The Final Foray Through France

10/04/21

We awoke to a sunny morning, prepared ourselves as best we could in the small-ish quarters and drove back into town. Mike somehow recalling the location of a bakery we’d passed the day before 🤪

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A display case full of delicious looking temptations was fully stocked, as were the shelves of bread behind the counter.

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What a way to start the day 😍 
We walked back to the RV, goodies in hand, walking by the ever eye-catching scenery.

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Much that we saw, being old walls built from hand-picked and assembled stones. 
The labour that was put into the things we so casually pass by, causing one to stop in total awe if you pause long enough to consider what it is you’re actually seeing 😳

Mike drove us to the waterside in Fort – Mahon Plage, so we could eat our goodies with a view.

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Not eating them outside, as the wind was pelting sand around and causing a general feeling of unpleasantness 😜

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Once we licked the crumbs off our fingers, our drive began again.

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And I didn’t even relocate to the ‘back seat’ 🤪 
We stopped at a grocery store, as what trip of ours is really complete unless we overspend in a local grocer ?? 🤪 
This was just a small section of their chip selection.

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Please take the time to read all of those vastly different flavours 😅🙈
A drastic change from Holland, where they have very few chip flavours (the main one being ‘paprika’) compared to many places.

We journeyed on through little, and large French towns. Pausing at places with viewing opportunities as necessary, slowly moving back towards Holland.

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We considered going to Europe’s largest aquarium in Boulongne-Sur-Mer, but when we drove by, they were closed 😕 
Making that probably once in a lifetime opportunity, a non opportunity 🤪

We went into the city then, Mike managing to find a parking spot for the RV, so we could walk around and explore a little via foot.

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We walked into what would have been the old city center.

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Homes, stores and their massive cathedral, all being built within the confines of a protective stone wall. 
People still living and working inside the existing walls, where no cars are allowed, but now with a thriving city also continuing on outside of those walls. Whether because it was Monday or afternoon in France, or both, finding an open place to eat, was once again a little tricky.
We finally found a pizza place and ordered a margarita pizza to go, taking it back to eat in the RV. 

The thick, chewy mozzarella atop a thin but still doughy crust, not at all failing to satisfy 🤤

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Two murals were spotted while driving through town, the man in the yellow raincoat was painted by a Canadian artist 

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One more bakery was stopped at for good measure before we left town.

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We paused at Fort d’Ambleteuse, not realizing that’s where we were headed, but not being disappointed that it’s where we ended up for a little leg stretch.

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The rocky shoreline was wandered upon for a little while, and then a little while longer once a couple of shells were spotted, as the search had to become a little more serious in its pursuit 🤓

 

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We also gathered a special little collection of rocks from there, specifically for Lake 😉 

B85682C2-9D60-4CAF-AB32-6D1308B1EB79A toy or souvenir had been looked for, for Lake but nothing had caught our eye. He doesn’t love stuffed animals and hardly any other toys for that matter, but we truly did think he’d appreciate the rocks. Not just because they were easy to get as well as being free 🤪

Back at the RV we took a short siesta, since Mike planned to continue driving later into the day. 
Our next stop after restarting the drive, was at a the Calais Canadian War Cemetery.

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We signed the guest book and took a moment to ponder the graves. 

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Being struck by the ages of so many young men, and their sacrifices.

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Wissant was the coastal town we stopped in next, wanting to find a place to eat.

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A dolphin was the symbol for a street crossing and I wish they were the symbol used everywhere 😅

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We just missed the time for food being served and were thus stuck with the drink and dessert menu options, so an in house pink lemonade and two crepes were ordered.

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They were tasty, just not overly filling 

Next stop – Cap Blanc-Nez cliffs.

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Pretty self explanatory, cliffs, by the waters edge.

 

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It’s actually the closest point of France to England, and The White Cliffs of Dover can be seen on a clear day.

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We had to walk a decently lengthy path to get to the steps that lead down to the actual beach/cliff area.

 It looked like it would be overly far to journey down and really go to the waters edge, but in the end we went further than expected. 

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Our wandering feet and the feeling of adventuring taking over 😉

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Accumulating 10,250 some steps by the end of the day, which for a day that was spent driving more than not, isn’t too shabby in my opinion 😉

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Our feet then took a rest, as our bellies took over and the search for food began once again. 
We passed this impressively constructed house/fence as we drove towards town. 

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I don’t really feel like reliving this next part, but for your entertainments sake, I will 🤪

A menu outside of a restaurant was read, and it seemed like a decent price for what would come with the meal.
A starter, entrée and dessert.  
We figured that since we had an upcoming anniversary and when would we try a semi fancy restaurant during a stint in France again, so why not?

