Vroom Droom Adventures

After three nights here, basically I feel like I am waking up each morning in a fairy tale. How in the world did we end up with such an amazing place to "house" sit? We are slowly getting to know our host and learn what we will be responsible for during the 7 months stay.  Chateau Dumas from our window We have been making friends with Vinnie, nicknamed VinVin, who is the beautiful Tonkinese chateau cat; he even deigned to spend one night in a chair over in the carriage house with us.        The big news is that today my father and Tessa are heading to London for a few days. From there, Tessa will be flying to visit family and friends in The Netherlands, and Richard will be coming to stay with us in France for three weeks! I am very excited to see Dad and hope upon hope that their travels are smooth and safe. Evening view out one of the upstairs windows in the carriage house...  Looking back up at the chateau from below when running "around" the block!

It was a whirlwind summer!  We were fortunate to see many friends and family. We learned that 5 weeks in the PNW was definitely not enough time for all the visits we would have liked to make, having some fun outings and taking care of necessary maintenance on the Adams house in Bellingham. That said, thanks to the goodness of many friends and family, we were able to catch up in person with a lot of folks. Cousins picnic half way between Bellingham and Bellevue View from Mount Baker south side Park Butte Lookout hike   August 15 came all too quickly and we returned to the Netherlands with Anika and Nina (Martin). Tessa stayed behind in Bellingham; with the responsibility of new renters moving in and to finish staining the back porch. Vroom Family news: Visit to Lopez/Orcas Island     Martin is now Nina. She came out as transgender female a few months ago. She has been working up the courage for years to share openly about her gender identity. She was very b...

Hats off to you if you are still reading/following our adventure... 9 months have flown by and we are on our way back to Seattle, WA. Currently we are holed up in our first hotel room of this entire 9 month trip and we have Anika in tow. Tomorrow morning we fly from Brussels and have to be at the airport at 5 am, thus the airport hotel tonight. We cannot wait to see family and friends back in the states. With Covid restrictions easing, it is strange how the end of our trip, feels like a long awaited beginning... The past few weeks: We traveled for 8 days from Dordogne area in France back to The Netherlands. There are photos on Polarsteps: https://www.polarsteps.com/ElizabethVroom/3942839-vantrip-around-portugal?s=492389b7-f905-4668-b35b-386a513da336 Once back in The Netherlands we spent 5 wonderful days with our friends Clementine and Paul in the Maastricht area. Followed by a quick visit with Anika and Vita and then 7 (mostly rainy) days with Herman's parents near to the Veerseme...

It has been a while since we have posted a blog entry... We are currently in our final week of a 5 week stay in a gite (stone guest house) in exchange for helping on Tina and David's rural property (Le Petit Pourquet) in the Dordogne area of France. It has been a nice change to have the social contact and during our time here as the markets and businesses have reopened. It is great to see people out and about, filling the ancient market square in the center of one of the many bastide towns on market day.  During our stay we have been able to explore the nearby area and had a couple of days away to visit the area around Sarlat and camp along the Dordogne River.  In less than a week from now, we will be saying our goodbyes and traveling north through France back to the Netherlands. We plan to return to Washington in early July, but do not have our tickets booked yet.                 Donkeys: Destiny and Dream       ...

  For anyone who is interested in our travels through Portugal back into Spain, we have been using Polarsteps almost daily sharing our route and a few photos:  ‘Vantrip Portugal, Northern Spain, France 2021’ at  https://www.polarsteps.com/ ElizabethVroom/3942839- vantrip-around-portugal?s= 492389b7-f905-4668-b35b- 386a513da336 During our trip we came across these Granaries or Horreo's in Portugal and now finally found out more about them when we spotted larger ones in Spain. Here is a link to wikipedia in case you are interested in knowing more about them:  Hórreo

  We have been using the Polarsteps App to share short posts with our route and a few pictures, if you are interested in following that story, here is the information: ‘Vantrip around Portugal’ Check out the full story at  https://www.polarsteps.com/ ElizabethVroom/3942839- vantrip-around-portugal/ 30488111-mafra?s=492389b7- f905-4668-b35b-386a513da336 We had a somewhat rainy day trip exploring Lisbon. It turns out that April is a reliable month for rain in this area. Riding bikes from the graffiti adorned campground located inside the walls of an old ammunition factory, we headed out early in the morning in a steady light drizzle of rain.  View over Lisbon Ammunition Factory turned campground and restaurant 3 km from the center of Lisbon There are numerous large squares and lovely cobbled walking streets throughout the city. Every side street opens a new adventure. King João's long reign of 48 years, the most extensive of all Portuguese monarchs, saw the beginning of Por...