Disney Day 5: Magic Kingdom

So yesterday was the big day, the day I knew Leah was going to love above all others:  The Magic Kingdom.  I had specially packed her ‘Punzel dress for her, since I was determined she was going to meet Rapunzel on our trip.  We had breakfast at the hotel, Mickey waffles again, YUM!  I had wisely decided she should not put on her dress till AFTER breakfast, which was a good call considering the amount of syrup she had all over her.  Then we got back to the hotel and she enjoyed a strawberry fruit roll up that turned her pink.  So yeah, good job we just let things wait a bit.

We left for the Magic Kingdom around 9 and had to hop the tram.  I gave her the choice of the monorail or the boat once we got to the other side and she decided she wanted to ride the monorail, so we did.  There were a bunch of old people from NC on our monorail ride and the ladies went nuts over Leah and her outfit.  They asked if we had bought it at Downtown Disney, and when I said no, that it had been made by a friend, then they just went absolutely crazy!  She smiled that little impish grin of hers which if you didn’t know better, you’d swear meant she was being modest, but in reality means, “Keep it coming, ladies.  I live for this stuff.” 

We got off and through security and as soon as we hit Main Street USA, she went nuts seeing the castle. I knew from my online research that Punzel was supposed to be at a theater on Main Street, so I started looking around, and we ran into the Mayor of Disney and had a great time with him and his wife, chatting and taking pictures.  He’d been stationed in Blackstone, VA at one point and I got to hear all about his adventures there. 

When we finally got done with him, we went back towards the front and I happened to spy a “Fast Pass with the Storybook Princesses” kiosk.  I just knew this must be where they had stashed Punzel since I had seen on Mary’s pictures her girls reading a book with Punzel.  I got our passes for about 2 hours later, and we were off!

We headed to do a ride, since Leah is all about the rides, and our first ride was It’s a Small World.  This seemed appropriate since it was the first ride I took Penny on as well.  Leah liked it well enough, although she really was happy to get off and go wait on line for 20 minutes to do Peter Pan’s flight.  She is a bit of a challenge in the line waiting department. She climbs the barriers, swings from the ropes, etc.  It’s a wee bit embarrassing.  I do my best though.  So we did Peter Pan and she loved that, and then we found we had time left, so we went on Cinderella’s Carousel, whatever the official name of it was.  I got her up on a horse and took a couple of pictures and was prepared to ride the thing, when Leah informed me that she is a big girl, thank you, she does not need her mom riding with her any more and she wanted to do it herself.  There were no objections from the Disney staff, so with a giant lump in my throat, I got off and let her ride it herself.  She was so proud of herself, it was just amazing.  Afterwards, we watched the Mickey’s PhilharMagic 3D movie which practically had her doubled over laughing and was a great quick break before we hit the big time…

Meeting the princesses was such a treat.  Leah was literally star struck, no matter how kind and nice and gentle they were, she could not force a single syllable from her lips.  It was hilarious.  Cinderella asked me if she’d seen us before and smiled a big toothy grin at me, and I was like, “Ummmmmmmmm…”  She really wanted an answer.  I told her I didn’t think so, and I checked our pictures, it doesn’t look like she was one of the other princesses we had met the day before, but who knows!  There was a party of 7 ahead of us taking up Punzel’s time, and but after Cinderella, Leah was seriously about to pass out, so meeting Punzel was more than she could bear.  She was in a little kid coma.  She had the little stuffed Pascale that came with the doll the hotel had given her, and she kept waffling as to whether or not she was going to show it to Punzel, so it was in the bag, out of the bag, in the bag, out of the bag.  Finally she decided to show it to her and it was her turn. 

I am not even kidding when I say that *I* cried when she met Punzel.  It was just clear how much love these women devote to their jobs and Leah was just star struck by meeting her favorite princess.  Punzel got right down with her, signed her book and patted Pascale and talked with Leah so nicely and kindly.  They hugged and admire each other’s dresses and hair and it was just such a special moment.  Just awesome.

So the people ahead of us moved on from Aurora, so we decided to go meet her and Leah took her time with her.  The Disney photographer snapped a few pictures and then turned to me and said, “That’s quite an assortment of rings on your necklace!”  I said, “Yes, this was my husband’s wedding ring, and mine.  He passed away recently.”  and then I really started to cry.  She was like “Oh my gosh!!”  I sniffled, “Yes, this trip to Disney was the last thing he really did for us” and then showed her the picture charm of the two of us that I had gotten from my secret Santa.  She looked at it and the rings and then she started to cry.  It was kind of hilarious, two grown women sniffling, and to her credit, Aurora kept Leah very busy while the photographer and I hugged it out.  I’m sorry I don’t remember the photographer’s name, but she said, “I love that you keep your rings so close to your heart”.  And then it was time to go, so she said she’d keep us in her thoughts and prayers and we left.

We had about an hour before our lunch reservation, so we headed to Adventureland. Leah caught sight of Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride and had a great time putting us way up in the air and then plunging us down again.  then we hit Pirates of the Caribbean, which she immediately wanted to jump on again, so we did.  Then we went back to the Crystal Palace for lunch with Pooh and the gang, and she enjoyed eating a pickle, marching in Pooh’s Friendship Parade, and meeting Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.  She tickled Pooh’s tummy and pulled Eeyore’s ears.  Then she caught sigh of the fact that Pooh had a zipper up his back and grew immediately suspicious.  So we hightailed it out of there!

Lunch was a blur of rides.  We got a Fastpass for the Little Mermaid, did It’s a Small World again, watched the movie again, and Pirates again.  I talked her into the Haunted Mansion, and at first she was scared, but she wound up loving it and demanded to do it a couple of times, so I was impressed by her bravery on that score.  We went over to FantasyLand and were just in time to get in the front of the line to meet Gaston, which took up just enough time to get us into Ariel right on time.  It was hilarious watching Leah with Gaston—she is well aware that he is a “bad guy” and she really didn’t want anything to do with him, although she did it for me.  He was pretty hilarious, actually, saying stuff like “It’s hard to be so beautiful isn’t it?  I know.”  and “tell Belle you enjoyed hugging me” and crap like that.  Leah resolutely refused to hug him, but honestly, it was just so funny.

the new Ariel ride is beautiful and fun and I am pleased to see they are building a new Snow White ride as well.  Something to come back for!  By now it was after 6, so we had fastpasses for Winnie the Pooh (which came with a surprise fastpass for Dumbo) and rode the tea cups and then Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo.  Then it was clear exhaustion had set in, so we headed out.  The Electric Light parade was about to start, so we picked a great time to leave.  There were all of 8 people on the boat when it left, and we got to the parking lot in record time.  Leah fell asleep in her car seat before we ever left the parking lot and I carried her up to our room and then ate a PB&J for dinner.

A lovely day and another to come!  Plans for today include meeting Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell, doing “lots of rides, Mama, ALL the rides!”, and a dessert buffet and fireworks…  Hard to believe it’s the last day of our trip, but it has been a real balm to the soul.

Disney Day 3: Animal Kingdom

So I woke up at 4AM, bright and early, ready to go.  Mainly this was because I was exhausted after 2 days of driving and arriving here only to swim and tear around the resort, so I went to sleep at 8.  Same thing happened today, fell asleep last night around 9pm, and here I am up at 4!  Ugh!

Leah woke up around 6:30 and demanded I go back to sleep, so I did for a while.  She watched movies on the iPad till about 7:30 and then decided she wanted to go look around.  We got dressed, grabbed our cups and headed out to see all the different areas of the hotel.  I loved, loved, loved 101 Dalmations and still do so I was excited to see Pongo and Perdy standing guard outside that area, and Herbie the Love Bug has also always been one of my favorites, so it was fun seeing him!  Leah organized some races, meaning she ran and I chased her, around and around and around the Love Bug area, until I finally coaxed her back to the room around 8:45.  we quickly packed our brown bag lunch and headed to the car. 

The nice thing about Disney is that, so long as you want to go elsewhere on the Disney property, it’s all very well marked.  We got to the Animal Kingdom in about 2 minutes, so I think it’s worthwhile to drive to the parks with the car.  Our resort pass was our ticket to park for free and we arrived at Will Call and got our passes for the parks no problem whatsoever.

