It has been autumn for five days, but here in Texas you would never know. Erin heard on the weather last night that the high temperatures right now are 5-7 degrees warmer than normal with no end in sight. By the way, every time we watch the weather segment of the news Erin can't help but think that it might be just a little ridiculous that with all the news going on in the world, a full 5 minutes of 15-20 minute newscast (that's after the commercial breaks) is spent rehashing the weather. After all, on most days in Texas the weather segment is almost exactly the same day after day.
Fall is one of Erin's favorite times of year so it is unfortunate that Texas has no such season...usually. Right now in Amsterdam it is in the 60s and rainy. OK, we don't like the rain so much, but temperatures in the 60s we could go for. And we really love the trees changing color. About this time last year we visited the Apenhuel (monkey zoo) in the Netherlands. We were wearing coats and the monkeys would stop all activity and sit in a yoga position to soak up the sun every time it came out from behind a cloud. The only thing we want to soak up here in Texas is some air conditioning.
It had better cool off before Thanksgiving because it is just wrong to wear shorts and T-shirts on Turkey Day.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Updates on "Free"
We still have our free Ford Focus. The evaluation lasts one more week, and then we will have to go back to putting miles on our own cars and paying for insurance on two cars again. It’s been fun while it lasted.
A couple of times we’ve had to take the Focus in so engineers could fly down from Ford headquarters in Detroit to make some changes and check some things out based on our survey comments. During these inspections, Ford gives us a free rental car. The first experience was with a Ford Expedition. Although John loves driving cars that sit so tall over the road, it was a bit ridiculous driving around that behemoth with the two of us sitting up in the front seats with about 20 feet of empty space behind us. The second rental was much more practical…or at least, we made great use of it: a Ford F-150 super extended cab something or other. It just so happens that we had it over the weekend, and it also just so happens that we are doing a lot of remodeling at our house…still.
So, it made perfect sense last Thursday night and Saturday to spend hours upon hours at Lowe’s and Home Depot buying things like 12-foot long pieces of crown moulding and baseboards and large boxes of faux wood plantation blinds for all the windows in our house. Granted, it was pouring cats and dogs when we had to return some of the door casing to Lowe’s on Sunday, but it was ever so much more convenient with a free truck to haul the things around in.
Oh, and we finally got our compensation from Ford for agreeing to do this evaluation of the Focus. Let’s just say the baseboards, door frames, and crown moulding in our home are compliments of Ford, including the means of transportation to get them from the store to our house.
This last weekend of "Free" also included free tickets to the Dallas symphony on Friday night, which we drove to in our free truck and parked at in the free parking garage provided by John’s company across the street from the symphony hall.
Yesterday we almost got a free $400 bed frame from Bombay Company, but we responded a bit too late. Oh well. I guess not everything is free.
In a more frustrating instance of Free, our phone stopped working again last Thursday. This time Time Warner said they couldn’t make it out to fix anything for 4 days! This is the second time in the last two months of our “no-risk trial period” that our digital phone has stopped working. By now, the phone works once again and John got Time Warner to give us almost all our money back from the past two months. Plus, yesterday in the mail we found that Time Warner sent us a coupon for a free ticket to Six Flags with the purchase of a $15 off ticket because we’re “valued” customers. All this said, we still would never recommend Time Warner to anyone, not even an enemy.
This ends the tale of "Free." If anyone knows John, none of this news will come as a surprise, but John still wishes to share the entertaining story. Even with all this "Free," nothing has yet to supersede the free computer; that one has been reigning champion of "Free" for nine years now.
A couple of times we’ve had to take the Focus in so engineers could fly down from Ford headquarters in Detroit to make some changes and check some things out based on our survey comments. During these inspections, Ford gives us a free rental car. The first experience was with a Ford Expedition. Although John loves driving cars that sit so tall over the road, it was a bit ridiculous driving around that behemoth with the two of us sitting up in the front seats with about 20 feet of empty space behind us. The second rental was much more practical…or at least, we made great use of it: a Ford F-150 super extended cab something or other. It just so happens that we had it over the weekend, and it also just so happens that we are doing a lot of remodeling at our house…still.
