Home Again, Home Again...
I'm back home, after extensive and excellent travels with my kid. We saw and did so many things, and met so many wonderful people!
We spent a night in southern Illinois with my old friend Sharon and her daughter jauncourt, who live with Sharon's mom in a magnificent 1856 country house filled with beautiful family furniture which looks like it grew there when the house was built. The kitchen has an honest-to-goodness cooking hearth, which Sharon plans to use again come winter. Sharon was badly injured in a car accident and is no longer able to lift anything or do the heavy carpentry she used to do at the drop of a hat, so renovation has slowed, but as soon as jauncourt is no longer pregnant (which may have happened since we saw them last week -- she was due any second), she can help do some of it. Of course she has her own house to renovate now as well. Anyway, they were incredibly hospitable to us weary travelers, and (injuries aside) Sharon has not changed much since I last saw her perhaps 20 years ago. It was a wonderful reunion.
Next day we left for Tennessee to visit waya and ottergrrl (see the LJ entry for firehair28 for a vivid description of our Narrow Escape From Justice). These beautiful women and their charming housemate Chris/Kissyfur welcomed us in, gave us their own bed to sleep in (the most comfortable I have ever slept in besides my beloved waterbed), fed us, entertained us, and generally treated us like family. We stayed two nights and talked almost non-stop the entire time, and it felt more like home than a visit, really. The countryside was gorgeous, the company excellent, and since I did not get to see the waterfall inside the mountain I simply must go back again! *grin* We did see the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga (again, see firehair28), but the company was the best part.
On Sunday we tore ourselves away with many promises of returning and damp eyes and started north toward Indianapolis, through Kentucky again (very carefully!)and across the mighty Ohio River,an awesome sight. Being on the ground, as it were, really makes me understand a bit more viscerally the amazing fortitude of the pioneers, and what they had to cut their way through in order to move west. It is also clear what a boon the Ohio River must have proved to be, as a westward highway. It's huge! We didn't find a place to stay, once we got west of Indianapolis, until after 11 PM, because there was this Race, and accomodations were through the roof. We had been hearing about the Indy on the radio all the way up, but it wasn't until the first hotel clerk told us that rooms were a non-negotiable $190 per night because of the race, that the penny dropped. The Indy 500 is run in INDIANAPOLIS! Duh! We finally found a much less expensive room for the night 30 miles down the road and dropped thankfully into bed.
Monday we arrived back in Madison by way of Joseph's mother's house, which Fiona found rather by Braille since J. usually drives when they visit. And J. was in fact visiting, playing La Crosse in the back yard with his younger brother. Surprise! We went with them to the new X-Men movie, had a great dinner with his Mom, and finally got back to Madison around 9 PM.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent toodling around Madison and the surrounding countryside with my kid, exploring by-roads and looking for Weird Stuff. We went to the zoo, which is free and has rhinos, orangutans, otters and penguins among other attractions. The harbor seals were busily making more harbor seals, which made us giggle. We had tea at a local Tea Shop, complete with delicate tables, lace curtains, tiny sandwiches and world-class scones with clotted cream. We went to the Circus Museum in Baraboo and rode on an elephant. We had breakfast at Java Cat, an excellent coffee house in Madison, where is a sign on the wall reading as follows:
"Unattended children will be given a double espresso and a free puppy."
We had lots of talking -- two years to make up for! -- and generally reconnected. Wednesday night we went to Jolly Bob's, a really good Jamaican restaurant in Madison, and yesterday I came home.
My girl is well, and that's the most important thing. I have seen a part of my country I had never seen before -- quite a lot of it, in fact -- and met some of the nicest folks in the whole world in addition to seeing old friends. Now I am going to clean the kitchen to ground myself, and start plotting another visit to the Midwest. Wheeee!
We spent a night in southern Illinois with my old friend Sharon and her daughter jauncourt, who live with Sharon's mom in a magnificent 1856 country house filled with beautiful family furniture which looks like it grew there when the house was built. The kitchen has an honest-to-goodness cooking hearth, which Sharon plans to use again come winter. Sharon was badly injured in a car accident and is no longer able to lift anything or do the heavy carpentry she used to do at the drop of a hat, so renovation has slowed, but as soon as jauncourt is no longer pregnant (which may have happened since we saw them last week -- she was due any second), she can help do some of it. Of course she has her own house to renovate now as well. Anyway, they were incredibly hospitable to us weary travelers, and (injuries aside) Sharon has not changed much since I last saw her perhaps 20 years ago. It was a wonderful reunion.
Next day we left for Tennessee to visit waya and ottergrrl (see the LJ entry for firehair28 for a vivid description of our Narrow Escape From Justice). These beautiful women and their charming housemate Chris/Kissyfur welcomed us in, gave us their own bed to sleep in (the most comfortable I have ever slept in besides my beloved waterbed), fed us, entertained us, and generally treated us like family. We stayed two nights and talked almost non-stop the entire time, and it felt more like home than a visit, really. The countryside was gorgeous, the company excellent, and since I did not get to see the waterfall inside the mountain I simply must go back again! *grin* We did see the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga (again, see firehair28), but the company was the best part.
On Sunday we tore ourselves away with many promises of returning and damp eyes and started north toward Indianapolis, through Kentucky again (very carefully!)and across the mighty Ohio River,an awesome sight. Being on the ground, as it were, really makes me understand a bit more viscerally the amazing fortitude of the pioneers, and what they had to cut their way through in order to move west. It is also clear what a boon the Ohio River must have proved to be, as a westward highway. It's huge! We didn't find a place to stay, once we got west of Indianapolis, until after 11 PM, because there was this Race, and accomodations were through the roof. We had been hearing about the Indy on the radio all the way up, but it wasn't until the first hotel clerk told us that rooms were a non-negotiable $190 per night because of the race, that the penny dropped. The Indy 500 is run in INDIANAPOLIS! Duh! We finally found a much less expensive room for the night 30 miles down the road and dropped thankfully into bed.
Monday we arrived back in Madison by way of Joseph's mother's house, which Fiona found rather by Braille since J. usually drives when they visit. And J. was in fact visiting, playing La Crosse in the back yard with his younger brother. Surprise! We went with them to the new X-Men movie, had a great dinner with his Mom, and finally got back to Madison around 9 PM.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent toodling around Madison and the surrounding countryside with my kid, exploring by-roads and looking for Weird Stuff. We went to the zoo, which is free and has rhinos, orangutans, otters and penguins among other attractions. The harbor seals were busily making more harbor seals, which made us giggle. We had tea at a local Tea Shop, complete with delicate tables, lace curtains, tiny sandwiches and world-class scones with clotted cream. We went to the Circus Museum in Baraboo and rode on an elephant. We had breakfast at Java Cat, an excellent coffee house in Madison, where is a sign on the wall reading as follows:
"Unattended children will be given a double espresso and a free puppy."
We had lots of talking -- two years to make up for! -- and generally reconnected. Wednesday night we went to Jolly Bob's, a really good Jamaican restaurant in Madison, and yesterday I came home.
My girl is well, and that's the most important thing. I have seen a part of my country I had never seen before -- quite a lot of it, in fact -- and met some of the nicest folks in the whole world in addition to seeing old friends. Now I am going to clean the kitchen to ground myself, and start plotting another visit to the Midwest. Wheeee!