All roads lead home

I'm sitting on the patio of our camping chalet at Camping Het Amsterdamse Bos, enjoying a cool breeze, watching the bunnies swarm the grounds, and wondering where the last two weeks have flown.  

We have had adventure and misadventure, climbed the Scottish midlands and strolled the North Sea beach at Den Haag, and as much as we have enjoyed it, we are ready to be home.  

This campground sits at the edge of a municipal park four times the size of Central Park in NYC, and is ten minutes from Schiphol Airport.  It's a perfect find for our family.  Very basic accommodations, but beautiful and comfy.  All in all, we've been pretty lucky with accommodations.  We booked our Scottish lodgings through airbnb, and couldn't be happier. They were two very different places, but the people at both were wonderful and made the visit outstanding.  

In Holland, we were very grateful to be put up in the orchard bunkhouse of our exchange daughter's family, as well as in a backyard camper.  

Our trip started with learning to drive manual on the left, getting the two cars separated with no mobile phone service, reuniting , then blowing a tire along the Bonny, Bonny banks of Loch Lomond, which I couldn't even enjoy for the knot in my gut.  Luckily, it was smoother sailing from there, and the rest of our time in the Oban area was delightful.  We had a couple days on our own before joining up with the Clan MacDougall gathering at Dunollie castle. We visited Lismore on our own, taking the Port Appin Ferry, then walking three miles to the cafe and heritage center. 

It's a little different to trudge the Scottish countryside than my semi-weekly walk to the county road stop sign and back, but we strapped on our big kid pants and did the deed. The next day we visited Dunstaffnage castle with the Clan MacDougall group.

Then we explored Oban harbor and MacCaig's tower on our own.  

That evening we attended the Ceilidh with the clan chief and family (and my husband even danced!)

The following day we joined the group tour to Kerrera, another three mile walk from the ferry to the tea house, but this time near Gylen castle 

We sadly departed after A final trip through Dunollie, and headed for Glasgow for our flight to Amsterdam.  Scotland was a brand new adventure for all of us, but the joy of Holland was a wedding and the opportunity to reunite with four of our exchange daughters. 

We were so warmly greeted by our host family! They made us feel so welcome, even in the midst of preparations for a first daughter's wedding.  As a treat, a manicurist gave a house call for fancy wedding fingers. 

The next day, we were able to help decorate for the wedding and pick apples from the orchard for reception favors.  

The wedding was beautiful, and Thing 2 caught the bouquet, for which her long suffering boyfriend Jon, who is with us, gets no end of grief. My husband took far more and better quality pictures than I did, which I will share later. 

The next day, while the honeymooners honeymooned, we went to Efteling theme park. It's sort of an old-fashioned fairy-tale meets steampunk themed park, with attention to detail on par with Disney, but far less plastic-looking.  There we met up with a other of our borrowed kids.  

It starte off a bit rainy,  but after an hour it dried up an was pleasant. 

I was also pleased with how open folks were about bringing their own food and drink anywhere, without being relegated to a picnic area in the parking lot. Very cool. The next day we took the train into Utrecht and took in the Domkerk.   The kids were as amused with the pigeons as anything else.  

The honeymoon was relatively short, as the newlywed a are in the midst of renovating a house, so they returned in Monday and we spent the afternoon together in Den Haag, taking in some sights, the Politie, and the beach. 

This morning we packed up and headed in to Amsterdam, where the general consensus was to decompress

for the day. We were able to check in early, then explored the neighborhood a bit before settling in to enjoy a little sun. 

We'll check out at leisure tomorrow before heading to the airport and home again.  We are sad to leave, but we are ready for home. Perhaps soon I will be able to reflect more eloquently on our trip, but for now I wanted to put some of it down while it is still fresh. The saddest part of travel is how quickly the memories fade. 

I did a food thing!

