Travel

We’re leaving for OCON today!  First, we head to Florida for two days, where we’ll drop Sammy off with her grandparents.  She will be with them (and we’ll be without her) for eight whole days.  Consciously, I’m excited, but subconsciously I must be very worried because I keep having dreams about forgetting where I left her or forgetting to pick her up from school.  After OCON, we go back to Florida for two more days to pick her up and to visit.

It’s going to be a long trip – two full weeks if you include travel days.  I’ll be dependent on Adam’s laptop for blogging so it might be light for a couple of weeks, but who knows – maybe I’ll write every night about all the exciting things that I learned and experienced.  Probably not.

A few random notes:

• I forgot to upload Adam’s photos of our Farm Vacation so I’ll be adding those at some point.  (I guess that’s mostly of interest to family.)
• My fertility tests all came back normal, so we’re back to square one, in a sense.  It’s good to know that there is nothing detectably wrong with me or us, but in a way it’s the worst thing because it means we have no control over the situation and we’re left with the same uncertainty as always.
• I’ll be starting our summer school as soon as we return from vacation, so I’ll be writing about that quite a bit, hopefully.  I started setting up the Montessori-like environment two days ago.  I had no choice but to do it when Sam was around, so it’s been very difficult to keep her from going wild with the materials.  I’m going to have to spend some time at the conference teaching myself how to demonstrate how to use them and finalizing my plans.
• Adam posted this hilarious status update on Facebook regarding our travel preparations:  “Adam Mossoff is going on a lengthy trip and thus the dog and cat will be enjoying an extended stay at the local kennel, or, given their vastly differing attitudes about the kennel, I refer to it as ‘doggy summer camp’ for Toby and ‘kitty concentration camp’ for Jinx.”

A couple of weeks ago we went on what we’ve been calling our Farm Vacation.  We stayed in a bed and breakfast on a working livestock farm.  We never would have thought to do it ourselves, but some adventurous friends invited us and we went with them and another great couple.  Sammy was the only kid there (except for the baby goats), but apparently, this is a family vacation kind of thing.  It’s also known as a “farm-stay.”  We stayed for three days at Cornerstone Farm in southwest Virginia, which is just a four hour drive for us.  The owners, Barb and Ward, helped to make it such a great experience that we definitely want to go back again someday. 

It started out with the drive.  We brought our dog, Toby, along with us, figuring that we’d take him on hikes on the farm.  So the car ride was a preview of what it’s like to have two kids in the car.  There were horrifying screams followed by things like: MOMMY, TOBY ATE MY GRANOLA BAR! and HE’S LICKING MY HAND!  MAKE HIM STOP! 

In the end, we enjoyed having Toby with us, but the poor guy didn’t get to do much because it was incredibly hot – too hot to just go for long walks – and also because we needed to keep him away from the working dogs on the farm.  Ward and Barb have four or five working dogs that they keep solely to protect the livestock.  We were encouraged not to interact with them, and we were warned that under no circumstances should we allow Toby to play with them or even approach them at the fences.  These Akbash dogs were really beautiful.  They barked every time we approached the fences, but they were not aggressive.  I don’t know what they would have done if we had tried to hurt an animal, but I wouldn’t want to find out. 

More stuff we saw/did/experienced:

• We got ticks (Sam called them tic-tacs).  They don’t have lime disease, so they were pretty harmless, but really gross.  Adam won the contest of who would get the most ticks over the whole weekend.
• We milked the goats.  This was Barb’s domain and she obviously loves those animals.  They all have names, and she knows all of their personalities.  Sam squeezed a bit of milk out but didn’t have that much interest.  I did it twice.  Barb does it twice a day, every day.  It’s a lot of work and they can’t sell the milk, so they throw out whatever they don’t use.
• We learned that male goats are really stinky, so if you want good tasting goat milk, you need to keep the genders separated.
• We drank fresh, raw goat milk.  Soooooo good!  We also had goat cheese, which the others liked but I found bland.
• We enjoyed watching the cows and horses roam in their pastures.  We petted the horses, but the bulls were off limits!
• We learned that sheep say bah, goats say mah.  It’s hard to tell them apart, though.  Goats have shorter tails that point up, while sheep have longer tails that hang down.  The goats on this farm were Nigerian dwarf goats and were pretty cute, as goats go.  There were many “kids.”  We were able to go in the pasture with them as much as we liked and we spent a lot of time there because Sammy loved the goats.  They would stand up on their hind legs and put their front hooves on her and sometimes even knock her down.  They would surround her and nibble on her clothes and hair.  (Now Sam nibbles on our clothing and we call her “goat girl.”)  But she loved them.  She was fearless, and this was one of the best things about the trip – Sam was so excited that she forgot to be cautious.
• We saw and petted the alpacas.  A baby had been born just a few days before we arrived, and there was another that was just a few weeks old, so the two mommies were quite protective.  We were warned one of the alpacas might spit, and we hurried away once when we saw the mommy pull her ears back and open her mouth just enough to show us some green, regurgitated stuff.  Yuk!
• We petted some miniature donkeys.  I didn’t like the braying sound they made – this was probably the animal that I liked the least.
• Went horseback riding.  This was the highlight of the trip.  Ward taught us how to really handle the horses and we got to ride on a hilly trail and gallop quite a bit.  We also had some freedom in a clearing where we were able to experiment with directing our horses instead of just following the leader on the trail.  Ward claims that horses are smarter than dogs.  I’m still not so sure about that, but riding a horse gave me much the same joy as I get from walking Toby.  When the animal obeys you and you get in a rhythm, it’s really a unique bonding experience.  I saw a snake (which I later found out was a black rat snake) on the path, which I found incredibly cool.
• Sam got a pony ride – well, it was a miniature horse named Dusty and he was really cute.  She got the same special kind of ride that we did.  She got to sit in a saddle with stirrups and Ward led the horse along a path around the pond.  Sam only had one moment of reservation while getting on the horse, but very quickly she became obviously thrilled.  She has been on a horse before (sitting with her dad on a real horse) and she rode an elephant with us once, but this was a much more independent experience for her.  God, watching your kid grow up is the best thing in the world.
• Ward showed us his poultry yard.  This is the thing that he loves, like Barb loves her goats.  He had all kinds of chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese.  It was stinky and noisy!  Adam and I saw this one rooster and we both immediately thought: “That’s Chantecler!”  If you’ve read the play, you’ll know this means that he was strutting about and obviously was one proud bird.  Adam got a video of this “buff orpington” macho bird crowing,
• We held some baby ducks that were about 2-3 weeks old.  One pooped on me and I just kept holding it.  Fear of poop: conquered!
• We saw a baby duck hatching!  Adam got it on video.  The duck had started opening the egg, but Ward just helped finish it up so we could see it come out.  Awesome!
• Ward has set up a kind of miniature natural history museum of Virginia wildlife in a separate building on the farm.  He has dozens of insects mounted neatly with pins, some animal skulls, and some live reptiles like snakes and turtles.  Sam loves turtles, so this was a highlight for her.  We all admired Ward’s ambition regarding the project, and his obvious love for nature. 
• We had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.
• We learned why horses are so cheap right now.  All the slaughterhouses in the U.S. that were used to make glue or dog food from the older horses have been shut down, so there is no market for those old horses as there used to be (unless you ship them to Canada or Mexico, and it looks like Canada is going to shut down their slaughterhouses soon, too).  So people are forced to keep and maintain their older horses, shrinking the market for new, young horses.  On top of the rights violations and harm to humans involved, thanks to the animal rights folks, old horses are now being abandoned and left to starve to death. 
• After the other couples left, Adam, Sam and I stayed another day.  It was still too hot to do much but we swam in the little plastic pool and drank well water from the hose and just relaxed.  It was really nice.
• As always, at a B&B you spend quite a bit of time with your hosts, and we had some nice conversations with Barb and Ward about all of the improvements they are planning for the farm and other subjects.  Overall, I enjoyed their company and it was actually a bit hard to say goodbye.

