Staycation

At the end of the month, Kevin and Gavin are going out of town for a week. This is to help balance out the 5 weeks Kevin spent out of town for work. He gets a chance to bond with Gavin without me around. I get a week of greatly reduced responsibilities. And Gavin will hopefully be shaken out of his momma's boy tendencies.

Also, since I just went back to work full time I don't currently have any PTO while Kevin's starting to worry about his expiring because he's been working so much.

It's win-win, and I have big plans for when they're gone. They're traveling Friday-Friday, so I even get an entire weekend to myself during which I can stay up late and sleep in and lounge around.

I'm trying to find a balance between doing everything I want and planning too many leisure activities and inadvertently stressing myself out during my "vacation". Who knows if I'll succeed, but here are my plans:

• Spend one weekend day doing stuff
• Get a haircut
• Go to the used book store (even though I really don't need to buy any more books)
• Eat either lunch or dinner (or both?) out with a book
• Grocery store (because my responsibilities won't just evaporate)
• Bike ride
• Spend one weekend day on the couch
• Start watching one of the following shows:
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• Preacher
• Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
• Anne with an E
• The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
• Schitt's Creek
• A Series of Unfortunate Events season 2
• Santa Clarita Diet season 2
• Sense8 season 2
• And I still need to catch up on iZombie 
• Oh god, I'm so far behind on TV
• Read for a couple of hours without interruption
• Organize my bookshelves
• Also organize Gavin's bookshelf and get some more of the picture books we already own on there and maybe start pulling some of the board/baby books
• Figure out a book-based advent calendar for this Christmas (how many Winter/Christmas books do we have, how many should I buy at the used book store, and what order should they go in. And maybe start wrapping them )
• Make risotto, while drinking wine and watching TV
• Make gnocchi?
• Neighborhood ladies night on Tuesday
• Book club on Thursday
• Spend one weekday evening watching TV and eating either leftovers or takeout
• Spend one weekday evening reading

I think this is all doable, except for that glut of television that I'm never going to catch up on. Never mind the handful of movies I want to watch, too. I just need to pick one and go for it.

I'm very much looking forward to this week without my kid (who I will probably miss even more than I'm anticipating). It'll be a good chance for him and Kevin to hang out and for me to relax and recharge. I can't wait to have (almost) nothing to do.

California Vacation, Part 2

After the zoo it was nap time, so we decided to drive north and let Gavin sleep in the car. We found a brewery near the AirBnb where we stopped for lunch. Though we ended up playing cards in the parking lot for a while until Gavin woke up. The brewery ended up being attached to a college, which was interesting and gave it a different vibe (so many students). Danielle and Eric met up with us there and then we all stopped at the grocery store before heading over to the AirBnb.

The place we had originally booked - a five bedroom  house about 20 minutes from campus - ended up getting double booked. The owner contacted us and offered a different property for half-price. It was just a little farther from campus, so we decided to take it. Instead of a house, we had three two-bedroom apartments. I think that setup ended up working out better, especially with a toddler involved. Gavin could run around at 6 in the morning without waking anyone else up and they could all hang out late into the night without disturbing him (or me).

Unfortunately, that was pretty much the only good thing about this property. One of the apartments smelled like smoke and another like cat pee. The third had a door that didn't always latch. Only one of the apartments had coffee mugs and wine glasses, so we had to move some things around when we first got there. The floors were so dirty that my feet were constantly black, the water pressure so low that I couldn't fully rinse my hair, and the bathroom so gross (or possibly haunted) that Gavin pretty much refused to be bathed.

On the plus side, we didn't spend all the much time at the rental.

The reunion itself was a lot of fun. It was great to see the campus and some of the new, gorgeous buildings. The architecture is becoming more modern, which is both good and a little bittersweet. I still take a perverse pride in having such an ugly campus, but I get that's off putting to a lot of prospective students.

We had great turnout for our class. I think around a third of our graduating class came to this reunion. It was fun to catch up with so many people and see everyone's babies. A lot of people had kids around Gavin's age, and he made some friends. Gavin also had a lot of fun watching the fish in the koi pond, and we returned to that several times throughout the weekend.

After the reunion we spent a night in a hotel close to the airport to make our early morning flights more manageable. Another college friend lives right by the airport and hosted a pool party for us. It was great to see their house and kids, but hearing about all their plans made me appreciate my relatively quiet life.

All in all it was a great, if exhausting, trip. I didn't sleep much and I read about 50 pages in the whole ten days. But there were so many people to hang out with, and that was the whole point of the vacation, so I shouldn't be too upset. Gavin did a great job traveling, and even held it together well when we were constantly missing his naps. But it was nice to get home and get back on a schedule that had both of us happier and calmer.

California Vacation, part 1

Late last month was our ten year college reunion, which is a little crazy to think about. There was never any question of our going to the reunion - even with a toddler in tow. But since traveling with Gavin is something of an undertaking at this point, we decided to extend the vacation and visit some family in Southern California, rather than just do a long weekend.

We flew into San Diego, where Kevin's sister and her husband recently bought a house. We spent a few days with them, visiting and exploring San Diego. We visited a few breweries, ate Korean BBQ, and went to the San Diego Zoo. But Gavin's favorite part of the trip was their three cats.

The cats were skittish at first, running away as soon as Gavin spotted them. Gavin spent a lot of time wandering around the house, looking for the cats or following them from room to room and softly calling out "meow, meow". It was incredibly adorable, especially when he'd spot a cat only for it to dash from the room and Gavin would sadly say, "bye bye meow".

One by one the cats eventually warmed up to Gavin, much to his delight. I was impressed with how good he was with them. He didn't grab them or poke at them,just gently patted their backs. Once the cats realized that he quickly lost interest after a pat or two, they'd just wait him out.

