no vacancy

I'm here. I haven't written for reasons of laziness and busyness and winter blues and indecisiveness.

Those same problems have caused us some trouble. We've been planning to go to the Grand Canyon during the summer of 2015 for about two years. Two years.  And about one of those years ago we should have made reservations because... we are not going to the Grand Canyon this summer.  There are NO VACANCY signs hanging outside the canyon, just for us to see. And to make us feel dumb. Nothing but laziness prevented us from planning ahead. Apparently there are over 900 rooms on the South Rim alone. All taken. North Rim? Nada.

Instead we will travel to All The Parks except the Grand Canyon. We will save the Grand Canyon for another trip another summer. Someday.  The kids also want to get to New England, maybe driving up the coast all the way to Maine. Again, another trip, another summer. We have a few left before our dear Pook tries to get away.

We've started our planning. The boys both want to drive through Arkansas. Not that they want to see anything in Arkansas, but somehow it's a state we just plain missed on our big Yellowstone tour. It's right there, so I don't know how or why we didn't drive through it just to say we'd been there, but we didn't, so this time we've got it in the itinerary.

The rest is quickly evolving. We'll hoof it out there in two long days, then start day trips. Carlsbad Caverns and the Petrified Forest will accept us sloths even without a year's preparation. We'll stop in Monument Valley and Natural Bridges, and carry on to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. Somewhere in there will be rafting on the Colorado River, probably in Utah.

We'll see the Four Corner states in more depth than we saw any of them on our Yellowstone tour.  We should have enough time to see each park thoroughly. The Grand Canyon can close its doors on us and we'll simply divert ourselves elsewhere. We're starting to look forward to it already.

fun with a funyak

Sorry I've been gone so long. Summer vacation does that to me.  You'd think I just sit around all day, then lounge at the pool, then hang out for the evening. I have very little to discuss.

We went to the mountains for the weekend, near Highlands NC.  Pook was about to stay for a week of camp and we were invited to stay the prior weekend before saying goodbye.  It was a beautiful and relaxing place, all meals included, so we enjoyed ourselves. 

I love driving places up in the mountains. First you pass the produce stands with "boiled p-nuts" and the fancy spots with both cold beer and live bait.  One place advertised (on little signs stuck in the ground at intervals along the road) "frog jam" and then "toe jam." I'm assuming that the people who want those know what they're getting.

Then you get into reading the street names. They're awesome. I can just picture some town council telling everyone that the map makers have requested that they name their roads and everyone needs to turn in their road name by month's end.  Some think for weeks before choosing. Ted writes his down immediately.  Ted was probably ten.

My favorites:

Lingering Shade Lane (the winner, in my book)
Grasshopper Lane
Pumpkintown Road
Buttermilk Road (and then Upper Buttermilk Road)
Teds Road
Mirror Lake Lane
Turtle Pond Road
Turtle Creek Road (not near each other)
Gold City Lane
Corn Creek (or maybe my writing is messy and it was Cow Creek?)
Lazy Bear Ridge
Rebel Ridge (It is the South, remember)


While we were there we took an excursion to go rafting on the Tuckaseegee River, a smaller and less crowded river than the Nantahala. The outfitter had these wonderful inflatable kayaks, called "funyaks" which we chose.  They were about ten feet long and relatively comfortable. Paddling was simpler and more responsive than in a canoe. I thought they were easy to guide but the boys ran a lot of rapids either backwards or spinning around uncontrolled until they hit a rock. The rapids were Class I and II, so nothing requiring a helmet (which is good because I lied about Bug's age) but we all got wet.

The camp had started a week prior for those wanting two weeks away, so we came in on the middle. We met three other families doing the same thing, and hung out with them part of our time. I enjoyed seeing how bonded the kids were after a week together (think of lots of young teenagers hugging, dancing and singing and generally making a ruckus.) I hope the newcomers like Pook were welcomed in.

(And now, sniff, I'm missing our boy.)

gallons for ghosts

While CD and I were in Asheville for our anniversary getaway, we took a culinary tour of the city.  We visited 6 different eating spots and had food and/or drinks at each. All were great, but the sangria we were given at one was just spectacular. My comparison is pretty weak-- I tend to refer to leftover red wine mixed with orange juice and a splash of bottled lemon juice as sangria.  The one we had was very hearty. I'd decrease the spices a lot to have it in the summer. This reminded me more of a mulled wine and was lovely on a cold evening.  Our tour guide said to email her for the recipe if we wanted it, so I did.

In return I received the recipe for five gallons of sangria.

