Gnome for the Holidays

There's nothing like an apartment full of gnomes to make a fine party. This year's Snarfffable holiday bash was great fun, rich with an abundance of gnomes and friends, giant mushrooms, food and drink a plenty, and yes, even some dancing.

The calm before the gnomes.

A trio of happy gnomes.

A tiny, but fierce gnome (a way cute, too).

An uncommonly tall gnome.

A cranky gnome.

Gnome show-off.

Gnome groupies.

Gnome-wannabes hanging out.

Interesting and witty conversations.

Gnome antics.

More gnome groupies.

And the dancing!

 

Hip-Hip-Hooray

As you may recall, while I was back east I had the chance to visit the Met. I love the Met and if I lived near a museum like that I'd be dropping in all the time.

For some time - okay, since I was a kid - I've loved the famous turqoise blue Egyptian hippopotamus (come on, who doesn't love that hippo?). For a long time I've wanted to aquire one of the ceramic replicas from the Met store. Maybe I saw one when I was little and it stuck with me - maybe my mom had one, I don't know. I'd certainly seen them on past visits to the museum store when I was a broke teen or equally broke college or grad student. I knew I could get it online, but where's the fun in that? So, of my goals while at the Met, one was to see the hippo in the flesh again (done, even got a pic of him) and the other was to finally bring home the replica. On the later I failed. I made poor Michael roam the store with me in search of one. I even asked! But all I could find were cheesy toy versions, or keychains, or puzzles. Sheesh. I got a postcard instead.

Then, in Boston, to my chagrin, over the sink, in front of the kitchen window, the hippo! I said to Steve, "Steve! You have the hippo!" Steve had gotten his hippo years ago and it had travelled around with him from place to place and was now a part of his new life with his family in Boston. I told him my sad hippo story and then, each day while I was at the Gallagher's, I gazed on the hippo with longing. Several times I lovingly adjusted its position on the window ledge, thinking, "Awe, such a pretty little guy." Steve, too, suggested I order one online. "Yeah, maybe I'll do that when I get home, though it's not quite the same."

And I thought about it. When I got back to SF I even went to the online shop to check him out. But a rare moment of restraint held me back. After all, I'd already spent far too much on my trip. This would just have to wait.

Tonight I got home to a box on my doorstep. "Hmmm," I said, noticing the museum's return address, "this doesn't appear to be my missing gnome hat order." With great curiosity I carried the box inside, threw my purse on the couch, sat down at my desk with my scissors and began to open the box, all the while wondering, "What the heck?"

And there he was, in all his blue glory, my very own Egyptian hippopotamus!

Isn't he beautiful? He's all, "Yup, I'm a hippo." Thank you, Steve, John, Gina and Isaiah!

Here's some hippo love back at 'cha!

 

Home and Happy

Despite my best intentions, here it is, a week after my return home and only now am I writing about the rest of my train trip. I wanted to write while on the California Zephyr, but as long as there was light I was looking out of the window, watching my country's landscape pass by. Though it got dark early, I found even in the evenings I would shut all lights off in my roomette, curtains drawn, so I could continue to look out of the window. I did do some reading and a little bit of work, but mostly I found myself sitting quietly, not quite meditating, but in an unconsciously reflective state. And time went by quickly. I had no idea how fast time could pass just staring out of the window, asking myself things like, where does that road go? why would someone choose to live there? or what are those people doing today?

The Lakeshore Limited was late arriving to Chicago, so my revised plan of taking a bus tour didn't pan out and there wasn't really time to go to the museum, so I walked around a bit, until the cold (I had inadvertently packed my jacket) and the rain lead me indoors. I wandered around Union Station a bit, playing around with Madge, and eventually discovering the Amtrak first class lounge, which was a nice resting place until it was time to board.

The Windy City on a damp day.

Madge playtime in Union Station.

A fellow train fan with a wonderful hat!

The California Zephyr, train #5 (left track), prepping for departure.

Once on board, it was just window time and chill time.

