Our Trip West

Ok, so if you read my last post, we spent a long weekend east of WNY in early July. Later in July we headed west of WNY for another long weekend. We made it as far as Chicago! In the hopes of showing Mireia even more of the land we know, we decided to take her to Chicago to see another great American city. We drove the "long way" through Ohio to avoid customs and stopped for an overnight in Ann Arbor to visit with Aunt Alice, Aunt Ellen and any cousins that happened to be in the area. We arrived in AA at noon-ish on a Friday and met up with cousins, Dan and Janette, and their girls Morgan and Kiera! Sofia was excited to meet cousins she had never met before. We met at a cool museum in Downtown called the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum. There were lots of displays on how things work, including a ball bearing exhibit from Uncle Tom's company. Sofia and Morgan enjoyed the water tables the most. I enjoyed the section that was closed off for toddlers only to play in. It was quieter and more contained. It was nice to let Sof play where I wasn't asking her to slow down and wait for me. She liked the water table there and all the rubber sea creatures that floated along it. There was a pretend house and books and puzzles to play with too! It was fun! We went on a long ride through the city after that and met up with everyone for lasagna at Auntie Alice's! And homemade birthday cake to celebrate her b-day the following day~Yummy! The next day, we New Yorkers headed out to Chi-town and Aunt Jessica and Uncle Ralph's house. We enjoyed dinner on their deck, and time with them and Cousin Ann and her husband Rob. Sofia and Mireia again were faced with befriending a dog. This time only 1, Maggie, much more sedate than two black labs! I think Sof was really taken with Maggie by the time the weekend was over. Sunday morning, we drove into Chicago and parked in a garage under Millennium Park as Uncle Ralph recommended. We spent the day walking around the city and went up the Sears Tower. We also rode a Trolley Bus, which was free-yeah and took us around to see some sights like Navy Pier and the river and shopping areas. We then wandered around Millennium Park where Sofia found another fountain to play in along with many other children! This fountain was much more elaborate than the one in NYC and was created using two towers covered in LED screens. The images on the towers would change to show different faces, up close and even blinking if you watched long enough. Water would spray our of a hole positioned by the mouth of each face and would also pour down the sides, much to the delight of the kids who brought bathing suits! We listened to some live music there and I enjoyed a wander through a perennial garden. There was also a huge shiny thing called "The Bean". It is a sculpture that looks just like a giant dollop of mercury was dropped in the middle of the park in a bean-ish shape. We could walk right up to it and look at ourselves in the reflection. You could also walk underneath the curve and see lots of reflections--so cool. I have never seen anything like it! We bought souvenir shirts and couldn't resist an Obama '08 shot glass and then headed back to R & J's for brats and burgers on the grill. It was very relaxing to hang out in the Adirondack chairs and to look out over the wildlife preserve that backs up to their yard. Everyone else saw a raccoon and deer, but me! Oh well! On Monday we headed back to Michigan and happened to catch my mom's bother, Uncle Bill and Aunt Sherry coming home from their weekend on the lake, so we stopped to visit and to take about an hour's break from the car. It was a great spontaneous thing that just worked out! We stopped in AA for pizza and more visits and then headed for home! It was another memorable trip!

Boston! 3 of 3

After a 2 hour drive with potty training frustration and me changing "the plan" 100 times, (sorry, Andy, I am psycho!) We made it to Boston. Mireia, German and Andy toured the city, while I adjusted my attitude (thanks for listening, Moll) at Andy and Molly's apartment and Sofia slept in their air conditioned bedroom, thankfully! (Motherhood was definitely wearing on me that day!) When G, M and A returned from their visit to the Prudential Building and Cheers and a wet ride on the T, we had burritos (from the yummy burrito joint A and M introduced me to in the spring) and enjoyed visiting the evening away. The next day, Monday, G, S, M and I went on a Duck Boat tour and this time I got to drive the boat! German was asked to hold the bowling shoes of our bowling fan driver/tour guide and Sof felt like an old pro at boat rides and travelling at this point! After the tour, we walked to meet Andy for lunch on his break, since he had to go to work that day! We saw the long line of people looking for iPhones at the Apple store on the way through the mall to the Cheesecake Factory! Andy and Molly were hoping to join that line the next day! We had a long lunch and took cheesecake to go and the Lopez group headed back to WNY! What a trip and what great memories! I hope to do it again next year! Not sure if Andy and Molly agree, but hey, they're family, they won't be rid of us! Thanks for being such great hosts!