So, it made perfect sense last Thursday night and Saturday to spend hours upon hours at Lowe’s and Home Depot buying things like 12-foot long pieces of crown moulding and baseboards and large boxes of faux wood plantation blinds for all the windows in our house. Granted, it was pouring cats and dogs when we had to return some of the door casing to Lowe’s on Sunday, but it was ever so much more convenient with a free truck to haul the things around in.
Oh, and we finally got our compensation from Ford for agreeing to do this evaluation of the Focus. Let’s just say the baseboards, door frames, and crown moulding in our home are compliments of Ford, including the means of transportation to get them from the store to our house.
This last weekend of "Free" also included free tickets to the Dallas symphony on Friday night, which we drove to in our free truck and parked at in the free parking garage provided by John’s company across the street from the symphony hall.
Yesterday we almost got a free $400 bed frame from Bombay Company, but we responded a bit too late. Oh well. I guess not everything is free.
In a more frustrating instance of Free, our phone stopped working again last Thursday. This time Time Warner said they couldn’t make it out to fix anything for 4 days! This is the second time in the last two months of our “no-risk trial period” that our digital phone has stopped working. By now, the phone works once again and John got Time Warner to give us almost all our money back from the past two months. Plus, yesterday in the mail we found that Time Warner sent us a coupon for a free ticket to Six Flags with the purchase of a $15 off ticket because we’re “valued” customers. All this said, we still would never recommend Time Warner to anyone, not even an enemy.
This ends the tale of "Free." If anyone knows John, none of this news will come as a surprise, but John still wishes to share the entertaining story. Even with all this "Free," nothing has yet to supersede the free computer; that one has been reigning champion of "Free" for nine years now.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
The Capital
Erin took her first trip to this nation’s capital just last week. Just as she has heard from people her entire life, Washington DC in August was crowded and extremely hot. In fact, we thought it was hotter in DC than it had been in Dallas (although that story is quickly changing now that Dallas has a forecast of highs in the 100s for the next week). We survived, however, and saw all the major sights, plus a couple minor sights, in three and a half days.
The trip came up on short notice when John finally found out a week beforehand when he was to give a presentation to some clients at the Pentagon. We have friends from Amsterdam living in DC now, so we had wanted to go up to see them anyway, and we got to stay with them over the weekend.
John was a bit nervous about getting into the Pentagon after he was instructed to take the metro to the Pentagon stop, ride the escalator up and wait at the top of the escalator for a man in a yellow tie. Mysterious. It got even more interesting when John arrived at the correct time and waited, and waited, and waited. No guy in a yellow tie showed up. So, John was trying to check his blackberry to make sure the time and place were really right. Suddenly his blackberry stopped working. All this time, a guard with a machine gun is standing a few feet away closely watching John. To solve the blackberry problem, John determined that maybe taking the battery out and putting it back in would help. Of course, taking your blackberry apart in front of the Pentagon looks a bit suspicious. The guard moved closer. When reinserting the battery did not help, John thought he’d look through his briefcase to see if he even had the number for the man in the yellow tie. While rifling through his bag (again, a suspicious activity for a single person waiting in front of the Pentagon), John became aware that the guard with the machine gun had moved closer and was talking to another person. John felt this was probably a conversation held only so the guard could be closer to John and monitor his movement.
Eventually the man in the yellow tie turned up. After all this waiting in the 100 degree temperature outside the Pentagon wearing a suit, John was a little wet. Thankfully, it only took a few minutes to pass through Pentagon security and John had an hour or more before his meeting to cool off. The Pentagon security allowed John in before they even knew what he was doing there, and there were no confrontations with any armed guards.
All this, the plane tickets and a super fancy hotel room at the Ritz for a 20 minute presentation, which, John points out, seemed to bore the clients to tears. But then, John was finished by noon and we had the rest of the day to go sightseeing.
Some notes on visiting Washington DC in the summer:
- The Spy Museum is very interesting, but it goes on and on and on. We spent way too much time in the first three areas and ended up zooming through the last few areas because one can take only so much of one museum.
- It’s almost pointless to go to the Museum of Natural History on a Saturday in the summer. It was wall to wall people! After seeing a few major items, John was going crazy with all the people so we left.