Galesburg. 32 degrees and a snow storm. Me taking pics in my flip flops.

Michael, our super nice car attendant.

Purina?

Climbing into the Rockies.

Rockies vista.

The yellow school house in the Rockies.

Not the Rockies anymore, but west of them.

Mars?

Definitely Nevada.

SF Bay serenity.

And suddenly I was back in the city, in kitty love heaven, the trip over and a slow return to normal.

I loved the train ride and though I didn't have the pleasure of taking the trip with dad in the flesh, he was with me nonetheless.

I'm ready for The Empire Builder! I'm also ready to drive cross country. Too many times while looking out of the window did I wish I could stop, get out and walk around, or to drive down some random road. Still, I saw plenty of things from the train I never would have seen from a car and it was a wonderful trip. I recommend such an adventure to anyone, though getting off and on in key locations would make such a trip all the better.

 

Chugging to Chicago

The Lakeshore Limited lost some time while I attempted to sleep last night, but the car attendant, Alfred, says we'll make up some of it as we race through Ohio and Indiana. I slept as expected - not well, but at least I was prone and covered in a blanket with a commode just inches away. No need for me to stumble half awake down the narrow hallway in search of a bathroom! I won't have that luxury on the California Zephyr.

We've just left Bryon, OH, which means we are only 35 mins behind schedule. If we make up 15 minutes or so, I'll still be impressed with our arrival time.

This part of Ohio, and its counter part across the state line, Indiana, is all tilled fields of green and brown, farmhouses, barns, silos, trackers, pockets of new housing communities, occasional vast, low buildings that I can't even begin to discern the purpose, small forests and western towns with brick and stone storefronts. I wouldn't call this the heartland of America. For me, the heart needs to be a pounding, pulsing urban metropolis, fast and strong and aggressive. This place seems more like the lungs, breathing the air that feeds and nourishes us, wide, open spaces that expand and contract depending on the season.

In some towns it is painful to see how hard hit they are by the economy. In others, everything looks fine, as if these communities are in their own protective shell.

 

On the Lakeshore Limited: Quiet Reflections

I love riding the train. There is something so calming about the rocking motion, the sounds of the wheels rolling along the tracks and the flashing scenery that passes outside the window. I always think I'll be able to read whole novels when on a long train trip, but I can never resist gazing out the window until dark is so fully present that there is no choice but to settle down with a book, the artificial light glaring over your should and onto the white printed pages.

It's barely 3:00 pm and already the light is changing. I hadn't thought when I booked my tickets how early the night would come. I'm on the north side of the car and as we head west towards Albany, NY, the sun occasionally peeks through the clouds to warm the few autumn leaves that remain on the trees. If only I could have just a few extra hours of light.

Riding through western Massachusetts and into New York, the train tracks often parallel a river or stream or small country road. Lots of trees - most bare of leaves, except for the pines and a few oaks or maples clinging to the fall, resisting the onset of winter. Fewer houses - white clapboards, yellow Victorians, red New England squares. Some farms - old brown barns, listing to the side, or new ones standing strong and capable. Marshes - wide and full of dying trees and strangling clusters of weeds that look like tiny islands pushed up against each other. Fields - green waves of grass or the dry beige of dead corn stalks. An occasional town - the main street short, a church spire dominating the skyline around the businesses that make up the town's heart. And then the bigger towns - houses side by side, factories, old brick warehouses, boys with baseball caps, girls in animal print leggings, blue collar taverns that have seen better days.

We've arrived early to Albany. At 5:00 pm it is dark. Dad is now in Springfield and Albany. Until next time...

 

Brookline and Boston

(All the pics in this blog are from my iPhone. I'm on the train now and don't have easy access to my Madge photo archive. Amtrak, seriously, no wifi?)

My stay in Brookline was sweeeeet! It was so great to see the Gallaghers again: Steve, John, Gina and Isaiah. I arrived Wednesday night just in time to help Steve but Gina and Isaiah to bed. Then we spent some time catching up.

