Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day

Good morning from Virginia. This morning is it for us here in this state. We will be driving to Kitty Hawk later in the morning. It's currently 6AM and I don't plan on leaving here till probably 10AM. After Kitty Hawk we will drive to Rocky Mount to go see Beth's Aunt Mickie.
Virginia has been fun. We went to Colonial Williamsburg and historic downtown Yorktown on Friday. Saturday was a very lax day. Beth and I went and played out in the York river as the big excitement of the day. The only other really exciting thing was having brownie sundaes last night. Oh and I did buy a new computer yesterday as well. It's the new 13" MacBook Pro. It's awesome.
So far the trip has been going well, it's been going more smoothly than I figured it would. You never know what will happen when you put three women in a car for long periods of time especially when my mother and I are in there.
It's been rather warm here as well. Friday it was 89 with way too much humidity and yesterday it was 95 with some humidity. I forgot what hot and humid was like. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Good Morning Delaware

Monday (at 3 AM) my mom, friend Beth, and I started on our two week excursion to the East Coast. We stopped in Kirtland, Ohio as our first official stop on the trip. We spent some time there. There is some church history there, thus the reason for the stop. It was kinda cool. I like history, no matter what kind. We continued on through a small section of Pennsylvania, just about the entire state of New York, and stopped for the night in Vermont. New York was beautiful. I've been through most of New York state, but mom and Beth had never been there. I did a majority of the driving that first day.
Day Two - We woke up in the beautiful state of Vermont and hit the road for Ben & Jerry's. The directions weren't as clear as they could have been and we ended up on a scenic highway. There was a sign pointing to Waterbury, the town where Ben & Jerry's is, so we took that way. If you are ever in Vermont, drive Rt 100. It was gorgeous. We saw a couple waterfalls, took some pictures, and enjoyed the drive through the mountains. I'm glad we got off the beaten path and went. I love back roads and this one was amazing. We made it to Ben & Jerry's and took the tour. Nothing like free ice cream. Of course being there you can buy a pint of anything they make. There were flavors I hadn't heard of. Mmmm Ben & Jerry's. After spending too much time in the gift shop and eating a pint of ice cream, for lunch, we started on our way to Maine. It was a beautiful drive through the rest of Vermont and New Hampshire. We drove up to Wiscasset, Maine to a little roadside stand for the best lobster roll in Maine. It was awesome. For those of you that know me, know that I am not a seafood fan. I grew up in Illinois and seafood was anything but fresh. After moving to Alaska, I realized my problem wasn't the seafood, it was the lack of good seafood. The lobster roll and crab cakes we had there were amazing. We then drove out to the ocean, and I played around in it, and then settled for the night.
Day 3 - We explored a little more of Maine, including going to LL Bean. That was fun. The store was huge. We had too much fun there and probably spent a bit too much. We had crab roll from a street vendor that tasted good. Then went to go find a yarn store that mom wanted to see. We made it there but sadly, for mom, they were closed. So we got back on the highway and started our drive down the coast. We drove through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Conneticut, New York City (well the Bronx), New Jersey, and finally settled for the night in Delaware.
Today we will drive down to Virginia to go see one of my uncles. We'll spend a couple of days there before we head out on the road again. It should be a fun little drive.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Nothing like a hot shower

After replacing the hot water heater, it still wasn't working. Well last night we went to the Spot, it's a drive up burger place with homemade rootbeer and orange soda on tap. It's great. We got home and debated what to do about the hot water problem. I also tried to figure out where everyone was sleeping because we have a too many people, not enough beds problem. Just then mom called out from the bathroom, WE HAVE HOT WATER. What a wonderful statement. Yay hot water. Well I went and slept out in the tent last night. Someone has to try it out before the road trip. It was great. It was also really nice to take a hot shower this morning. Now I just need to figure out what else I'm going to do with the day. I need to finish getting all the directions to the various places we're going on this road trip put together. Well it's something to do.

Friday, June 12, 2009

What spews water all over the cellar.....

If you guessed the hot water heater, then you would be correct. Yesterday I took a shower that was anything but warm, but with 5 people in the house and everything being old, I didn't think too much of it. Well I did wonder why the water wasn't getting warm, but considering I've taken really cold showers before, I just did my thing and got out. It turns out that the water heater had died and was spewing water in the cellar. This is one of those times that having a cellar, which has a sand floor, is a great thing. My parents went and bought a hot water heater last night to remedy the problem. Well after spending hours working on it last night and a little while working on it this morning my dad ran out of time to get it working, so we still have no hot water. I didn't really get the whole story about what isn't working right now, but I believe it has to do with the electrical wiring. Hopefully this problem gets remedied soon, if not, I have friends and relatives who will let me borrow their showers. It's never a dull moment here.
In other news, the road trip is officially (mostly) planned. We depart (my mom, friend beth, and myself) on Monday for Maine. We will be gone for about two weeks. Our stops include Ben and Jerry's, L.L. Bean, Atlanta, a few relatives' homes, and a variety of other places. We will be to 8 states I haven't been to before. I will have been to all of the east coast states by the end of this. Woohoo. It will be a lot of driving and I'll take a lot of pictures, but it should be awesome.
After a few days to recoup and do laundry before I leave for Anchorage for a week and a half. Ok, to help with the confused look on your face....I'm going to go visit friends in Anchorage for 12 days then fly back to Illinois and finish off the rest of my summer break. So yes, I'm flying to Alaska to fly back to Illinois to fly back to Alaska. Just for the record, Anchorage is about 700 miles away from Metlakatla. I leave for that trip on the 3rd of July. I leave to go back to Alaska for the school year on the 10th of August. Are you confused? Don't worry, I still am not sure what time zone I'm in. I've been here for three weeks and I'm still not running on local time, but I'm not really running on Alaska time either. I can't seem to pick a time zone right now. I'll go to bed at about my normal time on Alaska time, which is about 10PM there or 1AM here. Then I'll get up at about 6AM here, which is 3AM in Alaska. Five hours of sleep isn't quite cutting it. I think I may need to take a nap. Oh well.
I will do what I can about posting pictures and news while on the trip. It'll be an adventure.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

I haven't died but I feel like a chicken with no head

I promise I'm still here and I haven't completely neglected my blog. I came back to Illinois on Tuesday the 26th of May and the time change is going to kill me. It's only three hours but in the two weeks I've been in Illinois, I've only had one night of normal sleep. I spent almost a week at my parents house where there are less beds then there are people. My parents have been adventurous and slept outside in a tent for several days while I was there. Monday I left for Carbondale for about a week. It's been nonstop since I got here. Well it's been nonstop since I got into the Midwest. I've been to the movies 5 times. I think I was going through withdrawal. I've been out to some restaurants. Yay. I've also been out walking because I don't want to ruin my great weight loss. I also, while being in Carbondale, have gotten a pedicure, cut my hair, and gotten my nails done. Wow I sound like a girl.
It looks like I have a busy summer planned, but I will try to keep everyone up to date.