Uncle Wes and Aunt Judi’s in Peachtree City, Georgia

Our trip to Georgia was pretty much uneventful. We stopped and bought some cracklins (if you don’t know, don’t ask) and Tony demonstrated that he had learned much from his deer avoidance lessons. About 10 minutes from Wes’s place a nice buck jumped our in front of us on its way home from the local pub we guess as it really wasn’t paying much attention to the fact that we were gong to run over it. Tony immediately applied the brakes, while simultaneously swerving! Adam was so happy, but also a bit disappointed, he was hoping Tony might just clip him a little bit so we could have some venison!

At Wes and Judi’s we got to see Dawn and Rod and their kids, Ansley and Beck, and Kari and John and their kids Dylan, Devon and Michael. It had been quite some time since Adam had seen his cousins. We did see them 4 years ago but that ended up being a short visit, so this was great! At Kari and John’s we stayed up catching up and laughing while we finished off a magnum of wine.

Kari and John’s house is amazing! It is three levels – the upstairs living areas and a full basement that they have finished into a tv/play room, kitchenette and two bedrooms. The main level has a den, living room, huge eat-in kitchen, laundry, formal dining room and bathroom. Upstairs is the master bedroom suite, and the three bedrooms for the kids and bathrooms. Tony and Adam stayed in the basement bedroom with our own private bath! Sweet – especially after coming from South Carolina where we shared the room and bathroom with Adam’s folks.

In the morning we worked our way over to Wes and Judi’s place where we had some errands to run. We stopped by to see their RV, that we had not seen yet. The pictures below are from inside their RV!!!! Can you believe that!

Can you believe their RV? It's HUGE!

After the RV we drove past Kari’s new job and hit a Target for some new jeans for Adam and some joint toiletries. Then we all went back to Kari’s for some more visiting. Kari was supposed to be flying off on Monday to Austin but was fighting an ear infection.

On our way back to Wes and Judi’s, we stopped to pick up a wrist brace for Wes as his wrist was swollen and bothering him. Getting back into the car we passed a Chick-fil-A and Wes found out that we had never been and darn near run off the road getting us into it. Aunt Judi had been planning on making pork loin but Wes had decided that we were going to have a Chick-fil-a sandwich and, well, if you’ve ever seen a Holbrook make his mind up, there isn’t really much point in trying to change it, so Wes treated us to our fist Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches. They were really good! We’ll definitely be going back!

Back at their place Adam pulled out the therapist card and started finding out why Wes’s wrist and hand were swollen. Adam decided it was partly due to his posture when using his laptop and began devising ways to improve his posture and make some other changes that would help him out. As part of this we introduced Wes and Judi to Kings in the Corner, a card game that has many similarities to solitaire, except that it is for 2 or more. We played until about 9:30 with Aunt Judi not winning a single game and Adam barely one, while Tony and Wes had 4 each. We retired back to Kari’s for the night

Adam working on Wes' wrist.

Turkey Day

On Turkey Day, Karen brought out the family table cloth that gets signed every year for T-day. After we all sign, Karen takes it home and embroiders all the signatures in it. The last time Tony and Adam signed was 4 years ago… a coincidence that it has been that long since we bought our house in Oakland? We think NOT!

We had an early dinner so we could enjoy the day visiting. We of course had way too much food, there were about fifteen of us for dinner and we had two turkeys, ham, sauerkraut with kielbasa and the usual other suspects. Adam’s favorite food at this dinner was Rob’s pumpkin pie. He uses Libby’s recipe but adds Kahlua – yummy! We had to eat parts of one of these early as the glass pie plate that it was in shattered while it was cooling! We salvaged what we could, which wasn’t much because of the shattered glass, but Adam was determined to eat as much of it as he could before sending the rest out with the trash!

Adam, his brother, John and friend Larry, headed outside to do a little fly fishing instruction and training. John has been doing lots of fly fishing lately and he gave Adam a fly rod and reel so he could enjoy it as well! John is a really big fisherman and is Adam’s supplier and pusher for fishing equipment.

Adam caught a small bluegill at the pond in front of the house with lots of tutelage from Larry and John.

In the evening we all settled down and ousted the kids at the Wii. Adam’s favorite game is Raving Rabbids. You get to shoot rabbits with plungers amongst other things. After demonstrating some of the games to the younger kids the adults thought they should give it a try as well. Everybody got in on the action and had a great time.

