First Day of School

The first day of school has arrived. 

K was excited to be getting back to school. She is excited about her homeroom teacher and getting back to math, science, and literature. 

A was a bit nervous, she even told me on Wednesday - "I am really stressed about school". She was concerned whether she would have any friends. Her best friend from last year was switching schools and A knew she would not be there this year.  Needless to say she had a bit of anxiety as to how it would turn out and had fitful nights of sleep.  When I asked if she was concerned about the school work in second grade - she looked at me like I was nuts - and asked "Why - it should be easy - I know all the stuff!!!"  Let's hope she is right about that.

As we arrived at the school yard - you would have thought A was a rock star. Some kids greeted and hugged like they were her long lost friends. Then during class, she and a new little girl hit it off and apparently are best friends. She even got to show the new student around.

K also was greeted with hugs by a friend. They hugged like they had not seen each other in years (they had just seen each other 2 nights before).

Sigh of relief from me as we begin the school year.  High hopes that homework will be done without a hassle and kids will awake and be out the door on time.  First 2 days looks good, but the girls are probably just  lulling me into a false sense of security only to be tricked by them next week!! At least with the 3 day weekend - it gives me a break before heading full gear into the school year.

New Look and questions answered

New Look:

I changed the look of the blog -I realized the other one was a killer on the eyes with the dots.  Hopefully this "new look" will be easier to read. Stay tuned - it could change again.

Questions Answered:

There have been a few questions regarding the outcome of items in previous posts.  Here are some of the answers to those questions:

*Did the 18X2 inch piece of glass make it home safely?  Yes I am glad to report that the piece of glass made it home all in one piece.  It was even in the checked baggage.  I inquired with K what her plans were for the glass - she said she was thinking we cold break it into small pieces for a mosaic stepping stone!!

*Did A have any further problems in the saltwater? The next time we had the opportunity to go swimming - I covered her with a mixture of vaseline and sunscreen.  She did fine.  Then when we went to Brackley Beach - she had another breakout at the very end - just on her neck it turned all red.  We speculate that each time she may have somehow had a run in with a jelly fish or seaweed that had jelly fish remains in it.

*What kind of gas mileage did the XTerra get?  We never calculated it - it would have been depressing. As we would speed up going uphill, you could almost watch the gas gauge go to empty!

Days 13-17 - Family Vacation

Day 13-Monday

This is the day we leave PEI. It is truly a hard thing to do – leave such a beautiful place. We have a nice leisurely breakfast, say our goodbyes to Aunt J, Uncle C, and cousin E. Take a few more pictures.

We head up to the Confederation Bridge to cross back on to the “mainland”. The bridge is 13km and the toll is $41.50 (now that’s a toll). I actually do not mind the high toll, as I believe this is what keeps PEI pristine – otherwise mainlanders might be more tempted to visit more often and there would be more of them ruining the beauty of the island. It used to be the only way to get on the island was via ferry. Uncle M insists he will never use the bridge and drives south to the ferry at the other end of the island. And I thought I was resistant to change!! From the bridge we are able to see lobster buoys and lobster boats - pretty cool.

We headed to Hopewell Rocks which is noted to have the highest tide. This confuses me - as what it really is seems to be is the highest/lowest fluctuation of tides– whatever. It is incredible – at lowest tide you can walk way out on the beach. We of course hit there about an hour after highest tide – meaning there is no beach to walk on (looks like Super Nerd Tourist Family returns). We still hiked down to the “beach” and fortunately they do open the beach once the tide has moved out below a certain point. Incredible how quickly it moves out. Guess that is why it is a hot tourist spot!!

From there we travelled on to Bay of Fundy National Park – it was late afternoon – so we just drove through it. We actually had to drive through it to get to St. John and continue south. At this point it would have taken twice as long to get back to the Trans-Canada Highway 1. Nice thing is that the Park Ranger waived the $20 fee because we said we were just driving through. You know how we like “Free”.