I suppose I could host a big party, but most people I know would choose beer or wine and then I'd be left with 4 3/4 gallons of sangria.  Instead I hit up google for help. Did you know there are lots of recipe converters out there? I could swap from liters to cups and also decrease the recipe down to a single gallon. We might need to go even smaller, but if I'm buying all that booze I'd need a use for it!

Just in case you want to make sangria for everyone you know, or if you want to put it out for the parents of Trick or Treaters (you'd be very popular!) here is the handy dandy recipe.

Sangria, 5 gallons

1.5 liters white wine

1.5 liters red wine

0.5 liters dry sherry

0.5 liters port

0.375 liters brandy

3 c. simple syrup

4 c. orange juice

1 c. lemon juice

1 c. lime juice

1 cup chopped ginger

5 broken up cinnamon sticks

1/8 cup anise

2 Tbs cloves

2 each chopped: orange, lemon, lime

4-6 cups ginger ale or ginger beer to taste

If you think this looks as tasty as I thought it was, and if you were thinking of having me over, you could use the scaled recipe, here. I'm not sure if we could polish off even the smaller quantity without inviting more guests, but the more the merrier.

Sangria, 1 gallon

* Recipe rounded to nearest cooking fraction

1 1/3 cups white wine (1/3 liters)

1 1/3 cups red wine 

½ cup dry sherry (1/8 liter)

½ cup port

½ cup brandy

2/3 c. simple syrup (1/2 sugar, 1/2 water)

3/4 c. orange juice

1/4 c. lemon juice

1/4 c. lime juice

1/4 cup chopped ginger

1 broken up cinnamon stick

2 Tbs anise

1 tsp cloves

1/3 each chopped: orange, lemon, lime

1 cup ginger ale or ginger beer to taste

photography 101

This past weekend CD and I took off for Asheville, North Carolina, for a weekend away to celebrate our 15th anniversary. One of the items on our agenda was a visit to the Arboretum.  The color of trees in Atlanta isn't notable yet, but Asheville was already putting on a show.  Friday night they had their first heavy frost and we visited the next morning before the day had warmed up. It was crisp and beautiful (and warm in the sun!)  We took the good camera to play with it. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

The Arboretum was having a Lego exhibit on display. We took photos and knew the boys would love them. My favorites:

half a world away and another world here

I've let my baby fly half a world (or at least most of a continent) away from me. He is on a Road Scholar  (formerly called Elderhostel) program with my parents. Sunday morning they flew to Seattle and made their way to the San Juan Islands. Yesterday he attended a whale program and "met four new friends". Today he will go whale watching.  Later they'll head to a cabin on Mount Rainer and visit Mount Saint Helens.  I'm excited for him, but missing him a ton. Things are just a bit... quiet around here without him. Pook is feeling it too, as much as Bug annoys him.

Pook was given the option of attending a camp this week, but chose instead to go on field trips with me. We spent a day in downtown Atlanta visiting the Martin Luther King Center and seeing his childhood home, then heading to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library which is only a mile or so away. I'm impressed at the choices of field trips. Tomorrow we're going to the High Museum (art museum) and he wants to get to the Atlanta History Center too.  I'm not sure if these things would entertain Bug or not. Certainly not for the length of time Pook can spend visiting them.

We took a break between the more educational trips to get a few things done today. One of them, a drive to the DeKalb Farmer's Market, was lots of fun. The place sells all sorts of international produce. The employees wear nametags which list the languages they speak. They sell everything!

The kitchen plans had originally included a spice shelf inside the pantry drawer. When it failed to show up we decided to skip it. It took a while for me to come up with an alternate plan, but when I did I also decided to throw out all the old spices and refresh them. The farmer's market has bulk spices at incredible prices, so out we went.  Of course we had to get a few other things too- chocolate croissants, smoked Gouda cheese, a rice pilaf mix they carry, and a dragon fruit.

Why a dragon fruit? Well, one of my habits when I get to that market is to buy something I've never had before. This fit the bill! I found a video online which explains how to eat it (like a kiwi) and when it is ripe. Tonight it will serve as dessert. Hope we like it!

I can't wait to talk to Bug on the phone to hear all about his trip. Pook and I are enjoying our own adventures, but whale watching isn't among them!

More Adventures of Pook and Bug

Pook and Bug Go to their Nation's Capital, continued


Chapter Five:
It is museum day for Pook and Bug (and family). Today we visit the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Since the Washington Monument is closed for earthquake repair, we climb/rise in an elevator to the top of the Old Post Office bell tower for excellent views.

