Travels Days 3-5

Before leaving NYC, we took a taxi back to the church/Temple so that we could attend church on Sunday morning.  The ward that met first was the singles ward : )  We fit right in!  The meeting was really awesome.  The speakers where great, and chapel was bright and beautiful, the young people nearly filled the pews.  

One of the speakers was a younger (26ish) man who gave a talk on trust, faith, and using the Atonement.  I think he must have been a pre-med student because he talked about how he had had to have some surgery and that he knew that it was going to be a rough recovery with plenty of pain meds involved.  He worried about the danger of becoming addicted to them but knew that with the knowledge he had, that it would be okay.  The pain was pretty bad so he took them for a few weeks and then one night, he had very strong impression that he should ween himself off of the meds soon.  The pain was still fairly bad and he was afraid to not take them but he was impressed again that he should back off of them and trust that the Lord would help him through it.  He spoke about how the Savior knew exactly what he was going through because he had felt his pain already, in the garden of Gethsemne.  He testified that we were never meant to go through the pains and trails of this life without HIM.  He can, and will, be there every step of the way, if we let Him.   It was a very powerful moment that I have thought about many times since that day.  

After leaving NYC we headed to Ron and Marcia's (Dave's sisters) home in Connecticut.   Ron made us the most fantastic dinner ever!!  Steak, jumbo stuffed shrimp, twice baked potatoes, salad, rolls, etc.  AMAZING!  Between the great food and even better company, it was the perfect end to an already perfect day.  

After a few hours of  visiting, we headed out to find our condo that dad and mom arranged for us in Newport RI.  We found it without much trouble and settled in for the night.
In the morning, we headed out to find breakfast.  Our (the girls) goal was to NOT eat at any chain restaurants while we were traveling.  We did pretty well until the last couple of days and the boys played along fairly well.

We bought tickets to see 5 of the Mansions of Rhode Island.  HOLY COW!!  They were amazing!!  Even after seeing 5 of them I still couldn't wrap my brain around the wealth that those families had and they only used them for "summer cottages" for about 9 weeks during the summer.  Most of them were abandoned after only a few years of use (due to high taxes).  They are all owned and maintained by the Historical Society now.  We weren't allowed to take photos inside but let me assure you, they had the finest furnishings complete with gold leaf everywhere, marble statues, tapestries, and the most modern conveniences (like electricity) of the day.

The Breakers was built by the Vanderbilt family.

Side view of the Breakers

Front entrance of the Breakers

Marble House

This home was lived in by one of the champions of women's suffrage, who later booted her husband out!

Rose cliff, my favorite

Chateau Sir Mur (I think that's how it's spelled)

While we were driving around exploring Newport, we came across this...
An old, abandoned, burnt out "mansion".  We stopped the car and walked across a large field to get to it.  We are all curious people so it's a good thing that we had access to 4G phones, because we were able to Google search and discovered that this was just the HORSE STABLE of the mansion that is no longer there.  It belonged to the governor of RI in the early 1900's.  Turns out that the large field that we walked across, was were the mansion sat.

HORSE STABLE!

Must have been nice to be this mans horse!

We spent a very chilly few hours touring Fort Adams.  The wind coming off of the ocean was crazy!  But it was very interesting to explore this place.
The guide was an old Irish guy (the Irish settle Newport and surrounding areas) who had a dry sense of humor.  He told us all about how the fort was constructed and what it took to build it, which was pretty amazing.  Then I asked him how many times they had to defend themselves from British enemy ships trying to invade and his response was..."Oh, the sissy's never showed up!!"  I laughed so hard!!  All that work, for nothin!?  Nope...Peace through strength!

View from the fort across the bay

They built listening tunnels so that if the British were to tunnel down and attempt entry that way, they would hear them digging.  Clever!!

Part of the Listening Tunnels

Cannon and artillery holes in the massive walls

More to come later...

Travelers: Day 1 & 2

Dave and I just returned from our trip out East.  We had a blast with each other and with our friends who braved it with us.  I say braved, because it was COLD!  We spent most of our time near the Atlantic Ocean so the cold winds chilled us to the bone some days.  Fortunately, we spend most of our time indoors.  

I must confess, I have some issues with germs and this trip defiantly solidified those issues, just in case there was a little wriggle room for doubt.  I'll get into that in a bit...

We landed in Providence Rhode Island, picked up our rental car and drove straight to NYC!  That took about 3 hours but the time went by pretty quick because we were looking at the scenery and gearing up for our adventure. 