On Thursday I worked in the morning and then met up with John and the kids. They gave me a tour around Brookline - which is a little town surrounded by Boston and Newton. It's very pretty with lots of lovely old homes and trees and parks. Then they dropped me off at Steve's office at the Harvard Business School (HBS). Steve and I hung out together for a while before heading home for a chill evening.

The front of Steve's office - he's in an old school house.

On Friday I took the Green Line to Copley Square. This is right at the main Boston Library which, according to Steve, is the first public library in the country. Trinity Church is also right on the square and I happened to show up just in time for a free organ concert. After the concert I wandered over to Newbury Street and walked around for a while, checking out the fancy shops and beautiful buildings before heading back to Brookline. John and the kids and I went grocery shopping and later the evening Steve and I meet up with Tracy for dinner. We had such a great time and it was so good to see Tracy again. I didn't realize how much I'd missed her until then.

Me waiting for the trolley.

Trinity Church on Copely Square.

A sneak photo inside the church,

Yum, Boston cupcakes!

Saturday Steve, Isaiah and I went out to visit Uncle Erik and Aunt Lynn in Lexington. Lynn was sick and in bed, but we had a fine visit with Uncle Erik. He and Steve are total computer geeks. Isaiah loved their garden and the impressive koi that live, quite happily, in their pond. We then went off to Harvard proper, where we had lunch followed by a Steve-led stroll around the main campus. Back at home, we cooked dinner together; Tracy and her family were coming over. Steve and John said this was their first dinner party in the new house. Needless to say, we had a terrific evening and we also had fun of celebrating Steve's birthday (I won't embarass Steve by saying how old he is - suffice it to say he's no spring chicken, heh).

Steve and Isaiah.

A view of a church in Harvard.

Isaiah and Gina dressed up for our dinner party.

Sunday morning the Gallagher crew took me to South Station in Boston. I was able to sprinkle a little bit of dad on the tracks before waving goodbye to all and climbing aboard the Lakeshore Limited to Chicago.

Aboard the Lakeshore Limited.

 

The Wilds of Connecticut

I'm going to try and condense as much of my Connecticut stay as I can into one posting, so I can say I'm "caught up" (I arrived in Boston last night). There are lots of pictures.

My older brother, Rob, and his wife, Candy, met me and Adele on the Garden State Parkway for the Great Beth Pass-Off. Me and my ever growing travel belongings were transferred from one car to another and, after a bitter-sweet goodbye, off we went. We headed to Connecticut via a scenic route along the Hudson River. I love the Hudson River Valley and this unexpected detour was greatly appreciated. We stopped at a couple of New York wineries and, while I can't say much about the red wines, the whites were pretty good. The Riesling from Benmarl was particularly tasty. I also picked up a bottle of mead from Palaia. Both bottles shall be shared with the Boston crowd.

Fall along the Hudson. Due to the mild weather, the fall colors weren't as vibrant as they might have been.

A fair warning.

The Palaia tasting barn.

What dorks.

The drive up to the Benmarl vineyard.

A view of the Hudson River Valley from the winery.

A beautiful fall view of the valley. Every time I'm here I want to watch The Last of the Mohicans.

Detail of an old train depot in Hudson, NY.

On a country road not too far from Rob's house. The sun was just starting to set.

Rob and Candy live in what I think is considered central Connecticut, in a town called Goshen. It's all country out here. Besides Candy's two kids, Erin and Hunter (who hunts and actually got a deer while I was there and which I tasted the next night), they also live with Diane, Candy's mother, three dogs - an English Bulldog named Daisy (the new love of my life), two precocious and enormous pups, Tucker and Bear, and two cats, Gus and Cleo. Talk about a crazy household! It was great!

A portrait of Daisy in Repose.

Gus.

Bear and Tucker.

