Krajbjerg, Denmark

 Today was the day of the much anticipated Tjerrild family reunion in the little town of Krajbjerg, Denmark - the birthplace of Jim’s Grandpa Tjerrild. We arrived early at the community center in Krajbjerg to help set up for the reunion. Jim worked with some of the Danish relatives to compile a family tree that showed how each person in attendance at the reunion was related, while I helped set the tables. At one point, we took a walk down the street from the community center to see the house in which Jim’s grandpa lived until he came to America at the age of 24. 

Poppy fields

The main street of Krajbjerg

Jim's dad's siblings and cousins

Five of the fourteen grandchildren of Julius Tjerrild made it to the reunion

That's a whole lot of Tjerrilds in one place!

In total, there were at least 40+ Danish Tjerrild’s in attendance and at least 20+ from the US. The reunion was lots of fun and truly a once in a lifetime experience for Jim. After the festivities were over, we drove back to Copenhagen and stayed the night by the airport so that we’d be ready for our early morning flight to Switzerland.

Aarhus, Denmark

 The next morning we picked up cousin Jan and our rental car to drive to the Aarhus/Krajbjerg area of Denmark where the family reunion would be held the next day. It was such fun to have Jan join us for the 3 hour drive as he shared lots of interesting information about the Danish schools, economy, hospital system, etc. Once we arrived near Krajbjerg we asked Jan to show us the little town of Tjerrild after which the family is named. The town of Tjerrild doesn’t appear on Google maps since it’s really no more than a tiny hamlet of just a few houses. Another of Jim’s cousins, Steve and his wife Jennifer, who were also in Denmark from California for the reunion joined us in Tjerrild for the photo op. 

Tjerrild cousins - Jim, Jan, and Steve

In the "town" of Tjerrild

After our visit to Tjerrild we stopped at Jan’s parent’s house. Erika and Holger Tjerrild were gracious hosts who took us on a tour of their home and provided us with a delicious snack of cheeses, crackers, and cake. Neither Holger nor Erika speak English but since Erika is originally from Germany and Jim took German in high school, they had fun trying to communicate. And of course Jan translated for the rest of us. We said goodbye to Jan, Holger, and Erika knowing we’d see them the following day at the reunion. We caravanned with Steve and Jennifer to Aarhus where we checked into our hotel, The Hotel Royal. That evening we walked around and dined in the historic district in the heart of Aarhus.

The Hotel Royal in Aarhus

The Aarhus Cathedral next door to our hotel

Copenhagen, Denmark

A Tjerrild family reunion in Denmark was the impetus for our Denmark/Switzerland trip. We began our trip by arriving in Copenhagen around 1:30pm and made our way to our hotel - the Hotel Clarion which is connected to the airport by a glass walkway. We chose this hotel since we only had one day in Copenhagen before we would need to pick up our rental car at the airport to head three hours to the east to the little town of Krajbjerg where the reunion would be held on the 15th of June. We quickly got checked into the hotel, dropped our luggage in the room, and jumped on the metro train which took us into downtown Copenhagen. Our first stop was the picturesque canal waterfront area known as Nyhavn with its brightly painted townhomes that line the canal. Most of the homes in this area were built in the 17th and 18th century. It was a beautiful sunny day so we enjoyed the afternoon by taking a canal tour followed by some yummy ice cream (we tend to eat a lot of ice cream when we travel!)

The Nyhavn canal area

On the canal boat tour

We sailed past the spire of The Church Of Our Saviour

A canal view

Some ice cream after the boat ride

From Nyhavn we walked to Tivoli Gardens to meet Jim’s cousin Patty and her family who live in our same hometown and their 2nd cousin, Jan Tjerrild, who lives in Copenhagen and would act as our guide while there. We enjoyed some drinks and snacks together in Tivoli Gardens before following Jan’s lead to an outdoor restaurant in a close by city square. Even though we had been awake for over 24 hours straight, we managed to keep our eyes open until 10:30pm when we finally headed back to the hotel.

Cousin Patty with her family, 2nd Cousin Jan Tjerrild, and us in front of Tivoli Gardens

Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

 We had purchased airline tickets to Las Vegas for this weekend as Brooke had a track meet scheduled at UNLV.  Unfortunately, the track meet was cancelled for her team at the last minute, but we decided to go ahead and enjoy a weekend in Las Vegas anyways. Since Las Vegas is a quick and inexpensive flight from Fresno, we have been there many times. Over the years we have seen lots of Las Vegas shows, spent some time at the blackjack tables, and have even done some touring of the surrounding areas. One place we had not visited was the Red Rock Canyon, so we booked a 1/2 day tour with a local company. The tour included a bus ride out to the park, time at the visitor center, and then a few stops along the 13 mile scenic drive. It was beautiful afternoon spent amongst the red sandstone rock formations.

Calico Hills

Jim and I at the overlook at Calico Hills

The petroglyphs in this area of the canyon are at least 800 years old

The path to the Calico Hills

A fun day at Red Rock Canyon 

Yosemite National Park

 Living in Fresno, California we are lucky to have Yosemite National Park only 1.5 hours away from our house. Due to its close proximity, and the fact that we own a cabin at Bass Lake which is only 20 minutes form the entrance to Yosemite, we tend to go to Yosemite frequently. However, we have never timed it right to be at Yosemite (nor our Bass Lake cabin) after a snowstorm. Well, that changed this weekend. We watched the forecast and knew that snow was predicted for Bass Lake and Yosemite, so we headed to a weekend in the snow.

We arrived at our cabin in Bass Lake on Friday evening where we found lots of snow on the ground and more was still falling!

The following day, we woke up to a winter wonderland. After taking a few pictures, we bundled up and drove to Yosemite to see its beauty veiled in snow.

Looking across the front yard of the cabin.

Our cabin blanketed in snow!

A picture from the docks at Bass Lake

We spent some time wandering around the Wawona area of Yosemite before heading to Bridelveil Falls where we trudged through the snow to the base of the falls.

The meadow at Wawona

Bridelveil Fall

A chilly selfie!

We continued our drive through Yosemite valley enjoying the winter view of El Capitan.

The Ahwahnee hotel provided a warm and cozy lunch stop where the lentil soup was delicious!

Ready for some hot soup!

It was such fun exploring some of our local stomping grounds in the snow!

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - Day 4

 For our last full day in Mexico we decided to venture outside of the city of Cabo San Lucas. We purchased tour tickets to the town of Todos Santos. Prior to arriving in Todos Santos, we stopped at a roadside shop that makes colorful woven Mexican blankets. We were shown how the blankets are made on large looms. Of course this vendor had many blankets for sale, but we did not buy one.

In Todos Santos, we spent some time wandering the cobblestone streets, browsing in the artisan gallery shops. We also took a look at the Hotel California which many have speculated is the hotel mentioned in the Eagles song. We returned to our hotel in the middle of the afternoon to enjoy our last few hours in Mexico by the pool.

Some more pool time.

The stunning Grand Solmar resort

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - Day 3

 On Day 3, we walked back into town to do some shopping along the waterfront. One of the “must do” things in Cabo San Lucas is to take a boat ride out to the Arch of Cabo San Lucas, so while we were at the waterfront, we found a boat tour heading that way. We enjoyed getting out on the water and took plenty of pictures of the arch.

The boat ride

The Arch of Cabos San Lucas

Back at the Grand Solmar, we had dinner at an outdoor restaurant by a fire pit. A perfect ending to another day in paradise!