Ice skates and rifles

There are some things in this world that just shouldn't go together. Spinach and ice cream. And ice skates and guns. 

We drove to Grand Rapids for Thanksgiving this year, giving thanks for the ability to spend the holiday with our family without the hassle and expense of flying. After the Thanksgiving festivities were over, we planned to meet friends in Chicago for a night. While the trip to the windy city was planned at the last minute, ice skating was a key component of the weekend's festivities. 

Now that we live in snowy Michigan, I thought it was the perfect time to unearth my ice skates from my parents' garage. After suggesting that idea to my Mom, I learned that the ice skates were, in fact, sold at a garage sale years ago. So much for childhood memories! And while Steve insists that we move his inline skates from one side of the country to another, he has never owned ice skates. 

That meant both of us were in the market for new skates in advance of our much anticipated Chicago ice skating adventure. And where better to find them than Rylee's Hardware on Michigan Street in Grand Rapids. After all, it's where I always purchased my skates as a kid. 

What I never remembered about Rylee's (and this is probably a good thing) is that the innocence of ice skates and sleds is interrupted by case and cases of guns. Hand guns. Rifles. Other guns. In fact, to get my ice skates sharpened, I had to wait at the gun counter while all around me were men in hunting gear, talking about their hunting conquests. 

And yet, through all the trauma of standing at a gun counter for 15 minutes listening to stories of blood and guts, I got a great deal on a pair of ice skates. In fact, I think they are better than the ice skates my Mom sold years ago. Just don't tell her. 

We happened to have a great time ice skating in Chicago. The weather cooperated, the skates were fairly comfortable and the only thing forcing us to quit was the rough ice. 

I'll admit that the trauma of the gun counter lasted only a short time. And it makes for a pretty funny story, particularly in the "welcome to Michigan" spirit. But I still stick by my assertion: some things just don't mix. 

"Snow, snow, snow" she cried!

I knew it would be cold when we moved to Michigan. I swear I knew that. That still doesn't take away the surprise of the first frost, the first night below 30 degrees or the first snow fall. And it really doesn't take away the shock of walking outside to a blast of cold air!  

I realize that I'm a bit spoiled because my commute to my desk takes all of 10 steps. It's Steve that has had a better introduction to the wintery reality as he scrapes the car off every morning. But still...

We had our first snow fall on Sunday night. I had been in San Francisco until Sunday morning, so it was even more of a shock to make the fast transition to snow. Actual snow. I'll admit that I thought it something was falling off the balcony above our back door. Steve got a good laugh out of that one!

The first snow of the year is always fun. This was no exception. The snow was originally melting on impact, so it didn't get in the way of our drive to dinner (at Pizza House which was totally not worth it). But by the time we came out of dinner, there was a light covering on everything. The car. The sidewalk. The trees. Good thing we bought a brush a few weeks earlier! 

The snow actually stuck around until the morning, which gave us plenty of time to take some pictures. While I'm not necessarily looking forward to multiple months of the fluffy white stuff, it was a beautiful introduction to the Michigan winters that I'm sure we'll come to dread soon enough!  

Just a little paint fumes

During a particularly beautiful fall weekend*, we took on the somewhat daunting task of painting. I think it started as a distraction during the Michigan football game and morphed into an all-on paint assault in the apartment. 

The funny thing about painting is that we are the blind leading the blind. I had done some painting as a kid with my Dad and on Habitat homes... but nothing that mattered as much as my own living space. While my Dad was helpful in giving tips, we turned, as usual, to the internet for painting research. Loaded with checklists and to-dos from Real Simple's website, we took a deep breath and dipped our brushes into the paint. 

After only a slight amount of bickering (did you know that painting can be hard on a marriage??), we completed an accent wall in the living room. It's now a lovely Martha Stewart shade of "sueded leather". Really, it's brown. Which is much better than the dingy beige that is EVERYWHERE in this place. 