 We're eating kinda weird at Casa del Goose lately.  We're trying to use up anything we wouldn't want to greet us after a two-week absense.  We don't want anything crawling out of the fridge and attacking the house-sitter.  This had led to a few interesting concoctions such as Mac and cheese with leftover spaghetti sauce and a can of ro-tel stirred in (pretty good).  

As I was prepping for the mower today, I noticed that my first big gorgeous tomato had fallen off the vine and onto the sidewalk.  It was perfect and lovely and very, very green. I set it on the counter, wondering how long it would take to ripen. 

As suppertime rolled around, my thoughts turned to fried green tomatoes. The local CSA posted a recipe last week for FGT sliders with coleslaw. It looked wonderful, but I used up my cabbage in boiled dinner on Saturday.  I figured I could think of something, and went to the internet to learn about FGT. Minnesota is hardly a bastion of southern cooking.  The only thing we're south of is Canada.  I looked up several recipes and sought out the common themes.  Most called for a roll in seasoned flour a milk or buttermilk egg wash, and a final dredge in cornmeal or crumbs of some sort.  One genius called for bacon to be fried and the tomatoes to be cooked in the grease.  with two elements for BLTs now present, my wheels were turning.  We had a French bread on hand with little round slices, so BLFGT sliders were born.  

Several sites noted that the moisture from the tomatoes could be problematic to the flour sticking well, so I sliced the tomato about 1/4" thick and salted it lightly to leach out fluid. Then I started the bacon in the trusty cast-iron skillet (the recipes universally called for cast iron. Smart folks).

While those were busy doing their thing, I set up my dredge.  I seasons flour with garlic powder and a hint of white pepper. My buttermilk was frozen, so I used a milk and egg wash. For the crumb, I went to the freezer, where our tortilla chips go to die when they get too small to dip or go stale.  I tossed a couple of good handfuls into the food processor and let 'er rip. 

Once the bacon was done, I augmented the grease with a small splash of veg oil. 

I ran the tomato through the dredging gauntlet, then waited impatiently for the golden brown to happen. 

When all wa said and done, I assembled the BLFGT with only a scant swipe of salad dressing. 

They did not disappoint.  That little hint of sweet with the sour tomato and the salty bacon was really good.  They tomatoes crisped up nicely.  Not bad for a first run.  

Exercising futility

     Well, hello there you few poor stragglers.  It's been awhile, I know.  Every time I come back to Blogger, I have renewed intentions of writing more consistently.   You'll note, it's been mostly a biannual exercise in futility. Facebook and Twitter are terrible for writing stamina, encouraging shorter blurbs and pithy remarks rather than content and reflection. I am hopeful of a better run this time, though.  I am renewing my intentions to practice what I preach when it comes to writing.  Although the nature of the beast here is certainly more informal and conversational than academic writing, it's a way to limber up before the heavy lifting, so to speak.
     I have finally completed my second license in ESL, and am merely waiting for the state to sign off on the new license, or cash the check, whichever comes first.  This means I am currently finished with graduate classes, at least for the time being.  I may eventually decide to complete an entire MS vs. the licensure only option, but I need a break.  Wrapping up meant a couple of weeks of student teaching in the "new" content area, so just about the time summer started, I was back to work again.  When I finished that, I wrapped up all the paper- and portfolio work, and lo and behold, it was July.
     I had a couple of weeks scrambling to work on a Shakespeare project, then began slowly heading back to my classroom to get organized and ready for the upcoming school year, which begins the day after Labor Day.  I needed a bit of a head start as we are now less than two weeks (Holy crap, did I just say less than two weeks? I did.  ACK!) from our two-week trip abroad to Scotland and Holland.
Last time we went, we spent much of the trip telling each other, "Next time, we have to bring the kids." We weren't expecting "next time" to be quite so soon, but Karlijn, our second Little Dutch Girl, is getting married, and we wanted to be there.  As we hemmed and hawed over costs and possible itineraries, we noted that her wedding year coincides with Scotland Homecoming, a promotion which occurs every five years, and that the coinciding Clan Macdougall gathering (iPastor's maternal clan) is the weekend before her wedding.  A quick search found it was actually slightly LESS expensive to fly into Glasgow and back out of Amsterdam than a round trip.  I'm sure it was a serendipitous glitch in fares, which bounce unabashedly, but we're completely taking advantage of it.  And yes, this time, we are taking the kids, plus Thing 2's boyfriend, who's been around for five years and totally counts as family at this point.  So, we will spend a week in the area near Oban, Scotland, then fly to Amsterdam and spend much of our time near Utrecht, Netherlands.  Then we will come home and immediately get caught up in the festivities surrounding the wedding of iPastor's stepbrother.
     This format feels much like a letter to distant but fondly-remembered friends, which it very much is in many cases.  I will do my best to write more often and post pictures from the trip.  

