vacation

Philly’s slammin’

/ Shane / 2 Comments 
It's long overdue and now, Philly is slammin'
(Everybody it's) Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD
The eastcoast family
Never skipped a beat, (Naw) while coolin' on South Street
Jet black Benz, plenty of friends
(And all the Philly steaks you can eat)

So after working right up to the last second and then packing right after the last second, we managed to get to the airport on time, with luggage underweight and everything.  I had been dreading the plane ride for some time because Evie doesn’t like to sit still for very long and I could just imagine having some grumpy old-timer trapped in our row as Evie howls for 2 straight hours.  In fact, it couldn’t have been more opposite!  The plane was less than half full for some reason so we had the row to ourselves.  Then, as soon as we took off, Evie fell asleep and stayed that way almost until decent.  It couldn’t have gone any better.

So, the first stop was Jersin’ it up with John and Melissa (and Rebecca).  Evie was pretty excited to play with all the new toys, especially Daisy (their dog).  Neither Evie nor Rebecca were super big on sharing, but I think it is good for her to be around other children and learn about things like who’s turn it is.  They have a cat named Butters and Evie kept calling him Nala until finally she reconciled it by saying, “Nala’s name is Butters.”  That seemed to settle it in her mind.

We went to the Barnes Foundation, which is something Sara had always wanted to do when we lived in Philly, but never got around to doing.  We had to hurry through a little bit because Evie started to get bored and stopped being appeased with finding the horses, doggies, etc.  She did have a favorite picture though, which is a real nice one for a 15 month old girl to like:

Scout Attacked by a Tiger, Henri Rousseau, 1904, oil on canvas

Scout Attacked by a Tiger, Henri Rousseau, 1904, oil on canvas

I blame it on the “cat”.  Oh, I also managed to redeem a free slice card at Peace-A-Pizza that I’ve been carrying in my wallet for 2 years.

Next up was the Camden Aquarium, which I was actually pretty impressed with.  I liked it better than Shedd.  One time at the zoo we paid extra to touch some Rays.  Here, at the aquarium, for no extra cost we were able to touch Rays, Sharks, Jelly Fish, Starfish, Sea Cucumbers and a Sea Anemone.  There were also good sharks there and a cool video about Piranhas.  Unfortunately, Evie slept in the car before we got there until we got in the car to leave!  And I had promised her sharks earlier in the day when looking at the goldfish in Petsmart, so later when we got in the car to go out to eat she was like, “Sharks! Sharks!” and I had to say, “No honey, you slept through them.”  But she did eat calamari for dinner, so it was a fishy day in general.

We went to the Please Touch Museum and I have to say, I was pretty impressed.  It blew the Chicago Children’s Museum out of the water.  Evie and Rebecca had a blast and it was a lot of fun to see them having so much fun.  We also had our first carousel ride, on a giant rabbit no less.

After that we returned our rental car and checked into our hotel.  I’d give the hotel a C+.  It was a fancy expensive hotel and that kind of worked against them.  Like, I’m usually staying at cheepie hotels where certain things aren’t even an option, but since they were an option here then I expect them to be good.  So they sort of set themselves up to fail.  It was a lot of little things.  For example, when I dropped Sara and the baby and all the luggage off the doorman who was standing right there refused to get us a luggage cart because we weren’t at the valet entrance.  Or, when Evie and I were sleeping and I put the “Do not disturb, catching some ZZZZZs” sign in the door, they elected not to knock and instead called on the phone which was vastly more disturbing.  Or, the way I called to schedule our room cleaning so it wouldn’t disrupt Evie’s nap and yet 2 out of 3 days it was outside of the 2 hour window I asked for.  Or the way our room was pretty small, especially with the crib, and we didn’t have a bath tub.  Or the way Evie got sick and we needed a humidifier but they had already given them all out and then they said they found one and brought it up, but it was really just an air purifier.

