On our way to Volendam we passed under a few very interesting things. The first being the canal that runs over the highway. I also took pictures from beside the water.


The second being one of many crossings for planes at Schiphol!



Volendam is a small, old fishing town in North Holland. When most people think of Dutch costumes, it's the traditional clothing of Volendam that they're thinking of.

Traditional Volendam Costume source

As in many Dutch towns where tourists tend to go, there were some giant clogs, and we convinced my mom to step into them!

There were some old wooden fishing boats at the pier. 


There was also a collection of streets that R referred to as 'the maze' where we thankfully didn't get lost.


R and I noticed my mom trying to get out of the way of the photo, so we did the same. Though we were clearly not as successful!

I think my mom was the only one who did a good job of hiding!

Next stop, Haarlem!

My mom and dad started their three week vacation with a visit here with R and I!

I thought their flight arrived at 12:50, but when I went to check their itinerary I was surprised to see that it was 12:10. I was glad that it was still 11:50 until we checked the Schiphol arrivals, and found that their plane had already landed! We got right on the road and raced to the airport. Thankfully they were still waiting for their luggage, so they didn't have to wait any longer for us.

We had arranged for them to be a bit early at the bed and breakfast Groen & Blauw in town so they could have a nap and relax for a bit after their flight. Since it wasn't time yet, we came back to R's apartment and hung out for a bit.

We came back to get them for a walk around the area on our way to R's parents' house for dinner.

A personal greenhouse and garden along the marathon route

Dutch house

Wooden Shoes!

R's mom made a delicious meal for us, and all of R's family showed up at some point, so my parents got to meat the whole gang! It was a lovely evening.

The easy rider!

It's old and it's got a fair amount of rust on it, which bothers R's mom, but I love it! She was nice enough to give me one of her panniers to use for groceries, which works out wonderfully!

Rusty

The coolest part about my bike, I think, is the brakes. Weird, I know. But it's so old it has rod-actuated breaks, rather than cables!!

Rods and Levers

 I also added a dutch lock which I almost always remember to use!

Love my lock!

The easy rider has gotten me around the Netherlands for the past 2 months, and I'm so happy to have had it! R's friend requested some Canadian beer in return, and I was happy to bring some for him. R and I will finally go over to his house to give them to him next weekend. He's planning a bock beer tasting for us!

My awesome  ride!

Last Sunday was R's family's annual get together. This year it was organized by three of his cousins, who arranged for us to go bowling at De Oude Tol in Sassenheim.

We arrived to find a slew of people on the patio, since it was a gorgeous day. R's mom's family is pretty big, so we took up pretty much the whole patio.

Once the organizers announced that we were bowling (it was supposed to be a surprise) we were told our lanes and sent into the shoe storage room to grab a pair of shoes. Not surprisingly, they're pretty much the same everywhere, though these ones had velcro rather than laces.

Bowling Shoes are the same everywhere!

R and I were in a lane with his sister in law, nice, and his cousin, her husband and their two daughters. The kids seemed to have a wonderful time, and so did I.

I am still trying to track down some of the photos from the weekend, and will update with what I find.

After the bowling was done we waited for our tables to be ready. Once they were, we sat down to some amazing looking meat and a hot stone stove where we could cook it.

Dutch BBQ!

One of R's cousins successfully executed the 'loosen the salt shaker lid' prank. One of R's sisters-in-law was the unfortunate soul who tried to put a dash of salt on the stone only to have the whole contents spilled out instead. It was pretty funny, and she was a pretty good sport about the whole thing - probably better than I would have done.

Raclette

During dinner they announced the winners of the bowling for highest girl, boy, woman and man. Can you believe that I had the highest woman's score? Me neither - technically I wasn't the highest, since two of the organizers had higher scores than I did. But since they decided it would look bad to give themselves the prize, I got it instead!

Winner!

