Well, I’ve been keeping a secret. I was out of Michigan for a week! We left Tuesday and came back very very late Monday night. It took Tuesday to re-adjust, unpack, and get situated. I took 300 photos so I’m trying to figure out how to deal with all of that for you folks. But I assure you, we had a great time.

We did a driving trip out to the eastern states. Brian has a sister in Washington DC, and I have a friend in Vermont, and we sort of combined visits to them with visits to big cities (and a few smaller cities/villages). I love to collect big cities!

We had the most wonderful trip! We didn’t have much of a plan before we started. I decided to at least go to Vermont (alone if need be, I used to travel east alone quite often) about a month ago. Only last week Brian decided to go for sure. We learned Sunday that we’d be in DC visiting Brian’s sister on Wednesday. I had a little gathering to attend on Fri/Sat in mid-Vermont. We planned to see Elizabeth in southern Vermont on the weekend. Other than that, we had no formal plan.

So we ended up with a lot of decisions to make on the road. Brian is right up my wavelength, actually… I like to sort of go with the flow on road trips like this, and we did just that.

We stopped in Pittsburgh (Cambodian/Thai dinner) on the way out Tuesday. We got there as the sun was going down, and cities are so beautiful at that time of day!

We slept about 45 minutes from DC. Wednesday we drove in, saw the 1111 Gallery knitting exhibit and the Vietnam Memorial (No words, only tears, whenever I go there… this was my 3rd visit I think… and I don’t know a soul on that wall, I believe… I’m a tad too young for that, but it’s just unbearably sad).

Then we drove to Brian’s sister’s neighborhood and walked around till she got home. It was heat index around 100F/38C so we found a shady garden to rest in for a while, and bought lots of iced tea and water throughout the day.

Then she came home and we had dinner in the Ethiopian section of 18th Street, and it was wonderful. I wore my Ethiopian shoulder wrap and made some friends that way. I found a grocery that had a snack food I love that I’ve missed since we got home (toasted barley with sunflowers and roasted chickpeas, not salty or sweet but satisfying). We bought a lot of that for later. Then we walked and took photos and had a great time. I could definitely love living in her neighborhood.

Thursday we went to Philadelphia for lunch (we obviously parked in the wrong part of town for ethnic food, so we found a good salad bar near the subway) and then went to New York City for afternoon/evening.

In New York, we walked until we got blisters. Central Park is totally, absolutely wonderful, and we only saw a tiny little portion of it. It’s huge, and rocky and wooded, and has a beautiful pond and lots of birds and flowers. I loved it.

At some point we found ourselves in the fashion district, found a button store, and Brian bought me a fabric “Frog” as a sort of button closure for a cape I sewed for my wedding. The tiny frog I bought originally for the cape just doesn’t do a good job on all that fabric weight, yards of it. That was the best and cheapest souvenir we could have had!

I had trouble finding food I could eat without allergy problems, so we ate at a Japanese place. Usually I can have Japanese, at least a few things I’ve tried consistently over the years. This restaurant had Japanese food I had never heard of, but we tried it. In the end I was mildly allergic to something in it, but I just got a sort of rash on my face the next day. I did not feel bad at all, just looked like I had an acne breakout… so that worked out fine, really.

Thursday night we drove to somewhere in Connecticut and slept. Friday morning went to Webs in Northampton, Massachusetts. Webs is a huge huge yarn shop in Northampton Mass, complete with discount warehouse.

I got some mill-end cotton yarn on a cone for a (bulky) machine-knit sweater for Brian, and thinner cotton for 2-3 tops for me (planning to use my new knitting machine, since I don’t like handknitting with 100% cotton). I also got the wool I showed you a few days back, for a pair of sox for me.

I also got some shiny purple stuff, sort of really thin tinsel which must be knit as a knit-along strand. I have no idea what I’ll do with that yet.

After the shopping experience, we had lunch in Northampton at an Indian place. It’s a lovely town. Smith College is in this town, which I think is why it rang a bell. There were a good handful of ethnic restaurants we might have selected from. Indian is always a good, safe and tasty choice for me with all my allergies. On the road this is a real gift!

