Why couldn't Louisiana do this?

Yesterday, Daan and Jamie offered to take us to see sights outside of Amsterdam and the Deltaworks. The Deltaworks is a series of dams, dykes and barriers that protect the Netherlands from flooding. First we checked out the lake of Veere and Marten. The lake of Veere was formed from an inland sea when the mounts of rivers and dams were erected. You could noticeably see a difference in water level on the lake, the sea and the land with the sea being the highest). We also checked out Maeslantkering or the Maeslant Barrier, on the Nieuwe Waterweg. This is a barrier on a river that can close if the seas get too high. It protects the city of Rotterdam. Although the barrier has never closed the visitor center showed how it would protect Rotterdam in the event of a serious storm. It was truly quite amazing to see this construction project. From the Maeslantkering, we headed to Oosterscheldkering. This was a damn between two islands again to protect against storm surges. Its not just some ordinary dam, it has sluices (65 large doors) in it that can open and close. This means that in normal conditions water can enter these wetlands to preserve the environment, but during a massive storm it can be closed so that flooding is prevented. We also saw how the canals worked to keep the low lying areas from flooding. You can learn more about Delta works at:

• Delta Works
• Maeslantkering
• Oosterscheldekering

While we were touring this, both Ashley and I thought - why couldn't Louisiana have built things like this? Everyone knew that New Orleans was exposed to a Hurricane and this could have protected the low lying areas. The cost of building this would have probably been significantly less than rebuilding the city. The whole tour was fascinating (Thanks Daan and Jamie) and enlightening.

Indonesian food

On Thursday night, we met up with Daan and Jamie (pics to be added later) for dinner. I know Daan through work and he graciously offered to take us to get Indonesian food for dinner. Well, we have to admit we loved it. We loved it so much we had it for dinner not only on Thursday night but also Friday and Saturday. Per Daan, you can only get Indonesian food like this in the Netherlands, as in Indonesia its has evolved. My favorite was the dinner on Thursday night, as the Satae was amazing as was the soup. Ashley liked the place we went on Saturday best, as their Gado Gado was superior although she loved the Tofu Satae from Thursday. The dinner on Thursday was at Tempo Doeloa, I am not sure of the names of the other places. Thanks to Daan and Jamie for the lovely dinner.

Amsterdam

ok. its really hot in amsterdam. the normal high in the summer is 68f. testerday it was 90. nothing is air conditioned. but yesterday was nice even with jet lag. hung out in a park, along with chilling in cafes and coffeeshops.

we have found wifi for free almost everywhere which is cool.

First Day of Flight Plan

Last night felt like the night before the first day of school for me. So here is our First Day of Flight Plan picture, taken appropriately by my mom and dad. I used to hate when they made me take those pictures, this morning it was my idea.
Here we go...

Pre-trip thoughts

So I am meditating on what the trip is going to be like. We are about to leave and I have to say I am nervous. I am not sure what I am nervous about....we have done a great job planning or at least I think we have. We have been very thorough on making sure we get everything done. I wish we had more research done on the locations we are going, but I think we are running out of time for that. Don't get me wrong, we have done a lot. We have read our travel books and done research on the web, but its a lot of places to do research on. We also have been focused on Europe, not India, Australia and New Zealand. Thailand is easy, we are just laying on the beach for a week.

I shaved the mohawk today......fun to have for a while.

Mohawk

My father in law gave me a mohawk today.......I have always wanted one but never had the guts or opportunity to have one. I will shave it off before we leave, but its cool for a couple of days. The neices are calling me "Uncle Rooster." I have been trying to do the chicken dance from arrested development when they say it, but i am terrible dancer.

Dinner with the Grapevines and REI

On thursday evening, we had a lovely dinner with the grapevines. It was nice to see Sean, Rosey, Ron and Sean's girlfriend June. We love Thai food, and our only regret is that Rebecca was not there.

On friday morning, we spent too much money at REI on last minute things we had to have....thanks to work for getting me the REI giftcard, which alleviated the pain.

Pictures

Hey kids, don't forget you can see all of our pictures on our flickr website.

Moon over Jensen Beach

This past weekend we went to my dad and Lyn's condo on the beach, jensen beach florida to be specific. It was as close to heaven as I can imagine. We spent lots of time down on the beach just laying in the sun, or swimming in the ocean or doing laps in the pool. Plus we drank a lot of scotch, bourbon, beer, sangria and wine......what a lovely weekend. Not much was accomplished except nothing and eating. Truly very relaxing. Plus the food was top notch, I loved real bacon along with some awesome boiled shrimp.

Winter Park, the beach and mating manatees

On Monday night we drove down to stay with my mother in Winter Park Florida. It was a rather tedious drive (we have driven close to 3000 miles in the last 3 weeks), but well worth it. We had dinner with gram, gramps, Kelly (my cousin), Mindy (my other cousin), my mom, Ervin, and my two second cousins - Alex and Elias. We had some yummy pizza, yummier gelato and even better company!

