Unfortunately travel has become less convenient, just when we need to have more people meeting each other.
There's always something to photograph everywhere - it's about being observant. I have been doing a lot with bees recently, spending time in the prairies, parks, neighborhood etc. You can see this on my Flickr account. I'm giving presentations to local groups now as well.
The name Miesle was originally Müβle, modified to Muessle for English characters, then eventually Miesle for reasons no one remembers anymore. Not all parts of the family changed the name at the same time, so there are multiple spellings in the cemetery. If you ever see the name, they're related to me in some way - fewer than 100 people carry this name. This doesn't mean I know everyone! Another wing of the family was from the Alsace and also changed name spelling from Leschenne to LeJeune. Again, I don't know why. I celebrate the Alsatian heritage by enjoying Gewurztraminer wine, and introducing people to the variety.
San Francisco is a fun town, I've been there a couple of times on business and have taken a few vacation days around those visits. It certainly beats a lot of towns for activities.
And yeah, I know Dutch is a bit more complex than I described. It's grammatically simpler, though, or at least a bit more similar to English. The English language itself is a complex mixture. PBS ran a series you might be interested in called The Story of English.
The Story of English - Wikipedia
That's worth watching, it's really enlightening. Though it's probably worth an update now, I'm sure most of it holds up well.
When my brother was still playing a lot of music he'd get to Europe with various bands/artists fairly frequently. Jazz and blues artists often put together bands for touring, and Nick was an active session/touring bassist. His agent is German, and they became good buddies so now Nick will go to Oktoberfests etc. if he has the time and money. Sounds like a fun vacation to me!