Photos:

My crazy family at my Papa's birthday party. my Aunts family (my Mom's sister) surrounding the birthday boy
My family around Birthday boy
Papa and my son Michael
Dan and Me
Me in front of Lievenstein Castle
Dan and me at Old faithful
Me the first day of brew fest with Ronda, Kevein, Steve and others behind me
Frank, Bilijana, Kristina and Steve on our last rainy day of brew fest
Night time Carnival at Dam Square in Amsterdam
Veiw of Delf: photo taken by Dan


This posting contains to blog entries so please forgive the length and I hope you keep reading.

I want to wish everyone a happy New Year! Hope you all had a good holiday. I did make it back to Portland/Puyallup for the holidays. Because I am so far behind on my blog, I will just continue where I left off and go from there. The summer bit bellow I started about two months ago. Please forgive how slow I have been.

The weather here in Holland this past summer was wet and mild, cold by “summer” standards. I fled to Portland and Montana to get some hot weather and sunny days. My trip back turned into another adventure. I have all but given up on Newark airport. Half the time I travel through there, something goes wrong. This time the airport was shut down for a great part of the afternoon my plane was coming in. Me and six hundred other passengers got to spend the night in beautiful New Jersey. I ended up arriving in Portland the next day, Saturday. In reality, I was only delayed by twelve hours. It could have been worse. Upon my arrival, Dan was waiting for me. It was good to see him.

Not much rest for the weary my first day because we had a full day planned with a Hillsboro air show picnic to go to and then meeting up with all my buddies that evening. The next day Dan, my son Michael and I were taking off to Montana. Meaning there was also packing that needed to be done. Busy, busy, busy.

Sunday came and the three of us started on our way. We made a detour through Yakima to visit my former brother-in-law and his family. They BBQed hamburgers for us and we were on our way again. Our journey ended for the night in Missoula. The next morning the plan was to drive through Yellowstone, then onto Billings which we did.

The trip through Yellowstone was slow going. By the time we left the park it was midnight. Dan drove us over Bear Tooth pass, even after we were warned by a local in Cooke city “not to go that way” we made it over just fine after stopping at the top to enjoy the night sky. I have never seen so many stars. We did not make it to my Grandfathers house until 2 am. My cousin Corbin was waiting up for us. I felt bad that he had to be the one on midnight watch. My Aunt got up shortly after we arrived. We said “hello”, dropped Michael off because he was staying there at my grandfather’s house and then Dan and I headed for a motel.

The next few days before my grandfather’s party, it was intense family time. My Aunt, my Mom, cousin Cinnamon, cousin Cassidy and her daughter Allie did most of the cooking for the clan. They made breakfast every morning and dinner every night for all eighteen of us that arrived days before the party. There were others that chipped in to help clean up. My grandfather’s small kitchen was run like a well oiled machine thanks to the great organizational skills of the amazing woman in my family.

We even did an outing to Little Big horn, Custer’s last stand.

The day of the party was spent preparing food and decorating the back yard for the big event. Right after the party streamers went up the wind kicked up and it started to rain some. By the time the guess arrived, the rain stopped and everyone was ready to dig into Mexican food and drink some beer and tequila. The party was a big success with only a few victims of way to much to drink. They know who they are so I won’t go into the gory details.

Dan, Michael and I had to leave the next day. After leaving my grandfather’s place and stopping by my grandmother’s to say goodbye, we were on the road by about 9:30. About four hours into the trip we were heading over the mountains to Missoula and hit one of the worse hail storms I have been in, in a long time.

We made it back into Portland I think it was close to mid-night.

I am going to end my entry here. Bellow you will find my latest entry attached

Cheers,

Kim


Dear all,

This blog entry will explain what I have been up to over the past month and a half. First off I want to start by telling everyone that the time has come for me to return home. I will be coming back to Portland at the end of May. No date of arrival has been decided upon yet, though there will be a party involved somewhere along the way!

First off, for those of you who don’t know, Dan and I are engaged! It happened during my trip home at Christmas time. There is no date set yet though the thought is this fall. It may have to wait until spring with all the other stuff going on.

OK, now to me coming home: Some of the factors that have weighed heavily in my decision to return are it has proven difficult for Dan to get a job here and some new things are happing in Portland that hopefully will offer me a new opportunity. I will be returning to KGW if they will have me back! There are new positions being created with the construction of the new Pioneer Courthouse Square studio. I have a good feeling that things there will work out. And of course I miss my family and friends very much. Looks like Kim’s year of adventure is winding down to an end.

Oh but wait, there is more……..Dan and my real estate agent CJ Johnson have been busy combing North/Northeast Portland for houses. I have been looking for a house to buy and it looks like they have found one. Actually Dan and I have been fussing over this particular house they found for a few weeks now. I have made an offer that looks like it will be accepted and I will know if I have it or not by the time everyone reads this. It is in North St. Johns on Calhoun. It is a smallish Victorian style Bungalow that will need some of its original charm put back into it after being what I call “over remodeled”. I feel I am up for the challenge. Always have to have a project.

Hope everyone will be ready for a house warming and welcome home party some time in June!

Now to catch up on what has been missed.

