Galveston...bath water ocean fun

Okay so I know I didn't have many nice things to say about Galveston last night, it just hadn't impressed me much and was a little creepy, but we wanted some beach action, so we geared up for the sea and sand and left papa to "work" at the hotel. We drove to a beach where you can drive on the sand, but opted out since we were in a mini van. Mini van + sand = tow truck. There was nobody on the beach. It was kind of stormy, but super warm. We headed straight for the ocean and I was expecting warm ocean water, but this was like nothing I had ever been in. It was so warm, like 80 degrees. We had so much fun swimming and playing around, building sand castles and making soup. Kaiya got us all in on her project to keep water in a hole she had dug and we were all running around listening to Sargent Kaiya bark orders at us. It was pretty fun. Everyone felt so peaceful. The ocean does that. I miss living across from the beach so much. The Oregon Coast is beautiful, kind of far and just not the same as California. It just isn't as accessible. Anyway we were at the beach for a few hours and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and head to Austin. We didn't have a far ride and that made everyone happy. About an hour out of Austin and right after the girls had fallen asleep the boys decided they were hungry and needed to use the bathroom. So we woke up the crankies and went to Whataburger, some Texas burger place. Everyone thought it was very good, so I guess it was worth waking the beasts!
We arrived in Austin at rush hour so our short drive was a little longer. We were staying at the Embassy Suites and the girls were so excited about this hotel. They always do a nice job with their interior, looking like a spanish villa. This hotel had coy ponds throughout and the girls decided that it looked like a barbie dreamhouse, so they played Barbie Dreamhouse the entire time we were there.
Our first mission was to go see the bats fly out from Congress Bridge. So Jeremy, the girls and I headed out. We drove by the capital building, which was a beautiful capital and drove down Congress. to the bridge. People were already lining up all across the bridge. I had read that there is a park under the bridge where you should sit and watch, so we marched across the bridge and then under it. You could hear the bats (and smell them...ick) starting to stir. There were a few lone bats that flew out and then they all came. There are supposedly 750,000 bats that fly out every night from the Congress bridge. It is fascinating to watch the babies fly in a circular u turn pattern because they are confused and still learning the routine. They all fly in groups and there are just huge clusters of bats flying through the sky line of Austin. It is actually really cool. I think Bats are pretty cool and kind of cute, but if you are scared of them, then maybe don't go! It was time for some ICE CREAM after seeing all those bats and no, we had not had dinner! We found a little local spot and waited in line for ice cream...I never wait in line for ice cream!!! It was fun though, they had a photo booth, so we piled in for some photo fun. The girls got some crazy ice cream mixtures and we headed back to the hotel to round up papa for a post ice cream, late night dinner. Woot!

Goodbye NOLA, hello Texas!

Our final morning in New Orleans. I woke up early and took my dad and the girls back to the courtyard where we saw the music for beignets and coffee (it was much closer than Cafe Du Monde and is featured on Food Network, so why not) While at breakfast I was finally able to connect with Renisha, so we could see the girls cousins from their dad's side. I am so glad I was able to connect. I was feeling sad that we would leave NOLA without visiting with them. She was so awesome and got the kiddos up and dressed the second she learned we were here. The girls were thrilled to see and meet more cousins! We cleaned ourselves up and headed over to the French Market area to find them. Renisha has four kids (5g, 7g, 8b and 9g) It was an instant bond for the kiddos and they all were holding hands and playing together. So fun! It was hot, but we walked around and ended up back at Cafe Du Monde so we could at least have that experience. Renisha is such a sweetheart and a fun tour guide and had lots of great ideas for us. If only we would have connected sooner. We bought beignets for all the kids and they ended up covered in powdered sugar, which is totally why Mila likes them, she didn't even take a bite, just licked the sugar off and was done (gross!). It was way too short of a visit, but we were able to get pictures of them all together and we hope to see them all again sometime when we are in the bay area. The girls have a lot of family in Louisiana and there is a family reunion there almost every year. I hope we can get them down there for one of those sometime soon. Family is so important and these girls are so blessed to have good family all around them. We piled into Renisha's van and she drove us back to our hotel. Another tough goodbye and we were off to pack and get out of town.

We said goodbye to the Royal Sonesta and New Orleans, which was a hard place for me to leave. We had a great time there. We were off to Galveston Texas and some beach fun. Yahoo! The drive was long, well not really for our current perspective, so about 5 hours and with great scenery.  Louisiana is such an interesting state. Driving into Texas it was clear we were in Texas. The scenery changed a lot and became much more industrial. Even the coast, didn't look like any coastline I am used to with all of the oil drilling and the huge towers. It is pretty sad. It becomes physically evident that environment is not very protected in texas and Texas has a lot of great landscapes that need protection. The signage and bumper stickers were fascinating and a little scary. We finally arrived in Galveston and checked into our hotel. This is the first hotel that I booked that was not accurately described (bummer) we were all in a tiny little room. Oh well we could handle it. It is just a funny situation because my dad has to get up a bit in the night and so he needs the bathroom light on so he can see. Jeremy needs complete darkness to sleep, so a little uncomfortable, but manageable. There was a big storm brewing so I got the girls in the pool to get a little splash time in before the lightening came. They are really loving the daily pool time. I hope we can continue some regular pool time when we get home. Kaiya has become such a great swimmer on this trip and Mila is finally willing to take some risks and try things in the pool. People might think Mila would be the wild one in the pool, but only on her terms. She doesn't like to be wild in places that she can't entirely control (like water). Jeremy and I headed out to see if we could find my dad some scotch (these things are important). We found Galveston to be a really strange town. I was struggling to understand why it was such a tourist draw because there was nothing there. We couldn't even find a grocery store. We finally did and it was such a different experience than grocery stores I am used to. The produce section was a tiny corner and the rest of the store was meat and then highly processed food. Oh Texas, let's change this, okay? We gathered together some snacks and headed back to the room. No scotch for pops, but he would survive. Goodnight Galveston.

Fear, Fun and Old style charm...

