Amsterdam: Day #2 or "McDonell boys pass out on boat by 7pm... no illegal substances involved"

In a drastic role reversal, I was the last one to wake up this morning at 7:00am! Jet lag had set in and the boys woke up at 5:00am. (I am silently laughing....)

We took off for an AWESOME food tour of the Pijp area of Amsterdam. Not only did we experience "four seasons a DAY" here which required both shorts and umbrellas in a span of 10 minutes, but we ate things we NEVER would have tried unless we were being coerced.... I mean SUPERVISED but a totally fun couple of young women who knew their way around! The boys actually tried (and did not spit out) a single thing! Toby (of course!) was the most into it! He was the only one in our group of 10 that succumbed to the peer pressure to eat "Herring on the tail". I know, we are all totally NOT shocked. Of course, Riley could not be one upped, so he also tried it in the end.

From there we went back to our apartment where Toby, Riley, and Jensen "needed to rest". REST! I have a list a mile long to get through and only two more days to do it! Bailey was my willing victim and we set out to explore "The Nine Little Streets" which was.... educational... and delicious! We are in Amsterdam for heaven's sake so we HAD to look at the BAZILLION incarnations of marijuana paraphernalia offered every 3.5 feet! Poor Bailey. He had to be 18 to enter a coffee shop so I took it upon myself to go in and investigate! I suspect the proprietors were giggling at me as I left because I had NO CLUE what I was even looking at (and I was wearing my perky hot-pink Patagonia ski jacket that just screams, "I am so uncool and I have a bunch of kids!")

Bailey and I attempted to both just casually
walk into this one and the
guy took one look at him and started yelling,
"I.D.! You need an I.D.!" That got us out pretty fast!

We also had heard about the most amazing cookies ON THE PLANET, so amazing that the whole store LITERALLY sells just one kind of cookie! We actually sat down and watched them make the dough and got the cookies WARM and fresh out of the oven! Oh my. The store is called Van Staple Koekmakerij (I'm guessing the last word is "cookie makery" but that's as far as I will guess!) I am also of the opinion that the girls that own it are MARKETING GENIUSES! It just happens to be next door to one of the most popular weed shops in the city.

Our final activity of the day was to take a canal tour. I LOVED it because it was really interesting and beautiful. I am pretty sure the boys enjoyed it too, as it literally lulled them to sleep in the first 10 minutes. I wish I had gotten a picture. Bailey was passed out sprawled across the table, Jensen was laying across the entire bench using Toby as a pillow and Riley is is hunched over the table like a lump of curly hair. Those crazy party boys managed to make it 7:45pm today! Just like the old days of toddlerhood! Only, I can not carry a single one of them anymore!

Finally, I will leave with a personal note to my friend Susie Jensen. I FINALLY GET IT... although she is Danish, I now totally get her general outrage that we Americans have "way too many rules". Being a pedestrian in Amsterdam is like playing Frogger when you are drunk. If it is not a bike racing toward you carrying no less than three people (none wearing helmets and ALL wearing spiked heels and trendy clothes), multiple grocery bags swinging from the handlebars AND the driver is wearing ear buds AND texting, then it is the mopeds that think that the bike paths are just fine for them as they also have just two wheels! I swear I saw about 300 different "American" traffic laws being violated every ten seconds and not a single person (except me of course!) slows down or even seems the slightest bit concerned. AND I have yet to see a single accident. Go figure.

Until tomorrow when I am forcing my children (and Toby) to go take a tour of The Anne Frank House (educational moment) followed immediately by a trip to the Red Light District (potential inappropriate viewing moment) and finally, taking Toby to a Father's Day brunch at the smallest restaurant in all of Europe, "The Upstairs Pancake House". (Thank you Jessica White for the recommendation!)