We had a pretty late night and very early morning, despite all our best efforts to get packed early. Uncle Brian took us to SFO and we made it through check-in/security with no issues. It was our first time on Virgin America and its swanky purple and pink mood lighting, seat back media screens, and hip fight attendant uniforms. E resisted nap the entire day, clocking only 30 minutes...but was very good otherwise, considering the 5 hour flight, as we passed him between Oma, Opa, Lisa, and me, reading lots of books, playing with toy trucks, and pressing the media screens.
Landed in Philly on time and picked up our mini-van, which continued the "clubbing" theme with black leather seats and recessed LED lighting. With three GPSs operating, we made it to Graham and Kristin's house. Shortly before ordering pizza, Aunt Carol, Uncle Wayne, and Nathan arrived. Not sure why Philly is known for cheesesteaks when they have tomato pie. (This variation of a Sicilian pizza is a med crust pizza with crushed Roma tomatoes and maybe a teeny bit of mozerella). One memorable moment from the day: Opa was in the kitchen, when E looked up at Wayne and said "Opa?" To his credit, there is a definite resemblance between the brothers. After that, we dubbed him "Two-pa". E went to sleep relatively smoothly considering he was deliriously tired. The rest of us hung out until we were so exhausted it was hard to maintain coherent conversation. We established that breakfast would be at 8:30 the next morning.
Sunday 10/13/2013
Breakfast was severed promptly at 9...which for this crew, meant success. It took 25 min to get to downtown Philly and another 25 to find parking. We even found a place that was labeled public weekend parking, though the security rudely pointed out that it was only open to those who worked in the building.
After a walk by the Comcast building (the tallest in Philly, which looks like a the world's largest thumb drive) and several skyscrapers, we made it to the Academy of Natural Sciences and found out that our Happy Hollow annual passes got all but one of us in for free. It was a neat old building filled with Dino bones, exotic stuffed animals, and cool live things like turtles. They had an animatronic Dino exhibit that thoroughly freaked E out. Though he loved the bug/live animal room and kissing the large brass tortoise (I cringed at the thought of how many people had touched it). We all had fun taking pictures in front of the moose to send to Vanessa, since we often receive texts from her with the animals who wander into her backyard up in Alaska.
We finished the central Philly-by-foot-tour at on overlook of Boathouse Row. Graham and I walked back to central Philly and got the cars. The bad news was Graham lost his parking ticket, but the good news was that he talked to the attendant and it was a pretty easy fix. We had a fantastic dinner at Kristin's parents' house. The house was charming and the food spot-on after a long day on the heels. Evan got to play with some of Kristin's old toys and their piano as we had a glass of wine in the living room. Back at Graham's place, we chatted about the Monday plans.
Monday 10/14/2013
Bight and early (ok, early for vacation), Gary, Graham, and I did a P90X in the basement. It was a fun, intense workout...though would've been a little easier had I been 2 feet shorter. Kristin made blueberry pancakes (mostly round, several impressive mickeys, and one horrible duck...though it was a decent hot air balloon).
Stuffed, we headed to Linvilla orchards. E stayed awake the entire drive, until we pulled into the parking lot. He napped as we picked our own apples, especially hunting for golden delicious and jonagold (Rome too, which Auntie Carol did not approve of). E woke up and then we headed to the food court (better name: fried Court) for a late lunch. We had amazing homemade potato chips and apple cider donuts. E rode the train and we took pics of him in the pumpkin patch.
We came home and lounged for a few hours, had some local beers, and Graham grilled some butternut squash and chicken. Before it got dark, E helped me collect kindling for a backyard bonfire. However, he got royally upset when I dumped all his hard earned twigs into the fire pit. After dinner, E went to bed and we hung out around the fire. We had pies bought from the orchard (some of us had normal sized slices, others only tiny-weeny sized) and shared funny stories.
Tuesday 10/15/2013
Started the day with another P90X workout with Graham and Gary (Core, which was Hard...Core - ba dam ching). And I'm not sure I would've ever believed I'd do a move called Superman/Banana with my father- and cousin-in-law. And that it'd be so enjoyable. But I did. And it was.
The rest of the family arrived soon after that, and we had the standard family oatmeal breakfast with a smattering of apples from Monday. Soon it was off to Valley Green, which is this beautiful walk along a good sized creek/river. Stone walls, old mansions, and mills dating back to the 1800s. The trees were just hinting at changing colors. We all (including E) enjoyed the walk.
For lunch we headed to Chestnut Hill, a very old and very swanky part of Philly--cobblestone streets, etc. We just missed the coming Harry Potter festival by a few days! Can totally see the town as Hogsmead! After lunch at the brewery we strolled around the shops, got coffee, and enjoyed the perfect weather.
Dropping the rest of the family off at home, Graham and I braved Philly traffic for my last chance at getting an authentic Philly Cheesesteak. We picked one up near Drexel and took the HUGE sandwich back to the house for everyone to split (though, I think I ate half by the end--oh well, I did P90X, remember).
Wednesday 10/16/2013
Leisurely morning. Or leisurely as it could be getting 9 adults and a toddler packed, out the door, and into cars. We hit the road to Maryland by 10:30. (Ok. We got to the sbux by then). With all the kids in the minivan, the unsupervised parents wandered around freely with their coffees and appeared to be looking for a photo op. Though eventually, they all ended up safely inside of their car.
The couple hour drive to Baltimore was smooth and E napped most the time, while Nathan and I talked books, TV, and movies. It was beautiful and many of the trees had just a kiss of color. By the time we hit traffic on the inner harbor, my bladder was about to explode. We found Parking and I left the family in hot pursuit of a restroom.
