Trip to Beaver Creek

Emerson and I left the old ranch for higher mountains.

First we picked up my L.A. friend Tammy Rosen, who flew into Denver Airport for a little break from Hollywood (she IS my manager friend). Tammy invited us to join her and her family at the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek ski resort, (the sister resort of Vail, CO.)

Beaver Creek is beautiful, and coincidentally, the first place in the west I ever skied. It looks so different now, as does Vail's now-massive village.

Day one, we took the chair lift up to the top, which has an elevation of 11,440 ft. (The little white dots down below in the photo is our hotel.) Pretty steep and it is missing the normal amount of oxygen! I've acclimated myself to Boulder's elevation (5,430 ft), close to Denver at 5,281 ft. - which why it's called the Mile High City. Emerson seemed fine on the 15 minute ride, even when the lift stalled. I hid my fears, mostly from him and tried not to look DOWN! As my dear friend Amy S., texted me later said - I will need to get used to this stuff in order to go skiing. But then, what if I just don't ever go skiing? At the mountain's top, my friend (who I have not known to be an athlete) - extreme mountain biked it down with her Uncle Ray. Go, Tam!

One of the best parts of living in Colorado is that a great old friend of mine visits her daughter each summer. Jean Trebbi, lady extraordinaire, along with 3 librarian friends, all drove down to have drinks and reminisce on Sunday night - Emerson's 3rd birthday! The last I saw Jean was Miami's airport, after we spent a week in Cuba together. I was pregnant at the time - and Fidel was still at the helm... what an amazing trip, but I digress.

Here is the E Superhero and Pirate! (He LOVES the idea of make-up, and dress up now. His cousin Allison can attest - in Maine, she put her sparkly make-up on E every time he asked.) Happy 3rd birthday, sweetheart!

Erie, CO!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie,_CO

Yee haw! We made it to Erie, CO, to our temporary furnished 1000 sq. ft. carriage house. It's behind a big private home that's set in a Celebration or Seaside-designed neighborhood setting. All the houses are HUGE and have front porches. So far, the best two best things about Erie are:

1) The animals!

Horses, cows, llamas, a donkey, prairie dogs, fields of sunflowers and open range. Emerson pet his first horse yesterday. Picture shows dad's hand, but E was right there, petting all the "over the fence" noses. The prairie dogs fill the land behind our cottage, ducking in and out of holes.

2) Community Rec Center - Colorado has a ton of these centers. The one in Erie opened last year and has an amazing rock climbing wall, top of the art nautilus, and in-door water playgrounds. It's sort of like a YMCA on steroids, but nicer. Emerson has discovered that he LOVES to swim! Just like his mama. In the lower right hand side of this photo, Dad and E are floating along the rushing river stream.

411 Concord

We barely made our appointment. We drove fast through our new home State of Colorado, into Boulder for a 5:00 pm meeting with our real estate agent, Niki, and our friend, Ward. Niki got us access into the house that's about to be ours, and Ward, a friend of Kevin's since they were 7 years old, is a handyman extraordinaire. Our inspection report brought back a list of items that we couldn't understand the seriousness of, and with a closing in a few weeks, we wanted deepen our knowledge of what exactly was wrong. The best part was, we got to see the house again after being on the road (homeless) for so long. It was still there!

Road Trip! Day Two - UT to CO

When you're on the road, you get to meet people who are just like you. People who are also in transition, or on vacation, looking for fun and adventure. We didn't have the luxury of excess time on this road trip, but we had fun and learned some cool stuff along the way. At Zion National Park, we learned about lizards from a park ranger. I lived in Florida most of my early years, and never did I learn as much about lizards as I did in Zion.

The second night, we stayed in Green River, UT, but just barely. It was a Saturday night at summer's end. Nearly all the awful little motels were booked. Just before Emerson had enough, we found a room at the Quality Inn, maybe?, not that it matters. Green River has a small year-round population - in the hundreds - who mainly cater to vacation-goers who wish to raft on the Green River, or people who make award-winning melons (I'm not kidding). I wish I took a picture of the melon stand. I easily built up my melon knowledge by talking to one of the award-winning melon breeders. Ever have a Crenshaw? It has green skin, but pinkish-orange flesh, and heaven on earth. Melon Days is coming up in Green River, September 18-19, 2009: http://www.greenriverutah.com/melondays.html. Oh, and if you visit, make sure you eat at the Tamarisk, they serve beer AND coffee.

Road Trip! Day one - LA to Utah

We picked up our new ride at the dealership, shipped the old one, and took off on a Friday afternoon... and being L.A., we immediately got stuck in 405 traffic. Ugh. Good-bye huge traffic jams. Hello, road trip!

