When I first arrived here I read some pretty amazing reviews of Everlane tees. Since R promised to buy me a new tee if I promised to throw out an old one that had some holes at the belt, I thought I would give these a try. I liked Everlane's promise of radical transparency and promise of knowing their factories, so I thought I would give them a try.

I had the two tees, one grey and one white, and white silk shirt that I bought shipped to my parents, and they brought the package to me when they were here last week. And I was pleasantly surprised with the packaging!

A simple paper envelope, and one plastic bag for the silk shirt

After getting a few things shipped with an insane amount of plastic packaging, the simple paper envelope with a nice thank you note.

On top of it, the tees fit wonderfully. Just like the one I was replacing. And the grey one is the exact same colour as my previous favourite shirt! This was a win on all fronts.

After a beautiful morning in Volendam, we got in the car to go to Haarlem. Unfortunately there was construction where three highways converge and we were caught in a massive traffic jam. The trip that should have taken us 30 minutes took us 2 hours!

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!