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Desiree visited us just
for 4 days........isn't that a little bit much flying for so less days?
Nope, because we packed a lot of good things in her vacation. First we
went shopping on the
26th. Packed for skiing and left on the 27th early morning for Kirkwood. Desiree
took a 2 hour down hill skiing class in the afternoon.
Here she is ready to go up
in the ski lift. Too bad a day like this is so short. Anyhow,
next day we came back, no lessons, directly on the green slopes and then continuing on the blue ones.
At 3 it was getting really cold and we left for South Lake Tahoe. We ate at
Applebee's and met some good old friends. Next morning
it was snowing heavily. So
we packed and drove back to the valley. We took Desiree out to a nice
Chinese Restaurant. She almost mastered
her new tools. Next morning we went for the airport, with stops at
Lombard street, Pier 39,
and the Golden Gate bridge. On the way to the
airport we saw a cable car
and the city hall
(....??). Too bad time was up. Here we are at the airport. |
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Marjorie's parents
visited us for 4 weeks. Not only to stay at our small, small, small
apartment, but also to have a nice winter tour through the Wild West. A
big RV was rented (camper for the Dutch guys) and on Saturday the
13th we left for Carson City. But first we had to stop for a
Starbucks. We drove to Stateline South Lake Tahoe and stayed there.
Next morning we were surrounded with a white layer of ......snow!!! Carefully we drove further to the Loneliest Road (Highway 50 from Carson City to Eureka). At Eureka we stayed one night. Next morning we drove to Great Basin National Park. You can recognize it by the Wheeler Peak. At Great Basin National Park we only went to the Lehman Caves. It was too cold to do some serious hiking. We needed to warm up and changed our route: Las Vegas. Here we stayed for 2 nights. We visited the strip twice. Here our favourite views: New-York New-York, Bellagio, Hard Rock Hotel, Paris and Venetian. Nico&Jopie had a flight over the Grand Canyon during the second day. Marjorie and I did some serious shopping.....!!!We had a lot of fun. Okay, next morning we continued our trip. A short visit to Hooverdam, and then on to Zion National Park. Zion is a small but nice canyon. Here a picture of the narrows in Zion. On to Bryce Canyon. First a view of the Checker Board (Mesa Verde). Then through Red Canyon to Bryce. It was cold and we visited Bryce only in the morning. Here the famous Amphi Theater. And up to Grand Canyon. On the way we had really great views. Like this one. We crossed the Colorado River at Page, Glen Canyon and stayed there for the night. Next morning we continued driving up to Grand Canyon. Early afternoon (still light.....yippie!!) . We saw a very nice sun set. Really great!. Next morning Marjorie and I hiked down to the Colorado River. Here is an overview picture. You can't see the river yet. We left at 7.30am (just before sun-rise). First hour we used clamp-on's to prevent us from sliding down from the ice/snow trails. At 10.45am we reached the Colorado River. An elevation change of 1340 meters and 12.3 km distance! Now back. And up we went. At 3pm we were back at the top. This is not normal! Another 12 km and 1200 meters. That is 24 km hiking with 2400 meters elevation change! Usually it takes twice the time to go up and that would mean reaching the top at around 6pm. So the last hour throught the dark!.Here is a good link for this hike. We finished the Wild West tour via a portion of Route 66. A little disappointing, because the villages are not what they were years ago. If something is still impressive, it's the enormous long trains with over a 100 loaded wagons pulled by 5 or 6 engines. We were back at the 24th of December. Desiree arived on the 25th. Jopie&Nico left for a 5 day trip to Hearst Castle and Crystal Cathedral in Los Angeles. The last days of their vacation we stayed in our apartment. I had to work (no vacation days left anymore). But in the last weekend we still had time to visit a local flea market. |
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One day earlier then the
real day, Marjorie through a big party. Well big??!! Okay for the size
of our living room, yes a very big party. It was completely filled up
to 150%. Here a picture of how crowded it was, but still with room for kids to play. Here a picture of me later that evening. It was really great and Marjorie enjoyed it a lot. |
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Zie ginds komt de
stoomboot uit Spanje weer aan. He brings us Sint Peter-laas, I see him
there! (Oeps! This doesn't rhyme) What is that. A dutch habbit in California? This must be a joke. Or a bachelor party. Well guess what, the last one is true. Peter and Michelle are gonna get married on December the 6th. And that is the birth date of Sinter Klaas. So nothing is easier then using this date as the central theme for Peters bachelor party. And here we go. Have a look at a dedicated page on Peter as Sinter Klaas from Riding, Singing, Girls to Wasted. Off course this page is rated PG-40 (Parental advisery for kids from 40 years or younger). |
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Today we went for a long
hike at Mount Diablo. This is the best
known peak at the bay area. It is not the highest (Mount Hamilton) but
still 3500feet high. The book (101 Hikes in the Bay Area) said it is a
strenious but beautifull hike of about 4.5 hours.