I woke up early to run and lift weights with Jeremy. Kaiya decided that she wanted to check out the fitness room so she came with us. She really wanted to lift weights and it was difficult to get her to understand that weight lifting on little bodies is no good! I am still dealing with the life long impacts of weight lifting from the age of 6 encouraged by my swim coach. Not good! So she was my cheerleader instead while Jeremy was my personal trainer. Ha ha! It was his day to do arms, so he had me do the same routine. I was so sore the next day it was ridiculous! We went and gathered up Mila and papa and wanted to head to breakfast. I wanted everyone to experience Cafe Du Monde, so we looked on the map and papa thought it was close enough for him to walk with his walker. We headed out. Unfortunately, we misjudged the walk. Since the sidewalks in New Orleans are kind of like slate cobblestone or something the walk was way too bumpy and way too much for my dad. When we finally reached Cafe Du Monde there was a line down the block and papa was exhausted so we opted for a place across the street. It was decent, they didn't have beignets, which was our reason for going, but they had good food. We decided that a walk back was out of the question, so we were hoping to find a pedi-cab (bike cab) for papa and the girls and then Jeremy and I would walk the walker back. No pedi-cabs to be found. We waved a cab down, which made me nervous because I had bad experiences with cabs in NOLA before. This guy was great. He was questioning my dad on the secrets to getting so old. My dad told him what he tells his doctors "eat too much, drink too much and don't exercise" This cab driver loved that and wanted to know what to drink and what to eat. My dad told him to drink scotch, so he said was going to start drinking scotch that day. Ha! My dad loved the cab ride, so that was a success.
The girls, Jeremy and I had reservations on a bayou tour about an hour and a half outside of New Orleans with Munson's Swamp tours. We did some research and this place had some great reviews. The Bayou was one of Jeremy's must dos for this trip. He was hoping to wrestle an alligator, but I guess that is illegal (I still can't tell if he is really joking about this). We piled in the car and drove and drove and drove into swamp land. Jeremy wanted to stop and check out every swampy marsh we drove past, but we were running late, so we were able to discourage that. I think he may watch a little too much gator boys or something. We made it to Munson's just in time. There were about 20 people there, so we all loaded up on this pontoon boat and set out into the swamp. This tour is on private land. Nobody is allowed to do any fishing or hunting of any kind. This allows for so much wildlife to live in these swamps. There were gators and turtles, raccoons, all kinds of beautiful birds and a huge colony of over 100 vulchers. It was really amazing. I have to be honest, I did feel quite nervous rolling into and area so densely populated with gators with my two little girls. I knew we were safe, but I had to have my arms or Jeremy's arms around them at all times. Our tour guide didn't help with his putting it on thick style. We came across some baby alligators that were about a week old and he was very nervous about them yipping for their mama, so we had said we had to get out of there. We continued down the swamp and found the vulcher island. He fed the vulchers raw chicken, which was super strange to watch them and listen to them go crazy about. He then fed the first gator, which was a small gator who could hardly figure out how to eat the pork chop that was given to him. He carried it around for about 10 minutes. The guide moved to another area and found what appeared to me to be a large gator other treats. Then he saw a huge gator at least 13 feet down a ways. That gator took off swimming fast towards out boat, which I thought was not right at all. She came right up to the boat and fed on the snacks he was providing. She circled around and would continue to come up to the boat directly under where Kaiya and Mila were (the two smallest people on the boat) it did not feel very safe. Jeremy was gripping those girls so tight. He didn't feel it was safe either. It was an exciting experience to see the gators up close and interacting, but the more and more I thought and read about it, the more uncomfortable I feel. These gators will now become nuisance gators because people want a good show and this guy is going to give it to them. These gators now swim towards people, which is not normal. If you watch most alligators, they swim away from people. These alligators now associate people with being fed. Deadly combo. Our swamp tour wrapped up after an hour and a half and we were back on land. Overall we loved the experience, but wish our guide and others would be more responsible. It was exciting to see the gators eating up close, but I would rather just see them as they are and not create an unsafe situation for people and alligators down the line. Jeremy was on an alligator rush and wanted to go find more, but we decided to head back to the hotel to take a rest before dinner.
We had reservations to go to Arnaud's, which is my dads favorite restaurant in New Orleans. This is the first place that he had oysters rockefeller and that is now one of his favorite things to make. My dad was in shorts and asked if he should change and I thought he didn't need to, so we headed over. Conveniently, Arnaud's was directly across from our hotel, so we didn't have to fight the chaos. When we went in they informed us that shorts were not allowed in the main dining room, but that we could sit in the Jazz Bistro instead. Telling my dad that shorts were find worked out to be the best mistake we made. The Jazz Bistro had a great little jazz group playing and my dad was so happy. They go above and beyond with the old style service at Arnaud's with three different servers per table. You want for nothing. The food was great, everyone was happy. The girls were obsessed with the two tap dancing street performers outside one of the windows, but also enjoyed the music inside. The band came to our table and played for my dad and took his requests, which is always so fun. My dad couldn't think of a good song request, which is funny because my dad knows so many songs throughout history. He picked "sweet sue" which the band was surprised and happy about, but of course my dad was mad at himself all night for choosing that song (HA!) Dinner was fabulous, we all had dessert which was decadent and delicious. Kaiya had told me she wanted to have coffee with dessert because she is in an "I am growing up and think things like coffee are fancy" phase. I thought, well okay, so we ordered he a decaf coffee and she thought it was so happy! She took a tiny sip and thought it was so disgusting (surprise?) Dinner was about a 2 and 1/2 hour affair so the girls were pooped. Jeremy took them up to the hotel to sit on the balcony and my dad and I set out (well around the corner) to hear some more jazz. There was a great courtyard around the corner from Arnaud's and still just across from our hotel and they had a great little jazz group playing, Steamboat Willy. My dad and I sat and listened and well my dad sang everysong with them and got a few requests in. He loved it. I love getting to spend time with just my pop. He is so fun and he really enjoys getting out and doing things, especially when it is accessible for him (no long walks on cobble stones through a bunch of drunk people). We stayed for an hour or so and then headed to the room.

Jeremy and I decided we would go out and explore New Orleans a bit without worrying about the littles or the pops. We wandered around, stopping in and listening to all the different music and watched all the fascinating people, it was so fun. We thought it would be fun to have a pedi cab New Orleans experience, so we convinced a guy to take us on a half an hour tour for 20 bucks. We rode around the French Quarter on the back of a bike and listened to this guy tell us about history. He was a sweet kid, trying to pedal his way through law school in New Orleans. It was so hot and he was completely drenched with sweat by the end of our ride. We parted ways and wandered down to Preservation Hall, since we never made it there with pops. Jeremy and I listened to a few songs from the lobby which was basically like a front row seat. It was different than I remembered it, but it has been about 15 years since I was there. It is such a great experience, so I am glad Jeremy got to at least see it. We bought my dad a shirt and headed back to the hotel. We went to pick up the little ladies and our key no longer worked, we knocked and I tried looking under the door and I decided that they were all asleep. In the morning my dad informed me that he waited up until 2am for us (it was so much earlier than that when we returned). I felt horrible, grrr. Another fun filled exhausting day of our trip! GN.

Zimmerman Verdict

I forgot to mention that our first night in New Orleans I went down to get change so we could tip the person who brought us champagne and as I went into the cafe in our hotel there was a bit of a commotion going on. I asked the woman at the counter for change and she was breaking my 20 all the while staring at a man in the cafe who was laughing and cheering. She then apologized to me and said that she was trying to understand why that man would be cheering for the verdict. I was not aware at that time that the jurors had come back with a verdict for George Zimmerman. I asked her what they decided and she sadly said "not guilty". I was saddened, but not surprised. I do not know all of the evidence, but I know that child should still be alive and I know that had George Zimmerman listened to the directives of law enforcement, he would be. It was very sad to watch this play out this evening with a man, cheering carelessly for a verdict that really didn't impact him and hurting people around him. There is no good outcome for anyone when a child has been killed. How can anyone see a good outcome in that. I think cheering and laughing was an inappropriate response and I think so many of us unintentionally harm people by being careless with our actions and reactions. It was a very somber moment for me. There have been many moments on this trip, as I have mentioned in which the racial disparity and inequity in this country have been so blatantly represented across different states and cities and in different ways. We have had many conversations about the issue of race and poverty here in the United States, I have read internet postings of people denying that racism still exists even some that say that "white people" are the only ones who are discriminated against. I feel sad that people think this way. I feel sad that I have to be cautious about where I take my children in this so called free country of ours where we encountered all different types of people who looked at them and looked at me and made less than pleasant faces or behaved differently towards us. We drove through towns that still have segregated seating. It is an issue that people of all walks of life, parts of this world, color of skin, socioeconomic placement will need to participate in to find a solution. We all hold a place in this struggle. We are all deserving of greatness and should all be treated with dignity and respect. One should not have to worry that their child will not live through a walk to the store to get some candy because he wears a certain jacket and has dark skin. That is wrong. That should not be cheered for nor laughed about, by anyone, ever.  I hope to see progress in my lifetime, I hope to be part of the solution, I hope and pray for a better, safer world for my children and for all children.

Virginia Family to New Orleans Crazy

We were sad to leave our little apartment in DC, it felt spacious and homey, which isn't something we have had much of. We got out later than wanted or needed this morning, oh boo. We had a big drive ahead and a very important visit with my Uncle Marshall and Aunt Rosemary. We packed up and drove over to pick up pops and say our final goodbyes. My dad was able to get a hold of Sylvia Hill late the night before, so he and Steve were up late with her. I am so glad my dad got to see his friends. He was so happy when we left DC, it was  a great time for him. We hit the road and headed towards Amherst, Virginia. My uncle has had quite a bit of trouble with his legs and had a hard time walking and my aunt just had a second stroke a few months ago. We didn't want to add any stress to them, but really wanted to see them. It was only about 3 hours to Amherst. All along the drive seeing civil war sites. Jeremy is really loving all the history. There are many things that he would want to stop and see along the way, but my dad is more interested in seeing people and eating food...so we all have to find our way in this trip without stepping on each others toes. That is something we have had to finesse. It has gone pretty well overall with everyone getting a bit of what they want. There were a few sites we wanted to stop and see, but it all just felt like too much with the distance we had to drive to reach Chattanooga that night. So we settled for driving by a few battle sites and passing up Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's house). We really wanted to go there, but it would have taken too much time to do it justice. I had been there once before with my Uncle Marshall and it was a fascinating place. We made it to Marshall and Rosemary's and it was so great to sit and chat with them for about an hour or so. I worry about them being all alone and I know that Marshall's kids are working hard to get them closer. Having great kids is a good thing! I hope they are able to get them moved soon. My dad is in a similar boat of being all on his own. It is a lot to manage when you are over 80. That is the time when all your hard work should pay off and others care for you, so you can do the things you want to do, not the things you have to. I hope to convince my dad of this when the time is right. I would have loved to see more of my mom's big brother, but I could tell they were tired and the girls were a little restless so it was back on the road. We drove through all of Virginia a corner of North Carolina and all the way through Tennessee to Chatanooga. It was late and we were tired and just crashed out. The hotel was good, a suite with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We are all getting a little cabin fever when we have to share a smaller room and share a bathroom, so the chances we get to have more space are welcomed! We had another long day of driving tomorrow, but they happy part is we are moving into Central time and this time we get an hour back, which totally rocks for us.

