Sunday, November 3, 2019

Fall Adventure Boston, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia

Boston
Katherine cane from Kelowna to pick us up in Vernon to take us to the airport early morning.  She saw that there was an accident on the way and called us to be ready incase the traffic backed up blocking the alternate route to the airport. Luckily we were in time to access it and made it in time. We arrived in Boston at 10:30 pm and caught a taxi . Unfortunately we arrived at the same named street and knew it was wrong and then headed to Alex and Celestines in Jamaica Plain. We snuck in the door and went to bed. We saw the family in the morning, said goodbye to Alex and went to Fionas music class. She had great fun with the balls, bubbles, dancing and singing. Then we walked to the Arboretum and had a picnic. Had dinner with Alex. The next day we all walked to Harvard to see where Alex is working this year. He showed us his locker, his office in the department of biomedical informatics, the great coffee room with super coffee machine, and again had a picnic on the lawn. Then we took the metro to their favourite market and stocked up on food supplies.  The next day Alex and Roger went to the MIT Science museum while Fiona, Celestine and I walked through a nearby forest where there was also a running race going on and then on  to the zoo. We hung out inside the zoo as the rain was teaming down for most of the day. They live in a lovely area of Boston, lots of older character homes, park, water and forests.
Fiona looking inside Daddys locker

All of us standing on the steps of Harvard

Roger and Fiona having a tea party

Saying goodbye to Boston


The Netherlands
We arrived in the evening to be greeted by Pim, my sisters husband. We drove to Apeldorn, spent 2 days with them and my niece Tamara, We had some great walks through many wooded and canal ed walkways and learned more of lifestyle. I am told the Dutch are very frugal with energy, as exampled that most Dutch do not have clothes dryers and the heat gets turned on only in the room you are sitting in while you are in that room. Amazing. It was minus 1. Two children at a time transported by a single bicycle. Their pension is based on the number of years you have worked there between 17 and 65 years of age. My brother in law has a car provided by his company every 4 years and gas supplied free anywhere while in the Netherlands.