Summer of '06

The clog-files have been MIA for the Summer of '06, so I feel its time for a short recap:

July:
My good friends Joel and Carolyn Vriend came to visit me from Canada in a rare moment where they both had time to come down from beautiful Ontario. It was Joels second time visiting me, but his lovely wife made her first trip to Cleveland. We visited Amish Country and had a lovely drive through this beautiful part of NE Ohio. And treats to die for...;-). Also the drive through University Circle, Fairmount and the Chagrin River valley was a nice way of showing how great this beautiful city can be.

When they left my buddy Chris Leaney came down for the Sammy Hagar concert at the Tower City Amphitheater. After two false-starts and some oscar-winning performance getting rid of some excess tickets we enjoyed ourselves with a great show by an almost 60-year old performer. If you ever get a chance to go see him... you will not be dissapointed!

After the devastating blow delt to us in the World Cup it was time to get some good 'ol camaraderie going again at the ceremony at the USS Cod in downtime Cleveland. This sub was responsible for the only international submarine-to-submarine rescue in history rescueing the Dutch submarine O-19. The commencement ceremony at the harbour involved the Dutch Honorary Consul and a very special privilige to stand on-deck while the fired the aft-cannon in salute to this historic occasion. It does re-iterates the word 'deaffening'...;-). After the ceremony I met up with some fellow cloggies and we visited the Tall Ships Fest next to where the USS-Cod is docked.

August:
We hosted a party to some Dutch exchange students from Neyenrode University, majoring in International Law. We had the good fortune of having a beautiful evening and had the luxery of sitting outside on the patio of the Great Lakes Brewery in Ohio City. It was midnight before we knew it and closed the evening in the Warehouse District on West 6th until closing.

The yearly company picknick was at the Geauga Lake amusement park in Aurora, OH. Free lunch and free entrance to the park. Well, we Cloggies are known to be a bit cheap, so this was one oppertunity we had to take advantage off...;-). Another gorgeous day and great success.

The last weekend...:
Save the best for last, so I took the Friday off for an even longer weekend. It turned-out that after working a long week with odd hours I was able to leave at 10.30am on Thursday, so this was quickly turning into a nice mini-vacation. I took off for Ontario. First meeting up with my cousin Chad to deliver some part for his '83 Honda Shadow bike he's restoring and then on to Joel and Carolyn since we would go camping the next day. After a relaxing night with a movie we loaded up the car the next day and left for Port Burwell Provincial Park on Friday. We knew that it would rain on Saturday (remnents of Hurricane Ernesto), but the rest of the weekend was there to make up for that.

On the Saturday we did some fishing before the rain got real heavy. When the rain and the wind picked-up we all got together in the dining tent and played some board-games. Catan, Rumus and cards were available, but the real blessing was the fellowship and... here it comes... an ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS authentic Chinese dinner prepared by our Chinese Canadian friends who came along. By far the best campsite-dinner I ever had... Sorry Mom, sorry Dad!!. Dumplings, Chinese soup, noodels, sweet-and-sour pork, spicy sauces and all of that prepared in the pouring rain! Thank you, Gao Family!

The Sunday - after a church-service on the campground - we played bodgy-ball until we had to stop to prepare dinner. Maybe the Seniors have a point there...;-) Of course all the campfires where a nice icing on the camping-cake. Hope to see you all next year!