We're home!
Well, sitting on the computer at 2 a.m. is a good indication that we are home - and a bit jet lagged. We made it home Monday night around 11 p.m. It was a long, but uneventful trip home. We lucked out and had two young girls sit behind us on the Vienna - DC flight. They loved to play with Soren and were a huge help in passing the 9.5 hour flight with ease. Then we pretty much crashed out on the flight to Portland. Well, Soren and I crashed out. The lady behind Peter asked him not to recline his seat and since she was fairly elderly, he graciously complied. But that meant he couldn't sleep. Poor guy. Well, at least he got to see the latest Harry Potter film.
We enjoyed the remainder of the trip once we left the hospital, but we didn't have much Internet access so I didn't get to update the blog. Here are some of the highlights:
* We did get released as expected from the hospital. My observation on the "do-it-yourself" care proved true to the very end. The doctor stopped by and asked how I thought Soren was doing. I told her that I thought he was much improved. She asked if I wanted to be released. I told her yes...and she said ok. She never even touched him! Granted, she had been observing his cough and she had the nurse's notes from the night before, but in the US the doctors certainly would have at leasted pulled out the stethoscope.
* We've decided that we must have committed some grievous crime against the Motherland or were somehow otherwise unworthy, because we really just weren't able to get to Peter's Grandparent's village. After the hospital stint killed our first plan to get to the village, we came up with an alternative plan. When we got to Slovakia we rented a car intending to take a day to drive up there. That wasn't easy. But after lots of work and lots of assistance from the staff at our hotel we tracked down a rental car. But when got up bright and early the next day we discovered that the ground was covered with snow! Aargh! Since the snow was accumulating at our low elevation, we were really concerned about how much worse it would be driving up into the small mountain roads. So, in the end we decided against it and returned our rental car without ever driving it!
* We stopped off at Trencin on the way back to Bratislava. It broke up the train journey for us and gave us a chance to visit the beautiful Trencin castle. The castle itself wasn't the beautiful part - the views from the top of the tower were incredible though and gave a bird's eye view of the lovely city and surrounding hills. I'll post pictures (once I sort through the 500 photos that I took!)
* When the plane landed in Washington DC Soren's first words were "We landed! Let's go to Starbucks!" Oy, what have I done to this child? (By the way, there was a starbucks with in 50 feet of clearing US immigration. And yes, we did go. Soren recognizes the Starbucks logo and he was so excited to get his favorite Starbucks milk. There is no way I could have gotten him past the place.)
* If a Starbucks addiction weren't bad enough, Soren learned one other thing while we were gone that really astounded me. While were out for dinner with Joe on our final night in town, Soren picked up a small wooden skewer that had come in the meat of my meal. He inserted it carefully between his first two fingers and then brought it up to his mouth. I couldn't believe my eyes. Could this be a coincidence? I got Peter's attention and we sat and watched Soren for a few minutes. Sure enough, he'd put the skewer up to his mouth and then deliberately pull it away and adjust it between his fingers. I asked Soren what he was doing - his response: "smoking". Aargh! As I mentioned everyone everywhere seemed to smoke on this trip, but I had no idea that he had been watching them so closely. I think that to make up for this we'll have to spend our next few vacations in prime Mormon vacation spots. (Ok, you LDS friends of mine, I'm going to need some vacation tips!)
We really did have a great trip. We're happy to be home now though. I'll post some pictures in the coming days.
We enjoyed the remainder of the trip once we left the hospital, but we didn't have much Internet access so I didn't get to update the blog. Here are some of the highlights:
* We did get released as expected from the hospital. My observation on the "do-it-yourself" care proved true to the very end. The doctor stopped by and asked how I thought Soren was doing. I told her that I thought he was much improved. She asked if I wanted to be released. I told her yes...and she said ok. She never even touched him! Granted, she had been observing his cough and she had the nurse's notes from the night before, but in the US the doctors certainly would have at leasted pulled out the stethoscope.
* We've decided that we must have committed some grievous crime against the Motherland or were somehow otherwise unworthy, because we really just weren't able to get to Peter's Grandparent's village. After the hospital stint killed our first plan to get to the village, we came up with an alternative plan. When we got to Slovakia we rented a car intending to take a day to drive up there. That wasn't easy. But after lots of work and lots of assistance from the staff at our hotel we tracked down a rental car. But when got up bright and early the next day we discovered that the ground was covered with snow! Aargh! Since the snow was accumulating at our low elevation, we were really concerned about how much worse it would be driving up into the small mountain roads. So, in the end we decided against it and returned our rental car without ever driving it!
* We stopped off at Trencin on the way back to Bratislava. It broke up the train journey for us and gave us a chance to visit the beautiful Trencin castle. The castle itself wasn't the beautiful part - the views from the top of the tower were incredible though and gave a bird's eye view of the lovely city and surrounding hills. I'll post pictures (once I sort through the 500 photos that I took!)
* When the plane landed in Washington DC Soren's first words were "We landed! Let's go to Starbucks!" Oy, what have I done to this child? (By the way, there was a starbucks with in 50 feet of clearing US immigration. And yes, we did go. Soren recognizes the Starbucks logo and he was so excited to get his favorite Starbucks milk. There is no way I could have gotten him past the place.)
* If a Starbucks addiction weren't bad enough, Soren learned one other thing while we were gone that really astounded me. While were out for dinner with Joe on our final night in town, Soren picked up a small wooden skewer that had come in the meat of my meal. He inserted it carefully between his first two fingers and then brought it up to his mouth. I couldn't believe my eyes. Could this be a coincidence? I got Peter's attention and we sat and watched Soren for a few minutes. Sure enough, he'd put the skewer up to his mouth and then deliberately pull it away and adjust it between his fingers. I asked Soren what he was doing - his response: "smoking". Aargh! As I mentioned everyone everywhere seemed to smoke on this trip, but I had no idea that he had been watching them so closely. I think that to make up for this we'll have to spend our next few vacations in prime Mormon vacation spots. (Ok, you LDS friends of mine, I'm going to need some vacation tips!)
We really did have a great trip. We're happy to be home now though. I'll post some pictures in the coming days.
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