Fact: Day Twenty

This is the Day of Laura.

The day I was looking forward to as much as anything on this trip.

And it was just as fabulous as I could have hoped. Her kids are super, her house was awesome, the weather was perfect here in Madison, WI.

But who cares--it was all about me and Laura. We talked and laughed and talked and ate and talked and shopped. The shopping happened at the most amazing thrift store Madison has to offer...we'll call it the "Dive and Dash" (Laura--wouldn't that be a better name?! bawhahahah!) to protect its anonymity. You see, we don't want everyone showing up and taking all the good stuff. Here's how good it is: You dive into enormous 4-ft deep cardboard barrels to find all kinds of amazingness. While you're hunting and sorting and rearranging, the employees bring pallets of more boxes of more stuff and dump it on top of what's already there. Then when you're sufficiently drunk and overstimulated and you have as many treasures as possible, you drive your cart onto a huge scale and then pay. By the pound. Thirty-five cents per pound, to be exact.

Jamie, get your washing machine ready--I found some summer things for Jane. I also got 2 pair of pants for me, a pair of shorts for Jim, a shirt for me, a tub of legos for the kids, a plastic nativity from the 1950s, 4 old-time records with kid pictures for my preschool, and 2 transformers. For $5. I think I'm in love.

I can only say by way of rumor what everyone else did all day...but my kids said they wanted to move in to Laura's house, too. She has 2 cats (one slept right on Will's stomach--his dream come true), every bike and scooter in the world, a basement, and an awesome park right around the corner. Also, Rowan and Nathan are experts on every interesting computer game that my boys have not yet heard of.

Jim got to ride a recumbant bike. Which may have been the highlight of HIS trip.

Which means we think we're staying in Madison. Can someone please forward our mail?

Before I make it sound like there is nothing but rainbows and music in Madison, Rachel DID declare that she has never seen so many bugs in one place in her life. Spoilsport.

And the pictures for the day.

This morning before driving to Laura's...this is how it basically goes in our hotel room every night. Rachel, Jourdan, and Will have a complicated ballet for bed space (don't you think there'd be enough room if they all just laid side by side???)
And Matt's the smart one who takes the floor and sleeps like a log.
I have proven to be horrid at taking pictures when we're with friends on this trip. Here is the ONLY photo in the state of Wisconsin. Which goes to prove that number of pictures has no correlation on enjoyment in a state...

We're having a sleepover at Laura's and then heading tomorrow morning to South Dakota...hope Mt Rushmore is ready for us!

Fact: Day Nineteen

Today was another driving day.

We went to lots of states. I have a bunch of pictures and one funny story to tell. Let's go.

Dwight getting ready to go...

Leaving New York for the last time on this trip--hello Pennsylvania (again).
Matt with Dwight.
Welcome to Ohio! My taking-pictures-in-motion skills are improving.
Cleveland rocks (which is the Drew Carey Show theme song I couldn't get out of my head the entire time we were here...)
I've been to Indiana before--when Jodie & Adrian lived here. It just wasn't the same without them...
Michigan was another touch-and-go state. We did make sure that we stayed here longer than we did in Rhode Island (because Rhode Island is smaller, of course).
Great Lakes, great times (apparently).
It was starting to get late by this point. Jim wanted to get close enough to Wisconsin that our drive tomorrow to Laura's won't be horrendous. Which meant the drive today got a bit painful near the end.
Haven't we already been in and left Ohio? Why is this picture here in the order of things? Visiting too many states....getting muddled....
I took a bunch of pictures of basically nothing along the highway to work on my motion photo skills. This one made us all laugh...because is it really necessary to have an Exit ZERO? Doesn't it deserve something better than the absence of a number?



We stopped for the night in Rockford, Illinois.

And now my little story from the day.

At one point, we swapped seats and Will was in the front seat with Jim. I was right behind Jim on the middle bench with Matt and Rach was in the back seat (referred to in our house as the back-back) with Jourdan.

Matt turned to me after being quiet for a minute and we had this conversation:

Matt: Mom, would you trade seats with me?
me: Sure, why?
Matt: (pause) Well. (pause) I've been thinking. If the van suddenly split down the middle, I'd really like to be on the side with the steering wheel.

The perfect story of life with Matt Parker.

