We are Home

We are home. We started out in Buffalo, went to visit Niagara Falls and then headed back to Massachusetts. We pulled in to the driveway after a 10 hour ride to find a "For Sale " sign, a "Foreclosure Sign", a "Sold" sign, and a "Sale Pending" sign adorning our front yard. We have very funny friends.

Hills of Wisconsin

Long Day

It was a long two days on the road. The only natural sights we saw along the way were hundreds of miles of farmhouses and corn fields. Oh yeah..and lots of cows. I had no idea that we had that much corn in the United States. What the heck do we do with all of it?

In Wisconsin, we took a few back roads to get to our hotel. It was through hills and farm lands. All the beautiful farms and crops looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

The biggest news is that we almost drove off the road in Wisconsin...we sighted a Dunkin Donuts! We pulled off the highway and literally skipped with joy into the store! Ahhhhhh....Dunkin Donut ice coffee..life is complete. By the way, we have not seen one since.

We drove through Chicago, but Oprah refused to put us on her show. I know I would have been an entertaining guest, but she wasn't buying it. I also told her I would be her new best friend, and that I am funnier than Gail. I think that is when we had to run from security. Okay...that was just the story that Kurt and I made up in the car. I told you it was a L O N G ride.

We also drove through Cleveland, and Kurt was heartbroken that we couldn't get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Gwenny. I even dressed her up as Elvis, but they were not buying it.

My handy dandy, trustworthy GPS system that got me all around the country decided to commit suicide when we stopped at a rest area. We came back to the car, and there she was hanging from the rear view mirror. Apparently, we worked her way too hard. Thank goodness, we had Kurt's old one. It works at half speed, but got us where we needed to go.

We are heading to Niagara Falls today. We might actually pull into good old Franklin tonight. We haven't decided yet whether we want to stay on the road any longer. The first two days were overwhelming and the last two days have been long and overwhelming in a different way.

Due to fact that the scenery was beautiful, but monotonous, we had to find other ways to amuse ourselves. We started playing songs that had something to do with each area. We started in Madison, Wisconsin and traveled through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and landed in Buffalo, New York. Some of our listening pleasures included;

Illinois by Dan Fogelberg

Chicago by Crosby, Still, Nash, & Young

Ohio by Neil Young

Indiana Wants Me -Oldies, I forget the artist

Look Out Cleveland by Jackie Green

Philadelphia by Bruce

New York State of Mind by Billy Joel

Thank godness for Ipods.

Lastly, apparently my comments about the pace of life in South Dakota was not as funny as I thought to everyone. I did not mean any disrespect, but when you move at 180 mph like we do on the East Coast, it is difficult to put the brakes on and drive at 35. My apologies to the South Dakota Tourist Bureau.

!3 Hours on the Road

We landed in Buffalo, New York. EXHAUSTED! I'll fill you in tomorrow.

The Wonders of the Road

We have traveled all day today. There were not many natural attractions to see along the route through South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

So we looked for the unusual...lots to see.

The other day when we traveled through Idaho, I really wanted to go to the Potato Museum, but Kurt did not want to take the time to see the history of the potato. Today, I put my foot down when I saw the sign for the Corn Palace. It was great! Unfortunately, the corn festival starts tomorrow and we had to miss it.

We also drove by the wonderful skeleton of the dinosaur and the man along route 90 in South Dakota. Fabulous. I did not get a good picture of it as we drove by, however I was able to find one on the internet for your viewing pleasure.

For those of you who have read my blog, you might remember that Kurt was not happy that I missed the picture of the buffalo walking by our car, so I found another one today and made sure I took this picture for Kurt.

Trouble in the Heartland...Badlands

Mount Rushmore

Greetings from the Road

Gwenny checking out the sights
Big Horn National Park

What a day! It took us most of the day to drive through Wyoming. Kurt only yelled at me once...when I couldn't get my camera to work fast enough to take a picture of the buffalo that was walking beside our car! It was surreal! I was a nervous wreck...I kept thinking Gwenny would start barking at the buffalo and then it would start ramming our car. I just wanted to get out of there.

Unexpectedly, we drove through Big Horn National Park at one point today. I think we hit an elevation of 9000 feet..another long, windy, and narrow road up! It was so worth the trip up to this elevation even though our ears have been popping all day. We went to dinner and could barely hear our waitress. At one point I think she just thought we were rude.

We finally made it to South Dakota and visited Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. Of course we had to listen to Badlands by Bruce on our trek in to the real Badlands. That was for you Katie.

