Transplanting a Seattleite

We went to Efteling, and I didn't understand how to get to Symbolica (it is _through_ Octopus! Silly me!) during the half hour before regular hours for people staying on property. Oh well! We did a lot of rides, and I bought the photo pass. We went back to the room to rest, and then later with swimming. A. didn't realize that 1,3 m meant More Than 4 Feet Deep, so she got over her 4 Feet Deep phobia and had a ton of fun.

Then we went _back_ to the park to see what it looked like after dark, when we realized it was open really late. Lots of fun, but exhausting.

We got up not too early (at least not by that time zone -- by our home time zone, insanely early!) and had breakfast, returned bicycles and said goodbye to our host. We drove to Schiphol, stopping to top up the tank and to squeegee the very bug ridden windshield. We got to Schiphol around 11:30 for a 2:45 departure and returned the rental car. We really like BB&L. No surprises in pricing or anywhere else and they are very pleasant to deal with.

We checked two bags (one more than on the way out, but, souvenirs!). We got through the general security line and stopped at McDonald's for lunch and for a couple minutes at the play area. Then off to all those additional levels of security for returning to the US. I won't miss this passport when I renew -- they printed the bar code misaligned and it always causes problems.

We got to the gate in plenty of time and I carped at family for making me run for no good reasons and complained further because R. hadn't checked which boarding group we were in and missed our call. Oh well! We got our seats. My G-Ro did not fit into the overhead in the desirable direction; it had to go sideways. Fortunately, Delta Comfort or whatever they call economy plus has some dedicated bins so we had plenty of space. And then the fun began.

First, the tug couldn't let go of the plane. Then a gear something or other indicator light wouldn't turn off. We ultimately had to return to the gate while someone went and flipped a breaker (really, the whole world works on the principle of turning it all the way off and then on again, apparently), then fans had to be pointed at the brakes to cool them down (did you know taxiing resulted in overheated brakes in airplanes? I did not). I was terrified we'd run out the clock on the flight crew and we would need a replacement crew. Or the problem would require more maintenance and we'd all have to get off the plane for an unknown delay. But my fears were groundless. They served nuts, pretzels and water while we waited and the captain came out to explain matters and be good natured where all could see it. Customer service done right, Delta! Well done! We were almost 3 hours after our scheduled departure before we finally got in the air.

Delta -- at least on this flight -- has a vegan option which is also low sodium (and low fat because ... vegan?). It was korma and super tasty altho A. hated the smell of it. I farted because beans. We passed bits of meals around among the four of us, and between that and the bag of food I brought (paranoia) we all did okay.

The actual flight was uneventful, however, there was a woman in traditional African (no, I can't specify beyond that, however wait and we'll learn a bit more) dress who was rolled up to the plane in a wheel chair. She didn't look young, and she had that look to her that made you think she probably had looked ageless for decades and the not-young could have been very old indeed. In any event, I can only imagine what she thought of the delay. As we were landing, she got up, presumably to use the facilities? Or perhaps out of some anxiety or misunderstanding. They had announced on the PA earlier, looking for someone who spoke Swahili ("or anything like Swahili"), so I'm not sure communication had been established with her. Of course there was nothing for the attendants to do at that point beyond gesture to sit back down. The passengers seated near her helped her not fall down -- she was standing throughout the actual landing, which I have never, ever seen before. And I had seen her delivered to the plane in a wheel chair. Why I Don't Fly Certain Elderly and/or Anxious Relatives, right there, in person. I hope she makes it to wherever she is going; she'll have a heckuva story to tell her family when she gets there.

ETA: On the drive to Schiphol, I saw signs for "Mysteryland" and a lot of cars. Turns out that is a music festival.

T. and R. went to Aqua Zoo Friesland; we did that with A. four years ago but it really tired her out. They've added to it since then. They had a good time.

A. and I were super tired, so we just hung out at the house all day. By the end of the day, not nearly so tired. Sometimes, we just need a day off.

I took T. down to the snack bar for dinner.

We did not visit A. today because she had the house cleaners in the morning and does her laundry in the afternoon. Also, good to have a bit of a rest before the big trip to the island.

I went to the coop and bought some snacks. T. was asking A. for some of the cookies he remembered from a previous trip and I felt bad about that, and about not bringing her a gift. So I got some nice chocolate, some cherry pastries that had no milk products, the cookies T. remembered and some other things as well. T. bought his sitter a birthday card and we bought stamps and mailed it in the mail box on the side of the coop.

After our morning visit to A., we came back to Diever and had lunch at the Keer n Punt. There were a lot of bees, which A. did not like, and the kids complained a lot. After this, we mostly ate at McDonald's and at the snack bar at Keer n Punt where we could get to go food.

I _think_ this is the day that T. and R. went to Blue Lake and T. swam.

A. and I rode Symbolica; we went through Octopus during the early half hour and rode it with T. and R. A. and I had waited through an hour plus line the day before, but honestly, this wasn't that much shorter a wait.

She really likes the play space in the back of Octopus. It is pretty cool. We also did the Panda Droom movie (Saturday, maybe?) and the Haunted House (which was kind of boring).

