summer roadtrip

Nina and I left Princeton on Thursday to start a road trip. On Thursday we drove from New Jerset to spend the night in Madison, Connecticut and had a fabulous time there with some friends. Then on Friday we drove to Harrison, ME to spend two nights at Vacationland Campground with some friends I had in College.  There were almost 20 families and it was so fun to see everyone.  It's amazing how people look exactly the same. 

During the day Saturday we had spent most of our time on the sandy beach by the lake that the campground is on.  It is a truly gorgeous spot and the beach is very shallow so I didn't worry about Nina being in the water--she had a great time and probably was in there splashing around with her friends for at least 3 hours.  The water was warm and my skin and hair felt amazing, as they always do after swimming in lake water.  It had been too long. 

Saturday evening one of the husbands cooked up a whole bunch of chicken and ribs with his own special barbecue sauce and everyone else brought side dishes and desserts.  It was a fantastic feast!

On Saturday night there was a DJ'd toga party and of course everyone (except a few of us) dressed up in a toga and completely embarrassed their children.  One of the highlights of the evening was when one of my friends did the hammer dance to "can't touch this." AMAZING.  The other was when Nina got taken in by a couple of tween girls who danced with her all night and taught her how to do some of the dances.  It was so sweet that my cheeks hurt from smiling.  I finally took Nina to bed at 10 and it was clear that it was one of the best nights of her life, well worth keeping her up way past her bedtime.

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, and packed up--I hadn't slept well for the two nights that we camped.  It was much colder than I had thought it would be and we hadn't brought enough blankets.  Nina was warm enough but I was super cold all night both nights.  Add that to my general dislike of camping and I was ready to move on.(Nina wanted to stay, however).
Our destination was our friend Shyla's new house with her lovely man Nik; they live in Belfast. After a lovely afternoon (some other old friends who live in Seattle dropped in for a visit) and delicious dinner of caldo verde cooked by Nik, I slept like a baby.  Nina and I walked around Belfast all day and got back to the house in time to rest before dinner.



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convergence

When we were at the top of the Empire State Building last weekend I saw this building and was entranced by it.  It's right on the edge of Bryant Park and nobody seemed to know what it was.  I resolved to find out but was too tired when we got home.  The next night Larry and I went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice and...there is was again, one of the characters lives in the very same building.  Now I had to get the story!  It turns out that it's the Radiator Building, also known as the American Standard Building and now The Bryant Park Hotel, I believe.  I would post a link to the hotel website, but it's super loud and flash driven and says absolutely nothing about the history of the building...stupid.  Anyway, it's interesting how little things in life come together like that.

the second, longer leg

Here's a map so far, which I will keep updating as internet connection allows.

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the first leg of our trip...

Here's a complete accounting of the northeastern portion of our trip:

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I have many pictures to post and stories to tell, but haven't had enough time with a good internet connection--maybe this evening.

ideas wanted

Nina, mom, and I will be driving cross country at the end of June--any must see places between Florida and Southern California? We think we will try to avoid Texas, even though it may take us out of the way. Since we have no set plans, that's not really a problem.

glassworks video...finally

Sorry, I uploaded the wrong one...here's the right one.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

tuckered

By the time we got back to the hotel we were both tired an sweaty (and my legs were sore from wearing my FitFlops for the first time in months). I took a shower and waited for Larry to get back, then we went to Three Mothers Thai restaurant, which was very good.

national museum of australia

It was really nice, with lots of history, and really a perfect afternoon. I like the name of the cafe

And both P and I were enamored of this couch

The outside of this museum is really amazing too--here is this loop thingy--it seems like you should be able to walk all the way around it.

More of the outside. P said she had read that all the braille on the outside is words in the Aboriginal language.

And we both really liked these big wooden benches (I don't really know why).

a travel buddy

One of Larry's co-workers' wife decided to come along sans kids as well, and she was set to arrive on Tuesday. We weren't sure if she would arrive on the same bus that I had taken, or an earlier one, so I planned to go to the bus station at both arrival times just in case. When I didn't see her get off of the first, I hung around the area where the bus station is, poking around shops, and also a "Supa" IGA (supa because it had liquor, I think). It had a decent amount of both gluten free and organic stuff. I also decided to check out a convenience store to see if I could find a drink. As I was almost done perusing the aisles, the man behind the counter asked me if he could help me. I said no, and he said that I had to leave, that he didn't have time for me to just be looking in his store. I don't think I've ever been kicked out of a store before, but it makes me want to go browse many times a day and never buy anything.