Gavin was also a big fan of their keyboard. He loved climbing up on the stool and hitting the keys to make noise. He also liked watching other people play and playing along with them. Kevin has been idly wanting a piano as long as we've lived together, and it's starting to look more likely that we'll actually buy one.

We also tried to spend a day at Mission Beach, riding some rides and going to the beach. Unfortunately we timed the trip abysmally and Gavin was cranky and tired the whole time. He wasn't interested in the rides or the ocean. He's not generally a fan of the beach anyway, but the conditions were awful for helping him get over that - windy and cold. We didn't end up staying very long.

After a few days with Kevin's sister, we went north to Santa Ana to have dinner with my aunt and cousins. With my aunt working full time and both of her girls involved in multiple extracurriculars, it can be hard to get together with them. I was really glad we were able to carve out a few hours to visit and see all the improvements my aunt has made to her house in the past decade. It's hard to believe I hadn't been there since college.

The next day we went to the Santa Ana Zoo to see the animals, because we couldn't check in to our AirBnb near campus until late afternoon. The Santa Ana Zoo is much smaller than the San Diego Zoo, but I ended up liking it better. It wasn't as crowded and it was a lot easier to see the animals. They had a whole bunch of monkeys, which are always fun to watch. And we saw a sloth and a very fat squirrel who had figured out how to steal food from the birds. We also took Gavin on the train and the carousel, which were both more successful than the rides at Mission Beach. It helped that we got on the rides well before nap time.

Vacation

At the end of July, we were finally able to take a real vacation as a family. It wasn't combined with Kevin's work or any other family obligations. Just the three of us on a lake for a week.

We rented a house down at Lake Anna, which is about halfway between DC and Richmond. Some friends came out the first weekend, but after that we had the place to ourselves. It was maybe a little big for just the three of us, but it was one of the few properties that let us bring Kina along.

We spent the week mostly hanging out. We had plans to spend more time in the water, but it ended up being too warm. The lake was built as a heat reservoir for a power plant, and the house we rented was on the warm side. The water temperature was almost 90 degrees, way too warm to be refreshing. Especially on hot, July days. We went out in the canoe a coupe of times, which proved to be a great way to make Gavin fall asleep. But for swimming we had to drive over to the beach on the other side of the lake.

We also went out to a local winery and tried a few restaurants. But for the most part we stayed in. Gavin napped a lot. I read my books. Kevin played Zelda. All in all it was a very relaxing week. I'm glad we were able to find time to get away as a family. Here's hoping this was just the first of many more family vacations to come.

Stay-cation

At the beginning of July, when Gavin was eight and a half months old, I was able to spend my first full night away from him. Part of me had wanted to get this out of the way sooner, but while I was breastfeeding I could never really spend that much time away from him. Once he started going to daycare I was having a hard enough time pumping enough to supply that. Adding an overnight trip just seemed like more hassle.

But by July he was taking formula often enough - and I was feeding him rarely enough - that I felt comfortable spending the night away. So I gathered my girl friends for a mini stay-cation.

We spent the afternoon at a Korean spa called Spa World. It has a co-ed area with a variety of rooms set to different temperatures. You can lay in any of them, take a nap in the main area, get food, play games, or sit on one of the comfy sofas. There's also an enormous hot tub area. Well, actually there are two - one for men and one for women. We spent several hours there, laying around and talking. Eventually they all took a nap, but I knew that if I fell asleep then I'd probably never wake up again.

Afterwards we went out to dinner and then spent the night in a hotel room. We drank an excessive amount of wine and played games. It was so nice to hang out with my friends and not worry about feeding my baby or getting up at 2 to comfort him or anything. I could actually take a night off and just enjoy myself.

I'm really glad I was able to get a ladies night in between Kevin's various busniess trips. It helped me recharge my batteries, and it was great to have actual, uninterrupted conversations with my friends. 

Work-cation

Back in June, Gavin and I were able to join Kevin on a week-long work trip to Fairbanks, Alaska. Kevin has to work for three days (which sort of stretched into four days), but we took the whole week so we'd have some time to enjoy the scenery as a family.

We went right after the solstice, and Fairbanks is just a couple hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle, so there was a lot of sunlight. Technically, the sun set for a little over two hours every night, but it never dipped far enough below the horizon for the sky to actually get dark. Instead it was a kind of twilight that was really surreal the couple of times I glimpsed it. Despite the lack of night, or maybe because of it, since the hotel room had blackout curtains, Gavin slept like a champ for the entire trip. He took two solid naps every day, which gave me plenty of time to read and watch mindless TV while Kevin was working. The flip side of that is that I spent a lot of time confined to a hotel room with a sleeping baby, but that's not such a bad way to spend a vacation.

That frame of mind is helped by the fact that there isn't a ton to do in Fairbanks, especially without a car. The downtown area is small. Even with my limited time I managed to visit every shop and museum and almost every restaurant. We spent a morning at the children's museum, which had a play area for toddlers. Gavin was a little too young for it, but it was a nice change of pace.

With Kevin along we ventured a little farther out. We took a riverboat cruise and learned about the history of the area. We visited a park that had a number of museums and attractions in addition to the playgrounds and grassy areas. Gavin even got to go on his first train ride around the park. We also went on a short hike around a lake and stopped off at the North Pole. Gavin was sleeping, so we didn't get a picture of him with Santa, but we'll get one this Christmas.

It was a nice, relaxing vacation, and it was fun to see Alaska. I was surprised by how much it reminded me of Colorado, except without the mountains. The climate and wildlife were so similar to what I grew up with that I wasn't as awed as I probably ought to have been. I was surprised at how warm it was, and was especially weirded out that it kept getting warmer late into the day. When the sun doesn't set until after midnight, the temperature is still rising at dinner-time. I'm used to it cooling off by then.

