Spring Break 2019

1/3: The guided tour of one hour of the Pentagon in Washington DC was a little boring. Our group was quite large, and the one and a half mile walk was nothing more than a quick glance of the building and its belongings.

2/3: Serge had reserved tickets (online at 6:30 am) to visit the National African American History and Culture museum. That was the only Smithsonian museums we had not seen. It opened its doors recently in 2016. I just loved it and would really encourage anyone to go visit.

3/3: Visit of the Phillips collection, a world-class collection of more than 4000 works of modern and contemporary art. The painting of Renoir "Luncheon of the Boating Party" which Duncan Phillips bought in 1923 was the most interesting to me. Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted his real-life friends, including his new girlfriend, Aline Charigot. While everyone at the luncheon seems focused on flirting, Renoir shows Charigot looking at her dog, perhaps because dogs are a traditional symbol of loyalty.

That evening, we also went to the movies and saw Green Book. We really liked it and would recommend to watch to everyone. It is about a working-class Italian-American bouncer who becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.

5/3: Visit of Christine David, a Belgian artist living in Lancaster. I went with Marian Brandt, a lady whom I met at Mt. Cuba last summer. 

6/3: We went to "The Upside", a remake of the 2012 French film "The Intouchables". Although the movie was inspired by a true story and I liked the plot, I honestly appreciated the French version so much more. It has a better flow. The showing of the movie was a little tricky, there was only sound. Serge had to ask twice to replay because of technical problems and therefore got two free movie tickets.

Here are some pics:

When Midland comes alive thanks to the Dow Tennis Classic

Too bad we only have this tournament once a year. There is nothing else here in this town. Especially not without kids. 

Two years ago, we hosted the Belgian player An-Sophie Mestach. Unfortunately, I never got to see her play. While she was playing her first game, that she lost, I was teaching French at Delta college. I was so bummed. This was not going to happen to me twice!

This year, we were lucky to be able to host Yanina Wickmayer (once number 12 in the world) and her new coach Germain Gigounon who just stopped his tennis career as a player.

The week before she played in Midland, Yanina participated in a tournament in California. I can't imagine how hard it must be to go directly from warm temperatures to extreme cold ones. During that particular week, Michigan was suffering under brutally cold temperatures. Consequence: No school for the whole week. So we strongly advised our guests to continue their travel on Sunday night as they did manage to get to Chicago but were stuck there because of flight cancellations. Luckily, they did not ignore our advice and were lucky to stay just a couple of hours ahead of the snow storm. They arrived safely early Monday morning.

We enjoyed the games throughout the whole week starting on Monday.

Yanina stranded in the quarter finals (single match) and the semi finals (double match). Her partner in the doubles (see photos below) was Christina McHale. Her coach Peter Lucassen is from the Netherlands.

It was such a joy to watch her play six times in total. We asked her to sign our big tennis ball with already signatures of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin (both players were once number one in the world).

Our happy place on Marco Island

Happy and healthy 2019 for everyone!

We keep the family tradition of getting together for Christmas high, so this year was our 6th time. Rainier stayed with us the whole time and Gauthier arrived on Thursday before Christmas and stayed until Saturday, the day we all left.
As usual, we had a smooth flight (2,5 hours) and arrival in Fort Myers. Then, we only had a 50' car drive to the island. The weather was a little colder than last year, between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius and we only had two days of rain.
The very first day of our vacation, we met with realtor Dawn Snyder to see some properties on different spots on the island and we have found our happy place. Stay tuned!

One immediately slows down its pace on an island. Walking and/or running on the beach, shelling, biking, reading and sun bathing are activities that relax you in no time.

This year, we went on a manatee tour with a guide that was just an average experience. Gauthier and I went paddle boarding for one hour, the boys went jet skiing the last day of the vacation but we all learned something new: how to make a gun safe and could also practice some shooting. Our instructor, an Irish man from Belfast had been in the British Army for 10 years and had been a cop for about 20 years. Safety was key and he took all the time he needed/wanted to explain us all about gun safety.

Christmas eve was a lot of fun, we all enjoyed the buffet in the famous JW Marriott hotel. The many Christmas decorations like the huge trees inside the hotel really brought us into a good mood.

Enjoy some family pics!

Washington DC (31 aug - 4 sept 2018)

If you want a more detailed version of the history of the capital, and see pictures of the whole family, please go to my article of August 2015. A lot has changed in just 3 years...

