Lemont to Sunnyside

The journey home from Pennsylvania came far too soon, and felt far too long. Before we left Lemont, however, we squeezed in a few more activities. Even though I would rather have gotten more much needed sleep, I awoke far too early (courtesy of my husband's snoring), so I read the entire Come Follow Me lesson and corresponding chapters and then went on a glorious run through the countryside. While I was gone, Jeff got Dunkin Donuts for the kids to try for the first time, since they are an east coast delicacy. He got me a jelly filled donut and I was transported back in time with the first bite. How do they taste exactly the same as they did 20 years ago? Jay and I decided that we like Krispy Kreme best.

We spent the rest of the morning at the White Family Homestead with the remaining family members, helping them eat leftover food for lunch. As a last White family activity, about 20 of us converged on Meyers Dairy for ice cream after lunch. I took a lactase pill and enjoyed some black raspberry ice cream and lemon custard ice cream, while the kids got sundaes. Yum. From there we said goodbye to the fam and headed towards Pittsburgh. 

Before hitting the highway, we stopped at Penn State (State College, PA, home of Penn State University, is basically conjoined with Lemont, PA, where we had the reunion). We looked around a bit and ended at Jeff's favorite running store, Rapid Transit Sports, where he bought discounted running shoes all through high school. The owner of the store still remembered Jeff and they had a nice chat while the kids and I browsed. We bought Penn State t-shirts for everyone as souvenirs from our first family trip to the White family homeland, since Grandpa White (our kids' great-grandpa) was a professor at Penn State, and his son, Jeff's dad/our kids' Grandpa Dan is an alumnus. 

The 2.5 hour drive to Pittsburgh became more of a 3 hour-plus drive of exhaustion and traffic. Jeff and I were both so tired, it was hard to drive. I rarely sleep in cars, but I was in and out of consciousness for 2/3 of the drive. We stopped for gas and then caffeine for Jeff and Dramamine for Amber and then to switch drivers. It was a long brutal slog of a drive, and I ended up driving the last hour or so straight into Pittsburgh, in traffic. I really don't like driving in busy cities. 

I booked us a Holiday Inn Express in downtown Pittsburgh (south) so we could explore a little of Pittsburgh before flying out on Tuesday morning (June 20th). HAH. The hotel wasn't supposed to be nasty. I didn't think we were going to be so far from where we wanted to explore. Our hotel room only had a few squares of TP and zero hand soap upon our arrival, so we asked for more at the front desk, along with sheets for the pull out sofa bed. 

After dropping our bags off in the hotel room, we walked a few blocks along a dirty marijuana saturated street (thankfully Jeff managed to avoid the worst of it and didn't have an allergic reaction) to a random Italian take out place and brought some delicious spaghetti, pizza, and a calzone back to our grubby hotel room. 

Back in the hotel room, when Jeff sat on one of the beds, it tipped and nearly dumped him on the floor. So I called the front desk and told them that we had a broken bed--it was seriously tilted. There was no housekeeping staff at the hotel that day--how is that even possible? We think it may have been a massive Juneteenth holiday celebration, which I can't fault them for, but...we were exhausted and still needed a hotel room! Due to their lack of housekeeping staff, the hotel had no other clean rooms for us. They apologized and gave us our broken room for free--small consolation. 

Mustering our courage, Jeff, Jay, Rose, and I pried the broken bed up and moved the supports around so the bed laid flat. It was pretty scary looking under a hotel bed. Yuck. Jeff got gross dust on his clothes. The rest of our hotel room was so junky--the longer I looked around the room, the more junkiness I saw. The bathroom counter was askew and leaning away from the wall, there was more than a little water damage blistering the ceiling above the shower, a wall plug was cracked and not functional so the lamp that plugged into it was also out of commission. Rose found a stain on her bedspread. The "couch" had squeaky vinyl cushions in a sickly shade of puce. The carpet was elderly. Holiday Inn Express really let us down this time. It was the first time this hotel chain has failed us. 

But we were so exhausted from our trip, we all fell asleep relatively quickly, in spite of the messed up hotel room. Even my inability to sleep with noisy breathers all around me was suspended in my fatigue. We all slept soundly until about 3:30am...

...when Amber suddenly started barfing in her sleep. She was lying on her back and she erupted like a bubbling volcano It was vile, chunky, and smelled horrific. (Half digested pizza). It seeped slowly all over Amber and the mattress like lava. Rose was sharing the bed with Amber, poor girl. Jeff and I sprang groggily into action: Jeff removed the bedding (he wadded it up and dumped it in the hotel hallway), and I helped Amber shower--fully clothed at first because it was that bad. I bagged and threw away everything she was wearing because her cute white sparkly unicorn shirt was never going to look the same and my time was worth far more than the $8 we paid for that shirt over a year ago. GAG. This puke cleanup sesh made my top three list of all time grossest vomit-related experiences. 

Since we were heading home after staying in a rental with no washer, we didn't exactly have clean clothes...so I chose Amber's least-dirty shorts and put her in her new Penn State t-shirt with them. Once Amber was showered and wearing relatively clean clothes, I rode the elevator down 4 floors to get an extra blanket for Amber since her bedding was destroyed. Rose thankfully had her own blanket from home that she was using, so she slept on the floor between the barf bed and mine and Jeff's bed, while Amber slept on basically the only remaining floorspace at the foot of the bed. They both actually fell asleep after the ordeal! Jay never woke up through the entire puke-a-thon. Jeff and I, however, were understandably a bit wired after that unpleasant wake-up call, so we missed out on several hours of valuable sleep before finally drifting off an hour or so before it was time to get up and head to the airport.

