Travelog for: Aaron Perkowitz

Hello!  I'm here safe with Mel, though a bit confused by everything still!  But the weather had been spring-like and we have been going exploring.    My new best-friend Arn is moving on soon I hear, I;m sure I will miss him but there is still fun to be had here!

We walked a park near Mel's mom's house, it is called Pottawatomie Park.  The name is the name of the local Native American tribe that lived in the area. Before it was a park, it was a Boy Scout camp names Camp Pottawatomie.  Now it has ball fields, play areas and picnic shelters!

Arn and I checked out the football pitch of course. And then we went to the water, which is Pottawatomie Bayou.  There were ice fishermen out there just last week, but the ice had become far too thin, as you can maybe see!  They can fish from boats again soon.  We thought the colors with the white ice and blue water was very pretty. 
Back at Mel's the next day, we looked around her new house for the first time seeing it without snow!  We found the first crocus flowers of the season, just coming up!  Yay!  Spring is here at last! 

Mel has been working a lot, so we were well taken care of, but not online much!  Sorry!  I have a nice long post now though!

We went for a walk to enjoy the first really warm day of Spring!  We walked a nature trail along the Grand River, which is the longest river in Michigan.  It is much wider than you see here because that land on the other side is just an island.



There was a lunar eclipse that we could see part of from Grand Haven!  It started early in the morning, so we were all still at the hospital, since Mel was working the night shift all month.  Mel and the nurses woudl sneak out to see the moon though, when they weren't busy!  Sadly our photo did not come out that well. 



When Mel's shift ended we drove back to her home past the beach, and we could still see the moon, still eclipsed, just before it set!  It is hard to see in this picture so I circled it for you.  As you can see it was almost daylight.



It was still cold and windy at the beach, so we didn't go any closer to the lighthouse, and you can see they still have fences up to keep the snow and sand from blowing around too much.  Mel says we will go explore the pier and lighthouses soon!  When the weather makes it safer;  you can't go on windy days!



Mel's niece had her Spring Break from school, so Mel had her spend the night once.  We walked down to the local bookstore, because we had a gift certificate from the nieces birthday!  We all had ideas about what looked the most fun to read.



Do you know I looked all through the Sports section of magazines, and there was not ONE for proper football?  Americans are strange! 



Remember when I posted with the very first flowers or spring?  Lots of flowers are up and blooming now!  And the trees are full of buds and should bloom soon!  We are all glad that the winter is over at last! 

Mel's camera was dead!  But now it is fixed, so we can get to our old photos, and also take new ones.   Finally!

Weeks ago, we took Mel's niece home to her own house, and we stopped on the way at a park to look around.  It is one of Mel's favorite parks because it has a waterfall!  It is a man-made fall, because there used to be a mill here.  The mill is long gone, but the falls are still there.  Tthere is also an old train track, high up over the river, that isn't used anymore either.



There were people fishing along the river, these are along the millrace.  We aren't sure what they were hoping to catch.




When we got to Mel's Sister's house, they were out working with their horses!  They have two.  This one is Cappuccino.  I got to pet her!  She was very nice.



On the way home, we saw a football game!  The players were children, but they were having fun.  Mel let me stop and watch for a bit! 



More in just a moment mom, while I get caught up! 

What a busy weekend and it's just starting!  Thursday night, we went to the High School's gradation ceremony.  Mel's cousin Emma was graduating!  She is Class of 2015!  The matching band played and there were a lot of speeches.



Then friday after Mel had a doctor's appointment, we met a friend of hers downtown.  He was giving her copies of the book she is in, to sell at the markets in the park she goes to.  But while they were there they also decided that it woudl be a great day to take us down to the lighthouse!  We walked along the river.  It was a gorgeous day!



It looks like a long walk, but it is a nice path with things to see all the way along the river.  This is the Grand River, that we walked along before!  This is it's mouth, where it flows into Lake Michigan.



We re almost there!  We can see the lake and beach from here...  Sunshiney and I posed together.



The weather was nice, so we could walk right on the onto the pier without worrying too much about big waves.  There was a memorial to all the people who had died by drowning by the pier though, so it is not this safe all the time!  In bad weather, the water can sweep people right off into the lake!



This is looking south.  The place where we watched the eclipse from is far in the distance.  Some people were there flying kites!



And this is looking north.  There is another smaller lighthouse there to mark the other side of the river channel.  You can see some of the sand dunes to the north.  Mel says we might get to go there soon?



We made it to the end!  Wow, is it bigger than it looked from downtown!  All of the concrete helps it stand up to winter storms.



The, of course, we had to walk all the way back!  Mel took a nap when we got home 

Hi everyone!

It was a long journey from the US to The Netherlands, but it went super quick! I came by rocket, although I couldn't see it, because I was inside an envelope.
When the envelope was opened, I saw a few friendly faces and the bright orange bear said to me: "Welcome to Delft!"
I saw a nice girl, so I hugged her first 

So here are my new friends, from left to right: Gozer (which means "dude"  ), Minnilotta and Hollandia. Later on I met another TV, called Pieksi, but he isn't in this photo.

Here I am on my first outing. This is the historic center of Delft. The church is called "Old Church" (Oude Kerk).

Delft is famous for it's blue ceramic, called "Delft Blue". Yeah, that's a logical name for it 
Even the lampposts are made of Delft Blue!

Let's look what is behind this gate.

This is strange! Am I in Paris all of a sudden?

Just kidding! This shop proofs I'm still in Holland.

These kind of fancy fences you can see all along De Oude Delft. That's the oldest street in Delft. "Delft" means something like "canal" or "ditch".

This is the leaning tower of... Delft. You saw it once before, but from this point you can see how much it leans.

We're at the market square now. In the first picture you see the town hall. I like the red shutters.
The second picture shows the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk). It's being renovated.
And in the third I'm sitting at the balconny of the town hall. Behind me is the huge square. It is said to be the biggest market place of The Netherlands. Also you can see the steeples of the Maria van Jesse church.

What a nice statue! This is "the Milkmaid" sculptured after a picture of Vermeer. The sculptor is a multi talented guy. Among other things, he is the Dutch voice for Ernie and Bert in Sesame Street