First Family Vacation - Part 2

This is the continuation of our first family vacation. If you haven't seen part one, in Savannah, I'd suggest starting to there. If you have seen it, or don't like Savannah for some reason, continue on.

The rain was letting up by the time we got to Charleston, but it was getting late in the day. We got some good BBQ take out and settled into our new pad, which was a unit at a retirement community. It was only a 10 minute drive to the Charleston Historic district and was a great price. Since this place had wifi inside the unit, it was much more convenient to plan our trip.

The first day was very windy, but that didn't stop us from getting out to see Charleston. We started off with a delicious homestyle lunch at Jestine's Kitchen where I discovered coca-cola cake. As far as I can tell, it's just chocolate cake with some coca-cola in it, but it was incredibly moist. I had it three more times after that while we were in Charleston.

From there, we just meandered through the historic district, admiring the architecture.

We made it all the way to the waterfront, which was surprisingly not that windy. There was a nice park where we relaxed before making our way back up through town.

Charleston had a better preserved historical feel than Savannah, but without the small squares scattered throughout, was not as good a place for meandering. In Savannah, you were never more than a couple blocks from a quiet shady spot to sit and relax, in Charleston the waterfront is pretty much it in terms of parks. In both cities, meals were so big that we resorted to having breakfast at our home base and then one meal during the day - either a late lunch or early dinner. Of course, dessert usually happened at least twice.

After one day of walking in Charleston, we actually felt we had a pretty good feel for the city and decided to spend some time on day trips. The second day, we went to Boone Hall Plantation to see what a plantation would have been like. There are a few of them scattered around the area, some with some very exorbitant entry fees. Boone Hall seemed to offer the widest array of activities for the most reasonable price.

The house is at the end of another beautiful live oak drive.

On arrival, we joined a tour of the house, which was very beautiful, but were frustrated that pictures were not allowed inside. Stephanie was also a bit disappointed that the house was not the original, but was built by some Canadian diplomats years later.

Fortunately, they built it in a traditional style, so we still got to soak up the atmosphere. Interesting factoid - it turns out that in the low country of coastal South Carolina and Georgia, that people did not really build huge plantation houses. The mosquitoes and summer heat/humidity, that most people only lived on their plantations for portions of the year.

After the house tour, we explored the slave cabins that run alongside the driveway - a guide explained that they would not normally be placed so visibly or be made of brick, but that since one of the plantations main products was bricks, this was a way to display both the product and the ability of the slaves to build brick structures to prospective clients.

Our next stop was a performance by a local woman to familiarize us with the local Gullah culture, which is a unique culture created by the slaves in the low-country. She provided an interesting mix of history and modern issues that was very engaging. In all of our tours, Aiden periodically felt the need to add his own two cents. We tried to keep him as quiet as possible, but weren't always successful. When we apologized, people waved us off and told us that he was their favorite part of the day. I think that reflects more on Aiden's charm than on anything lacking by the presenters - we really enjoyed them.

We finished off the afternoon with a trolley ride around the plantation, where we learned more about the history and current workings of the site. Afterwards, we drove out to a restaurant on the water called the Wreck. It was in the middle of nowhere, no sign, and we would never have found it if someone at the visitor's center hadn't recommended it as a non-touristy option. She was so right - it looked like it was literally built from a wrecked ship. But it had great views of the sunset, delicious seafood, and even offered free steamed oysters on the dock.

To top it off, the service was great - Aiden decided to be very industrious in his diaper - three times. Each time, the hostess ripped us off a sheet of paper that they use to cover the tables so we could change him without putting him on the bathroom floor.

The next day, we drove about 45 minutes to Wadmalaw Island to visit a winery that also turned out to feature a distillery. On their recommendation, we did the wine tasting first, and then the liquor tasting. It was all delicious and we were quite tipsy by the end. Knowing that we'd probably be in no condition to drive right away, we had packed a picnic lunch. Everything went well until we were interrupted by a rooster chasing a chicken right over our table. Luckily, they missed the food. Then, we were accosted by a duck that hopped up on the bench and stared us down. Someone left a butter knife on the table and I swear the duck tried to pick it up in it's beak to threaten us.

After lunch we enjoyed the rocking chairs and the tire swing, and then moseyed over to the petting zoo, where Aiden got to see the pigs, chickens, rabbits, and goats.