The next day we all headed out to breakfast in downtown Beaufort. This is one of Rob’s favorite traditions and we all took part this year. Rob’s favorite is the Shrimp and Grits, and as far as we are concerned if you are going to have grits, this is the way to have them! We had a great time at the restaurant then we said our goodbyes and headed on down to Atlanta.

Of Birthdays, recitals and new faces!..

On Saturday we helped to get the house ready for Adam’s nephew’s birthday party. Tony dutifully washed dishes and helped clean the house while Adam set to work hanging the piñata. We did general clean-up and party maintenance for the day. John Wesley had a great time and everybody went home with lots of candy.

In the evening we headed to see Adam’s niece, Jessica, in a school dance recital. We had a great time watching her and the rest of the kids perform. They did an eclectic combination of dances loosely following the theme of the Nutcracker. Afterward we packed Adam’s parents, Jessica and her friend, Katie, and the two of us into a little Suzuki and zipped home. We had some great stew that Pam (Adam’s sister-in-law) had made and Tiffany (Adam’s neice) brought over Landon (her son, Adam’s great nephew), so we could meet him for the first time (he just turned one a week ago!) Everybody got turns to love on Landon and Adam played therapist, helping him to sit up straight and giving him support so he could turn his head, which Landon loved doing.

Landon has cortical blindness and cerebral palsy, when he was born they thought he had anencephaly (no brain) and was sent home with hospice. Now he is a year old and they are continuing to make changes to his diagnoses. He has the cutest little hand splints to help his hands stay flexible and foot braces for his little feet. Needless to say he gets lots of attention whenever he is around!

[ MOM!!! Send pics of Landon, Tony lost major points because there are NONE of me and Landon on our camera!]

We had lots of fun, goofing around, running errands and doing chores. Other than keeping the kitchen clean, Tony was in charge of doing the window tinting in the upstairs window. While Adam did some routine maintenance on his car – changing oil pressure relay, oil and oil filter, air filter and cabin air filter… the usual. – But it fixed the oil pressure problem that popped up while we were in Canada, so all is happy again!

Journey to SOUTH CAROLINA

We don’t really remember much of the drive, but we arrived at the hotel, got all checked in and headed out to get some pizza. A quick stop at Rite-Aid for some salad peppers for Adam and some rootbeer, then off to the pizza joint. Here is a hint for everyone, don’t bother with Pizza Inn if you are in the East/South or wherever you find it. As further proof, Adam’s nephew thinks it is the bomb! It was just your average pizza, except it wasn’t hot. The people were really nice though!

After eating we chatted with Adam’s folks and decided we would probably be the ones picking them up on our way to South Carolina the next day so we didn’t have to check out til noon on Friday.

Friday we slept in (this is not really that new, we have been sleeping in most everyday of this trip), but it felt good since we were kind of not feeling so great. And being in a hotel we didn’t feel so bad about taking a 5 hour shower to clear things out a bit!

If we drove directly to Charleston it would take us about 4 hours and we would arrive there about 3 hours before Adam’s parents landed, so we decided on the spur of the moment to take a state highway. It was really mellow and relaxing, just what we needed for not feeling so well. We got to go through some little towns, stopped at a few places and were having a relaxing time. About 3 hours into this trip Adam asked how much longer it looked like it might be before we got to Charleston. Tony, being the expert navigator that he is, dutifully took measurements and added up estimated driving times and distances and said “Four hours.” At this point, Adam stopped talking and the enjoyable drive through the countryside lost its relaxational properties. Returning to the main highway would not have changed the driving time as it was a ways away and all roads to it went North, the opposite direction of our destination. We drove on in relative silence, rather annoyed at having been duped and not having thought this out a bit more!

About 4 hours later we informed Adam’s parents that we would be at the airport shortly to pick them up. Luckily they had arrived at about 7:20 and we were only a few minutes away.

We packed them into the car with their luggage, it was not a comfortable ride. But they treated us to dinner for the lift. ( We should think so! We drove all the way from California to pick them up!) They treated us to a dinner at the Waffle House.

For those of you not in the know, the Waffle House is a Southern tradition. That said, you should go there, once, and only once, unless you like grease. Adam ordered a salad, should be simple enough, right? We should have known that something was wrong when they came back and asked if he wanted the hardboiled egg on it, they wanted to make sure he knew this was part of their deli salad, as it sounded pretty odd to them. There were a total of two sliced carrots about the size of a dime on the entire salad. Adam had never had a carrot cut so thin it was not crispy before this meal. At the bottom of the place we found the red cabbage. Despite the difficulty the staff had with the salad it tasted pretty much like well, a salad! Adam’s dad, John, ordered eggs with hash browns and a pancake. Tony had a burger with a side of grits. Note to self, don’t eat the grits at Waffle House. Denise had something with grease on it we’re pretty sure. The buildings are shaped kind of like a double wide, the food seemed to fit the theme and the staff really played it up, making sure to yell and holler a lot, to complete the atmosphere! It was really quite charming [insert sarcasm here].