Happy New Year!

Rather than "resolutions," a friend posted a New Year's "Bucket List." I like how her bucket list items were very specific, and completely attainable.  My ideas are still more ephemeral, and less specific.  I haven't had the time to sit down with myself and formulate such concrete ideas, but I will start here and keep working at it.  Putting these out here for accountability and support.

More reading for pleasure.

    Lately it seems I only read for class, or inane crap on the internet.  While there's plenty of delightful entertainment out there, there's also plenty of timesuck. I do also read articles on subjects that interest me, but I feel my patience for long-form literature waning with each bite-sized blurb.  I need to rebuild stamina.

More writing for pleasure.

    Again, research papers, case studies, lesson plans:  blech.  I want to write for fun.  Or deep philosophic introspection.  Right.


More active interaction with my kids.

     We are actually making an effort to at least gather together with our various devices and distractions.  It's actually a very pleasant way to pass time.  I do not, however, want it to be the only way we spend time together, and that will require actually putting forth an effort.

I will try some sort of outdoor winter activity.
 
     I HATE  WINTER.  I resent being trapped inside and I abhor the dark and bitter cold.  I want to combat this by trying something I can enjoy outside in the snow.  Perhaps snowshoeing or cross-country ski.  We have paths nearby, and it's way less expensive and smelly than snowmobiling or ice fishing.

Send more postal mail.

    I have done this in the past, and miss it when I don't.  Also ties in with the writing.

More date nights/weekends/events.
   
    We've been thinking about this, and got a couple in.  Need to prioritize it and not let it fall by the wayside.

Thoroughly explore the possibility of a practicum abroad.

     I need to put in 45 hours student teaching ESL somewhere.  Why not overseas?


Start a Bitstrip chronicle of my life

     Lolnope!

I need to get going on some of these and get out of the chair.  Hope everyone has a blessed 2014!

Summertime, and the living is crazy...

The waning days of summer have arrived, just in time for the heat to return.  Uck.  Also, iPastor is having some terrible neck pain, so if you're of the praying sort, put in a good word for him. He had a tough day yesterday, and couldn't get settled in well at bedtime.  Subsequently, I slept fitfully, if at all, and finally got up and switched to the daybed in the library about 2:15.  We have some trees that need trimming, apparently, because the branches squeaking on the windows infiltrated my dreams, making them...weird, to say the least. I was fretful, knowing iPastor had a 10am PT appointment, and I didn't want to oversleep if he was too sore to drive.  I didn't have to worry overmuch, because by 5 am I was awakened by spatting cats, and iPastor stumbled back down at 5:30.  I shambled about in a sleep-deprived daze most of the morning, and we ran some errands. When we got home, I made sure the kids weren't starving to death and planned a late lunch.  I wandered up for a brief nap about 12:15, and once again didn't have to worry about oversleeping, because one of the Things decided they waited long enough for lunch and woke me with a text at 12:45.  After that was said and done, I puttered around a bit, took another stab at a nap and failed, which just meant I was still tired and crabby, plus I didn't accomplish much anything of use, either.  Wonderful.  I trudged down to make smoothies, and dropped my slacks down the laundry chute on the way by, as I noticed a spot on them.  If a gal can't run a blender in her underwear in her own kitchen, what's this world coming to, after all?  I pulverized fruit and yogurt with the noise of a thousand chainsaws, according to Thing 4.  I headed back to find new pants and go fetch my veggie share.  I walked out of the kitchen to find every. kid. in. the. stinking. neighborhood. in. my. foyer.  I don't know if the old lady underwear or slamming door shocked them most.  So far, the rest of the evening has been uneventful, and I have to believe it can only get better from there.  It was almost enough to make me look forward to going back to school. Almost.