We woke up early and fought our way through breakfast, it was a rough one with lots of people and a line for the waffles for my dad, AGAIN! I had to stand my ground (not a great term to use right now) and make my way to the front. They were out of coffee continually and unfortunately this road trip has rekindled my relationship with coffee...grr. We made it out and onto the road. Chatanooga is a cute little town, but we didn't do it justice and didn't have time to. We drove through Georgia, and into Alabama. We went through Birmingham, but didn't see much. We decided to have lunch in Tuscaloosa, since my dad loves that town and spent some time at the University of Alabama. Tuscaloosa is super cute. We had lunch at Witzell's oyster bar, which is a cute little Southern chain. We had fried green beans and pickles, which was a fun experience. Everyone had a great lunch and a good leg stretch. Jeremy and I found a cute little coffee shop after lunch to feed my addiction :( but the kid working there was super nice and wanted to talk to us about Oregon and how he thought he should move there. We drove through the University, which was lovely and allowed my pop to tell some stories about his experience there. Such a great campus with massive brick buildings. I wish all campuses had that classy vibe. Back on the road. We were New Orleans bound and super excited. We didn't want to get in too late, so we wanted to keep pushing through. We still had to get through Mississippi. Ahh!!! It was so exciting to finally be in Louisiana. The girls great-grandma is from Louisiana and they have cousins that live in New Orleans, we were hoping to see them while there. We also had a lot of plans for food, alligators and fun! We drove into Swamp lands. I think Jeremy was hoping an alligator would just pop out and say hello, but I don't think that is how it works. Once in the New Orleans area it was crazy to see the remaining evidence of Hurricane Katrina. There are so many people still trying to rebuild their homes after that tragic storm. Life is so hard for so many and much of it is not their fault, contrary to what many believe. I hope if anything improves in our country soon it is having compassion for others. That would be wonderful. New Orleans is another exciting place to be with a lot of energy. By the time we got into town, Bourbon street was already closed to cars, which made it a tad tricky to get to our hotel, which was the Royal Sonesta on Bourbon street. My dad really wanted to stay at this hotel and we were able to get him a room with a balcony. We had two rooms here, because no room was big enough for all of us. It was good to have the space. The Royal Sonesta is very fancy with New Orleans charm, fancy chandeliers and wrought iron accessories, It is a magical place. The girls wanted to get in the pool immediately, so we did. They felt it was the worst pool yet, with too much chlorine and too many grown ups, so they didn't last long and didn't ask to go in again (whoa!) We got dressed and headed out on the town in hopes of getting to the Preservation Hall to see some jazz. My dad wanted to see jazz! We all were hungry and wanted to find a quick bite, but not a lot is quick in New Orleans. The street was busy and difficult for my dad to navigate with his walker. WE ducked off to the two sisters court for some appetizers. The courtyard instantly reminded my dad that he had been to this restaurant with my mom. Another indication for me that she is traveling with us in so many ways. I love these random mom reminders on the road, so nice to have the time to think of her and savor those moments. I feel like the hecticness of life allows for too much time to pass that I don't think of her, then when I do I feel upset that it has been too long. Sometimes the farther she gets away the harder it is. I don't know if that makes sense, but I want to remember what her voice sounds like and what she smelled like and those things become harder to reach and that hurts. Well she visited with us in New Orleans in her classy way and that was lovely. We had a good snack, but it took too long and we weren't sure we could make it to Preservation Hall. The second my dad got back out on Bourbon street he decided he didn't want to be out there. There were many more people and they were all much more drunk than before we went to eat. It was too much for everyone, the girls were somewhat horrified at the "innappropriateness" as Kaiya called it. So we headed back to the room to watch from our balcony. We had a free bottle of champagne with our room so we ordered that and we sat on the balcony and the three adults had champage and we watched on. There was an awesome impromtu wedding march down our street with a jazz band and the entire wedding party. The girls loved that. Such fun energy in this city. It has always had the seedy stuff, but it used to be classy seedy, unfortunately, like everywhere our more recent generations like trashy seedy and that stuff is just gross. I would like New Orleans a lot more without all of that. It is very Vegas-sy in some ways now. All things change and not always for the better, I suppose. The big girl decided to sleep in papa's room and the little one came with Jeremy and I. It was late past midnight) and we were all so beat. Goodnight!

Dinosaurs, American History and splish splash

We planned to get up early and spend the entire day in the city of DC, but plans change, right? So much busy busy calls for a lazy morning. Our friend Sarah (Steve's wife) said to me the other day that they did so much do this do that travelling that some of their kids now hate to travel. That really sunk in for me. I thought, "the girls want to just splash in the pool today, yes we are in DC, but clearly I need to get over it." They had a blast in the pool and after they were done then we decided we should see some of the Smithsonians. I guess it was a sort of compromise. Good deal. Jeremy and I went back and forth trying to decide how to get into DC because, well compared to NYC, the driving wasn't too bad, but the parking was a beast. We decided that Metro was best and really just part of the experience. DC has an amazing transportation system. We drove and parked at the station and had to figure out the rates, which is the only confusing part about riding the train in DC, each stop has a different rate and at different times of day it is a different price and then there are hidden card fees that you are supposed to add, essentially at each stop, we couldn't get out of the gate because somehow we hadn't paid enough and had to get assistance. Fun times. We finally made it into DC and got off at the National Mall. Jeremy instantly got roped in to some guy trying to "help tourists" and ended up paying him a few bucks for the "help". It was all good though, he was funny. He told us that the girls wanted a little brother for Christmas. Ok?! Kaiya was like, "why does he think I want that for Christmas?" she is so funny sometimes! We got over that and headed for the Museum of Natural History to see some dinosaurs. That was really fun, dinosaurs are so impressive for little people. It is incredible to see that they found dinosaur bones all along our route on this trip. Dinosaurs walked where we walked, so cool! They do a nice job of every exhibit at the Smithsonian. Kaiya liked the giant Sloths and the dinosaur bones. Mila thought they were all very scary, but she like the caveman exhibit. Mila mostly likes the snacks wherever we go, she is most interested in checking them out. She did however say that the "Big one, the t-rex because it is bigger!"After a little bit at the museum we realized that we were all starving to the point of woozy. Kaiya wanted to take a pedi-cab to lunch and she offered to pay for it with her travel money. Well alrighty then. We all piled into the back of a bike and made this poor guy haul us up a hill while trying to explain history of DC. He was awesome. He comes into DC from Chicago every year to drive a pedi-cab and teach DC history. We found an awesome salad place called Chop't and that was the end of our ride. He was dripping sweat and could hardly breath. That is a lot of weight to haul on a bike!! I think I should start offering people rides on my xtracycle, could be interesting! I have so many new inspiring (some good and some not so) ideas for future ventures. We will see how that all pans out. After lunch we headed to the Museum of American History. It is so hot in DC that not only do the museums provide amazing things to look at, but also a cool break from the humidity. The girls had a plan for things to see at the American History Museum. They b-lined for Dorothy's ruby slippers and were so excited when they stumbled upon them. They just stared in awe for a few minutes. They wanted to see Lincoln's hat, so we went to the African American History section, which will soon be its own museum in DC. Kaiya had a lot of questions about slavery and how could that even happen. They had shackles on display that were used to transport child slaves. Kaiya was mortified. She really does have a strong sense of what is right and of justice, I hope she keeps that through her life. She is such a great person! Mila didn't really understand all of it, but always asks questions about why people "with brown skin, like Kaiya" are being treated this way or why do movies show them that way. She is definitely already aware that there is inequity in the world and it is confusing. They exhibit was great and walked you through to the end of slavery, which is where Lincoln's hat was. Again, I love Lincoln, just saying. The other side of the exhibit walked you through Civil Rights, which is again so inspiring and with such amazing leadership. Not much of that these days. I have found so many examples on this trip of how we have slid backwards since civil rights. There is so much anger and segregation in this country. There are so many people suffering right around the corner from us, but it is accepting and I find it so depressing. I don't care what people have done in their lives, they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Judgement is so intense in this country and I have found that the most difficult and necessary part of our travels. Seeing for ourselves what is happening in this country and allowing time to think about what needs to be done. That has been a painful process for me. I know, tangent, sorry.   After the African American History we went and saw the first lady dresses, they have many of the dresses from the last 200 years. It is incredible to see them and read about the women who wore them. I am not sure I have a favorite first lady. I hadn't realized that many of the first presidents had chosen other family members to take on the role of first lady. Some had daughters, nieces, cousins that would attend events and be the hostess at the white house. Interesting. We then walked through the presidents exhibit. Kaiya chose Lincoln as her favorite president of all time and Mila chose Washington. Both good choices, I think. They loved standing at the presidents podium and reciting speeches on tv, that was very fun. Mila looked like a dictator with her hand and facial gestures...appropriate for Mila. Our last venture was to see the Star Spangled Banner. I just love all the stories about all of these people, places and things. The Smithsonian Museums are so wonderful and free! I love that anyone can go and see and learn. That is how more places should be. All should have a right and access to experience history and step outside themselves. I love DC, wish we had more time...  it was getting late, after 7pm and we needed to go meet up with my dad and the Selby family, so we headed back to the metro. The ride home was a bit more confusing and crowded with all the folks headed home. Our family was all feeling tired and silly. We paid the wrong amount again and had to pay more to get out of the station. Oh joy! On our way to see my dad we saw lots of bunnies and fireflies which I think I mentioned before. The girls just get so excited! We made dinner at the Selby house and soaked up our last bit of time with them. Sarah was leaving at 6am to drive to Maine ( I do want to go to Maine someday) and we were leaving in the morning. The girls were anxious to get in another night swim, so it was back to the pool with us. They swam and swam and shut down the pool. Mila made a little friend, which is always her plan. She talks about how she will make a friend at every pool and what she will share of her water toys with her new friend. So cute!

