When I grow up...

When I grow up, I want to be one of these guys, or at least do my own pilgrimage in their honor.

Road Trip, part I

Not much of note happened during the first half of the trip - NC, TN, AR, and OK all look pretty much the same each time one drives through them (with NC and TN being far more pleasant and interesting, imho). When e got to NM, however, we were in for some interesting sights. As we were driving through the desert east of Albuquerque, we could see a massive storm ahead - several miles wide, easily. We stopped and took a few cool pictures of the sky.



The next day we were on through Arizona and up to Las Vegas. Arizona's rock formations, as always, amaze me.


Before we reached Vegas, we drove over the Hoover Dam. Now, I've always heard of it, of course, and love the song by Sugar, but didn't really know what to expect when we got there. I was def. selling the thing short. And kudos to whoever it was that came up with the plan to make a feat of engineering a tourist attraction! I seriously want to go back when we have more time and spend a few hours looking at the displays and wandering around. (Note to self - do not try to drive a massive RV down the windy mountain road surrounding the dam, like someone we were stuck behind for a half hour.)




Mitch was Vegas earlier this summer, but neither Ethan nor I had been before, so we stopped off to take in the spectacle for a day. Like all good, non-corrupting parents, we let Ethan choose which casino hotel to stay at. We offered him a choice between the Luxor and the Excalibur (we were just there for a night, not looking for a place you'd want to stay for ages and ages). Ethan, being my child chose to stay in a castle over a pyramid, so the Excalibur it was. (I was secretly pleased, too, as Carrot Top is in residence at the Luxor, and the idea of encountering him and his scary torso is about enough to give me nightmares.)




I loved the water "show" at the Bellagio, sadly, though, we did not see George, Brad, or any of the other Oceans 11-13 people while we were there. We stayed out of Pacino's wonky casino as well. I think Ethan's faavorite thing was our visit to M&Ms World, where he could mix his own color combo of M&Ms. (He went for purple, hot pink, blue, and mixed colors, both regular and Mini M&M size, in plain and dark chocolate.)




After one night in Vegas, we were on to CA...

Long time, no blog

Gads, it's been positively AGES since I've blogged regularly! Where have I been? I suppose a better thing to say would be, where have I NOT been? As we prep more for the move to CA, we decided that we a) ended to get a car out to CA for Mitch to use all the time so his company won't have to keep renting him one and b) we needed a family vacation. It wasn't the most relaxing thing we've ever done, but it was fun. So, we set off - on a mere 24 hrs notice, for Road Trip 2007.

We did the drive (NC to CA) in about 5 days, without really pushing ourselves. We stopped in Knoxville, TN, Fort Smith, AR, Albuquerque, NM, and Las Vegas, NV along the way. I've not got much to report on the first half of the trip, but will be blogging about the more interesting parts of the trip, and the following 2 weeks that Ethan and I spent in CA with Mitch. (We're back in NC now, waiting for school to start and the move to get underway.)

Where to go...

Thanks to Gillian for this insightful travel info.

And for my next vacation...

I'm going to Dickens World!

Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, NC

One of our favorite parts of the OBX trip was visiting The Elizabethan Gardens, at the site of the Lost Colony, in Manteo. Ethan, especially, enjoyed it, as he loves flowers and birds. I'm including a picture here of him with his activity sheet - a garden search game the ladies in the gift shop gave him. For someone visiting so early in the season, he managed to find quite a lot of the animals and plants on his "to find" list. We also enjoyed looking at the Elizabethan architecture (the ceiling photo is to die for - someday I must have a room with this ceiling!) and the views of Roanoke Sound from the gardens. The photo of the massive oak tree is one of my favorites - it is said that this very tree was living when the colonists first landed on Roanoke Island in 1588.

Illuminating times

I've finally got tie to finish blogging about our OBX trip over Spring Break. (I had 2 new classes start this week, intro to IT, which took up more time than i'd expected).

So, without further adieu, I give you, lighthouses of the NC Outer Banks!

First up, Bodie Island Lighthouse (pronounced "body"), on the Roanoke Sound side, north end of Hatteras Island. This was our first stop on the Grand Tour of Lighthouses.
























































































Next, the granddaddy of all NC lights, the Cape Hatteras Light - the quintessential American lighthouse (I think).