The meal began, with duck.

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But not at all the duck that I had hoped for 🙈 
Two slabs of cold, fat sprinkled, meatloaf looking duck, topped with a semi sweet pickle, was placed in front of me and thus began the feeling of having made a fatal mistake 🤪 
I took my fork and carefully removed a small corner, bringing it slowly to my mouth and using much inner courage, ate it.
It was not ‘bad’ but nor was it what I would call ‘good’. 
Mike too tried it and he then admitted that after reading the French menu, he had thought the duck would either be a soup type dish, or what I got 🤪  
I wish he’d have mentioned that fact sooner.

Neither of us had any desire to eat the duck, so there it sat. Awkwardly untouched, catching the curious eyes of the waiters and waitresses that passed, unsure if we were done, or simply not hungry. 
I excused myself to use the restroom, hoping beyond hope that the waitress would come whilst I was away, but she did not.

I found this situation very uncomfortable 🤪🙈

She finally came, asking if anything was wrong and we explained that we were simply unlearned tourists whom hadn’t expected that type of dish 🤪 
A long wait then ensued. 
As people around us were served and we waited, and waited. 
Our plates were finally brought out, and then quickly taken away! As they were for another table 🤪

So we waited some more 🙈

Finally our dishes did come, Mikes lamb shank being pretty tasty, my fish being fine, just a little boring.

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We never got the wifi password given to us either, and when you’re traveling without any, have routes to plan and a child to check in on, that is a point against the establishment as well. 
It was not the worst dining experience, but it just slowly slid into a less and less pleasant one, considering the price and expectations and it just wasn’t the happiest feeling note to end the last meal of the trip on 🤪 
We got out of there as quickly as we could, which was not very quickly at all, and hit the road 🤓

Mike then admitted he’d thought all along that we should have just eaten at the next McDonald’s, as he’d rarely been impressed by food when in France.
Speak your thoughts out loud next time husband! 
🤪😂

By then it was dark out, and Mike decided he would just drive until he got tired, find a place to park us for the night and call it good. 
I retired around 11 or so I think, and he went on until 1 ish I believe…

Day One Desynchronosis 

09/11/21

Lake awoke crying about 45 minutes after he’d went to bed, so I settled him down and he joined us for the remainder of the night.

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So much for bringing his crib sheet from home so his bed felt more familiar 😜 My sleep was restless until around 2, when Lake then awoke, ate a big bottle and didn’t want to go back to sleep 🤪

Mike took him to the play room for a while and then Inge took a turn because she said she was awake anyways. Eventually he began to seem drowsy again, so they tried to lay him down, but that was a no go 😅 So we took him bed once more, where he flip flopped around, watched some Luca, crawled all over us and then finally settled enough to be slowly rocked back to sleep around 5.

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We all slept in until 10:30 and could have kept sleeping, but figured if we wanted to attempt to get into the rhythm of the days ahead, we’d better not. It was just us three for  the morning, as John and Inge had left that morning to attend a weekend church camp being held nearby.

We figured we’d see how the night/morning went and go from there if we’d join them at all or not.

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Mike made us coffee and sugar bread toast for brunch and by the time we ate, tided, cleaned up the room from the night before and got the diaper bag restocked etc.etc. It was time for Lake’s first nap of the day, which he took easily, in his crib.

We had to wake him up in order to go to the camp, which was around 25 minutes away.

He sat calmly and lazily in his car seat (not something he’s really done for any amount of time before🤪) for more than half of the drive, looking up at the trees through the sunroof. Here they let babies sit front facing from 9 months old, so he’s been enjoying the views I think 😉

We shall see how much he likes being faced back again, once we go home 🥴🙈

We arrived, and the meet and greet began 🤪

It was a lot of family/extended family, so it was nice to be able to see them there for a moment even,  in case we didn’t get a chance later on. 
Lake did so well with meeting everyone and being squished and squeezed and  handed around, not playing strange or getting upset at all, so that was relieving 😅 
So many remark that, ‘he is so soft?!’… I thought all babies were but it’s seeming like perhaps that isn’t actually the case? 😜

He got to meet both sets of great opa’s and oma’s and sat for a ‘four generations’ photo with his great opa Hagenouw, opa John and daddy 🙂

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We went to a cabin the family was renting for the weekend and used that opportunity to change him out of his wet clothes and give him a snack. The rained on grass having been too much of a crawling temptation 🤪

The coffee table was spread with tea and coffee, cake, cookies and sweet treats. The most classic of Dutch spreads 😉

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I truly still do not understand how they stay so slight of stature here 😅 Bread in the morning, the afternoon and the in-betweens, as well as some warm drinks and sweets sprinkled in and possibly some cakes/tarts depending on where you are 🤪

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We visited there for a while as the rain came down outside and then Lisanne took Lake to the nearby park before the church service began. Mike wanted to stay for the songs at least but midway through, Lake had more than enough so we tried to quietly exit and head back to the house.

