735 Miles / 46.5 hrs

Friday night we left Houston with my truck packed up, all emergency numbers & sites in hand and ready for a good break. We stopped for steaks along the way and hauled up for the night in Lake Charles - the Casino town just over the Texas - Louisiana border. Tourist attraction factor was pretty low t us but it bit of a decent couple of hours of our long drive to Destin, FL.

After a good night in Hawai'i (a nice though badly climate controlled hotel room) we started the day fresh. In day light we where ready to experience Cajun country!

We toured the I-10 - of which extended stretches are running literally over water (swamps) and we visited the capital of Cajun country - Lafayette. We visited Baton Rouge and its science & arts museum,  and had lunch for Rick's sake in a Cajun Hawaiian bar in which he scored a huge plastic shark with all his charm. We appraised the floating fishing shacks and saw a fairly big dead alligator right at the side of teh roadThen we drove on to New Orleans - our destination for the day.

As soon as we entered the city, by passing the Superdome we realized something was up....the Texans where playing the Saints that evening! The city was heaving with NFL fans and every local was dressed in the Saints black & gold. Rick appreciated the costumes & outfits and as Nola is used to reams & reams of tourists there was still plenty of hotel availability.

 We crashed for a little while and then decided to go check out the French Quarter. The kids loved the music, the people and the whole ambiance. Especially Rick loved Bourbon street and as soon as we left for some of the quieter streets around it he kept telling us he wanted to go back to the party.

Halfway through Bourbon street we got stopped by a guy with disclaimers - apparently we had made it on to the footage they where shooting for some reality show called Big Rich Texas - and hence we where asked to sign all our rights away so they could use the footage.

We had a fabulous Louisiana dinner in a nice small corner Restaurant sitting in the doorways so we had good view of the wedding parade that followed a little later.

All in all a great evening followed by not such a good night after we caught up on the latest forecasts for Isaac - Hurricane strength instead of 'just' a tropical storm and right in the wrong place. On top of that Kaatje wanted to get back to the party all night and when she finally did fall asleep the couple in the room above us returned and started a drunken loud fight.

By the morning things had not gotten any better. The Forecasts remained worry-some and as Isaac was now potentially heading to New Orleans instructions started to be issued in the city to start preparations. We debated for an hour or two. The adventurist in us wanted to head out to Destin and experience a storm like that. Fortunately our more sensible rational selfs and parental instincts took over. Destin was in any forecast right in teh landing zone, everyone started bunkering food and fuel soon (if not already), we would still run the risk of getting there by Sunday night only then to face a mandatory evacuation on Monday or Tuesday and the only way out would then have been North East - further & further away from home where we know nothing & no-one. We could get some supplies but probably not all the kit one needs for these situations. The I-10 as we had established the day before has a HUGE potential for flooding and our route home from Destin to Houston was in ANY scenario right through the disaster zone.  In order to avoid a last minute chaotic evacuation and traumatized kids as well as a stressful, drenched & sand blasted holiday we turned around.....and drove all the way back to Houston.

The kids did not care and slept, ate and red books (honest!) the whole way and 'held office' on the crew bench in the back. So 46.5 hours after we left, and 735 miles on we are back where we started, with virtually untouched & unused luggage - in Houston!

Tomorrow we are heading out the other way - into Texas where there are guns and heat & draught and West Nile spreading musquito's - but no Hurricanes!

Isaac & Destin

Tropical Strom Isaac is making its way to the Amercican Gulf coast. The current 5-day forecast looks like this:

We have a week leave booked and have rented a house in Destin, Florida next week. Destin is where the 'A' is located in the google map below - or a little right off where Isaac is currently forecasted to make landfall on Wednesday -:(

The most unpredictable thing about tropical storms is their path - safe to say we will be on high alert and keep following Isaac dilligently.

For those of you who are interested one of the more usefull sites to do such is:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_5day.html

Jut & Jul

Juice

Rick & Daddy make fresh juice for me every couple of days. And that is serious business!

Rick talks me through the whole process - including the part where he explains that plenty of vitamins makes you big & strong.

He is pretty swift and effective at peeling oranges

whilst keeping the conversation going with daddy and looking cute at the same time too.

The machine is cool but a little scary.

I get to consume the result the next morning and the brewer himself is also usually pretty pleased with the result.

