Speaking of Traveling...

... here is the latest from my parents' global circumnavigation -

They've been in and out of Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and China.

They loved Thailand, although they were unable to do much in or near the capitol because of the protests, which have turned violent of late. So they spent their time in Chiang Mai, which they loved. My Mom writes:

We fell in love with Chiang Mai, Thailand. We were there during the Songkran Festival (Buddhist New Year), also called the Festival of Water. For 3 days people toss water at each other - tourists are not exempt! Entire families line the streets with buckets, hoses, cups, water guns - or kids pile into the back of trucks and drive around with a barrel or two of water, throwing it at everyone within reach - it was a lot of silly fun! We took a Thai cooking class; rode an elephant, an oxcart and a bamboo river raft - oh, and we crammed in a temple or two! Unfortunately, my camera picked that week to stop working, so we have very few photos of this fabulous stop.

Here they are on that elephant:



Because of their camera's untimely death, they've only got a few small pictures from Cambodia, in Angkor Wat, the seat of an ancient empire. These pics give me the shivers, incredible castles with huge trees growing up inside and around them:





My Mom writes here about life in Cambodia, and her words haunt me:

Dear friends, fall on your knees and thank whatever power granted you life in North America. Yes, we have problems, but the bottom of the barrel is Cambodia. Invasions, wars, civil war, Pol Pot, crooked politicians, nationwide lack of education, horrid climate, Cambodia has it all! And yet people are warm, noisy, friendly and quite beautiful.

Sometimes the randomness of life just hits me, and reading something like this makes that almost palpable.


After Cambodia, my parents moved on to China and a river boat cruise up the Yellow River. This is the part of the trip that Owen and I most wanted to become stowaways for, because my parents got to visit the Terra Cotta Soldiers. According to Wikipedia:

The Terracotta Army is a form of funerary art buried with the First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang, "shi huang" means the first emperor) in 210-209 BC. (He declared himself the first emperor of China in 221 B.C.) Their purpose was to help rule another empire with Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife. Consequently, they are also sometimes referred to as "Qin's Armies."

Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.

Here are pics from my parents' visit:









Aren't they lucky?

It Beats the Alternative

I'm thirty-nine years old today. Isn't that freaky? It's dangerously close to doddering old age, but I still love my birthday, the only day when I don't feel guilty eating a jar's worth of Nutella.

Here are some favorite pics from my thirty-eighth year, one of the best so far on this merry-go-round:


This was the year that the chickens came on the scene.


Ditto the Chicken Palace.


Last spring we went to Gettysburg, and I got extreme goosebumps watching Luke and Owen play in the woods where Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and his 20th Maine fighters held the Rebels back, determining the course of history.


Old Sturbridge Village, a place where the boys visited for the first time just this past June, has become a constant source of interest and excitement.


My brother's wedding was a highlight, too; here is his bride with all four of her new nephews.

I've looked in on the adventures of my parents:


and learned to knit.


Best of all, I've gotten to enjoy my kids:














And just be in love with, and in awe of, my husband, the sane guy in our crazy madhouse.


Yeah, it's a damn good life.

Globetrotting with Grandma and Grandpa

They are having the time of their lives, my parents.

This first pic is the view from their deck in Paihia, New Zealand. Their trip has confirmed for me that New Zealand is one place I definitely want to go... living there wouldn't be out of the question, even, although I guess I'd better consult the family before making any big decisions. My Mom sent me some of the loveliest yarn I have ever laid my hands on from New Zealand. She reports:

The first thing you notice about New Zealand is how green and uncommercialized it is and after three weeks here that still holds. Plus! we haven't seen a single billboard and we've driven 3000 km, or 1800 miles. We've had perfect weather and I hope it doesn't change too drastically in the next few weeks. We've been told that the South Island is more beautiful than the North, but the rugged coastline and sandy beaches of the Coromandel and the green and gold pastoral, hilly interior will be awfully hard to beat. There are sheep on every hillside, but surprise - but there's a big bovine presence too.

Took the ferry to the South Island and stopped in Marlborough, where most NZ wines are produced. After extensive research, we can personally assure all our wino friends that there is wine in abundance. People here are so friendly - we dropped into a bar the other night and were adopted by half a dozen 20-somethings and had a great time with them for an hour!