Cupcakes and monuments...oh my!

I woke up early and went running. I have to get it in while I can. I had great intentions in New York, but there was just too many other things to get into. So I must keep this thing going. It does feel good to get up and run without an internal battle, I have been waiting for this feeling. I came back and gathered up the girls to head over to see what papa and the gang were up to. They showed us a secret woodsy path through a to their house from the hotel and the girls loved that, so we walked to their house as much as we could. They were figuring out their day, so we sat with them for a bit and then decided to do our own thing. We went back to the hotel and went swimming in the pool. The young lifeguards had a lot of rules for us. I was starving and trying to eat a snack and coffee, but was told no drinking or eating anything. The girls  got in and 2 minutes later the lifeguard blew the whistle and said it was time for them to take a break?? What?? I guess they have a rule the last 15 minutes of every hour is break time in Virginia. I was super irritated so we decided to venture out into the world.  We headed to Georgetown to find Georgetown cupcakes for Kaiya. She really likes cooking reality shows and has enjoyed watching DC cupcakes which is about Georgetown cupcakes. We made it to Georgetown and searced for parking and finally found a spot down by the Potomac river. Wow does that river smell bad. So sad what we have done to some of the most naturally beautiful parts of this country. That has been a constant theme for me on this trip. I find myself often thinking about what it once looked like and how clean the water in the rivers, lakes and oceans once were. Boo. Anyhow, we apparently made it at a low cupcake time of day (does such a thing occur) since the line was not very long and we were warned about the line. It was very exciting for Kaiya. The hard part was deciding which cupcake to order. She went for red  velvet. We all got cupcakes and sat down and watched them make cupcakes while we endulged. Yum! We ate lunch after cupcakes because we can! Mila was very tired and we decided a nap was in order. We headed back to our hotel room. We checked in with my dad and Steve and decided that we would head to their house after naptime and have dinner and then go on a monument night tour. Naptime went a little long and we rushed over just in time for a Chinese food order to be placed. We ate food and headed out into the night all loaded up in our van for a tour of DC after dark. Steve was an excellent tour guide giving us the grand tour of the layout of DC and a lot of history. We stopped and the girls, Jeremy and I ran a block down to see the white house. Kaiya was probably the most excited to see it, but also secretly hoping that she would see the Obama girls frolicking on the lawn?? Who knows. It was still great fun for the girls. There is something magical about the white house. We continued on our journey and went to the Lincoln Memorial, which is lit up at night. I love the Lincoln memorial, mostly because I love Lincoln. I think I have an old dead man crush on Lincoln...I know, that isn't right, but he was an amazing person and brilliant. I wish we had leaders like him now. We certainly need them. The view from the memorial is wonderful as well. Looking out across the pool of water to the Washington Monument is always so inspiring. To stand where Martin Luther King Jr stood to give his most famous speech makes you feel strong. It was great to share these things with my girls. Just a reminder to them of all they can accomplish in their lives if they choose to. As we were walking back to the car we saw one of the white house helicopters speed by above us in a sporadic pattern. We decided it was the president and that was exciting! It was starting to rain on us so we ran back to the car. My dad wanted to go tour around Howard University, which is his first real teaching gig back in the 60's. It was so fun to go with him and hear stories about that experience. It has grown so much since he was there, that was a long time ago. My dad has done so much in his life and I am continuously more and more impressed to know of all he has impacted and all the people's lives he has changed. Howard represented another of those experiences. After the Howard tour we had two sleeping beauties in the back because it was after 10pm. Bedtime has surely been thrown out the window on this trip. It will be a tricky transition when we return home! Bedtime is now!

From bright lights to fireflies

The last few days have been so busy and pretty much technology free. It is so hard to take a break from writing and documenting our journey and then get back into it. I fear I am entering a writing block phase. Grr.

We got up on Tuesday morning and convinced papa to go out into the city with us. We took a cab in the direction of American Girl Place because the girls really wanted to check it out. We wandered about and found a Dean and Deluca to have some coffee and breakfast treats. I still think of the show "Felicity" when I see a Dean and Deluca. I loved that show! Our coffee and treats were yummy. Anyhow it was morning rush hour and the streets were busy. This made for difficult navigation for papa with his walker. We headed straight back over to the American Girl Store. Wow this place is yet another brilliant marketing scheme. Why didn't I think of this! 4 stories of dolls and clothes and salons for dolls and hospitals for dolls and a place to eat with your dolls. It is so exciting for little girls and my little girls were no exception. They wanted everything in sight! They both convinced papa to let them borrow some money to buy something. They just watched the Saige movie and Kaiya fell in love with the dress she was wearing and they had it for sale at the store so she bought that. Mila found some jammies for my old American Girl doll that she plays with. It was adorable to see how exciting this was for them. My dad sat by the front door and thought the entire thing was absurd. He was probably right, but it was worth it for the ladies. We had wanted to go to FAO Schwartz, but after our hectic walk about we decided we should head  back to the hotel and get checked out.

We gathered our things and Jeremy and I went to get the car. The guys at the lot were so incredibly rude it was almost hilarious. It took us 30 minutes to go the 3 blocks back to the hotel to pick up my dad and the girls. New York traffic craziness! We loaded up and headed to Harlem where we were going to meet my friend Corinne and her sweet baby, Tamyrah for lunch. The drive to Harlem was pretty easy actually. My dad was excited to be back in Harlem, but it is a very different place now. We met Corinne at Red Rooster, which was a very nice restaurant. The food was fabulous! I had some salmon and I could have ordered two. The girls loved playing with Tamyrah, she is such an adorable, spunky almost one year old. It is always great to catch up with old friends who have moved away. Seeing Corinne was great! She is doing great things and is such a good mama to her sweet girl. It was another rushed visit, since we had to head to DC, but I am so glad we made it happen. If you are in Harlem, you should go to Red Rooster, super yum and lovely!  Back on the road. On our way out of town we saw the Apollo Theater, which made my dad happy. I will miss the diversity of NYC for sure...