By the time we were sober enough to drive, the sun was beginning to go down.

On the way to dinner, we stopped at the Angel Oak - an enormous live oak tree that's believed to be as much as 1600 years old.

On the drive there, I noticed something white in the trees - what I thought was an albino squirrel.

But then I saw a couple more on the way back so I think it might be a local species. No one I asked knew about them and I haven't found anything online. If it's ever established as a subspecies, I hereby stake my claim to have it named after me, as the discoverer.

For dinner, we hit another middle-of-nowhere spot - Bowen's Island Restaurant (on Bowen's Island). They're famous for their steamed oysters, so we had some along with frogmore stew. We didn't realize that steamed oysters still need to be shucked, and neither of us had done it before, but we did a respectable job and opened almost all of them.

We were rewarded with a beautiful low country sunset from the restaurant. The noseeums were insane, so we didn't stay out for long but it was enough to enjoy it.

The next day, we headed back into Charleston with a mission - to buy a sweetgrass basket. These are beautiful handmade baskets, iconic of the Gullah culture, and since even a small one can take hours to make, they aren't cheap. We visited a lot of sellers and did a lot of negotiating, but in the end we found one. We also had lunch at a Gullah buffet, where Aiden was the hit of the restaurant. One of the service people spent almost the entire time at our table playing with him. It was especially nice because Stephanie and I got to eat at the same time.

We spent our last full day in the Charleston area back on Wadmalaw island. We visited the only tea plantation in North America - with a neat sign post showing the distances to the next closest plantations in the world.

After enjoying a very informative presentation on the tea preparation process (green tea is apparently just tea that isn't allowed to oxidize), we decided to just take it easy.

On our last day of our first family vacation, we made one more foray into downtown Charleston. I was able to confirm something that I have long suspected - bacon makes EVERYTHING better, and there is no food item where bacon is not appropriate. We started off at a gourmet donut shop, where they had a number of creative options, but the one that won my heart was the maple bacon donut. Then, to top it off, we went to a breakfast place that a local Charlestonian recommended and they had pecan pie - WITH BACON! It was delicious. And I decided, if bacon can make pecan pie more delicious, it can make anything more delicious.

What a way to end our first family vacation!

Here is a link to the rest of the pictures - hope you enjoyed as much as we did.

Charleston 2012 JPGS

First Family Vacation - Part 1

I'm finally getting the chance to catch up with our vacation experience. It's a good thing I took notes because it already seems like a long time ago. I'm making this a two parter - so this covers the first half of our trip, which we spent in the Savannah area.

We got a late start leaving Washington because, even though I negotiated for a larger vehicle, it wasn't large enough and we couldn't fit everything in the car with us. Well, I got it to fit, but it wouldn't have been a pleasant way to drive to Georgia. So we made a short detour to our self-storage locker and divested ourselves of "non-essentials". It's really tough to pack 6 weeks worth of clothing for three people into one suitcase, but we did it. Maybe the experience will result in enhanced packing techniques for future trips.

Anyway, we hit the road and really had no problems all the way to Georgia. We split the trip over two days, which was much more manageable. We found a place in Tybee Island to use as a base for our sightseeing in the Savannah area. It was a nice little condo with convenient access to the beach, and not so convenient wifi access, which was only available by the outdoor pool (not so nice in the rain). Speaking of rain, the weather was decidedly cool and drizzly when we arrived, so we mostly took it easy. We did go to a place called the Crab Shack for dinner, where the live alligators entertained us for at least some of the 40 minutes it took for them to seat us (estimate was 15-20 min).

By the time we sat down and got our food, Aiden was getting tired so we had to take it to go. Since one of the purposes of the trip was to help us prepare for travel with a child, it was a good teaching moment.

The next morning, the weather had returned to the warmth and sun we became accustomed to during the great warm winter in Washington. We headed in to Savannah and just worked on getting the lay of the land, and discovering the yummy treats available in the candy shops. We walked around, taking in the sights, and exploring the cemetery-turned park in the historic district.

One big disappointment was the dearth of traditional Southern Cuisine in Savannah's historic district. There was plenty of Thai and Japanese, but very few down home or even BBQ places. We even found the menu at Paula Deen's restaurant lacking anything that stood out. We finally settled on a BBQ place just outside of town, but when we got there, it turned out to be a fast food chain. Luckily, there was a more respectable choice next door, but that night I spent a good deal of time out by the pool, looking up better options for the rest of our trip.