With this trip, Gavin has completed his tour of the non contiguous United States, traveling as far north and west as Kevin and I have ever been. Too bad he won't remember any of it. I guess we'll just have to go back when he's older.

First Christmas

Before Gavin was born, I was told that it's easiest to travel with kids when they're just a few months old. So we decided to take him home for Christmas, when he was just 2 months old, to introduce him to my extended family. The trip ended up being more of a whirlwind than it usually is, as we tried to cram in the entire family in very little time. But Gavin did great, and I'm so glad we were able to get out and introduce him to everyone.

I was worried about the flight, and had read a bunch of tips. We brought my nurxing pillow on the plane so he wouldn't just be sitting in my lap. We brought bottles of milk so he could be sucking on something during takeoff and landing. And then Gavin slept for almost the entire flight. It was magical, and I got to feel smug because the crying baby on that plane wasn't mine.

We went down to my aunt's house for her annual Christmas Eve party. Gavin was quickly overwhelmed by the noise and being the center of attention. But my aunt had set aside my cousin's old bedroom for us so we could escape to somewhere quiet. Kevin and I spent a lot of the first half of the party taking turns sitting with Gavin in there. But after dinner he calmed down enough to come out and meet people.

Christmas day at my mom's was a smaller crowd, and Gavin did much better. He got passed around to everyone who wanted to hold him, ate a ton, and got a bunch of clothes and books.

The next day we went down to my dad's for the third feast in a row and another side of the family. Gavin was a bit grumpier that day; I think all the traveling was getting to him. And he slept terribly that night. Which is to say that he only really slept from midnight to 2:30. But the next day was calmer and he caught up on sleep some.

That evening we flew to Phoenix on what was the longest flight of my life. Even though it's less than 2 hours. It was so bumpy that the fasten seatbelt sign never turned off and the flight attendants didn't even do a drink service. Then Gavin pooped about half an hour in, forcefully enough that it got all over his onesie and blanket and Boppy. Then when we finally landed we had to sit on the runway for a while before we could taxi to the gate. It was awful, and just about all I could do to keep Gavin from screaming the whole time.

Our time in Phoenix was pretty low-key. It helped that we stayed in a hotel there rather than with my family. We went over to my aunt's to visit in the mornings, then to my grandmother's in the evenings, and back to the hotel after dinner. We also managed to get dinner with one of Kevin's oldest friends who's lived there since college.

I was worried about flying home, but it ended up going very smoothly. On the first leg, the plane was empty enough that we were alowed to bring Gavin's carseat on and put him in his own seat, which made a huge difference. And on the second leg he once again slept almost the entire flight. He did get cranky during our layover, and I gave him a bottle in the airport. Which led to me having to pump on the plane. But at least we had carried the pump on so we could do that.

The trip was fast, but it was nice to have the opportunity to show Gavin off to everyone. And he did great on 3 of the 4 plane rides, which isn't too bad. Next up I get to take him on a much longer plane ride all by myself. But I think I can handle it.

First Road Trip

When Gavin was almost 8 weeks old, we drove him up to Boston to meet Kevin's extended family. We broke the drive up as much as we could, using it both to introduce Gavin to as many people as possible and as a dry-run for his first flight the next week. Overall it went really well. It was nice to see so many people. Though the trip was a bit of a whirlwind, and we ended up spending more time in the car than we'd really intended. Also, my boobs were not happy about how long we ended up going between feedings, though Gavin seemed fine.

We left around noon on Friday, with the intent of getting to Kevin's aunt's house, just outside Stamford, CT. This was the longest leg of the journey, and we hit some rush hour traffic near NYC that added some time. But overall it wasn't too bad. Gavin slept almost the entire trip. We pulled off at a rest stop in Delaware so I could wake him up and try to make him eat, and he went back to sleep right after. Then with about five minutes left in the trip he woke up, pooped, and proceeded to scream for the rest of the ride.

We got to Kevin's aunt's and had to go right upstairs to change and feed Gavin. But once he was sated we were able to come down and have a nice meal and visit. Unfortunately, in my desire to visit, I only had Gavin eat on one side, and I ended up with a clogged duct in my still full boob. I spent the rest of the night pumping, applying warm compresses, and massaging to try and get the clog out. I even used my electronic toothbrush at one point to try and break up and move the clog. Somehow it worked, though my breast was tender for a few days. And my breasts continued to be uncomfortably full for the rest of the trip.

The next morning we woke up to a lot more snow than was in the forecast. We spent some time hemming and hawing to try to figure out what to do. Kevin went to investigate the roads and was relieved to discover that outside of his aunt's neighborhood the roads were clear. So we decided to push on to see his family in Massachusetts. The snow did slow us down. What was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour drive extended to over 4 hours. By the time we got to Kevin's grandmother's I had to pump for almost half an hour and ended up getting 8 oz (as compared to the 4 oz I usually pump).

I realize that I'm spending a lot of time talking about my boobs, but this was the real takeaway from this trip for me. Gavin just sleeps too well in the car, so I wasn't feeding him often enough. If we decide to do another road trip, I'm going to have to come up with a different strategy for feeding the baby.

We had a nice, if short, visit with Kevin's grandmother and other aunt and cousins. Then it was in to the city where we met some friends for dinner and games. Gavin did great with all the commotion, mostly chilling in his bouncer in another room. When he did start to fuss, we took off for our hotel outside the city.

Staying in a hotel went much better than I'd been expecting it to. It was nice to have our own space, as opposed to cramming in to Kevin's cousin's room. It was nice to not be worrying about Gavin waking up other people in the middle of the night. Having a couch made the middle of the night feedings much easier.

In the morning we got up and headed down to NYC where we met up with a bunch of friends for a late lunch. Becca knew a place with enough room for us to park the stroller and meet with a big group of people. It was sort of like an upscale food court, with a bar and a nice, big table tucked away in a corner. We spent a few hours visiting with a bunch of friends. Then it was back on the road so we could get home that night. But not without buying batteries so I could use my breast pump in the car, which made a huge difference on the ride home.

