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Alberta, Canada

Laura and I spent the first week of August with her family in Alberta, Canada. We stayed near Banff National Park and spent most of our time in Banff and Jasper National Parks as well as the towns of Banff and Canmore.

Our activities included:
Aug 2 (Sat)
Short drive through Calgary, Luge Run at Olympic Park;
Aug 3 (Sun)
Johnston Canyon Picnic with view of Castle Mountain, Two Jack Lake;
Aug 4 (Mon)
Tunnel Mountain Hike, Minnewanka Lake - picnic and hike;
Aug 5 (Tues)
Lake Louise, Plains of 6 Glaciers Hike, Gondola, Moraine Lake;
Aug 6 (Wed)
Ice fields Parkway, Columbia Ice fields, Parker Ridge Hike;
Aug 7 (Th)
A day at the lodge which included a talk and short hike with a local tour guide;
Aug 8 (Fri)
Grassi Lake Trail, shopping and dinner in Banff.

For more pics from our trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/clsanders/AlbertaCanada02

4th of July

America is the only nation in the world that is founded on creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature. It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just. It certainly does condemn anarchism. And it does also by inference condemn atheism, since it clearly names the Creator as the ultimate authority from whom these equal rights are derived. Nobody expects a modern political system to proceed logically in the application of such dogmas, and in the matter of God and Government it is naturally God whose claim is taken more lightly. The point is that there is a creed, if not about divine, at least about human things.
G.K. Chesterton

Laura and I spent this July 4th here in Winston. Between my bar prep and Laura's weekend job, it is rare for us to have a day that we are both free... so we wanted to make sure to take advantage of our time together today. We watched and played tennis this morning before heading to Tanglewood Park for the afternoon. At Tanglewood, we went horseback riding and played the par 3 golf course, then we enjoyed a picnic before taking in the fireworks. It was a great way to celebrate the 4th!

Laura and Reno

Scout and I

Reno bein' suave

Picnic

waiting for the fireworks

Two recent Supreme Court decisions

There have been two recent decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) that have garnered much attention and initiated much debate. The decision are the June 12th ruling in Boumediene v. Bush and the June 26th ruling in DC v. Heller. This post is an attempt to lay out the essential holdings from these two decisions and offer a few questions that arise from them. My goal with this post is to keep the analysis simple and straightforward.

Essentially, in Heller the SCOTUS held that the Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms is an individual right and exist apart from participation in militia. This is obviously a milestone decision that answers a question which has been heavily debated for quite some time.

Two important questions left unanswered by Heller:
1) What level of scrutiny will the court apply to restrictions?
2) Will the right to bear arms be applied to the states?

This is the most interesting question and one that very well may be addressed by the SCOTUS in the very near future. As most of you are probably aware, the Bill of Rights applies directly only to the federal government. Most of the rights in the Bill of Rights now apply to state and local governments through incorporation into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms is one of five rights that have not been incorporated into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. So as of right now, your state government could pass a law stating that no citizen can possess a gun for any reason, and it would not violate your Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms.

Since the Heller decision, no less than five lawsuits have been filed attempting to have this Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. It will be interesting to see what happens if any of these cases work there way up to the SCOTUS.

Essentially, in Boumediene, the SCOTUS held that 1) detainees are protected by the Suspension Clause (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2 of the Constitution which states “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”) and 2) the Detainee Treatment Act review system does not provide an adequate substitute for habeas because it does not authorize the DC Circuit to order detainees to be released, does not allow detainees to argue that their detention exceeds the scope of the executive's detention authority, and does not allow presentation of new evidence.

Like Heller, Boumediene has been followed by much debate and perhaps more uncertainty.

Some of the important questions left unanswered by the Court are:
1) What impact it will have on the military commission trials just getting underway?
2) What constitutional right and protections should be given to detainees?

