More: A Picture Speaks A Thousand Words

Lily had NO idea that Briana was coming.  I almost blew the surprise (after the entire trip) because I was so excited.)  Lily thought it was room service.



This is right before we loaded all of our stuff into the RV to take off.  HEARTBREAKING!



Robin, I LOVE YOU!!!



1. Briana spent every night with Lily on the pull-out couch.  The true testimony of a friend...




I figure I better put at least one picture of a cultural icon.  Unfortunately I have no idea who this is...



New Orleans

Did you know that alligator eggs sell for between $4 and $28 a piece?  This year they sold for $12 a piece.  Alligators have between 45-60 eggs per cycle, and if they’re larger gators they can have up to 80-90 eggs.  If you hold an egg up to the light and there’s a stripe in the shell, it means it’s been fertilized.  If one egg has been fertilized, all eggs in that batch have been fertilized.  Any egg over 88 degrees (don’t ask me how they take the temperature) will be a boy and any egg under 85 degrees will be a girl and the in between degrees are anyone’s guess.  Alligators are color blind and have an affinity for white because when baby white herons are learning to fly, many of them fall from the nest into the swamp and the alligators eat them, so they equate white with food.  Mistletoe grows rampant in the swamps of Louisiana, but they are a parasite plant and will suck all of the nutrients from their host tree and kill it.  “Bed bugs” came from the time when mattresses would be stuffed with moss, which carried bugs.  At that time a mattress would have one strip of binding, and if you wanted a firmer mattress you would pull the binding tighter.  If a guest was wearing out his/her welcome, you simply had to go into their room and tighten their mattress binding to the point of being rock hard and the message was sent.  At the same time, people in the south would put a pineapple (which is a sign of welcome that is seen carved into many pieces of furniture) in their guest’s room, and if the pineapple started to brown, the guest knew it was time to leave!  

These are just some of the things I learned on the swamp tour we took while we were in New Orleans.  After a bit of an intense start (the guide told us about water moccasins and how poisonous they  are and that they’ll sometimes fall from trees etc..  by the time he was through one woman was crying she was so frightened and Briana and Lily were glued together and covered in Cork and my jackets…) we spent an hour and a half air boating down canals and into the murky undergrowth of a huge swamp owned by Judge Eddie Dupayne.  Although alligators have pretty much moved to the back of the swamp to begin hibernating, we did see a few babies and some wonderful birds and I was happy to trade the sighting of a “gator” for no snakes falling from trees and scaring the bejesus out of us. 

New Orleans was incredible.  As a surprise for Lily, my friend Robin and her daughter Briana, one of Lily’s best friends, met us in New Orleans.  They stayed in the same hotel as we did and even managed to get the room next door.  Lily had NO IDEA they were coming, and the moment when she opened the door and saw Briana was something I wish I could have recorded.  We spent the next 2 ½ days walking, eating, listening to music.  It has been my favorite city so far.  One of the things I liked to do the most was just get on the trolley which runs down the middle of these boulevards and is old with wooden seats and these great big windows that you can open all the way up, and ride and look.  The Garden District reminds me a lot of Lake Drive in Milwaukee, and the campuses of Tulane and Loyola are gorgeous.  I’d go back in a heartbeat (except in the summer… hot hot hot hot.)  The timing was perfect because there weren’t very many tourists … yet.  Today marks the beginning of the VooDoo Festival, and by last night the crowds were gathering.  Frenchmen Street, Bourbon Street, Decatur Street, Esplanade, just to name a few streets that we walked down.  The girls got their fair share of bright lights and tight tights, and luckily are young enough to not really get the seedy side of things.  They just thought it was funny!

We arrived in New Orleans on Tuesday and were lucky to check-in early.  Once again, thanks to my mom, we had a spacious one-bedroom suite in the Garden District, right on St. Charles Avenue.  Everyone was nice, if a bit laid back, and the weather was perfect.  One day we got a bit lost looking for a museum and ended up walking for about 5 miles and seeing things we would never have been able to see intentionally.  After going back to the hotel and cooling off, we jumped in a cab and went to Frenchmen Street on the recommendation of Reid Johnston (THANK YOU REID!!!) and had dinner at a place called Three Muses.  There was a great blues trio named The Blues Gang, and we ate and drank and listened to music with mostly locals.  Then we did the slow walk down Bourbon Street and caught the trolley back to our place.   On the last night there the girls wanted to be left alone, so after getting them settled Cork and Robin and I walked down the block to Houston’s.  It wasn’t our first choice because we equated it with the Houston’s in SF, total steakhouse men’s-man type of place.  Instead it had the feeling of a supper club with a great jazz trio and great food, including one of the best soups I’ve ever had.  The soup was called Mexico City and it was a clear broth from the liquids the chicken was cooked in with corn and pieces of chicken, fresh avocado pieces and cilantro, and then a mound of tomato dirty rice in the center.  The idea was to take a bite of the rice and have that pick up the other ingredients on the way out of the bowl. OMG it was great.  Oh, yeah, the hot fudge sundae wasn’t bad either (read really, really good)  and it came with an extra little gravy boat of fudge on the side!

