Day 9 (Friday) -- Good-bye to Jenni

This being Friday and Jenni’s last day with us, we decided to take it easy and start with a good breakfast, which Jenni created for us (here’s a view of the cook from the loft).

More gifts and souvenirs were needed (it’s amazing how much of our energy has been devoted to finding just the right items), so we drove into nearby Drachten, which has a substantial pedestrian shopping mall.  There we resumed our search for—among other things—a Friesian flag that was just the right shape, the right length, and the right price.  Not anywhere to be found!  We did, however, score a victory with Dutch lace curtains to go over Gayle’s kitchen windows.  And a multitude of scarves.

We also found a lovely bakery run by the DeJong family!  

We also found another HEMA store (which for you Michiganders is a smaller version of our Meijers one-stop shopping), and indulged in another coffee/pastries treat and talked about the way God has moved in our lives.  A good time and good conversation.

Following a hurried lunch at the picnic table outside our cabin, we drove Jenni to Herenveen to board the train into Amsterdam, where she would catch an evening flight back to the Ukraine.  It was sad to let her go and to realize that the week had flown by so fast that it felt we had left many things still unsaid. 

Since we were out and about anyway, we drove a bit further down the A6 and took the first exit westward, to the smallest village in Friesland.  Sloten was designed and built in the 1600s by a famous Frisian fortifications engineer.  Its houses cluster along a picturesque canal, with open harbor on both sides of the town and a windmill (#21!) just outside the houses. 

I tried driving through the small lanes until it became apparent that they were not intended for motor vehicles, so we backed carefully out and found a space in the shopping center.  Mom elected to stay in the car to read, and Gayle and I set out to find that elusive Frisian flag.  We found an antiques shop that was open but utterly unattended, and then several other shops that were open (or at least unlocked) but certainly not open for business.  Apparently everything shuts down in Sloten the minute summer ends.  The frustrating thing is that we actually found the perfect Frisian flag in a shop—but the owner, who came downstairs and joined us, refused to sell us anything because the shop was formally closed.

But the scenery was worth the trip.  The neat, quaint homes, the tranquil harbor, the classic Friesian windmill—we strolled through the one main street of the village and over the footbridge.

Notice the DeJong name on the store sign, above.  We even found a construction truck with the Bajema name in the supermarket parking lot!

The evening was spent packing, organizing, and cleaning.  We planned to leave early in the morning (well, early for us) to drive back to Amsterdam and catch a 1:20 p.m. flight back to the States.  Annette brought over a large pot of pumpkin soup left over from a school lunch, so we dined again with wonderful food, then gave thanks for all the gifts God had given us during this week.