what dad does when mom shopping

you guys want pictures the only time i get the camrea is when mom goes into a store  and look at what see yes chels and keri and curt look what i found        now think        dad

Another Day Out on the Town

Today we went on an adventure to try find Dad a Hold=em Table.  An adventure it was, two busses and an aweful long walk, but we did indeed find one, only to find out the tables sit at 8:00 p.m.  We were there at 12:00 noon.  Oh well  another day.  At least he knows where they are!

This was a most beautiful bird.  The song it sang was just as beautiful.  It was a little bigger than a robin.  For those who enjoy birds ( no beaking or pun intended.)  Hope you can find out for us what it is.

This was a nativity scene on the other side from Willemstad.

Maybe in another picture you can see the climbing wall, this is the scene from our balcony, one of the entertainers climbed to the top and is saluting us!

Until later!

Otrabande (one of the spellings must be correct!

The view from our room

Parking Wars Curacao style

 Some of the Entertainment Crew. They are amazing!

Seems to be at least two cruise ships everyday!  Thousands of extra people in the town.  The place thrives on tourism.

Part two

The story of the nicely painted buildings goes as follows.  At one time all of the buildings were white.  The govenor complained to the townspeople that he got a headache from all the white buildings when the sun shone on them.   His residence is the yellow building in a past post, with the tablets on them.  He then ordered that all the buildings be painted various colors.  Later it was found to be true that the Govenor himself owned the paint factory.  So although he made a bundle, the townsfolk were not too happy with him.  Cute story hey?

Wilemstad from Otreband I don't know what's up but again having trouble posting pics.  What I wouldn't do for a computer savy offspring to help me here.  Will try again later!

An Afternoon in Otrabande

Had a nice and sunny day today, visited a museum and walked the streets on the other side of Wilemstad.  Pictures won't load, will try again later.  Had a fair bit of sun today and cleaned up on the pool side games!  Found some more local shops.  It's amazing that when you just walk a few short blocks in, in the city, the prices drop dramatically.  Got some good deals, and some souvenirs at payable prices.  Should only be one more day of rain, and the sun should hit!  Can't wait for that.  We did have a snorkelling excursion planned for tomorrow, but it is cancelled because of weather.   Oh well, can't win them all.  When it does rain, it is short lived and the temperature is quite warm. 

Partly cloudy with a chance of showers..............

Being here reminds me a lot of the BVLD weather report, in the summer, "partly sunny with a chance of showers," in the winter "partly sunny with a chance of flurries."  Therefore all is covered in once sentence.  Got up this morning thinking it would be a beautiful day, but within minutes, there was the downpour.  Oh well, you can't buy weather.  For us it's only a minor inconvenience.  For the folk here, it's a real problem.  By Wednesday it's to be beautiful, fo we'll just hope for it then.
 Dad tried to be a bit of a rebel last night.  We've been seeing these "fish" swimming towards the light at the dock.  His "plan" was to steal a big net used for cleaning the pool when no one was watching and scoop up a couple of them.  At the last second he was busted so so much for that.  We'll try again another time.  They look like eel.  A man at the beach had a "fish book".  Kind of reminded of someone in our family and their "bird book".  By the way, the birds here are so cute.  Would be wonderful for a bird watcher.  I'll sign off for now and post more later.  Breakfast time!  Love to you all!

Sunday November ???

Have had a great day so far.  One thing I've always wanted to do is go to a southern Baptist Church.  We had second best today!  We went to a little local church here today.  Everything was in English.  Everyone that walked warmly welcomed us.  Someone made sure we got a bulletin, another made sure we knew which hymnbook to use.  A lady came and asked us if we would sign the guestbook.  Well it didn't take long and I saw the guestbook make it's way to the reverend.  Sure enough, " a special and warm welcome to our visitors Leroy and Patricia Dekens for Canada, let's give them a warm round of applause, then a five minute speech on how we were welcome and then another round of applause".  It was so nice and heartwarming. After church someone offered us a ride back to our hotel, I really couldn't believe it!  We would do well to learn from them.  It was really nice.
After church we came back to the hotel to have some more croquettes and frikadellen.  What a way to round off the morning.  I forgot to say that the church service was two hours long, but that really didn't matter, Chelsey and Jonathan had got us a little warmed up to that fact! 
Well it is another overcast day today.  It has never rained this much here ever.  There are a lot of people with flooded homes and problems because of the rain.  So we really shouldn't complain.  But through the rain, it is still warm.  We are not wearing our winter get up, so we're not complaining.  We'll check in later through the day, if there's time of course!  If not, love you all.

