07/29/24 USA to Amsterdam

We had to leave home bright and early on Monday, July 29. We got up at 4 a.m. and headed out by 4:30 a.m.

Eldon and Diane drove over and left their car in our garage for the two weeks. We met at the Morris Murdock on Bluff Street. When we got there we loaded up on a St. George Shuttle Bus. They saved us the front seat again (which is awesome!) and we drove to Las Vegas to get our 9 a.m. flight.

When we arrived at Morris, Eldon couldn't find his phone. He had handed it to Diane who, it turns out, placed it in the cup holder and forgot it in our car. He couldn't find it anywhere and so they had many days of angst as they worked to get the phone. They never did get it while they were in Europe but did end up getting it returned to their house eventually. That story is much too long to tell...but it did cause them some stress. Great stress. For many days.

We flew from Las Vegas to Detroit. Had a short layover and then flew to Amsterdam. Doesn't seem so bad, right? It took almost 24 hours to make the whole adventure! We arrived in Amsterdam at 8 a.m. on TUESDAY!!!! It felt like we lost a whole day! They are 8 hours ahead of us. We were advised to stay awake once we got there to combat jet lag. So we did!

They brought us to the Radisson Blu Hotel near the Schiphol, Netherlands airport. It was a nice hotel, HOWEVER, it was NOT close to ANYTHING AND they don't have pools at hotels there.

We decided to not let the day go to waste. Eldon and Diane didn't want to go anywhere yet but we met Michelle Hanna and Coy Langston (Father daughter duo) and they wanted to go with us. Coy is 80 years old so he was cool to have a slower pace. We paid $5 each to take the hotel shuttle bus back to the airport. Then we paid $6 each to take the train to downtown Amsterdam. Then we walked a couple of miles to the Amsterdam Palace. It was further than we thought.

We saw lots of fun things on our way to the palace. We found a cute little deli and got some yummy food. We saw duck shops (like quite a few of them, weird?!) and wine shops, and cheese shops and stuff. It seemed like we kept seeing the same several shops over and over again.

By the time we got back to the train station Andy was WORN OUT. Like I was worried I wouldn't be able to get him back home. I think he even fell asleep in the train station while waiting for the train. We decided we probably shouldn't push it that hard the next couple of days since he was just getting over sepsis again!

We got some chinese noodles at the overpriced hotel restaurant for dinner and took it to the lobby to eat. We played a couple of games at the table.

We spent a quiet evening in the hotel and were for sure ready for bed by the time it was over!

Comments

08/23/25 Organ

The Washington First Ward Building was sold to the City of Washington. Part of my responsibilities included dispensing of the organ and pianos in the building (along with other things). It is an Allen, approximately 1970s. I put the organ up on the auction. There were a couple of other people that were bidding on it, but I ultimately won the bid (for under $100). On the day I won the bid I was able to arrange a mover!!! I paid $250 to have someone from the piano store move it to our house (I have no idea how he managed to get that into the back bedroom....but he did it!!!) Then, it wouldn't work. 😭 I waited for approximately 6 weeks before a guy (who had to be 80 years old) came down from SLC and repaired the organ. (So the organ wasn't actually broken, it had to do with the electricity and the house talking nicely to one another.) It took him a couple of hours to figure it out. He charged about $200 and voila! I have a working church organ. Cool, eh? Now, I got...

08/28/25 Steve (Stevie Wonder) retires from Washington City

Steve Whitekiend was Washington City's IT guy for most of the years I worked there. Before him was a guy named Marshall. Under Marshall rule the computers were a disaster. We had constant problems. Steve cam along and converted us all the MACs (it was a hard sell for me but I'm loving them now). I always said that I couldn't work at Washington City if Steve was gone. I never wanted to experience another bad IT situation. Steve surprised everyone and retired early and with only 2 weeks notice. My job included putting on retirement parties -- so I had to come to work with Andy home with COVID to take care of this party. And Steve's leaving was definitely a factor in propelling me to my retirement.

03/28/26 Trip to Italy, Day 5, Saturday, Florence

We stopped at a local restaurant and got some breakfast tarts and then went to the Academia and saw the statue of David and had a tour. We returned to the same Restaurant and had panini sandwiches for lunch. Then we went to the Uffizi Museum for another tour. We had yummy gelato and took a rest for a while. We walked through the leather market and to a cool bridge. We walked around the city awhile into we came to a restaurant that was super cute and we ate outside. We had ravioli and pizza. We walked a bit more after dinner and then came back and played games. Academia Statue of David A bum shot Kevin and a cello One of the first pianos ever Early pianos Art in the Uffuzi The ceilings! Art in the Uffuzi Art in the Uffuzi Bridge of Sighs, Florence Shelly in the Bridge Florence Florence Andy and Shelly in the Uffuzi Art in the Uffuzi Florence Florence Trash bins in Florence Restaurant in Florence Outside in the street...so quaint! Restaurant in Florence Restaurant ...

Griffin Family

Search This Blog