Category: People

Pretty House

The (in)famous Casa Bonita was the site of our evening repast today, but not just ours. We had arranged for a mini Calvary Reunion of sorts, and met up with our former intern Calob and his wife Sarah, and Nancy and her nephew Jared.

Casa Bonita is more than just a restaurant, it’s an experience. There’s cliff diving (with torches, too!),

puppet shows, piñata busting, and other entertainments, along with an arcade with skee ball, video games, etc.

We spent more than three hours there in all, and enjoyed hearing about Nancy’s vacation and Calob’s and Sarah’s new arrangements in Colorado.

9 July 2009
By the way…

While our main goal on this trip is to have fun and see many amazing wonders, which we certainly have been doing, we had a few personal guidelines to help us make decisions along the way:

1. No fast food – Subway is allowed but we haven’t been there yet and Dairy Queen is allowed for ice cream only. Unfortunately some of the food at tourist places like Niagara was not much better than fast food – we have been having lots of picnics. So far, so good.

2. No Wal-Mart – we were directed to Wal-mart when we asked about the nearest grocery store – but we declined and waited for a better opportunity. So far, so good.

3. Return in better shape than when we left (parents mostly) – no great progress to report on this one, but we are plenty active when we get out of the car, so I think we are holding steady. There will be more hiking in the 2nd part of the trip.

Just a little insight into the strange workings of our minds.

More about our fun day at the Rockies game in another post!!!

9 July 2009
My Heritage

Today, we made a visit to Heritage Manor,

the nursing home where my grandmother (Nonna — Italian for grandmother) lives. Seven years ago, when we were last out this way, Tyler was an infant and Nonna was (at age 91) still living in the home that her husband built for them.

Nonna looks pretty good for 98,

and certainly seems to be in better health than most of the people in the home. It’s not always easy to understand her, but that was true for me 30 years ago as well, as her English is tinged with an Italian accent, that being her native tongue. She is somewhat hard of hearing as well.

We had a nice visit with Nonna. I was able to show her pictures from our trip so far, although I hadn’t thought to bring any pictures of her daughter, my mom, along. We stayed for about half an hour, and then it was time for her lunch. Thanks to one of the staff, we found a nice park nearby to have a picnic lunch with the groceries we had bought in town earlier.

After lunch, we headed back for another visit, and stayed for about an hour. We brought Nonna down to the solarium, to give her roommate a bit of peace. Susan played the guitar a little, and we sang a few songs while the kids drew pictures for Nonna. She was looking a little tired, and after a couple of pictures our visit came to an end.

1 July 2009
They Could … Go … All … The … Way!

Well, perhaps it’s too early make such a prediction, but we did at least get on the road today. Our friends Larry and Amy, and their children Allison and Jeffrey treated us to breakfast this morning, which was a real treat! Then our neighbors, the Greers, took our picture before we headed on our way.
We were a little later than we intended in getting on the road this morning, but that was mostly because we decided to have some floors refinished, since the house will be devoid of living things for a span.

We followed Rt. 2 from Arlington all the way through Massachusetts up to the northwest corner, then into New York and Troy, where our friends Wendy and Charles, and their children Gregory and Marguerite, treated us to lunch. What a great way to start a trip!

After a relaxing lunch, we found our way to I-87 S and then I-90 W, which took us out to Rochester, where we are spending our first night.

27 June 2009