A Perfect Day, filled with Perfect Eats

Last Friday we had a very busy day, well, I did at the very least. It was probably the only summer day we are going to have this year in Amsterdam so I made sure to enjoy it, too bad the kids had to be in school!

I somewhat kid...it was 33C out, now we are back in the 50s and climbing into the 60s..we are supposed to have one more day this week where it reaches the 30s but it is supposed to thunderstorm all day. I love living here but the weather is really hard to deal with, but everywhere has a down side, right?! So, I will just go on and tell y'all about the most awesomest summer day ever!

Today I'm linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday.

Our day started with a lovely sunrise bike ride and picnic...

If you are curious, in the Netherlands to achieve this perfect sunrise...you must be awake at 4:45 to pack your picnic and be out the door by 5:05 to cycle to where you want to watch the sunrise at 5:20..on this day, now it is almost rising at 5:15.

Was so worth the early wake up to have some early morning eats with this girl in the calm morning light.

Our spread...Pofferjtes (I warmed them and put them in foil to keep them warm), banana, peanut butter, whipped cream, nutella, and strawberries.

It was delicious and such a tasty treat!

A view from behind the dune area.

After getting everyone off to work and school I said screw the nap and decided it was a great idea to bike 16km one way with my good friend and her 2 year old to a medieval castle that was built in the 1200's...Muiderslot. 

You can tell I am tired.

Along this route there were free roaming sheep! They belonged to farm as they were tagged, but they just grazed along the bike path and down near the water. It was so amazing. The path is only open from March to October.

We arrived at the castle and it was a gorgeous day to let my friends son run around.

I drank this awesome Lemonade from there tavern...

With the lemonade in the pink cup I also had a bottle of water and a boterham sandwich...which you would think has ham...no matter how many times I see this here I don't think it will ever sink in that "boterham" is just the tradition Dutch sandwich: butter (yes, like real butter), cheese, and this one also had lettuce and honey mustard. They are very good, don't knock 'em 'til ya try 'em!

This is a shot I think of the Ijslameer on our ride home, we rode over a giant huge bridge. Was so fun!

After that I raced home to pack our beach bag and meet the teenager. On my bike ride to her school I snacked on a nectarine. It was so delicious!

We were trying to smile through the heafty clouds we saw rolling in when we pulled in to the Haarlem train station which is two stops from the beach. The doors opened and it was very chilly.

...because it had started raining when we stepped off the train it wasn't easy to find a place that had seating...but we found a quiet place with a nice menu about a half mile from the train station, thank goodness it was only drizzling.

After this photo it started pouring and was lightening! ha!

This was after the heavens opened and the storm started to move away. The chairs are facing away from the water as they were trying to clean up and bring everything in. Here you can rent beach chairs by the hour or day.

The kiddo and I both decided on fish and chips because of the cooler, rainy weather. It was amazing.

This was our excited, yup we deserve some appletaart!

Mmmm...appeltaart and slagroom!

After dinner we went for a walk on the beach. We were doing our best to not be incredibly sad we didn't get to surf.

The sunset made it worth going out there even though we didn't get to play in the water...

...but we did...we weren't leaving without putting our feet in the North Sea. It was chilly, but actually warmer than the air outside! ha!

By the time all was said and done I'd drank a total of 5 of these bottles and could have gone for more! This bottle is one of my top travel essentials and I never go anywhere without it since it is self filtering.

I hope you enjoyed my eats with a little recap of our one summer day. To learn more about going to the beach in the Netherlands check out these posts: A day at the beach part 1, part 2, part 3.

Has summer arrived where you live? How do you remember to stay hydrated?

September Blogging Challenge: What is your favorite season?

This one is difficult for me to answer. There are so many things I love about all the seasons! We are entering fall and I love it because of the leaves changing (now that I live somewhere where the leaves actually do that), it's the season of mine, hubby's, and the kiddo's birthdays. Plus, there are a few holidays. I love winter because there is Christmas-DUH! I love spring because everything is coming into bloom and turning back to gorgeous. It's just life. But, I have to say my favourite season of all time always has been and always will be....

