Consolidator Fares to Europe

Well, today is the day we pick up the XC90 in Charlottesville, and it's great to be able to say that after two years of casual looking and two years of off-and-on test driving, we've finally found The Car, the one that we can hold onto for years to come. Who knows? JieJie and MeiMei might be learning to drive on this one. It's heartening to me when I see ancient Volvos still trucking along, and all of the Volvo owners we've polled seem to have an attachment to the brand. We've even heard such True Believer lines as "I'd never drive anything else, especially with kids."

You may recall that we had gotten interested in Volvo partly because of the Overseas Delivery program, but opted to by a used one locally instead. It means that when it comes to our Belgium trip this summer, we're responsible for our airfare (which would have been free under the OSD program).

And airfares are...gulp...not cheap right now!

And when I asked Carlson Wagonlit Travel's local office to do some research for me, the best they could come up with was $1100/person flying JFK-Dublin-Amsterdam. I was told it was more expensive to fly into Brussels, and that there were no competitive fares from Dulles, our first-choice airport.

Then the CWT rep said something that made my eyebrows wrinkle. When I said "of course the kids' fares will be discounted from that, right?" He didn't seem to know anything about this common practice. So I realized, I'm on my own. Travel agencies make more from selling tours and packages anyway, so you have to understand that they're not going to bend over backwards to get you a good airfare when that's all you want.

Luckily, I know about Consolidator Fares. Consolidators buy empty seats from airlines and sell them at a discount. You have to pay attention to restrictions and other fine print, but these can be really good deals. For example, we bought tickets to China in 2002 through Lotus Travel by purchasing $1300 travel certificates redeemable for roundtrips (business class) from LA to Guangzhou. Full disclosure: I liked Lotus so much, I actually work for them marketing heritage tours to China for families, adoptive and non-adoptive, who would like to explore China together. But Lotus is an Asia-focused agency, so when it comes to Europe, I'm on my own.

I Googled "Consolidator airfare Europe" and came up with BargainTravel.com, and some promising discounts. A cursory search from IAD to BRU on our desired travel dates came up with $984 for an adult ticket and $895 for a child ticket. This is a NON-stop on Lufthansa that wouldn't require us to leave or arrive at bizarre times. Similar fares were available on United.

I'll be researching for the next few weeks and we expect to purchase tickets in late March or April, and I'll let you know what I turn up. For great articles on gaming the airfare system, I highly recommend Rudy Maxa (NPR's "Savvy Traveler" or Rick Steves (his PBS counterpart), both of whom have extensive travel-oriented websites.

LG

A Big Day!

Well, let's just say I stink at negotiating. Or maybe it was just that the price was soooooooo right. We're going ahead w/the XC90 purchase this week. No dvd system, no extended warranty, just the car thankyouverymuch.

Today is the 42nd anniversary of the day my parents said "I do" in a small ceremony at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, in the middle of a frigid winter storm. They celebrated at the now-closed Waikiki Room downtown.

And today is the day John accepted a promotion to Associate Dean at JMU. It's an exciting time, indeed. This trip to Belgium is sort of a last hurrah, and will take place between the end of the girls' school year and the beginning of his new 12-month responsibilities. All the more reason to savor the time together. No more 4-month summer vacation!

LG

Let The Games Begin

Today, MeiMei and I are going to test-drive a certified pre-owned Volvo xc90 and see how we like it. It's a great deal as it is, w/only about 15,000 miles on it and several of the nice packages already installed. For long-distance trips, it is going to be very safe and comfortable - we just need to make sure that this particular one is "the one" by taking it out on the highway, looking at the CarFax report, and generally kicking the tires.

The one thing I really, really want is the dvd entertainment system, but it's REALLY expensive...still, I have done my research and what they're asking for the system seems to be the going rate. Ebay motors had it for $250 less, but you'd have to install it yourself, so there's really no savings there. Cars.com listed the invoice price that dealers pay for the system, and for pete's sake we're getting like $10,000 worth of packages that we didn't have to pay for just by letting someone else drive the thing for the first year. And we don't pay for the depreciation of that very expensive first drive off the lot, either.

My big thing is, I want the monthly payment to be below a certain threshhold, and I already know the interest rate, downpayment, and all that. So if they can discount the dvd system or lower the sale price or a combination of the two and come within our budgeted monthly payment, I think we'll have ourselves a deal. We have been looking off-and-on for two years, and this time it feels like the stars are aligning.

Oh--HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! Here's to 42 years of sticking together through thick and thin. We love you so much!

LG

Daydreaming of Antwerpen

Even though my friend Iene sees nothing special about Antwerp, all I can do now is daydream about where we can go, what we can do, and (look out waistline) what we can taste again.

I can't wait to walk up Sint-Katelijnvest to the Meir, stroll along past the shops, see again the baroque majesty of the buildings along Leysstraat, go to Nachtegalen Park on a Wednesday afternoon with friends when school lets out early, go to Linkeroever and visit the park along the river at van Eeden, hang out in the Groenplaats, explore the markets in the Hoogstraat neighborhood, visit the art museum, Korte Gasthuisstraat and the sweet little shops in that neighborhood, and on and on and on. We want to hang out at Het Elfde Gebod (the Eleventh Commandment) and take pictures this time! And I am going to email JieJie and MeiMei's former school to ask whether the girls might be able to go to school on a Friday around lunchtime and stay for the weekly puppet show, just for old times' sake. The girls rattled off the names of several people they hope to see again, not just at school but also Mr. K and his wife. We'll see the proprietors of the Highlander pub...the woman who runs 't Keizerke...the sweet ladies who sell bread at Goossens...the retired dancer who serves up great coffee and hot croissants at Chicco di Cafe...even though we were only there for four months, I have these faces in my memory...again, must take pictures!

John wants to go back to Brugge (gotta see that new movie In Bruges by the way). I'll be visiting a new business associate in Brussels--more on that later as we make our big announcement in the next couple of weeks. Because John is an historian, his half of the trip is tax deductible, and because I'm visiting T in Brussels to officially shake hands on a joint venture, my half will be tax deductible too! Unfortunately, the girls' visit to Plopsaland is not deductible as a professional expense...but hey, I thought "play was a child's work"!!! Does an established precept of developmental psychology carry no weight with the IRS? I guess not.

I have been hoping to work with more and more EU-based clients as I grow my small business, so another task on the to-do list for this trip is to open an account in euros that EU clients can transfer payments into without either of us having to pay a currency exchange fee. And really, with the euro as strong as it is right now, it makes a lot of sense just to keep some euros. If we keep traveling across the Atlantic every so often, we can use the euros while we're overseas and won't have to pay for currency exchange. Just have to check into tax liability...I'm sure there are some nuances there!

Lodgings...Check!

It's official - we can have the same apartment where we stayed in 2007!

In case you're going to Antwerp and don't have a "connection"--let me give you a great tip: go to www.immoweb.be and click on Holiday / Vacation rentals. There is a studio apartment on Korte Gasthuisstraat that lets for 800euros / fortnight (two weeks)--that's REALLY cheap compared to a hotel, and you'd have a kitchen, AND you would be right across the street from Goossens Bakery, the 7 & 8 tram lines, the Meir, Super GB supermarket, Groenplaats, you name it. That was our backup plan if good old 3B didn't come through.

This is so perfect - the girls already know the apartment, the rules, their way around, and we won't have to worry about paying twice for lodgings if we would like to take a small side trip in the midst of the Antwerp visit.

Now our travel agent at Carlson-Wagonlit is looking at flights. We can depart from anywhere on the East Coast between Richmond VA and New York City, and can fly to Brussels or Amsterdam, so that should give us some flexibility. Hoping to get roundtrips as cheaply as possible but right now they're (gulp) around $1,000 for a full-price ticket. Thank heavens the girls are under 12!!!

LG

Europe '08, Revised

Once again, experience proves that a little research goes a long way!

Tuesday, John and I did not have classes to teach. It was Assessment Day (cue the choir) at JMU, the day when we see what our students have learned...or the day we see just how much they detest sitting in class taking long multiple choice tests when some of their friends have the day off...

And it was also Primary Day in Virginia. We dropped the girls off at school, voted (oh yeah!) and headed down I-81 to I-64 to Volvo of Charlottesville to check out the vehicles and the whole Overseas Delivery Program.

Pretty quickly, we settled on the Volvo XC90 because it seats 7 passengers. Even though the girls are just starting school, I've already seen the interdependence of the parent network around here. If you want people to be able to give your kids rides to stuff, you need to be able to reciprocate. It's only fair. So to get a vehicle that pretty much guarantees we could never bring a friend each for JieJie and MeiMei to the fair, the park, the mountains, or even just home from school...short-sighted to say the least.

We test-drove the xc90 and both found it comfortable, easy to handle (the thing has a gyroscope in the middle to keep track of "yaw"!) and with lots of extra little goo-gahs that make it feel extra luxurious. Knowing how much we'd save off the retail made it even more fun to drive.

We got some information about the Overseas Delivery Program. Basically you tell them when you want to show up in Sweden and what you want and they build it for you.