And that's pretty much it, but only if you include snack breaks, photo time, etc. This
picture feels like being
on top of the world. We
almost went up the north-peak.
Oh, ja, we is Torsten,
Marjorie en me (Henk). After hiking we went to our favourite place
(App....!). By the time we were done the day was over. |
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Finally on vacation. Last
minute we changed plans. Nope! We did not drive up to Seattle and did
not visit any of the National parks on that way. Yes, we booked a last
minute trip to NY with jetBlue.
First night (arrived at 3pm) we walked up to Times square,Radio City and Rockefeller. On Monday we
bought a subway week ticket and went underground to Battle Field. Here is the
view of the sky line from
Battle Field. And here our profesional
fotographer. From Battle Field you can see the statue of liberty. We
walked via Broadway, short glimps into Wallstreet to Ground Zero. Impressive!
Then we walked further to China
town. Next to our hotel (Days Inn) is a very good Thai restaurant.
This gave us plenty of energy to walk to Empire State Building. Up to the 86st floor gives
nice views of Downtown Manhattan,
Uptown Manhattan and Midtown Manhattan, with the
Chrysler builing. Tuesday: Central
Park. We walked through
the park to Metropolitan Museum of Art,
and crossed it again to pay a visit to the Museum of Natural History.
This museum is known for its large collection of dinosaurus and more. Wednesday:
Subway to Pier 17 and Brooklin Bridge. We took it
slowly and stopped for coffee at a Europa Cafe. Here the sky line from Pier 17. We
took the subway and walked back from 42nd to 49th street enjoying again
Times square. Thursday was very windy and went to Grand Central Station
Terminal, the Chrysler building and the United Nations building. We
walked through SoHo with their Cast Iron buildings. We
walked via Brooklin Bridge back and had a lunch at TGI Friday's. He
Torsten, we finally made it
there. |
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gateYesterday
we celebrated
my
birthday....3 days to early, but there is a good reason for that. On
the other hand we also celebrated a part of Pascales birthday and Oliviers
birthday. Off course, Julian
was there and also Torsten.
Here comes my birthday
cake. A real home made cheese-cake by Jennie. And off course I had
to carefully blow the burning
candles and make a wish .....! We watched Charlies Angles
"Full Trottle", however a lot of recognizable animation, bad, bad, bad!
Off course the boys liked
it. And there was the approval
sign of Julian. With a lot of hughs. |
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Henk went hiking with
Torsten.
Excellent weather. Nice cool with some clouds. Good for a couple of
pictures. First we saw a Tarantula-spider,
and here is one with a shoe
as
reference. The clouds made pictures really look great. Here the W-tree in starting autumn colors. Last year there were several bulls. Well the guys did there jobs. The new family. Off course, no rain since......months. So dry creeks and nice views. |
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Scary day has arrived.
Tonight the kids come along the doors and play the trick or treat game.
Some kids combined both. The trick is to grab as much as possible
candies from your plate and run..... So we made it more scary by
directly grabbing something from the big kid after opening the
door.......... Well the kids didn't like it, so we stopped before
angry
parents showed up, complaining about our mis behaviour to their nice 15
year old sons. So here we sit in the dining room, Sandrine, Henk, Yuan, Yifeng and Vickram, the living room, Andy, Helen, Anton, Ursula, Pascale, Wendy and Marjorie, a close up from Mr. Jee, alias happy Julian, alias pumpkin keeper, alias ...., and a last one with Anton, Ursela and Marjorie. |
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Today is the day.
Marjorie and I
will run for the first time officially 21km or 13+miles. It starts at 7AM. Luckily daylight saving started just last night. So the actual time feels like 8AM. Our BIB numbers did not arrive (probably send to the old address) and we had to go to the sign-in place to get replacement numbers. 1050 and 1051. Yes we are ready for it. I did not run for 4 weeks. Relaxing an irritated muscle in my right knee. But I felt good and decided to run/support Marjorie. Look how fresh we are at the 2mile marker. Here the 10k and 1/2 marathon split. And then after 2 hours and 18 minutes Henk and at 2 hours and 19 minutes Marjorie arrives at the finish. Not as the first ones, but also not as the last ones. |
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After the race we
directly drove
to Wendy and Robert-Jan.