One thing I noticed in this part of the country is that life moves at a much slower pace. It seems like no one is in a hurry. I went to a small grocery store today to buy something we could take on the road for lunch. I asked for 1/4 of a pound of deli meat, sliced thin. The woman was so sweet, "I think that might be about 20 slices dear." She sliced, counted one (literally), put in down on the paper...she sliced, counted two, and put it down on the paper...and so on. It took 15 minutes!! When she weighed it, it was not a full 1/4 of a pound. "Oh, I think I need to go back and slice you six more pieces," she said. I was 25 minutes in this store and I was the only person in line at the deli! The good news...the speed limit is 75. They move a bit faster on the roads.

On the Road Again

Shoshone National PArk
Old Faithful in Yellowstone

Grand Teton National Park
Gwenny napping on the ride

We left Mountain View yesterday and drove for about 13 hours. It was long day and we drove through California, Nevada, and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Again, the ride was stunning. I did not realize that there is actually salt everywhere as you enter Salt Lake City! Driving into the city, the salt flats lined the highway, and everything was white. It was so bizarre.

We left Salt Lake City this morning and headed through the Sierra Mountains into Idaho and then on to Wyoming. As you can see from the picture of Gwenny sleeping in the back of the car she doesn't think that the views are any big deal.

Last minute, we decided to visit the Grand Teton National Park on the way the Yellowstone. I never even knew this beautiful park even existed. We didn't see any bears at Yellowstone, but the buffalo were everywhere. I tried to convince Kurt to get a buffalo burger for dinner, but he just couldn't after seeing them roaming through Yellowstone. We landed in Cody, Wyoming after driving through Shoshone National Park. We got in too late to go to the rodeo across the street. Thank goodness!

We are exhausted. Maybe we will get to sleep in until at least 6 tomorrow morning.

Glen Hansard Leave at Mountain Winery

A Sad Evening

We went to see the band The Swell Season last night at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. The place was stunning. It is a working winery at the top of a mountain. The amphitheater is beautiful and the acoustics were breathtaking. I was sitting watching the show and thinking what a perfect ending to our summer here in California.

Then, about 3/4 of the way through the show, a man committed suicide by leaping from the top of the winery building on to the stage. He hit the lighting and some of it fell down to the stage with him. He fell two feet away from the lead singer, Glen Hansard. Glen went running over to him and started yelling to get some help. People with medical experience started jumping on the stage to help, but I think it was too late at that point. I think everyone was in shock. It was one of the most horrific things I have ever seen or heard.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was in the amphitheater last night, especially families with little children. It was such a sad evening.

The Count Down

We wanted to do something very different to celebrate our countdown. We are heading off to a concert at the Mountain Winery to see one of my favorite bands, The Swell Season. I can't wait!

Two Days Left

Just two days left here in CA. No...I haven't started packing. We leave Saturday morning around 6:00 am. First stop..Salt Lake City, Utah. NO eggs for us before we head out. That would not be pretty on the road. For those of you who appreciate Kurt's humor, I thought you would like to know that he is threatening to stop in Utah at the wife store. I am not sure if he plans on replacing me or adding to the chaos. In his dreams!

Packing

I got up this morning and it was a little overcast. It was the first day in over two months that it looked like the sun may not come out. So I thought it was a good day to start thinking about packing up for the ride home. Usually, my motto is ..."if the laundry is done, I can pack in 10 minutes." However, I am getting a little nervous about whether everything is going to fit in the car for the ride back. So again...I started thinking about it...then the sun came out. For those of you who know me real well, you already know I didn't get much past the "thinking" about packing. We leave Saturday morning and the laundry is done. Friday is looking like a good packing day. P.S. It is starting to freak out Kurt just a little bit.

Just some cute pictures

Gwenny working at Clicker

Jessica at the park

Kurt Exploring Amoeba

Kurt deserved one last shopping spree considering he was almost flattened like a pancake earlier in the day!

Gwenny in the Park

The Grilled Cheese Truck

For lunch on Saturday we went all out for my sister's visit. We took her to the Grilled Cheese Truck. Lunch Trucks are everywhere in LA, and this one makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches. We then had a picnic lunch at the Le Brea Park..home of the Tar Pits. It is actually a beautiful park and we had lots of "family time." Even Gwenny had a blast exploring and acting like she owned the place.

Kurt wanted to visit Amoeba Music one last time before heading back to Massachusetts. I think you can tell by the picture why it is one of his favorite places.

We had a great day with the kids. This has been the best benefit of our time here in California...spending more time with my kids.

