Entering the Blogosphere

Well, after having some very serious hair issues, I finally made my way to Europe for a summer of travels (what's new). Instead of sending out the email updates I've done during previous trips, thanks to David Glover, I thought I would just "enter the blogosphere" (as he would say) for whoever wants to know what I'm up to this summer. My trip started off quite nicely with a comfy seat in business class (thanks to Nina!!). Those new Lufthansa business class seats go completely flat, so I managed to miss dinner and sleep through the entire nonstop flight from San Francisco to Munich. Lucky me! I owe Nina big time. Though the weather hasn't been spectacular since I arrived here, I'm having a nice time anyway. Despite the rain last week, Kevin and I managed to get Nina out to the training hill for some foot launch practice. She learned to fly at Quest and recently solo'd aerotowing, but hadn't had any foot launch experience before last week. So, that was great fun, but seemed like a lot of work if you ask me. I am loving the aerotow training method. Poor Nina could hardly even hold the glider on her shoulders at first and Kevin made her run with it on flat ground even before there was a lick of wind. Poor girl, I thought she would give up before she ever really got started. Anyway, the wind picked up a bit and she had some great launches, eventually working her way up the hill so that she was doing some real flying. With my new toy, I got video of every one of her flights and they are hilarious to watch. I mean, the flying part it fairly average, but Nina's screaming at the end of each flight, rates way up there!Here's a shot of our ugly training hill :-) Yes, you can see why I love it here and never want to leave. Every time I come back I remember that there is probably no place more beautiful than this part of the world.