Rain drops keep falling on our heads

Had a very low key day because the rain kept falling.  Regardless it was very relaxing.  We played some games, and went in the ocean.  It was quite nice actually.  Tomorrow we really hope to make it to the church down the road.  Should be fun.  Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures.  The one is really funny, there is a sign and plaque that says something like, this plaque is to commemorate that on such and such a day, absolutely nothing happened!  Enjoy!

Wilemstad

This is where we DID have lunch!  Dad, croquetten, me Frikandelen!

Exploring Wilemstad

Even though Subway is here, we did NOT go here for lunch! Had a great time exploring though, enjoy the pictures!

November 26,2010

So glad we're here for two weeks!  It's taken me a week to figure out so far how to "for sure" post pictures.  I really have it figured this time.  Next time I'll work on getting the pictures the right way around.  Regardless, I am so proud of myself it only took about 5 minutes to post this!  Progress is happening!  This picture was taken during a short moment when I wasn't staring at the back of your dad's head, also it was when we were dry!  The last pictures were of a Jewish synagogue with a spectacular graveyard.

You would think that these graves were ancient, but the are from the 1980's!  Please also take notice of a new step, pictures, text, picture text!  Look out Bill Gates, I'm a learning real fast!  Have a great day guys! 

It never rains in Curacao in the daytime part deux

Had a great day so far exploring the island by scooter.  Believe it or not we went from the bottom to close to the top on one tank of gas in a scooter.  Everything was going very well until the way back close to our hotel when it started to pour, and I mean POUR!  The skies opened up and we were pelted HARD by rain drops!  It was fun though, we saw a lot of the country.  The prices dwindled further and further down the farther away we got from the tourist area.  Anyway, more later.

November25?

Sorry but I really have lost all track of dates.  The first is the pic of the dune buggy your dad had the time of his life with.  The next is of dad playing a game on the stage.  Although unsuccessful at winning, a nice picture regardless.  If you could let me know Chels how to see those pictures bigger before I upload them, it would be great but I do now think I have it figured how to get them going.  There was Karaoke last night.  I ofcourse (don't make me sing)  yes, they made me sing.  The last if of this Dutch man who was hilarious!  He was not impressed that there were no Dutch songs to chose from.  I told him I would sing Ere Zij God with him without the music but he wouldn't take me up on it!  Oh and I think one is of the "bat cave" that your dad was so lovingly disappointed that I missed sharing that experience with him!  Anyway, enjoy your day children, I'll post again sometime later today.  Remember, even when I'm not watching, God is!  Love you!

Just Another Day in Paradise

Although it's a day later, I will try and remember all that happened yesterday, and maybe attach some pictures, although that is such a headache.  Sometimes the right thing magically pops up and sometimes it doesn't, top that all off with the fact that it's in dutch, I've got real problems.  Why it doesn't come up in English is beyond me, but so far we are managing!  Started off with a nice and relaxing morning, walking the beach, looking here and there.  We have been itching to call home and have had a card for days, but can't find a phone that will accept what we want to do!  Yesterday we started out by them telling us only a 15 minute walk to an international phone.  The day before, a 15 minute walk turned out to be quite a hike so we thought we'd take a local bus.  When we were dropped off we found a grocery store but no phone.  BTW, it was a grocery store, with so much dutch stuff it was incredible.  They also carried white chocolate lettersw, so if anyone is interested in them instead let me know, Keri you're welcome too although you already have one, no big deal!  I most certainly will be getting one for myself regardless.  So back to the story, no phone there but a small jog up a hill there they were.  Didn;t work, those small phone booths in the heat, are enough to try anyone's patience, so we gave up.  Took another local bus who said, "I do have to go downtown first and then back to your hotel, to which we replied, fill your boots, i'ts cool in here!"  Arrived back at the hotel, and me so enthused with the new droopies I had, took the droopies, but left my purse on the bus !!!!!!!   Dad is frantically waving the bus down, I'm standing there helpless, but did take the bus license down, ( real hard BUS29)  Thankfully another driver saw dad in all his franticism, and waved the driver down!  Yeah dad's heart is fine, it can pump very strong when it needs to!  Thankfully my purse and I were re=united.  All that was in there of importance were our driver's licenses.  Regardless, I am not a shoe in for the bonehead of the day award.
After a very competitive round of Bingo, (you think the seniors are bad, you've never seen the dutch!),  Dad went on a dune buggy tour.  He had a blast and I hope to get some of the pictures posted.  I didn't go because one of the stops was to be a bat cave, and I thought better than to hassle the bats, but to leave them in their peace and tranquility.  Dad was so hot and muggy and muddy when he got back he just hopped into the pool, shoes and all!  It was really funny,  BUT, it didn't take long and he noticed his sunglasses missing.  There were a lot of little darlings in the pool on a "quest" to find the grampa's glasses.  We haven't given up hope as of yet, he thinks he may have left them at the dune buggy place, if so, I win the award, if not I will gladly give your dad that honor!  Anyway, IF I still have your attention, I"ll try pics a little later.  Love to you all!

