First, not to worry, we're here, and we're all fine. Second, wow have we had a lot going on! Over the last month we've wanted to write several blog posts but it has been so crazy the last little while we've just not had the time. Don't know if you know this, but it turns out topical blog posts require some inordinate level of time and concentration that we just haven't had the last few weeks.

Rather than trying to do a topical blog post about window glazing, a project that took months but we creatively make it look like a weekend, or a new recipe that we can't get enough of, we're going to get back on track by kicking it old school blogging style. "What's that" you say? We're going way back to the chronological journaling style roots of blogging, back before blogs were all shooting for compelling linkable content angling for pins and shares. Yes, we're going to look back over our last six weeks or so and summarize some of our highlights. If you follow us on Instagram there's a chance some of this may be familiar, but it will certainly have a bit more detail and far fewer hashtags. One thing's for sure, we haven't just been sitting around doing nothing the last several weeks. More on where these guys fit into the story in a bit.

Our last blog post was back near the end of July, when we did a little video home tour of our foursquare. Since then we've continued on several projects, experienced a few cool events, and we went on a handful of small trips.

The whirlwind started when a friend of mine invited me to attend the opening of DC United's Audi Field downtown. As a lifelong soccer fan I've been anxiously awaiting the new stadium's opening for many years now, so the experience was a ton of fun, in spite of the torrential rains that greeted us upon our arrival at the stadium.

If you're a DC area local, and/or a DC United fan, you should definitely make a point to get to a game. It's a great stadium with wonderful crowd noise and energy, and it seems like there's really not a bad seat in the house.

Right at the end of July, Wendy and I loaded Lulu up in the car and we headed out on the first of our small weekend vacations. Our destination was to visit one of our closest friends, Katie, down near Morehead City, North Carolina.

Katie's parents have had a cottage down on Bogue Sound for her whole life, and this was our chance to experience the place we'd heard much about for so many years.

This was both Wendy's and my first time visiting the North Carolina coast, and what an amazing time we had. Katie and her husband Colin used to be neighbors of ours in Old Town, and we've been friends with them through several of their deployments, at least three moves, two kids, and more bottles of wine than we can count. Having the unique opportunity to experience Katie's childhood getaway through the eyes of a local was a true treat.

From local fare (the shrimp burgers are not to be missed), to great antique shops...

...to some beach time with Lulu just behind Fort Macon, this little trip was just a few days long but was incredibly fun and relaxing.

This is what pure bliss looks like.

While visiting we had the chance to stop by the historic town of Beaufort where we walked around town gawking at the amazing historic homes.

It seemed like everywhere we turned there was a new place we liked better than the last.

Everything happening with Hurricane Florence and how it is impacting the coast and nearby inland cities has us heartbroken and worried. We had such a wonderful time while visiting and simply dread how significantly the people in that area are being impacted. A 10' storm surge will have an extreme impact on those area that we enjoyed so much, and this is simply terrible.

As we left town we drove through the city of New Bern, North Carolina and loved every minute of it. We took a half hour or so to drive around town and quickly tour the historic district.

Some of the homes of New Bern date to the mid 18th century and the architecture as a whole is absolutely impressive.

Wendy and I both want to make a longer trip and stay in New Bern the next time we head down there just to get to know the city a little better. It certainly seems worth the time.

Once we returned home we used our relaxation as re-energization and turned it into progress on some of our projects. Most notably, we've continued to move ahead on the main hallway of the Foursquare. We learned one very unfortunate (for us) fact. The underside of the 3rd floor staircase, above our main staircase, is beadboard. Well wouldn't you know it, someone decided it would be a good idea to wallpaper the beadboard. Then someone else thought it would be a good idea to paint over the wallpapered beadboard. None of this was a good idea.

So now we're taking care of that by slowly stripping all of the paint and paper off of the underside of the stairs.

Beyond that absolute mess, one of the aspects we've covered at length in the past was the built-in bench build to disguise the new HVAC return duct and our crawlspace access. After hanging our antique Galway "Fishing" sign we still had the large opening for the air return. A while back we'd found an antique cast iron grate to fit the opening on eBay and previously spent a bunch of time cleaning it up and spraying it white. So I finally got around to mounting it in the opening to finish off the under stair project.

We still need to put a final coat of the trim color on the grate, as well as on the large screw heads holding it in place, but this felt wonderful to finally have this checked off of the list.

We also made some major lighting decisions in the hallway (like the fact we don't need any recessed lights in this room), and test hung the new light fixture Wendy found for the space some time ago. This step made the whole project start to feel real.

It's important to remember that we're covering the summer in this description, so we did many of those wonderful things we like to do in the summer. We took in Nationals games...

...we went for walks around Old Town...

...we watched classic movies projected on our neighbor's garage (North by Northwest and Sabrina)...

...and I got a bad case of poison ivy that tortured me from the day before we left for North Carolina for the next three weeks. I have no idea where I got it and I apparently react somewhat terribly to the plant's oils. Oh summer traditions of prednisone.

In the middle of August we got to do something that was a ton of fun. We headed up to Baltimore for the Stanley Black & Decker launch of the Craftsman brand. Stanley Black & Decker bought the Craftsman brand from Sears in 2017 and have been working on their overhaul ever since.

We were covering the event for Popular Mechanics, Charles & Hudson, and ToolCrave.com and wrote up a summary of our #CraftsmanLaunch experience over on Charles & Hudson. If you're a tool fanatic like me, or have some memories of Craftsman from your past, you should definitely check out the article. If you've noticed, this is also why you've been seeing Craftsman pop up a lot more in Lowe's, Ace Hardware, and on Amazon lately.

Aside from the tools, this turned out to be a chance for me to live out one of my childhood dreams. Craftsman is sponsoring a few cars in NASCAR on the Joe Gibbs Racing team. As a result of this sponsorship several JGR drivers were in attendance, including Erik Jones and Ryan Preece.

Now I don't know if you know this about me, but I am a lifelong NASCAR fan. I've been attending races and watching on TV for as long as I can remember. Part of this Craftsman launch event involved a stop the Autobahn Indoor Speedway all electric indoor go kart track. 

Not only were we able to have a little fun racing go karts, we had the chance to race against NASCAR drivers on the track!!

The outcome of our races? Well, I am not bashful in telling you that I beat Erik Jones in my race with him, and my time for our morning session was 2nd fastest out of all event attendees. I was only bested by Ryan Preece in top lap times for the morning session, and that was only by 0.1 seconds. Based on this, I think my best and only course of action is to immediately quit my job and begin pursuing my dreams of driving NASCAR in a professional and full time capacity. (Kidding not kidding.)

Left to right Murray Kruger, Erik Jones, Wayne Carini, Ryan Preece, NASCAR's new oldest rookie

I could go on and on about the Craftsman launch as it was both a lot of fun from start to finish, and a ton of great information. One of the best parts of any event of this type is the opportunity to get to see old friends and meet new friends from all over the world that we normally only get to talk to on the Internet. The YouTube, Instagram, and online tool/maker/diy community is a wonderful one to be a part of. Best of all we got to do all of this up in Baltimore, which allowed us to bring Lulu up to the event, which allowed some people who only know her from Instagram the opportunity to meet her. How weird is that?

Lulu and Murray from @KrugerConstruction (who is also @jaxxypug's dad)

A litter later in August we took a day trip out to the Shenandoah Valley area in Virginia. Some of Wendy's wonderful clients were looking at a great house in the country on some land, so I tagged along and we decided to make a whole day of the outing, rather than just driving there and back. Boy did we have a great time! We found so many great places to stop and explore by taking a less direct route home. We stopped in antique stores in Berryville, VA...

...explored 18th century graveyards...

...had lunch at an 18th century pub...

...and found an amazing antique store called Red Schoolhouse Antiques. This place is not your typical antique store where you have so much stuff sitting on top of other stuff that you can barely see what you're searching for. This store is in an amazing old schoolhouse and is full of European antiques brought over by the owner's of the store, who live in Scotland full time.

If you find yourself nearby, it's an excellent place to stop. The prices are extremely reasonable, especially given how high end the pieces in the shop are.

Over labor day weekend Wendy, Lulu, and I took our final trip of the summer when we piled into the car and headed to Cincinnati. We were going for two reasons, the wedding of Wendy's cousin, and to visit the Cincinnati Zoo for an animal encounter I had given to Wendy for her birthday earlier in the year.

The wedding was held at the Cincinnati Nature Center's Krippendorf Lodge. The historic lodge from the early 1900s was a perfect wedding setting and allowed us to take in the wonderfully preserved building in addition to enjoying the celebration with friends and family. Not to mention the fact that the wedding had an open Graeter's Ice Cream Truck in the driveway!

In addition to the wedding we took a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo for a chance to do something really special. We enjoyed an interactive experience with some of their Penguins and their two toed sloth named Moe.

Back when I was trying to figure out what to get Wendy for her birthday, I was wracking my brain for something unique, fun, and memorable. Wendy is a huge fan of the Cincinnati Zoo (and Fiona the hippo), penguins, and sloths, so I figured, why not get a chance to actually meet them in person. It's a great way to give a unique gift that's also benefiting zoo and animal programs. 

Buddy the Magellanic Penguin even gave Wendy a gift of a completely custom painting! Unfortunately, Buddy did lay down with his chest in the paint at one point. Nothing a quick swim won't take care of.

Our giant whirlwind of the end of our summer wouldn't be complete without a little more work on the main hallway project. For that we launched into finishing up the plaster work throughout the hallway.

We've spent the last several weekends we've been in town applying coat after coat of plaster in hopes of having this hallway project completed before we're solidly into fall. While it's slow going only getting to work a day or two per weekend, we're making some solid progress and it feels like we're moving along.

While the last month and a half has been a blur, we anticipate much of the same over the next two months. We'll be doing our best to keep you all updated on our latest goings on, but our apologies if it's not as regular as we would like. We also have a few big projects on the horizon that we can't wait to share more about. Until then, we're just enjoying our finished dining room project every chance we get.

So that's what we've been up to. What did you do to close out the summer? Anything fun? Any big projects?

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You see, 16 years ago, when we were fresh faced college kids, Wendy had the amazing opportunity to study abroad for the summer as part of her degree in international business and marketing. Throughout her time living in London and traveling almost weekly to other European countries, I had the unique experience of learning of the places I'd never seen in person through a recounting of her adventures. That summer I had landed a great opportunity in a tech internship that I was very grateful to have, but it also meant I was stuck at a desk while Wendy was enjoying an experience that was more of a "once in a lifetime" type of adventure, rather than my "what will probably be the rest of your lifetime" summer.

