Americana Extravaganza Recap

I really shouldn't be doing this. 

The long night of the museums in Berlin was very long for me indeed last night, and I have resolved to go running on all of my 10am start days this week (4 in total)...allll reasons I shouldn'

t be starting this post at 10:30 pm. The third reason just came through the door.

I'll still try, though. And I might even be able to conjure up some photos, despite my technical ineptitude.

 

So. The first stop of the Americana Extravaganza was Liberty International Airport in Newark, NJ. From there, I took one of the most scenic cab rides of my life into the upper east side of Manhattan. The boys had a pretty intense first impression of the USA. According to the laws of jet lag, we threw the luggage into the hotel room and hit the streets. 

My sightseeing tactic consists largely of wandering. This drives certain types of people

 crazy, but Stephan and Max didn't really have a choice, and didn't really seem to mind too much. We stumbled on a great street fest on Broadway with some really fantastic food (and ridiculously colorful handbags of ambiguous legitimacy) and hit up Times Square. It was great. We met up with my girl Abby for dinner and a wander through the city. I was glad we extended another day...it gave us time to walk pretty much the length of

 Manhattan (from our hotel down to the waterfront. We were on 9th street).  

It was interesting...I've been on trips before, but

 either by myself or with other people who more interested in constructing our schedule than I was...so this was the first time I really had to step up and plan things. All things considered, I think it went well. We managed to walk around so much and so far that we slept like the dead.

After NYC and a 12 hour bus ride, we were in

 Maine for two and a half weeks or so. We took a

 great side trip to see Colleen and Eric and their OP and did some serious outlet shopping in New Hamster.

 Maine was relaxing and full of nature...and family. Lots of family. Some bittersweet familial whatnot, some great reconnections...some old friends. All in all, a good mix. My grandfather's memorial service was hard, and I wish I could say it helped me move on, but I'm not really sure it did. I hope it helped some of the

 people who were there. 

The boys built a small-scale croquet course on the back 9 at my parent's place and challenged all comers...I dug through the four corners of my room, we visited friends and grilled a lot. the trip to the coast to eat lobster yielded some great photos. We managed to hit Reid state park on a great day and the boys got wicked sunburns...really wicked sunburns. Which took at least a week to heal. We ran around some with Mike and Jane, which I think gave the boys a chance to see and do some American things we otherwise wouldn't have done (golf, tubing, etc.) --which I think they both greatly enjoyed...even if Max may or may not have chipped a tooth while tubing behind the party boat. 

When we headed out, I think it was time. The trip to DC took all told I think 14 hours and was complicated by the fact that I somehow botched Ashwin's phone number and was calling New York the whole time during the ride down. The guys got to see a good swath of American countryside and a few cities from the interstate. I think they were probably alternately impressed and terrified by my driving "skills"--although to be fair, I don't drive here at all (a situation I should be working to rectify and am mostly ignoring) so I might have been a bit rusty. But we all survived. That's the important thing, right?

DC was amazing. To all of you that hosted us in any way shape or form: You rock. All y'all. It was just a really wonderful week with great people and intense heat and humidity. I'm not sure I could live in DC for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the tropica

l temperatures. That and, apparently, I dig dive bars. Apparently Berlin is full of them. And in DC, they're kind of hard to find. We managed, though. The Argonaut somewhere near where Julia lives is fantastic. They've got an Allagash beer from Maine! 

Anyway, it's getting late and I'm being reminded of my good intentions for tomorrow morning, so I guess the recap will have to end here and photos will hopefully follow. It's off to bed for the Miachen.

Wish me lots of motivation for tomorrow at 07:30 am...I've got to get started running off all that fabulous American food.

Take care of eachother, kids.

(Ed: Don't ask me what happened to the formatting after I inserted the pictures. I'm one of those people who needs a Kenyon Helpdesk in my real life. The finished product took...two days. Ugh. I'm so techtarded.)

Diet Update (more to come)

Whoah. 

So I haven't even gotten around to posting about my birthday yet. Hm. Well, I suppose it's not that bad, seeing as I was enjoying myself far too thoroughly to take pictures, I have nothing even remotely incriminating to post. Not that there was even anything terribly incriminating going on...I bought myself (as an extra birthday treat...not that I didn't get enough loot) a bottle of the best wine EVER (nieva sauvingon blanc, or something to that effect) and proceeded to drink it by myself while the other 20 people there emptied the hard liquor. I kept offering it to people, but I think everyone just thought it was cheap german wine from Lidl so they all said no. More for me! It was great though--officially the first party I've been at where there wasn't a huge traffic jam in the kitchen. We got clever and  set up the buffet in the living room. Somehow the balcony became the new kitchen and was packed the whole night. It was a testament to all my new neighbors that nobody complained. As is apparently the trend when you get older, the party was decidedly more food-based than booze-based. I think I might be growing up. It was still a blast though. The dynamic was much better than last year--a lot of ways crossed for the first time, a lot of people met and liked eachother...while eating great food and drinking quality beverages. That's what I call a party. 

WHEN WILL THE PARENTS GET THEIR KIDS TO QUIT SCREAMING IN MY COURTYARD?!

I deal with screaming children for a living. I consider myself a professional. As such, I know there comes a point where you stop inflicting the screaming child upon its surroundings. My neighbors seem unaware that this moment has passed and are letting their kid(s) just lose it all over the place and at epic volume levels in my lovely, echo-ey courtyard. I love kids, but I HATE poorly behaved, ill mannered children who know no boundaries. GAH!

Enough of that. 

I'm reaclimating to Germany fairly well this time around. Two years ago when I went it was a lot harder. I cried for weeks. Literally. At the drop of a hat. This time, I've got some stuff to chew on, but mostly it's been nice to get back to a city where I'm the boss (and know how to buy public transit tickets, where to get groceries, don't get multiple parking tickets in one day, etc.)

I kind of want to get into all the fantasticness that I experienced at the hands of my friends in the US at this juncture, but at the same time, I feel like those shenanigans very much merit their own post with lots and lots of pictures. And it's getting close to my appointment with Sani--I should call her. Sometimes she's running wicked late...not sure if I want to walkjog three blocks and get all sticky and sweaty so I can read magazines for an hour. Though she's extremely entertaining, even when you're not getting your hairs trimmed. Decisions!

Bis bald, Kinders!