Pooks Canyon

We had a lake this whole time! Turns out the field behind the cottage floods during the rainy season and we awoke this morning to a bird filled lake in the back 40. Jon decided we should have a paper boat racing contest so we all set off to build boats. Leah did not want to participate in the competition though she did build a nice boat. Unfortunately it did not get photographed as it was not submitted to the contestant's table during pre-race sign ups. It subsequently sank and is unavailable for photographs. The contestants: Jon's sailboat. The sail made it top heavy and was removed. It sank anyway. Pooks' Boat - Polynesian inspired Outrigger Though the fan sail immediately fell over, the boat remained afloat and was the only boat to make it to the finish line (aka the fence in the middle of Baker Lake). Axel's Boat - Dad Helped. It sank. Jon's Sanpan boat. Floated well and was making serious gains on Pooks' outrigger until it tipped over and sank. ...

I think Michelle took a leaf from Nancy Reagan's book... Michelle at last night's festivities Nancy Reagan's 1981 Inaugural Gown

Last night we opened the unlabeled bottle from De Dolle Brouwery. The contents were quite interesting, here is the breakdown... The pour First of all, I think it was a bottle fermented beer. It didn't have a spectacular amount of bubbles, which lends more credence to this theory - often bottle fermentation produces just a moderate amount of carbonation. It was clearly cellared for sometime, judging by the dusty bottle and great deal of sediment on the side of the bottle (see photo below). It was probably aged at one point in an old wine cask as it had lots of wood and wine flavor. The aged flavor and bottle ferment makes me think it was a Flanders Red Ale . This can be made by blending an older beer (barrel aged) with a younger one then bottling it. The sugars from the younger beer enable the bottle fermentation. Since OerBier itself is a sour red, this was probably the beer used in the mixture. Or maybe it was just a big old bottle of plain OerBier ;) Anyway, I'm tr...

What do an Israeli micro-brewer, an American GI fresh off a stint in Afghanistan, and the Baker family have in common? We comprised today's tour of DeDolle Brewery in Esen. The tour began in the hopkamer where a lively discussion about the merits of boiling yeast ensued. The Israeli micro-brewer contended that it was good to boil the yeast, our owner/founder/brewmaster tour guide, aghast, insisted the kettle was not the place for yeast. As an amateur bread maker and truster of Belgians in all things beer, I tend to agree with the brewmaster. This was made that much funnier having just watched an episode of Friends on Belgian TV in which Ross buys vanilla flavored Israeli champagne to celebrate a promotion. I kept my laughter to myself. The yeast debate set the tone all the way through to the bottling facilities and warming room at which time we were sent forth into the café to taste the beers. The kids, having bailed to said café sometime before bottling, were found helping th...

Jon took a picture of me taking a picture of the kids in the big I am sterdam sculpture. The kids in the M Me looking on in Vondelpark while children speel (play). This was a kid-centric trip and we found a lot of stuff for kids that was great for adults as well. We took the kids to Le 4 Stagioni- a great place in A-Dam's Old South neighborhood with great Roman style pizza's. The mostly Italian staff are very friendly (as is most of Amsterdam) and our server took the kids into the kitchen to pick out their ice creams. Axel got confused and bit the cone as you can see in the photo. Jon bought a rose for me at Westermarkt in the Jordaan neighborhood. I carried it all day and noticed that people give special treatment to a girl with a rose. From Jordaan we took the Canal Bus to TunFun (at Waterlooplein) where this picture was taken. TunFun is a roadway underpass converted into a giant play area... it really illustrates how the Dutch have their priorities straight in regar...

We took the canal bus and the street car for most of our travels around town. Had we known we would luck out with such gorgeous January weather, we might have just rented bikes! Cars are not the way to go in A-Dam. Jon's happy to be cruising the Dutch canals and seeing the sights. Leah is happy to be on her way to the Anne Frank house, whom she has studied about in school.