I can still remember calculating the time change, determining when Wendy would be able to chat with me before she went to bed, and trying to make sure I got home in time for her planned call in order to hear what she'd experienced the past few days. I was living vicariously and hoping I'd some day have the opportunity to experience these places that sounded so great.

One of the descriptions I remember most vividly from Wendy's study abroad excursions was the summary of her whirlwind Paddywagon tour of Ireland. 

After 16 years, frequent mentions of sheep and just how green all of Ireland actually is, and seeing the country out of the window of a plane on several other trips over the pond, we finally had the opportunity to experience Ireland together. I'll tell you one thing for sure, it didn't disappoint. Here's a quick recap of our journey and a few highlights.

We started our trip jet lagged in Dublin, but knew we didn't have any time to lose. We'd coordinated to meet up with a friend of ours, Katharine, who lives in London. Katharine, the same friend we'd met up with in London when we were there for the 2012 Summer Olympics, made the relatively short trip from London to Dublin to show us around for the day. Her timing was impeccable as she met us in the lobby of our hotel as we were checking in. This was perfect as it meant we'd be able to hit the ground running and power through any desire for a nap.

We stayed in the Buswells Hotel in Dublin

One of my favorite tourist parts of the day was the library at Trinity College, which was the inspiration for the Jedi library in the Start Wars prequels. As a serious Star Wars nerd, I recognized it right away. 

We spent most of the day walking around Dublin and jumped on a double decker bus to take a quick tour of the city.

This included many of the various must see items in Dublin, such as the Guinness brewery.

After a quick trip back to the hotel to change, as the sun set we met up with Katharine again for pints of Guinness before heading off to meet up with a few more of her local friends for dinner. We ended up going to a simply amazing place for dinner. It's call Fade St. Social, and if you are in Dublin, I'd absolutely recommend you stop by. The food was absolutely delicious. Everything we had was perfectly prepared and we both talked about that meal for the rest of the trip. One funny bit about the meal was our server. She was also an actress and had an amazing knack for picking out the accents of each person and where they were from. At our table we had two British people, one Irish, a German/Polish person, and us two Americans. She was able to nail the English, even down to where they were from in England. She basically said which town outside of Dublin the Irish guy was from, and got it perfectly. She guessed Polish correctly for the final European person, but thought Wendy and I were either Canadian or from the very northern US. Apparently our Cleveland accents are so generally generic that she couldn't pinpoint American vs. Canadian. We were very impressed, to say the least.

After dinner we capped our night at O'Neill's pub for more pints. As they say, when in Rome Dublin. Eh? (Because we're now Canadian)

We enjoyed Dublin like we enjoy almost every major European city we visit. We generally feel comfortable walking everywhere, and love the look of the old cities that have evolved so organically over hundreds (or even thousands) of years. 

The next day we headed out of Dublin for a whirlwind lap around southern Ireland. This all started with renting a car. Knowing I'd have to drive on the left side of the road from the right side of the car was a little daunting at first, but I think it drove Wendy a little more crazy. She sat shotgun, where the driver normal sits, but felt so strange not having control of the wheel. 

It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it, but the guy at the rental car location said something that made a lot of sense to me and really helped. He said, "Just remember, always stay in the middle. As long as the driver is in the middle of the road, you're doing it right." 

Our drive took us across the country from the east coast in Dublin to a west coast stop in Galway. 

All of Ireland is about the size of Indiana, so the drive from coast to coast was pretty quick all things considered. But having driven across the flat expanse of Indiana many times in my life, I can tell you one thing for certain, Ireland is beautiful in a way Indiana can never be. I've yet to see a castle ruin anywhere in corn fields of Indiana.

Galway is a moderate sized coastal city with a great pedestrian area. Of many things it's known for, the salmon fishing is season is one of the more interesting things. Though we saw no fisherman, we did have an opportunity to walk along the river and enjoy the roar of the water.

You hear that Ireland is green, but until you see how green it is, you really can't imagine. Everything is so very lush and soft. You hear Ireland is also rainy, but we were extremely fortunate and didn't see a drop the entire week we were in the country. Instead, we enjoyed 60 degree days and sun almost every day of the trip.

After our brief stop in Galway we went onto stay for two nights in Clifden at a "castle" hotel.

Clifden is a sleepy fishing town just off of the sea. It is breathtaking in so many ways. 

It's nestled into Clifden Bay where the Owanglin River flows into the ocean, and has a peaceful feel. We were there during the Super Moon, so the low tides were very low, and high tides very high.

The place we stayed even had a resident African grey parrot named Froda in the lobby that liked to forage for crackers from the guests. She was very curious, very chatty, and very cracker hungry, so she loved hanging out by the peat fire.

One of our most adventurous events of the trip was the several mile hike we took along the coast. Though it was billed as a "trail" it was more of a rough path through a bunch of farmer's fields.

We had to climb over several gates, and noticed a few local residents spying on us from above.

We enjoyed looking at sheep and horses grazing over the coast...

...and ended up walking around in a castle ruin in one of the most picturesque settings we've ever been.

As we walked to the castle another hiker who look a less rustic route said "Did you see the Bull?" We laughed it off as a joke, but when we got to the other side of the fence, this was what we saw.

Luckily, we hand't had an encounter. Though thinking back on our walk, we did see quite a few giant cow pies that would have been far more intimidating had we realized their source.

Later we learned this was all private property and we likely shouldn't have been walking there, but we were following a map the hotel provided that clearly marked the path. So I think this is a case of Ireland just being a little more casual about some things.

