Playing Tour Guide in Leiden...

The last time I saw Nicole, she was a five-year-old flower girl in my sister’s wedding in 1992. That same evening, she stopped being my niece as my divorce was finalized from Bill, her uncle. Twenty-two years later, she was passing through Holland and spent one night at our house along with her friend Jill. Both girls were really sweet and I had a great time showing them around Leiden.

After meeting my hash buddy’s parents, who were visiting from Michigan, at the FILTH Hash a few days earlier, I invited them to join us. We had a fun day visiting the windmill museum and De Burcht as well as having a beer on a barge on the main canal.

It was amazing how much Nicole looks like her mother. On our way back to the train station, we stopped to get a herring, a traditional Dutch snack. It’s obvious what Julie thought of it.

Nicole and Jill headed out that evening to catch the ferry to England. It was a short, but sweet visit.

June Full Moon Hash...

With the Dutch playing in the first round of the World Cup that evening, it’s easy to guess why we were all dressed in orange for June’s FILTH Hash in Leiden. We stopped at the Rembrandt statue for a song break.

Opee is posing with Boar Whore, the hare, and Rembrandt. The trail took us through historic Leiden and into the newer neighborhoods to Boar Whore’s apartment, where he hosted a World Cup party. After losing to them in the World Cup final in 2010, it was thrilling to see the Dutch trounce Spain 5 to 1.

Would love to take credit for this lovely photo, but I didn’t have my camera with me. Photos courtesy of Hash Flash Ola.

Back into the Canal...

When Veronica finished her first week of IB mock exams (internal exams to determine grades reported on transcripts for college applications) in mid-June, she was ready to cool off in her first jump into the canal for the season.

The good news is that she did really well on her exams and her target grades are excellent. The bad news is this was the only time she went into the canal all summer due to her insanely busy schedule. The neighborhood kids enjoyed using our inner tubes, but we never managed to use them.

Animal Life on the Way Home...

On my evening cycle ride home from book club at the AWC, I couldn’t resist stopping to photograph some cows and their reflections in the still waters of a small canal in the fields between Leidschendam and Voorschoten.

As I neared the main road to Voorschoten, I was very surprised to notice a peacock on top of a hedge.

When I stopped to photograph the peacock, I was even more surprised to notice that there were a bunch of peacocks perched on a metal frame. Definitely made for an interesting ride home.

An Afternoon in Dordrecht...

I spent a nice spring day in Dordrecht with Cora. It had been years since I’d been in this city near Rotterdam. First we went to an art exhibition, then had lunch by the water.

In medieval times, property taxes were based on the width of a property, so Dutch buildings ended up thin and tall as a way to avoid taxes. Eventually the government caught on and started charging taxes based on the number of windows. Here is a great example of how windows used to be bricked in to avoid taxes.

Love the red shutters on this old building in the historic harbor.

Cool combination of old and new: an old ship covered in solar panels.

We visited the Grote Kerk, where we saw these modern stained glass windows.

Model Camp 2014...

One of the girls had the misfortune of tripping right before the show, so had to sit it out. The girls gathered around her for a group photo afterwards. Here they are making hearts with their hands to show they loved Model Camp.

As the only foreigner at the camp, Ashlynn was interviewed by folks at one of Holland’s biggest fashion blogs: Fashion Milk. Ashlynn was quite nervous, but you could hardly tell by the way they interweaved her segment throughout this short video about the camp (don’t worry, very little of it is in Dutch). All-in-all, a great experience!

...and in White...

After the colors of the rainbow, all the girls changed into a white outfit and walked in pairs down the catwalk.

Ashlynn really enjoyed the entire experience.