Notes from the Grenadines

We're beginning to debrief. It's nice to (kind of) be on land again. We spent last night on the boat and will stay here until this afternoon, when we'll fly to Barbados. Then, it's back to Chicago tomorrow. Becky and the kids will pick us up at O'Hare - we can't wait to see them!

We enjoyed this trip - we spent time with local folks as much as we could, and ate at local spots (okay, the food wasn't what we're used to, in terms of quality, but we hadn't cooked it, so it was great). It isn't what most cruisers down here do, so we raised a lot of eyebrows, but we feel as though we understand more about these islands.

Here's a picture of yesterday's fishermen: (I'd like to see any of us handle these nets without winches or windlass!)

We had some company while we were in Saline Bay on Mayreau island:

The Tobago Cays. I tried to get a picture that would show all the colors of the water. The very dark line is the outermost coral reef. The guys snorkeled out there until the 5' shark kind of chased them back into the dinghy. Then there are some shallows and another, inner, reef. The clearest water is in the foreground. While it looks really shallow, it's about 20' deep here....this may well be my new screen saver! It honestly did look just like this.


And that's it from St Vincent and the Grenadines..We had a fabulous trip, and now we're ready for home. (We just wish our tans would hang on long enough to show off in Oak Harbor!)

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

"mangoes and Marley, y'know, fit me like a glove....."

We pulled into the Sunsail base here on St. Vincent today around 2:00pm. Our three weeks of total barefoot/swimsuit days are over. Got to say, we're all ready for that. Helene and I are looking forward to eating something that we didn't cook tonight! We are proud of our provisioning - we ended up this afternoon with 6 crackers, half a box of orange juice and 1 orange. That's it.

Wish I could describe what we watched this morning, but it would take pages and pages....a group of fishermen in two little wooden skiffs came into the little bay we were in and proceeded to put out a seine net. Ummm, we were in the middle of the net.....we pointed out to the head guy, who spent the entire 2 hours of this operation swimming, that the net would not go under our anchor. He kept nodding and smiling and saying "No worries, mon. I take care of it." Uh huh.... well, they started pulling in the net, and it got closer and closer until it was pretty much hung up on our keel....a guy rowed out, singlehandedly pulled up our 120 feet of chain and the 45 pound anchor, towed it out, over the net, then put it out for us and backed down on it. Then, the head guy came over, dived under the boat, pulled the net under the keel and rudder, and, hey presto - we were on the outside of the seine ring. No Northwest native would have ever done that - and never with a big smile on his face. We watched them pull that huge net out by hand - just incredible. I have pictures, but there is a cold beverage with my name on it up on dock....

I will be walking with a list for a few days, I'm sure. 19 knot winds will do that to you. On the plus side, Bob and I have gotten quite good at the jib (that was our job - I did the jib, Bob took care of the mainsail)....Team Cyprus (our boat's hame is Sunny Cyprus....

Virginia, get better soon!
Everyone else, I'll see you all in a couple of weeks.

Happy 6th Birthday to our Philip!! We wished we could have called on your big day.

The Grenadines are a m a z i n g.......

If I could just see over the steering column, maybe they'd let me take the helm...

October 24th - we had our second Moment of Abject Terror today....it's blowing like crazy out of the East. Hmmm, yes , it is still hurricane season and it is not escaping us that last year Hurricane Thomas blew through the Grenadines on October 31. Oooooohhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm. We bounced our way from the Tobago Cays to Union Island in a rough-ish sea. Not all that many swells, really, just a lot of rough water, maybe 3 to 4 feet. Enough to make a seasick person (my sailing partner, Helene, is seasick any time we go out) feel like crap. However, here in Clifton Bay Bob and I are sitting in a bar (I happen to be drenched, myself, but that is a different story) having a beer, and we're currently safe and sound.

Here is the prequel to today's report:

5 Days at Sea

Sailing - moments of abject terror interspersed with hours of boredom.

Yup, that pretty much sums it up so far. We picked up the boat on the 14th and stayed overnight in the marina, leaving on the 15th after visiting the Rasta Market in Kingstown, St Vincent. We had a blast at the market – people stopped us to tell us “welcome to St Vincent” (well, we were the only white people we saw anywhere)…we bought fresh grouper and a bunch of fruits and veggies to take on the boat. (My new favorite veggie: plantain! Yum)

We spent the second night in Cumberland Bay, on the leeward side of St Vincent island. Nice, quiet anchorage….the boat boy (more about boat boys later) who came out to meet us told us his name was “Rasta Joseph”. I have never seen dreadlocks like his. Wow. They came to his waist, were a good 3 inches in diameter….amazing. For a mere $15 EC (about $6.50 US) he took our stern line and tied it to a coconut palm on shore.

Next morning we went south to Wallilabou Bay. This is where “Pirates of the
Caribbean” was filmed. The sets are still there, but the Black Pearl lies on the bottom of the bay. (Too expensive to maintain, so they broke her up and sank her.) I’ll be Netflixing that movie as soon as we get home.
Anything to watch Jack Sparrow again!

