My Summer

Written by Charlie.

These were the fun parts of my summer.

In France, we were in a place called Capbreton for a month. When we first got there, we played Couillon (a Belgian card game). We played at cafes or restaurants my parents had wine, and we had Orangina. Luke got his first phone during the first few days, and he can’t turn it off. We got bikes and biked around to restaurants for dinner, all the time. The food was always really good. We saw friends who visited. We stayed in a castle like a scene in the movies. It had horses, and there was a fox under a tree when we first arrived. Luke and I stayed in the castle, and my parents were in the guard house. Their room was the size of my Carmel house kitchen and living room. We had breakfast even though it wasn’t good and the music was so “castlely” that it made me cringe. Another day we went to Chartres, a town south of Paris. At night, they have a light show on the cathedral. It showed how they built it, the night sky with galaxies, and cool oceany colors from head to toe on the cathedral.

In Spain, we swam in La Concha with the Nelsons. We ate pintxos and walked around all day. My favorite pastry here is like a lemon cream filled donut with sugar on top.

In Belgium, we hung out with the Mignons. One day, we lit up a wasp nest, and Oscar would have the gasoline ready and spray it on the wasp nest while saying, “Haduken!” It was funny yet very dangerous. So I stayed far away. When we looked later, it was a burnt hole in the ground with wasps flying around. We swam in their pool and played Marco Polo. It was a blast! We had tarte du riz. It is one of my favorite tarts. We picked blueberries with our old nanny, Lisa. There were tons of blueberries and we picked a lot. We didn’t fill the whole bag, but we had enough for a dessert for 12 people. There is no poison oak or ticks so we could just walk around the forest. The only thing we had to be careful of was stinging nettle. Right before we left, we got a whole pie. Half tarte du riz and half blueberry. I liked the blueberry because the blueberries were very fresh. For lunch, we went to a Friterie. I just got a big thing of fries with mayonnaise which was so good.

We went to the Netherlands for a day trip. I got a North Face jacket, and I use it to this day. We went to a place for lunch called I Love Burrito, and the salsa burned my mouth so bad that I chugged my soda. We had a little of their spiciest salsa which is made with the Carolina Reaper. I tried some, but it was super spicy but flavorful.

In Germany, we went to a restaurant where Luke and I had schnitzel. It was very good.

In the Italian part of Switzerland, we hiked up and over a waterfall and then swam in the water hole. I went under the waterfall. The water was super duper cold. Like so cold that I was shivering with goosebumps. You can only stay in for an hour max. I was in there for an hour and a half. I had the best gelato ever. I tried almost all of my favorite flavors! We went to a place that had a pool table, and I tried Organics by Redbull. It tasted like Orangina which is a French drink that is a sparkling orange drink. After, we went to a restaurant called Riva, and I had Frito Misto. It is now one of my favorite foods. It is practically a ton of fried fish, prawns, and zucchini. The zucchini was like fries but better.

I have read 11 books. It is almost 12.