The shower work continues. A man from the water district came by, checked the water pressure at the service (fine) and then determined that the pressure reducing valve was set low. Really low. Like, 40. With my eager permission / encouragement, he turned it up to 65. Wow. The difference. Why didn't we do this years ago? Hmmmm?

When R. got home from work and T. back from the sitter, we were picked up by car service and whisked to the airport, where we had fast food and got on a plane. We ate some more food (vegan option! Pity I wasn't hungrier!) and slept. Yes, we actually slept. Short flight, tho, only 6 hours. Morning came quick!

We continue to approve of Delta Airlines. Of course we love JetBlue, but they don't have transatlantic flights. Yet.

Mostly a repeat of Friday. The kids did more things together: tea cups, the two boat rides, Cinderella pictures. A. spent a lot of time on the land side of Splash Battle; she got a little sun. She lost track of me and wandered over to Loopy Labs and they called me on the PA. Ooops. I had told her where I was sitting, but she apparently misunderstood. Next time, I'll point.

We hung out in the room after, then went to 99's and did a little outlet shopping to get T. some headphones.

I finally did a little research on a persistent problem I have been having with Apple Notes. Somewhat randomly, text in my To Do Note gets turned into a link to something somewhat random. I fix them ... and then they recur sometimes in the same place or near it, sometimes elsewhere in the Note. Research suggests that (a) this is a known and persistent problem with (b) long notes that (c) sometimes improves if you start a new Note and move stuff over to it and shorten it up. So I did some of that. Mostly, I ganked a bunch of text out about a possible blog post and stuck it in a me-only post so if I ever want to think about it again I might be able to find it. It was probably never going to get turned into a real post anyway; it was a little too rambly and complex.

I packed my stuff for our long weekend in North Conway, NH. I had already helped T. pack, and packed A. I had to finish, tho, because we left today. I also packed up food and other stuff.

In the middle of packing, the play therapist arrived. Oops! I totally forgot about that. Oh well. We were home and after an initial round of complaints from A., she settled in.

The complaining was because she had come home from school wanting to watch The Little Mermaid II. I couldn't find it on iTunes and so we got the discs from the library. She didn't want to interrupt watching it to hang out with the play therapist, but they had fun once they settled in.

We were leaving for NH after R. came home from work, so I got a snack and a little food into A. We never had a proper dinner however and R. just had a bowl of cereal when he got home. We didn't want to stop at the Common Man on the way up (would have taken too long) and T. had eaten dinner already. We did finally decide we were too hungry and stopped at a McDonald's in Ossippee.

Checkin to the Residence Inn was largely uneventful, altho the light by one of the beds was not working and tripping a breaker after heating up. I told R. not to report it lest they determine the room was not occupiable (it was the last available two bedroom, and I didn't want a downgrade). We decided to tell them on the way out, and leave the light unplugged in the mean time.

On Monday, we started out riding Comet. Then A. and I rode Trailblazer. We met up with T. and R. accidentally and the kids rode Wild Mouse together. I bought a photo pass for the day (probably should have bought the 3 day pass on the first day but whatever), and got the one with both kids. T. rode it a second time and I got that photo. A. and I stood in line for a while for Laff Trakks. After that, we were supposed to meet everyone else at the Aqua Theater to see a Seals and Sea Lions show but A. was not going for it. We went to Subway and had an instant replay of the previous day's lunch (with only one cookie this time instead of two). She wanted caramel corn on her way out of the park and was pacing herself. We rode Coal Cracker and got that photo. Then we went to Chocolate World and did the 4D show with my sister's family and bought some souvenirs.

No swimming because everyone but us went to the water park. K. and B. went swimming later anyway, but A. wasn't really interested in doing anything but playing Roblox at that point. We had Chinese takeout for dinner; I made the kids burgers and T. ate his but A. had filled up on caramel corn.

R. did some laundry while waiting for the food to arrive and while I was feeding the kids dinner.

Because we were staying at an associated camping facility, we got one hour early entry. I had not bought tickets, because I had been very uncertain about the family visit timing. In the event, I just bought three day tickets and figured if we needed a fourth day we'd just buy it later.

We did the kids' rides first with my sister's family, while R. and T. went on Skyrush and Comet. Then we wandered around and did some more stuff like Trailblazer, which had been closed for refurbishment in 2014. I love that ride. It isn't a kiddie coaster but more like a junior coaster.

A. wanted to buy lots of food things so after we did the shortest of the Triple Tower (new for 2017), I gave in and bought her Dippin Dots. While she was eating them, I went into Gourmet Grille, which was poor planning from a food allergy perspective. I bought the carrots, celery and hummus, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So I had lunch and A. sort of ate a little lunch. We also bought some popcorn. We left in the early afternoon because it was crowded, our feet hurt and we had done enough rides for the day.

When my sister's family came back, A. and I joined my nieces and their father in the pool while my sister did some laundry next to the pool and chatted with us. They were very tired and had gotten a lot of sun, so I said let's do burger nite at my cabin. We had planned two nights cooking and one night takeout; this was my night to cook. It turned out really well, even tho we didn't have a grill and cooked the burgers (bubba burgers -- costco burgers are slightly better, but bubba burgers are great) in a pan.

I didn't buy T. and R. a photo pass. I probably should have. Oh well.