When we left Wallilabou, we had winds of about 10 knots – nice and calm, so we put up both a jib and the mainsail….this was fine until we got out from the coverage of St Vincent Island. Ummm, this is definitely BLUE WATER CRUISING. All of a sudden we were hit with 30 kt winds (that’s KNOTS, folks, not mph) and we heeled up like crazy. Our starboard side was in the water…..this was the “abject terror” I talked about…..we were all hanging on for dear life. With these winds, there is no way we could take down the jib – yet we had ‘way too much sail out. At one point we actually tore the jib – the wind was too much for us. After 2 hours of terror, we rounded the corner and entered the bay (which we assumed would be without wind – we were wrong). We got anchored okay in about 17’ in nice sand, got all sail put away, and had happy hour. It was a rough day!

We stayed in Bequia 2 nights. I am still not sure why this was Trina’s favorite island when she was here 18 years ago. Not much to recommend it that we could see….of course, we are here before the season begins. Anchorages are pretty empty, since we are still in hurricane season.

Today, the 19th, we left Bequia for Canouan Island….Canouan is the northernmost island of the Southern Grenadines. Ahhh, we like this place! Today’s cruising made us aware that we are actually blue water cruising. We were in open ocean the whole way here. Unlike the BVI, where you see islands all around you, the Grenadines are each several miles away (today’s was an 18 mile reach).

We’ve been told that sailing in the Windward Islands is considered “Level 3” sailing. My guess is that it’s because of all that open ocean. Today, on our way to Canouan there were a couple of hours when we saw nothing but water in any direction….and all those swells were coming all the way from Africa.

We walked through town tonight. A little girl was standing with her mom on the side of the road. As we passed by, she smiled and said, “Hello, white people.” She was really, really cute. I’ve never been called “white people” before. ;)

After 2 nights in Canouan (so far my favorite place – friendliest people ever – we bought lobster from a fisherman for dinner…10 pounds for $150 EC – about $65 US. Umm, $6.50 a pound for fresh lobster totally floats MY boat! They were wonderful. The lobster guy then took me and Helene to town to the fruit market. He told us that the reason people on Bequia weren’t friendly is that they “are racists over there, mon.” But nothing like that happening on Canouan.

Today we sailed to Mayreau. There really isn’t anything here except the most beautiful beach we’ve seen so far. The water is so clear that when you look off the boat you get a little concerned, because it looks like you could just step off and on to the bottom, yet it’s about 14’ here. Okay, laugh a lot – we would probably not anchor in 14’ of water at home, but here the tidal change is about 6”, so no worries, mon. I love the names of the Rasta guys out here – we’ve met Rasta Joseph, Mr. Wonderful, Black Boy (no, I am not making that up) and more that I can’t remember. They all name their boats, too. Righteous (that’s his name) has pictures of Bob Marley all over his boat. I’m kind of hoping that he’ll turn up the cd’s tonight.

We’ve never come sailing for 3 weeks before. This is definitely the way to do it, though. We’ve done a week and none of us is remotely ready to leave. Paradise was hard to get to, but it sure is worth it.

We left Mayreau two days ago (today is Oct 23)….we are in Tobago Cays Marine Park. We liked Canuoan, and we liked Mayreau ( but it turned out to be buggy at night)….but this? This is the best of all. This is a marine park made up of 5 islands and all the water in between. It is crystal clear. This is a fish and turtle conservatory, so you must not go faster than 6mph and you cannot fish or swim in certain areas. We snorkeled in the turtle area today – but we didn’t need to, we saw turtles off our boat this morning. They aren’t as huge as the ones in Hawaii – these are about 2’ across at the most. The water is so clear that Helene got off the dinghy, thinking she’d just stand up and promptly went in over her head. Oops. Bob and Stuart went snorkeling along the coral reef but it’s a bit rough to snorkel out there. We will leave here tomorrow for Union Island and some provisioning, but we’re thinking we will come back for another day or two – it’s just so peaceful here. I did get sunburned yesterday while creating a “play yard” with Helene while Bob and Stu went off in the dinghy....if you take a nice long line, say 25’ or so, tie a fender to the end of it, then pass the line between your legs and let it wrap around your foot once, you can lean back on the fender and lie down on the top of the water. And that is how my face, legs and the front of my arms got sunburned. Sigh. The water washed off my sunscreen.

Pictures:

Wallalibou Bay, where Pirates Of The Caribbean was filmed....go, Cap'n Jack Sparrow!

Nicky getting our jib fixed....

SuperFrogman, getting ready to check the anchor.

Miles has the moves...

This was taken at my great niece's wedding.....Miles and Gracie were a big hit - they danced every single dance. Without a doubt, the best part of the wedding for all of us. Miles said that the dancing was his favorite thing of the weekend.

I'm Loud and Proud

This weekend, Ross biked 101 miles to raise money for cancer with the Patrick Dempsey Challenge. Evidently, Dempsey rides, too, and stops to take pictures with the participants, etc. At any rate, along with his 2 best friends, Ross finished the miles. Way to ride, Ross!

