Gone and home again

Well, we've been home since yesterday.

Made it there and back again. Got side-tracked on the posting, though. Last week, my dad died. He would have wanted us to go anyway so we did. And we had a great time.

We went to the Anne Frank Huis and saw Anne's original diary along with the place where the Frank family hid for two years.

We took a canal boat to the Van Gogh Museum and saw a few of his paintings. One of the sunflowers he did and some self-portraits.

We walked for miles and miles. Along great canals in beautiful neighborhoods.

We sat in a coffee house for awhile. Met some students from Geneva, France.

We had dinner with an awesome Dutch couple, Saskia and Sienie, in their beautiful home on the Amstel River. They sang happy birthday in Dutch.

We walked more. We walked through the Red Light District.

We rode the tram and the metro. We rode the train out to the airport.

We hung around there for several hours and then we got on an airplane and flew home.

There are lots of things on our lists to do but we will have to go back to do them.

I would go today...

One week...

Next Friday at this time, we'll be sleeping on the plane. Heading to Amsterdam. Getting ready to celebrate Mark's birthday on Saturday.

Walking along some canals. Eating something Dutch. Looking for some tulip bulbs. Drinking some jenever. Walking through Anne Frank's house. Looking at a Van Gogh and a Rembrandt.

Eating dinner. Flying back home.

And chalking up another adventure.

Eight more

In just over one week, I'm off to Amsterdam for the day.

It's actually my son's 36th birthday and he's going with me.

He was born in the year of the pig in Chinese astrology. This is his year. Comes around every 12 years. Pigs - good people.

The year I turned 36, Mark was 18 years old. A lot of people remember their 30th or 40th birthday as being significant; I remember my 36th. I spent the whole day at work saying to myself, "now what?" Mark was born when I was 18 and I spent the next 18 years thinking to myself that when he was 18 years old and a "legal adult", I'd be 36 years old. And now I was 36 and wondering what came after that day.

So now we are going to the Netherlands together. For the day. Leaving Friday morning, returning Sunday morning. I have arranged to have dinner with a Dutch couple - Sienie and Saskia, a couple of 50-ish school teachers. I want to see Anne Frank's house and a vanGogh or two. Go to the Waterloopein flea market or some other open market. And maybe smoke one or two in a coffeeshop and have a jenever or two. And take a cruise through the Red Light District. Just to say we did it all! Amsterdam is known for some tourist-y stuff like sex, drugs and Rembrandt but I want to see some un-tourist-y stuff, too. The back-door places.

Amsterdam...