2021 Holiday Letter

 Holiday greetings from Bob and Betsy!

The REALLY big and most important news in our family this year is that Nathaniel and Lindsey are expecting a baby!  Lindsey is due just after the first of the year.  The pregnancy is going well, and we are very excited at the prospect of becoming grandparents.  The baby’s working name is Tater, gender to be traditionally revealed at birth.  Likely there will be a renaming.

Last year’s newsletter left off with us buying a camping trailer as a scheme to get around all the various travel concerns.  We started out with a couple of short overnights in the nearby mountains, just to learn how everything worked.  That was followed by some long weekend trips to the SC and GA coast to meet up with the Woodmansees.  We got to explore lots of cool beaches and islands, and even canoe with gators in the Okefenokee Swamp.

In May we trailered out to Elko, NV for Betsy’s nephew Erik’s high school graduation, stopping in Taos, NM, Capital Reef National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park along the way.  It was great to finally be able to spend some time with Roger and Susy in Elko. The parks were wonderful, and we got lucky - we were there right before the high tourist season and before the big heat wave and forest fires hit. On the way back we saw friends Dar and Leslie in Park City, and Leeann and John in Boulder, CO.  It’s great to have fun friends who live in beautiful places! We even driveway camped at Alice’s on the way out and back.

Late summer found us on an “around Lake Michigan” tour.  We spent a few days visiting the Blichmanns in Lafayette, IN and Dubuque, Iowa, before heading up to the Upper Peninsula.  Brenda and Jeff put on a low-key retirement party for Bob’s brother Tom.  We were able to catch up with the Cecconis before heading east toward the mighty Mackinac bridge.  The return journey took us by Lake Michigan’s eastern shore where we got to visit with Jim and Jodi. 

In November we headed out on the “States We Hate Tour 2021”.  Not that we really hate any states, but there were a few in the Southern tier that, by chance or by choice, neither of us had ever visited.  Figured it was a good chance to find some cool stuff in some new places.  We had a great time mountain biking and kayaking in north Alabama and in the Bentonville, Arkansas area.  The Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi was a great destination for road biking. Bottom line - many more states got good ratings than bad. 

So the trailer scheme worked out pretty well.  We didn’t back it into any trees or blow anything up.  We decided “off-season” camping is there it’s at.  All in all, we spent 65 nights on the road in 21 states, and chocked up around 13,000 miles.  But who’s counting?  The best part was that it enabled us to catch up with relatives and old friends. 

Paul upgraded to a new job with US Foods in Madison and is doing well.  We managed to meet up with him in Iron Mountain and do some mountain biking at the Fumee trails.  

Zeela, the long time matriarch of our backyard rabbit herd, passed away this summer. True to her ornery nature, she held on for as long as possible, fully convinced she could defeat even death himself. We think she was pushing 12 years old. You’re never really sure with a rescue rabbit.  The adolescent boys, Hoover and Dyson, are doing fine.  Bob built a deluxe vacation condo for them at The Nook (Nathaniel and Lindsey’s place), so they have a place to stay while we’re traveling.

In the miscellaneous activity department, Betsy is still knitting and Master Gardening.  She started writing online Google Maps reviews of the rest areas, campgrounds, picnic areas and other random stuff we stop at on our travels.  Bob and Nathaniel did one of those big group bike rides in the mountains on the tandem, which was challenging and rewarding for them both.  Bob discovered a couple local ski hills and started skiing again.  This winter’s goal is to get Betsy back on the slopes.  We got a pair of those folding ORU kayaks, which have worked out really well for us. They fit in the truck bed, so they’re handy for camping trips. We like to stay at Army Corps of Engineer campsites, which are, naturally, built on big reservoirs.

Here’s to a great 2022!

Bob and Betsy

2020 Family Holiday Newsletter

 It just occurred to me that I never posted the family Christmas blurb for 2020.  Here goes...

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Merry Christmas from Bob and Betsy!

Well. Hmmm. Our 2019 Holiday Newsletter ended with this thought: “We are looking forward to 2020. Here’s to a new decade! I think we all deserve it.”  My question for 2020 is, “Exactly what did we do to deserve THIS?”  Were we Bob the Hun and Betsy the Impaler in some past lifetimes?  Sheesh…

But we really shouldn’t complain.  No one in our immediate families got sick. So far. With the possible exceptions of the standard orthopedic complaints that come with the You’re Getting Older category, we’ve been pretty darned healthy.  So while the world burns around us, our little bubble of existence has been floating steadily on.  

