Greetings from Deutschland!

Grüß Gott! No, I haven't given up on my blog. These last 3 weeks have been unbelievably busy with school and work. But now, since I have a 2 week school break, I'll be able to update this a little more often.

I'll post more on our trip here to Germany when we get back in the US. But for now, just wanted to post a couple of short videos of some of what we saw today. It's been quite a day already and we're exhausted. We've seen quite a bit and have documented everything!! I'll have plenty of material for lots of posts. I didn't bring my camera cable, so no pictures until we get back in the US.

If you'd like to see these videos in high def, just click on the video itself and it should open it in a new window, and then just click HD and the quality is much better.

For now, it's time to go to bed.

Auf Wiedersehen!

New toy

So I got a new toy for our trip in 2 weeks. It's a Creative Vado HD. It's a very compact HD camcorder comparable to the Flip Mino HD. So far, I've only done some basic testing and I'm trying to figure out if I like the quality enough. I got a great deal on it. It's usally $230 on Amazon.com, but they were having a $100 off deal for a day, so I bought it for $130. Can't beat that. Here's a short video I took with it. To view this video in HD, click on the video and it will open a new window with full YouTube on it. Click on the HD video so you can see it in higher definition. For traveling, I think it will be ideal. I don't have to be hauling a little bag around with tape, extra battery, etc. It records 2 hours in HD and I can transfer the file directly to my laptop when I get back to the hotel at night, empty the camera and be ready for the next day. My buddy from work, Dustin, has one and recommended it to me. He loves his Vado. I'm excited to try mine out.

Next time you're in NYC

When you're in New York City, how about a free great show? You can watch the Blue Man Group show absolutely free! All you have to do is volunteer to be an usher. My wife and I went to the theater in the afternoon and asked them if we could volunteer to usher and get in for free. They asked us to come back around 7pm (for the 8pm show) and help them seat people. Then after the show we would have to help them "clean", which meant picking up programs from the seats. The show was incredibly entertaining and absolutely free ($160 savings). Of course this is on a first-come, first-serve basis. So I definitely recommend showing up earlier and giving them your name so you have a better chance of getting in.

Here's a map to the theater.

Enjoy!

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Ensign Peak hike

When you're in Salt Lake and you're looking for a quick hike, try Ensign Peak. It's a little steep, but worthwhile. The reward for this mile long hike (round trip) is a breathtaking view of the valley. Hopefully the infamous Salt Lake smog won't spoil things when you get up there. You'll see here a detailed map of the hike I captured with the GPS on my phone and this is the exact trail. Here's some data so you're prepared:

- Starting elevation: 5039 feet

- Ending elevation: 5364 feet

- Distance: .48 miles (each way)

- Hike down time: 11 minutes (about 25 going up)

Enjoy!

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