Driving Across Kansas and a visit to Dorothy's house! arrival Santa Fe Day 17 and 18

Day 17 Sunny, driving day. The temperature actually hit 59...about time.
We drove about 440 miles to Liberal, Kansas. The land got flatter and drier. Liberal has about 20,000 people. We cruised, but there is not much to see. We went to a pretty tacky tourist spot - Dorothy's house where I got a postcard to send to Jecca who was an Oz fan growing up.

Day 18 The deserted panhandle of Oklahoma---drove 83 miles without seeing a single car in front or behind me.

We saw, and smelled, lots of dead skunks. Who knew that skunks lived in the prairies? We always thought that they lived in the woods. Adaptable little beasts. We also saw two herd of antelope; one herd bounded across the road. As we got into New Mexico, it began to snow and we worried a bit about a storm. But, the snow remained as flurries and did not stick as the weather had been warm. As we came into New Mexico, the terrain got hillier and prettier.

We are in The Sage Inn in Santa Fe. Mark got a great deal for $45 per night. We are about a mile out of the center of town. Luckily, it is Restaurant Week here. So, we went to Maria's Mexican Kitchen for $25.00 for two and had a fabulous meal. Way too much food. Posole for appetizers for both of us; chile relleno for Mark (hot - his forehead was sweating!) chicken enchilada for me; flan (yum!!!) for me for dessert and a cinnamon custard dish whose name I have forgotten for Mark for dessert (yummm!) We drove around and got the lay out of Santa Fe which is very cool, very pretty. Unfortunately, it has started to snow again.

Food, Art and a French school in Kansas City - Day 16

Today turned out to be sunny, still cold, but...getting better.
We drove to Academie Lafayette, a charter, but publicly-supported French immersion school where Anne teaches third grade. It is very impressive. The entire school (K-8) is taught in French. Anne introduced us to one of the founders of the school. Studies show that the gap in test scores shrinks for disadvantaged kids in language immersion schools. We toured the building and met Anne's class, which was a lot of fun.

Then, we went to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. The first is a fairly small, but beautiful museum of modern art. Then, we went to the large museum of art. They have a 22 acre sculpture garden and an old building and a quite new building, too. The new building has almost no right angles, so it was worth it just to see the architecture. After walking through two museums, our feet were hurting and we were hungry....so.....more barbecue!

We sought and found "Oklahoma Joe's" a famous barbecue which is actually located in a gas station. The line was quite long and we were lucky. A man who was leaving said that he had waited 45 minutes; we only waited about 20. I had pulled pork; Mark had brisket and sausage. Mark thought that the meat at this one was better than yesterday's, although the beans at Jack Stack's was better.

When we got back to the hotel, I found that my Mac PowerBook power cord was not working. And...I only got it in October. We found a Mac Genius Bar and drove there. I was prepared to be angry, but they told me the cord was still under warranty, and they replaced it without cost; they couldn't have been nicer. What good luck that the cord broke where there was a Genius Bar.

Anne picked us up in the evening and drove us to Rob and Ronda's house in Shawnee. We chatted about our Egypt memories. Rob arrived home from business in Rochester, N.Y. around 10:30. It was great to see him as we had not seen him for about five years.

Eating Our Way Across America! - Day 15

Kansas City. A pleasant surprise.
But - COLD! Way below their normal of being in the 40's. We woke up to 0 degrees! It is warmer on Nantucket. (Although they are in the midst of a rain blizzard.)
We spent the morning in the only World War One museum in the United States. Very well done, very moving. We also visited Union Station, the second largest train station in the U.S. (after Union Station in NYC).
Mark asks EVERYONE we meet here where to get the best barbecue. He also has gone on line and read a lot. So, today, for lunch we had barbecue in a cool building behind Union Station, called the Freight House at a restaurant called Fiorello's Jack Stack. I had "burnt ends" and Mark had a combination plate with pork ribs. We agreed it was very good and will recommend it to the high school cooking class in April when they come here to compete.
Later, we drove to the Red Bridge area where we saw Anne's house, which is lovely. We had crepes for dinner, reminiscent of crepes that Anne made at our apartment in Mahdi, Cairo.

Meeting with friends from Egypt in Kansas- Day 14

BRRRR! We keep hoping to hit warmer weather but woke up to the teens and snow flurries in Terre Haute! We drove about 430 miles again today. It was uneventful. Luckily, the sun came out after a few hours, but it stayed in the 20's, so is unusually cold. We are in Overland Park outside of Kansas City in a nice La Quinta Hotel.

