How to Have a Great Weekend Away

Step 1:
Invite yourself to a good friend's house where you like visiting. Make sure that friend's house is full of things you really like (like books and comfy chairs and chocolate cake and wine). It also helps if that friend lives in a town called Paradise.

Step 2:
Get another good friend to join you for the weekend so you don't have to make the journey alone. If you're really clever, you'll even get that friend to do all the driving while you do a somewhat poor job of navigating while singing along to their CDs.

Step 3:
Arrange for Mother Nature to provide some unusual weather and therefore affording you with dramatic lighting on cityscape views and streaks of lightning crossing the sky.

Step 4:
Arrive and immediately be presented with a glass of wine followed by a delicious home made dinner. A dinner that you didn't have to shop for or prepare at a table already set. Eat, drink, talk, eat cake, talk. Be amazed by such a wonderful meal.

Step 5:
Enthusiastically sample the local delicacies -- especially if those delicacies include sticky buns and coffee cake. Eat and talk.

Step 6:
Buy a few pounds of chocolate at the local chocolate shop.

Step 7:
Wander through little shops then drink tea and eat crumpets and scones from lovely floral china.

Step 8:
Open a bottle of prosecco and horn in on hosts' tradition of picking winners for the Preakness. All pile onto a bed and root for your horse (always pick the favorite) with lots of shouting and cheering. When your horse wins, feel like you've actually won, even though no actual bets were placed.

Step 9:
Get gussied up in dresses for dinner at the local pub and take photos in the yard like you're going to the junior prom.


Step 10:
Bring and excellent bodyguard to dinner at the pub. Eat, drink, be merry, talk, and get Blizzards from Dairy Queen on the way home just to make sure you are good and full.

Step 11:
Fall into bed and sleep like a log. Wake up an loll about in the morning while hosts are busy getting ready to attend to their responsibilities. Finally clean up and go out for a diner breakfast.

Step 12:
Pack up all your stuff and goodies acquired along the way. Reluctantly say good-bye to incredibly generous and fun hosts.

Step 13:
Sing along to every song on Madonna's Immaculate Collection CD to pass the time while stuck in traffic.

Step 14:
Arrive home to big hugs from Zoe.

SXSW Tour 09: Photos

I can't believe I never published this post. This is my collection of photos from my SXSW trip. Hope they are still somewhat interesting...

My favorite gas station quick mart (Somewhere in Louisiana):

Manicures and Pedicures for everyone! (Best manicure and pedicure ever, I should mention.)


Zoe and Samantha wrapped up with the presents.


Zoe and Samantha help with the Thanksgiving cooking.


Table is set and the first Thanksgiving meal I ever helped prepare is ready to be eaten! This was the first year I didn't just bring the wine.


The chefs!

The cool parking meters in Memphis just off Beale St.



Somewhere in Tennessee I spotted this helpful sign. Now what is a buiscuit and are they appropriate for the office??


Vacation is good.

The Gateway Arch. Missed it last year and thrilled I got to see it this year. It is pretty cool and something I've wanted to see since I was about 5.

SXSW Tour 09: Turkey Week Wrap Up

It's hard to believe we're already on the road home, but before I start posting about the return trip, I should sum up 6 days in Dallas.

It was terrific to be with our friends and everyone took up right where they left off last time we were all together. It felt like we barely saw our daughters as they were so busy playing the whole time, they barely paid any attention to us grown-ups. That was a fine arrangement for us all!

As any trip to Dallas should be, the week was filled with good food and good shopping. I had two delicious Tex-Mex lunches including one at my favorite place, Mi Cocina. If you're ever in Dallas, I highly recommend a meal there. The restaurant's proximity to the Tory Burch and Cole Hahn stores is an added bonus. The shopping at Northpark Mall is my favorite in Dallas though. Karen and I did some damage at Sephora and we got new Kate Spade iPhone cases.

