we're baaaaack

Johnna left yesterday morning to continue their road trip elsewhere. The Professor and I went to buy hoodies at that chocolate shop in Wilmington. So now we having matching hoodies that say "Adirondacks" on them. We tried to get a hot dog for lunch but they only took cash so we went to A&W again but it was a bad experience - we just wanted to get our food to go and I think it took about a half hour. At a fast food place. Annoyed. We worked for awhile, then napped. For dinner we got takeout from the pub with the fam.

This morning we packed up and drove home with Lil Sis. It took us about 10 hours with 3 stops and several thunderstorms (some of them kind of scary - we were looking out for tornadoes). We dropped Lil Sis at home and grabbed some Chick fil A for ourselves, hoping to beat the next thunderstorm home. We didn't make it. We had to quickly take the car top carrier off the roof and throw it in the garage because it just isn't 100% water proof. We ate our sammiches and watched the Office. The rain stopped and we finished unpacking and Big Sis got home maybe around 10:30.

Here are all the pictures from our trip!

And we learned that there was a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville today. Trump's America. 2017.

a day of adventures

This morning, we went to see the animals at the rehab place again and we got to see lunch time.

The raptors are fed lab mice and rats from the control groups of experiments at a nearby lab. I am glad they're used for something good, sort of, but sad to know that, on top of the horrors the non-control animals face, the control animals are also killed. Don't really understand why. I know experimenting on animals is a necessary evil, but...why kill control animals?

Anyway, after visiting the animals, we went to John Brown's New York house (although really it was his wife's house) and had a good tour and conversation with the guide. There was a local historian there when we got there, basically giving a lecture and answering questions, and so we didn't get to go on a tour of the house while he was there. The guide gave a tour after he left though, even though it was after hours. It was really very nice of her. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, but here are some pictures of the grounds.

John Brown was great, and he died for his abolitionist convictions.
But this is some pretty icky White Savior crap right here.

John Brown's grave

the barn

After that, we went to Lake Placid and had soft serve at Emma's - we highly recommend that place for all of your soft serve and other sugary needs. It was delicious.

Then we stopped and took some more pictures on the drive back to the house.

The Professor and I went to dinner at a nice place called the Hungry Trout, where we had trout. We eavesdropped on the people around us, who were all very interesting. We didn't take any pictures, but here is a picture of the back of the restaurant from across the stream that we took the other day:

the view from those windows is really pretty

We came home and made a fire with the fam and had s'mores and drinks. There was a lot of bickering, but, you know, I guess that sometimes happens with families.

picture-taking and tuna casserole

Johnna arrived today and our party is complete.

The Professor and I both worked for awhile and then we went to explore around and see where we could take some pictures.  We found a bridge in Wilmington and a trail by the river.

wildflowers!

We took a bunch more pictures that I'll post on Flickr later. Anyway, after that we went to a chocolate shop in town and got a bunch of sweets that we brought back to the house. For dinner we ate a bunch of tuna casserole.

The end!

a&w

Today the Professor and I drove to Lake Placid to get Flonase and floss. It was bright and sunny when we left the house, and by the time we got to the pharmacy it was cold and drizzly. It was really the strangest thing, and you will have to take my word for it.

Excitingly, we went to A&W for lunch! We don't have any A&Ws where we're from, but we do love root beer, so we were pretty excited. We sat outside and got a root beer float.

Granna (Pop's mom) was a carhop at A&W when she was young. I have a picture:

Anyway, after lunch we went home and did some work, watched Bobs Burgers in bed, dozed. We made Sicilian Supper and wondered if Gmaw would have approved.

The house is right next to the wildlife rehab place and you can sometimes hear the wolves and coyotes howling (turn the volume all the way up).

lead shot should be illegal

Today we went to the wildlife refuge down the path and saw lots of animals. They have wolves and coyotes, bobcats, a fox, a fisher, a porcupine, lots of owls and raptors, a raven, and lots of other creatures. Many of them are there to be rehabilitated but some of them can't be. The bobcats and many of the birds of prey have lead poisoning from eating carcasses that were shot with lead shot and left. So they are a bit neurologically damaged, and can't really take care of themselves in the wild.