Pook and Bug (and family) end their day by visiting the National Archives. No photos are allowed, although the Constitution and other old documents are sadly faded and unreadable anyway. We are now very tired and hungry and a storm is brewing.

We get stuck walking back to the rental because the mean mom of Pook and Bug thinks that all the biking without helmets is bad enough, but biking during a thunderstorm is too much.


Chapter Six:
Today is the day that Pook and Bug meet their government. We bike to the Capital and take a very comprehensive tour. Outside I catch the eye of Henry Louis Gates during some filming.

We followed the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress, not on our original To Do list, but well worth the time.

The Supreme Court impressed all of us, not just Pook and Bug. The free public lecture takes place right in front of the nine justices' chairs.  It is the day after the DOMA decision, despite the fact that neither CD nor I have heard or read any news for a week and have no idea what has been going on. We learn after the fact.

Popular advice is to eat a meal at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. The advice is good. I want to find the recipe for the wild rice salad. We head out of town to go visit friends.



Chapter Seven:
Our friend Laura and her son join Pook and Bug (and family) and take a train back into town to see the Smithsonian American History Museum. Bug is fascinated by the story of the Greensboro Woolworth's Lunch Counter. We hear a dramatic retelling of the experience.

Apparently I am shallow. I like Kermie.

Pook wears us all out. Another storm prevents us from going to see the Hirshorn Sculpture Gardens, but really we would have collapsed.


Chapter Eight:
The Udvar-Hazy annex of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is near Laura's home. Wisely, she drops us off. The place is one gigantic hangar. It makes this Concorde and the space shuttle Discovery look small. I enter into a four way text conversation between relatives in Nebraska, Oregon and North Carolina about the family member who was a pilot. I am interested to know if we are looking at planes he commonly flew in the Air Force or for Pan Am.

We take a two hour tour of the "highlights." Pook is inexhaustible. Bug and I sit for a bit.

Chapter Nine:
The eleven hour drive up felt short in comparison to the drive home. Pook and Bug (and family) are ready to rest from their vacation.

The End

Epilogue:
We are so thankful for our friends who hosted us and made this trip possible (and more fun!). We are grateful that they have teenage sons who were interested in joining them (and Pook and Bug and family) for parts of our tour. I am happy that Pook and Bug enjoy learning about history and can sometimes teach me new things.

The Adventures of Pook and Bug

Pook and Bug Go to their Nation's Capital


Let's let this be a picture book:

Chapter One:
Pook and Bug (and CD and I, along with our friend Mike and one of his sons) go to Mount Vernon. We see George Washington's home and grounds.

We spend the afternoon in Old Towne Alexandria. It is hot but we have ice cream and all is well.

Chapter Two:
Pook and Bug (and family) visit Arlington National Cemetery in the rain. It feels appropriate somehow and not unpleasant. The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier(s) is very moving.  One of the soldiers has been identified and moved from the tomb.

In the afternoon we drive to Maryland to say we've been in Maryland to have some crab and see Annapolis. Annapolis is wonderful until we get a parking ticket. We should have splurged with an extra quarter in the parking meter.

Chapter Three:
We head downtown to our rental unit. We never took a picture of it, but it was one floor of a wonderful brownstone on a beautiful street in Capital Hill. Pook and Bug (and family) spend most of the day in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

Chapter Four:
Pook and Bug (and family) take advantage of the Capital Bikeshare program and rent bikes. We take a massive tour of all the monuments. We choose a day unlikely to have rain, but horridly hot. Yes we are from Georgia, but no, we don't bike around in the hot sun.

Pook and Bug (and family) start at the White House. We were unable to take a tour of it because of the sequester. We were unable to get up close because of 9/11. From a distance it looks a lot like it does on TV.

Pook and Bug (and family) hop on our bikes and bike to see the Einstein Memorial. It is a bit hidden away and I'm so glad I knew about it to go see it. The boys climb up and sit on him. They are about the height of his papers.

 

From there we bike to see Lincoln, who is just as majestic as expected.

 

Pook and Bug (and family) walk to see the Vietnam War Memorial. The list of names is overwhelming. Veterans are there to tell about the memorial. Everywhere we went in the city there were volunteers helping out. We counted on them for advice on finding lunches, choosing events and sights and explaining things to us.

There was a tour group of Korean War veterans visiting the War Memorial while we visited it too. I choked up while watching a man with his son and grandson pose for a photo. The memorial is dark stone, reflecting the visitors between images of soldiers. I thought it was beautiful but that this picture of the soldiers was better. 

