We got to the Freedman house last evening, bearing roasted chicken from Zancou, having driven nearly 4000 miles. We all jumped out of the car screaming, “We did it!”, generally making ourselves a raucous neighborhood nuisance.
I hadn’t predicted that the presence of our car in California would be the concrete focus of the oddity, the singularity, of our trip. We noticed it first in Colorado. Ron first pointed it out, I think: “You’re here, in your car.” We’ve been in California before, nothing odd about that. But, we’ve never been here in our car. The car has been like a home for us and is obviously connected with our sense of home. It represents our being here for a longer time than a week or two. We’re going to root here for a while.
For the next two days, we rest, organize, pack, set-up an office for Emily in Santa Monica, enjoy hanging out with the Freedmans.
Oh, yeah, and I have to write the presentation I’m giving next week. I meant to do that along the way somewhere.
We arrived in Glendale around 11am on Thursday, early for our appointment with the school district to register the kids for school next year, but with lots of forms still to be completed. Paco showed up soon after and the process went smoothly. The registrar was impressed with our completeness. There’s no assurance that the kids will be able to enroll in our preferred school, just a block and a half away, but it does look good. We’ll know after August 6.
After registering the kids, we went to a great lunch place in Glendale with Paco and headed to his house. The kids got to see their new rooms and go swimming. Em and I each crashed for a while and let the kids roam free. Eva showed Marina and Izzy her secret stuffed-animals room under the stairs, a cozy, carpeted nook complete with DVD player. The kids loved it and seem comfortable with the house.
It would be nice if we could all just nestle in now, but our travels continue. We head to the Freedman homestead in Santa Monica this afternoon. We’ll all be there for a few days at which point Marina and I depart for our second round: Marina to camp and me to the AAPT conference in Austin I’ve been helping to organize. I’ll be gone for just about a week, during which time Em will be working from Santa Monica and Izzy will be going to Wizard camp in the afternoons at the Science Museum. When I get back, the three of us will move into the La Crescenta house. Two weeks later, I’ll go get Marina, and (we hope) close on the new house in Clinton. Then, Marina and I will come back just in time for a week of relaxing before the fall semester of school begins for the kids.
Our internet access hasn’t been great over the last week, and getting pictures onto this blog is tricky, but here are a few.
Marcuses and Flaxes in Steamboat Springs:
The Marcuses at the Colorado National Monument:
Marina and Izzy at the Grand Canyon:
All of us at the Grand Canyon:
Marina at Zion:
Izzy at sunset at the Grand Canyon:
We spent the morning at the beach/pool at Mandalay Bay. The kids had a blast, but the sun was very strong and Marina got too much even with the sunblock. Emily too. We got lunch at one of the umpteen restaurants inside the giant mall that is the hotel and then came back to rest before hitting Las Vegas Boulevard. We walked over the faux Brooklyn Bridge at New York New York. We took a couple of trams. We watched the choreographed fountains at the Bellagio.
By 6pm, we were at Treasure Island to get our tickets for a 7pm Cirque du Soleil performance, Mystere. The kids loved it, but we were unable to fit in dinner before the show and settled for some ice cream (and cookies for Izzy). When the show was over, we pushed along with the masses of people back down to the Bellagio; Izzy really wanted to see the fountains again, in the dark. Marina got overwhelmed by the enormity of it and remarked that it seemed impossible that Clinton and Las Vegas could be on the same planet.
After our second fountain show (the earlier one was arranged to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”; the latter was to Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean”) we hopped in a cab back to our hotel. The kids were exhausted and fell into bed and asleep; we all ended up skipping dinner.
It turns out that we have to register the kids for school next year at noon tomorrow. It’s about a five hour drive from here, so we have to be out with the birds. I think we’ll all be grateful to put Vegas behind us and end this trip. It’s been amazing, but it really is time to be done.
The kids want to do a video diary of our year in California. Izzy has been insisting that he wants to be a cinematographer when he grows up, though he pronounces it cinnamon-tographer, which sounds yummy to us. Perhaps you’ll be able to follow us on youtube.
