Loving Life at the Lake

Often times our life here feels like a very long vacation.  Mostly this is due to Marty's work schedule and demands being so completely opposite of what they were while in Seattle.  Not only does he work later in the afternoon rather than the very first thing after (sometimes before) the sun rises but he has somehow managed to squeeze his usual 5-6 hours of "outside of radio work" into about 1-2 hours.  Partly this is due to the fact that he has delegated to his amazing assistant who has managed to not only hold down the fort while we are away but take on so much more of what Marty used to do.  Another big factor is that he can work completely uninterrupted since everyone in the Seattle area is asleep during our day he doesn't get new things piled onto his plate.

Because even our weekdays feel much like weekends or vacation especially during the kids' school holidays, the weekends don't hold as much allure.  Although on Sunday it really did feel like we were on vacation.  We woke up late and decided to ride our bikes to the lake via Mexikoplatz which is where we normally stop for pasta and ice cream.  However the ice cream place doubles as a breakfast buffet in the mornings.  When we used to travel to Berlin on vacation in the summer we all relished in the fact that every morning we would be treated to the most awesome breakfast buffet.  So living here we have missed that and this little ice cream shop/breakfast buffet in Mexikoplatz was just the thing to make us feel even more on vacation.
After we've stuffed ourselves we continue another 8ish minutes on our bikes back to Schlachtensee.  Since returning to Berlin this summer we have spent more time at this lake than probably anywhere else.  We have so enjoyed swimming in the cool water and taking the edge off the hot, stagnant air.
We swim around for a few hours and then decide to ride back, shower, chill for a bit and then bike to a great Greek restaurant for dinner.  We eat out a LOT more here because it is just so cheap to do so.  Eating out here is EASILY half what it would cost in Seattle.  We end the wonderfully relaxing Sunday with a stop by the local Eis (ice cream) cafe before coming home and sitting on our deck reading our books.  Awwww.  Summer.  I. LOVE. SUMMER.  Always have and always will.  One more week before the kids start school.