This is a very typical way kids are brought to school - not with an SUV.

Last Day in the Netherlands

The weather didn't offer us any reprieve on our last day in Amsterdam. It was a cool and rainy day. Aside from packing and doing a little grocery shopping, we stayed home. For the evening we had decided to go out for an Indonesian rijstavel, typically, a wide assortment of prepared spicy dishes that include meats, poultry, fish, shrimp, vegetables and rice. It's not unusual to have twenty or more dishes.

Unfortunately, Elliot had a scheduling conflict and couldn't join us - he was attending a Dutch language class. The first restaurant we went to, Coffee and Jazz, had a good reputation. But after nearly being forced to first order a wine to go with dinner (and not having beer on the menu), we opted to go elsewhere.

The second restaurant had a totally different feel to it. Tempo Doeloe was warm, full of chatter and had the sound of clinging beer glasses. And there was one empty table for four left. We were happy.

It's a good thing that we had brought a big appetite

And this was only an order for two!

Rijstavel without a beer is like having a Mexican dinner without a Corona! It's just wrong.

We had a superb mean and needed the long walk home to settle all the food we had eaten. We had opted not to ride bikes because of the chance of rain.

The following morning, we got up early, said our good-byes, gave hugs and left for Schiphol. Two flights and a drive from LAX - a mere 27 hours later, we drove into our garage. Home!

The drawback about taking a long trip - coming home to a pile of mail.