Amelia and Max come to town!

On Saturday, my college friend Amelia arrived with her brother, Max, for a 3 day visit on their way to Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan?? Yes, she did the Peace Corps there and is returning for the first time in 8 years to visit her host family! Amelia was one of my two roommates freshman year of college. When I arrived in my pink capri pants and met my Minnesotan roommate with binders full of Grateful Dead and String Cheese Incident albums, I wasn't sure how the pairing would work out. But as usual, the best things in life are often the most unexpected. We became fast friends and I treasure her dearly.

Amelia was meeting Jude for the first time since she was on the West coast when he was born. He bonded with her instantly and needed to catch her up to speed on the events of his life. He took her hand, sat her down and showed her his 1 year old birthday scrapbook made by Nana.

"So then I was born. What have you been up to this year?"

Amelia and Max powered through their jet lag from their long journey from Eastern Washington state and were up for a drive to see the tulips. 

Itsy Bitsy spider

So awesome to see more tulips in bloom this time around!

We saw a sign for a Pluktuin (pick your own) garden and were easily convinced to pay 5 euros to fill an entire bag with tulips! We got more than 50 and I can't wait for them all to bloom in the apartment!

Cherry tree, canal, daffodils and horseback riders. Is this real life? 

From the tulip fields we saw that we were only a 7 minute drive from the coast at Noordwijk, so we drove off to check it out. We happened upon a "food and soul" food truck rally and found some delicious eats under the town lighthouse.

We finished out the day with a climb to the top of the lighthouse, some beach side playground time and a walk to the frigid sea.