We got home a little after 10. In the days before having a baby, I would have just fallen into bed at this point. But those days are over. I was up for another hour, unpacking and doing dishes and making sure Gavin was good to go before I could go to bed. But I did eventually get to go to bed. The trip was quick and involved a lot of driving. But Gavin did so good traveling that we were feeling a lot better about putting him on a plane a week later.

A Quiet Holiday

Kevin and I did almost nothing to celebrate the 4th of July this year, and it was glorious.

Usually we'll take any excuse to grill some burgers and have friends over. But the grill is already packed away, and we're not buying any more charcoal until after the move. We can't host anything right now as we may have to clean and vacate the house with very little notice. Plus, this has been the first weekend in a while when we could just sprawl on couches and catch up on TV.

We did go out Friday night. Kevin got free tickets to Kinky Boots at The Kennedy Center. It was fun, though hard to hear the actors. Especially when they were singing. I'm not sure if it was a sound mixing problem or what, but it distracted some from the show. Lola was amazing, as he should be. He stole every single scene he was in. The rest was more or less forgettable. But it was fun to go out.

We went out a couple of more times, mostly to get food. We're trying to work our way through the pantry right now and now buy too much stuff that will be difficult to move. It's maybe a little premature for that, since we aren't moving until the 22nd. Last week I had bought food to cook and then we were forced to go out because someone wanted to see the house, though. So it seemed prudent.

We also went to see Finding Dory, which I thought was fine. It's not my favorite Pixar movie, but it was fun.

Other than that, I read three books and we watched half a season of Elementary. I also caught up on sleep. The more relaxed I got, the easier it was to sleep in. By Monday morning I actually achieved a solid 8 hours. I got to start the week rejuvenated instead of slightly less exhausted.

We don't have that many more lazy weekends in our future, so I was happy to take full advantage of this one. Before we know it, the kid's gonna be here, demanding every waking minute and most of my sleeping ones, too.

Vegas Woooo!

Several years ago, a high school friend of mine posted pictures of herself and her husband in Las Vegas on their babymoon. What on earth does a pregnant person do in Vegas? I wondered. Of course, this was also right around the time I swore off all future trips to Vegas. They were always full of hot weather, loud clubs, and entirely too much alcohol. It wasn't fun for me anymore, but I didn't understand that there was a different way to experience Las Vegas.

Fast forward and here I am, five months pregnant enjoying a relaxing, extended weekend in Ls Vegas with fun shows, excellent food, and good friends. Not to mention plenty of sleep. At least, I would have gotten plenty of sleep if I weren't 5 months pregnant and waking up to pee every 3 hours.

Kevin went out to Vegas on Tuesday for a work conference. Danielle, Eric, and I joined him on Friday for a much-needed vacation. And a much-needed reunion; it had been over a year and a half since we'd seen Danielle and Eric at this point. Getting together with them was the whole reason for the trip. Then it turned out that my dad was also in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker, so we were able to spend some time with him, too.

We stayed at the Palazzo, which is on the north end of the strip and connected to the Venetian with a mall. It meant that we didn't really have to go outside to get food or drinks, which was nice considering the oppressive desert heat.

On Saturday night, I had my pre-planned night of debauchery, which takes on a very different meaning at this stage in life. We went to Delmonico's for dinner, where I had a single glass of wine with my medium-rare filet. I know I'm supposed to be getting all my meat well-done, but if I'm going to pay $60 for a steak, I'm not turning it into leather. I was proud of myself for making the single glass last nearly an hour, especially since it was a rather stingy pour (our water got 8 glasses out of a single bottle). Then I had a sip of Kevin's port with my chocolate cake and followed it up with a cup of coffee in the hopes that I'd stay awake.

After dinner we went to a 9:30 performance of Ka, which was fantastic. It's an amazingly vertical show, with a stage that moves up and down and rotates on all three axes. The show was spectacular. Alas, it wasn't spectacular enough to keep me awake. Despite my carefully planned coffee, I slept through the final battle. I would have slept right through the end if not for a fireworks display during the finale.

We spent the next day hanging out with my dad while Danielle and Eric celebrated their engagement anniversary. We got to see the World Series of Poker, which was amazing. There were several ballrooms in the convention center filled with tables. Then we wandered along the strip and watched most of the Nationals game and all of the final hockey game. At that point the heat combined with a cold I caught on the plane to knock me out. Kevin and I went back to the room where I fell asleep. Then Kevin went out gambling and won almost $600 in half an hour, nicely recouping our earlier losses (I went through $100 alarmingly quickly at a cash game earlier). He decided to stop then, which meant that we ended the trip in the red, gambling-wise.

We also used our relative sobriety this trip to allow us to get up to Fremont Street for some people watching and the incredible light show. Kevin had attended a seminar about the technology behind the light display over Fremont Street, and I thought that knowledge made the show a lot cooler. After the sun set we went back to the Palazzo where Kevin and Danielle tracked down some absinthe while Eric and I ate dessert.

Around this we spent a bunch of time lounging by the pool (before the sun crested the hotel and took away our shade), playing games, and drinking cheap champagne. It was a fantastic trip with just the right balance or relaxation and doing stuff. At this point I'm eager to go back to Las Vegas, though it'll probably be several more years since I can't imagine taking kids there. But that's what grandparents are for, right?

Where Does the Time Go?

I looked at the calendar today and realized that May is more than half over. And I haven't updated these blogs in going on a month. Which is unusual. I can't even plead exhaustion this time around. Or being too busy. Though I have been busy. But I've also been balancing that pretty well with down time. It seems like life is about to get crazy, though.

Before I get into that, I should back up and record all the things I've skipped over.