Fact: Day Eighteen

Today was a bit of what you might call a day of recovery. We didn't do much (and especially not much worth blogging).

We started out in Albany, New York, got a pretty late start and drove to Niagra Falls, NY.

Ta-Duh.

We drove 300 miles, we stopped every hundred miles or so, we sang songs, we ate at a Taco Bell, we paid tolls on roads at toll booths, and we slept. Well, Jim not so much.

We have learned that for booking hotel rooms, the only way to go is to make an online reservation (saves us about $30 a night) so we pulled into a hotel parking lot, used their free wi-fi, logged in, and accidentally booked a smoking room in Niagra Falls. When we arrived, we tried to swap for a non-smoking room but none were available. So we cancelled the reservation and booked another hotel room about a block away. Success!

I napped, Jim went to figure out the best way to see the falls, and Jourdan took the kids swimming. By the time the kids were out of the pool, changed to dry clothes, and we had dinner ready to go, the weather was blowing ice-cold rain. Like it was winter. Since the viewing point for Niagra Falls isn't exactly a covered booth, we dawdled and finally decided to brave the cold in our sweatshirts and flip-flops (that'll show 'em) and go down to the falls.

We got there just in time for the rain to stop and the wind to die down. It was fabulous! The falls were lit and it is obvious to see why people say the view is better from the Canada side. But since we left our passports at home on accident, we'll have to check it out on another trip. As we got back in the car, it started raining again. And is still raining 2 hours later. So we timed that just right.

For reasons too complicated for anyone to possibly care, we didn't have any cameras except a couple cell phones down at the falls. So you'll just have to take our word for it that we were actually there.

To make up for the fact that today I have zero good stories and less pictures, I am including a photo of this desk and computer about 5 minutes ago.

This is what it looks like every night when we go to bed--everything plugged in and charging to be ready for tomorrow.
It's a rigorous life...but we endure!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventures--on the agenda is driving, driving, and MORE driving (I know you're excited--see you tomorrow).

Fact: Day Seventeen

This was a big day for us. We (slightly sadly) left New York City to (happily) see other sights. We traveled just under 600 miles today. And that was after cleaning our NYC apartment for the next tenants, doing 5 loads of laundry, and re-packing the entire van (not to mention fighting our way out of the Bronx...an activity people have been doing for generations).


I have lots of pictures and not-so-many stories for today. We rode in the car. And made sandwiches in the rain. And talked about how different New England is from Arizona.


Here's what states we saw (and physically touched) today:

New York
Connecticut
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Maine
Vermont

And here's the proof that we did:

It took about 2 hours to get the 30 miles out of New York. It was slow-going but a nice day for travel (slightly cool, somewhat cloudy).

Connecticut is what we came to first. And we snuck into Rhode Island by a little freeway offramp and I was worried we wouldn't find a welcome sign. But apparently Rhode Island cares about welcoming people (definitely more than New Jersey does, anyway). Hooray!
I really wanted this "Massachusetts Welcomes You" sign...but unfortunately I'm not skilled with Jourdan's camera's 4-hour delay from the time I press the button to the time the camera shutter actually opens to capture an image.
Lucky for me there was another sign (with a handy shoulder for Jim to pull over) so we could see Dwight with the wild turkey sign. I wonder which state has a Christmas goose...
The AWESOME New Hampshire sign that Jim ran (with Dwight) all the way back to the freeway offramp to photograph while the rest of us went to the bathroom and did some stretching at the New Hampshire Welcome Center.
At the Welcome Center (when stretching was finished).
I can't explain why but I was obsessed with getting pictures while driving today. Maybe because we wanted to get to all the New England states in one day. This is one of my finest in-motion shots. Maine State Line! This is the farthest the kids have been from Arizona while still in the USA (Jim and I went to Hawaii in 1995). The sign just before this one (and the one I REALLY wanted to get) said "All Maine Points" with an arrow pointing ahead. It led to a good 15 minutes of puns about what the Maine Point is...
We stopped to get this sign and Jim said "everyone out!" He figured this is the only time most of us will ever be in Maine in our lifetimes (to which Will responded that just to prove him wrong, Will was going to move to Maine after college to which Jim replied that it would be great--we'd love a reason to come back!).