Nathaniel and Lindsey bought their first house and have departed our basement.  It’s just outside Asheville, right next to the Blue Ridge Parkway and great hiking and biking trails.  It had been heavily lived in by a large number of humans and animals, so right away there were many redecorating opportunities for us all.  We only had to move, or rather demolish, two walls.  Betsy learned how to paint over checkerboard ceramic tiles.  Besides becoming the queen of painting paneled doors, Lindsey turned out to be quite skilled at tearing chainlink fence posts right out of the ground.  Nathaniel, on the other hand, has become the king of both clearing brush and borrowing Bob’s tools.

Paul was able to break away from Madison, WI to visit us a couple times this fall.   It was great to have him in.  We were able to do lots of biking, hiking, and waterfalling while he was here.

Last summer we added two rabbits to our collection.  Hoover and Dyson are now six month old Flemish Giant brothers.  We got them from some dude on Craigslist, so we’re not really sure about the quality of that pedigree.  At least we know they’re brothers.  They are both handsome rabbits, ridiculously cute, and got along just fine until their hormones kicked in.  Then they were pretty much intent on killing each other.  A trip to the vet (several, to tell the truth…) and they are now getting along much better.  They are high energy, very inquisitive, and currently tipping the scales at about 9 pounds.  Zeela, our eleven year old doe, thinks they are both idiots. Although she respects how they can shred a cardboard box, she is not afraid of either of them.  She should be.  

No real travel news.  At-home hobbies and interests were somewhat intensified.  Knitting, woodworking/fix-it projects, and Bad Art creation happened.  The collection of gardening and shop tools grew accordingly. Bicycle wheels were pedaled about the county.  The pandemic has been especially hard on the weeds in our yard. 

Coming off the Year Everything Was Cancelled, we decided that one way to get around more in the near future might be by camping.  So we bought a small-ish travel trailer.  It’s a Winnebago Micro Minnie (hey - micro is right in the name).  Coming from the world of backpacking and tent camping, this is quite the change!  Of course, we needed to get a proper vehicle to pull it, so there is a now a mid-sized pickup in the driveway and Harriet, the big ol’ classic 1988 Ford, is sadly on the auction block.  It turns out these RV’s have 1001 systems to learn and master. The upside(?) is that there are 1001 critical accessories you “need”. But having a kitchen is nice.  Sitting in the driveway, the TV gets more stations than the one in our house. Boy.  But in the winter you can’t argue with having heat. Should be fun.  

Let’s toast to a better 2021. For real this time!

Camping: Roan Mountain State Park, TN February 2021

Three night, midweek, off-season camping getaways are becoming our standard mini-trips. You get an easy travel/setup day, two full days to explore, and an easy pack up and return day.  

Yet another great, near empty state park.  Roan Mtn SP is near the NC/TN border, just an easy 100 mile drive from home.  Had a great site, right on the Doe River.  Beech Mountain ski area is close by, so Bob went skiing on Tuesday, while Betsy explored the various trails right in the park.  Weather was glorious - sunny with a high of 45-ish - and skiing fantastic.  

On day 3, we went up and hiked around the various Roan Mountain Balds.   Big, wide-open areas with 360 degree views.  It reminded us of Banff, Canada.  50 degrees, very windy, with residual snow in the sheltered areas.  Plenty of people hiking on a sunny weekday.

Hiking in Canada.  Or on the NC/Tn border

Residual snow

Rocks and balds

Snow in trail

Camping: Unicoi State Park, GA January 2021

Another quick mid-week getaway.  Unicoi State Park is near Helen, GA, and must totally hop during the summer season.  In mid-winter it was almost empty.  Lots of crazy cabin structures.  Zip lines galore.  Miles of hiking trails right in the park.  You could hike to downtown Helen (4 miles one way) or to Anna Ruby Falls (5 miles one way).  We walked to town, which is ersatz-Swiss alpine village tourist trap. Multiple fudge shops and beef jerky outlets.  Again, it must hop in the summer.  

Mystery square concrete thing with excellent moss.

