New York, New York

    Shortly after "the Rents" came to visit, Cas and I took a weekend to see Jamie for a change in NYC.  New York is an interesting place and I can see how it would be impossible to really get a feel for it in three days, but crazy enough we did!  We visited many of the "spots" but our objective was more to just walk around and see people and feel the vibe.  We walked around China Town, traipsed to the center of the Brooklyn Bridge and meandered through a farmers market.  I recognize I could of course be wrong, and hope that I am, considering more than 8 million people live here, but it felt like the whole point of New York was to just sell crap.

    Everywhere you looked and every possible crevice people had set up some kind of shop to peddle their wares.  From knock-off bags and clothes to plastic wrapped toys scavenged from the bottoms of cereal and Cracker Jack Boxes, it was so overwhelming the combination of nausea and consumer euphoria was very confusing.  And yet I can't help but recognize the similarities to communities and lifestyles all over this country, not least my own.  It's good to get these perspectives time to time so I can better be aware of the choices I make in my purchasing habits and attitude towards consumerism.  The simple lifestyle Cas and I have adopted can sometimes mislead us to believe we hold some kind of false benevolence that is completely undermined when we allow ourselves to judge. If we are to truly attempt to make this world a better place, we have to take our everyday, ordinary life - our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering.  The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

    Although NY was a great experience and seeing new places is almost always exciting, we were very relieved to get back to the island, the quiet, and the simplicity.

Mountain vs Island

So after the Iowa Parent Palooza, Joann, Rick, and Gloria stayed with Chandra and the grandkids while we hit the road with Nathan's folks. We have wanted to take a trip with Kaye and Ed for a long time, so I had been planning for weeks how to squeeze in every bit of fun into this 4-day trip as possible while still being able to relax, as these days we are accustomed to our laid back island lifestyle. We were going to tour towns and hike on trails by the salt marsh, go to a nice restaurant, tour the Thimble Islands, and retreat back to the island for 3 days of paradise. Or so I thought. At the last minute before leaving Nick and Chandra's house, we had decided to throw out the plans and do something wild. In Nick's words "You can't go wrong with Vermont!" so that's where we headed. We drove and drove till reaching our destination at Mt. Ascutney State Park. We were to hike 2.2 miles up the mountain while enjoying some great scenery. Little did we know, "Future Trail" went practically straight up the side of the mountain. About a mile up, we did enjoy this amazing view in the photo. If we were smart, we would have stopped there and gone back down. Guess what, we're not that smart. While finally reaching our destination of "Out of Service" Restrooms. We decided to take an easier way down by taking the road back. Again, not realizing that the plummeting concrete would be worse than the trail. After hiking over 4 miles of rocks and road, we were sore, blistered, and pooped and so decided to call it a night by finding a campground. That didn't happen either, but we did find a bunch of hill folk. Hours later around 11pm we found a hotel and treated ourselves to a hot shower, a warm bed, and a continental breakfast. Thank God!! Then drove and drove till reaching the sanctuary of Outer Island for the remainder of their trip. We celebrated with bonfire, fishing, food and drink. We really enjoyed their company, but wouldn't be surprised if we never returned to see the beauty of Vermont.

The Iowa Parent Palooza!!

To our astonishment after a series of phone calls, we were informed that all of our Iowa parents had decided independently to come to Connecticut to visit their children at the exact same time. Oh, crap. So Chandra, Nick, Nathan, and myself, with some nervous giggles and a bit of nail biting, were wondering how we were going to spend enough time with Nick's mom, Joann, Chandra's and my parents, Rick and Gloria, and Nathan's parents, Kaye and Ed, to give them each special attention for making the long trip out here without neglecting the others. So Nick, being the engineering genius he is, came up with the brilliant idea of the Iowa Parent Palooza! The first day that all of the parents were to arrive, we planned to put everyone together for a picnic at Nick and Chandra's house. Great idea you think? It was . . . except for the fact that none of the parents actually wanted to do it. They didn't want to have to come all the way from Iowa to share our time and attention with someone else. Well, too bad. We made them do it anyway, and it was great. Chandra was glowing with pride at having the ability to host such a great family get together with amazing food, her kids were going nuts with joy at having all of their favorite people in one place, and for me, it felt like a good old fashioned family reunion. The parents were very well behaved and tolerated, if not enjoyed, each other's company. Chandra is an amazing cook, Nick put on great music, we had lots to drink, and the kids were a blast to play with. The Iowa Parent Palooza was probably a once in a life time deal, but I know that Nick, Chandra, Nathan, and I will never forget it.