Mobile, Alabama

One of my most durable memories is when I was in 3^rd grade and we lived in a house a block from the lake in Shorewood, Wisconsin.  As with all lakes, there were lots and lots of seagulls.  At some point right around then a number of things happened:  Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds came out on TV and my parents went out of town leaving us with a babysitter and specific instructions NOT to watch The Birds, or at least the younger kids shouldn’t.  Well, of course we disobeyed their request and decided to watch it.  (Where the hell was the babysitter???)  Anyway, after the scene where they found the bald guy pecked to death behind a door, my older brothers made me take the garbage out.  Terrified I went out to the back yard at the exact same time a flock of seagulls flew over the yard.  My brothers locked the back door and through the window started screaming “The birds!  The birds!”  and I totally freaked out… at least that’s how I remember it.  That memory comes back to me now as we cross over a waterway into Mobile, Alabama.  Despite being terrorized as a child, one of my absolute favorite visuals is when a flock of birds take off.  I love how they’ll take off as a unified object and then break apart into little pieces.  I particularly love the smaller birds who take off in a flurry as if startled by something and then fall into smooth choreography.  Today I’m watching these birds, I have no idea what they are, but they’re all silvery and lazy, like maybe they’re floating on a wind current, only there’s not much wind out there.  They remind me of when a piece of burning paper has just reached the ash stage where it breaks apart and flutters.  It’s really, really beautiful.  Which is good, because Cork has already begun rewriting history in his rationalization of why we have and have not done things on this trip and it’s making me want to pluck my eyeballs out.  He’s trying to reduce everything we haven’t done down to time constraints, but it ain’t so!!! 

Disney Pics

Cork, Amy, Marcel



Amy and Marcel




Frances, Alison, and Andrea poolside




Alison and Frances



Birthday Bash



How many candles?



Disney Parade

10/21-10/25 MICKY-ING AROUND

Guilty Pleasures

Chicago was not nicknamed the Windy City because of a weather pattern, but because Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun grew tired of hearing Chicagoans boast about the Columbian Exposition- the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.  Just one of the many facts from an amazing book that our friend Ann Brinkley gave us, called Our Fifty States. 

Anyway, I have a few guilty pleasures on this trip.  One is MUNCH bars.  OMG, they are these peanuty goodness candy bars.  I only let myself have one every week or so, but when I do, WOOHOO!!!  Another is my Kindle.  I’m a big, big reader.  I’ve always loved to read, whether it’s a magazine or a newspaper or a book, and I want to hold the thing.  I want to feel the paper, whether glossy or matte. I want to smell the ink, fold the corner of the page (I know, I know, bad…)  The thought of using a handheld device for reading always felt like betrayal.  However, when Cork told me I could only bring a few books on the trip because of the storage problem, I caved and bought a Kindle.  Actually, I bought a Nook that some whizkid took and turned it into something like a Droid Tablet.  I can get email or Google things, but most importantly I can read outside or inside or at night… I can download the most recent best sellers or the .99 buys.  It’s GREAT!!  (Unfortunately, my Nook/Kindle has died.  We’re thinking it’s only a power cord, but making a detour to find a Barnes and Noble is not high on the priority list.  I miss it!!!)  Anyway, one of the interesting things about this trip is it really has pared down what things truly bring me pleasure and what things I could live without.  I could live without coffee, but a Coffee Nips (those coffee flavored hard candies) once in a while really rock my world.  There are a few things, though, that I continue to hang on to this picture of, forcing my family to try time and time again in the hopes that the picture will be realized.  One is roadside diners. 