Dallas has a wonderful thing -- a drop-off childcare center that is open until 10pm on weeknights. This meant that we were able to go out for a really nice dinner at Cafe R+D without having to bring coloring or order anyone chicken nuggets. The Bellinis there along with all the food were fantastic.

And then I participated in my first Thanksgiving meal cooking. Karen and I made everything together from the turkey to the ice cream. In addition to those things, our meal included corn pudding, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, salad with home made dressing, corn muffins, biscuits, stuffing and 2 kinds of chocolate chip cookies. The only thing we bought were the cupcakes from Sprinkles. Truthfully I mostly cooked the desserts and bread items and Karen did the turkey, stuffing, etc. It was a pretty fair division of labor, but I still can't say I actually cooked a turkey. I was very glad I have been working on my cooking skills this year!

It was one of the more relaxing Thanksgiving Days that I can ever remember. We ended the day in our pajamas watching movies. I can't remember the last time I did that with friends.

It was very hard to leave today, but we have some road adventures to look forward to in Memphis, St. Louis, and Columbus.

SXSW Tour 09: Day 3

Well, we made it! It's great to be back in Dallas. I know it has been a year, but in a way it feels like we were just here the other day. Zoe and Samantha ran right off to play as soon as we arrived which was wonderful to see. Rob and Ashton are hiding and talking about going to the shooting range (thinking we don't know what they're talking about) while Karen and I are making our own plans for the week. All is as it should be.

Before I settle into our stay here I just wanted to share this one last list...

Things we've seen on the road that you would never see in Connecticut:

Letty's Beauty salon and coin laundry

Get-n-Geaux (gas station quick mart)

Crawfish Tackle Box (@Popeyes drive thru)

Biscuitville Restaurant

Ranches with horses and cattle -- one even had camels

Aligator farms

Billboard advertising $990 cremations



And here's a picture of Zoe and Samantha. Reunited and it feels so good.






- Posted from my iPhone

SXSW Tour 2009: Day 2

Today has been a great day, but also very long. We have just about reached our hotel for the night and I must say I am ready to get out of the car. Meanwhile here are observations from the road:

There's a whole lotta nothing much of Alabama and Mississippi -- at least in terms of what can be observed from the road.

Atlanta looks like a great city. We spent about an hour at the Underground and then drove around. I would love to go back and see more.

LaZboy furniture is much more popular than I realized. There has probably been one store for every 2 Wal-marts.

There was a big Clemson football game today. Fans go all out decorating their cars. It's amazing!

People in the south are so friendly. It is so unusual coming from the Northeast where everyone is in too much of a rush to be that friendly.

Mullets are still alive and well as a popular style in some places.

And while we spent much of today's ride listening to an audio book, Zoe spent her time with the portable DVD player looking like this;






And after spending the night in Jackson, MS tonight, tomorrow we make it to Dallas!

- Posted from the road

SXSW Tour 2009: Day 1

Thanks to my iPhone I am blogging while we ride.

We left CT around 7:00 this morning which was only an hour later than we had planned. (Mornings are tough for Rob.). Luckily it is Friday so the morning traffic out of NY wasn't too bad. Coffee and egg sandwiches from Starbucks fueled us all the way to Silver Springs, MD where we made our first stop. Interesting place, Silver Springs. From what little I saw it looks to be undergoing yuppification. That's not all bad or all good, but there were some nice shops and restaurants in one area so we were able to have a nice lunch and meander a bit.

Back in the car we pressed on to Charlottesville, VA. (Emily, please don't tell your parents we were there and didn't stop by to say hello.). After my brief visit there this summer, I wanted to stop so Rob could see the downtown Mall. It just so happened that they were lighting the Christmas tree tonight so things were bustling with music and activity. We walked around, Zoe talked us into buying her a stuffed animal, we had coffees and it was all very nice. I wish we could have spent more time in one of the awesome used bookstores, but used bookstores and 7 year olds are not generally a good combo. Rob said he would have liked 2 hours in the bookstore follwed by 2 hours in the coffee place to read, but alas we also had to get back on the road. Just as we were leaving we saw this cool book chair. Doesn't look too comfortable, but it would be an excellent addition to a library room!