On Saturday we drove to a nearby town so I could get a fresh manicure/pedicure. Our plan was to go to some lake for a nice lunch and then to the carousel museum, but the mani/pedi ended up taking 3 freaking hours! The guy was nice but slow, slow, slow. Poor Rob was beside himself with agitation! So, we missed lunch and just went to the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol. They were having an arts & crafts fair, which got in the way of the horses, so I didn't get to see them as up close as I would have liked, but it was still a nice little museum.

A lovely white horse.

From a miniature carousel.

In the same museum was a room with a fire department collection

Fireman hats!

We drove back via Litchfield, a beautiful and carefully maintained New England town. I was told that you can't paint your house anything but white or some slight variation, like a cream. The way people might subvert this constraint in their stylistic expressions is to paint their front door in their color of choice. Most looked normal - black, red or some such - but we did see one painted lime green. It was hideous, of course, but I understood the sentiment behind the color

A church in Litchfield. Very New England.

Along a Litchfield country road.

When we got home we chilled out and had some snacks and beer - Rob's own brew, of course.

A tasty home brew. And from a non-beer person, that says something.

Daisy joined us for brews.

On Sunday, Rob and I drove over to Northampton in Massachusetts to have brunch with my nieces and meander around the town. Brunch was at the swanky Hotel Northampton and for dessert I had their bread pudding which very nearly beats out Wing's bread pudding (but not quite). Smith College is in Northampton and is my Grandma Forest's alma mater. She was very proud to have attended Smith. The town looks exactly as I remember it looking from all the times we visited when I was growing up.

A reservoir along the drive through Connecticut. A lovely location.

Fall colors.

More fall colors.

Rob, Jessica and Ashley in front of the Hotel North Hampton.

One of the buildings in downtown North Hampton.

Downtown North Hampton.

More downtown North Hampton.

After we parted from the girls, Rob took me over to a butterfly place - I think it was called Magic Wings. There were some really cool butterflies in this joint.

Look for it...

From what I was told, this is one of the biggest breeds of moths, though this one is small in comparison to others of its kind.

Check out the wings.

On Monday, Candy, and her daughter Erin, took me for a drive to Kent, another picturesque town, so I could get some new shoes (my left foot has been killing me since the visit to the Met). While there, we stopped at the coffee shop, where I had a BOOGEYMAN latte! How cool is that?

Kent scenery and art.

In front of the shop where I found my new hat.

The only covered bridge I've seen this trip. Not an old one.

Winter is near, though given how mild it's been, not sure what kind of winter it is going to be.

On Tuesday, I wanted to get some nice chocolates to bring to Steve and John and Tracy. Candy suggested a little artisan chocolatier in Litchfield, but when we got there, we discovered they had changed to their winter hours. We did get to see the new baby cow, however, who was just 20 minutes old!

That is one big cow and one little calf.

Instead, we drove down to Bridgewater (home of Bridgewater Chocolates), stopping along the way to have lunch at the White Horse, a really pretty English-pub styled restaurant. I had an amazing crab cake burger. Did I say it was amazing? Cause it WAS!

Pretty signage.

That liitle burger-like food on the left was a nice hefty crab cake. And talk about a bun!

We took a drive around a pretty lake.

Wednesday was spent packing (I have accumulated a lot of extra stuff on this trip) and running an errand to the post office (so I could mail back some of that extra stuff back to SF, rather then lug it to Boston on the bus and then back to SF on the train). I said my farewells to my brother, Rob, and Candy and Erin drove me to the bus station in Hartford. 3 hours later, I was helping Steve put Gina and Isaiah to bed!

So, we are all caught up. I'm in Brookline now (which is part of Boston, I think, or surrounded by Boston, or something like that). The kids are off to school, the dads are off to work, and I'm here at the kitchen table enjoying the sound of the wind blowing the trees and watching the leaves fall to the ground. I'll spend the morning working and then will meet up with John and the kids, who'll take me over to Harvard so I can see Steve's digs. Steve's then going to take me on a little tour of Harvard. I expect Madge will have a good workout today.

View from the kitchen. A damp New England fall day.

Downsized from 3 pups to 1: Frieda.