Patrick and Anna’s Travel Journal

Wednesday, May 25

        Anna arrived at the Watkins’ residence. We watched Jeopardy, ate Quizno’s and finished packing. We printed out all our mileages and decided to stay in Ottawa with Anna’s friend Neha instead of Camping. Everyone agreed that Neha was indeed crazy.

Thursday, May 26

        Anna, Patrick, and Mrs. Watkins depart on the best vacation ever. The first highlight was traveling in an HOV lane in Virginia. We dropped Mrs. Watkins off in Franconia – she left her jacket in the car. But now we really were on our vacation. Leaving DC, we experienced traffic.

        First stop. Hershey Park, Pennsylvania. Went on the factory tour, aka the Chocolate Tunnel of Love. We got a free chocolate bar. We ate an ice cream sundae and chocolate milk. Patrick thought he bought two giant Reese’s cups. Anna bought a whack dodge ball.

        In the car, Patrick ate grapes and carrots.

        The day’s final destination was the Davies residence in Dallas, Pennsylvania. We were greeted by Steve “Sick” Davie, who showed us his latest book. He was proud of the new Russian translation.

        At dinner, Patrick ate lettuce and strawberries. Anna was added to the family’s birthday calendar and genealogy chart originally created by Charlotte.

        Neha called. She had forgotten about her field trip to Quebec City. Luckily the Davies had a tent we could borrow. Plans changed to include camping in the Adirondacks.

Friday, May 27

        Anna, Patrick, and Meredith (the youngest Davie) ate a pleasant breakfast at the quaint Olde House Cafe in Dallas. Breakfast was followed by a viewing of the major motion picture Madagascar. We met Tom, Meredith’s Boyfriend, who looked classy in a top hat the he wore to senior prom and has been known to sport a Canadian mullet.

        Immediately following the movie, Patrick and Anna said some emotional goodbyes to Meredith and departed for NIAGARA FALLS!!

        The drive through rural Pennsylvania and New York was beautiful and peaceful. Despite a short period of rain, the trip was blessed by sunshine and white puffy clouds casting shadows on the green rolling hills. The highlight of the drive was a picnic in a field on the side of the road. Pringles and Gatorade were just the thing!

        Anna’s shortcuts were successful. Just south of Batavia, NY, we successfully navigated roads with no lines and small or no signs. This reduced trip time by approximately one hour.

Arrival in Niagara Falls was much anticipated. The border crossing went well. No one was searched or detained; however, no passport stamps were received.

On our way to the hotel we got our first glimpse of the falls – WOW! The hotel was in a prime location.  It was in the middle of all the restaurants and attractions and just a few blocks from the falls. The Karaoke Bar just outside our balcony was mildly amusing. Patrick was in the golf room – not exactly what we expected, but fun nonetheless.

We walked down to the water and marveled at the falls. Fireworks followed at 10pm.

After fireworks, we went to rainforest café and sat next to the waterfall. We took pictures of monkeys and elephants. We less successfully salsa-ed and more successfully meringue-ed. Patrick ate zucchini, artichoke, spinach, onions, and some random spicy dish.

Tired and worn out, we went back to the hotel. We barely made plans for the next night’s lodging before passing out.

Saturday, May 28

        The next morning we gave the milk and cereal bars a try, and they received our seal of approval.  Satiated, we moseyed down to the Maid of the Mist.  Along with all the other Asians, we donned our purty blue slickers and sailed forth into the falls.  Was quite cool and Anna’s hair got wet.  Shockingly, the exit leads you straight through the gift shop.  Laughed at the suckers who would buy little bottles of water that had gone over the falls because we had the same thing just by wringing out Anna’s hair.

        Went to the Guinness Book of World Records Museum to play pinball, watch dominoes and pay a dollar to punch something. 

        Checked out from the Hilltop and decided to do something fun for lunch.  Got reservations, but not for Indian food.  Actually, it was for the Skylon tower in the Revolving Dining Room!  Had lamb which both of us ordered in French.  Sadly, the waiter did not speak French, but he was nice anyway, and we had crème brulé.  Oh, and there was a pretty good view too. 