We pulled into Beaufort, SC sometime just before midnight, did a little visiting and re-arranging to make room for everybody and promptly passed out.

Pennsylvania

Monday we took off heading for Pennsylvania! But first we had to escape from New York!

Adam picked up the car and managed to get back to the condo without a hitch. We loaded up and with Tony navigating (as usual) we got onto the right road. We were priviledged enough to be allowed to cross the Verazano Bridge, at $10 toll, we wish we would have declined the invitation and taken the ferry.

At any rate it did make the trip go much faster and we got into PA in short order. We managed to make another wrong turn somehow but didn’t feel like going back so we stopped for lunch at a Ruby Tuesday’s.

It was a special trip as we think it was the first time we stopped in a restaurant for lunch while on the road. Partly this was due to Tony not feeling well and Adam deciding he needed some soup! While at the restaurant we got our bearings.

We took the back route to get to our destination which was the Peter Wentz Farmstead, the Wentz Family Cemetery and the Wentz Reform Church (notice a theme here?) Adam is a descendant of Peter Wentz and the farm here is a national historic monument as General George Washington shacked up there for a bit during a time of transition for the British.

The farm isn’t open on Mondays. It would have been really nice of them to include that fact on their website, which was remarkably devoid of practical information. Anyhow, we headed off to the church and then to the cemetery. The local historical society has done a great job of clearing and taking care of the cemetery. When Adam last visited 8 years ago, it was kind of hard to find and quite overgrown. This time there were signs, a new fieldstone wall and all it was in the middle of lawn! What a nice surprise!

After this little jog down memory lane we headed off to visit witih Skip and Marie!. We stopped and picked up a bottle of wine from the local wine shop, which happened to have some Delicato wine (made a mile or so from where Adam grew up!) and made it in time for supper! Marie had made a great pot roast with all kinds of goodies!

The house on the farm is amazing! Built about 1825, with an addition in1850 and another in 1950, it is one house but sort of three separate units. We were put up in the Guest Cottage, with our own kitchen and bath and living room. We didn’t use them, because we were always with Skip and Marie, but it was really nice.

This is a picture of someone else's farm, we forgot to get any of the farm on the way out of town!

Marie made pancakes for us on Tuesday morning. Skip isn’t a big fan of pancakes, so she likes to take the chance when company is around to enjoy making some for people that will enjoy them, too! They were really good, if any of you are ever near Kinser, PA around breakfast time, it’s worth the stop!

Tony was still not feeling well, so Adam got to go exploring solo. There is a large barn which has two levels, the lower level is livestock area the upper level is the hay storage. Since it is not used as much nowadays, it is a lot more storage both up and downstairs, with all kinds of neat finds, like 20 or so cute little barn cats and kittens that scurry around, running toward you when they see you then running away when they get too close! Adam re-united a calf with it’s mom, as it had gotten on the wrong side of the fence and wasn’t having any luck getting back (cows aren’t too bright) After the Barn there is the Tobacco dryinig shed, affectionately referred to as the museum. Again is has two levels, the upper level is mostly tractor storage now, with other large pieces of farm machinery from the 1900’s milling about fighting for a space to disintegrate. I think there were three tractors in there, although I think there were enough parts to build at least one more. There was also the fridge that broke down last winter, and the winter before that and the winter before that, and.. well you get the idea! The lower part of the tobacco shed was kind of a workshop, at one time. It now serves as part root cellar (Marie, if you are looking for your iris rhizomes, the are in there,) part workshop and part old dead stuff storage.

This is Fluffy (not to be confused with a barn cat) - she is playing with our travel mascot.

Moving on to the garage, it houses 3 vehicles, I think. It’s one of the newer additions and hasn’t had much time to get the character the rest of the place has developed.

Off to the basements (yes, basements as in more than one!) So much fun!!!! Basement #1 was under the 1850’s part of the house, I think. It had the canning stuff in it, lots of jars just waiting to get filled up with all kinds of goodies! Basement #2 and three are connected, they comprise the newer part of the house and the oldest part. There is a laundry, boiler (or two), workshop area, lots of storage for the yummy sweet potatoes that Skip sorts and sells through the winter and a freezer or two, a spare cat or two and the area where Marie used to do her stained glass work – which is amazing!

