May 2009 - Schwarzwald

Despite protests from everyone else in the family that we have been driving & travelling too much recently and that they never have a free weekend, Friday (May 1st) was a holiday here – Labor Day – so we couldn’t resist using the opportunity to go and travel a bit. Nash is going on a 50 mile hike this summer with his cousin’s (Ian) scout troop, so he’s got to do some hiking now to get ready for it. We picked out a route in the Schwarzwald, and decided to drive down there this weekend to do it.

We left Friday morning, and drove about 4 hours to Gutach, where they have an alpine coaster. We went down 3 or 4 times, then we drove to Feldberg, where we stayed in a small cottage. After dinner, the kids and I went out for a walk in the forest near the cottage, then we came back and played some games before going to bed.

The next morning, Heidi and Mallory dropped off Luke, Grant, Nash, and me for the 7.5 mile hike in the Wutach gorge. During the hike, it rained for about 20 minutes – just long enough to soak us enough to convince us to find some shelter, and then the rain stopped. Overall, it was a great day. Nash, carrying all of his gear in his huge backpack, was always 25 meters ahead of Grant and Luke, who were more interested in sticks and rocks and enjoying their time. I suppose if I had been carrying the load Nash was carrying, I would also have been just interested in getting to the end of the trail.

While in the Schwarzwald, we also made a short stop in Triberg to see the waterfall and to see the dozens of cuckoo clock shops.

Mallory in Gutach - happy to be out of the car and to have finally arrived at the alpine coaster.

Nash, on the way up.

The last time around, Heidi didn't go -- she stayed and took a few photos.

Heidi couldn't resist taking a photo of this guy, who got on his little cart, leaned back, closed his eyes, and attempted to get some sun on his way up. It only takes about 45 seconds to get to the top -- how much of a suntan can you get in 45 seconds?

Luke on the tree stump in front of our cottage.

Grant and Luke love these action shots -- leaping over the river.

Luke thinks he is some kind of a superhero.

At the beginning of the hike in the Wutachschluct.

The Triberg waterfall.

Luke is imitating the robotic greeter at the cuckoo clock shop.

April 2009 - Luke's Field Trip / Grant's Performance

The night before we went to Keukenhof, Luke had his first overnight fieldtrip. They went to a forest/park here in Bonn, spent the day doing different activities, then spent the night in a youth hostel in the forest. I was recruited to be a chaperone for the overnight, so I left directly from work and went to the hostel, had dinner with Luke and his two friends who were assigned to our room. After dinner, we all went out into the forest and played a game of hide & seek.

Adam, Luke, and Jem at breakfast.

Here's Nash chasing after Mallory on the zipline/swing at the park.

Last weekend Grant's class had a performance at a local Children's Festival held at the former Syrian Embassy. He played the violin, along with a few other kids on their instruments, while the rest of the class sang/danced to 3 or 4 different songs.

April 2009 - Netherlands - Keukenhof & Delft

There is a beautiful tulip garden near Amsterdam that our Dutch friends have told us about. I’ve always wanted to go see the tulips and when I told Creed I would love to go see them sometime, maybe next year. He said, ‘Let’s go now! We aren’t going to just always say we’ll go see it later. We should go see things now.’ So we arranged to go see them the last weekend of April. We got a hotel room about 20 minutes from Keukenhof gardens for Friday night. The kids and I drove up and picked up Creed from work and we drove the 2 hours to the hotel. Some friends of ours, the Balch’s met us there and we got up the next morning and went to the gardens.

It was absolutely beautiful. The flowers were in full bloom and I never knew there could be so many kinds of tulips. We got to the gardens soon after it opened and had about an hour of walking through without too much of a crowd. By noon, it was so crowded we ate lunch and then left.

We drove to Delft on our way home. We were hoping to take a canal tour but the tours were booked until later that night. The boys were complaining most of the trip so we just decided to head home. I did get a chance to buy some Delft china at the flea market we walked around though. It was a beautiful little town and well worth the stop.

We hope to make it to Amsterdam again and see some of the other sites there. It’s not a very long drive from us so I’m sure we will.

The Netherlands is truly what they say it is -- canals, tulips, and windmills were everywhere.

Mallory with her friends Carys and Bethan.

The whole lot of us (minus Richard, who took the photo).

Pitch forks with seat backs on them, stuck into bales of hay.

Inbetween the tulips, there were a few diversions for the kids, including a small section with farm animals. Luke tried imitating the chickens He was very close to being accepted by the chickens as one of their own.

This is not an optical illusion, its just a really big chair.

The boys by the "man tulips" -- extra dark purple is the closest it comes to being manly for a tulip.

One last shot of the Keukenhof tulips.

And these are the "dandelion tulips" we have growing in the field in front of our house -- they haven't quite caught on as well as the tulips from the Netherlands.

Short stop in Delft -- disappointment on finding out the canal boat tours are fully booked for the day.