Some Very Special Visitors

Two weeks ago we hosted some very special visitors:  Daniela Braun and her husband Joachim Braun.  They hail from the Stuttgart area of Germany.  It was wonderful to meet them!  Joachim has been to the US many times, but it was Daniela’s first trip.  Apparently New England is very different from Southern Germany!  They loved seeing all the historic houses in Ipswich [including ours], and all the rock walls everywhere [which were made from the rocks left behind by the last glacier as fields were cleared, and often enclosed cow pastures], and they LOVED being so close to the ocean.  We made many trips to collect stones and shells from the local shorelines.  Daniela is extremely creative, and in addition to making beautiful stained glass art, she also makes mosaic garden stepping stones, and will incorporate the stones and shells she collected into her projects.  She’s also extremely proficient at DIY.  We have a lot in common!

Here are some highlights from their week with us:

We went to the New England Aquarium in Boston where we saw penguins, the 550 pound giant sea turtle, the electric eel [my favorite!], and many other incredible things like this black and white polka dot stingray:

       

On another day, we got breakfast at the Village Pancake House [a local favorite], then drove to Salem to wander around.  One thing we found was this super old graveyard [seriously, there’s graves from the 1630s in there!].  I look like I’m striking a pose, but I was FREEZING!  It was so cold and windy for the first half of their trip:

       

Daniela doesn’t speak much English [thankfully Joachim does!] so the best way for her and I to talk was to use Google translate on our tablets – she’d talk into hers in German and the computer voice would repeat it in English for me, then I’d talk in English into mine and the computer voice would repeat it in German for her:

      

We went up the road to the local farm to see the pig, bunnies, chickens, sheep, & goats.  The guinea hens made us laugh because they were running back and forth after each other, making a racket.  The farm has a store, too, with lots of tasty treats, gifts, & wine:

       

My Dad drove over to meet them, and we all took a ride down the coast about 25 minutes to Rockport, MA, which has many little gift stores and beautiful views of the water [and the tulips were in bloom]:

       

       

       

Later we drove to the Crane Estate in Ipswich to check out the mansion and grounds – despite being 3 miles from our house, I never go – I’m thinking I should go more often, especially on a sunny day:

       

       

       

       

       

We visited Walden Pond, something Daniela was interested in doing after reading Thoreau’s book [#affiliate].  Another local landmark I’ve never been too!  It was only about an hour southwest of Ipswich:

      

We also drove over to Crane Beach in Ipswich so Daniela could collect some local sand in a little keepsake bottle she’d bought at the Farm store:

       

       

We also drove 20 minutes up the coast to Plum Island, ANOTHER local landmark I never go to:

       

We ended their trip with dinner at the local brew pub:

      

They left us with a beautiful geranium for our front steps – I love how it looks with my little flowered metal wreath on the door:

       

This Fall Jim and I will be flying to Germany to visit Daniela & Joachim – we can’t wait!

Ich liebe meine Schwester sehr viel!!!