Java Teas

Since AtlMom had gone out the night before to go read her email and surf the web, on our last morning in PA Dutch country it was my turn. Besides the Italian Place, there was one other place that provided Wireless Internet. (One of things AtlMom forgot to tell you about, is that the bridge on the main road through Denver was under construction. All of our directions had us going by the main road. So getting anywhere around Denver was quite a challenge)
I finally made it to Java Teas. When I walked in, the place looked like a modern Starbucks. Lots of flavored coffees, different varieties, very modern furniture, etc. But as I sat there munching my Moravian Bun (I made out better in the pastry department than AtlMom did - mine was delicious!) I noticed that the atmosphere was more like the corner coffee shop. The two girls behind the counter greeted 90% of the customers by name - and most of the time already knew what they were going to order. In the corner there was a group of older men, having their morning coffee and gossip. I had a delightful time just watching the people and enjoying the atmosphere. When I left, my energy was restored and I was ready to go pack the car. (And I did make up for being gone so long by bringing a Moravian Bun to everyone back at the cabin!)

Sticky post--dates of updates

Since the posting is somewhat erratic, and we're not nearly live-blogging, we thought we'd list the posts that we're making tonight. Does this help? (I should point out that because of the irregularity of the posts, sometimes they're off the front page before they get posted, poor things.)

I also need to point out that we changed the tag line at the header. We're going to exceed 1600 miles. I know this, because we're already at 2125, and we're still in PA.

9/22
Things I Didn't See in Boston

9/21
Day 14: From Boston to Denver, PA

9/17
Day 11 (part 2): 13 Colonies
Day 12: Boston
Day 12 (part 2): My Godson, M, who is perfect
Day 13: Boston, day 2
The Brockton Super 8

9/15
Day 10: Sleepy Hollow and Traveling to Boston
Day 10: Why There Are So Many Dead Yankees

And later that day:
Day 10: NYC Skyline
Day 11: "The British are coming! The British are coming!"

9/13
A Moment of Clarity (follow-up to "Birthday Gone Bad")
Lights of Liberty
Day 9: Valley Forge

Days 15-17: Nope, nothing educational going on here.

Learning something, learning anything in our second stay in PA was against the rules. We were there strictly to decompress. Smell the flowers. Muse. Feed the ducks. And eat, don't forget the eating.

My own favorite decompression method was out of reach, though. Our first day in the bustling metropolis of Denver, PA, we ate lunch at an Italian restaurant which featured free WiFi. My cousin thought she would have to blast me out of there with some sort of substance that's now banned in airplanes and federal buildings. In fact, she did leave me there while she went grocery shopping. I indulged in coffee and a bad cannoli. No, I also would have thought that cannoli was much the same as pizza, that there was no such thing as a bad one. However, I left most of the cannoli on the plate, and while that's happened to the occasional dessert, it's because I could no longer force anything down. Even a wafer thin mint. That was not the case with the cannoli.

For the record, the picture of the ham? That would be ham for which my son and daughter begged, after I ordered them the cheese pizza slices they usually get. (The infidels! They are not worthy of the vowel ending their last name!) Yes, begged for. . .and then picked off. That's okay, though. I put it on a ham sandwich that night.

We had a great time at the campground. The kids rented paddle boats, and managed after some very entertaining stunts to get control of them. We bought duck food and fed the ducks. (My alma mater, Furman, now frowns on the feeding of the ducks, which is a shame. I understand the argument, though, having been tossed into the lake for my birthday at least once, and thinking that I would be poisoned. The overpopulation of the ducks was not good.)

That night, the campground had a barbeque dinner, and the smell of the open pit was wonderful. We'd bought the last few spots the night before, and were able to bring the food back to the cabin. The portions were so huge, even though we only purchased 6 for our group of 7, we were able to eat from that dinner for the rest of the trip.

And, yes. I snuck out that night, updated this very blog and surfed the net for a while. Why do you ask? (blinks innocently)

The next day, it was time for some Chocolate Therapy. When we planned the trip, I had found this, this and this. We decided against the amusement park for a couple of reasons. Half of the party lives just a couple of hours from The Happiest Place on Earth, and we saw no reason to accumulate the misery and crankiness that comes with a visit to any park, even the happiest one. This was our day of relaxation. And while I know that the Chocolate Spa fits right into that relaxation. . .the price tag was a bit steep for chocolate I wouldn't even get to eat. Better to get a regular pedicure/manicure/massage when I got home, along with a bag of peanut butter M&Ms. Please tell me I'm right. (Maybe if I win the lottery, I can do this sometime. Note to self: must play to win.)