Tidying up

The kids are both pretty good at helping clean up their mess and tidy up their toys. Sometimes the help goes into some unexpected directions. Like this evening when Eelco got out the cling film to cover some left overs:

and we found out that one of the kids (unclear who) had decided to tidy away Kaat's 5 new pairs of socks in the same box -:)

Good thing we will move at year end - should be quite a treasure hunt like this!

School - the pick up

At the daycare the end of the schoolyear is driven by the start of the new one - our kids will move up to new groups, new teachers and different programms. So this and next week are marked by orientation meetings for the new classes and farewell parties for the old ones. Kaatje will leave our beloved Ms Ariel with whom she spend the past 15 months and feels like part of the family as she used to be in Rick's first calss too and is fantastic at dealing with Kaatje's occasional bouts of 'Diva-nites'. Kaat will become a 'Blue Jay' - a class with more play, music & gym classes, real food, more & bigger outdoor play and more kids. One of her teachers will be the mom of our all time favorite at the school - the lady who took care of Rick from 1- 2yrs old - so she will be in good hands.

Rick will move up to the Angelfish class about which we will learn more next week. His end of the year party was yesterday and since it was a pyjama party he got to go to school all day in his PJs.

The party element is really a get together at the end of the day with some snacks & all the parents. Fortunately my pictures did not turn out very well focussed so I can post them as there is no real issue with anonimity now -;)

To my relief after the class changes the kids will be closer together. At the moment they are at exact opposite ends of the building and if I get Rick first and Kaat after it takes 20 min to get out of his class and back to the car. If I get Kaat first things are only marginally faster mainly because it takes forever to get Kaat away from the great toys in Rick's class. Kaat gets better also at walking the full end herself but that does not make things faster either. Yesterday after the party we went to get Kaat (15 min incl several hide & seek efforts by Roddy & Ricky), then Rick had to play with all the kids in Kaat's room and tell Kaat's teachers about his party and have a conversation with one of the other moms (what is your name? you are pretty!, this is my mom. I am Ricky and I am 3 yrs old) and then we had to get back to the other end of the school...

That is a long walk with a lot of distractions along the way (hence Rick is not on the picture as he is doing all the rides & slides)

For the kids it is one big fun adventure so another 15 min later we made it almost to the parking lot...and then Kaatje wanted to go back and play some more.

We always get home eventually - where it takes another 10 min to get the kids out of the car, then out of the ditch (with lots of good sticks & rocks), out of the garden, up the stairs and into the house (without sticks, dirt & rocks). At which stage we all need the AC, a nice cool drink - and the bathroom! 

Random collection

Every once in a while I end up with a 'remaining pile' of fun or cute pictures but no real story or a little dated - I do not want to withhold you those though so herewith the periodical random collection:

My little cowboy in the back of the truck, and his sister as his guardian angel holding his hand.

Rick with his nephews Tjibbe, Jeppe and Tjibbe's friend in Dutch entertainment park "the Efteling" listening to the magic tree telling stories with the moms in the Background.

 Rick conquering a water maze - probably being the only one trying intentionally to get wet (which appeared to miraculously not work very well!)

Ms Kaatje sitting in the diner somewhere on our way to central Texas as if she does this daily.

Having an absolute blast!

Okke & Kaatje

In the same weekend the guys went to Lukenbach Marlouke and I stayed home with the 4 kids and tried to have a fun weekend despite the imminent sad farewell. By now all our little ones are also getting big enough that they actually sort of play alongside each other and no longer in complete isolation. As 2 kids per parent in the pool can be a bit much to manage we got the little ones their own territory and hence some cute shots of the pair. It did not appear love at first sight, but after a while things got cozier and then reverted back to each-to-themselves. But still every day we come home and I park my truck in front of the house Kaatje hopefully says Okke? Maartje? and points at the front door. It has been 2 weeks since they left which is quite a long memory span for an 18 month old!

Luckenbach

The last weekend Joost & Marlouke where in town the boys went on a little road trip by themselves to on of Joost' favorite Texan attractions - the town of Luckenbach. The Road trip was not so little as the place is situated  between South Grape Creek & Snail Creek somewhere in Central Texas. A good 4-5 hours from Houston which is somewhat of an expedition within a 24hr trip but worthwhile according to the guys (we are not sure what parts of the stories to believe) and plausible if you read up on it.

The town was founded a little after 1880 probably by means of a general store / saloon which later also became the post office. After having been in use mainly as a trading post the place became a ghost town in the 1960's and was put up for sale in 1970 by means of an add listing: "town - pop. 3 - for sale".