The Animal Kingdom is the largest of the 4 Disney theme parks.  I decided to explore without the map, and we just sort of followed the crowd.  We wound up on the African section and decided to go to the Kilimanjaro safari to see the animals.  Basically you climb aboard a big truck and drive around for a good while, maybe 30 minutes?  and see the animals.  All the animals seemed to be on the right side of the truck and Leah had sat on the left, so that required a bit of shifting, but otherwise we enjoyed the safari very much.  We saw elephants, rhinos, hippos, a sleeping lion, giraffes, gnu, and all kinds of stuff I don’t remember the names for.  It was a lot of fun and she enjoyed it a lot.

After that, we strolled around some more and found a little train ride over to Discovery Island or something so we took that.  There wasn’t anything to see except posters for Disney’s new movies, and the whole ride took about 2 minutes.  Leah didn’t want to get off and go see Rafiki.  So we took the train back, picked up the stroller and decided to go to see Mickey and Donald over at Camp Minnie Mickey.  We were waylaid by a very enthusiastic Discovery Station employee who wanted Leah to reach into a log and see what she could feel.  She flatly refused and hid under my shirt.  Thankfully another kid came along and did the searching and then we listened to a short lecture on how animals protect themselves.  She got a little Discovery pass and a stamp, and that was just fine, thank you very much, but we have Mickey Mouse to see!

We got over to the greeting trails as they are known there and got on the Mickey line.  Mickey had just gone in to take a break, so we had to wait MAYBE 2 minutes for him to come back out.  we were about 15th in line and when Mickey re-emerged, there were about 200 people behind us, but Leah was PISSED that we had to wait.  Still, I made her be patient and she muscled through it.  We got up to Mickey and she staunchly refused to go up to him unless I came with her.  So I managed to get in those pictures, anyway!  She shook his hand and then we posed for pictures and Mickey charmingly kissed my hand.  Then the photographer pointed out Leah’s little puffs looked like Mickey’s ears, and so Mickey obligingly went wild over Leah’s hair, which thrilled her to no end.

We said goodbye to him and went over to King Louie and Baloo.  Same thing, I had to go with her for pictures, but this time no cast member took our picture, so I’ll have to grab that off the PhotoPass website eventually.    Then I saw the line for Donald Duck was very short, so we went to see Donald and she was actually fine being alone with Donald, which I was surprised about!  I don’t know if it’s the cartoon voice or what, but I’ve always found Donald mildly terrifying, so I was proud of her to be so brave!  Unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting, but there was no line to go see Donald again, so I made her go back and pose and Donald was very nice about it and I got a good picture.

After that, she decided she wanted nothing to do with any more of the meet and greet stuff—she saw Pocahantas but didin’t want to wait in line, same with Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Pluto, and Chip and Dale.  So we grabbed the stroller and decided to go over to Asia since there was a rapids ride that she was tall enough to go on.  Unfortunately it was closed, and we just missed the flying bird show, so we walked over to Dinoland USA and rode the flying triceratops ride, which is like the famous Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom, only dinosaurs.  It was OK except our dinosaur didn’t go up and down, which was a disappointment.  We left there and she wanted to go on a nearby ride that seemed to be a cross between a tea cup thing and a roller coaster, but unfortunately she wasn’t tall enough.  So we found the Dinosaur ride and decided to go on that.  Basically the idea is that you are working with a rogue paleontologist to go and get an iguanadon just before the meteor crash that killed all the dinosaurs.  you board a Humvee type vehicle and go through.  Had I realized what it was, I would have skipped it, but at the time it seemed like a good idea given the lack of much else to do.  It was a lot of dinosaurs roaring in your face, black lights, strobe lights, loud noises, and the vehicle bounces all over.  I looked at Leah and she was holding on for dear life with her eyes squeezed shut.  Thankfully it was a 2 minute thing and it was over but she announced her intention never go to on such a thing again.

By now it was only noon.  Leah didn’t’ want to go on the walking trails to see the animals and really, I was kind of disappointed in that there didn’t seem to be much really “to do” there.  It’s a BEAUTIFUL place to go and look at, but if your kid doesn’t care much about seeing the animals, you’re kind of out of luck.  So we found an obliging bench, broke out our picnic lunch, and discussed our next move.  She said she just wanted to go back to the hotel and go swimming, which was fine with me. 

As we were following the exit signs, I happened to see that we were just in time for the Finding Nemo musical show, and I convinced her to go see that, and I’m glad I did.  It was Broadway quality as far as I was concerned.  I’ve never seen the movie, but the stage show was pretty incredible.  Leah’s favorite part was the bubbles coming down at the end, and after every single song, she’d ask me, “Is it over?” so I don’t know that she liked it very much, but I loved it!

It still took us almost an hour to get back to the park exit, so we got back to the hotel around 2pm.  All in all, the Animal Kingdom is OK, but I didn’t love it and I don’t think it really lived up to my expectations of it.  There is not a whole lot “to do” and it turns out my kid is more of a do-er and not a see-er, so unless that changes, I don’t foresee us going back any time soon.

I collapsed on the bed for a few minutes, but I had seen the housekeeping cart only 2 rooms away so I knew our time to relax was going to be limited. 

Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door, so I told the lady we would be out in just a minute and got Leah to change into her bathing suit and off we went to the pool.  We rented a lifejacket for the week so she could swim more independently and then swam for almost 2 hours.  It was cooling off considerably and my teeth were chattering when we finally got out.  We wrapped up in towels and I got Leah’s shoes on her, turned around to pack up the bag, and she was gone.  Just like that.  I couldn’t find her anywhere.  I knew she wasn’t in the pool because the lifeguards are excellent about that sort of thing, but I searched under tables, in the shrubs, everywhere and the kid was gone.  Finally after 3 or 4 minutes, I contacted a nearby security guard for help and he seemed very unconcerned about it.  He looked around a bit, but not with any sense of urgency.  I was fighting panic, when out from inside the hotel, Leah strolls, crying.  Apparently she had run in there and then gotten confused and scared. 

Needless to say, she remained firmly attached to me as I marched her back to the hotel and she was in a firm time out for quite some time.  Mama was NOT happy.  We had a stern lecture about running away, but the minute we headed out for the gift shop and dinner an hour later, she took off again. So I caught her and grabbed her and made her walk march step with me and she is now aware she will spend today on the kid leash, something I did not have to resort to yesterday. Grrr.  We visited the gift shop at the hotel and she zeroed in on a hot pink tie dyed t-shirt without which nothing else would do, and I got her some flip flops to wear to the pool.  I regained control of my senses enough to say “no way!” to the $90 Cinderella castle.  Then we headed over to the cafeteria for dinner, where Leah decided she wanted a salad and I got a quesadilla.

sure enough, she had to go potty shortly thereafter, so we gathered up our stuff and headed into the bathroom  I hung our cups on the bag hook on the back of the door, and she decided to play with the door while I was ‘indisposed’, and one of the cups fell off the hook and spread soda all over the floor.  AUGH!  I made her get paper towels and clean it up, and after we got it cleaned up, I grabbed the other cup and our bag and sure enough, the other cup fell to the ground and Leah’s orange drink went everywhere.  Gawd, I was mad at myself!!! AUGH!  And one of the cups broke, darn it! 

After that fiasco, we came back to the room and watched TV.  I was exhausted, got everything hung up and settled down for the evening, and decided that Leah could finish her movie and then it was bed time, when there was a knock on the door.  I looked through the peephole and all I could see were balloons.  COOL!  So I opened up and a man was there with balloons, a Rapunzel doll, and an autograph book.  He gave everything to Leah and I asked him who had sent it and he said they came from the front desk.  I thanked him profusely and he left, and then I had to prevent Leah from all but gnawing through the box in her excitement to free Punzel from her cardboard prison.  she managed to pop one of the balloons up on the cottage cheese ceiling, but that just made her laugh more than anything, and she played with Punzel for quite a while.  Around 7:30, I told her it was lights out and I went to take a shower.  When I came back into the bedroom area, she was passed out and snoring like a man, fully under the covers, not even her hair poking out.  So I’d say she was good and tired.

So I sat up till about 9:30 and then I turned in as well.  I am REALLY looking forward to today’s adventure, EPCOT, which is my personal favorite of all the Disney parks.  I am excited to find out the Maelstrom has no height requirements, I know she’ll love Imagination, and there are just so many great rides over there, plus they have a new Phinneas and Ferb thing that will drive her wild.  So I think we’ll have a fun day and will probably take a break mid-day like today, only we will go back to EPCOT later on rather than just sit around the hotel.  Although frankly, Leah LOVES this hotel, so maybe it’s not such a bad thing!