Program:

Friday, August 31st

Early flight with Dow shuttle at 7:30 am. Arrived in Philly around 9 am and 2 hours later, arrived in Washington DC. After lunch, we visited the National Cathedral, the second biggest cathedral in the VS. Actually, this one is very comparable with European cathedrals. We took an audio tour and walked around at our pace.  In the afternoon, around 4 pm, preparations were made for the funeral of senator Mc Cain. We smelled the many magnificent flower bouquets and saw the technicians everywhere making sure the right material was at the right spots.

Saturday, September 1st

The Holocaust museum from 11:45 until 2:15 pm left an everlasting impression on us. In the evening, we took the 4:30 pm boat tour on the Potomac River to Alexandria and walked around until 7:15 pm. The trolley on Kingstreet was full of shops and restaurants.

Sunday, September 2nd

Started our day around 9:30 am in Mont Vernon, Virginia, where we visited the Mansion of the first president of the US: Georges Washington.

In the evening, we took the Panoramic bus tour near Union Station.

Monday, September 3rd (Labor Day)

Biking in a city such as Washington is so much fun with Bike & Roll

Guided visit tour: American History through Music

Tuesday, September 4rd

Christiana Mall

Return to Midland in the afternoon.

Good times in Wilmington, Delaware

Since Serge has been working for DuPont as of April 2018, we have traveled several times to the Delaware State to explore the region. I must confess that the town Wilmington really speaks to my heart when it comes to good restaurants, very nice shops at the Christiana Mall, museums & gardens and even the landscape: a little hilly and green. And... last but not least: NO TAXES!

As we went multiple times, we got to see the different blooms of the flowers in the Longwood Gardens who have made a long life impression on me.

May 8-11

June 1-8

August 3-10

May

We went to the Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant) where we had a belated birthday dinner. We actually went to Grazi in Midland on the day of my birthday but the Melting Pot was also high on my list. 

I visited the Nemours Estate on my own while Serge was working. I was the only one taking the 1 pm tour and the lovely guide, Caroline, took me for another hour and focused on the French architecture which made me feel special.

The next day, I visited the Longwood Gardens for the first time.

June

I spent the first week of June in Wilmington where Serge was there for business and me for pleasure. 

We arrived on a Friday and decided to go walking on the boardwalks in Ocean City and Atlantic City, NJ. The weather was gorgeous.

It was nice to discover a few new states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

On Saturday, we visited the Naval Academy. The next day, we visited the Hagley Museum.

Program:

June 4: Winterthur

June 5: Mt Cuba (where I met a special friend Marian)

June 6: The Brandywine Museum of Art 

June 7: Delaware Art Museum 

June 8: Longwood gardens with Serge in the morning. We were lucky to be able to have seats (18 in total) on the executive flight home.

August

We spent the first 3 days in Washington before traveling to Wilmington.

Program:

Aug 4: National Gallery of Art

Aug 5: Newseum

Aug 6: Newseum

Aug 7: Delaware Contemporary

Aug 8: Read House and gardens with Marian

Aug 9: Nemours Estate with Serge and the Longwood gardens in the evening with Marian (his boss)

Aug 10: Shopping for some shoes in DSW 

Chicago: family visit - July 6-8

We all were very excited to visit Gauthier, especially my mom and Rob since they had not seen his apartment yet. He lives on the 50th floor and the views are to kill...

He has two roommates with whom he gets along very well. They go out and travel together. As a matter of fact, they are at the biggest electronic music festival in Belgium now, Tomorrowland.

Friday afternoon was filled with soccer. We were all looking forward to see the soccer game of Belgium against Brazil in the semi-finals of the World Cup. What an atmosphere... we couldn't be happier with a win: 2-1... we felt lucky and grateful! We also watched the game of England.
That evening,  we took the water taxi for a good hour and did some sightseeing.

On the sunny Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed a bike ride along the Lakefront trail. at night, we took the water taxi for a good hour and did some sightseeing. 

The day after, Serge and I went for an early morning swim in the outdoor pool. The Jacuzzi was a nice feature to enjoy as well, especially with the spendid view in the background.

Afterwards, we had a short walk through Millennium Park to visit the Bean (again... don't really know how many times I have seen it). In the afternoon, we enjoyed playing pétanque inside the Optima building.

That weekend ended with a nice dinner in the P.F. Chang with our youngest son Rainier. Here are some pics from our amazing family trip: