Road trip

We decided to turn the chore of moving into a great road-trip adventure. After a horrible experience moving from SF to NY, which involved movers basically kidnapping our stuff for ransom and delivering it 2 months later, Mike and I have vowed never to let our belongings leave our sight again. So we knew we'd be driving it out to Wisconsin. We got a huge truck and a trailer for the car, and we all piled in and headed west. a modern day wagon train...

We had hoped to make it to the Adirondacks the first night, but because our closing was moved from the morning to the afternoon, we were only able to make it to the Birkshires. But we found a lovely camping spot at October Mountain State Forest, not far off the highway, and spent a fun night there. It was Caroline's first experience with camping, and I must say, it was a rousing success. She loved it! All of the dirt and sticks and rocks to play with. Luckily, it was a thursday night in May, so we pretty much had the run of the place. We built a campfire and cooked up some veggie burgers and sausages for dinner. Caroline loved the fire and wanted to get all close up, which we tried to avoid. We kept saying "Hot! Hot!" while pulling her back. Then she did the cutest thing- she blew out with her mouth, like we do when we're blowing on her hot food. I guess that's her form of sign language for "hot". Never mind that blowing on a fire certainly won't cool it down...

We thought it might be a rough night sleeping, but in the end it was fine. Mostly it was just falling asleep that was hard, because Caroline wanted to run around the tent and play. I had hoped to put her down and join Mike back at the campfire, but it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't until we were both in the tent, pretending to sleep, that she finally fell asleep on the mat & blankets between us. The whole family all snuggled up. I loved every minute of it!

The next day we hit the road to Ithaca. We happened across a tiny hamlet near there with a great name...

Ithaca was indeed "Gorges," as they say. We cruised around Cornell and went hiking in one of the gorges there, which was great fun. Then we had dinner at the famous Moosewood restaurant. Mike was happy that they at least served fish, so he wouldn't have to suffer an entire vegetarian meal. The food was fantastic and we went crazy buying cookbooks, but unfortunately Caroline was a bit of a cranker-pants, so dinner was cut short. We camped that night too- just outside of town.

The gorge in Ithaca

By the campfire with her daddy
Where's the baby? ...Huddled up for warmth

The next day we spent the morning hiking in the Glen Watkins Canyon. This is one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever been on. You basically take an enormous staircase down into a deep canyon and hike down it, past and underneath waterfalls. Lots of neat geology for Mike too.

Behind the falls! Caroline looks like she has had enough of the backpack, but she was actually a pretty good sport

The green canopy was so lush and beautiful!

Then we spent the afternoon winetasting in the fingerlakes region. Or should I say, I spent the afternoon winetasting while Mike drove me around wishing the truck weren't so hard to park. It was lovely.

We spent that night "couchsurfing" in Geneva, NY. A few of my friends thought we were totally nuts to shack up with a complete stranger we found on the internet, but it turned out to be a really wonderful experience. We stayed with a college professor of Japanese. Really interesting guy who was a dead-ringer for Benjamin Franklin. Anyways, he was such an amazingly gracious host- had a perfect little guestroom for us, took us out to dinner and insisted on paying (though I literally tried to wrangle the check from his hands), played a fun card game and chatted with us once Caroline was asleep, and then cooked us breakfast in the morning. All this for nothing- just the goodness of his heart. I think it is a really neat concept, and though there are a few wackos in the world, I suspect the vast majority of folks on the site are great people just looking to pay it forward and meet some new people.

The next day we drove to Niagara Falls. We met up with Mike's parents there. I was so glad they came out to meet us on our trip! We enjoyed seeing the falls with them- both from the American and Canadian sides. We walked all over to see them from different angles. At night we went to see the lightshow on the falls while Mike's parents watched little C. We went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. You wouldn't believe how many Indians and Indian restaurants there were there. It was like little India. If any of my Indian friends wants to explain this phenomenon to me... pipe in here! Anyways, the food was fabulous and really authentic tasting. Like being back in India.

The next day Mike and I took the "Maid of the Mist" boat out under the falls which was pretty cool. We left Caroline with Mike's parents who had taken the ride the day before we got there. Caroline seemed pretty interested in the falls, but I'm sure she was just wondering what it was all about.

At the American side of the falls
On the bridge to the Canadian side, with both sets of falls in the background
The light show at night. Mike thought it was fairly unimpressive, but I think that was because of his colorblindness. I liked it a lot.
The Maid of the Mist

On the boat
Caroline and flowers... always a winning combination.

Playing in the daisies with her grandparents

After Niagara Falls, it was pretty much just lots of driving to get to Wisconsin. We took 2 days to go 700 miles, which is a lot of driving with a baby! But she was actually pretty good and slept a good deal of it. We did make one stop on the way back for a picnic at Indiana Dunes state park on the shores of Lake Michigan. Caroline was in love with the sand. I guess she's never been to a real sandy beach like this, but she was laying down in it, running it through her hands and toes. It was just too cute!