Family Pictures

The first few days in Hamburg have been pretty busy catching up with my family and settling in. My sister lives in Altona, which is a great part of Hamburg. Most of my friends live here as well, and there are tons of cafes, restaurants and bars (yay!). It just makes me realize how much I enjoy the city life - step into the street and be swept away by the crowds.

My sister and her husband

I also get to spend some quality time with my nephew Mika, whom I only see about once a year. He's a cute kid, but can be a lot of work ;)
I'm very flattered that he remembers who I am. In this photo, he's planning something - you can see the mischief in his eyes...

My nephew Mika

My brother in law's sister and parents are visiting

Some of the chocolate I'll take back to the US

I also spent two days at my mom's. She lives in the suburbs of Hamburg, where we grew up. I usually help her with some work on the house when I visit. So far, I've moved about three cubic meters of (wet) sand from the driveway to the backyard. It actually didn't look like that much work, but I soon realized that the wheelbarrow doesn't really fit all that much sand... It was dark by the time I was done, so I don't have a photo of the sand yet. Anyways, here's a picture of my Mom with our cat Hobbes (who, of course, is named after the awesome comic.)

My mom and our cat Hobbes