Med Cruise Day 3: Welcome Aboard

Angie's Journal

Today we checked onto the boat. It was a pretty easy process with only a mild bit of confusion. They had Sponge Bob hanging around the boarding area to occupy the kids while we waited. Misty loved that :) We hung out at the pool until we could check into our rooms. My mom somehow got us a free upgrade to the balcony suites. 

A Room with a View

We ate on the pool deck for lunch. Lexi quickly discovered the soft serve ice cream machine. For the next two days I didn't see her without an ice cream in her hands lol. Ray magically wore out Misty in the kiddie pool area. My mom watched our little sleeping beauty while Ray and I checked out the spa. We wanted to book a couples treatment, but we ended up booking acupuncture treatments because we were both so curious about it. We booked our consultation for after dinner, and then got poked later that evening. Personally I loved the acupuncture treatment and booked additional appointments, but Ray did not enjoy it at all. Shortly after our acupuncture appointment we went to bed.

Ray's Journal

The day dawned later for us than we thought it would - at almost 7AM. We all got up and showered and dressed. Then we walked to a nearby bakery and ate donuts, Lemansa’s, and something that looked like a flattened pecan twirl with cream cheese (turned out to be vanilla pudding, but it smelled wonderful and Angie is happy to report it was so very tasty that she didn’t think about sharing it).

The food and rest helped a lot so we were all in good spirits and ready for the day. We grabbed our luggage and walked a block and a quarter to the nearby Taxi queue, which we grabbed and took to the ship. As we were loading our luggage I spoke to both the cabbies (it would take two cabs to haul a family of six and all their luggage). They both spoke good english and knew where the port was. When we got to the port, Kathy’s cab driver seemed to have forgotten his english skills and math skills in some sort of an attempt to have her pay 10 euro more. Angie’s and my cabbie spoke very well with us the whole ride and seemed delighted that our kids enjoyed artwork so much.

We unloaded the taxi’s and gave our luggage to the porter. I tried to do the whole discreet skipping of his tip to him in a handshake, but the guy reached out in such a way as to indicate that he didn’t want to shake hands, he wanted money. Farewell gentle notions of Spanish culture.

Checking in through customs and security and room/boarding checks was a hassle, but was as straightforward and the Norwegian Cruise line company could probably have made it. It did a cause a little argument between Angie, her mom, and Myself. The guy behind the counter said the kids room cards would do this and that, but not the other. The ladies interpreted it to mean something which I thought was exactly what the the counter guy had said it wouldn’t do. By the time that argument ended (only seconds later) we were seated and just about to start waiting patiently, when who should show up but the same person that lives in a pineapple under the sea, absorbent and porous and spongey is he? That’s right! Spongebob the character showed up, and so did Misty’s awesome smile!!! She was so amazed that she ran up to him and hugged him, saying she loved him! It was so cute! I even had a half chance to catch it on film - yeah me! Then it was boarding time.

Once onboard we knew we would have to wait for our rooms to be readied. So we went to the pool deck and ate cheeseburgers and fries. Then those of us who packed our swimsuits (not Neil - he didn’t bother to read the list his mother had so carefully put together in an effort to ensure that he had everything he would to maximize his fun onboard - ha ha foolish mortal!) put them on and went swimming. They had only just started filling the pools when we sat down to eat, but the pools and water slides were ready by the time we were. Misty and I had a great time playing in the kids pool and the deep end (I was holding her the whole time!).

Our rooms were ready way before any of us had thought they would be. Angie and Lexi and Neil all independently toured the ship, while I was swimming with Misty. When Angie returned she asked to take me to the spa so we could book our couples therapy. This coincided with Misty running out of energy extremely well - she had just fallen asleep in my arms while swimming. So we got out of the pool, dried off and went back tot he room to change and shower - while Misty took a nap.

Kathy took over babysitting duties of the sleeping super cutie so Angie and I could go to the spa. We got a tour of a pretty well funded and confusingly layed out place. They had a normal nail care area (which had some pretty stupid kids rules - so Lexi could not have a grandma and me or even a mommy and me mani/pedi), and a connecting gym full of cardio gear and some weight equipment, and a lot of therapy rooms for all sorts of relaxation therapies. But they had an awesome heat therapy area! It started with 4 different types of steam rooms - some with no dry heat and some with minerals/herbs/etc. They had four chairs which looked liked waves made of small tile. These were heated and perfectly shaped for lifting the feet above the heart. In less than 1 minute of laying on them, neither of us wanted to get up. They also had a large [what looked like] pool. It had a 4 way water jet fountain in the middle and some weird metal poles on one side. I found out that it is a hot tub with jacuzzi features and a place to sit or lay down. It was absolutely designed for people who work their backs too hard (like me!). What a place!

