Our Trip

We are SO excited for upcoming trip in November. We're going to see Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, and Antwerp), Paris, and Amsterdam. I thought I'd give everyone an idea of what we'll be up to, though we're still working out a lot of the details (and some stuff we'll just wait and figure out when we're there).

Brussels:
We will be flying into Brussels, and we'll be spending 4 nights at a lovely B&B that is right in the middle of everything, and only a 5 minute walk to the train station. We're not really sure of many specific things we want to do in Brussels, but there are two things we know for sure: The Grand Place and the Cantillon Brewery.

The Cantillon Brewery is a family-run brewery that's been brewing beers since 1900. 

The Grand Place is the central square of Brussels, and it's served as the town square since the 12th century. 

Bruges:
We will be taking a train ride to Bruges while we are staying in Brussels, and we'll check-out the sites to see there. We're guessing one day will be enough to check out the sites in Bruges, but we could always head there for another partial day. In Bruges, there are a few things that we definitely want to do: the Halve Maan Brewery, the Belfry, the Markt, and Dumon Chocolatier.

The Halve Maan Brewery was first mentioned in the town's registry back in 1564! And the rooftop of the Brewery is supposed to have amazing views.

Dumon is a small family-run chocolatier that is supposed to have the best chocolate in Belgium!

The Markt has tons of shops and restaurants, and is the town center of Bruges. 

The Belfry has 366 stairs, but is supposed to have some amazing views. 

Paris: We are going to be taking a daytrip from Brussels to Paris via the Thalys train (it's only an hour each way!). I know most people will say that it's pretty impossible to see Paris in a day, but I think for the stuff we want to see it'll be quite do-able. We want to see the Eiffel Tower (of course), Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe. And probably eat a croissant or baguette or something.

Antwerp: After our four nights in Brussels, we plan to take the short train-ride up to Antwerp and spend a night there (it's on the way to Amsterdam). We found another great B&B, and it's right in the heart of everything. I know of a few things I definitely want to see in Antwerp: Botanic Gardens, De Vagant, and the Central Station (where our trains will be, so this will be easy!).

Central Station - built between 1895 and 1905. 

The Botanic Gardens! 

De Vagant is a cafe with over 200 Belgian gins! Belgian gin is called "jenever". 

Amsterdam: After our one night in Antwerp, we'll be heading up to Amsterdam for two nights. We found a really awesome apartment in the Jordaan area, which is near Anne Frank's House. It's still very walkable to the city center, but it's supposed to have a much cooler vibe and is part of the canal district. There's a canal right outside of the apartment we'll be staying in! We're still figuring out what we want to do in Amsterdam, but we know we want to see Anne Frank's House (super close to our apartment), the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rjikesmuseum (a large art museum). We're also toying with the idea of taking a train and bus to see the La Trappe trappist brewery. It isn't very convenient to get to, so we're trying to decide if it'll be worth it (trappist breweries don't really like visitors, but La Trappe allows visitors a few days per week). It sounds really cool though, so we'll have to see if we can make it work (and if they'll allow visitors on the days that will be convenient for us). 

This is the shower at the apartment we'll be staying in. The owner is an artist (and she lives upstairs with her family), and she did a bunch of mosaics in the apartment as well as some art on the walls. 

After our two nights in Amsterdam, we'll be catching a flight out of Amsterdam to head back home. We're sooooo excited for this trip!!

The Haunted, the Bad, and the Awesome

It's been awhile since my last post! Sorry about that. This will be a long post though. We've definitely been keeping busy since we got back from our trip. Some good stuff, and some not-so-great. Some of the good stuff is that we've gone to a bunch of Open Houses! It's super fun. We're just looking to look right now, and we won't be buying anything anytime too soon. But it's fun to look, and we're also learning a LOT about what we need/want in a house. So, it's really educational! One house that we went to look at last weekend was SUPER creepy! I kinda knew it would be, because from the pictures on Zillow you could tell that it was a really cool old house and it had kinda fallen into disrepair. In person, it looked like something straight out of a horror movie. It was really creepy walking around the house, and I was totally getting a haunted sort of vibe. And when we were walking around the yard, we saw this fountain:

Um... Yeah. If that isn't a demon, I don't know what is. Who has a demon fountain in their yard???  I think only the psycho owners of a haunted house, that's who. We went to see another house that we LOVED, except the upstairs was totally unusable. It was a cute little cottage located in Valley Forge National Park (BEAUTIFUL surroundings), but only the downstairs of the house was usable. They had the Master Bedroom and a bathroom downstairs, but upstairs there were two more "bedrooms" and a bathroom, but the bedrooms were so tiny that you couldn't fit anything larger than a twin bed, and the ceiling was so low in the bedrooms and bathroom that McGee and I couldn't stand-up straight. So... that's not good. We loved the usable part of the house and the Valley Forge area though! 