Betsy, checking her Strava and ignoring her knitting.  Multiple colored blazes.

And what photographer can resist the lone standing tree, overdone trope as it is?

On the second day we took a short drive and went to the excellent Raven Cliffs Falls.  Beautiful hike in, following the river the whole way.  The the main waterfall appears to emerge from a large crack in the cliff face.  We hit up Duke Creek Falls on the way back. Easy hike in to the extensive viewing platforms at an area where two large creeks converge at multiple waterfalls.

Duke Creek Falls, convergence

Duke Creek Falls

Raven Cliffs Falls

  

Camping: Skidaway State Park near Savannah, GA

We met our friends Marc and Barbara down at Skidaway State Park near Savannah, GA for a couple nights of mid-week camping just after New Years.  They also had a new trailer, and were testing it out for the first time. It’s a good thing Georgia grabbed the land for this park when they could, because suburban Savannah pretty much surrounds it now - not that you’d know it while camping there.

Lots of good trails right in the park, some wooded, some along the estuaries.  Plenty of birding action, from eagles to owls.  Marc and I brought our gravel bikes and explored some easy single track MTB trails nearby.

The next day we checked out Savannah, hitting up the Bonaventure Cemetery (featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) in the morning.  Lots of great photo ops - many statues of thinking ladies, under challenging lighting conditions.  After lunch, we wandered around downtown Savannah in a somewhat random fashion, enjoying the architecture, the waterfront, and the various parks and squares.

Thinking lady #1

The rare statue of a guy

Thinking Lady #2

Head of a some bigwig. Either A.R. or R.A.

Thinking Lady #3

Trailer Camping in Helga, the Winnie Micro Minnie

Our first trip in the new Winnebago Micro Minnie, and our first time as official RV'ers, was to Paris Mountain State Park near Greenville, SC. Figured we'd stick to somewhere close to home, not exactly knowing what we were getting into.  Dubbed "Helga", it is towed by "Thor", our blue Ford Ranger.

Paris Mtn has a nice campground.  Not too big, about 40 sites, a mixture of tent and RV sites, with electric and water hookups.  It was a cool couple days, with highs barely scraping 50 and overnight low in the upper 20's.  A good test of Helga's heater.  

We made use of the microwave, watched a few Outlander episodes on the TV, and made a fire to cook foil pack dinners.  There are some really nice hiking trails in the park, and we spent most of one day hiking around and exploring.  Found a nice little waterfalls, and a big dam/spillway that once serviced a mill.

Our camper has a Murphy bed.  One thing we discovered is that since the bed folds up against an outside wall, it functions as insulation when flipped up.  Even though the camper is nice and toasty, the bed can be pretty darned chilly if you expect to just pull it down and dive in.

We came away with a list of about 30 things to get, improve on, or fix for our next trip, and were pleased that we didn't blow anything up, burn anything down, or break something important.  Not too bad for the first time out.

 

Online Art Course Homework

In the spirit of learning something new during the coronavirus lockdown, I signed up for an online art course put on by MoMA and offered thru Coursera.com.  This was called "In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting".  It was self-paced, with videos and readings.  They took seven painters from the New York School, and went into lots of good technical stuff on how these people actually painted, covering materials and techniques.  

They even had homework - you were encouraged to try your hand at doing a painting "in the style of" these famous painters.  I had never made a painting of any kind before. I thought it would be kind of fun. It was.  

Most of original artist painted on a scale of, say, 8 by 8 feet.  I had some 8x8 INCH panels on hand, along with some very ancient acrylic craft paint. Here's some of the stuff I came up with:

Number 1:  Barnett Newman

8” square wood panel primed in clear gesso. Painted with very old acrylic fluid craft paint found in basement.  Process:

• Painted entire panel with the cool blue-grey.  Masked off one zip.
• Painted the entire panel with cobalt blue.  Decided it needed more depth and gloss, so I gave the entire panel another coat of cobalt mixed with gloss medium, then a coat of pure gloss medium.  
• Two thin zips, one black and one white, were masked on both sides.  (The white was actual student grade acrylic art paint.)
• The red one-sided zip was originally half the width.  I decided that was too narrow, and the paint too thin, so I went back and re-masked for a wider zip, and gave it two coats.  

Lessons learned?  

