Gettysburg, Baltimore, and the District! Oh, my!

April 12-20

On Sunday morning we headed off to Gettysburg National Military Park to see the battlefields and the museum. I had forgotten what a huge place it is. We were there for hours while the kids worked on their Junior Ranger badges. It was a beautiful day with some of the longest stretches of sunshine we have seen in a very long time. I was glad to have my new sun hat from the Toronto trip.

That night we slept at Greenbelt National Park just outside of Washington, DC. It is cute and tiny, and you can just barely hear the B-W Parkway traffic that borders the park.

Monday was the most perfect day to see the cherry blossoms and the big monuments in DC. We drove past Chad's old house in College Park first, but then left the car at Prince George's Plaza and took the Metro down to Foggy Bottom. Then it was the big walk: Einstein statue, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, FDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and finally the WWII Memorial. It was the peak blossom day for the cherry blossoms and the weather coudn't have been better, so both the foot and car traffic were INSANE! 

Our Peabody friends, Sawyer and Karl, met us late in the afternoon and we went out to eat with them. We had planned to camp at Greenbelt again that night, but it was late and dark, so they graciously agreed to let us stay at their house. Thanks, S and K!!

Tuesday was Baltimore day. We had crab cakes at Faidley's in Lexington Market. We will try to remember to never order crab cakes anywhere else again. These are the best and every other crab cake will be a disappointment. We wandered around the old Peabody neighborhood. It was rainy and dreary, but Chad and I had a good time telling the kids about our Baltimore adventure days. I don't think I need to worry about Oliver ever moving there after our stories about muggings, shootings, and rats!

We finished up the afternoon at Port Discovery, then took off for the drive to Arlington. We ate at a bar that Chad often goes to when he is working at NSF and slept at the cheap hotel he always uses. He was tickled to have us all in a space where he has spent so many days away from us.

Since Chad was working for the next three days, it was my job to walk the kids all over Washington, DC. We started at Arlington National Cemetery. I had warned everyone that is would be lots of walking, so I think that's why it didn't seem nearly as far as I had remembered. We walked to the big sites and even had a tour of the Robert E Lee house that I had not expected. My friend, David, was playing trumpet for a funeral that morning, so we got to have a quick lunch with him. From there we went to the Museum of American History.

Thursday was government day: Senate office building, Capitol galleries, Library of Congress, Supreme Court, and an evening walk to the White House with Chad. In the midst of that, we went back to the Natural History Museum. Our feet were sore and there was much whining by all (except Chad, who had spent most of the day sitting down) before we finally got to bed.

Friday included more walking and more whining from those forced to march from art museum to airplane museum. The whining finally ceased once we got to the food and the children's space in the Museum of the American Indian.We ended Friday up at Bengie's Drive-In near Baltimore and slept at Karl and Sawyer's house again.

On Saturday, our kids enjoyed playing with Sawyer and Karl's kids all morning while Sawyer and I went grocery shopping and caught up on life events. We went to the National Zoo in the afternoon, before returning to their house for dinner. Sawyer had a gig to play that night, so I got to tag along for a recital of German song.

Sunday we went to Mass, where Karl played the prelude and Sawyer sand with the choir and played flute. We were sad to say goodbye to them, but it was time to head off toward Delaware, We stopped in Annapolis for a late lunch and a visit to the State House. Annapolis was extremely crowded, and we finally decided that it must be some visiting Sunday for the Naval Academy.

We spent the night at Cape Henlopen Sate Park exploring the old army fortifications and looking for horseshoe crabs on the beach. We had a very late supper at Dogfish Head in Rehobeth Beach, followed by a pretty wet night in the tents. Since it was raining in the morning and we hadn't seen any horseshoe crabs at Cape Henlopen, we drove to Slaughter Beach next. We saw both an alive and a dead crab there, so we could drive back to Ithaca having accomplished our Delaware Bay goal.

Bassoon Gig at Cornell

April 6-11

I (Joyce) have had a fun opportunity to sit in on Ithaca College bassoon studio rep classes. In addition to just sitting in to listen, I got to coach two sessions for contrabassoon. I'm not extremely confident in my ability to help anyone else play contra, but I guess it is one of the those instruments where a little experience goes a long way! I really enjoyed sharing my limited contrabassoon knowledge, but mostly I loved hearing how the Ithaca students have helped each other learn the instrument and have shared fingerings that I didn't know.

The other bonus of playing a somewhat less popular instrument like the bassoon is that I got to play with the Festival Chamber Orchestra at Cornell. It was the composers' studio recital, so the music was brand new. Some of it was challenging, but a lot of the bassoon parts were pretty tame.

Two of the musicians in the chamber orchestra were Lincoln, NE natives who now live in Rochester and Ithaca, NY. The funny part was that I knew that about each of them individually before they knew it about each other. It's a small world after all.

The Amazing Weekend in New York City

April 3-5 Easter weekend

It's almost hard to start writing about our Easter weekend in New York. It was so overwhelming that Chad and I still have difficulty just listing the things that we did. I'll do what I can, but I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

On Good Friday, we got up early and started driving to New York. We arrived shortly after noon and were able to check into our hotel in New Jersey. The hotel was right on a bus route to the Port Authority. We took the bus into the city and walked to the Macy's Flower Show. After walking around Macy's for a bit, we walked to Grand Central Station. While we were upstairs looking down at the main hall of Grand Central Station, Benjamin noted that most people were dressed in black. 

