited to live on the second floor. On of the men that lived at the club was an important doctor – who had a genius but VERY troubled son. This boy built an electric chair and was able to convince another child to sit in it. The boy lived but was badly burned (as one would be). The doctor paid the boy’s family off….as he did with the family of the child his son shot in the face. Once dad finally looked up from his medicine and stopped opening his wallet, he sent his son to military school. The boy flourished. Seriously! Unfortunately he had to graduate and go home. Dear old dad decided he needed to keep an eye on him so he had him move in with the ‘party girls’ and gave him a job in the morgue. Brilliant!! Dr. Phil would have a field day.

Well, somehow nobody noticed all of the family pets missing until Mr. Gruesome started talking about it. Then he decided to shut up and start using feral cats….lots of feral cats. There was something else that nobody noticed – the seven missing girls from his second floor residence. Hmmmm….maybe working in the morgue wasn’t such a great idea. What was he doing? Experiments! What kind? Trying to SAVE people! DUH! He was convinced that he could save tissue and bring people back to life. I am thinking it really didn’t work out too well. Oh – as for the poor feral cats? When the police went to his father’s storage building they found some cryogenic cats. Only a few. Like 30,000 or 40,000. And yes, T was more upset about the cats than the woman.

So that wrapped up our awesome tour – and our time in Ybor. The night was just starting to liven up which meant that we needed to get the kids out! I am open to them learning about new cultures and things but this was a bit much for them!

Seriously – take some time to read up on Ybor City. It has an amazing history. There is a ghost book for a couple of dollars on amazon and I can’t wait to read it. I am also going to get a real history book about it….the inner history geek in me is screaming to come out!

  

No, not together. Can you even imagine?? I mean, really – is there enough material FOR a manatee wetsuit? Well, I am sure there is based on certain things I have seen (and can never unsee) but that is truly something that should never happen.

But, they kind of do go together since we need a wetsuit to see the manatees. And let me tell you – come next spring, wetsuit fashion will be making a HUGE comeback on the Paris AND New York runways. Kim K will be rockin’ one that Kanye designs! Wait – what do you mean they were never on the Fashion Week runways? According to my dad they were all the rage when he was younger! Even he had one … and THAT is something I can never unsee – even though I never saw it – my mind saw it and that is bad enough.

OK, this is really about the manatees, not the high style of wetsuit fashion. But let me just say, if you are looking for pictures of me in a wetsuit, they don’t exist. Like I said, we were there for the manatees – not the human manatees and I may have threatened death in a pretty scary way if anyone pointed a camera at me. So….we headed back to Crystal River the day that King Tim left. In fact, we left before Tim left. Yeah, the boys were totally thrilled about that. Need I remind them that this is the third year that we have done it so they really shouldn’t be surprised at the time we have to leave? In fact, each year we have stopped at the same D&D for breakfast. Hello, routine.

The past two years we had Capt. Tim and LOVED him. We tried to get him this year – got his company but messages got crossed and we got one of his other guys. I am not sure, but I think he was 15 – but he did just get married – but we are…nevermind. He was really good and very nice. Unfortunately – and sorry to everyone at home and up North – but March was pretty warm here and the waters warmed up nicely so many of the manatees left the Crystal River for the great wide open. There are still some left but the manatee to human ratio was certainly not what we had hoped for!! It also doesn’t help when there are two or three other boats with 15-20 people who are complete morons and surrounding, chasing, or crowding out the beautiful creatures. Yes, I know that they are HUGE but they are also the most gentle creatures I have ever come into contact with. Talking, splashing, and having kids completely freak out in the water with them isn’t really the cool thing to do. Not to brag (ok, I kind of am) but the very first time our boys went swimming with them, Capt. Tim couldn’t stop commenting on how well they were doing and how calm they were with the manatees. Yeah, we were proud.

Needless to say this wasn’t the best manatee year. The water was nice and the weather was great – and we had towels this year! We also went to a little area with a natural spring where we could dive under the water. The boys loved that! We had our cameras but the water was fairly murky – in large part because to the stupid people I just mentioned. BUT…..we still had fun. We were in Florida and with family! And we will go again next year – with Capt. Tim.

And definitely rocking the newest in wetsuit fashion.

 

Not to be confused with ‘Tim, the Musical’ that is still being written and may or may not ever see the light of day. It all depends on if I let either Tim live long enough to finish writing it. I guess I need to start writing it to actually finish writing it.

Since Rich’s plane decided to be fashionably late, we slept in a little bit. Sadly, it wasn’t as late as we wanted but A) we have kids and B) one of us is getting old. So even though we couldn’t sleep, we didn’t rush out the door. Our boat reservation wasn’t until 1:00 so that gave us plenty of time to get snacks and drinks ready. Too bad someone else (no names but one of my children is named after him and it isn’t Andrew) didn’t think of making a sandwich for the four-hour trip! We did have a great time – even when we did let the kids drive. And, yes, T did ask if he could do doughnuts. Should I be scared that I took a little pride in that?

We ended up heading out to Shell Key and anchoring the boat there for a bit. Unfortunately the current and tide change made it tricky but we managed….but there was a casuality. T was on the boat and dad asked him to jump in and help move the anchor. T being T wanted to help Papa right away and forgot his iPod was in his bathing suit pocket. Just in case anyone was wondering, iPods don’t like salt water and trice doesn’t help. Thankfully, we had a warranty! But….Shell Key was great and Big T and I wandered off and had some nice sibling time together (and both made it back alive).

On the way back we got to wave to Sue-Sue, Uncle David, and Jonathan in their condo while watching dolphins – and texting each other about where the dolphins were. Gotta love the modern world! It was a nice and lazy ride back – just what we all needed. The boys (all of them) went for a dip in the pool when we got back and then we just chilled…..which was nice considering that six of us needed to wake up and be out the door by 7:30 for the manatees the next day.

It was a great visit with Big T but we really missed Sheena!!!!