Just for fun, when I got home I made two different cost lists. One was the price of a new xc90 minus the OSD program discount and the cost of airfare to Europe. The other was the price of a Certified Pre-Owned 2007 xc90 and paying our own way to Europe.

Guess what? We come out better the second way!!! Especially when you take cash flow into consideration. A lower monthly payment is paramount. Once the euphoria from the trip wears off, there's that payment every month for five years...is any trip worth eating ramen noodles half the month for? If we didn't have kids, maybe, but let's get real.

A brand-new xc90 is in the mid-40K range...OUCH. But a certified pre-owned '07 with 15,000 miles on it can go for just under $35K, and get this: the warranty is actually longer than it would be on a new car (6/100,000 vs. 4/50,000). Go figure! AND the used ones tend to be program cars that have some nice packages on them, but we wouldn't have to pay extra for those. The price is the price.

John says if the right one comes along, we could be driving a new-to-us xc90 in a matter of weeks, or even days. I'll let you know what happens, but FINALLY we have found a car that we both like, that has the mixture of sporty, practical, roomy, safe, and well-appointed that we were hoping to find. The gas mileage is not great (17/22), I have to say, but we really don't drive all that much, so it's ok. This car is the long trip-mobile, and it will be plenty comfortable. And if we can scratch together a decent downpayment, we can swing it as far as monthly payments go.

Next job...finding cheap fares to Europe. Good luck on that one, eh? If you see any deals from Dulles to Brussels or Amsterdam, lemme know.

Sweden, Here We Come!

Summer plans are starting to take shape, and it's very promising indeed! I am taking a risk in some ways by making such a confident proclamation. Regular readers have no doubt noticed that we don't always end up going where we say we'll go. But I suspect that the trip idea/actual trip ratio for most travelers is anything but 1-to-1. for us I think it's about 3/1. Still, the odds of us taking the trip I think we're going to take this summer are pretty good!

Proposed Itinerary for the Globetrekker Heritage Tour, made possible in part by the Volvo Overseas Delivery Program:

+/- June 14: fly to Goteborg, Sweden to take delivery on a Volvo (model TBA...Volvo of Charlottesville is sending brochures for the S80, XC90 and Cross Country wagon).

amorphous itinerary from then on: tour the area around Sunne, Sweden where my great-great-grandfather Nils is from. Possibly meet distant, distant relatives. Drive down to the crossing to Copenhagen, tour Denmark, where John's Oma was born. Visit Kiel, Germany where John's Opa was born. See a bit more of Germany, work our way down to Antwerp, visit friends there, scoot up to Amsterdam/Mijdrecht to visit friends, and then go home and enjoy the rest of the summer.

In retrospect, I'm so thankful that we just couldn't settle on a car or any summer plans last fall, and I'm glad we didn't settle for a car that we weren't truly excited about. The stars have aligned and now our purchase of a second vehicle is going to make a great trip possible! Cue the celestial choir! Let's hear it for paying attention to a gut feeling.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Year of the Rat!

from John, Louise, JieJie & MeiMei Globetrekker

the picture is of the character "fu" which means happiness and good luck. At the lunar new year, it is hung upside down (as above) because the expression "upside down" in Mandarin sounds like "is coming."

On a More Serious Note: China snow & ice

Hi all,

First, let me say the four of us are doing fine, no major news compared to what I’m writing about. JieJie is looking forward to her 6th birthday party, which will be in a party room at our area’s Children’s Museum and will have a “dog” theme. No particular dog, just dogs in general. MeiMei will try her hand as Official Photographer with a disposable camera, which we’ve found to be a very effective thing to have the Not-Birthday-Girl sister do. (JieJie’s b-day is March 9th).

Now to the news. You may have noticed news items here and there about the terrible, terrible winter China is having, the worst in 50 years. Snow shut down the port of Shanghai a few days ago, one of the busiest in the world—and at the same latitude as South Carolina! Beijing is dealing with terrible road conditions, snow and ice, with interruptions in food supplies and power. To make matters worse, millions and millions of people are trying and trying and trying to get home and see family during the upcoming Lunar New Year, a ten-day-long period beginning this Thursday that for many people represents the only time during the year when they can take off from work and make the long trip home by bus or train. Imagine being a migrant worker and leaving your wife and children with your parents, going to the city to find work, and the desperation of knowing that if you can’t get home now, it will be another year before you see them again. Lunar New Year is like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Easter (spring festival) and the 4th of July (fireworks!) all rolled into one, and there are usually parties and feasts every day. A week or so ago, the Guangzhou train station was mobbed with 800,000 people all trying to get on trains that weren’t running because of the snow and ice and power outages, and the police were called in to quell the panic. The government is now urging people to stay put as they release emergency food stores to stave off a looming humanitarian crisis.

And the orphanages have been impacted. Because of the snow, many of the caregivers—who also care for the elderly in these “Social Welfare Institutes” for the young and old—have long ago given up on their new year holiday. And because of the unpredictability of travel, many are staying 24 hours a day at the SWI.

Because of power outages, water pumps are not working and the orphanage staff
are carrying water by hand in addition to all of their normal duties.

In one instance, the local government allowed the fire company to supply water with trucks because the situation was desperate. Many of the buildings in the more southerly locations don’t have heat, because they don’t usually need it. At an orphanage where my friend’s daughter was cared for, three babies in fragile health have already died, despite the best efforts of the nannies. What we have heard from Fuling is that the rooms in their new building all have heat, but that many people in the surrounding areas, including some families of the nannies, are suffering in the cold.

We hope and pray that the weather warms and the situation doesn’t get any worse.

There IS something you can do, however.

You’ve often seen me mention a group called Half the Sky Foundation, and they are on the ground in China delivering supplies like diapers, formula, and heaters to orphanages in need. Our adoptive families group is going to set up a donation bucket at our New Year party this Sunday night to collect donations. If you would like to donate, or would like to see more information about the number of orphanages impacted by the severe winter storms, here’s a link to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund.

Please help!
LG

On the horizon: a cruise in Europe

Just a quick heads-up. My parents just booked passage on a Danube River cruise for September of this year! I'm so happy for them. Their trip will take them from Budapest to Munich, via Vienna. Sounds lovely. Alas, you can't join them as they booked the very last cabin yesterday with Uniworld. And double Alas, we can't join them because the girls aren't 12 yet. That's fine with me - something to look forward to. I doubt the luxuriously leisurely pace would appeal to children, though it certainly appeals to ME (And Mom and Dad, I am not hinting. Seriously. Happy 42nd Anniversary, and here's to many more trips & beautiful memories).

I was daydreaming about travel today as we ran a few errands related to JieJie's 6th birthday, and from the back seat all I could hear were repeated questions... "Mom, when can we mail the invitations? When can we mail the invitations? MOM, whencanwemailtheinviTAAAAYYYY-SHUUUNNNNZZZ? And when can we get the things to fill the goodie bags and the pinata?" Etc.

These legendary rivers and waterways have shaped the history, culture and economy of Europe for thousands of years. Now they will help shape your vacation experience, giving you an intimate and up-close view at how life once was lived in Europe’s sophisticated cities and tiny villages. Travel through the heart of Europe and be prepared to be amazed as history unfolds before your eyes.--Uniworld website

Someday, a trip like that will be a dream come true, though I couldn't really enjoy a kid-free trip right now (the kid-free areas of the Disney Cruise ships strike a good balance, I think...parents get a break but still get to tuck the kiddies in). John and I are looking forward to going back to Washington Street Inn in Key West, one of our favorite spring break destinations pre-kids. But we can't. I just went looking for their website to make a hyperlink, and it looks like this secluded, sweet little kid-free getaway has changed owners and is now the Alexander Palms Court. Oh well. Good thing I returned the last book I borrowed from their resort library!

So Mom and Dad will send quick notes from their trip, and I can let you know how it goes. As for us, I saw John tracing a route through Northern Europe with his index finger last night. And one finger was on Goteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden...where the Volvo factory is.

Highland Retreat, VA: a Great Escape

One of the great things about living in the Shenandoah Valley is being able to get away from the city and up in the mountains in such a short time. Last Saturday morning I had the privilege of leading a women's retreat program at Highland Retreat, a getaway northwest of Harrisonburg, just inside the West "by-God" Virginia line (not sure where the expression came from, but if you want to get a knowing smile and laugh around here, you just say "West By-God Virginia"). If you keep going on Route 259, pretty soon you get to Lost River and Lost City. So I suppose I was just shy of Lost when I arrived at Red Oak Lodge last Saturday morning just before the 8am breakfast was to begin. I was scheduled to do a program on voice (as in "finding one's ____") from 9-11am.

At 8:50, after a couple of coffees and a hearty breakfast of eggs and sausage and fruit, prepared lovingly by the kitchen ladies, I took a couple of minutes to just stand outside and look and listen. The piece of land is up quite high, so the feeling is of being on a plateau. All around me were the tops of snow-covered mountains, and it was absolutely silent. No birds or bugs or breezes making sound, just that insulated dense quiet, the sound of blood in the ears, of breath, of shoes on the gravel driveway.

I remember how loud Harrisonburg seemed when we moved into the city from Massanutten Mountain over ten years ago. Now, my definition of quiet is more the absence of human or electronic sounds, but it's so easy to forget all the background noise that is loudest when taken away completely, when compared to a place like Highland Retreat.

