Thoughts from Wuggy Norple

Wuggy Norple wants you all to know that this Lego Star Wars Walker, that he built with Papercup Mixmaster last night not only turns his head, but the guy can sit inside when the hatch is closed.

Glitter Story

Tonight a craft-kit we had sent away for came in the mail, and Wuggy Norple immediately chose the one that involved gold glitter. Despite our precautions, it went everywhere, including all over him. I asked him to wash up for dinner, so he didn't have to eat glitter.
He said "know what glitter tastes like?"
"What?"
"Fairies."

A Home!

A real settle in and unpack your books home! We saw the house, made an offer, and had the offer accepted all within the same afternoon. We knew as soon as we saw it that this was the one, and as we were used to the break-neck pace of California Real Estate, probably took things a little faster than the more sedate Ithaca market calls for. We've been trying to catch up to our selves ever since, but after a few sleepless nights, we are feeling sure again that this place is right for our little family at this moment in our lives, and hopefully for the next decade or two. So what if there is no garage or driveway, and the lot is smaller than our place in California. It is BEAUTIFUL. And it has a wrap-around porch, which has been a dream for Papercup Mixmaster since before we first met. It's so close to the Commons, that we walked there with K-nob, King Waffle and Boog for the historic "Ithaca Sundae Celebration" last week. So what if we will have to dig our car out after the snow plow comes during the winter blizzards, we can just walk to the sports bar, the yoga studio, the over-priced clothing and craft boutiques, and like 5 pizza places. And darned if there isn't a statue of St. Joseph in the little garden (Nonnie and Drama Mama, you know what I'm talking about.) Now if we can just figure out where we are going to store Papercup Mixmaster's Records, an my multitudinous boxes of books I used to keep at the church...

But I am getting ahead of myself- we're still in our inspection period. If all goes well we close atthe end of August.

And More Camp

This week is "Stone Circle Camp" advertised to be a Waldorf inspired season-oriented camp. And so it is. Mostly, however, it is small and person-oriented. I showed up the first day, however, and no one was there. Wuggy Norple and I played on the playground, and checked out the real-live stone circle that is like a mini solstice oriented henge thing. finally, when I was thoroughly flummoxed, a parent pulled into the driveway to "pick something up" and the mystery was revealed: seems they really meet down the street at the Foundation of Light.

There are between 3- 7 kids in the camp at any given time, and 1 or 2 teachers. They make little Waldorf dolls, do puppet shows, run around in the yard, explore the woods, build fairy houses and end these hot summer days splashing in giant buckets of water. I guess it's not that much smaller than Fossil Camp, but it feels more intimate. It reminds me of Wuggy Norple's Family Daycare from when he was little (Kids@home, it was called). I went to drop off his lunch the first day, and Wuggy Norple greeted me adorned with gold beads. I asked him "are these kids fun?" and he replied "This is a fun camp." Long though, he said. Apparently this month off from school has gotten him out of the rhythm of a 9-3:00 day.

Stone Circle was full in August, though, so coming next are "Nature Camp" and "Arts All Around You Camp." (or, as Papercup Mixmaster calls it AAAY!) I hope Wuggy Norple doesn't get tired of camp-hopping.

We have Camp!

For the past 48 hours I've been looking for a camp for Wuggy Norple (many of them are full, as you could imagine).

I can now proudly say he is signed up for daily swim lessons at the YMCA and "Fossil Camp" at the Museum of the Earth for next week.

Fossil Camp is a one week deal, but it looks like there are openings in arts camps and traditional day camps for the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Tooth Fairy

Wuggy Norple lost his second tooth! It came out tonight while he was eating Uncle King Waffle's special home made chocolate chip muffin. His new tooth is under his pillow right now, with that first tooth. (He wanted to make sure we were safely back in the U.S. and all his loose teeth were out before daring to request a visit from the tooth fairy. What if he sees here as she goes out the window, he wonders?)

getting started

So far in Ithaca we have found:

K-nob's house
the grocery store
the mall
a pizza place
decent local beer
the lake
a yoga class

Still needed:
A job for Exploding Poptart
A camp for Wuggy Norple
A house for everyone to live in after September rolls around.