Beach Part of trip 2 of 3

After meeting with Uncle A. we stopped for some great Chinese Food and headed out to meet Kathy, Jay, & Grammy (Molly's Parents and Grandma). We loved meeting them. Meeting "the boys" was another story for Sofia and Mireia. "The boys" are Homer and Rufus, two black labs who are very nice dogs and fun to be around, if you are not terrified of dogs as Sof and Mireia are. I am not a big dog person either, but I enjoyed these 2 immensely! Both Sof and Mir got much more comfortable as the weekend went on, thankfully! We all had to face a fear or two this weekend! On Saturday, we spent the day on the beach! Mireia, Sof and German made a sand castle and we all hunted in tide pools for interesting sea creatures. We saw little fish, lots of hermit crabs and snails! I decided that, since the tide was out and other people were doing it, that I should walk/swim out to a rocky looking thing just off the beach area. It turned out to be more swimming than I anticipated and Andy and Molly were just thrilled that I dragged them along! As we were really getting to the point of no return, Molly saw a jelly fish and warned us to watch out! (Gulp!) Jelly fish?! They sting, right?! I was so paranoid that I was a tad ridiculous about swimming in between Andy and Molly and thought that every wave was another one! Once we finally got out to the rocks, we wandered a little bit and caught our breaths for the haul back to shore. Again a time for jelly fish fear! It was a relief to be back on sandy ground when we could walk again and I felt like a heroine for getting out and back with out a rescue. (Rocks may appear closer than they are in reality!) Andy and I both encountered stinging sensations across our legs at one point and while it was uncomfortable, it was not worth the fear of running into a jelly fish that I put myself through. (Something about fear being worse than fear itself?!) Apparently the stingers of jellyfish can just be floating in the water, unnoticed! In the afternoon we were treated to a motor boat ride around Long Island Sound, Ala Jay! It was great! We started off in a river that led right out into the ocean. It was hot and still in the river area, with the fear of green fly bites and German's general unease of being in or on the water at all. After some motor oil tinkering we were out in the open water! Sof loved the speed! She kept wanting to go faster! The spray form the water and the rush of wind was so refreshing! We saw a couple islands, one inhabited with egrets and one with a historic lighthouse on it that humans are only allowed on once the birds have migrated south and then only for one day allowed by the group that is striving to preserve the area. (Forgive me for not remembering the names of islands or river.) I really got a kick out of looking at the charts (not maps)of the water we were in and Jay taught me how to identify different buoys based on the markings on the charts. It was cool. Sof fell asleep nearly standing up resting on my knee and we all got our fair share of sun. German did great as well and even took off his life vest shortly after we got underway! We went back to the house to prepare for a feast of lobster, another new experience for me! Molly did a great job showing me how to rip apart the lobster and I enjoyed it! Sof didn't go for it as much, she preferred the corn on the cob! Yummo! Mireia and German are seafood fans, so they really enjoyed it and had less trouble than I did getting to the juicy meat!! Late that night, Sof had a shower under protest, since she refused to get in Grammy's special tub we had tried out the night before and ended up nearly flooding the upstairs of the house with (see Molly's blog) and she finally went to bed. Then I had a chance to visit with Andy and Molly more on the deck in the dark. Andy found Jupiter in his telescope and we all had a look, pretty cool! The next day we had time for a walk on the beach, and saw many washed up jelly fish, I just couldn't get away from them! (See Andy's site for photos.) We played fetch with Homey and Rufy and regretfully said goodbye as we loaded up to head to Boston for part 3 of our trip!