Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei, Gosei

After an early breakfast, we said goodbye to my parents, brother, and niece and hit the road for Chicago since we planned to meet R's dad for the 10:45AM service at church this morning. Before we got to I-55, however, R realized that he left his aunties' apartment keys behind. So we turned around and met my brother who drove to Goodfield to bring them to us. Needless to say we were a little late to church. 🤦🏻‍♀️

It's the Great Pumpkin

57th Annual!

Besides visiting the grandparents, there were two other reasons for the timing of this trip back to Illinois... my hometown's annual Pumpkin Festival and my high school class reunion. 

If you've ever used Libby's Pumpkin for any recipes, chances are pretty high that it was grown and harvested from fields in Central Illinois and canned at the Nestlé plant in Morton. The "Pumpkin Capital of the World" has held an annual 4-day celebration of everything pumpkin each September since 1967. Imagine a stereotypical small town fair (carnival rides, competitions, entertainment, food, parade, etc.) but on steroids - the Chamber of Commerce and its army of volunteers does an excellent job! However, the bigger draw for me is the chance to catch up with old friends since many people come back to see friends/family who are still in town.

As a bonus for my parents, my brother G and niece C also decided to visit when they heard we would be there (my sister-in-law couldn't come due to work 😢), so they had all of their grandkids together for the first time since before the pandemic.  

Going for Silver

225 miles

Since joining the National Park Travelers Club in 2011, our travels have gotten us the Special Achievement Award (minimum 10 units in 2 regions with 20 stamps) every year except for 2020 (pandemic 😢) and last year when we earned the Bronze Master Traveler Award (min. 25 units, 4 regions, 50 stamps). This year because we have been able to visit a number of different NPS passport regions (Western, Midwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and North Atlantic), we are really close to achieving the Silver MTA (min. 35 units, 5 regions, 75 stamps). Only need stamps from 7 more units before the end of the year! 

So, in an effort to get our (okay, *my*) certificate, we took a slight detour on our way down to my parents' house today to move 3 units closer to Silver...

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Since both M and J were working full-time this summer, we thought that we could squeeze in a family vacation in September before J started his fall quarter classes. When given the choice of planning a trip to Maui or Illinois, it was a no-brainer for them...

Out of Luck

Saturday, July 8

We grabbed breakfast this morning from Aloha Specialties, where SPAM and Portuguese sausage rule! On our way to UNLV for the second day of games, we stopped by Leilani's Attic to see if they carried the yummy cornflake cookies that we had on Kauaʻi in 2021. No dice.

After going thru security, we headed straight over to Cox Pavilion for the Miami-Boston game. M and J were sporting their UCLA gear since their fellow Bruin, Jaime Jaquez, Jr., was drafted by the Heat a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, after we sat down, we quickly figured out that Jaime wasn't going to play at all because he wasn't even dressed during warmups. Bummer. 

Disappointed Bruins

Generational Talent

Even though M and J are now officially adults, it's nice to know that they still are up for going places with us. Guess it helps that Mom and Dad are picking up the tab for the hotel room, meals, and tickets to watch two days of NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas. Ha! But since both of them are gainfully employed this summer, they can play in the casino with their own hard-earned cash.

Because M needed to work remotely this morning, we picked up the boys in LA yesterday evening and started the drive to Vegas from there, stopping in Victorville for dinner at Freddy's and arriving at our hotel close to midnight. However, the late hour was not a deterrent for J, who was eager to make his donation to the house coffers since he wasn't old enough yet to gamble the last time we were here. M and R went with, but this tired driver kept her money and went to bed.

A Small Bite of the Big Apple

All in all, this was a jam-packed but very fun trip! 

Escape from New York

To start off our last day in New York City, we walked with MH over to Central Park, stopping by Grabstein's Bagels on the way. We sat on a bench near the East Meadow to enjoy our picks. My toasted bagel with a schmear of cream cheese was sooo good!

From the Seashore to Saint Paul's

Yesterday's festivities didn't end with the reception. The father of the bride convinced R and two other buddies to join him for late night Korean fried chicken at Pelicana Chicken in Bayside (open 'til 2AM!). Guess R and RH thought they could still eat like they did when they were college roommates, which was more than *30* years ago?! 🤣

160 miles

As much as I would have liked to join them, I stayed behind to finish packing and get some sleep because I knew that we had a lot of driving ahead of us. Even though it's nowhere near the mileage we usually cover on a typical road trip, today would be our longest day in the car on this vacation. 

Get Me to the Church On Time

🗹 #174 of 424 NPS units for me (#171 for R)

Today was the primary reason for our trip to New York... the wedding of our dear friends' daughter! Since the ceremony wasn't taking place until later this afternoon, I figured we had some time to squeeze in a visit to yet another nearby national park unit, Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.