Better still was that I beat R in our sole bowling match-up. He has decided we need a re-match. He has also said we need to go go-karting, because he thinks he can beat me. Silly R...

Last Friday night, R and I went to some of his friends' house's. It was a get together with some of his old friends, and they all had a great time reminiscing about some of the fun they got up to as kids. I was happy because I could follow most of the conversations! I had a bit of trouble after the music got turned up, but I was too busy enjoying myself to worry about it too much.

It turned into one of those evenings where anything goes! At one point, two of us were teaching the group to dance to 'Boot Scootin' Boogie'. Who'd have thought there'd be country music anywhere here!

Line Dancing

There was also plenty of Karaoke! In keeping with the country theme, I sang 'Friends in Low Places.'

"I toasted you, said honey we may be through..."

R and one of his friends sang 'Islands in the Stream', while another played along on the recorder... It was one of those kinds of nights.

Karaoke!

I didn't realize how late it was until I looked at the clock and it was after 4am! Seriously! I don't think I've stayed out that late ever, not even in school!

Friends!

Last weekend R and I went to The Hague. I realized that I was going to need another Lush Jungle solid conditioner before I left and I wanted to try their dry shampoo, No Drought, since I left my home-made one at home and read some good reviews about it. I also was looking for some aloe vera for my hair - I put some of the after sun fluorescent green stuff in my hair with pretty decent success, so I was looking to find something a bit more natural to try!

When I first decided to start reducing my waste in 2011, I did a whole bunch of reading about zero waste options for hair care. At the time I opted for the Soap Work's Shampoo & Conditioner bar followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse, and was generally pretty happy with it - it was cheap and worked well for me. The shampoo bar contains palm oil, unfortunately, and I the more reading I did about it, the less I wanted to use anything that used it as an ingredient.

I decided to start using the Jungle conditioner and the Karma Komba solid shampoo bar that R bought me for my birthday full time, rather than just while I was travelling. The thing I like about Lush is that even though some of the ingredients are listed as moderate hazards on EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database and they put a bit too much fragrance into their products for my taste, they're completely open about what ingredients they use. Plus, the staff don't look at me like I'm crazy for bringing in my own containers - often they're quite excited about it!

I also stopped using soap on my face. I use water and a washcloth now, and my face looks and feels better than before. Full disclosure - I've always had pretty good skin, but I find I break out even less now. I use jojoba oil and my homemade microfibre make-up pads to remove any make-up, and a moisturizer from Dr. Hauschka.

The jojoba oil comes in a glass bottle, and when it's done I will see if I can have it refilled rather than buying a new one. I bought it at Selsi at the St. Lawrence Market and they seem pretty cool, so I am hopeful they'll be on board. The moisturizer comes in a glass bottle with a plastic pump. I bought the larger bottle so I'm producing a little less waste, but I need to look into another, lower waste, option. When I first bought the moisturizer they sent me a sample of oil for my face from Suki which I really liked.  After making my own hand and body moisturizer was a success, I may try to make something like it on my own!

I will apologize upfront for not having photos in this post, but I decided it was more important to be involved in the conversation than contemplating when would be a fun/interesting/appropriate time to take pictures...

Last Saturday R and I went to visit his friends and their brand new baby girl. She is a total sweetheart, but it sounds like she doesn't sleep very much. While we were there she was laying in her pram wide awake and flailing her arms and having an all around wonderful time. Unfortunately her mom just wanted her to sleep, which I totally get! She was born just two days before I arrived.

While we were there a show called "Ik hou van Holland" (I love Holland) came on the television. It struck me as a lot like Cranium for TV! But Dutch, of course. R said he doesn't like it very much, but I think it looked like lots of fun!

We also had some other friends over for dinner on Sunday. I made my very favourite Moroccan quinoa salad and some Greek burgers that I made the previous week and R really liked. I'm always a little nervous about having guests over (at my own place, and here too) but it went really well, and was lots of fun! I might even see if R wants to do it again!