Our last day

Since it was our last day in the Netherlands, I decided to take my camera with me as I took my morning walk. Here are just a few things that I will miss when I go home. One, being able to walk at 9:00 in the morning down tree covered roads like this. You wouldn't dare venture out to walk at 9:00 in Mesa and you would be lucky to find any shade at all.
I will miss all the corn fields
and the potato fields
and the Christmas tree farm.
I will miss watching the work horse and her colt

and Anita and Rob's house. Here is a view of the front with the car Anita took us over in.
Here you can see where our room was. There is a door on the top of the house on the right, that was our door.
This is a view of it from the backyard.
And here are the stairs I had to learn to navigate in the rain, sun and dark.
We will miss our pink, sunny room,
and the bathroom with the shower that we loved.
One last look at our room.
Anita asked me what I wanted to do the last day and I told her I wanted to go for a bike ride (another thing I wouldn't be doing this time of year in Mesa). So Anita and I headed for the Belgium boarder again and passed this huge field of flowers.

One of our first stops was at the chocolate shop. Everyone knows that Belgium has the best chocolates right? Anita had to get some for Rob and I got some for Garth hoping they wouldn't melt before I got to Mesa the next day.

We did a little shopping then found this bench to try out some of our chocolates. We asked a guy to take our picture and after several tries we let him go. I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Our next solution was to set the timer on the camera and precariously balance it on a garbage can. After a couple of tries we got a pretty good one.
The town we biked to is called Baarle Nassau on the Dutch side and Baarle Hertog on the Belgium side. The boarders of the two countries zig zag through the town. We found this little diorama that displayed where the boarder was. It was crazy because some buildings had the boarder run right through them.
All over the town you could see these marks showing where the boarder was.
Anita said that Rob had some clients whose homes were divided with their front door in Belgium and their back door in the Netherlands. We found a little place to have a drink and do a little people watching.

Later that afternoon Jeske, Wouter and I made caramel apples. Jeske had been wanting to make them and it took Anita and I days of shopping to find caramels that I thought would work. They were thicker than the Kraft caramels we usually use.
So we couldn't really dip the apples in the caramel, we more or less had to spread it on the apples. The thing that mattered most was that they tasted good. Rob was the only one to declare that caramel apples weren't something he would want to eat every day.
After dinner we headed to Goirle to drive some go carts. You can see we got to wear attractive head ware under our helmets; Rob is looking especially styling!
Then everyone belted up and prepared to start. Here are Jip and Rob.
Next up was Wouter, Preston and Jeske. Maxim and I were the last in line.

We had a good time racing around the track and Preston, Jeske and I all got "stuck" for a few minutes that didn't help our lap times. When we finished and checked our times, Jip ended up with the fastest times and Rob was second with Preston in third. Everyone wanted to go one more time, especially Rob - he didn't like loosing to Jip.
After the second go round Jip won again with Preston coming in second and Rob came in third. But everyone had improved their times and had had fun.
When we got home (about 11:30) I made pancakes for everyone. I had told Jeske and Wouter about the "bear" pancakes I made for my kids and Garth had brought over some pancake flour with him when he came. Anita and I had shopped and shopped for some corn syrup to make syrup with but our efforts were in vain. So I just made fresh strawberry syrup which is one of my families favorites anyway.
At about midnight we all sat down for "dessert." Everyone liked them and I told them I would make them more if they came to visit me in the US.
Finally, Preston and I had to go and finish packing and see if we could keep our bags from weighing over 50 pounds. We were so sad to be leaving our room and especially Anita and Rob and their family and the cool weather.

I didn't get to bed until about 1:30 but I figured I had over 15 hours in airplanes the next day to sleep. I just couldn't believe that a month was already over. Vacation time always seem to go fast even if your gone a month. When I looked back on all we had done and everywhere we had gone I realized we had been gone a long time, but time always flies when you are having fun!

Our last week in Holland

We took Garth to the airport early Tuesday and we're sorry to see him go. I think he was even more sorry that he had to go back to the heat and work. I decided that this last week we would just "rest" since we hadn't done much of that this vacation. I think Preston and I were getting tired of going all the time. And I think Anita was too but she would never say so.

So I decided we would just play, shop and eat and not drive anywhere too far in the car. So Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Anita and I went shopping to needlework stores and dollar stores. We had a great time and both got inspired to crochet again. We found all these projects to do and wished we had started at the beginning of the month instead of the end.

