I know it’s a bit late, but we wanted to give a rundown on our oh-so-well timed vacation back east to see Grandma and Grandpa, and to visit Block Island. The background story is that we were in the midst of trying to sell our house before moving back to Seattle, so you could say it would have made more sense to focus on, say, wrapping things up in Ann Arbor. But why do that when you can leave yourself just a few days after an extended vacation to do it!
So anyway, we actually signed the sales contract to sell our house on Thursday, June 28th, which happened to be the day we were leaving…well, here’s the day-to-day summary:
Thu, 6.28: After signing the contract, we hit the road with an eye toward stopping somewhere between Ann Arbor and Uncle Ben’s house in PA. As if we didn’t hate the PA Turnpike already, we had no luck finding a place to stay. There’s a huge no-man’s land for services in the middle of the state, so we ended up pushing it way too far, driving the boys crazy, until we managed to find a HoJo’s (that’s right, a HoJo’s) just a couple of hours from Ben’s house. They didn’t take dogs, but we managed to sneak Sevi in (sorry HoJo’s, hope there wasn’t too much dog hair).
Fri, 6.29: Arrived around midday (we took our time, including a stop at Circuit City) at Ben and Kristen’s horse farm. Spent the day relaxing with them, as Ben and Colin bonded over their common love of tractors. Colin had a first, as he puke-burped for the first time - I guess it took him by surprise, because the puke just shot right out - and yet he seemed completely unfazed.
Sat, 6.30: Off to New York to see G’Ma and G’Pa, and of course we ran into epic traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Luckily Colin was very excited about the fact that the bridge was named after George Washington, so that kept it from being a complete disaster. Anyway, after sitting there for over an hour waiting to get into NY, we finally arrived in Tarrytown. Joyous reunion and some great food from the grill, and everyone was happy.
Sun, 7.1: Got to visit with the Chaney’s! Of course we were late getting into the city to meet them at the Museum of Natural History, but they were, of course, very understanding (doesn’t hurt that they have their own son now). It was our first time meeting Corbin, their new addition; unfortunately Colin’s only care was the purchase of a soft pretzel, which overrode all other concerns from a meet and greet standpoint. And even worse, the 1st (yes, 1st) soft pretzel we got was not very good - quite stale in fact. However, the sight of the solar system display which dominates the entrance into the museum quickly dispelled the trauma of the pretzel - Colin was, if you’ll forgive me, in heaven. And Holden seemed pretty hooked in as well - he was quiet throughout the whole visit, and seemed fascinated by everything. We even managed to get a great 2nd pretzel, so the whole day turned out to be a success. As always great to see the Chaney’s, especially now that they’ve grown to 3. Love you guys.
Mon, 7.2: We were unnecessarily stressed out about the travel time to the Block Island ferry, mostly because our past experiences with Holden and Colin in the car implied about double the normal travel time. But they were great, we flew up there, and had some time to kill in Point Judith, which was fine. It was a gorgeous day, and so great to get to the house - Calum (sp?) (contractor extraordinaire) came over to fix a couple of things and brought his daughter Rory. Colin tried forever to get her to play with him - he rolled out all of his tricks, from toys to coloring books and numerous pleas of “it’s fun!!” I don’t think she ever relented. But Colin was assuaged by a killer spaghetti dinner courtesy of Grandma.
Tue, 7.3: Fireworks night on Block Island! Colin and Holden both stayed up to watch the show, with Colin providing color commentary on which planets and rockets the various fireworks looked like. I have to say I was impressed with the performance when it was all said and done. But we did have a moment of letdown early on when we thought what turned out to be some of the locals shooting off bottle rockets was the whole shebang. Luckily they were nothing compared to the real show, but they did provide some entertainment as we watched Block Island’s finest race back and forth trying to arrest these rogue fireworks users.
Wed, 7.4: Attended the Block Island 4th Parade, which was…entertaining. Lots of local flavor, shall we say. That night it might as well have been Halloween, because the adults were spooked out. Jess, my parents and I sat down to tackle a game of Scrabble, and about halfway through Dad looks over to the front door with a startled expression and says “I just saw someone go out the front door.” My Dad is not someone to jump at shadows, so everyone was appropriately freaked out. Then Jess went upstairs to check on the kids, just in case, and found the doors which had been closed wide open…
Thu, 7.5: Following the ghostly 4th of July, we had a much more mellow Thursday, as Michael and Joanie (my uncle and aunt for those who don’t know them) came out to the island for lunch (they live near Boston). They brought Colin some great presents, and it was great to catch up with them. For some reason my Dad decided to start talking about Fletch’s friends and created a mix and match of them that was pretty impressive to hear. This was our first ice cream free day (we just can’t hang with my older brother Lawrence, who never misses a day).
