2009

From the warm USA we send you many good wishes of health and happiness for 2009. Stay happy, healthy and................in touch :)

Love

leslie and Frans

2009

From the warm USA we send you many good wishes of health and happiness for 2009. Stay happy, healthy and................in touch :)

Love

leslie and Frans

Back in the USA

So we made it over to the US safe and sound to find our selves taking care of mom and enjoying family life during the holiday period. We flew over on December the second and I (Frans) will stay for two weeks while Leslie will stay for 7 weeks coming back in February. Last night we had a big family bonfire at Michaels place and it was good to see a significant part of the family. Dominique and her family came over from Savannah leaving Isobel with us for the next week. We had fun during the bonfire and the only bad thing happened was that Bill (Leslies oldest brother) fell bad from the steps in the garden and had to be taken to hospital for a check on his leg and knee. It appeared not to be broken but the final diagnosis is not made yet. Today we celebrated Leslies birthday and mom's 60th anniversary. It it's so sad that her husband Lester is not with us anymore! Anyhow, we hope to enjoy the rest of the week going towards the end of the year. Right now the weather here is kind damp with some drizzle but it is definately not cold. We stay in touch!

First snow in Boxtel

Recently we enjoyed the first snow landscape of this winter. It was amazing to see how quickly our little town changed into a Xmas landscape. Leslie and I walked around the town center and after that we took the car for a very scenic ride through the country side. At this time the snow completely disappereared again and now we view a boaring grey landscape. From December 26th we will travel to America to do our family duties during a nine week period. I will return back from the States on Janyary the 10th while Leslie will stay until February.

Whitewater

Last weekend we went to the Belgian Ardennes for a relaxed weekend. We stayed at a mountainhut runned by a company named " Brandsport" that I used for a series of trainings with the Fuji firebrigade. It was good to visit again without any need to organize stuff for other people. So Leslie and I walked around, enjoyed the good local food and ofcourse the Belgian beer. On our last day we did get brave and took a kayak on the Ourthe River that definately had enough water to be not forgiving in case of mistakes. The weather was fine but very cold and pushed by a high motivation we did not capsize in the cold water!

Visit of a good friend

Recently we had Graham from Australia visiting us for a week. It is always good to see long time friends again and his visit was no exemption. He had a relaxing week in Holland as part of his world trip. We took him a few places that he had not been yet and I guess we all had lots of fun. Amongst many places, we went to the province of Zeeland for a cultural tour and we also spent a day boating around in the Biesbosch National Park. Also he visited our mutual friends in Germany for a couple of days before continuing his trip towards South America. We hope to meet again, either in Europe, in Australia or any other part of the world.

Our Cornish tipi holiday

Last week we spent a week in a real tipi tent on a campsite in North Cornwall. Although camping season is almost over in Western Europe, we thought it was a great adventure to challenge the cold nights and the lonelyness of being the only camper on the ground. We had so much fun with basic camping and not to forget explore the beautiful country in this time of the year. We went hiking in Dartmoor National Park during my 50th birthday (it was a very special and memorable day day) and visited Tintagel Castle and Arthurs last battleground. Also on the rainy Thursday we went to the Eden Project (the largest greenhouses in the world) and were amazed by what they all have to show. Also we visited our friends Kathy and Colin with their kids who we had not seen since 7 years (shame shame). Unfortionately Kathy's mother Audrey died just the week before we came over and that part really made us sad as I knew her since over 30 years! But I managed to recollect some good memories on her with Kathy and I think (and hope) that recalling memories did good for us both. It defenately made us realise that we have to visit more frequent here what we also promised our selves for the future. Kath, Colin, Ross, Jordan, Zac, Kate and Lisa (beautiful baby), it was great to see you all in good shape!

Tata

Leslie and Frans

Back to the start, June 26th

Hallo everybody,

We made it back into Anchorage and enjoying the luxury of beds, showers and dark rooms! This moprning we left from Seward in the South of the Kai Fjord Peninsula. Unfortunately we had very bad weather in Seward. It was so bad that the long looked forward trip by boat to the glaciers and whales was cancelled due to 14 feet waves (sissies!). Anyhow, we had to overcome our diappointment and went hiking a couple of times which proved to be very beautiful as well. We did not see the bears but we did see the sea otters playing in the water close to the beach.

We also visited the Exit glacier and I think that Kyle enjoyed his first glacier from close by! We had some dry evenings though and we did enjoy sitting at the campfires and viewing the snow capped mountains all around Resurection Bay.

