1st Family Holidays

Rob had to go to Singapore for a work convention and so we decided that Luke and I should join him. His parents are living in Singapore at the moment and are staying till November for work. We all left Perth excited to start our first family holidays. Luke was very good in the plane and he was so excited by everything that he just manged to sleep when we were landing in Singapore.

So while Rob was at the convention for the first week, Luke and I enjoyed Tiiu's (Rob's mom) company and the pool facilities of the Caribbean condominium where his parents are staying. The weather was very warm and humid and sometimes it was a bit too much for Luke and I, but we managed well. Tiiu is truly a great tourist guide, she took us too all the places that one should go while in Singapore. Rob and I are just horrible tourists, if it was up to us poor Luke wouldn't have seen nothing but the pool of the condo! But Luke, Tiiu and I had a great first week together while Rob did his networking in the convention for work. Rob and I had also a chance to go out together a couple of evenings which was great while grandma and granddad took care of Luke for us.

 We took Luke to the Night Safari but forgot to take the camera!!! Luke loved it and was pointing at the animals, he didn't know where to look by the end of it. He managed to stay up till we got in the bus back to the city! Tiiu and I managed to get a few hours to explore Arab Street and buy some fabric, they also had some beautiful Persian Rugs that I would love to own. Also we all went during our first weekend to the Singapore Botanic Gardens which was the most beautiful park I have ever seen and been to in all my travels, specially their Orchid Garden. The weather didn't help us at the Botanic Gardens it was too hot and we didn't manage to stay longer and explore the gardens a little further.

 Orchard Road was a place which I was amazed by all the beautiful malls and I had never seen so many designer shops in one street but what I enjoyed most in Orchard Road was the Japanese department store (Takashimaya). I just love Japanese fashion, food and life style so that store and the 2 dollar Japanese shop in Vivo Mall in Harbor Front were both, my favorite places to go shopping. While we are in the subject of shopping I bought two very cute pair of shoes for Luke for a bargain price, both pairs are real leather. One is a pair of boots and the other a pair of trainers for $20 dollars Singapore each, if I would have bought these shoes here I would have paid around 60 dollars each. I think the shopping experience in Singapore is just amazing!!!   

One would not go all the way to Singapore and forget to have a refreshment in Raffles Hotel. So that is what Rob, Tiiu , Luke and I did, but I was shocked that three coffees cost us $35 dollars!!! But you are not paying for the coffee but for the experience, still that was a very expensive 15 minutes of my life which left me with a bit of a bitter sweet after taste. One cant ignore though what a beautiful Hotel it is, colonial in style and very well maintained so it is a must see if in Singapore even if the coffee is expensive. 

We also spend an afternoon in Sintoza Island which was very hot but very nice for Luke to swim in the sea even though it was as warm as a hot bath, still we had a wonderful time and I had the best dumpling noddle soup of my life in the food hall. Luke through out the trip was like a celebrity baby, all Asian family's wanting to take picture with him. Every where we went people would stop us and want pictures with Luke by the end of the trip Rob and I were almost charging for pictures with Luke hahaha...

On our way back to Perth Luke slept for two full hours. Everyone was amazed of how good he was but I also did bring loads of toys for him so he was busy with something for most of the time. Once we got home all three of us were popped beyond belief. We were all in bed by 8:30pm. The next day Luke didnt want to leave the cot in morning and is still doing this oday, he just stays there playing with the light on (he found out how to switch the lights  on in his bedroom). So I have had a great week waking up at 10:00 am! So life is good even though we miss Singapore maybe we need more holidays so Luke can miss his cot and I can have a sleep in every morning. 

Two Days in Canberra

Rob and I had an unexpected little outing to Canberra. He was called in for an interview and I tagged along to see if I would like to live in Canberra. For those of you who don't know, Canberra is the Capital of Australia . It was a planned city built with the purpose to become the capital just like Brasilia was built to be the capital of Brazil. I thought both cities had a lot in common even though I have not been physically to Brasilia and only know it through TV and pictures.

Canberra has new architecture and is very spacious place. It has beautiful parks, natural life and the shopping is great! We had dinner in a very nice Italian restaurant which I enjoyed the chicken pasta with white wine sauce and Rob got the veal a parmigiana. For dessert we had tiramisu who was nothing else but sponge cake with cream, no hint of coffee or amaretto a real disappointment.

It was very cold in Canberra (it has a ski resort near by so you can imagine that it is cold there), I was all dressed up like winter which was strange. I never expected to be so cold here in Australia for some ignorant reason I thought the whole country was warm and hot! By the way we are not moving to Canberra, it wasnt that we did not like the place but with the baby on the way I wanted to be near family and friends seeing that most of my family is in Holland. Well hope you guys enjoy the slide show with the few pictures we took while in Canberra.

Zaanstreek Trip with Kim & Isobel

I haven't felt like a tourist in Holland for a long time but I certainly feel like one now. I guess its because I am leaving soon for good that I am more keen to go see all the touristic sights that I haven't seen before while living here. Two weeks ago I went to visit Kim, Keith and Isobel again. It was real fun, Kim took me to see the Zanstreek. Apparently there used to be over a thousand industrial windmills in that area. I never new that Zandaam was a big part of the Dutch history. Its a beautiful area that any tourist should go see if coming to Holland for the holidays. Zandaam is not far from Amsterdam (15minutes by train) so if your holiday includes staying in Amsterdam be sure not to miss it! I thought the windmills were great but what I really enjoyed was the clog shop. I never saw how they make clogs so it was interesting to see how they are made. Kim and I had some dutch pancakes which where yummy and then when we were in the cheese shop when Isobel became the main touristic attraction to the Japanese tourists. Really it felt like we were in the red carpet and we had all these camera's flashing at us. Isobel was an instant hit with the Japanese tourists they even posed by her buggy to take pictures, and they kept saying Dutch baby, Dutch baby!!! Kim and I laughed so hard, really. But Isobel did look cute with her pink hat and the sweater that I made for her. So here are the pictures, enjoy the Dutch scenery.

