Short return to Nebraska

February 21-March 1

On Saturday, February 21, we woke up early (to no running water, which Chad quickly thawed with his handy-dandy hair dryer) and then we started driving toward Niagara Falls. We stopped first on the US side and walked through the heavy ice and snow to the American Falls. I'm always surprised at how close you get to river on that side. There were huge ice blocks standing in the river in front on the falls. The kids were most impressed by the ice faces that had formed from the mist on the coin binoculars.

We crossed into Canada, but our walk on the American side had taken a long time and we were anxious to meet up with one of our old friends in Hamilton. We drove past the big Horseshoe Falls on the road, but didn't get out for a closer look. We will be back soon, and maybe they will be more thawed by then!

We drove through a hefty snowstorm in Canada to get to Hamilton. We met a friend from our Toronto days for lunch there. It was really fun for us to see him and catch up on the last 10 years or so. It was also a good break from driving in the snowstorm. The snow continued until the Michigan border, when the sun came out in a blazing blue sky! Although our friend has a new job in Hamilton, his wife and kids are still living in Lansing at the moment, so we were off to stay with them for the night. It was a welcome relief to stay with friends who have children so near the age of our own.

Sunday morning, we woke up early so that we could go to Mass at St. Ann's in Augusta, the church we attended when we lived in Hickory Corners. We drove by the house that Benjamin lived in for the first 18 months on our way there. Everything at KBS looks just like it did ten years ago. After driving around the old farmhouse and remembering the KBS crowd of people, we went to lunch at Bell's. Chad bought a bunch of beer and then we were off to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. We all had a great time riding the rides and seeing all the planes. I had just finished a book about women pilots in WWII, and lo and behold, there was an exhibit on the WASPs. Our amazing Morrill Hall membership paid for itself once again.

After a stay in Joliet, we drove the rest of the way to Lincoln, NE. A major highlight of the week was seeing the Villas and Willises all at once. It was so fun that Benjamin wrote about it for his writing assignment the next week. I spent most of the week practicing contrabassoon. The kids did a minimum amount of homeschool work and got to play with all of the Christmas presents that we had left behind at Grandma and Grandpa's house before leaving for Ithaca. Benjamin and Oliver got to go back to school and visit their classmates for an afternoon. They answered questions about Ithaca and Philadelphia and Ottawa and homeschooling. Oliver's classmates were so excited to see him that they had to take turns giving him short hugs. 

Visiting twin babies of Lincoln friends

Doing homework in the sunshine of Nebraska.










On Saturday morning we had breakfast with more Lincoln friends, and then did all our laundry at the laundromat. It was a little odd to be in Lincoln, but not at our house. We called it "going home, but not home." Saturday night everyone came to hear Mahler 5 by Lincoln's Symphony. We noticed that the car had turned over 150.000 miles while we'd been in Lincoln. Chad commented on how we really hadn't done much work on the car so far and maybe this would be the car that we let Benjamin use in a few years. Sunday morning, we got up early to start the big drive back to Ithaca. We needed to get back to Ithaca for events on Tuesday, so we were thinking we might drive straight through, but we decided to stop in Toledo, Ohio.