We continue on bikes to see the Martin Luther King Memorial. It is interesting to see up close. The stone is very speckled; although it looks light from a distance it is made of many colors. I like the way the wedge of stone was brought forward from the larger piece to be carved into his likeness.

Pook and Bug (and family) bike to see Franklin D. Roosevelt. His memorial is a very large series of "rooms" with many quotes of his and lots of fountains. We decided it was inappropriate to bathe in them. But we thought about it.

Thomas Jefferson's Memorial is much further, around the Tidal Basin. The view is wonderful, looking back at the Capital building. We are about to collapse from the heat. We sit inside for a while to recuperate, but eventually head onward. There is more to see and we have to get home either pedaling or walking at this point anyway. I'd say we soldiered on, but we complained a lot more than I think soldiers do.

Eventually Pook and Bug (and family) return to The Mall and the Washington Monument and Scaffolding. We return our bikes for the last time and take the subway back to our rental.

Four cool showers later we are ready to cook dinner. Preparing our own food felt much easier than walking anywhere to find dinner. We thank the Amish family at the Eastern Market for finding some garlic for us. Homemade ravioli, butter, garlic and green beans worked to make a perfect, simple meal.

This story is getting long, so it will have to continue another day.
Pook and Bug say Goodnight.

gonna go?

Sometimes you know you're doing too well to be really doing well. I've been juggling so many things and been pretty impressed with my ability to keep everything straight and deal with everything as it has come. I took a great big breath when school finished last Thursday because that was the end of much of my to-do list. Baseball is done, school is done. The kitchen is not done. The church playground is not done. The swim team executive board is easing up but ongoing, the vacation to Washington DC is.... oh crap.

I woke up this morning knowing that something was wrong. The best I could do right away was write "check on vrbo" on my long to-do list.  Sometime between "The workmen are running late" and "I'm bored" and "He did it" and "I'm hungry" and "The check engine light is on" I finally got to the computer to see why I had this uncomfortable feeling about our trip.  

I can't find any information anywhere that I've sent a deposit to anyone. The best I can find is a confirmation from six weeks ago that the rental property was available for the requested dates. I took a deep breath and emailed the owner. She was incredibly prompt, but didn't give the answer I wanted. No, I had never actually reserved the property. No, it was no longer available.

I panicked for a few minutes, then I sent the kids out of the room. I took a few deep breaths. I got chocolate. I took a few more deep breaths.  Then I got back on the vrbo website and started hunting. Right now I've got two available places, both more expensive than the first, but acceptable. I've sent requests for availability and price to five others. We will have a summer vacation. It will happen. I will even have a chance to relax. Right?


*****
Pook just asked me if I'd ever wondered if maybe I volunteered for too many things. Perceptive kid.

the better-late-than-never summary

On the Great National Vacation...

• 5,280 miles driven
• 18 states visited
• 1,141 photos taken on 3 cameras
• 48 license plates seen from the United States. (We never saw one from Deleware or Rhode Island, but Hawaii was represented.)
• 7 license plates from Canada
• best road names: Buttermilk Road, in Alabama, and Rattlesnake Gulch in CO
• worst road names: O 1/2 and B 3/10 and others of that ilk around Grand Junction CO
• smallest town: Emblem, WY, population 10
  
• worst observation: Bug, who was trying to read his book too often, and missing scenery
           me: "There's a giant pink dinosaur on Bug's side (of the car)."
           Bug: "Where?"
• best observation: Pook, "I saw a mirage but it turned out to be real." 
• best redemption from having poor observation skills earlier:  Bug, "I recognize that tree."  (And he did.  We'd accidentally  reversed direction on our long hike after stopping at the observation point.)
• best food: local place in New Mexico, although the salsa ("sauce") was hotter than my good eaters were prepared to consume. 
• most common question:  "What state are we in?" 
• most common statement: "I guess I have to go to the bathroom after all." 
• best idea: to include Mesa Verde in our route 
• worst idea: to get to Fort Worth and Dallas at rush hour on a Friday 
• oddest encounter: a family from our church, visiting the same paint pots area of Yellowstone at the same time as our family

What would I do differently?  Not much.  I would have liked to spend more time on our way and way home.  We did all our exploring by car or by foot and I'd have liked to have time for a bike ride, day of tubing, canoeing or horseback riding or a train ride. I'd have found time to visit Devil's Tower.  I'd have driven less in Texas and added Arkansas to our list of states visited instead. 

We were gone for 17 days, and I think just three more would have perfected it.  It was a wonderful trip and I wish every family could do something similar.

what I did on my summer vacation

We're in the home stretch.  Home looms ahead.

