Greetings from the Red Carpet Club at LAX.

Just a heads up that I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks, starting today.

Taking the wife and the twins back to Japan.

We're staying at a Japanese ryokan (traditional Japanese stye inn) in a coastal village right up against the ocean.

The place where we're staying doesn't have an internet connection, so I'll be unable to check in on the board. In fact, I'm already going through withdrawls. I don't think there's been a day in the last several years that I haven't been on the forum.

Sooooo, if you find that you miss me, don't feel guilty. It's a perfectly natural reaction.

I'll be back home Thursday, October the 12th.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Where exactly is your house Paul ?

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

My wife's parents live in Kobe, but we are staying about a two hour train ride away from there.

The Inn where we are staying is in a village Kada, near Wakayama.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Hope you have a great time, Paul. We'll be here when you get back.
Dee

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Yep, brought the camera, hope to take some nice pics.

Our flight from LAX to San Francisco has been delayed an hour. I hope we don't miss our connection to Kansai. That wouldn't be very gooooooood.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Have fun, enjoy the flight you brave people. Twins... I can't get mine to sit still for 10 minutes.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Ooooh, we're not brave, we're cowards. Afraid to death of the kind of ruckus the twins are likely to make on the plane.

Right now the twins are in the TV room in the red carpet club, running in circles in front of the tv, babbling away. They're quite the distraction to all of the business travellers. Hehehe. My wife thinks I'm answering business e-mail. Little does she know that I'm on the forum.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Aww man, cute!

I could send you a bunch of ASCII code for beep if you wanna get into trouble with the wife.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Have fun! Post tons of pics please when you get back!

If your wife sees this tell her it is business, MB business the most important of all!

__________________
2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

Have fun!


Like you, I have family on "the other side of the world" that I like to visit. Its definitely fun going back to the other side.

Have fun! Take lots of pictures! (And good luck with the kiddies on the plane!)


Also, take some pictures of those crazy ass Mercedes they have over there! They have all of those real deal AMG cars from when AMG was out of house!

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-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

Ahhhhhhh say it isn't so! Two weeks, well I suppose we will manage. Have a safe, happy and fun trip.

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

sounds like fun!

i am jealous.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Okay, I'm back.

We got home last night, put the twins to bed at 8:00 p.m., and they slept until 12:30 p.m. - - 16 1/2 hours. That has to be a record.

It was much harder than we imagined travelling with two 3 year old toddlers. They were generally terrible everyday, everywhere we went. One or both had temper trantrums regularly. If we were taking the train, one wanted to be on a bus. If we were on a bus, one wanted to be in a taxi. If we were walking and one was holding my hand, he / she wanted to hold my wife's hand.

And when the tantrum started, they would scream and yell and cry and screech and create all kinds of havoc.

And the strange thing is that they are for the most part well-behaved at home. Even now they are happily playing. Not one temper tantrum.

However, I am glad we made the trip. My wife hasn't been back to see her family in five years, and her parents had yet to see the twins.

We also found out that her 80 year old father is in the early stages of Alzheimers, so this is surely the last time she will see him when he is bascially normal. His personality is still generally the same, but he has forgotten quite a bit, and would ask a lot of questions that he knows the answer to. At home he sneaks out of the house to go for a walk, and can't find his way home. My wife's mother says he has good days and bad days, and our time together he was basically good.

The inn where we stayed was really nice. We had a terrific ocean view, and it was pretty isolated.....which became a problem. We had no idea how far it was from anything.....so while we were there, we were sort of stuck. There was nothing do and nowhere to go. It was far up a winding, steep mountain road, surrounded by a forest of trees.

The town the inn was in also had basically nothing, and I mean nothing. No restaurants that we could find. There wasn't even a supermarket.

I've got some terrific shots on my digital camera. Now I'll have to download them to the mac and figure out how to shrink them so that I can post them.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

it sounds beautiful. sorry to hear about your father in law. that is a bad disease.

the little town sounds beautiful.

as for the kids... well kids react to change differently. also much of the time when i see kids acting up in public i look at them and see they are very tired. many young parents dont seem to recognize that kids get tired and arent themselves. when they are tired discipline doesnt help. only rest does.

kids are a lot of work and twins are perhaps exponentially more work and stress. my sister had twins after having another kid a little over a year before and almost went off the deep end!

cheers!

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Welcome back home Paul, sounds like it was a wonderful trip.


Any stories and pictures, we would enjoy them!

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)