just a small town girl

it was super bittersweet leaving Atkinson today. I really had a nice visit with my parents, brother & fam, neighbors and friends while I was here. it is a comforting and familiar place, easy to slide back into.

it has also been a brain scramble and tiring to be so out of my own life and routines. there is so much I had hoped to do while I was here, but I ran out of time before I got to dig into any of my planned projects. oh well! I reached saturation.

my gears are changing slowly back to road trip mode, and in a few short days, I'm sure I'll be carefree and refreshed again! :)

tomorrow, I am handing the blog over to Kate to say hi, and let you know what our plans are! it's time for me to sleep.

Hampton beach with dad

dad and I decided to get out of the house on Monday, and drive up for an afternoon at Hampton beach. it was by far the mist gorgeous day thus week! after a pretty rainy couple if nights, it was 77°, with a nice breeze at the beach. we got lunch at Markies (YUMMY lobster salad!), then parked, and walked the new boardwalk down to the bandstand. the renovation at the beach ate really quite nice! it was fun to stick my toes back into the Atlantic ocean for a minute! sure was Warner than the pacific! ;)

bill & Toni's wedding!

on sat July 28th, bill & Toni got married at their house in northwoods NH. it was a fab gathering if old friends, and their families. as the photographer of our friends for so many years past, bill asked me to photograph the wedding for them. it was a a fun way to be part if the festivities (and get to know my camera much better!).

wedding was beautiful, and a fun night was had by all... until the mosquitoes showed up late that night. ha. ;)

Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

ever summer Greg & michelle rent some cabins on Lake Winnipesaukee with some friends, and spend a week swimming, playin, boating, bbq'ing and relaxing. this year, I was lucky enough to be around to take advantage of some of the time!

I managed to get a few little projects to work in early that week (yea! just enough to pay the rent this month!), so worked at my parents house early in the week. Tuesday, dad and I made a jaunt up to the lake. it was a gorgeous day!! we had lunch and ice cream in town, saw the mt Washington steam boat, then went back to the cabins for some tubing in gregs boat. all in all a very nice day!

I returned to the lake later in the week for a night. the skies had finally broken into rain, but I enjoyed the time with Greg, michelle, Christina.... and the delicious brisket!

kristin's surprise 40th b-day party

to surprise Kristin in advance of her 40th b-day this November, her sis and mom put together a surprise evening out with her girlfriends in NH. it was so exciting that I was here to join in the fun, and a perfect night. :)

after surprising her at a McDonald's, we all piled into Tracy's car, and drive to Hampton beach where we had lovely dinner together, then went over to the Hampton beach casino ballroom for one of kristin's favorite bands, daughtry. there were three opening acts, so it was a long night... but we all had a blast chatting and dancing! even mrs lawson who had a good table boogey going on!

big thanks and kudos to tracy and mrs L for putting together such a fun night!!

guilty of blog neglect!

for the past two weeks, I've been camped out in NH at my parents house. its been real nice to unpack the bags, dump the car out, and sleep in my own bed.

it has been a nice long visit in NH, packed with a lot of visiting and activities. i enjoyed being in one place for a bit, and honestly had a hard time willing myself to put everything back into the car to hit the road again. excited to travel again, changing gears again is happening slowly.

first a few catch up photos, then I'll talk a bout what next! ;)

home sweet Atkinson!

after three weeks of traveling, I made it home to the house i grew up in in Atkinson NH tonight. :) I am so happy to be here, and plant my feet on the ground for a few weeks.

went out to a casual dinner with the folks tonight, and I am now happily tucked into bed, in my old bedroom. :D

tomorrow I relax. then possibly do some laundry, and a good clean out of the car. but relax comes first. :)

cape cod Lawson-fest 2012

drove north from NY to cape cod to visit with Kristin (lawson), Jason, grace and Cameron at their vacation house in Chatham. tracy (lawson), Emily and Alivia were there as well, mr and mrs lawson rolled in shortly after I arrived, and Andy came in that evening. it was a wonderful and chaotic reunion to see the Atkinson Lawson's all in one place!

all the kids have grown up so much, it was fun to spend time with them, and watching them play together.

spent two days on the cape with them, shuttling the clan to the beach, avoiding thunderstorms, playing games, reading books, and sharing good old fashioned family meals together.

also had the pleasure of catching up with teddy bear! we even snuck out for a night, and had a lovely kid-free dinner together in chatham.

