Relaxing Weekend

After a really busy week, it was time for a break! But not until taking a CPR Instructor's course all day on Saturday. We drove down to Ansbach, leaving at 7:00 on Saturday morning. The class was supposed to go until 5:00, but it was a beautiful day outside, so our teacher decided to let us out at 2:00! That certainly worked for us!

We headed to Ramstein from there. It was a two hour dive, which got us there around 4:00. We went to the mall first as we couldn't check in to our hotel yet. After walking through and seeing what was there, we went in to the PX. This place is the largest in all of Germany, maybe even Europe. It's new within the last couple of years, which makes it a very busy place. We walked through, at a very leisurly pace, taking our time looking at things. A couple hours later we walked out with a couple of sacks full. We then meandered through the rest of the stores in the place, just looking, not buying. Around 8:00, we realized we were hungry.

For supper we went to Chili's! Another bonus of Ramstein Air Base. American restaurants!! We went in too close to rush time and had to wait 45 minutes. We realized it was getting late and we hadn't checked in to our hotel yet, so decided to chance it and leave during that 45 minutes. We made it back about 5 minutes late, but they still gave us the next available table. So the rest of the evening we sat and enjoyed our supper!

Enjoying supper at an American restaurant... with the waitress coming over every 5 minutes to make sure everything was ok and give us drinks! Was a little strange, but we sure did like the drink part. Jay finished his first glass in about 2 minutes. The waitress brought out another for him. Another 5 minutes later she came out with another glass for both of us. At this point I had barely touched my first glass. And then as soon as the food was brought out, she brought out two more glasses. Really?!?!?! Did we look that thirsty! Jay downed all three glasses no problem! I pushed to get through two of them. Jay had to take care of my third one. Nonetheless, it was nice not to have to hold back on the drinks, knowing that we could have as many as we wanted.

The other thing that caught us off guard. We weren't even half way through our meal and the waitress came and asked us if we wanted dessert. We said no and so she laid our bill on the table. What?!?! No chasing down of the waitress so we can pay? (Another very German thing) So, when we were finished, we left the money there and walked out! Wow, that was easy! All these things we forget after being over here for awhile... some good and some not so good!

Then we headed to the hotel and slept in Sunday morning. Well, at least until Jay's commander called and needed something signed no later than 6:00 that night. I guess that means we're headed home earlier! It really wasn't a big deal, but did make a rush a bit. Before leaving the hotel, we had to stop and take in what nature was presenting that morning. The sun was shining, the birds were signing, the grass was green, it was absolutely beautiful. There aren't many hotels in America when you can walk out onto the balcony and see nothing but nature. No big building right next door where all you can see is windows! It was so peaceful!

It was really nice to be able to stop life for a day and simply relax. We really needed a day like that. Of course as soon as we got home I had to start in on school work, but I guess that's part of life!