Trip to Arizona

Ack!  I went a whole month without blogging!  Well, it's not because I wasn't doing anything interesting, that's for sure.

            Actually, I can't remember what was doing before last week, because the awesomeness of my vacation washed all other memories away.  On Saturday, Feb. 20, Nate the Great and I flew off to Arizona for a week's long vacation.  We spent 2 nights and one day in Tucson, where I visited my mom's cousins and uncle - we had a nice home-cooked meal, and we checked out some great museums.  We spent the morning at the Pima Air and Space Museum, looking at old planes.  We continued on to the Sonora Desert Museum where we saw some friendly little critters who were happy to pose for pictures.  We also spent a few hours at Old Tucson Studios, where I went as a kid when we would go out to visit family.

            On day Monday, we headed way north, up to Flagstaff, through Sedona.  The routes I had planned kept us off of the main highways for the most part, so we had a beautiful, snow-covered drive up to Flagstaff.  Going up to about 6000 feet, we took a lot of windy roads and enjoyed the scenery.

            On Tuesday, we stopped at Meteor Crater (no "the!") on our way out to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "shay").  If it hadn't been for the stop at Meteor Crater, it would have been a 4.5 hour drive of nothing (pretty nothing . . .) but then again Meteor Crater is just a big hole, so it pretty much was anyway.  At Canyon de Chelly we hiked down to the bottom to see the White House Ruins.  It was a really nice hike, even though it was only in the mid-30's.

            After spending the night with Nate's aunt in Ganado, and checking out the Hubbell Trading Post, we drove south, again off the highway, through the Petrified Forest, then down to Scottsdale, our final stop.
We spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Scottsdale.  We visited Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright's home and teaching campus) and went on a great gallery tour around the town.  On the second day, we ventured over to Phoenix and checked out the Heard Museum of Native American Art and the Phoenix Art Museum, both of which we loved.
I will try to do another post or two on the trip, specifically about the art in Phoenix and Scottsdale, when I feel up to it.  For now, just enjoy the pictures!

Summer Road Trip Part 4 - The Adirondacks

After Cooperstown, we took the scenic route up to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks, where Nate's family has a cabin.

The last time Nate was at the cabin was the last (and only) time I was there - 5 years ago. But of course, not much had changed in that time. Still no running water or electricity - not my ideal vacation, but very conducive to relaxation - although we kept pretty busy while we were there.

On the first day, Nate and I went on a hike up Severance Mountain, 1 mile up, 1 mile down. We did it in about an hour, plus some time at the top to catch our breath and enjoy the view. We followed this up with some shopping in "town" mostly at the Schroon Lake town store where I found lots of excellent Christmas Gifts for my step-mother, who is a woodsy, animal-appreciating person. Hopefully when Christmas comes around I'll remember I already got her a gift!

Back at the cabin (which is only accessible by boat, across the lake from town) Nate, his dad, his sister and I took turns churning our homemade coffee ice cream. It was delicious and creamy and the perfect end to the day, along with the swim we took in the cool lake.

Day 2 at the lake was an excursion to Fort Ticonderoga, 45 minutes or so west, with Nate and his sister. We spent the morning at the Fort listening to the fife and drum corps and looking around in the barracks. There is a huge "King's Garden" on the site which was my favorite part of the visit. We got to see some very nice flowers, including some crazy large thistle (pictured).

Day 3 we had planned to go to Lake Placid, but got caught up at the cabin instead helping to put in the new dock (a momentous occasion at the old cabin where things rarely change). Well, Nate helped and I watched and took pictures. Nate's grandmother kept calling me the official photographer. Nate and I also went on a short kayak trip and I fell in love with some lily pads (shown).

We played a lot of games at the cabin (Monopoly, Boggle, Scrabble, and an American Trivia game which we bought at the Fort Ti gift shop), and did lots of reading. It was such a nice break from city life - so quiet! I hope we can make it all the way out there next summer too, although we might not drive the whole way again; more likely we will fly in to Albany and drive from there. Either way, a wonderful, long, relatively restful vacation.

