Here's to you Utrecht

A year ago we left Utrecht. We had dinner at Chez Willy's on the Oudegracht and dessert at Venecia.

For this toast, we are proud to announce that we have perfect the Bitter Lemon Recipe, this was one of our favorite drinks in Utrecht:

Bitter Lemon
Lemon Syrup
1 part sugar
1 part water
dissolve in sauce pan over medium heat. When sugar is completely dissolved add
1 part lemon juice
chill completely

Mix
1 part lemon syrup
3 parts chilled tonic water

Serve over ice (with Scottish whiskey is also a nice touch and an Utrecht favorite)

So it was one year ago today that we wrote our last post in our old blog, wegodutch.blogspot.com. I cried when I wrote that entry. It's been a hard year. Harder than we thought to come back. We miss a great deal about Utrecht. We miss walking and biking everywhere. We miss our apartment along the canal. We miss our trips all over Europe. We miss the pace of life. Of course, there are good things about being back in the US....we are closer to family. We are in the same time zone for phone calls. We have a real oven again. But something about that year and a half in Utrecht has really seeped into our souls. Do you know that we still listen to the CD of the Dom bells on Sunday mornings?



So...Here's to you Utrecht. The rattle of bikes over the cobblestones, the voices echoing down the narrow alleys, the coffee's in the sun, the beers by oudegracht, the cows along the train lines, the windmills watching silently over everything, the evening walks for roomijs, the morning walks for fresh appelflappen, the little stores that had plenty to buy, the flowers in the park, the bouquets that filled our rooms every day, the wonderful cheese, and the cathedral bells echoing over the canals.
Cheers.

chris cross applesauce

You know what I love about 4 year olds - they discover that their velcro shoes can do this:

And are just so pleased with themselves.

(and Jake calls these her 'calvin and hobbes shoes' because they look the like little sneakers Calvin always wore).

A great and grand visit

This past week we've had some very special guests...my grandparents, Elena's great-grandparents: Grammy and Grandpa. They flew in from Oregon on Wednesday and we had a wonderful week of sharing our lives with them. We ate tapas outside, grilled, went to the Friday night concert, hiked, painted with the new art kit, went to the park, visited school, ate tasty dinners out.
Basically we had a great time. Elena really enjoyed her great-grandparent play time.

Holiday

Elena has taken to wanting dancing music. So Jake, always looking for an excuse to highlight his 80's music collection, has her started on Madonna. So it's Madonna's 'Holiday' that was the driving music for this trip.

We took off on a short as close to Euro-style holiday as we could get. We went some place that looked interesting with a moderate amount of internet research, stayed in the most interesting place we could find, and were within striking distance of the beach. We headed to the Albermarle region of North Carolina - just below the Virginia boarder. Now, we were a big worried that our vacation was also planned within striking distance of the Great Dismal Swamp - but we've always known how to have a good time.

We stayed in the Beechwood Inn - which is a collection of little restored houses from the pre Civil War. They also make reproduction furniture - so they are furnished authentically. Kids were welcome (they even put a tub of legos in the house!) and it was a nice choice.

We spent three full days exploring the region. The first day we just drove to the Outerbanks to go to the beach. Elena demanded it and when you see how happy she is covered in sunscreen and sand by the ocean, we'll you'd drive there too. I swear, the child will either live or work or both by the ocean because she never seems happier or more at peace and joyful than when she is playing on the beach. One our drive back we swung through a little town on Roanoke Island and found some great icecream. The next day we headed up to a state park, rented a canoe and went in search of turtles, birds, alligators (elena was extremely disappointed not to see one), and other wild life. It was really wonderful to canoe among the cyprus trees. We had lunch in the canoe and stopped for icecream in a drug store soda fountain on the way home. The next morning it was back to Roanoke Island to visit the interpretive museum and boat then back to the beach for a little more sunning. That night we stopped for pizza and ice cream on the way home. Basically, the theme of the trip was icecream!

We really enjoyed the country and thought the area was beautiful.