Time in Titisee (Our 37th Anniversary)

You might have gathered that we came home before DJ's days off were over!  We decided that we had seen what we could see through the haze on Lake Como and originally thought we would stop somewhere in Switzerland between the border and home and spend the night.  Then we decided to go home, save the price of another hotel stay, and take off on Monday, April 25th, for a day trip.  We decided to head to Germany.  When we went to Titisee in Germany's Black Forest last fall, it was gray and dreary, the height of the fall colors had just passed, and it was a bit on the nippy side!  We decided we wanted to see it again---GREEN!  Besides, it's only about an hour and 15 minutes away from home.  So...we got up, went on a three-bridge walk at 8 which was heavenly because there were hardly any people out that early as it was a holiday, hung around (lally-gagged), and left about noon.  Just like the day before I took some shots from the car, and, yes, the bugs are still there (can I tell you that we just drive forever in this little diesel-fueled Audi on one tank, so we hadn't been to a filling station).



I loved all the green, but I have to say that in places the pine trees are such a dark green, they almost look black.  That led to a discussion about why the black forest is called the black forest.  Was it because of the dark green color or was it because the forest is so dense that it seems dark when you are in it?  Wiki.answers.com says, "the Black Forest is called that because all the trees put together make it look black."  Hmmmm, don't think that answers the quesiton!  Yahoo.com says, "Black Forest is a literal translation of Schwarzwald - and the area got the name because its forests are so dark green they can seem almost black, especially when the sky is overcast."  There you have it!

Passing through Hell's Canyon



We had seen fields of yellow in Italy, but we're pretty sure it was mustard.  These were 100 percent, assuredly, dandelions!  There were fields and fields of them.


 When we were at the lake in November, it looked like this:

Monday, it looked like this:

And this:

And this:



And this:

And this:

And even like this:

In November the streets looked like this:



On Monday, they looked like this:

And this:



We decided to go on another boat ride---five within a week hadn't been enough!



Waiting for our boat to launch.  Pictures of our ride on the lake are below.



The mountains were beautiful, though not as large and jagged as on Lake Como.  Both of us thought they looked a little more like the mountains of Idaho and Utah where we grew up.  However, though there's pines on both, you don't see Quaking Aspen here; nor do you see the variety of deciduous trees that are here in Germany on our mountains in the West.





"Thou shalt not covet."

 

There were two major campgrounds lakeside.





We had a great day.  Once again, being on the water was a delight.  It was gorgeous weather. We wandered the streets, and we shopped.  We sat on a bench, gazed at the lake, and people watched.  DJ's really into it---that's a new one!  I love to see him smile at the little children and laugh.  We saw several kids of toddler age throwing some major tantrums, felt so badly for their parents, and chuckled under our breath, glad that we have done our time in that venue.  We made our, now customary, purchases of Black Forest bacon and raspberry jam.  We bought a wooden toy and a wooden puzzle in anticipation of Katelyn's visit in May.  We dreamed crazy dreams like wouldn't it be neat to have a family reunion here!!  We had to pinch ourselves once again---can this really be?  What did we do to deserve this opportunity?  We did some major walking from the parking lot into town and back because it was so crowded. 

On the way home, we saw:

More dandelions!

Yup, there were just a few cars on the road.  This didn't last for long, thank goodness!



I finally gave up trying to get awesome shots of all the neat farms and things we got to see along the way.  After DJ took the camera and tried to get a shot while he was driving, I decided it was time to put the camera away!!



What a wonderful day with an incredible man in a gorgeous place doing very commonplace things that seemed so remarkable!  A great way to celebrate our togetherness!