Traveling with the Stanfords 2025

We left Budapest on Tuesday (17th) and drove through Hungary and most of Slovakia to the campsite we'd found in the High Tantra mountains. The drive was all back roads so we saw a lot of the small towns in both countries which was very interesting. The entire time we were in Slovakia we couldn't help but think about our time with Slavo and his sweet wife Jane and their son Steven. Unfortunately, Slavo passed away a couple of years ago but we remember all our skydiving adventures we shared. He operated a drop zone in Ennis, TX and had a number of events in honor of Stefan Banic who was an early parachute designer from Slovakia. After posting some Facebook pictures Jane told us we were just 20 minutes from Slavo's home town Nalepkova where he had recently been honored by his hometown and former paratroopers.  One of the disadvantages of only planning your next location a few days ahead of time is you sometimes miss something! We spent an enjoyable evening and a ...

We camped in Slovenia for several days and enjoyed exploring the area. Slovenia is magical with beautiful lakes and mountains. We spent the first evening at Lake Bled which has a very photographic church on an island. While John took photos Sara took a quick swim in the lake.  The next day we explored the lakes and mountain roads, and on an impulse stopped to ride the summer toboggan - "Furious Pehta". For 11 euros each we got a ride up the mountain on the chair lift and a fast trip down on the toboggan! It was a lot of fun, and we would have ridden a few more times if we had the time!  We drove on up the mountain road to checkout the views, and found a Russian chapel built in memory of prisoners of war who died building the road during World War 1.  While driving back to the camp site we amazingly saw a sign for a restaurant recommended to us. We had been searching on Google maps with no success, and the sign suddenly appeared. We ate a traditiona...

On Wednesday September 4th (John's birthday) we headed to Europe again for an adventure, this time with plans to visit Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.  First stop was Vienna, so Sara could see the Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School perform in their traditional riding school in the center of Vienna. We arrived Thursday afternoon, and settled into our apartment for the next three nights. The location was perfect, right opposite the Hofburg Place which houses the baroque Winter Riding School for our performance on Saturday!   The weather was perfect, so we spent a few hours in the evening walking around the area enjoying the architecture and gardens.   Friday Sara had lunch with some work colleagues, then we ventured out to the beautiful Sch ö nbrunn Palace and gardens and some general wandering around the city.   Our big day in Vienna was Saturday, starting with a magnificent performance of the Lipizz...