At the Macy's flower show

Grand Central Station...watching all the people dressed in black

From there we went over to St. Patrick's Cathedral for Good Friday service with Cardinal Dolan. The whole altar area is under renovation, so we really just watched it on TV screens, but it was packed and we had seats right up front on the side. After that, we walked over to MoMA because it is free on Friday afternoon. We stood in line with every other tourist in NYC that day. We actually walked around the entire block in a line and entered the building. It was crazy packed with people, but we were still able to see lots of great art. It was a late night back to New Jersey on the bus, and we were due for an early morning. I warned the children as they went to bed, and reminded them that they could sleep on Monday.

It was a little crowded around Starry Night. I actually got elbowed away from the family right after this shot.

Knishes while waiting to get into MoMA

As promised, we rolled everyone out of bed early on Saturday morning so that we could drive and catch the ferry to Ellis Island. The first ferry was a little bit late, so we were pretty rushed at Ellis Island. We had done a lot of research ahead of time so that the kids would be able to get their Junior Ranger badges, but we were still feeling rushed to catch the next ferry to Liberty Island. We had a comfortable amount of time at the Statue of Liberty and we all enjoyed climbing up to the pedestal.

Taking the junior ranger oath

Unfortunately, when it was time to head to the ferry to New York, Chad had a little trouble retrieving our backpacks and we missed the ferry we had planned on. This put us twenty minutes behind on a tightly planned day. Chad quickly researched taking a Uber car to our next destination, since we wouldn't have time to subway or walk. It would only take about 10 minutes by car, so we wouldn't miss our next tour. BUT, our Uber driver got confused and ended up driving across the Brooklyn Bridge. With our surprise trip to Brooklyn, we were five minutes late for our Tenement Museum tour, and paid three times what we should have. (A good word for Uber: Chad complained, and Uber refunded the extra fare.)

We joined our tour at the Tenement Museum in the lower east side a little late, but we didn't miss much. Again, I had done a lot of preparatory work with the kids, so they had a lot of the background information about the early immigrants and their living situation. It was a fascinating museum because you are always interacting with an actor who is portraying a resident of the tenement. We couldn't take any pictures there, but I think it is something that even Isla will remember when she is older.

From the Tenement Museum, we started walking to the big surprise. We had told the kids there would be two surprises and this was the first. We walked to Washington Square Park to participate in National Pillow Fight day. Thousands of people brought pillows and had an official, huge pillow fight. I'm afraid that this has led Benjamin and Isla to believe that New York is the absolute coolest city in the entire world!

All the white in the middle is pillows

After donating our pillows to the homeless shelter, we walked to the next surprise, an event called Full Bunny Contact -- by far the strangest Easter related event I will ever see. It was bizarre, weird, and a little creepy, but oddly fascinating. I have memories and a few pictures, but it sort of defies description. You'll have to call me if you want to know more about this one!

Full Bunny Contact -- The Cage

Riding a bucking bunny bull

Since we hadn't actually collapsed yet, we walked to an interesting Asian, pork-themed restaurant and ate a big meal of tasty, but fatty, pork dishes. It was getting late, but Chad ordered dessert as well. When we finally collapsed into a Subway car, Isla asked if we had to hurry to our next thing, or if we could walk. I said that we could finally relax and take our time. Then, Chad sheepishly informed me that we were in danger of missing the last ferry returning to New Jersey...we should not have had dessert! I don't think that I often brag about my kids, but this moment warrants some serious credit to them. After telling them the situation, we all RAN about a mile from the subway to the ferry and we just made it onto the last ferry to New Jersey. Little Isla's legs should have fallen off, but she was amazing. Brag-fest complete. Thank you.

The ferry ride back to New Jersey deserves its own paragraph. It may have been partially due to the fact that we had a somewhat stressful run to catch it, and we were pumped up on adrenaline, but Benjamin said it best. "This is the best ferry ride EVER!!!" The sun was just setting on Manhatten, the Statue of Liberty was lit up, and the ferry driver was in a hurry to be done for the day. It was fast and beautiful.

Best Ferry Ever!!

Finally, it was Easter Sunday, and we were on our way back to St. Patrick's for Easter Mass. On the bus, we met a family from Montreal who was also going to Mass, but didn't quite know their way. We ended up showing them how to use the Subway, which was stressful for Chad, but they really appreciated the help. After Mass, we donned our Easter bonnets and strolled up and down Fifth Avenue for a few hours. Lots of people took Isla's picture, which she thought was the most fabulous thing to ever happen. Oliver was morose about the whole event, the crowds, the picture taking, the attention. He perked up a little when someone asked how he made his bonnet, but for the most part he was mopey. We had brunch at the Rock Center Cafe and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking in Central Park.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Rock Center Cafe

Central Park

We drove home completely exhausted. I've informed Chad that I plan on sitting on the couch and not moving for a month once this sabbatical is over.

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