Lions, and tigers and... flamingos!

I'm digging this whole relax and vacation thing so far. Especially now that I've stopped waking up at 5:45 and have managed to catch up on some sleep instead! In addition to working on projects, the parentals and I have tried to head out for an adventure each day.

Saturdays adventure...the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo!

Omaha actually has an AMAZING zoo, complete with a jungle, desert dome, butterfly house, aquarium and of course the most important aspect of a zoo-flamingos! We had a zoo membership growing up and I remember going there often as a child. Now that us kiddos are out of the house, the Momcat and Daddo decided to join again so they could go for a few hours every once in a while and not feel like they had to do the whole zoo in one day.

I was slightly worried about the field trip since Omaha recently tore down the old Rosenblatt baseball stadium, building a new stadium downtown and making the old stadium and its parking lots into additional parking for the zoo. The zoo parking was desperately needed, but I'm not a huge fan of tearing down childhood memories. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd made a little park with some of the old seats, bases and pitchers mound in the middle of the parking lot. They also left up the vertical foul ball markers and marked where the bases originally stood. Gold star, Omaha.

We didn't hit everything, but I think we saw everything we really wanted to see. Or in some cases, ate everything we really wanted to eat. 

Snow Cone of Deliciousness! 

Butterflies in the new (to me) butterfly house.

Daddo and the Momcat. 

Mr. Crab

 And last, but not least, the most important animal at the zoo...

Flamingos!

Work is over, Vacation has begun!

Wednesday was my last official day at Notre Dame. I keep waiting for it to feel real that I've moved on and don't work there anymore. The facts that yesterday was a holiday, my part of the office is closed today and that I'm going back in on the 16th for the official goodbye party probably aren't making this any easier. I hope it kicks in soon, because for right now...

I'm on VACATION!  (or, as Daddo put it "now you're unemployed!" Thanks, Daddo).

CatCat, Friday and I spent nine hours cozied together in Fluffy the Scion xB yesterday driving to the parent's house in Omaha. We'll hang out here for the next week before I head off to the next adventure and they remain here for a vacation from stress of moving across the country and selling a house. I somehow feel like the cats have gotten the better end of the deal here...

I'm actually going to be pretty busy here working on things with the Momcat (more on this VERY exciting news next week!) and learning how to parallel park from Daddo. The N-boy is alarmed that we didn't have to learn this in driver's ed, especially since it does seem to be a required skill for living in San Francisco. What can I say? Nebraska seems to have PLENTY of space so parallel parking is rarely a necessary talent. Given that Daddo recalls his New York City days saying that "parallel parking is an art form," I'm really quite surprised he didn't teach me when he taught me to drive. I'm sure it will be fine. I learned how to drive on a manual, and today demonstrated my driving prowess by successfully negotiating back onto the interstate, in a manual while eating an ice cream cone and ignoring two very grumpy cats. (A feat that did not seem to impress the N-boy when I told him about it.) Surely parallel parking is easier that that.

Basically this next week promises to be...

We heart madison.

As on previous trips to Madison we stayed at the Arbor House in the Monroe Neighborhood during our three nights in Madison. This smaller establishment labels itself as an "environmental inn," which means they have plenty of sunny indoor spaces, sustainable business practices and absolutely scrumptious food. 

In addition to a full breakfast every day (with an ever changing menu depending on who's cooking that day) they have a small cocktail/wine spread each evening, and a "sweet treat" every night. It's also great that there's a full kitchen that you can use (great for storing and eating leftovers) along with hot/iced tea, filtered water and lemonade always available. They also have a sauna, which we always intend to use but have never actually made it into. We really love staying there (this was our third visit) and will definitely go back again. 

Summer Road Trip-St. Louis Zoo

Saturday morning dawned with another day of high temperatures, but that didn't keep us from heading out to the free St. Louis Zoo. 

We didn't make it past the parking lot before the N-boy's true nature came through. 

We started the zoo adventure with the new sea lion exhibit where we could walk through the underwater tunnel and watch them swim over us.

Next, sister-in-law-in-law (my brother in law's wife) and BabyNiece headed into Build-A-Bear to make her a cute little sea lion! 

His name is Seeley. 

 We also hit the puffin and the penguin exhibit, where the N-boy and I did our puffin impersonation.

Puffin! 

BabyNiece insisted we see the flamingos.

They were quite pink and festive. 

After several hours at the zoo the baby was starting to get a little hot, as were the rest of us, so we headed out of the zoo to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt. It was really similar to the place we go to in South Bend, but they had almost twice as many flavors.

Summer Road Trip-Baby Land

We spent Friday fully immersed in the wonderful place that is babyland. 