We got tons of honks and waves while standing on the shoulder of the freeway. We think Maine folks are really friendly. They may also have been warning us to get away from quicksand or snakes or something nefarious...
I can't wait for Matt to get over the phase where he thinks crosseyed in a photo is funny...
Dwight was interested in knowing where Nashua is...
Heading back across a bridge. Out of New Hampshire.
And into Vermont!
Out of Vermont and back into Massachusetts (I swear behind the van is the "Massachusetts Welcomes You" sign...stupid camera delay).
Welcome back to New York! Jim, Jourdan, and I were the only ones awake by this point tonight. I tried so hard to time it right for the camera lag...and the flash caught the rain-splattered windshield instead of the sign. We laughed until our faces hurt...what a HORRIBLE photo! But that Welcome to New York sign made it in the picture, baby!

Tomorrow it's off to Niagra Falls. It's a bit of a drive (300-ish miles) from here in Albany. But we're up for it.

One of these days I'll have to explain how I packed for this trip. No one has asked how we fit gear for 6 people on a 24 day trip into the back of a 2002 Toyota Sienna (the year of no-trunk-space for Toyota) with no trailer behind or carrier on top. But I'm going to tell you anyway...just not tonight (it's 1am).

Fact: Day Sixteen

Today was our last full day in NYC. Will chose to spend it (for the bazillionth time) at the Natural History Museum (Jim was secretly hoping he'd choose that, I think) and the two of them went off to explore. We met up in the afternoon and they had tales of super double-secret employees-only back rooms and a helpful docent who let Will hold an enormous king snake and showed them gigantic tortoises. That could have solidified the Natural History Museum as Will's favorite place in the whole world.

The rest of us took one last turn around the city. We started off visiting Rockerfeller Center (and if you know me, you know I could spend the entire week at the NBC studios...Chuck? The Office? SNL? Yeah, I'm good) and headed up to Central Park to find the last hidden character (thanks, Laurie & Adam). Then we played in the park (translation: I watched the nannies with their uber-rich charges run around the park where Matt played).

We all met together at the Gershwin for one last try at the Wicked lottery. It's front row seats, for heavens' sake. And sheesh--they're $27. How could we NOT?

Once again we did not get chosen. So Jim escorted the kids home on the subway while I stayed in Times Square. I found a South Harlem pizza place that delivers, and had pizza ready and delivered by the time they got home. Jim paid the pizza guy, got everyone settled, and met me back at the red bleachers. I had gotten us tickets by then for a show so we dawdled in Times Square for a bit and then went and saw "Exit the King."

I chose it because
a) it was recommended to me by a guy in line
b) the musical I originally chose had 2 seats...but not together
c) it was a limited engagement starring Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush. Yep, THAT Susan. And THAT Geoffrey.
d) I felt a bit daring and knew NOTHING about the play.

We LOVED it. We sat down and started checking out the playbill. At which point we realized it was Theater of the Absurd. Jim compared it to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where it appears to be silly on the surface, but has a deeper commentary on society underlying it. Plus the set was crazy simple and there were only 6 actors and one musician in the entire play. A few of the characters did swear a bit at the start--it was jolting--but they (and I) seemed to get over it pretty quickly.

But even better than the play was the scene outside when we went to wait for the cast to come out.

The security guy set up a celebrity cattle guard (you know what I'm talking about, right?) outside the doorway so fans could stand on both sides. Jim and I backed up and 2 women stood sort of in front of me talking to an EXTREMELY tall young guy holding an umbrella (it had been misting the entire day--but nothing I'd really call rain so the umbrella looked out of place...especially because it was being held by a guy who is about 7 feet tall). They had spaced themselves awkwardly, spread way out and taking up more room than they needed. If they moved over one way or the other, there would be room for at least one more person. I waited until a lull in the conversation and then I gently tapped the woman closest to me on the arm.

me: (pointing to a space not quite wide enough for me) Excuse me, would you mind if I stood right over there?
Indignant Woman: I certainly do! (spreads out so there is no room for anyone else and moves way up to the cattle guard and puts her hands far apart on either side) We have been waiting here and there is NOTHING I hate more than someone asking to stand in front of me when I've been waiting.
me: Oh, I wasn't asking to stand in front of you. I just wanted to stand to the side, I think there's room for more people up there.
At this point, Jim is behind me and can't really hear the words, just the tone of our conversation (snarky from her and WAY overly-sugar sweet from me...a sure sign that I'm about to lose control--ask me about the Disneyland Tram story one day). He grabs my arm and whispers "Hey, are you ok? Is she picking a fight?" I assure him that everything is fine and that neither of us women has said anything overtly rude (yet).