If you are ever looking for a place to camp, to have a family reunion, a nature-themed wedding or a professional development retreat, click on the title of this post for more information. It's a lovely place.

Oh -- and the speed limit, once you pass the office / welcome building, is 14 1/2 mph.

LG

Obama Abroad

As I write this, Barack Obama is celebrating his victory in the South Carolina primary. I wanted to share two things we noticed a year ago while living in Europe.


1.) While touring Brussels with our group of college students, John noticed Obama's picture proudly displayed in some apartment windows in an up-and-coming immigrant neighborhood there.


2.) While walking to posh Regent's Park, London (my mom says none other than Sir Paul McCartney has a townhouse there), we noticed our first Obama campaign poster in a window overlooking the beautiful park. We were really floored...an Obama poster in London in spring 2007???


I am acutely aware that people reading this blog come from a range of political persuasions (all of which you can find in my politically diverse extended family, and I've voted both sides of the aisle) but the interesting thing for me as someone who likes to travel is this: in electing someone to be (among other things) a figurehead of our nation, we are in many ways telegraphing to the rest of the world who we think we are. When we were in Belgium etc last year, we often felt sheepish saying we were American, given our current position among the nations of the world.


The head of the Antwerp program, before we left the U.S., made a presentation about the ways in which our students needed to keep a low profile . It was a rather funny PowerPoint presentation which included, among other things, not wearing a leather jacket with a giant American eagle emblazoned on the back, ha ha. But once we were over there, this was serious business. There were places of business we were told to avoid because there had been trouble when Americans went there (not many, but still!). And I remember wanting to go in those places, to prove that we are not all the same. Naive, yes. But still. You might also remember the conversation with Grumpy Flemish Bus Passenger in early March (search the blog for the anecdote).


I am certainly not saying that if Barack Obama becomes President that all of this will suddenly disappear, but I just wonder what it would be like to travel out of the country under something other than a Bush or Clinton administration. I've actually never done it, since my first trip to Europe was in 1993...


What would it be like, to put a different face on America? Guess we'll see.

End of an era?

Are we witnessing the end of China adoption? Or just the most massive slowdown I've seen since 2001, when we began paperchasing for JieJie? Consider:

JieJie's adoption process:
Jan '01, begin paperchasing
July '01, submit paperwork
wait: 15 months
Sept '02, receive referral in the mail
Nov '02, travel to China and complete adoption

MeiMei's adoption process:
Jan '03, notified our agency we wanted to paperchase for #2, are told there is a waiting period of a year between completing one adoption and applying for the next. Spent 2003 settling in and getting our papers together for submission as soon as allowed.
Feb '04, submit paperwork
wait: 7 months
Sept. '04, receive referral in the mail
Nov. '04, travel to China to complete adoption

In both cases, it was about two full years. Since adopting MeiMei, we've seen friends who waited longer to submit their paperwork settle into a third year of waiting, with no immediate hope for a referral. Obviously the Beijing Olympics is delaying things, as did the SARS epidemic (remember that?), but still, I've seen posts on adoption message boards that some adoption agencies are telling families to consider whether they can handle a wait of five years or more.

There is much speculation as to why this slowdown is happening. I don't have an answer, but I have heard that this cycle happens often in international adoption, that adoptions from a particular country can accelerate, crest, and then subside, for many different reasons. For now, I am just so, so grateful for my daughters, for good timing, and for this family of ours. I hope that our friends B & C, and BK & MC, and S & J, and F & K who are still, still waiting will hear good news soon.

You might read this and think I've forgotten about the babies, who are, after all half of this equation! There is good news on that front. I'm seeing more donations and volunteerism that improve the conditions at many orphanages in China, even those whose babies are not even eligible to be adopted by their benefactors (orphanages have to have enough staff on hand to do the adoption related paperwork, which only happens AFTER they have enough staff to care for the immediate needs of the babies). The increased wait times for hopeful parents do not mean increased waits for the babies, who are still likely to be around a year old at time of adoption.

But man, the wait...our agency (Americans Adopting Orphans) now has a one-dossier-two-countries program, in which you can adopt from a country other than China, and have time to settle in with baby #1, while waiting for baby #2 from China. This was unheard of when we were in process.

Times have changed.
LG

Our First Trip...16 Years Ago Today!

Today is the 16th anniversary of John's and my first date, and guess what? We went on a day-trip that day...previews of coming attractions, to be sure. I was living in the DC area at the time, and he was teaching at JMU. My best friend M ran into him on campus and mentioned I was coming down that weekend. He said "have her call me." She conveyed the message on Friday afternoon, and since I'd had a crush on John for months, I wasted no time calling him. I heard myself suggesting we get together (not at all like me back then!). I said how about Saturday? He said, vaguely, that he had plans, and my heart sank. In the next breath, he suggested Sunday, and all was well in the world.

The place we went is one of those places in this part of the world that you just have to know, or you have to know someone who knows how to get there, cause it's pretty far off the beaten track. I first went there in college with friends to watch a spectacular sunset. The last time we went there was with our friends from The Netherlands...and the hill almost killed our poor old Plymouth van! We haven't taken the girls there yet, but we will.

The place is known as Reddish Knob, and it's one of the highest points in the highlands between the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia. If you turn right instead of left just before the final ascent to Reddish Knob, you get to this place known as "Flagpole." That was our destination on January 21, 1992. It was cold and clear that day, with crunchy snow in patches on the ground. I remember being able to see my breath, and how rosy John's cheeks were, how blue his eyes.

We talked and talked on the drive there, but once we were out walking in the woods along the edge of Flagpole's clearing, I don't remember saying much, though I definitely remember what I was thinking: ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod...nothing was said of romantic significance because neither of us was exactly sure what it was we were doing. Was this a date, a get-together, a...what?

We drove back that day, stopped at Luigi's on 42 (that storied location is now closed, all you ex-Hburgers, and Luigi's is now downtown in the old Gus's Taverna building) to get a pizza to go, and ate it at M's and my old house (yeah 309 Old South High!!!). Soon it was time for me to drive back to DC, and we said our goodbyes, promising to call.

I figured I'd play it cool and wait to call til Thursday. He called Tuesday. Soon there was a tentative exchange of Valentines' Day cards, and things developed that spring and summer until, by the time the leaves changed and the view from Reddish Knob was at its most spectacular, we were fairly sure this was a forever thing.

We've always loved to travel together. A few days before our wedding, in fact, to decompress from the matrimonial frenzy, we escaped to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia (an easy drive from Harrisonburg, just take 33 W and look for the signs) to walk, climb, see a view, get some fresh air, to talk, to listen, to be silent.

If you're interested in some winter hiking at Flagpole or Reddish Knob, just click on the title of this entry and, thanks to our friends at Shenandoah Bicycle, you'll find yourself linked to a page of driving directions to the Knob and to some other great places in this part of the country. Have a great time!

My book and movie recommendations

So often, people post to China travel & adoption related message boards asking for book and movie recommendations. I've posted my favorites lists so many times, I thought I would just post once-and-for-all on this blog. You'll notice a new feature in the sidebar, "my favorites," which has a few books in it so far, but will be expanded to include the best books, music and DVD's I can recommend. My criteria are:

1. I have to actually have read or seen the book or movie.
2. It has to be GOOD, so you won't see Da Chen's Colors of the Mountain here. It was three times as long as it should've been, so self-serving...it almost killed my book club!

Anyway. Check out the list from time to time. I'll be adding to it as time allows.
LG

Where we are Not Going

I suppose, with next summer's family travel season on the horizon, it's helpful to know where we are not going. We had a number of possibilities, but last week China fell off the list. We had tentatively agreed to chaperone another university group to Beijing and WeiHai for 8 weeks, but the group needed to be at least 15 for the program to "make" and they only got 12 to sign up, so perhaps another summer. I'm ok with it actually, although the girls would really have liked to go.

Where we might go:

Europe. Antwerp would, of course, be on the itinerary. John asked me what other parts of Europe I'd like to see, and immediately I said Germany! We'd gotten all kinds of info about bike touring in the Moselle Valley, and it looked so lovely. A couple of nights ago we watched Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel and he was in Berlin--great show, tantalizing food! I'll just skip the "art gallery for sleeping" (you have to watch the show to understand).

And then there is the whole thing with the possibility of getting a second car, depending entirely upon finances, of course. Here's a tantalizing option: we opt into the Volvo Overseas Delivery Program and get a deep discount on an XC90 and two free airline tickets to Gothenburg and an overnight stay there and a tour of the Volvo factory and a Volvo engineer will take us on the test track to show us all the cool things about our new car and they set up your European insurance for you so you can use your new car to explore before you return to Gothenburg to fly home. Sounds cool, eh? I've seen posts to the edmunds.com forums where people got about $6-8,000 off their car and they also got some fairly expensive add-on packages thrown in for free. Why is it so much less? To put it simply, it's because the car comes into the U.S. as a used car, which affects the taxes you pay on it. As far as paperwork goes, the local dealer handles it all. You just need to be able to wait about 2 months to get your car after you come home from your trip, which for us isn't a problem. So who knows? But right now, that's a great looking option, and I love the XC90. My Swedish neighbor says she just can't ever own a Volvo or a Saab, since when she grew up they were everywhere. I understand.