I have this great American Dream picture, probably from reading, that every roadside diner is a 4 star restaurant in disguise.  The reality is that on 99% of this trip that has been just that, a picture.  We have had countless fried wonders and barely identifiable meals.  What makes me think that if someone was truly a wonderful cook they’d be out in the middle of nowhere serving people without teeth?  Perhaps the one thing I keep trying for (hopefully I’m done!) in hopes of perfection is hollandaise.  My mom used to make the best hollandaise on the planet, so I know what it should taste like.  Light, lemony, creamy.  It’s totally bad for you, which is why I only have it maybe twice a year.  Anyway, my thought process goes something like this: Why would someone have hollandaise on the menu if it isn’t homemade?  I mean, why serve it?  It’s not that hard to make.”  So every time we’re at one of these diners and they have hollandaise on the menu, I fall for it.  And every single time, without fail, the hollandaise is this disgusting Knorr’s stuff that looks and feels like snot and is devoid of flavor.  And guess what?  I’ve now ordered a meal with hollandaise at least 6 times!  I think I’m finally through…

We left Orlando yesterday on our way to New Orleans.  In Orlando I was mother, wife, sister.  In Orlando Lily was daughter, half-sister, aunt, niece.  In Orlando Cork was father, husband, grandfather, brother-in-law.  It was crazy!  Part of this trip was planned because my sister, Frances, turns 50 on the 26^th of October and my older sister, Alison, was taking her to Disney World and then on a cruise to the Grand Bahamas.  Cork’s son, Marcel, and his grandsons, Max (20) and Montana (14) live in Orlando and Marcel and his wife Amy (hi Marcel and Amy!!!) work for Disney.  Lily had never met Montana, and none of us had met Amy, so it made sense to make Orlando a destination.  Orlando isn’t really my style.  I’m just not a crowd/traffic/chain restaurant person.  That being said, thanks to my mom (thanks mom!!!) we landed in a spacious two-bedroom resort about a mile from Animal Kingdom, the place Fran really, really wanted to go, and thanks to Amy and Marcel, we were treated to passes to Disney World, including fast passes (which allow you to skip to the front of the line for the rides.)

On Saturday Alison, Frances, Lily, Montana and I went to Animal Kingdom.  Montana was the ultimate guide.  He knew all the shortcuts and how to get around and the best places to eat etc…  We had a blast and I think Frances really felt special.  Lily and Montana got to take off on their own every so often, which for Lily was GREAT! 

Orlando didn’t come without its stress, though.  Before Lily was born my older sister and Cork had a falling out which has never been completely resolved.  I won’t go into what it was about, but there’s definitely stuff there which makes it uncomfortable if not impossible for them to be in the same room together.  That makes it really hard on me.  I spend a lot of energy figuring out ways to keep everyone happy and separate, and I always feel like I’m letting someone down.  I think I managed it fairly well on this trip, but it makes me sad.  The real tragedy is I think Alison and Cork would actually enjoy each other…  The three sisters had a really nice time though.  I’m not sure I would have wanted to go on the cruise, but I would have LOVED to have spent a few days on an island reading… (now that my Kindle died I’m not reading as much ‘cuz the light will keep Lily and Cork awake at night… boo hoo)   I love my sisters!!!

Anyway, we had  2+ days of totally spacious living and hospitality and since there were no convenient RV parks, we’re now in a Hampton Inn on our way east.  Cork and I were both sad when we realized that this turn to the east marked the beginning of our return home.  Our reluctance to begin the end is only balanced by Lily’s total excitement.  Her excitement is actually pretty irritating since I feel as if she’s spent a good portion of the trip bitching about going home and has missed much of the wonder that the trip has held, but that’s for another writing (one that’s been festering for a while) so beware! 

(So Lily is my daughter, Marcel’s half-sister, Alison and Fran’s niece and Max and Montana’s aunt… I know there’s a riddle in there somewhere…)

(More pictures later...)



Aunt Lily and Montana



Montana, Lily, Alison, Frances

10/19/2011 Signs, Lines, and Random Pictures

Stuck Here On Purpose

Instant Gratification Isn’t Fast Enough For Me

For Italians, life is what happens in between meals

Eternity, Smoking or Non-Smoking?

