La Familia

While California has many sites to admire and explore our favorite is still our family. We met our new cousin Lola. We all adore her and are happy to have made the trip to meet her. We look forward to many adventures with her.

Chinatown

Fun in Chinatown in included wrestling with chopsticks at a fabulous vegetarian Chinese restaurant we found and discovering how fortune cookies are made.

Year of the Ox

The Streets of San Francisco

When in Rome do as the Romans, so we did. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge and walked around for good viewing. You can never tire of this sight.

We visited with our Aunt Carla and Uncle Jim who enjoyed the kids appreciation of the sites. Gabriel shouted with complete joy, "yeah, there is grass". They all 'ooohed and ahhhhed' at the site of the bridge.

The fee has increased from the 80's, $6 to cross the bridge. No wonder CA is struggling, needing to pay that fee everyday to work.

Yes Watson they are flying!

Even though we love driving the countryside our goal was to get to CA to see our new cousin, so flying was in order.

Walking to the train through the snow to the airport was very urban and we enjoyed knowing we were leaving the cold:)

Despite a minor run in with TSA, airport security, and a $9 fee to send back the pocketknife to our house all went without a hitch.

Ask Gabriel about his flying experience.

We lived it and loved it!

We leave NY with a sadness but excitement that we were able to experience so much.

Of course favorites were the food. We found a fast food vegetarian restaurant, it was AWESOME!!!
Mike enjoyed having hot dogs, Gray’s Papayas, for breakfast.
We celebrated Sabrina’s birthday in Little Italy and had Frank Sinatra sing to her.

We loved the museums. We all enjoyed the Met and seeing some of our favorite pieces.
We learned it would take 5 ½ years to see everything if you spent one minute at each piece, we were there 4 hours. We spent a couple of hours at the Cloisters, a medival castle with lots of art.We discovered a Tennement Museum, a great follow-up to our Ellis Island trip. You wouldn’t believe what new immigrant’s lived in back then.

Oh yeah we all loved the shopping, from being hassled at every street corner to looking out of people’s bags on the corner, not sure if that was legal, to the big stores. Cecilia enjoyed the American Girl store and what 7 year old wouldn’t.
Our new 12 year old enjoyed the big names, Sephora, H & M, Betsy Johnson’s where dresses were no less than $300 (it was fun to pretend). Sabrina enjoyed being in the Fashion capital, especially during Fashion Week.


Experiencing New York on 9/11. It is still a tragic event and we all continue to pray for those lost and those grieving the loss of loved ones. We experienced the New York loss with the New Yorkers and that will change us forever. We were able to see the memorial, the two beams of light into the clouds where the Twin Towers once stood, that happens on the anniversary every year.


Walking, walking, walking and walking. We enjoyed seeing all the sites: the people, the buildings, the bridges, and everything else but we did enjoy the subway for a respite for our feet, and so what if we ended up in the Bronx late at night not knowing where we were!



Cecilia-I would like to live in New York because I like all the stores and I would like to have a little dog to run with you.

Gabriel-I would like to visit because I would visit FAO Schwarz all the time.

Sabrina- You can walk to everything.

Mike-I would like to live in New York because you can have whatever kind of food you want.

Cristine-I would like to live in New York because all the different groups of people living here;)

Grandma-I would like to live in New York because there is so much to see;)

We are thankful for the experience and look forward to Gettysburg!

We <3 New York!

We are enjoying the sites, sounds and smells of New York. Some favorites include Grimaldi’s (the best pizza ever!), H & H Bagels, Spoonbread (excellent soul food & BBQ) and Serendipity – thus far! We’ve also enjoyed great markets, even the kids are enjoying going to the market-especially when they can sample great foods like at Zabar’s.


Mike and I have both been to New York on a few different occasions but being with kids is a whole new experience. We have to worry about the kids in a different way. How do families with more than one kid function in NYC? We are learning this week but not sure if we’d do it long term. Fortunately we have a little extra help with my mom joining us.



We continued our history learning with a tour today of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Yesterday we spent the morning at the Museum of Natural History. We were in search of all the characters of Night at the Museum and were disappointed to not find Roosevelt but were happy to find Dumb Dumb☺

We are adjusting to the constant crowds and noise. The kids are becoming pro’s at crawling under the subway turnstiles (all legal) and jumping onto the subway, even during rush hour. Cecilia astutely noticed that our train isn’t quite as crowded at rush hour.



We had a great night at Mary Poppins last night. The special effects were phenomenal, Mary flew through the air and Bert tapped up onto the roof, maybe inspirations for a future career for Sabrina. She said she could do all the tap moves. We all enjoyed humming quietly to the songs we knew.

Of course we are taking in the vendors and entertainers all over. The kids all enjoyed the break dancers in Central Park. The masses of vendors selling their wares is overwhelming for the kids, especially on Canal Street where there were blocks of people selling out of their suitcases and jackets. I was approached in Chinatown the other day, “Fendi, Chanel, Coach”. When I didn’t answer he then said, “Se habla espanol, Fendi, Chanel, Coach”.

Of course Times Square is exciting to us all. A favorite shop for the kids was FAO Schwartz. The big piano from Big was still there and we all enjoyed playing it as best we could.




