Summer Vacation 2017 - Vermont

July 28-Aug 1

Orion loves the cat, Carbon

Our time in Vermont had a lot less 'doing' and a lot more 'being'. I have literally hundreds of photos of my extremely adorable nephew, Orion. I will share a few here.

Orion and his Grandpa!

On the morning of the 28th, we went to Penn Station in NYC and caught an Amtrak train up to Montpelier. This worked out pretty well overall, though not perfectly. It was about a 7 hour train ride, so I had time to read, nap, and look at the scenery.

When we got in to Montpelier, Paul and Orion met us at the train station, then we went to our air bnb in town. We were staying at a real cute air bnb in an old Victorian house. The couple that owns it lives in the downstairs and rents the 2nd floor out, and they have a 3rd floor studio for their architecture business. Paul ran out to get Thai food, and the five of us (plus little O) ate together then Paul and O went home and we all went to bed.

Phoebe and Orion

Saturday the 29th was a beautiful day. We met Sarah, Paul, and Orion at the Montpelier farmer's market for breakfast.

What a lovely family!

Later in the morning, we all went blueberry picking. The rest of the family picked a lot of berries. I picked very few, and all of those went in Orion's mouth. He had a lot of fun blueberry picking.

Orion and Mom in their cool hats

Blueberry pickers hard at work

Orion ate blueberries, and I took pictures of him eating them.

In the afternoon, we drove to the nearby town of Hardwick, where Sarah works, and met her parents, who came down from Glover. We had a picnic at a park and showered Orion with birthday presents.

Sarah, Paul, Cindy, Laura, Craig, Marie, Phoebe, Orion, Topher

Orion and Sarah's mom, Marie

Me with Orion on the quilt I made him!

I stayed at Paul and Sarah's that night, so that I could hang with Orion in the morning. When he wakes up, one of them brings him down to me, and I get some quality time with my adorable nephew, reading and playing, and P&S get to go back to bed for a while. It's a win-win.

Hanging out in the yard in the morning

Sunday morning, Paul and I went to breakfast in town with Mom, Dad, and Phoebe at a place called Down Home. The rest of the day we spent at Paul and Sarah's house, helping with housework and playing with the baby. 

Three generations of Eley men!

That evening, they held a little party for some of their friends. Paul did enormous bubbles with the kids, and we had good food while getting to know their friends. We ended the evening with a fire in their fire pit.

Orion and his prom date, Frances

 Monday the 31st, Sarah and Paul both had to work, so the four of us babysat O for the day. I had stayed at their place again, so I watched him in the morning once S&P left for work. We had breakfast, read and played, and then I put him down for a nap. While he was sleeping, mom, dad, and Phoebe arrived. We got the diaper bag ready, and when he woke up, we packed him and ourselves into the car and took a field trip to Burlington.

Our morning hangout time

Burlington is about 45 minutes away. We first got lunch at a Greek restaurant. I have never been in charge of a one-year-old at a restaurant before, and it was an adventure. But boy, can he eat. We all had a very tasty meal, and sorry to the waitresses who had to clean up the floor behind us. Also, we forgot the can of puffs there, so snack time later was disappointing for O.

After lunch, we took him to a park with a playground. He took his first ride in a swing.

Next stop, Lake Champlain.  We were getting pretty tired already, and thought we might just go out to the end of the dock and look out, but we found a little wading area that we thought O would enjoy. We walked him into the water just up to his shins, and he loved it. He promptly sat down in the lake and splashed and splashed. He liked walking around in the water, picking up things that were floating in it. He also liked scooping up a handful of lake gravel and sticking it in his mouth.

Baby in a lake

So once we were done looking at and playing in the lake, we had to change O completely, since he had sat in the water in all his regular clothes (lesson learned for the adults.) We dried him off, cleaned him up, stuck him the car seat, and he was a goner. On the way back to Montpelier, I fell asleep, too.

We stopped and picked up groceries to make tacos for dinner, then dropped Orion off at Paul's work so they could hang out for a bit while we started dinner. We had a great last night at Sarah and Paul's, having a family dinner and helping them move furniture so they could install hardwood floor. I slept at the Air bnb that night.

Dad reading a story to his baby boy. O wanted a different book.

Tuesday morning, August 1st, we met Paul and little O for breakfast downtown at the Capitol Cafe. It was delicious. Then we said our goodbyes (booo hoooo!!) and the four of us left for the airport, and Paul left to take O to daycare and go to work. My flights were uneventful, I caught my shuttle to St. Cloud, and was home, after a long and wonderful trip!!

Peekaboo!!

Reading with mom

Summer Vacation 2017 - New York City Again

July 26 & 27

We had a couple more days to spend in NYC, and my aunt Phoebe came out to join us. We stayed in an old hotel in the theater district, right in the heart of everything.