Lake fell asleep on my shoulder a few steps out of the church, which I don’t think has ever happened during this first year of his life 😅


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He’s always been too easily distracted to relax enough to sleep out in the open, since he passed 5 months or so. 
The poor little guy was very done with the big day, but he did very well despite the lack of naps and all of the new faces 💗

He awoke at 1:30 am and played calmly for a couple of hours before I got him back to sleep for the duration…

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 * I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪

Enroute To An International Introduction


Once upon a time, long, long ago, people could fly and travel and go all over the world and breath
 the fresh air as the pleased.

There was a new father and mother living in that kingdom and they’d planned to journey across the lands to introduce their new son to their friends and family, but the rulers of the lands had other ideas and the young families plans were postponed for many, many months…

Now things are a little different & travelling, is a lot more work.

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Oh, & now we’ve got to travel with an almost one year old and all of his paraphernalia as well,  so that’s some additional effort as well 🤪😅

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Packing with/and for a child was a slightly different experience. Having to keep everything off of the floor and out of reach and getting much ‘help’ when the task was Lake level 🤪

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Our flight didn’t leave until 5:00 pm which was a nice change and meant we didn’t need to awaken at a stupidly early morning hour and have a good chunk of time at home to accomplish all the last minute tasks whilst also tending to Lake.

The different family members stopped in at staggering time slots, wishing us a nice trip and sending us off with their love and notes.

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The check list was struck off, task by task and at 1:30, our chauffeurs arrived and everything was loaded into the truck.

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I’m the type of person that gets stressed when I have too many bags 🤪

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It freaks me out to think I could have so grossly overpacked, so I had to keep telling myself that it was ok, and the reason we needed both carry on’s was due to the fact that we had a suitcase within a suitcase, which took up a decent chunk of its space.

(We were returning a piece of luggage the mother-in-law had left at our house.)

The drive to the airport should have lulled Lake to sleep but instead it was one of his whiniest drives yet, causing a deep feeling of foreboding to settle upon me 🥴

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Once we arrived at the airport, we went to the area that does the c-vid tests and got that over with.

It was a swab up the nose for 5 seconds per nostril. The lady was very nice and though invasive, it was merely an uncomfortable feeling and not painful in the least. We waited for those results and then went on to checking in, which took a very long time 😅

Perhaps it was in part due to new protocols and health measures, but it also seemed like it was all new staff and with so few travels, how does one become competent in one’s  job of checking travellers in I suppose?  They were all very polite and friendly though and that’s a pretty big plus and the airports renovations look nice, fresh and bright  😉

Mother was busy in doing her grandmotherly duties of trying to keep Lake occupied 🥴👍🏻  

Meanwhile, us travellers hunger was growing rather large, as we had literally nothing left at home to eat before we departed, aside from the three blueberry muffins my sister had given us the previous day 😅

So, with boarding passes finally in hand, the hugs and adieus were shared and we began our first family trip to The Netherlands.

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Security took awhile due to all of the baby substances of course, but once again the staff were all very friendly and kind and Lakes food pouches of 124 ml, water bottle, thermos of warm water and half drank bottle, all made it through without incident 👌🏻

With one finally wave through the glass wall, (which I find an entire wall of windows kind of depressing… seeing your loved ones but being able to neither touch nor hear them 😒) we went to Tim Hortons 🤪

Lake used his wave to win over the cashier and she produced a free chocolate Tim bit for him.

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#Parentperks… cause Lake shouldn’t eat a ‘hole’ Tim bit himself pre flight, sugar rush am I right? 😜

Kidding, he got it all.. he eats tons and we haven’t noticed sugar rushes yet and we were so hungry we didn’t leave much of our sandwiches to share 😅🙈  Mike walked with Lake to get another bagel so Lake could stretch his legs as well as have something a little more filling to eat. He won himself another tim bit 🤪

We were seated in the very first seats on the plane to Calgary, allowing us room but not allowing us to keep our bags nearby so the perk was a little deflated in that aspect.

Mike did most of the mini human wrangling, as Lake did not sleep a wink.

