Reflecting on ArtZuid...

While Jimmy was busy riding a Solex in Hillegom, I was walking the streets of Amsterdam with Terri and Carlin to see ArtZuid, the large biennial outdoor sculpture exhibit that makes art accessible to everyone free of charge. As usual, I was especially drawn to the mirrored artworks.

Sometimes we were upside down...

…and sometimes right-side up.

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, this is a giant pickle. 

This wasn’t part of the exhibit, but rather a mirrored wall next to the Van Gogh Museum.

And here we were in front of the Rijksmuseum.
 

Bachelorette/Bachelor Parties...

We would finally be going to our first wedding in the Netherlands in late July, but first we would be going to bachelorette and bachelor parties. The “hen do” for Celine was at the end of June. We started at a bar in Haarlem for some liquid courage for the activity that would be a surprise to the bride.

On the walk to the main event, we passed these two intricate tiles.

The main event was a burlesque class taught be Elles of Bureau Burlesque who brought gloves and hip scarves for us. I was very skeptical if I could do the moves, but she was an excellent teacher who broke down the moves into easy to follow bits. The liquid courage helped to loosen us all up enough to make it a surprisingly fun workshop. 

The following Saturday, Jimmy went to Richard’s “stag party.” 

They started with a couple of hours of cycling around Hillegom on Solexes (bikes with motors) followed by a big dinner.

Despite Jimmy, Reinhardt and Michael getting lost, they had a great time.

 

Amsterdam Noord...

The following night we were invited to a first birthday party at Ana and Theo’s for little Iliya. Somehow I failed to catch a photo of the birthday boy, but took plenty of shots on the walk from the ferry to their house. Along the way we spotted: lots of gnomes and other whimsical characters living on top of a houseboat...

…and some great urban art.

Not sure if this qualifies as urban art since it was actually an ad for Eurocup 2020. 

It was a very fun party with an interesting mix of guests from different aspects of their lives and the guest of honor was very well behaved. On the ferry back to Amsterdam Centraal, I caught this shot of the old Shell building which is now an entertainment center.
 

June’s FILTH...

We had great weather and a good turnout for the FILTH’s trail in Leiden at the end of June. 

Opee had hoped to do a pub crawl, but had forgotten that bars had to close at 8 p.m. Instead we started with a beer at the Duke of Oz, then he used my bike to have a beer stop in a park...

…and another around the corner from Sissypants’ apartment before ending at the park across from Bootjuh.

Along the trail I spotted a blurry reflection of this fancy house...

…smiley faces on a bridge...

…a nice reflection of trees and modern houses...

…and some street art that I might have already included in a previous post.
 

Where It All Began...

On June 21, Veronica and Brett flew from London to Los Angeles, where they were picked up by Brett’s family and driven to their home in Bonita, south of San Diego. 

The following day, they were thrilled to get the first of their two COVID-19 vaccinations.

How great for Veronica to finally get to spend time with Brett’s twin sister, Siena.

They hung out for more than one month in San Diego, where Jimmy and I met nearly 30 years ago. Here they are in front of our old house on Aragon Drive. While it hadn’t changed from the outside, we saw photos on Zillow that show that the interior had been significantly upgraded. Whereas we lost money on it when we sold it in 1996, it’s now worth over four times as much. 

How ironic that there a cross street named Veronica. 

That same day they were went on a hike with our old SDH3 friends Nancy and Dan and their son Julius, who was visiting from Washington. 

In a small world moment, Brett and Julius recognized each other and realized that they’d attended the same summer camp years earlier at UC San Diego. 

Jimmy and I always loved California street fairs, and Veronica and Brett loved the one they went to in Ocean Beach.

Brett dared to take Veronica out for some driving lessons.

Brett bought a large format camera much like the one that Jimmy owns.

Comes Too Soon and Moist Incest went to a Mission Harriettes H3 trail in honor of Pride, which ended at Pacers Showgirls, a strip club.

I was impressed to learn that she made an announcement to see if any old timers remembered Opee and Tuna and Innuendo stepped up, whom we saw during our last visit in 2016. 

 

A Coastal Adventure...

Veronica had hoped to take Brett coasteering for his birthday in April 2020, but COVID had other plans so they celebrated his birthday with us in Holland instead. Over a year later, four of their friends joined them for their big adventure on the south Devon coast.

Donning just a bathing suit, they put on all of the gear provided, including life vests and gardening gloves.

As you can see, coasteering involves swimming, rock scrambling and jumping into the sea. That’s Brett on the left and Veronica next to him. Apparently all of her friends laughed at her because she screamed every time she jumped. The water was cold, but the wetsuit helped keep them warm for the first half and hot chocolate with whisky helped warm them up later. 

There were two instructors for the ten participants, the youngest of which was nine. The tide was low enough that they could swim through the natural arch visible in the back.

After so many hikes on the South West Coast Path, Veronica and Brett appreciated seeing the Devon Coast from a very different angle.

The jumps got progressively higher. Despite apprehension at the beginning, they were surprised how high they were willing to jump from. Veronica, on the left, managed to climb this bit, but fell in when attempting to boulder on another rock. 

Everyone loved it! They’d hoped to have a beach BBQ afterwards, but the rains sent them scrambling back to Exeter. 

Two days later, they locked up their love nest for the last time before heading to Heathrow Airport for their big trip to the US. They had moved their belongings earlier in the week to Brett’s new house, where he’d store some of Veronica’s stuff for the foreseeable future.