We are in Europe...

Our first two days in Europe we stayed in Nunspeet, Netherlands. This small town is located an hour and half away from Amsterdam.


The motel we stay in was a quant, little place. Our bus driver, Antonio had to work to get our large bus into the tiny parking lot.

The first day, we needed time to recuperate.

The second day we visited Amsterdam...Wow! Many canals, visited the Anne Frank house, the Red-light district, and nearly become roadkill thanks to the millions of bicyclists in the Netherlands.

What Jim learned about the Netherlands: Holland is not the official name of the nation. Holland is only one "state" in the Netherlands.

What Sherie learned about the Netherlands: All the land the Netherlands claimed from the Suden Sea. Because of this, they created a new province. This new province is called Zeeland.

Do you know what this is? It is a pee station in Amsterdam...

Check out these cool picts and videos.

Day 7 - Europe, here we come!!!!

Sherie was feeling much better….

Today we packed it all in for Europe. As we packed, we watched the Americans play in the World Cup.. The first half, things did not well. The second half, things went better with the American scoring two: tying it up. Then with a few minutes left in the second half, we scored again. But the goal was not allowed. The crazy official called the American offsides. But the game was still a good one. Too bad we did not play the entire game like we did during the second half.

After we left the motel, we returned to Lowell, Mass. It was a warm day...about time :).

Here is a picture where we had a REAL sub sandwich. In the northeast they call it a torpedo. The owner gave use Sheries’ torpedo for free as a kinda wedding gift. Nice guy.

Then, we made it to the Logan International Airport on time, but our flight was delayed, once, trice, three times. Yep, we were scheduled to leave Boston at 700 PM. In truth, we flew out at 11:45 PM. This was after we boarded the plane at around 10:00 PM…

Then we landed in the Netherlands at 11:30 AM. The flight was fun since I snuggling with Sherie for the entire flight...

We landed in the Amsterdam Airport and it was veryexcieting, colorful, and tiring. Neither Sherie and I slept much on the flight. I was very strange to open the slider on the window of the airplane and we saw sunlight, instead of night....

Day 6..Oh the sickness....

The day started out well…
We planned an entire day in Boston. Visiting the aquarium, Bunker Hill, and other neat spots. But, it seemed we were visited by ugly food poisoning. The dinner from the night before had some bad salmon, or something. I felt a little ill, and then in the morning, Sherie felt very ill. So, our trip to the aquarium was cut short and we returned to the motel. However, I was able to snap a few pictures before we left.

Also, before we left for the motel, Sherie was working on her conference and I walked around Boston. Here, is a photo of the spot where the Boston Tea Party took place.

One more item, while at the aquarium, the seals were heard screaming. On seal named Córdoba would scream like a man dying. It was kinda weird. This is a cool picture of a boat. I thought Myles would like it.


Later, while Sherie slept, I washed our clothes, preparing for Europe. While at the laundry room, I met this nice old couple. The wife gave me some marriage advice when she discovered we were newlyweds. She said “Never go to bed angry.” I think this is great advice.

Tomorrow we will go to sleep in Europe!!!

Day 5 The Green is small!!!

Day 5 and we visited the Green at Lexington. But before that, we took it easy, slept in and Sherie attended her online conference.

After her conference, we drove to Lexington and Concord. The famous Green where Americans first fought the British, is REALLY small. The Green is a small patch of ground which resembles a city park. The Americans were itching for a fight, so were the British soldiers. But the British soldiers fired first, and five Patriots were killed. Not far from the Green, is Buckman Tavern. The Patriots met at the Tavern before the battle...not to get drunk, but during this time a tavern was like a meeting house for the locals. A place to hear and debate current events. Remember this was before the Internet or television. Check out the video which showed how small the Green is.

Then we drove to Concord and visited the Old North Bridge. Concord is a beautiful little small town with many very old shops and homes. The Old North Bridge is historically significant as this was the first time Patriots were given orders to fire their weapons upon the King's army. At this site there is a small memorial to the fallen British soldiers near the Old North Bridge. Sherie and I had a good time visiting these sites.

Day 4-looking for witches

Day 4 we drove to Salem, Massachusetts to visit the infamous place where people were put to death for being witches. It was pretty cool, and informative. Sherie and I learned a lot...Not just about the trials, but about the area in general.

We visited two museums which gave pretty detailed information about the witch trials. Each of the museums had wax replicas of significant images as it related to the trials. The first museum, the Salem Witch Museum, was better of the two. The Salem Witch Museum was more dramatic with lighting and back ground music that played with each scene, along with a dramatic voice booming through out the presentation. The dramatic voice was the kind you hear during movie previews: big and bold. The second museum had the mannequins you would see in the Sear men's and women's section. Still, at each museum it was clear in their mission, to eradicate the stereotypical image of witches, and people who practice Wiccan. One item I learned from the these museums and this was the idea that those who practice Wiccan lived in the country, while those who opposed the Winccans. Over all it was pretty cool.

