Salt Lake City Layover

June 9, 2012

Stopped by Kelly Jewelers to see the Nephews and they took us on a tour of the store and their house, which is the same place.  Had a good time and they showed me all their guns (and you can tell that I never completed a gun safety course as I am aiming my machine gun right at Herschel's head) and enjoyed the first-hand description in detail of the infamous robbery.

Got together with the entire family and ate mexican food.  Enjoyed everyone's company and it was especially wonderful to see Adam.  Kids are doing well and seem happy.

Maria was off for 13 days (loves her new job and all the time off it provides) so she was already in SLC visiting the kids/family/friends when I arrived for my 22 hour layover.  She stayed with me at the hotel, we ate lunch at the BlueLemon (my new favorite downtown SLC food spot) and caught up with old friends.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

June 2012

 I am so excited to be back to flying international trips again.  I am based in Atlanta now as of June first and this is my first international trip in my new base.  I have been to Amsterdam before, while I was based in NYC, but actually never left the hotel because it was raining.  Had a beautiful day this time, so I got out and about.  I must say, this is not my favorite European city, but it sure beats Omaha, Nebraska or the like, places I only got to layover while based in Orlando.

There are more bike riders than car drivers in this city.  You'll notice in the photo above, a bicycle parking lot that you'd find located all over the city. Not sure how one would find his bike at the end of the day.  And this photo is a parking ticket this bike owner got for chaining his bike to a lamp post.  Never seen a bike parking ticket before. Speaking of bikes, I also got run over by a bike....like I said, EVERYONE is riding bikes through the city, and at a busy intersection, I neglected to look both ways before leaving the curb and stepped right into the middle of a herd of oncoming cyclists.  The lady that hit me while she fell off her bike, was screaming something in Dutch which probably translated into something like, "Moron American tourist....GO HOME!"

And then there is the food.  The Waffle apparently is the staple food item of the country.  Not only served for breakfast, but also dipped in white chocolate and served as a snack and then there are these little cinnamon waffle cookies filled with caramel that you can't stop eating once you start.  And french fries with mayo.  I had to try as there was a full blown store selling just fries every 50 feet on every street.  Next time I'll just stick with the standard american ketchup rather than the Dutch mayo version.