He did drink his bottle during take off and that alone was a shock as he’s usually much too noisy to eat his bottles in public settings. He quickly began waving to all of the stewardess’s and played peekaboo with them. Peering from around the corner to where they were seated facing him. The one stewardess had a little granddaughter with the same birthday as Lake ☺️

He did really good, though he hardly stopped moving and we landed in Calgary sans crying fit/blowout/or whatever else a baby may do to cause upset and or angst 🤪

After walking what seemed like eons through the Calgary airport, we found our area and let Lake loose from the stroller.

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I really dislike the travel between gates in the Calgary airport, it being what seems like one long, endless hallway with nothing to see and feeling more like a bare mall hallway or parkade walk, rather than any sort of airport.

Lake got VERY relaxed during that walk but he didn’t succumb, so crawling around ensued.

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He’s begun this thing were he tilts his head a little sideways and slightly downward while he speed crawls and it looks so dangerous 🙈 If he’d even slightly trip, it would mean a faceplant on the unforgiving tiled floors of the terminal, but there’s naught to be done about it but watch with eyes half closed until he safely reaches his destination 😂

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We grabbed a meal and Starbucks, changed the small person into pjs and administered the drug combination Lake’s doctor had advised for a greater chance at in flight sleep.

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A pleasant couple seated behind us offered to hold something for us and we thought they said they’d hold Lake, so that’s what they got! 😂

He was very happy with them and they with he though, so it worked out well, while we got ourselves situated.

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‘Luca’ and the in flight safety video distracted Lake during the remaining boarding time and then we laid him down on the seat between us with his bottle, hands at the ready to give him the paci the moment he finished and, thus, he slept 😳

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For 6 of the 7.5 hours of flight!

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Praising the Lord for this little but actually not so little, miracle 😅

(I’m placing the reasoning of why that happened on all who said they’d be praying for him to do well during the flight. So I’ll be reminding everyone of our departure date so they can pray as they did pre our trip 😅💗)

Mike may have slept a little more than me, but that’s not saying much as I slept for maybe an hour.

Though Lake is only a mini person, he stretched out on the extra seat/overlapped onto us a fair bit. Causing much envy as I looked at all the other folks who had rows to themselves to stretch out on 😬

The airplane snacks provided were nothing special (are they ever really?) yet I still can’t help but love the little boxes and specifically packaged items, pleasing my ‘eat a single item at a time and let nothing touch’ personality, every time 🙈

Mike was allowed to walk around with Lake once he awoke and maybe since it was a night flight they were a bit easier, but there were multiple times I left my mask down or had it below my noise and no one came to reprimand me 👍🏻

Neither of us recall ever having had a 7.5 hour flight before, so that was a pleasant change to the usual 8.5 boarding on 9.

Passport control was a pretty long and people packed process. The whole walking onto a plane with 9 rows of people and then standing in line with so many afterwords, did actually feel pretty foreign compared to what the world’s been advising… I don’t miss the barrage of odours  that come with being by so many humans 😂


Finally, the oma and opa were spotted and once bags were located, we walked out the little VIP
😉

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As we stepped out of the airport into the parking garage, a wall of humidity hit us 😅

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It felt like the tropics and during the drive home the rain began.

Lake and I dozed a bit and due to traffic, something we’re again not used to,  it took little longer to get to the in-laws home.

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We also paused at a snack bar so Mike could begin the trips food indulgence, almost immediately 🤪 I too partook, as I forgot that I also liked a specific snack rather a lot 😅

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Nasiballen met mayo & bereklaw met pindasaus.

After settling in and letting Lake stretch his little limbs for awhile, his oma took him for his first bike ride 😉

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We unpacked and put our things into drawers… not something I’d typically do, but when staying a month, it felt right 🤪 All the while being serenaded by the birds atop the nearby trees.


We settled in for the night around 8:30, uncertain as to what our night would hold…

 * I ask that you do your best to ignore any spelling mistakes, as on my iPad the set up is different and I can’t find an easy way to do a spelling / grammar check. Thank you for your understanding 🤪

Conclusion – Captivatingly Commonplace


We were ready and out the door by 8 ‘clock so we could go to what I think was literally the only open restaurant aside from the hotels.

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Veroba’s Family Restaurant.