Countryside

I went to a conference in Washington, DC, last month.  I absolutely loved it.  It was a good conference; a nice blend of USEFUL information and camaraderie, with enough free time woven in to check out some sights and spend a little time with a BFF.  One of the highlights for me, however, was just being in the city.  Not even a particularly big one, compared to Boston or New York with skyscrapers, but a busy, humming, diverse place with functional public transit (God bless it!) and choices.  So many choices!  In the two blocks around my hotel I could choose from a dozen different ethnic foods and a variety of shops (the Baskin Robbins store smelled really funky, though, so we opted for the frozen margaritas next door.)  I love cities.  I don't know if I'm cut out to live there full time, but I find a visit rejuvenating.  I love the diversity.
In the boondocks we have limited choices, and the closest regional shopping towns are 45 miles east and south, respectively. Yesterday,  I was forced to make the trek for a routine, work-related lab test that couldn't possibly have been done locally.  As I drove home, though, I caught myself noticing, then made a concentrated effort to notice, the scenery around me.  I often hear folks complain of rural scenery: one field after another, with only a road every mile to break it up.  That's not what I saw, though.  I saw fields of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, sugar beets, hay, oats, stubble and freshly turned earth, all different textures, colors and heights.  I saw the ditches filled with cattails, brown-eyed Susan, thistles, broadleaves and grasses too numerous to keep track of.  Red sumac, silver maple, weeping birch, evergreens and other trees filled windbreaks and groves with a cacophony of color.  Tidy little farmhouses with well-tended gardens and yard art alternated with sprawling, ramshackle farms with bikes, trampolines, pools, lazing dogs, and machinery scattered about.  Here and there a burned or abandoned farm haunted the landscape, with its own particular beauty painted in charcoal colors.  We do, indeed, have diversity in the countryside, it's just of a different sort.  Though perhaps this brand of diversity is not as impactful on lifestyle, its essential to living.

Sequences

Around here, you may frequently hear my husband or I refer to a task or an outing as "going fishing."  One may quizzically ask what we mean, only to receive a rambling reply along the lines of, "well, we read this book once (well, actually we listened to it on tape) where the author, it was Lewis Grizzard or Robert Fulghum or someone like that, talks about going fishing but first he has all these chores to do and it ends up being more work than its worth, and it was really funny, you should read it..." By the time we eventually trail off, the poor questioner is sorry he asked and the whole ordeal reeks of "guess you had to be there."  Twenty years ago, I worked at a piecework factory that had a library of books on tape to listen to at work, so I wasn't able to remember the author.  I tried occasional google searches, but to no avail.  Tonight I read an article about a photographer named McManus, and a little switch in my brain slammed shut, and the connection was made.  A quick google later,  and I am happy to share with you this link to "Sequences," by Patrick McManus.
Ok, so you have to copy/paste the link into your browser navbar, go to the page, then scroll down and click the hyperlink to "Sequences," but its totally worth it.
I promise.
*Sigh*
I guess you had to be there...

http://books.google.com/books?id=Y9hKytdmRJcC&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

Eating healthy is destructive

I may have killed my blender this morning.  