Maine is also a possibility. We love the Portland area, especially the islands in Casco Bay.

Minnesota/Wisconsin is also a possibility. My whole extended family is there, and we loved the kitschy family resort stuff in the Wisconsin Dells too.

Who knows? An unknown future is like an unwrapped present. It could be anything, and it could be a none-of-the-above that is actually even better!

LG

The Post-Holiday Purge

As happens most days, I was reminded of our time in Europe again today, during a seemingly unrelated event.

You know how, after the after-Christmas sales, every single store seems poised to offer you the Ultimate Storage Solution and every other magazine and newspaper article is telling you how to "get in shape and get organized!" (see the AWESOME essay by Jeanne Marie Laskas in last Sunday's Washington Post Magazine in which she says "get organized: get a DUMPSTER!")?

Well, a few days after Christmas I was already thinking of how to do a major purge of all the toys the girls weren't playing with anymore. It came to a head last Thursday when we moved our rooms around so that the girls' bedroom and playroom merged into one larger room. The movers were tripping over the dozens of stuffed animals who, I'm sure, are procreating in the dark while we sleep.

In order to get their new room organized, the stuffed animals went into some trash bags for a couple of days. Our stuffed animal collection, I kid you not, filled TWO LAWN BAGS!! Enough is enough. I told them today that I was going to dump them out in a huge pile and JieJie and MeiMei were to choose their favorite ten animals. The rest would be divided into two piles: those that looked a bit too worn would go to Goodwill. Those that looked brand new would go into a bag to be used for gifts.

But here's where it gets back to the travel theme...guess which ones they kept? Remember when our train was pulling out of Antwerpen Centraal and the girls said "Buddy!" and we both went "OH NO!" and I was about to hop out of the train and meet them later in Amsterdam? And remember how we scoured downtown Amsterdam for a toy store and wound up buying Hema the cat (named for a chain of discount stores) and Pink Pony? Those two stuffed animals were first to be rescued from the pile. And also among the treasures: the cat that JieJie pined for as we watched the Macy's Parade in New York.

Let's hear it for taking trips, disasters and all!

Happy 2008!

Before I go to bed, I just want to write down who was here tonight to ring in the New Year. Who knows where we will all be next year at this time? But at 11:59:50, standing in an arc around our little tv with Carson Daly's New Year's Rockin' Eve and the brand new Times Square LED energy saving high tech 100th anniversary ball were:

Tom & Kay
Me & John
Duane & Susan
Barkley & Marina

And then John heard what he thought were footsteps coming down the stairs. JieJie and MeiMei had made us promise to wake them for the First Night fireworks, which we can see from our front porch, but it was the fireworks themselves that John heard. He went upstairs and came down with a sleepy MeiMei, who oohed and aahed at the pretty fireworks, and then we thought JieJie would be mad if we let her sleep, so he went back up and got her too (sans pants! Scandal!) and she watched sleepily. At 6pm, we told them it was time to listen to the Belgians ring in the new year on Radio2, and sure enough at radio2.be we heard "vijf...vier...drie...twee...een...en Gelukkig Nieuwjaar, allemaal!" and then a dance mix that somehow managed to merge Funkytown with Justin Timberlake with Prince with Kylie Minogue with goodness-knows-what...

So here's to you, 2007: one of the best years of my life, bar none. Traveling all over Europe with my husband, my girls....seeing London and Paris for the first time with them and Mr. K making the Eippel Tower light up...having our best friends and my parents come visit us in our home-away-from-home...realizing how much we can do, how much traveling we can do, how much fun we can have together, that we don't have to wait til they're older--and neither do you, if you're reading this blog for inspiration, just DO IT, just pack those bags and take those kids on the road! I will never forget, my friend M. from The Netherlands saying that Europeans learn as children how to travel, how to experience new places, new cultures (cause it's like going from Minnesota to Wisconsin, going from Belgium to Germany), so by the time they are adults they are far more gracious travelers, more gracious guests. I have to say I think this is true, and am truly grateful to our university for its studies abroad program. The benefits to the faculty and students are impossible to quantify. And yes, I'm feeling sentimental after too much champagne, but hey. It's New Year's night.

And being in Belgium changed the way we lived our lives when we got home. We spent months trying to figure out how to get back there, and now it's sort of like a low-grade fever. I've started my own business, and if all goes well, who knows? It's a portable kind of work that would allow us to live anywhere I had an internet connection, but it could take years to build up the kind of client base that provides a modicum of security. By then, the timing with the girls' school could be all wrong. Until then, I read blogs on www.expatica.com to live vicariously through other temporary Belgians.

So at this point we're trying to figure out how we can do some traveling in summer 2008, and today John hit upon a possible idea (which I doubt we will actually pursue): remember the quest for a second vehicle? Well, there are several car companies that will fly you over to their European plant and you can get a fairly deep discount on a new car (Volvo, BMW, some other companies offer this) by taking delivery there and having your car shipped to the U.S.--and Volvo practically has a travel agency associated with this overseas delivery program. You can get free plane tickets, hotel nights, all kinds of stuff, just for buying a car you might be buying anyway.

Who knows? We may go to Gothenburg...and my great-great-grandfather Frykman is supposedly an inspirational figure for Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA, so who knows? We could do the Royal Tour of Sweden thanks to two of its great cultural icons!

Trust me, we're not really going to Sweden. It's the champagne. Right?

Happy New Year. I'm going to bed.

Family Homebody Journal

I continue to marvel at our inertia. It's as though we used up years of traveling mojo last January-May and it will take who knows how long to undertake another trip further than the grocery store (okay, I know, we went to NYC).

This holiday season we've walked to most of the places we've gone, or we've walked about as far as the fridge in our pj's. I've told the girls, who are surprised at sleeping in til 8am and finding that mom and dad aren't too far ahead of them, groggy downstairs with coffee and Washington Post, that this is the one week of the year you are allowed to be a lazy butt!

We were going to head up to DC and see the Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery's east wing, but the weather people were calling for rain and we just didn't feel like it. We've done lots of small get-togethers with friends and neighbors, and it feels right.

We've also traveled via the wonder of technology. Mom and Dad in Arizona got a webcam and loaded up Skype, and so did we. Today was our first video phone call. I kept thinking of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles...it's just so crazy to think that all these George Jetson gadgets are now a reality. JieJie and MeiMei still thought it was pretty cool - they climbed into my lap and just kept saying "Gramma and Grampa! Gramma and Grampa!" like they couldn't believe their eyes.

So, looking ahead to 2008...I wish I could tell you where we're going, but I either a) don't know or b) can't tell you before we go for reasons which I will explain later. For now, "Gelukkig Nieuwjaar" (Happy New Year) and thanks for reading.

5,000 hits!

To celebrate, here's a little ditty called "Feest" from K3 (pronounced Kaaaaaahhhhh-Dreeeeeeee!!!!) which stands for

Karen (the red-head, the flirtatious one, my favorite w/her husky voice)
Kristel (the dark-haired one--she's a mom!--ever the levelheaded one)
en (that's "and" in Nederlands)
Kathleen (the Baby Spice of K3, cute, blonde, perky, slightly spastic)

Yeah, yeah, the song is not too far off from Martha & the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Streets" with its list of places in the world, but hey, it's appropriate for the Family Travel Journal.

OLE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbOW7pleZgk

And for those of you who want to learn a little Nederlands, here are the lyrics:

Feest Lyrics by K3
Is feest in New York en in St. Tropez
Barcelona en LA
Acapulco, Santa Fe
Iedereen doet mee,
't Is feest in New York en in Tokio
Kaapstad en in Mexico
Rio de Janeiro
Overal op aarde is het feest
Eskimootjes rollen in de sneeuw (Ole!)
Afrikaantjes vechten met een leeuw (Ole!)
Indianen dansen rond een totempaal
En wij gaan straks naar Spanje allemaal (Ole!)
Brazilianen zingen van La Bamba (Ole!)
Mexicanen houden dan de Samba (Ole!)
Weet je wat, we komen pas op het journaal
Als we samen feesten allemaal

chorus etc.

Let's hear it for 5,000 hits!

Hey - the Family Travel Journal, started initially out of curiosity and a sense of "hey, I want to keep records of travel anyway, so..." is about to go to 5,000 hits! Gotta love the internet. Once we hit that magic number, I'll write a spoof essay to celebrate, so send those links, folks!

Happy Holidays,

LG

Sigh...Radio2 keeps me company

I am a radio person. I grew up listening to the radio and recordings of old radio shows. I heard stories about grandparents hearing major news reports on the radio and then running out in the street to talk about the news with neighbors. My dad told me funny stories about working in college radio at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. I worked at my college radio station, then at a public radio station, and am now getting into freelance voiceover work. When I walk into the kitchen in the morning, the first thing I want to do is turn on the radio.

When I travel, I love listening to the radio to immerse myself in the sounds of the language, and to hear the range of musical tastes.