We look forward to great weather the rest of our time here and celebrating Sabrina’s birthday tomorrow.

Little State has big Rewards

We are so glad we stopped in Rhode Island. The little state sure had a lot of fun things to do. We took in Mr. Vanderbilts Breakers Mansion, the kids decided they’d like to move, they liked the big yard and it’s proximity to the ocean. Take note of the back yard they'd like to play in everyday.

After braving Tropical Storm Hanna, tougher than a snowstorm as the roads were sometimes flooded, we finally arrived in New York! The rain eased the traffic and made finding our destination a little easier as folks were driving slower.

Fearing Family History

We had our own personal Revolutionary history tour of the Fearing family house in Weryham Mass. They were loyalists but we won't hold it against them as they had a bar in their house!

They were also soft to cats, I knew Mike had it in him, as they created a cat hole so the cat had easy access to everywhere in the house. Kirby will be so happy to hear about Mike's families history and love of cats.


We detoured from the plan so that we could all visit one state that we all haven’t been to- Rhode Island.

We are pretending we are the Vanderbilts, hobnobbing with the wealthy and picking which mansion is ours. We are in Newport, enjoying the sailboats and Tropical Storm Hanna (makes for fewer crowds and a good story).

Fortunately we spent our day at the beach yesterday and have determined that the Atlantic is warmer than the Pacific. Gabriel and Sabrina learned how to swim with the ocean waves and have picked Hawaii as their next destination point (they’ve apparently forgotten our deal- trips have to be in the contiguous U.S.).



The Soccer Hall of Fame is out and the Atlantic Ocean is Sabrina’s birthday party of choice, any takers only 5 more days.

We will visit more of Rhode Island Revolutionary War neighborhoods and wharfs.

From Beantown to P-Town

Before Boston we had to make a stop for the kids, the Soccer Hall of Fame. Mike and I sacrificed and passed Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame. We did drive through the town and were surprised that the Hall didn’t have a line. Maybe that’s only when a player is inducted?

Anyway, the Soccer Hall of Fame didn’t disappoint anyone. We saw lots of soccer footage and hands on activities for the soccer aficionados. There was even one activity that clocked kicks. The pro’s kick average at 50 mph and Sabrina’s were around 35mph.

The museum had a lot of women’s soccer paraphernalia, which was inspiring to Sabrina. Gabriel and Sabrina decided that they’d like to have their birthday parties at the Hall! We all learned a lot more about the sport we spend our fall, spring and summers enjoying.

As we parked the car in the garage to catch the T in Boston Gabriel spotted a Minnesota license plate. We walked over to the guy getting out of the car and mentioned we are also from Minnesota. The guy said the car was a rental but he was going to be going to Minnesota shortly. He dispelled all East coast stereotypes, he was so friendly! He was upset when he couldn’t give us a personal tour of his city. However, he did give us some good ideas for touring Boston.




Our first day of school was spent learning American History on the Freedom Trail. Of course lunch included bowls of clam chowder and lobster bisque. Since the kids were great historians we treated ourselves to dinner in the North End and gelato and cannoli’s at Mike’s pastry.

I learned that the Boston Massacre wasn’t really a massacre~ Sabrina

Paul Revere didn’t say, “The British are coming!” All colonists were British. Instead he yelled, “The Regulars are coming!” ~ Gabriel

We then moved onto the Cape and spent a few days in Provincetown, what a beautifully quaint city (with it’s own wild side). We are enjoying the calm Atlantic Ocean and it’s beautiful white sandy beaches.




Our science class for one day was a whale watch, which didn’t disappoint.
We saw four large Humpback whales and their calves.

The Humpback whales weigh over 4 tons and are endangered ~ Gabriel

The different colors in the ocean are from all the plankton, which the whales eat.
~ Sabrina

I learned that whales are one of the biggest animals. Dolphins are also part of the whale family. ~ Cecilia

A special history treat has been tracing the Fearing roots. We saw the town and church that the Fearing’s helped start in Hingham. The kids are wondering why the Fearing's ever left this location and moved to Minnesota. The beach, the harbor, beautiful weather, great food, what were they thinking?



We saw a church/meeting hall as it looked over 300 years ago. The closer to the pulpit that you sat the more prominent in the town you were. The Fearing’s were very close to the front, again why did they move? A local shared with us that families transfer their property for $1 to other family members otherwise its very expensive here, a mortgage payment as well as a payment to remodel the house. I guess Minnesota seems very affordable.

We’ve run into many New Englanders who’ve correctly made the assumption that we are democrats.

From Minnehaha Falls to the Niagara Falls

So the flow of water is a little different and you don’t have to pay to see ours at home☺

We walked the Cave of the Winds trail, Gabriel is still wearing the complimentary sandals they gave us to stay dry. The trail was like a walking waterpark. We were all drenched after completion but loved every minute. In fact we walked the trail more than once because getting splashed by the falls was so fun.

I didn’t like getting wet because it made me cold. I liked eating ice cream instead. ~ Cecilia

By the way, whose idea were the drumsticks? Gabriel is an aspiring drummer yet his sister doesn’t appreciate his practice tactics, especially as we traverse the state of New York.