Weekend in Baltimore (picture heavy!)

Over President's Day/Valentine's Day, we headed to Baltimore for a few nights to check out the local kids' retreats!

We rented a cute condo right near the harbor with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a cute view.  We used VRBO.com, which we've done before, but the experience was a little different this time.  The owner here charged a $100 cleaning fee.  No big deal, but I wasn't too motivated to clean since I was already being charged.  We swept, did the dishes, and left.  Five days later I get a pretty harsh email accusing me of violating the contract because we didn't take the trash out and it had diapers in it, so now the place smells bad.  Violating a contract you say?  Lawyer antennas perk up, and when I asked, he couldn't show me in the contract (which I scanned and sent to him) I was required to remove the trash, and when I pushed the issue, went radio silent.  Of course.  But, other than that post-trip headache, it was a great time!

Cassidy feeling at home in front of the television

The lovely dining room of the condo we rented

Digging these hardwood floors!

The first night, we went simple and took the kids to Bubba Gump's because we'd actually never been there and figured it would be kid friendly.  I drew shapes on the sugar packets so Avery could play match, and even Cassidy enjoyed the crayons.  Avery fell in love with jello...again.

Match!

Two jellos?????

Getting a little bit sleepy...but still eating.

The next morning we went to the Port Discovery Children's museum which featured a baby room AND a 3 story playground.  Tons of fun for both of them!

Climbing on nets!

Building stuff

Throwing ping pong balls in a machine to watch them go up a chute

Water table...notice her sweet hair up top there...

Reaching for a boat

Riding a "horse"

I'm so high up!

You say this is a Lite Brite?

That night Jon and I got to relax and watch Olympics together, like a real living-together couple.  Very nice.  Back in the condo, Cassidy was just thrilled with the TV cabinet.

 

Our final morning, we spent a lot of money to get into the Baltimore Aquarium.  Sadly, all Avery wanted to do was ride the escalators and he couldn't care less about the fish.  Lesson learned: never again!

Cassie's ride

Jellyfish

Dolphins a-goin' by.

All in all, a really great weekend away!

The ride home

Hasta Luego!

Flying to Cancun today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all I got.  See you next week!

Boston!

I'm in Boston this weekend!!!  A heartfelt apology to everyone I can't visit (this time around) but so excited to see Kim, Al, Todd, Noah, and Andrea (not to mention baby Asher, Marlowe, Teffy, and Little E!)

Virgin Islands Vacation - a few photos

I know it was a while ago, but here's some photos of our vacation from back in March!  Instead of doing a day-by-day of our Virgin Islands vacation, I thought I would pick out the good parts and accompany them with Jon's amazing photography along the way.  Enjoy!

So much of our vacation was about food this time around - what can I say, we love to eat!!!  Above is the delicious fresh fish that my amazing friend Byron threw on the grill for us on the deck of his apartment in St. Thomas.  Beautiful food, beautiful view

Byron serves up a delicious meal for us - what a fantastic host!! That's Brenda, his tree, in the background.

We stayed our first two nights on St. John in eco-tents powered by solar panels!  Here I am checking them out!

Sharing our eco-tent?  Hermit crabs!  (Don't worry, they stay outside)  Picture hundreds of these little guys waiting for scraps.  You could see (and hear) the hill slowly move as they slowly traveled around.
Eco-Tents

I'm not one to let a little vacation interrupt March Madness!  Our first night in St. John, we drove around until we found a bar with a TV on and I watched the Hoosiers scare me before they finally beat VCU in the tournament.  It was a rough watch, but we pulled it off!

More delicious food!  The Island hush puppie (actually called conch fritters) for brunch at Miss Lucy's in St. John.  So. Effing. Delicious.

Accompanied at brunch by a little jazz music!

As some of you know, we are big geocachers.  Here's me deciphering a clue while a donkey is less-than-helpful.

Amazing cache found hanging in a tree on a sandbar

There's just a few pictures of our trip - more to come next week!  Have an awesome weekend, and if you're in the area, come to the Open House/Air Show on Joint Base Andrews!