View from Our Cabin's Balcony

We didn’t like any of their couples only therapy sessions, so we opted to try an individual treatment experience we were both curious about - acupuncture! We even setup a consultation so we knew what we were getting into. The acupuncturist gave Angie an amazing read. She took Angie’s pulse and looked at her tongue, than without asking any questions she pronounced Angie as being stressed (we all knew that), constipated (okay, how could she tell that?), and highly anxious - being prone to anxiety attacks. She nailed it!! That was amazing!!!! My read was not so interesting - she looked at my tongue and took my pulse then said I was stressed but healthy.

After our consult we took the whole family to Tepanyaki’s. This is one of those cooking is the show dinner places. Being on a ship though meant that there were no fires or flaming entrees. Pretty tame event, but the food was very nice.

After dinner, Angie and I went in for our acupuncture therapy. I asked the therapist if she could help my right ankle as it has been hurting for  a few weeks and she said it would be no problem. She also stuck me for a relaxation job. I came out of it with my ankle very stiff and incredibly sore and was NOT relaxed. Needless to say, I was unimpressed with this 2000 year old remedy which only moments ago I had been so curious about.

Angie came out after me and looked AMAZING! Her skin had a great parlor and a very bright glow to it! She looked so incredibly happy and relaxed! I was amazed at how well it appeared to have worked for her! She said she had already had a bowel movement and felt tingly all over. Her skin was crawling with new vigor. It was amazing! I was so happy for her that I fell for the therapists sell of more sessions and booked Angie for 2 more therapies during the week.

At that point we went to find out kids and set some ground rules for curfew, etc. That took a while! We found out that someone had been in the arcade to the tune of $178.50!!!!! [whistles loudly].

Med Cruise Day 2: Barcelona

Angie's Journal
This was our first full day of vacation. It was a lot of fun, but we had some kinks in the day. I like to think of it as our dry run for our port calls on the cruise. Misty had some trouble adjusting to vacation with the different foods and schedules. We stopped at a quaint cafe for breakfast. Ray and Lexi tried the hot chocolate which is so thick your spoon can sit on top of...yum. The idea is to have a bunch of things to dip into the chocolate, so they got one of everything to dip into their chocolate for breakfast.


After breakfast we did the Hop On Hop Off Bus (HOHO bus as I like to call it) route through Barcelona's upper city. The route was a lot longer than we thought, and the heat started to get to us. Lexi was really looking forward to seeing the works from Gaudi around Barcelona. Unfortunately so was everybody else, so the lines were too long to get in. So we just rode the HOHO bus which got hot and uncomfortable.

Once we got back to our apartment we rested a bit and went out for dinner. That night was a big festival for the Spanish culture so we heard fireworks and shouting all night. As much as I love Barcelona, they are LOUD people. Ray seems quite comparatively.

Ray's Journal

Slept in until almost 9 AM. What a relief as we all seemed to need the extra rest. Misty even slept in - this of course after nearly kicking Lexi and Grandma out of the bed at night with all her kick/stretches.

Walked around the block to a place Kathy had seen yesterday as having served breakfast. It was not so good, but it filled our bellies (except for poor Misty who refused to eat anything that wasn’t a Pop-Tart - I think it may have also been in part because of her allergies).

The whole family decided to try the Hop-On Hop-Off bus as it has worked so well for us in the past. There were 3 routes to take in this really cool city - The red which was  all the museums, the Green which was the beach and city attractions, and the Blue which was the sports and Gaudi works of art. We took the blue line so we could see his park and Familia Sagrado. These were double decker open topped buses like in London. Unfortunately the line for these was so long and the buses so packed that we did not all get to sit together.

The tour had so much area to cover and so many different sites to see that we were all a little tired of sitting by the time we got to the Sagrado Familia. It was massive enough, however, that we soon forgot ourselves and just stood in awe. the line to get tickets to gain entry was over two hours long (and was advertised as such verbally). The line to get in was less lengthy, but not by much. Lexi, the one who had begged to go to this, asked to not wait in line. With those kind of lines, none of us questioned her decision. We did, however, decide to try to book tickets online once we got to the boat later that week - something we were told was not allowed, but which definitely had the option of at the ticket booth. We are hoping it will save us a significant amount of time waiting in line.

