It's All About the Climb... and Frogs

I went for a run yesterday morning.  I found some beautiful areas to wander through.  At one point I had to turn my iPod off and just soak in the environment around me.  I was running along this canal that was surrounded by willow trees and flowers.  A bunch of people where outside walking their dogs and enjoying their day off of work.  The birds were singing...are you with me?  Can you see it?  I had a moment of - "Wow, I'm really here.  I AM HERE!"  It was definantly a good WOW moment.

Later that afternoon Karina, Lara and I headed out towards the beach.  There are these winding trails that take you through beautiful forested areas.  Whenever it was Lara's turn to choose which path to take, she always chose the uphill option.  If only I could always be so strong, brave and full of energy.

She ran up and down the stairs 3 times while Karina and I huffed and puffed our way up.  We survived our trek and really enjoyed the afternoon.  Especially the parts when when we stopped to take a breather.

At most of the high points you had an awesome view of the ocean (which of course made the climb worth it.)  That Miley Cyrus got at least that much right, it really is "All About The Climb," isn't it? :)

With a view like that, we couldn't resist walking out to the beach.  It was calling our name and it is just plain rude to ignore someone, espically if they are calling you by name.  So off to the beach we went.

And why just look at the English Channel when instead, you can actually stick your feet into the ice cold, toe numbing water?  I asked myself that question.  "Why not," came the response.  So I toughed it out.

After our feet became sufficiently frozen, we headed to the boardwalk (is it possible to say that word and not think of Bet Midler?).  They had all kinds of funky art work displayed.  Some cool, some weird.

After some amazingly good icecream, we took a small street back to the car.  As we were walking I about fell on my face trying to change my stride and not squish the thing that chose to jump right under my foot.  Turns out it was a dark brown frog the size of rabbit poop.  I know this because it ended up right next to a pile of said poop.  We looked further down the road and saw a whole bunch of them trying to jump out of the way of bikes and feet.  Somehow Lara was able to get 5 of them in her had.  From anyone elses perspective we looked like we were playing hopscotch as we made our way to the car.  After you hold one you feel even worse about squishing one.  They were hard to see.  Play Where's Waldo (the frog) on the picture below.

We had a great afternoon out.  The more I see the more I love!  It is a good thing that Holland isn't that big.  I don't think that I could handle the love that would come with...Say Russia for example.