No More Bottom Braces...

After just nine months, the orthodontist declared that Veronica’s bite had been corrected and it was time to remove the bottom brackets. It will still take some time to move the top teeth together to fill the gaps left from her lack of two incisors, but there’s already a major improvement.

To the Rescue...

Imagine my surprise when the girls came home from walking Max, the black lab that they were dogsitting, and said they needed a shoe box for an injured crow. Ashlynn insisted on calling the pet hospital that runs an ambulance service. I wasn’t convinced that they’d want to help a lowly crow, but Ashlynn’s persistence paid off as they sent an ambulance to pick it up. How’s that for dedication!

A Little More of the Silver Mine...

Jimmy took the girls on a side tunnel to walk a balance beam. Needless to say, I skipped this part.

Another view of the creepy ladders. 

Rather than hike back down, we caught a bus into town. Then we found a restaurant along the river and had a relaxing dinner. We caught a train home the next morning. Bill and Nina will be moving to Switzerland soon and we look forward to visiting them there, although I’m afraid of what kind of adventures he might come up with in the Alps.

Hitting Bottom...

Here’s a cross-section of the mountaintop showing a map of the mine; clearly we had barely brushed the surface. Further down, you can see a big line across which designated the midwive’s tunnel, the shortest distance of 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) between villages on either side of the mountain.

Our guide dropped a rock at this pit and it went an awfully long way.

Luckily we didn’t go down this extra long ladder as we’d already reached the bottom of our tour.

More Ladders...

After the first 1.5 hours, the tour guide escorted most of the group back up to the surface. She then took us five plus one other fellow even further into the depths of the mountain.

Jimmy is much better with photography in low light, so unfortunately there’s no photos of him. Of course, he completely loved the entire experience. Despite his claims of being claustrophobic, he never felt uncomfortable.

An 800-Year-Old Silver Mine...

We got to the top of the mountain just in time to walk back down a little ways to the entrance to the Schauinsland Silver Mine Museum. Nina was just getting over a cold, so she opted out of joining us in the cold mine. Bill booked us for the 3-hour adventure tour. Little did I know that would mean climbing ladders down 18 stories and then back up again in the dark!

Yes, this is my big butt coming through one of the small holes just to prove that I did actually make the climbs.

The first half of the tour was with a large group for the 1.5 hour family tour, which climbed just the first 9 stories. Most of the tour was in German, but Bill was a great interpreter.

Hiking in the Black Forest...

We left Europa Park just before it closed on Friday night to catch a bus and train down to Freiburg to spend the weekend with Bill (aka Webfoot from the San Diego Hash) and his wife Nina. On Saturday, they led us into the nearby Black Forest to go on a wonderful hike.

Despite an 800 meter (2,600 feet) ascent, it was a fairly easy hike with beautiful views. In fact, it was just a minor warm-up for the real adventure that Bill had in store for us.