Monthly Archives: August 2026

We biked to World War II bunkers, explored a castle and fort, lost and recovered one extremely important polar bear, and crossed into Germany—where Nolan and Nina immediately joined the local fire brigade.

We pedaled through the Netherlands, bought the family two e-bikes, cruised Amsterdam’s canals, and discovered that horses make terrible upstairs neighbors. The kids made friends everywhere, ate plenty of ice cream, and somehow stayed up later than we did.

We climbed a Belgian castle, walked our legs off among pandas and polar bears, learned far more than expected about French fries, and crossed into the Netherlands. The kids mostly cared about stuffies, candy, swimming pools, and whether the next campground had a playground.

This week brought us from a lakeside campsite into Luxembourg and on to Belgium, with roughly seventeen playgrounds along the way. Nolan and Nina made friends in multiple languages, conquered towers and caves, and continued rating Europe primarily by its slides.

We spent our last week in Paris sailing boats, hiding from the rain, hunting down the correct cooking gas, and swimming through a 107-degree day. Then we finally packed up Lightning McQueen and headed east for our first night of European camping!