This question is currently being debated by both sides of the Hamdan prosecution. SCOTUSBLOG’s Lyle Denniston offers more detailed insight into this issue in his post, Debate over Boumediene’s meaning. In short, the government contends that the detainees are now protected by only a single constitutional right. The military lawyers argue that Boumediene was only “a narrow holding” that detainees have a constitutional right to pursue a habeas claim in District Court. They say that the Court’s decision turned only on Congress’s violation of that Suspension Clause. On the other hand, the defense attorneys claim at least nine constitutional rights:

1. A constitutional right to equal legal treatment, allegedly violated by any trial before a military commission (equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment).
2. A constitutional right not to be forced to give evidence against himself, presumably based on alleged evidence obtained in interrogations (Fifth Amendment ban on self-incrimination).
3. A constitutional right to due process, based on alleged use of testimony obtained by coercion or torture and denial of access to documents about the conditions at Guantanamo (Due Process Clause of Fifth Amendment).
4. A constitutional right to call witnesses who may aid the defense, based on claims of too-limited access so far to “high-value detainees” at Guantanamo — including some key Al Qaeda leaders (Sixth Amendment right to compulsory process).
5. A constitutional right to the aid of a lawyer, allegedly frustrated by conditions at Guantanamo that inhibit lawyer-client relationships (Sixth Amendment).
6. A constitutional right to confront adverse witnesses, based on a claimed prosecution plan to offer “50 items of hearsay evidence” at trial (Sixth Amendment).
7. A constitutional right to a speedy and public trial, allegedly violated by the mode and scheduling of military commission trials (Sixth Amendment).
8. A constitutional right to be charged by a grand jury, allegedly violated by the charges leveled here only by Pentagon prosecutors (Fifth Amendment).
9. A constitutional right not to be accused of a crime for actions that were not criminal at the time, a test of whether a military commission has jurisdiction because the accusations are not violations of the law of war (Ex Post Factor Clause in Article II, limiting Congress’ authorize to create new crimes after the fact).

These two decisions will be debated ad infinitum and their full ramifications will not be known for years to come.

1st Anniversary. Lake Lure & Chimney Rock

Monday, June 16th, was our one year wedding anniversary. Because our anniversary feel on a Monday (due to leap year) that I needed to spend at school studying for the bar, we took our "anniversary trip" on the weekend of the 14th and 15th. Laura and I spent the weekend at the Lake Lure Inn. Saturday was spent on the lake and Sunday was spent at Chimney Rock Park.

We had a great time during our weekend getaway! On the evening of the 16th we enjoyed a dinner in, and ate our one year old wedding cake. We were both very surprised at how good the cake was after spending twelve months in the freezer. Here are some pics from our trip.

Laura and I on a Lake Lure tour boat

.

The Dirty Dancing cove

Great views were easy to find


A shot from the boardwalk

Chimney Rock with Lake Lure in the background

Laura and I on Chimney Rock

Dinner Saturday night.

The beach

In some ways, it is hard to believe we have been married for a year, but at the same time, it seems like we have more than a years worth of memories from the last 12 months. We have been truly blessed and are excited about starting our second year of marriage!

Thomas More

I have long had a great admiration for Thomas More, he was an outstanding lawyer, author, judge and diplomat, who rose to the highest office in England, next to the King. He was also a Christian who believed that his first, and most important, calling was to follow Christ, whatever the cost. He was a man who had a huge impact on this world, while living for the next. As a result, he chose death rather than to betray his conscience. Moments before he was beheaded for his faith, he humbly described himself as "the King's good servant, but God's first."

I just came across this meditation that he penned while he was a prisoner in the tower of London, in 1534.

Give me thy grace, good Lord, To set the world at nought, To set my mind fast upon thee. And not to hang upon the blast of men's mouths. To be content to be solitary, Not to long for worldly company, Little and little utterly to cast off the world,And rid my mind of all the business thereof. Not to long to hear of any worldly things, But that the hearing of worldly phantasies may be to me displeasant.Gladly to be thinking of God, Piteously to call for his help, To lean unto the comfort of God, Busily to labour to love him.To know mine own vility and wretchedness, To humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God, To bewail my sins passed, For the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity.Gladly to bear my purgatory here, To be joyful of tribulations, To walk the narrow way that leadeth to life. To bear the cross with Christ,To have the last thing in rememberence, To have ever afore mine eye my death that is ever at hand, To make no stranger to me, To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell. To pray for pardon before the judge to come. To have ontinually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me, For his benefits uncessantly to give him thanks. To buy the time again that I before have lost. To abstain from vain confabulations, To eschew light foolish mirth and gladness, Recreations not necessary to cut off. Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at right nought, for the winning of Christ. To think my most enemies my best friends, For the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favour as they did him with their malice and hatred. These minds are more to be desired of every man, than all the treasure of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all upon one heap.