After Clifden we drove down the coast toward Dingle. But before we reached Dingle, we stopped off at the Cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs of Moher is one of the many things I heard so much about 16 years ago from Wendy and was simply looking forward to seeing for myself.

The scale of the cliffs is difficult to understand until you're there in person. I could never wrap my head around it from photos. Again, we were beyond fortunate with the blue skies and warm weather, as we could see for miles, including the nearby islands off the coast.

And there are plenty of reminders of just how far down it is if you get a big gust of wind or take a wrong step.

Rather than take the long route around to get to Dingle, we opted to take the ferry and save a little time. This only allowed us to see more of the Irish coastal beauty. It also allowed us to arrive in Dingle before sunset.

We checked into our hotel and almost immediately fell in love with the town. Dingle is a special place, without a doubt. We just felt at home and completely comfortable right away. If you're going, our hotel was the Greenmount House, and we recommend it 100%. The staff were unbelievably accommodating and helpful, and it was a short 2 minute walk to the town's main street. Just look at the amazing view of Dingle Bay we had from our room.

We quickly headed out into the town to walk around. While walking we came across one of the coolest things that simply warmed our DIY hearts. One of the shops in town is a hardware store by day, and a classic Irish pub with live music by night! How awesome is that?

Dingle has about 3,000 people, but about 50 pubs. The town is a sleepy fishing town that is a quite spot for relaxing fun.

We only stayed one night in Dingle and have our biggest regrets of the vacation about that decision. We absolutely should have stayed two nights, and hope to some day remedy this mistake with a return trip.

Our time in Dingle was capped with a drive around the breathtaking Dingle Peninsula. 

As we left Dingle and County Kerry, we headed towards the southern coastal town of Kinsale in County Cork. However, we broke up the long drive with a stop at the Muckross house in Kilarney. I feel like no vacation of ours is complete without a tour of a truly historic home. In this case, the Muckross house is an Irish equivalent to Downton Abbey.

The beautiful home is a stately manor house that once played host to Queen Victoria for a few days. Quite simply, it was impressive in pretty much every way.

After Muckross we headed off to the town of Kinsale where we hoped we'd experience all of the culinary delights of southern Ireland as this is what Kinsale is known for. Kinsale would be our final city on our trip before heading back to Dublin on our way out of town. 

On our first night out we stumbled on another amazing restaurant called The Black Pig. The food was absolutely delicious in every way, and the environment of the restaurant was perfect. I took a few quick iPhone photos inside because the decor is what Wendy want's our home to feel like.

Our full day in Kinsale was full indeed. After morning walking tour of the city we decided to take the long Scilly Walk out to Charles Fort for a late lunch. We stopped off in the SuperValu to pick up a few sandwiches and drinks and took off on the several mile walk along the bay to reach the fort.

The walk was lovely and took us away from the city for some wonderful views. 

Once we reached the fort we settled in for lunch at a picnic table. I don't know what it is, but Wendy and I absolutely love picking up a few sandwiches and bags of crisps for lunch while on vacation. It never fails to live up to our expectations.

The fort itself was impressive and we spent a few hours walking the walls and taking in the sights. Truth be told, this is one of those vacation things that I really like but Wendy doesn't much care for, but she's a good sport and makes the best of it. 

After we were done at the fort we started on our trek back into town but decided to stop off at a little pub in the nearby village called The Bulman Bar & Restaurant. 

We're so happy we made the stop for pints of Bulmers Cider (which we learned is Magners outside of Ireland) as it was probably one of the absolute highlights of our entire vacation. We sat out front, watched the sun begin to fall towards the bay, saw dogs playing with each other in the water, and enjoyed a quintessentially Irish experience.

The following day we headed back toward Dublin for our final night in Ireland. But on the way we made two brief stops. The first was in the town of Cashel in County Tipperary to see the Rock of Cashel.

The Rock of Cashel is a must see if you're nearby in Ireland. It's stunning in both its magnitude and the state of its preservation. When walking around inside of the ruin you can almost feel what it may have been like many hundreds of years ago.

After leaving Cashel we continued along and made a final stop in Kilkenny. This city was far larger than we expected, and also has a rather grand and completely intact castle. We didn't have any time for a tour, but it does seem like it's something we missed out on in our trip. The winding streets of Kilkenny were filled with shopping and packed with people.

We made a few stops along the way and had a late lunch before we headed out. In a way, after having so many great stops in such small towns, Kilkenny was almost a little bit overwhelming.

Our final night in Dalkey outside of Dublin was bittersweet. We met up with friends for drinks at a local pub and went over our excellent vacation in our heads. This was certainly one of the consistently best vacations we've ever had. We're only back a few weeks now and I'm already itching to visit all of Northern Ireland and Scotland. After enjoying nearly flawless weather for the entire week, I fear our luck can't possibly hold out for another trip.

Have you been to Ireland? If so, what were your favorite stops and sights? Would love to hear if you share any favorites with us.

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In what has apparently become an annual adventure for the two of us, we depart the comfy confines of Old Town and head to one of our dream destinations in search of a little rest and relaxation to mask the fact that we've (or more specifically, Wendy has) somehow grown a year older much too quickly. And though it might not be some sort of youthful potion or magic elixir, we've discovered that copious amounts of sun, food, and wine, tend to do just the trick in obscuring our focus from our aging vessels. Instead, we fixate on the wonderful time were having, placing our concerns more in the realm of fun and enjoyment. I like to think it keeps us young.

