July 11, 2025
The day started with an urgent mission for the boys to get to the store, with Kayleen, and find more toilet paper for the house. Fortunately its only a 5 minute walk to the store so the mission was a quick success.
We started home school after breakfast and Ollie worked with Meme today while I got back to it with Lenny. We spent most of the time reading our new book on how to catch a turkey and then turned to subtraction for our math section. The days are so long that we don’t ever feel the need to rush in the morning.
After home school I went for a run and Kayleen a walk near the beach. We ended up running into each other on the sand dunes near the beach. It was very windy in the morning with some gusts blowing sand in my face as I tired to finish my run home.
We all mobilized after lunch and headed to Lynæs Havn which was a marina with a little shopping area and playground for the kids. On the way we saw quite a few “Din fart“ signs which made us laugh and we learned they mean “your speed.”
When we arrived the boys were excited to see one of the half buried blobs they could jump on. They had really enjoyed one last Summer at Yoga Bear so went right for it. Ollie twisted his ankle after a few jumps but continued to play with brief flashes of a hobble. The playground also had a spinning rope cylinder that was like a hamster wheel that could fit two kids. If the kids got the right momentum it would so a full spin, sending them flying. Don’t think we will ever see one of these in the US.
Jim and I walked around the marina and saw kids catching small crabs. Three Danish boys in their early teens tried to convince us the crabs legs are poisons and then shortly after tried to sell us their tiny crabs. We declined and headed back over to the playground where I took the boys for a walk to a different dock. There were two young girls, we think 9 or 10 years old, crabbing and I asked them how they did it trying to get the boys involved.
One of the girls, Sophia, was very friendly and welcoming to the boys. She showed them how they dropped a line, from what looked like a tiny fishing pole with a chip clip on the end, into the shallow water and waited to see a crab grab the cured meat slice clipped on the end. The water was at most 2 feet deep and the bottom was big rocks so we could see the crabs moving around. Once one was on they would pull it up slightly and net them. Not that different from what we do at home.
The crabs were mostly small but Sophia told us this was all just for fun and they didn’t keep them or eat them. Once they had five crabs it was time for a crab race to put them back into the water. We walked across the marina with her to where the wooden crab racing track was mounted on the dock. The crabs were loaded into the stalls and then the 2x4 gate was removed for the race to begin. I asked her if they picked which one they thought would win and she said no they just do it for fun. The crabs all eventually plunged into the water and back to their freedom.
She was very sweet to the boys and seemed to like chatting with Ollie. When they were crabbing she kept telling him to “move the line under there”. I heard her say this 10 times with Ollie trying to do what she was asking without questioning it. Eventually he said he didn’t understand what she wanted, to which she laughed and said “I was just trying to get you to say underwear!”
On the walk to the crab race track she also shared with him that she was allergic to whip cream, there was an ice cream shop next to the crab racing track. Ollie was shocked but then said he understood because some people can’t have milk. Sophia then told him, “See that umbrella right there? I had ice cream there once and right away it was time for #2. That’s how I knew.”
After our crab race we headed out to Hundested Sandskulptur to check out giant sand sculptures just a short drive away. It was another small town on the coast with a marina. The sculptures were very impressive but the other draw was a sand pit where you could dig for large plastic red coins that would get you a free ice cream.
We all explored the different sculptures with my favorite being the retired, old and out of shape, superhero one of Batman and Superman. The boys spent most of their time in the sand pit looking for a red coin along with other families. It was 4PM so I figured most likely the coins had been all found for the day but it kept the boys busy.
I eventually helped Lenny with his digging and we moved into a back corner away from all the other families to avoid being hit by flying sand. We came across a few small red rakes that were buried which gave us brief excitement we had found a coin. Lenny proclaimed that, “these rakes keep pranking us!” Eventually the hole we dug was up to my knee so we started to sift through the sand around the hole and quickly came across a real coin. Lenny was thrilled! The other families were not as Kayleen and I heard them let out a groan and then force a smile at us.
We left as the rain started and stopped at a fish market and supermarket that were right near where we had parked to get some mussels and bread for dinner. After a quick drive home we started The Greatest Showman with the boys while Meme cooked dinner for us all.
On our drive today we saw signs for another circus and even some of the sculptures had a circus theme. After a quick google we found out that the Dane’s love circuses and they have a large cultural significance going back to the 1800s. Summertime is circus time in Denmark.
Lenny claimed he didn’t like the movie a few times but it was obvious he loved it. When the circus burned down he was very worried and asked repeatedly if it was gone for good. He was very happy to see the rebuild in the tent venue at the end and announced his nighttime song would be one from the movie.
After dinner the boys were excited to try a desert surprise of Fizz Wiz, aka Pop Rocks. They were both fans, licking the package clean. Then it was off to bed for the kids leaving the adults to enjoy another sunset and a little peaceful time in the hot tub.