At least the Holiday Inn Express breakfast was as good as other hotels we've stayed in.

All 3 of us girls took Dramamine on Tuesday morning (June 20th) before we went to the Pittsburgh airport. It helped a lot. Amber did not barf at all on the way home, and every time the plane hit turbulence, I didn't feel that awful sinking stab of anxiety like I usually do, because the Dramamine settled my stomach! Over the past few years, I've been concerned that I have been developing a fear of flying due to that anxious feeling I get during turbulence, but the Dramamine showed me that my real fear was of puking! That tracks; puking is my nemesis. I am relieved to learn this about myself, because flying is necessary to travel to most of my favorite places! Just take Dramamine! The rest of our journey home went relatively well. I was so tired, I actually took a nap on an airplane. Back in WA, Jeff managed to drive us all the way home (3 hours) from Seattle while I zoned in and out of consciousness. We got home at 7pm local time.

The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed to the park for cross country practice at 7:15am. Can't stop, won't stop!

At Penn State University!

Walking the leafy green campus.

This was the biggest dogwood tree I've ever seen. So pretty!

There is so much history and tradition to soak in on a college campus.

I love massive old trees.

Amber asked for a picture next to these bright red flowers.

In our hotel room. At first glance, it looked like all other Holiday Inn Express rooms, but the longer we sat there, the more wonky problems we noticed.

Walking in Pittsburgh.

Waiting for our order in the walk-up Italian restaurant. While we waited, we watched Wheel of Fortune, which was playing on the TV above this mirror.

My daily drawing encompassed the harrowing traffic drive of exhaustion (in an unfamiliar rental car) and how not-cutely my hair frizzes in humidity.

The morning after the vominator: in an attempt to reduce the stench, I laid a plastic bag over the wet spot on the mattress pad where the puke soaked through. It was a low point. Jay may have slept through it all, but he was on the worst fold out couch bed ever: I sat on it and it was like sitting on pine needles or the edge of a trampoline where the springs are. We were very glad to get out of that hotel room, even if it meant spending the next 12 hours or so in transit.

Crossing one of Pittsburgh's many bridges on our way to the airport.

I liked this abbreviation for the Pittsburgh International Airport: Pgh Intl Airport. Pgh! Every other Pittsburgh abbreviation seemed to be Pitt, so I was surprised and amused at this Pgh version.

Waiting at our gate in Pittsburgh. I went on a walk around the airport because I did not want to doze off while sitting in those low-backed airport chairs.

We stopped at Chick-fil-A in Seattle for dinner on our way home. It's all about the lemonade and waffle fries for me!

We checked on our new house the next day and discovered that the raspberries are multiplying! Yum!

Amber LOVES picking berries! She's always been such a hunter-gatherer, collecting rocks, flowers, sticks, leaves, berries, and anything that catches her eye outside.

The work moved forward while we were away: the plumber and electrician did a LOT of plumbing and wiring.

Plumbing is fascinating. How do they even get all of the pipes connected under the floor? I can barely manage irrigation PVC pipes that are in plain sight.

There was a fair amount of emotional fallout in response to the sleep deprivation from our trip. Amber got frustrated that she couldn't draw a unicorn the way she wanted to, and she knocked Rose's chocolate milk over, splattering it EVERYWHERE. Not a fun moment.

After my run on Saturday morning, I put in three solid hours of weeding at our new house. "Weed" seems like too small of a word for these thick heavy massive plants! Some of the roots came up easily, but others were thick grippy tubers that seemed anchored to the earth's core. I labored and hacked and dug and pried them all out, FINALLY getting the front of the house and gravel driveway to look the way I've wanted it to look for two months.

I overloaded three wheelbarrows-full of gnarly prickly messy weeds. Ugh.

Our burn pile is growing and growing. It compresses each week as the new weeds die and dry up, but yuck. I don't like having it right there on the side of the gravel driveway anymore.

The weeds in the gravel that I sprayed three separate times finally crisped and browned fully, so I was able to kick them into bits that the wind will hopefully blow away. I raked up the big pieces and tossed them onto the burn pile. (that row of greenery behind the pile of weeds is the raspberries!)

The raspberries are fruitful!

Once again, I failed to take a "before" picture, but the entire border of that front rectangle of grass had thick nasty ugly weed-bushes besmirching the ground. No more! I love this picture because it looks so tidy and trim. Next, we need to move that pile of rocks...

While I slaved outside with the weeds, Jay mowed about 2 acres and Amber flitted around between all of us. Jeff and Rose worked on an intricate wiring project inside the barn. Jeff has been slowly amassing the proper equipment to install a video security system in and around the barn, and he mounted his first camera on Saturday. Electronics are one of Jeff's hobbies, so he was excited to try his hand at drilling holes and running wires in the barn. He said it was hard and took a lot of time, but Rose was a big help.

I got so hungry while I was weeding, before I went home I ate a few handfuls of sun-warmed raspberries and it helped get my blood sugar up high enough for the walk home.