So we all hopped back on the bus. We didn’t realize that this tour was as long as it was, so none of had eaten anything in over 4 hours by the time we got to Gaudi’s park. This meant that we were all tired of riding a cramped bus, hungry, and very warm as once again the weather god was being so very nice to us (Beeeeautiful skies with 80 degree temps and just a little humidity). The humidity and sunshine seemed to be taking a toll on our bodies, so with nothing to eat we were all getting cranky. The decision was made to not get off the bus at Gaudi’s park, but to ride it back to the Ramblas (street name of where we “lived” with lots of food vendors and restaurants).

We ate at a restaurant near the stop based it’s prices and deals. The food was lousy! It was quite possibly the blandest tasting paella I have ever eaten. We all decided to skip desert and go to a Gelato place nearby. That was some good tasting stuff. And it was very needed. We were all still tired, so we opted to go back the apartment and take a siesta. None of us took an actual nap, but we all crashed hard. No one wanted to move the rest of the day. So we didn’t. We packed our bags in anticipation of departing early for the cruise ship and we relaxed.

Med Cruise Day 1: Travel to Barcelona

Happy Birthday Misty! We traveled to Barcelona on Misty's birthday. We didn't plan our trip around Misty's birthday; it just happened that the best time to leave was on her special day.

Ray's Journal

Friday started off the wrong way - we got to the airport 3 hours ahead of our flight instead of two (bad email communications on my side). Then our flight was delayed by over a half hour. Once we boarded we sat on the Tarmac for an additional half hour.

Misty, the cutest little birthday girl, got pretty cranky waiting all that time for the promised rocket ship ride to the moon. Okay, so we fibbed a little because she said she didn’t know what an airplane was; but she saw the airplanes at the airport and instantly knew what they were (by then it was too late to correct the charade). Sitting on the Tarmac, she got even more cranky and started saying she didn’t want to be on an airplane or that she wanted to go home. Once we actually got to take off, she figured it out and started beaming and giggling and repeating that she was going to the moon. All the adults around us looked and “awwwwwhhhhh’d” at her happiness. From then on, things started going right.

We got to Barcelona and we all instantly felt better as the weather was exactly what we all needed. The geographic area looked exactly like southern Italy and most other Mediterranean areas. Angie really likes it.

We met up with Grandma who was chillin’ at a cafe outside our apartment, and went to dinner. The adults had some Paella Senorito and loved it! The birthday girl had some small fried chicken balls which were wonderful. Then we all had some great ice cream based deserts. At that point we all sang the Happy Birthday song to Misty - who absolutely lit up and beamed as we sang. After dinner we walked around for a while, eventually stumbling into the famous Mercado Rialta (city center square). The kids went home with Grandma and Angie and myself went on our date.

Angie and I walked around aimlessly for over an hour, mostly just following our “shiny” instincts. We came across the Gothic Cathedral and the museum for Gaudi (both closed but cool looking). The we found a Flamenco bar. The main dancer for one song grabbed a young man from the audience and brought him onstage to teach him a very short lesson in Flamenco dance. The next song the main singer sang a song all the younger ladies seem to know. He then went around putting the microphone in front of several of them to have them sing into. That went well enough that he brought the mike to yours truly (who most definitely did not know the song) and had me try to repeat the words as he most rapidly said them. To say the least I failed. Angie was laughing so it might be cool.

Lastly, we walked around the cool night life of Barcelona and saw the city. I rather enjoyed it, and Angie seems to have also liked it.

Angie's Journal

Today was a travel day, but it was nice that it was a short flight. Unfortunately the flight was delayed and there was a long wait on the tarmac, which made Misty a bit cranky. However, once we were in the air she was fine. We made Misty a special Birthday Girl t-shirt to try and make her birthday a bit special. She was very excited to see Grandma, which made my mom happy that she remembered her. 

The apartment my mom picked out was really nice. It lacked some amenities that a hotel might have had, but being in the historic area in an apartment that slept 6 with A/C and a lift was enough for us. Since we got in mid-afternoon, we were able to walk around a bit. 

After dinner my mom took the kids and Ray and I got to roam on our own. It was so fun walking down all the alleys and streets discovering what was around the next turn. Eventually we stumbled upon a Flamenco show which was fun. It wasn't a commercial show, just a small gig at a local restaurant. I kind of liked that more because it had a more lively atmosphere. 

Holland Trip Day 6: Melchelen, Belgium

Ray's Journal:

To our disappointment the sign
really read something about
ancestors of Beethoven lived here.

