25th Anniversary of Hashing...

Not quite sure how we ended up with no photos with people, but the bottom line is that in mid-December it was my 25th anniversary of hashing. Jimmy and I co-hared the FILTH Hash in Leiden (my first time live haring in years) and then he surprised me with a circle of candles. Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you, Hash House Harriers. You have both made my life complete.

We weren’t the only ones celebrating on December 14. Veronica straightened her hair and got dressed up for the Aye-Aye Christmas Dinner.

Clearly hashers aren’t the only immature ones. Despite being dressed up, dessert was eaten with hands behind her back.

While I would have put my mug over my head to prove that I’d finished my down-down beer, my darling daughter put her plate over her head as proof that she’d finished her dessert, other than the part left on her chin of course.

A Happy Dog...

Early on a Saturday morning in December, we borrowed Gillian’s car to take Ashlynn to the American School for the ACT exam (which she took just in case she decides to apply to any US colleges). After we dropped her off, we took Kati to the beach. It was cold and windy, but she was one happy dog chasing birds...

...and running through the water.

Amsterdam Light Festival...

Here are some of my favorite installations along the Water Colors route of the Amsterdam Light Festival; with a theme of A View on Amsterdam, this route was intended to be viewed by boat, but was still pretty spectacular by land. Bunch of Tulips was self-explanatory.

I loved how the Bridge of the Rainbow looked as this canal boat passed through.

Designed by an American architecture firm, The Lace was made of 100,000 feet of light reflection thread made into 18 panels which were manually woven together by 9 people.

Jimmy couldn’t resist climbing out onto the wooden structure supporting this fascinating installation.

It’s impossible to think of Amsterdam without thinking of bikes. This cool installation was called 15,000 and More in honor of the more than 15,000 bikes fished out of Amsterdam canals each year.

Back in Time...

So happy to once again have access to my photo server, so let’s step back in time to where we left off in December...

On December 3, Jimmy and I headed to Amsterdam for the Sinterklaas Hash. Afterwards, he and I took a long walk through the city to see a bunch of the installations for the annual Light Festival. 

Along the way, we saw the ice skating rink set up in front of the Rijksmuseum. Here’s the view from the ground...

 ...and here’s the view from the bridge over the rink.

There were a lot of lights sparkling on trees along the canals which made for some lovely reflections.

 Zwarte Piets are known for being mischievous, and so is Jimmy.

Hashing in February...

On February 10, the night before the snow hit, Jimmy hared a FILTH Hash in Voorschoten. The beer break was at the bar on the main restaurant street; my beer was extra cold with an icicle courtesy of Pink Panter.

Here’s the hashers who were willing to brave the cold temps for the chance to hash in our little village on a Friday night. We warmed up afterwards with a hot meal at our place.

The following weekend, Jimmy was a last minute co-hare with Start Me Up for the Amsterdam Hash. Us locals was almost outnumbered by visitors. The fun trail took us through some interesting areas which I’d never seen before, including past this historic windmill...

...and this building with individual garages for boats under each apartment. 

We stopped for a beer at one of the restaurants at the Westergasfabriek and then took this photo further in the park...

...along with this sunset pic.

The following Sunday we were back in Amsterdam hashing once again. This time we ran through eastern parts of the city that we’d never been in before.

A fitting photo op for hashers: beer is bier in Dutch. 

More Snow...

We were happy to wake up to see that the snow hadn’t melted overnight (although it was mostly gone by the following day).

Kati seemed pretty happy about the snow as well.

Clearly the partial roof over the bike racks at the train station wasn’t enough to keep the snow off.  

More Snowy Leiden...

Here’s the windmill Museum De Valk, built in 1743 to replace a 1667 flour mill.

Located near the train station, it’s a feature in many of my photos of Leiden.

The crosswalk on the road in front of the windmill had recently been repainted in rainbow colors in honor of the gay pride flag.

Here’s another view of the Oude Haven with Molen De Put, rebuilt in 1987, in the background...

 ...and some other canal views of my favorite Dutch city.