As we hit St John we debated whether to get a hotel there or travel further. It was quite early (5ish). My gut instinct said we should stay in St. John, but then I looked at the map and said, let’s continue on to St George and get a hotel there. St. George looks way bigger on the map. It had 2 hotels, one had a room with a queen bed or a room with 2 doubles that was a smoking room. They referred us to the other hotel in town – it turns out I do have standards as to where I will stay. I never thought of myself as a hotel snob, but this place was a dive. We decided to have dinner and continue on to St Stephen – which is the town where you cross through the border back to USA. Of the 4 hotels that existed, nothing in St. Stephen had a vacancy (another thriving metropolis). Here is the problem, after the border in the US is the “Airline Road” named as such due to the fact it is 90 miles of 2 lane road that follows the path of the airlines. There are not many services (AAA will not even route people this way). Aunt J has been known to travel this road faster than an airplane can fly it!!! Others in the family have attempted to beat her land speed record, none have been able to do it. It is about 8:15 – T says I am up to the “Airline” tonight, so we venture down the “Airline”. K & A begin to jabber and annoy us and each other – I offer them each a quarter to be quiet for 20 minutes. During the 20 minutes A falls asleep. At the end of the 20 minutes, K feels it is necessary to try to wake A to let her know that they have earned the quarters. I threaten K that she will not have the quarter if she continues to wake her sister. At this point she also decides to sleep (safe choice). We keep seeing signs that say watch for Moose or Moose Crossing. Although I would have liked to see a moose, I am relieved we did not see one tonight! We hit Brewer/Bangor, Maine at about 10:15, T and I look at each other both with a “Now what?” expression. We scan the nightline of the “city” from the freeway looking for something that resembles a hotel – no luck. T decides to take a random downtown exit – fortunately there was the “Fireside Inn” right at the bottom of the exit with a vacancy with 2 queen beds. Turns out that the Fireside Inn has upgraded all the mattresses to Tempurpedic mattresses. We get an excellent nights rest!

Day 14- Tuesday

We wake to a downpour of rain hitting the window and I have the beginning of a cold. Relieved that we are not doing the “Airline Road” today - it is way worse to do it in the pouring rain than at night. We head south – next stop is LL Bean (yes again). We got A her backpack and K her book bag from the LL Bean outlet store. They monogram it while you wait – how cool is that? We continue on down the road headed to Gardner, Massachusetts, T’s hometown. Of course we hit commute traffic at the New Hampshire/Mass. border. We arrive safely and are greeted by Memere and Papa.

Day 15 – Wednesday

Today is K’s 12th Birthday. She is excited to be celebrating it in Gardner. We are having a get together at 1:00. Aunt T and Uncle M are coming down from New Hampshire. Memere’s sister Aunt G and her husband are coming up from Connecticut. It was great to see everyone. We have an ice cream cake, FunFetti cupcakes, lollipop cookies, whoopee pies… more food than you can imagine. Later, Aunt L came over and brought each of the girls a necklace from her recent honeymoon in Jamaica. K seems to enjoy herself.

There is an attempt to go swimming in Papa’s pool, but after about 10 minutes the kids realize it is too cold. It is decided to go over to Aunt J’s pool as it will be warmer because it sits in the sun (plus she has a slide). While at Aunt J’s a bunch of blueberries are picked. A announces she will be making a pie.

Day 16 – Thursday

A gets up early so that she and Memere can make a blueberry pie. She abandons the process once cousin K gets up, but did help a bit. Memere not only makes one pie, but continues to make another pie. They were delicious.

T, Papa, Uncle M, Aunt T and the girls head to a Corn Maze. Most seemed to have a great time. They finished the maze in under the time posted, so they all received "gold medals". There were also some other activities for the kids to do at the maze. T returns not very enthused by corn mazes. I had said I was not feeling that well (actually I have heard that corn mazes are buggy-ewww) so I stayed behind with Memere. We went to Kohl’s and to Olive Garden for lunch. I had an excellent time visiting with Memere - just the 2 of us.

Day 17 – Friday

K sets her watch alarm so that she can get up early with Memere to bake a pie. She also helped Memere make some crepes for breakfast. This is the day we are heading back to the Northwest so it was great to have such a feast for breakfast.

We head to the airport, drop off the tin can XTerra at the rental car place and head to the airport. TSA does a thorough search of my bag. They take everything out of my bag – asking if I have anything sharp in it? I say NO. I had the bag of quarters for the tolls in the front pocket of my bag so they thought I had a bomb or something. When he finally gets to the quarters, he asks why I did not state I had the quarters – I said I did not think that quarters were sharp. At any rate, he says “Sorry, I will let you put the stuff back in the bag”. Gee thanks.

The flight was uneventful – packed, but uneventful. 

We arrived to the house at about 10PM, dropped into beds exhausted. Note from the housesitter informed us that there had been a thunderstorm and after the thunderstorm she could not get the internet connections to work. We called Qwest, they said they would send someone out between 1-6 on Saturday. 6pm came and went with no one from Qwest showing up. Is that India time or US time? Called again – they will send someone out between 1-4 on Sunday (yeah right). Fortunately, someone did finally show up at about 2 – our modem was fried so they gave us a new one. We are now back up and blogging!!!

That is it for our 17 day vacation. We had a blast. Not sure I would do 17 days away again, but maybe!!