I woke up the family early today. I am so mean when it comes to CHOCOLATE!... Yes, today is the day we went to Belgium for CHOCOLATE!!!!!! We drove about an hour to a little bitty town outside of Brussels called Mechellen (pronounced like Magellan the navigator but with a “CH” not a “G”). This town is one of those that was so small we felt like we were the only non-residents in the city. This town had a lot of shopping to be done. None were high end stores like Rodeo Drive or Paris, but they were very European in their approach to everything. There were two palaces and 3 giant churches. The palaces had to be converted in order to maintain building cost, but it was a very quaint little village with a lot of history (see the pics of some the architecture). Something involving Beethoven and one of his concertos happened here according a brown and white history marker which I couldn’t read since it was Dutch. But most importantly to us, it had 5 different chocolate shops!!

Chocolate Shoe

All were chocolatiers, not just vendors, so it is all so very yummy! The chocolatier in one store tried to explain that it was Easter and that the chocolate eggs were the actual eggs which would be hidden. Some of the eggs were hollow with a ribbon on one end. The ribbon is for hanging in a tree, and the hollow space is filled with a candy. Gotta love those Belgian chocolatiers! All of the chocolatiers were very friendly (even the ones on the snooty looking high end (appearance wise) chocolate shops. I know this because every chocolatier spoke to the kids, explained to them and us what each piece of chocolate artistry was, made sure the kids were getting what they wanted, and asking us the whole time if this was okay. But to top it off, every single chocolatier said good by, but not to us adults - to the kids. “Good bye children”, Good bye kinder” (the Dutch pronunciation for kids) was used as the kids started to leave each time. The chocolatiers obviously wanted the children to enjoy their creations.

The ride back to camp was supposed to be a fun time as everyone was pumped up on chocolate and looking forward to a good swim in the camp pool fun zone. Instead the car overheated and we realized that Angie was even more sick than before. Luckily, I had enough water to refill the radiator and we made it back to camp, but it was so late (and Angie was feeling so poorly) that we canceled our barbecue and went to an American buffet restaurant 30 miles away. This was a tense time for me and Angie as the car was running very hot and not regulating engine or cabin temperature at all.

The American buffet was an interesting place. It had a children’s play area with the crawl through tubes most American kids now love, a baby play area with stuffed animals, and an arcade area with 6-8 old eighties style arcade games (PACMAN, Neo-Geo, Virtual tennis). It also had 6 different food areas: Italian, grilled, seafood, chinese, sports bar, and deserts. In the Netherlands all buffet restaurants are not an eat all you can event, they have you pay for an amount of time. In that time you can eat and drink whatever you want, but when your time is up you must leave. Definitely an interesting experience.

Angie's Journal:

This is was wonderful day! We found this wonderful gem of a town thanks to my mom. She was trying to help a client find something that wasn't very touristy, and she found Mechelen. Ironically, Lexi said one of her friends from school is from Mechelen. The town had an old world medieval charm, but the cobblestone streets that seemed so charming made my feet hurt by the end of the day. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our day of shopping and chocolate hunting.

Staring in the window of a chocolate shop.

This was my favorite chocolate

Since we visited right before Easter the chocolate shops where packed. There were bags with people's names on them and moms coming to pick up their bags. The kids and I were thinking how cool it would be to have a huge bags worth of Belgium chocolate for our Easter basket every year as a kid. The chocolatier and and costumers talked like they were good friends, so it wasn't that they were busy just because it was Easter. 

 Admiring the architecture by Neil

After we found all the chocolate shops, we headed to the old palace of Queen Margaret of Austria. It was a bit of a disappointment because we thought it would be something we could tour, but it was converted to the town hall building. We let Misty run around the garden for a little bit before heading to the tourist board building to use the only public bathroom before heading home.

Now it is time for a game we like to call:

Who is concentrating harder?

Neil trying to get into his chocolate?

OR

Misty trying to put two Legos together?

That night we went to an awesome restaurant. We were a bit nervous because it was 30 minutes away, but it was an American Buffett. See we love to see other countries take on American food. It was a very large place and they got some things right, but mostly it was Dutch food with an American twist. The place was broken up into 5 or 6 themed areas. Each area had a buffet station and an attached dining area decorated to that theme. We sat in the Chinese food dining room. There was also BBQ which was pretty American, but I'm not sure how you could change throwing meat on a grill. They had a pancake shop, but they made crepes instead of American pancakes. It was still fun to add all the toppings you wanted on it though. The sweets buffet had all sorts of desserts I've never seen, but they were good. The beverage station was like walking into a 7/11. They had 6 slushie machines, each with a different flavor, smoothie machine, milk shake machine, bottled drinks, fountain drinks, and pretty much anything else you could think to drink. The kids and I got something different to drink each time we got up. It was a great meal to end our vacation.

