Today I met Saskia for coffee, an old classmate from my highschool Wiringherlant. We calculated that it had probably been 21 years since we last saw each other, after we graduated in 1991. (Note: Rob correctly noted that we graduated in 1997, not 1991, so it has been 15 years).

Saskia saw my post on Facebook yesterday with the picture of the electric car charger and she realized we're only a few minutes away from each other. She is staying with friends in Menlo Park for a few weeks.

Saskia brought Mayca and we had coffee in our office. It was very nice to see them.

It's nice to be in our Menlo Park office. I've met several new people and caught up with the teams we've been working with over the last year.

Our office now has an electrical car charger, as does the hotel we are staying in. A colleague explained that his car can do about 90 miles on a single charge and that it takes about 3 hours to charge the car.

The time difference makes it easy to get up early. Yesterday morning I went for a run at 6.00 am and today I woke up at 5.30 am again. We're leaving tomorrow morning, taking an 8.30 am flight from San Francisco.

Today I traveled to San Francisco with my colleagues Andy and Vinayak. It is the first time since Nora was born that I'm on a business trip, and it is sad to be away from her.

There's a 3 hour time difference with the East Coast so we saw the last presidential debate over dinner.

This morning I saw Nora's first tooth! It is on the lower left.

Last weekend we went for a nice walk in Georgetown.

Nora saw duckies for the first time and was quite impressed.

Last night was the second Presidential Debate between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney, and we hosted a small party again. Beia, Frank, Jeroen, Juan, Laura, Lucio and Tom joined us in the entertainment room.

The debate was more interesting than the previous one. President Obama did a much better job defending his record. Candy Crowley was excellent as moderator.

Nora joined us for a few minutes and greatly enjoyed the attention from all the guests.

This was the last debate party this election for us -- I am out of town on Monday. We haven't decided yet what we'll do for November 6th, the night with the election results.

It was a rainy Sunday today and we decided to visit the National Gallery of Art. This was Nora's first visit to a museum and she enjoyed it.

We watched several paintings together and she seemed to like them, especially the Van Gogh ones.

On the picture we are looking at Salomon Van Ruysdael's Rivierlandschap met veerpont. The painting was part of the Goudstikker collection and acquired by the National Gallery in 2008. Until 2005 it was on display in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. A beautiful painting.

On the way home Nora fell asleep in the car.

The Holland America Club of the Pacific Northwest is celebrating its fifty year anniversary this November. While membership has declined from its peak of 600 members, the club is still going strong.

Spokesman Stefan Adelaar explains: "The club officially started 60 years ago but did not get incorporated till 1962. Its mission is to represent the Dutch culture the best way possible. Events include a Sinterklaas celebration, a New Years borrel, a Summer Picnic, a Queens Birthday party and a Senior Luncheon". The club used to publish magazine for its members, the Wind Mill, but nowadays communication is done electronically.

Says Stefan: "It’s hard to keep track of actual membership since we switched to a non-paying membership base. However, we now have an email following of 200 through the HAC list and close to 600 members on the Dutch Seattle website."

New Dutch immigrants

The Seattle area saw an influx of Dutch immigrants during the 90s and 2000s mostly because of the fast growing Puget Sound economy, largely due to Boeing and Microsoft. The new millennium also brought more access to "home" via different forms of communications. The Internet made it easier to keep tabs on family and current events in Holland. Communication between members became easier as well. The club adjusted to these changes and in 2011 switched from a paid membership organization to a non-paying base, with communication within the Dutch community mainly through the online DutchSeattle website and email.

Anniversary celebration

An official celebration is planned for Saturday, October 20th. The dinner and dance party will be held at the Novelty Hill Januik Winery.

Holland America Club of the Pacific Northwest
Dutch Seattle.com and