• That initial cool grey zip needs something…
• The cobalt seemed to have a lot of pigment, but the rest of the found paint was pretty thin, and needed several coats to cover. Decent paint counts!
• I liked the glossy cobalt ground.  The photos’s side lighting brings out the texture a bit more than you would notice in real life.  Still, I’d like to find a way to get it extra-smooth.  Sand & recoat?
• This was fun, and I believe the first actual painting I ever created!  And not so bad for a retired engineer whose artistic background is music and photography. 

Number 2: Willem de Kooning

This is one of the few I did in a slightly bigger format.  20x30” poster board. 

It was a fun, but challenging one.  Where to start? When to stop?  I did about four all-over layers.  I think I managed to make some paint blotches that you could call "gestural", which was the goal.  That lighter blue stuff in the bottom half should be reworked, but you gotta quit sometime…

Number 3: Jackson Pollock

Detail

This was also on larger format poster board.  The paint I used was all house paint that the previous homeowners kindly left behind for us. So the color palette is, "whatever comes out of these cans".  On a black background.   It was dripped mainly using a paint stir stick.  One trick learned is to do several colors, then let it dry so they don't pool and blend into one giant, muddy blob.  The real problem with this style of paining is that it's REALLY, REALLY FUN TO DO.  It takes great discipline to stop before you end up with, well, a big muddy blob.

I tried my hand at an 8x8" mini-Pollock. Same color scheme.

 Detail

Number 4:  Mark Rothko

Rothko is one of my art heroes, so this one was going to be tough.  Especially constrained to an 8x8 inch scale and using crappy paint.  At least Jackson Pollock actually did use house paint!  

I started with a black background with some blue mixed in.  There are many layers of thinned acrylic paint in the rectangles. Last layers on upper rectangle were a dirty orange with a very thin red glazed on to break it up.  White stripe is a creamy white over a pure white.  The small bright fire orange bits peeking through the edges of the bottom rectangle is a Rothko thing that I think I managed to at least create a hint of. 

Number 5: Agnes Martin

Detail

This was kind of a process painting, where you come up with an idea and some rules, then just execute it.  Started out with two layers of light yellow over a base layer of black.  The grid incised with a sharpened metal awl.  The light blue lines are two shades colored pencil.  I think Agnes would approve of the subtle difference in the blues, and of the imperfections of the awl lines.  Clear coated to keep the pencil from smudging.

Number 5: Yakoi Kusama

 Detail

Another process painting, of sorts, in her "infinity net” style.  White over a non-uniform dark red/brick background.  Some paint was straight from the bottle, some with a little gel media mixed in, some with gloss media.  Here's where the cheap paint really shows.  All these marks looked very opaque white-white when painted, but dried kind of thin and transparent. And I really tried to glob it on.  

Number 6: Ad Reinhardt

Reinhardt did lots of unusual things with paint to get that extremely uniform matte black. I went into this one knowing it was going to be a big experiment, that I was venturing far from Ad Reinhardt's already unusual materials, and the chances of failure were great.  And fail it did. Long story short: after a couple weeks of trials, I had gone past the point of no return.  The panel was sanded back down to bare wood. The world shall never see my "sludge painting". It couldda been a thing...

Holiday Newsletter 2019

Seasons greetings from Bob and Betsy!       

Well, 2019 was quite the year.  We started with Betsy retiring at the end of 2018. But our plans for a quiet, relaxing, uneventful transition to retirement didn’t even last a month.  

Betsy’s mother passed away unexpectedly in late January.  She lived by herself up in Michigan, and it was just a matter of luck that we found out quickly.  Mary Bond was active and socially involved right up to the end.  She was also a big collector of things, and even with professional help it took us about 10 trips to Livonia to get her house cleared out and ready to sell.  The whole family met up in Abingdon, IL so she could be buried with her husband Paul.

A few weeks later Bob’s mother Lorraine passed.  She had been slowing down recently, and we thought her time was likely coming.  Although the Blichmann brothers rarely have the opportunity to all get together, we were all able to pitch in and put together a nice memorial service for Mom.