We LOVED Mesa Verde.  I am so glad I pushed to go there on our way back.  We spent one long afternoon at the top of the mesa and squeezed in two Ranger-led tours before staying in their lodge.  Incredible.  I think the boys were just as impressed.  There are over 600 homes built into the cliff-sides by "pre-Puebloian peoples."  (Apparently "Anasazi" is a politically incorrect term these days, meaning "ancestral enemies" and the tribes who have descended from these people don't like it to be used.)

I'm not sure what has been my favorite.  I am in love with Colorado, although the eastern half has no point in being around at all.  We drove through green mountain passes twice and felt as if they almost equaled the Beartooth Highway, although there was less snow visible.  And we still didn't see a big-horned sheep or mountain goat.  (You have tried to guess my animal photo in the last post, right?)

We were at a grocery store in Nowhere, CO when a scruffy-graying-bearded-guy-in-a-pickup (that narrows it down to all the men in the state over 40) commented on our distance from home and then nicked my plans to drive through Santa Fe.  He called it a "dusty big city" and suggested a different route.  I wish I could tell him we'd taken his advice and had a lovely drive.

The kids have been great. They've had lots to do in the car and we haven't had any "I'm bored" comments at all.  We have had to confiscate Bug's books to make him look out the window at times.  We've given them some choices-- longer but prettier, or faster and maybe time to read aloud before bed, etc., and they've usually opted for the scenic route.  We packed a huge box of books and only Bug has read more than one.  (At least we didn't fly.)

Enough chat.  Here are photos.

The photo of the Tetons that everyone must take

Out by the Snake River, looking unsuccessfully for moose

Can you see the Triceratops femur? Almost as wide as the photo, 4' long

Petroglyphs at Dinosaur National Monument

Bug and Pook working on one of many Junior Ranger badges

Long House at Mesa Verde National Park

Cliff Palace

Goodbye National Parks.  We're on our way homeward.

contest time!!!

I think I shall have my first ever Pook and Bug contest!  See below for details.

The boys are a bit disappointed that we haven't seen more wildlife than we have.  I think I promised them moose, which has not happened, even in the Tetons.  We have seen:

• elk, which are all over like pigeons around Mammoth Lodge, and scattered here and there everywhere else in the park
• bison, which I am not to refer to as buffalo without hearing Bug correct me
• two pronghorn antelope, which are apparently not really antelope at all
• a bear of some type, although Pook missed it.
• prairie dogs
• trumpeter swans in the Tetons
• mule deer
• llamas (yeah, they were on a ranch, but still...)

So, here is the contest.  Look at the photo below and find the animal.  Something is hiding there.  No, I don't see it either, but it's there!  Leave a guess in the comments and win a prize-ish-like-thing! (Or at least my profound admiration.)

gloop, gloop, gurgle, gurgle

When Pook was a baby we made up songs for him all the time. I made them up because I hadn't been a mom very long and didn't remember the words to kid songs I'd once known. (I never remember lyrics.) CD made them up because, well, because he liked to make them up. Sometimes, as Pook got older, he made them up on request. Among the repertoire were the Diaper Song, the Crawling Song, the Swimming Pool Song, and the Humidifier Song. Don't ask me to sing any of them, sorry. But for some reason we've just spent dinner singing (too many) of them. At this moment the kids are playing with Dominoes on the floor of our cabin while singing the Diaper Song.

Me, I have the Humidifier Song in my head. "Gloop, gloop, gurgle, gurgle goes the humidifier. Gloop, gloop, gurgle, gurgle, there it goes." (No, not Grammy material.) But unlike the kids and the Diaper Song (thank goodness not applicable these days) I have a good reason for my tune.

We've seen lots of hydrothermal features at Yellowstone. I think I was under the impression that the Old Faithful area of geysers was it. The reality is that they are scattered all over this huge park. The high sprays of water may get the most attention, and the turquoise pools may be breathtaking, but the mud pots are my favorite. They just make me laugh. We saw one at the Artists Paint Pots area which had caused them to rope off part of the boardwalk. Boiling clods of mud were spraying out, ten feet up and away. The noise could be heard from a dozen yards away. "Gloop, gloop..."

This is another, the Fountain Paint Pot:

Beehive Geyser, which went off at the same time as Old Faithful, but higher

White Cone Geyser, which we watched erupt while eating our salami sandwich lunch

The Great Prismatic Pool, with rainbows of water, stone and steam

Celestine Pool, a boiling turquoise hole