As per the previous post, the next day we all woke up around 6 for breakfast. It was a beautiful day so we gathered all of our belongings to prepare ourselves for a full day at the beach. During this time the 'soup man' came by. Very similar to an ice cream truck, but without all the colors and instead of children running after him there are parents and grandparents running after him with pots and pans waving in the air hoping to get a taste of the soup of the day. You have to bring your own container, as the back of his van is simply giant pots...the simplicity of a food truck.
We ended up having a very sandy morning at the beach. There was sand in my bathing suit, my hair, my bag, my ears...yuck. I couldn't wait to get home and take a shower. The girls and I played in the waves all morning...they just couldn't get enough. The water was pretty dang cold but I toughed it out and dealt with my frozen legs.
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| The tide goes out in the middle of the day and comes back in each evening. |
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| Gaspard and Tim |
In Belgium, they have these things called cuistax. You rent the cuistax for 30 minutes or an hour or whatever and they are various types of go-carts, bicycles, push cars, or 4-wheelers...for kids of course. You can also rent a 4 or 6 seater contraption so the whole family can join in on the fun and you can ride around town. A small park across the street boasts an outside "track" where kids can safely ride around and around without having their parents follow them around. Benches provide a good place of rest and relaxation for the parents. Marie-Césare of course chose this horse number, but quickly realized that pedaling is hard work.
That afternoon I also discovered cuberdon. Cuberdon is a candy made only in Belgium. The basic one is purple in color, has a funny cone shape to it, and is somewhat gummy. The lady at the store said that they date back to the 19th century and are made of sugar, Arabic gum, and gelatin. It has a hard shell on the outside and the inside is gummy and chewy. It doesn't sound so good for those of you with lots of cavities, but its actually quite tasty. The ones I bought are blackcurrant, which is one of the most typical flavors, but they come in many flavors now.
That night for dinner we hopped into the car and headed to a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by beautiful dunes and sat on the ocean. It wasn't fancy, but a great place where the parents could sit outside and watch the kids play on the beach. The older girls played keep away with the boys and I played in the sand with Louise. She is so fun to play with, and an overall pretty good baby. She understands both Flemish and French as a baby, and they are beginning to incorporate English into her vocabulary.
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| Baby Louise |
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| One of my favorite photos of the trip. |
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| Louise loved the crab and duck sand molds. I bet we did them 100 times that night. |
The food was delicious...all the adults had shrimp croquettes and white wine and the kids stuck with spaghetti and apple juice. The croquettes were nothing as expected, but had quite a spicy punch with mostly a mashed potato base. Franck always chooses an excellent complementing wine and this was no exception.
Since we were in a new place, I laid down with Marie-Césare each night until she fell asleep. It was great quiet time for me, so I quite enjoyed it. On this night imparticular, she gave me her "doudou chinois" and said I could sleep with him. I felt very satisfied as I drifted to sleep and it was as if I had won the children's doudou lottery.
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