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!

Yep, We're Still Here....And Euro As Ever!

Okay, so this is REALLY bad.....our last post was in January! We have been so busy travelling. Yeah, we know, really rough, you say. But our time has also been eaten up battling the world's BIGGEST 2 and a half year old!

Let us break down what's the haps since the New Year struck:

In February, we were joined by our friends Bryan and Erica on an Alps ski trip. We left our house in Amsterdam at 6:00am and drove through Germany on the Autobahn to Kitzbuhel, Austria. The trip took 12 hours with only two stops.....one gas stop and one Mickey D's stop! The boys did great in the car.....aside from Carter's motion sickness!

On a side note, we have to say that international McDonald's restaurants are really amazing! They are equipped with leather couches, plasma TV's, and individual bathrooms that are clean and lit up with fancy colored lights!

Austria was amazingly beautiful in landscape, architecture, and weather! We finally got to experience some California weather (well, almost)! Snowboarding on the Alps was great, and so was drinking beer at the top of the mountain! In the middle of town there was an "oasis". An indoor swimming pool and water slides. We got to show off our newly acquired pastey white Amsterdam skin! The pool was fun, but the waterslides were even better. They were like the water version of Space Mountain....all dark with neon lights. I hadn't had so much fun in so long. I am sure that all of the teenagers at the top of the water slides were cracking up at "that old lady" screaming and laughing every time she went down the slides!


We took a day trip to Bruges, Belgium in March. We walked around and toured the sights, and even took a horse carriage ride.

March was wonderful because it brought us back home to California. Again, the boys did great on the plane. They got to sit with the pilots and wear their hats. They got wings pinned on their shirts, and loved every second of it! Carter's motion sickness visited again on the ride to Grandma and Papa's house. Tony had to work the two weeks we were home, but Stacie got to shop! I couldn't wait to get to the mall and Target! The ATM machine (or what some of you close to my heart call "the ready teller"!) was smokin'! We were fortunate enough to be able to spend Easter with our families. The Easter Bunny was good to us this year.

We spent the last part of our trip home in SoCal. We got to stay in a Marriott Villa in Newport Beach. We took the boys to Disneyland. They had no idea what Disneyland was, but, boy, they sure do now! They absolutely loved it, and are excited because they know that next month they will get to go to Disneyland Paris! We went to the Character Breakfast in the morning, and got to eat breakfast with lots of the Disney characters. They even signed the boys' autograph book.

We returned to Amsterdam the first part of April.....with another great plane trip......and another visit from Carter's motion sickness! I always wondered if anybody REALLY used those barf bags for anything other than spitting old gum into. Unfortunately, my question was answered by my son!

April held a trip to the tulip farms (Kuekenhof), a visit to Volendam (an old fishing town with nice shops and views), and a visit from Doug and Jenni (Tony's cousin and his girlfriend). We also journied to Bloemendaal--a sweet reminder of a California beach bar and grill, where the kids can play and the adults can drink a beer (or if you're the Q's, two)! April also marked the end of training wheels for Carter. He mastered riding his two wheeler within days and looks like a true Dutchman now! Only one nasty fall for Evil Kneivel so far. The last day of April is the biggest party day of the year in Holland, especially Amsterdam. It is called Koninginnedag (Queen's Day for those of us that don't speak Dutch!). Every canal in the city is jammed with boats. Every cafe, coffeshop, store, sidewalk, street, etc. is packed to the point of gross. Everybody wears orange and it is one big ol' party. Great to experience it once, but we will probably head to a different country next year for the weekend.


The beginning of May was greeted with a visit by Stacie's parents. A few days after they arrived, we all went to Paris. A few days after Paris, Tony and Pete went to Scotland for some serious golfing. We would love to share our latest pics of Paris, Scotland, Amsterdam, and Avery now wearing undies, but some jackass on Easy Jet decided to steal our cameras and I-pods so that's not possible.