So when we were in our sweet little apartment in Antwerp, instead of tuning into Armed Forces radio or BBC, I often listened to Radio2 (jingle singers...'Raaaahhhh-dee-oh Tvaaaaayyy, All-tied / dicht / by yow" actually spelled Radio Twee: Altijd dicht bij jou).

And thanks to the wonder of the internet, when I'm missing my home away from home, it's there...www.radio2.be (rah-dee-oh-tvay-punt-bay-ay). And they play a combination of music that NO AMERICAN RADIO STATION WOULD TOUCH WITH A TEN-FOOT POLE! In the past hour I've heard:

The Specials: A Message To You Rudy
Kate Bush
Abba: Lay All Your Love on Me
Gilbert O'Sullivan: Claire
Tina Turner: Private Dancer
Udo: Isn't It Time
Garth Brooks: White Christmas
random Dutch-speaking/singing artists interspersed...
awesome new Euro-pop interspersed...
AND NOW THEY'RE PLAYING MIKA'S "LOVE TODAY"!!!

He's singing, over and over, "Love Love Me" and the retro-disco beat is pumping.

sigh. Radio 2, Ik van je hou!

What The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Is REALLY Like

So, after arriving an hour early for the parade (yeah, you really DO have to get there at 6:30am to get a front row spot!), this was our view. We were in perhaps the 10th row of people, and somehow managed to preserve a small air pocket in the crowd for those times when the girls got too heavy for our shoulders and we simply had to put them down.

We got off the subway at 72nd and Central Park West and at first just gravitated toward the crowd right there, like plaque in a carotid artery. Almost right away we realized it might be wise to go up a block or two. Indeed, it was a bit better. We were walking toward the parade route when JieJie blurted out "Potty!" Oh, no. I told John I would take her, and of course MeiMei wanted to go too, so instead of waiting for the parade, the three of us wound up walking in the opposite direction, trying to find a merciful shop owner who would let us use the bathroom.

You need to know something about Starbucks Coffee. They are pretty lax about letting non-customers use their bathrooms in most of New York City. I guess they figure the majority of people who are able to will buy at least a cup of coffee...so is it generous or mercenary of them to share their facilities? Anyway, even though there was a Starbucks right on that very corner, the line was so long we wouldn't have gotten JieJie in there in time. I headed for a Korean grocery across the street, figuring even if they didn't let us use the bathroom, we could get food, since the girls hadn't had breakfast yet either (such a great mom am I, let me tell ya). But they said "no bathroom." I'm going COME ON, where do YOU go when nature calls? But I thought ok, we'll keep looking. NOTHING was open (except the aforementioned Starbucks) so finally I went back to the little grocery and looked around for a small door of some kind. Indeed, there was a tiny, Alice-in-Wonderland door by the freezer case. A grandmotherly woman came around the corner who looked like she worked there, and I said "can she please use the bathroom? She really has to go." The grandmotherly woman showed JieJie the way in...sweet relief! So we took our bag of snacks and went back to the parade route.

The parade itself was really short, compared to the three-hour yakathon you're used to seeing on tv. The balloons don't look as big, the Broadway and tv and flavor-of-the-month stars either go by too fast to see or don't deign to ride in the parade, just waiting at the Herald Square site for their big moment. Still, I'm a people-watcher and I was not disappointed. One balloon came by, for some Disney show, and JieJie said really loudly "Look! It's the girl from that show we don't watch anymore!" and everyone around us laughed. Then a Pierrot doll balloon came by and some other guy said "Look! It's that balloon that people used to be able to identify, but now it's just kind of creepy!"

But the best moment by far was when this random guy just started saying "Excuse me...pardon me...can I get through...Excuse me..." and everyone around me parted to allow this soft-spoken twentysomething man in coveralls to walk right past us. He got all the way to the front row! Those of us who instinctively moved aside looked at one another and immediately just went "WAIT A SECOND...Why didn't WE think of that?!" Incredulity. Oh well, sometimes the most devious plan is the most obvious.

So look at this picture of Shrek (see how it's not as big as you'd expect it to be?) And notice in the upper left corner the lucky son of a gun standing on his second floor balcony, observing the unwashed masses below. Not only does he live in an apartment on Central Park West, he has on-demand access to a bathroom during the Macy's Parade.

So of course the moment everyone waits for is Santa. Some old-timers told us that the best thing for the girls to do is to yell what they want most, so Santa is sure to hear them. JieJie got up on shoulders and yelled "I want LOTS OF CANDY!" and MeiMei yelled "Bring me a TEDDY BEAAAARRRR!" John and I looked at each other, thinking there's no way it could be that easy!

After the parade was the best of all. Most people go to relatives' or go home and get ready for guests, so you can go all over New York and there are very few crowds! We walked a bit through Central Park (gorgeous--wait, you need this picture), and then over to Columbus Circle. It was still closed to traffic. How many times do you get to see one of the busiest traffic circles in the country totally empty of traffic? And then we noticed that the municipal workers were swinging the traffic lights back out over the road way. Who knew that they were built to swing away from the parade route? How cool. We sat on the reviewing stands and watched the guys do their work, before continuing down Broadway to Times Square...where we ducked into a Starbucks to use the bathroom.

NYC for Thanksgiving

Hey - the book sold, so that's cool. But what's even cooler? Our trip to the Big Apple for Thanksgiving!



Settle in - much to say.



Back in 2002 on our first adoption trip, we got to know Jeff & Tina H., a couple adopting through the same agency. If you're unfamiliar with the way China adoptions go, usually when you travel to China to complete the adoption, you are part of a group of families from your agency, all being processed the same time. Jeff & Tina were in our group and what we went through together, being in the Civil Affairs office together and experiencing the same thing at the same time has glued our families together. They are in our videos and photos of the trip, and we are in theirs, and we are part of each others' stories. Of course, we shared the experience with other families in our group too, but all of the other families are either somewhere in the Pacific Northwest (near our agency's offices) or scattered elsewhere. One dad, Greg, is on a tour of duty in Iraq, and we all hope and pray for his safe return to his three daughters and wife Cheryl. Other parents in our group, pre-adoption, were adversaries in a legal situation (one representing the plaintiff, the other the defendant, in a government case) and now are able to put differences aside because of what we've all gone through together. Adoption is amazing that way.

Anyway, every November, we get together with the H family to celebrate the anniversary of that 2002 adoption trip. So far we've been to Mt. Airy, NC (the "real" Mayberry with lots of Andy Griffith stuff), they've come to Harrisonburg, we've gone to South Carolina, and last year we went to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, TN. For the fifth anniversary we wanted to do something big, so we decided on the Big Apple. They'd never been--bonus! It's so much fun to take people to NYC for their first time, and I'm happy to report that the city definitely cooperated, and we had a great experience.

They came up late Tuesday night before Thanksgiving and slept over. After a quick breakfast Wednesday morning, we hit the road. It was pretty smooth sailing until we got within shouting distance of New Jersey. The interchange between 81 and 78 was closed due to an accident, so what should've been a 6-7 hour trip turned into 10-11 hours. Ugh! I didn't mind though, because Tina and the girls and I were in one car and Chris, Jeff, and Jeff's son were in the other car, so we had lots of time to catch up and talk about the different things we could do in NYC.

We got to the Mariott Brooklyn Bridge no problem. Drove through the Holland Tunnel, across lower Manhattan, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and the hotel was super easy to find. We settled into our rooms (Jeff's company has a deal w/Marriott, so the rooms were only $100/night!!!) and decided to go out for Pizza. The good restaurant street near the hotel was Montague Street, and we found Monty Q's, an honest-to-goodness New York pizza joint. It was wonderful pizza. The Italian sausage was just out of this world. We went back to the hotel and rested up for the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED...Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, photo gallery, and much more!!

Book for Sale on Ebay

I have a confession to make. We fell so hard for Antwerp, we started wondering whether, now or later (early retirement?), we could actually move there. For now, anyway, it is not to be, but if you are moving overseas...wanna buy a used tax guide?

International Living Bookstore sells this book called The Expatriate's Tax Bible. I bought it but now we don't need it and it's just sitting on the shelf...written by a lifelong IRS guy who knows his stuff, too.

You can buy mine on ebay...http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170166687007&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

If life gives us another opportunity to consider an overseas move, I'm sure the tax code will have changed by then, so might as well sell this one while it's current!

Thanks,

LG

No New Car For Now

We have come to the realization that it is not the right time to buy. It doesn't fit well in the budget, there's no obvious vehicle that we both agree on and are excited about, and the need is not urgent, so we're going to let this Fall Sales Extravaganza period pass.

We're both keeping our eyes on VW (about to be bought out by Porsche?) because they have been threatening to put out a new Microbus for several years now, and also because the '08 diesel models are starting to come out. Diesel is now lower in cost than regular, and they can make engines that burn cleaner & get better mileage.

That's all for now,
LG

Test Drive Results...eh

Well...

We are the car buying equivalent of picky eaters.

I went to try the Town & Country and it was fine. Handled well, nice pickup and smooth braking. Plenty of room, and I like the stow 'n go seating. In order for MeiMei to be comfortable in her booster, I had to remove the headrest from her bucket seat in the second row, no biggie. I like the power side doors and power liftgate. I felt like Magic Mommy when I pushed that door button and MeiMei lit up like we were in on a magical secret together.

