Our brush with homelessness

After writing about having the best start to our vacation, I now get to write about our totally shitty experience upon landing in Amsterdam.

So, as a background.....I booked our accommodation in Amsterdam almost three months ago. Why so early you ask? Because I am anal with a capital Amy. Also, because the day we landed was King's Day, a national holiday and peak tourist time. I had booked an apartment through Airbnb and had been in contact with the owner for the past three months. Upon arrival we started to send the owner texts, emails and then made numerous phone calls. After sitting on the street for an hour and a half outside the apartment, and after having a really tiny cry, we decided time was of the essence (Lawyerisms), and that we had to find somewhere else to stay. We lucked out all things considered (there was only a 4% vacancy rate!) and are now in a lovely hotel right near Vondelpark. Airbnb is refunding our money and giving us a $99 credit and I am sending bad vibes into the universe towards "Mike" the Airbnb owner who loves travel and adventure and apparently screwing over tourists. Thanks Mike!

The Best Start

Hello family, friends, workmates and blog post creepers,

We made it to Europe and are having a great time. We have some fun stories and pictures to share about our time in Amsterdam, but first, we must memorialize the greatest precursor to any Lamy adventure to date: Chris and Dayve's wedding.

For those of you who don't know, Chris is one of my oldest friends. In fact, I believe he turns 78 this July....actually, we both grew up in Red Deer and met each other through our love of dance which normally manifested itself at the end of each year during competition season in the form of a unitard (see below and thank you(?) old dance mate for posting these on Facebook):

Serious business.

A strong jaw line and prominent Adam's apple in a sea of ovaries.

Almost despite ourselves, we managed to survive that time. He is still one of my best friends. Okay, now to some pictures:

The ceremony was at the Hart House right beside a little creek near Deer Lake in Burnaby BC.

It was such a beautiful ceremony. I may have cried just a bit.

Floral arrangements by Chris (of course!)

Here are a few shots of Chris and Dayve's beautiful garden in the evening. We were lucky enough to spend a couple of hours there the night before the wedding.

And lastly, I would like to share a small sampling of just some of the shots taken by Doro and Mark Staniforth with Lance's phone. The request was simple: "Can you please take a picture of Lance and I together so that you can see our outfits?" I will be honest, while a simple request, also one totally motivated by vanity. I loved the dress I was wearing, and Lance looked like a total stud so I wanted to document the occasion....alas....

"Dad, thanks, that is great, can you try again and get my dress in the picture and maybe try to hold the phone steady when you press the button. Yes, that button right there. No...right beside that one....yep..."

"Thanks Dad."
"Mom, can you come here and take our picture and make sure you get my dress?"

"Mom, give the camera back to Dad."

"Seriously, Mom"

 

Here you can see I am trying to give instructions and she took a nifty shot of my foot and Dad's cast.

 "I feel like you aren't even trying."

By this time, I had given up hope and expected the worst. Thus resulting in a picture of me in my beautiful dress that is well focused on my stud of a husband and my sour puss face. Serves me right.