It Is Well With My Soul

I love this hymn, and as with many great hymns, the story behind it gives the words more meaning.

Horatio Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer with one son and four daughters (still living with he and his wife). He had a large amount of money invested in Chicago real estate. By the late 1860's, Spafford had been blessed with a great family and very successfull investments.
Then, his son died and the Chicago fire of 1871 wiped out his holdings.

After loosing a child, and much of his fortune, Spafford and his family desperately needed a rest. So in 1873 he planned a trip to Europe with his wife and four daughters. Last minute business caused Spafford to delay his departure, but he sent his wife and four daughters on the S. S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days. On November 22 the ship was struck by the English ship Lochearn, and it sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors landed at Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband the brief message, "Saved alone."

When Horatio Spafford made the ocean crossing to meet his grieving wife, he sailed near the place where his four daughters had sunk to the ocean depths. There, in the midst of his sorrow, he wrote these unforgettable words that have brought solace to so many in grief:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot,

Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blessed assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

****

If you have time, check out this video:

It Is Well With My Soul

Brevard. Graduation. Raleigh

It has been quite a while since my last post and much has happened. I am currently in the daily grind of preparing for the North Carolina Bar Exam, which will be on July 29th and 30th. Laura's first year of teaching will come to an end next Tuesday, June 10th.

A few weeks ago Laura and I spent a weekend with Wade and Emily Johnson and my grandparents at my grandparent's cabin in Brevard, NC. Laura and I arrived early Friday afternoon, spent some time with my grandparents, and played the local par three golf course. Wade and Emily made it in late Friday night, the four of us had an action packed day on Saturday that included stalking white squirrels (check out this pic that Laura took, pretty sure the little guy was posing for us!), hiking up to Looking Glass Rock, checking out a couple of water falls, and eating dinner at the Pisgah Inn (one of our favorite spots). We had a great weekend with the Johnsons and my grandparents!

The next event on our calendar was my graduation. How time flies, it is hard to believe that law school is over. All of my family came into town for the weekend. Tiffany (my sister) and Webb (her husband) stayed with Laura and I, we really enjoyed having their company here in our apartment! Laura's parents also came into town for my graduation, It was the only time that we have had so much family here, save the wedding. Laura put together a surprise party for me. She did an incredible job, I am not sure how she managed to organize and conceal it so well. The party was a cookout at Salem Lake that included croquet and bocce ball. It was a great way to celebrate the end of our time together in law school!

We spent last weekend in Raleigh with Laura's family, and as always, we had a great time! We managed to get in golf at the driving range, billiards at Magnolia Glen (where Aunt Lucile lives) and croquet. In between these activities we enjoyed some great food and fellowship!

There is more that I could write about, but I need to get some sleep so I will be ready for a Friday filled with Criminal Law.

Davis Cup. 35 days 'til graduation.

This weekend the defending World Champion U.S. Davis Cup team has been taking on the French team, here in Winston Salem. It is the second year in a row that there have been Davis Cup matches here in Winston. Last year Laura and I went to all the matches, as the U.S. downed Spain on their way to the championship. This year we attended the doubles match on Saturday with Laura's parents. Unfortunately, the Bryan brothers lost, but we had a great time and got to watch some very good tennis.

Last night, the four of us ate dinner at River Birch Lodge, had some birthday cake (which Laura made) to celebrate Bill's upcoming b-day, and watched Into The Wild... very good movie that I would highly recommend. The book is also good.

Two Weeks until my exams start, and 35 days until graduation...hard to believe that law school is about to be over! The last couple of weeks will be busy, then I will hopefully have a week or so to catch my breath before graduation and a summer of bar prep.
"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is." C.S. Lewis

more car trouble, Charleston, CRBR

Cooper River Bridge Run

As I wrote the last entry I was sitting on a couch, in the Thompson's apartment, in downtown Charleston, waiting for a tow truck to arrive from Columbia to pick up our car and take it back to the transmission place that we had picked it up from the day before. We were gone from Tuesday-Sunday. Our car was in the repair shop from Tuesday-Thursday and again from Friday-Sunday. It was a bit of an inconvenience, but certainly could have been much worse. Yesterday, Anna drove us to Columbia to pick up our car. After about 1.5 hours on the interstate (headed to Winston) the over drive light started blinking and I thought we were going to be on the side of the interstate...again. The car made it 3 more miles to the next exit where we pulled into a gas station. While there, my dad called and informed us that he had talked to someone at a Mazda dealership who had told him that there transmissions tend to get overheated on long trips and that we should stop every hour or so and let it cool off. We did this, and it worked well. We are now back in Winston and the car is doing fine. We are going to have a cooling block put on the transmission, hopefully this will take care of the problem.