One night we went into Tilburg to eat after we picked the boys up from seeing the latest Batman movie. Tilburg is the closest larger town and at the center of the town they have a lot of shops and restaurants. We found a get place to eat outside and it was a beautiful night so we did what Europeans do and sat ate and drank and people watched.
Jip, Preston and I also had to have some Creme Brulee for dessert. They eat desserts much more than we do but after all they have great ones to eat. Eat your hearts out Jason and Raquel.
On Thursday it was one of the hottest days we had there, of course, hot is relative when you consider how hot it is was in Phoenix. But Preston actually braved the swimming pool that day and played volley ball with Jip and Rob's sister and her friend.

Friday, we decided to get back into the car and head back to Germany to an indoor ski place. Preston was so excited to go and snowboard. When we got there they informed us that lightning had struck one of their cooling systems and some of their snow was more like ice. We decided that since we had driven two hours to get there and they wouldn't give us a full refund on the tickets we had purchased on line, and they gave us a really good deal on passes for that day, that we would stay. Plus Preston didn't care how bad the snow was he wanted to snowboard in July, in Germany!

Since they were having equipment problems, there weren't many people there and we were glad of that. It only took a few minutes to get down the hill and 10 minutes to get back up. They had a conveyor belt that you stood on that took you back to the top,
There was one place with windows where you could look out over the town and see the factory spewing steam and who knows what else. They played great dance music and so we danced as we road up. If you want to see Preston's dance moves check out the video below.
The ski area was full of fog and so pictures didn't turn out too well.
After Preston had gone down a few times, he decided that snowboarding was not the way to go, so he went and got skis. He hadn't skied in about 5 years but after a couple times down he was doing great. Most of the teenagers in Europe are turning in their snowboards and gong back to skis. The biggest problem I had in skiing was the huge hill you had to go up at the bottom to get up to the conveyor belt. Try as hard as I may, I could only make it about half way up. Jip was the most successful in making it up the hill. If he went full force in downhill skier position, he could make it to the top.

One big advantage at the ski center was that we got all the food and drinks we wanted. When you have two 16 year old boys this is a big draw. So after a break for lunch we hit the slope again. Anita is looking pretty good. Doesn't Preston look in control of the skis?
We could have skied until midnight but when large ski classes started showing up we decided it was time to go. Since Anita still had money on a gift certificate, we decided to give the rope course they had outside a try. It was 10 meters high and the most intense course I had ever seen (not as thought I'm an expert by any means). We harnessed up and climbed to the top.
I took these pictures after we were done and that is why the sun in shining. If you look at the pictures of when we were up there the weather was a different story.

You can see the ominous clouds and check out the flag, yes the wind is blowing and when you are 10 meters up it feels like it is gale force.
They had some really tricky places to get though; you can see the moving planks in the background.
This one had two ladders that weren't attached to anything and the ropes weren't close enough to be able to hold on to one and reach the next. We are attached to a safety harness so we wouldn't hit the asphalt down below if we fell.
After we finished the first round, the lady in charge asked the boys if they wanted a bigger challenge. Of course they did, so she chained their right legs together. It was a lot of fun to watch them try and manage to get through the course being only a meter and a half apart. If one fell the other would fall also and Jip almost did that. You can see him on the video at the end of the blog. We had a great time here and there are probably too many videos at the end but watch what you want.

I just went twice and the boys went a third time and had the greatest challenge the last time through. The lady but goggles on Preston and he was completely blind. You can see him just climbing up to the course here.

Jip followed behind and gave him instructions and encouragement. He did a great job at both, until Preston got to the moving block steps and he just told him there was no way he could make it, he was going to fall. But Preston did make it. See the video.

After Preston got half way through the course, they switched places and Jip was "blind". Preston and Jip now have an everlasting friendship since they have put their lives in each others hands.

Both the boys had great time and said that being "blind" was the best! The lady said that she only let them use the chain and the goggles because we were the only people there; those things were only used at team building exercise that they have for companies. I asked her if many people fell and she said yes, lots. And in fact as we were leaving we saw a fat German kid fall and he couldn't get back up and there wasn't even any wind by then. We had had a great time walking the ropes but we all had sore hands.
Since we had all the food and drinks we wanted, we went and had another drink before we left. We were pestered by these two wasps that Preston swiftly caught under two glasses and then we proceeded to put them into one glass hoping they would fight each other, but to no avail.
We decided to let them go, so they wouldn't attack the poor guy who clears the tables. All in all, a day with excitement until the very end!

Preston's sweet dance moves.

The moving steps, while Jip and Preston are chained together.

Jip's amazing come back from almost falling.

Preston is going blind and Anita and I do some great singing, American Idol here we come!.

Jip going over the moving planks "blind".