had a wonderful time with my "atkinson family" at Lawson fest, but my fatigue from being on the road and living out of the car, sleeping on couches and non-stop visiting has totally caught up to me. I'm really pooped!

red house kids & their kids

leaving pa tues morning, I continued north into ny, and stopped by to visit my college buddy andrew, his wife Amy and their cutie kids Nate and Emily in westchester. super fun to see my friends all growed up n stuff with new houses, kids, jobs, etc. so proud. ;)

we went out for a yummy Thai dinner (welcome change after a lot of road food!), and then met up with Duncan for a drink. it is funny how much we have grown up, yet I still feel like we are all the same dorks we were back in the Syracuse red house days!

crashed for the night with Amy & Andrew, and was back in the car again early the next am as they got the kids packaged up for school. and, again. I was a slacker and didn't get any pics with those guys. :( next time....

catch up time with cousin jakatt's

after a lovely lazy morning with Melani, she had to head to work, and I drove out to coatsville to catch up with auntie Maria and uncle steve.

auntie Maria welcomed me right Ito the house, and made me a sandwich for lunch. it was really nice to have some quiet time to chat. after that, mark, Jessica and their kids Braydon (vivacious 3 year old with a new Mohawk!) and emleigh (4 months) surprised me with a visit! shortly after that Erika also came by, and uncle steve returned with maria's cousin patty from holland. it was nice to see everyone, and we lazily hung out for a few hours catching up.

after the kids left, I stayed and had a yummy dinner with Maria steve and patty. our conversations wandered all over the place, and then steve and I dove into his files on our family history. it was super interesting to hear more about my fathers mothers family and our Lithuanian heritage. I am going to have to bug my dad when I get home to dig up anything he might still have of my grandmothers. I know some stories from my grandparents, but I really eat this stuff up! :)

i spent the night, and had such a nice relaxed visit. my extended family is so small, and we see each other so infrequently (weddings and funerals), so this was really special to have this time.

bummed I didn't snap any pics of the kids, I think we were all pictured out after the wedding!

BBQ with the sf kids in Philly

from state college, I drove out to north Philly to Melani and kyle's house for a BBQ. super sweet of them to host, and have all sort if yummy food prepared for us. the day was really hot and humid, and they had a party tent set up out back with a blower fan to keep us cool!

it was a lovely afternoon catching up with saf and Bev, Menard, Regine and jean Se and the kids, Mel & Kyle. it had been quite a while since I have see most of the east coast contingent.

we finished the evening off relaxing I. the front porch while taking in a awesome thunder and lightening storm. it was impressive, and a delight. I really miss thunder storms on the west coast!

old friend!

Sunday morning after the wedding I had the awesome opportunity to get together with erin mcnulty, the girl who was my best friend from 1-4th grade. her family moved to state college pa when we were In middle School, but our moms have remained close friends. it has easily been 20+ years since we have seen each other.

it was delightful to have breakfast and catch up for a little bit. I even got to meet Erin's daughter Fallon. such a cutie.

I hope it is way less than 20 years that go by before we see each other again!

dani & troy's wedding...

my cousin dani and Troy had a lovely and fun wedding ceremony at the penn stater hotel in state college pa. their friend who officiated the ceremony pulled off an amazing "princess bride accent", and the happy couple receded down the aisle to the star wars theme. I was very impressed with their unique and personal touches to the ceremony!

the happy couple had a photo booth set up for the guest book, and later on, just for plain fun! such a unique and fun addition to the night! we had a lot of fun with it with the whole fam!

had a total blast catching up with the cousins and family, dancing the night away at the wedding! such an happy evening.

the weeks to come

I have a lot of little things lined up this week as I make my way up to NH. I'm looking forward to a bit more of a relaxed pace this week.

after dani and troy's wedding tonight, I'll hopefully catch a little more time with the jakatt's in the morning, then I'm off to a BBQ at Melani & kyle's in Philly. super excited to see all the east coast kids again! from there I might do some more visiting in pa and ny, them make my way up to Cape Cod to spend a few days with Kristin, tracy and the kids. I expect to make it to NH around the end of the week where I'll have time to relax for a few weeks (and clean out the car!).