We are planning to go back to Cornerstone Farm again, hopefully when the weather is not so hot.  We’d like to go fishing and goat packing (the goat carries your picnic lunch on a hike), and do some stargazing.  Adam and I plan to look into horseback riding locally.  I’m not sure if there is anything like what we did at the farm, though.  So we might have to go back just for that.  Click here for more photos.

The vacation was really a bust for me.  We did have some fun times, though, and I think the sun did me good.  Adam and I also had a date night on our last night there, which was nice.  We ate mussels and crab and lobster, all in one meal! 

Lest you think I am defeated, I must let you know that we have two more vacations already planned between now and July, and we’ve just started planning another one!  The hilarious part is that just after writing that my dream vacation would be one in which I did not have to clean up any poop, we were invited to join our friends on a farm vacation.  You know, the kind where you do farm chores, which must include some poop cleaning somewhere along the way.  I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.

I still have no time to do any real blogging, so here are a few pictures from our trip.  More can be found here.

Airport fun

First time using her own backpack

Nice day at the beach

She loved running through the ankle-deep water

Cutie pie

Our quick trip to New York was one of the best vacations we’ve ever had!  (I think I’ve said that after each of our last 3 trips, but it’s all true).  It was such a great family event that we cancelled the babysitter we had lined up for the last night, when Adam and I were going to go out and have a romantic meal.  We both agreed that it was more fun to spend the time with our daughter, because she loved every minute of it and was clearly thriving in the New York environment.  3 years old is definitely not too young for New York City!

I wonder why people choose not to raise kids in the city.  Sure, there are problems and challenges, but there are also huge benefits.  And the argument that kids need “green space” is absurd.  They do need stimulation, but New York, with its buildings and lights and vehicles and restaurants and street performers is much more stimulating than a few trees and some grass!  And when you do want nature, there’s Central Park!  As for space to run around, Sammy was outdoors more and got more exercise in New York than she has gotten anywhere else, ever.  And frankly, it was the most exercise I’ve gotten in quite some time.

We took the train, which was fun and terrible, both.  I did not like the mad rush to find a seat and the stations were crowded with pushing and shoving masses of people – one of the most terrifying situations for me.  But it was nice to arrive 20 minutes before departure and to walk around all we wanted in the train instead of being stuck in our seats the whole time.  Unfortunately, the views along the eastern seaboard were as depressing as I remember them. 

We stopped in Philly on the way up to visit Adam’s aunt and uncle, parents of Nora The Piano Cat.  It was a really nice, but short visit.  They gave Sam a “thumb piano,” something I had never seen before.

We stayed in Midtown, around 8th Ave. and 51st St.  I love Midtown the most, and this was a perfect location for all of our activities.  I’ve heard that dining is better elsewhere, but we had 3 excellent meals within 2 blocks of the hotel, at Pigalle, Gallagher’s, and Sweet Emily’s.  This was the trip of bread and butter for Sammy.  She had bread and butter at practically every meal.  We don’t often eat bread at home, and she loves butter, so she just couldn’t get enough.  But we also discovered her new favorite food: prime rib.  She loves the fat.  She always eats the fat off our meat at home, so I should have known that this would be the perfect food for her.  (The prime rib at Gallagher’s was the best I’ve ever had – I wish I could go back right now!)

Our first night did not go well.  It was raining like hell when we arrived and we had to stand in a really long line for a taxi with street hawkers constantly trying to sell us umbrellas.  When we got to the hotel we ordered food delivered and when the delivery peopleguy came, he claimed he didn’t have any change and you could tell that he expected me to leave him with a $7 tip just to avoid the hassle.  What a scam.  The food was already in the room so we kept it and told him that we’d pay him when he could make change.  He left and came back a few minutes later with change.   And he got no tip.  Two typical New York experiences.  Thank goodness Adam used to live in New York and knows the ropes.

