Vacation...Please come soon.

Vacation...a little more planned today than yesterday...it incorporates fun and learning and a whole lot of driving and camping. Stop one: Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water House. I've never seen it in person and Noah studied FLW in school this year, but never saw so much as a picture until I realized that he hadn't and then I brought out my FLW books from the old art history gig and he got to see it all...in 2D...which is not good enough. Next Stop: Ohiopyle State Park for camping and hiking and white water rafting. Noah wants to do a class III/IV river. I think he is nuts. Mostly, I'd be afraid he would fall out, so I am hoping for class II/III or at least a solid III. From there we go to Niagara Falls and camping somewhere in Ontario.  And then we go to Toronto to visit the Royal Ontario Museum (while still camping somewhere in Ontario). In Toronto after the museum, we will be scoping out music stores and musicians' exchanges for the next keyboard (he has saved up, but I won't let him buy another without playing it first...so no online monkey business).  Afterwards we will meander home through Ithaca (hope to visit my sister, Tara who doesn't know that this is even a remote possibility yet,  and do some waterfall hikes) and then apple picking somewhere and who knows what else. I am no good at long term planning, but the first few days sound good.

Provisions for the trip are evolving. Noah talked me into ordering a self inflating double high queen mattress for our tent.  As kids we put our sleeping bags on the ground, so this kind of feels dirty to me... not to mention ridiculous in an emergency evacuation of the tent (whether it be due to critter or lightening). We have a tent that Tambi gave us (with slashes that need to be duct-taped as a critter apparently tried to get in just a few minutes after we evacuated during the last backyard camp-out) and a camp stove (also a gift from IBMAT) so we are getting there. I made Noah put back the $9 collapsable bowls the last time we were shopping, but might invest in a mess kit for him. We will be cooking Thai Ramen (Ramen with added peanutbutter and curry powder, my personal fav), pancakes, and who knows what else. We are looking forward to Indian food at Niagara as my brother says that is all you can get there and it happens to be some of our favorite! Yippee!

Turtle rescuer

Noah has been spotting turtles left and right. I've been doing some crazy driving so he can hop out and save a turtle from the road. Sometimes we have to just cross our fingers and hope the little guy is still in one piece when traffic clears or when we' ve made a long trip back. I've been known to brake for pine cones so a new pair of glasses might be in order.

Noah and I are still pondering vacation. We will be heading out third week on August. Still no idea where we'll end up. North, South...even looked up airfare to Nicaragua. Any good ideas welcome.

I so love this kid!