The 7th-Heaven Festival...

What an interesting concept--seven Utrecht museums stepped outside their walls to transform a former courthouse into a "sultry summer festival." As you can see by this photo, the museums got quite creative. This room was created by the Railway Museum for a much more adult audience than it's usual visitors. It featured four-poster beds where you watched silent films on the ceiling; of course, one featured a damsel tied to the train tracks, but this one was saved by a dog. The Money Museum set up a security system with lasers criss-crossing the room along with a 3-D TV showing treasures. We laid on the ground to watch a movie about the vastness of the universe sponsored by the University Observatory. The girls enjoyed "playing" the grand piano in the Automated Music Machines Museum's room (might sound like a strange theme for a museum, but it's actually very interesting). I really enjoyed the Beatles sing-along. Veronica had so much fun celebrating her birthday, she didn't even complain that we forget to get her a cake.

What Hip Kids We Have...

There's little doubt that our kids will be hipper than we are, although we'll take some credit for taking them to cool places. For Veronica's 9th birthday we trekked to Utrecht to go to The 7th-Heaven Festival after dinner beside the main canal (the restaurants here are actually at the water's edge instead of at street level as in most cities). We ended the evening "silent dancing." As you can see, Veronica's wearing a pair of headphones to hear the DJ's tunes. It was pretty surreal. Everyone was just dancing away, but the room was basically quiet except during songs when folks couldn't resist singing along. Definitely not your average kid's birthday celebration.

Valuable Lessons Learned - Part 4

* If you take canoes out on a windy day, remember that rowing backwards won't get you home. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo after Jimmy and Dave had to flag down a motor boat and beg for a tow home for both canoes. When this photo was taken, Jimmy and Tony intentionally towed the kids into town and back, while Vivynne and I enjoyed a leisurely kid-free bike ride.

* Make sure you have a few extra cold brews in the frig in case you have unexpected visitors such as your rescuers.

Land of Flowers...

While Vivynne and kids were in town, we also visited the Aalsmeer Flower Auction, the largest in the world. Over 22 million flowers and plants are sold daily with annual sales to wholesalers around the world of almost $2 billion. This is a reverse auction with the price falling until someone is willing to pay it. The building itself is almost 1 million square meters, making it the largest 1-story building in the world. Had no idea that the flower biz was so huge, but thankful that prices are very low here so we always have fresh flowers on the table.

They Grow 'Em Tall in Holland...

Holland is rumored to be the tallest nation in the world, but our kids haven't grown enough to tower over windmills. They were very excited to take Max and Ariana, who came home with us for a week following our trip to Sweden, to Madurodam in Den Haag. Although seeing Holland in miniature sounds corny, this park is actually quite cool. Landmarks, churches, airports, ports, etc have been precisely recreated on a 1:25 scale. We especially liked Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport with an underground luggage conveyor belt and the clog factory. The kids are shown here in front of the 1743 De Valk Windmill Museum in Leiden, which we climbed to the top of that week. Although much of the week was rainy, we also managed to visit the Van Gogh Museum, Delft Pottery and the American Pilgrim Museum. The girls really had fun playing tour guides.

A Great Last Day in Sweden...

On our final day in Gothenburg, we went to the Maritiman Museum, which is the world's largest floating museum. Jimmy loved showing us around a Swedish Destroyer, which was similar to the one he served on during Desert Storm. This photo shows us in a 1962 Swedish sub which we had to climb down a hatch to enter.

That evening we headed out of the city by taking the tram near our hotel to the end of the line for a family dinner by the sea. Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera to catch a photo of our best night of the trip. After a delicious seaside dinner, the girls got to go crabbing with some local kids while we watched the sun slowly set over the bay. A great ending to a great day.

Never Been on a Boat Ride Like That...

After 5 days in Stockholm, we took a train to the west coast to Gothenburg for 2 nights. We took one of the traditional open-topped paddan boat trips through 17th century canals in downtown and into the harbor. It was cool seeing a freighter in dry dock, but it was especially cool when we went under the "Cheese Slicer" bridge. When the guide told us to duck, she wasn't kidding.