Coming home
After 8 weeks on the road, 35 states visited, 10,030 miles driven, and lots of great experiences and memories along the way, we were excited to come back to San Francisco, reunite with Pepper, see our friends, sleep in our own beds, and start to unwind from this incredible journey.
Montana, Idaho, Tahoe
Though we have few pictures to show for it, the Flatlake area of Montana – and Montana in general – was one of our favorite places of the trip. Like Wyoming, Montana is incredibly beautiful, not very built up, and has a great outdoorsy and relaxed Western lifestyle to it (they have great sweet cherries too that were luckily in season – we got two giant bags from roadside stands). After Montana, we headed straight for San Francisco in a final push that took us through Sun Valley Idaho (where we randomly and hilariously bumped into Molly and Maddy again – Maddy saw us and was frantically yelling Sophie’s name from across a swan pond as we were loading up the van in front of a hotel) and Lake Tahoe (where scores of vigorous bicyclists and runners and the obligatory Sacramento traffic jam welcomed us back to California).
Jackson Hole
Several of our friends told us that the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming were their favorite part of the US. Naturally, we were looking forward to this section of the trip – and we were not disappointed. It’s indeed a gorgeous place. We spent several days at the heart of it in Jackson Hole, going to the fairground, hiking up to a beautiful lake, listening to a great open mic night of country music at a chuckwagon dinner. We even got a respite from our road life thanks to Jon and Christie’s generous and greatly appreciated offer of their place in Jackson, where we relaxed and regrouped for several days before heading out for the final stretch of the trip.
South Dakota!
Things got picturesque again when we got to South Dakota. The Badlands are amazing, and not just because we decided to spend the night in a “homesteaders cabin” (no electricity, lots of bugs) weathering an awesome, double rainbow lighting storm. Then there are the many truly cheesy attractions (Corn Palace! Wall Drug!) along the freeway, and finally Mount Rushmore which we found to be very exciting and impressive (we purchased North by Northwest in the gift shop for good measure).
Chicago and Minnesota
For some reason we spent quite a bit of time playing mini golf in both Chicago and Minneapolis (we also visited the American Girl Doll extravaganza store and watched lots of farms and corn fields go by the car window):
Niagara Falls and more
On our way from New Hampshire to Chicago, we stopped at Niagara Falls where we met up for lunch with Molly, Maddy, and Eamon (it was great fun once we actually found each other among the throngs of tourists!), and we visited the University of Michigan, alma mater of Diane’s dad and brother Steve who gave us great Ann Arbor tips including Zingermans deli where we had a memorable lunch.
On a pond in New Hampshire
After New York, we spent a few very relaxing days with Wendy, Nina, and Kim at their wonderful New Hampshire lake house. As you can see from the pictures, we had lots of fun swimming, diving, sailing, and watersliding:
Gotham City
When I asked Sophie her favorite part of our five days in New York City, she said without hesitation, “the picnic in Central Park.” We met up with my sister Carolyn and her three children and my good friend Rachel and her boyfriend Allston for picnic free-for-all near Diana Ross Playground in Central Park. Armed with some bags from Zabar’s, a couple of bottles of wine and a whiffle bat, we caught up with one another, enjoyed the kids and celebrated July birthdays: (Carolyn, Charlie, Walter and Rachel). My kids all enjoyed meeting their new cousin, Helen (five months old), who is the happiest, cutest baby I’ve encountered in quite some time.
Other highlights…Spamalot, a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton “Women for Obama” breakfast, and an afternoon at Coney Island. Coney Island still has the flavor of the original attractions, “come and speak to the world’s smallest woman,” “see the beautiful girl with the body of a snake.” It was in this environment that we let Bennett do the dunk tank. There, seated in a fringed bikini on a platform over a tank of water, was an older woman whom I realized after a few moments, had no teeth. I ignored my PC instincts and let Bennett ante up for five pitches at the dunking lever/target. The funny thing about it was that as he was throwing, she taunted him. “Hey shorty let’s do it!”, “You suck!” etc. He got her on the last throw. Down she went, fringe and all. It was so awful, yet very, very funny.
As we pulled up to our hotel at 9pm that evening, Owen opened the door of the van and bolted into traffic. I screamed as loud as I have EVER and he turned around and was narrowly missed by a speeding cab.
On to New Hampshire!
NYC photos:
Happy 4th
Our goal of spending the Fourth of July in Washington DC was realized at its star-spangled best. At Brigitte’s suggestion, we toured Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson). On our way up the hill for the 1pm tour we saw some buses and official looking vehicles coming down. Turns out “W” had been there that morning swearing in some 72 new US citizens. He was reportedly heckled at the presentation. Now, it takes some chutzpah as a new citizen to take on the Man moments after pledging allegiance. Bravo!
Jefferson had a nice house in which he engineered all sorts of interesting gadgets. You from colder climes will appreciate the fact that TJ was the inventor of the double paned window. The house was fairly modest in scale, but well appointed and reflected his interests and values. One factoid of interest is that at the end of his life he ran out of money and had to sell everything: house, furniture, art, the works. After his death, I think maybe just 100 years ago, the Jefferson Society tracked down and bought back most of this personal property, repurchased the house and put everything back inside according to the original set up. OK, maybe that isn’t so interesting.
We then met up with Toni’s good friend and college roommate Josh and his wife K-la and their two children. It was a highlight of our trip. We spent the 4th of July evening with them and their extended family at the Army and Navy Country Club where we were able to catch, between cloudbursts, the fireworks over the Washington Monument. We stayed with Josh and his family for three days at their cooly-fabulous remodeled Arlington home. Joe and his family (another one of Toni and Josh’s college friends) came over for a better-than-Martha-Stewart-could-do delicious brunch, we toured some of the DC monuments and museums (though on Sunday we of ended up in a sports bar watching the Wimbledon final rather than touring the Smithsonian as planned…) We also got to spend a fun evening with John Burke and his gang at a picnic and concert where a local high school band played barely recognizable 80s tunes–take me back!
PS Check out the third photo below and bow to the awesome talents of Hansel.
PPS Toni just confessed that Photo #3 is actually a photo he took of a poster in the gift shop. Oh Hansel, how could you!
Next stop: New York City.
Pictures from DC:
Across the US in Summer 2008