Happy Easter!
Happy Easter!
Mission Christmas: Accomplished!
Sarah and I are now safely home. On our “short” trip we drove nearly 2,000 miles across the country, all around the state of Indiana, and then back home to Virginia again.
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Throughout the trip nature was doing it’s best to make driving conditions difficult for us with freezing rain (one time we even got to push the car up a small hill, yipee!), lake effect snow, and temperatures so cold it froze our windshield wiper fluid system. Almost every time a car passed us it would spray our windshield with salty water, which would freeze dry itself on and decrease our road visibility. Since this was only occurring while we were driving through the mountains at night it ended up making things pretty difficult for us. We solved the issue by driving slow in the right lane and stopping several times to manually clean the windshield at a gas station. Looks like we need to invest in windshield wiper fluid with a lower freezing point. Our poor car is in dire need of a wash once the temperature goes above freezing.
In the brief time we were home we were able to see all of the family we intended to see and all within a twentyfour hour timeframe around Christmas. Once that journey was complete we were able to settle down and a spend a few days together with each of our families.
Now it’s back to the real world…
Welcome to the Future!
Let us hope that Sarah and I can keep a new year’s resolution of blogging more in this new year.
To kick the year off right I’ve included a video of our dog Lily and her family’s dog Jake and some of their first interactions with each other.
And now its time for some sweet start of the new year sleep.
Lily’s First Swim
We’ll try to get a story about our day soon, but click here to see our photos from Saturday. And be sure to watch the video below on YouTube.com and in HD.
…traveling with Lily to New Haven, CT
This Labor Day weekend, Alex and I have had the opportunity to head up to New Haven, CT with the dog to visit Ted at his new apartment. New Haven is a city of contrasts. Very poor and run-down areas meet very nice areas, “gourmet” take-out restaurants, the amazingly detailed architecture of Yale, and beaches.
On Saturday night we went to a pizza tasting party at the grad student pub on campus… yes, there is a bar on campus just for graduate students. We met some of Ted’s new friends who were all very nice and fun to hang out with. Then we decided to head out to check out the town. We walked down to Broadway street and went to a few shops, spending most of our time in the Yale bookstore. Uncle Ted bought Lily a Yale bandana, which she loves wearing. After spending some time in the textbook section scoping out books seemed interesting, we decided to get some ice cream at Ashely’s, voted the best ice cream parlor in CT. This turned out to be a excellent decision because the ice cream was delicious (black raspberry and banana/reese’s cup) and we were able to see busloads of girls dressed in the skimpiest outfits we have ever seen in our lives heading past us to stand in a big line at a night club down the street. We have no idea what was going on there, but it was very entertaining. After eating our ice cream, we headed back to the grad pub and redeemed our free mixed drink coupon, meeting some more of Ted’s friends. Then it was back home for the night.
Yesterday, we got an early start with breakfast in the hotel. We then headed up to East Rock Park, which has an amazing view of the city and the water. Take a look at the pictures to see what I mean. Then we left for the beach, picking up hummus and veggie bagels to snack on when we got there. We found a nice park bench that was not on the beach (dogs are not allowed on beaches in CT) to eat our lunch and Lily got to feel the sand under her feet for the first time. She tried to smell it, but got sand up her nose and started sneezing. Live and learn. She also got to taste some salt water that was splashing up against a sidewalk that was right by the beach. She was very interested and somewhat wary of the waves rushing in. We then got a Rita’s Italian Ice snack. Lil got to have some of mine using a spoon and we took some pictures of her enjoying her treat.
We then drove up the coast a few miles to a beautiful park on the water. Lots of dogs were walking through the park, so Lily got to make some new friends. Some men were flying huge kites, which she was a little scared of, but it was fun to see her watch the kites and duck anytime they flew over her.
We then headed back to town to drop Lily off at home and head over to St. Thomas Moore for church. The choir at the church must have been made up of vocal performance majors because they were amazing. We decided not to take part in the after church pizza party since we were not going to be parishioners there, but they do know how to feed their students here at Yale. We are trying to convince Ted to come back for the free wine and cheese tasting party on Wednesday. Too bad Alex and I have to be back at work or we would definitely be there for that.
