Sunday - Netherlands

This morning we woke up to a gray, dreary and rainy day, and that is the way it stayed all day long! A little bit before 9 o'clock, Hannie and I left the house and walked to the Laurenskerk. Hijmen stayed home with their granddaughter Jasmijn and Hannie and I went to church. The Laurenskerk is a massive and old building with a beautiful organ. It was great to sing together again in a space with such great accoustic! After the service, Hannie and I poured coffee for everyone who wanted; that was great fun! Before we were on our way home, Hijmen showed up with Jasmijn, and the four of us walked back home, stomping through the puddles!!!


After coffee and leftover birthday cake at home, we packed ourselves up and left for a city by the name of Ouddorp where my niece Annelies owns and operates a restaurant for the last few years. Jasmijn's parents, Remco and Annemarie, also came and we all had lunch together in a cute room while the rain came down like crazy. It's May vacation in the next 2 weeks, so Annelies expects to be very busy with people being on vacation and not wanting to cook.

By about 3:30 in the afternoon, Remco and Annemarie took their little girl Jasmijn and went home to Capelle aan de IJssel, and Hannie and Hijmen and I drove back in the direction of Rotterdam. They put me on the train to go see my friends Ineke and Ton van Butselaar who live in Alphen aan de Rijn. This evening though I got off the train in Bodegraven where their oldest daughter Marinke lives. Ton and Ineke helped her along this weekend since her husband was gone for the weekend with the youthgroup of their church. Back in May 2004 Marinke and her cousin Miriam came to visit California, and I took them on a week-long road trip to Disneyland, Death Valley, and San Francisco. Right after they returned to the Netherlands, Marinke met the young man who is now her husband. They married and are now proud parents of a 2.5-year old boy Joost and an 11-month old girl Laura. Beautiful people altogether! This was again one of those occassions where I knew that this get-to-gether with Marinke was ordained and timely. Amazing and awesome!

I have known Ineke since about 1985, during my first job at a publishing company where we had great fun and great conversation... it's been a long time and yet it is so easy to be together and hang out. Marvellous! We were home around 10:30 (I think) and in bed before midnight :-) (I can hardly believe I was still awake at that time.)