Day 14: Home, sweet home!

Inside the airport they had a mini-Rijkmuseum, complete with paintings! Also, a library. I've never seen a library in an airport before. I heartily approve.

On the plane I watched the Lego Movie, Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow) and Much Ado About Nothing starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate! Wow, that was a good production!

Here's a tiny little iceberg in the middle of the ocean.

 

And, finally, back in North America! Canada, to be precise. We arrived about 7:00 in the evening, and still had to drive back home. My mom and I slept. My poor dad had to drive the whole way.

Thus ends the journey! It was an absolutely amazing trip. I can't wait to go back to Holland sometime! Hopefully sometime in the nearish future.

Live long and prosper!

I'm back!

So where did I go? Well, my dad, mom, grandma, Tintin, and I...

First went here:

and then we went here:

We've always known we'd visit the Netherlands (aka Holland) because all my lineage is Dutch (I'm pure breed, baby!). Pretty much the whole of my dad's extended family lives in Holland. 

Our traveling thoughts became more serious about a year or two ago. My dad's mom, who immigrated to Canada from Holland in the '50's, invited us to go along with her. We excitedly accepted! And then I convinced my parents and my grandma to make a side-trip to London for three days to see such things as: The Globe, the Sherlock Holmes museum, Abbey Road, the Tintin Shop, Foyles Books, and regular sights like Big Ben and the Tower Bridge.

The remainder of our fortnight was spent in the Netherlands with relatives. We went to Amsterdam for a day... went to the Keukenhof ("Kitchen Garden" - basically a zoo for flowers, without the cages)... went biking... went to numerous small villages... saw windmills... saw forests... saw beaches... went to the farm where my grandma grew up (the land has been in the family since the 1600's!)... ate krokets... ate cheese... experience the culture... boated down canals... 

It was an amazing trip! But I'm at a bit of a loss at how to blog about it. I really want to share our photos with you... but how? I think we took about 2000. Haha. I think that's probably more in two weeks than during the whole of East Coast trip! (Which was 5 weeks, I think).

There's three ways I could go about it: I could post day-to-day what we did (14 blog posts, spread over, probably, a month or two), or I could post in categories (Dutch churches, Dutch villages, Dutch roads, etc.), or I could do a mix of the two (14 blog posts, for each day we had, and special posts about things that I feel need their own posts - like Dutch churches).

What do you think? In which form would you like to know about my trip?

It's so wonderful to be home again!!!

Live long and prosper.

P.S. Sorry I couldn't tell you about the trip beforehand. We figured it would be safer not to post too much online while we were on our trip. Plus, blogging was one less thing to think about. Plus, internet was kind of iffy. I have, however, been reading most of your blog posts! Now to go back and comment on them.

Tot ziens!

What we've seen the past few days.

Here's me driving 75 on the freeway:

 

Can I hear an "AHHHHHHH!! SCARIEST THING EVER!!!!!"?

On Saturday the family went to a zoo. I got to see my very first polar bear and giant tortoise! That was exciting. Although I felt really sorry for the animals - their cages were too small.

 

 

 

Things with horns:

 

 

Today, driving to Grama's, we took a detour to visit a two story outhouse.

 

It had five holes... Three in the bottom and two on top. There was a wall on the bottom floor that separated those holes from the stuff coming down from the top floor... Either way, I wouldn't want to be on the bottom while someone else was on the top, if you get my drift!

I've been doing some re-writing. I had hoped to have it all done by today.... But then I decided to re-do a pretty major part, which means re-writing a whole bunch more. I'll work on that a lot tomorrow, I think.
Also, of course, I've been reading. I'm waiting for the perfect moment to start The Return of the King (aka, sometime when I'm not about to fall asleep on my feet). I'm still reading Emma. And I started another Agatha Christie. This one is called Dead Man's Folly and so far it's one of my top favorites, even though I'm only a few chapters in and nobody's been murdered yet. I like it because it has Ariadne Oliver. She is a character! I'm not exactly sure how she and Poirot met... I haven't read that book yet. But she's a detective writer whose just a little bit dunderheaded. She's hilarious. I love her. I think she's one of my top favorite characters ever.

Here's a scene with her that I find fits us authors particularly well.
The pretense of the book is that Mrs. Oliver has set up a Murder Hunt (which is like a treasure hunt or a How to Host a Murder game). She has come up with all these clues and suspects for people to solve. The only problem is that she thinks something far more sinister is going on... So she calls in her good friend Poirot.
In this scene, she's trying to explain the plot of the Murder Hunt.

Mrs. Oliver gave a deep sigh and turned to Poirot. "Well, I'll  have to tell it you, then. Only I'm not very good at telling things. I mean if I write things, I get them perfectly clear, but if I talk, it always sounds the most frightful muddle; and that's why I never discuss my plots with anyone, I've learn not to, because if I do, they just look at me blankly and say - 'er - yes, but - I don't see what happened - and surely that can't possibly make a book.' So damping. And not true, because when I write it, it does!"

Anyways, I should be off to bed. Early to bed and early to rise makes a (wo)man healthy, wealthy, and wise!
Unfortunately, it's a little too late to be calling this early so... I'll just leave.
Goodnight!

Live long and prosper.

On the road again.

I just can't wait to get on the road again...
Who else loved that Veggie Tales CD (and still do) when they were younger?

Anyway, I apologize for my absence the past few... weeks, really. I've had scheduled posts, sure, but most of the time, I've just been gone gone gone (I've been watching Eloise At Christmastime too much... I'm starting to sound like Nanny - she's from England and likes to say everything three times).
Now we are on the road again. We're driving across the country to visit my grandparents in Minnesota. Right now we're somewhere in North Dakota and I'm super sore because I drove three hours on the freeway today! 75 mph is pretty scary.... But we all survived. Although my shoulders will never be the same, I fear.

As well as driving, I have been knitting a scarf (while listening to The Swiss Family Robinson - love that book), reading Emma, watching Doctor Who, adding the necessary scenes to Part Three, and sleeping.

When we reach our destination, I'll do a longer post!

Live long and prosper.