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Queen's Day 2002... ...was a beautiful, balmy sort of Amsterdam weather day (long stretches without rain and a high of 12 degrees) that Jim found somehow not quite up to Florida standards Temperature-wise. |
| As ever, the first order of business is to find a silly Orange Feather Boa, and then a Silly hat. Uncle Jim had to get out of that really silly Yankees hat pronto and into something more respectable, so he followed Doony's lead and went with the London Bobby Look. |  |
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Regular followers of the Amsterdam Confidential Queen's Day Features may notice that mug shots in front of the Westerkerk are mandatory. |
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Silliness of this kind is optional. We were sooooo embarrassed. Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim, we LIVE here. |
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An environmental organization that will remain nameless had a giant inflatable panda bear hovering over the proceedings in a shameless fundraising ploy practically in the shadow of the Greenpeace office. Was Doony perturbed by this bit of ethically questionable muscling in on Dad's Firm's territory? No, he was sad because he thought the bear was for sale and we should take it home. |
| Having dispensed of the Yankee Hat (and therefore gotten Celia all riled up), Jim spotted a hat to get John all riled up. "You know, I haven't seen a Budweiser all day" he mused as he looked out upon a sea of green aluminum Heineken cans. Then through the crowd he spotted...The Silly Heineken Hat upon the head of a young Dutchman. |  |
| This being Queen's Day, when the entire city is one big Flea Market free-for-all, and knowing that with Sales Tax waived by Her Majesty he was saving 18% on everything, Jim haggled ruthlessly with the Heineken Hat's owner until the young salesman pleaded "jeepers, Mister, 4 Euros, come on -- this is lunch money we're talkin here... this baby is a totally authentic, completely unique, hand made original of highest quality foam rubber -- look at the detailing on that seam-- now you look like a man who knows quality and doesn't mind paying for it, am I right?" Whereupon the lad vanished, change in hand, to purchase another such good item around the corner for another fast flip at a tidy profit. |  |
| But what a happy man it made Jim to think about taking this one back to Seneca Falls and wearing it around "to Johnnny's place", like a Heineken jester in the Court of the Budweiser King. |  |
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Spot the Snow Bird. If you look carefully, you'll see a guy in an orange T-shirt in the background, enjoying the gorgeous, beautiful weather that we ALWAYS have on Queen's Day. For some reason, Jim seemed to think it was chilly. We finally broke down and confessed that it actually never gets warmer than 12 degrees Centigrade in Amsterdam. We knew he'd never come visit if he knew that this translated to 53 degrees Fahrenheit, so we doctored all the previous Queen's Day photos to make it look sunny and warm, and swore Steve, Molly, Patty, Dave and Lisa, Annie and Steve, Tim and Leslie, Celia, and every other visitor to these fair shores to utter secrecy. Steve's Queen Day, and Molly's and Tim and Leslie's |
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