when I get to NH, Kate and I are going to connect to figure out where we want to explore for the east-west journey across the country. we need to end at the grand canyon, and Phoenix (for kate's flight home), but between here and there, are possibilities are endless. after this crossing in the northern states, I am left wanting so much more time to explore. it is so hard to fit all I wanted to do in 2 weeks... and this crossing gave me a little perspective on how to balance out the time somewhat.

what is to come remains to be seen.... I'm excited. :)

hanging with the cousins!

we came to state college pa for the wedding of my dear cousin dani to her long time boyfriend troy. always exciting to spend time with the Jakatt clan!

after a nice dinner with our fam, Greg and I headed downtown to meet up with the big kids for some merriment and dancing the night away. it was great to see everyone and catch up a bit. mark and Jessica are the proud new parents of their second child, little girl named emleigh. Erika and Matt are expecting their first this winter, which is super exciting. and dani and troy were having a blast surrounded by many friends! what Greg and I figured would be a quick hello, then back to the hotel didn't wind down until 1am. ;)

travel log!

in addition to the blog, we kept a log of our miles covered each day, sights seen and highlights.

in the 11 days we traveled together, we covered a total of 3,362 miles from San Francisco, CA to State College, PA. traveling with Christina was so much fun, and an adventure I hope we both remember for a lifetime. :)

although this chapter is done, I still have a long way to go this summer!

final push into pa

on our last day if our Roadtrip together, we still had 6 hours to drive. we made the best if it, but it was definitely a boring driving day, filled with our anticipation to reach state college pa to see our family.

we passed the time finalizing a few postcards, more madlibs, and Christina watched a movie while I listened along. true boredom had set in by the time Christina made puppet faces in all her toes. ha.

excitement in the day was when I got pulled over by a pa state trooper. I was soooo annoyed that we were less than 2 hours from our destination, and I got clipped. ugh. luckily, he just pulled me over to key me know I had a headlight out, and had a grand time talking to Christina and I about our trip. phew!!

we arrived in state college just after 4pm, and had a lovely reunion with mom, dad and grandma. :) we chatted for a few minutes, and Christina wasted no time finding the pool in the hotel. ha.

our last Roadtrip night...

I was on the fence about pushing some more miles tonight, but decided to call it just outside Toledo, a little more than half the distance left that we need to cover to state college PA. good thing too cuz we crossed into eastern time, which meant we arrived an hour later than i planned. we used the handy holiday inn rewards app to book a room for the night, and for the same price, we chose a jacuzzi tub and a king bed over 2 queen beds. the jacuzzi tub in the room turned out to be huge!!

as we drove in, we saw that the hotel actually had a huge water park attached. Christina's eyes almost popped out of her head. checking in, we found out we only had 30 left to catch the pool park, so we changed fast, and ran down. only a piece of the water park was open, but it was fun regardless!

after a quick dinner in the hotel, we went back to the room and soaked in our jacuzzi tub while watching tv. we both felt like we died and went to heaven for our last night. quite a fun note to end on!! :)

we still have 6 hours to drive tomorrow, and are sad to end our road trip together... but are also looking forward to seeing everyone In state college! should be an exciting reunion!

I can't believe how fast the last 11 days have gone, and how much fun Christina and I have had together. it has been far beyond all my expectations, and I look forward to doing it again sometime! :)

I-I-I-O

Iowa to Illinois to Indiana to Ohio. spent the day making some miles on the road. opposed to yesterday when we were boring, today we played games and had fun to pass the time. Christina thought she brought a madlibs book, but couldn't find it, so she proceeded to write her own. story after story, it was fantastic. you will have to get her to tell you the "legend of the jackalope and golden cowboy". awesomest madlibs story ever!!

at the halfway point, and lunch we decided to make a quick stop at a park along lake Michigan just outside Chicago. we went to Indiana sand dunes state park which turned out to be an awesome beach! we had to put on our bathing suits, and hang out for awhile. the water was delightful, and we had fun playing around. it was super sad to leave, but we had miles to go.

mississippi river & holiday inn

started our morning out I front of the hotel saying hello to the Mississippi river. Christina collected a little jar of the river to keep with her pacific ocean.

we have become quite the holiday inn fans. they are everywhere, and since the whole chain of hotels did an overhaul, they are quite nice! I became a rewards club member for the trip, and we downloaded an app to find the closest places to stay on our route. Christina is an expert at negotiating the pool and breakfast buffet. I think that holiday inn has replaced the national parks in interest level in this second half of the trip. ha. ;)