And in other family news, Naomi walked all by herself, without holding on, last weekend! We went to the car museum in Volo, Illinois (yes, Virginia, there IS a Volo, Illinois) and the kids had a great time. When I was four, I would have hated this place! Cars? I don't know the difference between a Bentley and a Rolls Royce - and until I went to Volo, Il, I don't think I'd ever actually seen either one up close. Point is, I don't honestly care much about cars - or know anything about them. (If it doesn't start when I turn the key, it must be broken. That's what I know about cars.) Anyway, this place has 4 big warehouses FULL of cars. Mostly from the 50's and 60's, but also from movies and tv shows. They have the DeLorean from "Back to the Future" and some other stuff. Anyway, the kids loved it....they liked 'driving' the Flintsone's car:

And shortly after this next picture was taken, Naomi just stood up and walked about 5 feet, shocking the heck out of all of us:

She's WALKING

You've gotta love the pink canes! She's not quite upright, but getting there. Today she stood up for a few seconds without holding on. A big day for a brave little girl.

Thursday, Sept 22 (already)

We have been here now for 7 weeks. Time seems to have changed…instead of the usual 60 minutes per hour, I think it’s changed to about 20. Every day I seem to lose the hours between 9:00am and 4:00pm. I’m not sure what’s happening to those hours, but they certainly go by fast!

Yesterday we stopped at Hot Doug’s for lunch. It was written up as the best hot dog in Chicago. (I have now been to 2 of the top 3 places, and I haven’t gotten an actual hot dog yet. Maybe if I liked hot dogs…..) We had a grilled bratwurst with carmelized onions – a good brat. We weren’t adventurous enough to try the daily specials – one was a truffle dog, made with duck sausage, white truffles, etc., for $7.50, which isn’t bad, when you consider that truffles sell for about $120 a pound. Somehow, making a hot dog out of a truffle seems wrong to me. Douglas (my son, not the owner of Hot Doug’s) tells me, though, that Hot Doug’s duck fat French fries are wonderful…..they are sold only on Fridays and Saturdays, so maybe tomorrow I’ll walk up and give them a try.

I’ve been thinking about driving in the big city, especially as I learn how to navigate Chicago (as long as I stay out of the Loop – downtown). Generally, this is a pretty easy place to get around, as it’s laid out in an east-west, north-south grid (except for a few streets – more on that later). You just have to remember which direction you’re heading. It isn’t as easy as it is at home, where you know you’re heading east if the Cascade mountains are in front of you, or north if Puget Sound is on your left. Those are pretty big land(or water) marks. Here, of course, you have Lake Michigan, but you can’t see it unless you’re next to it, due to the size of the buildings….and, if you are facing all those tall buildings you should be headed east, but the city is huge, so those tall buildings MIGHT actually be south or north, not east. Makes it hard for us out-of-towners.

There are exceptions to the street grid thing, though. (This is something that Chicagoans downplay a lot. They like to think that their city is as easy a place to find your way around as a two-street town in Nebraska. They’re wrong.) There are some streets that do not follow the grid (Elston, Clybourn, Milwaukee, Lincoln) – instead, they are diagonal, heading northwest-southeast, parallel to highway 90 (aka The Kennedy Expressway). Three of those – Elston, Clybourn and Milwaukee – are major streets. This means that they intersect with two other streets at all large intersections. For example, Elston meets Diversey (a few blocks from Becky’s) at the same place that Western Avenue meets Diversey, making a 6-point intersection. Remember, they do not have many left-turn arrows in this city (I have no idea why that is). So, if you are on Elston and you need to turn left on to Diversey (which we do almost daily), you have to be careful, because if you turn left a little too soon, you will be on Western, NOT Diversey…..so we have taken to giving directions as “take a “soft” left as opposed to a “hard” left…Again, keeping in mind that there are no turn arrows, this means that everyone and their brother turns left on red lights here. So, while the urge to GO as soon as the light turns green (especially if you are a little late picking up a kid from school), you don’t dare – because there are at least 2 cars and a truck that are still in the intersection, turning left. It makes things very confused. Also, you need to factor in all the bicyclists. They abound here, where cars and parking cost a LOT. Now, at home, in oh-so-proper Seattle (my tongue is firmly in my cheek), bicyclists follow the same rules of the road as cars. Here, there’s a very laissez-faire view of biking – they go through red lights, ride on the wrong side of the road, head straight into the intersection on a red light and then ride like hell as soon as they get a chance…..and don’t even get me started about their tendency to pass cars on the left while the car is in the left-turn lane. I’m getting better at driving around but by the time I get confident on any roads other than Elston and Clybourn (I know those 2 roads) we’ll be leaving to come home, and I’ll forget it all before I come back. C’est la vie.

Strange things in Chi-town

Okay, a couple of days ago Bob and I went walking along Elston Avenue....we passed this pickup. We actually walked past it a ways before we looked at one another and said, "Whaaa????????"