There was one thing saving them from a C, and that was the availability of toddler stuff to borrow from the front desk.  (Well, that and the coffee maker…you’ll have to ask Sara) The child bathtub was very handy (because we didn’t have a bath tub) and they had some baby soap which we forgot and Evie especially enjoyed the bounce-and-spin zebra (even if I had to assemble it myself using the file on my nail clippers in place of a screwdriver).

We had a lot of time to kill during the day and we put a lot of miles on the stroller.  Evie and I saw the Liberty Bell and the Love statue as well as City Hall, South Street, the Reading Terminal Market, the transit museum (super lame!) and a lot of other places around downtown.  I think I know that area better now than when we lived there.  We also spent a lot of time in the lobby, elevators, hallways, looking out the window, etc.  Evie couldn’t get enough “car”s, “bus”es, “taxi”es and “trolly”s and “Hi people!” from the 20th floor.  At the end of the trip I was glad because I really just had nothing else to do in that hotel or in the city around it.  Rainy days were especially problematic and really made me miss staying at John and Melissa’s!  We also hit up a few other places with mommy such as the Betsy Ross house, the Italian Market, another failed attempt at getting a tour of the Mint, and many, many delicious restaurants.  We also had time to see some friends, including Tony Vegas.

As far as the Cheesesteak Challenge, I failed miserably. 😦  My goal was to get a cheesesteak from Jim’s every day that we were in Philly.  It was like 1.3 miles from the hotel.  The first day I got Evie ready and walked all the way there, only to discover they didn’t open until 10.  Also, the entire street was under construction and nothing looked open.  So I had to walk all the way back, sans cheesesteak, and I wasn’t sure if it was open at all or not.  I was waiting for Internet confirmation that it was open so I ended up not making it there the first day.  The second day it was nice all morning until I got ready to go at 10 and then it poured rain for the rest of the day.  “We have plenty of days left,” said Sara.  “You have obviously never had the universe conspire against you,” I said sadly.  We did eventually make it there though and I had two delicious whiz mushrooms and a yoohoo.  Perfection!

The plane ride home was almost as good as the ride there.  Plane was a little more crowded, but we still managed a row to ourselves.  Evie had a little trouble falling asleep, but after a half hour or so she stayed out the rest of the time.  I have to say, it sure is good to be home!

Quotes of the trip:

Proposition 8 protester: “Two, four, six, eight, separation church and state!”
Tony: “Now that you put it that way, I have to re-think my entire position…”

Sara: “It was too loud to hear her, but I could see her signing “more”.  I guess that’s one advantage of sign language.”

Missing: One Blogger

/ Shane / 2 Comments

So, you’ve probably noticed there haven’t been a lot of posts lately.  That is because we have been having some crazy weeks lately!  First off, I went to Detroit for business from Tuesday until Thursday night, then Friday we left for WI for a family reunion until Sunday, followed by camping with family from Sunday until Wednesday, followed by one night in Madison with my brother, then back to Chicago on Thursday when people began arriving for Evie’s big birthday party which was on Saturday.  I think we are mostly cleaned up now and everything put back in order, but there are still a few loose ends.  Lets just say I am not looking forward to going to work tomorrow, but I am looking forward to a weekend off next weekend!

So lets see, camping.  Well, let me say for starters that this was the most exhausting vacation I have ever had.  Camping tends to be a lot of work in the first place, but with a baby it is 10 times worse.  There are so many more things to take with you and remember and every time you leave the campsite you end up making 3 more trips back because of all the things you forgot.  So we were planning on driving all the way to the reunion but by the time we got out the door and then with typical Friday rush hour traffic, we realized we were crazy to think we could go that far in one day.  So we ended up finding a campsite at a state park along the way.  Even though it meant putting up and taking down the tent one extra time and rearranging the car a little, it ended up working out pretty well.  It was only $30 total for the night (rather than $100 or who knows how much for a hotel) and it really wasn’t all that much work.  The only bad thing was the mosquitoes!  Due to all the flooding, the mosquito population in WI is really out of control.  I probably got ~25 bites that first night.  They were actually fine for the rest of the trip, but that first night we couldn’t even leave the tent.