But there were these little nagging things. When I pulled out the cup holder, it just felt cheap and didn't move very well. I had to kind of bang it to get it to go back in. Then, when I was going over 55mph, there was a tiny little tap-tap-tap sound from what seemed like the front axle area. But I thought well, I'm probably hearing things or making too much of what I am hearing.

We picked John up at work, and he dropped us off at home so we could go get JieJie from kindergarten, and he drove it back to the dealership. Before he dropped me off, I noticed that the armrest on the left side of my passenger seat was vibrating madly, buzzing. Hunh? He noticed the same little tap sound. He liked the same things I liked and we both agreed that it was comfortable to drive, and roomy.

BUT...

We weren't in love with it. He remembered buying the Camry back in 2000 and thinking that it was the perfect car for us at that time, as well as being a really good deal on a good car. Since we're not in a hurry, we've realized we're both waiting to feel that feeling again, whichever car we end up with. So we're going to let this van go.

I still say renting a car for the next long trip may be the most economical option. Beats a car payment!

Will We Buy A Minivan?

Friday morning, a salesman from the Chrysler dealership we visited last week called to say they had just gone to the dealer auction and bought a Pacifica and a Town and Country Touring model, and would we be interested in either one?

John went Saturday morning to test drive the Town and Country, but it wasn't unloaded from the truck yet, so he's going tomorrow morning after he drops MeiMei off at preschool.

All this time I've been resisting the minivan option...maybe it's all those times when I've driven to a playground or school or kid-friendly event and felt like I was intruding on the Minivan Army with my Camry. Maybe that's why I liked the Pacifica...it was van-esque, but a little different.

But maybe a van is really the best thing for us right now. If the price is right (20K miles on it, it's an '06 just coming off a lease program, list price is $19,988 but perhaps we can go even a bit lower?) who knows? I may have a new photo to post later this week.

We'd likely hang onto the Camry, since it runs well and is paid off.

A minivan? Again?! Ok, so I'm reminded of the day I went shopping for a wedding dress and kept trying on all these white cocktail and prom type dresses, but nothing was quite right. Finally the saleslady looked me in the eye and said, gently, "dear...you're getting married. That's why none of these dresses is quite right. Shall I show you the WEDDING DRESSES now?"

I can hear her now: Dear, you're a mom with two kids. Shall I show you the MINIVANS now?

The Globetrekkers Go Car Shopping

How is it that a discussion of how to get me to the airport became a flurry of car shopping?

It was like this: a few days ago, I mentioned that I would like to try to find a Thursday flight for a long weekend visiting my family in Minneapolis. John teaches Thursdays and could only drive me at certain times of day, or I could find another ride somehow.

We only have one car, because of our recent travels.

Whaaaa?

Long story short, rather than let our '92 hand-me-down Plymouth Voyager sit in the driveway for five months, hoping against hope that it would start when we returned from Antwerp, we sold it to our friend Farmer H, who raises chickens on a farm north of Harrisonburg. Delicious chickens, by the way. Real chickens, like Auntie Em raised in Kansas.

So we were down to the Camry, which was a surprise 30th birthday present back in...well, let's just say several years ago. It runs great and I love zipping around in it, love the manual transmission. For long trips though, it stinks! The girls are growing like weeds--sorry, like beautiful precious flowers--and when they don't want to be in the car, the easiest way to let us know is to kick the back of our seats. Since there's no legroom in the back, it's getting harder and harder to ignore the thumping. That, and the sore butts, hips and back we get from the front seats, which are just not very comfortable anymore, if they ever really were.

Fast forward to this week. "How can I get to the airport" turned into "this is a GREAT time of year to buy a car!"

I got all excited because I've never actually chosen my own wheels before. If it were just me, and money were no object, I'd already have the red Mini Cooper with white racing stripes and checkerboard rearview mirrors sitting in the driveway, with matching mini-Minis for the girls to scoot up and down the block. And John would get his Jaguar or Cadillac or whatever.

But it's not just me, and money most definitely IS an object. Why spend any more than you have to, after all?

We've been all over the web in the past few days. Edmunds.com, CarsDirect.com, Autotrader.com, Cars.com, and ConsumerReports.com were some of the most visited. I particularly appreciated the advice on CarTalk.com, which features a flowchart questionnaire designed to come up with the cars you should consider based on the things most important to you.

Since this car is to be the tour-mobile for all the trips we look forward to taking, there were three major considerations: seat comfort, spaciousness (rear seat legroom!) and fuel economy. CarTalk.com's little questionnaire spit out five models: the Hyundai SantaFe, the Chrysler Pacifica (one I've had my eye on), Mazda5 (another one I like the looks of), the new Ford Taurus, and the Ford Edge, a new CRV-style model that just came out.

We'd had a Taurus before and liked the ride quality, but it had this disturbing tendency for the entire dash assembly to shudder above 65mph. I come from a Chrysler family (and you thought we were German/Scandinavian) so the Pacifica was on my radar. Not as frumpy as a van, I thought. As for the Santa Fe, I really don't like all these roller-skate-like designs that are out there, but trying to keep an open mind. Never thought of Hyundai.

Monday, I picked MeiMei up from school and drove out to Myers Ford in Elkton for a test drive of one of the '07 Ford Five Hundreds they're trying to get rid of. It was deja vu all over again...floaty handling, shuddering as I put the brakes on, very underpowered and very frustrating. I didn't like it at all. John suggested I go back and try one of the Limited editions, since I just drove one of the base models.

Tuesday, I dropped the girls off at school and went straight to the Chrysler dealership on Route 11. Nice salesman, low pressure, and soon I was zooming down I-81 in a red Pacifica. It was so much fun to drive, I was singing out loud to the great stereo system. I picked John up from work and took him to breakfast. He didn't like the Pacifica. But the power liftgate! I said. Nah, seats not that comfortable, he said. But it's so cool! But it's so expensive, he said. For that kind of money, we could get something better, he's right.

Hyundai SantaFe: didn't even want to test drive it. Salesman, so young he's probably still using Clearasil, was naming every part of the car he could point to, apparently to make it seem more "loaded." But come on..."this is the leather strap for pulling the liftgate down" is a little much. Especially just having used Pacifica's power liftgate button on the key fob. And then, as he described the safety features of the Santa Fe, screeeeeeccchhhhh....BAMBAM! About 100 yards away on Route 11, a Land Rover had run into some kind of sedan. It was a bad looking accident, the front corners of both cars absolutely smushed, but the drivers got out and seemed ok. Still, though I tend not to be superstitious, if that ain't an omen, I don't know what is.

Went to have lunch with JieJie, who is still having a tough adjustment to kindergarten. There's a lot going on in such a big school, and the cafeteria is really chaotic, especially compared to the orderly lunch room in their Antwerp school. In a way I'm sad that she has to get used to all the noise, but we're not in Belgium anymore... it was so quiet there!

After lunch, I went back to Myers Ford to drive the Ford Five Hundred Limited. It was much nicer, both in the gadgets included in the dash/console and in the drive/handling. There was no shimmy, no floaty feel. I was not in love, but it would be an acceptable car. But then I'm sitting there going Man, $400 a month is too much for an "acceptable" car! I want to be in love with that next car. Cadillac had a great slogan on the commercial I just saw for their new CTS: "When I turn my car on, I want it to return the favor." Yeah, baby!

So that night we went full circle and came to the conclusion that if we need a car for a long trip, we'd save a lot of money just by renting it for 2 weeks, instead of the monthly payment, the increased insurance, increased personal property taxes (Virginia...sheesh), all for a pretty car that's going to spend way too much time in the driveway. Matter closed.

Not.

The next day, John confessed to visiting the Cadillac dealership to look at the CTS. Too expensive, though nice. As for me, I snuck over to the Nissan dealer to peek at Maximas. They're so pretty! And I have to say I'm a sucker for high-tech goo-gahs, from navigation systems to Bose stereos to an engine that actually learns your driving habits so it can perform more efficiently...Come to Mama! And they said they can go to auctions and get program cars just coming off of a one-year lease, saving the potential Maxima owner thousands of dollars for basically a new car.

Brought Maxima brochure home, shared with hubby. Opened new can of worms. What about the Toyota Avalon? he said. It seems the obvious choice, since he's as much a Toyota man as my dad is a Chrysler man. Since we already have a Camry, maybe we could get a good trade-in and stay with one car, just a larger one that fits us better AND works for long trips. Hmmmm...

No, we haven't test-driven it yet. Stay tuned. I'm reminded of the man who sets his hat down at the haberdasher's, tries everything on and ends up so confused he tries to buy his own hat. Put your money on the 2000 Camry. It's paid in full.

Antwerp over the holidays!

We've decided (I think--still haven't booked tickets) that we are going to go to Antwerp between Christmas and New Year's this winter. YAY! Yeah, it'll be dark, it'll be blustery, we'll be jet-lagged and all that good stuff, BUT we miss it too much not to take advantage of the chance to get there.

Fares look best from Newark to Brussels on 12/27, and then we'd fly back probably January 3rd, and the girls would go back to school the next Monday. They will miss a couple of days of school, but we think it's worth it.