We got out of the city without a hitch and headed to DC. We were told by my dad's friend, Steve, that the traffic would be horrible and we expected to get to their house at about 8pm. We made it very fast and arrived at about 6pm in Falls Church, Virginia (just outside of DC). It was Sarah's birthday (Steve's wife) so it was a festive evening. They made an awesome dinner and there three kids were there (Ellen, 23, Jack 20 and Sam 16) Ellen had a friend over and the two older girls showered my girls with attention and they just ate it up. They had an absolutely awesome playhouse out back that they played in and there were fireflies and wild bunnies all around. It was magical for the small gals. We ate and played and then headed to our hotel (papa stayed with them to get more time with his friend). Our hotel was awesome. It was the oakwood suites and it was like a large apartment. It was nice to have space to breath and we were staying for three nights (wow, kinda like moving in) We got cozied in and went to sleep.

NYC...day two. Never enough time...

Day two..

I have been waking up at 4am everyday for the last few days, that is not fun. Today was no different. I finally got up at 6am and got the girls up so we could head down to Rockefeller Plaza to check out the Today show. They were excited, so they were surprisingly easy to round up and get out the door. I decided that the walk would be fun even though it was about a mile. The girls were troopers and it was fun to be out with all the people headed off to work. There is nowhere else in the world that you will see that many people walking on the streets to work. We had a blast on our walk and got to the Today Show Plaza in no time. They were giving out light up head bands to promote the movie Turbo which was fun. What kid doesn't like free stuff. Standing out there is an interesting experience with the newscast blasting from screens in the plaza and the interns running around asking people if they had questions for this or that segment. They then came out giving out books. I wasn't very enthusiastic until I saw that it was Bear Grylls book from Man vs Wild. We love that show and I love that guy because his show has meant less requests for watching disney shows at our house. Jeremy loves to watch any show about wildlife or surviving the wild and Bear Grylls is his favorite survivor guy. She came out with more books and Kaiya and I made a big scene until she gave us one. She let us know that he would be coming out to sign in a few minutes. They then gave out the book that Justin Bieber's mom wrote about bullying. I was less enthusiastic for that one so we were passed up. Bear Grylls came out and signed our book and talked to Kaiya. We let him know how much we like his show at our house. He looked at us funny because not many people there even knew who he was. There were a lot of people asking us who he was. I guess his new show will change that for him. Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie came out, unfortunately Al was on vacation, so we missed him. The girls were starving by that point so we headed off in search of food. We decided to walk back to the hotel and get papa out for some breakfast. He was up and ready and wanted to go to the place on the corner. They had blintzes which always makes papa happy. The girls have been ordering big and eating little lately, so we tried to order less for breakfast, but the portions were still too big for these ladies. I am guessing the heat is getting to their appetites. It was a nice breakfast. We went back to the hotel and woke up Jeremy and gave him his autographed book. He was so excited and bummed (for the first time) that he had slept through it. He loves the book and now wishes he had known about Bear Grylls' new reality show where people compete to survive in the wild. He wants to go on the show. Maybe next time.

My dad wanted to do some writing, so the girls, Jeremy and I headed out to see the sites. We walked West thinking our first destination would be "The Beast" a speed boat on the Hudson that takes you right up to the Statue of Liberty. My cousins Debra and Chris made this suggestion. It was a long walk, about 2.5 miles,  but everyone was excited and pumped up. We walked through Bryant Park, walked by the Library, Times Square, where the girls and I stopped off at Sephora to try on some products, we were just taking it all in and it didn't even feel like we were walking far. We finally made it to the River and got our tickets for the Beast. They informed us that if you don't like roller coasters this is not the boat for you. We got on and got all strapped in. Mila was very nervous since they had hyped it up so she was gripping my hand and biting her lip. We took off on the Hudson and it was fast! The views of the city were spectacular. One of the guys on the boat had a huge water blaster and he was blasting everyone with water, which dried quickly since we were going so fast. We were flying over waves and crashing down and all of us had huge smiles and wind blown hair. We quickly got to the statue of liberty and the girls were so thrilled. We took pictures and gazed in awe. We went by Ellis Island which is where both my grandmother and grandfather on my dads side first landed on this country. My grandma walked from the Ukraine to Amsterdam in a caravan of people who she did not know and then took a ship to America. She had small pox when she arrived so they couldn't let her in and they couldn't send her back. She ultimately escaped the island and was then an undocumented immigrant for the rest of her life. Such an incredible story. She escaped the Nazis, but the rest of her family (other than her sisters who went before her) were not so lucky. Anyhow, I think of all these things when I see all the history on the East Coast. It is just so amazing. One our ride back the driver did some crazy donuts that made me feel like we were going to capsize. Not a great feeling for me, but the girls and Jeremy were giddy. It was an awesome boat ride for sure. Thanks to Chris and Debra for the suggestions! We got back to shore and everyone was starving. We went off to find food and came across a park with a water feature. Mila just had to go play and then informed us from the top of the slide that she had to pee, she was trying to continue playing while doing the potty dance and we had to convince her to come down before she had an accident. We talked a doorman of a fancy apartment building with many fancy residents to let us use the restroom. Thank you nice doorman!! We found a delicious diner and I had a yummy salad that I was so craving. I have been eating horribly the last few days. It became quite apparent at lunch that the early start and quick pace of the day had gotten the best of Mila and Jeremy suggested nap time. I was tempted to push it since there is so much I want to see, but he convinced me that the rest of the day would be terrible without a nap. Indeed he was right. We were going to take a cab back, but we started walking and at some point decided that we were too far into the walk to take a cab now. Mila got a neck ride which kaiya was a good sport about. She fell asleep on Jeremy's neck the last few blocks. She was down for a rest. The other two napped and I took papa out for lunch. We found a cute little trattoria around the corner from the hotel, that papa was excited to try. I was not hungry, but had a glass of wine with papa while he had a martini and some delicious looking lasagna. It was so nice to spend time with just my dad. He is truly the most amazing person. I love that he still has his spunky spirit and is so much fun. It was worth passing up the nap to get some time with just him. When we got back to the room everyone was sound asleep. I had to wake them up so we could head downtown to Century 21 and the World Trade Center and 9/11 towers. We walked over to Grand Central Station, which is so much fun to see, then got on the subway across town to transfoer to the E train. Unfortunately a track on the A and C lines had broke which caused a lot of train traffic and issues. Our quick trip then took us over an hour and a half to get to our destination. I got really confused when we finally got there because with all the construction it looks so different. We went the wrong way like 3 times even while looking at a map (Oi!) and finally asked a police officer to help us find Century 21 (my favorite store EVER). We got there and it was so overwhelming. The girls found very cute stuff and Jeremy was in love with the cheap price of the jeans there. We bought another hat for papa and we headed out of there since it was already after 7pm. My phone was dead and we were supposed to meet up with Robin for dinner. I tried to text her Jeremy's number. I was so excited to see that she would be in NYC (she is my first friend from Santa Cruz, our mom's took  Lamaze together). We took a cab over to the Brooklyn Bridge to catch the Green line to our hotel. We finally got back after 8pm. I called Robin and unfortunately we were too late to catch her for dinner since my text hadn't reached her .We decided that she would come over to the hotel after we went to dinner. Kaiya and Jeremy were wiped out after our shopping spree so Mila, Papa and I took a cab down to Houston street and the East Village for dinner. We had a great cab driver and he suggested we go to Katz deli ( a Jewish Deli). My dad was very happy with this suggestion and so it was. We had a great little dinner in this funky little Deli. My dad got his pastrami on rye that he said he wanted while in NYC and I got a knish and Mila a hot dog. We got Jeremy and Kaiya some cheesecake (they both wanted NY cheesecake). Mila wanted Gelato so we waited in the long line for gelato and then caught a cab back up to the hotel. Robin came over and we sat in our hotel room and talked for a long time. It is always so great to see her and catch up on life. Robin is like family to me and my dad just loves her too. The girls were so happy to have her there and it was a great visit. She was in town for a conference and had to get some rest before her long day, so she had to go. We will see her in August when we are in Santa Cruz, so our goodbye was a little less painful than the others. Off to bed for all of us. Exhausted!

NYC magic-Day One

How hard it has been to sit down and write the on goings of our visit to my favorite city. The last two days have just flown by and I honestly would like a few more.