Stay tuned to this blog for family updates – first day of school is this Thursday

Days 6-12 - Family Vacation/PEI

We are now officially residing in Prince Edward Island (PEI). It is beautiful, peaceful, serene, and calm. PEI reminds me of Alaska. All the locals know each other and everyone is so friendly and welcoming (yes even to US citizens). They do not seem to be concerned with politics, who has more money, who has the most prestigious jobs – they just live their lives simply and efficiently. Everyone is equal and is treated as an equal. Traditions abound – children remain close to their parents and grandparents and remain on the Island. We stay at Jewell’s Cottages. T’s family has been staying in these cottages every summer for 35 years. The cottages are located on the “quiet” side of the island. Beautiful red sand beaches with sea glass and sand bars – which is excellent for wading and swimming. No worries of fast currents or deep sea sweeping away the kids. PEI is truly one of the few places I have been that I consider to be paradise on earth.

And now on to the daily activities:

Day 6-Monday

Memere deluxe breakfast – what’s this you ask? More food than anyone has a right to have available- pancakes, sausage, bacon, Scottish bacon (ham), jam, real maple syrup and if there is something else you might want – Memere will fix that as well – just amazing.

We decided to venture in to Charlottetown. Papa knew about a free play at the Confederation Center. More free tourist stuff –and now we know where T gets this quest for “FREE” stuff. We saw a great little play called “We are Canadian” presented by the 2008 Young Company Creative Team. It was a presentation of Canada’s history and was a musical. The theater troupe consisted of young high school students from Quebec and PEI who travel around Canada doing this play. It includes not only singing but dancing, violin/fiddle, flute, piano, and drums. The young actors are all super talented in multiple theater skills. K & A were entranced with it.

Day 7-Tuesday

A very rainy day – but plans are to go to Summerside and see some little woods with miniature replica castles. We stop at Spinnakers Landing which is a cute little wharf with shops. We find out that the little woods thing did not open this season and so decide to go to Sharkys for lunch and head back home.

The girls stayed with Uncle M, Aunt T, and cousin K as we were invited to go out with the older generation. The older generation consists of T’s parents, the Jewell’s (owners of the cottages), and the couple in cottage 1 from Vermont who have also been renting at Jewell’s cottages for 30 years. We went for a fancy dinner on the north side of the island. I guess now that we are over 40 we are considered the older generation. A little bothersome at first, but hey a night out is a night out!!!

Dinner at The Pearl – I would say this was magnificent. Beautiful house converted into a restaurant. Absolute gourmet menu choices. I had the lobster ravioli – giant fresh homemade ravioli with lobster, onion and peppers drizzled with a lemon herb sauce. Finally I am validated in my quest for lemon with my lobster!! I am always the only one wanting lemon with my fish here on the east coast. T had prosciutto wrapped tenderloins (or as T puts it bacon wrapped steak). I don’t think T enjoyed it as much as I did, but he tends to shy away from places that serve flowers and spring greens on the plates!! Definite quality versus quantity on this one. 

Day 8-Wednesday

Again a huge breakfast then to the Bulk Barn to buy candy for the play. Bulk barn is this awesome store – everything imaginable that you can buy in bulk. Not bulk like Costco- bulk like Sweet Factory where you fill your bag with what you want and pay per pound. We were there to get candy (2 aisles worth to choose from) but it also had nuts, granola, pasta, flour (all kinds imaginable), spices. All of it in big bins and you could scoop out just what you need – so cool. Next into Charlottetown for the Anne of Green Gables matinee musical. It is very well done and the girls were on the edge of their seats with excitement for most of the play. Kind of a tradition and presented each summer (like Nutcracker ballet is in Seattle) but it was new to us and I thought it was quite a great musical. 

After the play we decided to hang out in Charlottetown and go back to the visitors center to see the Sand Castle Sculptures. They were pretty amazing – huge sculptures made out of PEI red sand. After the sand castles we went back to downtown Charlottetown for dinner at this great little Italian restaurant with flat bread gourmet pizzas. No flowers on the plate, but definitely way up the food chain from Pizza Hut.

Aunt J, Uncle C and cousin E arrive at about 10:00PM after a long days driving to PEI.