Img Credit

I love to be warm, have the sun beating on my skin. Hubby says I am a lizard. I love going to the beach, hanging out at the pool, spending time on a lake, in a boat, surfing. I love being able to do yoga outside, hike trails, and just see sun every single day. I love being able to take vacation with my family and spend the long days with my daughter who is home from school. Here are some highlights of our summer vaca....

Kayaking and taking goofy pictures!

Finding tons of turtle nests and seeing a mama turtle lay her eggs

Watching the Sunrise with my brother

Taking crazy amazing cheer photos of my daughter in the sun.

Going back to visit my old high school stompin' grounds at Jax beach!

Visiting with my parents

Making s'mores with GIANT marshmallows!

So.......... that is my favourite season...which is yours?

Will My Days Ever Be Normal Again?!

Well, today is Tuesday. I arrived home from my nearly month long holiday way too late last night. Today I woke up way too early for a wayward traveler at 6am, threw in a T25 video to complete, jumped in the shower, fixed some cereal and a banana (thankfully my wonderful Mr. did a little shopping for me on Sunday) jumped in the car and began the three hour sojourn to Seattle-Tacoma International to pick up the teenager's dear friend who flew all the way up here from Florida. Let me tell you, I may sleep the next three days! My internal clock is all kinds of messed up. I can say though we have had a ton of fun. I do love traveling and being busy so this really has been super fun for me. In keeping with my travels for just a little longer I am going to share a fun activity we did during our vacation....kayaking!!!

This took quite a bit of discussion because my brother and his wife had never been kayaking before. My brother is the type of guy who won't really jump into anything with out really knowing how to do it. He wanted to do a guided tour but I wanted to take the teenager and wasn't paying $100 for a guided tour. So, I convinced him to go to Anastasia Water Sports. We called 24 hours in advance to reserve two tandem kayaks. When we got there at 9:15, just 15 minutes after they opened they were ready to go. They asked us to give them a little time to get everything all set up because they open at nine which really means they get there at 9 ;)....life is a beach afterall! So, the guy gives us a little instruction (it is pretty much get in and paddle lol) and we were off. If you've never been you do get a little wet when kayaking so make sure you bring a water proof camera or a case for your camera. I wouldn't really recommend bringing a cell phone or anything like because I think it would detract form getting in touch with nature.

Anastasia Water Sports is located in Anastasia State Park off of Salt Run. Salt run is a nature preserve area so when you go out you can expect to see a lot of wild life! But, as you pull out if you are going out a low tide you'll easily be able to touch the bottom of the run. There are also lots of people out fishing and one guy was even sitting in his beach chair in the middle of the run! So, going at low tide is a great time to go if you were wanting to get out of your kayak at all. The guy who helped us load into our kayak's even said that a lot of people get out at the sandbar's and tan, swim, etc. So, as we begin to kayak there are tons of fish jumping and a lot of birds. We then came along a couple of, what we believe, are porpoises swimming and jumping because they were obviously finding some good food! I got this great picture of them swimming and even got a great video! Check those out here:

Porpoises splashing!

It was such an amazing experience I was so glad to get to share that with my kiddo! We were even able to work the tandem kayak together really well....(last time was a nightmare lol). So, we kayaked for a while it was probably a couple of miles...we did a total of two full hours! We went all the way down to the lighthouse and close to the Conch House Marina. The kiddo an I were getting tired so we didn't go the full way to the Marina but my brother & sister in law did and they said it was beautiful. The kiddo and I just sort of floated around the run, enjoyed the quiet, and just the nice bonding time. 

Have to be careful in this area as there are "rocks"...obviously lol!

I approve of this activity! Tons of fun!

All-in-all I definitely recommend Anastasia Water Sports. They have the best prices I've found in town for renting and they seem to have plenty of kayaks to go around. The people who work the desk seemed very organized and super polite.

