One of my fondest memories with my dad was our 2nd European trip when we decided to go to Amsterdam.  Now, my father is a very conservative, goofy, yet a bit rigid man and I was not really sure how he would handle a city like Amsterdam.  Overall, besides getting into a WW2 argument with a ticket taker, he seemed to love it.

Side note, we are from Colorado where marijuana is legal but this trip happened before that and things were definitely still controversial on it back in The States.  So when my dad said we should stop in at The Bulldog for a smoke before walking to the museum I was pretty surprised.

It was a bonding experience I know I’ll always remember for the humanizing element and because my dad then convinced me to challenge the giant chess players in the park to a game before our scheduled museum time.

I played 3 games and won 1 because fortunately I had some background with chess at the time.  That being said playing chess while high is a profoundly difficult thing in my opinion.

The museum itself was a color explosion, as most of Van Gogh’s art tends to be.  The colors and brushstrokes make it so easy to tell his mood while painting and to this day he is my favorite artist.

There are also paintings of similar artists the were likely either influenced by or inspirations for Van Gogh.

It should also be worth note most of my pictures came out blurry.

The museum also has a bar! Which made things even worse(also better).

This trip(HAH double meaning) with my dad is one of my favorite memories with him and I wish I could give more specific advice to others on the experience.  However, it may be a flash in a pan type event while at the same time it doesn’t have any steps that are very hard to reproduce.  Part of the rewarding aspect of this for me though was how it changed my perspective on my father for the better so it may be that the actual museum itself wasn’t even that important.  I can say though I recommend every aspect of this experience to everyone be it just the weed or the museum or both.  It’s a bit of a choose your own adventure.