After saving myself from an internal rupture, I returned to the car and found everyone ready for our look around the Baltimore version of Pier 39. It was cool seeing the mix of military, yachts, and the civil war era ships. We had lunch on the water and I loved my genuine Maryland crab cakes. We walked around for several hours total (Oma's pedometer claimed between 4 to 5 miles). Our last stop was a cool, modern art park and a fire-truck red lighthouse on stilts.
Finally, we packed up and blindly followed our GPS through some scenic and scenic/scary parts of Baltimore. We arrived in Middletown just before 7 and quickly got dinner ready. E went right to bed despite the new surroundings and the rest of the evening was relaxing in prep for our coming big day on the train.
Thursday 10/17/2013
The first shift of showers started at a dark 6:30am. Miraculously, we ate and got everyone in the cars by a little after 8:30. The drive to Cumberland, MD was beautiful with a touch of fog to make things mysterious, scattered showers, and a rainbow to accent the leaves just starting to dress for autumn. We arrived about 90 min later and quickly picked up our train tickets. I bought E a cast train engine in the gift shop and he was fascinated with the western Maryland Scenic Train as it pulled up.
We got on board for the hour ride through the semi-fall colors up a 1000-foot mountain to the town of Frostburg. Main Street was a good hike away so we made the quick decision to eat at the hamburger shack. And it was a good thing we decided to do so when we did, because the group after us only had only one option: dogs and Mountain Dew. We boarded the train in scattered showers and E finally took his nap (after resisting all morning) in Lisa's arms as we headed back to Cumberland.
We took a slightly different route home, driving through the stunning countryside around Boonsboro. At home, we played with E--watching him walk room to room, dance, and do his rendition of Superman/Banana. Carol made a delicious dinner and we took on the somewhat complicated task of planning tomorrow's trip to the National Mall. Having had a very short nap, E went to bed quickly and on time while the adults laughed about the four pounds of wheat germ under the sink in the downstairs bathroom and about Carol's dramatic (and near perfect) rendition of E's book Sheep in a Jeep.
In another amazing logistical feat, we managed to get the family out of the house by 9:30ish and on our way to DC. We parked and walked by the back side of the White House, where E was impressed by the guy edging the big lawn.
We admired the Washington memorial, though covered in scaffolding from the earthquake last year, and hit the World War II memorial. The fountain and pillars were stunning. And it gave E a good chance to stretch his legs. We ate our Safeway sandwiches on the Lincoln memorial steps, overlooking the reflection pool. The temperature was near perfect, as was the people watching. Although, as it turned out, we were the ones being watched: an older Asian man came up to Wayne without a word and almost pressed his face into Wayne's watch. Then walked away just as silent.
I walked E around the Vietnam memorial in his stroller until he went to sleep before catching up with everyone else. We visited the Korean memorial which was chilling with its reflections and ghostly etchings in black marble and the words FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. Next was the newest monument in honor MLK Jr, though the super low flying military choppers were also impressive. I swear one of them was Marine One (it said President of the United States on the tail). We walked along the water and under the cherry trees looking at the Jefferson memorial before walking through the beautiful FDR memorial and its water falls. Pooped, we did the whole walk in reverse to the cars. E finally woke up when we got back near the White House.
Traffic was significant on the way back to Maryland and we almost missed dinner at Volt's Family Meal one of Brian Voltaggio's (top chef contestant) restaurants. The food was southern and amazing (and probably equivalent to my normal week's caloric intake). We opted to drive through Frederick (the approximate 5 miles we walked in DC was enough), and we got home in time to play with E before bedtime. His favorite game was to knock down the tower Graham meticulously built time and time again. Once E was down, we had dessert. And to be honest, the conversation was far less lively than other nights. We we all exhausted, though Graham and I planned our workout for the first activity in the morning. The last day of our trip. :-(
Graham and I did a final P90X workout before breakfast and while none of the moves were so colorfully named as 'Superman/Banana', it was tough and a blast. After the final family breakfast, everyone else took E to the 'tot lot' across the street while Lisa and I finished packing. I think they all got the better end of that bargain, taking him on the swings and slides.
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Full and sad, E, Lisa, and I said our goodbyes and hit the road. For the first part of the drive, E wanted to play with his 'Do-Do'...which is as close to "Choo-Choo" as he could master. He napped for about an hour, but awoke 100% cranky the moment we drove up to the airport. Waiting to board, Lisa and I both dreaded the following 6 hours.
Luckily, the instant we got on the plane, he quieted down. A nice lady sat next to us who had six kids and twelve grandchildren. She was an angel in the flesh and her miracles took the form of occupying our 1.5 year old. First, she made the airsick bag into a tunnel for him to drive his 'Do-Do' through. This killed nearly an hour. Second, she produced a little braided string of yarn from her knitting for him to play with. Another hour. Finally, she taught him how to use her pocket measuring tape (the kind that pulls out and then retracts quickly when the button is pressed). Yet another hour. See what I mean.
E never napped...came close a few times, but never took the plunge. At 8pm PST, we touched down in SFO. Getting the bags, meeting up with Uncle Brian, hitting the road, etc. took until 9pm...and still an alert, happy kiddo. Keep in mind: this was midnight body time for him. A little after heading south on 101, he fell asleep and stayed passed out when we got home to some very excited dogs. Exhausted, Lisa and I did the critical unpacking things and then hit our own glorious bed. As we drifted to sleep, we reminisced about what an amazing trip it'd been.
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