Tomorrow we’re off to Atlanta for a few days. John and my dad have a date to attend a vintage motorcycle festival at the Barber Motorsports Museum, aka Man Dreamland. It’s a great excuse to spend time with family, as my aunt lives close-by in beautiful Alabama.
Our last airplane experience nearly did me in. We had to drag both the girls’ carseats, a stroller, a big duffel of clothes, a folding hammock (another story), plus assorted carrying stuff, through rental car shuttles and to the most inefficient check-in line on earth. Genius that I am, I threw my souvenir Maine wildflower honey and some coffee in John’s carry on, which made for more drama. Bomb dust and explosive gel, eh? The coffee made it home, the honey was disqualified.
This trip will be far saner. My parents have accumulated two carseats and a stroller along with toiletries, baby junk, and even extra clothes. We need very little.
When we came back from Boston John looked at our pile of stuff and sighed, “We’ll never be able to live on a boat.” I took the opposite approach- that our whole little life for 2 weeks was wrapped up in a duffel and a few carry-ons. If we managed to have such a good time with just that stuff, think what we can do on the boat.
It’s truly nicer to have a few nice things that work well, than many junky things that fall apart. I’m still learning that with the clothes I buy, but when it comes to the rest of our life- kitchen stuff, vehicles, tools, toys -we have it down to a science.
ps- turtle from our visit to the Turtle Hospital last weekend. Turtles just seem to be the appropriate model for efficient world traveler.
Posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago at 5:58 pm. 2 comments
I don’t know what we’d do without our signing videos. We nearly burned up our portable DVD player going up and down the coast of Maine, playing “My Baby Can Talk” over and over again to keep Rosy occupied. Rosy is not a kid who sits still and ponders life. She needs constant stimulation. I’m more thoroughly convinced now then ever, that some of her baby grumpiness was simple frustration. Now that she’s moving, talking, and participating in our lives, she’s as happy as the sun is bright. Unless she’s strapped in a car.
That said, she loves signing. She can’t get enough, and she’s learning so fast. We started with the My Baby Can Talk series and have moved on to Baby Signing Time. I am here to say it- they WORK. They really do. For the past couple months we’ve played them at the same time every day (it’s our early morning ritual). Within a week, Rosy has each video memorized. At this point, she can anticipate the sign to come and starts before the video even gets there. This week’s favorites are celestial in nature: day, night, star, moon, sun, rain, wind, outside. Better even, she learns to speak the word with every sign, like some connection is happening with the doing and the speaking. It’s magic.
Eight hours of car shopping later (and many, many thanks to our friend Rachel for watching our ladies all.day.long), we came back with this beauty!!
John and I’d been looking for a new vehicle to take to Maine. We have a Honda dealership not far from us here in Key Largo. We looked at the Element and nearly bought a CRV yesterday. It was so terribly fortuitous that the deal feel through. Just seeing what else was out there, John stumbled on the Volkswagen website and found pricing for the Jetta TDI wagons. For some reason neither of us had considered the TDI, thinking it would be out of our price range. Holy mackerel, it cost less than the CRV we almost bought! And it’s way better!!
Three cheers for Volkswagen for making a “green” vehicle we can afford. It will get over 40 mpg on the highway, approaching 50 . . . hybrid-style readings. The salesman sealed the deal for me this morning when he told me the engine’s set up for biodiesel. The cleanliness of the diesel emissions has drastically improved over the past ten years. It feels so good to be able to choose a vehicle that can carry our family, and also reflect the convictions we have about being environmentally responsible.
I love Volkswagens- my parents have owned Beetles old and new, a Bus, a station wagon, sedans. My sister learned to drive on a Jetta and has a wagon of her own now. My first car was a Jetta, “Gretchen,” which carried me across the country four times. Getting into the TDI felt like coming home in a weird way. We knew the gauges, where the windows were, how the steering wheel felt. Immediately familiar. But that sweet hum of the diesel makes it that much better.