A Trip Home

So this past weekend we spent in Northern New York for my dad’s retirement bash.  We decided to go up Wednesday night instead of Thursday night, since it is a long drive (550 miles to be exact) to only go for one day.  I picked Michael up at Quantico and we got as far as Winchester before deciding to stop so that Leah could get the screeches out.  We stopped in at SuperWalmart and had dinner at the McDonald’s in there, and picked up a few things we needed for the trip before getting back on the road.  It turned out to be a wise decision since by the time we got back in the car, got gas, and hit I81, it was 7pm, which is Leah’s bed time. She was soon snoring softly in the back seat and we had a pretty good drive.

A voice in my head kept on telling me that I would be able to drive all the way home but I really didn’t want to entirely.  Around midnight, we were in Cortland NY and I was feeling tired, so we decided to stop at a Day’s Inn.  I went in and agreed to pay the rate (despite the fact they tacked on a $5 surcharge for a handicapped accessible room, which is ILLEGAL as hell).  I gathered up my little family and we went into the hotel.  Red flags immediately went up.  There were a bunch of half-naked people loitering in the hallways and the smell of pot was hanging heavy around us.  I tried the swipe card and nothing.  I tried the other swipe card, and we still couldn’t get in.  Leah was soaked and groggy, I was tired and pissed off, and Mike had to pee.  (haha!)  So I went back to the desk and asked to please have the keys reprogrammed.  Went back to the room, and we still couldn’t get in. 

I am ordinarily a calm person, but at 12:30, I was kinda not in the mood, you know?  The potheads were milling about, the TV’s were blaring, the people in the room next door to us had posted a sign on their door that said, “This is not the hang out room tonight” which appeared to have had exactly zero effect on anyone, so I grabbed Mike, we went out to the desk, I put the keys down and said, “There is no way we are staying here.”  The clerk look stunned.  She asked what was wrong and I said between the noise and the drugs, we were not subjecting our infant to that nonsense.  Two of the homies came ambling through at that point and she called out to them, “Hey, are you guys smoking weed in the hallway?”  They replied, “Not in the hallway” and started laughing like Beavis and Butthead. 

The clerk says she doesn’t know how to process our refund, so we need to call the manager in the morning (I’ve called the hotel several times now, no one seems to know anything about it, but Days Inn Corporate is about to get an earful, I can promise you).  We get in the car, I clean up Leah and her seat, and we get driving again.  I said to Mike that we were only about 30 miles from Syracuse, so it was no big deal to get up there and then we could try finding somewhere else to stay over.  By now it was nearly 1AM.  So we drive to Syracuse, and I was thinking about the money we had already paid to the hotel we didn’t stay in and the room we didn’t even get to see and I said to Mike, “Well, it’s only 2 hours home.”  He starts telling me I’m crazy, but I really couldn’t see stopping at that point.  It was all landmarks I knew, which was going to make the trip a lot quicker.  So we just drove home.  We roared in at 3AM, and I had a moment of panic in that I wasn’t sure if my dad would have left the house open or not, but lady luck smiled on me and I was able to get in.  I put Leah on the guest bed for about 30 seconds while I set up her portable crib and the minute she was in that, she was stretched out and snoring.  Mike and I crawled into the big guest bed and passed out.  I don’t think we even said goodnight to each other.  It was 3:30AM.

What seemed like seconds after I fell asleep, all hell broke loose with banging and clanging and crashing coming from the front of the house.  I sit bolt upright in bed.  Michael and Leah slept on undisturbed.  It was 6:30AM.  I knew it was my dad, who is not known for being gentle.  I use the bathroom and then I decide to open the hallway door.  As I do, I hear his chair fly back as he leaps to his feet and I peek around the corner to find him standing behind the dining room table, his fist locked and loaded, ready to lay me flat.  It took him a second to realize who it was and then he just couldn’t believe it.  It was kind of hilarious.

We had some bagels and talked for a while, then Leah got up and then Michael got up.  We were all up by about 8:30.  My dad still wanted to go out to Watertown to do some shopping, but I didn’t feel like getting back in the car, so we let him go.  The three of us spent the morning puttering around the house, napping, and then we drove up around the lake to see what was new in town.  I’m glad I do this every time I go home, since you never know what is going to change.  Right now the hospital is under construction and the way it is now is not the way it looked for all the years I knew it.

We had lunch at the Hillside Diner, where Leah held court and I felt depressed that I didn’t know anyone in town any more, and then we went home and waited for my dad’s call to meet him up in Natural Bridge for ice cream. 

We had a pretty low key day after that—Dad made us his famous meatloaf and mac n cheese for dinner and then he and Michael watched the Mets and the Celtics games while I took a spin through Oswegatchie and went to bed early.  Friday we hung out outside most of the day.  The weather up there was beautiful and I told Dad I was moving up there for a month next summer.  It was so freeing to be outdoors and relaxed.  We had leftovers for lunch out on the back porch and then I got some chicken marinating since I offered to make dinner (grilled chicken). 

After dinner, Judy and her family showed up.  I don’t recall a whole lot else of what happened other than Leah and Dottie got each other wound up and then Leah proceeded to sleep like a champ.  In fact, she has slept through the night since we were up there.  She’s doing an amazing job at sleeping all of a sudden!

Saturday, I was still trying to catch up on sleep.  My dad’s friend Fred came over, but I missed him while I was napping.  Then his friend Bob came to the door and yelled, “Where the hell is George?!”  Dad and I both flew from our respective rooms like we’d been shot.  (No one is too concerned about sleeping babies!)  Dad grilled up some burgers and dogs for lunch and then we enjoyed our afternoon together before Dad headed to mass while we all got ready for the party.

The party itself was a lot of fun.  There were a ton of my old teachers there, some of whom I hadn't seen in years.  Dad gave a nice speech and a few people got up and said some really nice words about him and Bob, who is also retiring.  My dear friend Amy showed up, and I hadn’t seen her in 2 years, so it was cool to catch up.  My godfather, who I don’t recall seeing since I was in high school, was there.  Mrs. Collins, the school librarian, who greatly influenced my love of reading and libraries was there.  It was the greatest feeling.

All of a sudden, the heavens opened.  We got a massive thunderstorm.  There are no thunderstorms like thunderstorms in the Adirondacks.  The volume and fury, just amazing.  I loved it.  Fortunately it also cooled it off since it was a little bit humid up there.  Afterwards, Bob and his family and Amy came by the house for nachos and more celebrating.  I finally went to bed at 10:30ish.

Leah started making noises around 4:30, almost as if she knew we were leaving.  She really started squealing at 5:00, so we decided to get up and pack.  My dad heard us and got up and by 6:05, we were back on the road, heading south.  We were much earlier than planned, we didn’t plan to leave until around 7AM, but we were ready, so we pulled out.  I got kinda misty-eyed leaving, but I found a few treasures to bring back with me, including a book of nursery rhymes that my favorite uncle gave me on my first Christmas.  It is now safely tucked in Leah’s upper book shelves so I may share it with her, which thrills me to no end.

We decided to stop at the Wegman’s in Wilkes-Barre for lunch.  We got there at 10:30.  They were not serving lunch until 11:00, but Leah was a little car weary, so we decided to wait it out.  We got pizza right when it came out of the oven and the girl working the pizza counter could not have been more friendly.  She carried our food to the tables, got us a high chair, and even offered to get our drinks.  So on the way out, we left a comment at the management desk about her superior service.  I hope she gets a nice bonus or something for it.  She was amazing.

We got back in the car around 11:30, got gas and Leah did just great until we hit I66 in Virginia.  Then she started freaking.  I pulled over on the side of the road and fixed her a bottle, but that didn’t work.  She was just over it.  I kept promising her we were almost home and giving her a running count of the miles.  She settled down after we broke into silly songs and making faces at her.  She only freaked for about 20 minutes, so we were good.  We rolled into our driveway at 4:30pm.  I had just enough time to unload, change Leah, fix an extra bottle for her, and hopped back in the car to go on up to choir practice.

My heart was not in it, I must confess.  I swore I would leave early.  I swore I would not sing.  But once I got there, got through the warm ups, and started the rehearsal, I was in my element, exhausted though I was.  8:00 came very quickly, and then I hopped back in the car and roared off to the grocery store to pick up only what I needed to fix Michael’s lunch for Monday.  He called and asked me to grab him some dinner since he hadn’t eaten since 11:00 that morning, so I went through McD’s and got home.

