Rome...Wisconsin

We are now in the Wisconsin Dells, after spending last night and today in Rome, WI with Brad Lindberg and his new family: wife, Dawn, and 5 month old son, Andrew. Some of you may remember Brad from Nome where he spent a year as the Lutheran pastor intern. We lovingly referred to him as KICY's "Iceman," where he had a morning radio show at the Polar Cafe. Wayne and I were his only faithful listeners. It was another fun visit especially since we were introduced to Culvers, a burger and custard ice cream joint. Wayne's digestive tract has still not recovered. But it was great to meet Dawn and hold Andrew as often as I could. He almost made me want another baby, but I quickly came to my senses. (Brad and Dawn, thanks again for your hospitality and we hope you make it to Alaska soon!)

On our way home through Milwaukee

Visiting old friends has truly been a very special part of this trip. I just wish we could've seen everyone and visited longer with everyone that we've seen so far. We are actually heading home now to Alaska via Wisconsin and Minnesota. Here we are in Milwaukee with Wayne's friend, JT, and his children, Josh and Jaden. Tyler and Joe are making a lot of friends all over the US now.

Biggest Lobsters in the World

We spent the weekend in Cape Cod (Massachusetts) visiting yet another Goucher friend, Lisa and her family. I was lucky to overlap our visit with her mother, Chris, who is always a pleasure to see. Tyler and Joe had a lot of fun with her kids, Eric, Evan and Carly, and it was great to finally meet her husband Rick, who was in charge of somehow cooking the lobsters that were each over ten pounds. Thanks again for a great time, and we left on Lisa's birthday, so "Happy Birthday."

Boston, Mass

We only spent a short time in Boston. As we are somewhat weary of world class natural history museums, we opted to check out the museum at the Harvard Medical School Library. Here we saw Civil War amputation kits, some interesting conjoined twin skeletons, as well as the skull of Phineas Gage, a man from the 1800's whose skull was impaled with a metal rod from his cheekbone out through the top of head. They say he could speak coherently right afterward, and although he survived for about 12 years, he never had the same personality. This was a medical milestone in that the scientific community learned a lot about the frontal lobe from his accident.

We also drove around Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Fenway is a lot like Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs). We befriended a Boston Policeman, who let us park illegally and took our picture in front of the Ted Williams statue!

Maine

We spent a day in the state of Maine to visit another Goucher friend, Candice. We met her husband, George, and her two sons, Noah and Lucas. I actually met Noah 12 years ago when he was just a baby. Much to my dismay, I forgot to take pictures of the family, but I am so happy to have spent time with them, and enjoyed George's pasta carbonara! Thanks again.












Although we didn't get to eat any Maine lobster; based on Candice's suggestions, we did make it to Becky's Diner in Portland (the clams in Maine are the best) and stopped at DeLorme (a map/cartography/ GPS company) to see Eartha, a giant globe. And of course no trip to Maine is complete without heading into Freeport to check out L.L. Bean. Anyplace with trout is a must see for Tyler and Joe.

Hockey Mom

It appears that my fate is sealed, and like another well known Alaskan, hockey is going to be a big part of my life. Joe absolutely loves it, can actually skate and shoot a little, and cried when I said, "Time for cocoa," because he did not want to leave the ice. He and Tyler have improved markedly with their ice skating, just on this trip (granted it's been three months). I've even improved quite a bit and played a little with hockey skates which are much more fun than figure skates. Here we are with Uncle Norm, Aunt Barb, and Cousin Chase and some Rochester, VT locals.

Back at Smith

Bye Victoria, we love you.

New York City

I love this city...We stayed in my brother, Victor's, studio apartment: all of us, including Victoria who is heading back up to college in Massachusetts. There is just so much to see and do, and we tried to do as much as we could despite the freezing temperatures. And I noticed it was 47 degrees in Anchorage this past week!

Happily we got to visit my high school friend, Jeff Rotter, and his wife, Margaret, and son, Felix. We ate dinner in Brooklyn with his parents who were up from S. Carolina. The visit was too short, but fun, and unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of his family. For all you Cardinal Newman alum, Jeff just published his first novel, so be on the look out for it.

Besides the Museum of Natural History, we also saw the provocative "Bodies, the Exhibition." This was an educational, yet creepy show of cadavers, open to the paying public. Cadavers were shown in all types of way: posed with a basketball, cut in different planes, you name it. Real organ systems were shown in their entirety. The procurement of the bodies remains questionable, with a disclaimer before you enter that they could not "independently verify that the human remains you are viewing are not those of persons incarcerated in Chinese prisons." So it was definitely disturbing, but the boys, were honestly just bored after a while, and didn't really get it.

