Weekend trip to the beach

We took advantage of the 4th of July weekend to get out to one of Holland's beach locations. Up off the north west coast of Holland, there are a number of small islands that continue into Denmark. You can actually take a guided walking tour through the ocean to one of them, though we opted for the ferry ride as Avery's legs are still a bit short for that one. For a Friday and Saturday night combo, we took up a hotel room on Vlieland. We really couldn't have picked a better way to relax for the weekend.

The island of Vlieland is an hour and a half ferry ride after an hour's drive from Amsterdam. Once getting to the island, you find that there are only about 10 cars and buses on the whole place. People generally just use bikes or walk. You can walk from one side of the island to the other in about 20 minutes.

After a short bus ride from the ferry station and dropping our bags at the hotel, we walked a few meters down to the beach and took up a seat at the restaurant over-looking the ocean. We ordered some dinner and drinks while watching the waves and people playing on the beach. After the kids were done with dinner, they played on the beach while we enjoyed a couple of cold Heinekens.

The hotel was great as well. Located just steps from the beach with great views of a serene & isloated island, it also had all the amenities to keep us all entertained (an indoor & outdoor pool, tennis courts, two playgrounds, a bowling alley, 3 restaurants & organized activities for the kids). Carter couldn't get enough of the pool. He is pretty anxious to learn how to swim without the floaties, though "gave it a go" (see British slang) and realized a bit more practice was needed.

After getting up on Saturday morning, we took a nice walk from our hotel into the village to grab a few snacks for the room and for our beach picnic. The day was shaping up beautiful from the get go. We woke up to clear sunny skies that carried through the whole day. After getting back from our walk and lugging our groceries (cheese, beer & cookies) across a whole island, we quickly proceeded to the beach where we lounged in near 80 degree weather for a little over 5 hours.

The only minor snag in the trip was that we forgot to grab our beach chairs when getting off the ferry on Friday. Though a bit worried that we had seen the last of them, we came to find them untouched and nicely placed in a lost and found area at the terminal. It's nice to know that there are places in this world that don't take advantage of the lost goods.

Upon our return to our parked car, the sunshine disappeared and gave way to a major rain storm. We sure lucked out on the weekend weather!