So now we're on our way to Greensboro, NC where we will be spending the night. Tomorrow will be the really long day of driving so we need to get a good night's sleep.

More soon from points south.


- Posted from the road

SXSW2 Tour 2009

Tomorrow morning will be the start of our 2nd annual South-by-southwest roadtrip. Our final destinatio will be Dallas, TX but we are hoping to make some interesting stops along the way.

Don't worry, I plan to keep you posted as well as keeping very good track of Eeyore.

Posiedon found in Maryland

, originally uploaded by Marcyjill.

I just got around to downloading the pictures from our trip tonight and I had to share these pictures I took in National Harbor. The entire set is here.

What's really cool is that as you approach the waterfront area all you can see at first is this big arm sticking up seemingly out of the water. It is not until you are right on top of this do you realize that it is a giant man coming out of the sand.

C, C, & C Tour 2009: Water, water, everywhere

I have 2 wet days to catch up on.

Tuesday was spent at Baltimore's Inner Harbor where we went to the National Aquarium.  I highly recommend this aquarium both for it's attractions and unique design and layout.  A great amount of thought went into the physical space which enhanced both the attractions and the actual getting around.  We saw everything from bottlenose dolphins and hammerhead sharks to the tiniest 2 centimeter seahorses.  I love seahorses.  They have to be one of the cooler looking animals in the sea.  Somehow we managed to spend almost 4 hours here.  

From the Aquarium we headed to our next hotel in a town that Greta the GPS has never heard of, National Harbor, MD.   Luckily Google maps has heard of the place so we were able to find it.  Upon arrival we could see why Greta hadn't heard of it.  This place looks like most of the buildings opened for occupancy about 3 weeks ago.  In fact, that is the case for our hotel.   It is a completely planned waterfront area designed to accommodate those visiting or working in DC.  It is less than 15 minutes to downtown DC from here.  There are at least 4 hotels, a convention center, at lease 10 restaurants and an enormous harbor area.  Very interesting place.  Unfortunately most of the time we have been here it has been raining so we haven't gotten to walk around much although I would like to.

Yesterday we made our way to DC in the pouring rain.  As Becky would say it was "bucketing."  We had hoped to walk around the mall, see the Lincoln Memorial, the White House and then go into the Air and Space Museum.  So much for that hope.  Because of the rain we spent a large chunk of time just looking for parking and by the time we did park and get to the mall area, we were so wet (even though we had umbrellas) we just went right into the museum.  As you can imagine the museum was very crowded.  My overall experience was not a good one.  I think Zoe was museum-ed out and that kind of crowd gets to my claustrophobia.  It is clearly a great museum, but Zoe and I were not really able to enjoy it.  Rob seemed to love it though.  He took pictures of every plane, space ship, rocket and flying machine they had.  Most of the time with Zoe posed in front.  I bet if we look back on those pictures we will see Zoe looking less and less thrilled to be photographed.  

The day ended on a good note with dinner with an old friend in downtown DC.  It was great to catch up with her and to sit, get dry and relax.

Today is our last day and most of the day will be focussed on getting home, but we've got all day and the sun is shining so I am hoping we get to enjoy some of that too.  

C,C, & C Tour 2009: A meet-up

While yesterday probably won't go down as Zoe's favorite day on vacation because it involved shopping, I thought it was an excellent day. We started off with a lazy morning at the hotel, then headed out to the famous Lancaster outlets.  They have just about every outlet you can think of (except Kate Spade) and there is some really good shopping.  I was tempted in a few stores, but not enough to buy anything.  Rob and Zoe had more luck and despite her protestations, Zoe walked away with some cute things from Tommy Kids and a cool new pair of kicks.  