Little Baby Isobel

It is nice to be back and visit everyone I missed so much. Yesterday I visited Kim and Isobel. She is so cute and such a good baby. Kim is doing very well and she has adapted to the mother role extremely well. I was happy to see her again and also very happy to see her so radiant with happiness! We met on the center of Zaandam and had some coffee in a cafe. After that we went to her house were I really enjoyed spending some time with Isobel. She is four months old and she is just a gorgeous baby!!! I am going again to see her next week and spend a couple more days with Kim and Kieth. I am looking forward in seeing Isobel again. Enjoy the video & slide show with her and mommy Kim.

Harper's Ferry Trip II

I have been in Harper's Ferry in Summer but in Autumn is beautiful with all the warm colours. We went down only to have lunch and see some parts that Rob and I hadn't seen yet. There is a big rock on the cliff with loads of engravings and some date back to the time of the civil war! I was also attacked by loads of lady bugs hahah on my way up the hill to the rock, they were everywhere on my hair, coat, camera, etc... We had a nice lunch in one of the restaurants and kept exploring the village. We saw a house with two little kittens sitting and playing on the porch it was so cute. It was a very nice afternoon outing. I also bought a recipe book from the civil war which I already tried a recipe for pie crust which was very nice. Well everyone, hope you enjoy the pictures, I need to go cause I have my engagement dinner tonight. Will take pictures of course and put it on the blog for all of you to see. Miss all of you!

I Have a Dream

Another beautiful day in Maryland. Although its cold and crisp the sun is shinning! The weather was so nice that we decided to go down to Washington DC and do some sight seeing. We arrived at 12:00pm, we had some well deserved Starbucks to start before heading to our very long walk. Our first stop was the National Archives were you can see the original documents of the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, The Constitution, The Amendment to abolish slavery and all the letters and other info from all the other documents. All this is located at the main chamber called Rotunda -Charters of Freedom, its a big room with very little light so the old documents don't get damaged (you can take pictures but no flash). The documents are all on display in a round fashion, hence the name Rotunda. It was great to see, specially when you can see all the drafts of the Constitution before the final one was signed. I saw Benjamin's Franklin's signature he had a beautiful penmanship, it was really cool. We left after that because we still wanted to go see the Washington Monument, World War II memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

We headed to the Washington Monument and on the way passed through a nice botanical sculpture garden and walked all the way to the monument. The thing is so big that you can see it from miles and you think," Its right there after that street..." few blocks later and you're still not there yet. We finally got there and the big spear (or big phallus) is very impressive, it is huge. You cant stop thinking if the person who thought of this had something to compensate (hahaha). After taking some more pictures we decided not to go up because we needed to get tickets half a mile away where we walked before, so we thought we just carry on to the World War II memorial. Oh by the way all the museums and monuments are all free, even going up to the Washington monument or entering the archives is free of charge, I thought this was the coolest!

The World War II memorial is relatively new it was opened in 2004. It's name says it all , it honors all the people who served and died on the war. I was really impressed by the copper sculptures of different war images (sculptor Ray Kaskey). There were several with the women who were working in the factories during the war. I thought that was great to see. Also there was a quote about women and the war, I think it's great that we are finally being recognised and printed in stone to show our contribution in history! The monument has several pillars in a oval circle which represent all the states in the US. A big fountain in the middle and two pavilions in opposites sides of each other, one saying Pacific and the other Atlantic. Its really beautifully made, and there are quotes and significant dates set in stones. But the best was yet to come and you could already see him sitting there, looking from a far; almost like he is watching your every move. Like Big Brother.

We walked through this beautiful passage way with trees set one after each other. The wild geese where having their feeding break before heading again south for the winter and they were everywhere, I think at least a hundred of them eating grass. But finally we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial. Its a big white building with pillars. Its beautiful, the marmor from the steps and pillars are stunning. When you get to the top there is a huge stone sculpture of Lincoln sitting on a chair. Just to think that at the bottom of the steps in August 28, 1963, under a nearly cloudless sky, more than 250,000 people, a fifth of them white, gathered to demonstrate for "jobs and freedom." Martin Luther King gave his famous speech "I have a dream" that day. That place truly has so much history that you can almost feel it in the air.

After all this we cached a cab to go back to the parking garage so we could park the car on the street and go for dinner. By the time we got to the car it was 17:15pm, and we were really dead from all the walking, I think we walked 3 miles in total. So we parked and went to the brewery were they had very nice food and the place had great jazzy music. We ate and had some drinks and headed back home to Fredrick. I snoozed all the way home dreaming of the 1963 and how cool it would have been if I could have been there in the crowd, listening to the words of wisdom of Mr Luther! Well hope you all enjoy the slide show, all the pics are in the order of the post. If you have any questions or just something nice to say just leave a comment. Have a good one!