Anyhow, the tents are dry again and we kind of packed for tomorrows flight back to regular life. Leslie and Kyle will fly from Atlanta to Savannah where Leslie will stay a couple of weeks (both at Dominiques and at Moms house in Athens) while I have a day lay over in the Atlanta airport (jippy) before my flight back to Amsterdam departs on Saturday evening. I hope to return home on Sunday around 11 am!

We hope you had some fun reading our mails and that they were not to dull!

Stay happy and healthy, live dangerously now and than but most of all......stay in touch

Love

Leslie, Kyle and Frans

Seward, June 24th

Hi everybody,

Finally we are able to write something about our trip again. Last time we wrote you, we were on the point of going over to Barrow, at the most Northern tip of the USA. Our flight left early in the morning (6 am) and first brought us over to Dead Horse at Purdhoe where the famous Alaskan oilfields are. This is already realy an arctic area. There are no trees and only frozen lakes, packice and lots of warm dressed people. After a short stop the plane continuid to Barrow at 71+ degrees North. It was like walking into a movie. We met a very sureal area and we were the most lucky with the fact that we arribved at the same day of the start of the once a year whale festival. This is a local eskimo festival to celebrate the whalecatching that was done by the local captains anc crews to supply the whole community with meat for the winter times. Barrow is only allowed to catch 22 whales a season and actually they only caught 9 so far. The catch whales in a traditional way by chasing them in little skinnboats with a harpoonrifle and I must say that this kind of whaling being very traditional and essential for their survival is no problem for me (it is the countries that do not need the whale at all that I have a problem with).
The festival was way cool. Almost everybody in the 4000 people community showed up some time and the afternoon was spent serving out all kinds of traditional food. Everybody was welcome to join (also the about 25 tourists that were there) and eveybody shared food with us. We actually eat raw fermented in blood whaleblubber and it did not taste as bad as it sounds like. We had eskimo cakes and most of all lots of fun.
In the evening we saw the famous blanket tossing. Kyle did have himselve tossed as well and that was great fun.

The next day we had a little tour and the highlight of the day was that Kyle and I became offical members of the Polar ABear Club by diving into 29 degrees water in the packice. Way cooooooooooooooooooooooool !!!!!!

Anyhow, we are at Seward today for our last three nights before heading back to Anchorage for our last night. Tomorrow we possibly are gonne see the glaciers that fall into the ocean and hopefully also orca's, whales, sealions and sea otters.

Have a great time wherever you are

Love

Leslie, Kyle and Frans

ps: If somebody wants to visit me on a boaring airport in Atlanta on the 28th, please let me know

Fairbanks, June 19th

Hi everybody,

Long time no hear I guess. We made it safe from dawson City over the top of the world highway into the Alaskan town of Tok again. We spent the night in areally beautiful log cabin before heading towards denali National park. Upon arrival the check in procedure was easy and soon we had our camp up at Savage River campground where it was told that at night the wolves roam the campground. However we did not seen any of them and also the next day, no wolves and no bears at sight. During our one day stay here we all went rafting on the Nenana River on class 3 and 4 rapids. Real cooool to do (specially wearing dry suits in ice cold water!). The next day it was time to go to the famous campground of Wonderlake at the far end of the park. No cars allowed here so we have to take a camperbus that takes about 6 hours to get to the campground. The weather was not good. We had to break down our camp in the rain and also set it up again in the rain but during the evening it bnecame moer dry. Anyhow, we were close to the mountain that I once climbed (Denali peak with 6200 meter altitide being the highest peak of the North American continent) but due to the clouds there was not a singele second for a view on the summit! We dod not see a lot of wildlife that is not counting the musquitos. They were here by the millions and eating us alive. Even in the bathroom they brought us the toiletpaper by airfreight haha. We had a good hike to the McKinley River and some fun nighly talks with the other campers. Yesterday we made it out of the park (hoera showers afeter 5 days no shower and very limited drinking water). We drove the 100 miles North to Fairbanks were we found a good campground. We stay here a while and on Saturday we will fly over to the Arctic town of Barrow where we will stay a night before coming back here omn Sunday evening. We will keep you posted

Stay happy, healthy and.....in touch

Love

leslie, Frans and Kyle

Leaving Dawson tomorrow

Today we spent another day in and around Dawson City. The morning was spent by some adventurous canoeing on the Yukon River. Too bad the weather tuned bad for a little while so we came back before our plannd litle picknick on the island!. After a big lunch (Kyle can eat th whole nation) we went over to the local museum to catch some culture. Kyle did discover that when you erase photo's from your camera they are almost for sure gone!!!!!! That made him very depressed as there were already somewhat 400 photo's on the disk. I wnt over to a photographer store and right now they are working on the disk to see if they can recover the photo's. Lets say prayers for that!!

