Road Trippin' Catch-up

Before I start this post, I must update you on our curtain situation here (having been in such dire circumstances last post). I have found curtains! Best part? We can still afford to feed the hungry little monkeys I've got running around my house. So, it's a win-win for us all here in the White home.

The past 2 weekends we have done some really fun day-trips that I have failed to blog about. I have to admit that some things are hard here, and some things are great here, but the BEST thing for me so far has been the traveling. I love that we are so close to so many amazing destinations. I love that we can wake up Saturday morning, get dressed, eat breakfast, hop in the car, and spend the day doing something I've only ever seen in a book or a movie, and - depending on the destination - be back in time to lay down to bed at night in my own bed. All of our day-tripping has also made me think about how much there is to do most anywhere, it's just a matter of getting out and doing it. So, go explore! In the meantime, here's my road trippin' catch-up:

Last weekend we took a day trip up to Kinderdijk, Holland. It was the cutest little town (a theme I am finding here in Europe) and the itinerary for the day included windmills and wooden shoes. In Kinderdijk there are a number of working windmills, all dating back to the 1700s. On Saturday afternoons in July and August, all of the windmill's flags are put down and the windmills are turned on. It was very cool to see. I'm not sure who was more excited...me or the kids. We were able to go inside one of the windmills and climb flights of extremely steep and narrow stairs to see how families used to live in the windmills. Then we took a boat ride in a canal that connectes all of the windmills.

 

When we finished up with the windmills we headed out to a wooden shoe factory we had read about in a book. Our day trip was a little last minute, and our internet only works very sporadically, so we hadn't double checked the factory's existence, but we thought we'd be fine. Turns out we thought wrong. The factory was actually closed. We were all a little disappointed and decided to grab dinner while we decided what else we wanted to do. McDonalds was the closest resturant that popped up on our GPS and although I'm not a huge McDonald's fan generally, Ryan and I thought it would be a great place for the kids to run around while we figured out our game plan. Well, not only did we find McDonalds, we found this in the parking lot:

I thought it was hilarious, and so oddly placed as we were in the middle of nowhere! So as any good tourist, I got my camera out and starting taking pictures. It sounds lame, but for some reason seeing that statue totally made up for missing the wooden shoes. I mean, there are plenty of wooden shoe factories in Holland, but how often do you just happen upon an enormous cement Michael Jackson statue. Hardly, if ever!

Yesterday we set out to go to the coast on the North Sea. We have been missing the Oregon Coast this summer and wanted to try and get one more beach day in before fall hits. The sun was shining when we woke up, but by the time we hit the car a light sprinkle had started. An hour later as we pulled into Knokke, it was full-on torrential downpour. It was the hardest rain I have ever seen in my life, and coming from Portland I thought I knew rain. We tried to go to the beach, but it was so cold and windy (and rainy!) so we walked into town. The whole outing was actually quite funny, and basically consisted of Ryan and I carrying Charlotte and Landon, dragging Brayden along, running from awning to awning exploring the city. We tried to wait-out the rain by eating large ice cream cones and window shopping, but in the end we determined that the rain would probably last, so we headed for home. All 3 kids fell asleep in the car pretty quickly so Ryan and I made a small detour through the city of Brugge (our other potential destination for the day) and drove around while the kids slept. Brugge was beautiful and was filled with gothic architecture and trendy shops. I can guarantee that you will see a post sometime soon about our adventures there.