I’m not big on telling anyone what they should do in their lives, but I will say… traveling around the United States has allowed us to realize where we’d like to spend more time.  For anyone wanting a really amazing getaway that’s in the US, Kitty Hawk, or somewhere on the Outer Banks, is AMAZING!  Kitty Hawk is definitely more blue collar than other spots, which suited us fine.  Old houses on stilts in the sand mixed in with new monstrosities.  Funky old restaurants serving seafood and Asian fusion food, Pelicans and dolphins and Least Pipers, and best of all for those of us from Northern California, water warm enough for us to get in!  (Although I was a total chicken about swimming.  I’m used to undertows and riptides and danger signs.  At the slightest pull of a wave I thought I was gone for good, so it took me a while to inch my way in…)

So, it’s Wednesday morning the 19^th, and it’s still raining.  Darn, just when the webbed feet were returning to normal.  And it’s raining HARD.  We’d planned a slow drive from the outer banks down to Orlando with long stops in Charleston and Savannah, but if this rain keeps up we’ll probably just drive.  It’s way too difficult to navigate this thing in congested towns when it’s raining.  It will be a little disappointing since New Bern was the original state capitol and is supposed to have some beautiful architecture and gardens etc… AND we were going to go stop at a coffee shop because, of course, my computer can’t deal with the internet here.  And by the way, what the heck?  I’m sure there’s some universal message I’m supposed to get about no expectations, but it does start to feel personal.  Who knows how many more descriptions of campsites and weather I’d write about if I could do it in the moment rather than having to wait for days?  Haha.  But seriously, it does take a lot of the fun out of it not to be able to post in the moment. 



Lily studying while we drive




Skyping with Olivia




Lily and Cork at our site in South Carolina




Our site in South Carolina



Provincetown

Provincetown

Here Kitty Kitty

Imagine this.  You’ve been wandering for days, searching for something, not quite sure what.  Hours of driving, good humor slowly dwindling to civility.  Weeks of adventure and looking forward start to feel stale and talk of calling it quits start to happen more often (at least for one or two people, names withheld….) and then on a whim you decide to drive to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  Another weird spit of land, or string of land to be more accurate, surrounded by water.  You arrive at your RV park, something out of a David Lynch movie, but nicer, wedged between the old highway and the new, 150 yards total.  All sand, no credit cards, cash only, please.  No laundry or showers or internet.  You stop at the STOP sign and call the number provided.  Ten minutes or so later a Jimmy Buffet character comes along in his golf cart with his dog, Daisy, next to him.  He guides us to this small slice of sand in between a couple mongo RVs, tells us to stop by the office tomorrow to pay, waves and takes off.  We set up and slowly walk past the 30 or so RVs already parked, many of them actually planted,  to the end of the site, maybe 80 yards away, wait for the one or two cars driving slowly across the old highway and walk onto the beach.  Miles and miles of beach.  Not Pacific coast crazy waves crashing beach, but slowly lapping Atlantic coast beach.  Because it’s off season there are only a hundred or so people and a few dogs on the beach.  The three of us look at each other and breathe and smile and leave our shoes in a pile on the beach and begin to walk….  Right now we’re slowly getting ready to walk about 300 yards down the beach to a place called The Black Pelican for dinner.  We could cook, but sometimes it just feels right to be out.  We’ve already talked to the office and extended our stay for another night or two.  Our bikes are unpacked and ready to go.  We like (yeah, yeah, probably love) each other again.  Life is good.

We’ve already decided we’re going to spend a couple of days here.  Of course the only coffee shop around with WIFI will only let you use a battery operated computer, and my old thing has to be plugged in at all times, so I’m going to be blogless for a couple of days…

Yesterday we spent ALL DAY at the beach… It was FANTASTIC!!!  For the first time since Lily was born I actually put on a bathing suit and didn’t care!!!  We started the day by riding bikes and then set up our beach chairs in the sand and just hung out.  We walked and collected shells and got in the water.  As the day progressed it got pretty hot, so I moved my chair into the water and sat and read with the waves rushing over my feet… for hours … I’m reading this book my mom’s been passing around called Cutting for Stone.  I’ve just started it and it’s already pulled me in.  The only times in my life when I become totally unavailable to my family is when I’m reading a really good book.  Good thing we’re on vacation… Unfortunately Cork didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Lily and I.  When it gets hot, Cork gets, well, nasty and infantile.  We kind of have an unspoken deal on this trip that if anyone is miserable because of where we are, then we move on.  By the end of the day I/we realized that if Cork was going to spend most of the next day inside with the air conditioner on and still miserable, then we should go.  So today after running a few errands and having a little beach time, Lily and I reluctantly said goodbye to the beach. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, our family is different, and in many ways better, when we’re on a beach.  (Except for Cork when it’s hot…)  Lily recognized that this time, too.  When we arrived at our current campsite in New Bern, NC, beautiful site along the river where we were immediately driven inside by the mosquitoes,  it started to rain. Lily cried in frustration over leaving a place that engaged her and being in a place that didn’t.  She said it was the same feeling as us pulling her out of San Francisco to go on this stupid trip to begin with, and she missed her friends and her dancing and her animals.  I could absolutely feel her pain… ouch…



Ahhhh....