Camping Trip!

Already a horrible bar-studier, I ditched my last day of PMBR to go on a camping trip with my two favorite guys: Jon and Dash. We headed up to the White Mountains for a short hike and overnight camp. Dash LOOOOVED it, and it was great to be able to have him off-leash for most of the hike. He also behaved very well in a small tent (once we got him in there) and slept the whole night. That's more than I can say for myself when I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about bears. I spent an hour devising bear-repellent methods (a camera flash to blind them, a torch made of a stick, my sock covered in bug spray, lit on fire - genius!) before finally falling back to sleep. Unfortunately, a night squashed between Jon and Dash AND three months pregnant was not very restful, and I was wicked sore the next morning. We actually went to bed around 8pm (nothing else to do!) and got up around 5 the next morning to hike out and have some delicious pancakes at Flapjack's. A perfectly lovely weekend!

Iceland Picture Marathon

See all the pictures of our trip at BEACHES IN ICELAND and keep reading below for my daily blog of the trip!!

Spring Break Iceland - Part Five

Today was a good mix of the adventurous and the relaxing. Jon woke up wicked early and went to the lobby to do some homework (lame) but since I'm in my last semester and don't care about any of my classes, I slept in. He came and woke me up a couple of hours later, and we bundled up to head back to the cave we passed yesterday. It was a pretty amazing caving trip. The whole thing starts with just a hole in the ground, and is actually a lava tube, which I tried not to think about (hot lava raging through the tunnel I'm in - no thanks!) That was a bazillionhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=25451953 years ago though, and the uniqueness of being in a lava tube made for some gorgeous images. Instead of stalagtites, there were icicles and instead of stalagmites there were these weird pillars of ice all over the place. They looked like little ice blobby ghosts, as you can see.




We went back into the cave about 600 meters, not even halfway, really. It started off all light with snow, as there were other "entrances" which were basically holes in the ground that provided for some great snow sculptures.




Then, the cave turned into slick icy blobs all over the rocks, so we were careful there. Careful, mom!! Then towards the middle of the cave, it dried out and the lava rock was very sticky so it was easy to maneuver, even though it was pitch black. We had packed little helmet lights with the anticipation of doing some caving, so it all worked out.

Next we returned to Reykjavik to shop around the city, which was kinda lame. Picked up a couple of souvenirs for my boss and my friend who collects flags, but the clothes were too pricey to try on, and everything else wasn't that interesting.

Finally we ended the day with a trip to the famous Blue Lagoon, Iceland's #1 tourist spot. It's a big geothermal lake in a lava bed where you wade around in mineral water. Cooler than it sounds, I swear. It might be 30 degrees out, but you're relaxing in your bathing suits with steam billowing all over. Parts of the water were downright hot. There is silica clay mud stuff that you can put on your body as a mask to dry and rinse off. I tried it, but Jon wasn't convinced.




After a few hours there, we stayed at the Blue Lagoon to eat at their Lava restaurant where we got to eat whale (raw, but good with wasabi) and reindeer (in burger form, kinda tough) which was a new experience for us both. The whale wasn't the endangered kind, but that didn't stop us from feeling sad anyway.



Now we are back in the hotel hanging out, but we're going to grab a couple of beers in a bit. Hoping to sleep in late to attempt to get our clock back on track, since we leave for Boston tomorrow evening.

Spring Break Iceland - Part Four

Wow, today was a day of unintentional adventures. And by that, I mean that nothing we wanted to do went right, but we ended up having fun anyway. We first woke up (meaning Jon woke me up) to snow falling in Gullfoss, so we planned to take another dip in the "hot pot" aka hot tub with the snow falling around us after breakfast. However, it stopped snowing just after we finished eating, so we decided to trek back. We stopped on the road outside of the Geysir to see it blow one more time, only to see it launch a really wimpy spray, not the high mega blast we saw yesterday. Ho hum.

