Last but not least....Brockton!

Home is home, and always will be. I will not bore you with the details of how I spent as much time as possible chatting with my mom, taking her yoga classes, and sinking into the most comfortable couch in the world. I will, however, write about the best week of my summer. A few days after Derek and I arrived in Brockton, the rest of the family started trickling in. Mairi came home from Tampa, and Breck and his gf Michelle flew from San Francisco. We all headed to Dennis, on Cape Cod, where Mom and Dad, Conor and Sarah awaited. We spent the days on the beach playing frisbee, wiffle ball, and bag-o that Conor made. Each couple was responsible for dinner every night, so needless to say, we ate well. We sang with the guitar (see below) and talked politics. We visited the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory and a local brewery in Hyannis. We sat around the fire at night and waited for a hurricane that never came. All in all, it was awesome.


Thanks Mom and Dad for getting us all together!!!! Let's make it an annual affair!

North Carolina with the Norths

Again, not enough pictures to portray the happiness of this part either. The Norths are living in a small farming town outside of Durham/Chapel Hill that has a beautiful river and some nice hiking trails just walking distance from their house. Matt and Holly have been doing a magnificent job of raising Stella. Not that we're biased or anything, but she is one of the cutest and most delightful babies we've ever experienced. She was 10 months old when we were there, and just learning how to walk.
In traditional Nanashi (godparent) fashion, Matt and Holly prepared a huge Moldovan feast to welcome us to their home. For this, we broke our vegetarian rules and devoured some succulent shashlik cooked on the open flame.

Matt planted a substantial garden this year, and they share some land with the neighborhood as well. While I spent every minute possible with Stella, Matt and Derek were constantly on the go- picking tomatoes, canning tomatoes, golfing in the backyard, making fires, and of course, drinking beers. Holly and I bonded over spirituality and nature, and of course, her beautiful baby. It was a short stop, but we enjoyed every second of it.

Illinois

The journey continued to Illinois. I wish I had more pictures from this leg of the trip, because it was so special. I guess we were just having such a good time it didn't occur to us to whip out the camera. (If anyone reading this has pictures from our visit, Riley and Jeremy, the wedding, Chicago- please send them along. ) I will post what we have and try to fill in some details.
Our first Saturday back, Derek and his parents organized a backyard bbq for friends and family, ours and theirs. It was awesome. We had a great chance to catch up with some family friends of the Smith's, as well as some of the family. We played bat and ball with Riley and Jeremy, and Phil worked wonders on the grill. Into the evening, some of our friends joined the crowd. It was amazing to see everyone, healthy and beautiful! Derek played a few rounds of his music trivia game and we all had a lot of laughs throughout the night. It may have been the latest party Park Ridge had seen in awhile! Huge thank you to Lois and Rex for hosting so graciously.

We tried to spend a lot of time with Darcy and the kids. We went to one of Riley's t-ball games and Uncle D played soccer with all the siblings from the team (what a champ!) I also had the pleasure of experiencing Brookfield Zoo for the first time. Really cool dinosaur exhibit. And even though I'm not a huge fan of keeping animals in confined spaces, I have to admit this zoo was very tasteful and probably one of the more spacious zoos I have seen.

It wouldn't be true to form for us without a little road trip, so we packed up the new Smith Prius and headed to St. Louis, via Chenoa. We spent the afternoon with Grandpa, and a lovely dinner with Ron and Nga. Luckily, we had time to stop by the Bloomington Farmer's Market on our way down, and were impressed- as always- by the success and prestige of the Ackerman's organic produce.

I was beyond excited to meet up with Katharine in St. Louie as well as a few other PCVs from Moldova. We were all gathered for the wedding of Darcie Brownback. It was a beautiful and unique affair, hosted in a local club which is also home to the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame. Nice job, Darcie! I was happy to have Katharine join us for the ride back to Chicago. We stopped again at the farm, and once again, I was mesmerized by the beauty and effort that Ron and Nga maintain on their land.

Look at the size of that zucchini!

I also took a few days to go out to San Francisco and spend some much needed quality time with Roe. My brother Breck lives there now as well, so it was a double bonus. Back to Park Ridge for a few days of more fun in the city with friends, and then we were off again....

Amsterdam

Derek and I began our wonderful summer vacation in Holland. We figured it would be a good segue from Lebanon to America. The culture shock, however, was more than we anticipated. Everything in Amsterdam runs smoothly, efficiently and on time. The public transportation is phenomenal and the order of the city is completely chaos-free. In short, as different from Beirut as one could imagine. We embraced the changes, however, and sat back and enjoyed the scenery.


Coincidentally, D's cousin Lily was also in A-Dam at the time, so we had the pleasure of spending a few lovely afternoons with her. Because she had lived there a few years ago, she was a great tour guide and introduced us to some nooks and crannies of the city we might have missed on our own.


We discovered a camp site just outside the city lines that provided a piece of grass in a very crowded field where we could pitch our own tent. It was real easy camping. The grounds included showers, a restaurant, a bar, convenient store and laundry facilities. For us, it was perfect.



Despite the rain (it rained almost every day,and 8 out of the 9 nights) we rented bikes and explored every park and neighborhood in the city. Each night we trekked back to home base- our small, but cozy tent.
I don't think I could live in Amsterdam, but if you're looking for a beautiful and relaxing spot to indulge in pleasantries, this is certainly the place to come. In the modern, western world, it's a challenge to find a city that truly separates itself form the rest. Amsterdam meets the challenge with pizazz. Thanks, D, for taking me on yet another adventure!