First off, how are we? We're great! We've been learning quite a bit about each other on this road trip and have truly learned what makes us a strong couple and a strong family. We've hit some bumps in the road, we've almost reached across the car to pull each others hair out, and in the end, have come out stronger. We've had opportunities to see each other in different lights and to re-introduce ourselves to each other. Traveling together has done us well.
Aspen is continuing to thrive and grow and amaze us each and every day. We've been using less diapers per day as she's quickly getting the hang of potty training.
She loves books and hangs out on her baby seat while pointing at the pictures. It helps that potty and diaper change are two of the signs she knows in baby sign language. As for signing, Aspen has about 20 signs under her belt. She points things out and tells us what she needs - it's amazing!Aspen can sign:
Momma
Dadda
Milk
Food
More
Water
Apple
Cracker
Diaper Change
Potty
Dog (this one is her favorite)
Horse
Bear
Pig
Bird
Elephant
Gorilla
Tiger (although she growls rather than signs for this one :) )
Baby
Help
All done
Thank you
Please
I love you
She's also very into shoes, purses, jewelry, credit cards, and phones ... uh oh!
Other than that, we're all enjoying friends and family and continue to be so thankful for everyone who has offered us hospitality and support on our trip!
Here are some trip highlights from the past weeks:
Florida:
Before heading off for our exotic destination, we spent a wonderful four days with Ty's parents. We were pampered, sunned, wined, and dined and were welcomed into the house with a cocktail party in our honor.
Aspen was by far the cutest guest and was showered with gifts and love. Magic, Ty's stepmom, whipped up some fantastic food, and we got to share all of our traveling woes with eager ears. Jesse worked on getting his diving certification, Hills and Ty got to take advantage of staying with the grandparents by taking a date night, and overall, really appreciated the downtime.Puerto Rico:
While enjoying our vacation within our vacation, we stayed with a great friend in the Coast Guard, Kim, who was nice enough to host us for the entire 12 day stay. She has a great little beach house 1 block from the ocean. It was hot and humid,
but a great little island. We spent our days relaxing, swimming in the ocean, and running. At one point we all jumped into a large van that our friend had borrowed and explored the island for a few days. Kim was amazing, because she set us up with so many great things. We got to stay in nice little beach villas, we got to take a small plane over part of the island to see it from the air (Hillary flew the plane for part of it!), and we got to scuba/snorkel in some unbelievable reefs. 
We also jumped off bridges into rivers, swam in big waterfalls and explored caves while in Puerto Rico. It seems to be filled with things to do. Don't worry, we of course ate and drank. Kim enjoyed healthy foods and made her own Kambucha, chips and great pizzas. We ate well and washed all things down with local rum. We did three tours of different free rum tasting spots. Bacardi was the biggest, but we also sampled Don Q and the San Juan visitor center.
Our favorite moments, by far, of our Puerto Rico trip were Aspen's first steps. She finally got enough courage to let our hands go and cruise around on her own. When she fell, she popped right back up on her own and continued again. We took lots of video, so it is all on our picture site. The end of our Puerto Rico trip marked the end of our travels with Jesse, so from here on out, we'll get to spend our days with each other and our little bean - a fun change of pace.
Puerto Rican Spanish Lessons:
This was one vacation where it was so hot, we weren't worried about rushing around to see everything all at once. Speaking of hot, we quickly learned that Puerto Rican spanish is quite different from the spanish that Jesse was trying to learn from a hand-held text book. Apparently (according to our friend Luis, who is a P.R. native), it's too hot to say all the sounds in typical spanish words. Puerto Ricans remove 's' from the ends and middles of words, and there are a few consonants that are taken out of the middle of words. For example, "thank you" would be "gracias," but is instead pronounced "gracia." The middle of the spanish word for fish is removed, so you can ask for "pescado" all over the island, but you won't get anything unless you pronounce it "pecayo." And the best example: Most spanish speakers might say "Buenos dias," but the PR's have shortened it to "Bueno dia" and actually tend to take out the entire second word altogether, so in order to greet someone, you would say "Buena!" So, in short, we threw out our spanish dictionaries and used "Hablo englais?"
Camp Lovee, Newnan, GA:
After a quick hello and good bye with the Ty's parents again, we jumped in the car and headed out of the heat. Our first stop was to see Hills' Aunt Lovee outside of Atlanta, GA. Ty didn't understand why Hillary kept calling it "Camp Lovee," but once we got there, he quickly saw why. She lives in a beautiful home, outside of the big city, with a huge yard and a great neighborhood. She makes great food and opened her home to us. To increase the relaxation factor, we took a day playing around on Lovee's new boat on a nearby lake. We all piled on, including Gus the dog, and we motored around until we found some great swimming and some nice sun. Aspen seemed to love the boat and again Hillary got to drive it. :) After the boat we ate some great food at the marina and for the first time tried fried pickles. Southerners sure know how to eat! :)
North Carolina - Asheville and Boone:
From Georgia, we took a quick skip and a jump up to see two potential settling spots, Asheville and Boone. Since we're looking for a cutesy, medium-sized, mountain town, we thought these might be fabulous spots for outdoor activities, liberal thinking, and having close proximity to family. In Asheville, a town of 70,000 hippies (think of Berkeley to the 10th power), we stayed with a good friend of Tyler's. It was a cool little place up in the the trees of North Western NC and the weather was the best we had experienced for awhile. We both noticed the very strong sense of community very soon after getting to Asheville - on Friday night, we crowded around a drum circle in the center of town where high school kids shared the dance space with babies and an older generation and were all visibly connected by the beat created by a line of 20 ad-lib drummers. Saturday brought a blue grass festival where families and younger singles hang out to listen to a Southern taste of music. Aspen had a chance to run around with other kids and get in the local flavor. This is definitely a very friendly small city and everyone there is very proud of the community in which they participate. We have yet to find a place with more love for music than in Asheville. We enjoyed the local people and the artsiness of the town. Our friend, Robin, was an excellent tour guide and very helpful in showing us the pros and cons of her town. We enjoyed some great drives and some great hikes. Our favorite outing: a date night with pizza, beer, and a movie at a local theater. We saw "When in Vegas" and many aspects of trying to make a marriage work really hit home for the two of us.