The best part of the day came next when we went to visit the one and only Emily!  And Bob, of course.  We were even lucky enough to catch a glimpse of their cat, Frances.  Emily and Bob gave us a tour of their house (their "manse") which is an absolute reader's paradise in addition to being a lovely home.  We also toured both churches -- the new and the old.  I especially loved the old church and I cannot believe I did not take a single picture.  I think I was just taking it all in, but my camera was right there in my bag and I didn't pull it out once.  Sigh.  They also took us to look at some Amish furniture, beautiful quilts, and we got to sit in the famous chair that is probably the most perfect reading chair ever, but at quite a prohibitive cost.  Bob made sure we didn't miss a highlight of the shops and that was really fun.  I now have all these mental images to accompany Emily's blog posts and a snapshot of their life in Paradise.  

We finished the evening with dinner at a Thai place where both Bob and Emily indulged Zoe in her magic tricks and know-it-all performance.  I'm not sure Zoe let any of get out two full sentences without being interrupted, but it was only in her attempt to impress our hosts.  She has already asked when we're going to visit again.  My answer:  soon!

C,C, & C Tour 2009: A little more chocolate, a little less roller coaster

Continuing our stay in the great state of Pennsylvania, we went to Hershey Park in Hershey, PA yesterday. Since it was Easter it was sunny, but just a few degrees too cold.

Overall I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting/hoping to me innundated with chocolate at every turn, but it was much more of amusement park than chocolate factory. There were some good kiddie rides for Zoe and the gift shops offered every kind of Hershey product known to man so that was fun.

The best part, however, was the cultural diversity. Because it was Easter the crowd was largely of the non-Easter celebrating variety. There were tons of Indian and Asian families as well as a lot of Orthodox Jew families. I have to say that kind of diversity was unexpected in the middle of PA.

Funniest moment of the day happened back at the hotel when Zoe opened the drawer of the nightstand by her bed and said, "who's Holly Bibble?"

Crayons, Candy, & Capitol -- 2009 U.S. Tour

Our latest road trip is off to an excellent start. We hit the road yesterday morning in the rain with the GPS programmed to Easton, PA the home of Crayola Crayon Factory.

I thought we would actually get to see how crayons are made, but there wasn't much on that. However there was room after room of coloring, crafts, clay, ans painting. Zoe was in heaven. We took home a big bag full of crafts and drawings. And although the place is a terrific marketing ploy it doesn't feel that way. The upsell is kept to minimum and they provide a lot of feebies to take home. Of course we did visit the Crayola store before leaving and filled another bag of stuff we had to pay for. What a great store! Who knew there were so many kinds of crayons? We even got a metallic set. I probably should have bought two of those -- one for me and one for Zoe.

After that we headed to our hotel in Lancaster, PA where they have an indoor pool. Zoe and I went for a pre dinner swim and just before bed she declared this "the best time I've ever had."

Today we woke up to Easter baskets, a delicious surprise from my favorite Easter Bunny, Rob. And now we're off to Hershey Park. I am going to OD on chocolate this week!

The worst part of vacations...

...is that they end, of course.

However, the other negative thing is all the work that has to get done pre-vacation. Work for work to make sure everything is covered or rescheduled or just plain done and work at home like laundry, and bills, and hotel reservations. I feel like I have been going non-stop since last week sometime just so I can take 4 days off of work.

Even as I try to write this blog post I am instant messaging with my boss. It's is 9:35PM.

The fun news is we're taking another road trip and I will be blogging from the road again so I'm not going to say where we're headed. The trip is not as ambitious as Dallas, but involves a lot of stops.

See you on the road!

SXSW Tour: What I have learned

Here is a list of things I learned on my SXSW road trip:

1. Just because a hotel room says it is non-smoking, it doesn't mean it won't smell like smoke.

2. The GPS woman (we named her Greta) gets easily annoyed when you stop for gas or lunch or whatever. I swear I heard her sigh after her 3rd "Recalculating."