OK, back to Paris. A short train ride from Amsterdam brought us into the heart of the city. Our first task was to find a taxi to take us to the apartment we rented. After being jockied around, we finally found someone to drive us the 10 mins. to the apt. for a reasonable price. This is where we would insert pictures of the beautiful Parisian chalet we were going to call "home" for the next 5 days, but since someone else is enjoying the pics we took, that's not going to happen. Let us enlighten you.....

***The doorknob was broken, so in its place was a pair of scissors you had to turn to the left to get the front door open.
***The kitchen was inhabited by ants and crumbs and dirty dishes.
***The shower was SO SMALL Stacie had to stand OUTSIDE of it to shave her legs.
***The bathroom had to be bleached before we could use it
***The TV, internet, and phone did not work.
***The fish tank was held together with string and duct tape (yes, we were in charge of keeping the fish alive)
***The ceilings in the "TV room" and bathroom were peeling apart
***There was an unmarked jar of mysterious red sauce in the fridge, along with some mayo, mustard, and cheese
***The freezer not only held ice cube trays, but also a spilled, frozen, buillon looking substance
***There was a wet shower towel hanging in the bathroom when we arrived

Oh, the list could go on and on....if only we had our pictures!

We really enjoyed Paris, but it was jinxed from the get-go.

Carter had a fever, the flu, a rash, a cough, and his eardrum ruptured. Avery got a really bad case of pink eye. His eyes were glued shut every morning. Pete and Bonnie were attacked by bloody noses. Pete, Bonnie, and Stacie were battling allergies which turned into coughs and colds. And of course, Tony escaped it all! On the plus side, Avery is no longer wearing diapers!!! Side note: NEVER potty train in a foreign country!

Okay....on to Italy!

We started out in Florence. We rented another apt., but actually had a "normal" place this time. We saw all of the beautiful sights...St. Marco Square, the Duomo

Looking Back Part I: The trip out (Departure from SFO –> October 11, 2007)

The night before we took off, the Hidalgos were kind enough to let us overtake their home with the kids and our 10+ bags. Stacie came to pick me up at Cisco in the Yukon rental. That was when the leaving really hit, no home, no car, everything is all packed up, here we go.

We headed up to San Francisco to drop off the bags and head over to Luisa’s for dinner. Gigi, Rooster and Bridgette came up from Santa Cruz, Bri and Anthony got home from work, then we all headed off to dinner. Jaime couldn’t make dinner as he was just getting back from a romantic getaway in Alaska with Joe. (Word on the street was that they enjoyed a nice night’s sleep on a bear skin rug in the shape of a heart.)

Luisa was fantastic to us all night, the Chianti was flowing along with the Oso Bucco. She even took the boys for a while and filled them up with ice cream, cookies & suckers. This was a great way to say good bye to the US for a while!!

The next morning we woke up and got ready to head off to the airport. I checked my email one last time to find out that our temporary housing had changed and that we needed to find our way to central Amsterdam on our own. This started to worry me, thinking ahead to the tired kids, tired parents, 3x more luggage than we have arms and on top of all of that, driving through the Canals in Amsterdam. There was no turning back now. Amsterdam or Bust!

We couldn’t have asked for a better plane ride, no crying or screaming from the kids. The only bummer was that neither one of them slept the whole ride out which left for one tired Q family. We flew through Frankfurt and left for Amsterdam after only an hour layover. An hour and 15 minutes later, we were in Amsterdam.

After waiting for all of the bags, we piled them onto other bags, an airport cart and some onto the stroller. We pushed them through the airport, to the Hertz desk, and got the keys to our Honda Civic Hybrid (with a bumping system) after about an hour. I stuck the two car seats in, put Carter and Avery into their seats, then began piling as much luggage in every open space that car had left. Still after all of that, we had 3 large bags and no front seat.... It was off to the Taxi stand for Stacie, the stroller, and the 3 remaining bags.

Before turning the car on, both of the boys were out. I entered the address into the “Hertz Never Lost” and off we went. Good old Never Lost took me right into the Jordaan, on Binnen Oranjestraat, where our temporary apartment was. I definitely didn’t feel comfortable driving there, tired, small streets, canals & bikes everywhere. I just parked the car on the side of a small street and hoped that Stacie would show up soon. She got there at the same time as our leasing agent, and we started unloading the car.