Tomorow we will leave this funky town for a drive along the "Top of the world highway" that goes back from Dawson in Canada towards Tok in Alaska. The road is above the tree kine so when the weather cooperates we should have some great views. Anyhow, we will let you know during our next internet cafe possibility.

We love you all and will stay in touch with you

Leslie, Kyle and Frans

By the way

By the way, it was not a mummified Thoug, it was a muffied toe! Yes really

xxx

Leslie, Kyle and Frans

Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Wednesday June 11th

Hi everybody,

We made it far North from Whitehorse to Dawson City by the famous Klondike Highway. The weather has changed into much better and we arer enjoying warm temperatures on our new campground, close to the Bonanza Creek where gold ws struck first time in 1896. At that point the famous goldrush started here. The road from Whitehorse to Dawson was a very spectacular one. We drove in between the giant forrests of the North for hours and we actually saw our first Grizzley bear next to the road. After a 7 hours droive we arrived in Dawson City. Well, city is a big word. There are only 1800 people live here and the town looks like a wild west town from one of these famous Clint Eastwood movies. Absolutely a great place to be. The night on arrival we went to town and had a drink in the local downtown saloon. It was here that Kyle had his very special drink with a mummified human thoug to become a memeber of the notorious Captain Rat club. We went to bed at 1.30 AM after we saw a mother bear with 2 cubs playing around and actually climbing a big tree, just for fun ( I never saw something like that before). This morning we went panning for gold and discovered there is a certain technique required for it. We might have found some gold though although I still need to check it out if it ireal gold or just Mica (possibly the latter one haha).
Tomorrow we are intending acanoe trip on the Yukon river, hoping that the weather is really beautiful again. We try to stay in touch. After tomorrow we will travel the "Top of the world highway" back into Alaska.

Stay happy, healty, and .......in touch

Love

Leslie, Kyle and Frans

Welcome to the North Pole

Hi everybody,

Many camping has been going on since we left Anchorage last Tuesday. From Anchorage we went to Wrangel & St Elias were we found a little very basic campsite (only 1 bathroom en no running water) along the Nabesna Road. We stayed here for two nights and enjoyed hiking the Volcano loop trail into the glacier mountains. Kyle ahd a great time and the rainy weather did not bother him at all.

After the first two days of camping we continuid towards the little town of Tok from where we drove the Alaskan Highway nr 1 to the Canadian border. Crossing was easy although they did not stamp Kyle's passport! About 150 miles further we stopped at a campsite along Kluane lake close by Kluane NP. The weather on arrival was great, nice and warm. The next day however it changed drastically into rain, snow and wind ending us up camping in a big snowblow. But we thought even that was fun and we could trow snowballs to each other!. From Kluane we moved to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. Tonight we stay in a hotelroom before heading North tomorrow along the Klondike Highway direction Dawson City were we will dig gold haha

We hope you are all ok and happy

Love

Leslie, Kyle and Frans

Kyle's first mountain

Yesterday we visited the Alaksa Native American Heritage centre wchich was real cool. There is a lot of navive culture in this state and I am sure that the far we go North, the more we will encounter. Right now I do not feel well. I don't know if it is caused by the time difference or something else but I cannot think about something wrong that I ate. Anyhow I will try to take it easy and hopefully it will pass quickly.

Yesterday, leslie and I took Kyle up for his first mountainclimb ever. We went to Flattop mountain and due to the plenty of snow on the slopes, Kyle had a great time. I think he did good and he and leslie made it to the rocky plateau just underneath the summit (the summit was dangerous to get to due to steep snow).

Today we will leave the hostel and pack our car to make it towards Wrangler & St Elias National Park where we will camp for the next two days.

Stay happy, healthy and.......in touch

Frans

The gathering, Anchorage, June 3rd

As you already may have deducted from the subject of this mail Leslie and Kyle arrived safe and on schedule in Anchorage last evening. We met at the giant polar bear that is guarding the hall of the North terminal (yes they have 2 terminals here) and after we got all the incoming lugage we drove back towards our hostel for the coming two nights. Kyle sounds very exciting and leslie told me that he took somehow like 75 photo's only from the flight!