We left Connecticut early Sunday morning and drove to the city. It is so exciting to come across the bridge into the busy energy here. It brings back all the memories of coming here through the years. I felt    what my girls were feeling when they saw the skyline, just like I had when I was 6 years old and visiting NYC with my family. I remembered the cab ride to the house I would be living at when I moved here at 19 years old. I was so excited and terrified! So, the ride in was just as exciting as it always has been. It was surprisingly easy to navigate the city in our car. It was a bit of a ghost town (by NYC standard, anyway) due to the holiday. We got to our hotel easily and at 11am our room was ready (so nice). We got all our stuff in, parked our car for the duration and set out to see what matinee broadway production we could land ourselves in. The plan was to try to get lottery Matilda tickets. Matilda has been sold out since it won all the Tony's a few weeks back, so lottery is the only chance. WE took a cab over to the Shubbert Theatre (very fun ride for the girls, zipping in and out and honking the entire way) just as they were handing out slips. The energy was great there, everyone hoping for some luck and standing around with excitement. WE took 5 slips, one for each of us and filled them out . If our slip is called you can win a max of two tickets, so we would have needed 3 of ours called to have us all go. Everyone decided that if we got two I would take the girls and the boys would find a more grown up show, just one and I would take Kaiya and the boys would take Mila to something that they could all enjoy. We stood there for 30 minutes and they started calling. They called name after name (really only 10 names, since they were only selling 20 tickets). Our luck just wasnt there. The girls sat there for a second and then burst into tears. I could understand because the excitement was high and then the letdown was huge, they recovered quickly as we headed to the TKTS booth in times square to find out what show we could see. Just the bustle of Times Square changed the energy for the girls and they were fascinated by all there was to see. TKTS had a lot of choices,  but the girls convinced us all the Annie was the one. They were most excited because Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester from Glee) was in the role of Miss Hannigan. I was actually pretty pumped to see her in that role also. She would make an incredible Miss Hannigan. We were able to get tickets to the show and then had almost 2 hours to spare. We were all hungry and HOT so we headed over to the Blue Fin restaurant on Times Square to cool down and eat sushi! Yum! That restaurant is really beautiful, the girls felt very fancy there. We sat upstairs and had the best waiter! He was wonderful. We ate a lot of food and had free bloody mary's in honor of my mom...still wishing she were here with us...the girls made jewelry out of bendy string and the waiter suggested they open a business. Kaiya like the idea and wanted to know more. It was a great experience. We got out just in time to rush across the street to take our seats for the show. Crossing the road, Jeremy and Kaiya spotted break dancers in the street and they made a detour to watch. We gave them their tickets and we went on. We made it in and pops was able to get his hearing device. Jeremy and Kaiya came rushing in after us all excited about the street performance. Kaiya said one of the guys jumped over two audience people. She was so excited. Then she said the performers said "this is the only time you will see a black man running without the police chasing him" she didn't understand why he would say that or why people would think that and gets very upset by these types of jokes and has also experienced being treated differently based on the color of her skin and at 9 years old that is a lot to take in. Sorry for the tangent, I get fired about about that... Annie was incredible! Jane Lynch was great, but so was everyone else. The role of Annie was played by the understudy at our show and she was phenomonal. The stage sets were so intricate and complicated. It was such a great experience. The story is just a great one to see while you are in NYC since it is based here and tells history. The songs are the greatest and we were all thrilled with our choice. When the show was over it took a long time to get downstairs since my dad needs the elevator. The theatre was empty and the curtains were open so the girls took a close look at the big stage and they fell in love (uh oh). They each bought a little memorabilia with their own money (they both had money they earned to buy things on the trip) and everyone was super happy. We were set to head to Long Island City to see my good friend Lauren sing at a bar there after the show. Jeremy decided to just walk around the city to explore, so the girls, my dad and I all hoped in a cab to Queens. This area has changed so much, it was really nothing when I lived there, but Vernon Blvd has cute things on it including the LIC-Bar where we landed. I walked in the door and saw my sweet friend Lauren! We went to high school together and it is always the best to see old friends. Lauren helped us get a spot to sit in the courtyard so we could watch her sing her song. It was a great place with great energy. Lauren sang a Crosby Stills and Nash song so beautifully! I wish we could have heard more. All the other performers were great too! This was my kind of local hang out with great talent. The girls and papa were hot and hungry so we had to venture off to find some food. We found a little Italian place "Juniors" down the road and Lauren came down to meet us after awhile. It was a lovely evening, although Mila was so hyped up to see Lauren that she was crawling all over her, but Lauren handled it all with a graceful smile! It was time to head back to our hotel. My dad insisted that we call a cab, which actually means call a car in NYC because as Lauren informed us, you can't call a yellow cab (this I had not remembered). We said our goodbyes to Lauren, hoping that we would get to see her again while in New York and went back to the hotel. The car was much more expensive than the cab ride, so we learned our lesson there and papa promised to be more patient next time we needed a cab. We got everyone ready for bed and tucked in and then Jeremy and I headed out on the town for a night walk. We just wandered around midtown Manhattan people watching.There are always so many people on the street in New York, I miss that energy. We got a tea at the Empire State building and then headed back to E. 40th Street. I knew I needed to get to bed because I promised the girls we could go to the Today show in the morning which meant an early morning for me. Long and lovely day!

Mark Twain and old friends makes for blissful day

After my blissful morning of solitude it was off to the Dunne household to make sure everyone made it through the sleepover with the little ladies. We were welcomed at the door by Kaiya and Mila who were happy and looking forward to their movie date with Geraldine. We caught up on the events of the evening and all that the girls subjected Mike, Nuala and Geraldine to. They got their fill of little girl dance videos from Kaiya's dance recitals and American Girl movies and everyone had their hair done and both girls were trotting around the house in Nuala's old high heels. They were in little girl heaven, no doubt!
We parted ways again for the girls to go see Monsters University (they just love to tell people how their Uncle Nate makes these movies) while Jeremy and I headed out to Mark Twains house for a little history on a brilliant American. Jeremy and I had a great time learning more about Mark Twain, most inspiring to me was the love story between him and his wife Livvy. What a sweet love they shared. What a great man he was. We finished up our tour and rushed back to the house because my dear friend, Allison was on her way to come visit with us. I hadn't seen Allison in almost 4 years and it was such a treat to spend time with her today. She is such a joy to have around and always makes everyone so comfortable. We love you Allison. We went to Whole Foods and bought a bunch of food for a bbq and a birthday cake for Jeremy who was off working out. We went back to the house and chatted together with everyone all day. It was a lovely afternoon and evening. The girls both took long naps and couldn't even wake up to eat dinner. We had to pull them out of bed right before we left. Again we had to say goodbyes. Oh man is this my least favorite part. I just love my friends and family and wish I could keep them all in my pocket wherever I go. The girls felt we didn't get enough time with Butters (Allison) and I don't think it has sunk in yet that we won't be seeing Uncle Mike, Aunt Nuala or Geraldine tomorrow. Sad times. We headed back to our hotel and the girls got their second wind and wanted to swim. I didn't fight this a bit since it is SO HOT here!! We rushed into our suits and went down to the pool. There was an adorable little girl there learning to swim and my girls were immediately taken to her and Mila gave her arm floaties and Kaiya gave her goggles. They both wanted to help her learn to swim. So lovely. We closed the pool down and now everyone is trying to get some sleep before our big day in NYC tomorrow. I can't wait to get there and just be there! For tonight I will just savor the day and take it all in before I get some rest! xoxo