- Even though the line at the National Archives looks short (compared to many other lines in DC) the 45-minute posted wait time is indeed true. We thought this would be a quick trip before joining our friends for dinner, but we ended up waiting almost an hour to get in. This is not very comfortable in the heat of summer.
- Bring your sunglasses. John forgot his, so we shared one pair depending on who was in the most pain (usually John). The Supreme Court is blindingly bright in the daytime sun.
- If you need to take a nap in the afternoon and want to do it in a secure place, find yourself a tree on the Capitol grounds and rest in safety. We noticed after lying down and napping for about 20 minutes that we had had our very own armed guard watching over us the entire time from the nearest sidewalk. After we left, another guard came over to inspect the ground where we had been and must have been satisfied since he walked off rather quickly.
- The Native American Museum has a good cafeteria with a wide range of food available. It’s a little expensive, but the buffalo burgers are huge so we split one.
- Take care before joining a guided tour at the Library of Congress. Our tour guide was extremely long-winded, and the only reason we wanted a tour was to get to go see the main Reading Room (which of course is the last stop on the tour!). Honestly, one boy on the tour played his handheld video game the entire time, even right in front of the tour guide. John and I bolted right after the Reading Room. We were glad we did, because several minutes later we saw that our tour guide was still going strong! The Library of Congress itself is great! This is only a warning about the tour guides.
- The Lincoln Memorial really is better at night.
- Bring good walking shoes. Large memorials and buildings look much closer than they really are.The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is not open on Saturdays. Erin made a slight error by scheduling this stop on Saturday only to find out Friday night that it is only open Monday through Friday. Ooops. We’ll have to do that on our next trip.
The trip came up on short notice when John finally found out a week beforehand when he was to give a presentation to some clients at the Pentagon. We have friends from Amsterdam living in DC now, so we had wanted to go up to see them anyway, and we got to stay with them over the weekend.
John was a bit nervous about getting into the Pentagon after he was instructed to take the metro to the Pentagon stop, ride the escalator up and wait at the top of the escalator for a man in a yellow tie. Mysterious. It got even more interesting when John arrived at the correct time and waited, and waited, and waited. No guy in a yellow tie showed up. So, John was trying to check his blackberry to make sure the time and place were really right. Suddenly his blackberry stopped working. All this time, a guard with a machine gun is standing a few feet away closely watching John. To solve the blackberry problem, John determined that maybe taking the battery out and putting it back in would help. Of course, taking your blackberry apart in front of the Pentagon looks a bit suspicious. The guard moved closer. When reinserting the battery did not help, John thought he’d look through his briefcase to see if he even had the number for the man in the yellow tie. While rifling through his bag (again, a suspicious activity for a single person waiting in front of the Pentagon), John became aware that the guard with the machine gun had moved closer and was talking to another person. John felt this was probably a conversation held only so the guard could be closer to John and monitor his movement.
Eventually the man in the yellow tie turned up. After all this waiting in the 100 degree temperature outside the Pentagon wearing a suit, John was a little wet. Thankfully, it only took a few minutes to pass through Pentagon security and John had an hour or more before his meeting to cool off. The Pentagon security allowed John in before they even knew what he was doing there, and there were no confrontations with any armed guards.
All this, the plane tickets and a super fancy hotel room at the Ritz for a 20 minute presentation, which, John points out, seemed to bore the clients to tears. But then, John was finished by noon and we had the rest of the day to go sightseeing.
Some notes on visiting Washington DC in the summer:
- The Spy Museum is very interesting, but it goes on and on and on. We spent way too much time in the first three areas and ended up zooming through the last few areas because one can take only so much of one museum.
- It’s almost pointless to go to the Museum of Natural History on a Saturday in the summer. It was wall to wall people! After seeing a few major items, John was going crazy with all the people so we left.
- Even though the line at the National Archives looks short (compared to many other lines in DC) the 45-minute posted wait time is indeed true. We thought this would be a quick trip before joining our friends for dinner, but we ended up waiting almost an hour to get in. This is not very comfortable in the heat of summer.
- Bring your sunglasses. John forgot his, so we shared one pair depending on who was in the most pain (usually John). The Supreme Court is blindingly bright in the daytime sun.