I don't remember where or when we got this blender.  It may have been a hand-me-down from a grandparent or parent downsizing.  I may have purchased it; if so, I'll guarantee it was for less than five dollars at a thrift store or rummage sale, and long enough ago to be lost in memory.  It's an off-white Hamilton Beach 14-Speed.  

Summer is awesome for fruit, so I've been on a smoothie kick.  I buy quite a bit of the "quick sale" fruit-overripe bananas, etc-then bring it home and chunk it up and freeze it.  Some combination of those, a little fresh, some yogurt and juice, and a handful of greens from the garden share (which will otherwise never be eaten and become expensive compost) go into the blender and I get breakfast.  Usually enough "breakfast" to sip on into the afternoon, since my kids turn up their noses at the greens.  

Lately, the poor blender has been struggling more and more with the frozen chunks; this morning, it bogged down under the waxy kohlrabi greens and I soon noticed the tell-tale scent of hot electrical motor.  I gave the poor thing a rest, and we'll see if it recovers, or if its time to consider buying a new countertop appliance. Who am I kidding?  I have a trip into the Cities planned.  They have lots of thrift stores...

Cabin Fever

     Well, according to my School Reach message logs, today was our fourth snow day of the year.  We've also had seven late starts, one of which was immediately followed by an early out, due to windchills and road conditions.  We had one late start prior to Christmas.  The rest have been since January 21st.  Up 'til then, winter had taken its time getting here, and it was almost looking like another nearly snowless winter like last year.  Since then we've had snowstorms, blizzards, and freezing rain storms to make up for it.  In my little corner of the world, it's meant three cancelled or rescheduled speech meets and a rescheduled Knowledge Bowl tournament today.  I'm done.  I'm ready for spring.  Not so excited about the mud bog that forms in my front yard, but I'll deal with it...
     The aforementioned kitchen reno has been rethought and scaled back, but still in the works.  I did get a new bedroom door in the meantime.
     I'm fighting off a cold, and Thing 4 is on his second round of antibiotics for a double ear infection.  Poor kid.
     Grad classes are tougher this semester.  I do feel like I'm learning something, which is always a good sign.  I need to write here more though.  For fun.  And read stuff besides textbooks.  I've got a good ol' case of the winter blahs.  Yuck.

Happy New Year!

Well, Happy New Year and all that.  So, what's been going on?
I found a draft of the Costa Rica trip that I promise to save and add pictures to, but not right now.  The trip was wonderful, a long weekend with family that we miss dearly, and the weather was terrific.
I came back to the usual whirlwind of school, more school and family stuff.  The elder two Things are off at college far enough to be enjoying their own lives, and close enough to come home and do laundry every so often.  Thing 1 still works for her dad every other weekend, and usually Thing 2 heads home with her, when she's not working there.  They've got an apartment right next to campus, and  Thing 2 is doing her best to fill it with cats.  
Our annual Thanksmas with my side of the family was cut a bit short with the realities of growing families and outside commitments, but we had a great time together with that gang.
I survived the fall semester of grad classes, pulling off a 3.5 gpa by a small miracle.  I feel like I actually learned stuff this semester, which is a bonus when taking classes I really never planned to need.  I am thankful to be working full time, and I am thankful that my district likes me well enough to offer me a job on a variance in a new (but related) department when I could have simply been cut.  I am feeling out of my milieu, however, and a bit overwhelmed with the requirements of a new license.
Our Christmas break has been fun, gathering with the iPastor's family and having all my own Things around.
Amid all this whirlwind, the first couple of contractors have been by to bid on our long-overdue kitchen upgrade.  We're looking at options from simple updates to entire reconstruction, and it's very very $cary, but pretty exciting as well.
I'm having a lovely sweatpants day while I get ready to reboot for heading back to the grind tomorrow  I have all the usual plans and good intentions, but I  ever-so-smugly sneer at the hackneyed idea of  New Year resolutions.  Realistically, though, with the little pause in the work and school schedule, the new year is as good a time as any for a reboot, despite the cliche.  :)

Fall break!

