Waiting. Running. Shoe shopping.

Picture it... Amsterdam, 2010.
WHOA WHOA WHOA... you are thinking how in the blazes did we get to Amsterdam, right? Well... over night ferry from Split to Ancona, flight from Ancona to Brussels (which was an hour late and everyone STILL clapped at the end and they announced, "Yet another ON TIME Ryanair flight!"), followed by roaming around Brussels looking for two very important things... the bus and Belgian waffles. The waffles were a bust. The bus driver said it was fifteen minutes to the train station, but he obviously meant 50. A short time later we were on a train to Amsterdam, sharing a train car with four guitar players who sang Oasis songs with German accents. Good times but, to be honest, these two wanderers were a tad bit grouchy, tired, and hungry.

The Amsterdam train station is amazing because you take the escalator up and you are at the airport PLUS restaurants, shops, even a grocery store were there... and... prepare yourself for this... a Starbucks.

There was some sad news. My luggage didn't make it out of Holland. It's final resting place is room 236 of Citizen M hotel. Its replacement has a zipper that works and seams that are not coming apart! Joy!

That was a long story to get us to Amsterdam, but there you go. Anyway, so this morning we got to the airport at 9 for our 11:00 flight to Chicago. Yes, yes, I got a Starbucks! We are flying standby and the lady at the counter kaboshed us because our shoes were not closed toe, which were not in compliance with business class attire. Okay, so at this point it is 10:30 and we fly through the passport check and try to find shoes to buy. None. We fly BACK through the passport check into the main station and buy hideous pumps, then run back through passport check. (That makes three Amsterdam stamps in one passport, folks) At the gate, we went through security and barely made it in time to find we didn't get called for the flight. We bonded with other standby passengers and commiserated. No worries, though, because we made the 12:00 flight to Washington, D.C... hold the phone... in business class! The shoe run was worth it... even though half of Amsterdam was laughing at us saying how much they all couldn't believe we made it with new shoes. We should have gone for Dutch clogs.

Now we are waiting in D.C... waiting... waiting. It's ugly over here. Cross your fingers, your eyes, your toes that we somehow, some way make it to Seattle. We're coming, Jessica! We're coming!

P.S. No pictures. We are a sight.