Croatia Part One: Split

So, no matter how hard you try, you will not find a picture in this post of Suzy under an umbrella, chilling in the sand--not because she is typically incapable of such a mode, but because that's not, so far as we could tell, what people do on the Adriatic.

Sure, they read--or used to, but not on the beach. For one thing, almost all the beaches are rocky. Playing in the waves, building sand castles, sitting and reading under an umbrella--those are not the name of the game in Croatia. No, the name of the game in Croatia is "Picigin": you try to keep a ball bouncing with single touches between you and your partners, often with spectacular dives and crashes in the water. (Saw some old-timers playing and, apparently, there is a bit more competitive way to play, too, but the noncompetitve way was impressive enough--and everyone played it at the beach we claimed as our own.) Suzy, through research, did find the one sand beach on the Adriatic, in Split, and she booked our room next to it (a great room--best of our trip), but the beach was not even close to private. It was slammed, always, and not really photogenic, subtracting all the swimsuits that don't try too hard to be swimsuits. Indeed, you also will not find any pictures of our first few days in Split, neither here nor on our camera, except, I think, for this.

And maybe this.

We were out of practice, I guess, and, to tell you the truth, a bit underwhelmed. But we adjusted our expectations quickly enough and made a time of it. Now, when I say the beach in Split was our own--I mean the whole single-sand-beach-with-a-lot-of-Picigin-playing-and-many-a-pretend-swimsuit experience. And once Charlie added a Modric uniform to his collection,

we were in like Flynn. We commandeered a sliver of shade next to the lifeguard table, and swam, played Picigin (got as high as twenty--in three different languages) and people-watched. We also met a colleague and her family, and another family as well (--Scout knew the oldest daughter through soccer--small world). It was awesome actually. At one point, I wasn't sure Scout was ever going to come home... And we ate black risotto (a Croatian delicacy), and found my second favorite gelato place in Europe--which is saying something. Emiliana's, I'm telling you, it's almost worth the whole trip... But the main highlight for the three during our first stint in Split was definitely the chance to connect with Sammy and River, even with Jack for a turn, through a Playstation game called Fortnite. Yeah, would you believe it, the place where we first stayed in Split had a game console, and the kids, having been without theirs for a year, figured out how to connect with the DeStefanos back in Colorado. Sam and River graciously stopped whatever they were doing and played for a couple of hours each of our first three nights in Split, while Suzy and I either read, slept, or laughed at all their interactions. Man, O Man, do our three love them some Uncle Sammy and Riv-Dog time... Eventually, we rented a car and headed to two national parks, about which I will tell you in part two, but we returned to Split for a couple more nights, before our flight back to Berlin. It was during that time, our second chance at Split, where our pictures and some of our best memories come from. First, since we had the car for a few more hours, we stopped at some random spot on the coast and took a swim.

Look at the water. Crystal clear, as it was everywhere. Suzy's call, and it was great.

Even the boys, who poo-pooed the swim, enjoyed the stop.

Then Suzy took the guys into town for another gelato run, while I nursed a sore calf.

But the big finale--of the whole trip was the pirate ship (--Suzy and the boys actually were sold on this), and it was an absolute blast. Jumping off the boat,