Despite the car hiccup, we had a great time in Charleston. On Thursday night, Ryan and Anna took us to dinner at Southend Brewery & Smokehouse. On Friday, Ryan, Laura and I spent the afternoon on the beach at Kiawah Island. Anna works on the Island, so after work she joined us for a bike ride around the Island (not on the beach).

On Saturday, the four of us ran (with 40,000+ other people) in the Cooper River Bridge Run (CRBR) 10K. It is a huge annual Charleston race (event) that happened to be the same weekend that we were there, Laura and I registered for the race on Friday and ran in it on Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, We ate lunch at one of my favorite Charleston spots, Poe's Tavern.

Laura and I walked down King Street and around The Battery on Saturday evening, we then met up with Ryan and Anna at The Kickin' Chicken to watch the final four games and eat dinner.

We had a great time with Ryan and Anna and really enjoyed Charleston!

Transmission trouble. Hilton Head

This week is Laura's spring break, so we decided that I could skip class and we could take a trip. We left Tuesday morning, headed for Hilton Head. Our plan was to spend two nights in Hilton Head and then drive up to Charleston and spend 3 nights with Ryan and Anna Thompson there.

At about 12:45 Tuesday afternoon we were passing through Columbia, SC, when the transmission in our car gave out. We spent about 1.5 hours on the side of the interstate, then we were towed to "the best transmission place in Columbia." At this point we did not know what was wrong with our car, we hoped that it was something that could be quickly fixed so that we could resume our trip to Hilton Head. Unfortunately, we learned that our car would not be ready to go again until Thursday afternoon. At that point we had a couple of options, we could spend the first few days of our trip in Columbia, SC, or we could try to rent a car and get to Hilton Head. We opted for the latter. Essentially every rental car place in Columbia was out of vehicles, but thankfully we finally found someone who had one car left, Rent-A-Wreck. We jumped on the opportunity to take over a Chevy Cavalier for a few days.

After our unexpected detour in Columbia, we left at around 5:00 for Hilton Head...in our new (temporary) ride.

In Hilton Head, we stayed at the Crowne Plaza Resort. We loved the resort and the Island! Despite our car troubles, we had a great time there! On Tuesday night we went for a run around the plantation that our resort was on, then went to a sports bar for a late dinner. On Wednesday, we decided to bike to the Harbour Town Lighthouse and check it out, then bike to The Salty Dog Cafe for lunch, then back to the resort of an evening on the beach. The island has great bike trails that follow major roads and make it easy to get around. It ended up being a bit more difficult than we anticipated, mainly because our bike trails kept dead ending into resorts. After riding around on the island for an hour or so, we decided that it would be better to just get on the beach and bike around the island until we came to the lighthouse. After biking on the beach for a while we decided that the lighthouse could wait and we should just get lunch. We finally made it to the Cafe and had a great, lunch there. If you are ever on Hilton Head, you have to check out The Salty Dog Cafe! After eating we biked back to our resort, via the beach. The excursion took a bit longer than we had anticipated, but we had a great time. On Wednesday night, we ate dinner at the Old Fort Pub. A very nice seafood restaurant on the water that I would highly recommend, catch a sunset there if you can!

We got up early Thursday morning so that we could see the sunrise on the beach, unfortunately it looked like a tropical storm was coming in...so there was no sun to be seen. We ate breakfast and packed up before going on a run around the plantation. We checked out of the hotel and decided to drive over to the lighthouse and eat lunch before leaving the island. We ate lunch at The Water Front Cafe, another great restaurant that I would recommend visiting.

We are now in Charleston, but the car saga has continued... more to come.

Opening day...

means longer, warmer days and baseball. I love Spring!