The reunion was a lot of fun, although it seemed like a lot of people were missing; specifically my cousins!  Very few of them were there.  Attendance was a little down this year, I think it was around like 170 people.  This was my first time at the new site, but I liked it.  The only complaint I have about the whole thing was the fireworks.  Now, I understand that not everybody has a sleeping baby and its not like I am one of those parents who thinks the whole world should stop and bow to my will because I have a kid, but I have to tell you it was as if the fireworks were going off on top of our tent.  In fact that is not wholely inaccurate since I was standing outside of my tent when the first one went off and an 18 inch piece of debris landed about 2 feet away from me.  Aunt Lois actually found some of the debris inside her car the next day!  But I digress.  By the time Sara made it to the tent she found me huddling over Evie with a pillow covering our heads.  But it worked apparently because she was back asleep as soon as the fireworks were over.  She even slept through the 4 wheeler drive-by / off road show a few hours later.  Oh, and (as usual) our dish to pass went over very poorly.  That wasn’t so bad though, since we ate it for pretty much the rest of the trip.

The rest of the camping went pretty good as well.  There is not a lot of time to relax since (like at home) you are always thinking about the next thing the baby needs to do.  By the time you get everybody up and showered and dressed, you start thinking about breakfast, then diaper changes, then naps then lunch, then more diaper changes, etc.  Before you know it you are working on baths and pajamas and bedtime.  It was fairly hot, but we (I) managed a dip in the pool I think every day.  The campsite was really nice, I would definitely recommend it.  It was obvious that the people really work hard to make it a nice place.  The pictures on the website don’t really do it justice, but maybe that is because they are constantly upgrading everything.  My family has gone there I think 7 of the last 8 years or something like that.  Some of them even get Christmas cards from the owners!  I would definitely go back there again.  We would probably still tent camp, but the cabins were probably the nicest cabins I have ever seen at a camp site.  Our tent was the perfect distance from the site where we had a fire every night: far enough away that we wouldn’t wake her up, but close enough that we could get there in a hurry if we needed to

Speaking of being away from the tent, Sara had this great idea I think she got maybe from parent hacks.  In order to separate ourselves a little bit from the tent when Evie was sleeping, we improvised a baby monitor.  Sara would call my phone, put both phones on speaker and then mute my phone.  Her phone would stay with the baby.  Since we don’t use minutes between our phone, we could let it go like that for hours.  The only hard part is remembering to charge our phones constantly.

Anyway, Evie was again walking like a maniac all the time and again improved so much on the skill that she is now walking.  Everyone was really helpful with her and it was very appreciated.  She is starting to have some serious mommy issues (like separation anxiety).  Also, she got some major diaper rash which meant kicking and screaming at every diaper change as well as hating the outdoor baths.  Even though there were plenty of people to take her for long periods of time, I just got more and more worn out every day that went by.  By the time we left I was sooo glad we were staying in a hotel the next night and not camping or even going back to our own house.  If we went back to our place we would have ended up unpacking, etc.  So the hotel was perfect.

So we went to Madison and got to take a tour of the capitol where little brother works.  His co-worker gave us a tour, and he could definitely be a tour guide.  He has worked there for something like 38 years so he definitely knew what he was talking about.  Our hotel was literally across the street from the capitol which was handy since we had to leave early from the orchestral “concert on the square” to get Evie to bed, but we could still hear and see it from our room.  We walked around the shops and things and ate at some restaurants and generally confirmed what everybody says:  Madison is a great town!  We even discussed what it would be like to live there, although probably not until we retired.  The only thing we’re not sure of is that it, like much of the rest of Wisconsin, seems to be built on quite a beer culture that we have no desire to participate in.  Well, it was just an intellectual exercise, but it goes to show you it is a nice town!

Okay, I think that is enough for one night!

Sweet Vacation

/ Shane / 2 Comments

So I haven’t posted in a while, but this time I actually have a good excuse! Sara, Evie, my mom and I spent a week in Arizona, and we have the pictures to prove it. Sara was attending a conference for the 2nd half of the week.