And so ends the recap.

Summer Road Trip Part 3 - Cooperstown

We continued East along Rte. 20 (which had brought us all the way from Buffalo) toward Cooperstown, NY, home to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I had made our hotel reservations at the Inn at Cooperstown, which turned out to be part of the Select Registry of Distinguished Inns of North America (as was the Packwood House in Skan.). Cooperstown is a darling little town; the directions to the Inn said that it is "three buildings north of the only traffic light in the village." We approve of one-traffic-light villages.

Nate being a beer connoisseur of sorts, we made a stop at the Brewery Ommegang, which is a Belgian Style brewery. After a nice tour, tasting, and spending of a pretty penny at the gift shop (mostly on growlers, 2L bottles which they filled for us from the tap), I made a quick stop in the ladies room and was impressed by the artwork.

Back in town, we went on a nice pre-dinner walk by Otsego Lake, then visited the Cooperstown Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum before having a nice Italian dinner. After dinner we browsed in some shops, considered buying lots of baseball paraphernalia that we didn't end up purchasing, then went back to the hotel for a rousing game of Scrabble.

Monday morning was all about the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, where we lined up just before opening with many other tourists and Little League teams. The memorabilia was endless at the museum so we worked up an appetite looking at all kinds of stuff. My favorite part was the room that had a locker of each current team, which housed items from recent feats, like the hat Kerry Wood wore during his 20 strike-out game. I also enjoyed the room that was about the women's baseball league (above - A League of Their Own is one of my all-time favorite movies).

Every day at the Baseball Hall of Fame they show a different artifact which isn't normally on display. Nate and I lucked out and got in the first row to see the ball the President Taft threw out at Opening Day in 1911 (or thereabouts - I can't remember everything, can I, but I can tell you that was the first ever Presidential Opening Day first pitch) and Eisenhower's own baseball glove.

Thanks to a local who warned us against going into the restaurant that had just seated an entire Little League team, we took her second piece of advice and got massive, amazing sandwiches at Danny's Market. So fueled by our lunch, we were ready to go back to the museum for the main event: the Hall of Fame. I myself found the museum more interesting, just because it was actual stuff and not plaques, but maybe someday when there's someone in there who I actually saw play or something, I might be interested in going back (like Greg Maddux, in a few years).

Anyway, on to the Adirondacks!

Summer Road Trip Part 2 - Shailer's Wedding

The second main stop on our road trip was Skaneateles, NY where my friend Shailer was getting married.

The wedding was at the Frog Pond B&B, to the northwest of the town. It was a very cute stone house with a pond (and frogs), a nice outdoor spot for the ceremony, and an old barn, where the reception was held. Shailer is a very crafty person and she had done just about everything for the wedding herself, with a few forgivable exceptions:

Her wedding bouquet (and her husband's boutaineer - sorry, that's not how it's spelled but I couldn't find the right spelling on my comp's dictionary) were made of clay. They were absolutely perfect looking and she'll get to keep forever. The woman who made the bouquet posted it on Martha Stewart - my dream.

The cake was made my Shailer's cousin Stephanie. It was a blackberry cake and was absolutely amazing. I almost had the waiter bring me an extra piece. Shailer's wedding theme was Lovebirds, which showed up on the cake, of course.

It was a beautiful event, start to finish. I only hope Shailer wasn't too wiped out by it because I might want her help when my special day comes up

:-)

Nate the Great and I stayed overnight in Skaneateles at the Packwood House, a new hotel run by the Sherwood Inn (where his parents lived for a year early in their marriage - we tried to get a room there but it was all booked up already in Jan.). We got to have breakfast at the Sherwood Inn on Sunday, then spent a very nice few hours walking around downtown Skan. and looking in many real estate office windows and picking out our dream houses. There are many to choose from in Skan. and to live in that town I would put up with my not-so-dream house. Take it from me; if you're looking to live in a small town, Central New York is the place to be.