Off to Thingvelir, a national park with 2 stars in Frommers (meaning Highly Recommended!) and to do some geocaching. We had to take an alternate route to Thingvelir because the more convenient road was blocked off due to the snow. So we went around, hoping to find this awesome geocache located in a lava tube. We get to the turn off and DENIED. The road, which looked perfectly clear from where we were, was deemed too hazardous to drive. Sigh. Despite Jon's pleading that maybe we could drive on it anyway, I vetoed that plan and we moved along. The next geocache had been found by many a person, and we had already looked at the picture hint, but when we got to the place and found the right rock....nothing there. The rock was made of dried lava, so it hurt to actually move the rocks around to search. We gave up.

When we got to Thingvelir, it turned out to be completely lame. First, a snow storm started over the area, so any walking we did was uncomfortable. Then, the coolest thing to see is the "Law Rock" where some olden dudes would recite laws. Snore. Fest. The only neat thing was the signs trying to prevent people from throwing money in the streams, which is too bad, because, as you can see, it makes it very pretty.


So, having struck out so far, we journeyed on to our next cache which was in a hot spring randomly in the countryside that we could bathe in. Awesome...well, it probably is. We didn't find it. First it took us over an hour to find the right road to turn into. The person who left the geocache gave bad instructions. In the process, we nearly died when Jon was flying down a completely clear hill, only to find that the other side of the hill was icy and slushy, and led to a ravine. Jon started saying "shit, shit, shit, shit" and instead of my life passing before my eyes, I thought, "the last thing I'll hear my husband say is 'shit'" Four small heart attacks later we were fine, Jon promised to be careful on future hills, and we journeyed on in search of the elusive hot spring cache. OH! There's the road - yay! OH! There's a snowy path to the parking area! OH! That's the sound of our car bottoming out on snow rendering it completely stuck. Fantastic. A girl on a horse rode by to offer that a nearby stable might have a rope or something, but not too soon after, a guy in a truck stopped and pulled us out. Icelanders are friendly! We parked elsewhere and started hiking to the cache. Guess what - the cache is up a fucking mountain covered in knee-deep snow. We made it about 2 miles up the trail and about 1500 feet before another snowstorm blew in. Out of breath, covered in snow, and thinking of nothing but the book "Into Thin Air", we opted to turn back. Stupid geocache.

We made our way towards Reykjavik, stopping at this awesome cave that we want to hit tomorrow. We got to our hotel to find no "free parking" as Frommer's had advertised, and in fact, the "Superior Double Room" that we booked last night was already taken by someone. How could we have booked it then? Who knows. We ended up with an apology and a smaller room with an AMAZING view. See below.


We had some great Italian tonight, so stuffed and tired, we are calling it an early night! Overall we did not hot tub, did not see Geysir mightily spray, did not get close to one geocache, did not find another, barely found the right road, almost died on a hill, got caught in a snowstorm on a mountain, didn't get our desired room. But, we got some amazing views from the mountain, got a great room with a view, and are falling asleep happy :-)

Spring Break Iceland - Part Three

Again, the day started last night, with a true sighting of the Northern Lights! Jon and I had set out after dark to a nearby rest stop with hopes of seeing the lights. The sky was clear and conditions were good...but no lights. We did get to listen to an excellent rendition of "The Lonely Goatherd" from the Sound of Music in Icelandic on the radio, however. Disappointed, we headed back to the hotel to hit the sack. At some point, I hear Jon yell "ALI!" and I popped out of my twin bed and ran for the window. And there they were. A green strip across the sky, sometime striated and dancing, fading in and out. I forgot to even go for my Flip Camera, I actually just sat there with my mouth open. Very awesome, and I'm so thankful that Jon decided to look out the window ONE more time before falling asleep!