After storing all the lugage in our room there were signs that people (especially Kyle) was hungry. He told us that a buffet was a good idea right now. I remembered that there was a Mongolian restaurant not far away and that the served unlimited diners from the bufet and the BBQ. So that was an easy choice. We went over to the "Twin Dragons" and enjoyed the meal. So we ended up all satisfied and went back to the hostel. After a last cup of thea in the community room (Kyle never saw a place like that wher people actually can store their own food in a refrigarator and write their name on it (maybe an idea for the kids at home as well haha).

We went to bed at 9 PM which is far to early for ne still as I have to overcome the 10 hour time difference with the Netherlands still. That's why it is 5.15 AM now and I am typing this mail, enjoying a cup of thee and the bright morninglight outside.

Stay happy, healthy and............in touch

tata

Frans

Flat top mountain, 2-6-2008

This morning I went over to a close by State Park for a climb up the Flat top mountain which is something "you must do" while being in Anchorage. The weather was ok. A bit cold and overcast but at least dry. I parked the car at a parkinglot where the trail towards the summit started and went on, upwards to snowy country. There still is a lot of snow around here and the possible easy trail in summerconditions was a bit tricky on some stretches where the mushy snow still made the path a challenge. Anyhow, I made it up, almost to the summit but concidering the fact that the last 50 meters was into steep snow (actually I was moere worried about coming down here) so I did not push that as I did not have crampons that would be a big help here. I enjoyed the view however and I had a relaxed walk back down to my car. On the way back some little bit of snow came down just letting me know that it is still early in the spring season here!

Anchorage June 1st, 2008

I arrived safe and sound last night at 21.00 after a 23 hours travel event. Besides the long travel and boaring plane-rides, everything went well. All lugage came through, the car was reserved and ready (Chevrolet Trailblazer 4wd) and the room is clean and has a good shower. I did not sleeep to long over the night because of the 10 hour time difference but I guess I will make that up somehow today. At 7 this morning I drove downtown and had a good breakfast in a cafe at 5th Avenue. Today I will spent time figuring things out where to buy what for the big trip in the "wide open" from coming Thursday. Leslie and Kyle will arrive here on Tuesday so they will have a day to accomadate the definately colder temperatures of the North.

Stay happy, healthy and in touch

Frans

Ready to go

On Saturday I will fly towards Alaska starting from Amsterdam. lesly and Kyle will join me on Tuesday, June 3rd so I have a couple of days to "make camp"in Anchorage. To give you a little idea about our itinery, here is a short version: Anchorage, Wrangler & St Elias NP, Kluane NP in Canada, Whitehorse in Canada, Tok, Denali NP, Fairbanks and Kenai Fjord NP. There is also a little surprise in this trip but we will not unveil that part until later. We hope you will stay in touch with us.

Preparations for Alaska

In about one week we will start our Alaska adventure. Leslie, Kyle and I will try to explore this most Northern State (and a little part of Canada) in a most releaxed way. Our main activities will be camping, hiking, wildlife watching and of course having lots of fun. At this moment Leslie is already in the States, enjoying some family life and preparing the trip for Kyle as far as necessary. We will try to keep you update about our adventures during the trip as far as we can connect with the outside world by use of internet cafe's. We hope to hear from you all now and than!

Spring sailing

Recently I went ocean sailing again, after a few years not being exposed to this experience. I was very happy to notice that I still have not lost the touch of my nautical past. The combination of the wind from "behind" and the sun from above made the week a spectacular and very relaxed one. I sailed with my friend who owns a boat from the town of Ymuiden in the Netherlands all the way to Cherbourg on the Normandy coast in France. All together this was a five day trip with only one stop in the city of Dover in England (we crossed over to England to enjoy more wind close to the English coastline. Specially the nights under sail were magic again. I enjoyed sitting at the wheel on my own and watching the bright stars over the English Channel combined with all the little navigational lights of the many ships in this area. I felt sad that I had to leave the boat just before my friend was going over to the Channel Islands as I only had one week off from my work. My travel back to Holland went by various trains from which one was the superfast high speed train that runs between Paris and Brussels. 190 Miles per hour is pretty impressive!

Bradley's Circus

Last Saturday night we went to CD release party of a band called "Bradley's Circus" who play American roots music. The lead singer of the band works at Fuji so that's how I knew about it and I must admit with shame that I never heard about this band before. The party was really relaxed but most of all the music was way coooooool! We were very impressed by the repertoire and not to forget the incredible voice of the lead singer Matanja. I thought it would be worth to mention the band on our blog so you all can at least enjoy a (bad quality, I am sorry I only had my little camera with me) little video. Anyhow, if you want to check them out, you can find them under www.bradleyscircus.com . We hope you have fun (we did!)