August 10, 2025
Today we are officially half why through our big detour! Looking back at some of the pictures we are already nostalgic for things that happened only a few months ago. Kayleen made some questions for us all to answer at dinner tonight but I am going to list them all first. The boys suffered from a bit of recency bias but still gave their answers some thought.
Favorite animal experience?
Ollie - Chameleon on safari
Lenny - Elephants drinking from the pool on safari
Kayleen - Finding and holding the starfish in Norway
Kyle - Barbary Apes in Morocco
Favorite place we stayed?
Ollie - Norway Treehouse
Lenny - Amsterdam Boat
Kayleen - Bed & Breakfast in Montague South Africa
Kyle - Cape Town House
Favorite Activity (Top 3)
Ollie - 1. Corsica Zip Line
2. Sand Buggy in Sahara
3. Pottery in Morocco
Lenny - 1. All Pottery Activities
2. The Aqua Parks in Croatia
3. Making cookies and pizza in Cape Town restaurant (Cafè Paradiso)
Kayleen - 1. Mont Saint-Michel quicksand
2. Jumping in fjords in Norway
3. Critter hunting in Mauritius
Kyle - 1. Sundowners on Safari
2. Driving the boat in fjords of Norway
3. Motorcycle side car in Morocco
Funniest Moment
Ollie - Falling on the aqua park and hitting his jellybeans
Lenny - Ollie putting vinegar up his nose
Kayleen - Scaring Lenny while holding the bug on safari
Kyle - Lenny on the tube in Norway
Where would you want to live?
Ollie - Croatia
Lenny - Norway
Kayleen - Amsterdam
Kyle - Cape Town
We had a slow morning, seems to be the normal reset once friends depart. I went in search of the laundry machines and found there was one washer and once dryer for the roughly hundreds, maybe a thousand, of people staying here. There was a load in the machine but it only had 10 minutes left so I waited for it to finish and them moved it to the dryer so I could start my load. It felt very much like being back in the laundry room in North at UConn…except with one machine.
I meet Kayleen and the boys at breakfast “feeding time” before we parted ways again. She walked with them to the shop in town to grab more snacks/groceries and sunscreen while I went to retrieve the laundry and put it to dry on our porch. Kayleen and the boys found a wall covered in snails on their trip which they could not help but investigate in detail.
Once home we got back to a session of home school much to Lenny’s protest. He eventually got through it but nearly drove me insane with his inability to remember which is a plus sign vs a minus sign. After writing each 50 times and making him tell me which was which I think he got it. How he can remember so much about Pokémon but not two symbols is insane.
We headed to our 4PM archery activity on the other side of the resort but upon arriving realized it was actually for 5:45PM which wasn’t going to work since we wanted to go to dinner early in town. Instead, we convinced the boys to do the 9 holes of mini-golf. It was hot and there was not a ton of patience for taking advice, Lenny was more willing than Ollie. Though Lenny was also happy to ride his putter like Happy Gilmore.
Some of the holes were near impossible with the cup at the top of a hill that sloped down right past the hole. We tried to explain the 6 stoke maximum that we use during mini-golf to Ollie but he interpreted that as us forcing him to be a quitter which he did not like. He reminded me multiple times throughout the night that I had forced him to be a quitter.
We headed back to Pakoštane for dinner with a stop at the fruit stand, luckily the woman working there was not the one I had angered with my watermelon seeds! After buying some figs and getting a nice compliment on the boys’ hair, freshly washed and bushed, we headed to dinner.
We went back to Gladne Oči Pakoštane to ensure we had a great meal. The same staff was working as during our nice lunch with the Bonks. We told them we had lost the other four of our group but were excited to be back!
Kayleen and I ordered the same fish platter we had gotten for lunch and got another lesson on how to de-bone the fish. I paid closer attention this time! We quickly realized how insane this portion of food was for two people but it was so good we worked our way through it. We told our server, the same tall Croatian woman from lunch, that we would be back for one more dinner tomorrow night. She asked if we were serious and said she would bring us some of her homemade olive oil if we did come.
We rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and walked along the waterfront to the area we had seen with rides for the kids. The boys were keen to try out the trampolines with a harness that let them bounce high into the air. Lenny had some good bounces but Ollie saw another kid do a back-flip in the air which he set his sights on. After numerous tries he was able to do it just before his time ran out and was exceedingly proud of himself. Kayleen and I were just glad no one threw up. After our meal even watching the bouncing was enough for us.
There where battery powered cars the kids could drive by themselves which was next on the list. The Croatian kids really had it down, drifting and counter-steering around the turns as they slid. We threw our kids out there hoping for the best. Ollie got the hang of it after a few small crashes. Lenny got better with each lap but did a few turns right through the tires that divided the oval track, sometimes making it through to the other side but others plowing right into the tires. He admitted to being a bit scared once their ride was over but Ollie asked to do it again.
We stopped at the little girl selling bracelets for 1 Euro, Lenny had gotten himself one the other night, and each boy picked one out as a belated birthday gift for their friend Hope who we will meet in Romania. Then it was straight to get a freshly spun cotton candy. As we prepared for the walk home, we noticed a road-worthy mini train we had seen driving around waiting for people to get on. Kayleen saw that the sign said Pine Beach so we hopped on hoping for the best. For 8 Euro we got a nice ride through the town and right back to the entrance of our resort.
