A quick trip to Hawaii

Over the weekend, we broke out of the grandparents and house hunting modes for a short stint as snowbirds. We attended the campground Luau, which turned out to be a lot of fun. With cooperating weather with temps over 70, you could almost imagine that you were in the Islands –almost:)

The entertainment was provided by a U S Navy trained musical husband and wife team. They did a great job on the steel drums with songs from the islands, the keys and pop hits. There was dinner followed by the campground Hula dancers. They practiced for weeks before the event under the tutelage of one lady who grew up in Hawaii.

I have to mention that Anneke was one of the most colorfully dressed in the group. In a lucky find at the Salvation Army store, she found just the outfit for the occasion. I am pretty sure it was purchased originally for a cruise.

There was dancing inside and under the stars (once the overflow outside dinners moved around).

It was good to spend the evening in the RVing mode.

Flirting with change

Since our return from the Netherlands, we have been concentrating on our possible lifestyle change and spending time with our granddaughter Victoria. We have spent a lot of our physical and mental energy on looking for that perfect house. While we are seriously thinking about giving up the full time lifestyle, we are still planning on traveling and exploring those many places we have not yet seen in the last five years or so, just not in the same way. We love what we do, but change is inevitable.

Having said that, the housing hunting has not been going that well. Our last experience was in 1999, when I was about to retire from the Coast Guard. Since my last duty station was overseas, we had to decide not only where we would live, but also find a job and a house. Once I had found a job, we made a quick trip to the states and found a house and made all the necessary arrangements in only four days.

This go around, there is no time pressure, as we are living in our moveable home of five years. So after over two months of on and off looking we are not much closer than when we started. Perhaps we are a bit smarter on the market here, but otherwise no closer.

During this process, we are still enjoying spending time with family. Victoria is getting to be a hand full. She is mobile now and has to be watched like a hawk. Turn your back and she is pulling stuff down on herself or taking diving lessons off the couch with Grandpa being held accountable for the black and blue injuries.

Today, we took a complete break from our schedule and sat on the beach and watched the waves braking on shore.

Tomorrow, we will hit the newest listing on the housing market.

Amsterdam trendy

Our last stop on our Netherlands trip was a hotel at Schipol Airport. This made our departure a lot easier in the morning, since we had mid AM departure. We could walk just a few minutes from the hotel to the airport. Additional we could check in the night before while shopping in the many airport stores.

After checking out the hotels near or on the airport, we settled on the CitizenM hotel, mostly because of location and cost. Some of the hotels wanted as much as 260 dollars. This relatively new chain of hotels is designed to be trendy hotel. It is also designed for primarily overnight guests. The first thing you notice when arriving is that there is no traditional check-in desk. As you enter the door, you are met by a bank of computer monitors, not unlike the new check-ins at airports. You check yourself in and create your own key.

The lobby consists of a self serve food and drink station. There are also four mini lounges with tv’s and chairs to relax. There is a computer lounge for internet access.

Upon entering your room you find a space that is as wide as the bed at the far end of the room, although it is not very far away. You see a “facility” in the open wide opaque sliding glass column for semi privacy if you feel the need. Ditto with the shower. Not a room that two relative strangers would care to share. A sink stand only a midget could love. Then you discover that the entire room’s controls are contained in the mood remote. I am sure some of those even younger than me would have a tough time making this minicomputer work. I admit that once I got the hang of it, I spent a lot of time playing with it and testing all the mood lighting.

For us, it was a fun one night stay. Long term, the restricted space would wear thin fast. If you are looking for a trendy hotel, this is apparently it! They have one downtown Amsterdam and apparently will be opening one in NYC soon.

Happy New Year!

We have returned from our journey to attend the funeral of Anneke’s mother. It was a long journey with a sad purpose, but within the context, it was a good trip. The funeral was well attended and Anneke was able to visit with family that in some cases she had not seen in a very long time. Her father is holding up as well as can be expected and he was supported through the process by his children and grandchildren.

We did spend Christmas with Anneke’s sister and her family. This was a good time and they prepared a gourmet meal in the bargain, as well. We were able to use the Dutch version of a camping park model owned by her BIL’s parents. It was very nice of them to let us use it and it was very comfortable.

While there was really no time to visit some of our favorite places, we did manage to hit a couple of places in the province of Friesland in the north. The towns of Lemmer and Urk are associated with the historic tradition of the Dutch as seafarers.

Lemmer was where her parents lived after they retired for many years and is famous for its boating activities. From the town, you can access the huge inland waterway system and the IJsselmeer, which was for most of its history completely open to the sea. This area is also famous for racing of the traditional Dutch sailing vessels that is seen in many of the Dutch Masters’ paintings. While in Lemmer we managed to take in a Dutch style Indonesian/Chinese meal.

On one of our north/south trips, we stopped in the traditional fishing village of Urk. From here, before the IJsselmeer was dammed, fishermen braved the elements to bring home the fish to meet the constant demand of the region. The water’s edge memorial demonstrates the hazards of this occupation from the earliest of times until the present. This town is also well known for its kibling (a deep fried fish) and we were able to have some for a quick lunch stop.

We are working on getting ourselves back into the swing of things here and are looking forward to the New Year.

We want to wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year!!