Our Friends Start to Arrive...

John, Sally and the boys arrived Friday afternoon from Holland. Their apartment was right on the main street in a historic building.

We couldn’t resist taking them along with Darlene and Mike, who came in from California by way of Italy, to Café Buza. There wasn’t enough seats for all of us, but the kids didn’t mind hanging out on the rocks.

We ran into Holly (my oldest friend) and her husband Carl, also from California but had been visiting Germany for the last week, just as were able to secure a table in one of the squares. The kids were happy to eat on their own at another restaurant. The mussels were fantastic and surprisingly cheap.

Time for a Swim...

The next day the girls were anxious to go for a swim.

They even managed to talk me into getting in the water. Can’t remember exactly when we took this photo, but when we swam here it was full of people including a bunch of guys playing water polo.

Happy 20th Anniversary...

The owner of our rental apartment suggested a seafood restaurant for our anniversary dinner, which was delicious.

After dinner, Jimmy and Veronica had fun doing some time lapse photography on the main street of Old Town. Check out their video here.

Enjoying the Sunshine...

The girls quickly fell in love with Dubrovnik. They especially loved the sunshine and couldn’t wait to go to the beach. We were happy to discover a restaurant on the beach that could accommodate our large group for dinner the next night.

This sign cracked us up.

We especially liked the view from Café Buza, a bar that sits on the cliffs and is accessed through a hole in the city wall.

Arriving in Dubrovnik...

After three years of planning (Jimmy had concocted the idea behind the White Girls’ Milestone Cruise while drinking margaritas at a Mexican restaurant in Arnhem after a long cycle ride in August 2010), it was hard to believe that we were finally on our way to Croatia to meet our friends. We opted to fly in a day early as July 25 happened to be our 20th anniversary.  

We rented a great apartment along the back wall of Old Town Dubrovnik. It was nice having two bedrooms and two bathrooms for the three nights.

No visit to Dubrovnik is complete without climbing a lot of stairs.

The stairs gave us plenty of photo ops.

Preparing for our Big Trip...

In preparation of our big trip to Croatia for the White Girls’ Milestone Cruise, I splurged and took the girls for pedicures at Aveda, a fancy salon in The Hague.

I also got my hair cut, which was an interesting experience starting with a chair massage followed by a shampooing while lying down.

Afterwards, we went to Kensington for a traditional cream tea (sandwich, scone with cream and tea). The manager was so excited about the birth of the new prince in England that he poured us all bubbly. The girls were excited about being served alcohol in a restaurant for the first time, although preferred the tea.

When we got home, there was a lot of packing to do for our 2.5 week adventure.

Kati Returns to the Farm...

Jan and Bob loaned us their car so I could take the girls with me to deliver Kati back to the farm where she was fostered for five months before we adopted her.

Christa took us on a tour to see the latest additions to the farm including these chicks and ducklings.

Kati was surprisingly calm around all those animals.

The peacock was sitting on her nest over several eggs. Sadly, when we returned in late August all of the eggs were missing. Christa thinks that her neighbors stole the eggs, which is quite pathetic.

Ashlynn went into the kennel to meet the other dogs that Christa was looking after. The black dog was rescued from Romania five years ago and goes back to the farm every summer. The other was recently rescued from Romania and was being fostered until adoption. Luckily, Kati got along with them and survived the summer.