Beaching it



Just a bridge from a car



Heading South

10/10/2011

We’ve learned that taking the scenic route is just another way to say we’re lost.  It hasn’t happened often on this trip, mostly because we usually don’t know where we’re going so how can we get lost, but yesterday was wild.  We woke up in Mystic heading for Cape Cod and Lily announced that she was craving Thai food.  Our immediate response was great, but it’s not going to happen for a while.  After all, we’re heading into the heart of coastal seafood country and the last thing we’re going to do is have Thai food.  Well, off we went to discover amazing coastal shacks serving fresh seafood.  NOT.  After two hours of driving beautiful roads (but a bit treacherous in the RV) and only finding a couple of places, both closed for the season, we gave up and decided to head in to the first town we found.  As we head into a little place called Wakefield, there in front of us is, yes, wait for it, a Thai restaurant.  Amazing what you can get if you just ask for it.

10/13/2011

This is totally messed up.  We get to our hotel room and Lily and Cork can both get on to the internet and I can’t.  What the hell????  I’m tired of having to “go with it” when I’m the only one who can’t get immediate gratification out of an internet connection… we all look forward to the few and far between moments when we rent a hotel room to have a little space and a bathtub instead of a shower and, supposedly, free internet access, and here we are and I can’t g—d—it connect!!!  SHIT!!!

Breathe…breathe…breathe…

Okay.  I’m better.

So after booking out of our wonderful campsite we headed west towards Plymouth.  It rained and stormed and finally, as we approached, it eased off to a misting.  Which was good ‘cuz it SUCKS to drive an RV through small towns with narrow streets in the frigging rain.  Anyway, we stopped in Plymouth to see the house of the mother of a good friend of Cork’s, and mine, Reid.  Jan died a year or so ago, and it was Cork’s homage to her to make the trip.  It was worth it.  The house felt like Jan.  I didn’t know her well, but what I did know was a woman who was strong and solid and deserved the description of “matriarch”.   I know how much Reid loved her, and it felt like a natural thing to do to stop and pay our respects. 

After leaving Plymouth we decided to weave our way west so that when we drop south we’ll avoid the entire NJ/NYC mess.  The road conditions and signage of those two states are absolutely the WORST.  It’s not uncommon to be looking and looking for a sign and then there it is right in front of you with an arrow for the direction but absolutely NO forewarning, so if you’re in the wrong lane, you’ve missed it.  Good way to keep outsiders, well, outside.  Anyway, we chose to tool down 44, and wow, was it the right decision.  We didn’t get far yesterday, but 44 was the road of our dreams.  We went through town after town, some thriving, some a bit desolate, but even better we drove long stretches of amazing autumnal scenes.  Miles and miles of trees in full color, then around the bend and a lake with trees surrounding it and people out on boats fishing.  The colors were so vibrant it was like watching a fashion show.  It was perfect that it was raining because there was no guilt over just watching and looking, no feeling of urgency to go faster or to stop and get out and walk…

We ended up just outside of Hartford, Connecticut at a Hampton Inn.  I LOVE this chain.  (Okay, except for the internet….)It’s clean and the rooms are large and they always have a great breakfast.  We get a chance to take baths and do our laundry and spread out.  It’s well worth blowing our daily budget.  We love our RV, but it can feel just a teensy bit small when we can’t access the outdoors. 

10/15/2011

Wow, in reading through this part of my blog I realize I was in a pretty snitty mood yesterday!  I think we’re all experiencing a mid-trip energy low.  Not only are we beginning to grow webbed feet and quack because of all the rain, but we just found out that our cat, Zoe, who has been the studio cat for the last 10 years is not doing so well.  Mind you, she’s close to 25 years old, so we know her death is imminent, but something about hearing it made us realize that there’s life going on back there in California, and we’re missing some of it.  Of course there’s life going on here too, and we’d just been commenting on how we really weren’t missing much in the Bay area… death does have a way of bringing the important stuff into perspective, doesn’t it?  Speaking of death, because we rarely watch the news or read a newspaper it was a few days before I found out that Steve Jobs had died.  It actually made me really sad.  I worked for Jobs back in the late ‘80s when he had a company called NeXT.  He was as he’s been described.  He’d come into a meeting of people who’d been killing themselves for weeks on a project, look at the work and say “Your work is shit.” And walk out of the room.  He’d hire great people and put them in a position with no support and then fire them when they couldn’t succeed.  I only lasted a year or two because I didn’t like the politics, but it was still sad to see him go.