The weather was incredible the next day so we decided to do our outdoor activities.  It was the Sunday after Christmas so everything was packed, but it didn’t matter; it was just part of the atmosphere.  We didn’t think we’d have much chance to walk around so we didn’t bring the stroller.  That was a mistake.  Bringing the car seat was also a mistake.  We didn’t use it.  And we did take cabs.  Let the flames pour in. 

Here are some highlights:

The first thing we did was Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center).  Incredible!  Short wait and amazing views.  Sammy really loved it and she understood that we were going UP UP UP WAY HIGH.  The view of downtown with its gaping hole in the skyline still pains me, but it also brought tears of joy to my eyes to see so much concrete, steel, and other and man-made stuff in such a concentrated area.

Rockefeller Plaza was also wonderful.  The tree was ok, but the ice skaters really grabbed Sam’s attention.  We watched for quite a while.

We walked up Fifth Avenue and looked in the store windows from afar. 

We got a hot dog from a street vendor and then Sam fed part of the bun to the pigeons.  This was a thrill for her.  She loved those flying rats, I mean, birds.

We picked the first restaurant we passed for lunch, and it was great.  Lots of bread and butter.

We saw SpongeBob (yuck!), Winnie the Pooh, and Elmo.  It’s like Disneyworld, I swear.  Sam was scared of all of them, but of course all that means is that she couldn’t stop talking about them for the rest of the day.

We went up and down a thousand escalators and elevators, and Sammy learned that it is ok to walk over the grill in the sidewalk and that she won’t fall through.  But she refused to walk over the clear plastic floor in Rockefeller Center that made it look like you were on top of the building when it was under construction.  Even after I walked on it, she would not step out into what looked like thin air.  I say, good for her for using her own judgement, even if she was wrong.

We walked around Central Park and took a ride on the Carousel.  At the ice skating pond, Sammy was again fascinated.  I’ve promised her I will look into ice skating in our area because she obviously wants to try it.  She also enjoyed the ducks and watching the horse-drawn carriages.  But more importantly, I have decided that Central Park is my favorite place on earth.  I don’t think I’d ever been there as an adult until this trip, and I was so moved by the beauty of it.  I love art and scenery that contrasts the natural with the man-made, and looking at those buildings through the trees was more incredible than I would have guessed from what I’ve seen on movies and TV.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.

We walked to FAO Schwartz and then went right past it because there was a line to get in. 

There are some really cool new buildings at Columbus Circle.  I like that intersection.

We took the subway, just for fun.

We walked through Times Square at night, which was also really neat, and something I’d never done before. 

Adam had a business dinner on Sunday night so Sammy and I dined alone.  I swear, she is a great dining companion, and we had a lovely time.  Then we caught part of The Sound of Music on TV in the hotel room, and Sammy fell in love with it.  Good taste, that one.  That was the end of Day 1.  We slept well.

Monday was the day Adam worked, so Sam and I met up with Kim and her family at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.  The museum was fun, but it was really just great to get to know another e-friend in real life.  We also had a nice lunch, and Sammy tried sweetbreads for the first time.

We took the subway again that day, and we were treated to some live music, aka, panhandling.  I know the locals hate it, but Sammy and I enjoyed it.

That afternoon we just chilled in the hotel room until Adam got back and we went to dinner.  Sammy was so exhausted that she fell asleep at the restaurant.  As I was ordering, she was saying, MOMMY, MOMMY?  But I couldn’t hear her.  After I ordered, Adam told me that she was trying to get my attention and she said, MOMMY, PICK ME UP? in the tiniest voice, and the moment I picked her up, she was asleep.  Luckily she woke up in time to eat a huge amount of that prime rib I mentioned.  Again, we slept well that night.

Tuesday was freezing cold so we went to the American Museum of Natural History.  It’s true that you could spend a week there.  We especially enjoyed the dinosaurs.  It was definitely the best dinosaur exhibit I’ve ever seen, with helpful but not overly-wordy text.  I’ve never been into dinosaurs and I never understood why kids like them, but after seeing this, I actually felt a little bit of that kid’s enthusiasm for the subject.  We also saw a live butterfly exhibit, and the life-sized blue whale hanging from the ceiling in the ocean exhibit is something not to be missed.  The place was a madhouse and it was expensive, but totally worth it.  We must have walked up and down 300 stairs and gone 2-3 miles inside that place that day.

After all of that, another nice dinner was all we could manage on Tuesday evening, but it was just perfect.

Unfortunately, once the momentum stopped on our departure date, Wednesday, it all caught up with Sammy and she was a nightmare the whole day.  Small price to pay, though.

There was so much else that we did in the down moments like drinking hot chocolate, jumping on the hotel bed, and just looking up at the tall buildings.  I wish I could better capture how incredible this trip was for all of us.  Part of it is all the great Little Things that happened.  Instead of going on longer here, I’ll save them to post over the next few days.

My final comment on this trip is that Samantha really surprised me with how well she kept up with us, both physically and mentally.  Since we didn’t have the stroller, she had to walk or be carried, and we’re not big on carrying her.  She probably walked 75% of the time.  Her mind was also active the whole time.  Any time I glanced at her she was observing, and I could see the wheels spinning inside.  She understood so much of what she was seeing, and she was never bored.  She’s really a kid now, and this trip showed me how exciting the future with her is going to be.

Wow!  What a great vacation we had.  We got back yesterday and there’s a ton of laundry and shopping and bill paying to do and the pets are puking all over the house to make us feel bad for leaving them, but I don’t care.  I had a real vacation!

The trip started out on a good note when I went shopping for shorts and actually bought a real two-piece swim suit for the first time in many years.  I’ve been wearing the mommy suits for a while, and even though I’m still about 15 pounds overweight, I finally felt confident enough to buy something that wouldn’t prompt children to ask me, “Is that a bathing suit or a dress?”

