Touring around Holland

Besides playing soccer, we toured around Holland in the mornings before our tournament games at 1pm. We went to a cheese factory, wooden shoe factory, and rode bikes throughout the city. Here are some pictures:
That's a lot of cheese, but was it sure delicious!

People in Holland don't necessarily wear the wooden shoes anymore, mostly farmers wear them and tourists.

On our bike tour we saw the famous windmills. They aren't necessarily all over the country but every once in awhile they pop out in the middle of the fields.

Holland!!

So as many of you know, I just went to Holland as a soccer coach with People to People Sports Ambassadors. I was coaching 15 year old girls from all over the USA and we competed in the YFGH tournament.

Our first day was outrageous. I flew from Seattle straight to Amsterdam (10hours) then we went directly to the Youth Friendship Village. With my travel group from Seattle, we did some team building activities and around 3pm departed to our different hotels. Oh ya, it was raining cats and dogs the entire time. Once we got to our hotel I met the girls on my team. After 37 hours of being awake we finally went to bed. zzzzzzzz

The first two days was training with the girls and then on Tuesday the tournament started. My team did pretty well in the tournament. We made it to the semifinals but missed the finals by a one goal differential. :( It was a great experience watching the Sweden, Canadian, and Wales coaches work with their teams. I learned so much about coaching and met amazing people. We were also able to watch the boys teams play as well. They were fabulous. It is so much fun to watch great international soccer matches!

Canoeing

My friend Emelissa and I wanted to do something fun in the sun, so we decided to go canoeing through the Arboretum in Seattle. It was amazing how many boats went through Montlake and all the people burning gas. The floating bridge, 520, was closed for maintenance, so people were jumping off the bridge into the nasty water. Crazy! We saw so many baby ducks and herons just chilling in the sun. Also, there were two bald eagles that were flying over us. Em and I didn't even get sun burned, just tan!

Lake Cabin

Dude, it was so peaceful and relaxing at the lake. There weren't too many boats on the lake and all you heard were the crickets. The one night we were going to have a bon fire, we had a big wind storm. So much for the bon fire, but we did improvise and had bread on a stick over the BBQ grill. Mary D., our neighbor, came over for some R&R as well. She has never had bread on a stick and was a fan immediately. Later that night we played jokers castle, an underground board game. My friend Jason and I killed Renee and Mary twice, but we let them win the third game. :) The lake cabin is one of my most favorite places in the world.

MOSCOW

Renee and I went to Grandma and Grandpas house over 4th of July weekend. It was fun seeing grandpa feeling better after he got hydrated. Good job mom! Renee and I worked out everyday...twice a day! We jump roped and ran/walked. Fun times. My mom and I also went biking on the trail towards Troy. It was so beautiful seeing all the rolling hills. Good Times!

Hawaii

Last week, I went to Maui and Kona with one of my friends. He works for Northwest Airlines and invited me to join him on his trip. It was such a great time to get out of Seattle with all the rain. We stayed on the south end of Maui and the Maui Prince hotel. It was the only resort on the beach. One of the days we went snorkeling and saw so many tropical fish. It was fun for the most part but I kept getting water up my nose and mouth. Ugh! Then we headed off to Kona. I have never been to the big island but it was neat seeing all the lava rocks. Downtown was pretty cool as well. I was going to try surfing but I burnt the tops of my feet and my stomach so bad that I would be miserable lying on the board. Also, the waves were outrageous and I would have been rocked! Maybe next time!

Here are some of the lava rocks in Kona.

This is my friend and I on our balcony in Maui.

Brazil v. Canada Futbol

The Brazilian National Futbol team is doing an international tour in the USA. They happened to be playing in Seattle against Canada last night. I was fortunate enough to be able to work in the press box for the game. And during the second half, I was "working" on the field. It was so much fun being on the field, five feet away from all the players. Here is a picture of my co-worker and I on the field during half time.