And then the wind went out of my sails.  I had such a bad headache that even though I took extra strength Excedrin, it did nothing to touch it. I had gotten 3 letters from Penny and her mother, so I wanted to email them both back, which I did, but then I just went straight to bed.  I felt sick I was so tired.

Leah slept through the night, thank God, and she didn’t get up till about 7 this morning.  She was back in bed around 9:30 for a nap and I followed shortly thereafter at 10:00 this morning.  I laid there for about 5 minutes thinking, “I’m never going to fall asleep” but lo and behold I did and slept till 12:30.  Finally I felt human again.  We did some grocery shopping and spent some time out in the baby pool before Michael got home and we were able to have dinner and put Leah to bed.  We started reading a book together and now I am going back to bed!  It was an amazing weekend, but we had to be pretty crazy to do that much driving for only a couple of days.  I’m serious about staying up there for a while next summer.  It’ll be nice to have some downtime after Penny leaves and to enjoy some good weather.  Plus I’ll be able to actually visit with people for a while instead of 15 minutes here and there.  We’ll see how next summer shapes up.  If it’s anything like this summer, I haven’t got a prayer!

Anyone Up For a Road Trip?

I would really like to go to the Green Valley Book Fair. Is anyone else interested? For more information, visit their website at http://www.gvbookfair.com/ They are only open certain days, and looks like they are opening up in March. I have a lot going on in March, but I could definitely make the trip, especially if someone wants to share the driving! Let me know!

A Weekend Away From It All…

This weekend was one we’d been planning for quite some time, a trip to Greensboro NC.  We had heard that our favorite author, Philip Gulley, was coming to speak at three different Friends meetings (as in the Quakers) in Greensboro and checking the map, we found it was a scant 4 1/2 hour drive away from us.  We were so excited and immediately decided we were going to make it, no matter what!

As the time drew near, we made more plans and posted to Facebook what we were planning, and Russell and Amy decided to join us.  We were SUPER excited, since we hadn’t seen them since last June for the Janet Evanovich road trip.  They wound up being the only ones who were going to be able to make it, but we didn’t mind one bit.  Russell found a hotel and we booked reservations and were ready to roll!

And then Snowmaggedon hit.  It was looking a bit dicey as to whether we’d get out of town.  But here’s the thing:  Philip Gulley has never come to the East Coast since we’ve read his books that we’ve known about and been able to go.  And I frankly would have crawled to Greensboro on my hands and knees, dragging Leah behind me in her stroller like a sled dog if I had to.  And fortunately, later in the week, the weather tamed for us and we not only decided to go on Saturday, but Michael and I elected to go a day earlier and leave on Friday.

So I called the hotel and added an extra night to our reservation, we packed up, and we headed for Greensboro.  It was extra exciting because we got to add another state to Leah’s growing roster of places she’s been.  If I’m not mistaken, on the East Coast she is only missing Maine, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.  Not bad for not even being a year old.  When we crossed the border, she woke up from a lengthy nap, so we pulled into a rest area so I could change and feed her.  I snapped a picture of the sign you see here to commemorate the event, but there was no way for me to get her in it without putting her down, and I didn’t much want to do that.  We did go into the visitor’s center and they gave us a travel guide to Greensboro, which we read and found some neat stuff to see.

Michael and I were VERY impressed with Leah overall, I have to say.  She did not squeal at all the entire trip.  It is such a difference from the baby who would scream from the time we put her in the car to the time we took her out, whether that was 2 minutes or 10 hours.  She really is growing up and learning patience!  Way to go, Leah!

Anyway, we found the hotel and unloaded some of our car and let Leah crawl around a bit and work out the kinks.  The hotel room was a standard 2 double bed bit, but we were excited to see an adjoining door and hoped Russell and Amy would be able to get into the room on the other side so that we could hang out in their room Saturday night.  We gave them an update and they gave us one as well regarding the oncoming storm that gripped the south Friday evening.  They were a bit worried about whether they’d get out or not, but we all decided to just hope for the best and pray they’d get here!

Meanwhile, we were hungry and time was growing late so Little Baby would need to go to bed.  We decided to try out the Carolina Diner, which was right down the street from the hotel.  We hit the jackpot.  Not only was the food delicious, but Leah turned out to be a real crowd pleaser.  She had half the restaurant waving to her, she was waving back to them, everyone was coming up to our table and telling us how beautiful she was and how funny and sweet and cute she was, and long story short, we got 10% off our bill PLUS we got free dessert!!!!!  If she ever learns to harness her power for good, she will enact some serious change in the world.

After dinner, we debated attending Phil’s speech that night, but we were a little road weary and we wanted to put the baby to bed, so we went back to the hotel.  We put on the Vancouver Olympics opening ceremonies, but I was a little underwhelmed and fell asleep for a while.  I managed to catch the US team march in and then fell asleep before they lit the torch.  For some reason, I woke up at 4:45 and caught a replay of the torch lighting, and then I couldn’t go back to sleep.  I turned on my cell and got a message from R&A that they were going to wait a bit to see how the weather developed. 

By 7AM, my two darlings were up and ready to roll (and very unhappy to discover it had snowed overnight!), so we decided to have breakfast at a local chain called Biscuitville, which seemed right up Michael’s alley.  He had tried a biscuit at the diner the night before and had an indecent reaction to it, so we had high hopes for Biscuitville, but overall, I’d have to say the biscuits there were just OK. 

After breakfast, we decided to do a little shopping—I had only packed one shirt for myself, since I was so excited to get out of the house, so we hit Walmart and I picked up a shirt, some treats for Leah, and a few Valentines for my Sugar Bear.  Then we decided to take Leah over to the Children’s Museum in Greensboro, since it is apparently appropriate for even infants.  (How did I ever live without my GPS, by the way?  That thing took us EVERYWHERE!)  Well, by the time we got there, both Leah and Michael were snoring.  When I pulled over, Michael woke up and we took a vote that we might as well take her back to the hotel because the more well rested she was, the better she would probably do during the speech.  So we drove all the way back to the hotel, I get her into the room, kick my shoes off, I’m kind of tired, and just as I am dozing off, she wakes up.  Figures, don’t it?  We get a text from R&A that they are on the road (we were relieved and happy they were at least going to try and make it!) so we decided to go over to Barnes and Noble to see if we could get the books for that night’s event.

In hindsight, this was one of the smartest things we decided to do.  I got the books, no problem at all, and then we went to Starbucks and I was able to connect to the wifi using my iPod.  Then we had liquid refreshments and a scone and as Leah was getting restless, I decided to take her down to the children’s area to zip around.  There wasn’t much doing in the hotel room, so I thought it might be a fun way for her to burn off some energy.  Well let me tell you!  BINGO!!!!  She crawled around until after 12 noon.  What a blast she was having!  She watched other kids run around, she followed after other kids, she found shelves of stuffed animals to knock around (which I picked up, thank you), we looked at books, she crawled everywhere, she played with trains.  It was a red-letter experience in every way possible.

We left around 12:15 and got a call from R&A that we should go ahead and have lunch without them and we would all just meet up for supper.  Michael put in a request for Zaxby’s, a chicken chain that we had been to on our visit to Savannah.  While sadly, our luck with freebies was out, Leah was the hit of the place once again. Apparently even the way she eats celery is adorable.  And you know she just ate it up—she couldn’t even be bothered to face our table, she was looking all over, waving at everyone, going absolutely crazy.  And everyone was going crazy over her in return!

We went back to the hotel to wait for R&A’s arrival, and Leah fell asleep on the way over there, so I quietly put her in bed, and then I collapsed in bed for a while myself.  Sometime around 2:30, the Savannah contingent arrived, but I missed it because I was snoring.  Around about 2:45, the vibrating of my phone woke me up and when I saw “knock knock” in the text, I sprang to my feet and opened the door, and there was Amy!!!  WOO HOO!!!  They made it!!!!!

Russell was negotiating with the front desk to get them the adjoining room, and he was successful!!!  Even better!!!!!  They came in and Leah woke up and immediately we all started catching up and admiring Leah of course and before I knew it, two and a half hours had passed.  We had all agreed to go to Steak N Shake for dinner, and so we all got ready for the evening’s festivities and headed out.  Three of the four of us got milkshakes, and we all had burgers.  They gave us a free kid’s meal with purchase, so I got Leah some applesauce and mac n cheese, neither of which she especially cared for—Leah liked throwing the noodles on the floor more than eating them.  It was about time we found something she didn’t like, right?  I had a guacamole burger, my new SnS favorite, and it was so good.  It was probably the most crowded SnS I’d ever been too, but they dished food up fast and we all had a good meal, so who can complain?