Day 9 – Thursday

Headed up north to Cavendish (Anne of Green Gables Land) and Shining Waters water park. Great little water park with 4 water slides, a wading pool, a petting zoo, paddle boats, pirate ship fun house, and a little adventure hiking trail with a suspension bridge, crooked house, swamp monster, and house of mirrors at the end. I almost did not partake of the waterslides, but then Aunt J said “You’ll regret it if you don’t’ try it – it makes you feel 10 years younger”. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t try it at least once– so tried it. You sit on little tubes and then you shoot down this slide into this toilet bowl where you swirl around and then go down the hole to another slide – yes it did make me feel 10 years younger and I did not want to leave!! Thanks Aunt J for the encouragement. The tubes acted as a sort of cushion so I did not need to worry as much for K or my safety. There was also a double tube so that 2 people could go down at the same time – went with K first then with T – quite fun – the heavier you are the more you swirl in the toilet bowl (think giant turd in the toilet bowl in the case of T & me!!!). The other tube slide did not have toilet bowl – it had this section of complete darkness and you could not tell which way you were going or where the next turn was – it was an incredible adrenalin rush!! There was also 2 regular water slides (the kind you don’t use a tube on) which were not as popular – A figured out quite quickly that you did not have to wait in line if you did these slides, so she kept sliding, then running back up the stairs of the slide and sliding – she was getting in about 4 runs to one of ours and having a blast. One thing to work on is how to decrease the giant wedgie received from the water slides. Each time I saw A – I was asking her to pull down the bottom of her suit.

Completed the day with dinner at the boardwalk – Subway sandwiches for K & A and fish and chips for T & me. The hardcore tourists – Papa, T, Uncle C, cousins E&K, and A all continued on for black light mini golf. Memere, K, and I headed back to the cottages as we were exhausted!!

Day 10- Friday

That 10 years younger I felt at Shining Waters caught up with me around 4 AM this morning – I ached like I was 10 years older (so this must be what 50 feels like- huh Kathy?)  I am going to need a lot of Advil. Still had a blast yesterday and would do it again in an instant!!

Gold Cup Parade – I am told (multiple times by multiple people) this is the 2nd largest parade in Canada. It is a nice parade. You can really get a feel for what the island is about by viewing the parade. I am told that they used to throw candy for the kids, but did not do it this year. Why have so many parades stopped with the candy?

After the parade went to Indigo bookstore so Aunt T could let K pick a book for her birthday present then went to Eastside Marios for lunch – fun Italian restaurant chain. Used to be one in Worcester MA, that we had been to, but it no longer is there. Back to the cottages for rest.

B did laundry – ugh even on vacation. I went to a little laundromat next to the convenience store about 8 miles from the cottages. K went to Victoria with Aunt J and Uncle C. Victoria is this cute little artsy community. K came home with a slab of glass from a stained glass shop – we will now attempt to transport home an 18 inch X 2 inch piece of glass. Not sure what vision K has for the glass – if it makes it home will determine what she can do with it I guess!! T& A stayed by the cottage. Then after dark we had a fire in the fire pit on the cliff above the beach and roasted some marshmallows.

Day 11 – Saturday

Relaxing morning and leisure day.  Beach combing and trips to Best of PEI store and Dairy Barn.  Pre packing for big move tomorrow.

We had a multi-celebration for K’s 12th birthday, cousin E’s 4th birthday, and the Jewell’s grandson J’s 15th birthday on Saturday night. Mussels, chowder, and pizza. It was quite fun – everyone from all 3 cottages. The last trip to PEI we had celebrated K's 3rd birthday - it is hard to believe we are celebrating her 12th birthday.

Day 12 – Sunday

Time for the cottage switch – Memere, Papa, and cousin K are headed back to Massachusetts and checking out of cottage 2. We are in cottage 3 and need to switch to cottage 2. This means we need to wait until Memere and Papa are out of cottage 2 and on the road so that we can move our stuff over. Usually they do not have 2 cottages and everyone stays in cottage 2. Cottage 3 was available for 1 week, so we lucked out, but it means a move in the middle. Aunt J usually follows Memere and Papa with her week, so she is used to the departure and adjusting to PEI without Memere and Papa. She also has a strict ritual that she follows to clean out the refrigerator after they leave. After we moved our stuff from cottage 3 to cottage 2 – in order to make room for all the food – we were trying to eat what we could. Points were awarded for consuming the items no one else wanted or for alcohol (10AM). No one actually had any alcohol – but extra points were offered.

After we ate and ate – the tide was high which meant no beach by the cottages, so we decided to venture to Brackley Beach. This is a beach on the north side of the island and has white sandy beaches. It was gorgeous. The kids played in the sand and surf while Aunt J, Uncle C, B, and T figured out life’s perplexities. We just about had them all figured out when dark clouds moved in and we decided we should probably head out. Just as we got everyone loaded in the cars – it began to pour rain – whew that was close.

We went back to the cottage and looked for sea glass as it was low tide. Tried to consume more of the leftovers from Memere and Papa. T&B consumed the remainder of Saturday nights chowder. The level of alcohol in the fridge was lowered. Uncle C took control of the remote and found the Patriots preseason game. Not sure if he saw it to the end or not, as the rest of us had headed to bed in preparation for our departure on Monday.