Nathaniel’s final Occupation Therapy internship was located close to Brevard, so in April he and Lindsey moved in with us.  He finished his OT degree - yay! They are now both working in the Asheville area.  We really do enjoy having them around - Nathaniel is a great cook, and Lindsey has been our personal tour guide as we work our way through Game of Thrones.  We’ve had some interesting conversations with their Senegal parrot, Mako. Now officially degreed and gainfully employed, their next big project will be house hunting and moving out of our basement. 

In that same timeframe we sold our Charlotte house and moved to Brevard full time (new address on back).  Bob made many trips to the mountains with the old ’88 Ford pickup loaded up like the Beverly Hillbillies. It was a big challenge to condense 25 years worth of junk into a pile small enough to fit into a downsized abode.  Craigslist Free became our new best friend, “stuff” our new arch enemy.

Although a lot of our time and energy went to driving between Brevard and Charlotte and Livonia, we did manage to squeeze in some recreational travel.  We had a great time at the Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, TN.  Pat and Betty Schroeder were down in June for a big bike ride, and I was able to meet up with Pat again in August for the Ride Across Wisconsin.  A week in Washington, DC, taking in the art museums, monuments, and famous places in general rounded things out.

Paul is still enjoying Madison, WI.  We got to see more of him this year with all our Michigan trips.

Betsy completed her Master Gardener program, which seemed to require a lot of volunteer weeding.  She has been exploring hand dyeing yarn, and is currently working on a sweater based on the coloring of Mako the parrot. 

Zeela is looking forward to her first winter as an outside rabbit in the mountains. She has mellowed out somewhat, being a somewhat elderly, single rabbit.  She still likes bossing us around, though. And chasing those dang wild rabbits out of her yard.

We are looking forward to 2020. Here’s to a new decade! I think we all deserve it.

Contact and social media info:

• New address:  17 Broadview Circle, Brevard, NC 28712
•  Bob  704-989-9230    bob.blichmann@gmail.com
• Betsy  704-292-5378    betsy.j.bond@gmail.com
• Knitting:  Betsy’s knitting creations are found under “Knitbert” on Ravelry.com
• Photography:     www.flickr.com/photos/bobblich/albums  
• We are both be easily findable on Facebook.  
•  Cycling and hiking activities are tracked on Strava.com (think Facebook for fitness geeks).
  

 

Holiday Newsletter, 2018

Seasons greetings from Bob and Betsy!       

2018 has been a fun and interesting year for us.  The big news is that Betsy retired at the end of the year, joining Bob in the ranks of the idle.  But he says, “Ha! Just you wait - you’re going to be doing more work now than when you were actually employed!”  Our game plan is to sell the family compound in Wesley Chapel (near Charlotte) and move up to Brevard (NC mountains) full time.  New address on back.

The Brevard house was radically renovated, making it better destination for both us and guests.  Mary Bond was down visiting for a week in late winter.  Lindsey and Nathaniel were up to spend a vacation week here.  Bob’s cycling friends from Wisconsin, Pat and Bruce, were down for an early season epic bicycling event / multi-birthday celebration in April.  Marc and Barbara Woodmansee (honorary Brevard residents) were in for a couple weekends.  For celebrity guests we had the Bagleys in during the Summer Music Festival. If you’re in the area, let us know.  We have available guest rooms. While the weather here is 99% glorious, visitors seemed to bring their share of rain, fog, sleet, and snow with them, once to the tune of a 16” dumping of snow.  That’s the storm of the decade in these parts!   

2018 seems to be the year that covered many miles. Bob did three (3!) “around Lake Michigan” road trips, with Betsy coming along on two of them. It’s always great visiting friends and family.  Both of our mothers are still toughing it out in Michigan.  If you ever get a chance to tour the Kohler factory in, well, Kohler WI, be sure to do it. The bathtub enameling line alone is worth your time.

Bob was able to jump back into bicycling in a bigger way this year.  Many miles of new country roads, dirt forest service lanes, and mountain bike trails were explored. The high point of the cycling year was spending a week riding around the high desert and volcanic landscapes of central Oregon with his friends Pat and John.  

Betsy is retiring as President of the Charlotte Knitting Guild, but is not bowing out of the world of fiber arts!  In addition, she has been accepted into the Transylvania County Master Gardener program for 2019. 

