Saturday on vacation

Into every vacation a little rain must fall. If it weren't for the rain we wouldn't discover things such as local museums. Visiting Holland for the tulips and the beaches is one thing, and we often hit their tourist places, like Windmill Island or Dutch Village, but we this was the first year we visited their little local museum. It was definitely little, with a rather eclectic collection that ranged from local history to bizarre Native American or even Mexican artifacts, but every museum is worth a good look. No photography allowed, of course, but we got to see Dutch impressionism by rather obscure artists, a collection of "after hours work" by Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, and Calvin reading the information plaques all by himself (which alone was worth the trip).

And afterwards, rather inadvertently (like the rest of the trip, really) we stumbled onto the Tulip Time parade and its multitude of festival queens and courts—the Tulip Queen, the Maple Syrup Queen, the Red Flannel Queen, the Asparagus Queen, the Apple Queen. I had no idea there were so many eligible teens in Holland. Calvin adored the bands. And any Dutch dancers he happened to espy. And we stopped by New Holland for beers and snacks while we waited for traffic to clear after the festivities ended, because this was probably the one day in all the year that traffic crawls to a stop in this little town.

Friday on vacation

Today the weather was chillier, maybe ten degrees chillier, but still sunny and warm. There are so many treats about a vacation. Getting up a little later, for one. Enjoying time to do whatever, whenever is another. When given a number of options Calvin has been very clear about his wishes. He wants to see Dutch dancing—lots of it—and he wanted to go on a tour of the windmill. We did both of those things today. Windmill Island in Holland is home to a real Dutch windmill, brought all the way from the Netherlands and reassembled jigsaw style. It is also home to the only female Master Miller in all of America. After our tour today Calvin can tell you all of this and more.

And because it's vacation and we can do what we want, we enjoyed lunch at New Holland Brewery again today, followed by special chocolates from the Holland Peanut Store (all inadvertently timed around performances of Dutch Dance, which was perfect).

And when we got back from town it was warm enough to walk the beach down to the lighthouse, where we watched them dredge the channel a little further up.

Tomorrow promises rain, and spring vacation, Tulip Time even, just wouldn't be the same without it.

Thursday on vacation

There is only so much that I can write about while we're vacation. We're relaxing, we're soaking up the weather, which has decided to be beautiful for us, we're getting in touch with our Dutch heritage. We first started taking this now annual trip when Calvin was not quite a year old, which makes this our fifth go, and in that time we've developed a handful of traditions. We always have lunch (and beer samplers) at New Holland Brewing Company, and when the weather cooperates we walk along the beach to the State Park and channel opening. We did both of those things today, as well as visiting Marketplaats, watching Dutch dancing in the streets, and sitting in awe, long after dark, of the beautiful lightning display from storms out over the lake, storms that actually went north and south of us tonight. After Calvin was in bed Jon and I learned Carcassone, a new game that we picked up at a local toy store earlier.

They make wooden shoes on wooden sawhorses, which made Calvin think of Oz, of course.

We're here

Pictures like these and you may think we've gone off to Florida, but actually we're just a few hours from home on the western shores of Michigan, where we found blue skies and mid-summer temperatures. And calm, and joy, and smiles. And frigid, frigid water. We make this trip every year to enjoy the festivities of Holland's Tulip Time. Mostly we find enjoyable but chilly spring weather, espeically with the wind coming off the lake. Today's summer-like weather was a special treat, and it might repeat itself tomorrow. Be it spring or summer in the air, though, we're here to breath it easily and get a little rest and relaxation in. Vacation. It's for resting, reading, sight seeing, free time. We'll do all of that. Expect pictures of tulips, and maybe more of surf, sun and sand, if the weather holds (although I don't hold out much hope of that).

Can't sleep for all the excitment

I woke up in the middle of the night last night, or perhaps in the wee hours of the morning, to crashes of thunder and the percussive sound of hail on the windows and roof accompanied by a driving rain. I have always loved a good storm. I prefer them earlier in the day when I can enjoy them more fully, mind you, but even being awakened I just burrow further into bed and let them lull me back to sleep. More recently, however, I find myself postponing enjoyment of the display while I run a mental checklist first: are the rain barrels set? Did we bring in all the toys? Are all the windows shut? And when all things are accounted for I think of what a measurably peaceful thing it is to be able to enjoy the storm from inside our sturdy, protective shelter—what a wonderful thing that invention and hard work have brought people to this—and then I enjoy the storm all the more.

When we woke up this morning the sun was actually shining and the clouds were moving off. The best part about the morning was seeing that the edge garden faired the storm so well. Until we got the more recent plantings in it had suffered storms with massive runoff and erosion. We're on the right track.

We created a volcano felt set today. Then he says to me "next we need to make a Roman gods felt set." Right. At some point the whole "mom can do anything" illusion is going to wear off.

And while we created felt, and later while we read books, we also watched birds. A Baltimore oriole came and sat on our hummingbird feeder today. What a delight! He couldn't eat from it, and he left, but we wedged an orange half in the tree hoping he'd come back, and on a walk a little later we found him hanging out in a puddle on our walking path. We also saw a gray catbird, so that made two new birds today.

But we spent most of our day preparing for an upcoming trip—store trips, meeting with the lovely person who stays with our dogs, cleaning, packing. When on earth did packing become such an ordeal? Clothes, books, toys, electronics...and finally we were done, but it took the little boy twice as long to go to sleep. I think I still get pretty excited about some things, but rarely does anything like that keep me from sleeping anymore. Not even beautiful thunderstorms.