They
live in Cambell, pretty close to Los Gatos. Wendy invited us for
relaxing and watching the documentary "Bowling for Columnbine". This is
according to her "a must see". And we saw it. And yes it is "a must
see" documentary. The documentary helps understanding what makes the
difference between your home country and the US. We will
definitely add this one to our DVD collection. Here another picture of us, relaxing after a race and a documentary. And of course their baby! |
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Today there is a run/race
for a
charity: Run for the children. Main sponsor is already for years
Philips. From 2001 we have never missed this race......however,
organisation lacked this year quite a bit. I was not running because of
my knee. But Marjorie did. Together with "the
ladies". Here is the start
of
the 10k. Jennie and
Sandrine
ran the 5k and come through at my checkpoint earlier. Marjorie arrives soon.
And here
is the finish. It is common to go to Hobbees for a brunch. However experience has proven that a long waiting list for a place might exist: 45 minutes. So we drove to Sunnyvale for a good brunch at another Hobbees....another sponsor of Theta-breakers. |
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This is a real good race.
It's
only 5k. Well actually we doubt if it is. Probably more a 3miles race.
But nevertheless it ends with a free ticket to Great America.
Start in the morning with a Breakfast
at Manu and Sandrines place. At the race snapshot with either Jennie or Henk in there. To motivate
the runners
in the race Scooby Do came
and danced.
I did some running but only slowly to relax my knee. Matthias did a great job supporting me
and
pushing the stroller. So here we are at the finish
line. Julian kicked
everyones
asses. Off course food is
always
present. Ready for the roller coasters? Here some
action. A close-up of two none-scare-able
ladies. And some real nice air-sailing.
Finally we took off for some real good food. Applebees. |
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No, we don't have kids,
but we
still can be part-time-parents. And we can also enjoy that. This
evening our friends Matthias and Pascale are invited for a
Casino-Introduction-event sponsored by Philips. Would you think, that
they don't let in babies? Off course children under 18 (or is it 21
here) are not allowed. Well apparently not. Poor Matthias was sent home
with Julian. But in a flash he knew the solution. Call Henk en Marjorie.
We just came home from shopping when the phone ring. And yes, this is a
good deal. We having an evening fun with Julian, the parents winning
money in a casino, good for their sons scholarship. |
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So what do we do on a
typical
Sunday afternoon, when it is not raining, the temperature is not too
hot, but still fine for T-shirts? We go for a barbeque. So find a nice
colleque that lives in a nice place. Bring some beers and have fun. Here we laugh outside while the food is being prepared at the BBQ. From left to right: Yifeng, Vickram, Matthias, Julian&Marjorie, Pascale, Yuan. Here the prove that he really looks like his father. Yifeng and Yuan got married in China. They showed us their wedding album. It's a real nice one. Something we don't have in the Netherlands. |
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On the 23th of August a
lot of
friends helps us moving to our new apartment. And because of that help
it did not take long to find an organized place. Here is the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, the bedroom
and the study room. If you dare: A 6.1MB guided tour through the apartment! |
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7 Days Hawaii. Is that
enough?
No! It's way too short. Click here to go to our Hawaii-Vacation-Page
(Oeps!
Dutch only!). In total we were 5 days on the big-island and 2 days on Kauai. The 2 days is too short. We could have saved 1 day by just staying on the Big-Island instead of airport in, airport out. So anyone going there, book 5 + 5 days for 2 islands. Or just 7 days for 1 island. Do not count the days in the air. Great Island for vacations by the way. There are live vulcanos, great scooba-diving places, great hiking places, great beaches, etc. |
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This winter I started
snowboarding. After just a couple of weekends I was so addicted, that I
had to get a board myself. Well here
it is. And after going up and down
a couple of times, the
action
started being good. If you don't like skiing, you might consider cross-country-skiing. CC-skiing is way tougher. You have to do something to go forward. But the views are great. Or if you are not an action person, just driving around Lake Tahoe in winter is cool. |
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Together with Astrid and
Erik we
went on a trip to LA and San Diego. The must visit attraction was the San Diego Zoo. Here a
couple of
pictures of a panda in
a tree and panda on a
rock sleeping. Next a
brown bear or was it the
black
bear? And then the actors: Two pole-bears playing with each other above the
water, almost in
the water and under
water. |
