Soaring Like a Bird...

Ever since leaving the Navy in 1992, Jimmy has missed flying. After trying paragliding in 2006, he’s dreamed of soaring like a bird. It’s taken years, but he finally managed to take a two-week paragliding course in Provence, France in March. The weather was uncooperative the first week, so instead of paragliding, his class went skiing twice and did a Via Ferratta (a 3.5 hour climb up and a 1 hour climb down that included 3 ziplines). He also went to Aix en Provence to visit Curt and Veronique.
Jimmy was the only student that stuck around for the 2nd week, so he ended up with private lessons once the weather cleared. He got four flying days in and managed to complete the course with a Club Pilot certification. His longest flight of catching thermals was 90 minutes where he looked down upon birds (who were also catching thermals) and the mountains of Provence. Luckily, in just 3 minutes you can see a snippet of his flights thanks to Veronica’s editing skills. Now, Jimmy just needs to figure out how he can try his new skills on the dunes of The Hague.

Loving Going Dutch...

Ok, it’s true. There are windmills in Holland and I do like taking photos of them. And there are cows and I like taking photos of them as well. Here are two of my photos on the cover of Going Dutch (with Jimmy’s graphics), the magazine of the American Women’s Club of The Hague. By the time this is posted, our final issue of the club year will have hit the mailboxes. Terri and I have now co-edited 18 issues over the last two years and have been asked to continue for another year. It’s hard work, but we make a great team and both really love it. Just last April we were worried we’d have to pull the plug. Due to Terri’s hard work selling advertising, the untimely demise of our previous printing company and the discovery of a fantastic new printer, we now have a beautiful 52-page full-color magazine with a new cover each month. Click here if you want to see an online version of our latest issue--you’ll find my “Letter from the Editor” on page 10 (or page 28 for the May issue).

Fun with Hannah the Dog

Starting a dogsitting business has been really fun for the girls. They don’t have a lot of customers, but do enjoy spending time with different dogs. Here you see Hannah, a 2-year-old Wheaten terrier, who’s getting ready to sleep on a giant beanbag chair with Ashlynn.
She’s a very mellow dog or rather we thought she was until the girls started practicing for their International Festival performance. Click here to see Hannah get airborne during the chorus of YMCA (sorry, the lighting wasn’t very good, but you can see enough to get a good laugh).

Ashlynn’s First 5K...

After two late nights with friends sleeping over, Ashlynn was tired but not too exhausted to try running her first 5K. Just a week after the CPC, we cycled to the start of the Voorschoten Loop where we met up with Sally and family. This was also Andrew’s first 5K; Veronica opted to sit it out. Before the race started, there was an announcement that due to construction, the route would be 5.3K (David’s GPS showed it was 5.36K). Again, we had no idea what to expect of Ashlynn, but it clearly wasn’t that she’d by the 17th woman (out of 199) to cross the finish line at 23:55 with a pace of 7:15/mile! No telling how fast she’ll be once she gets some muscle on those skinny legs!

Happy Runners...

As you can see by all the smiles, all five runners in our group were very pleased with their times. David beat his time from last year with a 17:46, which was amazing especially considering he was coming off of a knee injury from a bad fall during a cross-country race a few weeks earlier. As we were heading back to Centraal Station to catch a tram to a restaurant for a celebration lunch, we caught sight of The Hague’s resident storks. Much to our surprise, a 2nd nest had been added just outside of the cage for a pair of non-captive storks; wonder what the captive pair think about that?

Proud of Our Speedy Kids...

Since this was the girls’ first races, we really had no idea what to expect. The kid’s 2.5K started first. Above you can spot Ashlynn on the left side as the route took them through the chute for the 5K. We lost sight of them, but had a good view for when they turned the final corner to the end stretch. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Ashlynn was the 2nd girl! Since the kids didn’t run with chips, the time wasn’t official, but Ashlynn crossed the finish at 10:36 for a 6:49/mile pace. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get any photos of Veronica because I underestimated how fast she’d be and missed seeing her finish while trying to track down Ashlynn amongst the huge crowds. John had assumed that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, but was happy to cross the finish holding her hand. She had a chip, so we know that she was the 30th woman to finish with a net time of 25:49 and a pace of 8:19/mile. Not that I’ve done many races, but I think my best 5K time was around 31:00. Clearly these speedy girls take after their daddy!

City-Pier-City...

We traveled with Sally, John, David and Andrew to the City-Pier-City (CPC), the largest footrace in The Hague (cutoff for the various races was 30,000 participants). Jimmy was supposed to run the half marathon, but left the day before for a 2-week course in paragliding in Provence. When we arrived at the Malieveld, there were masses of little kids on their parent’s shoulders dancing and warming up for the 1K. Ashlynn and Andrew met up with Lauren and managed to make their way to the front of the chute for the 2.5K for Under 13s. David was seeded with a sub 18-minute time from last year’s 5K, so he was in the front, while Veronica and John were in the main chute. Sally and I were there for support and to lug coats around.