Storyland

Tara had a 3-day weekend this past weekend thanks to a colleague who needed to trade an ER shift. Plans for Mom and Keith to come visit fell through, but we still wanted to take advantage of this rare gift of extended time off. We thought this would be a great opportunity to explore some of what New England has to offer. Unfortunately, Scott had fallen victim to one of the usual plagues that Audrey brings home from daycare, so he wasn't of much use in the planning process. As Tara wracked her brain and the internet for ideas, she remembered a place that some friends had mentioned, a must-see place for toddlers ... Storyland!

We drove up on Saturday early afternoon. We arrived at our B&B at about 5pm, after what was in theory a little over a 3 hr drive became almost 5 hrs with traffic and the lunch stop. The place we stayed was called the Cranmore Mountain Lodge. It was a charming little inn run by a French Canadian couple. There was a pool, which we took advantage of a couple of times, and a family room with lots of toys and kid videos. Our last-minute booking got us a room on the 3rd floor with no air conditioning, but we survived with the help of a couple of fans.

Storyland is an amusement park designed for children ages 2-12. It is hidden in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The rides and other attractions are based on a nursery rhyme/fairy tale theme. For instance, Humpty Dumpty is kind of the main guy, the engineer of Storyland if you will. They have Cinderella's castle (along with the glass slipper and the fairy godmother's wand), teacups ala Alice in Wonderland, and live animals representing such rhymes as Baa Baa Black Sheep, and the Three Little Pigs. There were also smaller things to explore and play with, like a visual representation of 1, 2, buckle my shoe, and the old woman who lived in shoe (complete with actual old woman handing out stickers).



Audrey had an amazing time! Perhaps the highlight for her was seeing Humpty Dumpty in a live show. Included in the admission fee are several different little 15 or 20 minute shows. While you wait in line for the rides, there is a TV playing clips from each show, and Audrey caught a glimpse of one with Humpty Dumpty. From then on, all she could talk about was Humpty Dumpty. Unfortunately, the next show was not for another 3 1/2 hours or so. We filled the time with lunch, other rides, and a nap in her stroller (praise God!), until finally it was time to go see “Humpty Dumpty in a show.” The show was the kind of thing that I'm sure other parents can relate to as being a little painful to sit through for those of us over 5 years old. But Audrey was in heaven as she watched Humpty dance and sing and help out his friends Little Bo Peep and Jack and Jill!



Another highlight was Cinderella's castle, and meeting the real Cinderella! As soon as we got to the castle, she wanted to know where was the fairy godmother. We decided to defer that question to Cinderella, who simply said “she's not here right now, but she left her wand for you to see.” With that one settled, she then asked where the Prince was, and the best that Mommy could come up with was that he was at work, or perhaps at a battle. What do princes do all day anyway?



After a long day at Storyland, we a nice dinner of Wiener schnitzel at a German hotel/restaurant. Upon arriving home soon afterward, we all crashed. After we got Audrey down at about 8:30, Scott and I laid on the bed, only to wake up about midnight to realize we had fallen asleep still fully dressed! The next day we spent some time at the outlet malls, and drove home through the White Mountains National Forest on the scenic Kancamagus highway. Along the way we also stopped for a short “hike,” which I put in quotes because we have learned that you are lucky if you make it more than 100yards down the trail hiking with a 2 year-old. There are so many interesting things to see and an endless supply of rocks, sticks, and “cones” (pinecones) to pick up. It was nice nonetheless, and tired her out for a nice nap on the drive home.

Italy Pictures

Some of our Italy pictures are now posted on PicasaWeb -- as always, all our photo albums are linked in the right column.

Florence I

Yesterday was spent traveling from Cinque Terre to Florence. We stopped off in Pisa along the way to see the so-called "leaning tower." Too bad we don't currently have the capability to post pictures, but let's just say it was worth the stop. The tower is on a campus with a church and baptistry, so we toured these as well. After another freshly made deli sandwich, we continued on our way to Florence. The evening was spent getting settled into our hotel, doing our own walking tour of Florence, and enjoying our first pizza dinner here in Italy - very tasty!

Today was our first FULL day in Florence, and I mean that in every sense of the word. We woke up early for our 9am reservation at the Uffizi Gallery, the largest collection of art in Florence. The gallery is huge and amazing. It begins with primitive-looking religious art from the fourteenth century, and progressing through the almost 45 rooms which wind their way in a horseshoe shape, ends up in the eighteenth century, so you can see the advances in style and technique unfold before your eyes. And of course, there are some big names there as well -- It boasts work by artists such as Botticelli (including the Birth of Venus), Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Rafael and Leonardo Da Vinci. It was a mentally-exhausting, nearly 5 hour tour, but a rewarding experience.