On the morning of the 26th, Phoebe, dad, and I went out to find bagels and coffee, and brought breakfast back to the hotel. After we had all eaten, we went and got tickets for the hop-on, hop-off tour bus of New York. We took it up Central Park, and through Harlem, then down the East side. We got off to visit the Museum of the City of New York, which we had never heard of, but was really excellent. I liked it a lot. There was photography exhibit, an interactive exhibit about the future of housing, transportation, etc. in the city, and other exhibits about the history of the city.

That evening, Phoebe and I went to a taping of the Late show with Stephen Colbert. I will tell you what it was like.

We arrived at 3 outside the studio. They scanned our tickets and had us wait in line on the sidewalk. Around 3:30, they had us go in the lobby. We stood in a line in the lobby for an hour. AN HOUR. Just standing there. There was a TV running clips of Stephen Colbert, but we just had to stand there. At 4:30, they let us into the studio and told us where to sit. There was music blasting over the speakers, extremely loudly. We waited there until about 5. Then a warm-up comedian came out. He was pretty funny, he picked people from the audience and asked them questions and had fun with them. He also told us we had to cheer and scream and clap as loudly as we can, as loudly as we ever have before, when Colbert comes out, and don't stop, even when he says for you to stop.

So the first 2 hours of waiting were very uncomfortable. The comedian was fine. But finally, around 5:45, Colbert came out!  He did a little Q & A with the audience, then we started the taping. It's called live-to-tape, which means he just runs straight through, no cuts, no edits. I loved the house band, they were my favorite part. They were really good, and fun, and we got to hear whole songs while on 'commercial' breaks, whereas on TV, you only get to hear the very end as the show comes back from commercial.

The monologue was great, very hilarious and on point. Then Colbert interviewed Michael Moore who was a very polished guest, and another actress who I quite liked but have never heard of or seen her show.  Then the musical guest, Black, came out, who again, I had never heard of, and we clapped and cheered and screamed like he was our favorite artist ever. He did a song that was good. Then the producer said there had been a problem, so he did the song again. Then Colbert signed off, and the ushered us out of the theater, and we were done!

We tried to stay up that night to watch Colbert on TV, but there was no way I could stay up that late. Actually I've never seen the Late Show.

On top of the world! Or at least the tour bus!

The ladies liberty!

The next morning, we took the hop-on, hop-off down to Battery Park and took the ferry to Ellis Island. I loved Ellis Island. I could have spent another 2 hours there, at least, but we had lots to see and do. But it was great, I highly recommend it.

Approaching Ellis island, there are portraits of immigrants painted on the outside walls

The registry room, where every person had to register

Back in Manhattan, we went to the 9/11 memorial. We didn't have time for the museum, but we walked around the memorial park for a while. It was very moving and impressive.

There is a group that comes and puts paper flowers in each person's name on their birthday

We went uptown to meet my cousin Amy for dinner. She brought her 1-year old daughter, Harper. My cousin Matt (her brother) is doing an internship for the summer in New York, so he came too, and their dad, my uncle Cliff was in town for a visit, so he was there too. It was great having everyone together! We had dinner at a family-style Italian place, and Amy's husband got there right at the end.

Back: Jared, Amy, Matt, Cliff, Craig; Front: Cindy, Harper, Phoebe, Laura

Summer Vacation 2017- Copenhagen, Denmark

July 23-25

We got on our coach in the morning, and it drove us to Copenhagen. We got dropped off at an outdoor food market. We all found something we liked, and sat outside enjoying the pleasant weather. The bus drove to the hotel and dropped off our luggage, then came back and picked us up, along with a local tour guide. We all got back on the bus, and we did a tour of the city. First stop was the famous Little Mermaid statue, which was nice.

The little mermaid has lots of fans

Then we went to the Amalienborg Palace, which I'm sure was lovely, but it was absolutely pouring rain by then. We still walked from the bus drop-off to the palace plaza, but we got soaked. Lindsey took cover against the wall of the palace, which made a guard yell at her to get away- apparently you have to stand a yard away from the walls. We made it quick at the palace, then got back on the bus. We drove to another stop, where almost no one got off, then Brigitte asked us if we would like to just end the tour and go to the hotel, and we all said yes! We were tired and wet and there was no more fun to be had driving around the city.

Lindsay, before getting yelled at by a palace guard

Mom braving the downpour in the palace plaze

By dinner time, the rain had let up, so our little group of 6 walked to a nearby pub where they were having live music. We ordered very Danish food.

Dad, Dianna, Lindsay, Mom, me, and Ben

The next morning, mom, dad, and I took a walk around old Copenhagen. There is a pedestrian shopping area we walked up, and stopped in at the Lego store. Onwards to New Harbor, which was built in the 1600's. We visited the palace again, since it was sunny today, and happened to walk up right when the changing of the guard was taking place.

Me, not getting yelled at by the palace guard for leaning against the wall

Nyhavn

New Harbor (Nyhavn)

On our walk back to the hotel, we ran into the International Santa Claus Convention! There were hundreds of Santas, everywhere! It was amazing. 

So many Santas. And a Christmas tree. Also Elves.

