Oh how I love this....

    The kids were shot after hours of bouncing on their water jungle gym all day , but still no mercy when you fly across the planet to explore the ancient cultures and taste their tasty culinary delights and listen curiously to their conversations that sound like music you love but can never quite hear the lyrics or understand the meaning of. The kids aren't quite there yet in there appreciation for the cultural experience but they will.   Hopefully.... 

   So anyhow enough of them, we took off to find the hill town of motovun.  Recommended by jimmies BFF the tour guide on our boat, ( and my dance partner for less than five minutes until he was sick of me)  we asked where can we go , somewhere local, somewhere old, not touristy we want to eat local food, where you eat.  So we were off, we found the restaurant and asked for Darko the name of Manuel's friend.  The soccer field was our landmark to look for with darkos place right next to it, in the heart of truffle country. I mistakenly thought France was the truffle Capitol of the world. Wrong. I'm quickly learning the Isterian people take the cake as the culinary Capitol for specialties in oils, wine, and yes truffles. We name drop our buddy Manuel and I'm a little afraid that he has heard about me, the Danish descent American woman. Maybe I'm cut off before I get started , I'm glad when I'm offered a cold beer as it's hot in the sun. I love it. It's gorgeous here. Vegetation everywhere lush,  productive warm air , blue skies.  Yes I love croatia. 

   I ordered truffle ravioli , jim had a steak with truffle . The very best steak we've ever tasted. Brock my very not foodie son, orders a ham sandwich. He's very disappointed when we all gobble up his bread ( we did not know it was part of his " sandwich") and we realize he is served , probably the best quality Istrian ham , more like prosciutto he will ever taste In his life. So in croatia don't be surprised if you order a sandwich and you receive .... Bread.... Fresh and lovely... And a plate  of sliced ham...... Build it however you like.    Brock was ticked off and it was comical. I keep telling him to venture out and try new things but my words fall on deaf ears. Cole on the other hand ordered truffle ravioli and loved every bite. Funny how you raise them the same but at the end they are who they are. The end of our meal our darling Darko gave us a bottle of local wine to take home and told us our cappuccinos were on the house.  I have never in my life met more generous kind people. Also it's worth mentioning twice in croatia the credit card machines have not worked, we haven't had enough cash , both times they are so nice, " no worries , come back tomorow, it's okay "  never have I met such trusting sweet people. Of course we go get money and we love tipping generously because they deserve it. 

   We also visited another roman coliseum in the town of pula. Very cool. The kids were like , " yeah I've been to the roman coliseum in Rome"...turds. Whatever , hopefully one day they will look back and realize the education we are giving them. Right now if you ask them what their favorite part of the trip is? The campgrounds. The waterslides, the boring stuff they have at home. I wonder what their memories will be when they grow up, what they will look back on fondly? What will reach their heart and touch their soul and help them get through some dark spot in life, any of this? I don't know, I can only hope.  this coming from a girl who doesn't recall staying in a hotel until her wedding night. We'll maybe it's a great experiment , to see if doing this can have any impact on children. Time will tell. In the mean time , it's sure a fun experiment. 

   A funny side note , cole noticed the parking attendant had the HUGEST boobs!!! Did you see those? He exclaimed!!! Funny to me, in Europe, boobs are like weeds, they are everywhere. Nakedness has no mystery here. Just a Walk on the beach and you can see all the boobs a boy could ever dream of. The other day on our boat trip , a speed boat passed by and waved at us tourists. They were all naked. Completely naked. Seven or eight old farts just cruising around in the buff on the Adriatic. No big deal, so I found it amusing cole noticed this girls chest from afar off. We got up to the spot to pay for parking and he was right, this girl had huge soft melons bouncing out of her thin white shirt. He was right . I guess all the boobs still won't stop a boy from noticing big ones now and then. 

   Also there are glow bugs and hedge hogs here.