It’s International

October 28th, 2008

This past weekend saw us road-tripping to Tucson, where we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. While Stevel and his sister Becky did some treks around Tucson, car-less Vibble and I ate at the IHOP—the International House of Pancakes—next to the hotel. A lot.

The thing about Vibble is that she draws attention, and I meet so many people now. They just come up to us and start conversing. Any excuse to get close to her. So the first day we go in there, and there’s a restaurant full of pre-teen male gingers wearing scout uniforms and eating pancakes. As they filed out, one of the leaders knelt to say hi to Violet … 20 minutes later, I had learned the troop of 50 boys was from Scotland, here to see the Grand Canyon and other Southwest sites. The leader explained that due to the heat that day I had been cheated out of seeing his troop in their kilts, which they typically wear.

The next meal, we sat at a table with a glass wall on one side. On the other side of the wall was a little girl—maybe 7—eating with two men. Little kids make Violet go GIDDY. So there was much smiling and laughing and face-making until the threesome left, and we waved goodbye through the glass … but they went up their row of seats and made a U-turn to come talk to us. Well, ONE of them spoke to us. He said, “My niece wants to know how old the baby is.” Turns out Uncle is the only one who speaks English, and not Dutch. Through him, Vibble and I had fun making the acquaintance of young Ninka. (And yes, Abigail, that makes two Dutch references on this blog in just a few months!)

I also met a couple from Michigan, and while that’s not international, we talked a long time, and Violet tried real hard to take the guy’s Rolex.

In other news, Becky has come back with us to L.A. for a while, and Violet is finally cutting her first tooth at almost nine months. And now, your moment of Zen.

5 Responses to “It’s International”

  1. Abigail Says:

    Those Dutch, they’re everywhere!

  2. Abigail Says:

    Oh, and we ate at IHOP on I-5 on the way down to San Diego last summer. Niels would NOT stop talking about it after that trip and even convinced us to go there for dinner around here. Once.

  3. dad Says:

    The real question is, “did Violet eat any pancakes, with ooohey..goooey syrup?” Plaese let me know.

    So now you really do not have to travel to exotoc locales. Just go to your IHOP, and the international community comes to you.

    I am so sorry you did not get to see a gagle of teenage boys in kilts. I bet it would have been cute.

  4. cindy Says:

    OMG! SQUEAL! I’m totally going to be the gushing, well, whatever I am because Violet is SO FRIGGIN’ CUTE I CAN’T STAND IT!

    I needed that this morning. Thanks.

  5. ma Says:

    Thanks for the photos! My first smile of the morning! Nothing like a good hot cup of coffee and a few photos of the cutest 9 month old in the whole wide world to start off the day on a high note!

    Glad to see she’s learning to enjoy the library! It’s always been one of my favorite places to hang out.

    Love you all! XXXXOOOO

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