The first weekend of September I went down to Brussels for their annual Beer Fest. I have to tell you there is nothing like a beer fest in Belgium! I went down with Frank, Kristina, Steve and Bilijana, Kristina’s Friend Ronda and her now husband Kevin from Portland joined us as well. They planned their Euro trip around this event.

We arrived on Saturday early afternoon and after checking into our hotel we all headed down to the Grande Place, the main Centrum Square, to start our beer tasting extravaganza. It was absolutely amazing. There was a block of tents in the center with tables all around. We started sitting up shop at an empty table, then began to sample. Oh, BTW, all the beer is served in real glasses with the brewer’s logo on it. Nice touch. We had Kriek and Lambic, bock and triples with doubles mixed in. All the Abbey’s represented.

There was entertainment as well. At one point there was a parade of men on stilts and of course there was music, Oompah-pah style. We missed the parade of beer wagons though………

As we drank our beer, other beer lovers joined us at our table and we met some fun, interesting people. There was an 85-year-old woman who joined us and because she only spoke French and a little English, Kristina and Steve were the only two who could carry on a lengthy conversation with her. Then a young couple stumbled our way and hung out chatting for a long time. Then there was a young guy from Germany who we left standing, holding up our table after a long day of drinking. We were in need of some dinner so went in search of food.

I have to say that it was so amazing to stand in the center of this grand square surrounded by historic buildings enjoying an endless supply of great beer. My thoughts wandered to how many people passed through this place that has been a viable town center for the last nine hundred years. How much beer must have soaked through the cobblestones. However we did not spill a drop.

The next day after breakfast, a proper fry up, we went back to use up the rest of our tokens. The day turned rainy and by early afternoon we were ready to head back home.

The month of October brought me a visit from Dan and a group of us going to see RUSH in Rotterdam. Yes Rush in Rotterdam, R&R DVD to follow soon.

The concert was great, though Dan was a little off kilter because he has never been to a Rush concert before where the audience sits and listens to the music. His past experiences have been with the whole audience up on there feet. I had to reassure him that everything would be OK; the sun will rise in the morning. The Dutch are very Calvinistic.

The rest of the week Dan was here we just explored areas in the Netherlands. The day we went up to Amsterdam there was a carnival in the Dam Square with rides, food and of course carny games. On another day, we went and toured and old castle.

November was highlighted by a group of us going to see the “Black Rebel Motorcycle Club” here in The Hague; they put on a great show. And of course later that month we had our ex-pat Thanksgiving feast. There were only three and a half American’s in attendance (Steve is half American Half Dutch). The rest were one Iraqi, one Macedonian, two Serbians and four Bosnians. Steve and his wife hosted the event at their house and Steve out did himself. The food was excellent! And the gravy turned out pretty dang good if I do say myself (I was the only one who knew how to or had the confidence to make it).

December was a fun filled month. First Kristina, Bilijana and I went to Munster Germany to their Christmas market. This is the same one we went to last year. This year we spent one night. We had a fun girl’s weekend of drinking and lots of shopping! I won’t even go into how many euros I spent….Though not all on me; I did a great deal of Christmas shopping☺. On arrival we did get our first gluhwein at the hotel as we were checking in. Yes they served us gluhwein. After that we headed down to the market area in the center of town. Our hotel was within easy walking distance, or stumbling distance away. Of course we stopped again at the first gluhwein stand we came to. Then some browsing, more gluhwein, browsing, shopping, gluhwein…..kind of in that order. Then at some point we were ready for food. I had found information on a traditional German restaurant so we went in search of the “Gas House”. We did find it and WOW, it was worth it. The food was fantastic and very meat laden. Vegetarians would have run screaming. If it wasn’t by the menu then it would have been the hunting décor. Everything was about “game”. Actually the interior was kind of like a wealthy man’s den/hunting lodge, very cool. I won’t go into what we ordered for the meat challenged readers.

We were in Germany from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, and then we all had to rush back to The Hague for the annual winter ICTY staff union party that was going on in the evening. I had to be there because I was assigned as event photographer to take pictures of people as they arrived and the event itself. Kristina had to be there because she is the staff union VP. We were late getting back and I raced from the train station to home, then flew on my bike down to the event.

The party was held in the large old church in the center of town. It was strange having this big dance party in a church that was built in the 1600’s. We danced and drank until 2 am.

The next weekend was another concert event. Steve’s God is Aphex twin and he was performing in The Hague as part of a weekend electronica music fest. Of course a group of us went. Aphex did not even go on stage until 1:30 am; you read it right, 1:30 am. After Aphex, Mogwai took to the stage at 3:00. One of our fellow group members, Bart, complained about all the transy-dancing going on. Kristina and I looked at each other and laughed thinking “how else are we going to make it through the night” and continued dancing. We made it to about 4:30 am then headed for home. A good fry-up was again needed when I woke up before noon mind you.

A week later I was in Portland enjoying family and friends. Dan, my friend Gayle and I went and saw The Dandy Warhol’s. For New Years we went to the Doug Fur with Gayle and her husband Joel and saw Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. What a great New Years Eve, good music and good friend.

Of course the rest of my time was doing holiday stuff. And of course as I stated above, Dan proposed to me during this time.

I will end here for now.

Cheers,

Kim