The next morning, we overslept because Jon set his alarm for 6:30am...Boston time. Oh well. We headed out from Skaftafell with clear skies and clear roads, only to hit a snowstorm after 45 minutes. I have NEVER seen snow fall this fast. Within 10 minutes, we drove from zero inches into 6 inches of snow on the ground. We literally couldn't drive anymore. And of course, we were in a complete dead area of the country. We managed to find a hotel in our guidebook, so after a bit, we saw it on the side of the road and pulled in. The snow was well up my ankles and I couldn't even see....and the hotel was closed, as was the building that a sign told us to go to if the hotel was closed. Excellent. Well, we thought about going back, but the snow had lightened up a bit, so we followed another car and drove in its tracks until we managed to get out of there. We saw a plow leave a gas station, so we went in and the attendant told us he had plowed the road and it wasn't bad ahead. We bought extra food, just in case, so we wouldn't get stuck and resort to eating each other (cause I'd lose that fight). Wow, it was pretty crazy, but eventually, the roads were back to clear. It was very Twilight Zoney.

We stopped back in Vik, which we had gone through on day one, but barely remembered, we were so tired, and went to the black sand beaches where this interesting spire of rocks is out a bit in the ocean. It's supposed to be two troll ships who got caught in the sunlight (because we all know trolls turn to stone in the sunlight...as do their ships?). We popped in a souvenir store and bought a little Christmas ornament and headed on.

Hit up a couple of geocaches next. We couldn't find the way to one, although we saw the lighthouse it was supposed to be next to. We did find a tiny one nearby, but the logbook was completely soaked, so we couldn't sign it. Then we drove (a little too much off-road) a good three miles to find another in the middle of a glacier canyon. I'll tell ya - geocaching puts you in some amazing places!

We next headed to Geysir and Gullfoss, the geyser and waterfall, respectively. The actual geyser called "Geysir" doesn't do much but gurgle anymore, but the one called Strokker is a little beast. It blows every couple of minutes, and it's so gorgeous when it does because the hot air makes the blue water bubble up huge before it sprays. I took some video and will put it on here tonight, if I have time. We then moved to Gullfoss, this AMAZING waterfall and decided to stay the night in the Hotel Gullfoss which has two awesome hot tubs that are calling our names after a few days in the car. Unfortunately, it's cloudy today, so no chance of catching the Northern Lights while we soak, but I'm not going to complain - this view is amazing!

Spring Break Iceland - Part Two

Today started last night, actually. Jon and I had dinner and went to bed wicked early, only to be woken up by the phone ringing. The front desk was calling us to let us know that that Northern Lights were viewable! This was one of the things that we were hoping for, so we didn't mind at all to be dragged out of the complete dead stupor we were in. I didn't even know it was a phone that was ringing, I was so tired from our lack of sleep the night before and the long drive. We rushed to the window to see....nothing. Well, not nothing. We both noticed a band across the sky of sky that was less black than the rest of the sky. Was that it? We have no idea. We set our alarm to go off twice more during the night to get up and check, but neither time did we see anything.

This morning we got up late (ALI got up late, Jon always gets up early) and had a delicious European hotel breakfast of bread, cheese and coldcuts - yum! I miss those. Then, we headed out in search of the car repair guy. We found him easily, but he told us he didn't speak much English. We pointed out the tiny crack in the windshield and he said "no problem!" YAY! Sadly, he meant that the tiny crack wasn't going to prevent us from driving (Umm..no shit.) but that he couldn't fix us. He did happily assure us that the crack would only get bigger. Fantastic. Next we headed to the grocery store to pick up some bread and cheese and fruit to satisfy our lunches on the road. Iceland is kinda sparse nowadays and it's better if we know where our next meal is coming from. While we were there, we phoned the Sixt guy to break the news about the windshield, but he said (wrongly) that it wouldn't be expensive to fix. Ah well, what can you do?

Next we went geocaching there in Hofn out by the harbor, which we would not have done otherwise. The cache was a quick find, and we did some hiking and some sliding on the local frozen lakes before heading out of town.









We then headed out and decided to stop by a building that looked like a long stack of books that we had passed the day before. We had discovered it was a museum of sorts and decided to spend some time walking through. It was all about the life of the most famous Icelandic writer whose name I can't even write here because it starts with a letter that isn't in the English alphabet. Anyway, kinda boring, but check out the cool outside of the building!

