Linda planned a great date night for us. Dinner for two at De Drive Linden. Unfortunately, Henry had other plans.
First, I should point out that date night has been pretty rare in the Netherlands. We’ve had a lot of stay-home dates, but only one go-out date so far. We just don’t have a babysitter we can call upon. So, this dinner was something we had been looking forward to for a while.
We left home at 5:45, walking to a restaurant just down the street, leaving JJ (age 13) and Timmy (age 11) in charge. We felt like the kids had been getting along pretty well over the last few weeks, so this should work out, and we were literally only a 3 minute walk away.
25 minutes later, during our appetizer, Timmy called to say that Henry had disappeared. He took his coat and shoes, and the front door was left open.
Henry and Adelaide proceeded to search for him, unsuccessfully. Linda left to search too, while I sat awkwardly by myself, waiting to pay the bill and resolve the meal.
Eventually they found Henry. He had gone to the neighbors’ house to play. At that point, though, things were a bit out of control. Linda stayed at home to deal with Henry. I got our meal to go.
Date night at the kitchen table!
In case you are wondering about the food, it was great. I had a wonderful tomato soup for my appetizer, followed by a black Angus steak for the main course and ice cream with hot fudge and Oreo pieces. Linda had some sort of mushroom appetizer, salmon for the main course, and something similar to apple pie for dessert. She loved it.
And of course, since we’re in the Netherlands, the main courses came with a side of fries. Everything comes with a side of fries here, even at fancy restaurants (and they are really good fries).
Dutch Bentleys 