Then it was time to head to the church!!!!  We were headed for New Garden Friends Meeting, and found it with only a little trouble—I am not great at reading signs in the dark and wasn’t too sure if Russell and Amy were behind us a good part of the time, so I was pretty cautious and stuff throughout the drive.  Not to worry though, we made it all in one piece and got to the church with about 15-20 minutes to spare.  We followed the crowd in and the sanctuary was on our left.  I peeked in and there was Phil, standing there talking with some Friends, just like anything.  I got all excited and hissed in Michael’s ear, “I SEE HIM!” It was like seeing a rock star or something, I mean, we were just so excited about this whole event.

We tried to figure out how long we’ve been reading Phil’s books and we finally decided on 6 years.  Home to Harmony is one of my two favorite books of all time and all of Phil’s books have inspired me with laughter, tears, thought, and joy.  To see the person who had the power and creativity and thought to bring that entire world into life for you, it is awe-inspiring to say the least.

So, we walked into the meeting room and as we made our way to find a seat, Phil came towards us!  Now I was really getting excited.  He looked at us, and I said, “Good evening!” and put on a bright smile, which he answered back and then patted Michael’s shoulder and said, “Good evening, friend!” and kept going.  Michael said, “Was that him!?” and I said, “yes it was!” and we both had to keep from jumping up and down :)

Soon a nice man named Bob sat to Michael’s right and we got to telling him about how we drove down from Fredericksburg VA and he asked where we were staying and we said in a hotel and he offered us that next time we come, he and his wife run a sort of underground B&B and we’d be welcome to stay with them.  I’d be lying if I said this sort of generous spirit was a fluke—every single Quaker we met greeted us with such warmth and generosity.  And we were total strangers there and admitted to not being Quakers and they did not care.  I was so inspired by them, I cannot begin to explain how profoundly our experience amongst the Friends affected me.

Eventually, the presentation got underway and Phil was introduced and talked about his new book, If the Church Were Christian.  There are 10 different chapters in the book and he discussed the first two, entitled If the Church Were Christian, Jesus would be a model of living rather than an object of worship and If the Church were Christian, affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness.  Unfortunately by now, Leah had had quite enough, and I missed out on some of the presentation, but I caught most of it, and I cannot wait to dive into this book.  I honestly felt as though he had written this book for me and was addressing directly thoughts that I’ve had and never shared with anyone.

And I know I was not alone in so feeling.

Eventually Amy came out and relieved me for a while, but I could hear Leah screaming from way down the hall, so during the Q&A session, I went and got Leah back from her and kept her quiet until the talk was over.  I knew she was just worn out from her busy day and she had only taken a 45 minute nap and refused any further rest, so she couldn’t help it one bit.  Amy and I went back in the hall to retrieve the men and I gave Russell my camera so he could catch a family shot of us with Phil.  We followed Phil and his crowd of admirers down the aisle and just as it was our turn, a woman came to him and said he had to come into the hallway to start signing books!  But he gave us his time very generously (I think Leah put the eye on him!) and so we asked him if we could take a picture and he was happy to do it.

Then we followed him out and he signed our beloved and much read copy of Home to Harmony and the two copies of the new book I had picked up earlier in the day.  Bob had told everyone before the speech that we had driven down from Washington DC, so Phil thanked us for making the trip and we said that we would see him again tomorrow, because you can bet your butt I was not going to miss an opportunity to witness Phil as a pastor.  Russell got his book signed and then we were done for the evening.

When we left, I was all aglow, it was such a great experience already.  I asked Russell what he thought and all he could do was nod his head.  Words, honestly, were meaningless in the face of such an important message (or at least to me, they were not necessary!).

We stopped off at Sheetz on the way back to stock up on refreshments and by the time we were back at the hotel, Leah was out cold.  She didn’t budge when I pulled her out of the car seat, much less when I put her in her crib.  We went over to Russell and Amy’s room to talk about the events of the evening and it was just so affirming to talk religion and other sensitive topics with people who had no room for judgment of me, me of them, all of us asked questions, listened to each other’s stories and feelings, it was quite wonderful.  Unfortunately, having been up since 4:45, I was totally spent, and so I crapped out at 11:20 and went to bed.  I could have sat up all night, but driving’s demon head was leering at me for Sunday…

This morning we got up early (again I couldn’t sleep past 4:45) and when R&A were ready, we went out to IHOP for breakfast.  After lots of pancakes, coffee, eggs, hash browns, and more were consumed, we went back and checked out of the hotel and hauled ourselves down to First Friends Meeting in Greensboro, where Phil would be delivering the 11:00 message.  I had never been to a Quaker meeting before and was determined to make the most of it.  I read in the bulletin that there was childcare available, so with my heart in my throat, I decided to put Leah in the nursery so I could enjoy the service and listen to Phil’s message uninterrupted.  Holy cow were the girls in the nursery nice!!! I was introduced to them and their children and they took Leah and told me not to worry about a thing!  I don’t think she even noticed as I walked away, and I didn’t hear any screaming when I went back to the meeting hall, so I took it as a good sign indeed.

The meeting started and it was a lot of singing and a lot of time for quiet contemplation.  They had a segment where the children’s class filed in and talked about what they were doing for church school.  Then I got really nervous, because they brought in all the young children, and there was Leah right in front of us!  But she could not have cared less about where we were, she was fascinated by all the other children and the banks they had made to collect money for Haiti.  Then the minister handed around quarters for the children’s banks and even gave Leah a quarter, and you can imagine what she did with it:  yup!  right in her mouth!  Fortunately they got her to put in a bank.  Then the kids left and went back to the nursery or Sunday school, and the service continued.  When it was time for Phil’s message, I was totally enchanted.  He speaks very much like he writes, with much humor and grace.  The topic was “A Quaker Future” and honestly, I cried—the message really had a universal appeal, which was great since I know nothing about being a Quaker.

It was all over too soon.  The service ended, there was a talk back session afterwards, but we decided not to stay for that as we really were anxious to get on the road.  I went and retrieved Leah from the nursery, where I was informed she was the happiest baby in the world!!!!  She didn’t especially want to leave with me, she seemed to be having a heck of a good time.  But eventually I pried her away from the loving arms of the nursery worker, Leigh Ann, and went back to the chaos of the meeting room.  People were leaving, people were moving forward, and my party of three was waiting for me to come back so we could head out. We were swarmed by people who remembered us from the night before, asking if we had really driven down from Washington DC just to come to the meeting and meet Phil, people who wanted to admire Leah (who ate it up, may I say, the kid is an absolute rock star, I am not exaggerating in the least!), people who just wanted to welcome us.  It was the most welcome I had ever felt in a church, certainly in my adult life anyway.  There was no awkwardness, no sense of not literally being among friends.  I was ready to sell the house and move to Greensboro, honestly.

Finally the legions of fans cleared a bit and I put Leah on the pew to put her coat on when I felt an arm around my shoulder and heard, “Thank you again for making that drive all the way down here just to see me.”  I looked up and it was Phil, giving me a hug.  I about wet my pants.  I think I said something about how much we enjoyed it, how moved I had been, and I picked Leah up and he asked if he could hold her.  Well of course!!!!  I handed her right over, and I think it was an instant love for both of them :-)  I wish I had had my camera handy, it is an image burned into my brain, Phil smiling brightly at Leah, Leah kind of looking at him like, “Yes, that’s right, adore me!”  It was such a special moment as a reader and a mom, the two great passions in my life intersecting like that.

He handed her back to me and we said goodbye and then he went over to Michael and thanked him also for coming and either shook his hand or grabbed his shoulder, I’m not sure which.  And then he had to turn his attention to his talk-back and I had to turn mine to remembering how to breathe.

So that’s how we left Greensboro.  (Michael and I would both like to go back and explore the actual town—we enjoyed our time there a lot!)  We soon parted ways  with Russell and Amy and headed home.  Leah was completely knocked out, so we didn’t stop for the first 4 hours of the trip because she was asleep.  We did finally stop when she woke up and wanted some food, so spent our Valentine’s Day dinner eating at a McDonald’s somewhere between Richmond and Petersburg.  Leah wasn’t too happy to be put back in the car afterwards, but she made it home with only a few little squeals.