Four years ago, we spent a four days camping at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, a quiet, remote piece of land separating Lake Huron from Georgian Bay. On the last day, we packed up, drove eight hours south, and landed in Niagara Falls, where the crowds and the neon lights overwhelmed us all. Yesterday’s drive (Tuesday) was like that.
We started the day by returning to Zion National Park, where we had a wonderful ranger-led tour of the Canyon. Unlike Bryce and Grand Canyons, which you visit mainly from the top of the canyon, in Zion, you start at the bottom and work your way up. Starting at the bottom entails that there is much less anxiety about kids running around. It also means that you strain your neck looking up at the sheer faces of sandstone above you, some towering 2000 feet. We hiked along the Virgin River, splashing about a bit. Emily, who had remembered Zion as sort of a mini-Yosemite, felt the need to apologize to the Park for not remembering its spectacular beauty. Izzy got his second Junior Ranger badge. Receiving the badges involves a small swearing-in ceremony which makes it really special for him. He’s decided that he’s a senior ranger, now, since the first one was a junior ranger badge and seniors come after juniors.
We had a late lunch about an hour west of Zion, in St. George, Utah, and then crossed a bit of Arizona on our way to Nevada. We drove through Lake Mead National Recreational Area. It was over 100F outside. The scene was desert and the roads were deserted. At the southwest corner of the lake, we found a huge beach with a few people swimming. After we walked down to the water, I decided I had to swim, and the kids joined me. It was wonderfully cooling. The lake has clearly sunk, but it’s still pretty wonderful. Coming out fo the water into the dry desert air, we dried off nearly immediately.
After Lake Mead, we drove to its cause, the enormous Hoover Dam. We’ve kind of had enough tromping around at the edge of tall structures, natural or man-made, so we walked across about half the dam and turned back. It was still 102F at after 6pm.
And after an hour’s further drive, we found ourselves in Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Exhausted and overwhelmed, we asked a concierge to point us to something reasonable to eat, which turned out to be an outpost of one of our favorite Santa Monica restaurants: The Border Grill. We trudged grungily through the casino back to our room and crashed. We’ve had the kids up early the past couple of days and we’ve been pretty active too, so we’re taking it easy today. We’ll hope to see a show tonight, perhaps a Cirque du Soleil (there are six or seven Cirque du Soleil shows), but spend most of the day at the pool.
Tomorrow, we arrive in California. We’ve driven over 3500 miles.
Me and Marina and my mom and dad got stuck in a storm today in the canyon. The thunder kept echoing in the canyon. It was very scary. It was sprinkling at first, then it was raining, then it was pouring, then it was pouring really hard and it turned into mist. It was really weird. Then a bunch of shuttles came and most of them were packed. Finally we got on a shuttle. It was a long ride back to the car and then a long ride in the car to the hotel (30 minutes). When we got back to the hotel we watched a movie called Geek Charming.
first, in the Grand Canyon, we got caught in a hail storm, with a CHIPMUNK IN OUR ROOM!!!!! Then, today, we got caught in a huge storm while on a hike, and then waited for the 4th shuttle, dang it!
Part I: Into the Midwest
Part II: Friends and Family
Part III: Western Spectacles
The structure wasn’t clear to us in advance, but is now.
Bryce Canyon: nearly totally fogged in and rainy
Grand Canyon: thunderstorm with huge hail
Zion Canyon: rocking thunderstorm while we were on trail
It’s not that we haven’t had a great time. We hiked and drove all over Grand Canyon. Note the lack of a definite article in the name. Izzy earned a Junior Ranger badge; he enjoyed the process so much, he wants to get another one at Zion. We hadn’t intended to go back to Zion tomorrow morning. We’re staying in a cheap motel a half-hour west. But we’re going on a ranger-led tour as part of the requirements for Izzy’s badge. Our fun was sort of washed out today, and Zion is spectacular.
Today is Monday and we’ll be in California on Thursday afternoon. The only thing that stands between us and our destination is Las Vegas.
Hiking around the rim of the Grand Canyon with children produces anxiety.
We had less than two hundred miles to drive today, Saturday, so we spent the morning trying to see Bryce Canyon through the fog and rain. Remember the Lake Michigan scene in Stranger Than Paradise? It was like that.