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The funky breakfast mural painted outside would raise ones hopes for what the interior may look like, but inside it was your classic old style home family diner. Fine, just a bit tired feeling.
It was pretty bustling in there and we waited 40 minutes for our breakfast, Lake ever nearing his patience maximum but pulling it together once the food made its way out … already so much like his parents 🤪😉

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The hash browns though greasy, were really tasty 👌🏻 Having a nice flavour, with ham & fried onions mixed throughout. The rest was pretty typical. Eggs, white toast, breakfast sausage. Do not get the coffee if you go there 🙈
Prices are reasonable for what you get, and though the atmosphere and wait weren’t the nicest, it wasn’t a bad experience either 🙂

 

I’ll mention it here because we’re on the subject and I missed it in the retelling of the previous day…
We ate at Evolve, though not having been starving, but needing something before dinner.
Have you heard, ‘You eat first with your eyes, then your nose and last with your mouth’ ?
I believe that is true to a large degree and in front of my eyes was served what Mike described as, ‘food I’d have just quickly tossed on a plate at home, I wouldn’t even serve it to you or a friend when it looked like this’ 🙈
Now that’s not to say it was disgusting looking or even poorly tasting, it just really lacked in presentation and honestly, that’s a part of what I’m paying for when I’m not having to eat my own food 🤪


Back to the day at hand.

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(A picture WITHOUT Lake?! Imagine that😅)

We strolled the streets a little while after breakfast, talking of the game plan for the day as well as while waiting for Lake’s eyes to grow heavy.
So, by 9:45 we were all back in bed for a mid morning nap 😅🙈

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We couldn’t get late check out so we thought it would be a good idea to let Lake splash around in the bathtub once more before assembling ourselves to leave.
I filled it a little, laid a towel down from some traction and set him in.
Being a jacuzzi tub, it was deep and hard to reach into, so when he decided to immediately flip over instead of stay seated, I couldn’t react quick enough to stop his mouth from making contact with a ridge in the tub 😬😫
There were many tears from Lake, many feelings of remorse from me and his first blood loss 🙈
So much for fun in the tub 🤪
Once he calmed down, Mike decided to just take him down to the pool.

I stayed room side and packed up our things.

 

Let us take a moment to discuss the room.
For being the renowned hotel it is and for paying the price we did (sans continental breakfast) it was a bit disappointing.

Not a single noteworthy touch aside from the bathroom tile and it honestly felt pretty dated and all together a bit rundown after the fairly impressive statement the lobby makes.

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It’s nice to have the spa right there if you’re planning on making use of it and the pool is nice, baby wise even, as there’s no real ‘play’ allowed. So it isn’t a ruckus echoing space, full of splashing all while one’s trying to enjoy the water, which I find appealing.

The breakfast we ordered from the restaurant there was good and though we aren’t generally fans of continental breakfasts, after this trip with Lake I think it would be a benefit. Having one available to grab a muffin or something before simply going out for a large lunch once things were open.

All in all the boys made good use of the pool and I was able to use the spa which probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise, as I had to go late in the evening while Mike stayed with Lake in the room. Even though the room was dated, it’s not as if it was grungy. Would we stay there again? Probably not, but it wasn’t due to poor customer service or dirtiness ☺️

 

I had my doubts that we could make it down in one trip with all of our paraphernalia (specially with Mike not having full right wrist usage)  but we managed to somehow 🤪

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I walked with Lake to Bella Chic while Mike checked out of the hotel. It was a pleasant little store with some unique jewellery and different items, did I purchase anything for myself? No. But that’s not uncommon nor a reflection of the store 😜

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I did however purchase a bracelet for Mike for Father’s Day, as the one he’s worn for over a year, got cut off due to his wrist episode 🥴

At 12:50 we began our journey home. 

Mike had done a little looking before leaving the hotel as to what route to take and he decided we should stop by the Douglas Provincial Park.

It was a good decision ☺️👍🏻

A $10 admission later, we were in the park and eating ice cream in a boat… a boat on land, imbedded in the earth 🤪 

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(A kind stranger walking by stopped and said she had to take out photo for us because we all looked so cute 🤪)

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A sign said it was built in . . . well, I don’t remember the year, nor do I have a photo of the sign so I guess you’ll never know how old the land boat was, but safe to say it probably wasn’t super young if they had a sign on it 🤓

 


Ice cream eaten, we wandered down to the water.

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A huge expanse of beach stretched out before us and we found ourselves wishing it wasn’t 2.5 hours away from home.

 

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Though not having gone deeper than our ankles, we don’t know if it was weedy or not, so maybe if we pretend it was laden with slimy, algae coated seaweed, we won’t be disappointed about its distance from us? 😜

 Since little, Lake has hated changing tables/doctor weigh scales etc. so changing him in public restrooms is literally impossible singlehanded.

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So with Mike as a safety guard, a tailgate diaper change and short refresh was taken care of before driving just across the highway to see about doing a ‘little’ walk to see some sand dunes.