And I will now unpack and head off to bed.  It was an amazing, amazing weekend of friendship and love and I am so glad Russell and Amy made it and we didn’t miss each other due to snow.  I don’t know how to express how happy it made me to get a little hug from such a great and genuine man I have long admired, to hear what he had to say and to relate to it so deeply and personally.

It was such a wonderful Valentine’s weekend and memories I’ll carry with me for a lifetime.  Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

Atlanta 2010

So we are home from our grand odyssey to Atlanta.  It was quite a time indeed!!!  I’m going to try and remember as many details as possible as I write up my little travelogue here, but Mike, Mike and Lesley will probably have things I’ve already forgotten—so feel free to chime in, guys! :-)

First off, flying to Atlanta was fine, but the tickets were a challenge.  Can someone explain to me why I could buy a round trip ticket to Atlanta for $300 each ($600 total) or I could buy a round trip ticket to Orlando with a layover in Atlanta each way for $117 each ($234 total)?  Needless to say, I decided to buy the Orlando tickets and just not get on the plane to Florida.  This meant we had to pack everything carry ons.  Plus, our airline raised its baggage rates the very day we started flying, and I wasn’t about to pay for it anyway.  Still, we couldn’t check anything through because everything would have been in Florida.

Fine, I spent plenty of time cramming everything into the two smallest bags we owned, and then we headed to Richmond!  Got through security pretty well, everyone was exceedingly nice although Leah’s formula did have to be tested and scanned twice.  But it really was no big deal, the TSA employees were extremely nice and helpful with Michael (one of the guards was a former Marine and was tres impressed Michael worked at Quantico!), so we did fine.  Got everything packed back up, shoes on, etc. and head down to our gate.  We got a gate claim ticket for the stroller and car seat, both of which said Orlando, but since I was the one to pick them both up at the gate and transport them to the supposed next plane, I knew that wouldn’t be a problem.  Again, no problems until we got on the plane and the flight attendant says, “Sorry, that bag is too big for the bins, we’re going to have to check it.”

HEART ATTACK!!!!  I start incomprehensibly spewing, “But we need this bag in Atlanta!  WE NEED THIS BAG IN ATLANTA!”  The flight attendant is saying, “Where is your final destination?” and I’m picturing our underwear circling the airport in Orlando and us with no way to get it, totally freaking out.  Michael steps in and says, “Atlanta.”  The flight attendant says, “Ok, we’re going to check this through to Atlanta for you.”  So I relinquish the bag and we go sit in our seat.  I proceeded to panic for the next 90 minutes, praying to God our bag turned up in Atlanta.  Our flight was early, so we then got to navigate the airport, which is HUGE and very crowded.  Ultimately, rather than try to drag a suitcase, push a stroller, and leave an arm for Michael, what we found worked was he would hold onto the stroller the normal way, and I would stand up front and pull it from the car seat handle while dragging the suitcase behind me.  This was very satisfactory and we managed very well.

We got onto the little train system and made it over to the main terminal and then I had to sort out which baggage claim to go to, praying all the way that our bag would be there.  I found the correct belt and there was our suitcase waiting for us!  VICTORY!!!!  Just as I snatched it up, my cell phone buzzed and it was Lesley, asking where we were.  I told her we were at baggage claim and heading outside, gathered up my little caravan, and off we went.  And just like that, lickety split, she pulled up to the curb and off we went!  It was like all the pieces just fell into place.  Awesome.

We headed to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then Walmart to pick up diapers and formula (we had to make allowances for packing, so I knew we could pick things up while we were away) and then made it to the Williams household.  Mike arrived home a short time later and that was pretty much the last I saw of Leah for 5 days :)  Then we headed out for trivia night at the Mellow Mushroom!!!!

Mike and Lesley have a sweet deal there, they are friends with a big cheese at Mellow Mushroom so all the food is free.  The trivia is run totally differently than the trivia at the Fredericksburg Pub, but it was a lot of fun.  They also have a regular round and a music thing going at the same time, the questions are weighted differently points-wise and you turn in your answers individually and the question-asker keeps your score.  It was a lot of fun, although our luck held and we weren’t able to help the Fuzzy Navels any better than we did The Destroyers.  The pizza was great, though.  YUM! 

Thursday morning, Mike and Lesley took off to do their workouts and then when they got back, Lesley and I headed to check out the library where she works and then to tea at the Holly Cottage Tearoom.  A sweet little old British lady greeted us at the door, and the servers are dressed in traditional maid’s attire (long black dress, white frilly apron) and everyone is quite polite and the whole thing is a real sanctuary from 2010.  Lesley and I each wore a hat, she in a festive brown felt festooned with leaves or petals of some sort and me in my traditional maroon felt with roses.  We were there 3 1/2 hours and went through 3 pots of tea (Monk’s Blend (YUMMMMM), Bella Coola, and Yorkshire Harrogate), a Holly Cottage record.  We discussed life, literature, and love seated under a portrait of the Brontes. 

Can I just say, “God, I love having tea.  I want to have tea much more regularly.  Anyone want to join me for tea sometime?”  I am noodling with the idea of starting my own tea business, which would be a tea-on-the-go type thing.  We would cater bridal and baby showers, birthday parties, luncheons, etc.  I have been toying with this idea all fall and winter.  I throw a beautiful tea and I think it could be a great way to make some money doing something I absolutely love.

Anyway, we went back to the house and the boys had had a grand ole time with Leah.  She did not appear to have missed me one bit.  Sincerely.  She is madly in love with her Uncle Mike, and Mike and Lesley have two things in their house that we don’t have and apparently she finds sorely lacking:  cats.  My God, Leah loved those cats.  Unfortunately for her, the feeling was less than mutual and they gave her wide berth as they avoided her a whole lot.

That night we dined on Lesley’s famous turkey burgers, and then Lesley and I headed out to her church book club while the guys and Leah relaxed.  The club discussed Same Kind of Different as Me and I was really interested to see how the club runs and the differences from my own book club.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone was very friendly and the discussion was quite animated and lively. 

Friday was going to be a busy day!  Mike and Lesley did their work out and then we headed into Atlanta for the day.  We went to an Indian buffet for lunch (YUM!) and then headed over to the Martin Luther King Jr. national historic site.  We all thought about poo-pooing it when we first got there, because we couldn’t figure out where to park, but eventually we decided to go for it, and were we ever glad!  None of us had ever been there before and so it was a neat experience.  Plus it turns out that we were there on MLK’s actual birthday (January 15), so that was even better!  Someone even hung up a Happy Birthday banner and balloons by his picture.

We started out by watching a film at the visitors center and then went across the street to see the burial site.  We walked up to the Freedom Center and saw Dr. King’s Nobel Prize (first time I’d ever seen one), his clothes and personal items, some of his wife’s personal items, and then went in the rooms dedicated to Ghandi and Rosa Parks.  As Michael and I visited the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis while I lived in Little Rock, and as he was born right there in Atlanta and we drove past the house where he was born, and I’ve now seen his grave, I’ve been to where it all started and where it all ended.  Pretty cool.  We weren’t able to go into Ebenezer Church because they were doing some construction on it, and we elected not to sign up for the house tour, as they only take 15 people at a time.  Nonetheless, it was a great time.

Afterwards, we went over to Barnes and Noble to scope out the situation for the book signing and then went to a nearby pizza joint to meet up with Mike’s niece and nephew and kill some time.  Michael had a pizza since he is not a huge fan of Indian food, and the rest of us just had drinks and relaxed.  Around about 6:00, we went back to the book store and Lesley staked out a claim in the second row of the signing area and then we all browsed books for a while.  Leah started getting real crabby in about 45 minutes, so Mike and I spent the rest of the night in shifts.  He would walk her around for a while, then I would walk her around for a while.  Then he’d take her, then I’d take her.  I finally took her over to Publix to see if I could buy some pacifiers since I hadn’t brought one, but the kind they had were not the right kind, as evidenced by the fact that they did NADA to silence her after I paid $4 for them. 