We’re heading south to Virginia Beach.  I feel like we’ve been chasing the weather or it’s been chasing us for most of this trip.  I know there’s a universal message in there somewhere, but I think we’re too busy chasing to really hear it.  We decided to go to Cape Cod because it was supposed to get hecka hot (like record breaking) where we were.  Cape Cod was BEAUTIFUL and I could have stayed there for days, but then the rain came in and was expected for a week, so we left for dryer grounds.  Now we’re heading south with the hope of finding a dry, warm spot on the beach where we can stay put for at least four or five days before heading to Orlando.  I know, I know, it’s about letting go and not trying to control and all that…



Claudia's childhood home in Provincetown (I think!)




Drawbridge in action in Mystic, CN




Street scene in Stonington, CN



Still Raining

QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK.  QUACK.  QUACK QUACK QUACK.  Still raining.  QUACK QUACK.  QUACK!!!!  QUACK?  QUACK QUACK!  (More rain.)  QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK!!?!?

Hiding from the rain at the Hampton Inn

(Meanwhile, as our webbed feet dry, we head south....)

Random Pics

Mala, Lily, Dora.  Three peas in a pod!

Morning

Keep it Gay Keep it Gay Keep it Gay!

When Lily was a bit younger one of her favorite movies was the musical version of The Producers with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.  We must have watched it 50 times over the course of a year.  One of the songs is a great song about keeping it gay, and we thought of this as we walked down the streets of Provincetown....

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  What a trip!!!  Yesterday, after riding our bikes to the beach and doing an amazing beach walk we decided to drive in to Provincetown, MA, the place where the pilgrims landed first.  The story is that the pilgrims arrived in Provincetown only to find that the closest potable water was 9 miles south in North Truro, so after 5 weeks they up and left.  Provincetwon was amazing.  There are maybe 3700 full-time residents, but during the peak summer months there can be 60-70,000 people a day who come through.  Provincetwon also happens to be one of the gayest cities in the nation.  Rumor has it that there are only a handful of children a year birthed in Provincetwon because there are so few straight couples.  I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know that this is Women’s Week and the place was packed full of lesbians.  It was crazy!  I mean, we’re from San Fran and have plenty of exposure to all lifestyles, but this was like being invited to someone’s private party.  We had a series of wonderful events, one of them being an amazing trolley tour and then ending up at a restaurant (which by the time we left was packed, and only 4 male customers!) The town itself was beautiful.  Old buildings, narrow streets, something like 200 art galleries.  Cork’s back was acting up so we were heading back to the RV when we spotted this trolley car with people getting off.  I asked the driver what it was about and we decided to give it a try.  It was about an hour tour of Provincetown, tooling through back streets that would be hard to find on your own, then out to beaches and historic points of interest.  It was the best tourist bang for our buck we’ve done other than Niagara Falls.  One fact that I found particularly interesting is that originally when Provincetown was founded, much of the industry was happening out on the very tip.  As the industry moved more towards the Provincetown of today, people wanted to move back too.  However, many people didn’t want or couldn’t afford to rebuild, so they floated their houses across the bay and dropped them in Provincetown.  You can do a walking tour just by searching for the houses with plaques that have a symbol of a house on waves…  It was a beautiful day with a GREAT meal at the end, and by the time we got back to our campsite it was just beginning to drizzle.  Always thinking, Cork packed up all of our bikes etc.. just in case.  Sure enough, by the time we crawled into bed it was POURING, and has been for the last 15 hours…. So needless to say, we’re on the move!

(all my get up and go just got up and went and I don't have the juice to wait for pictures to upload, so they'll follow later...)