- If you need to take a nap in the afternoon and want to do it in a secure place, find yourself a tree on the Capitol grounds and rest in safety. We noticed after lying down and napping for about 20 minutes that we had had our very own armed guard watching over us the entire time from the nearest sidewalk. After we left, another guard came over to inspect the ground where we had been and must have been satisfied since he walked off rather quickly.
- The Native American Museum has a good cafeteria with a wide range of food available. It’s a little expensive, but the buffalo burgers are huge so we split one.
- Take care before joining a guided tour at the Library of Congress. Our tour guide was extremely long-winded, and the only reason we wanted a tour was to get to go see the main Reading Room (which of course is the last stop on the tour!). Honestly, one boy on the tour played his handheld video game the entire time, even right in front of the tour guide. John and I bolted right after the Reading Room. We were glad we did, because several minutes later we saw that our tour guide was still going strong! The Library of Congress itself is great! This is only a warning about the tour guides.
- The Lincoln Memorial really is better at night.
- Bring good walking shoes. Large memorials and buildings look much closer than they really are.The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is not open on Saturdays. Erin made a slight error by scheduling this stop on Saturday only to find out Friday night that it is only open Monday through Friday. Ooops. We’ll have to do that on our next trip.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Remodeling and Demolition
Quite unfortunately we have written a summary of our experiences and what we learned living in Amsterdam for a year and a half, and we have lost the document.
It has just occurred to Erin that she wrote the summary right after moving back to the U.S., so we did not yet have this computer. The document must be on the old, extremely slow computer we were using until ours arrived from the Netherlands. Thankfully, John has not yet wiped the hard drive on that computer (or the other old computer mysteriously sitting in a closet in our house!), so the document is not really lost. It’s just unreachable until we hook that computer up again to find it. Once again, we have to say that the summary is forthcoming!
Since returning to our home in the U.S. we have ripped out carpet in the hallway and second bedroom, painted the hallway white and the second bedroom green, changed out three light fixtures, chopped down a big tree in the front yard and just recently finished demolishing the hall bathroom. The only usable item in the bathroom is the toilet since there is no sink and the bathtub is filled with peeled off wallpaper. Needless to say, our house has been in all kinds of disarray for the past month or more.
It’s funny how our physical surroundings seem to match life circumstances right now. Settling back into life in Texas is bringing new circumstances and feelings. Our lives have undergone reconstruction now that we have experiences living in Europe and Erin is trying desperately to determine what her life should be like now. Like our house, many old ways of living here in this country, in this city, have been cast aside. We are still figuring out what to put in the place of those old things. With the birth of our nephew almost four months early, stability, comfort, certainty, and peace have been ripped out from under us. Like the furniture scattered all over our house, our time, commitments and thoughts are scattered, messy and unpredictable right now. The difficulties, hard work and restructuring are ongoing…both in the house and in our own journey.
If anyone knows Erin, she has little tolerance for living in disorder. She likes things to be organized, clean and where they are supposed to be. However, the chaos of our house is not bothering her as much as usual. Perhaps it is because her whole life feels disordered right now. Maybe she’s learning that life goes on even amid messiness.
Is it just coincidence that we have decided to begin demolition and remodeling of our house at this particular point in time? Or maybe we are subconsciously reflecting physically what we feel on the inside.
It has just occurred to Erin that she wrote the summary right after moving back to the U.S., so we did not yet have this computer. The document must be on the old, extremely slow computer we were using until ours arrived from the Netherlands. Thankfully, John has not yet wiped the hard drive on that computer (or the other old computer mysteriously sitting in a closet in our house!), so the document is not really lost. It’s just unreachable until we hook that computer up again to find it. Once again, we have to say that the summary is forthcoming!
Since returning to our home in the U.S. we have ripped out carpet in the hallway and second bedroom, painted the hallway white and the second bedroom green, changed out three light fixtures, chopped down a big tree in the front yard and just recently finished demolishing the hall bathroom. The only usable item in the bathroom is the toilet since there is no sink and the bathtub is filled with peeled off wallpaper. Needless to say, our house has been in all kinds of disarray for the past month or more.