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It was +30’s out and we only had Lake’s little town stroller, but with a slather of sunscreen applied on our small persons chubby thighs and cheeks, water bottle and bag of chips tossed in the stroller, off we went to attempt a little loop.

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We ditched the stroller after some time, it not having the oomph to power through what had become a pretty sandy path.
Then it was I who didn’t have the oomph 🤪

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I carried Lake a ways, but as we journeyed on, we realized the landscape on the short route wasn’t going to differ much and we were not equipped or prepared to do the 6 km loop to the ACTUAL sand dunes… so we turned around 🙈

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Claiming having spotted some Saskatchewan cacti as our achievement 😜👍🏻🌵

Mike searched out a restaurant not too far away and we ate what was like a chicken fried steak and a chicken burger at a very posh golf resort club, overlooking a winding inlet of water filled with sail boats of the elite 🤪

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Know that feeling when you feel out of place even though you know you shouldn’t?
Well, we felt it 🙈

Behind us, in their flowing summer dresses, tan shorts and their young daughter in a ruffled denim dress, little seashell choker and sun hat a’top her curls, a family sat to eat. Telling the children not to go after the gophers as they ‘weren’t safe!’. Talking of their morning runs and the upcoming get together and who was bringing what, etc.
It doesn’t sound THAT outrageous… but you could just FEEL the implied class difference 🤪🙈

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No high chair? No problem. Always has to have his feet/toes on something 🤪

The food was decently tasty though, and once we filled ourselves, we quickly left. Driving through Elbow, a tiny, somewhat drab little town aside from the massive summer homes that were built overlooking the water.

Road construction had us sitting for sometime, but from there on out, the drive home truly ensued.
Around an hour away from home is where Lake finally had enough and began to fuss and the fussing turned into tears and the tears into screams 🥴
It lasted 40 minutes in the vehicle with pretty robust unhappiness and then another 30 at home to deescalate and realize the road trip was indeed, over 😅

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For how much sitting he did in the truck and stroller, I think he did good 👍🏻


So, in conclusion…

We didn’t have mouth watering food, but we didn’t have any BAD food.

We didn’t find our room invoking of design features we want to apply to our home, but it met our needs.

The views, though pretty at times certainly, didn’t strongly stand out among those which we’ve been blessed to be able to explore prior.

It wasn’t the greatest trip we’ve taken, nor would we probably do it again anytime soon.

Yet, despite all of that, it was such a pleasant getaway! ☺️😂

It may sound slightly funny, but I think with Lake having done so well, having beautiful weather and we having no little couple squabbles (the sort that can so easily occur over silly things 🙈😜) it all just combined into being a super pleasant little getaway that we really enjoyed ☺️
We didn’t have any extraordinary expectations going into it and maybe that helped too but I personally find it very hard to control my preconceived ideas so it happened by luck this time🤪

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Thanks for tagging along as back seat passengers 🤓

May you also get a chance to experience such a garden variety road trip with your family and enjoy it as much as we did 😉💗

A Delightful Descent Into Decrepitness

Mineral soaking by 8:00 am.  

If you’d ever have suggested that would be me… I’d never ever, EVER have believed you 😂

Lake slept good and I did too thanks to the medicated assist 🤪👍🏻 (Mike nearly always sleeps good. Just letting you know this fact so it doesn’t seem like I don’t care about his sleep quality 😉.)

It was still a 6:30 am wake up from him though and unfortunately we couldn’t find any restaurants that were open that early and if we waited until they were, it would be passed the  ‘first nap’ 😅

The new scheduling conflicts a baby produces 🤪

So instead, we hung out in the hotel room and filled the jacuzzi for Lake to enjoy for a bit and ordered breakfast in from the hotel restaurant.

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Tub time was just the right thing to tire out the sapling and he fell asleep on the sidelines of watching soccer with dad 😉

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Breakfast (though not presented prettily due to it having to be eating in our room 🤪) was good!
It was a BBQ breakfast bowl and I’ve begun to really love breakfast bowls.

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I like things drenched in sauce, if a sauce is available and I prefer savoury to sweet.
So the idea of potatoes wedges, meat, eggs and veggies, topped with sauce as a way to begin the day, is an appealing one 😉👌🏻

 

It was a beautiful day, so once Lake awoke, we headed outside to enjoy it ☺️

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We walked through the farmers market and then found ourselves at Wildflowers Bistro & Boutique.

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It was an eclectic little place to explore while waiting for our pecan sticky bun and caramel macchiato, which we then took to enjoy in the nearby park.

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We sat on a bench and dug out the paper bags contents.

