well spent!

I had am amazing, humbling off-day at the beach with my family! The occasion...

my lovely granny aka. OMI (in german) turned 80! 

My grandmother is one of the most important human beings in my life and I cannot describe how grateful I am to have her. I grew up in a female-dominated family and remember most holidays being with my mother, her sister (my aunt), her daughter (my cousin) and our grandmother. My grandmother has always supported and been there for me, and without her in the early stages of my life I would not have had the foundation to become the person I am today and her 80th birthday just made me realize that I need to take advantage of still having her and spend more time with her in the future. 

She lived in a beautiful house in Kiel, which is like the Cape Cod of Hamburg, Germany for many years, but just recently moved to Hamburg, so she can be closer to us and only has to take care of a rather small apartment instead of a house with garden. I'm happy for her, but still a little bit sad, since a lot of my childhood memories are in Kiel, it's where the easter bunny lives and Santa Claus would bring my gifts... but most importantly her house was close to the Ostsee (Baltic Sea)...

So for my grandma's birthday, my mother, aunt and I decided to take a day trip to Kiel! 

For the birthday lunch/dinner we chose the 

"Strand Haus" is german for "Beach House" restaurant, for obvious reasons...

We got lucky with the weather too. Even though it was quite windy, the sun was even stronger.

The ocean breeze was so strong, it even blew off my Snapchat filter..

I got to spend quality time with my grandmother, she told me her beauty secrets, I listened to her childhood stories and she told me that I should be careful with what I do, because she heard people on TV say something about bitcoin and hackers in the same sentence.. (I love her, but talking about tech not sooo much.. I'm sure you know what I mean). I asked her some questions and recorded with her favorite filter on..

While waiting for our food, I sat on the beach by myself for while and simply enjoyed the serenity...

The Food finally arrived and it was ... delicious! 

Goat Cheese Salad, Potatoes and Salmon Filet, YUM.. together with my favorite drink HUGO (Prosecco and Elderflower syrup)
 

I don't know about you and your family, but we love desert & coffee! 

Especially on a beautiful day like it was there was no way were weren't going to stay a little longer to enjoy the sun being out on the deck together with some cake and a coffee.
Now for the review I am going to be honest, the Mango cake looked slightly better than it tasted...

but the coffee was on point!

For the opening of her birthday presents, my grandma didn't want to do it in public (for unknown reasons she was afraid we would gift her something embarrassing) so we walked a little bit on the beach, until we found a nice spot for her to open up a view presents. 

One of my gifts to her were tickets to a concert of her choice, a theater night and tickets to a hip-hop event. Her biggest wish is always to spend time with us and as I always preach "you don't have time, you only make time" and my grandma means the world to me, I made the decision to gift her and myself memories. Even though she usually doesn't want to receive gifts, and only likes to give everything to us, she was really happy, so sweet! 

A last breath of ocean breeze..

and we headed back to Hamburg...

"Goodbye/Until we meet again Strandhaus"  -  "Auf Wiedersehen Strandhaus"

This day reminded me of how blessed I am to have these beautiful women in my life and that I was able to spend my grandma's 80th birthday with her. 

From your lovely recipes to your cute life stories, your time tested advice to your delicious brownies – having a someone so sweet as our loving grandmother, is a beautiful pleasure of life like no other. Happy 80th birthday.

Always remember that time is the most precious gift you have and one good investment is memories with our loved ones. 

Challenge of the day: Call those you are grateful for to have in your life and tell them you appreciate them.

I wonder where we will be when I turn 80 years old.. and cryptocurrency? 

Let me know what you think

Much love,

- Mrs.Steemit