Meanwhile in Namibia...

Most of Ashlynn’s days during the five weeks in Walvis Bay were spent out on a Zodiac searching for dolphins to photograph and record their vocalizations. It was winter in the southern hemisphere, so it was pretty chilly while zooming around the water.

This dolphin was clearly quite close to land.

If you look closely, you will notice a bunch of fish between the two dolphins and lots of flamingos in the shallows behind them.

It looks like these flamingos were posing for photos at sunset.

When it was too misty to go to sea, the team went in search for other marine mammals. Sadly this loggerhead turtle was deceased.

They also saw some jackals.

Here’s Ashlynn showing off her drawing skills on a buoy. 

She enjoyed getting to shoot some images with the giant zoom lens.

Here’s a bunch of her best shots.

In addition to dolphins...

…she captured shots of Cape fur seals...

…and humpback whales.

 

More ArtZuid...

This year’s exhibit was definitely an interesting mix of sculptures, including a child cut from a tree trunk...

…a Black Statue of Liberty...

…an extra tall camel...

…a creepy creature...

…a plastic creature...

…what appeared to be a man trying to put his head up his ass...

…and a creature covered in what looked like bird poop.

Lastly, in the pond on Museumplein, there was Good Intentions by KAWS (American graffiti artist Brian Donnelly), a large wooden sculpture of a parent and child combining features of Mickey Mouse with a clown and a skull.

 

Golden ArtZuid...

There were quite a lot of gold sculptures this year.

While some were easy to identify...

…others were an unusual combination of animals.

Together We Can Do It was an interesting modernization of posters of Rosie the Riveter during World War II.

I especially liked this spacey version of The Thinker by Joseph Kilbanksy. If you look carefully, you might spot me.

While technically this sculpture wasn’t truly gold, it was golden.

 

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.