Leiden Gets Yarn Bombed...

I was glad my friend Deb could join me for the day at the Leiden Liberation Celebration, which is held every year on October 3 to commemorate the liberation from Spain in 1574. We wandered through the carnival and market and enjoyed people watching. When we crossed the main canal on our way to lunch, we were surprised to find that the bridge had been yarn bombed. I wasn’t familiar with the practice, but Deb was. Apparently, this form of temporary graffiti began in Holland in 2004 and has since spread around the world. We were especially impressed that these dedicated crafters must have used boats to set up most of their knitted “street art.”

A 5-Star Hotel for Travel Bugs...

After several weeks of construction, Jimmy was ready to install his upgraded geocache. Instead of just a simple ice cream container, he’d upgraded to a big fancy box with lights. He was inspired to build a bigger and better geocache after finding the box next to the garbage bins at the apartments next door. He then worked on building the infrastructure, which included reinforcing a pretty large hole with cement blocks, and wiring the LED lights above the “rooms” which he hopes get filled up with travel bugs.

Soon after the upgrade was completed, the rave reviews started appearing on the geocache website and it started earning “favorites,” which then attracts even more geocachers; so far there have been around 120 visitors. Only die-hard geocachers who pay for a premium membership can declare favorites, so already having over 25 favorites is quite an honor. It also attracted the attention of the police when a neighbor got suspicious about people searching around the bushes. Luckily we were home and just happened to notice them poking around. The officers weren’t familiar with geocaching, but were quickly put at ease when we explained the game and showed them the log book.

Closure of Storm Surge Barrier...

Once a year, the storm surge barrier in Hoek van Holland (one of the world’s largest moving structures) is closed as part of a test. After going to the visitor center with Jimmy’s dad during the summer, we were especially interested in seeing it close this fall. It was a beautiful day when Jimmy and I set off on our bikes for the 75K ride. Unfortunately, not only did we misjudge  how long the journey would take, but also how long it would take for the arms to swing shut, so we missed it. And silly us, we thought we’d get to watch them reopen, but they actually stay closed for about 12 hours. It was still cool to see how the arms lowered over time. Had a great lunch along the canal in Maassluis and thoroughly enjoyed being on our first long ride in months.

2011 Kite Festival...

While Jimmy and the girls were busy at the first of many Sunday rehearsals for this year’s panto, Aladdin, I headed to Scheveningen Beach to see this year’s international kite festival. As you can see, the winds were just right for a huge variety of kites to fill the sky.

Just had to include this silly snail that looks like it’s sitting atop the Kurhaus.

Sneak Peek at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam...

When I found out that a member of the AWC was the Director of Operations at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, I contacted her about the possibility of planning a private tour for the club. While it took just 9 months to build in 1656 (it was a marine warehouse at that time), the building had been closed for a remodel for over 4 years (just by coincidence, we had visited the museum on its final open weekend in January 2007). Much to my surprise, Lara arranged for a sneak peek of the museum two weeks before its official opening in early October. Several of the exhibits were still off-limits, but it was clear that this was a much improved museum. I was especially impressed with the new roof, consisting of 1,200 pieces of glass, which is strong enough to walk on; robots are used to clean the glass with 3 men holding the hoses. Afterwards, a few of us went to the antique district for lunch and some window shopping. I then dashed back to meet Ashlynn at school as she returned from a 2-night school trip to an adventure camp in Holland.

Last of Our Summer Fun...

During our first few weeks back in town, we attempted twice to host an outdoor movie after Jimmy borrowed a projector. As this photo shows, our first try failed as it started to pour just as dinner was ready and we had to cram six adults and ten kids in our tiny house and show the movie on the wall. Luckily, the weather cooperated on our 2nd attempt and we had a big crowd on our lawn.

One Sunday afternoon, Andrew came to hang out with the girls while David was at football. Ashlynn decided that it would be fun to make pizza. Of course, the kids needed help to clean up the royal mess, but they did manage to do all the cooking themselves.

John and Sally weren’t able to join us, but dropped David off after football so he could enjoy some pizza, too. It’s cool that the girls like to entertain.

Placing Our First Geocache...

Although our family had only gone geocaching (a hide and seek game using a GPS to find containers called geocaches) a few times over the years, Jimmy thought it would be fun to hide a geocache near our yard. Around 8 p.m. on a rainy evening in early September, Jimmy and the girls uploaded information about a geocache they placed in the woody bit between our house and the apartment parking lot. They had dug a hole to hide an ice cream container, which held a notepad and pen (for geocachers to record their find) along with a few small trinkets for trading. Much to their surprise, about an hour later six men (one opted not to be photographed) arrived in the rain to search for the cache. Apparently these die-hard cachers got a text message as soon as the cache went live and rushed over separately in an effort to be the first. The girls got out of bed to greet them.