Three days into our Great American Adventure, we're all hanging in there: still jet-lagging a bit (parents worse than kids, fortunately) and fighting off a communal chest cold (which preceded our travel to America but which has, unfortunately, gained the upper hand over our jet-lagged bodies)... but otherwise having a pretty good time. Our first visit to the Eastern Shore of Virginia has been very enjoyable -- and to make it even more memorable, I've finally been able to get my camera (the Canon 350D) back into action with a fully functioning lens! So I figured I'd try to post random images from our travels to each different location that we get to visit this summer. The pictures in this post are my "top six" from Virginia.

More than anything else, the greatest joy of our time in this part of the country has been the opportunity for Elliot and Olivia to play with their cousins (Marci's brother and his wife have an eight-year-old girl, a five-year-old boy, and a three-year-old boy -- so you can imagine the fun). I've probably got about 60 to 80 different shots of "cousins playing together" alone! But the top picture is one of my personal favorites.

We've also gotten to take in some of the local scenery -- with one of the highlights being our trip to Jaxon's: a general store in a nearby town with the motto, "If we don't have it, then you don't need it" (apparently, we didn't actually need post cards from the Eastern Shore!). Without a doubt, though, there was an interesting collection of items in the store which really lent itself to feeling like being back in time, in the era of the good ol' American general store). While we were there, I couldn't resist the opportunity to take a snapshot of Elliot wearing an official uniform of the Boy Scouts of America. I also especially enjoyed the visit to the local drug store, where a wisened older gentleman advised me of the best way to beat my chest cold: a shot-glass full of cough expectorant with two glasses of water and a cup of black coffee (turns out his drug-store directives weren't so helpful for the chest cold but were highly effective in snapping me out of my jet-lagged stupor for my second day in America).

We also got to celebrate a six-way "cousins' birthday party" -- since we don't typically get to celebrate birthdays together. Good times... Good times...

Cor has also recently figured out how to wave! It's super-cute because he's especially proud of himself when he successfully executes a waving maneuver.

Roaming around outside in the gorgeous May weather has also been great fun. Marci's brother's family own a lovely home in the rural Eastern Shore landscape. Wheat fields come right up to the edge of the backyard -- quite a radical departure from the Amsterdam streetscape that we're used to.

We also got some lovely portraits along the Chesapeake Bay coast around sunset on Tuesday evening. The portraits turned out great, but my favorite was actually a candid shot of Marci laughing with Olivia and Cor on the beach.

So those are my top six. If you'd like you can see more images on the Family Pictures section of the website...

Next stop: Orlando, Florida.