Connecticut sweetness

I am so very relaxed laying on the chaise lounge in the living room of our two bedroom suite this morning. We left Danbury, Connecticut yesterday at about noon after a restful morning of food and swimming. We headed out to West Hartford to spend more time with Uncle Mike and Aunt Nuala. It was such a great day. Jeremy headed out in search of a haircut and found some other things for himself (a pre-birthday spree, since today is his birthday). We just sat around and we talked and the girls played. Mila convinced Nuala to let her do her hair and it is hard to stop that ball once it is rolling, so Nuala had a full days worth of "pampering" or head scraping as I call it. Nuala decided that she wanted to take the girls on a spree at Toys r Us which is such a treat for them. They are never set loose in a store like that. Nuala and Mike spoiled me when I was a child and my girls having a chance to be spoiled by them is like my mom's role being fulfilled. I am sure she was looking down on us with her radiant smile. It warmed my soul really, almost like was on a spree of my own. Mike dropped us off and the girls ran around the store looking at all the different options. Mila wanted a bike, a huge doll house...anything that wouldn't fit in the car! They just dragged Nuala or "Noni" as they kids call her all around that store and settled on a few things each. What fun! We went back to the house and the girls played with their new things and were just giddy. They truly love spending time with their family, old and young, which I think is so wonderful. Jeremy and I did some trip planning back at the house. My cousins Debbie and Chris gave us some great ideas from the trip across country that they took with their girls, so we were looking into some of those ideas. Geraldine and Jen returned from their spree at the local mall. Geraldine was buying some clothes to bring home to Ireland to her family since clothes are so expensive in Ireland. Geraldine is such a love. It was so nice to spend time with her the last few days. Her family showed me around when I was in Ireland at the age of 21, they are so much fun! It has been an extra bonus that she was  visiting the US while we are here. We all went to dinner at an Oyster Bar and had a wonderful time. The girls were so good!! They convinced Nuala and Mike that they could spend the night at their house instead of the hotel and also convinced Geraldine that she could  (haha) take them to see Monsters University today while Jeremy and I go to Mark Twain's house. It was so cute how excited they were for a sleep over. I must admit it was also nice to come back and talk with my dad and Jeremy and just have a relaxing evening. I didn't sleep well, though. I woke up at 4am and just tossed and turned until 7. Maybe a delayed reaction to the time change stuff? I don't know, but I can't stand that. Regardless, this morning is lovely. The boys are still sleeping and I am just soaking up the solo time. Today will be another great day. Celebrating J's birthday, my good friend Allison is coming to visit with us from Mass. and I haven't seen her in so long!  More time with family and a celebratory bbq. It will be so hard to leave them all tonight, I wish we could see them all the time. Tomorrow we head into the city. I just found out that my good friend Lauren will be playing a show tomorrow night, which is one of the things I was hoping for while we are in NYC! I am so excited to be in my favorite city and to see some of my lovely friends there. Super bummed that Kimmy Hall will be in Alaska while I am in New York, I was so looking forward to seeing her. For now, I will just enjoy this day and take it all in and try to forget about the goodbyes until later. So much bittersweet, but overall sweet....xoxo

Simple Life and Family

Sorry for the delay...I have to redeem myself after reading my last post. Whoosh, my grammar errors were off the hook. I suppose exhaustion and the constant "mama, mama" really reduces my IQ dramatically. I do know how to spell and also the proper form of to and too...but then again, I may have road trip fever...

We left Lake Geneva at about 1pm on Tuesday and headed for Chicago after more swimming. We hit Chicago traffic and that slowed up down quite a bit. We just drove through the city to get a feel for what it looks like. Chicago is such a cool city with the canals and the lake. I wish we would have had more time, but we wanted to get all the way through Indiana and into Ohio before we stopped at a hotel. We tried yelp after leaving Chicago and it sent us to a spot in Gary, Indiana. What a depressing place that truly represents how so many Americans are in the depths of poverty and struggling with nobody looking out for them. People should not have to live this way in the wealthiest country in the world. WE didn't find anywhere to eat in Gary, we kept driving and tried to go to an Irish pub near Notre Dame, but everyone else had the same idea and the line was out the door so we went to Burger King...gross from my perspective, but people were hungry and we needed to keep it pushing. So we drove, or Jeremy did, until we got to Maumee, Ohio.  We were super annoyed by the crazy tolls every few minutes it seems. We paid almost 40 bucks by the time we got all the way through Ohio.  It was before 10pm when we arrived at the Country Inn and Suites, so we headed to the pool with the girls to let off the road trip steam. It can be so hard for Mila to wind down after those drives. She naps here and there and sitting is not something she enjoys, so she can be pretty hyped up by quitting time when everyone else is dragging. After her swim she was a little more mellow. She and Kaiya decided they wanted to have a slumber party on the ground. So we found a little corner and got them set up. They had a plan to play with their lego set, but they both fell asleep the second their head hit the pillow. Ha ha, so cute.

The morning was an early rise and a run and some weight lifting with Jeremy. Such a great way to start another long day of driving. We had taken a look at the map and decided that we would get to Middletown, NY by the end of the day. Our one destination was to see the Amish community in Western Pennsylvania. I had been trying to find some Amish country near our route and we originally thought of driving 60 miles out of the way to what we thought was the closest, but then I read about New Wilmington, PA and Volant, PA. They are really adorable towns not far off the beaten path. We went into New Wilmington and had lunch at the Tavern Inn on the Square. This adorable restaurant is in a house built in 1829 and the home was once part of the underground railroad. A lot of great history there. As we were eating you would see cars drive by followed by a horse and buggy with mostly Amish men and also a few Amish women. I find their customs so intriguing and much of the way they live seems so refreshing to me. Our server at the restaurant was the sweetest thing, maybe a college student from the cute West Minister College in town. I asked her if there were any Amish stores in the area and she pointed us to her neighbors and their store the Bent and Dent. We were hoping to find Amish goodies, but after riding behind several horse and buggies on the road and many parked at the local shops we came to a home with a shed that said M&M grocers. We drove in and went inside. There appeared to be nobody there, but we did hear some rustling in the basement. There was an old typewriter, possible cash register that looked early 1900's behind the counter. Finally a boy, maybe 15 came up from the basement, with a somewhat guilty look...Jeremy and I speculated on this later because we definitely heard someone else in the basement too. Anyway, this boy, Rudy, was a clean shaven Amish fellow, they don't grow beards until married, was very helpful. They didn't have any Amish treats there, just average groceries that he said they don't eat. He informed us that we could only buy their baked goods on Friday or Saturday. Tough luck. We bought a pack of mambas (the only mainstream colorful candy that has no food dye) for 25 cents (cheap!) and headed out. We took the back roads through the town of Volant and saw many more Amish families along the way. I definitely could have stuck around and learned more about how the Amish live, but alas, we had places to go and most importantly, people to see! We drove and drove and had an interesting adventure with my dad driving while adjusting mirrors and trying to use speed control and checking out scenery, not the most relaxing part of the trip. We tried to find another spot to eat in Milton, PA, but found a lot of closed places, like closed for the entire month! We ended up at a truck stop diner which made my dad and Jeremy thrilled and me a bit sketched out. They had a salad bar and that was just fine. At the gas station I rented the girls a Red Box, which was my most brilliant move of late. They have not watched many movies on the trip (we did have a sing along Sound of Music movie experience in the car) so I thought a new movie would get them tucked in for the rest of the drive. They agreed on a flick and were happy as little clams until just before we arrived in Middletown, NY. Jeremy suddenly smelled toothpaste right before our arrival and said "Mila, what are you doing?" Mila said "nothing". She denied having toothpaste, only to recant and inform us that she was smearing it below her eye?? Oh Mila. Luckily the damage was minimal, but she was in trouble for lying and had to skip the pool. It was tough to get the girls to sleep since they were so excited to meet and see family the next day, but they finally caved to exhaustion.

Today was the best day yet. We woke up and had breakfast and packed up to head over to my cousin Mike and Francesca's 4th of July party in Carmel, NY. I have been lucky enough to go to this occasion twice before and it is so fun. They have a lovely house right on Lake Carmel. We got there fast, less than an hour and were greeted by Kathy, Francesca, Mary Lou and her sister Babe. It felt so good to be around family that we haven't seen. I love my mom's family, being with them feels like having her with me again. I only wish I could see them all more often. More family trickled in with Kathy's husband Rich and their girls, Shannon and Stephanie, Stephanie's husband Dan and their two sweet kiddos Jason and Teagan. Two of the sweetest little babies ever! Uncle Mike and Aunt Nuala showed up with Jen and Geraldine who are Nuala's nieces. Debra and Chris with their three adorable gals Tori, Leah and Erin and cousin Mike came after he got off work. There were a lot of other wonderful folks there and it was a great party. Mike and Fran have a gorgeous pool that we played in all day. My girls fell in love with all the cousins and attached themselves to the three teenage girls of course! They took Miss Kaiya all around, on the paddle boat, to the craft store, she was in teenage cousin heaven and it was so fun to watch. Jeremy and I took Mila out on the paddle boat where she almost  fell asleep, but got her second wind and ran back to the pool. We stayed as long as we possibly could, it was a hot day and hard on papa (and Jeremy) so we had to get the boys back to the hotel. It was so hard to say goodbye. I could have stayed here for a week just spending time with my amazing family and getting to know them more and more. I learn so much about the importance of family and the connection that you will always have no matter how long it has been all the time. This only strengthened that for me. We are all so different, yet always find common bonds and have a strong love for each other that, well, totally rocks! I love you family, come to Portland soon, please!!!  AS soon as we pulled out of the driveway, Mila pulled her blanket over her head and fell sound asleep. We came to our hotel in Danbury, Connecticut and carried Mila to the room. The fireworks started soon after our arrival and Jeremy and I were the only ones left to see them. Everyone is now sound asleep as I type this. I should be tired, but I feel so happy and content right now and will savor it for now. Tomorrow we will go to Hartford and spend more time with Uncle Mike and Aunt Nuala. They have been like second parents to me and are two of the most special people I know. I feel so blessed to be here and am looking forward to everything yet to come on our adventure.