Enter...New York City!  Lights, skyscrapers, taxi's, people, trains, strange smells, etc.  I'd been there before, about 17 years ago, but I'd only gone in for a few hours to see the Rockettes Christmas Show with my sister in law Marcia.  This time was different.  I actually talked Dave into staying a couple of days in the city and taking in a show on Broadway.  If you know Dave, you know he HATES crowds, and to be put in situations that he isn't in control, and in NYC, NO ONE is in control!!  It's pretty much a free for all!  

I/we quickly discovered that I couldn't live there or in any other large city.  I'm just not built for it.  I love to visit but the thought of having to live in that grind everyday...no thanks!

In the morning we set out to the Temple in Manhattan.  It was so different to see it sitting there in the middle of chaos, surrounded by towering buildings and traffic, complete with honking horns, flashing billboards and much hustle and bustle.  Yet, when we entered, it was like every other Temple I've been in.  Peaceful, quiet and beautiful.  I couldn't hear the sounds from outside and very quickly, I didn't feel like I was in the biggest city in America.  

 


After returning to the streets, we caught a taxi to the area of Broadway, honestly, I was lost the entire time!  It's a good thing we had cell phones with GPS and other navigational tools of them.  Every taxi that we took was an adventure, and I'm pretty sure the drivers were all named Muhammad!  Nice enough, but they all seemed tired and stressed, which is not necessarily a good combination for a taxi driver, I'm just sayin...

We did a "typical touristy" thing and rode on the double decker bus for a city tour.  It was highly recommended from someone I trust so we did it and boy, I'm happy we did!!  We didn't realize that we had planned out trip into NYC on St Patrick's Day!!  

Holy drunk leprechauns!!  Thousands of them!!  They shut down a major street (I'm not sure which one because I was lost)  for the parade, complete with bag pipers, horses, bands, etc.  There was NO shortage of alcohol and cigarettes.  But we were able to watch all of the crazies from the comfort of our slightly filthy bus and listen to our very sarcastically funny, dry witted tour guide.

 

The tour was actually really good.  It got us OUT of the mess, it gave us a nice overview of the history and layout of that city.  It took us by places like, Chinatown, SoHo, Greenwich Village, a pub where George Washington frequented before becoming President, the Statue of Liberty, battery park, 5th Ave, Wall Street, the "canyon of heros" where they had the celebration of winning WWII, etc.

Then we headed to Wicked!  The show was great!  But to be honest, I was a little underwhelmed by the theater itself.  It seemed a bit run down and tired but they still put on a great show.  The actress who played Elphaba was AMAZING!!  I could have listened to her all day!  Dave was a good sport to play along with my wishes.

 Next, we hit a diner called "The Stardust" where the servers sing and dance and basically audition in public, hoping for that big break to land a show in a theater.  These kids are really chasing dreams, working hard and are very talented.  We had a blast there and the food was amazing as well, but being a mom, I just couldn't shake the thought of what these kids lives must be like.  I think that NYC and the hope of becoming a Broadway star often eats them up and spits them out faster than I could imagine. There was a part of me that just wanted to sit them down and listen to what they are going through.  Such a hard life, but at least they are working!

 

More to come later...

Get Away

For the last several weeks Dave and I have been trying to plan a work/fun get away to Hawaii.  He needed to head out there to the BYU campus and I was going to tag along with him, I know, its rough.  We talked to some friends of ours and they were going to jump in on the adventure too and make it a real vacation, with a little work mixed in.

We started plotting and planning our grand adventure, even looking into island hopping over to Maui for a few days.  We found a few good options for vacation rentals that were really very affordable and looked into scuba diving, snorkeling, and whale watching.  

Then, the news came from Turtle Bay (the hotel that we would be staying at and the ONLY one on that side of the island) that they are under construction and half of their rooms are not available!  It is the "high" season over there so having half of the rooms and condos not available means that they can, and do, charge double the price for the same room.  Who's brilliant idea was that to rip the place apart in March?  Someone was not using their thinker!

So we checked in staying over in Waikiki (and hour away and yucky like L.A.) but who wants to pay top dollar to stay in a crowded, gross big city?  Not us!  Plus we'd have to drive Dave out to the North Shore, drop him off and kill time while he was working, etc, etc, etc.  Any way...  We decided to postpone that trip and go another direction, literally!