It was bought for $30,000 by a rancher / folklorist.  By then the town only had 2 buildings left 'in operation'. The Saloon was closed in 1971, and the zip code retired (never heard of that happening before!) meaning the dance hall was left and the new owner basically used his rights on the town to do with the dancehall whatever he pleased turning Luckenbach into a weekend attraction for those on the road or out for a relaxing weekend with lots of country music. Songs have been written about the town and it had its share of famous moments & concerts.

We only got 1 picture of the weekend which shows nothing of the guys but underpins the stories about Luckenbach:

I guess I will have to try and get there myself before we leave Texas.

Rick's Barber

Rick goes to the barber shop every other month or so - he goes with his dad by bike and Rick calls it 'going to Shawn'. Every hairdresser for a while to come will be called that and the iPad game he has which lets you cut animals and peoples hair is dubbed 'being Shawn'.

The place itself is iconic and amazing. No appointments possible, guys only, and kind of old school. Shawn already had a next customer lined up, but Rick was ok for the 'other Shawn' - owner Doug - to cut his hair. He climbed in the seat, told him his name was Rick and that he was ready.

The place is popular & busy so all the stuff on the wall was not needed to distract Rick. Plenty of people watching to do. When Rick announced that 'when he was ready he would get a lollipop', they hastily send someone to the back room to pick up the lollipop tub - to the benefit of everyone there as the somewhat older clientele in the seats next to Rick all also ended up having a heart shaped strawberry lollipop and reminisced about how long it had been since they had had one.

Rick has loads of hair and hence the cut is a pretty serious job. He is a somewhat critical but cooperative customer though and we think the whole experience and service is worth much more then the 10 USD they charge.

Thanks 'other Shawn'!

Sleepless in Hawaii

Since our Christmas trip Rick calls every hotel room we stay at 'Hawaii' - good for him as half the places we stay at do not quite bring up such exotic memories with us. To him & Kaatje though it is always a big party and very very fun to share a room with us and have a big bed to jump on and sleep in and to create some mayhem with his sister. Last week was not any different - although they are keeping up appearances here!

We always account for an extra hour of sleepless in Hawaii -:)

Toobing

Toobing is a major attraction on the Texas Guadalupe and Comal rivers between Lake Canyon & New Braunfels. It effectively means floating down the river seated in/on a large inner tube in the sizzling summer heat with some friends and a few drinks. Our kids are too young to go on the actual rivers but there is a huge water play park in New Braunfels called Schlitterbahn (yes everything in the Texas Hill Country has to have a German name) which we agreed to visit with some friends. Turns out that the park had apart from a zillion other water play activities quite a few 'toobing' rides. Not where 100% tame but some we decided where manageable with the boys at least. 

With special covers on the boys tubes such that they could actually sit in them the boys & dads ventured out. With immediately some big drops / water slides to go down - effectively going 100% under and back out/up.

This was right up Rick's alley as you can tell.

He happily cruised along with dad

Telling him he wanted another waterfall and another and another

Little Jasper was somewhat less convinced but succumbed to peer pressure when Rick kept yelling how cool this was and that Jasper was 'very happy too'

Go Jasper Go! Think the dads had even more fun!

After the moms also did another ride (not accessible for photographers) I started to feel guilty to our fearless water rat Kaatje and decided at the end of the day that she deserved a ride too. We had to queue for a good 30 min snaking around fences and up stairs - which is quite heavy with 2 tubes & 1 Kaatje on your arm. However Kaat made plenty contact with fellow Texan girls as well as the heavily tattooed  guys looking as if they could play the bad guy in any tv series. 

Once in the tube it was all worth it - Kaat was well up for the adventure.

She was by far the tiniest that we saw pass by that day - but she braced herself properly on the bigger drops.

And it was clear quickly that my worried look here was for no good reason.

Miss Kaatje was very happy & squealed happily the whole way if not waving like royalty to passers by.

I almost got emotional with pride and joy - our super cute little dare devil was having a blast.

After lasting at the park from 10am till 6.30pm Rick was done - very content but dead dead tired!

Kaat however appeared re-energized from the thrill and partied on in the back of my truck

Or whilst waiting for our table & watching the live music in Gruene

By the time we had finished our dinner Rick decided to join the party and the 4 kids where still smiling by 9pm! (horrible red eyes in the picture I can't correct so hence the B&W).

Definitely a successful and memorable day.