The Escapade: NJ & Family Time

Hello-hello from New Jersey!

*[disclaimer: this is likely going to be out of chronolocial sequence, mainly because Snowl forgot to keep things updated as they happened. You're getting the compressed block picture of the week.]

The adventure continues here in the garden state, where the drivers like to honk and the houses are so close together there's always a slight air of claustrophobia picking at the back of my brain. I've been enjoying my time with the family here in NJ, and am continually amazed at how American culture can vary even within the same family. The arrival weekend was full of board games and snacks such as Carcassonne and chestnuts [yes, the kind your roast over an open fire], which was a first for this Snowl. We also played Quelf [during which cousin Wheesey had to ask her foot for permission to speak. ha.], Blurt, and Once Upon a Time--a fairy-tale story telling card game [that the Aunt kept trying to turn into The Tempest].

Carcassonne! Uncle dominated, but Wheesey and I gave him a run for his money. If only we could have finished that epic road... *sigh*

These chestnuts were roasted in the oven. Sooo good!

I've been enjoying experiencing the taste [literally] of the Korean influence from my Uncle's side of the family, which includes Korean meals and a Korean soap opera, which Uncle enjoys every weeknight. The numerous Korean plaques/writing/photos around the house have been inspiring me to focus more on my Japanese calligraphy [which still has a lonnng ways to go], but a definite kick-start was found when the Aunt took me to the local book shop.

The youngest of the cousins got done with school while we were perusing here, so we went and picked her up, then came right back. *Somehow* several books managed to jump into my hands, and ended up leaving the store with me. [Shocking, I know.]

Note the farthest wall--that's actually a 'secret passage' to the bathroom!

After leaving heaven on earth, the Aunt, cousin and I hit up the award-winning cupcake shop around the corner. Apparently they won a cupcake war on tv [which might have been more meaningful to Snowl if she watched tv], but it was still a tasty cupcake. I tried the red velvet, and the Aunt got a chocolate one. Cousin decided to play the adopted Cinderella, and instead of getting a cupcake herself, she opted to chew off the flavor from our cupcake paper... one of her many special quirks... [tastes like gum? ...]

Cupcakes ftw! Literally! Nom nom nom.

The cuz et moi in front of the nom-noms.

On Thursday last the Aunt and I tracked down several bridal/dress shops in hopes of finding a cute bridesmaid dress for a dear friend's upcoming nuptials. Sadly, we didn't find anything that screamed, 'buy meeee!' We did, however, find a tasty Indian restaurant for lunch! So the day wasn't a loss after all. [The buffet may have caused Snowl to go up a dress size, though...]

This was the Aunt's first time having Indian food (*shock!!*), and she said she'd definitely do it again. The place kind of reminded me of Gem of India in Springfield, only this place had a fancy inside, and no delicious chai tea included in the price.

This is kind of random, but one of the things I've really been enjoying about this area of the country is how so many of the buildings have identity conflict issues. This library we passed thought it was a castle:

[The moat's being installed next week.]

There's definitely been a recurring food theme this visit. On Monday after my arrival the Aunt and I went grocery shopping for the week [to three different grocery stores]. I didn't realize I'd be cooking so much on this trip! The Aunt said her family tended to get in food ruts, having the same few meals on rotation, so she was open to trying anything new I wanted to cook. That night we ended up having a simple lemon/sage/pepper chicken with a fresh greens/feta/cranberry/vinaigrette dressing and dipping bread with a Door County cinnamon pear balsamic vinegar/olive oil combo, followed up with the Aunt's homemade coconut cream pie:

Aunty is excited to dig in. *drools*

We've also had fried rice, peking duck [slightly traumatic experience for me seeing that strung up dripping in the garage before church Sunday], homemade banana cream pie, key-lime pie, an assortment of fun cheeses and different kinds of crackers, a Snowl tortellini concoction w/homemade sauce and artichokes, feta/tomato/balsamic asparagus salad, some sort of beef/white radish soup... the list goes on. Needless to say, we've been making good use of the kitchen. [And taste buds.]

Other random happenings--we celebrated the middle cousin's birthday at a nice restaurant together as a family, which was tasty [again, food], and all spent some QT watching Gillian's Island episodes together. I introduced the oldest cousin and Aunt to How to Train Your Dragon, which they of course loved [who doesn't?], and one evening was spent painting and music chatting with the youngest cuz. We've also taken a lengthy walk around post a couple times as a family, getting in some exercise to burn off some of that food. There were even some geese that needed chasing! [A few of you might get that remark.]

In summary, so far it's been a wonderful trip. Next up, NYC!

The Escapade: Springfield & I-70+

[Orville's note: She's dragging me around the country again. I'm starting to think she enjoys this or something.]

To Springfield!

Hello hello! I realize there has (once again) been a long silence on the blog, but I finally have something fun to share! I've decided to stay on with Hartung for another year, meaning I've got a few more weeks of free time before the boss wants me back to start working in March. Soooo... logically, I decided to road trip it to New Jersey. I'm going to attempt to document the highlights here in the blog both for my own remembering purposes, and to share with all of you!