After lunch, dad and I rented some city bikes and rode around the city a bit. The bikes were awesome, they were battery-assisted, so it was super easy, and also there are no hills to speak of in Denmark. I was nervous at first about riding in a big city, but Copenhagen has excellent bike infrastructure. Designated bike lanes that are slightly higher than street level, but slightly lower than sidewalk level. Separate traffic lights. Lots of bike traffic, so everyone obeys the traffic rules. I didn't see a single biker do something they shouldn't, and all the cars respected the bikes' right-of-way. It was a breeze.

That night, our whole group went to Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the world. We started out getting a little tour from Brigitte, but it started it raining pretty soon, so she was done.  The 6 of us got dinner at a restaurant inside the park.  Then we walked around for a bit. I thought it was very pretty and cool in Tivoli, lots of gardening, flowers, old buildings, lakes,and stuff to look at. Dianna wanted to ride all the rides, so she and Ben got their rides passes. Lindsay, me, and my parents wandered the park for a while, then went back to the hotel.

Stopping and smelling the roses at Tivoli

I just loved these flowering lanterns at Tivoli. Lovely!

July 25 was our goodbye morning! We got up, had breakfast, and got a chartered bus to the airport. The flight back to New York was excellent, I watched 4 movies in a row. I watched 27 dresses (funny), The Zookeepers Wife (wow), Gifted (wonderful), and Table 19 (you can never watch too many quirky rom-coms). Then we were in New York!

Our Gate1 travel group!

We said goodbye to Ben, Lindsay, and Dianna, and took a cab to our hotel.  Phoebe arrived not too long after, and we got pizza in a nearby restaurant. Then, finally, to bed! What a trip!

Summer Vacation 2017 - Gothenburg, Sweden

July 22

We left Oslo in the morning and drove to Sweden. We got to Gothenburg in the early afternoon.  Our coach first had us stop to take pictures of a fountain, but the fountain was right outside the library, so I took pictures of the library instead (naturally.)

Gothenburg Library!

Then we checked into our hotel, and then our group of 6 went to find lunch. Birgitte had recommended an indoor market nearby, and it was pretty cute, filled with little cafes and stalls. We got lunch at a quick-serve Swedish place, most everyone got meatballs. I got a kind of veggie plate that reminded me of the IKEA veggie medallions- if you don't know what those are, you're missing out.

Gothenburg, canal and government building

Then we decided to take a canal boat tour. We only had this afternoon in Gothenburg, so we wanted to make the most of it. Most of the rest of our tour group was also in line for the canal tour!

The canal tour was as expected, they took us around Gothenburg and told us the history and the significant sights. I wasn't terribly impressed, but at least we got to see the city.

Boat tour!

After the canal tour, Lindsay, Ben, Dianna, and I walked to the old town. In the old town I found a bakery to get a snack. My only regret is buying just one snack. This bakery was out of this world. I should have bought one of everything.

We saw a castle-type building at the top of a hill, and climbed up to it. There was a staircase straight up the hill, and when we got to the top, I collapsed on a bench and dreamed of baked goods I didn't have.

Cookies, bars, and pies

Treats I don't even know what they are called.

After looking out at the city, we discussed walking to this church that had been pointed out to us on the boat tour, with a tall winding tower you can climb up. Lindsay and Ben decided to go find the church (we could see the top from our hill), and Dianna and I decided to not be insane, and walked back to the hotel.

We ran into my mom on the sidewalk near our hotel, so the three of us went into the big central department store to see what they had in the way of souvenirs. They didn't have a lot, but what they had was very Swedish.

Dinner was at the hotel that night, it was fine, but small.

After dinner, our group of 6 took a walk with our new tour friends, Adam and Anna. The sun stays up so late, that by the time we got back it was well after 10. Time for bed!

Summer Vacation 2017 - Oslo again

July 21st

Dianna and I did not sleep very well. We had our windows open as wide as they would go, which was not very wide, so we were very hot.  Besides that, the waterfront is a fun party place all. night. long. I think the music finally stopped around 4am.  So I was tired today.

Lucky for me, today was mostly riding in the bus, back to Oslo.  We left right after breakfast, and it had started to rain in Bergen, as promised. We seem to have truly gotten one of the only days of sunshine. 

My only picture from the whole bus ride - There are sheep and rocks down there. Which is which? Your guess is as good as mine.

The bus stopped for lunch in a cute little mountain town, and we again ate a delicious cafeteria. I slept pretty much the whole bus ride, so I don't really have much to say about this day.

Even the cafeteria has lovely design.

Chicken Cesar salad at the cafeteria. Delicious.

We got back to Oslo around 5pm, and this time we were staying at a hotel way high up on the mountain, right by the ski jump.  Our whole tour group went to the ski jump before dinner, they have a museum that we didn't go in, and you can walk around the grounds of the ski jump.  We found another troll out there!

The old part of our hotel.

Oslo skip jump.

The troll at the Oslo ski jump.

After dinner, Ben and I took a walk in the woods, then played a game before bed.

I feel just like I'm in Frozen!