Holland Trip Day 5: Safari

Angie's Journal:
The bad luck continued today, but the day wasn't a complete wash. Our original vacation plan was to go home on this day, but after saving some extra money we decided to extend our vacation. However, the place we were staying at was booked, so we had to change locations. Luckily I found another place to camp not far from where we were staying, and it was closer to Belgium - which reads land of chocolate to us. Since we had an early check out time and a late check in time, we had to fill the gap with something. I had found this wonderful touristy place that I thought would be a good place to get a taste of Holland with its cheese, windmills, wooden clog making demos, ect. Sadly it was closed :( So we continued onto the new campsite in hopes of getting an early check-in. Of course that didn't happen either, but we did manage to get into the attached the Beekse Bergen Safari park.

Misty was a bit irritable at this point, so the bus safari through the first half of the park wasn't that much fun. However, when we got to the other side of the park she cheered up as we sat and ate lunch and played at their huge playground. Lunch was simple but enjoyable with the entertainment of nearby monkeys that Misty found hilarious.

After lunch we had some time to kill before we took the safari boat back to the entrance, so Misty played on the playground for almost an hour. By the time the boat came we had a very happy Misty. It is amazing how the mood of a toddler can really make or break our family fun. It was pretty challenging on this trip because we struggled to find dairy-free foods since all the food packaging was in dutch. By this point in the week, we had managed to figure out what she could eat.

We found out that the boat ride we took was the last of the day, which gave us a special treat. The lady explained to us that they hand feed the animals to make sure they are all healthy. Then she went on to say that the last boat ride gets to watch the lemurs be fed. We all got a kick out of watching the animals wait for their favorite foods.

The timing of our safari adventure worked out wonderfully. We were able to check into our safari tent and enjoy a nice meal.

Outside our Safari Tent

Inside Safari tent

Ray's Journal:

We all woke up early to pack and break camp by the 10 AM check out time. Well..... everyone but Neil woke up early and began packing. Neil woke up and decided to go back to sleep for an hour.

After camp was packed we decide to go to the amusement park to waste time until we can check in at the next camp. Then it starts raining. So we decide to go to an historic recreation type of village. After a hour and half drive we find out that it is not yet open for the season. So we drive for another 2 hours to the next camp and hope we can check in early. But the staff is out “cleaning and preparing for our arrival” (according to their sign). 

So we go to the Safari zoo down the street and take a tour bus ride through half the zoo. Misty was crying the entire time because she was tired. Alexis was volunteered by the driver to help perform show and tell of the deer and antelope antlers and camel fur on display as part of the tour. We get off the tour bus and decide that Misty and all of us could do with some food. Neil gets animated during the course of his eating and spills a litre of chocolate milk on himself. 

Once that is all cleaned up we make for the safari boat. It takes us back to the other end of the zoo. The tour guide on it speaks in rapid fire Dutch to her other customers, then realizes that we are not listening to her so comes over to get us involved only to realize we don’t speak Dutch. So she ends up giving her normal tour in Dutch over the PA system and then turning off her microphone and talking to us in English about everything she can say about the zoo and its animals. It was kinda cool to have our own personal safari guide!

When we get back to camp we decide to have a nice meal. And WOW! what a nice meal! We were all full and VERY content when we find out that their credit card machine is broken and we have no cash. So the Maitre’d kindly allows us to go to the nearest cash point and return with the money. We all go back to the tent full but not happy. This vacation is not working out well....

Holland Trip Day 4: Amsterdam

Angie's Journal:
I'll be honest, this was not my day. The previous two weeks the girls had this nasty cold that I thought I was immune from until it hit me the day we were heading to Amsterdam. I don't remember too much of this day, just that I was grumpy and nothing worked out right--adding to the grumpiness. Thankfully Ray has a very detailed report of the days events. We plan to see Amsterdam again, so hopefully we will have a much better experience.

Ray's Journal:

We had a little trouble committing to any one plan this morning, so we got a bit of a late start. We finally decided on going to the world renowned city of Amsterdam. The train ride to the city is an ordeal - we ended up in the quiet only section of the train. All the other seats in the “its okay to talk” sections were taken. So Angie and I try to take turns with a crying Misty out in the open section while the kids seem to get a seat to themselves. We all pull stakes and meet at the exit to the train car at every stop as we have no idea what the train has just said (it’s all in Dutch).