Adam had a ball examining all the structural work and plumbing and electrical stuff. There were at least three stairwells to get into the different basements and at least 4 to go up the second floor. He never figured out how many there actually were to get into the attic, although there was at least one, as he made it up there, too!

Marie had a few things on her honey-do list that Adam got a hold of and started. During his farm tour he had run across the door that needed to get replaced on it’s hinges for the winter. He cleaned it up and got it back up so the heat from the wood stove would help warm up the occupied house instead of the one that had no current bodies to keep warm. After that project there was another door that needed to have some modifications made so it would latch closed. Luckily Marie had seen the hardware and was able to find it pretty quickly. With some more searching Adam found some screws to put it together and it still wasn’t quite right, so he found a space, some longer screws and was happy enough with the job to let it rest.

Marie had to work in the evening so Adam and Tony made teriyaki chicken with rice and broccoli. Skip was not feeling too great himself but was a great conversationalist at the dinner table. We all enjoyed sharing stories while we enjoyed the chicken.

On Wednesday Marie, Tony and Adam headed out for a walk around the farm. The edges of the farm that abut the stream (on two sides) is being planted with trees and shrubs to create a more critter friendly place. (Geekspeak: Riparian habitat restoration) So we headed down to see how that was doing and to get some exercise. It was cold and a bit windy but we walked around the perimeter of the farm and Marie showed us all the trees she has been planting for the last several years. We also got to see a rare site… an old American Elm tree. This species has been just about wiped out in North America as a result of Dutch Elm Disease, so it we felt kind of awed that this specimen was still around.

After warming up a bit, the three headed off to see if they could find the ingredients for making cheese. Marie had some eggplant in the fridge that needed to be used so we decided that some fresh mozzarella to make eggplant parmesan was in order. On our route we headed through Intercourse. We like Intercourse. Intercourse is fun. We think everybody should have Intercourse on their list of things to do. After Intercourse, we drove around the country a bit and saw some of the old farms. We stopped in at Millers, this amazing organic, natural foods store that has no electric lighting, but uses gas lights instead. It has tons of great stuff, lots of local items and all kinds of good for you stuff.

We stopped by to see Marie’s, sister-in-law, sisiter. They have built this great house up on a hill that overlooks the valley. It is a log cabin type construction, so it has all this great wood on the inside and, of course, Adam had to tour the basement and look at the plumbing, electrical, etc..

After our visit, we hit the Lapp Family Dairy, another little local jobber in the area there. They were reputed to have great ice cream, but Adam wasn’t so sure based on the ingredients on the carton which included all kinds of weird stuff (gum Arabic, high fructose corn syrup, etc). He thought it tasted rather chewy. But we did get some really fresh milk for cheese making!

Back at the house Adam started the eggplant while Tony and Marie worked on the cheese. All went well, until they discovered the thermometer was in the curds while the whey was overheating. The result was that the cheese lost it’s elasticity later in the process so we sort of had cheese crumbles instead of slices, but it was still yummy and we learned something new about making cheese (or more accurately how to NOT make cheese!) We also had some of the corn that they raise on the farm. Marie and Skip freeze it so you can have it year round. It was excellent!

Somewhere in there Marie found time to make some homemade bread! By some miracle, it remained untouched until we had it in the morning! That more than anything is proof that Tony and Adam, too, weren’t feeling as good as usual! When we did slice into and toast the bread it was delicious!

Thursday rolled around slowly as usual. We had decided the night before to make reservations at a hotel since we were not feeling so great and didn’t think it would be too nice of us to thank someone who might host us by giving them a cold!

We said our goodbyes and headed off into the sunset.

New York!!!

(Apologies, I am going to forget some of the details on this segment, I got sick shortly after NYC and didn’t get to write it until well after Thanksgiving!)

Back in the car, and another drive from Boston to New York. It was rather a short leg of the trip overall, so we didn’t mind a few raindrops coming down en route.

We had both built ourselves up a little bit about our New York adventure. Since we both pretty much hate big cities, and the reputation that NYC has out west, we were more than a bit apprehensive about driving and staying in NY, even for a few days.