I think we are all a little tired. It seems like everything needs doing all at once. Papercup Mixmaster starts work again Monday, so he needs to have his home office set up. We don't have any of our furniture until we find our permanent home, so we are trying to make things work with what we have, but some shopping is still required. There is no usual routine yet, no comfortable old habits to fall back on. We are starting over in many, many ways.

Very much house hunting this week. Nothing that's ready to move into in the part of town we like. We realize several times a day how easy it would be to abandon our vision of living downtown, where houses are older, and the dollar doesn't go as far. So far we are holding fast (and wondering if we are in for major renovations...)

Dog and I took a walk by the creek that runs by our house and that reduced the angst somewhat. Wuggy Norple continues to be deeply invested in Leggo Star Wars. Papercup Mixmaster finally got his temporary studio set up, and we get A's games in streaming video, which helps with the fact that our TV gets literally 0 channels.

Fortunately K-nob and family (Boog and King Waffle) have been incredibly supportive. Yesterday they invited us out to the Grandparent's house by the lake for BBQ and fireworks, dropped by today with some crazy Backyardigans water toy and we ran around for a while squealing.

We Made It

Plant, Dog, Wuggy Norple, Exploding Poptart and Papercup Mixmaster are finally home! They didn't even make us get out of the car at customs, and the whole ride took less than 3.5 hours. We had an hour of interstate, then back on the 2 lane road through farm land. But this time that 2 lane road is our 2 lane road. Now we are here on Titus Avenue in this beautiful sublet with hardwood floors and slate counter tops in the kitchen hanging out with K-Nob and Boog drinking local Ithaca beer. We are realizing that now the real adventure begins.


Total miles traveled: 3893

A Day in Niagara

As LouJones was just commenting, we are almost there. What could go wrong at this point, Eh? How about if Papercup Mixmaster woke up feeling super aweful, and got sicker and sicker as the day went on? Fortunately he rallied for a walk down to feel the spray of the falls, endure a juggler in the park, and a ride up the tower to see stuff from super high up. Then I, Exploding Poptart, had to try to step in as "arcade buddy" for Nick (Fortunately I spent Baltimore with MadDog, who taught me to love pinball.)

After all our tokens were used up, we tried to see the skywalking man, but he seemed to be on strike or something. One thing led to another and we ended up reading several chapters aloud from "Super Fudge" by Judy Blume. I got in a run before dinner. I as definately the only runner around, but I managed to run the whole circuit from the Rainbow Bridge to the Table Rock, through all those beautiful gardens and winding paths (That "hidden garden" is so cool...) Then I ran back through the area closest to the falls, and damned if there wasn't a rainbow, visible for at least 10 minutes, over both falls in a huge full arc. And for the first time I went out where the river ends, flowing away from you down into the abyss. Wow. I was so sad that Papercup Mixmaster was too sick to see it with me. And me without my camera!

I made up for it after dinner. I looped up to the Jersey-Shore-meets-Reno part of town with Dog (who did amazing by the way. That Dog really can hold her own.) I walked and walked through that madness, and by the time I got back down to the river... fireworks. No, I'm not kidding. A full rainbow and surprise fireworks in the same day. That's Niagara Falls for you. They even light them up in case they are less spectacular by night.

When we got home my tired guys were ready for bed, so we read a final chapter of SuperFudge. It was a full day.

So Close

We're in Niagra Falls. Wuggy Norple and Exploding Poptart are asleep. Soon I will be too. Tomorrow we will spend the day exploring. We will ride to the top of the Skylon Tower. We may ride the Maid of the Mist. We may buy hockey jerseys. We will chill out for a moment or two. We will relish our last day in Canada, and the last day of our trip.

