So this past weekend was pretty uneventful. Friday we went back to our Indian restaurant from the previous week because we were still craving it and it's right off the metro stop and it looked like it could pour at any minute. We had already lost power due to the storms once that day. The forecast for Sat was all storms from the afternoon on so we got up and took off to Adams Morgan to get out while we had a chance. We just walked around and ate at a small hole-in-the-wall regional Mexican place for brunch. It was a hot and humid so we strolled a little longer then headed home after eating. Yesterday we made our normal rounds to the local area Sunday farmer's market which we are quickly falling in love with and then to other stores to complete the weekly grocery shopping. So like I said, pretty uneventful, but we really enjoyed Adams Morgan and look forward to exploring it more in the future. There was a small gap in the storms on Sat and we stepped outside and there was a huge rainbow! Here's a picture of part of it, it's a little hard to see it, but it was a full arch that was much larger than we could capture with the camera.We haven't had any random political celebrity sightings in a long time because we have been avoiding the mall/WH/capitol area due to the summer tourist season. So to take place of that, this weekend we had a random people watching event from our balcony. This guy pulled up to an empty parking lot across the street and just started playing his guitar on the hood of his car. It was really random and we were amused because we could kind of hear it too and then he put the guitar up and drove off. Here's a pic.

I also realized the other day that we never posted a photo of the apartment since the furniture was delivered so here ya go...

Have a great week!

Steph

Hey everyone!

Sorry its been so long since our last post; we will try and post more frequently and consistently. So let's see what have we been up to...

Since I got back from Amsterdam, Steph's parents came to visit which was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time exploring several areas of the DC area. One night we went to dinner in Georgetown and another in Alexandria. While I was at work, Steph and her parents went to the zoo and saw the pandas! We also went to a lesser known but very cool Smithsonian museum. It was the Air and Space museum located at Dulles Airport which is basically a huge hanger full of all kinds of aircraft. It houses a space shuttle, the Enola Gay(plane that dropped the first atomic bomb) along with lots of fighter planes and old WWII aircraft. Below are some of the highlights.You can find some more pictures here. You can tell from the pictures that we also showed them Roosevelt Island, which is one of our favorite places in DC.













This past weekend we took it fairly easy, which is exactly what we both needed after several hectic weeks. On Friday we tried an Indian restaruant we had never been to and it was very good, so good in fact that we wanted to go back the next night but we were able to restrain ourselves. On Saturday we got out and ventured up to Great Falls National Park. You can see some pictures of us at the falls below.















Then last night we planned to watch the Braves play the Phillies in a somewhat important game. So to ensure we could enjoy the game we made sure everything was ready for the week early in the day including: laundry, packing lunches, cleaning the apartment, ironing clothes. For the game I even spent two and half hours making my signature honey-hot wings. Once all the food was ready we turned on the TV only to see that the game was in rain delay! It didn't start until 9:45 and needless to say, we didn't see the end of the game. Oh well, at least the food was good. We'll time to go get ready for another day. Hope everyone is doing well.


Oh I almost forgot...I guess everyone who reads this probably already knows but I am an uncle again! My sister Jennifer and her husband Jeff had a baby girl two weeks ago. Her name is Kayleigh. I haven't been able to get out to Colorado to see her yet but I hope to at some point. So far I have enjoyed the pictures. Okay so really leaving now, again we will try to post more frequently.

Back in the USA!

So I made it back from The Netherlands! I had a great trip and I was able to see a lot of the country. I hope to post pictures soon, but all I have right now is my work computer and I can't use it to post pictures. I was able to upload this one picture of me in Amsterdam with the canal behind me.



My hotel was in a smaller town called Zoetermeer; it was about a 1.5 hour train ride from Amsterdam. When I first arrived, there were no people around. It felt like I was in a ghost town. Apparently everyone takes their vacations during July and August, and they also have about 5 weeks standard for vacation time. So according to the Dutchman who ran the training, that's why the town was empty. I arrived in the morning, took a nap and then headed into Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a beautiful and very eclectic town. I felt that the architecture varied greatly from street to street as you will see in some of the pictures. Canals run throughout the city and there appears to be a mass of boats on the canals at all times. I was there on a Sunday, and I was told that the Dutch like to do absolutely nothing but sit in the sun on Sunday. I would definitely say this is the case as every cafe was packed, people were relaxing in the sun on their boats, and others just sat on their front porch soaking in the afternoon heat. My general impression from the whole trip is that the Dutch are very laid back people, which jived well with me. I spent most of my time in Amsterdam walking around taking pictures or relaxing at a cafe enjoying a Dutch beer and taking in the atmosphere of city.

The next day, Monday, my training started, which was good but I won't bore anyone with the details. That night I took the train into another nearby city called Den Haag("The Hauge"). Den Haag is a coastal city where Holland's government is located. I got some good photos of the parliamentary buildings which I will soon share. I had dinner in a popular city square called Plein Square. I took some pictures of that too.



Tuesday, I had more training, and that evening our trainer took the other trainees and I out to dinner. Strangely enough we went to a Japanese Steakhouse, but it was really good. According to the person I sat next to on the plane comming back, Zoetermeer is known for its Asian cuisine. The Dutch don't really have their own foods. They are kinda like the U.S. in that they just borrow from other cultures. The one thing they did want to claim was sandwiches and milk at lunch.

Wednesday was the last day of training and that evening I headed back to Den Haag for dinner. I tried to be adventurous and head to the beach. The only problem was I had to take a tram and I knew that figuring out where the tram goes would be a little tricky. However asked the information desk and the told me which tram to get on. However, they didn't tell me which direction to ride it. I, of course, went the wrong direction. To make a long story short, I never made it to the beach. I went back to Plein Square for dinner which was enjoyable; I don't really like the beach anyways...

Well there's the quick details of my trip. I had a great time and also learned a lot of good information for work. I really liked Holland and the people. I may get return in the future for more training, which would be great, but for now I am happy to be back home in the U.S.