Anyway, I went back at the later time and still no P. When I got back to the hotel I found that she had somehow gotten by me at the earlier time and she had showered and was ready to go out. We agreed that the National Museum of Australia would be a perfect afternoon jaunt and headed out.

It turned out to be a bit more of a walk than we had bargained on, but nice and mostly by the lake, where we ran into some lovely swans.

looong flight

As you may or may not know, Larry has been planning to attend a conference in Australia for some time now. I hadn't planned to tag along, for various reasons, but in the last month I changed my mind and also decided not to bring Nina (too long a flight, too expensive). Which worked out great because Arwyn has been staying with us and agreed to take care of Nina (with help from friends and Mima). I booked a comparatively inexpensive flight with Qantas out of Los Angeles, which is a little inconvenient, but the tickets to LA were upwards of 500$...

When I got to LA, just for kicks, I asked how much it would be to upgrade (I meant business class, but I think the agent thought I meant first) and when he told me, I almost fainted--8 thousand american dollars. Seriously. Coach it was, then. And it was fine, I ended up having three seats to myself and slept some of the time. I also started (but couldn't continue past the first half hour) the movie Australia. I did watch, in its entirety, Changeling with Angelina Jolie. She gave a good performance, I thought, and though the movie was super sad, I enjoyed it. All in all, I had a great experience with Qantas (especially the Cadbury's hot chocolate).

When I got to Sydney at 8:20 am, I just had time to clear immigration and customs, use the bathroom, and hit an ATM. Then it was off to catch my 9:30 Greyhound to Canberra, and it was good that I bought the ticket ahead, because the seats are assigned. I tried to stay awake, camera at the ready, but I kept waking up, which means I had fallen asleep, sometimes for big chunks of the 3 hour ride. The bus station was about a 15 minute, easy walk from the hotel, where I took a shower, busted open some nuts from the mini-bar, and set out again in search of coffee. The hotel is at one end of a pedestrian shopping area, so that wasn't hard. I hit Target and some grocery stores (I love to go to grocery stores in other countries). Then I went back to the hotel and waited for Larry to be done with work.

tired

I had planned to hike around in Rock Creek Park today after we went to the playgroup someone in our building organized in the lounge (fun!). But then I got distracted as we walked out the door and forgot my new book with the maps in it (details, details) so I decided not too adventurous and stuck to paved roads instead of trying any trails.

It was a bit of a hike from the train so I put Nina in the backpack when we got off of the train and within 10 minutes she was asleep and didn't wake up until right before we got back on the train. Here's the route we took (I'm pretty sure, anyway).

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monday...

We decided to be tourists and took the Metro into DC (not very far). Once we got there we saw that there is a double decker bus tour like we took in Bristol and London (I want to do the one in San Diego some time too, who's in?). The one we did in Paris was terrible, but I am pretty sure it was a different company.

It was fun but HOT. We were tired and sweaty once it was done.

We had a small tragedy on the bus, though...a gust of wind took Nina's lovely red hat right off of her head. The first time, she caught it and I should have taken it or helped her hold it on because the second gust blew it right into the street. She was heartbroken and kept wanting to go get it out of the street. It was super sad, she had that hat at least two, if not three, years.

we made it!

So, we made it. We actually got to Maryland on Saturday afternoon. By the time we got our luggage, rented a car, ate dinner (Thai takeout), and unpacked, we were all exhausted. Well, if you don't count Nina. She was ready to go and talked in bed for about an hour after we put her down at 9 pm Eastern time.

We had gotten up at 4 am California time, and gotten her up at about 5:30. She was an angel for the flight; I sat next to and entertained her for half of the flight and then we switched places and Larry sat next to her. I actually was able to sleep for a half hour or so, which was nice (and rare, I am not usually able to sleep on planes). She didn't fuss about keeping her seatbelt on for most of the ride (there was a lot of turbulence). We had given her the choice of whether to take her carseat on the plane or not; up until we were in line to board, she wanted to take it and then changed her mind at the last minute. The guy scanning boarding passes didn't seem to mind and just let us gate check it.

I had also been buying presents for the plane trip for a couple of weeks; I had a lot of fun picking out and wrapping them. I bought some crayons, a preschool workbook, a dvd, a drawing pad, a magnetic toy with fairies to dress up and put in different scenes.

So here's a slide show of our very nice apartment

It has more closet space than we can use, which is super cool. It means that we can store the stroller open and not have to collapse it and open it every time we go out. My one complaint is that the desk was in a complete other room than the ethernet connection. That's ok, I just moved the desk and it's fine. I knew the knives would be crappy, and they were, but it's ok, I used the opportunity to buy a santoku knife (I had been coveting one, hee hee). And the one I found just happened to come in a package with a paring knife. Hmm, I had been wanting another paring knife...