My trip to New York City was a lot of fun, even though Kevin had to miss it. It was nice to see the friends who live there and to catch with some people I haven't seen in nearly five years. I also enjoyed getting to spend some time wandering around the city by myself.

When I arrived, I walked from Penn Station to Union Square, stopping for lunch on the way. I was able to explore the enormous Barnes and Noble - I wish we had a book store that big in DC. And I spent some time reading and looking for public restrooms. Then I went over to the 9/11 memorial before meeting up with my friends.

The 9/11 memorial is really astonishing. I didn't know anything in Manhattan could take up that much space, but there are 8 acres devoted to the memorial and museum. There are two fountains where the buildings originally stood, each of them a full acre. Standing next to them was breathtaking and sad. The designers did a really good job, and I'd like to go back after the trees have grown up a bit more.

That evening we got dinner down in Brooklyn, and, thanks to a computer error, didn't have to pay for any of the beer we drank. (Well, any of the beer my friends drank.) The next day we had a delicious brunch, then Autumn and I went to see Hamilton before joining back up with everyone for a birthday party in Brooklyn. Then I had Sunday mostly to myself again before catching my bus back to DC.

All in all it was a surprisingly relaxing weekend. It was fun to see everyone and to balance that with time in bookstores and cafes. The bus was not fun, and I won't be going on another long bus trip until I'm no longer pregnant. But I survived it and even made it home at a reasonable time.

After that, life got a little bit non-stop. We had our all-hands meeting at work, combined with several new employees, one of whom I was in charge of training. I spent a weekend cleaning my poor, neglected house and running all manner of errands. I had dinner with my mother in law and went to a friend's house warming party. And before I knew it, Kevin was home. It still seems like we've barely had a minute to ourselves, since life is just refusing to let up. But at least he's home.

Team Chaos and the Murder Basement

Oh my god, it has been so long since I've written. I'm something like a month behind on this blog. I plead writer's block. I can't remember the last time it hit me so hard. Especially when I have things I want to talk about. But every time I sat down to write about this, I got completely stuck. Not one word would come out.

So journey with me, back to President's Day Weekend. We were still stuck in the grip of winter. That was probably the coldest weekend of the entire season this year. But we hadn't known it would be like that when we got a group of friends together to rent a house in Vermont for a ski weekend. I spent the entire time playing games in front of a roaring fire instead of skiing, but some people did brave the elements. Regardless, it ended up being a really fun weekend with lots of friends.

We were able to find a house that slept all fourteen of us near Ludlow, VT, pretty close to the Killington Ski Resort. But when you're trying to balance a group that large with a reasonable budget, you have to sacrifice other things, like a feeling of security. This house was basically a cabin in the woods, and there was some fear that we were all going to be murdered by an axe-wielding, mask-wearing villain. Especially when we saw the basement.

I say that, but the truth is that most of us only saw the dark staircase leading to the basement and decided to go no farther. It wasn't until the hot tub refused to heat up on the second night that a search for the circuit breaker led one of our members into the basement. I'm happy to report that he emerged unscathed, but with harrowing tales of loose wires and standing water. The breaker we needed ended up not being down there.

Other than that misadventure, which did eventually result in a working hot tub, no one came close to danger. A group of people went skiing on Saturday (when the high was 7*F) and snowshoeing on Sunday (I think it was marginally warmer). But as I said, I stayed inside, only venturing out for food and firewood. We had a great variety of games, though with fourteen people it's hard to include everyone all the time. Which led to some people interacting with the games from the outside with the goal of increasing chaos. It was a great use of everyone's talents.

I'm looking forward to getting together with this group again. Which, since it took me so long to write this post, is going to happen very soon! The weather should be nicer this time around.

Med Cruise: Olympia

Our final stop on the cruise was a small resort town in Greece called Katakolon (or Katakolo, as I've since seen it spelled. I still can't pronounce it). Once again we signed up for an official excursion, this time to see the ruins at Olympia.

We boarded our bus for the 30 minute drive to the archaeological site and museum. The scenery along the drive proved more depressing than anything. Thanks to the depression in Greece there were more closed store-fronts than open ones (on a Thursday morning). Most of what we drove past looked abandoned. And then there was the garbage. Our tour guide told us that the garbage collectors had been on strike for four months. The result of which was piles of garbage everywhere you looked.

The museum, being a museum, was better maintained. It was a lot of fun walking around the site and looking at all the ruins. Even if I couldn't understand most of what our guide was saying. The whole place was a bit like a college campus, with dorms, the restaurant, and the gym. It was fun to learn about the early history of the Olympics, and to at least see the site where one of the seven wonders used to be. The statue of Zeus has long-since been destroyed.

We also got to go to a museum that housed most of the statues and artifacts that had been dug up on site. I essentially abandoned our group at this point in favor of looking at things on my own. And also because the echoy feedback on my radio was giving me a headache.

After the museum we were given a whopping 30 minutes in the city of Olympia which was almost enough time to order and drink a beer. I had to abandon the food I'd ordered, though. Then it was back to the ship, where we arrived not too long before departure. Kevin had wanted to check out the beach in Katakolon, but there wasn't enough time. The excursion filled our window entirely.

As cool as Olympia was, this was easily my least favorite port. Between a sub-par tour guide, a lack of free time, and the depressing background of Greece, it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

Med Cruise: Santorini

Santorini is a gorgeous island off the coast of Greece. It's a volcano, and I believe that it's still active. But it's clearly past it's prime. In fact, it's the volcano that some people believe is responsible for the sinking of Atlantis. So it's old.

The island that people live on is essentially a large crescent, with high cliffs. The cruise ships stop between these cliffs and the crater. We had to get on a smaller boat that took us to the docks. Then it was up the cable car to the actual town of Fira, which has lots of hotels and restaurants and shops. The shops are open whenever there's a cruise ship around and closed whenever there isn't, which tells you all you need to know about the economy.

