After a first day unwinding in Amsterdam (and sleeping, and treating Ruby's flu-like fever and symptoms), Marcella, Jente, Ruby and I drove to Leusden, about 45mins towards the center of the Netherlands.

Leusden is home to Jos, Karin, Tom (18) and Roos (13). Jos and Karin were pretty much our first campers when we had our campsite in France, back in 1985. Our families became steadfast friends--so much so that when I moved to the Netherlands in 1991 for college, I lived with them (and Tom, then one) for close to year, before moving to Amsterdam.

It was nice to be back "home." Tom is now over six feet/two meters and barely fit into a small playground cabin with Ruby. Roos and Ruby became best friends for 48 hours, which gave this mama some much needed downtime. Ruby was fascinated with Jos' froggies (he has real frogs in his living room) and his old-fashioned choo choo train tracks, with real working trains. Karin remembered to bring bread for the many ducks and this endeared Ruby to her forever also. And the whole trip was brought to a happy sticky ending with a huge meal in a pancake house.