We had lunch at a delightful little wine bar, or "Enoteca" that we happened upon. We sat with our sandwiches and shared glass of wine, then after much debate and some wasted walking, decided to go to the Pitti Palace. Here, we toured a portion of the science museum which is temporarily on display, which details the scientific developments that occurred in Florence under the Medicis, including the rediscovery of Euclid's works on geometry, original discoveries of Galileo obtained using his newly-developed telescope (an original was on display!), and various tools developed during this time used for navigation, astronomy, and engineering. Our ticket also allowed us to tour the palace gardens, which consisted of well-manicured lawns and shubbery, sculptures, fountains, and a terrace with a beautiful view. This was somewhat different from what we expected (no flowers), but was still a nice escape from the bustling, noisy city, and the mental effort required by museums.

Dinner was at La Trattoria Marione. A very charismatic waiter ushered us in, and convinced us to let him surprise us with two pasta dishes. We ended up with ravioli and spaghetti with meatsauce. Both were excellent, as was the €3 wine. We topped off the meal with Tiramisu.

After a short rest at our hotel, we were persuaded to drag our tired feet out one last time to visit a unique-looking exhibit on the Impressionists just a block from our hotel. This turned out to be a terrific complement to our Uffizi tour, as it picked up where the Uffizi left off. Starting from one or two neo-Classical paintings, it walked you through impressionism, with a focus on the techniques and technology used by the impressionists to create their paintings. It also let you in on some of the controversy surrounding their work -- critics said that this new style of painting looked like mere unfinished sketches. By the end, combinded with the Uffizi, it felt like we had received a miniature course in art history.

So all in all, a very long day (three museums!). But it was worth it.

Cinque Terre

Despite last night being our first real sleep in two days, we woke up fairly refreshed at 8:00, had croissants and cappucino at the local coffee bar where we bought our phone card, and set out on our hike of the Cinque Terre. These five towns, part of a recently-established national park and World Heritage site, are connected by seven miles of hiking trail. Each town is set on a (steep) hillside by the sea, and consists of little more than a single narrow, uphill street, surrounded by colorfully painted buildings.

The first leg of the trail, from our "home" of Riomaggiore to neighboring Manarola, is called "la Via del Amore," after the young couples that frequent it. It is flat and easy, only about 20 minutes walk. In Manarola, which is prettier than Riomaggiore, we watched a short movie at the wine museum about the local dessert wine "Stracciatella." Evidently they have been making it for many centuries.

After a short walk around town, we continued on the trail to Corniglia. This trail was longer and slightly harder, taking a little over an hour. We got lots of great seaside views of the clear, blue-green water, and the amazingly regular boulders at the bottom. As we approached Corniglia, we skipped the nude beach (a decision, however, which we questioned somewhat as the day got hotter), and proceeded up the 384 steps to the town, which unlike the others is perched high on a hilltop. We bought a picture from a local artist camped at the bottom of the stairs. In Corniglia we ate our first deli-bought ham, (local) cheese, and (to-die-for) salami sandwich, which is a cheap, delicious, and fun way to eat lunch.

Onward to Vernazza! This section of trail was much hillier, much rockier, much longer (about 1.5 hours), and (due to the time of day) much hotter. Tara's flip-flops really got a workout on this one. This trail was more through the forest above the sea, so we didn't get as many views to go with our workout. We also passed an enterprising guy who set up a restaurant halfway along the trail, but since he wouldn't fill our water bottle we continued on. Eventually we made it to Vernazza, which was a little bigger and busier. We had our gelato of the day here.

We skipped the last trail segment, which is 2 hours long and even rockier than the previous one. Instead we took the train to Monterosso, which is the busiest and beachiest of the five towns. Having lost all of our posessions on the flight over, we were excited to find a few cheap clothes here -- a shirt for Tara and some shorts for Scott. After a stroll around town and some pizza focaccia, our tired feet carried us back to the train station to make our way home. Dinner in Riomaggiore was at a nice seafood place, with some amazing pesto linguini, swordfish with marinara, and a half-bottle of local wine.

We really enjoyed this day of our trip. The combination of hiking through the seaside scenery and strolling through small, tradition-filled towns was an ideal first day of our vacation.

(pictures to follow)

Italy Bound!

This evening, after a wine-and-cheese dinner at home, we purchased plane tickets to Italy for the first half of September! (above picture is from a trip I took in college). We've wanted to do this for several years now, and will finally have the chance to go. Obviously, we are excited. Humorously, we also received our tax rebate/stimulus check today. Which is of course great. But it means that, from a cash-flow perspective, we'll be spending our "save the US economy" money ... in Italy.