It isn't every day that you see a spoiler on a pickup truck.

Cantigny, Labor Day

We spent Labor Day at Cantigny, which is a park/memorial to the 1st Armored Division, US Army. It was a gift to the city of Chicago by the McCormick family (big ol' name in these parts - lots of buildings, streets, etc. named for them) in honor of Robert R. McCormick, who captained the 1st Armored in WWI. His biggest victory, apparently, was at Cantigny. Cantigny was the first major offensive of WWI and took place on May 28, 1918. The park is about 500 acres and contains two museums (one is the home of the McCormicks and the other is a war memorial), several different gardens and a "tank park." Okay, tell it like it is, it pretty much glorifies war and killing people. However, the tanks - I think there were about 12 or so - are all sitting around for the kids to climb all over them. They had a great time.

Don't you wish you were this nimble? Miles has long legs!





We took a picnic lunch and just sat and enjoyed the day....notice the sweatshirts and jackets. This is Chicago, on September 5th! It's normally about 80 degrees....felt like home.

Packer Backers

When Bob was in Wisconsin last weekend, he hung out with his buddy, Ron Kotschi. They spent quality time together: "dune" riding in Ron's 4x4, flying RC airplanes, and hanging out at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. This, boys and girls, is the famous home of Bart Starr, Ray Nietschke, etc. etc.......scene of many a football triumph. (As they say, The Pack Will Be Back.) Yes, that's a Green Bay Packers hat on Bob's head. You'll be seeing it often during football season.

This may be the only time you can actually SEE the field - usually, it's covered with sleet or snow.

Wednesday, August 31

Wow, last day of August....Philip starts kindergarten tomorrow. I can't believe it. Seems like he was just a little, bitty guy last year!

Bob spent the weekend in Oshkosh with his old college buddy. That means he had to stop in Milwaukee on the way home for brats, sausage and cheese. :) I heart Usinger's! Aaah, I've had a braunschweiger sandwich for lunch the past two days. YUM. That's enough. My arteries are beginning to crackle when I walk.

The heat is making a comeback this week. Tomorrow and Friday will be in the mid 90's, with matching humidity. Aaah, memories of the summers of my childhood. Yuk. On Saturday my sister is having her annual "Nana party." It's for her grandchildren who had birthdays during the summer....this year we're feting Alexander (my great-great nephew) and Reed (my great nephew), who are turning 4 and 2, respectively. My sister goes all out for this party - she organizes games for the kids where they can win prizes (last year Miles won all the prizes) and they get streamers, balloons, games, etc. She spends a frickin' fortune on junk toys. Each time a kid wins a game they go to a big bucket and choose a prize. They have a fantastic time. It is supposed to rain in the morning but get nice in the afternoon.....keeping all digits crossed.

So, plan on pictures on Sunday.....

Schooldays, schooldays

Nope, not yet. At least, not for Miles - he starts next Tuesday, the 6th.

I've been following a local argument in the Chicago Tribune....Background: Chicago Public Schools are among the worst in the nation. Really. Only 57% of the students graduate from high school. Only 17.4% of 11th-graders can pass a college entrance exam. To any college, including community vocational schools. For the third largest city in this country, that's abominable.

Rahm Emmanuel ran for mayor on an education platform. As you probably know, he won and is now mayor of Chicago. (If I lived here, I'd have voted for him.) He has proposed an addition of 90 minutes to the school day and an additional 2 weeks of schooling for all Chicago Public Schools. This has the overwhelming support of parents. Teachers, however, are furious. They are threatening strikes, etc. Keep this in mind: Chicago teachers are paid more than almost any city in the country. The children in Chicago public schools are among the worst, in terms of test scores. Children in elementary schools here do not have recess......those of you with sons will know how insane that idea is. I have two. Either one or both of them would've driven their teachers crazy if they hadn't been allowed outside to run and chase and use up some energy. Instead, though, children here are supposed to color quietly after lunch, I guess so that the teachers and/or lunch ladies can enjoy their coffee and chat. How nuts is this?!

Anyone who doesn't think accountability is a good thing just never had Miss Mary Frances Word for English. She'd've taught 'em. (It's thanks to her that I know how to contract "she would have," and that the quotation marks always go outside the punctuation. Thanks, Miss Word. You scared the bejeezus out of us, but we are better writers because of you.)

Saturday, August 27 (I think)

Little kids are funny. I love little kids. Becky and I were standing around, just talking, and Naomi announced that she was "STARVING, Mom." Becky said, "Well, I can offer you some appetizers. How about a few crackers and some lovely Wisconsin cheddar?" Naomi thought about it, and decided that she definitely "loves appyciders!" Me, too, Mimi!