It’s funny how our physical surroundings seem to match life circumstances right now. Settling back into life in Texas is bringing new circumstances and feelings. Our lives have undergone reconstruction now that we have experiences living in Europe and Erin is trying desperately to determine what her life should be like now. Like our house, many old ways of living here in this country, in this city, have been cast aside. We are still figuring out what to put in the place of those old things. With the birth of our nephew almost four months early, stability, comfort, certainty, and peace have been ripped out from under us. Like the furniture scattered all over our house, our time, commitments and thoughts are scattered, messy and unpredictable right now. The difficulties, hard work and restructuring are ongoing…both in the house and in our own journey.
If anyone knows Erin, she has little tolerance for living in disorder. She likes things to be organized, clean and where they are supposed to be. However, the chaos of our house is not bothering her as much as usual. Perhaps it is because her whole life feels disordered right now. Maybe she’s learning that life goes on even amid messiness.
Is it just coincidence that we have decided to begin demolition and remodeling of our house at this particular point in time? Or maybe we are subconsciously reflecting physically what we feel on the inside.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Anybody out there?
We're not sure if anyone is even reading our blog anymore, especially since it's been a couple months since our last post! We've been a bit preoccupied the last month or so. Erin's sister gave birth to her first son at 24 weeks of pregnancy; that's about 15 weeks early. Our nephew was 1 pound, 9 ounces at birth and is still in the NICU at a hospital in Austin. Erin is able to go down to help her sister for a week at a time since she never got an internship. Obviously our thoughts, focus, and much of our time center around our nephew who is still in critical condition.
Our vacation to Colorado in June/July was interrupted the day after we arrived with the news of our nephew's birth. We stayed only two more days before driving back to Texas to be with Erin's family in Austin. The few days we were there were nice. We got to visit with John's family, went on one hike, Erin learned to knit, and we enjoyed some great food. Erin has promised John that she owes him about 7 days of vacation now.
That's right...Erin still has not found an internship (although the whole search has been put on hold since the end of June). We decided a few weeks ago that it is just not worth it to take an internship that is a volunteer position, work 40 hours/week for free, pay for the cost of gas driving to/from the location, and perhaps even pay $100/week or more for a supervisor. This all works out OK right now anyway, so Erin can pick up and go to Austin whenever she's needed. This family situation will most likely last at least a few more months. She is volunteering at a pregnancy center and determining how many and what kind of other volunteer opportunities she can commit to.
John is enjoying work right now. The hours are normal and there are lots of free dinners and parties with the interns right now. We guess since this time of year is not quite as busy for everyone, the company decides it's a perfect time to pile on the extracurricular activities, dinners, and parties. With all this free time, we've started remodeling the house little bits a time: taking out carpet, cleaning the wood floor underneath, painting, demolishing a bathroom and redoing it, cutting down trees, trimming bushes, etc.
This is not to say there are not lots of funny little stories that have taken place in the last two months: being forced to change phone service, shipping a keyboard via UPS, getting a free 2008 Ford Focus, Time Warner debacles, air conditioner wars, and the chaos that happens when John has to live by himself for a week. It's too much to catch up on. Life is not ever normal. Unexpected circumstances are making life a little stressful and different right now, but we are reminded how blessed we are to have such a caring, loving, present family in tough times.
We know we still owe everyone a post summarizing our time overseas. We promise it's coming...soon!
Our vacation to Colorado in June/July was interrupted the day after we arrived with the news of our nephew's birth. We stayed only two more days before driving back to Texas to be with Erin's family in Austin. The few days we were there were nice. We got to visit with John's family, went on one hike, Erin learned to knit, and we enjoyed some great food. Erin has promised John that she owes him about 7 days of vacation now.
That's right...Erin still has not found an internship (although the whole search has been put on hold since the end of June). We decided a few weeks ago that it is just not worth it to take an internship that is a volunteer position, work 40 hours/week for free, pay for the cost of gas driving to/from the location, and perhaps even pay $100/week or more for a supervisor. This all works out OK right now anyway, so Erin can pick up and go to Austin whenever she's needed. This family situation will most likely last at least a few more months. She is volunteering at a pregnancy center and determining how many and what kind of other volunteer opportunities she can commit to.