One of the not-so-great parts of our time since we got back was that I was in a car accident a few days ago. It was lame. I was just stopped at a red light, and then some big truck that was pulling a trailer (they belonged to a landscaping company) was coming from the opposite direction and decided to make a left turn behind my car, and they did NOT realize how much room they needed for their truck and trailer to make that turn. So... it ripped off the back of my car. It sucked. My car is currently at my insurance's service center, and I'm driving around a nice Toyota Corolla rental car until I get my car back. Luckily, the driver of the truck and the owner of the landscaping company were super nice, and they're stepping up and accepting blame (and they said they are 1000% insured). 

My poor car... 

It has been a really crazy and exhausting week, and I'm hoping this weekend is relaxing so we can recuperate a bit. This evening we're going to a wedding, but I'm hoping it'll just be fun and chill (I think it should be). The reception is at the Ballroom at the Ben, which is a really beautiful venue. If you've seen the movie Silver Linings Playbook, then the Ballroom at the Ben is where they had the dance competition at the end. I'll try to take LOTS of pictures (I was awful about that at the last wedding we were at!). Here's a photo I found online of what the venue looks like: 

Pretty, huh? I'll take lots of pictures tonight. 

And now it's time to share some AWESOME news with all of you!!  McGee and I have decided to take a trip to Belgium and Amsterdam in November. We've been contemplating this trip for a long time (like maybe close to two years?), and we decided to just do it. My work forces me to take vacation for the week of Thanksgiving (I would much rather use that time at Christmas...), so I figure we should do something really awesome with that time off so it isn't wasted. So, we just decided to go for it. I'll do another blog with more details later, but we're super excited about our trip!!  

Bruges, Belgium

California: Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Thursday: We went to the Winchester Mystery House! I love that place, and we had so much fun. I think that house gets cooler and cooler every time I go there, and I learned so much on this tour! After our tour of the house was over, we spent some time exploring the really strange gift shop (they have the most random assortment of stuff...), and walking around the gardens of the house. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, so all of my pictures are exterior shots. OH, and if any of you are ever in the San Jose area, I have a recommendation for a really AMAZING restaurant: Zona Rosa. The food was really amazing, the restaurant was cute, and the service was excellent!

My parents in front of the Winchester Mystery House

On the right side, you can see the door that opens to a huge drop-off... 

It's so pretty! (and weird!!)

Friday: On Friday evening we went to a River Cats game! It was very fun. Little Addison was SO beyond excited about it. Cassidy was mostly enjoying eating the peanuts, I think... The game was really good though, and the River Cats won! After the game there were some really awesome fireworks (I didn't take any pictures of that though...).

Photobomb by Cassidy! :)  

The view from our seats! You can see the bridge in the background. 

Saturday: Saturday was Cassidy's birthday party!! I'm SO glad I was able to be there to celebrate her birthday! Her birthday party was at Wacky Tacky, which is a kid's playground kind of place... It's a really smart set-up. They have multiple play areas for the kids, and they do face painting and balloon animals, and then they also have a room where they do the pizza and cake and presents for the kiddos! They keep everything organized and moving along (plus they do the clean-up). It's such a brilliant idea! They have a few benches set up for the parents, but it's definitely a place that is all about the kids. 

Here's my cousin Anna's little girl! Her name is Abbey. 

Here's Addison waiting for her balloon animal (she requested a monkey). And you can kinda see the face painting she has on her cheek (it's a pink bat... haha). 

Cassidy getting ready to blow out her birthday candles!!

Addison really enjoyed her cupcake! 

After the party, the girls went home to take a nap, and then when they woke up they came over to my mom and dad's house to hang out for a bit before me and McGee had to leave. We gave Cassidy her presents then (we didn't want to cut into the play time at Wacky Tacky), and we had a nice BBQ dinner (my dad made his amazing BBQ chicken!).

Here's Cassidy opening up her presents from our family! 

Then it was my least favorite time... Time to say goodbye to everyone. I tried really hard to contain my crying when my brother, Amanda, and the girls left (I just had to rush inside to try to keep myself together...), but when my mom and dad dropped me at the airport I definitely cried. Goodbyes really suck.  I miss everyone already.

On the bright side, I'm sure that Christmas will be here in no time, and I'll get to see everyone again! I predict that Fall will fly by, and so far Summer is definitely flying by.

Yosemite!!

We had an absolutely amazing time in Yosemite. We were there for 3 days (2 nights), and it was really the perfect camping trip. The first day we set up camp, and then drove into Yosemite Valley to visit the gift shop and see some of the cool views from the Valley. We also stopped by The Ahwahnee Hotel, which is BEAUTIFUL! I'd never seen it before, because we always just tent camp... but it's a really cool hotel (I still think I'd prefer to tent camp though... ). Then we headed back to our campsite, and enjoyed some grilled turkey burgers for dinner, and Smores for dessert!