Big Sky, History and luxury...the life!

This blogging idea requires a lot of attention, it is a high maintenance relationship for sure. Hard to miss a day and recap with the same energy, but I will give it my best. On Sunday we left Gillette later than planned as I mentioned in my last post, but those water slides were calling our name so we just had to take a few slides down. We headed out to our first destination, Mt. Rushmore. It was a 2 hour drive and    it was nothing but sky and gorgeous greenery around us. As we neared the Mt. Rushmore monument my dad spotted a sign for Red Ass Wine with a picture of a Red Donkey and felt that we needed to go to the Prarie Berry winery to buy some. Brilliant marketing plan. The winery was packed and my dad bought three bottles of the Red Ass...nice. We made our way over to Mt. Rushmore. It truly is an incredible site to see. I find myself being so amazed at what people have accomplished throughout history. How on earth did someone make those faces so accurately represent each president. Blows my mind really. I don't usually consider myself to be a history obsessed person, but these last few days have made me one for sure.

After Rushmore we headed over to the Crazy Horse monument. The plan for this monument is much more involved than that of the Mt. Rushmore vision, but it is incomplete. My dad was so disappointed in the lack of progress made on the Crazy Horse monument since he was last there in 1961. He seemed a little pissed off that Korczak Ziolkowski had not finished the gig even if he was old and dying. I think my dad's perception of old is a little skewed, right? He is still complaining about the Crazy Horse monument now, oh lord.

Our next destination was a drive through the badlands. We went the scenic route to get there which was so gorgeous. I had so many thoughts about how the Native Americans had to navigate through these lands with no gps or even any idea of what was on the other side. I am so fascinated by how much more intelligent people were when they had to figure things out for themselves. They were so strong and brave. Just the thought provoking sites are enough for me to be in love with this road trip. We finally made it to the badlands after thinking we were lost and having no GPS access...clearly we wouldn't have lasted long in the old days, right? The scenery and environment is so diverse in the badlands, the ground is so dry and colorful and you can just imagine how difficult it would be to get through and why it has its name. Jeremy decided he should try to find a rattle snake and went off into the cracking dry hills, looking in cracks and holes, yikes! The girls were chasing him at first until I freaked out and made them come back to the car. He never found one and probably would have looked for hours had we not all been so starving and ready to move on. On our way out of the badlands we found an area with hundreds of prarie dogs. We pulled over and listened to them calling to each other, surely talking about us and coming up with a plan to get away from these crazy folks coming too close. They are so cute sitting up on their back legs outside of their little homes. The girls were in love.

We headed to Wall for dinner, a place famous for a drug store...long story, but really another brilliantly successful marketing scheme. We decided to eat at the road trip cafe. Quite possible the biggest mistake I have made in a long time, maybe the worst restaurant I have ever been too. I need to figure out how to do more successful research on restaurants here in the midwest, or just give it up and find a spot that looks good. This place didn't even look good, so we should have known. Hunger got the best of our judgement and we caved. Nobody greeted us when we went in and it just looked sketchy, but we were committed. We sat down and everyone was grumpy with each other and a little snappy...Hangry is what we call that, right? The waitress came over and really had no command of the english language, which normally is really no issue for me, except she continued to tell us that they did not serve things that were on the menu because she didn't know what we were saying. I think my irritation was amplified because I was so hungry and just couldn't figure out how to get this sweet girl to get us something to eat. I maintained my calm with her until she brought Mila a portobello mushroom sandwich instead of a hamburger (which were plentiful on the menu) I told her she wanted a real burger and she said they didn't have it. I snatched a menu and showed her and she then understood and Mila got her burger to go about 25 minutes later. It wasn't a good experience at the time, but has now been great material for our driving humor and I think now we are all glad it happened. It is funny how that works.

We took off driving, me behind the wheel, which as many of you know is a little shady after nighfall, but I was good, until I wasn't and then Jeremy took over. My dad is not allowed, by us, to drive at night, so it is either me or Jeremy, so really just Jeremy. Lucky guy! He took us all the way to Mitchell which was actually not as far as we wanted to get, but my dad practically threw a fit about not wanting to drive too long, so we caved. We had seperate rooms this night. We went straight to bed and awoke to my dad and Kaiya calling us from breakfast. It was so dark in the room it felt like I had just gone to bed. We let the girls swim for about 30 minutes and then hit the road with the ladies still in their suits. We drove and drove and drove. I tried to yelp it for a good lunch and found a spot that sounded lovely in Albert Lea, MN. WE got there which was a ways off the highway to find it closed. Grrrrr. We wandered around this quite adorable town and found a hole in the wall cafe called Nancy's. Nancy was the cook and they were so sweet. The food was just food, but at least the service was great. Albert Lea is so cute and so diverse which I thought was odd for a small town in the middle of Minnesota. Everywhere I turned I saw people of different ethnic backgrounds and I just love that. Everyone was so friendly, which I also love. Jeremy and I went into this cute funky coffeehouse after lunch to grab a coffee for the road, it was so portland and they had almond milk, yahooo!! After Albert Lea Jeremy and I spotted and Amish farmer on the side of the highway using a horse drawn tractor. I then became obsessed with finding Amish communities and started tro drive everyone crazy. I decided somehown in my mind that every white house was an Amish Family, which is completely ridiculous, but that is just how I roll. We made it to Geneva Lake, Wisconsin at about 7pm to our hotel Timber Ridge Lodge. This is like a Great Wolf Lodge with an indoor water park, so we quickly headed off for some more splash fun. My dad thought he would try out the pool fun this time, which was a failed mission, he thought the hot tub was too hot (smart actually because some other old guy passed out in there) and the pool he felt was boring. He scraped up his leg getting out of the pool and we had to bandage him up. Phew. He had more fun just watching the girls go down slides and play around. Jeremy and Kaiya loved the big slides and I finally convinced Mila to try them after she had a big freak out about it. She went down with me on the tube slide and her giggles and squeals were just so fun to here. Then it was "again, again!!" for the next hour. Love! We went to dinner in the cute Lake Geneva town at an awesome restaurant. WE didn't get to dinner until 9:30 and the girls were exhausted and almost fell asleep with their faces in their pasta, but we made it through. The dinner was so delicious. Possibly the only good meal we have had on this adventure to date. I had the most amazing Salmon meal I have had in awhile. I could have had two. YUM!

This morning I got up early and went to the spa and the resort. Yes, I went to workout. This is something I have yet to mention, but I have been running every morning people! This is quite the accomplishment for me. I just haven't been able to motivate myself to workout for the past few years and then somehow continue to sign up for Hood to Coast with no training and then almost die, but then do it again the next year. So dumb! So now I am off to a good start of running and weight training at every stop we make. Feels so good! I am really proud of myself. Anyway, the spa here is like a luxurious pampering heaven kind of place with attendees and complimentary razors (and not the single blade kind, lol) I could have stayed there all day, but figured I should come back and take the girls for some more rides down the slides before we head to Chicago. I feel so amazing, perhaps its the endorphins, but maybe it is just a change of pace and scenery. I plan on keeping this head space with me for as long as I can. Don't get me wrong I have had a few moments in which I considered tying myself to the roof rack to get away from this crazy family of mine, but those are few and far between.
xoxo

P.S. Pictures to come