Speedos and Other European Fun

Yesterday and today were hot hot hot. The thought of wandering the streets of a cute new town didn't sound quite as appealing while melting in the heat. So, we stayed close and tried to blend in with the locals.

Today we planned to visit the seashore (about 1-hr away), but there was a huge storm on the coast that was forecast to stay all day. So, instead we visited the local pool just down the trail from our B&B. We noticed odd signs that seemed to say shorts weren't allowed in the pool. Thankfully we saw many boys in board shorts, so surely they meant street shorts, right? After the kids had swam for awhile a lifeguard alerted us that the boys board shorts were indeed problematic, speedos were required for all boys. At that point I started noticing that boardshorts were actually male cover-ups. The boys would wear their board shorts while out of the pool with Speedos underneath. No need to worry the lifeguard informed us, for 1.50 Euro we could rent speedo boxers from the front desk. I looked at Isaac, and got a great big, "No way! I'm not wearing one of those!" Followed quickly by, "and, someone else has worn it too? GROSS!" Thankfully everyone had had their fill of the pool by that point and were ready to go anyway (although Ethan made it clear he'd have no problem wearing a Speedo--no surprise coming from the boy who was photographed in a yellow bikini last summer). We wandered back to the B&B and the kids spent several hours building a fort in the river that runs through the garden while I sat in the shade on a bench and read "The Hunger Games".

Yesterday we did some much needed laundry. No one spoke English at the laundromat or surrounding shops, so we did a lot of smiling, nodding, pointing, and hand gesturing to communicate. I'm getting very good with the phrase, "jin compapa le France" (I don't understand French...spelled phonetically, our French auido CDs have not taught us to spell yet :-). Isaac thought going to the laundromat was awesome. The other kids were less enthused. We all had fun trying to iron on the enormous ironing aparatus. The right sleeve of Brent's dress shirt turned out perfect, sadly, I couldn't get the rest of the shirt to go into the machine straight, so the rest was terribly creased. After several attempts we gave up and stopped at the dry cleaners (which are WAY more expensive here--3Euros/shirt (about $4.50) as opposed to $1.25 at home!). Brent discovered that professionaly pressed & starched shirts aren't standard work wear here, so next time we might just try a regular old iron.

Yesterday evening we took a beautiful hike/walk (or a "tour" as our innkeeper calls it). The area where we are staying is in the hills/forest with hiking paths and bike trails all around. The kids had a great time walking through the river and exploring the woods.

Ima leaves us tomorrow to continue on to Sweden :-(. It's been so nice having a 4th child to even out our family. We will miss her!