So. Why New Jersey? This June one of my NJ cousins is graduating high school, so the whole whole family is planning to visit for it... except for me, since June is right at start of the busy season for harvest. So I'm going to visit them now instead!

I suppose the escapade really started when I left Madison again at the end of January to return to Kansas. Momma's birthday was in the beginning of February, and it had been a few years since I'd been home to celebrate with her. After spending six days back in the home country--mainly just regenerating and seeing family--Orville and I hopped back on the road for Springfield, Mo., to visit my awesome people living there.

The first stop was with our good buddy in Middle-of-nowhere, Mo., who lives on top of the mini-mountain at the end of the terrifying narrow dirt driveway that stretches on and on and on and on...

Said buddy and I had our (belated) Christmas gift exchange, which resulted in me jumping up and down for several minutes in elated excitement. (haha. belated elated. yay.) In his words, "I thought Orville could use some travel companions other than you." His gift was a complete set of -adorable- Eeveelution plushies (yes, I'm a nerd). As you can see, Orville is very excited about his new friends:

[so excited.]

I've been letting the newbies ride on the dash three at a time for the trip. They seem to like it. [Meanwhile, she has me stuffed in a pillow in the back seat. So much for seniority.]

I was in Springfield Sunday through Wednesday, and got to hang out with some of my favorite peeps. The super bowl commercials were enjoyed with my weekend hostesses, after which we had a movie night. Monday allowed for quality fellow Epiphany-header time, and a fun evening visiting with The Professor. Tuesday started off with a make-your-own breakfast with a fellow anime lover, then a long stretch of the afternoon was spent route-planning and bonding with The Auntie while watching Courageous [many tissues required]. Tuesday evening was former suite-mate time! We located a fun tea place in Springfield and promptly raided them of all their bubbles (tapioca pearls):

Yay Door County! Except we're in Springfield... don't get confused.

After filling up on smoothie / milk tea goodness we went to Gem of India, leaving feeling very American (in the sense that we could no longer button our pants...). Delicious. Wednesday was considerably more laid back in the AM, but the afternoon was pretty full. I actually ended up going back to the same tea shop with another friend (also an anime lover) for a short while before meeting up with dear ol' K-Dog, aka The Great Black Dog for you fellow bloggers out there, and we had a fun / nostalgic evening of free pie (thank you, Village Inn), Bass Pro perusing [complete with random conversations with fish], and soup at the Aviary (which, ironically, is also were the fellow Epip-leader and I went on Monday). K-Dog humored me with a picture to document the day:

Note the longer hair! The gf thinks a ponytail will do him good. [The verdict's still out.]

After the whirlwind visit in Springfield, the Bride-to-be bestie and I met early (7 am) at Starbucks for a farewell coffee / breakfast before hitting the road on Thursday. I was proud of both of us for actually making it, lol. ^^; By her agreeing to get together, it forced me to get moving at a decent time for the 14 hour drive I had ahead of me.

I left Springfield at 8 a.m. Thursday and arrived at another EU friend's home at around 10 p.m. near Pittsburg, Penn. that night. The peanut gallery kept me amused with their dash-sitting cuteness during the drive (dashing cuteness?), but, rather tragically, a naughty stone managed to reach my windshield while I was in Illinois, and now I have a crack in the upper right-hand corner (not quite visible in this picture). Insurance arranged for a fixer to come out on Saturday once I reach NJ (to be continued...).

(The old tractor was for Daddy's benefit, since he collects them. ^_^)

I felt uber excited (and grateful!) to see / crash for the night at the fellow English majors' place from EU. Both are going through some interesting changes right now that I enjoyed hearing about. She (fellow English major and Walther gal!) explained how they are only in Penn. for a few more months, so I was glad I was able to see them when I did, because their next destination is L.A. (which is a bit out of the way for this trip). He is in a master's program for film / entertainment, and I'm thinking perhaps I went into the wrong work field, because hearing him talk about his experience at a video game creation company was pretty much epic. I parted ways with these two early Friday morning when they left for work, hitting the road by 8 again for central Penn. to meet up with another friend: dear Quetz!

I was very pumped about this get together, mainly because, despite having met online way back in 2006 and having lots of fun skype/facebook conversations, this would be our first in-person meeting. I reached her residence around 11 a.m. near the state university, and after meeting her family we walked to the campus and met up with her sister for ice cream at the campus creamery:

[The ice cream didn't last long enough to make the picture.]

Chocolate chip cooke dough ftw. After freezing our (very happy) tongues, we went out and froze the rest of ourselves as we walked from campus to the downtown, hitting up a Starbucks (love) and a comic book store (more love), both of which managed to somehow acquire some of the papery stuff in my wallet. [So sneaky.]

Since the family members I was heading for in NJ had an event that afternoon, I ended up hanging out with Quetz's family until evening, making the rest of the drive later than planned (silly computer clock was still on central time). I -finally- reached my final destination around 11:30 p.m., and waited for my cousins to come escort me onto the base. Uncle had already called it a day (quite understandably), but the Aunt and cousins and I all stayed up and visited a while.

This morning the glass-fixer-man came out, and we got that squared away for the time being. After a big family breakfast, I finally got a chance to sit down and blog this all out. I'll try to keep everyone updated on the escapade!

~to be continued~