Today, after a morning filled with shopping for back to school clothes and groceries, and lunch out at Goose Island Brewery (I discovered I like Belgian ale), we decided to take a walk to the Hallmark store, about a mile away. Miles rode his bike and we put Naomi in the stroller. (Bob has decamped to a buddy's house in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the weekend) Miles is just getting the hang of riding his bike without the training wheels, so there was a lot of starts and stops. (You have to stop at every alley, after all, not to mention the streets.) About halfway there, he figured the whole thing out - how to put your leg down and lean to stop without falling over and how, if you pedal really really fast, it's easier to stay up.....on the way home he'd ride 'way in front of us, all the way down the block, pedaling like crazy. Then, he'd stop at the corner, lean his bike on the closest mailbox, and run like heck back to us to get a hug and a high-five. He actually ran the entire mile home that way. He decided he was kind of tired when we got home.

On the other coast, Zakia and Philip had a "mother-son" day in Boston before school starts. (They'll be home before Hurricane Irene hits tomorrow.) Here's a picture of Philip making lightning at the Museum of Science in Boston.
Gosh, he's cute! Look out, Kindergarten, Philip Nelson's on his way!

And after reading my latest email from Mary, I'm missing Oak Harbor. When we get home, I plan to sit in my living room and just watch the water ALL DAY LONG. Okay, maybe I'll have a cup of coffee or knit or something, but that's gonna be my activity for a while. Of course, I have offered Mary a special dessert in exchange for some of the late-season crab she caught yesterday......

Farmer's Market

The heat has broken - at least for the next few days. Low 80's, pleasant breeze and little humidity. Nice. Especially for a trip to the farmer's market in Daley Plaza downtown Chicago.
We walked up to the train station from Becky's - passing someone's home: Felt like I was down on 1st Avenue South in Seattle. Every city's the same, I guess. This was clearly the "wrong" side of the street. Across the street, the denizens were really set up with fancy sleeping bags WITH blankets and coolers. Obviously the classier side of the underpass.

The farmer's market was great. I have never seen so many different kinds of tomatoes in one place. I was kind of hoping for different types of lettuces and greens, but I didn't find a single head of lettuce. ?? We ate crepes for lunch, made at a little cart on the street by two cute French guys. The market is in Daley Plaza, named for the mayor of Chicago - which Mayor Daley, I cannot tell you. There have been several. Central to the plaza is this enormous Picasso sculpture. Here's another view: I love this sculpture!

Downtown Chicago can be an exciting place. The architecture is amazing, and there are great pictures at every opportunity.....this is our view from the marble bench we sat on at the market:
There is an architectural tour of Chicago that I'd like to go on. (Stacy told me about it.)Actually, I guess there are several. The one I want to go on is a boat ride (imagine that) down the Chicago River. I imagine that one doesn't think overmuch about what is actually IN the river as we ride along.....

Regional musings....

We drove to Burbank, IL today...Bob wanted to find Harbor Freight - you can take him out of Washington, but there'd better be a hardware store around. Home Depot isn't too far from here, but that's just not the same thing as Harbor Freight. (Now, that's home away from home for Bob.)

I got to thinking about different place names in different cities that are hard (or at least not intuitive) for strangers to pronounce. Like, at home we have Kalaloch or Puyallup (most tourists and visitors miss those completely). In New York, they have Houston Street. Now, of course, for the rest of the country, H O U S T O N spells out HYOUston, like the city in Texas. But in NYC, of course, it's HOWston. Here, it's Paulina. Should be easy, right? PaulEEEna, the way the rest of us would pronounce it. But, nooooo, here in Chi-town, it's PaulEYEna. Like I said, not intuitive.

The heat is back up to 90 this afternoon.....we're hoping for some relief tonight. Tomorrow Bob and I are going to the farmer's market in Daley Plaza (downtown Chicago). We went there several years ago when Douglas and Stacy lived here. So I'm looking forward to some great produce tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 24

After a day of lightning and thunderstorms yesterday we awoke to high humidity and fairly cool temperatures. I grew up in this climate, (actually, St. Louis is worse than Chicago when it comes to summer humidity and temperature) yet I'm having a difficult time with the humidity. Everything feels damp.....It's supposed to get hotter this afternoon - to the 90's, with more thunderstorms this evening. Yup, it just reminds me of the day we were driving back home to Illinois from Seattle when Trina was 2 - we looked at each other and wondered what the heck we were doing. That was the last time we made the drive. We moved the kids and cat to Seattle a year later.

Yesterday's earthquake on the east coast is still in the news. It was only a 5, but it must have been quite shallow, since it was felt so far away. I wonder if any research has been done on the depth of these things in different parts of the country. At home, on the west coast, it seems that our earthquakes are deeper, and do a lot more damage (at least the ones in California do more damage). The earthquakes in the Midwest and East seem to be felt a longer way away, yet do little damage except for a few shelves and things. Interesting. I think I'll keep our deeper earthquakes and they can keep things like lightning storms, thunderstorms and tornadoes.....a good trade, yes?

No pictures today - you just can't take a picture of moisture in the air.