We spent the majority of the time in St. Petersburg, Florida, where Adam’s parents live.  They have a beautiful house with a yard and pool like a resort.  The weather was actually quite nice for this time of year so we got a lot of good swim time in.  The bad part was the mosquitoes.  Both Sam and I got chewed up pretty badly.  I have a new love for lizards, though.  They came out in droves at dusk and did their best to eat up the mosquitoes.  I’ve never seen so many lizards, even having grown up in LA.  Walking down the sidewalk, you’d see dozens of them scurrying away from you every few yards.   Sam was very excited, especially when one got in the house.  LOOK, MOMMY.  LIZARD!  LIZARD IN THE HOUSE!  For some reason, a lizard in the house was just about the most exciting thing she had ever seen.  Cute.

As always, Adam’s stepmom remembered our favorite foods. There was always a ready supply of pistachio nuts for me, and she made us steak and crab legs for dinner our first night there.  (Crab legs are both mine and Adam’s favorite food.)  I also got to drive Adam’s dad’s BMW convertible (I think it is the 335i).  Sweet!

We took Sam to the beach.  It wasn’t her first time, but last time she was only 3 months old, so I guess you could say it was a new experience for her.  She was really excited to go since we missed our chance in North Carolina a few weeks ago.   After parking our car, we had to walk through a narrow path through the brush to get to the sandy beach.  When we came out of the pathway onto the wide open expanse of sand, Sam immediately squatted down and started running the sand through her fingers.  If we didn’t make her get up and move along, I think she would have been happy to stay in that one spot, and she probably never would have even cast a glance at the ocean. 

As it was, she got to play in the sand and in the water, and she loved it.  Adam enjoyed just walking down the shore hand-in-hand with Sam.  I think that was one of his images of fatherhood, finally realized.  The beach was lovely, with fine, white sand, a lot of shells, and gentle surf, this being the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida.  I found it restful to my wound-up psychology to be somewhere where the water is in its proper place – to the West.

Adam and I left Sam with the grandparents for our 2 day “adult” vacation to Sarasota.  (If you have kids and haven’t had a vacation from them, you’re missing out on something very important.  Call up your parents today and make arrangements!)  We’ll definitely be going back to Sarasota – it’s a great place.  We stayed at a hotel on Longboat Key, right on the beach facing the Gulf.  We slept in, drank Pina Coladas and Mojitos, rented Wave Runners, and just floated around in the ocean.  We met a couple of cranky old men and we had a gripe session about the state of the country.  They were both self declared die-hard conservatives, but one of them voted for Obama because he wanted “change.”  I guess I didn’t really believe that whole phenomenon truly existed until I heard him say it.  Even more unbelievable, though, was that one of those crusty guys said we should go back to the gold standard.  We speculated on whether the country would collapse into dictatorship or Texas would secede.  They were a lot of fun, and one of them took this picture for us.

We ate two excellent dinners at St. Aramand’s Circle, a touristy place for shopping and eating on the next island over, Lido Key.  The first night it was Spanish/Cuban food at a place that reminded me of our days in New Orleans.  Sea Bass that tasted like lobster, mussels, and a dish of scallops and chorizo left us no room for desert.  The next night it was crab legs and stuffed meatloaf, with a slice of real Key Lime pie for dessert.  Beautiful food.

We watched TV in the middle of the day and enjoyed not planning out our days around nap-time.  We ate whenever we got hungry, which meant that we were able to have dinner at 8:30pm, which seemed positively decadent, after 3 years of dinner at 6:30.  The hotel’s outdoor bar had a mascot – an egret crane named Madonna.  She was bold and beautiful and we enjoyed ruminating on the diversity of life on this planet while eating crab cakes and watching her walk around with her knees bending backwards and her strange, floating grace.  The couple next to us must have overheard us because then we overheard them discussing how interesting it is that man is the only species who tries to destroy himself.  While it is true that humans are more capable of self destruction (both individually and as a species) than other animals, the mindset that chooses to focus on that rather than the glory and greatness that the rational mind can achieve is something that I’ll never understand.  It’s pathetic. 

Sam missed us, but by all reports, she did just fine without us for those 2 days.  She also was her usual easygoing self when it came to traveling.  She didn’t use many of the travel toys I bought her because she just liked the experience of the airport and the flight.  This was the first time that I can say for sure that she knew that we were GOING UP HIGH when we were in the airplane.  She saw the ground below and the clouds and she understood.  That was cool.  I actually enjoy being at the airport with that girl.  She makes it all a grand adventure.  The escalators, the people movers, the pictures of crabs and turtles on the carpeted floor in the Tampa airport, the airport play areas, the new foods and drinks, the buses and trains that get you around the airport – all of it is just fun when I’m with my daughter.  I especially liked it when we entered the airplane and I told her to take a quick look as we passed by the cockpit.  The stewardess said, “Go ahead and take a closer look.  Charlie’s up there and he won’t mind.”  Sam walked right in, looked at the pilot and said, HI CHARLIE.

It was a relaxing trip but we’re still exhausted now that it’s over.  But in a good way.

We’re headed to Florida tomorrow, where we’ll be visiting Adam’s parents.  Adam and I are taking a side trip to Longboat Key in Sarasota over the weekend, while Sam stays with her grandparents.  It promises to be an exciting trip, so hopefully I won’t be blogging too much for the next week. 

Today is packing day, but I haven’t started yet.  I’m still finishing up the laundry that I started yesterday (always do laundry 2 days before a trip), and I had to go to Target to buy shorts for me (I only had one pair!) and to Walmart for travel toys for Sam.  I got the best thing: a magnet board.  It’s an ice cream store scene and it has magnets in the shape of ice cream cones, bananas, cherries, and the like.  Sam already plays pretend ice cream store games, so that should be a hit.  Of course, I got a sticker book with Barbies too.  Finally, I got a miniature My Little Pony toy.  You can’t even tell that it’s a pony, it’s just some misshapen “cute” creature (with wings?).  But if my instincts are right, Sam will love it.  It’s always a kick to pick out toys for her.