The N-boy and I totally picked out this outfit, her second of the day, in honor of our friends Sam and Jane. 

The N-boy is still getting over his jet lag, but he's definitely doing much better. We did have an educational moment at one point about wearing t-shirts with buttons around small and adorable children who are teething. The N-Boy also had his third outfit change of the day.

The reeducation continues. 

We also tried to give a little bit of love and attention to Jasper the dog, who is doing a good job adjusting to a new little person in the family, but was also happy to have extra people around to play with. 

Summer Road Trip-Thursday

Thursday morning we said good bye to Green Bay and started out on the long drive down to St. Louis to meet our new niece for the first time!

We took a lunch break at Wendy's, where we found these old school phones in each booth. 

The N-Boy...in action! 

Because you can't go to Wendy's and not get a Frosty. 

After about eight long hours in the car we arrived in babyland! Little niece is even more adorable than I thought was possible. She seemed quite pleased with the presents we brought her, including the pictured Eeyore that the N-boy brought back from Russia.

The ears are even adjustable! 

Винни Пух и своего друзья 

(Winnie the Poor and his Friends)

After present and baby snuggle time we headed out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, where the true nature of the brothers came out. If the third brother would have been there it would have been too much festiveness to handle.

Adventures at dinner wore some of us out, and we crashed on the couch back at the house. 

Summer Road Trip-Wednesday (Fourth of July)

Tuesday we left Madison and drove up to Green Bay. We stopped at a few stores along the way, but nothing was particularly photographable. Unless you really wanted to see a picture of the N-boy refusing to go into the American Girl outlet store with me.

As per what seems to have become our own little tradition we spent the fourth of July up in Door County. Unfortunately, the N-boy's dad pulled his back that morning and couldn't go with us, but we still had a good time with his mom.

Someone was clearly in a festive holiday mood. 

We had two places we wanted to be sure to get to: a market with lots of samples and a winery. We decided to show good judgement and hit up the samples before doing any wine tasting.

We always stop at Wood Orchard Market located just north of Egg Harbor. 

They were appropriately festive outside with a chalk sign, and inside with lots of yummy cherry and raspberry based items to sample. We ended up with our old standby of raspberry salsa, and a new favorite of cherry butter.

We ended up driving a little further up up to Fish Creek for lunch before turning back and heading towards Door Peninsula Winery.

Why yes, it was highly festive. And we bought a few bottles.

And for the second time in two days, great restraint was shown.

After extravagant sampling (at least by me) we got back in the car where I promptly fell asleep on the way back down to Green Bay. I woke up only when we arrived at the grocery store (the aptly named Festival Foods) to buy more Wisconsin alcohol (New Glarus beer).

Once we got back to the house I headed out to the patio to relax with my books! 

Summer Road Trip-Monday Part 2

So after we tore ourselves away from Dr. Evermore's art work on Monday morning we headed into Devil's Lake State Park, which was just a few miles away. After a few wrong turns (seemed to be our theme for the morning) due to poorly placed park signs, we ended up on the road that goes around the park. One of the best things about this park was that there was a road that you could take, without paying the park entrance fee, that took you throughout the entire park. So many times you have to pay to get into the park at all. Since we just wanted to drive through and didn't want to stop and spend any time there (not in that heat at least!) this was a perfect solution for us. 

After the park we headed over to the Merrimac Ferry, a free ferry that crosses the Wisconsin River. 

Fluffy had never been on a ferry before, but she had a lovely trip. 

After safely disembarking from the ferry we headed back into Madison where we had a quick regrouping before heading out for quiet family time at a coffee shop down on State Street. How glorious it was to be in a place where we could walk through downtown and have a selection of quaint little coffee shops to choose from. Oh Madison, how we love you.

We settled in at Michelangelo's for a pleasant afternoon of iced coffee, free wifi and and a yummy cranberry oatmeal cookie.

 
Once we'd had our fill of caffeine we headed over to a favorite microbrewery, The Great Dane.

Even though it was still pretty hot outside we decided to sit back in the beer garden. We had the garden to ourselves, which really mean we were the only patrons stupid enough to want to sit outside in 95 degree weather.

 Beer, hard cider and salads were consumed. 

We ended the evening with a walk along State Street, where I had to be forcibly pulled away from these amazing shoes in Urban Outfitters. But I think I might sneak off to the store in South Bend when we get back to see if I can find them while unsupervised!

Happy Holiday.

As is probably now abundantly clear, the N-Boy spent the last ten months in Russia. He loves Russia. I love Russia. It is a wonderful country and he is doing some super fascinating research on Russian history. 

But I think he's still glad to be home. And I'm most definitely glad to have him here. 

Happy Fourth of July!