What a great start to the season... the Nationals christened their new stadium with a dramatic win, Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk off home run!

Noon, March 27, 2008

This year I have had the privilege of serving as the president of two Wake Law organizations, the Christian Legal Society and the Criminal Law Roundtable. Both organizations host lunch speakers (open to the entire school) on a monthly basis. Up until this month, I have been able to avoid any scheduling conflicts between the two groups... that ended on Thursday, March 27th.

Bet you would have never guessed that both of these were made by the same person!

Shane & Shane + Piper

What I need to hear every day!

Embracing Accusation (John Piper mix)
(there is no video)

Easter

At this point in our marriage, pretty much everything is a "first," so last Sunday was our "first Easter" as a married couple. We spent the weekend in Raleigh with Laura's family and had a great time. We attended a sunrise service with Laura's parents at Meredith College's McIver Amphitheater which overlooks a lake. After the service, the four of us went to Krispy Kreme for some hot doughnuts and coffee. I do not normally care much for doughnuts, but HOT Krispy Kreme doughnuts melt in your mouth and really hit the spot early in the morning. But as good as the doughnuts were, they paled in comparison to the wonderful Easter dinner that Diane made. Along with Bill, Diane and Will, Laura's Uncle Doug and Great Aunt Lucile were also there for dinner. We really enjoyed being able to spend time with everyone and not having to rush away as soon as church was over.

Our weekend in Raleigh also included watching basketball, playing games, a wine tasting, billiards, and dinner at Taverna Agora which is an excellent Greek restaurant that I would highly recommend to anyone in the Raleigh area.

Laura and I have been reading The Chronicles of Narnia together and were near the end of the The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when we left Raleigh for Winston. Laura read as I drove. As she read about Aslan taking Lucy and Susan to the Witch's castle (right after the Witch had sacrificed him on the stone table) and breathing new life into all the creatures who had been turned to stone by the Witch; Laura and I both thought that this was an appropriate and wonderful allegory of Easter. After his death and resurrection, Aslan began to make everything new again! He turned hearts of stone into hearts of flesh!

Spring Break '08

It is Saturday, the end of my last spring break and 64 days until graduation. For around 21 straight years I have been able to count on this week long break every spring... but this one will be it (for a while at least). This last spring break was a great one, my parents came up and spent the week with Laura and I. We made the most of our time together and had a great week. Laura's spring break is in April, so she was not able to spend the days with us, but joined us for evenings and afternoons (once to our surprise!).


My parents arrived Sunday night and spent Monday morning resting and adjusting to the two hour time change (they traveled from the Central to Eastern time zone on the weekend of the Daylight savings time switch). After spending a couple of hours in Burlington Coat Factory shopping on Monday afternoon, Mom, Dad and I went for a walk to Bethabara Village. I have consistently ran or biked by the village for the past 8 months, but haven't really taken the time to check out the history there. The village dates back to 1774 and offers some great insight into life in an 18th century settlement. This picture is of mom and dad standing in what remains of the 1763 apothecary shop (pharmacy). On Monday night we had dinner at our apartment and watched Invincible (which is a great movie that I would highly recommend).


On Tuesday Mom, Dad and I headed east to the Triangle. They had never been to Durham, Chapel Hill or Raleigh, so we decided to spend a day checking out those three cities. Bill Lahti (Laura's dad) works in Durham and was nice enough to meet us Tuesday morning and show us around the city. We walked around downtown, through his office building (which is a renovated tobacco warehouse and a very
neat office setup) and then headed to Duke. It was also my first time on Duke's campus and I was very impressed with Duke Chapel. Our next stop was Chapel Hill, I wanted to let my mom check out A Southern Season, so we ate lunch at their restaurant and then let her do a little shopping there while dad and I walked around the mall. The next stop on our tour was the UNC campus, we parked by The Old Well and then walked around campus. With the first two cities down, we headed to Raleigh to meet the Lahti's for dinner. My mom, dad and I drove to their house where we were meeting Bill, Diane and Will. The three of them greeted us at the door and then told us there was something we should see in the kitchen, I lead the way...to my great surprise, Laura was in the kitchen, she had decided to drive to Raleigh after school and meet us all for dinner. After enjoying dinner at a great Italian restaurant, we had to complete our campus tour with a drive through NC State. Dad, Will and I got out to check out the infamous Free Expression Tunnel. We arrived back in Winston 15 hours after we had departed for our tour of the Triangle, it was a great day!