It’s a week old now, so I’d better write up our adventures on our trip to North Carolina before I totally forget what happened. 

Besides our fun with GeePee, we had a pretty good time traveling by car with Sam.  She’s always been a fairly easy traveler but, of course, car trips at this age can be difficult.  We brought the Da-vi-da, which is the way we say “DVD player” when we don’t want Sam to know what we’re talking about.  (I’m sure she knows exactly what we’re talking about.)  We didn’t use it on the way down, but on the way home we let Sam watch her Barbie video.  For the first time, she watched an entire movie.  For 83 minutes, she was captivated.  For some reason, this made me proud. (By the way, I really like this movie, Barbie as Rapunzel, and I’ve heard that the whole Barbie series is quite good.  The music is nice, the story is charming, and there is not a lot of fast scene-switching.  Sam seems to understand the basic plot and talks about it afterwards.  We’ll definitely be buying more from this series.)

At the campground, we stayed in a little “cabin” which I think was half of a trailer home.  It was clean and cozy, with a bathroom and kitchen.  We brought our dog along on the trip but they didn’t allow pets in the cabins, so he stayed in my parents’ RV with them.  I guess the enormous bugs that could not be kept out of the cabin didn’t count as pets, though.  Holy cow, the bugs!  The bad part was the mosquitoes all day long, not just at dusk.  The good part was the dragonflies and butterflies that were hovering about at all times.  Quite pretty!

We were able to spend a lot of good time with my parents, also known as Grandee and Grando.  Grandee cooked a lot of good food, and, of course, brownies.  We had a campfire the first night, which is always my favorite part of camping.

The campground had a little lake with a fountain in the middle and we rented a paddleboat and took Sam out on it.  She seems to like boating, and I’m determined to get her out on the water at every opportunity to keep that interest alive.  I love boats.

The lake was stocked with fish and Sam got to seem them jumping out of the water.  That was a first.  She also saw a little girl, no more than 9 years old, catch a fish.  We saw the whole thing: she cast the line, the thingy bobbed, the girl pulled on the rod and then reeled it in.  Her older brother took the fish off the hook and put it in a bucket of water, where we watched the fish swim and jump angrily around in circles before settling in to his fate.

On the Fourth, we went to a little town called Elizabeth City to watch the fireworks.  There was a good military band playing, and a moon bounce to pass the time until it got dark.  We also saw a woman holding (wearing?) a python, and Sam got to touch it.  It’s not the first time she’s touched a snake, but again, we try to take every opportunity for Sam to have these interesting experiences. 

Since Sam has recently decided that she is afraid of thunder, I knew the fireworks might be a problem, but I didn’t think about it much.  We just kept a semi-casual, semi-excited attitude.  She was sitting on my lap as we waited for the show to start.  When she saw the first explosion, I felt her sit up straight with interest, but when she heard that first explosion a moment later, she cowered into my shoulder.  The rest of the show was the ultimate in what Adam and I call, “scared-curious.”  We actually invented that term for our cat, who seems to be in a permanent state of ambivalence, but it is certainly applicable to many things with Samantha as well.  She was fascinated and scared at the same time.  She alternated between being transfixed and saying, GO HOME NOW. NO FIREWORKS. SHOOK. [Scared.]  She was never scared enough for us to pack up and call it quits, and I think that she enjoyed it overall.  I was proud of her.  It was quite a nice fireworks show too.  We all enjoyed it.

We had planned to hit the beach at Outer Banks the next day, but we slept in late and it looked like rain, so we just went to another local town for a picnic at a park instead.  The park had a playground, so Sam was happy.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at The Smokey Pig restaurant in Ashland, Virginia.  It’s just one of those hokey places with a silly name that you see everywhere on the side of the road, and the food was sub-par.  But it was a highlight of the trip because the whole place was filled with pigs – pictures of pigs, statues of pigs, stuffed pigs, carved wooden pigs, even a poster of Pigs in Space.  Sam loved it enough that we grabbed a to-go menu for the Adventure Box.

As you can tell, most of my thoughts about this trip revolve around Samantha.  That’s fine with me.  Watching her experience new things and places is one of the great joys of parenting.  Still, I’m really looking forward to our next trip, which will include a Samantha-free weekend for Adam and me.  Now that will be a first for the adults in the family!

For Independence Day weekend, we took a short trip to North Carolina to visit my parents, where they are staying in their RV for about a month.  This was our first road trip with our new friend, GeePee, the GPS.

I felt bound to name the machine after I heard how my parents talk about their own “Carmen”:  “Carmen told us to take the 123 but we didn’t listen,”  “I was just doing what Carmen told me to,” etc.  If you’re going to anthropomorphize a machine, the GPS is a fun one.  It might also be a solution for road rage, as people can now just yell at their GPS devices instead of other drivers:  “Goddamn it – that’s the wrong way!” or “How was I supposed to get over in time to make that turn, you stupid machine?”  I mean, somebody has to be the scapegoat for our bad driving, so why not a computer?

You’d think that having a virtual back-seat-driver would eliminate the need for real ones.  But when Adam was driving us back to the campground after fireworks on the Fourth, none of us could resist telling him where he should turn or which way would be faster.  Oh well, I guess technology can’t solve all our problems, after all.

Our GPS doesn’t have traffic information and we forgot to check before we left, so we probably didn’t take the best route out of DC.  Since we had consciously decided to let GeePee guide us, we didn’t bring maps or make alternate plans like we might have otherwise, and we didn’t have much of an idea of where exactly we were going.  That was a mistake, since we got caught in tunnel traffic near the Outer Banks area.  We tried pressing the “Detour” button on GeePee but I guess we didn’t trust him quite as much as we thought we did because we chickened out of actually changing course.  Next time, GeePee, I promise, I’ll listen!

