Halloween

I have spent many a Halloween in various places around the globe - Huntington Beach, Hollywood, San Diego, Westwood police cars, Paris...  But I think this one in Amsterdam was one of the more funny and ridiculous.  I flew into the 45º weather on Friday, October 29th to meet up with Kathleen and her sister Stephanie who was in town for a business trip.

Thanks to a lot of college social networking, we have a friend whose family moved from Texas to Amsterdam about 3 years ago and offered to put us up, sweet right?  Not only do they live in the most central location possible, their 15th century 4-story house that was previously occupied by a spice merchant might as well be a 5-star bed and breakfast; it was gorgeous.  

Dinner with the Roberts family

          The Roberts family was unbelievably gracious.  One night they cooked us a fabulous dinner where the wine seemed to never end, whipped out guide books and maps and showed us how to get to all the hot spots, lent us their museum passes so we could tour the Van Gogh museum for free, went strolling through the famous tulip flower market with us, even had Avion glass water bottles set up on our nightstands.

Tulip market!

Reading Dutch

Throughout the weekend we went to the Heineken beer factory, romped around the iamsterdam park, viewed the Anne Frank haus, got lost at least 35 times, but most importantly, bought stinky cheese.  Halloween night was spent wearing bat, cat, and witch costumes wandering through the Red Light district pointing and laughing.  All in all, it was definitely a trip to misremember!

Me and Kathleen on the roof!