I’m a Good Driver...

While I didn’t question Jimmy’s suggestion to rent an electric boat to cruise the canals of Port Grimaud, I did question his decision to hand over the controls to Ashlynn. She had a great time driving, but scared the crap out of me after repeatedly coming close to hitting boats, docks and bridges.

We saw several weddings that took place at this church.

 The houses of Port Grimaud are very colorful.

Ashlynn tried to convince us it was problem with the boat that she nearly collided again and again, but strangely, Veronica didn’t have the same problem.

Enjoying the Sunshine...

After over six months of bad weather, we all enjoyed the sunshine of the South of France.

The girls also enjoyed shopping for bikinis, which was Veronica’s first.

Love the Views...

The house was one floor higher than all the neighbors, which allowed for views around the village and out to the Mediterranean.

One day the winds completely died down and the water was completely still, which made for some great reflections.

Port Grimaud is a lovely village full of canals. While the houses have an old Mediterranean feel, they are actually fairly new as the entire place was built in a Venetian manner in the 1960’s from a marsh. When we weren’t exploring the market or the stores, we were enjoying the views from the house.

Not Your Average House...

When we saw that there was a dumbwaiter in the house, we thought it was cool but didn’t actually expect to use it. Turned out that it was the perfect way to get things up to the rooftop terrace, especially since it would be nearly impossible to carry things up the ladder to the top floor. Gin and tonics were the perfect afternoon cocktail.

Terri and Chris have some amazing artwork throughout the house. This great sculpture was delivered on the last day of our visit. What’s especially cool is that the eyes can be spotted peaking over the fence as we cross the bridge from the village towards the house.

The South of France...

We were very fortunate that my friend Terri offered for us to stay at her lovely vacation house in Port Grimaud in the South of France over the second week of Easter break. Ashlynn was funny because she was very skeptical about where we were heading.

Once we arrived and she saw all the water surrounding this absolutely wonderful house, she had a change of heart.

Here she is on the balcony outside of her and Veronica’s room, which like our room on the floor below, had a great view. We all especially loved the terrace on the top floor, where we ate breakfast several mornings and Jimmy and I had cocktails several afternoons.

King Tut Visits Holland...

During our Easter break, we went to Amsterdam with Sally, David and Andrew to see the travelling exhibit of King Tut (who lived from 1341 to 1323 BC). Everything we saw was replicas as the real relics are too fragile or expensive to move from Egypt. The exhibit included an audio guide and started with an informative multimedia show. This is the doors of the tomb discovered in 1922 deep under a mountain in the Valley of the Kings.

The artistry on the jewelry was amazing as was this 3,300-year-old inner sarcophagus.

Ashlynn begged to borrow my camera. It’s amazing how shooting over 100 photos can reduce a teen’s boredom (and create a lot of extra photo management for a mother).

Afterwards, we headed into the center of Amsterdam to eat lunch. We settled on a British pie shop, where I had a delicious fish pie. It was a bit windy, but the skies were clear, so we took a long walk into the Jordaan to see this street where David was born.

In Search of a Pet...

After spending weeks researching ferrets, Ashlynn made a compelling plea for us to get her two ferrets as she desperately wanted a pet. In fact she did such a good job trying to convince us that we finally broke down and agreed to get her a dog. She then drove me crazy showing me every cute dog available for adoption anywhere in the Netherlands.

We finally agreed to go meet Kati, a dog rescued off the streets of Romania by a foundation called Dogs Adoptions Nederland, who was living on a farm with a foster family. The above photo was taken on August 23, 2012, when Kati was first rescued. This photo was taken by her foster family on January 22.

Christa picked us up at the train station and brought us to her farm to meet Kati. She was skittish at first, but quickly warmed up to Ashlynn. Even Christa was surprised how Kati was naturally drawn to Ashlynn. While we were a bit nervous about adopting a rescue dog, we were happy that our search for a dog was over.