We sure spent a lot of time fiddling with GeePee.  On our way home, we wanted to get off the freeway so we tried the “Avoid Highways” function, but it would have taken us way out of our way.  When we tried to turn off that function, we found a bug in the software which threatened to keep us on surface streets forever – the menus were not displayed properly and it wouldn’t let us go back to normal mode.  You mean, we can never drive on the freeway again, GeePee?  Please, don’t do this to us!  Fortunately, Adam was bright enough to find the “Restore Defaults” button on another menu and we were back in business.  But then, how could we get it to guide us up Highway 1 instead of the I-95?  I tried entering intersections, I tried to “Detour,” and I tried who knows what else.  Finally, we just left it alone and listened to “Recalculating” for 2 hours as we fought our way back to DC on a Sunday afternoon at the end of a holiday weekend.  God forbid we turn off the machine!  Do you think somebody might have programmed an Easter Egg in there so that if you reach 1000 instances of “Recalculating,” the machine will instead start saying “Why’d you buy me anyway?”

The defining moment of our travels occurred on that drive home.  We’d been stuck on the streets of Fredericksburg for about 20 minutes when a man in a truck in the lane to the right of us rolled down his window.  He said, and I quote: “Excuse me sir.  My GPS is telling me to turn left and no one will let me in.  Will you let me in so I can turn? I only have point-six miles to go and no one would let me in so I thought I’d ask someone.”  Talk about an appeal to authority!

I think that’s when Adam started talking back:

GeePee:  In point-two miles, turn left on Courthouse Road.
Adam:  No!  I reject the tyranny of the GPS!
GeePee:  Turn left on Courthouse Road.
Adam:  No!  I tell you, no!

It’s a contentious relationship, but we’re working on it.

Early this year, Adam and I agreed not to take a vacation this year for financial reasons.  We were really struggling, and a vacation is a budget-buster that is easy to cut out of the equation.

Now we have three trips planned.

Our financial situation improved a bit, so we thought, well, maybe we’ll take a quick trip somewhere.  But we also decided that we wouldn’t go visit any friends or family, but just get out of town on our own, just the three of us.

Two of the three trips are family visits.

It’s just irresistible.  My parents are staying in a campground just 4 hours away for the next month, so we’re going to drive there with the dog for the Fourth of July weekend.  Cheap and fun!  Then, Adam’s parents told us they’d chip in if we flew down to Florida to visit, and that they’d watch Sam for a couple of days while the two of us took a side trip.  How could we say no to that? 

Then, Adam has a business trip to New York just after Christmas, so Sam and I will tag along.  Going along on Adam’s business trips is an easy and cheap way to travel, but, again, it’s not something we really chose on our own. (But I have been dying to get back to New York lately anyway.)

Most of our vacations are like this – things that fall in our laps.  Mostly, they are a lot of fun, and we don’t end up doing the same thing year after year, which I prefer not to do.

But someday…someday…we’ll make it to Italy for our long-delayed honeymoon.  Maybe I should start planning now if I want to do it in the next decade.

Here is the fourth and final update in the Mexico series from my parents.  (Sorry about the formatting but I just can’t seem to paste from Word without strange problems.)

RVing is a great way to travel off the beaten path and really learn something about the culture of the place you visit.  My parents almost never take the big highways, which helps.  They also have the luxury of not having to plan ahead much.  If they like a place, they just stay a bit longer.  If they’re bored, they move on.   Their RV is huge and luxurious – it really is a nice home.  Modern technology also helps them in this lifestyle; maps are still useful, but GPS helps greatly with navigation, there is no need for land lines now that you get cell phone reception most anywhere, and many campgrounds have WiFi, just like hotels.  It’s a pretty great way to spend retirement traveling.  Now they just need to find a way to ship the RV to Europe for a while! 

April 7, 2009

Hola, Everyone!

We are now back in the U.S. spending a few days in a little town, Donna, in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

Pyramid of the Sun, near Mexico city

Our last days in Mexico went fast. Raphael, our favorite and only taxi driver, took us to Teotihuacan to see the Pyramid of the Sun, the world’s third largest pyramid (number one and two being in Egypt). It is touted as the number-one tourist draw in Mexico; but it did not rate that high with us. None of us had the energy or desire to climb to the top of the pyramid or walk the whole route to the Pyramid of the Moon. The most impressive part of our visit was the large scale-model of the greatest city in ancient Mexico under a transparent walkway in the museum, from where we could still see today, the Sun pyramid through a wall-sized window. The tour book was correct when it said it would be exhausting to fend off all the indefatigable hawkers. One hawker won the battle and sold us 10 clay turtle whistles.

Our plan was to take Mex 85, the old Pan American Highway north to Texas over the backbone of the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains. We would have to look for a Pemex for our first night as we knew we would not be able to reach the first campgrounds listed on this route. We made better time than we thought as the short cut we took turned out to be a much better road than expected. After lunch the mountains became MOUNTAINS big-time! They rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell like a continuous row of letter Ms. The road would run along one side of a canyon till the end, then run back on the opposite side. The scenery was spectacular. Little towns could be seen perched on neighboring mountainsides or in the deep valleys below us. Cows, burros, pigs, and chickens roamed at will along the roadside.

At one place a group of school girls began waving at us very energetically and then a woman waved and yelled something which sounded like, No Passable!, No Passable! We got off the road to find that the road ahead was blocked by a car and grass fire. We watched as people from the nearby houses took barrels of water, hoes, and rakes in the back of pickups up to the fire. In a short while we were able to proceed due to the work of these people. Later we saw the police and ambulance coming the other way from the not-so-near town with these services. These are self-reliant people, accustomed to taking care of the unexpected. Road construction is signaled by the waving of red shirts or blocking off where autos shouldn’t go by placing rocks in the way.

At 3:30 we came upon a Pemex , but thinking it was a little tight, we elected to go on as there were some towns ahead. But, in each of them, we saw nothing on the narrow main road and no space to park to explore the side streets for an overnight parking spot. In the mountains, flat space is valuable and it was already being used. No empty lots. At 5:30 we finely found a flat space on the side of the road leaving the town of Tamazunchal in front of a couple of residences, a muffler shop and beer bar.

