Dziwnovek, Poland

Beaching in Poland! This beach trip reminded me so much of our RV trip to Old Orchard Beach, Maine. We could walk everywhere we needed to go. Restaurants, grocery stores, a park and the beach all close enough for little legs to get to. It was rainy somedays, which allowed for plenty of movie days - the girls love movie days! It also made for colorful walks for me, as the rain deepened the colors of the fallen leaves along the streets. Tasty food and the board walk were just one street over! We ate doner kabobs, Belgium style fries, perogies and plenty of ice cream. Maine and Poland were oddly very similar and both lovely experiences!

Over our two week stay in Poland, we spent almost every sunny day at the beach for as long as we could. Some days we stayed from 09:00 to 16:00. We had a few near sunburn days, so we slowed down on that. The kids tolerated and enjoyed the cooler beaching weather even in their swimsuits. I stuck with my pants and cozy hoodie, but adored watching the girls play.

A main highlight for them seemed to be digging the biggest, best beach bunker hole. Those girls might as well have been digging to China, because they dug so long. Seth assisted with this masterful creation as well. They later designed a control room for their creation that became a space going, flying submarine. They outfitted it with buttons made from rocks, shells, and water bottle lids. They also made specific pathways to get to each area of their ship, so you could get to the kitchen to bake and still keep it organized. They drew many children in with their ginormous beach bunker, none of which spoke English. It was fun to watch the kids still figure out a way to communicate and play despite the language differences.

All that digging, rock carrying and other hard beach work wore out Adalynn's swim suit. She carried so much sand in that swim shirt that it began to look like a short dress on her. As she was running one day, the bottoms just fell off. She giggled, but it made things difficult for playing on the beach. Seth took her swim suit shopping and she was quite excited to find a two piece that showed her belly button. It's the little things in life! She was beaming with her new swimsuit on and so special to go shopping with dad.

One day we walked really far in one direction down the beach and found a great sandbar for the kids to play on. It was sweet seeing them cheer each other on and encourage one another as they braved the deeper (colder) waters to reach the sandbar. Demi carried Addy across the dark waters until she pushed past her fear and made it on her own. We also experienced some beach food. These people would walk the beaches with coolers and bags of snacks for beach goers. The girls and I would laugh because as they would shout out their specials for the day while they walked by us it sounded like "popcorn and it's all stinky." We giggle now and say "popcorn, all a stinky" now and again.

We tried the towns "best" perogies, shopped at second hand stores, had a cappuccino by a lake and explored some woods. My favorite perogie was the spinach. Seth and the girls just wanted to eat all the bacon they slathered on top. The girls and I walked across a bridge into some tall woods. Mabel had an emergency pee moment and luckily we had plenty of cover in the woods. It was a warm, sunny and windy day. Lovely for a walk by the lake watching swans. What a sweet time!

When we booked this Poland trip back in May before we left America, we did not know this would be our last Europe trip before settling into a house in Germany with Seth starting a job. Oh, and at the time of this trip we still had not found a house yet, so some of our trip was house hunting online. That part was stressful! BUT... What an adventure we had this summer! Fifteen countries and a bazillion memories as a family. It is emotional to write "the end." I am not the adventuring type (that's all Seth), but this has been such a beautiful trip interlacing the indescribably amazing and the difficult. I am reminded in life how we constantly have to adjust, stretch, grow and learn to move forward. Typically, moving forward and upward is not easy. I would say traveling from country to country, train by train, step by step has been challenging at times, but so worth all the experiences and irreplaceable memories we made together.

What an incredible adventure!Read more