3. Cabela's is not a store for me -- or really anyone who is not interested in either making things dead or moving dead things around.

4. Tennessee has a lot more to offer than is obvious from the highway. Like The Arcade restaurant -- I am still thinking about that French Toast!

5. Always take more audio books than you think you'll want.

6. Families on Thanksgiving are basically all the same -- it is just a lot less stressful when it isn't your family (or in-laws).

7. The highway between Dallas and Little Rock is so flat and straight that you could put the car on cruise control and get in the back seat for awhile.

8. Tex-Mex food eaten in Texas is so much better, but turkey is turkey no matter where you are.

9. Any trip that involves going through New Jersey will mean taking at least 2 wrong turns.

10. When you're doing your final hotel room check to make sure you have everything always, always, always check under the covers.

That's what I learned. What I knew going in was that we were going to have a great time both in the car and in Dallas, we were going to eat a lot, and that I am lucky to have a husband and kid who were as enthusiastic about this trip as I was. I also knew it was going to be absolutely fantastic to be with Karen and her family and that it would be really, really hard to say good-bye.

SXSW Tour: The Final Day

Yesterday was a good travel day. We got from Little Rock, AR to Roanoke, VA and we managed a couple of good stops in between. We hit the road early from Little Rock and hung on 'til Memphis before stopping for brunch. I googled "best places for brunch in Memphis" and was presented with a couple of nice lists. Both lists included The Arcade Restaurant and since it was right near Beale St., we decided to give it a shot. All I can say is yum! The best french toast I ever had and they had beignets which are nearly impossible to come by in New England. If you're ever in Memphis definitely add The Arcade to your list of restaurants to visit.

After a quick peek at Beale St., a drive by Graceland and a stop for souveniers at Zoe's request (for show and tell) we were back on the road. We pushed through to Knoxville where we stopped for dinner. I'm sure we didn't see the pretty parts of Knoxville (should there be any), but we did find a very convenient shopping and eating area where we were able to get some dinner and pick up a car charger for the iPod which was a pressing need. All-in-all Tennessee redeemed itself on this return leg. What we saw coming down did not appeal. We didn't get to Roanoke until 1AM and I am not sure how Rob managed to drive so long, but he did and I was grateful.

And now were off for our final travel day. We're getting a late start because we got in late so I am not sure if we'll make any good stops today, but we'll see

Today's plan:

SXSW Tour: Final day

Destination: home

Expected travel time: 9 hours -- not including expected traffic. Hopefully it won't be too awful coming in to the tri-state area, but I don't have high hopes.

SXSW Tour: The Return

Yesterday afternoon after a tearful good-bye, we were on the road again. Destination: Little Rock, AR. We arrived with no problems. The drive was about as straight, flat, and boring as it gets and we made good time. Luckily the scenery improves today.

Our stay in Dallas was lots of fun and lots of eating! Between Thanksgiving lunch and all the other eating we did, I think I might need to fast for a few days. My favorite meal by far was had at Mi Cocina in Dallas at Highland Park Village. It was Tex-Mex food and it was sooooo good. Other highlights included watching Zoe and Karen's daughter play together non-stop, a grown-ups night out with the kids at an amazing place called Adventure Kids Playcare which is drop-off babysitting (an amazing thing I wish we had nearby), and, of course, our first time on a real Texas ranch -- the Triple S Ranch. More on the ranch later. Right now we have to get going because we have a long day ahead.

Today's plan:

SXSW Tour: Day 7

Destination: Roanoke, VA

Expected travel time: 12 hours

Sights: Hopefully we'll have lunch in Memphis and pick up some Elvis souveniers!

SXSW Tour: We Made It!