Stacie said that she was a BIT nervous riding around alone and tired with a Dutch/British/Jamaican taxi driver for half an hour having no idea if she’d end up in some brush under a canal to never see her family again! Finally, her taxi driver went down our new street the wrong way and got into a swearing match with a policeman. The taxi driver proceeded to tell the cop to f*@k off, so he did, and let them go by. This was our first view into a culture of tolerance.

We unpacked the boys first, laid Carter in the small bed up on the 3rd floor and put Avery on the couch on the 2nd floor. After sleeping for 8 hours or so, the house woke up and we headed out for some dinner. Since our last dinner was Italian in the US, why not make it Italian in Amsterdam? Tired and not knowing the culture, we stumbled into our first dinning experience, not sure if kids were welcome, and if we needed to seat ourselves? It all worked out and we got a nice dinner along with some Heineken for Mom and Dad and apple juice for the boys. Avery quickly turned that pizza into some “child output” and it ran out through his pants. Thinking he had just spilled juice on his pants, I put him on my lap to calm him down, only to find out later that Avery and Dad now both had pooey pants.

The house we were to call “home” for the next month was in a great area full of hustle and bustle. The house was 4 stories spread out over 4 flights of tiny spiral steps. Not good after too many drinks! The boys shared the front room on the top floor. Carter got the bed and Avery pulled up some hard wood floor and a Thomas the Train air mattress, as we didn’t trust him to not roll off the bed! The place definitely exercised form over function.

The parking in the Jordaan is insane and expensive, and Tony had to go out every few hours and feed more Euros into the meter. Not convenient.

We quickly found the supermarket, and learned even more quickly that one must bring their own grocery bags to pack your groceries into yourself. Otherwise, you have to buy the grocery bags before you pack your own groceries.

The owner of the apartment, Hussein, was friendly and full of information. He said the apartment used to be an Indian restaurant with red velvet wallpaper. He had the bottom floor dug out an extra meter and a half and made a bedroom/laundry room/bathroom out of it. The entire apartment was decorated with Ikea items, except for the PINK fridge, which Hussein hand-picked himself to match his undies!

A few days in we met with a realtor to have a look around Oud Zuid (Old South) to find a permanent home for the next two years. We loved the last one we saw and thankfully were approved to move into it at the end of October.

December Festivities

We had a busy December!
Carter's class put on two Christmas shows, in which he played a holiday bat and ran around the stage to the Batman song!!
We went to Barcelona, Spain for 5 days. Such a beautiful place to soak in some sun, see some castles, and sip some Cuarenta y Tres (that's 43 for you gringos). Salud to the Hidalgos!
We had 4 days of light snow. We thought we were going to have a white Christmas, but it all melted away pretty quickly.
December also marked the beginning of the Q's getting ripped at the gym! Watch the muscle growth in the pictures (along with Ton's beard growth....how else does a dude keep his face warm during European winter months....okay.....don't answer that!!)
The last day of December amazed us with the most spectacular fireworks display we have ever seen. Dutch tradition dictates all people must go outside to join their neighbors in sipping champagne and lighting firecrackers, bottle rockets, screamers, sparklers, etc. The Dutch didn't let us down! The fireworks began at 11:50 and continued full force until after 1am. Unbelievably, Carter and Avery slept through the whole thing, even though it sounded like someone was unleashing an AK47 in the middle of their room!
December also marked the end of Paprika. We had to say goodbye to Uncle James right before Christmas. He had to return to shorts, sunglasses, and burritos! Long live Tio Pepe's!

And Here We Are!

Yes, that's right. The Q's are alive and kickin' in the Red Light capital of the world! We are finally all settled in and enjoying every minute!

Besides exploring our new "hometown", we have travelled to Utrecht and Belgium. Barcelona, Spain is on tap for this upcoming weekend! Can't wait to have some 60 degree weather!

We have had 4 visitors already! A friend from CP, Bridgette Q and her friend, and Paprika, otherwise known as Uncle Jaime.