Why is lead shot legal?

Anyway, after that, the fam went to Lake Placid, which is super cute. Beautiful scenery. And there's this inn, where Mom and RLD went for their honeymoon.

We had lunch at a little restaurant and got a free lemon bar because the waitress mixed up some of our orders, which turned out to not be a big deal, but free lemon bars always make this crew pretty happy.

And they had a bobsled out front!  (I think it's a bobsled, but really who knows.)

We got some groceries, went home and took a nap, and watched some Game of Thrones on the laptop. It was a good day!

Big Sis and the Professor, chillin.

april!

Yesterday we got on the road and went north. We were headed to Wilmington, NY, near Lake Placid, but we had some side trips we wanted to take on our way up. Big Sis rode with me and the Professor so we could go see April the Giraffe, and Lil Sis rode with the folks so that she could see Rochester, where RLD grew up.

But since we were going that way anyway, we stopped in Scranton to get a picture of The Sign.

it's in a mall.

We spent the night at a hotel in Binghamton, and the Professor walked across the parking lot in a storm to get us pizza and then he stayed up and worked until 2am. He just does so much for us, and he is the best person.

Anyway, this morning we went to a chocolate shop next to the hotel and bought all the things, and then we went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee. And then. We drove to Animal Adventure Park to see April!

First we saw her man, Oliver. It was his turn outside. They're not letting him be in the same space as April and her baby Taj yet, just in case he gets some kind of wild hair and goes berserk.

he's a good boy

Then we went inside to see April. It was a mob scene. Billions of kids were in there giving her billions of carrots. She didn't have a lot of complaints.

what a good girl.

We couldn't see Taj though, because he was lying down against the wall inside his stall and we couldn't see over it. The keeper was kind enough to take Big Sis' phone and snap this photo for us:

hey lil cutie! you hide all you want, k?

We saw lots of other neato animals, and then we got back on the road. And now here we are at the house in Wilmington, which is very nice with lots of space and lots of beauty.

see? here's my beautiful car in its space!

Seriously though. It's a nice big house, and the views are lovely. 

visiting our new york friends

Today was our last day of a little 4-day trip to New York to visit some friends. We got here on Wednesday, and went right to Salonika's to say hi and drop off our stuff. She needed to pick up her daughter at school and put her son down for a nap, so we walked around the park while she took care of kid-business. It was really weirdly very cold. Like in the 50s.

cloudy, cold, and dark

We strolled along, listening to the peaceful sounds of drivers leaning on their horns and children screaming bloody murder. It takes a lot of effort, but if you stare fixedly up, and block out all peripheral objects, and also wear earplugs, the park can almost be bearable.

exhibit A

When the cold got to be too much, we went to a little spot for a snack and a green tea latte.

warm and cozy bliss

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I don't really like New York. Anyway, after our $56 snack, we went back to Salonika's and hung out for dinner and chatting and story time before bed. It was a good visit, and I miss Salonika a lot.

We've been staying at the Professor's cousin's house in Brooklyn - we'll call her VJ. She has 2 extra sweet doggies.

This is Bear. He's an old man, and he is almost deaf.
He is a good boy, and he's my friend.

This is Princess Jasmine. She has a one-track-belly-rub mind. She is a
super sweet and special girl, and she's my friend.

We also visited the Professor's friends G&H, and their new baby. H made us the most gigantic steaks I have ever seen in my life, and a delicious salad.

The Professor with baby and G and H

Aside from that, we went to see Wonder Woman, which was entertaining, we went to a sweets place and ate pies and cheese cakes and custards and cream puffs, we went to a Mexican place, where VJ's husband ate 3 tacos in as many seconds, we went to a delicious pizza place, which is really the only thing NY has going for it, and we went to Popeyes twice.

Now that we are very fat, it's time to go on our honeymoon!