        Left Niagara Falls and headed off for the random place in the Adirondacks.  Decided that the random place in the Adirondacks was too out of the way, so figgered we’d just stop at any ole campground that looked nice.  Luckily we stopped and bought tarps and flashlights at Wal-Mart before entering the Adirondacks.  Adirondacks, Adirondacks, Adirondacks.

        Rethought the Adirondacks thing again and actually headed for the campground we were planning on originally, and ended up getting there via Russia, Norway and Poland, so it was all good.  Found a rocking (and rockless) campsite.  68.  Set up the tent and covered with tarps, which we were very thankful for later when it rained during the night.  Snacked for din-din and turned in early after a bit of reading. 

Sunday, May 29

In the morning, ate dinner at the local café and traded food halfway, and there was much rejoicing.  Came back and did some packing up/drying off of our stuff.  Patrick took a fifty cent shower.  Rented a canoe and had church on the lake, stopping on a peninsula to pray for everybody. 

Hopped in the car after discarding the hairy egg crate.  Hiked and did not see any Siamese.

Driving to Montreal, we realized that Vermont was really close. We called 411 to get the number for the Stewarts who invited us to stop by their house on Lake Champlain for a couple hours.

To get to their island, we hopped on a ferry, and drove up rt. 2 to North Hero. Ali’s brother Aaron was the first to greet us, but Mr. Stewart quickly dominated the conversation. We learned all about Lake Champlain, the Green Mountains, and Champ, the lake monster. Mrs. Stewart gave us a tour of their restored house from the 1800s which was super cool. Before leaving, Mr. Stewart gave us great directions to Montreal which allowed us to avoid the busy border crossing on Hwy 87.

Our first stop in Montreal was Le Beau Soleil, our quaint and quite fabulous bed and breakfast. The owner was borderline crazy, but was an amazingly cute old French woman who welcomed us warmly. Her manservant, Henry, carried our bags to our room. After settling down, we walked along the road by the Old Port and ate dinner at a cute French café.

Monday, May 30

In the morning, Anna planned out the days adventure, then we enjoyed the breakfast part of the bed and breakfast. With our stomachs full, we headed into the city. First stop was Notre Dame. The highlight was seeing an elevator pop out of the floor in the middle of the cathedral.

Heading from Old Montreal into the heart of the city, we stopped at the Couche Tard (convenience store) to get cash from the ATM. Next to the ATM, we spotted a slushy machine with a CHEESE slushy. We couldn’t resist, so we bought it. Tried it. Drank a few sips. And threw it away.

The main part of the day was spent walking down Rue St. Catherine, known for its universities, shopping, and nightlife. As we weren’t Canadian students and it wasn’t night time, that left shopping. Patrick didn’t complain to much, and actually managed to find a couple of shirts. For lunch, we bought some bread and cheese from the supermarket and ate it in front of the opera house as we listened to a Pilipino singing group.

The highlight of the day was visiting the Coiffure in the underground mall. Patrick got a really great haircut and he spoke to the stylist entirely in French. Quite impressive!

In the afternoon, we went to the IMAX theater to see Crash. It was definitely a change in mood from the rest of the day, but the movie was really well done and took a very critical look at race relations in LA. Two thumbs up.

After the movie, we went in search of dinner. We took a side road off Rue St. Catherine, and we were approached by a man asking us if we were looking for a good place to eat dinner. Anna said, “actually, we are.” We looked at the menu (it was Italian!), and ended up eating there on the 2^nd floor balcony – a great spot to see the double-decker Michelin bus driving by with a man dressed up as the Michelin man and lots of other folks throwing t-shirts and asking pedestrians Michelin trivia. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any tire paraphernalia, but dinner was nonetheless tasty.

After dinner we walked back to the metro to get back to our hotel. On the Metro, a teenager punkishly dressed rushed over to Patrick and exclaimed, “Dude, that shirt is totally the most flippin awesome shirt in the world” (in response to Patrick’s firefox polo shirt). He went on to show up his Linux Penguin tattoo on his arm, gave us directions, and told us where to get the most alcoholic beer on Rue St. Catherine. Definitely a new friend!