Fri, 7.6: Tried to see some animals after trying a new lunch place downtown, but it was just too hot for the llamas and camels and kangaroos (there’s a hotel that keeps a menagerie on the island). Dad provided the quote of the week [PG-13 warning - we try to keep this family friendly, but I have to include this] I did some work helping Fletch get Dad’s new computer set up to access the Fuller Asset Management technical resources, and one of the things we were doing was addressing all of the spam in Dad’s inbox. So I’m looking at his email and I say “Yeah, it’s a bit of a shock to look at your business email and see a message from Fletch, Fletch, Lawrence, Fletch and then one that has “huge erection!!!” in the subject line”…to which my Dad instantly and innocently replies, “I know, I get one of those every day.”
Sat, 7.7: Still anxiously waiting to hear about the home inspection on our house in Ann Arbor, so we occupied our morning at a great park that’s near our house. We hit downtown and found lighthouses everywhere - even bought an amazing barber pole lighthouse bird feeder that Colin would bring to bed with him if we let him. He also picked out John Adams from a thumbnail sketch on a book spine from a few feet away. I made the mistake of running up Beacon Hill (but I did make it back!), and we hit the beach for the first time (we’re bad, but kids this young at the beach are difficult).
Sun, 7.8: Colin decided to wake me up at 5AM - thanks! Tried to head downtown to walk around, but everyone was wiped out early. Had a great dinner at the Harborside, so that place is back in the mix, and watched the 2nd half of Gone With The Wind.
Mon, 7.9: Trauma day for Colin, as he took a nose dive down the front steps and landed squarely on the bridge of his nose. As per the usual, I was about three feet away and couldn’t do a thing to stop it. It was a gusher, and I was shaking as I tried to calm him down, blood getting everywhere (including the new porch - sorry G’ma and G’pa!). We managed to soothe him with a visit to the Southeast Lighthouse, followed by some truly great french fries at the Oar (he deserved them). Our frustration with the home selling process mounts as we wait to find out how much more money we’re out for repairs…but we did have good news on securing our rental place in Seattle, which is a load off. I made a cheesecake for the first time, which would have come out perfectly had it not been for some intervention on taking it out of the pan - I’ll name no names.
Tue, 7.10: TICK DAY. Absolutely miserable day. Changed Colin’s diaper and found at least 15+ tiny ticks attached to his groin area, right where he’d been sitting in the yard the previous evening. Unfortunately I’d been out there with Holden, and he and I both had one as well. But clearly Colin was the huge concern. Essentially it was pure stress the entire day. Thankfully it was the one day of the month that a vet was on the island, so I was able to make sure Sevi was dosed and wasn’t going to carry any of the wee beasties home with her. Somehow Jess and I still managed to have a date night and went out for a really incredible late dinner at the Manisses. [as a tick update, all were painfully removed from everyone, and Jess practiced some preventative/peace of mind medicine by getting both the boys a round of antibiotics - so far so good as far as lyme disease is concerned].
Wed, 7.11: Only thing to do after such a stressful day is nothing, and few better places to do nothing than Block Island. While the day was a wash, we did have a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit with my parents. Jess managed to misread the answer to a question about a 1927 silent movie so that she thought it was titled “Gerald Ford” (huh?). And my Dad is truly the best person you can play this game with - every question he reads is preceded by “Oh this is easy,” or “You’ll never get this!” And since he was asking questions for my Mom, he naturally provided hints to her at regular intervals, which is ironic since she needs the least help of any of us. Crowned it all off at the end of the game, when Mom needed to roll a 4 to reach the center and mercifully end the game, and her 2 prompted him to declare “Well, only got half of what you needed.” Perfect.
Thu, 7.12: Had a great final full day on the island - took Colin up to the north lighthouse to throw some rocks in the ocean, then came back and watched Holden while Jess went shopping. I later took Colin up to the beach near the Coast Guard station (which, for some reason, I’d never visited), where we had 100% success flying a kite and throwing more rocks. Wrapped up the day with a great dinner at the Beachhead and a last trip to the ice cream parlor, where Colin kept yelling “Grandpa” at the top of his lungs every time Dad went to get napkins, or water, or whatever else he had to run back and forth to get (so this happened about 7 or 8 times). Also swung by the SE light one more time for Colin, and he summed it up as we were making our way home, “It’s a fun day Mommy.”
Fri, 7.13: Headed back to Tarrytown on the 11am ferry, to meet up with the Arizona Fullers as they prepped for their time on the Block.
Sat, 7.14: Lazy day with almost the whole Fuller clan, went out to an adult dinner at the Stone Barn restaurant in Pocantico Hills - amazing. Truly. Although Martha Stewart jumped ahead of us as we were waiting for our table, and it took an interminable amount of time to get the meal going (everybody ate lightly during the day, so to a man/woman we were starving). It was quite an experience, although I don’t think I ordered as well as I could have - just have to go back!
That’s basically it - great couple of weeks, lots of quality time with the grandparents, and loads of driving, but it was all worth it. I think we’re locking down our reservation for 4th of July next year - can’t wait, although next year I’ll be sure to have the vacation review up a little quicker.
You can check out all of the vacation photos here.