Eventually I just took her back over to the book store and Mike and I kept swapping.  At one point, Leah let out a bellow and Jasper Fforde paused and said, “Ah, my biggest fan!” Everyone laughed, but of course I was mortified.  Eventually he quit with the talking (seemed like forever to me, but Lesley assures me it flew by; Michael fell asleep during the talk so who knows how long it seemed to him?) and the line was forming.  Now, I will give BIG CREDIT to Barnes and Noble’s staff.  A bunch of crowd jumpers staked out a place in front of the signing table, but the staff would have none of it and allowed the people who had gotten there early and were seated in the first couple of rows to go up first and get their books signed.  Consequently, Lesley was one of the first 10 people to get her books signed and I stood at the ready, armed with a camera, and took pictures.  Then we headed home.  Leah screamed most of the way back.  Unfortunately, she elected not to sleep most of that night, as my Facebooks statuses attest.

Saturday, Lesley had to work, so Mike, Michael, Leah and I went over to IHOP for breakfast and then to Walmart so I could get decent diapers (the cheapies were not up to the task, go figure).  He went to the bike store, but couldn’t get the bike he wants, and so we went home, and Leah and I passed out cold for 3 hours.  By that time, it was 5:00 and time to head out to meet up with Donna at Fox Bros. BBQ.  Donna and I were in Scouts together and hadn’t seen each other in 20 years, but alas it was not meant to be.  Just as we got on the road, she called to cancel.  She had gotten an adoption match that day, and was freaking out and couldn’t meet us.  I was disappointed, but understood, and we proceeded to Fox Bros. anyway, where we ate some of the greatest BBQ I have ever had the privilege of eating.  It was amazing.  I don’t think I’ve had it that good since I lived in Arkansas, seriously.

Sunday was a hang around day, as we wanted to give Leah time to recover from all the activity.  Mike and Lesley went to work out at separate times (they have seriously drunk the WW kool aid!) and then we just played Scene It on the XBox or Playstation or whatever it is, watched TV, read, and hung out.  Because of Leah’s fascination with the cats, we decided to go to Zoo Atlanta the next Day.  Lesley spent the afternoon preparing us a traditional Jigg’s dinner, which is a traditional Sunday dinner in Newfoundland where she is from.  It was amazing.  They didn’t think I’d like the pease pudding, but in fact, I very much did.  We had lots of good food and then spent the evening continuing to relax, watching the Golden Globes and cheering and jeering the winners.  Mike and Lesley also learned that “little people” (aka dwarves or midgets) give me the creeps.  I’m sure that is offensive, sorry, but I about flip out when I encounter them, which isn’t often.  Mike and Lesley found this hilarious.

Monday morning, we were out the door bright and early at 11:30 and went to Six Feet Under, a restaurant across the street from Oakland Cemetery, where we visited Margaret Mitchell’s grave on our last visit to Atlanta a couple years ago.  The restaurant is famous for its catfish, but instead I opted to try the shrimp po boy, which was very good.  Hilariously, though, we got an appetizer called Spicy Rat Toes, which were jalapenos stuffed with shrimp, wrapped in bacon, and grilled.  I can’t tolerate a whole lot of spicy food, but I was willing to take a crack at it.  There were 3 in the order, Michael didn’t want one, the rest of us had a go.  Lesley and I were fine, but Mike was crying like a little girl when he ate his.  It was kind of hilarious.  He was going on and on about how spicy they were, and I am not going to lie, it was hot, but to me it was no worse than a buffalo wing.  So we came to the conclusion he got a bad pepper.  Honestly, the appetizer wasn’t that great, so I am now on a mission to come up with a different recipe for the same basic idea and we will try it out when we all get together again.

After Six Feet Under, we went to the zoo.  At first, Leah wasn’t too excited by the animals, but she did come around when she saw the meerkats.  Anything that was speedy and moved around she enjoyed.  Anything that didn’t move or was kind of slow, she could not have cared less about.  We went into the parakeet enclosure, thinking with the birds flying around her, she’d be all over it.  Wasn’t the damned place manned by a little person!?  I know Mike was laughing his ass off behind me.  And Leah didn’t give one crap about the birds.  How’s that for poetic justice?

One moment of great excitement was when we walked into the viewing area for the gorilla enclosure and found this guy.  He’s looking mighty pleased with himself, isn’t he?  As well he should, he has just finished getting it on with one of the ladies in full view of about 3 dozen 5-10 year olds.  All over the enclosure you could hear, “Daddy, what’s he doing?” and I am sure more than one parent had some interesting chats with their children that day.

But the true highlight for me was the giant pandas.  Zoo Atlanta has 3 pandas, one of which is about to be returned to China.  Pandas are my favorite wild animal and I was so excited to see them.  I actually got all misty eyed.  They are beautiful creatures, and it has been probably 24 years since I’ve seen them, as I haven’t been to the National Zoo yet since moving to DC.  Imagine!?

  

After the zoo we went to meet Mike’s niece and nephew for dinner at a local Mexican place, which was again a great place to eat!!!  We ate so well in Atlanta, it was awesome.  And then it was time to go home, pack, and ready ourselves for or trip home.  I started getting a little nervous that when we “missed” our flight in Orlando, they wouldn’t let us on the plane back to Richmond, but everything went off without a hitch.  In fact, we had roughly the same wait to get through security in Atlanta as we did in Richmond, which is to say, approximately 5 minutes.  It was incredible.  We were way early, so we had some muffins and just relaxed.  Our flight was delayed getting back, and when we finally got back to the car around 12:30, we discovered a flat tire, but fortunately I had a can of fix-a-flat, so I put that in and figured it would get us home, which it did.

Thank you, Mike and Lesley, for the wonderful time, we so enjoyed it and hope to do it again soon, either here or there!!!!  Words can’t express our love and gratitude for the two of you.  We are so lucky to have you in our lives.

Trip to WV

So this past weekend was the big trip to West Virginia to visit the Wellses and Annette, and introduce Melissa to everyone. The scheduling changed a bazillion times due to my work schedule, Melissa's work schedule, Annette's work schedule, but eventually everything worked out. It even turned out that Melissa's and my schedules jived so we could all carpool and even better, when I emailed her to ask if that was cool, she said only on the condition that she could drive, which you know was A-OK with me! Totally stress-free weekend thus ensued. Anyone wants to make me happy, utter those three magic words to me: "Let me drive." I'm yours.

We arrived in WV in the mid-afternoon, having left Woodbridge at around 2:00. We made several stops for gas, drinks, and potty breaks (which is how I know I'm getting older!), and got to the cabin just after 4pm. They had left it open, which was incredibly nice of them so that we could just roll on in and not have to worry about registering or waiting for the Wellses to arrive. The cabin slept 6 adults and was totally beautiful! We stayed in Cabin Number 1: Rainbow Trout. There was a room with 2 twin beds and a room with a queen, both of which were on the main level, and a loft upstairs with a king sized bed and jacuzzi tub. On the main floor was also a great big room which served as kitchen/living room (with gas fireplace)/dining room. The main wall, as you can see, was totally made up of windows, and look at the amazing view:



So after we unpacked, Melissa decided that we needed to go up this hinky little forest service road into Dolly Sods. According to the Forest Service website, "The Dolly Sods Scenic Area was created in 1970 to protect the unique scenic qualities of the area north of Forest Road 19. Today approximately 2,000 acres along Forest Road 75 is managed by the US Forest Service as a scenic area. The Dolly Sods Scenic Area is the most accessible and most visited part of the Sods."

It was just hinting at getting dark, we decided to roll on up there and see what was what. The signs warn it is impassible if there is snow, but we were feeling adventurous and kept going up, up, up. It really was quite lovely up there. We had rolled into WV listening to John Denver on Melissa's iPhone, and it seemed like the perfect soundtrack for everything while we were there.



After a while of driving around up there, we were flagged down by a passing Jeep and the driver, a slightly panicked looking young man rolled down his window and said, "I'm lost. I'm trying to get to Washington." We were in shock, as evidenced by Melissa saying, "Washington, D.C.?" and cackling maniacally when the poor dude nodded affirmatively. He looked even more distressed when we informed him he had at least a 3 hour ride ahead of him. He'd been following his GPS. This is apparently a major no-no in rural West Virginia--many of the websites we went to for the weekend's festivities said, "Don't use a GPS to get here" and a couple we ran into later were taking their GPS back to the store after it got them so turned around it took them hours to get where they were going!

Well, eventually it got kinda slippery up there, so we turned around. We decided to check the cabin to see if anyone had made it, but no one had, so we decided to haul it on out to a Pizza Hut we'd passed. This Pizza Hut was the jumpingest place in town--it was PACKED to the rafters. I made the mistake of needing to use the facility while I was there, and it was disgusting. I literally wanted to Purell the heck out of my hiney when I was done in there. Ugh. The pizza was pretty good though, so no complaints. We headed back to the cabin and Russell and Amy had arrived, so that was cool! They headed out to grab some dinner and we decided to go in the hot tub that was out back. It was then I discovered the need for a new bathing suit--the legs of my old one are SHOT! So I will be getting a new bathing suit come beach time. The hot tub was AWESOME though. Wow was it nice.