If you follow us on Instagram you likely saw some of our hijinks as we spent several days in Northern, California.

We started our journey in one of our favorite places on the planet, Carmel-by-the-Sea on the Monterey Peninsula. This was actually Wendy's fourth time to Carmel, and my fifth (counting a 1st grade trip with my parents some 30 years ago during Clint Eastwood's mayoral term in the city). The thing that's interesting about Carmel is that each time we return, we find it just a little bit harder to leave.

I don't know if it's the sound of the crashing waves, the sea air, the consistently cool, comfortable, and crisp weather, or the fact that it feels like something out of a fairytale, neither of us feel like we can get enough.

Now that we're so familiar with the area, we tend to spend our time doing the things we enjoy the most. When in Carmel, do as the Carmellons (I don't think that's actually what they're called), which means walking on the beach...

...and watching (very proud and very wet) dogs run all over the place...

...and occasionally take a break or two to eat and drink at some of the good restaurants and bars in the area.

In addition to our primary destinations, the California coast has an abundance of National Parks that are essentially a stones throw from just about anywhere. One of the closest to Carmel is Point Lobos, right on the coast just a few minutes south on Highway 1.

From idyllic and picturesque settings...

...to frolicking seal pups annoying their mothers...

...this park is a perfect place to spend a whole day hiking around.

The red you see on the tree is a type of algae that grows on the trees in this Pacific Cypress grove, one of only two left in the world. 

At one point during our hike we even happened upon a little ground squirrel who was mugging for the camera, hoping for a few human treats. I'll tell you one thing for sure, Lulu would've gone nuts!

Before heading out to Point Lobos we stopped by The Cheese Shop in Carmel to pick up some hiking necessities, such as a baguette and a few small samples of cheese. We also brought some fruit, nuts, and water from home. Together, on a picnic table nestled against a calm water inlet, we enjoyed a nice little lunch with a backdrop of nearby seals popping up out of the kelp and floating just off the rocks.

If there's one thing about Carmel and the California coast in general that truly stands out in my mind, it's the treat you get when a clear evening grants you an amazing sunset. Everyone in the area gathers to watch the spectacle as the sun slowly falls into the Pacific Ocean...

...giving all of the spectators a spectacular display of fire and light.

Before leaving Carmel, we drove around some of the more outskirt areas of the town to check out all of the houses that are for sale that we can't afford. 

It seems like no matter where you turn, the houses are simple adorable. Oh lottery, why can't we win you?

Carmel even has a beautiful Frank Loyd Wright house nestled right into the rugged coastline.

Begrudgingly, we left this town where we hope to one day live, and headed up to the valley, where we one day hope to live close enough to that we can enjoy it more frequently. That's right, Napa Valley wine country!

Now that we've been going to the Napa Valley and surrounding wine country for eight straight years, we've really started to establish our favorite places to taste, tour, and dine. But with over 200 vineyards in the Napa Valley alone, and more good restaurants than we could cover if we lived there full time, we commit ourselves half of our stops new places each year, while spending the rest of our time at places we already know and enjoy.

One interesting aspect of our trips is that we simply can't leave the old "home improvement" bug behind. Everywhere we go we're looking at various items for ideas or inspiration on our home. It's a bit odd to look at California for things that can help us in our home, but our focus of late has been on our options for our patio area. A great inspiration for the feel we'd love to establish is in the patio area of the restaurant, Brix.

The setting just has that certain something we'd love to somehow accomplish in our outdoor space, though our area is significantly more modest. Perhaps we should focus more on the casual setting behind Gott's Roadside? Perhaps more attainable? Maybe?

As one of our most surprising and memorable moments of our entire vacation, we ended up with a chance encounter that simply blew our minds. While enjoying the wonderful Napa Valley weather on the patio at Sequoia Grove, another of our favorites, we decided it was time to head out. Wendy and I approached the counter to purchase a few bottles of wine when another customer of the vineyard approached us and said "I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you run a blog?" Incredulous, we responded, "Yes, we do." She went on to tell us how she and her husband, from Indianapolis, had made the trip to Napa Valley and were using our three day Napa Valley itinerary as a guide. We. Were. Floored!

Our itinerary is several years old now and can definitely use an update given all of our new favorites, but we're unbelievably flattered that people are actually using our recommendations. Also, what are the chances that someone on a trip from the midwest just happened to use our itinerary as a guide, then ended up in the same vineyard as us (out of 200 plus), at the same time as us, and recognized our faces? It's just crazy, really.

We'll go into more detail on our various Napa Valley stops when we update our recommendations, but we had a wonderful time throughout our three days and were already looking forward to our next trip before we even left the smell of the vines and clink of the bottles.

We wrapped up our trip with a brief stop in San Francisco to spend a few hours with friends who live in the heart of the city and then headed home to good old Alexandria, Virginia. It was another amazing and memorable vacation in so many ways. From visiting favorite places to discovering so many new spaces and experiences, we're fortunate to be able to experience these wonderful locales and hope our adventures can inspire you to try it out as well.

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As part of our whirlwind Bavarian adventure Wendy and I opted to drive a large part of the Romatiche Straße, or the Romantic Road. We actually started our journey at the “end” of the Romantic Road in Füssen, just a stone’s throw from our stop at Neuschwanstein Castle and only a few kilometers north of Germany’s border with Austria. There’s actually a small arch that marks the “official” end of the road said to mark the typical path of journey during the Roman Empire (but really created as a 1950's tourism marketing campaign).