Donna flew home from LA Sunday morning and we drove back up north. All in all...it doesn't get much better than spending time with your family and friends. It does not matter what you do as long as you have fun together...and we had lots of laughs.

Griffith Observatory

Kurt's Experiences With the Underside of My Tire.

This is a reenactment-yes, we are that crazy.

We had a great visit with the kids. We spent the morning at Griffith Observatory. It is in the hills of LA and overlooks the entire city. It also has great views of the Hollywood sign. Oh, by the way, I almost killed my husband in the parking lot...literally!

We were having difficulties parking because it was mobbed, and some guy was trying to save a spot for his friend (who was not in the park yet by the way) by standing in front of it. He was on his phone and waving us on. I knew the other guy could not get in the spot if my car was smack in front of the space so as far as I was concerned it was just a stand off and of course I would win.

Then I spied a spot to the left and decided to go for it at the exact same time my husband decided to get out and do what...fight, yell at the guy, throw his phone over the LA hills...I am not sure, and my lovely daughter was right behind him ready to go into battle with her father. All I know was that there were so many swears being yelled I couldn't really focus. I put the car in reverse as Kurt was stepping out of the back seat. Yes...this is where I almost killed him. I will say in my defense...obviously I was unaware that he was getting out of the car. As he stepped out, his flip flop got caught under the back wheel and he was being pulled under! His foot was going in the same direction...it was next. Everyone started yelling...it got a little crazy in that car..if you know my family you know we are not quiet in anyway. Of course I stopped in time before there was any serious damage...although he did have some tire burns on the heel of his foot and leg. He is fine...and we got the spot! I think the guy finally realized that we were a little crazy and really did not want to deal with us, and he probably caught sight of little Kurt getting out of the car. Either way.... I knew we would win!

My Sister's Visit

My sista came to visit, and we had a great time just hanging out. Surprisingly, she didn’t want to do the usual tourist stuff, so instead we visited Apple, Google, Cisco and the Gilroy Outlets. I also showed her around Mountain View, and we went to my favorite little pub for dinner. The food and beers were great, but I think I got my sister hooked on Lemon Drops.

We tried to do a tour of Apple, but they wouldn’t let us in….we didn’t take it personally… they just don’t give tours…top secret stuff going on there. We did go to the Company Store though, and my sister thought she was in heaven. I think I actually saw her skipping through the store a few times. Check out Donna’s t-shirt in the picture..."I visited the Mothership." She is not a Sci Fi geek... it is referring to Apple.

Gilroy is the garlic capital of CA. That is not the main reason we went there, it is also the home of 150 outlet stores. You can’t get away from the garlic smell when you are anywhere near the place, it permeates everything. I loved it! Donna …not so much! Lots of laughs.

We headed down to LA on Friday for the weekend. It took us about 6 hours to get there. The ride is beautiful. The vastness of the land out here never ceases to amaze me. We met up with the kids for dinner. Guess what? They picked out a great Italian restaurant ….more GARLIC!

Less than Two Weeks Left

It is amazing to me how quickly this summer has gone by. My sister is coming tonight for a visit , and then we are heading down to LA for the weekend to visit with the kids. It is great being so much closer to them. Gwenny has adjusted wonderfully to apartment life, but he next few weeks are going to be like a whirlwind for her and for us.

There are many things that I am starting to miss about home..my family and friends being top on the list. A few others...

-Dunkin Donuts...I have become adjusted to Starbucks ice coffee but it just not the same

-My mattress...It feels like we have been sleeping on a hotel mattress for months...my back is starting to revolt

-My fenced in yard....Gwenny loves all the dog smells here so she wants to go out constantly...the good news is I am getting my exercise going up and down our three flights of stairs ten times a day!

-Fresh fruits (with preservatives) haha-sounds a bit odd when I write it down, but we can’t keep fruit longer than two days here without it getting moldy…not sure why.

-Rain…at least a little bit. Every morning I wake up to what I think is rain (you must admit it is a really comforting sound), but it is just the sprinklers. The sun has been out everyday since I hit California. (Can you believe I am complaining about that???)

-My sandals/flip flops….I only brought a few pairs with me and I need a bit more variety. Who knew?? Only everybody who has ever commented on my shoe rack!

-Cheese sticks…I eat them almost everyday and I hate the brands that I have been able to find out here.

….but who’s complaining!

Earthquake

Good News ... No, I did not feel the earthquake.

The Cliff House

The Cliff House picture was borrowed from the Internet. The rest are mine.

