Heading to Amsterdam

I am excited.

I was in Amsterdam over 30 years ago for maybe a day.

Not enough to count, much less remember.

So here I come again, this time with the

Friedman family in tow.

Jesse is excited too, can you tell?

Wow, we are really here!

Corey and I felt the vibe immediately when we hit the airport

and fell in love with the place.

We were met by met by lovely Myrthe at the airport, our host, who drove us to her

family's apartment where we were met by Connie, her delightful husband.

They have spent an extraordinary effort to prepare their beautiful flat for us to

move into while they re-locate at their moms for a week. We are on the canal and I am ready to move into this place, it is wonderful.

It's true, there are millions of bikes here.

I know! I will make a collection of bike photos.

What an unusually obsessive thing for me to do.

More later.

Spent a delightful day wandering an area called the Jordaan,

filled with beautiful boutiques, caffes, canals.

Jesse still looks and feels like the first photo at the top,

he had pulled an all nighter before we left and now,

3 days later, he is sorry he did, since he caught some kind of bug.

He unfortunately didn't come with us today.

Happened upon a store who was serving of all things,

Stumptown, their trial kiosk here in Amsterdam.

After lunch and gelato, the 2 Friedmans decided to head back

to the ranch for a little relax time.

Not me however.

I might miss something.

I can rest when I'm dead anyway,

There will be plenty of time then.

So within about 10 seconds I find the

most PERFECT boots I have been looking for

ALL MY LIFE!

They look like Fyre, but they are not.

Some Spanish brand, black suede and as

soft as butter.

I text Rob and tell him I have found the perfect pair of boots and

my family said I could have a retro-active birthday present from

Amsterdam. So can I have them please?

His text back reads:

Sorry, this phone is out of order.

Please try again in a few years.

Of course, I got them. I thought they would look really good with the skinny jeans

I was wearing, so I clomped out of the store wearing them.

However it was about 95 degrees and my feet were swollen

and throbbing so fashion will have to wait.

I will sign off tonight with a few choice photos.

Oh, and one more I caught on the way back

tonight.