We had a lovely evening. We met with two people with whom we taught in Egypt. Ronda brought her two extremely well-behaved children, Zaid, age 11 and Eli, age 7. Her husband, Rob, is, unfortunately out of town on business. Our Belgian friend, Anne, was also there and it was great to see her looking so well. We ate at an interesting Italian restaurant which was a buffet set up as different stations, so...the pizza area, the pasta area etc.

The road gets flatter - Day 13

Today we left Pittsburgh and drove about 430 miles to Terre Haute, Indiana. The terrain has flattened out. We have been lucky; there are a lot of storms going across the U.S. and we are in a gap between them. So, while it was grey all day and we had a few flurries, it has been good driving weather. We are now in Terre Haute at a rather dingy Econo Lodge.

Pittsburgh - Day 12, Feb. 22

Today we drove through what we call "Pennsylpainia." Up and down hills, mostly up, it seemed. As it was possible to hit snow in the afternoon, we started off nice and early. It seems like our first day on our trip in some ways, as it is our first day alone. It was about 350 miles and we are at a Wyndham hotel in the university area. We got a little lost getting here. A lot of people wonder why we don't have GPS, but, honestly, we enjoy getting lost sometimes and today was one of those days. I have to confess that we did end up calling the hotel to get directions and we were about three miles away from it. Then, we walked (in the rain) by the U of Pittsburgh and by Carnegie-Mellon. We had hoped to go to the Natural History Museum, but...closed on Mondays. Instead, we went into the Heinz Chapel on the Pitt campus, a neo-Gothic building with beautiful stained glass windows. Then, we ate at a little restaurant, "The Indian Spice Tea Room." Mark had written the place down as somewhere he wanted to eat, but...he has no idea where he got the suggestion from. It was good, not fancy and not something that he got from a tv show. Hmmm. If anyone who reads this suggested it to us, please let us know!

Binghamton - Day 11, Feb 21

Today was a Binghamton Day. We went for lunch with Mom and Bob and watched the Olympics in their apartment.

Visit with Lizzy and on to Binghamton, Day 10, Feb 20

Today, we left Concord and drove to Binghamton. Jec stayed home sick as she has laryngitis.
We stopped at Mount Holyoke to see Lizzy who is a freshman there. We had never been there - what a quintessential New England campus. Lizzy showed us around and took us into the library which looks like it is out of a medieval English castle. We all went out for lunch. Lizzy was going to the Jr. Miss Pageant after we left to see Georgie compete. (She ended up winning Spirit of Jr Miss, as well as the prize for scholastics.) Then, we drove to Binghamton, stopping to see my newly-married Mom at the independent facility where she and Bob live. No Olympics tonight as there is no television at my Mom's. Today, David drove with Cal and Alice as far as Baltimore.

Lexington, Concord and Framingham - Day 9, Feb 19

Today was a full day.
We started out for the Heritage Museum in Lexington to see a model train exhibit. But, when we got there, we found that it closed the previous week. But, the museum has a clock exhibit, so...we figured that 'we had the time!' Their collection is pretty amazing, but mostly behind glass, so the clocks aren't wound. The collection starts with the old grandfather clocks, for the rich. Farmers didn't need to tell time. Eventually, shelf clocks were made for the middle class. Because the museum is run by the Masons, there were Masonic symbols everywhere. One of the docents encouraged us to wait until noon when "clocks chime". So, we tried really hard to keep the boys interested for an extra 25 minutes. What an anti climax....after all that time, only FOUR clocks chimed. And, as Otis pointed out, they all had the same sound. At least they were timed to go off a bit separately. They also had a cuckoo clock exhibit, but..again, nothing was working, so...a bit dull. We also went to an exhibit on the battles of Lexington and Concord, which the kids liked. That led us to go to North Bridge in Concord. We walked over the bridge and then we went to the kids' favorite hiding spot there where they climbed into a tree.
Later, Mark and I drove to Framingham to meet up with Kathryn Kennedy and Mark Fleming. They have been renovating her grandfather's house - it was very impressive. They also took us for a tour of the posh area where they live - around a state park, by Sudbury Reservoir and by the Wayside Inn, the longest-running inn in the country. Then, we had a wonderful meal of fish, rice and a dessert of baked pears. Then, Kathryn showed me some of her wonderful photographs and she introduced me to the world of the "blog" setting me up with this blog. While we were doing that, the two Marks watched the Olympics. It was a lovely, lovely evening!