Sunday, August 21

Wow, what a great day! When we walked out of church we discovered an amazing thing - an August day in Chicago that was absolutely perfect. The temperature was in the low 80's, with very little humidity - a day that simply screamed for hot dogs, corn on the cob and watermelon (our dinner menu, ahem). Clearly, this was a day for the park and the playground.They had these monkey bars when I was a kid, but I never could do this....and Miles is only 5. He goes back and forth like - like - like a MONKEY!
We discovered that Naomi can sit on these little spring things with her cast - so she tried out several....but Mom got a little nervous on one of them.
After a little Papa instruction, Miles practiced riding without those training wheels....

This is a happy kid!

Friday, August 19

A first for me - I went to the Off Track Betting parlor today with my sister. My nephew, Patrick, had a horse running in the third race at Monmouth, in New Jersey. So Ellen and I each put $3 across the board (I learned that term today- it means $3 to win, place, or show) and $5 to win on Annie Way You Can. She started out in first place, then went to second place, and kind of ran out of steam just before the finish line. So she came in fourth. Actually, that isn't bad. The 4th place horse wins something, too. (I didn't know that.) Actually, other than the first 10 seconds of the race, the best part was before the race began, when they paraded the horses out and the announcer said, "Owned by Pat Lavin" - always fun to hear your family's name, eh? This was the horse's first race, so she did pretty well. Anyway, a fun thing to do for the first time ever. :)

After the race, Ellen and I went to lunch at Portillo's, which is a popular hot dog place. Hot dogs are very big in Chicago. I'm not sure why - it's just a hot dog, after all. I'm not really a hot dog fan, but it was good.

Tuesday, August 16

Including some action shots of Miles' soccer practice yesterday....he's very athletic, and the coaches kind of fed him the ball. He loved it! He had his own cheering section over on our blankets. He plays in Lincoln Park, a really nice big park on Lake Michigan on the north end of the city.
He took this shot, and made the goal, btw. :)

After soccer practice, Bob and I took a walk along the lake to one of the city marinas. Nice, but kind of different. No marina office that we could find, no shower or restrooms - obviously not open to visiting boats. Seemed strange to us.....we talked to a guy who was sitting at the pumpout in his sailboat. He has a solar panel and a regulator, so Bob chatted with him about how it all worked. Apparently, Bob's considering adding a couple of solar panels to Nellie...hmmmmm. Sounds expensive.

The weather in Chicago has been really nice the past few days. Low 80's, a pretty decent breeze - no need for air conditioning. It's nice to just have all the windows open with the fresh air coming in. Although Becky's home is close to the interstate, and only a block from a pretty busy city street, there's almost no traffic noise at all. The side streets in this neighborhood are heavily treed, so it's cooler and pretty quiet - except for the construction workers across the street, where there's remodeling on a school being done. Which begs the question: when they have al most 3 full months, why do they wait until the last 4 weeks of the summer to do school construction?

Sunday, August 14

Wow....Naomi's cast comes off exactly one month from today - on September 14th. It's hard to believe that she's only one week out of surgery. She's pretty much a regular 4-year-old....except for that temper. oops. (Hey, if I were completely immobile, having to rely on everyone for every single thing, I'd probably be a little whiny myself)....

We attended services at Covenant Presbyterian Church here in Chicago this morning....I am declaring this one of my all-time favorite churches. The minister of music here is absolutely a.m.a.z.i.n.g. The music just knocks your socks off. The message is fine, the prayers are fine, but the MUSIC.....ahhhhhhhhh. I could (and will) happily attend this church every time I'm in this town! I come away singing every Sunday. (And if I could actually SING, that'd be terrific!)

Thursday

Hey, what a great day! Miles, with the help of his Papa, rode his bike WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!! Whoohoo!!! This is a big day!

Naomi, Mutma (that's me_) and mom sat on the swings and wathed. Naomi is chomping at the bit = she;s SO ready to ride, too.....this is what comes from having two kids only 13 months apart.....Naomi is doing really, really well. We took her on the swings at the park - she was fine, wanted to go higher!

Okay, when I grow up, I want to be as strong as Naomi is ....... can that be arranged???

Back to present: the kids are really happy to have their Papa here (I'm chopped liver) - he plays with them, teases them,.....all the things that dad's usually do......he's all over it. Gee, I guess maybe we shouldn't have stopped at 4 - OMG, we could've had 10!!! S.C.A.R.Y.

Monday, August 8

Naomi came home last night! The hospital discharged her at 7:00pm, but, unfortunately, without the meds she needs....so we had to go to the drugstore on the way home. The first one we stopped at, which is closest to home, had a little sign on the door, saying they were closed, but the store on Milwaukee and Belmont (not too terribly far) was open 24 hours. So, off we went. Now, it was around 9:00, and Naomi was getting uncomfortable, since her pain meds were due at 8:00. We took her into the store with us, in her body cast (I told her to look pitiful if she could)....the pharmacist took one look, said, "I'll do this one right away." BUT, he didn't have the valium that she needed......now, it was 9:20.....he came back and told us that the only store at that hour that did have the drug was on Irving Park and Cicero (not all that close)......while we were driving there, we got into a downpour that only the Midwest gets (a real frog-choker). Got to the store around 9:30 (I drove fast).....no one at the drive up window! I had to go inside to get someone's attention...but, FINALLY, we got her the medicine she needed. Home again a little after 10. By that time she was really in pain, but that stuff works FAST!

