The Hagueiest Trip Ever

Over the past 10 or so years, we have lived in Missouri, Mississippi, Washington, Delaware, California, and Germany. With the exception of Delaware, none of the other residences was even in the same time zone as most of our family and friends. I take that back. Monterey was a scant 8 to 9-hour drive from my friend Joan who lived in San Diego. Getting back to the point, one might think that the move to Germany would take us as far away from those closest to us as any of our other relocations. Not so! One of the things I greatly looked forward to upon arriving in Berlin was visiting my good friend Carla. She and her husband Matt had been living in The Hague in the Netherlands since 2009 or so, and they recently added a new little friend for Annika. So, when I received an e-mail from Carla about 2 months ago saying that she was looking for company while Matt was away on business, I jumped at the chance. We settled on dates, and I booked a trip for the monster and I to go keep Carla and Gabriella company and give Neil a few days of peace and quiet.

Carla and I at our friend Diana's wedding in 2004. I am sparing both of us
by omitting pictures from the earlier days of our friendship.

Carla and I have been friends since she and her family moved from New Jersey to Maryland in 1992-ish. She probably has a spreadsheet somewhere with the exact date and time of our meeting, but it has been a shade over 20 years, so I hope she'll give me a pass on the details. As with all friendships of that duration, there have been ebbs and flows in the frequency of our communication, but we have been pretty good at setting up Skype dates since she hopped the pond. Staying in touch in general as time goes on and people become busier is challenging. When you leave the primary timezone, you often have to take it upon yourself to keep the communication lines open, do the timezone math, and set up Skype/telephone appointments. Once you throw in children, jobs, and travel, this can be a daunting task. Nevertheless, I have been blessed to establish solid friendships with a few amazing people with whom the time elapsed between actual phone calls or, in rare instances, actually seeing one another is of no consequence. Carla is one of these people, and I could not wait to see her and meet little G. Also, I very much looked forward to having a face-to-face conversation with an adult without having to think about which version of "the" I should be using.

Neil dropped us off at the airport, and we managed to survive the flight to Amsterdam, the train to Den Haag, the tram to Willem de Zwijgerlaan, and the short walk to Carla's door. Once again, upon arriving in another country where neither German nor English is the primary language, I found myself wavering between the two when attempting to communicate. Fortunately Dutch is kind of a mishmash of the two languages with a lot more "j"s, and I was able to buy a train ticket and pay for the tram without too much difficulty. 

Annika making friends at Tegel.

Micky Maus Wunderhaus via iPad on the train.

It had been at least 3 years since we had seen each other, and for all anyone could probably tell, it had only been a few days. We had no plans, except to catch up as much as the little ones would let us and to take a picture in front of something that could be recognizable as being in The Hague. This was a request of my mom because unless a picture (or 17) are taken at any given event or get together, it didn't happen. I can't speak for Carla, but as much as I wanted to see the sights of her home city of the past 3 years, I would have been just as happy if we never left her house...and not just because it is well-decorated and cozy. It is nice to vacation with no pressure or schedule, especially when small children are involved. 

Annika meeting Gabriella.

Moving in for a closer look.

After a relatively low key first afternoon, we decided to venture out for breakfast the next day, kiddos in tow. Carla knew of a great place on the beach of the North Sea, and I was thrilled to find that it was not crowded, and we could sit outside. Free space and a dearth of people to annoy are the main things I look for in places to eat out these days, and The Copacabana (what's more Dutch than that?) had both of these in spades! Annika could run around and we could eat/talk with relatively minimal screaming involved...no small feat. We continued our leisurely visit with a rented movie and easy pizza dinner that evening. Matt arrived home late that night/early the net day, so he was along for the fun for the rest of the weekend.

Exploring at The Copacabana.

First hammock ride.

Super-traditional Hague picture.

With Matt home and an extra set of hands to assist with strollers off and on the tram, we ventured into downtown to try to do some Hagueier things. We started off with a stop at an outdoor plaza to enjoy some fried snacks and beer...now we're getting Haguey. After that we walked around, caught part of an outdoor basketball tournament/slam dunk contest, and saw some sights. We took a few pictures so that we could prove that I had actually been there and not on a tropical island.

A super-Haguey fountain!

A Haguey snack bar. See? It says Holland right there.

Nothing more European/Haguey than a church and brick plaza.

On Sunday, it was time for me to head back to a land where I could at least clumsily communicate in the primary language, and so Annika and I navigated the tram/train/plane back to Berlin. Annika was sad to leave and made sure I knew it on the train. All things told though, it was an amazing weekend with a great friend, and our spawn were actually relatively well-behaved and cooperative with our plans. Hopefully Matt, Carla, and little G will be able to make the journey to Berlin before we all head back to the US.

Happy new friends!

Little G is amazing! She occasionally does things like go to sleep when swaddled after being fed. Seriously, though, how cute is she?

Not even Micky Maus could save this one.