Cape Cod and Lily Pics

We have arrived!  Last night we checked into an Adventure Bound RV site in North Truro, Massachusetts.   North Truro is about 10 miles south of Provincetown.  Now, if you’ve never actually looked at a map of Cape Cod, which I hadn’t until this trip, Google one and you’ll see that Cape Cod is the tip of a spit of land that curls almost into a spiral, with Provincetown being at the very tip.  Totally cool.  It turns out my good friend from the world of court reporting, Claudia Mowrey, grew up in Provincetown.  (HI CLAUDIA!!!)  It’s crazy to think of knowing someone who comes from such a specific place in the world.  I mean, you absolutely CANNOT just accidentally happen upon it on your way to somewhere else, and I suppose you can’t just leave easily either.   We’re heading up there either today or tomorrow, depending on how long we decide to bike around this amazing area… finally, all three of us on bikes, yippee!   Which, from what I just found out, we should start doing right away because, yes, wait for it, it’s supposed to start GD raining tonight, lasting into Sunday.  I have to tell you, this is nuts.  We’re finally in a place where we want to be for a week, with not much to do but enjoy the beautiful outdoors, and the weather is warning about flashfloods and heavy rains.  Let’s hope the weather people are wrong…

We had dinner at this crazy place last night.  Our family has decided that when I’m craving a steak, we should just buy one and grill it at our site rather than choosing a restaurant based on their steak options.  It was an old world place, dark and quiet.  Realistically, my steak was great and Cork’s swordfish was the best he’s ever had.  Lily, however, couldn’t catch a break with raw scallops and gross Sprite.  It was worth it, though.  The experience started with a basket of crackers and that weird, but addicting, cheese spread in a jar (or a bowl in this case.)  Then they brought homemade bread with a big salad and three dressings, the classic French, Blue Cheese, and Italian, and then the entrees.  I drank scotch and Cork drank bad wine out of these HUGE glasses.  We cracked up, which made us feel like high schoolers, because absolutely NO ONE in the place was talking, much less laughing.  Cork, per usual, made totally inappropriate comments waaaayyy too loud, which made me give him the hairy eyeball, which made Lily laugh, hard.  When we got home we chatted with our next door neighbors and the pics from Lily’s shoot in NY were waiting for us, so we looked at those.  All in all a fun evening. 



One of my favorites





My other favorite



New York and Beyond

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve written!  I can’t help it.  When we land in towns or cities in this case, where there’s stuff to do and people to see, I like to wait and process it all before I write about it.  That coupled with iffy internet services can make it a while. Anyway, New York WAS A TRIP!!!  First of all we have a delightful drive-turned-nightmare as we entered Jersey City.  We just stopped being able to understand the signage and kept getting lost.  Luckily for us, about 20 minutes before the office closed and thanks to Cork’s GPS thingy on his phone, we drove up to the absolutely most surreal RV site on this trip, and probably in existence, except maybe for Daytona Beach RV, which we’re not going to go to, so…

This was right across the Hudson from NYC.  Anyway, most of the sites we’ve been to have these beautiful offices with a few sundry items you can buy if needed, salsa or toilet paper or whatever, and at least an attempt at something welcoming.  This site, you walk into the dingy little office and there’s this guy who looks like Harvey Fierstein’s son who basically says “Yeah?” gives us our site assignment and off we go.  It was gritty and kooky and you could see the Statue of Liberty from the back of our RV.  (I could NOT get a good picture of it, but the idea is there.)

We spent a lot of time on the PATH trains, and I was quite proud of myself.  I’ve lived in SF for 25 years and have only taken BART twice.  I. DO NOT LIKE going underwater in anything, much less a train that can get stuck.  We zipped around from Jersey City to SOHO, Chelsea, Tribeca, Times Square, Chinatown, Little Italy, Wall Street (World Trade Center) like we were pros.  Lily liked to pretend that we weren’t there, as long as we were just a few feet behind her.  The only thing we didn’t get to do that I wanted to, was to see my cousin George (Sorry George and Tessa) and their family.  I just couldn’t manage to coordinate the wants and desires of all three of us and make that happen.  Between Cork wanting to take us to the Modern and Lily wanting to see Times Square and 5^th Avenue and me just wanting to walk and walk and walk (and then paying for it ‘cuz I did it in shoes with no support) the time disappeared.  Oh yeah, and Lily had her first photo shoot with a wonderful photographer, Max Repin, and his assistant, Anastasia, and that took an afternoon. 

I have to say, I really liked most things about New York City.  Yes, it was intense and crowded and crazy, but it was much cleaner than SF and fewer homeless people… which is understandable given the weather…  I think Cork had a harder time.  He comes to many of the things we’re doing with a history, a relationship with it that I don’t have.  He can’t help but compare it with the last time he was there for whatever reason, and has come away most times disappointed.  I, however, am just so happy to be seeing new things and places that I get a bit giddy.  Don’t even ask Lily about her embarrassment at my breaking out in song on the subway.  I couldn’t help it!  New York New York?   5^th Avenue?  The songs from West Side Story?  I mean, come on!  I was feeling pretty!!! 