Aquarium Visit - Day 8, Feb 18

Today we had no idea where we'd end up. We just got in the car. Otis said, "no more museums!" But, when we mentioned the Aquarium, it was thumbs up from both of them. So, we drove to the subway at Alewife and went to the Aquarium. Of course, it being February vacation, we joined the hordes. We have never seen the place so crowded. There was a tent with a winding line to get in. But, as Jec and Willy are members, we just sailed through. We managed to find places by the big tank as we wound our way to the top, so we didn't let the crowds get to us too much. We heard a lecture at the top. Then, we visited the jellyfish and decided it was just too crowded to stay. But, we were all hungry. We tried to eat at Legal Sea Foods, but it was crowded. It was easier just to feed the kids some crackers and cookies and head home. David also arrived in Boston today, but we didn't see him. He was here to take a national EMT test. Afterwards, he took the train to Bridgewater as he will be driving Cal and Alice to Florida. Willy stayed home from school as he had been sick all the previous night.
Mark and I made an apple crisp as he is one of the testers for America's Test Kitchen and that was our latest assignment. The family voted it an 8 out of 10 score.

My birthday - Day 7, Feb. 17

Today was my birthday. Sixty just sounds so very old. Can I still consider 60 to be middle-aged? I don't feel 60 at all. But, saying "sixty" is definitely a shock to the system.
We took the Prius in for its recall on the brakes. Probably a good idea with a whole country to drive!
We spent most of the day at the Acton Discovery Center with Otis and Henry.
Jecca had a ski meet. Are they called "meets"? So, she came home pretty late. We all went for pizza in Lexington at The Upper Crust and then for delicious ice cream at Frank's. (Yum!) Mark gave me a lovely blue sea glass necklace (and some soap) and Henry gave me a wooden carved wood duck. Otis gave me an oak leaf pin and some butterfly earrings.

Snowy Day - Day 6, Feb. 16

Today we were pretty much housebound as it snowed all day. But, we had fun playing with the kids.

Presidents' Day - Day 5, Feb. 15

Jec took Otis skiing at Nashoba Valley; Willy took Henry to the Franklin Park Zoo. Mark and I drove to Lowell to check out the National Park there to see if it would be a good place to take Otis and Henry. We decided that it was not- maybe in a few years. We also checked out a movie, but nothing was playing that we wanted to see. But, we did find a nice Thai grocery store, where we were the only non-Thais. We had no idea what much of the produce was, but it was fun. We did spend a whole dollar - on a pineapple.

Valentine's Day - Day 4

Today, we drove to Concord, Massachusetts to stay with our Concord family at Middlesex School. En route, we stopped in Bridgewater to see Grandma and Grandpa. It was great to see Cal up and about, without even a cane. (He just had a knee replacement) All of us in Concord seem to be stricken with some sort of plague! Except Mark. Hmmm.... will he remain unscathed? Jecca has a cold, plus nausea. Willy has a cold, as do the kids. And, I arrived with a cold.

A Day in Providence - Day 3, Feb. 13

Today we spent the day in Providence with Ted and Bev. We saw Avatar in IMAX at Providence Place, which we enjoyed. Then, we walked around Federal Hill, got some Italian cookies and pasta for the Concord family and then had a lovely pre-Valentine's Day dinner at Cassarino. It is a restaurant we would recommend.

Matt H. in Rehearsal - Day 2, Feb 12

Today, we had a lovely day in Westport, doing some shopping at Vanity Fair. In the evening, we met Matt at Five Guys hamburger joint and then followed him to New Bedford to watch him in a rehearsal of "Noises Off" as we will be on the road when Matt stars as Selsdon, a very funny part. The set for the play is very impressive, solid as a rock. Instead of starting with a blank stage, these actors had the full set from the start. We think that Matt will do a great job in the part and wish we could see it.

Afterwards, we went back to Westport where we saw the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics.

Leaving the island - February 11

As usual, it was stormy and the boat almost cancelled, but...it went...and was rocky. We stopped at our favorite Thai restaurant in Hyannis, Bangkok Kitchen, before setting out. Then, we took off for Westport, Massachusetts, to stay with good friends, Ted and Bev.