About two days before we left for Chicago I decided to make some warm socks for Nina. I started with some Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino, and got just past turning the heel when I decided to rip it out and add some alpaca also. I think they came out really well, and they allowed Nina to wear the much-too-big boots we borrowed from Anya. They're super soft and warm, and best of all she was willing to wear them.

carbon & carbide building

Remember when I told you that I got to see my favorite building in Chicago? Well, here it is, the Carbon & Carbide Building.

I used to be so sad when I walked by it because the windows were all boarded up or broken out and it was in bad shape, I was sure it was destined for the dustbin. But I was so happy to see that it has been made into a Hard Rock Hotel (not because I love the hotels, I've stayed in one and it was no more or less special than others but because this beautiful building is safe now!).

You can even see the new Trump Tower under construction in the background of one of the pictures.

obligatory skyline pics

With Navy Pier in the background

And there's the Sears Tower

dragons, horses, and pipefish

What could this picture possibly be?

It's a sea dragon; just watching them float by it seems like they move pretty slowly. But then you try to get them in focus, in frame, and it's a whole different story.

Sea horses, very cool. The next tank over had a whole passel (herd?) of pregnant papas. Just like on Oprah (awesome, by the way, I think).

And a pipefish.

training show at the shedd

Though the ending was a little rough we really enjoyed the aquarium, and we got to see a training show, which is where they just bring the animals out and do some training exercises in front of a crowd to get the animals acclimated. They ask you to be quiet and not applaud or stand up and it's amazing how cooperative everyone was.

While we were waiting for the show to start (and during it) the dolphins in the tank were really showing off and playing. Here are my two favorite shots out of the many I took.

This is how close the lady with the sea lion got, it was pretty cool.

Okay, one more, with a good view of the Adler Planetarium and Lake Michigan in the background. And as an aside, I have never seen the lake as pretty and turquoise green as it was that day, from what I remember it is usually a much darker green. I marveled about it the whole walk home.

I promised pictures

As I mentioned before, when we arrived in Chicago, we spent two nights with our friends Ben & Miriam, who have an amazing condo. Like the nicest one owned by our peers. And behind that rail is the most amazing yarn stash and crafting space I have seen in real life. Also gorgeous bathroom. What can I say? Ben & Miriam are amazing people, and so is their dog Manoush. Click on the slideshow to see the pics bigger.

Ben and Nina had a really great time playing, as you can see, though Manoush seems not to be too impressed.

home again, home again, jiggity jog

Friday we spent the whole day with our friends David & Michelle and their daughters Abby (almost exactly a year older than Nina) and Julia (just turned 1). It was a wonderful, relaxing, happy day. They live in Oak Park, which is where I lived when Larry and I started dating. It borders on the city and is like a small town close to the city (two of the train lines go there, as well as one of the commuter lines). There's a Whole Foods, lots of independent shops and restaurants, and many, many Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Most homes in Oak Park are Victorian, Arts & Crafts, or Prairie style.

Larry took the two older girls to the library while I poked around some shops, Michelle had a much needed nap, and David had a massage. It was really nice to get a little time to myself (I went into the Borders where I used to work and the woman there asked me if I wanted a rewards card; I told her that I didn't have enough alone time to go to bookstores). I picked up some plane treats (including this book which I will save for another occasion) and recharged a little (couldn't be complete without a trip to Paper Source), then picked up Larry and the girls from the library. This library was nice when I lived there but it has been renovated and is now stunning.

We ordered some dinner from a Middle Eastern place (mmmm, falafel) and then Michelle drove us back into the city. It was a magical, refueling kind of day.

Saturday we woke up and checked out of our hotel, leaving our bags there so we could walk around the city for a while. We checked out the Lincoln Park zoo, which is really good and also free. It's really amazing that is is so close to downtown and also free.

It started to feel like lunchtime, and I remembered that there was one last restaurant I wanted to hit...and it was in within a few blocks of the zoo. It doesn't seem to be in the Lonely Planet guide that I got from the library but it really should. It's called Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder and it has a pretty unique menu, including the pizza pot pie and the mediterranean bread, both of which are delicious. We walked back to the hotel where our luggage was stored to allow Nina a chance to nap.

We were flying out of O'Hare this morning so we spent the night in a hotel closer; it's a bit far from downtown. After a good night's sleep we got on the plane and headed home. My mom picked us up at the airport and we stopped by Blue Water for takeout to avoid having to cook dinner.

It's nice to be home. Stay tuned for pictures and thoughts on the trip.