Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Forty-Six

Saturday, July 7th, Day Forty-Six:

Long drive to Chicago.......good thing we gained an hour.

Paid more today in TOLL charges getting to Chicago, and through it, and then to the Wisconsin border..............than in all of the trip total. At least in the west, we only have tolls for the occasional bridge.......but, sheesh, east of the Mississippi river, they go nuts on making you pay to use the roads.......NUTSSSS!!!! Though, they ARE nice roads.............except in Chicago :)

Found an "urban" quilt shop for our Illinois sample.........weird energy in that store :)

Then, drove along the shore of Lake Michigan, to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. My children were SO excited to go there. Okay, well, I admit, Malachy and Garrett could care less :) Since we could not use all of the wonderful parking garages in Chicago......we had to pray to find a parking space for our BIG car with a THINGY on top. Somehow, we did.....only cost $20!

More later on museum..............

more later on rest of day........

Stayed in a BW Hotel near the Dells in Wisconsin. Older kids got to swim.........stayed up till past 4am doing laundry.........they only had ONE washer and dryer!

A Wisconsin sunset.

more later..........

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Forty-Five

Friday, July 6th, Day Forty-Five

Got the oil changed (which turns out to be a bad thing, then a good thing.......more later :)).............visited with 4 generations of Bryan cousins in Ohio.......enjoyed their hospitality and conversations immensely, including a really cool Amish double-bench swing in the backyard........it will be fun to have common memories at our future Bryan Family Reunions...........

Cousin Tim & Kate's pretty backyard

Sarah & Cousin "Tall Chuckie" on Amish swing

found a great Ohio quilt shop

.....and then drove west (yay!) to just past Toledo, Ohio, on fun country roads......actually got to hotel in time for the ONLY hotel swimming for all of the kids got to have.......but only because the pool was open til midnight! :)

More details later...........

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Forty-Four

Thursday, July 5th, Day Forty-Four

This post is needing transfer from Anne's laptop............to appear in the next week or so :)

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Forty-Three

Wednesday, July 4th, Day Forty-Three:

There is so much to write about today….yet, I am not sure we really “did” much. :)

Highlights, chronologically speaking:

We found that some of us were actually more comfortable than others sleeping in the car. :)

We found it is easier to clean-up and leave a campsite if you never actually get out of the car. :)

We also found that if you sleep in a car with your clothes on, you wake up already dressed for the day. :)

We stopped by Dunkin Donuts for morning juice and yucky coffee. :/

We visited the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York.

The round church is quite interesting, with a round altar, so that there are actually three altars all together.

Our first views of Niagara Falls.......

...the American Falls & Bridal Veil Falls from above........and Horseshoe Falls.......too

Here are the kids, after the fireworks show over the Falls

.......cool, huh? :)

Their personalities just shine right through, don't ya think? :)

...oh, man....I have run out of time....... :/

~C~

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Forty-Two

Tuesday, July 3rd, Day Forty-Two:

LONG day......kind of a creepy ending.......including a night sleeping in the car..... :)

Happy ending :)

More details to follow...someday :)


By the way, I caught a discussion on C-Span in a hotel room....Myrna Blyth, speaking about her new book: HOW TO RAISE AN AMERICAN. She talked about "teaching American history" to our kids......and I thought, WOW, my kids have really learned, EXPERIENCED, their American history on this trip. My kids are naturally patriotic......this trip has sealed that. Then, the author states.....take the kids on a trip to see parts of our country. :) Been there, done that. :)

~C~

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Forty-One

Monday, July 2nd, Day Forty-One:

Another wonderful day with our cousins!

A trip to the quilt store with Clara.....

...saying goodbye to the Sister Sisters.....

...a hot dog roast...in the rain....

...a visit to a local beach....

...great conversations....

....further elaboration, someday :)

~C~

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Forty

Sunday, July 1st, Day Forty:

A wonderful day in New Hampshire with our cousins!

...more later...... :)

~C~

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Thirty-Nine

Saturday, June 30th, Day Thirty-Nine:

Had a very full day exploring Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts.

It was quite the literary day :) visiting the homes of Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne (just think, we walked where his daughter, Rose, who is up for canonization for sainthood, walked), Margaret Sidney for FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS fame and Thoreau. We also viewed ........I am having a blank.....someone else's home. WHAT was his name???? I can see his house...oh, yes! Duh! Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I picked up three books.......INHERITANCE by LM Alcott..........which Anne says has been hilarious...not sure why. We loved the movie called Inheritance.......I guess it is not quite the same as the book.........we not surprised, are we? More info: The Inheritance edited and with an introduction and notes by Joel Myerson and Daniel Shealy Recently re-discovered in manuscript form, this book has been called Louisa's "first" novel, written when she was seventeen years old. It tells the story of Edith Adelon, a poor orphan who finds family and fortune in the most unlikely of places.

I cannot remember the other titles...one is a picture book and one is a book of short stories by LM Alcott.

Oh, here it is:

The Brownie and the Princess
Ten short stories filled with characters who have all the warmth, liveliness, and appeal of Jo March and her sisters.

and....
Louisa May & Mr. Thoreau's Flute by Julie Dunlap and Marybeth Lorbiecki; illustrated by Mary Azarian A story of young Louisa's adventures with Henry David Thoreau, illustrated with beautiful color woodcuts by a Caldecott Medal-winning artist.

We also took in sites about the Revolutionary War, of course. We even spoke with George Washington a bit, as there was a living history program going on that day.

We finished our day trip with a hike around ALL of Walden Pond. Sure reminded all of us of Castle Lake at home....and made us homesick. We had been in the concrete jungles for a while lately and it was nice to have a bit of nature.

We were able to top the day off with a short drive to our family in New Hampshire. Marty's brother David lives there with his wife, Chris....and most of the ten kids live there, too. We enjoyed a happy reunion, as some of us have not seen each other since they moved away from Mount Shasta almost 11 years ago. Looking forward to a couple of days of hanging with "cousins" as we have always called this family :)

Good night......hopefully more coming soon!

Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Thirty-Eight

Friday, June 29th, Day Thirty-Eight:

We have packed up and departed from our Boston hotel. Today we visited the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams and their home. Loved JQA’s library. Found a quilt shop and purchased 4 fat quarters for my Star-Spangled Adventure quilt. One of the fabrics reads “Sweet Land of Liberty” and seems perfect for my quilt. We drove just past Concord and Lexington to stay in a campground. Found a Circuit City to replace the cell phone charger that has gone missing and a Barnes and Nobles where Anne has finally found a journal…..her other one is now full, of course…..and, no matter how hard we try, we STILL end up setting up the tent in the dark.

...Obviously the SHORT version of our day :)