Not so bad...

It was aptly pointed out, by one of my favorite friends, that the home exchange sounds worse and worse. He even went so far as using the quote, "you get what you pay for." It makes me realize that I have painted a rather negative picture of the whole scenario. While it's true that the house doesn't fit our original vision of the sparkling clean ultra modern Dutch home, and we see many of those as we walk around and glance in windows, the very fact that we have a place to come back to at the end of the day and cook relatively inexpensive meals in is what makes it possible for this frugal family to travel. Let's be honest, folks, the exchange rate totally sucks, at something like $1.40 to 1 Euro.

For what we do, and the choices we already have to make regarding money within this vacation, I wouldn't want to have to worry about the cost of lodging as well as other things. An example: we went to Amsterdam's Artis zoo today and it cost the equivalent of 80 USD. If we were staying at some hotel, we wouldn't have even considered doing that. As it was, I was completely reluctant to go in because I was super angry that it cost that much, but Emma really wanted to go because she thinks working with animals is her "calling" so she likes to visit zoos. (no comment on zoos in general from me, I have to bite my tongue so as not to be a dream squelcher) It was good that we went because they did have a lot of different animals there that we had never seen in person before, and they also had some funny things, like a raccoon enclosure, which was just ridiculous. But, my point is, we wouldn't have gone at all if we had to spend money on lodging. One could argue for hostels, but then if you're gonna stay at a hostel, why not just do a home exchange?

So, for all the unique challenges the house presents, it offers lots of bonuses too. There are plenty of rooms for us to hang out in, there are places to be away from each other when appropriate, and best of all it is situated in a city that I frankly prefer over Amsterdam. If I had it to do over again I would do another exchange. The Dutch are absolutely loving our house, by the way, even with all our animal friends, sweltering heat and that Sierra Nevada foothills red dirt.