Total miles traveled: 3724

Ferry Ride

The ferry ride was worth the wait, firstly because we had so much fund waiting in South Baymouth, secondly because it's just fun to ride a ferry. It turns out that dogs are only allowed in this one little dog-ghetto, where they have to sit outside on the doggy deck, which is dark and cold. Also turns out it's okay for dogs to ride in the car, so after some time riding on our bench together, we brought Sandy back to the car on the car-deck, and we got to go inside to have lunch and play some arcade games. Then up on the top deck to look through our binoculars and obsessively take pictures of gulls in flight (why is it so hard to take a good picture of a bird?)

We arrived in Tobermory by 3:30, and on the advice of the nice folks at the coffee shop where we had breakfast (especially a 10 year old boy who knows what's fun for kids) we decided to go straight to Niagra Fall, where we were assured there was lots of fun stuff for kids. (Apparently looking at vistas and going on walks is not where it is at).

We found a hotel right in "fallsview" (the tourist area- it even says it on signs). The hotel is huge -- so big the lobby is in another building. It's very 1970s, brown and boxy in design, but all the carpets are new, and the room is HUGE. We have a balcony you can even go out on (amazing view of the parking lot and 3 billboards) but most importantly it's walking distance to the falls. It's weird to be in the middle of this swirling sea of people after being on rural tributaries for so long.

In which we finally explain all our adventures on the North Shore and our expotition takes us to the birthplace of Winnie the Pooh

So here, finally is the story of our travels in Canada. I (Exploding Poptart) write you now from inside our car as we are parked on the boarding area for the ferry, scheduled to leave half an hour hence. What a long strange trip it's been since we left the US. First of all, that drive up scenic route 61 is extremely beautiful. We were rested and ready to head to Canada. We knew we had 3 days of driving to reach South Baymouth and the Ferry, so we decided to get some extra miles on this first day.

We made it as far as Rossport, which is a former fishing village that had fallen on hard times and turned itself into an upscale rest spot recreational travelers and boaters. We were staying in the historic Rossport Inn, perported to be established about 150 years ago. Our cell phones had been out of service for some time, so there was no way to make a reservation except to drive up and see. The Inn had one small cabin free for us, so small that when we inflated nick's small air mattress, there was no room to walk around it. It was without TV or internet, but very sweet and situated with a few other cabins on a large field with wildflowers and inviting chairs. A group of bikers had the next 2 cabins and cooked up dinner on their hibachi overlooking the lake. We had a view of the local docks, just over the railroad tracks where a train whistled as it roared right by the Inn every couple of hours during the night. We settled in and took a walk across the railroad tracks to the lake, and a quick swing over to the towns one store- a gift shop in a historic garage, which was closed.

Favorite quote from Rossport:
Papercup Mixmaster: Oh my God, look at the size of that bug on the windshield!
Exploding Poptart: Do you want me to take a picture of it?

Because the sun sets so late, we started dinner after 8:00 and still finished a late dinner even before sunset. The dinner was served just to guests, very sweet and elegant and homey and expensive. We rigged up a way to connect the Playstation to Nick's portable DVD Player (Thanks Nonnie!) and even in our little cabin the boys could play Lego Starwars. I tried to do some yoga in the field out back, but the mosquitoes were everywhere (I think I still have a dozen red itchy spots on my neck from that night). The proprietor offered to let me use the barn up the hill, and I pictured hay and livestock, but ended up doing yoga between lawn mowers and outboard motors.

The sun was bright and beautiful the next morning, and I ran through the whole of town twice. Finding only one other restaurant in town, that also looked sweet, elegant and pricey, we hit the road and continued our way around Lake Superior. We ended up stopping in Terrace Bay for breakfast, and after a few false starts were able to get some eggs at the Red Dog Inn (Absolutely No Dogs Allowed). The character of the whole day of driving was much the same- rural country wiht a lake-based economy (tourism, fishing, paper mills) Long distances between towns, hard to enjoy "hunters and fisher's paradise" from the road. The highlight of the drive was our visit to White River- home of Winnie the Pooh. This confused us, because isn't Pooh from England? Read the story for yourself. We later stopped to see a water fall not too far off the road, but the mosquitoes and the drizzly weather drove us quickly back into our car.