It's our first road trip with a two-year-old. And we were prepared with plenty of snacks and a DVD player. Somehow, on the first night we drove until midnight. With the help of my new i-phone (how did I live without it?!) We found a fairly decent Best Western in St. George, UT, which is also the home of Dixie College. The College was named partly for the profitable cotton industry in this area back in the 1800s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George,_Utah

We found St. George, (even if it lacked good coffee--putrid at the B. Western buffet--and coffee shops were at a minimum) to be a surprisingly nice stop. Kevin and I agreed that lack of good caffeine was fall out from being in a predominantly Mormon state. But then we found the cafe 25 Main, with its misted exterior and ultra hip decor. 25 Main: http://www.twentyfivemain.com/. And, they even had cupcakes!

Celebration of Life

After a celebration of life ceremony for Great Grampy at Sebec Community Church, we gathered back at the cabin to eat. We were so glad to have Ruby with us on this day, and in Maine, again. Grampy's wish was to be cremated, and have his ashes scattered on beautiful Lake Sebec. And that's what we did. We miss and love you, Great Grampy.

More from Maine

You know you're getting older, when you can't quite remember anyone's exact age, except for the children. L to R: Hawken, 1.5 years, Allison, 7 years, Emerson, 2.89 years, Bob, unknown years, Janet, holding steady at 59 years, Jasmine, under 1 years, Ethan, 9 years, and Chase, 1.5 years.

Lake Sebec, Maine

One of the best parts of being in Maine is eating birthday cake. This year, two rockin' ice-cream cakes and one extra special "chocolate chip cookie" cake (a mound of cookies with a candle on top) were graciously shared by the birthday kids with the drooling grown-ups. Here is Ms. Allie, who has grown so tall and lovely, with her 7 candles.

The second best part is hanging out with family. Although an important part of the family passed away earlier this year, Robert G. Dreves, AKA, Grampy or Flat Grampy. His great presence can be felt in the cabin, on the lake and - basically, he's the reason why we all vacation there. This time together allowed us to celebrate his life and legacy, and say goodbye. On a lighter note, I'll never forget the time he tried to give Emerson some of his Manhattan cocktail. Here's Grampy caught in the act.

The third best part is the lobster! (Does it appear that I enjoy eating a little much?)

Poconos and Lake Ganoga

As we drove from Philly to the Poconos, we lost our cell coverage, and all wi-fi connections. I was annoyed. My new i-phone became inert and useless. Then, after 4 days in the old Ricketts Estate

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pasulliv/sullivancountyfolk/scf3/Ricketts.htm with 7 other Swarthmore-connected families, I didn't miss my technological disconnection at all. I found a stronger, and deeper connection through friends and nature. The fog came in each morning and burned into blue sky each day. We hiked a national forest with 7 waterfalls, count them, 7. Steve Toy made amazing endless cocktails; Robbie O. and Jin (forgive my spelling) kept us fortified with amazing dishes; Lady Karen shared mouth-watering hand-made Maryland crab cakes; Fergie spinned non-stop groovy tunes; Paul and Whit opened their home and cabin to all and cleaned up our mess; and the kids swam, kayaked (even little E), ran in great green fields, and played happily (mostly) together. It was so great to spend quality time with women I admire and enjoy so much, Whit, Susie, Colleen and new friends Christie and Karen. Hope we can do it again...

Santa Monica to Northport, MI

It has only been one month since we departed California. It feels like six. After our movers packed up the house on a Monday, they took it all away the following day. I was thankful that Emerson could spend those two days at his preschool across the street while all his toys were packed into 100 boxes.

We spent our last night in Santa Monica at our dear friends house. Then, a redeye

flight brought us into Chicago early where Kevin left us for business meetings. Emerson and I got on a second, and much smaller plane to Traverse City, MI, to visit Amy and his best buddy Teddy!

We landed at the Cherry Capitol airport and drove along gorgeous Lake Michigan to Northport Point, (see borrowed image from wikipedia) and Amy's "new" summer home - a 20s cabin. It was amazing to see Amy and Teddy (who upon seeing Emerson did his break-dance routine), Silja - who is now walking! - and meet their Finnish au pair, Nora. Time flew once there. Kevin joined us for the weekend. We did fireworks (to E's and T's dismay), antique shopped, cooked, the boys had Fairy School, and we played a little golf. The cabin was last updated in the 50s (no dishwasher!) and it is located right on the beach. They will restore the cabin to its Craftsman glory - it will be amazing. I can't wait to see them again...