Vermont Visit - Chapter 2 - Out and About

At the moment, we've got Paige in a fairly set daily routine, especially as meals and sleep is concerned. I'd planned and assumed we'd relax this somewhat on holiday, so as to not impact the various activities we anticipated. However, I found that keeping to a roughly 1pm *home* naptime (Paige isn't the best car or pram sleeper) turned out to be a nice way to manage our days.

Keeping this 1 pm home time meant we got to balance sightseeing with relaxation -- the latter part of that equation something that often gets missed on vacation, as we run around trying to pack as much in as possible.

And with Paige awake between 5 and 6 a.m. most mornings, there was still plenty of time to get out and about before naptime... assuming we could get everyone else moving as well!

Pre-meal at the Farmers Diner

After a day spent recovering from jet lag (and lazing about inside due to rainy weather), we were ready to explore. Bright and early Thursday morning, we headed out for the Montshire Museum of Science (stopping of course for our first diner breakfast, at the good 'ol Farmers Diner in Queechee. Yum. Though our enjoyment of the meal was somewhat curtailed by the sight of a chipmunk running in and out of the kitchen and dining area. Hmm... not sure what it says for the restaurant's hygeine, but the pancakes were still tasty enough...)

Before the Science Park - but still splashy

The Museum was great... or at least it looked great. We didn't get through much of it before venturing outside to the Science Park. I didn't notice the bit about the solar system model -- we (by we, I mean Paige) were too busy checking out the "The Rill, a 250-foot long watercourse that takes a meandering path from the Museum building toward the river." According to the website, "Young hydrologists can store up a mini-flood and then release it to the lower part of the Rill." Or they can just splash. And splash. And get absolutely soaked, laughing all the while.

 

Splash-tastic... and soaked

Making music with Poppy

Vermont visit - chapter 1 - the journey

I know the photos have hit Facebook already, but thought I'd re-ignite the blog for anyone interested in a little more context.

Three weeks ago Tuesday we loaded the 4 backpacks, 3 people and 2 overstuffed suitcases into 1 large minicab and headed off to Heathrow to kick off Camp Nana (and Poppy) 2010. And one week ago Tuesday, we hauled the same and more back to Planet Wulfagar, thanks in part to an incredibly surly black cab driver. (Surly, that is, until it was time to pay, and possibly tip...)

The next few entries cover those weeks in between. In excruciating detail. May even take me just as long to write as it did to experience...

We arrived at Heathrow to one of the longest queues I'd seen in a long while. Or maybe that's just American Airlines. Fortunately the queue gave us plenty of time to find someone to take a photograph. Less fortunately it also gave one little girl plenty of time to get antsy, squirmy, and any other condition that applies to toddlers who realise that standing in an incredibly slow line is not the most exciting way to spend a Tuesday morning, especially when there are gates to run through, luggage tags to grab, and long hallways to run down... This did not bode well for the enforced confines of the airplane.

Actually, given those confines, Paige was pretty good. Or maybe it's just hindsight telling me that. We'd not bought her a seat, and it was (surprise, surprise) a jam-packed flight, so take-off, landing, and any other seatbelt-on time equalled lap time equalled not very happy Paigey. [Note to self -- be prepared with food next time. That pretty much always works...]

Luckily, however, mandatory lap time was relatively brief, and as we had the bulkhead, we we able to rotate with one of us sitting on the floor some of the time, which provided more room than you'd think. In fact, I think Ashley quite liked it. And as long as she wasn't being made to sit somewhere not of her own choosing, Paige had a pretty good time as well. As well she might, given the fact she was being constantly entertained -- being walked around the aisles, sharing her books with a younger traveller she encountered.

And of course watching Dora. And more Dora. And more Dora. No, not on the plane entertainment system -- on my iPod. Phew, thank goodness I thought to download an episode. Yes, an episode. One. And with no headphones, that meant Mommy got to narrate the story. Given I'd never seen it, I think I did a pretty good job. Then again, each Dora does tend to follow a pretty predictable story arc. Map, Backpack, and vamanos!

And then three Doras and no nap later we landed at Logan, to face of course an incredibly long wait for immigration, despite having two Americans in our group, we still had to go through the 'foreign' line, if we wanted to stay together as a family. Yawn.

Fortunately our chaffeur and navigator (aka Poppy and Nana) were nice enough to wait, and -- after an uneventful, if squished, drive -- we concluded our journey to Woodstock, USA only about 15 hours after locking the flat door in Kew, UK.

And the rest of the trip will have to wait for the next post...