This was a perfect approach to this journey, in our opinion, and I’ll tell you why at the end of the post.

The village of Füssen was our first foray into the picturesque view of Bavarian Medieval cities, and what an amazing first experience it was. The town, originally settled during Roman times with modern architecture dating back to the 8th century, is both a bustling tourist destination and is known for its violin making.

Füssen is situated on the Lech River, which affords beautiful views of the Alps along walking paths, streets, and cobbled sidewalks of this densely packed town. If you’re ever in the area, it is absolutely worth a stop.

By the time we were ready to head out, it was a little bittersweet since we loved the village so much, but we were quite excited to see what else Germany had in store for us.

Our trip on the Romantic Road took us north on the winding two lane road through the Bavarian countryside and through the middle of many small Bavarian villages along the way. We passed through countless Bavarian farming communities and quaint towns. Each one seemed to be the embodiment of the storybook views of the Bavarian countryside that included a centralized Church with homes clustered around the village center.

As we neared the end of the trip on the Romantic Road we made a quick stop in a town we had seen great reviews about, near the northern extent of the trip. The city of Dinkelsbühl was our stop, and what an amazing stop it was. 

Founded in 1083, the walled village represents what was typical of a 15th to 17th century Bavarian town.

The town escaped the entirety of World War II suffering only a single broken window as damage, and as such, is a beautiful example of historic architecture and charm that is quite rare to find in the world today.

The streets are lined with quintessential Bavarian style architecture with restaurants, shopping, and essential stores you’d find in any normal living town.

The thing to remember is that this is a real city, and like any real city, not everything is perfect. These imperfections are what make the experience authentic and the views spectacular.

We parked outside of the walls and wandered around the streets and alleys of Dinkelsbühl for several hours simply enjoying our surroundings.

We even found a narrow alley between a few houses that we couldn’t resist passing through to get from street to street.

We knew we’d be staying in a larger cities throughout the rest of our trip, so we wanted to appreciate just what this village was before the experience was over. As we walked to our car, we took it all in and just enjoyed what we were seeing.

As picturesque as the majority of the trip was, the ultimate goal was our final destination of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, or “Red fortress above the Tauber,” and we were nearing our final destination along the Romantic Road. 

Little did we know we were stumbling into what would easily be the absolute highlight stop on our entire German vacation!

Rothenburg is a Medieval walled city in north central Bavaria originally founded in 1170. It’s survived miraculously intact through multiple conflicts, including both the 30 Years War and World War II. Through various strokes of luck, both good and bad, the economy of the village allowed it to both prosper when necessary, and then flounder during the age of advancement, to reach a point in history where it is now a true and largely original Medieval city of significant size, which is about as rare as they come in modern times.

Today, Rothenburg is experiencing a massive economical resurgence thanks to the tourism its “frozen in time” look generates. To say that the tourists are on to something pretty special, well, that’s a significant understatement.

Wendy and I pulled into the city through one of the main tower gates. Where there now exists a road for cars, there was once a drawbridge over a moat to protect the walled city.

Though the city has been adapted for modern living, a must for the population of roughly 10,000, the streets are still cobblestone and architecture still looks as it once did, many hundreds of years ago, complete with hand painted and gilded signage for the specialty shops and locations.

We ended up staying in a hotel that only heightened our experience in the unique city. The hotel was called The Burg-Hotel, and it was spectacular.

Originally a 12th century “beggars” beadle, the hotel’s building is built right into the fortified walls of the city.

Our room had a simply spectacular view of the Tauber river, lower villages outside of the walls, and surrounding rolling hills. 

It was probably the nicest view we’ve ever had in any of our hotel stays on any of our vacations.

It was such a spectacular location, Wendy started contemplating ways we could somehow pick up and move to Rothenburg and make it our permanent residence. This was especially the case when she discovered a secret patio alcove where we were able to relax with pastries and the bottle of Champagne we bought in Munich.

It was picture perfect. We sat, chatted, enjoyed the surrounding view over the Tauber valley, and just soaked in one of those moments that represents exactly what vacation is supposed to embody.

As with all of our other stops on this trip, we made a point to do several extensive walking tours of the city. And given the fact the city walls covered many miles, there was quite a bit of walking to do and sights to take in!

As we wandered, mouths often hanging open, we marveled at the architecture and details. Everything from the streets and buildings as a whole…

…to the smallest details that adorned the fronts of shops and buildings.

There were homes with ancient doorbells where the same family has lived for over 300 years…

…and architectural details indicating ownership by or membership in the church (note the shell details).

There were quaint views…

…and spectacular views.

Every other alley, window, or door had some level of interest and uniqueness about it that we couldn't help but be drawn to.

It seemed everywhere we turned it was another moment where one or the other of us was pointing out something to ooh and ahh over.

And leave it to us to find an example of a great old building under extensive renovations that we could sit and gawk at.

Evidence of the city's advanced water delivery system from hundreds of years ago still exist just around many corners.

The city center is still a bustling area for tourists, shopping, and local businesses.

If you find yourself in Rothenburg, there are a few stores you absolutely must make a stop. The first is Käthe Wohlfahrt, which is essentially a Christmas wonderland! I really can't start to explain it. It's sort of like a labyrinth of Christmas, spanning multiple rooms, buildings, and levels. There's absolutely something to entertain everyone, and the truck parked out front can be considered this store's welcome wagon.