After a few minutes, the stars start coming out of the stage door. There's only six of them for crying out loud--so it doesn't take long. They stagger their arrival so they can sign autographs and talk to fans. They were all gracious and stayed outside for a while. Susan Sarandon was first--and the girls in front of me asked her to pose for a picture. Girl #1 (the indignant-that-I-asked-for-a-closer-spot-to-stand one) took the photo of Susan with Girl #2. After Susan had moved on to the next group, they checked the picture and Girl #2 was dissatisfied--she said Girl #1 had stood too close.

It's true. I could see the photo on the back of the camera. It was like a peephole in a door--that way-enlarged nose like through a fisheye effect. Not a flattering photo. And I realized a split second before Girls 1&2 that they were in a dilemma. They had just insulted me (how DARE I want to stand closer) and they had moved to position themselves in such a way that they wouldn't lose their prime NYC real estate. And now they needed to move back.

I am slightly ashamed to admit that I took vicious glee in not saying a word (my dad taught me that He Who Speaks First Loses) and watching them squirm. They never did ask me to swap places or step back (which I couldn't have done anyway with the people behind me) and they surely didn't have the nerve to ask ME to snap the photos. So instead they ended up with a set of 6 matching photos of celebrities from the play...way too close up.

The real punchline of the story is that when it was all over, the girls turned around and asked if we liked the play. We were enthusiastic in our response and they announced that they HATED it. How could anyone understand it? Who could have thought that was funny? And they were appalled that it had an intermission...there couldn't POSSIBLY be enough of that drivel to drag it out over 2 acts. And on and on they complained.

Jim and I gave a way-more-enthusiastic rating of the play than we might have otherwise and left giggling at the irony of it all.

We sat in a misty Times Square on a former driving road (now a pedestrian sitway--it's not a walkway if there's no one walking, right?) on stripey lawn chairs enjoying the crowd at 11pm. Then we took a bus home (for the last time--we leave here tomorrow morning) and Jim made friends with a couple old local guys on the bus and gave them our Metro passes that don't expire until midnight tomorrow night.

And tomorrow the packing, cleaning, moving frenzy begins all over again...

Just so he doesn't feel forgotten, here's Dwight on our balcony. He'll be back on center stage once this segment of our trip is over. I think he looks excited about that...
What up, 212?

The begining of our misty day. Can you tell why we never made it to the top of the Empire State Building? We planned to do it today but the top third of the building was covered in clouds. No sense in riding up to look at more clouds, right? That will be on the list for next time.
We briefly considered re-making the opening credits of 30 Rock. But ultimately just enjoyed the plaza for a little while instead. Even still, I can totally hear the theme song just looking at this photo.
Our last character clue from Laurie & Adam said we were looking for a "giant birdhouse" near Central Park. Does this qualify?
Matt found Klaus!
Matt has Klaus on his shoulder.
The trees lining 5th Avenue near Central Park.

As usual, New York has treated us very well. We can't wait to come back.
Tomorrow, it's on to all new adventures!

Fact: Day Fifteen

Day Fifteen means it's been more than two weeks we've been gone from home--that's weird! It seems like we've been on this trip for 20 minutes on one hand and 2 years on the other. Jim asked Jourdan this afternoon if she felt comfortable in New York City--did it seem different than when we drove in last weekend. She replied that she felt she'd lived here for 10 years and could find anything. That, my friends, is a successful trip to NYC right there.

We split up again today, Jim and Will had a Will's Choice Day. Will took Jim back to the Natural History Museum where they spent the entire day. Will took pictures with his "camera" (he inherited my old cell phone when I got an upgrade so he uses the calendar and camera function and it slightly terrorizes me that people might think my 8-year old has a cell phone...) and had a super day. The downside is the inability to get pictures from his camera to any other place in the world. They had lunch in the cafeteria downstairs (which has amazing food) and then went to Times Square about 5:30 this evening.

