Right. The bathroom is back to normal, and looks very nice. I have new fixings and am contemplating reprising my "Driller Killer" role of over 20 years ago, when as a six-year-old I was quite handy with a power drill, or just letting Paul put the towel rails up. So where was I?
This year, being in the north-east, Paul and I saved up almost all our holiday allowance to have a break before and after SVP. Before SVP we rented a car from JFK Airport, and did CT, RI, MA, ME, NH, VT and upstate NY. By which I mean, we drove to New Haven in time to look at Yale's campus, and then on to Providence for the first night. We spent a lot of time quoting the first verse from the Eagles' "The Last Resort" at each other, and saw many old world shadows. I adored this old house (which didn't appear to be part of Brown), and want it when we win the EuroMillions lottery.
Then we hit the Cape briefly, where the satnav failed to find Spanky's Clam Shack TWICE, until we gave up and went to Seafood Sam's instead. And then we had a more scenic tour of Boston than we expected thanks to one-way systems and road closures, but had a look at Harvard (not as pretty as Brown) before heading to the Midwest Grill, where I was determined to make some happy memories this time around (and I did).
We clipped the edge of Maine purely to go to Kittery Outlets, but we fulfilled the requirements of the Visit Every State game by taking in some fluid and leaving some fluid, and I even bought a new winter jacket from Old Navy. Then through New Hampshire, where we saw Dartmouth at night, and on to our hotel in Killington, VT.
Paul hates Vermont. From the truck driver who tailgated him all the way from the NH-VT border to the hotel, to the hotel that hadn't considered that it might need as many parking spaces as rooms, or indeed vending machines and more than one individual serving of coffee per room. Not only that, but Killington, a large-ish town geared up for the tourist industry, did not have a single restaurant open until 2pm that afternoon. The state was saved by a small town with a general store serving a breakfast calling itself a Green Mountain Special (or similar - Paul must learn to avoid breakfasts that call themselves after local rock masses...), the Ben & Jerry's factory and getting to meet Amanda. But even the mothership of ice cream disappointed. Here is Paul, weeping at the grave of CoffeeCoffeeBuzzBuzzBuzz, his favourite flavour ever.
And after a quick ice cream, it was time for a long-ass drive to Ithaca to see my bestest friend Usch, who for some reason decided to work on Cenozoic snails for her PhD.
She took us to Lucifer Falls, where Paul got this funny look on his face - the sort of look where I knew he was plotting something... I guess we'll have to wait for the second book of The Long Watch though (have you subscribed yet? He starts serialising the first book on Saturday!).
And an excellent visit to the Museum of the Earth followed, with a gorgeous exhibit of petrified wood and artwork inspired by it (which I'll probably post on the other blog).
And while this Dunkleosteus was at the Museum of the Earth rather than the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, this seems like a nice segué into SVP. In the next post...
This year, being in the north-east, Paul and I saved up almost all our holiday allowance to have a break before and after SVP. Before SVP we rented a car from JFK Airport, and did CT, RI, MA, ME, NH, VT and upstate NY. By which I mean, we drove to New Haven in time to look at Yale's campus, and then on to Providence for the first night. We spent a lot of time quoting the first verse from the Eagles' "The Last Resort" at each other, and saw many old world shadows. I adored this old house (which didn't appear to be part of Brown), and want it when we win the EuroMillions lottery.
Then we hit the Cape briefly, where the satnav failed to find Spanky's Clam Shack TWICE, until we gave up and went to Seafood Sam's instead. And then we had a more scenic tour of Boston than we expected thanks to one-way systems and road closures, but had a look at Harvard (not as pretty as Brown) before heading to the Midwest Grill, where I was determined to make some happy memories this time around (and I did).
We clipped the edge of Maine purely to go to Kittery Outlets, but we fulfilled the requirements of the Visit Every State game by taking in some fluid and leaving some fluid, and I even bought a new winter jacket from Old Navy. Then through New Hampshire, where we saw Dartmouth at night, and on to our hotel in Killington, VT.
Paul hates Vermont. From the truck driver who tailgated him all the way from the NH-VT border to the hotel, to the hotel that hadn't considered that it might need as many parking spaces as rooms, or indeed vending machines and more than one individual serving of coffee per room. Not only that, but Killington, a large-ish town geared up for the tourist industry, did not have a single restaurant open until 2pm that afternoon. The state was saved by a small town with a general store serving a breakfast calling itself a Green Mountain Special (or similar - Paul must learn to avoid breakfasts that call themselves after local rock masses...), the Ben & Jerry's factory and getting to meet Amanda. But even the mothership of ice cream disappointed. Here is Paul, weeping at the grave of CoffeeCoffeeBuzzBuzzBuzz, his favourite flavour ever.
And after a quick ice cream, it was time for a long-ass drive to Ithaca to see my bestest friend Usch, who for some reason decided to work on Cenozoic snails for her PhD.
She took us to Lucifer Falls, where Paul got this funny look on his face - the sort of look where I knew he was plotting something... I guess we'll have to wait for the second book of The Long Watch though (have you subscribed yet? He starts serialising the first book on Saturday!).
And an excellent visit to the Museum of the Earth followed, with a gorgeous exhibit of petrified wood and artwork inspired by it (which I'll probably post on the other blog).
And while this Dunkleosteus was at the Museum of the Earth rather than the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, this seems like a nice segué into SVP. In the next post...
No comments:
Post a Comment