Toronto

March 25-April 2

The next big trip was to Canada. We spent the first day at Niagara Falls, NY and ON. Of course, it was rainy and cold and foggy the whole day, but at least we could see the falls once in a while this time. The last time we were here, we couldn't see through the blizzard. We parked on Goat Island, which Chad and I had never done before. It was a great spot for viewing and walking. Since it was Wednesday, and freezing, and raining, there were only about 3 other families out. We watched the movie about the Niagara Falls adventurers all alone in the theater. We walked out onto the lookout platform for free. Due to ice and low traffic, we decided against the Journey Behind the Falls. 

Buffalo wings in Buffalo, NY

Isla's show and tell for "W" week

 

When we were done being cold and wet, we went to Ripley's Believe It or Not. It was perfect for kids our ages, and it was just how I had remembered the one in Florida when I was 10. We even recreated some pictures that I had taken with similar exhibits in 1984!

That night we had the wonderful opportunity to stay with a friend from my LTTA days in Toronto. Rich and his family are so welcoming and we had a great night of remembering and catching up on family news.

The next day we drove into Toronto and went to the Royal Ontario Museum. Benjamin declared it to have the best dinosaur exhibit he'd EVER seen. We met another old friend for lunch and then walked past the apartment building that Chad and I had lived in. It looked just as dumpy as ever, but maybe looked a little better than I had remembered. We found our old church of St. Basil's behind some huge condos. I was shocked at how many new buildings have been built in the past 10 years.

We stopped into the RCM, but it has been completely gutted and remodeled, so my office didn't exist anymore. We walked to the BATA shoe museum to finish off the tourist section of the day. That night we got to stay with some more friends who now have two kids. They let us take our kids to a Beaver (Scouts) meeting with them. Beavers are co-ed, so Isla could join in, too. It was great fun and a cultural experience. Chad noticed a photo of the queen on the wall. Benjamin fell over and hit his head during an acrobatics exercise, but overall the night was a success.

Friday morning started with a stop at St. Lawrence Market for some back bacon sandwiches. Then we spent our life savings to go up the CN Tower! Again it was not crowded, because it was a hazier day, but we could still see really far in the city. We took the streetcar up to Chinatown for dim sum. Then we walked to Kensington Market, where we ran into Erik and his birthday party crowd. We had papusas and halva before heading back down to MEC. Chad's jacket had broken and we ended up buying a new sun hat for me and a raincoat for Benjamin, too.

We strolled through the Music Garden before driving to our next host's house. After eating Polish food on Roncesvailles, we stayed the night a Chad's academic adviser's house. We had done enough housesitting for them in grad school, that their house felt very comfortable to us.

We returned to Ithaca in time for Palm Sunday. Chad took the kids to Hobby Lobby to buy supplies for their Easter bonnets. The next three days were busily spent making bonnets, taking care of some chickens and ducks for some friends of Chad, and preparing to the New York trip.

The tags for the new car turned up just in time for the trip to New York!

A short respite from travelling

March 18-25 Back in Ithaca

After a busy week with Chad's parents, we had a short week in Ithaca on our own. It snowed again, and Oliver said one morning, "I guess spring just isn't going to happen this year." Yes, Oliver, spring appears to have been cancelled. We went on another "winter walk" with the Cornell biology students, that involved crossing a thawing river. I probably wouldn't have done it alone with the kids, but they were troopers and followed all the adventurous adults. Again the whining happened softly and toward the end, so everyone thought that our kids were so fantastic. Isn't it great that they've learned to only whine so that I can hear it all?

On the winter walk

Exhaustion sets in on the winter walk

Isla posing for show and tell weeks "T" and "S"

Isla is a fierce Sequence player

Isla and her deer friend, Isabel

First New York City Visit

When we returned to Ithaca, we jumped back into a more normal schedule or school, Cornell, Ithaca bassoon studio class, viola lesson, and Tiger Cub meetings. Oliver got to visit two police stations with his den. We also spent a day at the Sciencenter, where Isla bought a stuffed fawn that she had been wanting to get. (Emily, the million-turn glass had been knocked down four days after we were there with you.)

Ithaca Sciencenter

Our sculpted snowman face

Artist at work

After a week of travel/new car recovery and Ithaca activities, Chad's parents flew in for a visit. We spent their first day here checking out more of the waterfalls.We were able to see a lot more than we did on the blustery day that Emily was here. Then we went off to visit two wineries and a brewery along the west side of Lake Cayuga.

The next day we drove off to New York City. Chad did a great job of driving the van to an apartment in Manhattan that we had rented. Then we walked and walked around midtown, visiting the library, FAO Schwartz, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, and finally Times Square.