Muffler shop

A gentleman on his way to the bar took Mike & Richard to the police station to check out parking and later explained our situation to the nearby residents. Even though no English was spoken, we were able to communicate with each other. Everybody agreed that we were welcome to stay the night. We later joined our new friends in the bar for cervezas and music. There was electricity in the bar but no electricity or water in the shacks that were near the RV’s. The water was brought in buckets from a communal well down the road. We were told we only had 40 miles of the slow-going steep roads ahead. Whew!

Behind the muffler shop, no electricity

We left at daybreak, as promised, so we wouldn’t be blocking access to the muffler shop and what also might have been a local bus stop.

Rain forest near east coast of Mexico

We were descending and driving through part of the northernmost tropical rain forest in North America known as the Huasteca. This area offers waterfalls, swimming holes, whitewater galore, caves, and miles of unexplored back roads. We were satisfied with viewing the tropical vegetation and the many fruit and flower stalls along the road. Later, there were very big and prosperous looking ranchos. As we approached Ciudad Victoria, we had traversed many barren mesas. There seemed little to offer us here, other than electricity and a night in a RV park.

The next day like trail horses on their way back to the barn, sensing the border was within range, we drove straight to the Los Indios border crossing with only a stop at a Pemex to get rid of all our remaining pesos. It took us about 1½ hours to turn in our Mexican vehicle permits and visas and go through US border security. Pat and Richard elected to go to Pharr, TX as they wished to attend mass at the San Juan Basilica the next morning. We elected to stay closer to Progresso, Mexico as we wanted to visit the dentist there. By 7:00PM on April 4, 2009 we were watching our first TV news show in 2 months. What was the top news—recent shootings in New York and Pennsylvania and a review of all the shootings so far in March. The US must be a dangerous place to travel.

Los Vemos,

Mike & Donna

Here are more pictures from the first part of my parents’ trip to Mexico.

This first picture (taken before they crossed the border) is an example of what my parents do when they meet up with the Boondockers group, the RVers who like to dry camp, without electricity, water, or sewer hookups.  My dad says some of them like to compete to see who can go the longest on their 100 gallon tank of water.  They shower by getting wet with one cup of water, soaping up, then rinsing with just one cup more.  And that’s supposed to be fun?  But the bonfires they have each night look like fun.

Ajo, AZ Bonfire

Here are examples of the color and food presentation that I mentioned in an earlier post.

Library mural

Market at Lake Chapala

The Malecon (seawalk), Jacotapec, Lake Chapala

Market in Old Mazatlan

Restaurant in marketplace, Guadalajara

Parade, Carnival

Juice stand, Guadalajara

And finally, here is the Lady of Guadalupe, an image my parents saw everywhere in their travels through Mexico.  She seems to be the symbol of Mexican Catholicism.

Lady of Guadalupe, San Carlos

I now have pictures from my parents’ trip!  Here is part 3 of the 4 part series chronicling their Mexican adventure:

APRIL 1, 2009

Hola Everyone,

Goodbye, Hello

Our last update left us at the Roca Azul RV park on Lake Chapala. We left there on March 22 and drove the scenic road south of the lake to the charming town of Patzcuaro. On one stretch we went through several towns one after another so that you could see the Feliz Viaje (Good Bye) sign for one town and the Bienvenidos (Welcome) sign at the same time. We passed a large new building with a heliport outside with the name Driscoll’s. It is a name of the distributor of the raspberries and now the strawberries grown here. Patzcuaro had narrow cobblestone roads lined with buildings of white-washed stucco with brownish red at the bottoms. It gave the jumble of different buildings a cohesive and placid look. We did our usual touring routine of visiting the town plazas, cathedrals, shopping and lunch in a Mexican restaurant.

Chapel on Jinitziu

We also visited the “Casa de los Once Patios” (house of 11 patios) where you can watch craftsmen work and buy their handiwork. Patzcuaro is nestled on a hillside next to a large lake where we took a half hour boat ride to the Isla Janitzio.

Janitzio, island near Patzcuaro

This island is like the top 4 or 5 hundred feet of a mountain sticking out of the water. There is no flat land, no roads and no vehicles but it is covered withhomes, shops, restaurants and bars. Only paths and steps lead you uphill where you have to continuously pass shops and restaurants to get to the top. There you are rewarded with the statue of Morelos. If you have any energy left, given the 7000 feet elevation, you can climb the 162 steps inside the statue to the top. Richard and Pat made it to the top but we gave up about half way.

Fishing "show"

At our arrival at the island we were treated to a group of fishing boats who did what could be called a dance as they formed a circle and then gracefully put their huge butterfly nets in and out of the water as they recreated how they once fished here.

After a few days in Patzcuaro we drove about an hour to Morelia, a city of about 600,000. Morelia does not have any RV parks so we pulled into a Wal- Mart and got permission to spend the night in their parking lot. We spent the rest of the day exploring this colonial city by car, on foot and a tour bus (unfortunately the guide only spoke Spanish). We were impressed by the central square and the cathedral as well as the no longer used aqueduct which crosses part of the city supported by 253 arches.

The next morning we headed for Pepe’s Hotel & RV Park in Tepotzotlan. We haven’t talked much about our experiences while driving but we had an incident en route that is worthy of mention. As you can probably imagine, driving a 40 foot motor home towing a car on these narrow roads is one thing but going through the small towns with narrowstreets can be an adventure. We entered one town which appeared on the map and GPS to be a straight through drive. What we didn’t know was that the road through town split into two opposing one-way streets and we wound up going the wrong way. Most small towns use traffic cops (they’re cheaper than signals) and this was no exception. These cops saw our dilemma, knew that we couldn’t turn the tight corners and started diverting traffic so that we could continue through town. We were then committed to driving the entire way through town going the wrong way on a one-way street. The on-coming traffic just moved to the side like this was no big deal. We made itwith no problems and note this as an example of how helpful the people and the police are. We later arrived at Pepe’s which is our base for exploring Mexico City about 30 miles south. We were advised not to try to drive into the city because of heavy traffic and crazy drivers (as we later observed, it is no worse than Los Angeles), so we decided to take a taxi into the city, stay in a downtown hotel for 2 nights and then a taxi back. Pepe’s is a very nice, modern and secure facility, so we were not concerned about leaving our RV’s there. The staff also made our hotel reservations for us.

