Saturday, July 4, 2026
I remember the bicentennial. I was 13. We were very red, white and blue everything. It was so exciting. I distinctly remember wondering if I would be around for the 250th birthday of the United States. I thought people could live to be 63- I thought I might be able to do it. Tada! I did it!
I was wasn’t quite as excited about America today as I was then, but we sure had a great party. We had so much delicious food. The weather was beautiful. People pooled next door.
Our flight to Amsterdam was scheduled for 9:50 p.m. The party started at 1:00 and it was a great way to not just keep wondering if I had forgotten something or whatever else I could figure out to worry about. I hardly remembered we were leaving.
Keith, just randomly checked our flight about 5:00 and found out that our seats- the two seats on the left side of the plane. So we had just the window and the aisle – were no longer ours. Now we’re the aisle and the second seat in the center section of four seats. Ew. No. No no no no no. We picked this flight with this plane so that we were just two seats together and not next to anybody else. We bought these seats many many months ago. I was so pissed. I definitely think I swore at everybody at our party table. It turns out that our plane, our physical plane, was 6 hours delayed leaving Amsterdam so they had to substitute in a different plane to take us to Amsterdam. Amsterdam. It is a smaller plane and everybody got shuffled around, or at least we got shuffled around, and there was no fixing it. So, we will be in the middle with nothing to lean on and next to somebody else. I’m trying to just think it’s a bad dream, because we haven’t gotten on the plane yet.
When it came time to actually leave and all of the bdults (I called them second generation to Maren and she said they were the bdults and we are the adults) were hanging out at the pool I was very very sad to leave.
Benjamin and Elizabeth are at the house, apparently willingly cleaning up and ending the party.
Alexander drove us to the airport. It started to rain as we took the exit. By the time We got to the airport, we were splashing through puddles that were throwing water 5 ft in the air. We got to the gate to hear the announcement that we were delayed 50 minutes because of storms. Okay. We can do 50 minutes. 5 minutes later we were told we were delayed another 120 minutes.
Sure hope you made it and ugh those seats all night!
We made it! And both got some sleep. And night is only 5 hours away! Things are looking up!
The hope from Michigan is that the WHOLE trip is WAY better than the start! Hope that the food on the flight was good anyway…. And at least you didn’t have to worry about missing a connection….
Amsterdam is such a connecting place – we ARE so lucky it is our destination. My mushroom chicken and mashed potatoes was absolutely delicious. We got some sleep and everything is looking peachy now!
Funny, you wrote about the Bicentennial. I was thinking about that yesterday too and how it was 50 years ago! And then thought how old I am and wonder if our kids will see 2076. Some will be in their 90’s. But agree with you about 1976 and now. Also, I was hoping you took off on time to watch fireworks from the plane. I always wondered what that was like. But I guess you wouldn’t have seen from your new seats! Glad you made it. And yes, keep Keith healthy! Have a great trip. Can’t wait to read about it.
Yes, the fireworks potential was exciting. It was raining so hard that I thought fireworks would all be postponed but Woodbury did theirs. I wonder if anyone was there.
Here’s to 90 year olds in 2076 🥂