We are hooked

Six months ago, we went out to Hooked,  a coffee shop that got good reviews  Its a seafood restaurant in the evening and a coffee shop on the morning. However, although they open at 8:00, they weren’t really ready at 8:01 and it was going to take a 15 minutes or so for them to get their act together. So we went somewhere else for breakfast. 

When Chris was in Georgia, Mike went on beach walks to Venice, and eventually made it back to Hooked. They really know what they’re doing and make homemade syrups to flavor coffee drinks. It may be the best iced salted caramel latte ever, But we’ve branched out to more exotic drinks too. The Shuggie is really good, but so is the Cafe Rico.

Chris helped Lynn get prepared to move to the UK

Off to Borneo

We create a new blog for this trip.

Finally, a noteworthy bird.

We walk every morning, but the birds have been a little ordinary. On the way home today, Chris spotted an unusual looking bird. Even more so once we got the binoculars and camera on it. This is the second time she has found a red-necked phalarope. The first was a couple of years ago swimming in the channel.  This was on the sandbar.

Happy 67th

We returned to Sonoma for Mike’s 67th birthday. It’s just an hour flight from LA and then 20 minutes from Sonoma airport to Healdsburg.

Our first stop was at Bella Vineyards, a beautiful winery with just average wine. It was one of our favorites in our first trip to Napa, but I think our tastes have matured.

We checked into the Single Thread Inn and had dinner at their three star Michelin restaurant.

They only have five rooms and we got the one suite - it was amazing.  We have stayed at many nice places over the last years, but this is a first -the iron was stored in an adorable felt bag that was like a custom purse for it.

Dinner was elegant, but nothing really jumped out as the most exciting dish we’ve had in a while. I think our Amsterdam dinners were better.

Overall the inn and suite were nicer than the actual dinner. They had a Toto toilet that after awhile we were both talking to. How could you not!? 😂 it takes care of everything - opens the lid when you pass by and does it all until closing the lid as you leave. They even had Chris’s favorite scent from PF Candle Company in the bathroom. We discovered that scent at Big Sky Lodge in Utah and have the reed diffusers all over our place so that was a nice homey and welcome touch.

The next day we had lunch at Lynmar winner. The location, wine, food, and service were all excellent.

Our first visit there was impressive and we wondered if our second experience would be as nice. We enjoyed it just as much or maybe more!

And they have a vineyard named Adam in addition to Quail Hill and Bliss, so naturally we had to purchase a bit of wine in honor of our grandson.

It was just two nights away but we ate and drank enough for three! 



Always nice to come back home and get a bird’s eye view of our neighborhood ❤️🌊

Kings Day

We didn’t know it when we booked the trip, but April 26 is King’s day in Netherlands. This is the King’s birthday or an excuse to wear orange and drink beer in the street. 

We started out pretty mild at 8 am by walking over to a children and family celebration in Vondelpark. We got some strawberries covered in orange chocolate on the way.

Outdoor peeing is also one of the pass times. This was our first encounter in the park with the temporary urinals and they turned out to be everywhere.

We saw this sign as we started walking the surrounding neighborhoods early in the day. No one paid any attention - we have never seen so many people urinating in the streets and off boats into a canal.

The streets were pretty crowded with people drinking beer - and loud music is allowed (or encouraged) from the boats and canal houses. Normally no music is allowed on the canals.

We found a relatively quiet place at the bar at the Doubletree

We rented a private boat and then experienced it from the water. We were like celebrities since we were about the only group of two on a 100 year old boat. Our captain was Joost and he was great. He kept checking on us to make sure we were okay. We assured him we were fine. We had been warned to either escape it or put ourselves in the thick of it - so we chose the latter.

A boat next to us ran out of alcohol and convinced us to give them a bottle of champagne for a girl’s birthday who just turned 21.  At first there were a lot of hand gestures we did not understand. The boats were really crammed at one point so then we conversed in English and got the gist of what they wanted. We became the popular Americans because they wanted to pay us for the champagne and we said it’s on us.

The boat dropped us off right across from our hotel about 8 pm so we didn’t have to walk back through what had become an even more rowdy street and canal party. Overall it’s in a way good clean fun - just a lot of heavy drinking, loud music and dancing. No protests. No fights. And we didn’t see anyone fall in the canal - which came as a huge surprise!

Back to Volendam

Yesterday, while dining on eel, we observed Mike’s favorite grebes in the harbor. They were exhibiting some fancy courtship displays.  It was rainy and we didn’t bring our birding camera. After the Van Gogh, We grabbed an Uber and returned. They weren’t quite as amorous as the prior day, but left plenty of opportunities for photos of them building nests, sitting on nests, and just swimming around.

Chris was nice enough to get takeout lunch while Mike was photographing. She didn’t realize that french fries were included with the burgers so we got two burgers and three large orders of fries..

We finished the day with more pancakes.