Outside Weather

It appears that spring MIGHT have come to our neck of the woods. Looks like KC might have skipped spring altogether. From the weather reports I've seen, it sounds like it's summertime at home! We have had some delightful spring days this past week. We spent some time at the beach.

We have to get our beach time in before we leave in just about a month.

We don't have that lovely coastline in Kansas! I sat and read my book while the kids enjoyed the waves.

They came home completely filthy and brought a ridiculous amount of the sand home with us.

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon and evening with some friends having a bar-b-que in their backyard.

We had a very nice time relaxing and visiting with them. And since our time here is short, we are really realizing how much we are going to miss them. We met some other friends of theirs who joined us for the cookout. There were lots of kids running around and everyone had a wonderful time. No one wanted to go home!

Today we went to Mass as normal. They were celebrating a First Communion class today. The kids were so cute. They wear suits and First Communion dresses to church, but during Mass they all have a white robe garment over their clothes. It is neat to see the differences and the similarities between what we know and what they do here. Three of my little nieces made their First Communion in the past few weeks at home. As I watched these little, wide eyed Polish children today, Lindsey, Aubrey and Chloe were on my mind.

This afternoon we went downtown to the city center. The weather has been about 70 for the past two days so it has been fabulous. Vendors are now out on the streets finally. Now there are lots of different things to look at. We have also noticed an upsurge in the number of people speaking English on the streets down there. It is tourist season!

While we were walking around, there was a big emblem on the side of a trailer that is the symbol for the city of Gdansk. We tried several times to have someone take a picture of our family in front of this emblem. While everyone we asked was very nice and willing to take our picture (we have three just like this)...

...we could not seem to make anyone understand that the background was just as important to us as the six of us being in the photo.

We gave up as the truck pulling the trailer started up and drove away with our background.

We watched the boats on the river. Trey loved this pirate boat called Czarne Perla (Black Pearl). He used his allowance money to buy this very stylish pirate hat from a vendor (for about the equivalent of $4).

He's already decided that he will be a pirate for Halloween. So I'll come up with an eyepatch and we'll be ready to go in October! This boat goes to Westerplatte. We have plans to visit there before we leave.

We had an early dinner in Old Town. There were all kinds of food options. Myles and I had kebabs.

Ben had this "pizzaesque" thing and the other kids enjoyed kielbasa and potatoes.

They were setting up for a concert for this evening. We did not stay for it but we did hear plenty of music while they were rehearsing.

We came home a different way than we usually do. We pass by this statue all the time by bus or tram, but we are seldom walking by it. This is the priest from St. Stanislaus (where we go to church) Bronislaw Komorowski, who was kidnapped and taken to Stutthof concentration camp in September 1939. He was murdered along with thousands at Stutthof. We pass by this often and I have never seen it without fresh flowers. His photograph is on the wall at St. Stanislaus and the same photo is displayed at Stutthof.

The temperatures are supposed to be in the 50s this week so it looks like spring kind of comes and goes. But we don't mind the 50s so much. We can get out with jackets if necessary!