 The dining room inside The Ahwahnee

The 2nd day we woke up pretty early, and had a really lovely breakfast of pancakes and bacon, and then we drove to the Tunnel View area and enjoyed the beautiful scenery there. The trailhead for our hike (to Artist Point) was across the street from Tunnel View, so we walked over there and started our hike nice and early before it got hot. The hike was pretty deserted, which was good (peaceful!) and bad (bears?). Little Addison ended up getting pretty tired of hiking fairly quickly (she has little legs!), so my parents headed back down the mountain with her a little bit before halfway. Cassidy (a hiking champ!), Brad, Amanda, McGee and I all kept hiking, and after we reached the part of the hike where we had to turn onto another trail, we saw some fellow hikers that said they'd stopped because they'd just seen a bear. So... that made me, Amanda, and Cassidy quite nervous. Brad and McGee wanted to go find the bear, but they eventually decided they should just stick with the rest of us. We continued hiking for a tiny bit more, but I was feeling like we should head back, and Amanda and Cassidy agreed with me. And then I saw a pile of bear poop, and that clinched it for me: We turned around and headed back down the mountain. We didn't get to reach Artist Point, but we still had some really amazing views of Half Dome and El Capitan on our hike back down the mountain.

Brad, Amanda, Cassidy, and Addison at the Tunnel View parking area

Yosemite!! That's El Capitan on the left, and that's Half Dome in the distance.

 Me and McGee and Tunnel View! 

The view on the way back from our hike! Not too shabby.

The bear poop! Just in case any of you were curious what bear poop looks like...

More views from our hike... That's El Capitan in the distance.

We were singing (mostly "Let It Go"...) to keep any bears away.

 After our semi-failed hike (it was still really cool and beautiful, and we didn't meet any bears... so I call that a success I think?), we met back up with the rest of our family, and then drove into the Valley for a nice lunch. Then we started the drive up to Glacier Point! I love Glacier Point. The views are spectacular.

Half Dome. I can't believe my dad, brother and I climbed that years ago! 

So beautiful! 

The whole family! 

Another view from Glacier Point! 

After Glacier Point, we drove to Bridalveil Falls and did the mini-hike there (McGee hiked all the way up to where the Falls usually are, but with the severe drought that California is in, the waterfall was barely a trickle this year. After Bridalveil, we were quite exhausted and ready to head back to camp. We had a really awesome time back at camp eating dinner (hobo chicken and steak!), playing dominos, making Smores, and just relaxing by the fire. It was really perfect :)  

Mom and Dad!

Addison and McGee! She was having fun talking his ear off. 

Cassidy!! That's McGee's bandana. She said she had a headache, so McGee got his bandana wet and tied it on her head! Her headache magically disappeared after that. 

 On the final day in Yosemite, we just packed up our campsite and headed home! We all had an amazing time, and it's been far too long since we've all gone camping!! I loved every second of it.

Santa Cruz and Monterey

We arrived on Friday (July 4), and it was a pretty good day of travel until we hit Minneapolis Airport. In Minneapolis, we boarded the plane and everything seemed fine, and then there was some sort of problem with a computer on the plane, and that turned into a 2.5 hour delay. We finally arrived in Sacramento a few hours late, and then went to Brad's house for a BBQ with the family. It was soooo great to see everyone, and spend some time relaxing and enjoy being with my family. After it got dark, we watched some fireworks, but then me and McGee were getting quite tired (we'd been awake over 21 hours by that point... ), so we drove back to my parents' house and passed out.

The next day we drove to Santa Cruz!! It was really beautiful and awesome there, but MY GOODNESS it was crowded!! I guess the Saturday of the 4th of July weekend is a popular time to go to Santa Cruz... whoops! It was such a relief when we were finally parked and could walk around a bit. We walked over to the pier/wharf and had lunch, and then we went to the beach and got our feet wet in the ocean. After our feet were nice and cooled-off, we walked over to the Boardwalk and Brad, Amanda, Cassidy, and Addison went on the carousel. We were pretty tired by that point, so we returned to the car and my parents, McGee and I headed down to Monterey (Brad, Amanda, and the girls drove home).

In Monterey, we parked near Cannery Row and then walked around quite a bit. We saw a ton of harbor seals lounging on the beach, and we stood and watched them for a little while.  Then we continued to walk around the Cannery Row area, and we ate dinner at the Cannery Row Brewing Company (which does not brew any beer...), and then drove home!!

You can kinda see all the seals on the beach in both pictures! 

We're leaving for Yosemite tomorrow - I'll make sure to take LOTS of pictures!!