The second day was a wash, so we used it to drive around to sample some treats that were a little out of the way. At Byrd's Cookies, they had a huge variety of flavors packed into tiny cookies that we bought by the ounce. The peach cookies were particularly good. We also stopped by Rum Runners for some rum cake. The other task of the day was for me to get a haircut, but apparently nobody cuts hair in Savannah on Monday. I did finally manage to find a place that was open, but it was a lot of work. Back at the condo, Aiden suddenly decided he knew how to crawl and pull himself up on furniture, which added a whole new element to our fun.

The weather cleared by the next morning and we got to take advantage of our proximity to the beach. We enjoyed our walk so much that we made sure to go out every morning and every day at sunset, weather permitting. Aiden really enjoyed walking on the beach and along the water's edge. Stephanie gathered an impressive collection of seashells, and I snapped some fantastic photos of the sunsets.

Later that day, we headed into Savannah and decided to go to Mrs. Wilkes for lunch. Our Ambassador in Dushanbe personally recommended it to me and I'm glad he did. We were scared off by the line at first, but then some locals mentioned they had never seen the line so short, so we decided to suck it up and go for it. Time in the line went quickly, especially since Aiden decided to entertain everyone around us by being extra adorable. He's such a ham. Before we knew it we were seated with about 10 people who were in line with us, gorging on fried chicken and over 20 side dishes. It was amazing. Needless to say, we had plenty to walk off after lunch.

In Savannah, we really just enjoyed walking around, seeing all of the beautiful public squares and the old architecture. I'll just put a few examples here, but will include a link to the full album at the bottom.

We walked all the way down to Forsyth Park, which was incredibly beautiful. Only Stephanie was disappointed that the fountain wasn't turned on.

I forgot to mention the other discovery we made on the beach - noseeums. I thought they were gnats until they started biting. Then, I got these huge itchy welts on my arms and legs. It kept me awake at night and nothing would stop it - benadryl, cortizone, calamine... nothing. I was unpleasantly reminded of my unpleasant chigger infestation that kept me out of work for a week before our wedding because I couldn't bear to wear pants. Fortunately, by the time we got to South Carolina, I discovered a cure - make sure to write this down. You turn the sink on as hot as it will go - almost scalding. Then hold the bite under the water briefly. It will itch worse than ever for a second, and then it just feels like it's burning - that's when it's done. No more itching for hours. Glorious. And it works on mosquito bites.

Anyway, getting ahead of myself. Back to Savannah. We went back in for another beautiful day and tried to go to Walls BBQ - a hole in the wall famous for it's quality, but there was a closed sign on the window. We asked around and were told that they cook all night and then, when the food runs out the next day, the close down. It was only 1pm when we got there, but we vowed to do better the next time. (As it turns out, we got there shortly after 11am the next time and they were still closed). So we went to Tubby's on the waterfront and that's where we fell in love with shrimp 'n grits. They were simply amazing and we sampled them almost everywhere we went from then on. I had a crab cake because I had it on good authority that they serve the best in Savannah. Well, the best in Savannah's got nothing on the worst in Cambridge, so I won't do that again. Luckily, Stephanie couldn't finish her grits, so I got to make up for it.

The next day, we planned to visit some sites outside of Savannah, starting with the Wormsloe Historic site - location of one of the first plantations in Georgia. The website was a little misleading because the original plantation house/fort is in ruins and the existing one is private and can't even be seen from the road. The best part of the trip was the driveway, lined with ancient live oaks (you may see a theme in my pictures favoring such views because they are simply amazing).

Still we had a nice walk through the woods until Aiden decided he wasn't in the mood for tourism that day. Rather than push on, we went back to the condo for a quiet afternoon and pushed Bonaventure Cemetery to the next day. We did keep our plan to ride out to Bluff Drive on the Isle of Hope. It's a beautiful little street with huge old oaks and amazing old houses along the waterfront. We liked it so much, we had to drive it twice before heading back to the condo.

Since we had to cut the previous day short, we split the next with some sightseeing in Savannah before heading to the cemetery. We got to visit the beautiful cathedral -

- and take another quick tour around some of the beautiful squares before heading down to Bonaventure.

Bonaventure is a beautiful cemetery that was built on the grounds of an old plantation that was destroyed by fire. When we first got there, we thought it was another case of misleading advertisement - it didn't really look that spectacular. But when we got to the older parts, it was well worth the trip. Beautifully carved headstones and huge live oaks create a very unique atmosphere.

We walked for a couple of hours, just exploring the place before heading out for a scenic drive on Tybee Island -

- and a last sunset walk on the beach.

On our last day in Georgia, we managed to enjoy one more meal of shrimp 'n grits at Tubbys and then did some quick last minute sightseeing before the rain started. We made it to the car just before it really started coming down, which was good because it poured all the way until we got to Charleston, which takes us to the second half of our trip...

Here's the full photo album for those who want to see them.

Savannah 2012 JPGs

Transitioning to the Next Phase of Our Nomad Lifestyle

So time got away from me and I have a lot to cover, but I think I can do it fairly succinctly...

Aiden's recovery from surgery went better than expected and within two weeks he was completely back to normal. Well, not completely because he started doing a lot of new things. He quickly started babbling much more than he had before the surgery and has picked up a few new skills like clapping his hands, walking while we hold his hands, and is working on standing up on his own. He's also becoming much more mobile, which can be scary. He doesn't exactly crawl, so it's hard to explain how he gets from point A to point B - sort of like a crippled crab. The biggest improvement, however, has been Aiden's ability to eat solid food. One day he just went from not wanting the smallest bite to eating half a jar of baby food at a sitting - or more.

The main event since the last post is that we had Aiden baptized in February. It was short notice, so we kept it small, but it was a very nice ceremony. Aiden looked very grown up in his suit and took the wetting down with good grace.

I've finished my training and am now prepared to apply U.S. immigration law, assist Americans overseas, and protect our nation's borders. We said goodbye to Washington with lunch at Ray's Hellburger and a trip to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum with Aiden's Godparents. Since it was a holiday weekend, the museum was packed so we didn't stay long - but at least we got to see the elephant in the rotunda.

I'll miss the waffles at the hotel, and my scenic runs along the Potomac, which were made extra nice by the fact that the unseasonably warm weather caused the spring flowers to come up early. Still, that wasn't what made leaving difficult.

You would think that after almost a year of living like nomads, we'd be pretty good at packing up and going, but not this time. I thought I'd worked everything out. I picked up our rental car the day before we left - I even negotiated for an upgrade to a larger size vehicle. We went through our things and decided what we could do without and I packed a car load of stuff to put into temporary storage. We packed our bags before bed so we'd be ready to go in the morning...

In the morning I was finally defeated when trying to pack the car. There was just too much stuff. Technically, I was able to get everything in, but there was no way we could drive all the way to Georgia without being able to see out of the rear windshield or the passenger side mirror. So we made a stop at the storage facility and got rid of one entire suitcase, a bunch of Aiden's toys, and some other odds and ends.

Finally we were ready to go, 2 hours later than planned, and with quite a few frayed nerves. I guess this is what vacation is like with a baby. Still, once we were in the car, we put our frustration behind us and it's been smooth sailing since then. Of course, the only reason I have time to write this is because it's raining cats and dogs today - but more on that when I write about our trip.

Christmastime in the City...And Beyond

A lot has happened since Aiden's first Thanksgiving, most of it pertaining to his first Christmas. We really enjoyed being in New York City for the holiday season and made sure to take Aiden around to see the decorations and the main attractions. We even managed to make a gingerbread creation. Since we didn't have much of a kitchen and no baking supplies, we decided it would be excusable to use a pre-baked kit, so long as we used it in a creative way. Hence, our gingerbread village:

Of course, we took Aiden to see the tree at Rockefeller Center -

- he was suitably impressed for a 7 month old. We also found a great Santa Clause at the ABC department store. He looked very authentic and best of all, there was a very short line and no one tried to con us into buying overpriced photos.

Aiden wasn't particularly impressed with St. Nick, but he didn't cry either, so I guess that counts as a win.

Work at the UN was busy for me right up to the end and suddenly it was time to leave. We took a break from our packing to have our own little family Christmas (even though it was only the day before Christmas Eve) and even had a special Christmas Dinner of Lobster, Shrimp, Korean Fried Chicken (amazing), and french fries. It was wonderful. Then we had to hunker down and finish packing.

When we drove up to New York, the van was completely packed. Then we got a crib, the exersaucer, more clothes, more toys, etc... Stephanie's parents were nice enough to take some of our things for us when they left after Thanksgiving, but I still had major doubts as to whether it would all fit. Luckily, my car-packing skills were intact after 4 months of disuse and I got it done, although the crib was between Stephanie and Aiden in the back and he didn't particularly like that. Nonetheless, we rolled out before 8 am, leaving the city we love and the only place we've lived continuously for more than a few weeks since the end of May.

The trip down itself was a breeze, no traffic all the way to Washington. That isn't to say it was uneventful or straightforward. We had to stop in Washington to put our things in storage and pick-up a different rental car. My training didn't start for two weeks and there was no way we were going to drive that packed van around for all that time. Anyway, we were making such good time that we called the car rental place to see if we could pick up our next rental earlier and get to Maryland that much sooner. The guy on the phone told us that we better get there fast or they would run out of cars because Avis had not delivered the ones they needed! He told us we should try to switch rental locations, so we called the main line for Avis, where we got no help at all. The representative was very rude and told us that if we changed locations it would cost a lot more because its short notice. Stephanie pointed out that the problem was due to Avis, not us, and asked to speak to a manager, but was left on hold until she was disconnected.

Now we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get to Maryland at all. We called the place where we had our reservation and got a different story, they said they would have a car but not until later. Better, but not great. So we continued on to the self storage location. We called ahead to give an ETA, but when we arrived no one was there or answered the phone. After sitting in the car for about 30 minutes, someone opened the door. When I complained about waiting, I got a shrug and was informed that I had to provide my own lock (info not on the website or in the confirmation e-mail). There were no stores nearby, but lucky me, I could buy one for $16!

So we got everything in storage and called the car rental place one more time. This time they told us to come on over, so at least that worked out. We only hit a little traffic on the way out of DC and it was smooth sailing from there.

Aiden got to celebrate Christmas three more times during our vacation, at my parents, Stephanie's brother's, and Stephanie's parents. It was great for him to spend time with so much of his family, and while he didn't really get the idea of presents, he liked playing with the paper and boxes.

It was a lot of moving around for those few days, but it was fun. Stephanie's dad even made Aiden a special 8-month birthday pancake.

We finally made it back to DC, where we had several appointments to prepare for Aiden's cleft palate repair. We used some down time to take Aiden down to the National Mall for the first time. We went to see the incredible displays and train garden at the National Botanical Garden -

- and then walked down the Mall to see the National Christmas tree. Aiden's stroller was in storage, so we had to take turns carrying him - almost 18 pounds is no joke to lug all over the nation's capital.

The moment we'd been dreading finally arrived and we had to take Aiden in for his surgery. It was very hard to let the anesthesiologist take him away and we couldn't wait to get back to him. The surgery was a big success but Aiden woke up earlier than expected and they weren't ready with his pain medication. It was heartbreaking to see him uncomfortable, but once they gave him the medicine, he quieted down and only needed one more dose after that before he was fine with just Tylenol.

Aiden recovered so well that they released him the next morning instead of the next afternoon, as usual. With some help from Aiden's godfather, I got all of our things out of storage and into our hotel room - I wasn't going to give that place any more business than I had to. It took Stephanie and I the rest of the weekend to figure out where to stash everything.

Aiden's doing well - eating better than ever, actually - and the splints on his arms don't seem to bother him much.

The other day we took advantage of unseasonably warm weather and went on a walk to Theodore Roosevelt Island. It was supposed to be a quick walk so we didn't bring much, but when we tried to leave, we found the only bridge off the island was blocked. There were a lot of fire trucks and police cars across the Potomac, so I asked the police officer who was blocking the bridge for an estimate on how long we'd be stuck since we didn't have any food for Aiden. The answer: "Not all night, but longer than 5 minutes." We eventually learned that it was a bomb threat, and were released after about 45 minutes. At least it forced me to stick around long enough to snap a great shot of the still Potomac.

Today the doctor said that he is healing so well that we don't need to bring him in for another follow up and can resume our normal routine next week.

I've started my training and am devoting most of my free time to getting all of our logistics in order for our move to Moscow. I have a feeling it will be here before we know it...