Driving to NYC. You can see the legs of Isla's new deer; it is dressed in one of her undershirts.

Saturday was a rainy, rainy day. We took the subway down to Wall Street so that Oliver and Benjamin could sing "Walkin' on Wall Street" from School House Rock. We spent the rest of the morning at the 9/11 Memorial. After a very meaty lunch at Katz' Deli, we took the subway up to Grant's Tomb. Chad and I burned lots of calories carrying Mark's scooter up and down all the stairs in Manhattan. I don't know how people in wheelchairs get around New York, but it is not on the majority of subways. It was rare and difficult to find an elevator. Even Grant's Tomb, a National Monument, was completely inaccessible. I read inside about how Civil War veterans had to be carried up to visit the tomb when it was built. It's inaccessibility has been a problem since the day it was opened!

Walkin' on Wall Street

Waiting for sandwiches at Katz' Deli

Sunday was a much sunnier day, so we went down to the Staten Island Ferry for a good view of the Statue of Liberty. We went to Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary/Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine right by the Ferry station. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History before heading back to Ithaca that night. Isla threw up in the van on the way to NYC and Benjamin threw up on the way from NYC. They seem otherwise fine, so I can only guess that they are not used to riding in the back seat of a van! Luckily Chad had thought to put our gallon ZipLoc bags in the rental when he moved the car seats over.

On the Staten Island Ferry

On Monday, we had planned on going to the Women's Suffrage Museum, but we had forgotten that they were closed on Monday. We remembered before driving there, so we were able to change plans and go to the Corning Museum of Glass. I really enjoyed it and there are lots of demonstrations. I think we will be going back there before leaving Ithaca because they have a new gallery opening at the end of this week. On Tuesday, Chad went to work and I went to Ithaca College, so Grandma and Grandpa spent most of the day playing games with the kids. I think that we were all glad to have a day that we were not in the car, walking, or seeing a museum. We still went up to Cornell's bell tower for the chime concert, but that was short and worth the climb.

On Wednesday, Chad's parents headed back to Minnesota. Benjamin and Oliver worked on their research projects while I did laundry and Isla played with her growing collection of LEGOs. This afternoon we went out and played in the snow and mud...again. As for the spring weather I've been hearing about in Lincoln and Minnesota, I wouldn't mind if it headed this way. This week it has rained, sleeted, hailed, and snowed.

Unexpected Delay

March 2-4

Monday morning, we started our relaxed drive back to Ithaca. It was going to be a relatively short driving day and we would make it home with plenty of time to get food and go to bed. An hour into the drive, all the lights on the dash lit up. The car kept moving, but we pulled off the Ohio turnpike in search of a mechanic. We pulled into a garage in Milan, Ohio (that's MY-lun) and waited for the bad news. The mechanic was very nice about telling us that the problem appeared to be in the electric portion of the system and he couldn't touch that with his equipment. He didn't charge us for looking at the car, but he did direct us to the Toyota dealer closer to Cleveland.

Running amok at the garage

After the last start of the car, waiting for a tow

Benjamin, Oliver and Isla had been happily playing with the two children of the mechanic, who are also homeschooled, but we tore them away to load up in the car to drive the 20 miles to the Toyota dealer. Unfortunately, the car was done starting. We called a tow truck, but they could not carry all five of us in the truck. Back into the garage we trudged, ready to distract the mechanic's children from their studies once again. It was two hours before we had sorted out how to get our old car and all the family to the dealer. Chad went in the tow truck with the old car. The kids and I drove a car from the mechanic to a car rental in Sandusky and then came to the dealer with a rental car.

Toys at our friends' house outside Cleveland

The kids watched TV and Chad worked while the Toyota dealer tried to figure out what was wrong with our car. It soon became clear that we wouldn't be leaving with our car for at least a day or two. Luckily for us, we had more KBS friends living outside Cleveland. We called them and they graciously let us stay at their house and they fed us for two nights.

DNA exhibit at Cleveland Science Museum

We cancelled our Tuesday Ithaca engagements and spent the afternoon at the Cleveland Science museum. While we were there, Toyota called to tell us the repairs would probably be about $8000 for a car that we had decided was only worth $4000 and had 151,000 miles now. So...we now have the bigger Prius V that we had thought about buying 2-3 years from now. It was complicated and took a lot of maneuvering by both us, our bank, and the dealer, but we managed to get it purchased at about 10:00 PM on Tuesday night.

Signing for the new car at 10:00 PM

Wednesday morning, we finally had that relaxed drive to Ithaca from Cleveland, even stopping to buy cheese in a small New York town along the way. We got home in time for Chad and Benjamin to go to a Cub Scout meeting on Wednesday night.

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.