At Saturday market we decided to venture down to the old Beenhouwerstraat address and visit Sebrechts park. They had redone the whole playground which is probably only interesting to people who were there last year. Here is what the playground looks like now... they took out some trees and there was welcome sun in the cold Saturday afternoon. Axel prepping to go down the new slide. Panoramic view of the play apparatus. Here it is last year. Leah and I on the bench.

Leah's hot chocolate- hot milk with chocolate for melting into it. Plus cookie, muffin, and pralines. Jon's beer came with tiny fishes and a nut mixture. Cappuccino comes with whipped cream here. To Mimi- yes these were from t'Zand Koekje

Axel took this picture- this is what chickens look like when you are 3 feet tall. Happy farm kids. Sunset Donkey

Races in the Netherlands don't quite have the pump of a Belgian 'cross race. Not sure why... maybe less spectators, less gin, more healthy food choices? I ended up in the beer tent and ordered a tall pils. About 2 seconds after stopping at a table, an older man from a large group of "Supporters Bart Wellens" approached and said something in Flemish. I said that I only speak English and he said, "Oh, so you are drinking alone then?" I looked around and said I guess so. Then he just walked away. I guess he was also a member of Supporters of Pointing Out the Obvious. I really missed my father-in-law today- we always had so much fun culturally blundering through beer tents and having one sided conversations with drunken 'cross fans that only spoke Flemish. Mainly, though, today is was not so great because Jon had a crash during warm-up, bending his handlebars and inuring his hand. I think the hand will be okay -mainly bruised- but he wasn't able to start...

Desperate for a map of the Loenhout course, I shelled out the 3 euros for the fancy program they sell at the gate. It had much more than a map and included great caricatures of past winners and photos of favorites for the win. My hands down favorite photo was this one: Sven Nys with his Goldschlonger.

When Jon and I ate at the Hotel Erasamus restaurant in Bruges, we ordered an oude gueze off the beer list. It turned out they were out of that kind, so the waiter brought out this 2005 Oude Gueze from the 3 Fonteinen brewery instead. It was pretty good, nice and sour, and had an intresting hint of roasted bell pepper flavor to it. Gueze it not for everyone but I do enjoy a good sour gueze now and again. It took the waiter about 5 minutes to safely release the cork as it threatened to spray us all. I clapped when it was finally open.

On New Years we all hopped on the farm-issue town bikes and took a nice ride to town (about 6km round trip). Axel rode in a baby seat. It was cold. Really, really cold. We were expecting the town to be shut down for the holiday but were lucky to find a rag tag batch of leftovers from last night's celebrations in the Markt square. Inside a tent that looked like WWII issue we found Gluhwein (warm mulled wine) and cups of hot soup. Jon in the Gazebo Leah was too cold to enjoy her Fanta. Axel ate free danishes (I would pay $5/each in the states- people make good pastries around these parts) and danced to the Euro Techno in the square.

And no self respecting European girl washes her hair without also having a good blow dry.

Love it! Especially in a country where things become firmly closed just when you really, really wanted something.

Yes, Jon has finally cracked the top 20 in Belgium. He was actually riding 10th for half the race until a crash set him back to 13th. I was in the pit with Bart Wellens' and Klaas Vantornout's mechanics who were asking about Jon as he remained toward the front for the whole race. Here is a photo of Jon 2 nights ago when we ate at Hotel Erasamus in Brugge: At Sint-Niklaas Jon developed new super-fans as he was ROCKING one very technical section of the course on every lap. After the finish, he was even stopped to be photographed with an entire Belgian family. Some fans approached me in the pit to find out more about this Jonathan Baker person. They said what is his nickname? I said that he has many nicknames but my favorite is The Beast. They liked that and chanted Beast, Beast, Beast as Jon hammered past. The fans that chanted for he Beast. Today's 13th place was even sweeter after Loenhout on Tuesday- in which Jon was again doing very well, but then his chain broke ...