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can I have a vacation from my vacation?
Jun. 23rd, 2008 02:38 pmWe got back from our US trip Saturday night. It was busy all the way; Friday afternoon my parents hosted my grandpa's 80th birthday party, which was the first time that his family and his new wife's family all got together since they got married last fall. It was lots of fun getting to meet a new aunt and uncle and a bunch of cousins. It's weird to think that my dad has a (step-)sister now. After everyone left, I finally got to do something I've wanted to do for a number of years now, but either never had time or never thought of it in time -- dad took me out for a ride on his motorcycle. The area around where my parents lives is full of hills and turns, so it's great for motorcycling.
Saturday we had to go about 45 min. out of our way en route to Madison to avoid flooded out highways, but still got there in time to meet up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
leleth_faery at the Farmer's Market (it was good to see you!!), where we got everything we were looking for plus a couple of extras (mmm, goat's cheese, fresh bagels, and pickled mushrooms with onions, garlic, and basil). We then took mom and dad out to lunch at Nick's on State St., one of our Madison favorites, and then we headed over to the church to get ready for my cousin's wedding; my nephew was the ring-bearer and dad was doing the videotaping. My cousin Emily is an extremely organized person; she had schedules (in multiple copies) outlining precisely what each involved person was supposed to be doing at each particular time. Not surprisingly, the wedding went off smoothly with no problems (tangent: I started to write "without a hitch" but realized that wasn't entirely accurate, since hitching is the whole point of a wedding...). The reception was held at the Mistake on the Lake (aka the Monona Terrace, which I'd never been in before and find much nicer on the inside than the outside), and Mom and I got to do the decorating of the ballroom and the hall, following Emily's detailed instructions again.
We spent Saturday night at my other cousin and his wife's place, and then they took us over to the Union Sunday morning where we caught the bus to Rockford, where we had a car rental lined up. There was only one non-flooded east-west route through Iowa available, but it turned out to be the route that we would've taken anyway -- Highway 20 about 3/4 of the way across the state. Driving on Highway 20 from Rockford to Dubuque is a treat; hills and ridges and great views and cute little towns. Much fun!
Monday through Wednesday we spent at Joel's parents, where we spent a lot of time going through the things we had in storage. I knew that there were a lot of things I'd been storing that I hadn't thought of at all in the last 3 years, which is a good sign that I probably don't need them and don't hold much sentimental value for them. I managed to get rid of A LOT of stuff (mom, you'll be pleased, I finally passed on that green jungle comforter that you've been wanting me to get rid of ever since I brought it home from large garbage pick-up when I was, what, 8?), and also pull out a good quantity of books to bring home.
Thursday we drove back to Rockford, stopping in Galena along the way to tour U.S. Grant's house, since we had an extra half hour. Traffic in Rockford was not what we expected, so we ended up getting back to the rental office later than planned, meaning they didn't get us to the bus depot (to take the bus to O'Hare) on time, but quite luckily, the bus was late, so we didn't miss it! From O'Hare we took another bus up to Evanston where we spent our final night and day in the US with one of Joel's friends. (We had some fantastic pizza Thursday night, and an excellent breakfast on Friday). Our flight to Heathrow was Friday evening, and we had a few hour layover there Saturday morning before continuing on to Amsterdam, and the rest of the trip was uneventful. Got home around 4:30pm on Saturday, and it was REALLY nice to have Sunday to relax and get caught up.
But while it was fun, it was also extremely busy, and now I've only got another week and a half at home before I go to Cambridge July 2-4 and Leeds July 6-10, and then Winchester Pilgrimage July 11-13; by the time I get back, Joel will have left for AAAI in Chicago, where he'll be gone a week, and then July 30 I head to Hamburg for ESSLLI. Then I've got about three weeks at home before the Known World Heraldic Symposium in London, which is followed by seeing RSC's "Hamlet" Sept. 8, and Sept. 9-12 I'll be in Nancy at Advances in Modal Logic. Let's see...a few days after I get back Joel goes to Sydney for about a week, and I think I'm going to be in Prague Oct. 3-5, but I'm not sure yet.
Can I have a vacation now please?
Saturday we had to go about 45 min. out of our way en route to Madison to avoid flooded out highways, but still got there in time to meet up with
leleth_faery at the Farmer's Market (it was good to see you!!), where we got everything we were looking for plus a couple of extras (mmm, goat's cheese, fresh bagels, and pickled mushrooms with onions, garlic, and basil). We then took mom and dad out to lunch at Nick's on State St., one of our Madison favorites, and then we headed over to the church to get ready for my cousin's wedding; my nephew was the ring-bearer and dad was doing the videotaping. My cousin Emily is an extremely organized person; she had schedules (in multiple copies) outlining precisely what each involved person was supposed to be doing at each particular time. Not surprisingly, the wedding went off smoothly with no problems (tangent: I started to write "without a hitch" but realized that wasn't entirely accurate, since hitching is the whole point of a wedding...). The reception was held at the Mistake on the Lake (aka the Monona Terrace, which I'd never been in before and find much nicer on the inside than the outside), and Mom and I got to do the decorating of the ballroom and the hall, following Emily's detailed instructions again.We spent Saturday night at my other cousin and his wife's place, and then they took us over to the Union Sunday morning where we caught the bus to Rockford, where we had a car rental lined up. There was only one non-flooded east-west route through Iowa available, but it turned out to be the route that we would've taken anyway -- Highway 20 about 3/4 of the way across the state. Driving on Highway 20 from Rockford to Dubuque is a treat; hills and ridges and great views and cute little towns. Much fun!
Monday through Wednesday we spent at Joel's parents, where we spent a lot of time going through the things we had in storage. I knew that there were a lot of things I'd been storing that I hadn't thought of at all in the last 3 years, which is a good sign that I probably don't need them and don't hold much sentimental value for them. I managed to get rid of A LOT of stuff (mom, you'll be pleased, I finally passed on that green jungle comforter that you've been wanting me to get rid of ever since I brought it home from large garbage pick-up when I was, what, 8?), and also pull out a good quantity of books to bring home.
Thursday we drove back to Rockford, stopping in Galena along the way to tour U.S. Grant's house, since we had an extra half hour. Traffic in Rockford was not what we expected, so we ended up getting back to the rental office later than planned, meaning they didn't get us to the bus depot (to take the bus to O'Hare) on time, but quite luckily, the bus was late, so we didn't miss it! From O'Hare we took another bus up to Evanston where we spent our final night and day in the US with one of Joel's friends. (We had some fantastic pizza Thursday night, and an excellent breakfast on Friday). Our flight to Heathrow was Friday evening, and we had a few hour layover there Saturday morning before continuing on to Amsterdam, and the rest of the trip was uneventful. Got home around 4:30pm on Saturday, and it was REALLY nice to have Sunday to relax and get caught up.
But while it was fun, it was also extremely busy, and now I've only got another week and a half at home before I go to Cambridge July 2-4 and Leeds July 6-10, and then Winchester Pilgrimage July 11-13; by the time I get back, Joel will have left for AAAI in Chicago, where he'll be gone a week, and then July 30 I head to Hamburg for ESSLLI. Then I've got about three weeks at home before the Known World Heraldic Symposium in London, which is followed by seeing RSC's "Hamlet" Sept. 8, and Sept. 9-12 I'll be in Nancy at Advances in Modal Logic. Let's see...a few days after I get back Joel goes to Sydney for about a week, and I think I'm going to be in Prague Oct. 3-5, but I'm not sure yet.
Can I have a vacation now please?