Just before our hotel, we stopped to listen to a hilarious street musician who had come up with hundreds of comical ways to ask for money. He did put on a good show though.

Next we got our car for the drive up Mont Royal, the peak in the very middle of the city. At the top overlooking the city’s lights, we celebrated Patrick’s birthday with Belgian chocolate, a giraffe card, some new Quebecois friends, and two raccoons.

Tuesday, May 31

        Early in the morning we waved goodbye to Montreal and headed to Quebec for brunch. With no real map of Quebec and only a vague idea of where we wanted to go, we were amazed when we drive straight to Old Quebec right between the waterfront and Chateau Frontenac – a freakin’ huge castle on a hill. We walked around the castle and over to the citadel before stopping for brunch at a Quebecois café. Patrick ordered in French, and we sampled Poutines, a dish only found in Quebec consisting of fried covered in gravy and cheese curds. They are unhealthy and amazingly tasty.

Leaving the city, we still had no map and no real idea of how to get out of the city, but thanks to a great suggestion by Anna we ended up on a great road that ran directly by the water and connected directly to the highway out of the city.

Our next stop was Bar Harbor, Maine for some whale watching, but to get there we had to drive for 6 hours through the middle of NOWHERE. Nowhere is actually really pretty though. Still in Quebec Province, we stopped to by gas in litres and stock up on even more ketchup flavored potato chips for Tara.

The border stop between Quebec and Maine was interesting. When we got there, there were three cars in front of us and no sign of a border guard anyway. We think he may have been taking a lunch break. Maine, we saw lots of Moose crossing signs, but we never actually believed we would see any. However, just past one such sign, we spotted a car with Georgian tags stopped on the side of the road, and sure enough, they were taking pictures of Moose.

Approaching Bar Harbor, we spotted the hills of Acadia National Park and we were thrilled to see the Atlantic Ocean. The Bar Harbor Inn were we were staying was posh, and we felt quite luxurious. We even had heat lamps. The restaurant at the Inn was definitely the nicest restaurant either of us had even been to. We definitely had our first taste of Maine Lobster in style.

Wednesday, June 1

In the morning, we rode up to overlook on one of the mountains in Acadia national park. Then we found a nice creek to explore, before heading back to the harbor to board the Friendship V, the fastest whale watching boat in Maine.

The boat ride was really cold. Eventually we got smart enough to go inside the boat, out of the wind, were we actually had a better view of both sides of the boat. That’s where we stayed most of the rest of the 4 ½ hour boat ride. In total we saw about 4 puffins, a island full of seals, a bunch of other random non-descript birds, and zero whales. But we did enjoy a nice boat ride on the Atlantic, and they gave us free tickets to try our whale watching luck again next time we are in Maine. Hmm… Perhaps that’s a good reason for another road trip!

After the boat, we got in the car headed for Boston, but we stopped just over the bridge to the mainland in Trenton, Maine at The Lobster Pound for one more taste of lobster. This time we ate it outside on picnic tables. Funny, it tasted the same as that fancy restaurant.

Thursday, June 2

        We woke up in Ashland, MA just outside of Maine, super excited about the upcoming adventure in Six Flags New England with Patrick’s cousin Rebecca and her two kids, Todd and Joshua. Joining us was Rebecca’s Russian neighbors Boris, Olga, and Anastasia, and Mimi a shy but super cute and fun African-American girl who was mentored by Rebecca.

        Six Flags was awesome. We cheated death of the Superman ride, and we took it upon ourselves to spoil Mimi! Anna even sang the infamous Turkey Buzzard song for her.

        After 3 or 4 turns each on the swings and a ride on the carousel, we closed down the park at 8pm and barely kept our eyes open for the two hour ride back to Rebecca’s. Before bed, we had dinner and chatted with Lance (the dad) before heading upstairs.