On the third day, we left. We had to make a tour of Amish Country, and did indeed see many a horse-drawn carriage. We did not, for the record, see any blue doors. Isn't that one of the Amish things? (I may be making that up, though.) We also saw several Mennonite families, who are similar to Amish, but more 20th century than 19th. They also wear colors. (And, the Mennonites are the authors of Rod & Staff curricula, which JaxMom uses for grammar.) We made a quite interesting geographical survey of the area. As we headed into our campground a few days before, we had passed through Virginville, PA, and crossed Maidenhead Creek. As we left, we made a special point to also go through Blue Ball, PA, Intercourse, PA and Paradise, PA.

One does wonder what the Amish do after the sun goes down.

Things I didn't see in Boston & surrounding area (and why I must return without kids)

• Bunker Hill
• Beacon Hill
• Hahvahd Yahd
• molasses stains
• anyone rowing on Charles River (does that only happen in books/movies?)
• Walden Pond & spot of Thoreau's cabin
• Wayside (where the writers stayed, next door to Miss Alcott. I laughed at the line in the Winona Ryder remake of Little Women, when she said that her parents were AT's, since the book's theme & plot reflect more traditional Christianity. Could it be that I was--gasp--wrong?)
• Salem, Mass: I'm always interested in Mass hysteria
• the ZOOM sound stage. I was never even proficient in Ubbie Dubbie, although I am quite fluent in Pig Latin.
• Fenway Park (but I did realize that it was named such because it was built--wait for it--in the fens! Sounds straight out of Tolkein, doesn't it.)
• Parker House Hotel (to eat some rolls, of course.)
• Commonwealth Books (which also caught my attention, as I drove past it 42 times)

Any takers for a weekend in Boston? Round trip from Atlanta for $158 through Orbitz.

Also? I've decided that the appropriate name for this is "Colonial/Revolutionary American Progam." More appropriate acronym, in any case.

Day 14: From Boston to Denver PA

After we recovered from the tragedy of losing our garbage (!!), we finished loading the car and hit the road. JaxMom and I had discovered a happy coincidence: we were well matched in terms of preferences for long drives. She prefers to ride, and I prefer to drive. So I drove.

We had to make two stops in order to knock out all 13 English colonies. First up, Rhode Island. We had each purchased the Drive 95 book to prepare for the trip, and selected the Modern Diner for lunch. The food was good, but what stands out in my mind was that the other customers were all pretty impressed with how we were disciplining our kids. We weren't making them march in a line or answer to whistles like the von Trapp kids, but just trying to keep them from annoying the other patrons.

Our next stop was Aleia's Bakery, which happened to be in Connecticut! JaxMom had promised C something from an Italian Bakery in Boston, but we ended up passing them at a sprint, running to the USS Constitution. When we invaded the bakery, the very nice lady behind the counter offered all 7 of us a sample chocolate chip cookie. We then picked out what we wanted (and some of us opted for more cookies) and hit the road once more. JaxMom was very glad to have been able to fulfill this promise, as for most of the trip, we'd gone by two Dunkin Donuts for every other single eatery. (No kidding. One McDonalds, two Dunkin Donuts. A Subway, two Dunkin Donuts.)

Finally, we got off of the main roads and were on track to hit our campgrounds, when J spoke up from the back seat.

"I have to go to the potty."

Unfortunately, there were no potties within reasonable distance. We were about 20 minutes from a PA rest area, but who wants to trust the bladder of a 3 year old for that long? Not I. After we searched our second exit for a restroom, JaxMom said that she thought we'd save time by letting him pee by the side of the road.

I was skeptical. J tends to be a bit fastidious in his personal habits, so I didn't think that would work, and said as much. But since she was so convincing, we pulled over. And J scrambled over the middle row of seats, followed by C. (C got out to be a cheerleader, and perhaps lead by example.)

There was no peeing by the side of the road.

Did I mention that we were in the entrance to a subdivision?