We drove south through the afternoon, stopping at a roadside museum/tourist trap with dinosaur tracks and some minerals under black light in a cave in southern Utah. The scenery on the road was beautiful again. It wasn’t as consistently jaw-droppingly awesome as the day before, but close.
We got to the Grand Canyon a bit after three (after turning our clocks back an hour because Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time) and found our cute cabin. We traipsed out on Bright Angel Point, a sliver of rock in the middle of the sky with sheer cliffs on both sides. It’s fun having children running around on that thing. Yep, we all felt perfectly comfortable.
The canyon is spectacular, of course, literally breathtaking, especially given the altitude. I’m not sure I get it exactly. I mean, we’re on top of a mountain and below is the valley. It’s more than a mile down, often straight down. It’s difficult to perceive the views in front of you. But I’m not sure that explains the sense of wonder it engenders. The kids kept trying to take pictures of what they were seeing, not yet understanding how it is impossible to capture what we’re perceiving with a little camera. And how quixotic it is to try to capture, to take and hold and keep, those occurrent perceptions.
We hiked over to dinner, the Grand Canyon Cookout Experience, which was a buffet in a tent with a couple singing western songs at the front. It wasn’t bad. Em and the kids took the shuttle back and I hiked through the dusk along the rim, about a mile and a half, with sunset over the canyon.
We’re all doing great. The driving goes easily, with Em and I splitting the task. The kids continue to be flexible. There were a few little conflicts between them today, but nothing major.
We’re almost done, having driven over three thousand miles.
I just got lost in the hotel after breakfast. My mom came looking for me outside, inside, and everywhere. It was really scary to me and my mom. I ended up in the 150’s, and I don’t even get it, I didn’t think there were 150’s in this hotel.
We are going to Bryce Canyon this morning but it is raining. And then we are going to the Grand Canyon! I can’t wait until I see the Grand Canyon. It is so big, I’ve seen pictures of it. I can’t wait to see the Grand Canyon in person. I heard that they’ve built something that you can walk out on and look over into the Grand Canyon, but we’re not going to that part.
we just had a yummy breakfast and afterwords we ( as in mom and Izzy) rn into a little mishap, read Izzy’s next post if you want to find out what happened.
Eleven hours. Now we’re right outside Bryce Canyon, securely in the West (Utah). The kids were great. We’re all exhausted, but it’s not too late, just after 10, and we’re all fed and ready for bed.
It was sad to leave the Flaxes, but we were able to get out by 8:30, with a fresh baguette from the bakery behind the unit in which we were staying. Emily drove through the morning as I navigated and tried to plan our day. We decided to find a place for lunch just west of Grand Junction, in Colorado National Monument. There’s a road that runs along the rim of a series of mesas, maybe 1500 or 2000 feet above the canyon floors. Unfortunately, at the same time we were busy putting out a fire (successfully we believe and not literally - there are no fires in Colorado now by law!) with our insurance and mortgage companies. Still, we were all free to roam far too close to the edge for Emily’s comfort. We spent two hours winding our way through the sky, gazing at the spectacular vistas.
Since we spent so much time on top of the mesas, we had to skip Arches, which Derek and Ashleigh had recommended. The drive west through Utah was amazing anyway. We made good progress and got in around seven-thirty. The kids got a little utsy, but Marina read aloud three chapters of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, getting us through the exposition of the final chapters. The story ties together neatly.
We had dinner in the new version of the hotel in which Emily stayed with her brother and mother maybe more than thirty years ago. Tomorrow: Bryce Canyon in the morning, the Grand Canyon in the afternoon.
yesterday we went on a bit of a disappointing hike, then we went to a hot springs pool for 2 minutes and then had to get out because of thunder. an hour later we gave up and came back to the house then, a little while later we went back to the pool and had a great time!!
All the kids except for Marina are obsessively spending their down time with Plants vs Zombies. Izzy and Rebecca are sharing his Nook nicely.
It’s Thursday and we’ve been on the road for nearly two weeks. The kids are holding up wonderfully. I suppose that part of their resilience comes from having such a good time at nearly everything we’ve been doing. It has been a great trip. Our first portion, getting to Minneapolis, was a lot of driving, but we were all eager to get going and we had some fine time for seeing the sights. The middle portion (Minneapolis, Okoboji, Omaha, and Colorado) has been a lot of socializing and the kids have had a great time with our friends and family. Tomorrow, we start on the last leg, the western spectacles of the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. We’ll have the longest drive of our trip tomorrow, a projected 513 miles, so we’re going to try to keep down the driving here.