We didn't have a ton of time in Santorini because we slept late on the day we visited. We had opted not to do an excursion for this one, and that may have been a mistake. It would have been fun to visit the volcano or see the other towns. As it was, we spent some time wandering around, shopped a bit, and got drinks and calamari at a cafe before heading back to the ship. Hardly a bad day.

The main excitement came from ascending and descending the cliffs. We decided to take the cable car up because it was easier. Though waiting on the stairs for it to arrive left me feeling dizzy. The steps were steep and I was accustomed to being on the boat, so I spent most of the wait half-convinced that I was gonna topple down the stairs. Kevin didn't help. But once we got in the gondola I was fine.

We had enough time at the end of the day that we decided to walk down. There are also donkeys that you can ride up or down the paths, but everyone told us not to do that. It seems that there was some sort of incident recently, possibly involving a death. Avoiding the donkeys was fine by me. Or it would have been, had it been possible.

The path down was a series of gently descending switchbacks. And every so often a train of donkeys would pass you either coming or going. The trail was wide enough for everyone, but the donkeys wandered all over the place. Twice I ended up pressed against a wall with a donkey coming straight at me and the guide telling me not to move. Both times the donkey swerved away from me at the last second, but it was still terrifying. I can only imagine how much scarier it would be to actually ride one. No one looked like they had good grips or proper seats.

Still the day was fun, and Santorini is gorgeous. Extremely picturesque. It's like something out of a fantasy novel with all the bright white buildings clinging to the cliff sides. I didn't get any pictures, because I was too busy admiring the view, but you should definitely google some.

Med Cruise: Ephesus

The Ephesus tour was one of the official excursions we signed up for on the cruise. Ephesus is about a 30-minute drive from the town we docked in (Kusadasi, which is basically a resort town dependent entirely on tourism), and it was easier to go through Royal Caribbean than try to figure out how to get there on our own. The paid excursion ended up being a pretty great deal.

Royal Caribbean is amazingly efficient at breaking up these huge excursion groups. They assign everyone a number on check-in and that becomes your bus/group for the day. Groups leave almost as soon as they fill up, so everything ends up nicely staggered. The tour included some maps and brochures, a little trinket, and a bottle of water. And we had a great tour guide.

Ephesus itself was amazing. And while part of me wishes we'd had a bit more freedom to explore and read the signs on our own, our guide had a lot of good information. We got to see the library and an old public restroom (all the toilet seats carved along a u-shaped bench, so you were probably bumping knees with your neighbor). We weren't able to go up in the theater or a few other places that we saw people exploring. But we saw the major stuff, and made good time getting through the ruins.

After the ruins we bused over to a museum-type-thing. There was a gift store and a food court and a space where we watched a brief (staged) gladiator fight. The whole thing was possibly the silliest part of the entire trip. But there were bathrooms and I got some kabob, so it was all good.

Then we got to see a rug-making demonstration. They showed us how silk gets harvested from silkworms, then gathered and dyed. Then we got to see a woman working on a silk rug, the kind that takes 2-3 years to make. After that we were given refreshments (raki, which tastes like licorice and is not that different from Greek ouzo) and the sales pitch began. We saw about 100 carpets rolled out on the floor in front of us, demonstrating different materials, dyes, patterns, and techniques. Kevin and I escaped before the sales pitch began in earnest, but it was amazing to see all the different carpets. I'd love to buy one someday (and after seeing the process of making them, I'd gladly pay thousands of dollars), but we have nowhere to put one in our current house. Maybe the next one.

We spent some time wandering through the bazaar, and I bought a really cool serving bowl. But I hate how pushy all of the sales people are. As soon as you stop to look at something, they're on top of you, offering to cut the price and trying to convince you to buy from them. It made me walk away more often than not. I liked having a few minutes to make up my mind.

All in all we had a fantastic fay in Turkey. The excursion was well worth it, and I'm glad we had such a great tour guide. We probably could have stayed out longer, but between the heat and the pushy sales-people, I was eager to get back on the boat.

Med Cruise: Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik was the city I was most excited to visit on this trip. It's the whole reason we chose the itinerary we did. My dad's been talking about this city (and Croatia in general) for years, so I knew I needed to visit eventually. We weren't able to get a ton of time in the city, but the time we did have was very nice.

There was a $12 shuttle from the boat to the old city. It ran continuously throughout the day, so we could have gone back and forth if we wanted to. But that's ultimately a little silly when you only have a handful of hours to explore. The ride over was pretty, through a very hilly community that reminded me of Pittsburgh. Though that comparison was at the top of my mind thank to my grandmother, who told me that the family settled in Pittsburgh because it reminded them so strongly of the home land.

Dubrovnik itself (well, the walled part) is surprisingly small. I suppose I shouldn't expect more from a medieval city. But it does look a lot bigger when it's pretending to be Kings Landing on Game of Thrones. There were basically three main streets running from the gate in the direction of the harbor. There were crossed by a wealth of alleys filled with cafes. There were also souvenir shops and cats everywhere.

We wandered down to the harbor, stopping in a few stores along the way. In one corner of the city we found the stairs up to the tower wall, and paid for tickets to go up and walk around. We walked all the way around, stopping to admire the view all the way. It was cool to see the city from up above it, there were lots of forgotten and/or private courtyards and gardens. And lots of cats running all over the place and playing with each other.

After our walk we went to one of the cafes on the water. I got a glass of wine (sold as 0.15 liter) and a plate of smoked ham (the kind you can't get in America). Kevin got a beer and some fish soup. Then it was time for souvenir shopping. And just as it began to rain we hopped back on the bus for the ship.

The visit was short but sweet. It'd be nice to go back some day and spend more time in Dubrovnik (and Croatia in general). But we made the most of the time we did have. I feel like we saw what we most wanted to.