The second place is a small store just off of the main square that we learned about from the Rick Steves book. Anneliese Friese is a small shop selling German goods of many kinds, but it's run by the absolute nicest and friendlies little lady (I think she just celebrated her 85th birthday) we met in all of Germany. She was accommodating, helpful, and a spark plug, showing off her photos of when Rick Steves visited the shop on multiple occasions, and singing his praises for including her in his book. 

Personally, I don't think any trip is complete without finding a local cat or dog that's mugging for the camera.

If you'll notice, the only roofing material you see on all of our photos is that of red tiles. This was adopted as a city standard hundreds of years ago. Where many Medieval cities had homes with thatched roofs, fire was the enemy of these historic towns, and fire spreads rapidly through thatched house coverings. As a result, a standard and fire resistant roof covering was adopted and enforced throughout the city. Did it work? Well, the city still stands and never had a serious or significant fire sweep through the town since the standard was adopted.

One of the walking trips we enjoyed the most was the nearly two mile walk along the top of the city wall and ramparts. 

This walk spans about half of the circumference of the city and offered amazing views of both nearby buildings outside of the wall...

...and across the impressive roof lines of Rothenburg.

We ended up walking along the ramparts just before sunset and were able to get an awesome view that was truly a treat.

We also made sure to take a moment here or there to get the obligatory posed tourist shot or two.

I will tell you one thing. If you're making this trip and walk through the ramparts on your own, be sure to watch out for low hanging header stones near the end of the walk. Take Wendy's word for it, they aren't particularly forgiving.

On our final night in Rothenburg we did something that everyone who visits should absolutely make time for. Rothenburg is far more quiet when night falls, and there's a tour at 8:00 each evening that leaves from the city's main square. This tour is the night watchman's tour.

The night watchman appears out of nowhere under the dark sky and leads a gaggle of story happy tourists through the streets of Rothenburg, pausing at various locations to share bits and pieces of Rothenburg's history. The watchman himself is a very entertaining speaker, and his stories weave a wonderful image of both the prosperous and difficult times the city has experienced over the years.

I can't stress enough just how wonderful of a place Rothenburg turned out to be. It's a destination that is a must for anyone even mildly interested in Europe. The city offers a glimpse into the past of a time easily forgotten. As I said, it's rare to experience something so incredibly unique, and I'm willing to guess that this is one of the only places in the world were you can experience something that's actual the genuine artifact.

Earlier in the post I mentioned that we feel the route we took, starting at the end of the Romantic Road and moving north, was the right choice. Looking back on our journey it seemed we may have been let down if we had started in Rothenburg and then ended in Füssen. Instead, Füssen welcomed us to the trip and and eased us in with a smaller city and allowed us to slowly appreciate each stop a little more than the last. In our opinion, our itinerary to get to Rothenburg was almost ideal. We only wish we had stayed another two nights.

What do you think? Is Rothenburg a place you'd like to visit? Have you already been? If so we'd love to hear what you thought.

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Whether we're talking about 13th century fortresses turned noble places of residence, or examples of overt excess from the local ruling classes (often at the expense of their loyal subjects), today the grand and looming structures that harken back to a past we, and future generations, will likely never know. And it's for this very reason, and because of my obsession with antique architecture, that I'm so incredibly fascinated by and enjoy visiting these places, no matter their current state.

As part of our tour of south western Germany I wanted to make sure we made a stop at a place I'd know about for years, but only from the majestic photos in tourists brochures and video from travel shows. The location, Neuschwanstein Castle!

Neuschwanstein is a 19th century castle that sits high above the village of Schwangau in the very southern and central part of Bavaria, one of Germany's 16 states, and just a few kilometers from the German border with Austria.

The castle is actually one of two castles separated by just a few kilometers, and was built by King Ludwig II in the mid to late 19th century. The second castle, Schloß Hohenschwangau, was built in the early 19th century by Ludwig's father, King Maximilian II, and was the family's retreat away from the hustle and bustle of Munich, Bavaria's capital city.

Our visit began as we pulled into the tourist heavy town of Schwangau in the valley between the two royal residences. The town is one of those things that are left out when only looking at tourism photos or watching travel shows. Personally, I've never been to a true Bavarian town in the Alps, but I've seen plenty of depictions. However, nothing compares to seeing the real thing.

The small village, whose existence is no doubt due to the two castles (first as a service community and now as a tourist destination), is a quintessential Bavarian village. Tudor and mid 19th century style buildings are spread along a main and secondary road through the valley floor.

Each place is painted a combination of cream and the additional color palette of choice for that building, and no two are alike.

Today the buildings are full of shops, diners, hotels, and restaurants, but when the castles were operating royal residences, the town offered the support services and community establishments necessary to keep an area of such importance fully operational (think about the town of Downton Abbey).

After arriving, parking, and heading over to pick up our tickets for our castle tours, we experienced the good fortune of listening to Rick Steves. He said to pre-book your tour reservations as the line for day of purchase can get long. 

Boy was we right! We walked to directly to the front of will call without a person in front of us, while the "day of" line wrapped endlessly. I'm rather sure this seven euro advance purchase charge saved us about an hour standing in line.

The true advantage of this approach was that it gave us more time to enjoy the breathtaking town.