John is enjoying work right now. The hours are normal and there are lots of free dinners and parties with the interns right now. We guess since this time of year is not quite as busy for everyone, the company decides it's a perfect time to pile on the extracurricular activities, dinners, and parties. With all this free time, we've started remodeling the house little bits a time: taking out carpet, cleaning the wood floor underneath, painting, demolishing a bathroom and redoing it, cutting down trees, trimming bushes, etc.
This is not to say there are not lots of funny little stories that have taken place in the last two months: being forced to change phone service, shipping a keyboard via UPS, getting a free 2008 Ford Focus, Time Warner debacles, air conditioner wars, and the chaos that happens when John has to live by himself for a week. It's too much to catch up on. Life is not ever normal. Unexpected circumstances are making life a little stressful and different right now, but we are reminded how blessed we are to have such a caring, loving, present family in tough times.
We know we still owe everyone a post summarizing our time overseas. We promise it's coming...soon!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
A Trip to Disney World with the Family
After being overseas for a year and a half, and since Erin’s younger sister is now pregnant with their first child, Erin’s parents decided this would be an opportune time for a mini family reunion. So, on May 5 we joined Erin’s parents and her sister and brother-in-law for a magical week at Disney World. We both decided after the trip that this vacation in Disney World was the best Disney World trip we’ve ever taken. Maybe because this is the first time we’ve gotten to have the experience together as a couple. Or maybe because we’re older and more used to travel so we did not get absolutely exhausted or tired of walking. Plus, we have no young children and judging by the fights, screaming, crying, and even cursing we decided Disney World is not “the happiest place on earth” for those with small members of the family.
The week we were at Disney World was really the perfect week to be there. Crowds were unbelievably small! We made a point to get to the parks in the morning when they opened, and this enabled us to ride all the major attractions with practically no waits all morning long! The weather was perfect (well, except for a 20-minute storm one afternoon complete with hurricane force winds and a drenching downpour) and the place we stayed was really very pretty. (For those of you who care or know about Disney World, we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside.)
We’ll spare everyone the details, but we thoroughly enjoyed almost all the attractions and shows (minus those only truly appreciated by preschoolers) in four of the Disney World parks. We did not go to either of the water parks, but apparently we have the best water park in the country right here in the state of Texas: Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels.
With Disney World park hopper passes, one day we managed to actually visit three parks. That was a tiring day and not recommended unless you are down to your final day on a week-long trip and realize you are still in need of that very specific postcard and some music from Disney World to take the magic back home with you. We didn’t find the postcard, but we have been listening to our Disney World CD at home all week. Having the music is both good and bad. It brings back fond memories of a fun family vacation, but of course it is making us both wish we were still on that fun family vacation.
The week was a great combination of being with family and getting time to ourselves. Erin’s parents are crazy about Walt Disney World and have visited more times than anyone else we know. It was perfect to just follow them around the first few days – no map needed! John got to see a Cirque du Soleil show for the first time in his life and was duly impressed. We had some great meals all together that provided plenty of opportunity for laughter and fun. We enjoyed a bus ride one night with a comedian bus driver who entertained the entire weary busload with jokes, interesting information, and trivia questions. One of the highlights of our week with just the two of us was a dinner at California Grill. Erin had called trying to get reservations a couple weeks ahead of time and there was no availability unless we wanted to eat at 10 p.m. This is fine for life in Spain, but it does not bode well at Disney World when we are waking up at 6:30 in the morning to start our magical day of fun. John called to try once again for a reservation after we had already arrived at Disney World. He scored a table for two at this place during the time when Magic Kingdom fireworks were going to be displayed and could be seen right from the restaurant balcony with piped-in music! Erin should not be so surprised when John can pull things off like this since it seems to be a regular occurrence, but she still is really impressed by her highly skilled husband!
Disney World really proved to be “the happiest place on earth” last week (except for the families with young children in tow). Family, food, fun…what more could you ask for?
The week we were at Disney World was really the perfect week to be there. Crowds were unbelievably small! We made a point to get to the parks in the morning when they opened, and this enabled us to ride all the major attractions with practically no waits all morning long! The weather was perfect (well, except for a 20-minute storm one afternoon complete with hurricane force winds and a drenching downpour) and the place we stayed was really very pretty. (For those of you who care or know about Disney World, we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside.)