Med Cruise: On the Boat

At noon on Saturday we picked up our bags from our hotel and walked over to the boat. The walk was a bit longer than we'd anticipated, and the check-in process was pretty lengthy. But we got on the boat just before 1, right when the staterooms opened up. So we were able to drop our stuff in the room before going up to the buffet to get lunch. Then we explored a bit before falling asleep. We napped almost until the safety drill they do before the boat leaves, the first of many naps to come.

Cruising involves a lot of sleeping and drinking. At least it does the way Kevin and I do it. We got fancy cocktails on the first day and drank a bottle of champagne we'd bought in Venice. Then we paid for the beer-and-wine package. $42/day for unlimited wine and beer. It's pricey but ultimately worth it.

We had two whole days on the boat, plus all of our evenings. We spent most of that time either sitting by the pool, drinks and books in hand, or down in the bar playing trivia. We one won round of trivia, and had varying degrees of success with the others. The worst was a name that Abba song game, that I was sure my Mamma Mia pandora station would have prepared me for admirably. But we only got 3 answers right. Oh well.

We also played min golf, and Kevin attempted to teach me both ping pong and shuffleboard. We played in two Texas-Hold 'Em tournaments. I got knocked out first in the first tournament, but it was free so I didn't feel too bad. I did a little better the second time around, and Kevin got pretty far, too. But there was one guy who won every single tournament as far as I know. He was just too skilled for us to beat.

The boat screened movies every night, but the only one we watched all the way through was Batkid Begins, which was perfectly heartwarming and made me cry a lot. We also saw bits and pieces of Ant Man (again), Inside Out, and The Sixth Sense which we were wandering around the boat in the evenings. I was hoping for some good star-gazing opportunities, too, since we were in the middle of the ocean. But the boat itself was so bright we could barely see more stars than we see from our house.

We also spent a lot of time eating. There's nearly always food available on a cruise ship. And on the last night we sprung for the fancy steakhouse, which cost an extra $30 each. It was very much worth it, though. Especially since I usually expect to pay closer to $50 for a good steak. (Though Kevin points out that we were already, theoretically paying $20/day for dinner, wrapped up in the overall cost.)

Overall, the cruise was an excellent mix of relaxation and sight-seeing (more about that in future posts). It was nice to see stuff, but it was also nice to have hours at a time with nothing planned. We slept a lot, and I came home from vacation thoroughly rested, which never seems to happen. One night I even slept for twelve hours, which I haven't done in years. It helped that we had a perfectly dark interior state-room. Although the lack of a clock was disorienting. All we had was my Fitbit, and I could never remember whether we were 6 or 7 hours ahead (we switched time zones on the ship), especially in the middle of the night. It all worked out for the best, though.

We're already talking about going on more cruises in the future. I loved this vacation so much. The boat was maybe a bit crowded at times (especially on the rainy days) and I had a hard time staying hydrated (which happens every time I go on vacation), but I had such a perfectly relaxing time that I'm eager to repeat it soon. Though next time we'll probably look for a cruise that departs from Baltimore or NYC, to save on travel time and hassle.

Med Cruise: Venice

We got off to a rocky start in Venice. The airport is about a thirty minute drive from the city. And even though we landed late, we decided to get a hotel in the city to make the next day easier. There was one bus that ran a bit after midnight that we figured we had a 50/50 chance of catching. We did make it to the stop about 15 minutes before the bus arrived, but there was only one kiosk selling tickets. A couple of befuddled men spent a solid ten minutes attempting to buy tickets while the rest of us waited impatiently in line. Consequently, they were the only ones who were able to take the bus when it arrived. We ended up splitting a taxi with another couple, which wasn't too much more expensive, when all was said and done.

There aren't many roads in Venice, so the taxi dropped us off in the Piazzale Roma, the main bus depot. Luckily (well more because we planned this halfway decently) this was only a ten minute walk to our hotel, which in turn was a ten-minute walk to the port where we'd get on the boat the next day. We found it pretty easily, only to discover that they had given away our hotel room to someone else. I half thought that this was simply because we arrived so late, at nearly one in the morning. I could understand assuming that we weren't coming. But it had more to do with a befuddled desk clerk who spent twenty minutes trying to figure out what had happened before offering us another room at a deep discount. The room itself was tiny, but it had a bed and a shower. By the time we got there, that was all I cared about.

The next morning the plan was to wander round Venice until it was time to get on the boat. We woke up early, long before anything was actually open. But it gave us a chance to see the city while it was still pretty quiet. It was fun to wander along the nearly empty streets and squares. When the city started waking up, we got some cash and found some tea and water. Then we decided to walk until we found the ocean. All in all we probably explored half of the city that morning. I got in 20,000 steps before we even got on the boat at noon.

After the cruise, we had another full day in Venice. We were smarter this time and purchased a day pass for the water-bus, Venice's public transit system. We took it down to St. Mark's Square, where we saw the sights and went inside the Basillica. All of the mosaics inside use this glittery gold tile that's really cool. It would have been amazing if the church was really lit up, but even in the low light it was fun to see the sparkles.

We decided to use our pass to ride around the city and get a sense of it. But I ended up doing more sleeping that sight-seeing. We eventually found ourselves in the northern part of the city and caught a boat over to Murano, a small island famous for its glass. We got to see a glass-blowing demonstration, which was amazing. In about five minutes the artisan we were watching made a vase and a statue of a horse. The horses were ubiquitous in the gift shops - probably because the artisan made them so quickly and so often - so we picked one up along with a couple of other souvenirs.

Then it was time for an early dinner. We found a cafe on the water, which isn't hard to do in Venice. There's a lot of water. We split a jug of wine and a plate of cured meats. Then I had a delicious spinach ravioli in gorgonzola sauce. I love a good gorgonzola sauce, and you don't see them that often, so I jumped at the chance. Our meal was somewhat plagued by pigeons and seagulls who were bold enough to peck for scraps around our table.