Hoping to see friends we met through the girls' school, also Mr. K and his wife (of course) and we can visit friends in The Netherlands, also perhaps do an overnight (Cologne?).

Yay.
LG

4,000 hits!

Pretty cool to think that items in FTJ have been viewed over 4,000 times (of course my parents probably account for 2,000 of those, but still!)

Let's celebrate with a photo, shall we?

Remember the "Flemish PTA Rave Party"? Well, here's a photo from that amazingly memorable night (search past posts for February 2007). If you know me, you know which one is me. Also featured in this photo are my friend "IV" and her husband "SB" and also the head of the girls' Antwerp school, Mevrouw H. The party was at a cool riverfront catering facility in Antwerp called...er...Barcelona. Yup.

Where to go next...I'm flummoxed.

We seem somewhat stuck at the moment. Can it be that we are still trying to get our bearings after all of the running around in the spring? We are down to one vehicle and feel no particular urge to get a second one. We really have no fall travel plans. In fact, for the first time in several years we're talking about a party at our house sometime soon, cocooning with friends (maybe I'll call Steve Parks to bring some of his old-time musician friends over) as we celebrate our house's 100th birthday. This is supposed to be the Family Travel Journal but right now it seems to be the Let's All Stay Put Journal.

School started, and JieJie loves her teacher. MeiMei is in love with JieJie's school and wants to be a kindergartener now, not next year, but we tell her she has to wait just a little longer. JMU started, so now John and I have classes and students and grading and meetings and all of that stuff. This is the routine we took a break from last spring semester, and it somehow feels right to jump back in. We're ready. We were all ready two weeks ago.

It's time to stay put for a while.

But we're batting around the idea of--can it be?--Antwerp over Christmas break.

I'll keep ya posted.

A Cool Day in DC

Today was a day-trip to our nation's capital, known in this neck of the woods as simply "DC." I left about 10am, took 81 to 66 to Constitution Avenue, turned left on 7th Street and parked by Woolly Mammoth Theatre, where my friend M is in the final stages of rehearsal for a new show that opens next week.

If you've driven into both New York City and Washington DC, you're struck by how different the two experiences are. To get into New York, it's such a production, whether you take bridges or tunnels. All the lanes merging, all the nosing in front of other people (it's nose or be nosed) and then even when you get onto Manhattan, it's not like you're seeing anything famous.

DC is so different! The interstate BECOMES Constitution Avenue, and immediately on your right is the Lincoln Memorial. Before you know it you're driving past the National Mall, the White House, The Washington Monument, the Smithsonian, the National Archives, Commerce Department, with a view of the Capitol in the distance.

I love visiting DC. It's a really pretty town, and the height restrictions on buildings there have kept the built environment at a human scale. I worked in DC in the 1990's, first interning at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, then later getting a master's degree from The George Washington University (don't forget the The or the alumni association will get you). During my master's study, I met a really interesting woman, R., who does museum exhibit evaluation. I was a data collector for her for a bunch of projects, which meant that I got paid to hang out in museums and ask people questions about things like storms and spiders and American Indian artifacts. Finally, I worked as an Arts Administration Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts, back when Jane Alexander was in charge. The NEA offices are in the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue, not far from where I parked today. I love knowing my way around--for the uninitiated, DC can be a really confusing place to drive!

I took Metro to an appointment in Bethesda, MD, a schizophrenic suburb of DC which used to be a nice little city, you can tell, but these days the old main street is dwarfed by 12-story office blocks. I used to work there too, and even 15 years ago I thought Bethesda was all mixed up.

And Metro...it's a system that is showing its age. Half the announcements were about elevators out of service, line delays, and rather scolding-sounding warnings to Stay Away from the Doors!

Ah well. Dinner with M near Woolly Mammoth was great, though too short of course. And when I was killing time at the nearby Olssons Books & Records cafe, in walked Michael Kahn, head of the Shakespeare Theatre, so that was my Famous Person sighting for the day.

TTFN,
LG

NYC's Chinatown

This November, we are heading for NYC with friends we traveled to Chongqing with in 2002. We've all been to the world's biggest city together (that would be CQ) but they've never been to the Big Apple. We figured it was as good a place as any to celebrate our fifth Adoption Day with our families.

I had the great luck to correspond with an adoptive mom in Brooklyn, NY who was willing to give me the lowdown on what to do in Chinatown, where to eat, etc. and here's what she shared with me:

Jing Fong: For a more traditional dim sum experience, in a HUGE dining room. On Elizabeth Street. Get there by 11 AM or expect to wait (though it moves quickly)

Dim Sum Go-Go: For great dim-sum that you order from a long list rather than from carts. Big variety, many vegetarian options. Restaurant has a more modern ambience. On East Broadway near Confucious Square.

Joe's Shanghai: For dinner. Famous for the soup dumplings. Go early or wait outside. On Bayard, I believe.

XO: Kind of a hole in the wall, but great congee and stellar har gao (crystal shrimp dumplings)

We've also had dim sum at Ping, Pearl, Triple 8 Palace and Golden Unicorn, all of which were quite good and I'm sure a non-dim sum meal would be good at any of these places as well. They are all well-known in Chinatown.

There are restaurants all up and down Mott, which is one of the main arteries of Chinatown. Often people refer to them by their address number (75 Mott or 25 Mott) and everyone has their favorites. Just ask around.

For dessert, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on Bayard can't be beat. Their longon and lychee sorbets are fabulous. For traditional buns and pastries, Fay Da Bakery on Mott near Canal is great--we get our mooncakes there. A few doors down is a traditional tea shop and Aji Iciban, a Japanese snack shop that sells everything from candy to fermented sweet potato, and they have samples of everything. Every place I've mentioned is near the main commercial part of Chinatown.

Columbus park is a great playground/park, where you can see old-timers playing Go and Mah-jong and sometimes playing instruments. The other playground is at Seward Park, which is further east. Any Chinatown map will help you locate any of these places.

Brooklyn:Smith Street is filled with restaurants of every type, except Chinese (well, there's one, Chance, but it's not great for kids). We like Ki and Hana for sushi, but there are several new sushi places we haven't tried yet. Fa'an is pan-Asian and the decor is fun for kids. The food is fine, not outstanding, but also very cheap. Any of the French restaurants are good, and even the fancier ones are used to lots of kids. Same goes for Thai. Gravy is a fun diner, and the attached pizza place is supposed to be great (I'm not a pizza fan). There's a new branch of the Manhattan Italian restaurant Po on Smith now, and it's very pricey, but supposed to be great. Any of the old-timey looking Italian places are good too, just very traditional. On Court Street, parallel to Smith, Joya is great, cheap Thai (but the music can get very loud). Osaka is good sushi, and Sal's is good pizza. Way down Court Street near 4th place is Frankie's Sputino, which is excellent modern Italian food, and a pretty famous restaurant in the neighborhood (Leonardo DiCaprio apparently hangs out there when he's in town--though I've never seen him there). It's a very trendy place, but they're happy to serve kids. Everyone in Brownstone Brooklyn has kids, so they're everywhere :)

So there you have it! A few places to eat and people-watch in the Big Red Apple :)

LG

Antwerp Aftermath: Some Changes Stuck

Have you ever gone away on a trip and come back determined to do some things differently? Maybe you relaxed so much that you resolved never to get so stressed out again, as happened to us the first time we went to Italy. Maybe you promised yourself you'd get out into nature more often, to remind yourself of the wonder and miracles, as we did after visiting Banff and Lake Louise. For us, Antwerp and our vacation on the Costa del Sol were a real wake-up call in terms of the way we deal with garbage/recycling, and conserve water and electricity.

And we actually have been doing things differently since coming home. Things like...

• not using the clothes dryer. We bought a drying rack, put up some clothesline on our screened porch, and we let the summer breeze work its magic. The girls LOVE to help hang up and take down clothes, they smell fresher (the clothes, not necessarily the girls!), the upstairs laundry room doesn't heat up so much, and we have noticed a MAJOR difference in our electric bill. Usually the bill in the summertime is over $120, but last month it was $85.
• recycling more kinds of things. The city doesn't take paperboard (cereal boxes) but I found a place locally that does. We are also looking into getting a composter to get the kitchen waste out of the landfill.
• using fewer lights. We replaced many of our bulbs with the compact fluorescent kind, and have been careful to turn off lights in rooms we're not using. In many buildings in Europe, lights in common areas of buildings have automatic shutoff timers that turn lights off after, say, 10 minutes. The stairwell in our apartment building had those, and it really makes so much sense. In order for those to be used everywhere though, there has to be trust in a certain level of safety, so people aren't worried about what happens in the few seconds between the light shutting off and someone finding the turn-it-back-on switch. Would Americans feel safe enough?
• Saving more water. We had a toilet that was leaking / running anyway, so when we replaced it, we found a dual-mode flush model from http://www.faucetdepot.com/ that looks a lot like the ones we saw all over Europe. The button on the top has two sections, one smaller than the other. If you push the smaller button, you get a .9 gallon flush, which is enough for most...er...jobs. If you need a little extra oomph in the flush, you push the larger button and you get a 1.6 gallon flush. The way it's designed (ours is by a company called Toto) the flush works just fine and isn't "wimpy" at all like some low-flow models. And compared to the old 3-gallon water guzzling commode we had, we are saving some serious water!!! We noticed that in a household of four people, we had the same water usage after installing that toilet that we had when our solitary renter was here!!!! And again, lower bill: was $47, now $39.