Wednesday brought another opportunity for the three of us to be tourist. Mom and Dad had not been to Childress Vineyards, and I am always looking for an excuse to visit my favorite local vineyard. We took a tour of the winery and ate lunch at their bistro. Wednesday night the four of us played Can't Stop, I would mention who one, but I hate to gloat.


By Thursday we had done enough touring, so we spent a good part of the day watching basketball while Laura was at school. Once she got home we went to play put-put. This has turned into an annual activity for the four of us, we always have a great time and my dad always seems to win, I am going to practice more for next years round! Brad Loftis (a family friend from the mountains who lives in Greensboro) came over Thursday night for dinner and basketball. We watched some of the tournament games and then played the domino game Mexican Train (once again, I would mention who one, but I don't want to gloat!).

My parents left on Friday morning...it was an incredibly quite day at the apartment for me. The week went by quickly, but we had a great time together!

100 days... a white Valentine's Day.

This past Wednesday was (apparently) the 100 day mark. 100 days until my classmates and I finish law school. So it was only natural that we had a "100 day party" to celebrate. The get together was downtown at Mellow Mushroom with an official start time of 7 pm. I was at school until around 7, so I went straight from school to Mellow Mushroom. As I was walking to my car I noticed what appeared to be sleet (or frozen rain) coming down. I was a little surprised because I did not know that we were expecting any type of precipitation (I check the weather at least twice during class on any given day), but it was a seemingly insignificant amount which I expected would soon pass. Sometime during my 5 minute drive from campus to downtown, this seemingly insignificant amount of sleet turned into a heavy, thick downpour of snow. I sat with some of my classmates, near large windows, and watched the snow fall.

By 9, the snow had covered the ground and was still coming down strong. I headed home to retrieve Laura so that we could venture out into the snow together. We decided that Reynolda Gardens would be a great place to go and enjoy the snow.

This is where I proposed to Laura (10.5.06)

Laura, in what had become a very light snow

A night vision shot

I have not yet experienced a white Christmas, but I suppose the next best thing is a white Valentine's Day. All of this snow fell on the night of the 13th, so the next morning everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow. Laura surprised me with breakfast in bed, after which we learned that her school had cancled classes for the day. She was very excited, as you can imagine. My classes would not be cancled, but my first one was not until 10. On my way to class I stopped by Bethabara Village, which is directly behind our apartment, to take some pictures. Here are a few of them, taken on our first Valentine's Day as a married couple...

Friends from across the pond.

It was the fall of 2005 in Salamanca, Spain. The greeter thought that it would be a good idea to sit the young lady from Germany visiting the church next to the young lady visiting from North Carolina, they would be able to talk since both of them spoke English.

Fast-foward a couple of months and the young lady from North Carolina (Laura) is staying with the young lady from Germany (Marietta Dietrich) and her family in Solingen, Germany.

Now skip ahead to January 31st, 2008. Laura's husband is dropping Marietta and her boyfriend (Tim Mueller) off at the airport in Charlotte, NC. Marietta has been with Laura and Chris for nearly three weeks and Tim has been with them for nearly two.

It is those three weeks that are the subject of this entry. Laura and I were blessed with the opportunity to have Tim and Marietta stay with us and, for a very short time, become part of our lives here in Winston Salem. Marietta arrived on Sunday, January 13th. She was with us a week before Tim arrived. Marietta would join Laura in adventures that Chris would not have fully appreciated. One of which was a facial night that involved some sort of carrot concoction.

Marietta's first few days here were spent catching up on rest and checking out some local sites (Old Bethabara Village, Hanes Mall, Reynolda Village, Wake, etc.). She and Laura enjoyed some quality girl time that included shopping and cooking as well as some other things that this author is not fully aware of. It snowed on Thursday and Saturday, which is the topic of the previous post.