Unfortunately, I goofed up the date when tickets for guided tours of the Roosevelt home would become available online. When I checked the website in mid-May, tickets for the 10:00AM tour were already sold out, and there was only one spot left at 11:00AM, which I immediately nabbed. To complicate matters further, the visitor center/museum didn't open until 11:00AM, so we wouldn't be able to go through the exhibits there beforehand either. Doh! 🤦🏻‍♀️

A Day in the City

Our plan for today was to visit the national park units in Manhattan which are only open on the weekends. More accurately, that was *my* agenda. Thankfully, R loves me enough to allow himself to be dragged all over the city in the spirit of checking off boxes and still be a good sport about it. How blessed am I?! He's definitely a keeper!

We were up early and grabbed a quick breakfast in the hotel before driving from Roslyn to the Long Island Rail Road station in Port Washington, where parking in the commuter lot is free on weekends. We hopped onto the 7:40AM train, paid the $9.25 off-peak fare in the MTA Train Time app, and arrived at the Grand Central Madison terminal around 8:30AM. (Alternatively, we could have taken the 8:08AM train, arriving at Penn Station at 8:55AM.)

Lovely Lady Liberty

As soon as we knew that we could definitely make it to the wedding in New York, I booked tickets for us to go up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty with Statue City Cruises. As the only authorized concessioner to ferry passengers to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, there are a limited number of tickets to the crown each day. I was a little concerned since we would be there during the summer travel season, but I was super excited to find out that there were still some 9:00AM spots available two months in advance! Yay!

The Power of Water

25 miles

To get to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park from West Orange, the iPhone sent us there via small local roads instead of the Garden State Parkway. I'm usually happy to avoid traffic and tolls, but the problem with blindly following directions on this alternate route was that we didn't see the usual signage directing us to the park as we got closer.  On top of that, the streets of Paterson were super congested with kids getting out of school nearby, so we had a little trouble figuring out exactly where we were supposed to park the car. But after an extra trip around the block, we managed to find a spot in the lot next to Overlook Park.

The Wizard of West Orange

🗹 #166 of 424 NPS units

After leaving Morristown, it took us about 30 minutes to drive to West Orange, NJ and Thomas Edison National Historical Park. 

While Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph (1877) and incandescent light bulb (1879) in his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ, by the mid-1880s his business operations had outgrown the facilities there. He moved his industrial research and development laboratory into the West Orange complex in 1887, a campus ten times the size of Menlo Park. Here, along with his teams of scientists/engineers, he perfected his phonograph, developed motion pictures, and invented many other devices and technologies.

Where America Survived

After we finished our visit at the Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites yesterday, we stopped by the Jockey Hollow area of Morristown National Historical Park on the way to our hotel in Parsippany, NJ. 

We arrived about 5:45PM, long after the visitor center closing time of 4:00PM. But since the grounds were open from 8:00AM – 8:00PM, we still had plenty of time to check out the outdoor portions of the park. And we were back again first thing this morning to finish up what we missed, all before the visitor center opened at 10:00AM. How's that for maximum travel efficiency?! 😉 

Ten Crucial Days

The air quality is so much better than it was a week ago!

When R and I received an invite to the wedding of our close friends' daughter, we decided to tack on some extra days and make a vacation out of it! Working son (M) and college son (J) didn't come with, so just us two empty-nesters flew into Newark yesterday. 

Travel tip: Seats 48A/B on a Boeing 777-200 are great because there is no third seat in the row = extra room for economy price!

Ink-iversary

If the traditional gift for 25 years of marriage is silver and 50 years is gold, then we marked the occasion of our 28th wedding anniversary with ink. National park passport stamps from Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center, to be precise!

However, our first stop was actually for brunch at La Playa Soul Kitchen. Since seeing the write-up online about this place a couple months ago, we have been wanting to make the trek over to Port Hueneme to check them out. Today was the perfect opportunity - we will drive anywhere for good food!

Animal Kingdom

The last time I attended this scientific conference in person was four years ago in Atlanta. Due to the pandemic, the next three were virtual. However, this year we are back to "normal" along with thousands of other attendees in Orlando. 

My colleagues and I flew in yesterday, but instead of going with them to check into our hotel next to the convention center, I rented a car and headed about 45 minutes east to Titusville. I was a little nervous about driving and staying overnight solo, but when chasing national park units, you gotta do what you gotta do...

Divide and Conquer

Wednesday, January 4

Taking advantage of cheaper air fares after the holidays, R and I flew back to Illinois for a welfare check on our folks. But we decided to split up so that we each would get more time with our respective parental unit(s). After the norovirus debacle last year, my secondary objective was to make sure to get some Lou's this trip.

Who cares how cold it is outside when you have hot pizza in your belly?