Day 26 (July 4th)

Al and I woke up around 8:00 AM and Zach was up. Since Hannah was still sleeping we told Zach to hang out and we would get breakfast for him and Hannah. When I got back to the room both kids were out cold so I slipped back into bed. The next thing I knew the phone was ringing around 11:00 AM. It was Al and we were now all up. I showered and we all got dressed to meet Al for lunch at 12:30 PM. We went over to Space Burger that we had been to before and enjoyed. Since the kids had their breakfast around 11:30 AM they were not hungry. I enjoyed a large chicken sandwich with lettuce, onions, garlic, tomatoes and some sauce. It started to rain again after lunch and I took the kids to Gamestop that was right down the street. We played a couple of games (and yes they were in German). The guy at the store told me that only the game boy DS and Wii are universal and you can play any game from any country. We then headed over to the Kaufhof department store to see if they had an adapter for the game cube we brought to German. Underneath the department store is the subway and a bunch of stores. We walked around and found a couple of interesting stores for the kids to look at. Inside the department, we went to the electronics section and bought an adapter and then went to toy section. The kids played there for a while before they both had to go the bathroom. Luckily, the department store has a clean bathroom. Both kids went and we paid our .30 Euros. Afterwards we went back down where the subway was and went to a popcorn store. We bought chocolate, cheesy and American popcorn and walked back to the apartment. We played some cards and then we had reading time. Hannah has to read three books this summer including The Cay. I’m working my way thru all the Harry Potter books (I’m on the 4th year). Then we decided to go to the basement of the apartment where they have a sauna and a large “cave” area with a bunch of pillows. We ended up playing a pillow fight game in the cave area for a while and never went into the sauna. Then we headed up stairs to get the kids showered so we wouldn’t have to deal with showers after dinner. Al came home early so we could go to the K21 museum since it was free night (first Wednesday night in the month). The K21 is a modern art museum. As we walked around I could tell this was going to be a weird one, not only for adults but also for the kids. We started at the top and worked our way around. Looking at this art you needed to keep an open mind. One section we passed the attendant told us that children should not come in. I briefly glanced in the room and saw a pair of feet and blood and we agreed to keep moving. The strangest thing we saw was a sculpture of a baby man with beard in a fetal position inside a blanket. It was incredible how life like the baby man was even made out of wax. Hannah loved it. Zach was starting to get a little freaked by the art and he wanted out. We finished up the rest of the museum and walked west to a new area of the city for dinner. We found a nice Italian restaurant that had pizza’s so it was perfect for Zach. I had a chicken and green pasta dish with curry sauce along with a cold Heiferveizen. It was a good meal. Earlier we had passed an ice cream place and told the kids we could get some after dinner. Of course, by the time we came back the ice cream store was closed. We walked back to the Alstadt and found a Haagen Das. The kids were happy but Mommy and Daddy were not since the kids were now sugared up and it was 11:30 PM when we got back to the room. Again, the kids played around for a while and it wasn’t lights out until 12:30 AM.



This was the first time in a long time that Al and I were not in the U.S. for July 4th. It was strange not to see any fireworks and celebrate the 4th. We passed by the "American Cafe" in Dusseldorf and we didn't see any mention of the 4th. We hope everybody had a good time at the Turner's party.