I never posted this picture before because I was afraid Shailer might read about it. The Amy Butler Midwest Modern quilt I was making early this year was Shailer's wedding gift. I posted plenty of pictures of the front of the quilt, but I never posted this one - the stuff I put on the back. This is a picture I found on their wedding website, scanned into my computer, then printed on printable fabric. I also copied their Save-the-Date (which Shailer made herself) onto printable fabric to put onto the quilt (shown).

Summer Road Trip Part 1 - Cleveland

When we were invited to my friend Shailer's wedding in Skaneateles, NY, Nate the Great and I decided to plan an extended road trip out to Central New York state. Stops on the way would include Cleveland, OH, an overnight at his parents' house in Buffalo, then Skaneateles, Cooperstown (the baseball Hall of Fame and Ommegang Brewery) and we would end up at Nate's family cabin at Schroon Lake, in the Adirondacks. Whew!

The reason I've been MIA for so long was because this trip took us 10 days, plus a few afterwards to recover.

At the first stop, in Cleveland, we spent many hours at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where we saw some great things, including the jacket Michael Jackson wore in the Thriller video, and his sequined glove. I can't say if I would have cared as much if not for his recent passing, but no matter, it was still cool. They also had a large exhibit of Bruce Springsteen's stuff - I almost found out the true words to "blinded by the light" but alas, his handwriting was not very clear so the original lyrics he wrote out didn't shed the much-needed light on the subject. We also got to go inside Johnny Cash's tour bus.

I will say this about the R&R HoF, if you do go, try not to go during a period of time when you would want to eat a meal. The dining options are nowhere near as good as what I'm used to at a museum cafeteria; the food was closer to airplane food.

In the evening, we saw the Cleveland Indians play the Seattle Mariners at Progressive Field. Since we got to the field early, we had plenty of time to look around and we found a small Indians' Hall of Fame right there on the premises. The Cubs definitely need one of these! The game went pretty quickly - just under 3 hours - so we were able to stay for the whole thing before our 3 hour drive on to Buffalo. As we drove away, our way was lit by the Friday night fireworks at the baseball field. What a way to go! Oh yes, and my Seattle area readers will be happy to hear that the Mariners trounced the Indians, with a little help from 2 ex-Cubs (Ronny Cedeno and David Aardsma). A good start to a great vacation!

To be continued . . .

Roomie Moon

It's like a honeymoon, but before the wedding . . . 

So I've been MIA for a while.  I was on an amazing and exhausting vacation all of last week, ending with Jess's wedding - but I'll save that for a later post.  I'd like to talk about the first part of the vacation today.

The first of a few congratulations to Jess, who will start her residency at nearby Northwestern Hospital in June.  She and her (now) husband Tom moved to Chicago in March and are living just a few blocks from NWestern Hosp., so Jessica enlisted my help to drive her no-longer-needed car down to her parents house in Florida for the duration.  It was a fun and sentimental roadtrip, especially in Jess's car, which she was given for our high school graduation and we took it on its first road trip to Long Island the very next day.

This road trip, significantly longer than that first one, started out on a rainy Sunday morning in Chicago and took us over 1200 miles down to her parents home in Belleaire Beach, FL.  We stopped for the night in Atlanta, which was well over halfway there, and enjoyed some free cookies at the Doubletree Hotel.  mmmmmm.  To pass the time in the car, we played the alphabet game a lot and counted different state license plates (38 states, plus Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and US Govt.) and abandoned cars along the road (39).  We found the number of abandoned cars to be the most startling statistic, since it meant we passed an abandoned car, on average, every 30 miles.  

The first night in Florida was a little chilly, but we requested to sit outside at the restaurant anyway - much deserved after a long winter in Chicago (and St. Louis).  

To be continued . . .