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The sticky bun was nice and light without being too airy and sweet but not sickly so and the macchiato was just like Starbucks 😉

The Wandering Market was visited next, as I had read they had pottery mugs available.
There were a few but not quite what I was looking for, so we went back out to explore. Many murals were spotted along our way, which I found to be a charming characteristic 😉

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Popping in and out of gift shops and home decor stores, enjoying the sunshine in between each.

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My ever patient shopping companions  😉

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We stopped in at Taste Patisserie by Katrina, as we always try to hit some sort of bakery on our trips.

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It smelt delicious upon entering and the clean, simplistic elegance was noted and appreciated😉

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What wasn’t my favourite was that none of the goods displayed had either names/descriptions or prices.
I hate having to ask prices of things 🥴
There were two sandwich cookies to choose from, s’more or white chocolate and lemon.
I should have went for the second flavour but they were decent sized cookies and I figured my husband would share with me and he’s not huge on lemon flavours.
So, s’more it was 🤪
It was a mistake in the fact that he didn’t even really feel like cookie so didn’t want more than a bite and I don’t LOVE chocolate 🙈 But I could still appreciate the fact that it was a VERY good cookie sandwich, the texture being very pleasing 😉

It was then nap time ‘for Lake’ 😉😜

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So we walked back to the hotel and all partook in the nap time… an aspect of travelling with a child, that you will not find me arguing about 😴

We decided to go explore via vehicle for a little while, grabbing a Starbucks (as the room only had a Keurig machine, so I couldn’t make use of the coffee grounds I brought 😩) on the way to observing homes and architecture.

Then pausing that exploration, we stopped to try to get some photos.

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As mom is always the one behind the camera capturing cute little father/son moments, she was feeling a little left out 🙈 …and I loved all of our outfits and wanted them documented 🤪

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Stealing kisses.

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Believe it or not… this is the narrowed down version. My apologies 🤪

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We decided to eat at The Mad Greek again, since we don’t have greek food available anywhere by us, we figured we ought to make use of it while it was there 👌🏻

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Mike got the boneless dry ribs and Greek salad and I got the feta fries so we could sort of share the two.

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It should have been called FETA with a couple of fries, as there was a LOT feta 😅
Thankfully it wasn’t as strong as the regular feta and it was easy to move around to equal out the fries and sauce ratio to go with each bite 😉
They were both very good dishes but it got to be a bit of the same flavour, so I’d say that’s where the previous nights platter was nice in offering variety.

The pool was calling our names, so we changed and went up to enjoy them for a while before bedtime, using swimming as a hopeful way to tire out the son 😋 As soon as I stepped into the pool holding him, he tried to lunge out of my arms towards the water 😅

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He truly enjoys himself in the water, splashing and playing but also completely relaxing when being held and allowed to simply float.

 

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They have flags hanging above the pool… can you spot the one for The Netherlands? 😉

 

Lake had begun to show a little bit of a rash that morning and I sent a photo to his Oma to diagnose as it had progressively gotten worse come evening.
Her conclusion – heat rash.
Which made sense with the temperature of the mineral pool and him having his wet swim stuff on so much. It’s very handy having a pharmacist on call to ease mom stress 😉
I’m paranoid that he will have an allergic reaction to something and I won’t know what to do 😅😬

 

He wasn’t overly content in his bed so he eventually ended up in ours for the night.

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I was wrong to expect the king size bed would offer us space from his tossing and turning though 🤪

Well, reading this now, I see my life and what it was reduced to during this getaway – mineral soaks, naps and eating at the same restaurant more than once… how old did I turn anyways ?!?! 😂

 

Decrepit – 
 
de·crep·it
/dəˈkrepət/
 
adjective  (of a person) elderly and infirm.
feeble,  infirm, weakly, wasted, doddering, out of shape, in bad shape, aged, ancient, 
long in the tooth, senile, past it, over the hill, no spring chicken
 
worn out or ruined because of age or neglect.
“centuries-old buildings, now decrepit and black with soot”
 

Celebration Destination – Moscâstani-sîpiy

Entering the room, Jessica sits down and opens the laptop and blows dust off of the keyboard, waving her hand in the air to clear it and coughs gently.

Well, it has been a long while since I’ve posted anything, but now it’s time for a recounting of our trip to Moose Jaw, which coincided with my birthday. Thus becoming, ‘my birthday getaway’ of sorts – unexpected, but accepted 🤓

We’d thrown about the idea of exploring Moose Jaw many times but usually with life and work and having other places to go, it got tossed to the back of the pile.
Metaphorically speaking of course, as one cannot ‘toss’ a thought of a destination upon a pile of something 😏

Anyways, with Mike having broken his wrist it meant he had a lot of spare time on his ‘hand’ 🤪, plus the restrictions still being what they are, the idea of Moose Jaw resurfaced once again.