The food was very good, but extremely mild for Indian cuisine. I remember a friend who lives in New Hampshire telling me how their Indian restaurant had to make their food almost bland because the locals just could not get used to the seasonings. Maybe this was a similar situation. I’m sort of a spice-light sort of grrl, so when it’s not spiced enough for me, we are talking very mild!

We then went to East Dorset, Vermont for Friday and Saturday nights, to visit a group of my friends who were having a gathering. Following that, we went to Elizabeth’s cabin in southern Vermont on Sunday for a few hours.

Her place is just beautiful. I’ve been 3 times now and it just keeps getting more like Elizabeth every time. On my first visit, she was carrying all her water (both for drinking and cleaning) and heating with a wood stove, and she had an outhouse. Now she has a well for all but drinking water, a washing machine, full bath, propane heat, a new stove, and she has doubled the size of the cabin. She has an eden of a garden in the front yard and a pond with wildlife in the back. In the addition, she has huge windows to see what is around her. It is just beautiful everything at Elizabeth’s.

We then proceeded (still Sunday) to North Adams to one of my favorite art museums, the Mass MOCA. I mentioned earlier, the construction crew knitting a USA flag there last month, from knitting needles made from 25 ft aluminum light poles. I saw the video and the folded up flag. Amazing, and inspiring.

Then we drove to Albany, and had a tasty Vietnamese dinner Sunday night. After dinner we found a hotel just west of Albany, before the sun set. We finally just plain tuckered out and had to sleep!

Monday morning, we decided to make it home that day (it was maybe 11 hours’ drive). We did stop in Niagara Falls on the way home, on the Canadian Side. We ate at an Indian/Pakistani restaurant (much more spice here, for the record, it was tasty), then drove home and got in about 1:45am.

Tuesday we were home and nobody knew but my brother and his wife, and April across the street. I talked to April several times, unpacked, did laundry, caught up on this and that.

My wonderful car turned over 100,000 miles Monday. I figure it will double that (my 1985 VW Golf, Martha, had over 250,000 miles when she finally let me down). I’m saving slowly for a new vehicle for someday, but just for today I’m really delighted with my still-new-in-my-eyes 1998 New Beetle, which I’ve named Joy.

So I have a zillion photos and little space to show them off. Nevertheless, I’ll give it a shot. I made them small so that I could fit more on this page, I hope that works for you folks.

1) Pittsburgh just before sunset.
2) “The Wall” (Vietnam Memorial in DC, the group at left was looking for the name of someone they knew, who died in the war. I cried for them and for all the other names. There is at least one story for every name engraved on that wall.) Notice the Washington Monument in the background.
3) Typical DC street view in tourist/museum district.
4) Eleven Eleven gallery space, nontraditional knitting exhibit. Wow.
5) Fourth floor balcony garden in DC.
6) Fountain at “Malcom X Park” (not its official name, but that is what it’s often called). Notice that the pool looks like it has parallel sides, but that is a deliberate optical illusion… if it were parallel, it would look smaller on the far end.
7) Homes in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood on quieter street.
8) Ethiopian Restaurant on 18th Street in DC/Adams Morgan, Brian and his sister Jennifer standing in front.
9) Theatre Marquee in New York City’s Broadway/theatre district.
10, 11 & 12) New York’s Central Park, a most lovely place indeed. Even though you can see large buildings, it is cool and peaceful in the park. Two photos of a large pond and one shot of a horse and carriage on an inner road through the park.
13) Downtown street in Northampton, Massachusetts.
14 & 15) Elizabeth’s cabin in Readsboro, Vermont.
16) Me hugging my friend Elizabeth.
17) Downtown North Adams, Massachusetts, home of Mass MOCA (Modern Art Museum).
18) View from Route 20, near where Vermont, Massachusetts and New York State are all very close to one another. Probably just west of Albany, NY, but much of Vermont looks a lot like this.
19 & 20) Diner (Gatesdale Family Restaurant) sign and inside counter, on Route 20, New York State somewhere west of Albany. Notice the antique car parked out front.
21 & 22) Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Colorful street scene and the amazing natural wonder that attracts so many from all over the world.