In rabbit news, the famous Mr. Skippy, our most favorite rabbit of all time, recently passed away.  We figure he was around 10 years old (hard to tell with rescues).  Skippy was a fired-up, outgoing critter that just loved everybody. His is survived by his long time soulmate, the suspicious, elusive, and somewhat wild Zeela.  As they say, opposites attract.  We, along with Zeela, miss him.

Our kids, however, are doing just fine.  Paul continues to enjoy living in Madison, WI.  Nathaniel is in his last year of Occupational Therapy school, with only a couple internships left before graduation.  After that, we think he and Lindsey are looking forward to escaping the crippling heat and the red tides of southern Florida.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2019 for all!

Contact and social media info:

• Our new address will be:  17 Broadview Circle, Brevard, NC 28712
•         Bob  704-989-9230    bob.blichmann@gmail.com
• Betsy  704-292-5378    betsy.j.bond@gmail.com
• Family blog:  The BlichBlog is at blichblog.blogspot.com, and is occasionally         updated.
• Knitting:  Betsy’s knitting creations are found under “Knitbert” on Ravelry.com
• Photography:  Bob will post to Flickr when the mood strikes.    www.flickr.com/photos/bobblich/albums  
• We are both be easily findable on Facebook.  And Strava (think Facebook for fitness geeks).
  

 

Holiday Newsletter 2017

Christmas greetings from Bob and Betsy!

We hope this holiday season finds you all healthy, happy, and keeping warm - if you are up north.   Or cool - if you happen to reside even farther south than us.  With family spread from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to southern Florida, we have to cover all the bases theses days.

Looking back at 2017, this appears to be the year that we decided to actually drag ourselves off the couch, get out of North Carolina, and do some real traveling for a change.  Somewhat in the spirit of “throw a dart at the map”, we spent a week in March exploring Amsterdam.   No schedule, no big agenda.  We took in many museums, attended concerts, ate good food, and enjoyed the Dutch history and architecture.  And hydraulic engineering. I guess we kind of skipped the sex and drugs.  There’s always next time. 

Betsy and I, Nathaniel and Lindsey, and Marc and Barbara Woodmansee (Lindsey’s parents) spent a nice, long Easter weekend in Apalachicola, Florida, exploring the barrier islands.  Lots of early season sun, sand, hiking, and migrating birds.  Plus a sink hole or two.

Nathaniel and I followed that up with a Dad ‘n’ Lad trip to the Miami area, which was a new place for me.  We had a great time playing tourist - visiting the Everglades, Little Havana, South Beach, Key Biscayne, the big Viscaya house, art museums, various botanical gardens, and lots of other fun places.  I’ll bet we took 2000 photos between the 2 of us. 

Bob bookended the summer with two solo “around Lake Michigan” road trips. He got to visit Lorraine in Iron Mountain, Mary in Livonia, lots of old friends, and, as a special treat, all the Dubuque Blichmanns!  The bicycling highlight of the year was the Ride Across Wisconsin, a big two-day ride from Dubuque, Iowa to Racine, WI, with his friends Pat, John, and Bruce.  

Betsy also travels frequently for work, but mainly to suburban Pittsburgh, so that may not count for much in the adventure/fun department. In November we trekked back to Livonia for Betsy’s 40th high school reunion, the first she had attended.  It was a big school, so the experience was a bit surreal. She did manage to connect with some old neighborhood and band friends.  Betsy finished up another year as president of the Charlotte Knitting Guild, keeping the flame for the fiber arts in central North Carolina.    

Nathaniel and Lindsey moved down to Ft. Meyers, FL, where Nathaniel is in the Occupational Therapy program at Florida Gulf Coast University.  Paul flew down from Madison, WI, to help them move.

Our weekend/retirement house up in Brevard, NC is currently undergoing a major renovation.  That’s exciting, but with our mountain base camp out of commission, we missed out on lot of our standard leaf peeping and waterfall hunting this fall.  

And yes, the rabbits are doing just fine.  Skippy, like Bob, is sporting a little more ever-so-stylish grey hair these days.

Here’s to a great 2018!

Amsterdam Trip 2017. Day -1

FRI MAR 10 - Fly to Amsterdam, take one.