Turns out we did just fine. Parking wasn’t half as bad as it was in Boston, and people were remarkably courteous and friendly in our little stay. That said, you couldn’t pay me to drive in Manhattan, the cabs are everywhere on the road, and veering all over the place. But if you understand that those are the rules of the game there, the whole crazy mess works surprisingly well.

We were in town to visit Tony’s former boss, Scot Medbury, who is now CEO of Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Scot and his partner Brian live in an amazing 9th floor condo with views of Brooklyn in Fort Greene.

Their 2 bedroom flat is exquisitely appointed with many mid-century modernist furniture, especially those of Swedish origins. Scot and Brian positively spoiled us with good food, wine, and conversation, so much so that at least I felt like royalty! I felt guilty that we couldn’t return the favor in kind. They have these awesome Murphy beds in both bedrooms. The one we slept on was comfortable, and folds up to an elegant bookshelf. I want one for our future guest room!

Scot gave us a tour of BBG Friday morning, and all the exciting things they are doing. They are moving a huge Ginkgo tree, and it is amazing how you can move a 30 foot tree with enough work! He also went into their capital campaign and planned and executed renovations and improvements. It is amazing how much he has accomplished in the 3 or 4 years he has been there. The gardens are impeccable, and have huge appeal.

After that, we took a deep breath, and headed into Manhattan and all the bustle. The subway was not nearly as complicated or colorful as we first imagined it might be, and made the trip quick. We wandered around the west side of Central Park for a while, and ended up eating lunch at a dive. Unfortunately the Philly Cheese steak sandwich Adam ordered was lackluster (he’s always looking for a good Philly, and constantly disappointed), but Tony’s burger was halfway decent.

Scot was kind enough to lend us his special Museum CEO card, which got us in free to virtually all the museums in the NYC area. I know in retrospect I will kick myself for not seeing more museums, but we were playing it mellow in the big city and didn’t want to schedule too much and get overwhelmed or over tired. We did however hit the Natural History Museum. This is another “old school” museum, with tons of dioramas, but also a lot of interpretation and very current events in the scientific world. We spent the afternoon on Friday going through that and the earth & space sciences part of the museum, which was very enjoyable.

After that we took a walk through central park, back down south towards Hell’s Kitchen. The park was beautifully green, with the feel somewhat similar to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It was crisp out, but still enjoyable, especially a couple of cute joggers. A quick stop at the post office for some stamps (to mail back Michael Dosmann’s Harvard museum card) and then on to meet up with Bittersweet (aka BS, from Craigslist, of course!) at one of his favorite bar’s for happy hour- Vlad’s vodka bar.

With a name like Vlad, I was half expecting it to be vampires and bloody marys. But in reality it was very comfortable. We had a great time visiting with BS ad catching up on each other’s lives. He’s got quite the challenge right now in life, but seems to be making the most of it. He took us to one of his favorite Greek restaurants around the corner (Mmmm- more yummy greek food!) He treated us, which was really sweet of him, and we had a good time. Then one more bar hop to … shoot, I am forgetting now, but it was a fun place. BS had to head back home at a reasonable hour, as he had a 2 hour commute in front of him! We headed back on the New York subway to Brooklyn/Fort Greene.

Saturday another late, lazy start to the day, which was drizzling. We had thought about walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to go see the Bodies exhibit, but the heavy rain and nagging conscious on provenance of all those pickled Chinese bodies (political prisoners, anyone?) kept us from getting out early. Scot and Brian had some work obligations to attend to at the Gardens, so we set up to meet Tube from Craigslist, who’s real name is also Tony B. (I don’t think he minds me using his real name, since he posts it fairly frequently on the forum). Tony B. rode his bike down to meet us in Fort Greene, since he was local. Tony is quite the handsome strapping rugby player, but kind of quiet in conversation. (Like I am [Tony M.] one to complain about that!). We had lunch at a little burger joint, where the half drunk/half hungover clerk kept asking us what we ordered. Quite funny in retrospect.

After that we headed over to City Hall in Manhattan, where we participated in the No to H8 protest. We had received and email from a friend alerting us that there was to be a country-wide protest to California’s passage of Proposition 8- a state constitutional amendment removing the right of same-sex partners to get married. We thought there might be a smattering of people at the NYC protest, being that it was on the opposite coast and a seemingly state-based issue. We were floored when we arrived and the street was thronged with people. The police were busy cordoning off a lane of traffic to make more room for protesters, which they had to keep expanding and expanding, until they just closed the street to traffice and people stood shoulder to shoulder.