Dinner

Just had a great dinner outside at a BBQ.  Started to rain, frantically moved all the tables but worked out well in the end anyway!

YEAH I FIGURED IT OUT (this time)

Yeah so don't worry there is no video, just was trying something new!  Enjoy!!

The Dolphin Academy

What a wonderful day today.  Started out with a leisurly game of scrabble followed by Bingo!  How tough is that to take!  We then walked to the dolphin academy where we saw so many cool ocean things.  Got to touch a shark, feed it, hold starfish, feed sea turtles, and watch a short sea lion show!  It was so amazing.  We should both be able to tell where to for sure put the sun screen on tomorrow!  We both got some red spots.  The sun is really warm!  The line we read over and over in just about every brochure is that "It only rains at night time in Curacao. "  How or why we ever believed that I don't know, but we did get caught in a huge rainstorm walking back from the Academy today.  We dried off very quickly.  Another problem I am having with this blog thing is that it keeps on coming up in dutch.  We'll see how that continues on.  Now comes the trying task of trying to get some pictures posted.  Love you all and  keep in touch!

No we don't have it figured out!

Just because we posted one picture, don't assume we know what we're doing now, we're still struggling!

Christmas in Curacao!!!

So we need some help

The box for importing picture dissapeared. |Any suggestions? All that shows is Bfor bold I for italics, abc strike out,ink and parentheses. Any suggestions. Hope so else, pictures will be minimal! Help us old folk please.

Our First Full day

Started the beautiful sunny dayby heading for Willemstad.  Took the local bus.  The taxi fares here are ho  rrendous.  Give the local transport thank you very much.  Although I was hoping to share with the locals my vast knowledge of the dutch language.  It seems between each other they use their own language called something like pipemento.  Oh well, guess they have to be satisfied with our cunning good looks instead.  There do seem to be a lot of dutch visitors here.  We walked towards a cruise ship hoping maybe we would be able to sneak on for a peak.  \no such luck.  Quite a ways a way you had to show your boarding card.  It was not to be.  Will have to wait for another day.  There a lot of ships that come into the port.  Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

The pictures

Sorry the one is sideways but that one is our first home in Chatham.  The second one of the house is where Keri and Curt joined our family.  We planted the tree in the front yard.  Amazing how it has grown!

Clinton/Chatham

After arriving safely in Toronto we headed for Clinton to spend some time with Clarence and Ingrid and family.  It was wonderful to see them all again.   They have such a beautiful farm.  On Friday we then headed for Chatham to see the rest of the family.  On Saturday morning they all met together for breakfast.  It was so wonderful to see all the nieces and nephews with their own little darlings.  So many of them you could see who their parents were.  What a bunch!  They were so cute!   We di ve quite a bit of driving around and a whole lot of visiting.  Saw our old house!  That tree is just huge!  As we were driving we happened to see the old neighbours Brad and Valerie Paul.  We had a quick little chat with them too.  Oh to have had some more time there.  We did manage to see all the family very quickly.  I sure hope these pictures work!

Away we go!

As always, getting away is very stressful, but once you're on the way, everything will be alright.  Hoping you'll be able to see what we're doing every day!