DAVE AND (mostly) BETSY'S BLOG: Our Adventures

It's 8:12 a.m. and my son is already in his soccer gear, with shin guards on and all. This is what it is like to have an early riser and a boy with a lot of energy. Today is Sunday, and I've decided to make chocolate chip (we don't have chocolate chips here, I just cut a bar of chocolate up into little pieces) pancakes for the fam. After that, I'll sit down and share a bit about our two latest adventures - a night in Slovenia and our first time hosting and bringing 27 people to a monastery and to the Croatian coast for camping.

Well, so it's three days later and I'm finally sitting down to finish this. That's sort of my life lately. Chocolate pancakes turned into chocolate coffee cake, and that was because I'm slightly absent-minded these days and was looking at the Coffee Cake recipe, thinking I was making pancakes. Sorry I digress...

So, Dave's birthday was July 30th and our anniversary was August 3rd (9 years!!!). On August 4th we had 22 people arriving in Zagreb, so we decided to go away for a night as a family before everyone came. We found a thermal water park in a very small town in Slovenia, where we could rent an apartment for one night and in the price of lodging, included entrance to the thermal water park for 2 days and 3 meals. The little town we went to was in the middle of nowhere, nothing but a thermal resort, where all the pools in various hotels and the water park are fed with what they call "thermal" water, which apparently has healing properties.

So, we made our way to Slovenia on Dave's birthday. We decide to skip all the border traffic and follow our GPS, which seemed suspicious but we followed it nonetheless, even though it was bringing us to a much smaller side road that was miraculously going to bypass all the border traffic. So, we headed on the side road toward what looked like an abandoned border crossing, and we heard honking. We looked to the right, and it was the most random meeting ever. Our friends from Zagreb were on the same tiny abandoned road. And the cool part was that she had her cell phone in hand and had been trying to text Dave to tell him "Happy Birthday", and now they were able to tell him in person!! So, with them, we decided to try to go through the abandoned border station, and soon came up to a pile of rocks blocking the road. So, we had to turn around and sit through a host of traffic, but this time with our friends next to us the whole time. So fun!

Anyway, so we arrived at the little town, found our apartment, had some lunch and headed straight to the water park. Aside from the one black thermal pool we went into, where I read a sign that said the water was not disinfected so it could have micro-organisms that carry contagious diseases, we enjoyed the Thermal Water Park!! We sort of promptly got out of that particular pool and never returned. We had fun watching JJ continue to learn to swim and we even went down a water slide as a family. I tried to use the pregnancy as an excuse to not go (a.k.a. I'm afraid of heights), but then Dave pointed out that 3 and 4 year olds were going down it. So, I went...once.

So, we got back from our trip on the 31st of July and continued to prepare for the 22 people that were heading our way in Zagreb. We, along with our last 2 team members, were to take them on a debrief trip (to talk about their experience of being in SE Europe for the last 3 months) and then on to experience the Croatian Coast for some rest and relaxation time after a rewarding yet tiring 3 months.

Our debrief spot was amazing...way up on top of a hill secluded from the world and immersed in the beauty of the Croatian countryside. After our debrief time, we headed to a campground near Zadar, Croatia, where we were to camp for 4 nights. We found a place where we could rent all our tents (that were already set up for us) that came with everything we needed: from fridges to electric stoves to bedding.

JJ absolutely loved both our debrief spot and camping!! He went on long walks with the Sunberg girls, picking plums and playing outside at the monastery. And it was our first time camping as a family! At the camp site he played constantly on the rocks nearby or just collecting sticks. Being an extrovert, he also loved being with so many people. There was a beach nearby, unfortunately the walk was a bit long in the heat, but the reward at the end of that walk was the refreshingly cold water. And when I say refreshing, I mean brrrrrr.

Here are some photos and some fun things I learned this trip:

It was actually possible to squeeze 26 people into two vehicles, but only for 1/2 hour of a ride, any longer there may have been some puking.
Parking in Zadar is nearly impossible, but we finally discovered how to pay for parking from our cell phone - which we did every hour.
Croatian s'mores seem just as yummy to me as American s'mores.
I loved camping, but I didn't love the heat of camping - what I did become a fan of were cold showers!
Ear plugs were a must have.