What is most impressive to me about the Cape Light is that it is now standing 2900 feet southwest of its original location (after being moved, intact, in 1999). This picture is taken from the site of the original 1903 foundation, looking towards its new home.


























Next, came the Ocracoke Lighthouse, on Ocracoke Island, one of the most remote areas I've been to in NC - as evidenced by the 13-mile drive from the ferry terminal to the first building on the island,























and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, in Corolla.






















Last but not least, we visited the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, overlooking the Roanoke Sound, in Manteo.

To the lighthouse

In college and grad school, I famously loathed Virginia Woolfe's To the Lighthouse, so I am as surprised as anyone to see a blog post with this title, but, truly, it's the best one to describe our trip to the Outer Banks this week. I asked Ethan before we went what he wanted to see or do, and he said, "See a lighthouse." North Carolina has several, so I said OK, and promised we would. As it happens, there are several on the Outer Banks, and we managed to see them all!

The first picture here was taken at sunset on 4/3/07, in Kill Devil Hills, NC. it's the view from our table at dinner.

We stayed in Manteo, on Roanoke Island, a gorgeous little waterfront town, and the site of the first English colony ("the Lost Colony") of 1587.

My next few blog entries will be about the trip, but here's a sample of what we did and saw.

Bodie Island Lighthouse, Hatteras Island







Cape Hatteras Lighthouse







Ethan at the Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, NC







Cape Hatteras Beach, 10am 4/4/07. No one was on the beach but Ethan and I!








Roanoke Sound








Another view of Roanoke Sound








Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, Manteo, NC








Currituck Lighthouse, Corolla, NC

Fleeing the pollen

It's pollen time in Raleigh right now - the worst it's been in years, they tell us on the news. Sure, springtime always bring pollen, but this is just awful. I've got drifts (literally) of sticky, yellow/chartreuse pollen all over everything. My black car. The outdoor table and chairs. The little ledge on the front door. Everywhere. Yesterday I had to mop and vacuum on account of all the pollen being tracked in on our shoes. Ugh. What we need is a good cleaning rain to rid us of the stuff, but I'm not hopeful. Please, God, do't let there be pollen like this in CA! Partly in response to the pollen, and partly because it's Ethan's spring break, we are running away. We're headed to Manteo, on Roanoke Island, this afternoon for a few days. We'll be exploring lighthouses, eating too much seafood, and having a look around the first English colony in the New World. I've been reading some books like If You Lived in Colonial Times to Ethan to get him in he mood for what we will be seeing. He's enjoying it all so far. I think our favorite thing we have learned is that, if he was to write MItch a letter,rhe couldn't address it "Dear Dad..." but instead would have to write "Dear Honour'd Sir..." and then sign it "I am, with greatest respect, Dear Father, your dutiful son, Ethan." Ha!

California, here we come!

At long last, it's true... we are moving to northern California! Watch this space for more details :-)

Liz - send me an email we need to confer!

Sealand, Sealand, Sealand

Sealand is for sale. Part of me actually wishes to buy this thing/place, all on account of this article I read years ago in Wired magazine.

The Tech and Christmas in the Park (San Jose, 12/10)

Bright and early on Sunday morning, we drove downtown San Jose to visit The Tech museum. Mitch and I attended a party during WWDC there way back when he was working at Apple, but hadn't been back since. We were sure Ethan would love it, and we were right. I think his favorite thing was visiting the IDEA house, where he had great fun playing with a Rube Goldberg machine and creating a raft for a mouse to float around on.


He also enjoyed playing with pool noodles that could be put into all sorts of crazy patterns, shapes, etc.


Next, we moved onto the robots, where one spelled his name. He also had a chance to do a virtual puppet show, wherein he played a butterfly,

and designed a bike, which you can see HERE (to be added).

After leaving the museum, we went across the street for something we didn't even know existed, Christmas in the Park. There were all kids of great trees decorated by local groups, and also dioramas, including a train, Santa's workshop, and a gingerbread house. Ethan loved it!


Perhaps the funniest thing we saw there was this warning sign:

Once we'd seen it all, we headed back into San Francisco, just in time for the really good weather (the best of the whole trip) to come out.