In Minnesota, the 3rd weekend of October is affectionately known as "MEA break." The former Minnesota Education Association changed its name to Education Minnesota years ago, but the only place you see it used is on the school calendars. The fall professional conference happens this weekend every year. It's a great time to pick up some continuing ed credits and network. Many families in this part of the country take the long weekend to work in some fall fishing or hunting, or button up the family cabin. It's also a great time to take a quick trip. We had some travel vouchers ticking away, so we weighed our options for using them up. After a bit of hemming and hawing, we booked a trip, and I am pecking away on my iPhone as I listen to the Pacific pounding in the dark against the coastline of Costa Rica. My husband's AFS sister has remained part of the family since she came to the US as an exchange student 30 years ago. We've finally been blessed with an opportunity to visit. I tacked a couple personal days onto the weekend. She brought us to the beach for the weekend, and we'll go to a national park tomorrow. For now, we're content to visit with the family and relax in the hotel.

Fall

     Once we returned home from Europe, it seemed as if someone set the rest of my summer to fast forward.  The apples started dropping quite early, due to our dry weather, I assume.  We had just had our house connected to the new sewer main in town, so the back yard was bare dirt rather than the usually overgrown grass that would camoflage the fallen apples.  This year, instead, they lay on the bare ground, chiding me to make use of them before they spoiled.  I got a couple batches of applesauce and jelly done and got some frozen for pie, before our friend in the country asked if he could take groundfall for the pigs, and I was officially off the hook.
      I planted two cherry tomatoes that survived, and it seemed just to spite me, they produced like mad.  I had to strip those last week before our first hard frost, and I am wondering if they'd make a mock gooseberry pie?
      In the midst of all this, we packed up our two elder Things for college.  They are going to the same school now, a state college a short hour away.  Thing 1 ventured off to Black Hills State last year, but transferred closer to home at semester break.  She loved the campus there and made some good friends, but its one of those schools that sort of closes up on the weekends (as is her current one) and she found herself very isolated.  Now, she and her sister found an apartment in a complex that borders campus.  iPastor and I both lived there at various points in our college careers.  I took the opportunity to furnish their apartment with all our extra stuff.   They bought a bunkbed/futon unit so they could share a bedroom without dismantling our loft, were gifted with some items from friends, and could not resist a couple of curbside finds.  Otherwise, I was appalled, after so many years of percieved progress at decluttering, to STILL have enough stuff to completely stock their kitchen, and furnish an apartment.  Over 22 years of marriage, inherited things from his mom, my brother, grandma moving to the nursing home, and various other acquisitions,  although I have purged, donated, regifted and even sold items, I still have TOO MUCH STUFF.  We're down from an impassable five-room basemsnt,  to two neatly organized rooms, two in progress, and one where I just shut the door and ignore it.  In the meantime, my two oldest have their first place of their very own.  It ain't Martha Stewart, but it functions.  They've fluttered out of the nest, returning weekends to do laundry and work a few shifts for their dad.  He brought them on to help fill some odd shifts during a staffing turnover, and it turns out they've been more reliable than anyone else he can find.
      We're also taking a year off from hosting exchange students.  We're hoping to get some work done on our poor neglected house.  My kitchen is in desperate need of help, and we need to bite the bullet and refinish our poor old hardwood floors, or tack in some carpet until we can give them the attention they deserve.  With the extra rooms emptied, we've been doing some cleaning and rearranging there, as well.  We moved the TV out of the living room and set up a den, much like we had when we first moved in.  We emptied a room and are in the process of painting and rearranging to create a library.  This led to a collection of oddball furniture in the upstairs hallway, so last weekend, Thing 2 and I arranged them in a bedroom, Tetris style, and affectionately dubbed it the Bunkhouse.  I took the opportunity to replace all the bedframes (the Things preferred their mattresses on the floor,) head/footboards, and extra bedding from storage.  My linen closet and the aforementioned basement have slightly more breathing room now with all the stuff in use.  Meanwhile, downstairs, the living room had become weirdly empty, with only two recliners and an end table, set up in a manner that made me start calling it the throne room.  Folks wandering in the front door could some directly in for an audience.  The foyer has always seemed a bit of an odd catch-all to me.  So, I did more rearranging, and have a cozy little sitting room in the foyer.  I pushed the piano into the cavernous living room, and now we have the Jones bunkhouse and dance hall, complete with pinball.  At least until I rearrange some more.
      Now, I find myself up too early on a Saturday, piddling around on teh interwebz instead of doing something productive.  It's shaping up to be a beautiful fall day, so I'd better get to doing something with it.

