Layovers and Adventures/ Berlin Germany

In order to get to our Alpine Europe tour, we had to  go through quite a few layovers. We started with a flight from Denver to JFK airport in New York.  We had a 6 hour layover and found some comfy seats to pass the time. We were sitting near the Saudi Airlines gate and found it entertaining to watch how many suitcases (and the size) of each family. The scale was very busy as people unpacked and repacked their suitcases with all the purchases they had made. The muslim women would go into the ladies room and come out clothed head to toe in black, ready for the trip home.
In NY we boarded our Norwegian airline flight on the the 787 Dreamliner plane. We were lucky to get a bulkhead seat and had plenty of room. We had touch screen TVs where we could watch all kinds of movies, audio and tv shows.  The food we ordered left much to be desired. Certainly not worth the $28 for the dinner.
Next we touched down in Oslo, Norway. (Norwegians home base) Here the airport was very upscale. The food was very expensive and to our disappointment we could not get onto the wifi because you needed a phone to get the password.
   It wasn't soon enough until we were headed to Berlin, our last leg of the day.
Because our flight to Salzburg didn't leave until 1:30 pm we could do some sightseeing in Berlin tomorrow. We took the airport express train to the eastern part of Berlin in the Alexanderplatz area. This was where the Rick steves walking tour ended.

Here is our broom closet room in Berlin. Ian liked the fish screen saver on our TV. Very relaxing. It was right across the street from the return train to the airport. We left our bags in our room and was back from our walking tour to grab them for the airport. Note my Jacket vest ready for its use tomorrow.

Here is the Reichstag the starting point of the tour. There is a glass dome up top. You could climb up if you had a reservation. Its where the government meets here.

Berlin Wall victims Memorial. For those that died trying to cross the line. This is where the wall once stood. 136 were killed while trying to escape.

The Brandenburg Gate is the symbol of Berlin. This straddles the East and the West. Nov 9, 1989 the wall came down.

Memorial to the murdered Jews of the Holocaust. 2711 pillars.
As you start to walk between the hollow concrete blocks it seems there is no way out but up.

The pillars get higher and higher at the end.

It is like a maze.

Museum Island holds many buildings we didn't have time to see. 

Berlin Cathedral

Karl Marx statue with stainless steel monoliths with pictures of workers.

There were several fountains here.

This is Alexanderplatz with the TV tower 1200 foot. Meant to show the power of the atheistic state. This is where our hotel was located.

A great start to our vacation!

Yosemite National Park

After Ian's Graduation at Berkeley we planned a family vacation in Yosemite National Park. We reserved a condo in West Yosemite in the Park near Glacier Point. It was about a  35 minute drive to the valley. This photo was taken at a stop on the way to hike Cathedral Lakes in Touloume Meadows. We walked half a mile off the road.

This was taken on our Cathedral Lakes Trail . I loved the view of  Fairview Dome with the snowcapped mountains behind. I didn't know Yosemite had such high elevations. There was plenty of snow here still end of May.

This was another view on the way to our Cathedral hike. Im not sure what the lake is but loved the view.

This is a short hike at Yosemite lower Falls Trail. You can see how close the falls are to the Valley floor.

This is the Tunnel view at late afternoon light. There is a Wawona Tunnel we passed every day near our condo. You can see half dome straight ahead  and Nevada falls on the right.

The last day there was mist all over the valley and mountains as we drove to our hike.

Here is the drop off point we left Ian and Scott to do their strenuous hike. Four Mile Trail heads straight up to Glacier Point. The road was closed that day and no one was up there at the parking lot.

Getting wet on the Mist Trail up to Nevada Falls.

The top of Nevada Falls. 

Ian's Graduation at Berkeley

Ashley and Ian

The day before Graduation N&P came out and we all signed up for the Big Bus Tour of SanFran

Sitting atop the open air bus.

One Group stayed at a Hotel in Berkeley and took the local bus to the ceremony. We had to walk through campus from the stop. We took a few picks at some familiar Berkeley landmarks.

The Carillon Tower

The other group stayed in Emeryville and took a car to the campus. Here is the view from the Disabled seats. We were right behind all the graduates. We were glad we didn't have to sit on the cement steps like everyone else.

Can you find Ian?

Each different Engineering major got up at a time to get there name announced.

After the ceremony we headed to a reception and took some pics of the family.

What is a graduation without pictures?

Poppop and Lucie. She was an angel through the ceremony. Everyone took turns holding her.

Ian with his friends.
We had a great weekend visiting California and catching up with family. The next Day we were headed to Yosemite for some hiking.

Woodcarving and Printmaking Class

This Spring I took an art class at the Denver Student Art League in Denver. They have great teachers and many variety of classes. Teresa Haberkorn is an artist and printer and I had been wanting to take a class with her. The  building is south of downtown in an old school building built in 1893. Each room is set up for a specific type of art like ceramics, printmaking, painting, live model drawing, and sculpture.

Here our teacher demonstrates how to ready the ink for rolling on the woodcut.

Here is the design I chose and the visual image I drew from.

We use a bench hook to hold our piece of wood and cutting tools. The type of wood is poplar plywood.

Inking the outline onto the other pieces of wood.

Here is the mat board assemblage we made to register our prints. (So they line up every time)

After I carved the outline out we made a print to the other pieces of wood I will be carving for each color.

The first step in printing was to do a tan background.

We only had 8 people in our class. This is our room. Note the huge drying rack on the left where we left our prints to dry.

Second color is blue. Printed onto of the tan.

Next is Brown for the hawk.

We hung up our prints from everyone in the class.

Drying rack.

We had two printing presses for our class.