This was my favorite activity we did on vacation I think. It was peaceful, we got a lot of sun, I got to spend time with three of my favourite people in the world, two of which I don't get to see too often. I will say though kayaking isn't necessarily for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of upper body work so I wouldn't take anyone under age 10. 

TGIF!!! Knock Your Socks Off Margarita!

Yes, I am still on vacation. So, why am I so excited for the weekend?! It means I am that much closer to being back with my hubby! I have had a FANTASTIC time while on vacation but I've been away from him for over two weeks now and I miss him. Not to mention I've been away from home for 21 days and am ready to get back to the comfort of home. My Mother of course did an amazing job as hostess, after all we got chocolates on our pillow at night.

But, after a good long while there is nothing like the comforts of your home. I have a super cute post coming up that features all the pictures I took from the travel photo challenge I printed off before I left! But, today I do have a delicious cocktail recipe for you since, after all, it is FRIDAY!!! 

Knock Your Socks Off Margarita

• 1/4 cup of Everclear (Yes, this is potent thus the name knock your socks off ;) feel free to sub your favourite tequila, but it may not be quite so knock your socks off)
• 10 Lime's, Juiced (or 10 oz of fresh lime juice)
• 2.5 cups of water
• 1/2 cup honey (or to taste, we wanted ours a little more tart)

Combine all in a very large mason jar. Shake until combined. Pour into glasses over ice. Drink responsibly!!!!

Well, I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I know we are off to enjoy our last two days with my folks!!!

My Vacation...so far...

Hello!

I keep saying my posts have been sporadic because I am on vacation. Yes, vacation for just under an entire month is what it winds up being! Yes, I am 100% spoiled thanks to my great parents and awesome hubby.

So, we left July 5th. Hubby came with the kiddo and I for the first week so he could see his parents as well. Here's a little photo dump: 

On the plane ready to go and acting goofy!

View from the plane a little while before we landed at our final destination. Not sure what city it is, but loved the view!

Delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate shake from Johnny Angels. 100% decadence. Complete review to come.

Me and my honey at Johnny Angels. We were listening to some pretty fab karaoke.

Breakfast at Mom's. Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Protein Shake.

The Pier I grew up frequenting. Love this place!

Hard to see, but that is a sea turtle nest our shadow's are looming over!

A watermelon cake! Watermelon is inside...'twas difficult to make the frosting stick, but I got it eventually.

Storm moving in.

The kiddo, me, and my mom at the ocean for a walk.

All you need is love! <3 p="">

Surfin'!

Delicious local place. Working on an extensive review. Totally amazing!

Strawberry Lemonade slush at the Farmer's Market.

Farmer's Market at the St. Augustine Pier.

So we've had quite a beautiful vacation so far. I am working on reviews of a few restaurants we've been to and fun places to visit while in the Jacksonville/St. Augustine areas of FL. Both area's are cute and unique. I grew up frequenting both areas as they are just an hour from each other. St. Augustine is a quaint little vacation spot, which also happens to be the nation's oldest city. It is famed to be the location where Ponce De Leon thought he found the fountain of youth! But, it is a city full of fun and unique shops, eateries, and other activities. Jacksonville is my hometown. Named for no other than Andrew Jackson, who has several other cities named for him throughout much of the south eastern US. It has a cute, fun little downtown area as well as a fantastic beaches area (as you can see from my Pier pic above). 

While on vacation I've been really working on my photography with my DSLR as well as my iPhone believe it or not! I've used this tutorial to take better iPhone pictures. I also printed a Travel Photo Checklist to follow to get all sorts of fun pictures! During our downtime I am working on making Love Doodle thanks to this inspiration on Pinterest! I'll post once mine is complete!

If you are looking for some more summer fun to be had at home check out my Summer Pinterest board and my Summer Fun board.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far and whether you are doing a big vacation or a staycation you are finding lots of fun and exciting things to keep you occupied!!!

(P.S. if you want follow be on Bloglovin'!)