All good things...

I tried to stay up late to ensure that I'd sleep some on the plane, so we packed and replaced for most efficient passage through security and customs. We had chosen to travel with only carry-on bags, but DDs family gave us an old suitcase for overload. It was actually larger than we needed, so the challenge was to make sure that anything that could be construed as liquid got checked, and the carry-ons were easy to put through security. I
We were eventually satisfied with the results, and settled in for a nap before flight time. We were up and on the road in plenty of time. Once our goodbyes were said and we'd resolved not to wait so long to do it again, we headed into the airport, for our blessedly uneventfully flight home.
We had hoped to meet with our very first student, our Brazilian Boy, in Newark for lunch, as he was also travelling through NYC, but it didn't work out. Our return flight to MSP was delayed by about 45 minutes as they worked (successfully, it turned out) to route us away from some storms and turbulence. Once we were airborne, we had smooth sailing, and we're met by Thing 2 at the airport. We got her deposited at her Twin Cities digs, then headed out for the 3-hour drive home. iPastor made a quick stop at Bunde, MN, to dovetail with our trip through Bunde, Germany, then we were home and crashed unceremoniously. Nearly a week later, I'm still off schedule, but it's summer and lazy so it's all good.

Volendam

Our last day in country, DD1 and her boyfriend brought us to Volendam, the most "touristy" destination of our trip, but absolutely delightful. Volendam epitomizes the concept that the Dutch are out of space, do they use every inch as efficiently as possible. The homes were hard to discern from the shops, as many fronted the sidewalks directly, and decorated their picture windows accordingly, to give them some sense of privacy, while being pleading to the passerby's eye. Every possible inch of real estate was occupied. Once we wandered through town to the harbor, we were greeted with the quintessential fishing village vibe. Lots of open-air shops, food stands, boat rides and entertainment. We wandered around, buying souvenirs and sampling the food, then headed home via the grocery store, where we picked up equivalents to make a Dutch version of tater tot hotdish. We ate al fresco, enjoying the last sun of a gorgeous day, then reluctantly went inside to pack.
iPastor took most of the pictures today. I'll have to steal some and add them in later.

Ostfriesland

We headed out for our Dutch home base, routed through Leer, a town in Ostfriesland heavily connected to iPastor's genealogical line. We hit heavy traffic immediately, so we rerouted the GPS and started over. After that was smooth sailing. The autobahn is not the speedway some Americans romanticize it to be, but we clipped along nicely. The "suggested" speed is 130 kph, with slowdowns of various extremes in high congestion or construction zones Although we didn't encounter much heavy truck traffic, semis, as well as campers and busses, are required to stay in the left lane. The center lane held close to 120-30 kph, and those who felt the need for speed kept to the right. It was easy driving, and the condition of the road, even in construction zones, was impeccable. I did open up to 160 kph for a while when conditions warranted. It was delightful.
We got to Leer and wandered our way through it and the connecting little towns. The various neighborhoods we've been in have all been similar in many ways. Although we were in Germany, we were spitting distance from the Dutch border, so the houses had that same close proximity, and red brick was prevalent. DD2 spotted a local restaurant to try, and it was amazing. Luckily, we wandered through a couple of cemeteries, requiring us to walk around and move, otherwise we'd have been hard pressed to stay awake. The cemeteries we visited were pleasantly different from many in our neighborhood. Frequently, the area over a grave had been gravelled over and surrounded with edging. Little container or rock gardens were common within the edging. All the plots were well-kept, and watering stations and cans were available for use. Much nicer than some of our flat-marker-no-plants-allowed "memory gardens." iPastor did find some ancestors, so he was pleased. We drove back to 't Goy in the waning light. We're a couple latitude lines north of home, and the light stays much later here. At 10:30 it was still light out, though the sun was long down.

