The World’s Coolest Carousel...

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you might actually recognize this carousel. The girls rode it at the Brussels’ Christmas Market in both 2006 and 2008. Imagine their surprise when we arrived at Les Machines de L’ile and there was the carousel out front of a giant warehouse where wood, junk and hydraulics is turned into the most amazing things.

But first, I need fill in a few gaps in space and time. We left Grimaud and drove to the car rental return in Marseilles at the train station. Despite getting lost, we managed to catch our train with less than 10 minutes to spare and made a 6-hour journey to Nantes in northwestern France. At the same time, Jimmy was journeying south by train to meet us. We walked around downtown and had a traditional crepe dinner. Then the next morning, we surprised the girls with the visit to Les Machines.

Another Great Visit...

Besides the friendship, fun and great scenery, our week in Grimaud was full of good food. Habe was the chef most nights at home, leaving me to do what I do best in the kitchen--chop veggies and wash dishes. We also had two amazing dinners out. One was with the kids at Chris and Terri’s favorite restaurant at the beach in St. Maxime. The other was for the adults only at a very trendy hotel in St. Tropez. We started with mojitos on the roof with fantastic views, then dinner on the front patio. It looked like a place straight out of a magazine; it was very hard to refrain from being the total tourist and taking photos.

Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous...

We didn’t do much sightseeing during this visit. Veronica joined Terri, Habe and I at the market in Port Grimaud where we bought some awesome marinated garlic. Then she joined me for a half day trip to St. Tropez. We caught the ferry from Port Grimaud, which was a lovely ride. St. Tropez wasn’t nearly as fancy as I expected. It was very approachable, which was surprising considering the amazing yachts we saw in the harbor. We enjoyed walking along the coast and around the town. I offered to take Veronica out for a nice lunch, but she opted for a simple salad at a simple café. We lucked into a 75% off sale just before boarding the return ferry. Great fun having some alone time with my big girl.

Kids Just Want to Have Fun...

In addition to us, Terri was also hosting her friend Habe and her two sons at her house. The three of us ladies took the six kids to the local fun fair, Azure Park. The kids had a great time on a mix of daredevil and old-fashioned rides, such as the two shown here. I was reminded of my visits to Tijuana when I had to pay to buy toilet paper at the restrooms.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun...

When the girls weren’t playing or swimming or bugging the boys, they were working on both a play and a musical for the pool. The original play called Forget Me, Forget Me Not combined segments from 13 Going on 30 and Wild Child and was performed in Lauren’s bedroom. It was pretty funny that Terri, Chris, Habe, Max and I all squished into a corner of the room to watch, but it was worth it as the play was very cute.

On our last night, the girls performed a musical which was based on Mamma Mia and was extra magical as it was performed with the lights of the pool at night and the lights of St. Tropez in the distance.

Back to Grimaud...

Just a few days after Holly left, it was time for us girls to hop on a plane to head to the South of France. This year, we flew down alone and rented a car for the drive from Nice to Grimaud. Terri and family met us at their lovely new house. How fun it was to see how much progress was made since we saw it under construction last summer. Lauren was able to fit both Veronica and Ashlynn in her room on the 3rd floor and I had a lovely view from my guest room on the 2nd floor. We spent much of the week relaxing. While the girls played and swam, Terri and I worked on the September issue of Going Dutch. It was great fun to work together on our first issue to include 8 pages in color.

Better than Old Times...

Since Holly and I hadn’t spent much time together since high school, it was a bit of a risk that we wouldn’t have the same interests after all these years. Luckily, our week was full of constant laughs and lots of fun, and we were great travel companions. We knew we were on the same wavelength when this sign at Kensington Palace cracked us up so much we were in tears. Look forward to meeting her elsewhere in Europe in the future.

Gotta Go to Amsterdam...