On Tuesday, I had to work all day but after working was through we headed over to the national seashore at Merrit Island.....one word wow. We saw some manatees, which Ashley loved. We couldn't see them too well, but it was cool to see them in the middle of the summer. Also, we checked out the beach and waded a bit. For dinner, we ate a rustic seafood restaurant and had some rock shrimp, which were very tender and sweet.

We loved the national seashore so much we decided to go back on Weds, but this time we packed a dinner and got started a little earlier. Again, we checked out the manatees before heading to the beach. This time the view was much better, and the manatees were mating! Those sea cows were having a virtual orgy, rolling around, grunting and splashing. Very cool to see manatees get some action. Then we went to the beach and swam along with a picnic. After we finished picnicking, we had a raccoon stalk us. He really wanted our food and we guessed by his action that people give him their lunches to get him to go away. Ervin acted like a real American hero and chased him away. But he kept coming back, so we called it a night and went back to the house where we swam in the pool and made travel plans.

I will have to say the highlight of my visit with mom is her outdoor shower (the food she made was awesome, but the shower was better). It was quite relaxing to shower with an open sky. Some days I took multiple showers!

Calloway Beach

Today we went to the beach at Calloway. It was a total blast, we hung out on the beach and swam with the nieces. Gwen really enjoyed being thrown in the lake, and I am confident that I am her favorite uncle now! Its tough work, but I am super cool and all. HA HA HA.

Cataula

After driving to Cataula from Baton Rouge, we had a great couple of evenings so far. On Thursday night, we just slept.....as we did lots of partying in Baton Rouge. On Friday, we had a very nice day. I worked but Ashley drove to pick up her friend Herpreet who was in the ATL for work. We came down, had a fire, ate some pizza, drank some toddies and just hung out. It was a nice time.

Today, we got up and I made omlets for everyone......blue cheese, spinach and tomato. Pic made some bacon, which was absolutely awesome. I love bacon, I forget sometimes how good it is. Its pretty much heaven. We also took a nice walk around the hood, we have had great weather everywhere. While its been raining non stop, the temperatures have been relatively mild which our colorado blood cannot tolerate. I also helped Pic fix a fence in the back yard, it was actual real work (yuck!). Tonight our neices are coming down from Atlanta, which will be a nice....its always good to see the little ones.

July the 4th

We had a great July the 4th yesterday. We spent the day with Ward and Rebecca, who are awesome hosts. Ward cooked us some ribs, which I thoroughly enjoyed it. They were some of the best home made ribs I have ever had, lots of beer, whiskey and wine were consumed. Later that night, we played cranium and I discovered that I am raw, bitch. We also lit of a large amount of fireworks, which is quite popular in Ascenion parish.....there was so much smoke in the neighborhood, we thought we were in iraq.

Here is me, Michael and Ward letting off fireworks. And yes, this is the same shirt I wore on July 3rd, what can I say, I am not very well groomed.

Moving and Baton Rouge

So we moved our stuff into storage last Thursday.....it was a lot of work, but luckily we had a ton of friends to help. Ashley and I were paranoid that we would have no one to help join us, but lots of friends did, we had to turn some away! Anyway, we will miss living in Denver. We have made a great group of friends, but alas the road calls us.

We left for Baton Rouge on Friday morning. We ended up driving two cars to Baton Rouge as we had too much stuff to fit in one car. So we both had to drive the whole way. We were glad to have books on CD, it made the time past quickly. We spent the night in North Richland Hills, TX, right by the mall. I actually remember hanging out at that mall when I was in high school, which seems like such a long time ago.

We arrived into Baton Rouge on Saturday afternoon and spent the evening with Chris, Herpreet, Rebecca, Ward and some of Herpreet's friends. Dinner at Chelsa's was some good eating, with plenty of wine and beer. A good time was had by all. Before dinner, we dropped by Damon and Cassina's....they have 3 lovely kids and an awesome recording studio. It had been a while since we had visited with them and it was nice to catch up. Hopefully they will move to the west coast so we see them more often.

On Sunday, we went to brunch at Mansurs (Yummy), Ashley visited with Tracy and Sophie along with Michael having a dinner with friends. I had a great time on Sunday and Sunday evening - meeting and seeing some friends.

We were originally heading to Georgia on Monday but some family things came up that are encouraging us to stay in BR until Thursday, and Monday night was spent at Ward and Rebecca's drinking copious amounts of alcohol along with eating some yummy shrimp (Miss Debbie has the best recipes!!!!). Today we will remain with them to celebrate the 4th.....eating bbq ribs (well I will eat them at least) and drinking some more. No wonder I always associate a headache with Baton Rouge!