Here, though is the piece de resistance: my folks went heli-hiking! Isn't that cool?

Mom writes: Unfortunately, it's a cloudy day so we didn't see the top of Mt. Cook but we were almost at the top of Mt. Tasman. The ice we're standing on is 400 metres deep (about 1200 feet I think!)

And then it was on to lovely Fiji.

Or, maybe not so lovely? My Dad writes: Much of Fiji looks like regular living is very hard. Wages are very low. Hard for me to really like a place when I'm living like a king, while riding on the back of the very low wages paid to the folks that work there. Life looks better than the Philippines and Mexico, but still a very hard life for the average person. Mom told you already about the school we visited. Very humbling experience. You would have loved both the teachers and the 70 students. (Here are some of the students, with my Dad:)

After Fiji, it was on to Australia. Here, my Mom is writing to my boys and their cousins:

We are in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It's hot, hot, hot! About 110 degrees F! There are lots of flies here - so many that we had to wear a net. Don't we look funny!

And, they were all excited when they saw a wallabee:

I didn't know that wallabees looked anything like kangaroos, but evidently, they do. Here's the Wikipedia page about them, in case you'd like to know more.

And so, the great trip continues! I'll do another update soon, on the rest of their Aussie segment and then on into Asia.

Where in the World are Grandma and Grandpa?

In Auckland, New Zealand, as it turns out:

My parents are on the trip of their lives, traveling west around the globe until July (assuming that they have not killed each other by then, of course... heh heh). And the cool thing is, they're reporting in here periodically, so that we can have an awesome virtual field trip! Here's my Mom, writing about New Zealand:

So far the countryside is absolutely fabulous! We drove down the east coast from Whitianga to Turangi this morning - the highways - not the backroads! - through the mountains are like ski runs - I had to make Dad stop twice so I could get my stomach settled. But I'm going to get over it - there's no way I'm not getting around this country! The mountains look like the farm in Babe! Was that filmed in NZ? Sheep and cattle on these steep grassy hills - I was laughing this morning remembering what Dad told you guys when you were little - when we saw cows on the sides of steep hills he told you those cows had shorter legs on one side!! These animals must!

When they left here, from the East coast, a few Sundays ago, we had trouble figuring out what time it would be in New Zealand when they landed - they flew across the international dateline causing us to wonder, if they flew for twenty-some hours, would they land on Monday, or Tuesday their local time? I must be honest, I still haven't figured this out. But Ben came across a great web site, World Time Server.com, so now at least we have a visual - see in the sidebar over there?

My Dad gave me the best time-tip yet: "To change from Eastern Standard Time to New Zealand time, subtract six hours from current East coast time - and then, add 24 hours because it's really tomorrow here." Easy, right?

My folks have seen some amazing sights this week. They attended a Maori meal, in which they became members of The Tribe of All Nations, about 150 visitors to New Zealand who went and met with the Maori Nation for dinner. Here are a few pics of the Maori, sent by my Mom:

She says, "[Here are] two tattooed Maori warriors. Their faces are done with paint these days, but back only 50 years ago these face decorations were carved right into the men's (warriors) skin." This next picture represents fifty-five hours of tattooing:

I can tell you that the 3X4 inch tattoo I have on my lower leg took an excruciating one hour and twenty minutes. But fifty-five hours, my goodness!

In all seriousness, my parents' trip has sparked an interest in learning more about the Maori, a tough, proud people with a rich culture and history. Here is a Wikipedia entry about them, and if anyone knows of any good books for children on Maori culture, or history, or both, please let me know!

Here's a pic of the New Zealand national bird, the Kiwi:

You just can't talk about New Zealand in our house without bringing up Peter Jackson's amazing film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. (No, the boys haven't seen it yet, but they've heard the story - in a long telling that took several days - and played the Trivial Pursuit game, and seen a few choice scenes on YouTube.) If you have not seen the trilogy yet, then go and do so - because this video of Owen battling the Balrog won't make any sense:

And I must leave off on this, a not-entirely-child-friendly merging of two of the best acts ever to come out of New Zealand. Yes, it's Flight of the Conchords' "Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring:"