Afterwards we hung out with Russell and Amy, who'd brought back their grub, and then we all started getting a little nervous because it was late and no Annette yet! Well, Annette also succumbed to the bad GPS and to poor directions, so she was just quite late. But she made it and that's all that mattered to us! The celebration could begin!

Just as soon as I got some shut eye. I was tired. This usually happens to me on the first day of a trip--once I get away from home, from work, the routine, and can let my hair down, it just all comes out and I need some zzzz's. Unfortunately, Friday night I got the worst night's sleep EVAR! Seriously. The room was so stinkin' hot, I just lay there all night, dozing in and out of sleep, but not really sleeping. It was also quite noisy in Cabin 1: Rainbow Trout due to its proximity to the highway and the number of trucks steaming past, especially in the wee small hours of the morning. Melissa reported in the morning that she had a similarly terrible night's sleep, so I didn't feel too bad.

When I got up and came out of the bedroom, which was like a little cave, I was blinded by the bright sun streaming through the windows. It looked like a glorious day, so I got dressed and decided to take a walk around the cabin sites and get some fresh air and exercise. I grabbed my cameras and started hauling. It was COLD outside, but the fresh air was great. I am not partial to the mountains, as you know, I'm a beach type of girl, but the presence of the little stream/river was comforting and the scenery was gorgeous. I walked down off the road and followed the edge of the water, and managed to keep my shoes dry--a major feat (haha) since I had economized and only brought one pair of shoes with me!




I got back to the cabin and we assembled a makeshift breakfast before heading off to start our day. We hit a Bob Evans for lunch, where I had the Wildfire salad and it was HOT BBQ sauce. Like OMGWTFBBQ sauce, as the young people say. It was good, no doubt, but it was HOT.

And then we began our trek to Helvetia. Each year, people gather in Helvetia, WV to celebrate Fasnacht, wherein they parade around in scary masks, dance around the bonfire, and set Old Man Winter alight. I was especially excited about this because it was rumored that there would be many Swiss delicacies to enjoy and I thought I'd cover it as part of the 80 Plates experience. We arrived there after 3:00. Everything was supposed to kick off at about 3:00 and dinner would be served as a buffet at 5:00pm at the only restaurant in town, The Hutte. However, it would seem the townsfolk didn't get the memo about Fasnacht because it was D-E-A-D dead when we arrived. So I did what I always do in such situations--took pictures. There was one little craft shop open, and we did go in there, but there was not much to see, really. The lady who ran it was very warm and personable however and more than happy to chat. I found the loose teas and herbs, and thought I might grab some to experiment with, but they were local to Ohio, not Helvetia, so I didn't bother. Usually on these trips I like to buy a souvenir to take home with me, but nothing really struck my fancy, so I declined a purchase there. Russell and I made friends with the town goat, who seemed kind of unhappy that we hadn't brought him something to eat!



Afterwards, Melissa and I started walking the town. The Cheese Haus and Healing Honey shops were closed, although through the windows of the Honey shop we could see a Fasnacht mask, which was pretty cool. We went to the General store, which was closed, but Russell, Amy, and Annette had the magic touch, for when they joined us, the store opened! There was a post office in front, with old post office boxes on one side and current ones on the other. The back had all kinds of supplies--canned and boxed non-perishables, T-shirts, birthday cards, and the like. But what caught my eye was the Alpen Rose Garden Club's cookbook, Oppis Guet's Vo Helvetia. I have no idea what that means, but that's the title of it. Flipping through it, I found a chapter entitled "Out the Bunghole" and I was sold, because even though it's about wine in the cellar, it's clear that Helvetians don't take themselves too seriously.

We wandered the historic town square, which was deserted, and peeked in the library, which was also closed, as was the nearby town museum. The local dance and brats and beer were in the Star Hall, but it didn't appear that anything was going on there and in fact, as we were standing around trying to think what else we could do, the band meandered past us on the town bridge, carrying a bunch of beer along with their instruments. Melissa and I decided to take a walk down the road that led along the creek and past the Cheese Haus, and walked a good 10 minutes before turning back due to nothing really being down there.



By now it was 4:50 or so, so we gathered up our group and convened on the steps of the Hutte to get ourselves some dinner! The Hutte promised an extensive dinner menu and I was hungry just looking at it! Hutte chicken, homemade sausage, parsley potatoes, green beans, carrots, applesauce, sauerkraut, onion pie, salad, homemade bread, Helvetia's own Swiss cheese, and peach cobbler--YUM! But we were in for a rude awakening! When the door swung open at 5pm on the dot, the woman running the place said, "What's your reservation under?" and we said, "We don't have a reservation." She was not pleased. "We didn't know we needed a reservation." "Oh dear, oh dear, just a minute," she said and pondered the situation. "We're from out of town?" I tried lamely, before realizing that probably everyone there was from out of town and it was unlikely to melt her flinty little heart.

Finally she said, "I can seat you but you'll have to eat and leave in an hour. I will have to insist you leave in one hour." Anything, just let us in! She did so and led us to the back room, where we had a large round table. The waitress came in to get our drink orders and the hostess came back with two other people and said, "Here, you can sit with these other people who DIDN'T HAVE RESERVATIONS EITHER."

Well, at this point, I was utterly charmed--this woman was a riot! Melissa posted a picture of her on her blog--go check it out. She's wearing feathers and a mardi gras mask. So they brought us our drinks and told us to go ahead and enjoy the buffet. The Hutte is a small restaurant that has been built inside a house. There are lots of little rooms, but not much room to maneuver around the many people who come to Fasnacht. Consequently, it was rather tight getting our food.




I'm not sure how they made the chicken, other than I am certain there were bay leaves in it and something very warming was added. Not in terms of spicy heat, but it just tasted warm, like curry. It was a great dish. I do have a recipe in the Helvetia cookbook for the onion pie, which I will definitely be trying to make here at home, because I loved it. The veggies were all great, and I even got brave and tried the Helvetia cheese, because I figured it was what one should really do when one is dining in Helvetia. Despite not ever eating a piece of cheese like that, I can say I actually didn't hate it. Not to say I plan to start eating hunks of cheese, I don't, but it wasn't bad. The cobbler was not what we expect when we think of cobbler, or at least not what I think of. I think of peaches in a syrup created by cooking them down, topped with a crumbly topping. This was actually peaches in a cake, maybe like a pound cake. It was wonderful! Different, but wonderful! We ate ourselves full.

Then it was time to head back over the mountain. We made our pitstop at Kroger's to get supplies for the fondue party and then headed on home, as there was nothing in Helvetia that was going on to amuse us until it was time for the parade or the bonfire. We decided we could hear the siren's call of the hot tub. When we got back, we quickly changed up and this time Amy joined us out there under the stars! Then it was bedtime. I was so tired I think I could have slept standing up! I opened the bedroom window just a crack so it wouldn't be so hot in there and passed out cold until almost 9am. When I sleep that late, you know I slept good!

Again, our crew got together, and we cobbled up a breakfast before Melissa set out on a hike. She decided to hike up to the top of that giant rock formation we could see from the windows of the cabin. She came back after a while and you could just tell that Russell was itching to go up there too. I decided that if they were going to do it, we should all sign a rock that they could leave up at the top of the hill. I went out and found a perfect little round rock and we used Russell's CD pen to all sign it. And soon they were off!

Amy watched through the powerful zoom on her video camera and in short order (I was surprised how quickly they made it--way to go, Russell and Melissa!) we could catch a glimpse of them up at the top. Russell stuck the rock out towards the edge of the ledge and they were back. It was so great to see the pride in Russell's face, knowing that a year ago, he wouldn't have felt able to make that hike and that this year not only did he think he could, but he did! Hopefully next year, I'll be able to go!

And then it was time for the fondue party, as detailed in my previous post, and then time to roll it on home! We got back to Woodbridge around 5 and to Fredericksburg by 6:30 even with a quick stop at WalMart for rabbit chow. It was such a great trip, I had so much fun.

Thank you, Russell and Amy and Annette and Melissa, for the great time away! It was very much appreciated and needed! Big hugs and love to you all!