Dave has a conference in Rhode Island so we are going East!  I am pretty excited about this trip.  Why?  Because I just bought tickets to see 

Wicked  

at the Gershwin Theater!!  

It seems that everyone I know has seen that show and loved it.  Now I get to see it, on Broadway!

We will also get to visit with Dave's sister and her husband in Connecticut so that will be awesome as well.  

We are going to see the Mansions in Rhode Island http://www.newportmansions.org/, Cape Cod, http://www.capecodchamber.org/ , Boston, http://www.northendboston.com/visit-2/historic-sites/ and who know what else.  

We will run until we drop!!  There is so much history back there, so much to be explored, so little time, but we will conquer!!

Hawaii will have to wait for another day...perhaps in the fall, but for now, we are going East!

"Wills"

Dave and I took a short trip to Idaho a few weeks ago and on the way my mind started to wander about, life junk.  Hey, there is LOTS of open space out there with nothing to look at, so that's what my mind does.  I forgot to bring a book to read to/with Dave so I was left to my own devises. 

We were taking Amanda up to college (BYU-Idaho) and so I kept thinking of all of the things that I might have forgotten to teach her, like how long to boil an egg for the perfect hard boiled egg, and how to pick good fruit (assuming she would actually buy and eat some).  It's amazing what you think of when you are faced with sending your kids out into the world, to survive on their own.

This led to another subject that raced through the empty cavern of my mind...

If we die on this trip, would the kids know what to do?  Who to call?  Where the guns are?  Where the ammo is?  What to sell?  What to keep?   How to handle the bills?  How to get Dave's life insurance $$ to pay the bills?  Did they know that they would need several (like 20) death certificates?  The answer was a very loud NO!  Holy crap!   This is how my mind works!    Scary, I know!

Now, living with Dave for 23+ years has taught me a thing or two about being prepared.  I usually have extra this or that around the house, in case of an emergency and I usually don't let the gas tank get below a 1/4 (he would prefer 1/2 tank) etc, but the kids growing up and being capable of handling the "in case we die" topic just seemed to sneak up on me and yet, here I was, face to face with this time on our lives.  

So Dave and thought it would be a great idea to sit down with them one Family Home Evening (FHE) to discuss this very strange topic.  We told them that should we both go "toes up" that they need to first call G-ma and G-pa Peterson (my parents) who will help them through financial junk.  Then of course, call Marcia and Ron (Dave's sister and brother in law) and continue calling family and friends etc.  

My dad dealt with money his entire career and is pretty good at it so he would be able to navigate through that for them.  

Now here's where it goes WRONG...

We asked them to make a list of things that we own, that they would want.  The lists are as follows, with quotes from them while they laughed.

Chris, speaking on behalf of Sarah, "We want everything in the garage!"
Amanda, "No, I call the Avalon.  I love that car.  It goes FAST!"
Jeff, "Well I call the Suburban and the 22 year old Camry"
Becca, "I want the 4-wheeler"
Chris, "Okay we'll take everything else in the garage".
Amanda, "I want the blender!"
Jeffrey, "I want all of the kitchen appliances and the electronics".

This is when I said, "Umm the blender I have now probably wont be alive then.  I go through blenders like no body's business."


Becca, "Okay, I'll take the NEW blender that you will have!"
Jeffrey, "I want the coasters"  (These are the, hold your drinks kind of coasters that I made)
Amanda, "I want all of the Disney movies and books.  Oh and, the couches and ONE bed"
Jeffrey, "I want the guns and Grandpa Charles' historical stuff."
Becca, "I want all of Grandma Corry's stuff like the chair, dresser, etc. and moms jewelry"

Jeffrey, "So, this is like the ultimate Christmas list!!"

It didn't take long for the laughter to erupt and soon, what was going to be a serious discussion, turned into ridiculousness!! Oh well, we tried.

Burn it all, sell it all, I don't care, just don't fight over anything or we will haunt you!!

Welcome to our "new" blog

I'M CHEAP!

So I gave up trying to get around blogger wanting $$ from me to continue blogging.  Cheap, I know, but my theory is the less my credit card # is out there in cyber space, the better.  So my way around the situation was to slightly change the name of our blog and start fresh.  I took, what seemed like hours, scouring you tube trying to find a way around the problem but to no avail.  So, I ended up adding a "s" to petersen and will carry on, despite blogger.   

I'm sticking my tongue out and blowing them a raspberry...you should see me!  I'm cheap AND ridiculous!!

Wanna see a photo of my little guy?  I knew you would.