Europe '08. First stop...The Netherlands...

Or more specifically...Amsterdam.
Yes, Amsterdam...home of the imfamous Coffee Shops and the Red Light District. P has some old college friends that live in Amsterdam so we thought we'd make a stop there on the first leg of our "European Vacation". Spent a day and a half there and fit in as much as we could in the little bit of time we had. However, the whole time we were there, all I could hear in the bak of my head was, "I am from HOLLAND! Ishn't that veird?" or "Yesh, yesh...it's toight, Yesh." (alla Gold Member). Anyway, here's some random images from Amsterdam...

This looked to be a church kinda across the street from the central train station that we arrived in. Don't know it's name...just felt like taking a pic because I love how old things here in Europe look. Makes you realize how young the US is in relation to other parts of the world...








Had seen it in the movies, but never realized just how prominent the bicycle was as a mode of trasportation in Amsterdam. Can't really see it too well from the pic, but that's a 2 story parking garage...just for bicycles. And it was jam packed with bikes just crammed into every available inch. I should have taken a pic from the side as well though...so you could see the depth of the structure. That's a LOT of bikes...


We came across this cotton candy stand that had the LARGEST bags of cotton candy I Had ever seen. Of course, A and I just had to get some. This is a pic of P holding both A & I's cotton candy. Strangely enough, the cotton candy wasn't flavored like the blue and pink cotton candy here in the US. It just tasted like straight sugar with no flavoring. *shrug* It was still good though...


Here's one of the imfamous Coffee Shops of Amsterdam. It's funny to go into these places ad they always have pics of the celebrities that have visited their establishments. Of course, you'd see the people you'd expect to see...Snoop Dogg, various rappers, etc. But there were several faces on those boards that I was surprised to see...different actors, etc. What an interesting world...



Aaahhh...only in the Red Light District ca you find the "Porno Supermarket". Nice. It's interesting how touristy the area is though. Lots of families pushing their kids in strollers next to and through the sex shops, etc. So interesting to see how different cultures view porn and erotica...







We met up with P's friends at Odeon for a nice dinner. Afterwards, we took a really nice walking tour of Amsterdam. The weather was cool and beautiful...perfect for a nice walk. It's amazing how peaceful the neighborhoods are at night. This is a pic of the "Skinny" bridge. Not so aptly named because the bridge itself is pretty wide. "Ish zat Veird?" Anyway, Amsterdam was a great start to our "European Tour". Next stop...Barcelona...

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I've seen the future...

Ladies and Gents...i've seen the future. Well, sort-of. I've seen the inside of what I envision a space station on Mars will look like sometime in the future. Let me explain. Today, we were driving around town semi-close to where P's parents live in Lewisville, Texas trying to figure out where to eat for lunch. We had almost settled on lunch at La Madeleine (since they don't exist in Cali) when we happened to pass this resort/convention center called the Gaylord Texan (Yeah, interesting name, huh?). P's rents suggested we eat at one of the buffet restaurants at this gargantuan resort...

The Gaylord Texan is true to the state it is built in. This place is huge. And I don't mean just huge....it's HUUUUGE. It feels like Vegas on steroids with a Texan, cowboy twist (minus the casinos). The main hotel building is like a small city...indoors. Well, here's where the space station part comes in. The place is built to look like you are outdoors in a texan town but it is all enclosed within this elaborate glass roof so the lighting is all natural. It's got a western movie set feel with the weird glass and steel structure to top it all off...just like I imagine space stations of the future will be like. To add to the space stationness of the place, the whole inside is climate controlled (it must cost a small fortune to run the A/C in this place!) to a nice, comfortable and cool temperature. Meanwhile, outside it is scorching hot....kinda akin to the surface temperature on Mars I imagine. Anyway, feast your eyes on the pics and tell me if you don't think it looks a little space station-like. I've seen the future I tell ya...mark my words. 30 years from now I bet we'll see something like this again....except that it'll actually BE on Mars...

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Greetings from Texas...

Had a 3 day weekend this weekend so we took a trip to Texas to visit the inlaws. Man is it hot here. Dry, and hot. Or, maybe i've just been spoiled with the near perfect weather in SoCal. Then again, maybe i'm just getting old and more sensitive to the weather extremes. I dunno.
Anyway, Texas is an interesting change from Cali. That whole saying, "everything is Big in Texas" definitely rings true. Big trucks, big highways, big hats, big strip malls...the list goes on and on. Speaking of Strip malls...this place is definitely the land of the strip malls. I feel like everywhere I go it's just strip mall after strip mall and they all look the same. Same big department stores. Same generic chain restaurants. I think i'm gonna re-nickname it the cookie cutter state. Every strip mall is a cookie cutter carbon copy of the last strip mall. Anyway, it's a nice change, but I can't wait to get back home to the dogs. I miss the dogs...

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