I'm glad we had the second day in Venice once we'd oriented ourselves and figured it out a bit. It was nice to wander around and see the sights. Although, to be honest, Venice resembles nothing so much as a massive outdoor mall. Every street we went down was packed with cafes and gift shops. The city clearly relies on tourism for much of its economy, and parts of it look very run-down. Then again, this is probably true of many cities.

Let's Do the Time Warp

There comes a point, when you are traveling a quarter of the way around the world, that you just give up trying to figure out what time it is. Your Fitbit says 10, that clock says 5. You just woke up, but now the sun is setting. A beer seems like the most reasonable solution, although you quickly discover that you are no longer as adept at combining alcohol with sleep deprivation as you were in college. When's the next flight? Do we even have a gate yet?

Kevin and I flew to Venice via Istanbul. The first leg of the journey was a red-eye with two free meals, unlimited free alcohol, and a staggering amount of free television and movies. I watched Book of Life during dinner and Mad Max during breakfast. Between the two I watched a few episodes of the ill-fated A to Z because the mother was in it and a sitcom seemed like an appropriate thing to drift off to. I think I slept for two or three hours. Kevin slept for less. We arrived in Istanbul for our five-hour layover bedraggled and scrambled.

The Istanbul airport is enormous, although it did not seem that way at first. Off the plane we were ushered into a fairly small, overly bright, incredibly dingy waiting area with only one bathroom. Half the stalls were backed up, there was a distinct lack of toilet paper, and even the line for the men's room snaked out into the lobby. We made the best of it then decided to go in search of a better bathroom, which we thankfully found.

Once there I managed to make myself feel somewhat more human. I'd had enough foresight to pack some dry shampoo, deodorant, exfoliant, a toothbrush, and toothpaste in my carry on. It was actually a decent substitute for a full shower, especially since I was just going to get on another plane soon. Then we wandered around the enormous mall inside the international terminal in the Istanbul airport and found a place to get a beer.

We went in search of our gate much too early. Five hours is an incredibly long layover time. But we did eventually make it on to the next plane. They served us dinner again, which I ate even though I couldn't decide whether or not I was hungry. The second flight was just long enough for them to screen Ant Man, which I watched while listening to the Hamilton soundtrack on my tablet. They didn't really mesh, but I can tell you that the movie looks pretty ridiculous.

Flying home was the same thing in reverse, with a shorter layover, and day and night reversed. On the way to Venice the sun was up about 4 hours that I knew of. On the way home it rose as we were boarding the first flight and didn't set after we'd gotten our bags in Dulles. My point is that trans-continental travel is not so different from time-travel. Everything all goes to hell, and you just have to hope you can readjust to the new clock quickly enough to get back to life.

By the time I fell into my bed, I'd been awake for a solid 22 hours (not quite the 24 I'd initially calculated, but you try doing math on no sleep). The good news is that my jet lag affected me only enough that I was an hour early for work the next morning. And then I was right back on my normal schedule. Turns out my dad was right: flying west is much easier.

I'll talk catalog the rest of our vacation in the coming entries. You know, the parts you probably actually care about. But the actual act of traveling is just so surreal, I had to write about it. It's so cool to think about how small the world has gotten, that we can make the trip from DC to Venice in less than a day, even when you account for time changes (we took off at 11:30 pm DC time and landed at 11:20 pm Venice time). And it's astounding the things we put up with to do this. The searches and tiny seats and smelly bathrooms and complete lack of personal space. There have been some new horrendous plans put forward recently for mashing more people on an airbus. Perhaps you've seen the honeycomb seating and the two-level ones. Personally, I'm hoping that they just start stacking us in cubbies that we'd at least be able to lie down in, a la The Fifth Element.

Things That Will Happen When You Visit NYC

You'll download this Uber thing that everyone has been talking about to use but discover that you are too drunk to figure it out

You'll go out to a nice dinner and order the second cheapest bottle of wine on the menu, which costs more than that most expensive bottle at restaurants you usually frequent

The next day you'll discover a bar where you drink steadily for 5 hours for a mere $35. This seems like a fair trade.

You'll spend a lot of time looking at pictures of the kids of people you went to school with and wonder how many people you graduated with have procreated by now. You'll spend even more time looking at pictures from college and immediately after.

You'll spend half an hour waiting for a brunch table for a party of four. And another half an hour waiting for your food.

Somehow, you'll still think you'll be able to find a brunch place that can easily accommodate ten people the next morning.

You'll wander wistfully through the enormous Barnes and Noble at Union Square, wishing your own city had a bookstore this big.

You'll discover shakshuka and fall in love and look up a recipe and realize that it's actually easy to make.

You will be sitting on the subway, minding your own business, wondering if you're awake and sober enough to concentrate on your book when a couple of guys will burst in, take off their shirts, and start pole dancing. You're still not sure if it was entertaining or annoying.

You'll spend the entire weekend feeling like you're just on the verge of figuring out the subway system. But then another station will be closed for weekend work and you'll be forced to walk the entire length of Times Square, cursing your lack of local knowledge.

You will, however, have left 45 minutes early for brunch in case that happened.

You will have the most delicious steak you've had in a long time, along with the most delicious spinach you've had in probably your entire life, and you'll spend the next hour with a mystery stomachache wondering what the hell caused it. (Probably the roasted garlic, since it's the only thing you ate that your husband didn't.)

You'll discover that it's possible to live in NYC for several months without ever visiting the grocery store or opening your own fridge. You will be vaguely horrified.

You will have many, many conversations with many old, dear friends about everything under the sun and remember why you love them all and how glad you are that more of them are moving to the east coast each year.