We were, at this point, a little tired of road-side diner favorites: hamburgers, BLT, mash and gravy. And each of us had at one point or another expressed existential angst about the whole journey. We decided to just plow through this part of our journey, and headed for Soult Ste Marie. We ended up at this crazy hotel called "The Water tower" with a heated indoor pool, hot tub, wading pool (into which fell a faux water fall) and an outdoor whirlpool (with a waterfall and fountain surrounding for ambiance). The place was new and cushy, and they even had a special "kids check-in" with stairs leading up to the lobby desk. And yet for some reason we went out to see the town. We had some dinner at the dock-side restaurant, but aside from some boats and cool scuplture by the library, we couldn't find any there there, so we came back to the hotel. THis is when we found out that our wifi was so weak we had to walk the laptop down to the lobby to blog and make travel plans. Much less fun than writing and editing and editing in the privacy of your own room. So we spent much of the rest of the evening in the very cool pool room (me n Wuggy Norple that is, Papercup Mixmaster was trying to get caught up on the world of baseball...).

Before bed I ordered breakfast to the room. It seemed cool and no one in Canada has the continental breakfast we were taking for granted in the states. It's really weird though to be expecting a stranger at 9:00 am, and to wonder if you have to tidy up for the room service lady. We decided to make tracks again that day (Canada Day, July 1) and make it all the way to South Baymouth so that we could get on the ferry the next morning. More cracked linolium and BLTs for lunch.

Eventually we crossed the swinging bridge to Manitoulin Island, which is a really cool collection of islands where many first nations have a strong presence. We headed all the way to the bottom of the island, where we had found a motel right next to the ferry station. We checked in at the gift shop counter, and were given our key to our "loft" which turned out to be an efficnency apartment on top of a garage, with a balcony overlooking the lake. We took a long walk to a restaurant that was highly recommended, to find all your favorite mashed potato dishes served in a clean spare newly painted space. The food was clearly made with extra care, but was still the same menu, and sitting in a pool of butter. Wuggy Norple had been at the end of his rope since we arrived in town after 2 days of marathon driving, and we all had trouble making it through dinner. Papercup Mixmaster put a "loony" in the jukebox, and the management turned it down when someone complained. When we finally got back to the motel, we set Wuggy Norple up with his Lego Starwars, and Papercup Mixmaster and I sat out in the evening air and talked about how we were discouraged, and how it didn't really feel like a vacation sometimes, because really were were mostly just trying to get to our new home in New York. It was nice to just be there on the balcony looking out at the water and talking. After a little Playstation-Yoga-Balcony photography, we went to bed early in hopes that since we could not get a reservation on the ferry, we could be among the first in line for the 1:30 ferry if we arrived before the 9:10 ferry left. We got there before even 9:00, which I thought was crazy, but they waved us right into line. Papercup Mixmaster had to stay with the car until the 9:10 ferry left, while Wuggy Norple and I found a playground at the marina, but then we just parked there in line and went off to breakfast. The morning was filled with warm sun, friendly people and the sweetness of a very small town with no national chain businesses. We had such a lovely time we only had a few moments to take advantage of the free wifi which is, I believe, where we began.

To Sea

Papaercup Mixmaster here. Connection has been nearly impossible on the north shore of Lake Superior. This morning I am in the yard of the South Baymouth, ON ferry terminal, sitting literally at the base of a wireless Internet tower. At 1:30 this afternoon we will board the ferry and sail to Tobermory, across Lake Huron. Right now it's time for breakfast, so we'll be back later.

Total miles traveled: 3490