Tim arrived in Charlotte on Saturday, January 19th, sometime around 8:45 pm. Laura and I were both off from school on Monday, so we had planned to spend the weekend in Charlotte. After picking Tim up at the airport, the four of us went to check into our hotel and grab a late dinner. On Sunday we all went to church at Uptown Pres. in Charlotte where we met up with Lauren Johnson, whose company and Charlotte savvy we would enjoy for the rest of the day. Lauren graduated from Wake with Laura and is now in seminary at RTS in Charlotte. The five of us enjoyed lunch at a great salad restaurant (Brixx), a film at the Imax, cards & football in the hotel lounge, and dinner & football at my new favorite Charlotte restaurant (the name of which eludes me, but I will get it!). The night ended with Tim and I watching the Giants and Packers in a great NFC championship game that ended in overtime. It was Tim's first, but not last, American sporting event experience of his stay.

On Monday, the four of us went to the Spurs/Bobcats game in Charlotte. It was Laura, Tim, and Marietta's first NBA game. After the game we all went to the mall and did a little shopping before heading back to Winston Salem.

On Tuesday night Tim and I joined a few guys from my class at Fox 'n Hound for dinner. We watched the Wake/Clemson game on the big screen there and Tim picked up on the reality that college games have much more energy and fan interest than NBA games do. After an overtime NFL game on TV, an NBA game in person, and an overtime college bball game on TV, it was time for a college bball game in person. The next opportunity would be the following Tuesday night when Wake played Miami at Wake...

After a Wednesday of exploring Winston Salem and a dinner for four at the apartment, Tim, Marietta and I headed to the Amtrak station in Greensboro Thursday morning so the two of them could catch a train to D.C. We arrived at the station minutes before the train's departure. Marietta ran to get into the ticket line, she picked up their tickets and the two of them took off running to catch the train. They reached the boarding platform just in time... to watch the train leave. The next train for D.C. did not leave until the next morning, what to do? The Greyhound station was next door, might as well see if there was a bus they could get on. Fortunately, there was a bus leaving a bout an hour later that would get them to D.C. that evening. Amtrak refunded their money from the train ticket and they purchased a bus ticket. Interesting morning, but it all worked out.

Tim and Marietta spent 3 nights in D.C., Laura and I picked them up from the train station on Monday night. They had a great time in D.C. and we had only a few days remaining before they had to get on a plane headed back to Germany. Tim went with me to class on Tuesday morning. He had the wonderful experience of sitting through Constitutional Law II and Conflicts of Laws. We had an hour break between classes which we used to walk around the campus and pick up some t-shirts at the bookstore. Earlier in her visit, Marietta had gone to a class with Rachael Bryan, so both of them were able to get a taste of what University classes are like here.

Tuesday night Tim and Marietta had the wonderful privilege of experiencing a meal at IHOP. Since the International House of Pancakes is not actually international, they had never been to one before. Ben Mitchell and Ben Moeller (both classmates of mine) joined us for dinner then Tim, Ben, Ben, and I walked over to the coliseum for the Wake/Miami game. Laura and Marietta went to get dessert at Midtown and then attended R.U.F.

Adam Chapman (another classmate of mine) joined us for the game. Our tickets were on the third row behind one of the baskets. It turned out to be a great game, Wake lead throughout but Miami tied it up with about one minute left. With the game tied, Wake was able to keep Miami from scoring and get the ball back. They called timeout with about 30 seconds to go and the ball, needing to score on our end of the court. Ish Smith let the clock get down to about 10 seconds, drove on his guy, then pulled up to hit the winning shot with 2.6 seconds left in the game. It was a great game and we were fortunate to have great seats. This is an AP photo of Ish taking the game winning shot, the guy in the red circle is Tim. He enjoyed his first college bball experience and his suspicions about the passion and energy of college basketball were confirmed.

On Wednesday Tim and Marietta packed up and prepared for their departure. They spent part of the day running a few more errands around Winston. Tim, Marietta and Laura baked cookies later that afternoon. That night, after picking me up from school, we took the cookies to Ling an (Asian lady whose family owns an Asian restaurant that Laura and I frequent). The Asian Bistro had provided Marietta's first meal in the States on her first night here, so it was fitting that she and Laura took Ling (who is ALWAYS working there) cookies on her last night here. The four of us then enjoyed one last dinner together (for now) at one of Laura and Is favorite locale restaurants, River Birch Lodge. We are very thankful for the time that we were able to spend with Tim and Marietta and all the wonderful memories we have from their visit!