She got a great night's sleep and looks like our Naomi again.....with the addition of her bright blue cast. Looking great. Mimi!


Miles is pretty happy to have her home...... and so is Mom!

Brown out.....

My first brown out since we left the Midwest in 1973. Lost power for an hour last night, due to overuse - too many people, too many air conditioners, too little power. It rained briefly early this morning, so we now have temperatures of around 80-ish and humidity of around 99-ish. :) I did discover that you can actually turn left at a major intersection on a green light (instead of the red) if you are out before 10am on a Saturday. (That's good to know in a city with very few left turn arrows.)

Lollapalooza = traffic

We got caught up in the Lollapalooza traffic yesterday afternoon, which added 2 hours to the trip. While we got to Illinois around 2, it was 5;45 before we pulled up in front of Becky's. About 100,000 people arrived in Chicago yesterday evening - and I think we found most of them on I90/94.

While we were in Minnesota yesterday morning, we followed a city-owned car (I think we were in St. Cloud, MN) that had this bumper sticker: "My goal is safety." Huh? First of all, "safety" can't be a goal....by definition, a goal has to have an ending - you have to know that you got to your goal. Second, I'm not at all comfortable riding on a highway with this person.....how do I know where he is on that continuum? Maybe he's just starting out and hasn't made any progress at all toward his goal. One hopes that he's well on his way, but who knows? Very disconcerting.

No good signs or anything to take a picture of in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Illinois. Well, there's corn, of course, but that's just not all that photogenic.

As soon as we hit Wisconsin I missed driving in North Dakota and Montana. In those states trucks (and everyone else, for that matter) know how to drive. One stays on the right EXCEPT TO PASS. I'm not sure what part of that concept misses the folks in Wisconsin and Illinois, but they clearly do not get it. I was going along just fine, passing the trucks, then getting back over in the right lane until I came up on the next truck, then repeating. But in these two midwestern states, I kept getting stuck in the right lane behind the trucks, because some yoyo would pass the truck, BARELY, then sit there in the left lane, so no one else could get over to pass, thus creating long lines of cars in the left lane, and a single truck in the right lane. The truckers in Illinois and Wisconsin also drive the same speed as the cars (often faster) and they don't even make the pretense of staying in the right lane....so, then you've got a long hill, and two trucks, side by side, holding up both lanes of traffic. Staying on cruise control is hard out here in the corn belt!

We are home at Becky's now, with Miles. (He'll be with us through Monday.) He's running around, giggling for all he's worth.....he's pretty happy that his Papa is here! The training wheels are coming off the bike tomorrow. Whoopee!!!

Oh, yes, Naomi chose blue for her cast this time. Shocking pink last December and blue this time. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Friday

I'll post again later. Right now, we're heading out to Rush University Hospital - Naomi goes under the knife about 8:00am, finishing up around 5:00 pm. A long day for a little girl.

Oh, no, Mr. Bill!!!

My pictures didn't post....so here they are:

This is the "Be An American" picture"


Here are the great North Dakota pictures:


>

Wednesday - 1500 miles from home

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me the endless skyway.
I saw below me the golden valley.
This land belongs to you and me.
- Woody Guthrie*

* this is a guess - it just sounds like something he wrote.

Another long day....central and eastern Montana are really something. We've never driven this particular highway before, and we really enjoyed it. It's a two-lane road, 70 mph, but there are no other cars on the road. Miles and miles of nothing, as far as you can see. Western North Dakota is so different from South Dakota - except for the black hills - those are pretty similar. You have to love that 75mph through these two states!

They take these things seriously in North Dakota! Be an AMERICAN!!

North Dakota has great signs:


For God's sake, PLEASE be polite and kind! (especially to me)

My brain is fried....yesterday’s post didn’t publish until today, so you’ll need to scroll down to read yesterday’s. Sorry about that.

On to Chicago! We should arrive at Becky's office around 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. Naomi's surgery is on Friday, so we won't see her until afterwards. She's doing pretty well, for a scared 4-year-old. She's doing better than I would be, facing a body cast for the next 2 months.....Phew.

Lewiston, MT - 740 miles from home

A loooonnnnnnngggg day. Left Seattle at 0500 and watched the sun rise over Cle Elum. We've certainly driven this route a lot - Trina and Ross both went to Central, and there were a lot of trips back and forth. I don't remember any of these wind farms back in the early 90's, though - obviously, Ellensburg is getting green!