Next was Jokulsarlon, the famous lake of icebergs. All the icebergs were pretty, but also covered in snow, hiding what is likely some gorgeous blue ice. However, we did stumble upon a few seals just chilling out. Before heading out from here, we decided to break some trail through the snow and head to the beach. Yes, the Icelandic beach! There we found one of the coolest things we've ever seen. The beach is covered in black sand and littered along the whole beach are basically icebergs ranging in size from golf balls to boulders. They glittered like diamonds and it was just breathtaking. Trying to incorporate the video of these things in the blog. Will try next post.

After that, we move along to Skaftafell, which is a big park that runs along the glaciers that are oozing out from the mountain. We hiked for about an hour and a half to get to the base of the glacier, which was a pretty surreal experience.

Sun was getting low, so instead of a 3 hour drive to our next planned area, we opted to stay locally in a hotel where a double room looks like this picture. They also have Wi-fi...that doesn't reach our room, so I'm sitting in the freezing lobby listening to a couple of Japanese dudes argue over souvenirs. BUT, our room has a big window and the sky is looking clear, so it will all be worth it if we see some REAL Northern lights!!!

Spring Break Iceland - Part One

Greetings from the frozen north! I'm typing this as I look at this view outside of my hotel room in Hofn (pronounced HEP, which led me to chirp HEP! HEP! all day long). Hofn is a small fishing village in the eastern part of Iceland.

But, I get ahead of myself. The first step was to take a overnight flight from Boston to Iceland, which, unfortunately was crowded and only led Jon and I to sleep about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Despite the fact that even the seat covers make attempts to be helpful to you. We then stood in the big line at immigration, got through pretty fast, picked up our bags, and decided to stop in the airport for breakfast. It wasn't light outside yet, but we noted where the rental car area was and sat down to a nice leisurely breakfast, completely walking pass the guy from Sixt Rental who was holding a sign with out name on it because Sixt doesn't have an office in the airport. Well, since we didn't see him, he left as we were eating, unbeknownst to us. After we ate, we looked for Sixt, and of course couldn't find them, and started an adventure to find out how to get to the Sixt place. We ended up taking a taxi for a 3 minute ride and found the lone Sixt guy sitting behind a counter. Apparently we were the ONLY customers for the day, because once we got into our cute little car and drove away, he got into HIS car and passed us 10 miles down the road.

Driving definitely had its ups and downs. First, the view was gorgeous, as you can see from the pictures. But the road was different around every corner. Sometimes pretty, sometimes treacherous. Sadly, it's winter here and there was a LOT of wind and snow blown over the roads, causing the road to be clear and sunny one minute and covered in snow and windy the next. Very frustrating, when you consider that both of us were exhausted. Jon eventually had to let me drive for a while so he could take a nap, and after a quick stop in the town of Vik for lunch, he took over again so I could rest. Of course, as SOON as we head off from Vik, a truck passes us, throws a rock at our window and makes a tiny crack in the windshield, which we'll have to fix on the sly or pay a gazillion dollars to Sixt for. Additionally, at one point we got out to take some pictures, but then we couldn't start the car without the alarm going off, and the only way to turn it off was to turn the car off. We repeated this process a few times until we managed to get the alarm turned off, but I thought we were going to have to drive 150 km to Hofn with the alarm blaring.

It took a LONG time to drive the 450 kilometers to Hofn, and we are a sleepy duo. The restaurant for the hotel is about to open, so we plan on gorging ourselves. The hotel clerk used to live on Newbury Street in Boston, so that's kinda fun. We're hoping he can point us to someone who can fix the car. Might be difficult though, given that the WHOLE island only has 200,000 people on it, most who are around Reykjavik, which is on the other side.

Also on our agenda tomorrow is geocaching! See previous entry on geocaching from July of 2006 for more information on that. We'll also be stopping at a few sites along the way that I'll hopefully be able to post pictures of. Until tomorrow! Bless!!! (That means goodbye in Icelander-speaky)