We quickly found a place behind a snack food bar (doing thriving business, of course) that was not as crowded, and stood around people watching while more and more filtered into the crowd. At some point someone got the PA system working, and we could hear every other word or so of someone’s inspirational speech. We were mostly melancholy and a bit sad, but also proud that people were standing up on this issue. It effects and affects us deeply- Adam proposed to Tony the second day of the trip (and of course Tony yelled yes! See the October 2 posts), but we have been out of state the whole time leading up to the election and decided we didn’t want a “quickie marriage” just for political expediency. We decided we wanted a real wedding and ceremony, that included our families. So who knows when we will be able to get married, which makes us sad.

The number of people at the protest was surprising at first, but the issue seems to have struck a cord with the people. The deep seated feeling is that long denied civil rights (the civil right to marry, not religious marriage) were conferred to a minority, bringing equalization to the table. Then the majority took away that civil right, something that our constitution is supposed to protect against (Majority . The whole issue is playing out much like other past civil right struggles, where issues are raised, laws are passed and rescinded, and gradually creep towards equality. Generations seem to forget how progress is made, two steps forward, one step back. Adam and I believe that this issue will eventually be sorted out, and the right to marry will be recognized as a civil right for all partners or none, that gay marriages do not weaken the definition of marriage but instead strengthen families and communities, and that the issue of religious marriage is a separate issue from civil marriage and religions and families are free to raise and teach their children as they see fit.
But anyways, the thousands of people at the protest was phenomenal, and we were glad we went.

We called Scot and Brian from the protest and they arranged to pick us up in the car not far from the protest. I can’t believe Scot drives in Manhattan (Brian wisely refuses) but he has got the right attitude for it- aggressive and takes his opportunities when they come. As crazy as it is with cabs all over the road and parking nightmares, it all seems to work out just fine!
Scot had wisely prepared a list of home projects that needed doing, and we were only too happy to oblige helping!

They took us to a home improvement store- wait, that is such an understatement! a luxury home improvement store called Gracious Home on Manhattan’s east-side. Actually they are three stores located within a block radius, one for hardware, one for lighting, and I think the third is furnishings (we didn’t make it that far) They have an amazing assortment of everything from thousands of drawer pulls to every light bulb type on the planet. The sales staff are incredibly knowledgeable and friendly, and everything is just impeccable. Must be the east-coast sensibility! We had fun poking through everything, and finding some dimmer switches, door stops, and light bulbs for Scot and Brian’s place.

Then we stopped by a special lighting store on the edge of Chinatown area, and picked up some fluorescent fixtures for above-cabinet lighting. We took our hoard back to the flat, and started installing everything. We ran into a couple of challenges (isn’t that the way it always goes with home improvement?) One dimmer switch mysteriously shorted on the exterior fixture (maybe water in the socket- it was raining), The fluorescent fixtures didn’t quite all fit where we wanted them to, and the door stops didn’t fit the extra large hinge pins on their doors. But we were able to get a couple of the interior dimmers installed, and semi-repaired a towel rack and associated regrouting (it will pull out again unless that door stop gets installed!), and repairing a door pull for the garbage can door, which included making some adjustments so the adjoining door didn’t rub against it (made it easier to open!) .

Sunday morning we ventured around the corner to the thrift market. this place was really neat! It was your basic flea market, except all the stuff was really cool, not just some of it! It was amazing to see lots of the stuff and how cheap it was being sold for! Items we would have seen for gazillions back in CA were being sold for nothing! We decided this was because the east coast has been around longer than the west coast so there is more nifty old stuff in NY and people just want it gone.

Afterwards we went to Lowes, to pick up more dimmer switches (and Lowes is the same Lowes as anywhere). We stopped at an amazing grocery store in the Redhook neighborhood of Brooklyn- Fairway Market much like Berkeley Bowl at home, but much more upscale (!) and neatly organized. I could just spend a million at that place, with so much mouth-watering good food! I would gain a ton, and enjoy it, if we lived there.

We got in our closest view of the Statue of Liberty from the parking lot, of all places. And since this is not a sight-seeing road trip, it was good enough. Then off to the lighting store again, to exchange fixtures, and a quick stop in Chinatown to pick up some delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches and fresh springrolls. Yummy! We drove past Brian’s work at Hunter College (crazy to think of all those students in the middle of Manhattan!) and then back to the flat to finish what projects we could. Brian cooked up another fabulous dinner, and we rounded out the evening watching some YouTube videos of Flight of the Conchords http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLltYjpxpwI!