Friday, July 12, 2013

Saying goodbye to the casita ;(

So all good things have to come to an end our trip included ;(


We drove all day on Friday July 5th.  We were actually pretty excited about pulling an all nighter and just pushing through from Jersey to Tybee Island.  However, sanity entered in after late night waffles at the Waffle House and we ended up at a motor lodge somewhere in North Carolina.  The pups first motel stay.  John did not exactly mention to the lady we had 4 dogs.  His excuse.."Well, she did not ask..."  I am pretty sure we would have been staying in a Walmart parking lot if she had.  The KOA was full and we were pooped.

On Saturday July 6th we made it to Charleston, S.C.  We visited with a grad friend of John's, David Payne and his wife Bev and their two boys George and Charlie -- So cute.  It was wonderful to catch up with them both.  That night we then drove down to Tybee Island, GA to see John's sister, Laur and her husband Mark and our nephews, Calvin and Tanner.  Nevermind the fact that we left Charleston at 11:30 pm (we kept the dogs at the Mt. Pleasant KOA for the afternoon while we visited) and then drove 2.5 hours.  We both drank some energy drinks to keep us going --- oops!  and listed to some Entertainment radio on the way.  We arrived at 3:00 am.  Awesome.

We enjoyed a day at the beach with Laur, Mark and the boys on Sunday July 7th.  We played in the ocean and the sand and went kayaking. John and I successfully got burnt.  Incidentally we did put on sunscreen --- once-- and it was 15 SPF. Wow, what morons.  Anyway, SPF 50 is always a good idea especially when your body has not seen the sun in  quite awhile and you are white as as sheet.  :) Lesson learned. I must say we are learning lessons all the time!

We rode our bikes to dinner with Laur and the boys to a restaurant called Social.  The food was great.  After a full day of sun we were all exhausted the boys were practically falling asleep at the table.  However, after our gelato they were buzzing around like little bees.  We took a walk down to the beach and let them run around like hooligans for awhile.  John even got in on the fun with a race....

1 cute nugget - Calvin
Another cute nugget - Tanner

The next day we were planning on heading to Clemson but this was before we realized we did not have our passports.  Mom and Dad Lattimore had driven the RAV4 from Texas to Tybee Island, GA (remember we had 2 cars in Texas -- I know it has been awhile--try to keep up).  Anyway, John had thought he had put all of our important documents in the RAV.  After tearing through bags and emptying boxes and making several phone calls they were found in Texas at the Emerald Bay house.  Luckily, Mom Lattimore has some amazing neighbors who went over and found our file folder for us.  Thank you for sweet neighbors!!!

Since we had 2 cars John decided to come on home to wait on our passports and I went on to Clemson to see some of your friends for the night.  I  got to see some wonderful friends Sarah and Bryan Mudder (Ruby and Ransom), Lauren and Jimmy Butts (and baby Selah), Megan Sanders, Kandace Terry, Jessie Strickland, Rachel Hite, and Stephen Chapman.  It was great to see friends from the DCF community. I miss them all so much.  I got to attend a bible study with Sarah on Tuesday morning.  So refreshing!  I also got to meet babies Ransom and Selah who were both born while we are traveling.  It is always great fun to meet new babies!

We have been cleaning and getting packed and ready for Ireland the last couple of days. Yes, Ireland.  Crazy huh!  We are off for 3 weeks while the dogs get to enjoy a nice stay at a pet resort that includes training!  We hope that sticks!

John and I have enjoyed our adventures. They have been wonderful.  However, I can safely say that this was a once in lifetime experience traveling with our 4 dogs.  I do not recommend traveling with 4 medium sized dogs in a 17 foot trailer.  If you do so, don't travel for 3 months!  :)

So yeah maybe having 4 dogs is crazy BUT our lives are full of adventure everyday!

Thank you so much for following our adventures.  There may be more to come with our trip to Ireland even though the pups won't be there.  We will miss them but it will be nice for it to be just the two of us for a bit...

C&J + 4 glad to be home pups (well at least for today---they don't know about the pet resort yet :)

Lessons I have learned from the dogs
1. Fiona -- it is never to early to play -- in fact playtime should be all the time
2. Ralph - persistence is important -- especially when it involves staring at someone until they give you food!
3. Phoebe-- you can never pet and cuddle your pup too much -- it really does lower stress levels!  
4.  Lilly -- keeping a schedule is very important -- this is why we get up at 7:30 am every morning because of our little alarm clock :)               

Friday, July 5, 2013

Jersey Shore and the 4th

We left Freeport the morning of July 3rd and headed south. *Sigh*  As the temperature started to climb we all wondered if we really should be headed south...I drove the first leg of the trip because we all knew for the sake of the family I should not be driving through, near or around NYC.  SO that was a good call.  My poor husband ended up driving that section and man was it stressful. I believe I held my breath through New Haven until we crossed the George Washington Bridge.  Yes, you did hear me correctly.  We literally did drive through NYC which was not planned.  We were following our Tom Tom and were not really paying attention..until we realized somewhere around New Haven that there were no trucks, trailers, or buses...then we noticed the bridges --- they got smaller and smaller and we kept seeing low clearance signs but did not see the height until we were right on top of the bridge.  We cleared the 9'2 bridge our smallest.  John and I both held our breath.  So John's Dad has mentioned "Make sure to check the map and don't drive through NYC."  John's reply "Of course, dad, we will." What a bunch of morons.  I am pretty sure that is the first and last time any New Yorkers will see a truck pulling a Casita.  Man, did we get some funny looks.

Sorry, there are no pictures for proof you are just going to have to believe me.  

We spent the 4th with my family at the Jersey Shore.  My cousin Liz and her husband Doug and kids Parker and Harley have a summer home on the shore.  My other cousin Jeannie (who we saw in KC earlier in the trip), Matt and Jackson and my aunt and uncle Al and Cheri were also there.  What fun!  We enjoyed the beach in the afternoon, good conversation and a fun 4th of July party that night at Berry and Patty's house (good friends of the Febo family).  We had great food on a beautiful deck looking onto the bay and watched some amazing fireworks (but forgot to videotape for Laur :(

Me, Harley and Liz

View from porch -- we saw fireworks in 360! Amazing!

Doug's parents also live there and are so sweet and welcoming.  The Febo's are from a big Italian family so they enjoy get togethers and good food.  And, yes, I had my cheek kissed more than once!  :) We wished we could stay longer but we have more family to see!  Onward to see Laur and the boys in Tybee!

The campsite
Oh--our campground was less then desirable so we were glad to spend most of our time at Liz and Doug's and walking our dogs in a nearby park.  The roads were muddy and gravely -- with no grass -- we were by a creek so there were tons of mosquitoes.  They also packed you in like sardines in that place.  We were glad to leave the campground----

Headed farther south---

C+J & 4 happy to be goin home pups :) 

Lessons Learned
1. Do not always follow the Tom Tom
2.  Seriously, when are we going to learn to just stay in KOA's?
3.  Always have back up bug spray -- we gotten eaten alive on one our dog walks
4.  Italians know how to make you feel welcome and make some amazing food! 

Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, and Freeport, Maine

So we love Bar Harbor...even though it was misty and grey.  It was beautiful.  Acadia National Park is breathtaking.  IF you have never been.  Go.  Now.  Really.  Drop everything and go.  The weather is cool but I can seriously say after being in New Jersey for the past 2 hours in the humid 90 I wish it was 60 again.

We stayed at a cute little KOA right as you entered Desert Island.  It was on the ocean and large enough to walk the dogs.  However, the great thing about Acadia was we could take the dogs into the park!  SO nice!

On Sunday night after the dog walk we drove into Bar Harbor (about 15 minutes down the road) and had dinner.  The town of Bar Harbor is adorable and picturesque.  It has a lot of shops and restaurants and sits right on a well --- harbor with lobster boats and sail boats.  We ate at Stewman's Lobster- -- and decided to have the full on New England experience. We ordered lobsters (our waiter prepared mine --- even though I kind of wanted to give it a try---I was kind of glad --- lobster is ok drenched in a ton of butter --- the butter made my tummy hurt after awhile though), tried clam chowder (surprisingly good since I was too chicken to try it in Newport), tried mussels (I can scratch that off my list --- done),  and potatoes, corn, and the most amazing blueberry pie ever....  We survived and giggled a lot.  I am pretty sure the people next to us thought we were ridiculous.  We did have a great seat on the water and even though it was chilly and misty it was perfect!
Bar Harbor

I am going to eat you...

Please don't...

Here we go...

View from table

The harbor


We ate at a wonderful breakfast spot the next morning, Jordan's Blueberry Pancake House.  John, had wild blueberry pancakes and I had some wonderfully yummy granola and yogurt with fruit.  We bought some snacks for lunch as we were going to spend the afternoon in the park with the dogs.  We spent the afternoon driving around the loop of Acadia.  The park loop sends you right past the rocky shoreline and inland among the beautiful glacier lakes.  You can see a lot of the park this way.  Beautiful!  We took the dogs on walks along the carriage roads that run throughout the park.The carriage roads were built by the Rockefellers (they had in Bar Harbor).  These carriage roads are used for bike riders and also walkers.  You can also reach a lot of hikes this way.  John and I also took our dogs around Eagle Lake.  We thought a nice 1.5 hour walk would be good for them. This  turned in to 2.5 hours and, yes, had some elevation changes so we hiked up some hills and were ill prepared and ran out of water...Lesson learned :).  We ended the day by driving around the rest of the island, eating dinner in Bar Harbor at a little Mexican restaurant and wandering around the shops.  It was fun!  We can't wait to go back!

1st carriage road 

Witch hole pond 

View of Bar Harbor from roadway

Shoreline

Breathtaking!

Which way??!!

Eagle Lake --- yes we walked around the whole thing -- oops!

Maine Lighthouse

Morning walk near Jordan Pond 

Bar Harbor, KOA
We took the dogs on one last dog walk in the park on Tuesday July 2nd.  We decided to take a walk around Jordan Pond. Well---we never actually saw the pond on our initial walk --- well because we went the wrong way -- but we did see it in the end!

Freeport, Maine is 2.5 hours south and that is where we headed next.  L.L. Bean headquarters are here.  It is a compound of several stores, a hunting and fishing store, the flagship store, the home store, the bike and ski store...etc. Crazy...John and I spent a couple of hours wandering around L.L. Bean and of course bought stuff.  Fun!  Originally we thought we were going to make it to Portland for a visit but time ran out.  Oh well... we were trying to make it to the Jersey Shore to see family by the 4th.

Famous L.L. Bean boot

John's new backpack and the L.L. Bean complex
Dogs loved Maine and this fun quarry where we took a walk

Breakfast? Yes, please! 
The dogs loved their dog walk in Maine.  We walked in a quarry for a dog walk near our KOA.  We found some wild animal tracks (John swears it was a black bear track---mmm...not sure) in the quarry and the dogs were so excited to smell and track all of the animals in the quarry.  Even Ralph had a little bit of a moment --- running wildly down the gravel hills!

We left Maine for the Jersey Shore on Wednesday July 3rd...Almost done with our trip!

C&J + 4 sad to leave Maine pups :(

Lessons Learned 
1.  Try local foods but it doesn't mean you have to love it! 
2.  Lengths of hikes should always be checked AND water should be added accordingly 
3.  Presidential award winning KOA's are the best! (both Maine KOA's were)

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Normandy Farms and Boston

So the plan was to set up camp at Normandy Farms in Foxboro  MA, set the dogs up in a Canine Coop for the afternoon (compliments of our glamping experience at Normandy Farms), and then head for Boston for the afternoon.--- this did not happen.

We got to Normandy Farms, which was very nice with 4 pools, 2 baseball fields, a large dog park (where our dogs Fiona and Phoebe got in a dog fight with another dog or as the lady said "tried to eat her dog" ---  nice --), disc golf, bike park, fish pond, basketball court, salon with full on massage, pedicure and manicure facilities.  This place was swank and too swank for us.

Couple of things went wrong...

1.  Check out was not until 2  so even though we arrived at 11 we could not get into our campsite until 2...so we had to go park in a field next to a bunch of tents ---
2.  Everyone just stared at us --- literally as if we had three heads --- probably because we had 4 dogs
3.  There were people everywhere--kids riding bikes  people walking dogs, people walking everywhere --weaving in and out of the roads and this made it hard to travel with the trailer through the campground
4. Phoebe and Fiona got in a fight with a dog in the dog park -- and Phoebe had a cut on her foot after --- where she promptly bled all over the car and trailer
5.  John pulled down a road where a RV was pulling out and had to try to back the trailer up-- and he ran into a tree ---- yes people were still watching us and --- no--- no one helped
6. I was stressed the whole time about the dogs and the amount of people so I was not in the best of moods and neither was John by the time we pulled into our campsite at 2.
7.  The 2 Canine Coops were in the Dog Park --- and John and I did not want to leave the dogs in there after the earlier melee so Boston was out until the evening.
Normandy Farms 
I don't mean to be a total downer ... So Boston was fun -- when we finally arrived there!

We did not get into the city until 6 so we missed the visitors center and Freedom Trail maps but luckily the Freedom trail is marked with a red line down the center of the sidewalk. We walked around and saw some really old neat buildings, Sam Adams grave site, where the Boston Massacre occurred, and some street entertainment.    That was a lot of fun! We hope to come back to Boston again because we really did not get to see was much as we would have liked.  The city reminded me of my Dad --- so much history.  It would have been really fun to have him there because we would have had our own personal tour guide.  :)

Site of the Boston Massacre 

A cool pub on the freedom trail -- Maybe Ben Franklin had some brew here?

Boston townhouses 

Street performers -- this guy flipped over the group bending over

The square on the freedom trail

Grave site of Samuel Adams


Boston skyline


Historical Building on Freedom Trail (I am embarrassed I do not know the name of this!)

We also got to see some friends from John's Clemson program, Erik and Anita Simon. Erik just graduated from John's program this summer and actually lived with us for a couple of months last spring while he was wrapping up his classes.  His wife moved to Boston in March of last year for her job at an architecture firm and so we had a roomie for a couple of months!  We met them in the Savin Hill area of Boston and had dinner at the Savin Hill grill.  It was fun to see old friends and also walk around the neighborhood.
Erik!  

We left Normandy Farms on Sunday the 30th to head to Maine. Great fun!  We loved Maine but we hope to be back to see Boston soon!

C+J and 4 happy to be on the road again pups

Lessons Learned
1. Our dogs need more training -- surprise, surprise
2.  No more glamping for us -- at least with 4 dogs
3. Don't try to shove so much in a day --- just causes stress :) breathe! 




Work, Habitat, Downtown Providence, and Newport Beach!

I spent some time catching up on work in Providence while John did Habitat stuff. I did go out with him two afternoons.  One afternoon we biked (it was literally 90 degrees that day).  Seriously...the other afternoon we drove around the neighborhoods.  We saw a lot of loitering, homeless, and tons of trash. When John wanted me to videotape out the window.  I got a bit nervous!  I am not going to lie I did not really fulfill my assistant duties that day!  

Roads in Providence 
 We had dinner at an Italian spot called Andino's on Federal Hill one night.  It was delightful.  We had elected  to sit outside on their new patio and were not aware of the storm coming through....we luckily were able to get a seat inside before it started to pour!

Some of the highlights of Providence included: seeing Brown University (felt smarter just by walking through it), Rhode Island School of Design (felt cool and hip just passing by the students), Benefit Street, and the First Baptist Church in the U.S.  
Academic Building at Brown 
First Baptist Church in US
Upper green at Brown  University 
Roads at Brown 

On John's last day after his interview we headed to Newport for the afternoon!  What fun! Except the weather was chilly, misty, and rainy..we did not get to see much of the beach.  We did enjoy a nice lunch at one of the Black Pearl which was located on a wharf on the ocean.  It was neat.  We then walked around the town for a bit and had some  treats (a cookie and cupcake :) -- We then ended our visit with the Cliff Walk.  This walk is on the ocean and goes by the ritzy summer homes of the Vanderbilt family and the Rockefellers, among others.  We did not have time to do any house tours but we did enjoy seeing the walk and picking out our new second summer "cottages." It is a little less rustic then the cabin ;)  

wharf

Don't fall dear! 

Our new second summer home -- you all are invited!  (Aka The Breakers the Vanderbilt house)

Cliff walk

My cute husband at the wharf
 
The dogs enjoyed their walks at Deerfield park in Smithfield, R.I.  This was near our campsite.  We tried a spot called Snake Den Park (should have had a little clue with that name) -- two days for a walk.  The first night John got some mosquito bites, we saw a snake (hence the name--), saw a deer (dogs went bonkers), saw a cat (my arm almost got pulled off -- literally), we got some more mosquito bites --- and tried to stay away from any poison ivy. As a result -- even though we tried we stayed at Deerfield Park for our walks and avoided the forests.


nature trail

around the soccer field 
We had a quite a few rainy days in Providence and as result the dogs were a mess and our Casita was a bit of a mess ... so we spent quite a few days at the laundry mat ;) --- I think we have bought a new washer and dryer with all of the money we have spent doing our laundry.

So long Providence...we had a great trip!  We enjoyed the people we met and the small townships were cute.  However, they are need of bike paths, running trails, or dog parks....very soon!

We left Providence on Saturday morning on June 29 and headed up to Foxboro, MA.

C+J and 4 pups missing Des Moines walking trails ....

Lessons Learned
1.  Mmmm I am sure we learned plenty but I am honestly just trying to get caught up on the blog :)
Would you like a lobster? 

 



On the road Again...South Bend - State College - Providence!

I did not post photos from John's neighborhoods in Des Moines.  SO here is one!  I loved the habitat houses here. They are my favorites so far!

cute huh?

bike riding
historic neigborhoods

So, John and I had a 3 day +7 hour travel day to Providence.  Our first stop was in South Bend Indiana.  We actually stayed in another town north of South Bend at the KOA.  The KOA was crowded as they were having a GMC RV convention.  Who knew?  Anyway, the town was fine but few places to walk the pups.  We arrived around 6 trying to get in early we had not stopped for a dog walk.  The dogs were excited and of course every single camper had a large sized dog.  I am not kidding.  So...the evening did not start out too well.  We found a park on our iphone which really turned out to be a cemetery---so we ended up walking the pups in a parking lot.

GMC convention
We visited South Bend the next morning for our dog walk.  The town was much larger then either of us realized.  We took the dogs on a walk down by the river.  They enjoyed it.  We then did a quick drive around Notre Dame.  We figured we had to see the campus!

dog walk in south bend

James river south bend
Notre Dame Stadium 

John call's this Touch Down Jesus...:)


Notre Dame Campus
The next day was our longest travel day to Bellafonte.  It also was the most expensive toll road wise!  We paid close to 40 dollars in Ohio and Indiana.  Whew...

Driving in the car for days on end makes you goofy.  John and I did several things to entertain ourselves...we listened to Follow Me a book by David Plat on CD, listened to Sports radio, listened to Entertainment radio (do you know--- Kanye and Kim Kardashian's baby's name---we do--it's North--North West---thanks Entertainment Weekly radio for all of your scintillating information!), sang songs (me mostly- silly camp songs...and generally later at night...), self imposed trivia looking up answers on our iphones :), and our favorite the map game.  This fun game entails a road atlas (check), knowledge about state capitals (it has been awhile since 4th grade geography --- but we did pretty well),  guesses on population sizes and ranking and land area and ranking (I am terrible at numbers so my guesses at first were ridiculous!---John is much better at this!), and the state motto (I nailed this!).  Anyway, fun times.  Really...you should try it...:)  

Being silly and laughing in the car...
We arrived in Providence the next day, June 23.  The dogs were so excited to be there!  We walked them around our campsite Holiday Acres and knew we were going to have to find a park nearby.  Holiday Acres was quite the experience! It was an old summer camp with big play fields, a play ground, a lake (that John and I swam in for 5 minutes one day--a little icky), a rec hall, basketball courts etc..and a bumpy dirt road. There were a lot of permanent and seasonal campers.  So the front yard areas of the campsites were elaborate with screened in porches, figurines, and wooden signs that had their names.  I should have gotten pictures!

C&J + happy to be in Rhode Island pups!

Lessons Learned 
1. Don't push through to a campsite to make a certain time because dogs will be crazy...
2.  Parks are not always "parks" in fact they could be cemeteries...
3. A road atlas is totally necessary for any long road trip --- seriously---
4.  If the campsite is not a KOA you never know what you will get....