trip to the airport (part 1 of Wes's trip)

Hi all

In order to allow me to organize my thoughts I have decided to divide my adventure into three parts.

The first part looks at our (Eric and I) to the airport:

As with everything this adventure started with a single event and in this case it was me leaving my apartment and handing over the keys at 9 in the morning and by 9:45 we were on the train headed to Brussels (the trip was to only take 2 1/2 hours).  By 12:15 we were told that there had been an accident between the city we were and Antwerp and we would have to catch a bus.  By the time the bus got into Antwerp (after the bus was late it got lost) it was about 2:00 and we decided to take a train straight to the airport.  We were told that the trip would take 1 1/2 hours so we figured that we would have enough time to get the airport, well we were lied to and it took almost 2 hours to get there (now this would not be a problem but our flight was at 4), and the train didn't take us to the airport but rather a train station about 20 minutes from the airport.  Upon getting to the train station we ran and hopped into a taxi (now I don't know whether the taxi driver was just crazy or the worried look in our eyes) who proceeded to drive at 140 k/h all the way to the airport and after a sprint to the gate and a little begging they allowed us to get on the plane (HAHAHA success).  It was nice that the airplane was very empty so we were able to spread out a little off to Morocco to go!

Gezuar Diten e Babait!!!

Happy Father's Day Papa!!!

Dad, now we're broken arm twins! Isn't that exciting!!! And I must admit, after hearing about Wes's special treatment on the plane I too thought that it might be kindof neat to hurt something to make traveling easier. Good job!!

I hope that you have a great Father's day today even in the hospital. We look forward to celebrating a delightful Father's day with you when you arrive here in Wednesday night. We already have a supper planned for you!!

Love you lots Papa, hope you have a good time with the younguns in your room and you captivate them with your many stories (or your snooring, whichever one comes first!).

Lynne

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!

Dad honestly if you didn't want to hear us sing you could have just asked there was no need to go and put yourself in hospital and under sedation to avoid our lovely singing voices.  I mean I understand that the girls voices are pretty rough to listen to but I have always felt that my angelic voice more then makes up for the warbling they call singing.

HAHAHA anyways Dad try to have a great fathers day even though you are not in the best of situations, maybe your lovely wife will bring you a chocolate croissant.  We all missed talking to you today.

Love

Wes

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Oh what a Daddy I have

His prayers and advice are a salve

He teases and scolds

His love's better than gold

I'll never get rid of MY DAD!

I LOVE YOU A WHOLE BIG BUNCH DADDY!! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Birthday Cake

Jenn made me a birthday cake for my birthday . . . white chocolate cake with raspberry filling and she decorated it! So not only is it absolutely, positively delicious but its also beautiful!

Marseille

Hi family

I am sorry that this blog post took so long to put up, my internet has not been cooperating with me.  Anyways at the end of April I took a trip to the south of France (Marseille) with a friend of mine (Nick) for a little R&R plus I had never been to France before so I figured that this would be an excellent opportunity.

So we left on Thursday morning early (we had to be up and at the train station by 5:45) so we could get to the airport on time.  Of course the trip to Eindhoven (where the airport is) was anything but smooth as the train was running late and I was nearly having a heart attack (If we missed this flight it would have been the second flight that I had missed with Ryanair) but fortunately everything worked out and we got to the airport, on the plane and took off on time.  The flight was about 1 1/2 hours long with nothing really unusual and then we landed in the south of France.  We quickly discovered that the french are not the most helpful people on the face of the earth as we bought train tickets but yet there was no train station for at least 10 km so ended up having to spend more money and time to take a bus into Marseille. After arriving in the city I must say that I was underwhelmed as the area that we were walking though looked pretty run down but we quickly found our way to the Old Port (the most touristic area of the city) and found our hostel.  The hostel looked a little drab outside but inside it was really beautiful (sorry no pics) and after dropping our stuff off and a quick explanation of what to see and do in Marseille from the hostel employees we headed out to explore but not before a quick bite to eat (I must say that French food is DELICIOUS!!!).

Our first stop was this little park which I must say was very little and not that impressive.  There was a sign which Nick translated which stated that there had been great aspirations for the park yet with only modest realizations (I think I will remember that line for the next time that I utterly fail at something).

The next location was this cathredeal on top of a hill (the highest point in Marseille).  It was absolutely stunning and the view was fantastic as well

After leaving the cathredeal we headed down the hill back to the old port to check out a couple of castles we had heard about.

Finally we slowly wondered our way back to our hostel to get a shower and ready for dinner (yum more French food)

The next day we were off to one of the two islands just off the cost of Marseille.  The first picture is of Chateau d'if (this is where they filmed that movie the count of monte cristo) but the chateau was expensive to see and we figured that there was not much there so we opted to head for the second island which had several old forts.  The island was about 2 km long and we walked that thing from tip to tail.  For lunch we had a delicious lunch of mussels and fries (the mussels came in a cream sauce that was sooooooo goooood!), not great hiking food but that is alright.  After a complete exploration of the entire island (including the german fortifications left over from world war II) we decided to head back to the main land.  As you can see I managed to get a little sun.  That night I was not feeling really well, stupid sunburn, so needless to say it was a bit of a quiet evening.

The next day we were off to explore a part and found this beautiful water fountain.  As we were walking back to the Hostel to pick up our stuff we found this bakery (it has been around for 200 years) and had to sample some of their delicious pastries (they were so good).  A little further on we came across this store which sold delicious french cookies and caramel (amazingly good, it is fortunate that I don't live in Marseille full time or else I would be fat for sure, fat but happy).

Then it was back to the airport to conclude our quick trip, all in all a good time had by all.

Mother's Day

Thank you family for your poems and good wishes. They are beautiful, very meaningful.

Yesterday, your father treated me to my favorite things. We left early in the morning for Kyungju, a city about 30 minutes from here. It's a well-known tourist spot, the ancient capital of Korea. It has lots of historical sites. There is a lake in the center of the city which has landscaped trails and green space all around it. Next to this greenspace, they have built several 5 star hotels. Last year Dad and I discovered that these hotels serve great buffet brunches so we have gone a couple of times now just to enjoy the brunch. It's expensive but a nice treat to enjoy once in awhile. We took work with us and after breakfast sat in the lounge doing our work for a couple of hours. The lounge has floor to ceiling windows which look out over the lake. Right now many trees are flowering so the scene was very pretty. Later we went for a stroll around the lake and found a traditional tea house stopping to have some plum tea. It is very sweet but tasty. Before heading back we stopped at an ice cream stand and had ourselves some ice cream. Then on the way home, we stopped at a plant shop and Dad bought me some plants for our front balcony. Last year we hung plants there which were nice to look at so I was hoping to do the same this year. They look really great. It was a wonderful day.

This morning your dad made his amazing Bread Pudding Breakfast. This time he made it with carmel sauce. It is just so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o good. It has lots of cinnamon, dried craisens, and pecans. Full of good stuff. Wonderful.

I've been suffering due to the pollen on the pine trees - it's really bad right now. Everything has a coating of yellow right now - it sifts into the house. I usually can handle it during the day, although I have coughing fits from time to time. However at night I struggle the most. Last night because we had left the window open during the day, I couldn't lie down - set off the coughing so I moved to the couch where I could prop myself up. Needless to say I didn't sleep well so I think that instead of going to church this morning, I am going to try to get more sleep. I'm still coughing this morning and don't know if I can sit in church without going into a coughing spell. I'm praying for rain to wash the pollen out of the air. It seems really bad this year. The trees are almost done so that should help too.

Thanks again for making this day special.
With love from your MOM