A long ago wish fulfilled!

When I came to Europe for the very first time as a Coast Guard Cadet on the USCGC EAGLE, we had many port calls where big important visitors came on-board.  

As I scrubbed the deck I thought about how one day I wanted to be one of those visitors!

Well...I finally got my wish! The EAGLE came to Antwerp and I was on the lucky group that got to l ride her in to port.  They had tied up at the far end of the port the night before and we got to transit in through the giant port of Antwerp.  (2nd largest in Europe I believe)  Greg also got to go along!

One thing that was neat to see was the wall of plaques that showed all the trips the EAGLE has taken each year...here is mine...

I was on for the Azores, England, France and Portugal

They had to bring the ship in through a super small opening, which is why they had two tugs bringing it up. It is pretty amazing it could fit!  The striking building on the left is the Diamond Building in Antwerp.

 As we passed through I was standing next to two cadets and they were discussing if they could make the jump to shore from the ship...it really was close!  The Captain was on the bridge with the pilot the entire time!

The next morning we took a whole van load up to tour the EAGLE.   We had two special visitors, Anya whose Grandfather also sailed on the EAGLE, and our friend Jay who was visiting from Wakefield, MA. We also had my friend's son, he is interested in the Naval Academy so we were doing our best to convince him to consider CGA!

Our friend is the Captain of the ship (in the center behind Charlie). He took us on our own private tour.  He has been on it for many years and knows all of the amazing history. 

For example, this is the original Ships Nameplate with the German name of the vessel.  It was currently down in the sail locker.

Charlie in the sail locker...I remember people going down to the sail locker to sneak a nap in!

 

Charlie saw the firefighting equipment and said, "Jet Pack"!  

On the bow!

The brass on the bell has been polished so much the EAGLE writing is almost illegible!

One final picture of the gang before we headed home out of the rainy Belgian weather.

Charlie remembered bug juice from his visit when he was about 4...here he is having a long awaited glass.  Katie and Anya appreciated the sign on it that said "Walmart yodeling kid juice"

Happy to once again have "sailed" on the EAGLE & great to have friends in high places-thanks Captain Meilstrup for an awesome tour!!

Roald Dahl Day!

In Charlie's 3rd grade class they celebrated Roald Dahl's wonderful books like Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Mathilda, etc.  I learned about the cookbook below of his Revolting Recipes that was published by his wife.  

Charlie and I had a great time trying some of the recipes so he could bring them in.

 From The Twits

Our failed attempt at Candy Apples...I guess a candy thermometer is essential!  My friend said it is way too humid in Brussels for making candy!  I guess that is why they make beer instead!

Candy Coated Pencils for Sucking in Class-kids LOVED these! & Everlasting Gobstoppers

Mr. Twit's beard- super gross!

Spitsizzlers from The Giraffe The Pele & Me

Lickable Wallpaper from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

We were busy in the kitchen for hours after school, when Greg came home I got a good laugh out of him when I said, "Charlie's teacher is going to say that its time Mrs. Hughes got a full time job again!"

It's fun to have the time to do these things with my 3rd grader....I know soon enough he will be filling out college applications!

Mom's Terrible Ideas...

May has been a fun month so far, many Belgian holidays and we have found some moment that we weren't on the sports fields so we could check out a few fun places.

First we rolled out of bed early on a Saturday to go to the "I Love Science" Festival that was held at the Expo Center right by the Atomium.  (The secret to living in Belgium is to get up early and get wherever you are going and you will have the place to yourself. We parked right next to the Atomium because we were so early-no tourists yet!)

We walked past the old Palace de Exhibition which was built for the 1930's Worlds Fair..gorgeous statues on the top and all around the building.

Katie loved this building project, all run by the architecture students at the University.

This guy used his Kitchen Aid to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen.  It was super fun to watch and the girls loved the ice cream.

Charlie tried Hover Shoes...like a hover board but split...they were all impressed he could do them after a quick intro.

Greg tries skateboard Virtual Reality.

We were glad he didn't decide to dress like this guy to play the game!

Another outing was to the Blue Forest..land of the Smurfs...the guy who created the Smurfs was from this town...Seeing the blue flowers blooming under the giant trees helps you understand the idea behind the Smurfs...a little bit...

 The blue flowers only bloom for a few weeks, once the tree canopy above gets its leaves then the blue flowers no longer get the sunlight.  This year we saw them on the very tail end of the bloom.