The rest of us decided to head to the Gershwin Theater to try and get matinee tickets for Wicked via the lottery. We had to be there at 11:30 for the 12:00 drawing for the 2:00 show. We were a little slow getting started so I thought we'd try riding the bus instead of the subway down. My thinking on this was that the bus picks up one block away (instead of a 6 block walk to the subway) and drops off half a block from the theater (instead of a 4 block walk from the subway). Also, this thinking was false.

Every possible hang-up that could slow us down, slowed us down. We had horrible traffic, someone wanted on or off at every stop, there was a construction detour, a driver shift change, a bomb scare (not really...I was just trying to think of one more thing that went wrong) and the point is that we didn't make it to Times Square at 11:30...it was more like 12:30. So we skipped Times Square and went straight to Grand Central Station. It was awesome. To be in the main concourse feels like you're in a 1940s movie. I was disappointed to find myself horribly underdressed for welcoming home a returning soldier. But it was still fun.

We left there and went to Penn Station (not as romantic, but still busy) where we had lunch at the Wendy's on 34th Street and 7th Ave. We were hoping to find something that was left by a cockeyed.com prank (can you see a pattern in what kind of websites I frequent?) but alas, the fake job applications were gone. No worries, we still enjoyed baked potatoes and frosties.

From there, we took the subway down to Battery Park. Matt played on the playground for a long time, Jourdan and Rachel joined him for a bit on the jungle gym and swings. It was nice that the park was completely empty. I put my head down on my tote bag and promptly fell asleep on a park bench. I am so local! I was awakened by a kick on my foot and when I sat up, I was looking straight into the face of a cop (whose car was parked up on the sidewalk, lights flashing) who asked me if I was okay. Well, I was until I woke up staring into the eyes of the law, thank you very much. I sat up and apologized and he said he was just checking to make sure I wasn't unconscious and I could go back to sleep if I wanted. Uh, I don't think so...but thanks. After he left, the kids came RACING back to find out what he had said to me. I should have made up something good about homelessness and fines and park bench laws. Ah well, hindsight. Should have had some hindsight.

Since we did not get tickets in advance for the Statue of Liberty, we didn't bother riding to Ellis Island. Instead we took the Staten Island Ferry over (follow carefully) to Staten Island. We got pretty close to Lady Liberty (close enough for Matt to agree that she was a girl) and saw Manhattan from the water--it was neat.

We rode back to Manhattan and took the subway up to Times Square to meet up with Will & Jim. We met at the Gershwin in PLENTY of time to be part of the night show lottery. For which none of us were chosen.

Instead we went to the Red Box and the 5 of us that aren't Jim got tickets to The Little Mermaid (Jim wanted to study for his NCLEX exam coming up plus he surprised me by doing all our laundry...awesome!). We went to the show and were dazzled all over again. The boys really loved their first real Broadway show. And it was great (but not as good as Mary Poppins, to my way of thinking). All the underwater parts are performed on Heelys. It's amazing the choreography that is possible. And it really gave a swimmy feel to the merfolks. Impressive!

We found the stage door and got to say hi to and get autographs from most of the cast. My favorite performer was Ursula--and she was in a hurry. Will was SO excited to see the boy who played Flounder. He was a 12-year old named Brian and Will told him "I'm your biggest fan" and then squealed like a little girl to me after he got his autograph. We asked how many times he'd played Flounder and he said "too many to count". ha!

We took the bus home late and all 3 kids slept the whole way home. By the time we made it in the door, they were wired and noisy and wanted to re-live the entire night.

Then we said prayers and they were asleep in 4 minutes.

Grand Central Station (duh).
Matt on the Battery Park playground.
This climbing structure is close to the bench where the cop kicked my foot to find out if I was asleep or dead.
Matt the Climber.
The Staten Island Ferry with Lady Liberty coming up.
The view of Manhattan on the return trip. The afternoon got a bit hazy, but it never really rained on us. It was perfect!
Jourdan with Ariel--she was AMAZING. And so nice to the fans outside.
One half of Flotsam-Jetsam (Jetsam, to be precise). These guys were crazy hilarious. And slithery.
Autographs acquired, ready to find the bus!

The Quote of the Day goes to Matt. When we got to the Battery Park playground, he looked around at the asphalt surface, wooden posts cut to make play equipment, 4 swings, and a metal bar for swinging and declared "HOLY COW! This place is INTENSE!"

That just about sums up New York City for us all. Thanks, Matt.