Friday, June 3

        Too tired to head into Boston, we agreed to stay home with 5 yr. old Joshua until Rebecca got home from work at 1pm. We had an eventful morning filled with the movie Cats and Dogs and making cookies. We also went to the Dairy Queen down the road. Joshua likes sugar, so he was really excited about that.

        We planned to leave when Rebecca got home, but this did not make Joshua happy. He said that Patrick was his best friend, and he wanted to go with us.

        From Boston we were headed to Baltimore via NYC where we stopped for dinner with Patrick’s friend Bob who is actually named Jason and Anna’s friend Brian who was one of her housemates in Uganda. Also joining us for dinner was Brian’s girlfriend from New Jersey and Brian’s roommate David. We went to an awesome Italian restaurant where David quickly dominated conversation. Good thing he was really funny.

        From NYC we headed for Baltimore. Our ETA was about 1:30am, but thanks to Patrick’s attentive driving, we took a great shortcut we ended up getting in at 4am. To be fair, the navigator was asleep.

Saturday, June 4

        Since we got in to Baltimore so late, we decided to sleep in … until 9:30am. After a quick run and an awesome breakfast prepared by Drew, we were joined by Anna’s friend Kimmy who also lives in Baltimore and Drew’s old roommate Tim who had just driven up from DC. We played Trivial Pursuit and went Duck Pin bowling. Good times!

        After bowling, the path’s diverged. Patrick stayed with Drew and Anna went to a cookout with Kimmy. Unknown to Anna, Kimmy had converted to Catholicism, and the cookout was with a whole bunch of nuns … er … sisters. At first she thought she was in a retirement center since all the nuns were incredibly old, but they totally nice, which I found out by personally talking to each and every  one of them.

The next morning, I went to the Catholic church, which seemed more like an AME Zion church, so it was a whole lot of fun. After church, Patrick and Drew joined us for a cookout at Kimmy's. Kimmy lives in an old convent now used for volunteer housing. Even though its not still a convent, Patrick and Drew were still hesitant to come in! Then after a cookout at the convent, Patrick and I headed back to NC, tired but still totally excited about the BEST VACATION EVER!

This week at work, I'm going on 4 field trips - yes FOUR. I still can't believe I get paid for this stuff. The only downside is that I have to eat pizza for lunch 4 out of 5 days this week which is a little excessive.

Today I was riding in an activity bus through the hills of northern Stokes County. And my kids started singing Garth Brooke's "Friends in Low Places." That brought back some memories. When I was in 5 grade going to an elementary school near Pilot Mountain, we sang that song on the bus ride home every single day. I'm impressed kids are still singing it 11 years later!

Book plug: I'm reading "Compassion: A reflection on the Christian Life" by Henry Nouwen . It has to be one of the most insightful and applicable books I've ever read. It's given me a basis to deal with the overwhelming human needs I see in the world (especially as a future social worker), and it's helped me understand why I get overwhelmed, frustrated, and even angry sometimes with things like homeless people of Franklin Street. It really puts things into perspective about how really nothing can be accomplished without God and Christian community, and it breaks down our role of caring for our brothers and sisters through Christ. This book has made my life more focused and purposeful and has made it all make more sense.

Just over a week and I'll be in CANADA!! WHOOO HOOO!!!

So almost every day of my entire life, I have been mistaken for being much younger than my actual age. This is great when you work in a middle school and unfamiliar teachers don't know if you should be in a class or teaching a class. But finally! Today I visited an Elementary School to teach a class about recognizing and communicating feelings - which was successful since one of my students very clearly told me that he was MAD. Anyway, this random lady asked me if I was the school psychologist. I said no, and she appologized for the mistake, but added that she made the mistake b/c I looked PROFESSIONAL. WaHOO. I mean, I still refuse to wear anything but sneakers, but being mistaken for a professional is much better than being mistaken for a 16 year old. That made my day.

Anyway, I'm wasting time at work updating my Xanga. Off to the Piney Grove Middle School to talk to some eigth graders about how to say nice things to each other. What a job!