No visit to Holland is complete without spending a day in Amsterdam. Our whirlwind tour included visits to the Royal Palace of Amsterdam (which had recently reopened after extensive renovations and was quite spectacular), Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House. We also went to the XtraCold Icebar, which unfortunately had lost all of its charm after adding a silly 3D movie but at least had a generous bartender.

Back in Holland...

After a brief stop in Brussels for dinner and to see the infamous Manneken Piss, I was happy to show Holly around our neck of the woods for four days. We spent one day cycling around The Hague, including out to the beach, Panorama Mesdag, and Mauritshuis. We also cycled one evening for dinner with my family by the tiny lock on the Vliet in Leidschendam. Another day we took the girls with us to Leiden to walk the pretty town and visit a few museums (you see them here doing an archeologist workshop at the Antiquities Museum with an authentic Egyptian temple in the background). We also took the new tram service from Leidschendam to Delft to visit the churches and have lunch along a canal. How great it was to share my favorite spots with my oldest friend.

Where the Wild Things Are...

Camden Market was quite a sight to see. Not only are the people here very colorful—clothes, hair, tattoos—but there’s a huge variety of colorful food and things to buy. In addition to very interesting people watching, there is the locks to visit. Our timing was perfect to see both sets of locks in motion adjusting the water height to allow boats to pass. Holly got yelled out for taking a photo of a couple of punks in mohawks. Guessing this fellow was expecting to get his photo taken.

A Girl's Weekend in London...

I was so excited when I found out that Holly, my oldest friend from 3rd grade, was going to come over for a visit. She’d never been to Europe before and her husband couldn’t get away, so she came over by herself for a quick eight-night trip. As soon as school got out for the summer and I could drop off Ashlynn at home, I set off for the Eurostar from Brussels to travel under the Chunnel. We met at the hotel in Earls Court and headed for a great traditional British pot pie at the pub across the street. We spent much of our weekend trying to visit spots that I hadn’t been to yet. Here you see us on the London Eye and Westminster Abbey, which was quite spectacular but wouldn’t allow photos inside. We also went to Kensington Palace, the Tower Bridge exhibition and the British Museum.

Our One-of-a-Kind World Cup Celebration...

We had already planned on haring a Dutch Treat Family Hash and having a pool party on Sunday, July 11. When the Dutch team made it to the World Cup Finals in South Africa, we had to figure out a way to show the game. Luckily we were able to borrow a projector and Jimmy managed to set up a screen at the end of the pool. A bunch of Amsterdam hashers joined us as they didn’t want to be anywhere near Amsterdam and the chaos surrounding the game. What a great disappointment when the game went into overtime and the Dutch lost to Spain 1-0.

Catching Orange Fever...

The girls really got into World Cup this year. In fact, the whole family really got into it; I even went to a Dutch cafe to watch a game during school hours. Here you see the girls wearing the infamous Heineken hats celebrating after the win during the semi-finals. Just before the final game, Veronica sprayed her pigtails orange.

Our Little Runner...

Ashlynn was invited to be one of the five 4th Grade girls invited to take place in a sports day between the three local campuses of our school. She was really disappointed when she found out that her request to run the sprints was turned down and she was to run the 400K and 800K instead. She did well in the 400K, but came in 2nd in the 800K (a 5th Grader won). Her coach was convinced that she would have won if it were a longer distance as she was just hitting her stride. Looks like she takes after her daddy!

Homegrown Solar Heating...

Having a swimming pool in a country where it’s rarely warm is silly. Having a swimming pool without a heater in a country where it’s rarely warm is foolish. Jimmy looked into buying a heater, but prices started at €4,000. Since it’s not our house or our pool, spending that much would be beyond foolish. So, Jimmy put on his inventor’s hat and tried to figure out a way to warm the water using the few sunny days we do have. He came up with a design using plywood, irrigation tubing, plexiglass and a pump. Still not sure if it was his solar system or Mother Nature, but he pool warmed up enough in July for me to float in it for the first time.