Amsterdam, city one

I could easliy live in Amsterdam.

What a chill, beautiful, fun city.

Everyone rides bikes everywhere: women dressed to the nines, kids, men in suits. In fact we saw a guy tonight in a tux. The pace is nice and slow.

The weather is nice and cool and it doesn't get dark until well after 10:00.

Lucky for us, everyone speaks English, so even though we can only read some signs, it's easy to communicate.

Lots of museums, lots of culture.

The city of canals gets an A- in my book. Minus only because the food is okay. No great local cuisine. That we found.

Dutch pancakes might change the minus to a plus, but those are for breakfast tomorrow.

summer news

Summer in the desert is really hot. Obvi.

So we escaped.

First we road-tripped it up to Seattle and Vancouver, where the air is cool and the ocean is close. We made it back just in time to celebrate our anniversary by sleeping in our own bed. A real treat after two weeks on the road--two nights of which were spent camping.

Two days after our arrival home, we packed up again and flew to MA to spend a week with family before skipping across the pond for a month-long excursion. Our last big hurrah before Baby Yin arrives in December.

We will be in the Boston area again for two weeks in August, so let me know if you're around and we can grab a slice of Upper Crust. : )

Posting will continue to be sporadic, but come September when we're back in the desert, there will be plenty of pictures to share and stories to recount--pregnant me wandering all over Europe!!

La la la.

For Mr. Garcia

Dear Brian,

If I had any money on your birthday, I would have gotten you this.

(Although I didn't see it until today.)

Happy (very belated) Birthday!!

Christina

HT is right

Time for a new blog post.

And this is for her:

Today, we celebrate our independence!!

Happy 4th of July!