The first struggle was getting out the door on time…especially since the time changed overnight! Sara realized as we were falling asleep so I jumped up and changed every clock I could think of. I didn’t want to forget to change one that I would then look at in the morning and mess us up. I also almost accidentally changed the clock in the wrong direction before Sara corrected me.

Evie did pretty good on the plane ride out. She slept for a lot of it and didn’t cry at all. We convinced my mom to check both of her bags so she could help us with carry-ons and she promptly paid the price by having the airline lose her bag she wanted to carry on. We got it that night though around 9 so it wasn’t so bad.

First up was Montezuma’s Castle and Tuzigoot, two Indian ruins. The weather was super nice and everybody immediately fell in love with Evie and her sunglasses. Everybody falls in love with Evie immediately, but she had never been exposed to so many people, so I had never seen the phenomenon on this scale. Some random lady even took her her picture! Some lady also told me she looked like Shiloh Pitt, and I thought she was just being nice, but there is some resemblance, especially in the father area.

Me and Evie:

Anyway, we went to the Grand Canyon and it was certainly as Grand as I remembered it, but not as breathtaking seeing it the second time. I think my mom was suitably impressed though. This time we hiked some on the rim and that was pretty cool. On the way back down to Phoenix we went through Sedona and that was actually really neat. I wouldn’t mind stopping back there sometime. As Sara said, it isn’t as amazing as the Grand Canyon, but in a way it is prettier.

After that Sara started her conference and we mostly just hung around Phoenix. Evie took her first swim in a pool, we saw the world’s largest pipe organ, the Arizona Science Center, the Desert Botanical Garden, and the Phoenix Zoo. I have to say, I enjoyed the botanical gardens more than I thought I would. I never knew there were so many kinds of cactus!

One of the crazier things that we did was to hike Squaw Peak. Sara’s roommate from college suggested we do it one day. She said it is very busy and people run up and down every day for exercise and she didn’t think it would be too hard with the baby. Well! The trail goes up to the summit of a mountain overlooking Phoenix and is VERY steep. You gain 1200 feet of elevation in 1.2 miles. I know there is no way to properly describe it here to make you appreciate how steep that is, so you are going to have to take my word that you do not want to have a > 20 lbs. baby strapped to your back as you ascend! It may have had steps or something at some point, but they are long gone. It took us a little longer than expected to get to the top which meant we got there just in time for sunset. Some lady at the top told her that I inspired her, because if I could do it with that baby on my back, she wasn’t going to quit! The bad news was that we weren’t able to get back down before dark. The especially bad news was that I was wearing my prescription sun glasses! It ended up being okay though; nobody turned an ankle. All in all it was an extremely exhausting, but extremely satisfying experience overall. And Amy was right, there were many people doing the trail and some people were carrying weights!! So some people do apparently just go up there for the exercise.

Just as an interesting side note, we bought a CD of children’s songs for Evie before we left and when we were listening to it I realized that we had the exact same CD when I was little (well, we called them “tapes” back in those days). That was an extremely odd coincidence, we didn’t buy it for that reason! The CD was labeled as a “Classic”. I don’t think I am that old!

On the way back we accidentally left a bag at the security checkpoint! We had a lot of bags and the baby and then one bag got pulled out to be searched, so there was a lot of chaos. We didn’t realize it for like an hour or so until we were getting ready to board the plane. I had to sprint back through the airport to get it, and sure enough, there it was. They had to search it, which I understand, but I was anxious to get back before we missed the plane. The suitcase was full to the brim with toys for Evie, but it also had 2 containers of applesauce for her in there, which is a no-no. I said, “Throw it away, I don’t care.” but the lady was like, “No, no. You obviously have a kid. Where is she, why don’t you have her?” I tried to explain that she was with my wife back at the gate which was half way around the world, but regardless, “Just throw it away. We don’t need it.” Then she had to call the supervisor over and ask him about it. I was like, “Seriously, just throw it away!” Finally they “allowed” me to take the applesauce. So nice of them. Anyway, the plane was delayed, so we didn’t miss it.

So I think that was more or less the trip. The end.