 Louna and I found this guy on our walk in the forest right by the kids school.

 Every year the EU has an Open Day where they let everyone come see all of their buildings and learn about the European Union. Which is something I don't feel like I know that much about, even living here!  Greg and the girls had sports but I made Charlie come along with me and he cried and complained the entire time.  All about Mom's dumb ideas and why he can't stay home on a Saturday.

But we got to see this guy-Captain Europe!  Can you believe they ripped off Captain America??

 We also got to go inside the very cool building which is the home to the Council of the EU.  It is also called the Egg.  Outside is a glass walled building that holds this thing that really looks like an egg.

 Before we went in the egg part, they had a fair with tables for all of the countries in the EU.  They had a mini passport where you could get stamps for visiting the booths and learn more about the countries and institutions.  There was even an online quiz which I failed it miserably, it was full of hard questions all about the EU and its leaders, etc.  There was a section for feedback and I typed, "Quiz was very hard for dumb Americans like me!"

Charlie got tons of free stuff and most importantly after getting enough stamps he got a special prize.  The prize what what he begged for the entire time we were in Italy- A SELFIE STICK! He doesn't even own a phone so we don't understand why he needed a selfie stick...but now he is the proud owner of one!

He quickly hooked up my phone and took this shot of us..

Outside the buildings they had a cool Bread Fair that had breads from all the countries in the EU.  Charlie got a Hungarian Chimney cake that we all learned to love in Budapest.  I got to try some tree cake that I had seen at a bazaar here. They also had the cooker for it...check this out!  Once it is done it stands up like a Christmas tree-I was glad to try it.

Hopefully Charlie now knows that all of Mom's ideas aren't terrible and occasionally there may be the object of your desire waiting at the end of one!

Neptune Balls & a stop for kids who grew up driving by the Leaning Tower of Pizza

We stayed two nights at an adorable AirBnB called the Beach House, it was all decorated in a beach theme and a block from beautiful beaches of the Mediterranean.  The train stop was called Cecina and our actual beach town was Marina de Cecina.  They were getting ready for what must be a busy summer, but it was still sleepy while we were there. 

From the train station, I liked the font!

After big busy cities and treasures of the art world, it was really wonderful to just enjoy a beautiful beach and not worry about crowds and admission times!  We made the most of our day, skipping rocks,

Climbing cool towers..I'm sure this is all over the girls Instagram accounts! They probably aren't doing what Charlie did on it!

Building amazing rafts of driftwood & seaweed!  It really floated and it took hours to build!

Our beach also had a pine forest on the other side that went for miles, you could rent bikes and ride through it, we opted for the family bike.   Most of the time Charlie ran behind us like a dog we needed to exercise!

We debated stopping to let him jump back in!

As a seashell collector, I can't say the beach was that exciting, only sea glass, but there were these brown balls everywhere.  I picked up a few and googled what they were-Neptune Balls.  When I first said the name Greg almost spit out his drink, I might have called them Neptune's Balls!

Holding a Neptune Ball, the girls are enjoying fruit smoothies at a nice outdoor tiki bar.

Neptune balls are really all over the beaches here, and a company figured out a way to do something with them..Cool use for Neptune Balls

We found a beautiful beach bar to watch the sunset, the kids were out on a little jetty with the sun behind them, it was kind of heaven to sit and watch them...even if they were fighting we couldn't hear them!

The girls came over and Greg got a nice picture of us... little brother refused to come off the beach!

One of my favorite discoveries in the past few years is this lovely drink they have in most places in Belgium & all over in Italy...an Aperol Spritz..here is my sign!

We all went down to the beach one last time before we had to leave in the morning, it was just so nice to be by the water!  We were sad to leave, but the leaning tower was waiting.

After a quick train ride up the coast we arrived in Pisa and walked from the train station to the tower, winding through the town.  We crossed the river and I liked these lions on the bridge.

Getting close...

Found it!

Charlie does his part!

We can all send our regards to the Leaning Tower of Pizza on Route 1 when we are back in Massachusetts from its buddy in Italy!

Greg decides to help too!

Pisa was a beautiful city, we enjoyed our walk back and had a nice lunch by the university too. Here was an ornate building on the way.

Our next stop was the train station back to the airport in Milan...a great trip and our kids figured out that backpacks & train travel through Europe is a pretty amazing way to go!