Day 3 went very well. We were on schedule all day hitting the road by 8AM and keeping the stops to a minimum. The day's highlights included breakfast at the Loretta Lynn Kitchen (not sure if it is an officially sanctioned Loretta Lynn restaurant, but I've had worse), a disappointing stop at a rest stop that promised TCBY frozen yogurt, but the frozen yogurt machines turned out to be broken, and Tex-Mex food for dinner in the Texas side of Texarkana. We arrived in Dallas around 9:30PM and stayed up talking until Rob passed out from all the driving around midnight.

All-in-all it was a really good drive. I didn't have to do any of the actual driving so I found it very relaxing to just sit there and watch the world go by. As a matter of fact this is the most relaxed I've felt in quite some time. Kentucky and Tennessee were really not my cup of tea (even sweet tea) although I am sure we missed most of the good stuff. I have been to Louisville, KY before so I know not all of KY is like the Wal-Mart and Horse Cave hotel experience we had, and I've been to Nashville and Memphis, but this time we just drove on past those spots. What we did see seemed to be from an alternate universe where people do a lot of hunting and wear Clint Black t-shirts. Not at all what I'm used to, I guess, but everyone was friendly so I can't complain too much.

SXSW Tour: Days 4, 5, 6

Destinations: in and around Dallas/Ft. Worth area

Sights: to include, but not limited to the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, Highland Park Village shops, Dallas Zoo, movies, and many kid-friendly restaurants.

On Thanksgiving Day we're headed out to Athens, TX for Thanksgiving at the ranch belonging to our friend's family. That will definitely be a different way to spend the day!

SXSW Tour: Gettysburg

We made pretty good time leaving the New York area yesterday afternoon only hitting real traffic on the GW Bridge. We were moving along at a very good clip until somewhere in Nowhere, PA we saw in the darkness a huge sign that said "Cabela's." Rob, who was starting to get a bit drowsy immediately perked up. "Cabela's?" he said like a kid on Christmas morning. "Should we stop?"

Rob regularly pours over the Cabela's catalog dreaming up all kinds of camping and fishing fantasies. I do not pretend to understand, but I could only imagine that going to an actual Cabela's store would be the equivalent of me going to a Kate Spade store. So, we stopped and Oh. My. God. It was so absurd that it could have been a Saturday Night Live skit. There were dead things everywhere. There were all kinds of implements for moving dead things. There were things to wear while getting things dead. It was stomach turning. I can't even dwell on it or I will ruin my breakfast. Needless to say I had quite the vegetarian dinner after we left the store. The store also happens to be enormous so it was over an hour and a half before we got out of there with the armload of things Rob could not live without. It was fun to see him shop with abandon and he did not actually buy and implements of death. Zoe was quite confused by the place. I'm not sure what she thought. I will have to remember to ask her today.

So, here's my report:

SXSW Tour: Day 2

Destination: St. Louis, MO

Expected travel time: 12 hours

Sights: Gettysburg National Military Park, Gateway Arch.

Believe it or not, this morning I went to the gym and then took Zoe swimming in the hotel pool. We are about get breakfast and hit the road again.

We've got 10 - 11 hours between sights so who knows what we'll find today. Hopefully something more like Kate Spade and less like Cabela's!

S X SW Tour

This year on our long list of things to be thankful for, we add the fact that gas prices have gone down dramatically in the last several weeks. The whole Zoe family is headed off for vacation this very afternoon and we could not be more excited about it. We are driving off into the sunset for a good old-fashioned road trip ending at our good friend's house in Dallas, TX where we will be spending several fun-filled days and nights including Turkey Day and then we will turn around and head back home.

Road trip!

S X SW Trek: Day one

Destination: Gettysburgh, PA

Expected travel time: 6 hours

Sights: Battlefield, hotel's indoor pool

I have made sure that all our the hotels (2 going, 2 returning) have pools so that Zoe can get some exercise. We will also be on the look-out for playgrounds along the way. And of course, we will try to fit in some good sights -- anybody know where we can find the largest ball of twine???

I will be doing my best to blog about the journey and include photos.