After church we went out to dinner at Mezcal Mexican Restaurant not far from Ted’s house. Delicious food and I highly recommend it if you are in the New Haven area any time soon. Then we went to Target and Wal-mart (Super Wal-Mart with food….Alex and I are jealous) for some shopping. We ended up back at Ted’s place, played a game of Magic cards, which we haven’t done in years, and I fell asleep holding the dog on Ted’s couch while Alex and Ted did computer things. Back at the hotel, Lil slept right next to me all night long. She seems to love traveling and all the extra attention she gets. It has been a blessing to get to see her experience New Haven right along with us. This trip has shown us that she can travel well and we plan on bringing her along with us a lot more in the future.
We also have had the opportunity to see how much Lily enjoys traveling and seeing new things.
Click on any of the photos or here to see all of our pictures.
… on a cruise, again
… to New York City!!!
We had a great day. I spent the morning with the Schmids. Started with Mass at St. Patrick’s Basilica then got some tasty NY style pizza for lunch. Next we got some tasty cupcakes from right next to NBC studios/Rockafeller Center and headed up to Central park to eat them. Then we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a few hours before heading back to the hotel to rest our feet.
All the while we were getting updates from Momma, Daddy, and Michelle as they got closer and closer to our neck of the “woods” in downtown Manhattan. They visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, then Wall Street and the World Trade Center site. While we were at the hotel sitting around, they called to say they were at St. Patrick’s only 5 blocks away. Alex, Ted, and I headed out to meet them and we walked down to visit the United Nations and Grand Central Station.
We ended in Time Square and got some great pictures with all the lights going. Part of the street was blocked off and the area was full of people.
Finally, we walked a few blocks back to our hotel and met up with Ron and Karen for dinner at the Chipotle across the street from our hotel for a late dinner. Then Momma, Daddy, and Michelle were off to catch their train back to Staten Island. Great and very busy day.
…spend more time in downtown DC
This Saturday, Alex had to go to work to make up a few more hours before the cruise. I decided to join him downtown and “worked” at Starbucks (worked in parentheses because work for the summer is done so I have about a two weeks of real vacation with almost nothing to do). After he was done with work, we headed over to the Barrack’s Row section of DC, right down the street from the Navy Yard, for some delicious “smoke and fire” pizza at Matchbox Pizza (chipotle tomato sauce, roasted red pepers, and smoked gouda cheese). Next we headed over to Union Station to pick up our Amtrak tickets for this Saturday’s trip to NYC. That went smoothly and since we had already paid to park, we decided to head over to the nearby National Building Museum. We saw an interesting exhibit on the history of downtown DC and saw a slightly creepy exhibit on rundown “storefront” churches. Overall, a pretty decent day, although it has been so HOT here that walking around can be miserable after too long. Enjoy the pictures from the museum.
… to Charlottesville, VA and Barboursville Vineyard
Celebrating our one year wedding anniversary, Sarah and I journeyed to Charlottesville, VA last weekend. Charlottesville is about a two hour drive from where we live in northern Virginia and is home to the University of Virginia. After parking in the village area near campus we walked the short distance into the city’s downtown and had lunch at a Himalayan fusion (Indian/Nepalese) buffet. We also spent some time browsing the antique and craft shops before heading back to our car and our second destination, Barboursville Vineyard.
Located just outside of Charlottesville, Barboursville Vineyard is located on the estate of a former governor of Virginia and next to the ruins of a manor designed by Thomas Jefferson (a native of Charlottesville). For $4 each we were able to sample a variety of their wines in our souvenir wine glass. While there we also went on a tour of the winery production facility (Sarah’s first) and explored the ruins. It was nice and relaxing way to celebrate our anniversary. Enjoy the photos below.
Twitter Integration
Just a quick note, I’ve incorporated both Sarah and my Twitter status updates into our blog. They’re located directly to the right of our blog posts.