Tried to leave on a 6:30 pm flight, after work for Betsy.  Airline status was “On time” leaving the house.  In reality, one inch of snow in New York City earlier in the morning (!) had air traffic delayed across the east coast.  Really? We had given New York more credit than that.  Wimps.  Our 1 hour and 30 minute layover had shrunken to 15 minutes, not enough time to switch terminals at JFK.  After spending an hour at the Delta ticket counter, we were sent home in disgrace.  They ultimately put us on a flight out the next afternoon.

After paying for a whole day of parking, all the air was let out of our psychological balloons.  We were sent home in disgrace.  But since it would be silly to sit in I-485 traffic for an hour plus, we drove to Charlotte for a beer at Triple C Brewing Company, and then had BBQ over at Mac’s Speed Shop.  (The fridge at home was pretty empty.)  The rabbits were surprised to see us back from our trip so soon.

Lessons learned:

• Leave more time between flights
• Avoid New York City airports (we kind of knew this already)
• Delta Airlines has no clue.  We stood in front of the ticket agent for a whole hour while the guy tried to figure out flight status and how to rebook us.  And even that was screwed up, as we were to find out when trying to return at the end of the trip

Amsterdam Trip 2017. Day 0

SAT MAR 11 - Fly to Amsterdam, take two.

Now we had to get re-psyched up for traveling.  The plan:  3:45 pm flight to Atlanta, 2-3 hour layover, then on to Amsterdam.  Airbus 330, 2-4-2 seating, middle/aisle seats on a packed flight.  Had a BIG meal in Atlanta waiting for the flight, thinking airlines never feed you anymore.  MISTAKE.  The fed us nearly continuously, all the way to Europe, mostly carb-rich fare. Lots of music to listen to and movies and TV to watch on the seat back screens.  Betsy watched “Jackie”, but couldn’t hear much of the subtle, allegedly good soundtrack.  I caught up on old “Big Bang Theory” episodes, of which a little goes a long way.  We both managed to doze a bit, but didn’t sleep a lot.

The one day delay meant we missed out on 2 concerts we wanted to attend.  Saturday afternoon was the Lumako Ensemble (string trio + harp + flute) at the Het Schip Museum satellite facility, close to where we were staying.  I had emailed them, and they were holding our tix/spaces.  The other was a 11:00 am Sunday symphony concert at the famous Concertgebouw, already paid for, just to add injury to insult.

So, Bob’s carefully engineered trip agenda already had a big money wrench thrown into it.

Amsterdam Trip 2017. Day 1

SUN MAR 12 - Arrival

Landed ~ 10:45 am

A slow, but not long line at customs.  “You're just visiting Amsterdam? Really? There’s more here than just Amsterdam.” Took the train to Centraal Station, then the subway (Metro) to our digs.  The train ticket machines did not like any of our credit cards, seems a signature was required at the window.  The Metro ticket office was located outside the big train station.  Eventually figured THAT out.  Fast, easy, Metro ride to the apartment, where our host AirBNB Paul had coffee ready for us.

Our place, up on the third floor.

Stairs to the metro station.  Note the Dutch Modern design.

Cargo bike. Things like this were everywhere.

So… finally here, we ditched our carry-ons and daypacks, and hit the streets.  Walking here is an adventure in itself, with canals and bike lanes and trams and busses.  But once you realize there are seperate stoplights for people, bikes, and cars/trams/busses, it all makes sense. 

To get oriented, we took a canal cruise on one of the Blue Boats.  We zigged and zagged through the canals, starting at the Heineken place, up around the harbor, and back down the Amstel River.  Took pictures:

Fancy gables, this one with a sheep

More gables

Old church, bikes everywhere

The EYE Film Museum, plus some of the few tallish buildings in Amsterdam

Museumkaarts in hand, we took the sidewalk/bike path that goes through the big Rijksmuseum, past the AMSTERDAM letters, and went to the Stedelijk, the modern art museum.  Lots of Mondriaan, of course, being the 100th anniversary of De Stijl.  Nice Ab-Ex room with a Rothko, a big blue Newman, and several nice de Koonings.  Lots of Malevich.  The current big exhibit was on Ed van der Elksen - Dutch street photography and early home films.  I think we actually walked the museum backwards.

Bike path going THROUGH the national art museum.

Stedelijk, the modern art museum.

Ate dinner at a Thai place called Yum Yum (!) on Ceintuurbaan, which is kind of the main drag between the apartment and the Museumplein zone.

NEMO Science Museum