Boone came after Asheville. It's also a very cute town, but much smaller. This town was voted as one of four top outdoor sport towns in North America, so there is plenty to do outside. Boone is home of Appalachian State University, and the student population contributes to half of the town's population. While in Boone, we stayed with a cute couple we met through couchsurfing.com and we felt like family 5 minutes after we met them. Taylor was one of the best tour guides we have ever had and seemed to get his joys of life from showing people the parts of his town that were great. He showed us back country local waterfalls and high over looks to see the whole town. He showed us houses and great places to eat. He seemed to have a story for every spot. We haven't completely written off these two cute little towns, but we're still on the search for our perfect spot.
Davidsonville, MD:
After checking out North Carolina, we took an early morning and left Boone at 4am. As the legs of the trip get longer, we prefer to leave earlier so Aspen can sleep for as much of the day's driving as possible.
She does pretty well in the car, but she can get ancy after a few hours. We headed to Annapolis, Washington DC, and Davidsonville, MD to take in the sights and see Ty's step-sister, Renee, her husband, Dan, and our niece, Gabby. 
We learned how to rip into Maryland fresh crab and work through the tough shell when we celebrated Hillary's 25th birthday at a local seafood eatery. We also got to spend time with some of Aspen's cousins she had never met. Gabby's 11 now and loves dressing up her little cousins. Aspen couldn't get enough of the accessories and matching dresses. Dan and Renee were wonderfully gracious hosts and let us take some relaxation time around the pool and some movie viewing in their in-home theater (wow, we have to have one of these things). We took some time exploring Washington D.C. monuments and memorials with one of our awesome nieces. We spent the Fourth of July with our cousin Rick, watching fireworks from his home with blueberry martinis in hand. It was a great retreat for 3 days and we loved the company!NYC, here we come!
From Maryland, we made the quick drive up to New York City
and had the opportunity to stay in a friend's fabulous Brooklyn Heights apartment while he was out of town. Only ten minutes away from the Brooklyn Bridge, we spent time in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Hills took a three hour running tour of Manhattan, just before we all headed over for a completely different take on the city. 
There's constantly something new to explore and there's a gem on every corner of
the city. Although the big city is not quite our style, we loved our city excursions and have vowed to return every now and then to get in a constant flow of culture and movement.After three days of city life, we headed onto Long Island to visit Uncle Jim and Aunt Roe and then on to spend five fabulous days with Ty's sister and her family. While staying with C
hristine, Jeff, and their three amazing kids, we enjoyed some family bonding over cocktails, a visit to Fire Island where we were treated like complete royalty by our family that runs the local grocery store, 
a chance to meet a load of Gatteaus at their annual family picnic, and tons of trampoline fun! Aspen had a fabulous time being around her three older cousins who adored her completely. The four of them played dress-up, tag, and just had a
grand-old time.Middlebury and Burlington, VT:
From Long Island, we made the seven hour drive up through Massachusetts - there still may be some potential there, but we have to do some more research after all the traveling is done. Eventually we made it to Middlebury, Vermont, where we hunkered down with some great hosts from couchsurfing.com (we're telling you! - this is definitely the way to travel!). Emma is a sweet and loving girl who was born and raised in Vermont and loves to make anyone feel at home in her home state. Craig, her roommate, is also a very sweet, loving person, and will do whatever is necessary to make guests welcome. In Middlebury, we checked out the single-street downtown, listened to an outdoor concert, loaded up on organic foods from the local co-op, and spent time with the local Vermontites. Driving on a low tire, we switched out to our spare and made the trip 35 miles north to Burlington to get new tires and check out a slightly larger Vermont town. We totally fell in love with Burlington - loved the University of Vermont as part of the town's atmosphere, loved all of the homes and their huge grassy yards, loved the small downtown that looks bigger than it really is, loved all of the outdoor opportunities that are available, and LOVED the absolutely gorgeous Lake Champlain right down the block from the downtown. Although we have heard mixed things about Vermont winters, this gorgeous little spot is definitely top on our list and has a close-by international airport for all of you to come visit!
Where are we NOW?
After making a quick, one-night trip for a stay with a fellow couch surfer in Niagra Falls
(we got to cross over into Canada, have dinner, and get Aspen's first passport stamp), we started out early for a nine hour trip to Chicago. We got to stay with Bill, a retired Catholic priest with an amazing zeal for everything life has to offer. He had a view of the falls from his window! We took a quick two hour stop during the trip at St. Joseph's, Michigan for a quick romp in the sand and some macadamia nut coffee - mmmm. We've finally made it to 
The Windy City and are staying with our wonderful friend, Emily, taking some down time, doing some much-needed errands, and getting excited for Emily's much-awaited housewarming party this weekend. Hills is getting revved up for her 20-mile training run along Lake Michigan and Aspen is learning how to climb the furniture.We're happy, healthy, and starting to plan the next phase of our trip ... international travels!
Don't forget to check out pics! 25 states, 1 territory, and 1 district down!
No comments:
Post a Comment