And that cars were pulling around us to leave? As other residents came home?

I was beginning to be worried that one of those residents would wonder at the minivan, mistaking J & C for miniature thieves. (Actually, that's not too big of a stretch, but they probably aren't ready for a life of crime.) I kept waiting for a patrol car to come and ask us what we were doing. Finally, they gave up, and J said that he could wait the 20 minutes for the rest area.

As we drove, JaxMom turned to me and said, "Your husband needs to teach him how to pee outside."

I turned to her, confused, and asked, "Have you met my husband?"

The Brockton Super 8

I want to preface this story with the disclaimer that at no time during our stay at the Brockton Super 8 did we feel unsafe. The hotel was next to a mall, and in a pretty good area of town. The rooms were all interior rooms, and the staff was all very helpful. In fact, it was the nicest Super 8 I’ve ever stayed at. Well, before we stuffed the car with our myriad of belongings to drive back down to Pennsylvania, we needed to clean it out. It was pretty well trashed. I took M out with me, and since I could find no handy WalMart bag to use as a trashcan, I used the laundry bin from the Dollar Store. It was a good thing I had the bin, as we filled it pretty full of trash. I had been rearranging and loading stuff as we went along, and then I came to the point where I needed to go for a final cleanout of the hotel rooms. I put everything valuable back into the car, and locked it. I spent some time in the rooms with AtlMom making sure all of our stuff was ready to go out to the car. P went out to put something else in the car, and I followed a minute later. As I approached the car, I realized that the trash bin was gone from beside the car. I asked P if she had moved it. “Moved what?”

Someone had stolen our laundry bin full of trash.

It took me quite a while to stop laughing.

Day 13 - Boston (Day 2)

We had a relaxed morning, with plans to mosey up to the T station when everyone was ready. The flaw in this plan was that we arrived after the morning commute, and all of the parking spaces were full. We were even willing to try the garage parking, but the entrance was off of the interstate, and completely hidden from the tourists. AtlMom had had enough of driving around the parking lot (I had taken several children into the Home Depot for a bathroom break.) When I returned, she suggested driving all the way into Boston. I was not terribly enthusiastic about this plan, but reluctantly, I agreed.
We made it into Boston, and after some confusion found the Boston Common. The plan was that I would take the kids and find a place to buy a picnic lunch, while AtlMom found a place to park the car. Believe me, I had the better end of the deal. While we were trying to navigate through downtown Boston, A was impersonating a feral cat, and needed another “Come to Jesus meeting.” She stayed in the car with her mother. AtlMom dropped us off right next to Boston Common, and we set out to find lunch. I had to be dragged past Commonwealth Books, by my children, who knew to grab me before I bolted in and was not seen for the rest of the day. Emerson’s Café was right inside the park, and we bought a wonderful picnic. We had agreed to meet AtlMom at the Information Booth, so we strolled along, and picked out a nice tree to sit under. AtlMom called at this point, and sounded slightly frustrated, as she had not found a place to park. She wanted to know if we had found lunch yet. She said she would keep trying. The kids and I had a great lunch, and ran around a bit. The phone rang again, and AtlMom said she was driving up the side of the park to drop A off. I collected A, took her back to the picnic spot, and fed her lunch. Just as I was thinking we would start heading to the Swan Boats, the phone rang again. AtlMom (near tears) asked if I would mind if she went to go see Harvard. She said she might as well go see something rather than driving aimlessly in circles, since she was never going to find a parking space. With some trepidation, I agreed (5 kids on the Swan Boats – by myself??). Just as we were headed out of the park, she called again, triumphant. She had finally parked! She joined us on the way to the Public Gardens, and as we rounded the corner – there they were! Mrs. Mallard and Jack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack Pack and Quack! There were about a million children playing on the statues, and I am amazed that I got this picture of J. AtlMom, meanwhile, was wolfing down her lunch. We played by the ducks for a while, and then set off to find the Swan Boats. M, being Way Too Cool for his family, elected not to ride, and AtlMom had a headache, so she stayed out of the sun also. P, A, C, J and I climbed aboard. C was disappointed there were no peanuts to throw to the ducks.
We then headed back to the car (picnicking and playing with ducks takes a long time!) Both moms were determined that we were going to get back to the Super 8 at a reasonable hour tonight.