One of my favorite places in Washington state is Vantage. (My kids are all laughing right now - because they know, as I do, that there is NOTHING in Vantage. Nothing.) Every time we'd get one of these non-summers (much like this year) I'd forget how much I disliked the heat of the Midwest and start to whine about wanting some sun. I always wanted to come to Vantage. For you non-Washingtonians, Vantage is about in the middle of the state. As you pass through the state, once you've crossed the mountain passes, you've entered arid country (especially on I-90). This is horse country....and the Yakima Nation. It's mile after mile of dry, dusty hills, covered with sagebrush and dirt. Rattlesnakes, rabbits and hawks. (Besides the cowboys) It's hot and dry. Picture in your mind an old western movie. The camera pans over the hills and there are about a hundred Indians in war paint, atop a hill, watching the luckless wagon train down in the valley below - that's east-central Washington. After about an hour of this scenery, though, you begin to drop down a long, long hill. You turn a corner, and BAM - there's Vantage. It's nothing more than a wide spot in the highway with a bridge over the Columbia River. That's it. Once you've crossed the river, you're right back in the heat and dry hills. I love Vantage.

I was really interested to see the name "Hiawatha" about 4 or 5 times through Washington and Idaho. Ummm, Hiawatha was an Iroquois chief - I'm wondering how he got to the Northwest.....Oh, well, perhaps readers of Wordsworth or Longfellow (I can never remember which one wrote "Hiawatha") moved across on one of those wagon trains.

After 2 1/2 hours in eastern Washington, entering the lush Idaho forests was really refreshing. Northern Idaho and western Montana are really beautiful - the Bitteroot Range is just so pretty....on the down side, however, we got stuck in an hour's worth of single-lane traffic, with 35-45 mph speed limits. Yuk.



We took a new route today....going up north from Missoula to Great Falls. This route takes you through a bunch of tiny little towns - Bonner, MT, has hit hard times...half the houses are boarded up. BUT - hang on, Bonner! The Testicle Festival is coming! (I am NOT making this up. I'd have taken a picture of the poster but I didn't get the camera out fast enough.) Surely that'll bring in the tourist trade!

After 12 hours of driving, we finally arrived here in Lewiston, MT. We've never been here before. It's easy to miss - matter of fact, we DID miss it. Drove right by and had to turn back and come to the motel. Right across the street is the premier dining establishment in town: Doc's OK Korral. :)

No, I didn't play Bingo.

Heading out yet again....

This time, by car. We leave tomorrow for the trip to Chicago. We'll spend Monday night at Doug and Stacy's in Seattle, then leave early on the 2nd for Chicago. We'll drive to Lewiston, Montana for our first overnight. We've never been in Lewiston, Montana, before - I'm looking forward to some new scenery.

Some of you may remember from the last cross-country drive, we took a new-to-us route through eastern Montana, through the Crow Reservation. That was pretty interesting, and it had the bonus of no orange cones (see my blog from 2009 for my observations on the ubiquitous orange traffic cones). This year, we're changing the route again, so perhaps I'll have something a lot more interesting to talk about this year. :) I hope so, for all your sakes.

We will arrive in Chicago on Thursday afternoon. Naomi enters the hospital early Friday for her surgery. So, please remember to pray for Naomi, Miles and Rebecca on Friday...Miles will stay with us while Naomi is in the hospital - and Becky will stay with Naomi the whole time. They will be at Rush University Hospital, with the head of pediatric orthopedics as their surgeon - Naomi will be in good hands.

Okay, pictures will begin Tuesday evening, and I promise to faithfully blog through the trip (well, not when we're sailing - no Internet connectivity there).

Deja Vu - Same boat, same bridge, same quilt......

The first time I went under the Tacoma Narrows bridge was in 2005. We had Lynne and Roy Kuch on board with us, and Lynne and I sat on the aft deck, stitching quilt squares. (Lynne's quilt has probably been in use for the past 6 years.) Today, as we went under the bridge, I sat here sewing quilt squares for THE SAME QUILT. Hmmmmm. Here's a shot of the Tacoma Narrows bridge from a different perspective than you're probably used to:


I blogged from Olympia, but it didn't post to the site - I was using the Port of Olympia's connection - guess I got censored. It must've been something I said. :)

We have never stayed in Tacoma before. We're at the Dock Street Marina, which was voted the Best Marina of the Year in 2009. It's pretty snazzy, as marinas go. Free showers - all the hot water you need! Plus, we got a pretty nifty messenger bag with a go-cup....okay, they gave us ONE go-cup. I guess it's for the captain - I may go up and see if they'll sell me another one. After all, the crew does as much work as the captain, why shouldn't I get a cup, too???? (I have no idea what I'd put in one, since it doesn't look like it's a thermal mug, so coffee's going to get cold anyway, but that's not the point....)


This is the Dock Street Marina - pretty tight quarters (it'll be fun getting out of here if the wind's blowing!)....we're directly in front of the Chihuly Glass Bridge and the Glass Museum....and here's where we're eating dinner tonight:



We'll be here tomorrow night, too, and then head to Blake Island on Monday. Then, it's Shilshole on Tuesday and home on Wednesday.....then a quick trip to Carla's to get all this hair cut off my head! :)