Mother's Day in August

I have the best kids! This weekend was my Mother's Day present. My kids planned a Mother's Day in August because we could not be together in May. We had the best weekend. Jessica and Kurt flew in Saturday morning and we headed to San Francisco for breakfast. They researched and found a little restaurant in South Park called The Butler and the Chef. It claims to have the best french toast in the city which is my favorite breakfast food. We all agreed that they were right.

We then headed back to Mountain View to see Gwenny. It is always fun being around when Gwenny reconnects with her kids. She was out of her mind happy. We all took a walk to Downtown Mountain View for their famous Gelatto. (One of us actually had three over the weekend and it wasn't me.)

We headed back to San Francisco later in the afternoon. I had to pick one thing I wanted to do, so we headed off to the Golden Gate Park to the De Young Museum for the Impressionist exhibit from the Musee d'Orsay. We were able to pick out a few painting that we actually saw when we visited Paris in 2000. We even saw the most famous mother of all...Whistler's Mother!

Dinner was a complete surprise. We had dinner and drinks at the Cliff House on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. The view was absolutely beautiful and our dinner was amazing. However, believe or not, we did not spend too much time outside soaking in the views because by that time the temperature had dropped down to the high 40's. Sorry to all my East Coast friends still fighting all those humid humid temperatures.

Sunday was a bit more low key. We just hung out together and did some exploring around Mountain View. We dropped Jess and Kurt off at the airport around 3:00, and Kurt and I headed to the pool for the afternoon. I am feeling like a spoiled little girl.

Thank you to my family for a wonderful weekend. It does not get better than this.

Our Haircuts

Okay, little things like haircuts can be a challenge when you are living someplace new. A few days ago, we drove around looking for a place for Kurt to get his haircut. We went to a Supercuts but they could not take him for a few hours. A little further down the road we came upon Julie's Salon. It was open, so we figured how bad could it be. Luckily, I stayed in the car because I honestly think I would have lost it. So Kurt tries to tell her how to cut his hair...mistake number one. In his defense ..he only used words like "not too short" and "I part it in the middle." Well, Miss Julie took that as Kurt telling her how to cut hair. So, as you have probably guessed, she cut it very short. Also, there was much debate on how to part his hair. He kept saying that he parts it in the middle. She kept saying,"NO, more handsome on the side." Guess who won? I laughed the whole way back to the apartment.

So today, I needed a haircut. I took off in a completely different direction because I really did not want to run into Miss Julie. I found a nice little shop in a strip mall down off of San Antonio Boulevard. It looked fairly normal. I went in and ask if they take walk-ins. They did in fact. They wrote me out a slip and a few minutes later this very polite gentleman came out and called my name, or what I thought was my name. There are not too many different ways to say "Debbie." I knew I should have been more sympathetic to Kurt. Payback is a bitch. My stylist did not speak English, and unfortunately I do not speak Vietnamese. Nope...not one little bit. We had lots of fun communicating!

Kurt's Favorite Place

We went out to Berkeley this weekend. What a weird and wild place! New Englanders think that Vermont is crunchy...it has nothing on Berkeley. We spent most of our time on Telegraph Ave, the heart of the city. One street person begging for money asked me if he could have some money because he really wanted some Chinese Food. Then he went on to say that he also likes a little pot with his Chinese Food. At least he was honest, but I still did not give him any money.

However, out of all the unbelievable places we have seen this summer, Kurt still says that it is one of the best places we have visited . It is the home of Amoeba Records, his all time favorite CD/Record/Music store.

Lunch in Sausalito

We stopped in Sausalito for lunch on our way home. Sharon, I bought you a cookie! ....but...it didn't quite make it back to the apartment. Sorry. It was beautiful looking out over the bay and seeing San Francisco from the distance. We were able to walk around in short sleeve shirts and shorts, but then my car registered the temperature at 56 degrees while we were going over the Golden Gate Bridge. It is extraordinary how the temperature changes so quickly in different areas here.

Kurt Clearing a Trail

Muir Woods

We made it back to Muir Woods today. The oldest Redwood at this park is 1200 years old, and the average life span is between 400 and 800 years old. It was incredible. However, they won't tell you where the biggest and the oldest tree is located because they are afraid of vandalism. How sad is that! We hiked up a trail to an elevation of 1000 feet. It was the Ocean View Trail. What they forgot to tell us before we started this 2 hour hike was that you no longer can see the ocean because of tree coverage. It was raining at the top, but it was still spectacular. It does feel like we are just specs on this planet standing in this redwood forest. Even though it was a reflective place, Kurt and I managed to have some fun.