We walked around Salem, and down to the waterfront.

We had ate lunch as this tiny restaurant called "The Pigs Eye". The place was no bigger than our motel room, but the food was good. The restaurant had a gazillion pigs plastered all over the walls and ceiling. Flying pigs, stuffed pigs, plastic pigs, even pictures of people dressed like pigs...But you get the point.

Then we continues up the coast to Maine for some yummy fresh Maine Lobster. My teacher friend from New Hampshire told this place in Ogunquit (Oh-GUN-quin), Maine. It was called the Lobster Pound. Sherie and I had each had a small lobster weighing in at 1 1/2 each. We were told some people eat up to a 4 pound lobster....Holy cow...er...I mean lobster.

Check out how they cook the lobster.

Day Three...

Day Three we drove to Boston, visited Harvard University in Cambridge, a teacher friend I met in Alabama - got a local perspective of Boston, and took some amazing picture from the Prudential Tower.

Boy, driving through Cambridge, Mass is much more difficult than driving in Cambridge, Idaho. The streets are super narrow, the lanes merger together without notice, and every intersection has at least six streets which converge together.

Have no fear, we made it to the Harvard Natural History Museum and saw a bunch of dead things. No, it was pretty cool. We skipped the section about the large bugs floating in bottles. Sherie and I figured we could skip didn seeing dead bugs. The coolest part of the museum was about the DNA and colors of animals. Another interesting part was the animal horns section and the bones. I took many pictures of this section.

By the time we were done, we needed to eat. So were drove into Boston and ate at Legal Sea Food. Sherie treated me to a specail lunch since it was my birthday....so I had my first raw oysters...Yummy! The raw oysters slid out of their shell and down my throat. These were east coast oysters. Sherie explained to me east coast oysters don't taste as fishy as west coast oysters. To me, oysters tasted like shushi. Since I have met Sherie she has introduced me to so many new things(including shushi), and now I can add oysters to this list.

Then we went to the 50th floor of the Prudential Tower. As we zoomed up in the express elevator our ears popped...The view was great from the top. Once there, were picked up these cell phones which gave you a kind of walking tour of the city from above when you keyed in a code.

After that I met Dave. He was a teacher I met while in Alabama. Very smart and cool guy. He teachers high school social students in New Hampshire. He and his friend gave us a local tour of Boston. We ate some yummy pizza at Regina Pizzeria. Reginas was a little hole in the wall pizza joint in the middle of little Italy. Regina's is a tiny little pizzeria, with a local flavor. The pizza was very good!!!

Oh yea, almost forgot...We tried an some athentic Italy dessert...Canoli. Dave is prepping us for opur European part of our honeymoon. You can tell Sherie is enjoying it.

After dinner, dave took us around Boston. Okay, I need explain this picture...Yes, it looks like the ground. But, this is very historical signitigant ground. This IS the spot where the Boston Masucure happened. But if you were to visit it, there is nothing there to note such event occured. The spot down the street from the Old State House.

This post will be short as we want to get going to Salem, Mass this morning and witch trial places....

Day Two in Boston

Today we visited Lowell, Massachusetts. This was an old industrial town which played a key role during the American Industrial Revolution. Lowell textile mills were known for hiring young women to work in the mills during the 19th century. These were some pictures we took in the downtown area of Lowell and the American Textile History Museum.

While visiting the American Textile History Museum Sherie lifted a bail of wool...It was over 500 pounds. Man, she IS strong!

Here, Sherie is weaving on an old hand loom. It looks much harder than I thought. Below are four pedals which were needed to operate the loom correctly. Those pedals needed to be pressed in a correct sequence. I think Sherie did a great job of weaving.

Day one.....

Upon our arrival to Boston, we were met with rain and clouds. After a long and bumpy ride on the airplane.

US 1 - England -1
On the plane ride, I watched the highlights of the World Cup, where the US tied against England. I honestly thought the US would get ripped by England. But no way, we got a draw. Good job Team USA!!!

Then we picked up our rental car, a little Chrysler GT...Blah!...Not the car we wanted. It's a small boxey car. Fine for some people, not for us. As we drove to our motel, we crossed the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Boston. It's a pretty interesting looking bridge. Sherie took this picture as I drove.

Then made it to our motel, and out to a very good dinner at the Macaroni Grill. Macaroni Grill allows their costumers to write and draw pictures on their table...Ok, not ON the table, but on large sheets of butcher paper. They understand this caters to all our inner child in us. So Sherie and I drew this picture on our table while we waited for our dinner to be served.