Of course it was great seeing my brother and hanging out in his bachelor pad watching movies (even a 3-D one). And it was great going out to eat (lots of sushi) and fun running around on the subways to get around. In fact, riding on the subways was definitely Tyler and Joe's favorite part of the whole visit.

from Glen Rose, TX to Manhattan

Well, we know we've been to a lot of places on our trek now. Today we visited the Museum of Natural History in NYC to see the dinosaur exhibits. Being the dinosaur "experts" that we've become with two little boys, this place blew us away- the best collection of dino fossils we've ever seen. Anyway, a LONG track of river bed like the fossil tracks we saw in November from the Paluxy River in Texas was removed in the 1930s, and brought to the museum and we saw them today. I think that's pretty cool.

Headed into NYC

We decided to go into NY and sadly left Bo in Vermont and left our van in New Haven, CT and took the train in.  We had a short stop in Massachusetts to see Wayne's old high school buddy, Dave Perkins.  Lots of reuniting going on and this has been great.   Here are the boys in the New Haven Union Station.

Christiansen boys!!!

We are lucky to spend some time in Rochester, VT at Wayne's brother, Norm's house, so we got to see cousin Chase, and Aunt Barbara again. Their house up in the Green Mountains is big and lots of fun with tons of toys, a turret, and a jacuzzi. We got our van stuck trying to turn into their snowy driveway, and it was our only semi-worrisome incident with the van so far. I got to go snow shoeing with Barb one day around her friend's farm and the "big" boys played hockey another day as well.

Sweet Caroline

We made it to Burlington, Vermont, and I visited my friend from Goucher, Caroline, whom I hadn't seen since her wedding--I don't know how long ago. It was a great reunion, and here we are having fun with her kids, Carl and Elizabeth. You can tell Elizabeth is in one of the pictures because of her girlie tights...

Freezing in Montreal

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the van, 1st at a Canadian Walmart, and then at an RV park that said it was open year round, but wasn't (so it was free). Since we can't put the top up anymore on the van, we are all sleeping together "downstairs." It gets a little crowded especially with Joe thrashing around. However, it does stay warmer, which was fortunate because we hit a snow storm in Montreal. This has changed our plans to go to Quebec City and we headed to Vermont today.









The provinces of Ontario and Quebec speak mostly French, so it has been fun and challenging. Wayne's knowledge of French is mainly the names of hockey players and actors (" Guy LaFleur" and "Gerard Depardieu") and mine is equally as inadequate. "Merci" and "Bonjour" can only get you so far.

The weather was so icky yesterday, that we were unable to actually see tall buildings in the city! So we spent the entire day at the Montreal Biodome, a cool zoo-type place that showcased different ecosystems. Tyler and Joe could have stayed forever. Then this morning we went to the Montreal Insectarium which was very fascinating. They had live beautiful scarab beetles, stick and leaf bugs, scorpions, this amazing ant exhibit, and also spiders.

Being in Montreal makes you feels like you are in Europe, and like everywhere else we've been on this trip, I can't wait to return. I feel like we missed out on too many things already...

Niagara Falls

We spent two nights in the Canadian side of Niagara mostly to spend a day at the Fallsview indoor water park--way fun and fortunately not busy while we were there. Tyler was able to ride almost everything. Wayne and I actually have been to Niagara Falls over ten years ago, and also in January. I'd sure love to see it not frozen.






But it is very beautiful in the winter and the closer you get to Horseshoe Falls, the mist from the falls freezes all over the railings and buildings and anything close by.

Niagara has changed a lot in ten years, and has casinos, a ferris wheel, haunted houses, and Ripley's Believe or Not-type attractions. It can definitely suck all the money out of your wallet if you aren't careful, especially with little boys. Thank goodness Tyler and Joe can't read yet.

Ann Arbor

We weren't ready to leave Michigan yet, and had to spend some time in Ann Arbor, home to Wayne's alma mater, University of Michigan. The kids and I were subjected to a tour of Wayne's frat house, other fraternities and sororities, and all the bars where he used to hang out. He did show us other buildings where he may have had classes. Actually, it was a lot of fun driving around campus, and we tried to sneak into all the sporting arenas.  The football field was definitely off-limits and we were kicked off the Yost Ice Arena rink.

And, fortunately for me, Ann Arbor is home to the world-famous Zingerman's Deli, another must visit-and-eat destination for me, where we grabbed lunch and sampled olive oils and breads.  This place was fun, even for Wayne, or so he said. Seriously check  out www.zingermans.com for foodie fun.