Amsterdam - Day 2

It finally started raining and we danced in the streets because of the relief that it

brought from the sun heat. Unlike Oregon, it only rained for one

afternoon and we woke up to perfect 70 degree no humidity weather.

Since our canal bus tickets were good for 24 hours, we got up Saturday Morning

and took the train back up to Amsterdam which only takes about 15 minutes.

And then we had a little taste of home. Burger King.

We are having a hard time finding the foods that the kids like.

Too bad they don't like Mayo - because Mayo is the equivalent to Ranch

where we come from.

Many times we've had the "try new things" talk, but

that is much like trying to teach calculus to drunk people.

Impossible.

Mind you, even "American Food" doesn't taste the same as it does

at home. It's off, no doubt. In particular, Diet Coke, or Coke Light.

Its sweeter and flat.

But, after a belly full of BK, we headed back out on the

canal bus.

The Canal Bus. Our "captain" was interesting.

We knew it was going to be an eventful ride when

he ran the boat into the side of the canal as we pulled out.

But as you can tell in the picture below, he is like "whatev."

Henry planned out our day on his map:

While Charlie worked on his hair:

I love all of the family bikes here.

By the time you are 3, you know how to balance on the back of a bike.

This is my favorite family bike - the bakfiet:

Ever wonder how you move your large boxes,

beds, sofas or even pianos into these beautiful

homes? We watched them do it:

We hopped off of the canal bus and walked to the

Artis Zoo which was built/opened in 1838:

Like everything, it was incredibly expensive to get in.

Lucky for Charlie, who fell asleep right as we walked in, he was free.

Otherwise, I would have wedged toothpicks to hold

his sleepy puffy eyelids up.

Henry, with a camel on his back.

It was super heavy.

The park was so beautiful and once we got over the

outrageous sticker shock, we decided it was worth

every penny.

All I have to say, the Dutch language uses a LOT of letters.

This turtle was the size of a family room coffee table.

Oh Lordy, it hurts to even type "coffee" which I haven't had in

6 long days.

In other zoos that I've been too, the safety measures are set so that

there is no need to have a discussion with your children like

"if you put your finger right there, that Vulture will take it off."

Or if you stand under a certain tree, a Lemur might just

defecate on you from above.

Here, however, the animals are really "integrated" into the park

experience. For example, certain monkeys are not caged, rather

simply surrounded by a 3 foot moat. Deductive reasoning

leads you to believe that they don't swim, but STILL!

These guys, however, did have fences, of course, only waist high,

but the kids were never in danger.

Yes, (below) this is still the zoo.

It was so beautiful.

So we stopped for Popsicles:

And running:

This baby giraffe (below) just took its first steps

this week:

Cockroach wallpaper:

Artis also had an aquarium:

This (below) reminded me of my sisters. You can even

get your buzz on at the zoo!

This is the first zoo that I've been to that smelled like

poop and pot.

I'm not kidding.

And if you indulged a little too much in the Wine Gums

or pot, they provided you with back-up (see below).

You just had to have someone who could pull you around.

This is the monkey moat that I spoke of:

After the zoo, we rode the canal bus

back to Centraal Station.

And then, to secure my nomination for Mother of the Year,

not only did we walk the kids around in the rain,

we also walked (very quickly) through the Red Light District.

In my defense, one kid was sleeping and the other was distracted

by the crowds in the streets.

Like everything we've experienced here, it is so hard to

describe what this was like.

It was so "normal"-like, we might as well have been walking

down NW 23rd in Portland. Of course Pottery Barn on NW 23rd doesn't have

scantily-clad prostitutes hanging out in their store front windows aglow in

their "Red Light", but now we're just getting bogged down in the details, aren't we?

After walking the Red Light District,

instead of washing/cleaning my innocent eyes out with half part

vinegar, half part water, we instead gazed at beautiful restaurant

fronts like this one:

And this pub, which had roses, ROSES on their outdoor pub

table. Only in A-dam.

See? I told you he was asleep!

And he is like, "Holy Crap mom, the kids in daycare

aren't going to believe me. I came here a baby and I'm

leaving a toddler."

I'm kidding.

And in defense of walking them around in the rain, the rain doesn't slow

anyone down here. See?

Amsterdam does NOT disappoint and I cannot wait to

go back. We have not even had the chance to eat anything in A-dam yet,

unless you count Burger King - which Henry would.