Our tours kicked off with the smaller and older of the two castles, Schloß Honenschwangau, the large yellow castle perched above and overlooking the village. Built in the early 19th century atop the ruins of a fortress dating to the 12th century...

...its perch above the valley floor offers panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and villages below. To say it was picturesque is a serious understatement.

We made the 10 minute walk up to the castle where we took in the gorgeous views of the Bavarian countryside and marveled at how bad us lowly peons have it in life. These royals, they knew what was what!

The tour of the castle itself was quite interesting. We toured the various rooms still outfitted in furniture and gifts belonging to King Maximilian II and his family, each with original artwork, essentially masterpieces painted right onto the walls, keepsakes, and a brief story of each room's purpose in the home.

Though photos were not allowed on the interior, we were able to snap a view of the views through the windows. All I can say is, "WOW!" It seemed every view was more stunning than the last. One area I was able to take photos of was in the neighboring structure where the castle's kitchen was located. Talk about an open concept kitchen!

As jaw dropping as each room of the house was, the most breathtaking aspects of the entire castle were the views from the castle windows looking out over the nearby clear blue lake and onto the mountains of Austria. The cool breeze, shimmering reflection of the sun, and wonderful smell in the air were simply amazing, I could have sat in front of that window for days.

After our initial castle tour concluded, we immediately headed down to the bus stop to catch a bus to the second castle. While the first climb was a simple 10 minute walk, the second would have been a much more substantial 30+ minute hike up a rather steep road. We didn't want to be a sweaty mess by the time we reached the castle, so the bus was a rather good decision.

The bus took us up the steep and winding road and dropped us at a secondary site near Neuschwanstein called Marienbrucke, or Queen Mary's Bridge. This bridge is a marvel of engineering for its time, as it straddles a waterfall amidst sheer rock cliffs and offers stunning views of the castle and valley below.

This bridge definitely lived up to its reputation, offering some beautiful and unique views of the castle.

The only problem? It was jam packed. With that many people, the wooden walk planks of the bridge bounce and sway, and the narrow passage acts as a bottleneck and prevents people from returning to the side they entered. It quickly went from a scenic overlook to a hoard of people stuck and pushing one another. After a photo or two, we quickly made our way off of the bridge as we both felt something bad was bound to happen. The views are stunning, but it's best to go to this bridge when it's not crowded...trust me.

Finally, after seeing our lives flash before our eyes, we headed over to Neuschwanstein for our tour.

Though not particularly old, especially when compared to the 12th and 13th century ruins you can find around Germany, Neuschwanstein was built by a king that possessed a tremendous appreciation for the romantic periods and employed a set designer to develop the overall vision for the cancel. And though it appears to be constructed from stone and is seemingly carved from the mountain, its construction is decidedly modern, using rebar and cement for the majority of the exterior.

If the castle looks familiar at all, but you've never heard of it or seen it, you might be thinking of Cinderella's Castle in Disney. It seems the Disney castle was inspired by this very castle, so I ask you, why go to Disney when you can see the real thing?

The castle tour was amazing, but like the first tour, no photos allow on the interior...except in the giant kitchen.

The castle itself was constructed over a 17 year period ending in 1886 (the same year our house was built). The grand construction and attention to detail was amazing. From mosaics to massive chandeliers, everything was more grand than can be imagined. One room had solid hand carved wood on every surface, and that room took four full time woodworkers two full years to complete!

There's a very interesting story about King Ludwig "The Mad" that I encourage you to look into. It shows how dedicated he was to building the castle, though he only lived in it for six months after being removed from the throne for questionable and politically driven reasons, before being found dead under suspicious circumstances just days after his ouster. For this reason, much of the castle is unfurnished and an entire floor is incomplete, with brick/white plaster walls and pine floors. Wendy told me her money is on the side that he killed himself, and that I'd probably kill myself too if I had worked on a house for 17 years only to be removed from it six months after moving in. You know, she's probably right.

Though interior photos were not allowed, I snuck one photo with my phone that I couldn't pass up. Please excuse the blurriness as I was covert and moving, but one of the massive and grand doors to the ball room that would have been able to fit four of our houses completely inside had an interesting detail I couldn't believe. See if you can tell from my horrible photo.

Do you see it, in the middle panel of the door? That's the beadboard wainscoting profile of our new stock for the master bathroom! It's identical, and I mean, exactly the same! Sure, it's done in walnut, on a massive door, in a king's castle in Germany, but the fact this profile exists in a building (of any kind) that completed construction at the time our home was built, well, that tells me we're doing something right! Serendipity (in the most far reaching form possible) I tell ya'!

If there's one thing I learned on our tour of Neuschwanstein castle, it's that everyone's home needs a scale model replica of itself within its walls. I think I need to get started on our home's model right away. Luckily, I think it will be a little easier than this one.

In all, the tour was good, the castle grand, and the scenery better than I ever could have imagined. And the best part were the horses we kept passing along the way, adding a certain ambiance to the whole endeavor that tour buses simply can't compete with.

However many times I've seen Neuschwanstien on television or in photos, our visit to the castles, their village, and neighboring Honenschwangau castle provided so much more context and helped to make this stop one of the true highlights of our vacation.

Have you ever visited Neuschwanstein, Honenschwangau, and Schwangau? If so, what were your thoughts? If not, does it seem like a place you'd like to see in person? After years of wanting to visit, I can say that it lived up to the hype I'd created in my mind.

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