And now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, you don't even need to go to Europe to lower your utility bills and save resources. Just jump straight from reading this article to taking your own conservation measures.

Tweaking the Blog

Hey faithful readers,

We're not even on a trip and people keep checking in, so I thought I would give you some more to look at until our next travel adventure. The main addition, thanks to Blogger's newsreel feature, has links to news from Chongqing, which is where JieJie and MeiMei were born. Check out the headlines to the right of this post. Right now they are having some really horrendous storms there, worst in over 100 years, and the impact has been devastating. Lives, homes, and crops have been lost to the rain and lightning.

I will let you know if I hear any news from the girls' home towns of Fuling and Liangping, which are both in Chongqing Municipality.

Storytelling in the Valley

Okay, time to write what there IS to do around here. If you know where to go, there's enough.

Tonight my friend H had invited me and the girls to see a story teller at the Museum of Frontier Culture in Staunton, Virginia, which is about a half-hour south of Harrisonburg. We picked her up at 6 and took Route 42 through winding countryside, mountain vistas in the distance, cut over to Route 11 (the old Valley Pike) and then down to the museum, which is fairly young as museums go.

This living history museum features an Appalachian homestead farm as well as a few other farm buildings literally taken apart in Europe and put back together in the Valley to show the kinds of farms whose architecture and agricultural practices influenced Valley settlers. It's popular with public schools for field trips. We've been to a wedding there in the octagonal barn. It was a lovely evening to be sure and one of two weddings we've been to with reception music provided by the incredible Hackensaw Boys. I was going to, but now realize I don't want to talk about the storyteller we saw tonight, who was absolutely respectable, or the fact that I spent the whole second story watching JieJie and MeiMei attempt really painful looking cartwheels behind the storytelling shed. As soon as I got that Hackensaw music rolling in my head, it reminded me of so many things...Never heard of 'em? Sit back.

In fact, to really get the most out of what I'm about to write, open another browser window, go to http://www.hackensawboys.com/ and play the concert footage from Amsterdam that's on there now. I don't think they play many weddings anymore...they're at the Knitting Factory in NYC and the enormous Floyd Fest in southside Virginia this month, and they're from here.

Now let's get one thing straight. I do NOT like most country music. I love Johnny Cash (thanks Dad) and during the Urban Cowboy era I liked stuff like Eddie Rabbitt and the Oak Ridge Boys, and John Denver's music always makes me smile, but most of today's country-pop leaves me cold. I like what I guess is called "roots country" like Alison Krauss and the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, stuff like that. Living in Virginia has made me appreciate roots / bluegrass so much, and despise the stuffed-cowboy-hat stuff even more.

At our wedding reception, over a decade ago now, John and I had a group called Dominion Express (Violinist Two-Gun Terry with friends Cameron Nickels and ??) play and everyone had such a great time. EVERYONE was up and dancing. You just can't help it when there's live bluegrass playing. Even my great aunt Mickey, who was a classical music professor at University of Idaho, sat rapt, wondering at Two-Gun's amazing fiddle playing. She knew good music and mastery of technique when she saw it.

But see, the Hackensaws and Dominion Express are NOT country music. They play Bluegrass, or more correctly for this area, "Old Time" music. A friend of mine who has played both styles tried to describe the difference between bluegrass and old-time. He said Bluegrass is more like jazz, where the group plays in unison for the first verse to state the theme of the song, and then each instrumentalist takes a solo turn with laid-back support from the rest of the group, then everyone gets together for the wind-up. With Old-Time, though, he said everyone plays full-out the whole time, and it can be physically grueling to keep up. check out some of the tempos in the Hackensaw clips!!

The other thing that's amazing about the Hackensaws...well just look at the footage of their concert. Is it 2007 or 1937?? You half expect Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, or a young Bob Dylan to come strolling in. Look at the pork pie hats, the flannel shirts...how skinny they all are, like they've been working all day at the CCC camp...and my goodness the instruments! Accordions, washboards, mandolins and banjos, stand-up bass violins plucked hard. Do they blow into a jug? I didn't see one, but I'd put money on it.

Along with Old-Time music goes Contra Dancing, or square dancing with two long lines (Virginia Reel for example). You can try it the second Saturday of every month at the Dayton Learning Center, a former high school in the little country town of Dayton, VA (never mind the aroma...it's the chicken and turkey processing plant. Hope the wind blows the right way and you'll be fine). Show up at 7:15 for a Contra Dance lesson, and the actually dance begins at 8, always with live music. It's a bargain at $5. If you're looking for a Harrisonburg-area old-time ensemble for a wedding or party, try contacting Steve Parks http://www.steveparksmusic.com/music.html who is an anchor of the local scene.

And sooner or later, if you live around here, you'll get invited "out to the county" to someone's giant piece of land where they have a year's worth of wood, paper, and God knows what-all that's set up in a huge bonfire. About 1 in the morning, when the bonfire is no longer eyebrow-singing temperature, the guitars and mandolins come out and you find yourself singing "Goodnight Irene."

So that's a bit of what there is to do 'round these parts.

But I swear we're feeling like we've done it all...restless...

unsure about summer vacation

Crazy, isn't it? But we still haven't decided where we want to go to get out of the 'burg this summer. And we seem to be among the few. Our street is like a ghost town right now with all the people gone on vacation.

But we're stuck.

Do we do the free-lodging family trek through Indianapolis relatives to Minnesota? Do we find a cozy cabin on Peaks Island in Casco Bay, Maine and eat lobsters and blueberries till we can't stand it anymore? Do we visit friends in Alabama at their lake cabin? Or...

Perhaps we should open the blog up for suggestions. I would say the three main criteria are

1. there must be a body of water involved, salt or fresh doesn't matter.


2. can't be expensive. Don't send us to the Greenbrier.


3. fun stuff for the kiddies = fun time for the parents

So what do you think? Let's hear about the best places you've gone with your family. We are not beyond showing up at a rental agency and offering half the week's rent so they at least have somebody in the property (an old Outer Banks tactic).

In looking around on the web I found this fun fill-in-where-you've-been map, and did one for me for the USA and the world. Ta-da!

Now I'm the Tour Guide

A couple of weeks ago, John and I were trying out the new Harrisonburg restaurant Downtown 56, an upscale spot that is part of an attempt to revitalize the downtown (it's in a renovated old warehouse, part of a project that also features loft apartments, something one doesn't usually see in Harrisonburg, county seat of a very rural, agricultural area). Food was fine, the menu was creative and it was clear that some thought had gone into things (e.g. all the prices are $xx.56...cute). Food was good, though we were so spoiled by the consistently excellent food in Antwerp, we're not really tempted to eat out anywhere anymore. After dinner, we enjoyed some entertainment by local favorite Scott Murray, who is engaged to an acquaintance of mine. Ah, small towns. We knew the hostess, one of the waitstaff, and someone dining at the next table too. I'd gotten used to being anonymous while we were away, but no longer.

As we sat listening to Murray's enjoyable singing and guitar playing, a couple across from us asked whether we were from here. They were staying the night in Harrisonburg on their way from Florida to the eastern shore of Maryland, retirees taking the scenic route through the certainly scenic Shenandoah Valley. They wanted to know what there was to do in Harrisonburg the next morning before they headed toward Fredericksburg/I-95.

What about the farmer's market they saw on I-81? They wanted to know. You mean the Shenandoah Heritage Farmer's Market? Yes, she said. Blecch, I said. Unless you're looking for guns or overpriced biscuit mix, skip it. It's hard to describe exactly what's wrong with that place. Maybe the building is too big for what they have there. It feels empty and depressing. Much much better is the Dayton Farmer's Market on Route 42. But the next day was Sunday, and Dayton Farmer's Market is only open Thursday-Saturday.

We racked our brains trying to think of any reason to stay in Harrisonburg beyond breakfast at the hotel...

...and we couldn't think of a single
thing

Isn't that sad??? Maybe we've just lived here too long, but the first thing that came to mind was what they could do once they got in their car and left. We ended up recommending that they drive Route 33 east over the mountains (passing through Shenandoah National Park on the way) and then continue across Route 29 to a section of 33 that goes through some beautiful historic farmland, then tour Montpelier, James Madison's home.

So what DO we do here in Harrisonburg when we want to go out and have fun? Well, there are plenty of things to do, but it's more a case of knowing when those things come around. This isn't the kind of place where things are going on all the time. Especially Sunday morning. There are plenty of free family activities (John is taking the girls to a free movie this morning at our local Regal Cinemas), plenty of little holes in the wall to enjoy an ice cream or a wrap sandwich or whatever.

But that's an article for another time. Gotta get back to work!

3,000 hits!

Well, it's official. The Family Travel Journal has topped 3,000 hits! Pretty exciting. I'll celebrate with a photo from our last night out in Antwerp. We figured out the setting on my camera that allowed me to capture Onze Lieve Vrouwecathedral by night from the Pelgrimstraat. Enjoy, and thanks for reading.