We’ll spare everyone the details, but we thoroughly enjoyed almost all the attractions and shows (minus those only truly appreciated by preschoolers) in four of the Disney World parks. We did not go to either of the water parks, but apparently we have the best water park in the country right here in the state of Texas: Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels.
With Disney World park hopper passes, one day we managed to actually visit three parks. That was a tiring day and not recommended unless you are down to your final day on a week-long trip and realize you are still in need of that very specific postcard and some music from Disney World to take the magic back home with you. We didn’t find the postcard, but we have been listening to our Disney World CD at home all week. Having the music is both good and bad. It brings back fond memories of a fun family vacation, but of course it is making us both wish we were still on that fun family vacation.
The week was a great combination of being with family and getting time to ourselves. Erin’s parents are crazy about Walt Disney World and have visited more times than anyone else we know. It was perfect to just follow them around the first few days – no map needed! John got to see a Cirque du Soleil show for the first time in his life and was duly impressed. We had some great meals all together that provided plenty of opportunity for laughter and fun. We enjoyed a bus ride one night with a comedian bus driver who entertained the entire weary busload with jokes, interesting information, and trivia questions. One of the highlights of our week with just the two of us was a dinner at California Grill. Erin had called trying to get reservations a couple weeks ahead of time and there was no availability unless we wanted to eat at 10 p.m. This is fine for life in Spain, but it does not bode well at Disney World when we are waking up at 6:30 in the morning to start our magical day of fun. John called to try once again for a reservation after we had already arrived at Disney World. He scored a table for two at this place during the time when Magic Kingdom fireworks were going to be displayed and could be seen right from the restaurant balcony with piped-in music! Erin should not be so surprised when John can pull things off like this since it seems to be a regular occurrence, but she still is really impressed by her highly skilled husband!
Disney World really proved to be “the happiest place on earth” last week (except for the families with young children in tow). Family, food, fun…what more could you ask for?
Friday, April 13, 2007
Side Notes
We are still in the process of writing down our thoughts about living in a foreign country for 18 months: what we learned, how we’ve changed, and what difference the experience has made to us. While we continue to compile our thoughts, we’d like to update you on other happenings since our return to Dallas.
On Easter weekend we took a long weekend trip to Pennsylvania and Delaware. Mostly this was a trip to celebrate our fifth anniversary, but we are also in the habit of continuously planning trips and looking forward to going places so it will be a while (if ever!) before we let go of our need to travel. Easter weekend was a cold weekend almost everywhere in the U.S. There was no escaping snow, unless we had gone to, say, Miami. We heard it snowed in Dallas – quite a contrast to the weather they had at this time last year when it was already in the 100s! (This is second-hand information since we, of course, were in the Netherlands at this time last year and it was not in the 100s there.)
Despite the cold weather and snow flurries, we really enjoyed our weekend away from Dallas. Neither of us had ever been to Philadelphia, so we got to visit the National Historical Park in the center of the city (Constitution Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc.) and walked around the Arts district (where there is some excellent Indian food to be had) and Society Hill. We ventured back into Philadelphia Sunday before our flight back home to find some lunch and then discovered how horrible parking is in the city. We also discovered that finding a quick bite to eat on Easter Sunday is a challenge since so many places are closed, but we ended up having some tasty pizza (maybe it was tasty because we were starving, but we were satisfied nonetheless).
We stayed in Wilmington, Delaware in the Brandywine Valley area. Saturday was spent at Longwood Gardens, an estate established by Pierre Dupont that covers over 1000 acres. With so much late cold weather there weren’t too many flowers blooming outdoors, but the grounds were nice to hike around anyway with the lakes and fountains, and trees. There is, however, a huge conservatory overflowing with plants! It was a blessing that it took so long to go through the conservatory because it was a nice warm place to escape from the snow flurries and wind. Pierre Dupont originally built the conservatory so he could have fresh fruit in the winter. There are rooms where melons, grapes, citrus fruit, and strawberries are grown to meticulous standards so that the fruit turns out perfectly. We also enjoyed all the tulips, orchids, roses, rain forest room, cactus, and much, much more. We even got to hear a nice string quartet concert for free! The day ended with a fabulous Italian dinner at a tiny, tiny restaurant in Wilmington’s “Little Italy” called Pastabilities. It’s been showcased on the Food Network, and we really enjoyed it.