CIUDAD de MEXICO

What image do you have of Mexico City? We had an image; all the bad things we heard about. It is probably the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 20 million (nobody knows for sure) and including the towns that make up the urban sprawl an estimated 32 million. With that many people, Mexico City must have everything bad that can exist in a city. After spending 3 full days exploring the city we have a new image. Mexico City may be the most beautiful city that we have ever seen.

Mexico City

Even at 8000 feet elevation the city is surrounded by mountains. The downtown and central district has many large parks and plazas with beautiful landscaping and big old trees everywhere. The main boulevard is the Paseo de los Reformawhich has 10 or 12 lanes and three widetree lined dividers. It must be about a full block to cross it. There are many other wide boulevards and Grande TrafficCircles with statues, monuments and/or fountains in the centers. Architecture is a mixture of the colonial buildings over 300 years old and modern office buildings and skyscrapers, however the old buildings and cathedrals dominate the scene.

Mexico city fountain

We expected wall to wall people but it was really not that crowded. We expected it to be dirty but it was unbelievably clean. We expected to see poverty but saw very little of it. We maintained an awareness of possible crime but never felt we were in any danger. And topping it all off are the people.

University students who interviewed my mom

They are so friendly and helpful. If you ask directions they don’t just point the way, they lead you there. The exception is when they drive they become very aggressive. Being a pedestrian is the most dangerous thing in Mexico City.

We took our taxi into the city early Saturday morning, went directly to the hotel and were checked in by about 9AM. We decided to take the double deck (open seating on top) tour bus which had headphones for English narration. The bus followed a big circle of the attractions with about 20 stops where you can get off and catch a later bus. We got off at the museum of anthropology where we spent a few hours but spent the rest of the day making the circuit on the bus to get a feel for the city.

The next morning (Sunday) Richard and Pat planned to go to the Shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. We wanted to do some other things so we decided to split up for the day. With the help and encouragement of a friendly man in the hotel lobby, we bravely set out on our own to explore Mexico City using the subway and light train system. Even though we had maps and train routes, it was a bit intimidating. In fact we got on the wrong train the first time and had to come back but we soon mastered the system. The subway system needs some comments here. We don’t know if this is new or renovated but everything looks new and modern. The trains and stations are absolutely spotless and clean – no graffiti. The train cars are guided by rails but ride on rubber tires. The ride is smooth and quiet. The cars are connected by rubber bellows that allow people to walk through from car to car. There are a few seats for the disabled but mostly it’s standing room only. They can be crowded in the central district but it thins out in the outskirts. It’s not uncommon to have vendors and musicians coming through looking for sales or handouts. The cost to ride is 2 pesos (about 14 cents). As someone said “For 2 pesos you get transportation, entertainment and a massage”.

Our day started with a visit to the Zocalo (Plaza de la Constitucion) second in size only to Red Square in Moscow. We visited the Palacio Nacional whose front fills the entire east side of the Zocalo. This is the office of the President of Mexico and various other government offices. The walls of the second floor around the courtyard are adorned with dramatic murals by Diego Rivera depicting the history of Mexico City from ancient times. We also saw the chamber where parliament meets. Next on the north side of the plaza we visited the main cathedral which is most notable for its massiveness. We saw Aztec dancers on the square next to the Templo Mayor where it is thought to be the exact spot where the Aztecs considered the center of the universe. A line of people with offerings of herbs and flowers awaited the blessing of smoke and incantations of a healer or priest in Aztec garb. We were having lunch on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Zocalo when the bells of the cathedral began ringing. We could actually see the bell ringers pulling the ropes on the many bells situated on several levels of the towers. This, along with the sound system being tested at the huge stage erected in the plaza, gave a cacophony of sound for 15 minutes until noon when the bells tolled the hour. Sunday was the last day of a month-long Festival de Mexico and el Centro Historico. Some streets were shut down on Saturday for special events and concerts. We had our picture taken in front of a replica of Le Angel whichwill travel around the world to herald the 2010 celebration of Mexican Independence.

After visiting the Palace of Fine Arts and viewing the city from the 44th floor of the Torre Latino Americana, we went to Xochimilco. This network of canals flanked by gardens is a reminder of the city’s pre-Hispanic history when a great lake became a city from piled-up vegetation and mud.

Floating gardens, Mexico city

We were poled along the tranquil but yet very festive waterways, jammed with other gaily decorated trajineras(gondolas) with families and friends or just romantic couples. Mariachis, marimbas, and vendors offering beer, roasted corn, toys among other stuff hovered along side adding to the party atmosphere.

Altogether we rode about 50 miles on the subway, about 30 miles on light trains and a couple of miles each by bicycle taxi and on foot. A pretty grueling day but we got a lot done. Monday we returned to Pepe’s by taxi and rested up the rest of the day. We plan to leave Pepe’s on Thursday and start heading north to Texas. Until next time – Mike & Donna

NOTE

A few of our “Update” readers have replied to our last update expressing a concern for our safety. We have not heard or seen any news since we left Arizona but apparently there must be some bad news going on about Mexico. Whatever it is must be overblown as it is not apparent to us. We feel as safe or maybe even safer than in the US. Also there were questions about how we find our way around. We have a Mexico map book which has highway and city maps and we also use a Garmin GPS with a Mexico update. We would also not be without Mike & Terri Church’s book “Camping in Mexico”. This book is the “bible” for anyone RVing in Mexico as it describes almost every campground in great detail. Also many WalMarts and Pemex Stations allow free overnight RV parking.