Make new friends but keep the old ...

The title of this week's blog is taken from a short song or ditty I learned when I was a Girl Scout.  It's called Make New Friends and it goes like this:   

Make new friends but keep the old.  

One is silver and the others' gold.

Well, that pretty much identifies this week!  Two weeks ago, I met via Facebook a young lady who was moving to Budapest to work at a bi-lingual kindergarten.  We had invited her to go to church with us on Sunday and then home with us for lunch, but as it turned out, her employer didn't show up at the airport the previous Friday to pick her up, so we did.  She ended up spending the night with us, spent a good portion of Saturday at our home, and then on Sunday was with us from 10 am until 7 pm.  She is our "new friend".  I think it interesting that just as Melissa and Scott are moving to Istanbul, God gives us someone else to love on.  :-)

Wednesday through Friday, we went camping in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic with 3 other families.  (If you are a faithful blog reader of mine, you may recall 2 years ago with did this with 2 of the 3 families.)  I highly recommend Camp Paradise!  We camped right on the river and our 5 tents were the only ones until the weekend.  

We always eat well on these camping trips!  My favorite meal was the grilled chicken with sautéed potatoes, onion, peppers, mushrooms and zucchini.  Yum!  Of course, we had S'mores one night for dessert!  Larissa is showing off her masterpiece.

On Thursday, the group went rafting down the river on inflatable canoes.  Everyone, that is, except Ginger and me.  I like to raft, but I really just wanted to lay on my lounge chair, read a good book, and rest.  Ginger didn't sleep well the night before so she was too tired to paddle.  As it turned out, she didn't sleep and I didn't read.  We talked.... and talked... and talked.

The rest of the group (12 people) had a great time.  It was a little too cold to play much in the river, but they still enjoyed the 5 hours floating down the river.  The van had some makeshift seats made out of heavy-duty plastic barrels that the rafters put in the canoes for keeping their spare clothing, cameras, lunches, wallets, etc. dry.  Pretty ingenious!

I can't believe I failed to take pictures of our tents all in a row, or of us sitting around the campfire, or of our husbands cooking over the pots on the fire, or even of me lounging in my chair, but I did get some pictures of the great signs around the campsite!

The owners of the campsite were very hospitable and provided lots of amenities, most of which were advertised with signs in English, which was very helpful to Glenn and me!  (Not so needed by the others we were with since they all speak Czech!)  Sometimes the signs were a little comical.  Evidently, the owners AREN'T ALWAYS on duty at 2 pm!

They had nicely decorated, clean bathrooms, with hot showers and great water pressure.  

However, the water pressure was only great in the shower and evidently lacked some "umph" in the toilet.  The sign above the toilet told us for a perfect flush, we had to hold down the flush button until everything disappeared!  I would have never described it as a "perfect flush", but I can't think of a more correct or appropriate term to use, myself!

On our drive back to BP on Friday, we saw some beautiful countryside, drove through some quaint towns, and shopped for some groceries in Austria that are not available in Hungary as we passed through.  Chris and Kate (our son and daughter-in-law) were moving into their new house in Tennessee the next day so we thought we'd get them a housewarming gift or shop early for their Christmas gift.  How about some tasteful YARD ART?

On Saturday morning, Glenn and I went back out to the airport to pick up my best friend from high school in Springfield, Virginia, and her mother.  (Linn's family went to my church.)  We've kept in touch all these years, and most of the time when I go to Virginia to the International Learning Center, she drives down from northern Virginia for us to be able to visit together.  She and her mom are taking a Danube River cruise, and came in a day early so that we could spend some time together and show them our fair city.  

In case you didn't get it, Linn is my "old" friend, as in the Girl Scout song.  Well, she's not old;  if she was old, that would mean that I am old since we are the same age.  She's my old friend with a G in front of it.  (Gold)

After we dropped Linn and her mom off at the cruise ship, Glenn had a hankerin' to go window shopping for a new, larger, better-quality tent for our next camping trip.  I think we're going to try to make this an annual event (the camping trip, not the window shopping), either with those families from Czech Republic, with other families who like to camp, or by ourselves.  One day we will be taking our grandchildren camping so we've got to have a tent big enough for them too!

We went to Decathalon and it was packed with people!  School starts on Monday so maybe it is their last shopping fling before things get too hectic!  They had an area of the store roped off next to the bikes and other riding toys for the kids to try out the bikes.  

It was a dangerous area as kids were riding bikes, scooters, tricycles, etc. every which a way, in and out among the people as they were trying to shop.

It was hard to take a good picture that truly showed the chaos and number of children riding because of wanting to take the pictures discreetly.  (I've been fussed at once or twice before for taking pictures in stores, so I'm a little hesitant to do it blatantly.)

We saw this little boy who couldn't have been more than 3 1/2 years old riding his favorite bike around and around.  I saw him shortly after we arrived in the store, and he was still riding when we left, so I think his parents must have left him in that area and gone to shop at Ikea next door!!!!

By the way, we didn't buy a tent but we did buy something for our grandkids!

We head out this week to visit more friends in 4 countries.  Be back "probably" soon.  :-)