Berlin

GD#2 got home from work, and there was much laughing, hugging and card playing. I crawled off to bed before the rest, but I'm told the night dragged out plenty late.
The rain finally went away, but it was still pretty cool for July. We had a relaxed morning before hopping the train downtown to see some wall-related sites, eat, and watch people. We picked up GD2's boyfriend at the train station and headed for home.
When we got back, Elle had a backyard bonfire planned with the neighbors, and it was a lovely evening at home. We'd brought s'mores supplies by request, and they were a hit.
Again, commonplace ideas for them seem so remarkable to us. No place we've stayed has had more than an apartment-sized fridge. They shop much more frequently, but only have to hop across the street or swing by the store on the way home. Although there is no absence of supermarkets, neighborhood fruit stands, bakeries and meat markets still thrive, and prices are competitive. Groceries so far have been slightly cheaper here than at home. The packaging is more sensible, as well, and everything recycles. Many drinks here are still bottled in glass, and more are in paper, shelf-stable cartons. A larger variety of cars run the roads, and more fuel options wait at the pumps. Our road trip vehicle is an LP/petrol SAAB, and I'm becoming quite spoiled.
Saturday was a day to relax with family. We ate, lazed around, and iPastor and the kids played games, while I ran with Elle and Sven to a friend's farm for more firewood. We girls walked on the woods a bit while the lumberjacks did their thing. We came home for another night around the fire, and took pictures as we prepared for our first goodbyes. iPastor also made some cinnamon rolls from scratch, per request. SD had to take the 440am train to the airport. After seeing her off, we slept in a bit, were fed and pampered then said our goodbyes to Berlin and hit the road for Ostfriesland.

Road Trip!

I'm using the iPhone version of Blogger, which is a bit limiting. I haven't found a way to insert or caption pictures in any sensical order, so they're just getting thrown in until I get home to fuss with them on the laptop.
Thursday, we were on the road by 5:15 to Berlin. Autobahn driving, at least the route we took, was never any faster than a Dakota interstate, but frequently slower, since summer is universally road construction season. We slowed down for quite a stretch in the middle for a traffic jam that put 494 on a weekday to shame. Never did figure out why. We got to Falkensee, a Berlin exburb, at about 1pm, where we were graciously hosted by the family of German Daughter #2. Our GD#2 had to work until late, but her parents are very warm hosts. SD was also there from Switzerland to spend the weekend. We had a wonderful bowl of soup, then Mama Elle took us to visit Charlottenburg castle. We chose to walk around the grounds and gardens, dodging the remnants of the persistent rain which dogged our whole trip, then she took us on a car tour of some of the major tourist sights. As before, iPastor got much better photos, but these'll have to do for now.

Hangin' with the locals.

Wednesday was quieter and more relaxed. DD and I ran errands in the morning and went to Curves. In the afternoon, her boyfriend joined us, and we drove around the "neighborhood" of little villages and dikes. We also visited the equivalent of a Sams Club or Costco, where we sticked up on most of our food and candy souvenirs, at warehouse prices, rather than souvenir stand prices. We stopped at Beatrixsluis lock and dam and watched some ships move through. It really is a fascinating system. They took us by ferry to a little local restaurant not well-known to tourists, and fed us far too well. Oy. We headed home and prepared to wake and hit the road at 5am for our road trip to Berlin.