We weather watched and finally decided on leaving Friday, at whatever time ended up being Lake’s first nap of the day 😉

We awoke to the expected rain, but that didn’t ‘dampen’ our spirits (full of these puns today… haven’t written in so long I can’t stop them from coming out, my apologies 🤪🙈).

I’d attempted to pack up most of our things the day before, but there’s always those last minute things to grab, cooler bags to fill and tasks to complete and seeing as this was our first real trip with Lake, the supply list felt a bit mind boggling (for me 😜).

Mike asked if we really had so much more stuff than usual JUST because of Lake 😜
Yes, dear… that is indeed why 😅

A quick stop had to be made at the sisters house, where the nieces waited for me with their gifts, instructing me to take the cards with to read on the drive 😉😋
They were not so lengthy as I had expected after that specific instruction but enjoyed nonetheless 😂

We officially headed off around 11:00, Lake fast asleep and head bound in attempts at staving off the awfully uncomfortable neck bend babes incur so often in their car seats 🙈

The start of the drive flew by for me… as I was being showered with birthday messages and wishes and was happily posting the mornings details for others to partake in.
It felt like we were headed off on some huge adventure in some way… I guess that’s what ‘the c o v i d ‘ will do to a person 😜

We passed along a wealthier area of Saskatoon’s outskirts, remarking on the homes and what we liked or did not. Always looking for design ideas to document 😉

2 ish hours in, we made it to Kinder Surprises Antiques, a place I’d always been curious to go explore should the opportunity present itself.
Lake had just awoken, so the timing was impeccable 😉

Mike remarked that it felt almost more like a museum tour of sorts rather than just a place to shop, which is an accurate feel.
Multiple buildings being filled with items of all sorts, being the largest rural antique shop in Saskatchewan.

What we thought to be an old school house, boasted of some beautiful old windows.

The boys got to stretch their legs a little, while I took slightly more time then they to rest my eyes upon all the objects available for perusal 😉

The remainder of the drive went by without anything too documentation worthy occurring, which is not a bad thing, when one is road tripping with a wee little person 🤪

The Temple Gardens Hotel & Spa was checked into at 3:00 and we went up to deposit our bags and let Lake rip around in the room.

30 minutes later we were seated at The Mad Greek for an early dinner.
(Mike had eaten there once as he had quickly passed through the area post car buying, shocker I know 🤪)

We quickly decided upon the Greek platter and delved into it once it came.
Pork souvlaki with their garlic sauce, gyros, sausage, filo wrapped feta and spinach bites, pita bread and a baked eggplant topped with a cream sauce made up our meal and it was very very tasty 👌🏻
Lake happily ate everything as well but we found out as the trip progressed, that he does not like restaurant forks, preferring to be fed by hand or spoon specifically 🙄😜

As a gift from my mother-in-law, I had a massage booked for that evening. Because of that, we didn’t linger long at the restaurant and headed back to the hotel so the boys could test the mineral pool.

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Needing to do so in time for me to get Lake into a fresh diaper, pjs and hopefully bedtime ready, before I left. As dressing Lake isn’t a task Mikes wrist was up for just yet.

Lake has become rather an unwilling participant of diapering and clothing of late 🙄

I headed up to the spa at 6:00 and settled in for my pro sleep massage ☺️

It was done mainly with brushes dipped in hot oil, which I’d never had done before.
It was done very nicely and my esthetician was the perfect mix of friendly and conversational but, not so much that you couldn’t relax and really enjoy the treatment ☺️
I personally would have liked a little deeper of a massage but I’m not complaining 😉

I got back to our room around 7:30 and was met by a sleeping baby upon our bed and a husband who said the babe had been very unhappy and unwilling to sleep until a few moments before 🙈
I honestly didn’t feel too badly about it, as when do the dads really every have to deal with an unsettled baby, alone ? 🙈😜

He did end up waking up for an hour or so and I had to get him back to sleep while Mike went out in search of some snacks and my free birthday Starbucks… and some snacks for himself as ‘you didn’t pack any chocolate??’ 🤪

A peach green tea with coconut milk was shared as we relaxed before turning in for the night… I even took a part of a sleeping pill because I rarely sleep well in a hotel and I figured with Mike having more mobility back, he could handle a night waking for the first time in 6 or so weeks if need be, for the last of my birthday wishes 😉😋

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