Train Station -by Neil

Once we arrive at the train station we try to follow the picture signs to the “bootens” (we now think it means ferry boats). The signs take us to the ferry boats and commercial tourist vessels of a large size. It takes nearly an hour to figure out that the tourist canal boats are on the other side of the train station. A small ordeal, but made larger and more frustrating by me twisting my knee while carrying Misty and my camera bag.

Finally on boat -by Neil

(Side note from Angie: It is nice that Neil is taking up photography because now we get pictures of Ray who used to hide behind the camera! Thank you Neil :)

Once on the canal boats it seems that everything will finally work out for us. We take half the tour; passing the Anne Frank house which we already have tickets purchased for, we pass all the very cool buildings and houses, and we hear a large amount of the history and joking intrigue of the city. Misty is even being cute like normal, she is refusing to believe that she is on a boat. The water and ducks are funny.

Neil was very fascinated with the architecture in the city, especially the gables and the hooks on the houses. We learned on the canal cruise these are used to hoist furniture into the houses.

House Hooks - by Neil

Around mid to late afternoon we stop at the hop off for the national museum, but decide to take a side trip for some snacks. Now Misty sees the boat and accepts that she was on a boat, but now she wants to get back on and not leave the boat because,” I love boats, daddy”. We end up walking about a 1 3/4 Km. We order our food (the waitress spoke very good English, thankfully) only to find out that they don’t accept our UK Chip and Pin card. Nor do they accept American Credit or Debit cards. We were very lucky to have the right amount of cash on hand.

Sadly we didn't get to eat here, but we got a picture of it at least.

When we return to the canal boat we find out that the only two boats left running will be returning via the same route we already took, so it will be boring to us. It also means that we miss out on the Hard Rock Cafe.

Amsterdam Lamp Post: Ray is obsessed with street lamps for some reason.

Months ago Angie went and purchased tickets to the Anne Frank House online, as we had heard that there was always a multiple hour long line to wait in for purchasing at the door. We made this expensive purchase with the understanding that we would not have to wait in line, we have a definitive tour time, and it was an all around easier way to go about getting access. The 20 minute line we had to wait in only to find out that our pre-arranged tour time was not even a legitimate thing was frustrating. But once we gained entry, it was a fast 25 minute walk through a very rough few years of a little girls life. Alexis spent months on the waiting list to read “A Diary of Anne Frank”. This short tour brought all those pages to life for her. There are, sadly, no photos allowed inside the house. So all Lexi could take with her were memories of how the real place correlated to the book. Again, frustrating.

Once out of the Anne Frank House we found out that the Hop On Hop Off Canal boats do not operate at night. Nor do any of the taxi’s or water taxi’s. So we had to take a tram. Not a bad way to travel, they are every bit as good as city bus. The problem is that we were short of cash and they do not accept plastic cards of any sort. We almost did not have enough to pay for the 5 Km ride to the train station. And that left no money for food.

The train station had only one Cash Point machine and none of the food vendors accept plastic cards. The only food we thought Misty could eat, she didn’t like. The trip back on the train was a quiet ride of frustration with Misty crying that she was hungry, thirsty, wants to ride a boat, or wanted sugar snacks, but really just needing to go to sleep.We get back to the campground and Angie is feeling miserable. She is running a temperature. It is freezing cold outside and not much warmer in the tent. Everyone has to bundle up to get comfy for bed. 

Neil - The American

This is when the only funny moment in the day occurs.... I am in the bath house getting ready for bed when Neil comes in. He walks by the same gaggle of very loud and hyper children I walked by to get in, when one of them asks him a question in Dutch. He answers apologetically that he can not understand and the crowd goes crazy that he is an American. They can’t seem to get enough of him. Neil has attained instant rock star status for all of 10 minutes. The girls of the group follow the boys into the boys bathroom, but are so interested in Neil’s answers (which are keeping him from brushing his teeth) that they fail to notice until I walk by. Then two of the oldest girls look at me and then the blue door with the man symbol on it and get red faced and start screaming at the other girls that they have to get out now. It appears that Neil’s fame will be ruined by the very same thing caused his fame - a walk into a bathroom. Lexi, Angie, and I gave him a hard time the next morning when we had to pack the car - attention everyone, the American is leaving!