Back from Vacation...

and I gotta tell you, I have no desire to go back to work anytime soon. Since my last post where you learned of my utter failure in getting promoted, we spent 4 days up in the heartland of Bavaria, in southern Germany. If you have never been to Germany, I pity you. It is an awesome place filled with castles, world class skiing, home to Oktoberfest, and of course schnitzel. Damn good schnitzel.

So anyway, we stayed at a place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (a.k.a GAP). GAP is the home of Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, a very nice resort strictly for U.S. military personnel and there family. I know what you're thinking, a 4 star resort for American military people only? Hellz yes it is, we in the service call this one of the many "french" benefits.*

Since our stay was over the July 4 holiday, I wanted to do something epic to commemorate our Independence Day. Usually this is a day where I would showcase my epic grilling skills and make some poor grill bow to its sensei, but with nary a grill in site I was forced to seek greatness elsewhere. This search led me 3,000 feet up a local mountain....

Para-gliding. Readers, if you have never experienced the badassity that is running off of a mountain top with some little German dude and a parachute strapped to your backside, you have missed out on one of life's great experiences. Of course you can substitute the little German dude out for whatever nationality you prefer, but when in Germany....

Back on track, para-gliding is the simple art of parachuting with an already open chute. What Shari and did was take a ski-lift up the mountain with our tandem partners, get to our starting points and get strapped into the gear, find the direction of the nearest cliff face, and then haul ass. Seriously, no instruction needed. My instructions consisted of

German dude: "Yah, are you ready yah?"
Me: "Hell ya bro"
German dude: "Okay den, on de count of tree I vant you to run datway yah"
Me: "Hell ya bro"
German dude: "Okay den, von two tree go!"

Me and the little German dude....



And off we go. Getting the parachute that is laying on the ground full of air is simple. Run like hell until you lift off. Like this....

And that's all there is too it folks. Oh, it's tough to describe how completely awesome the ride was. 15 minutes of just gliding through clouds and over the valley.

For those of you wondering if my wife did this as well, the answer is an emphatic hellz yah! I was so proud of her, normally I would say she isn't as adventurous as I am but she showed no fear.

More on what else we did while on vacation, just wanted to get this one into the ethers before signing out.


* - I know it's not "French Benefits". However, the numerous jokes regarding the German and French made this sort of a reverse pun. French benefits in Germany.....get it?