We made it to Valley Forge on Sunday morning before we had to head back to Dallas. After doing the driving tour, we hiked around the middle of the park where the roads were closed to cars. Washington and his men were camped there in the winter and we got a little taste of what it must have been like because it was extremely windy and cold when we were there. We were freezing without the snow and bundled up in our coats and gloves and sweaters. We can’t imagine what it must have been like for Washington’s army in their threadbare clothes with no indoor heating!
As an update, Erin is still looking for a job. It is difficult to find an internship position, and this will be the last that this subject is mentioned on the blog until she actually obtains a job because talking about it only increases the anxiety and depression. (All of you who have searched long and hard for a job will know exactly what she is talking about.)
Also, we have noticed that stair steps in the U.S. are very shallow after living in Europe. It feels awkward and slow taking such tiny, itty-bitty steps to go upstairs. Often we end up going up (or down) two at a time to correct the problem.
On Easter weekend we took a long weekend trip to Pennsylvania and Delaware. Mostly this was a trip to celebrate our fifth anniversary, but we are also in the habit of continuously planning trips and looking forward to going places so it will be a while (if ever!) before we let go of our need to travel. Easter weekend was a cold weekend almost everywhere in the U.S. There was no escaping snow, unless we had gone to, say, Miami. We heard it snowed in Dallas – quite a contrast to the weather they had at this time last year when it was already in the 100s! (This is second-hand information since we, of course, were in the Netherlands at this time last year and it was not in the 100s there.)
Despite the cold weather and snow flurries, we really enjoyed our weekend away from Dallas. Neither of us had ever been to Philadelphia, so we got to visit the National Historical Park in the center of the city (Constitution Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc.) and walked around the Arts district (where there is some excellent Indian food to be had) and Society Hill. We ventured back into Philadelphia Sunday before our flight back home to find some lunch and then discovered how horrible parking is in the city. We also discovered that finding a quick bite to eat on Easter Sunday is a challenge since so many places are closed, but we ended up having some tasty pizza (maybe it was tasty because we were starving, but we were satisfied nonetheless).
We stayed in Wilmington, Delaware in the Brandywine Valley area. Saturday was spent at Longwood Gardens, an estate established by Pierre Dupont that covers over 1000 acres. With so much late cold weather there weren’t too many flowers blooming outdoors, but the grounds were nice to hike around anyway with the lakes and fountains, and trees. There is, however, a huge conservatory overflowing with plants! It was a blessing that it took so long to go through the conservatory because it was a nice warm place to escape from the snow flurries and wind. Pierre Dupont originally built the conservatory so he could have fresh fruit in the winter. There are rooms where melons, grapes, citrus fruit, and strawberries are grown to meticulous standards so that the fruit turns out perfectly. We also enjoyed all the tulips, orchids, roses, rain forest room, cactus, and much, much more. We even got to hear a nice string quartet concert for free! The day ended with a fabulous Italian dinner at a tiny, tiny restaurant in Wilmington’s “Little Italy” called Pastabilities. It’s been showcased on the Food Network, and we really enjoyed it.
We made it to Valley Forge on Sunday morning before we had to head back to Dallas. After doing the driving tour, we hiked around the middle of the park where the roads were closed to cars. Washington and his men were camped there in the winter and we got a little taste of what it must have been like because it was extremely windy and cold when we were there. We were freezing without the snow and bundled up in our coats and gloves and sweaters. We can’t imagine what it must have been like for Washington’s army in their threadbare clothes with no indoor heating!
As an update, Erin is still looking for a job. It is difficult to find an internship position, and this will be the last that this subject is mentioned on the blog until she actually obtains a job because talking about it only increases the anxiety and depression. (All of you who have searched long and hard for a job will know exactly what she is talking about.)
Also, we have noticed that stair steps in the U.S. are very shallow after living in Europe. It feels awkward and slow taking such tiny, itty-bitty steps to go upstairs. Often we end up going up (or down) two at a time to correct the problem.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