Yesterday, we had a full day, though things weren’t working out as well as everyone would like early in the day. We drove up to Steamboat Lake, which turned out to be uncomfortably unshaded. We took a small, nice hike and then had a picnic in the one shady corner of the parking lot. Marcus was disappointed not to be able to rent boats, but we decided instead to come back to town and go to the hot springs pools. Unfortunately, by the time we all got into the pools (and started using the awesome water slide), a thunderstorm came in and the pools had to be cleared. We headed back to the house for a snack and a game of Carcassonne, and then back to the pools (after the clouds cleared) just in time to have one last trip down the slide, which closes hours before the rest of the pools do. We had a great, relaxing time in the pools after that. Marina and Marcus were on the diving board for nearly an hour and Izzy and Rebecca were splashing around in the different pools. We all felt much better. In the evening, we took in some fine Italian food from a nearby restaurant and stayed up late chatting.
It’s another beautiful day, sunny and warm. Maybe waterfalls, maybe a bike ride. One last day with the Flaxes.
today me and my cousins came up to steamboat springs. there’s a lot of hot springs which are water that has been boiled by the center of the earth and then comes up. since they come up so far they bring a lot of minerals with them. the most noticible by far is sulfur. that’s because it has a very strong smell. it smells like rotten eggs. it doesn’t always smell but i occasionally get a whiff of it when the wind changes. i’m looking forward to hanging out with my cousins. im also looking forward to going to a place called strawberry hot springs. any way im looking foward to hanging out here even though it smells like sulfur.
We just got to Steamboat Springs. Me and Marcus and Rebecca are having lots of fun together. Marina too. We are staing in an apartment by the river. There are three bedrooms. One for the kids. One for one of the family’s grownups and the other for the other family’s grownups. We are watching the All Start Game. The National League is winning. It’s eight to nothing.
While we were driving to Steamboat Springs we went by big mountains that were like more than three thousand feet tall. (Note from editor: more than 13,000 feet tall.) We saw the river that crosses Colorado too and goes through the Grand Canyon. We’re going to see the Grand Canyon next week.
For dinner, I had beef, toast, rice which I didn’t eat because I didn’t like it.
Having made our way out of North Platte early, and crossing into Mountain time, we made it to Boulder on Sunday around 12:30. Another three-day leg of fairly intense driving is done and we get to relax, driving once in the next five days and for less than four hours to Steamboat Springs. We are well past halfway done with our total mileage, hanging with Ilene and her family at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
Em and I were exhausted on Sunday, so we ditched the kids with their cousins and headed to the hotel to check in. A quick nap extended to nearly three hours and we groggily headed back for a lovely grilled-pizza dinner with the Flaxes. If you’ve read Izzy’s posts, you’ll know that Marina had a sleepover while we took Izzy back to the hotel with us. After his itchy night in North Platte, we wanted to be sure that he didn’t wake up Ron and Ilene who had to work today, Monday. He slept fine and only felt a little left out. He may have his first non-grandparent sleepover tonight.
Since Ilene and Ron had to work, we took all four kids today. The kids had breakfast with us at the buffet. It was quite a showdown: Flaxes vs all-you-can-eat bacon. Let’s just say that the Flax kids won and leave it at that. It was rainy in the morning, but not too rainy to take a walk along the Boulder Creek, which is right outside our hotel room, down to the library. We hung out there for a while, reading Dumb Bunny (Rebecca’s suggestion) and Foxtrot (Marcus) and some Shel Silverstein. Then we walked over to Pearl Street and were able to satisfy Marcus’s craving for falafel. After lunch, the sun came out and we trudged back to the hotel to swim for a few beautiful hours. Em hair-dried Rebecca’s cast afterwards.
Colorado music: This is too obvious, I suppose, but what the heck. I love Apples in Stereo, so here are one and another. Philip Bailey was born in Denver; I’m not sure he’s singing on that one, but this is him.