I will admit that the day we went to the Modern and Times Square was a bit tough.   We walked waaaay to much for my footwear; I encountered my first truly rude person at the museum, and the shear numbers of people we had to maneuver around at the museum and throughout the day almost made me weep.  Really.  We got to Chelsea Market and Cork and Lily are all excited about shopping and I’m sitting in a chair having hot flashes and trying not to sob.  (Has anyone seen the movie Fly Away Home with Jeff Bridges and Anna Paquin?  Just thought of that because an entire flock of geese just zoomed past honking their hearts out!!!)   I think part of the problem is that I’d been wearing these really inexpensive, comfortable (for the most part) boots that I got for the trip, that could withstand rain or sun or mud or rain or rain or rain, but they don’t breathe, so I was getting really, really hot.  Anyway, that day just took it out of me…

Probably the nicest and most unexpected thing about New York is that my BFFSF, Robin Hubinsky, was in NY watching her niece and nephew for the week while we were there.  Not only did I get to visit a city I haven’t been to since I was 12, but I got to do much of it with Robin.  We met Max and Josie (Hi MAX and JOSIE!!!) and had a wonderfully satisfying celebratory dinner at the Tribeca Grill (owned, we found, by Robert DeNiro.)  It was the perfect way to end a whirlwind four days.

When we left NY we had no idea where we were going to go next.  Although much of this trip has been unplanned, New York was a place we needed to be to at a certain time; the next is Orlando by the 21^st.  We left NY with two weeks in front of us and absolutely no plan except to exit the intensity of the city as fast as possible.  We drove south.  We’ve been in West Chester, PA for the last two days, and it’s been beautiful even with the millions of stink bugs!  We had no idea it was Columbus Day Weekend so we were lucky to get a spot.  The place is packed, but it’s spread out along the Brandywine River and you’d have no idea there were so many people here.  They even have an Italian restaurant a couple of miles away that delivers, so of course we had to try that.  Some of the best delivery food ever!  Today we pack up and do a little backtracking up to Mystic, Connecticut for a few days, then Provincetown, MA. 

Things with Lily have been interesting.  As I’ve said, it’s all about balance.  After a couple of weeks of dream daughter (except when Jodie and I took her shopping.  Haysus Christos…)  in New York she so wanted to be independent (sort of) that she got into this whole “Don’t touch me.  Don’t stand so close to me.  Stop that.  Don’t do that” thing that although I understood it, really really got old.  Her goofiness was replaced by sullen crapola.  I understand she was trying on a “I live in New York” persona, but jeez it was irritating.  She’s been a bit better since we left NY, but has been spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME on all of her devices… when I asked her to stop acting like a city girl she yelled back “Mom, I am a city girl!”  And she’s got a point.  We’ve never taken her skiing or camping or done much hiking or backpacking with her.  Except for the cabin on the Russian River and our walks in Pacifica, Lily really hasn’t spent that much time in rural settings.  Bad parenting in a big way…

Mystic

I will forever and always think of the movie Mystic Pizza when I hear the word mystic.  I don’t remember a thing about the movie, but always loved the name.  We drove in to Mystic, CN around 5:30 last night.  Once again, Cork and I thought it was going to be a simple 3 or so hours from our spot in Pennsylvania, but man, were we wrong.  It took a total of 7 hours of mostly really crappy roads to finally reach our KOA, and once we got here, holy moly.  It’s like a giant amusement park for Christian campers!  They have the RVs packed in like sardines and there are tons of people everywhere!  If Lily were 2 years younger she’d be out there running around with the gang of kids and jumping on the huge jumpy thing in the middle of the playground… if she were two years older she might be off smoking cigarettes with the boys that are lurking around… but she isn’t either of those, so she sits with us, missing her friends.  I did offer to go jump on the jumpy thing with her…..At least I can still make her laugh!

Okay, off we go to discover the wonders of Mystic and it's seaport!

View from our RV park in Jersey City



Outside the PATH train at the World Trade Center




Maze of hookups




Urban RVing




Max, Josie and Lily rockin' out




Lily after the photoshoot




Shoot in progress
(It's the only shot I could get 'cuz Lily told me NO PICTURES!!!)




Andrea, Robin, Lily...Happy girls after dinner at Tribeca Grill




Good food, good wine, good time on our last night in NY