The worst part about the whole ordeal was watching the paint dry. As we sat on the couch, we began to notice all the places we missed. Thankfully, the matte paint was forgiving when we went over the bare patches the next morning. 

Steve, having gotten the painting bug, started in on the bathroom at 5 pm last night. I'm never sure that starting to paint at 5 pm is a good idea... But, by 10 pm we had an almost-painted bathroom in glossy "pale sapphire 1." While pale sapphire 1 didn't totally live up to my expectations of the color (i was hoping for more lavender, less baby blue), it is another lovely paint job. So what if you can tell we're beginners? The splotches of dripping paint give it character :) And it's a rental. 

I think Steve summed it up best when he said "now it looks like somebody lives here." Yay! 

* Don't worry, we also went to the Dexter Cider Mill, took a drive to see the fall colors along the Huron River, and hiked through the Arb on campus with camera in tow. 

Worst bloggers ever...and WE MADE IT!

We can't even blog when we tell everybody that we know to read our blog. How pathetic. I'm also disappointed that none of you called to make sure we were dead on the side of the road in Kentucky somewhere as our blog posts would lead you to believe.

We made it to Ann Arbor in one piece and became instantly overloaded with unpacking, familiarizing ourselves with the area, and starting work (or continuing work in TBH's case). It really does feel great to be here. I really do promise that we'll be sending out pictures of our place as soon as we're not embarrassed to show it to everyone.

As we expected, we are having a little bit of San Francisco withdrawal, but things really are going well so far. Just wanted to let you all know that we made it!

...and NO...Michiganders DO NOT talk like Sarah Palin. Blechhhhh.

According to Santi

Thanks to Santi for reminding us to keep blogging! We haven't always had the most reliable internet access and our dream of blogging every night faded quickly.

We spent the last four days visiting family in the South. After we left our great hotel in Arkansas (can't beat Hampton Inn!) on Tuesday morning, we drove to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. Since it's a bit like a museum of the 1990s, we had a blast reliving all of our favorite moments during our favorite President's tenure. Although, I'd recommend skipping the library's restaurant...

From Little Rock, we took the back roads to Jackson, Mississippi. It was amazing to get off the interstate for awhile and actually SEE the Mississippi river! Plus, we were both excited to add another state to our list since the back roads took us through Louisiana in addition to Arkansas and Mississippi.

To drive along the river felt like we were driving back in time (except for the many, many Tyson Chicken trucks passing us in the other direction). Like good Yankees, we were impressed with the levees, the swampy waterways and the fields of cotton. We also couldn't miss the rural poverty that is still pervasive in the deep south.

We arrived in suburban Mississippi to visit with Steve's Dad and his wife. Other than a short drive to the Jackson reservoir, we didn't see much outside their sprawling development. I guess we'll have to do the historical trip to Mississippi another time!

Since it's time for us weary travelers to turn in (at yet another Hampton Inn!), we'll finish telling our story in the next few days. We should be in Ann Arbor ("home"?) by tomorrow afternoon.

Our trip...

We thought it might be helpful for you (and us) if we showed a map of our trip...

We're going/went here:

View Larger Map

As dry as a...

Well, it seems to be as dry as a desert around here. Go figure! We've both been liberally applying the only lotion we have handy which just happens to be hemp lotion from The Body Shop (it's great stuff, by the way!). So not only do we look like San Franciscans, we smell like San Franciscans, too...

Saturday was our long drive through the desert from the Grand Canyon to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. We spent most of this leg of the trip following the old Route 66. Luckily for Steve, I was able to sing snippets of the Route 66 song for his enjoyment all day long.

It turns out that we were also following the railroad tracks most of the day, as well. We needed a food and bathroom break near Winslow, Arizona and just for "kicks" we got off I-40 early to take Route 66 through what looked like a pretty dilapidated town (Dairy Queen for lunch, anyone?). Just as we were giving up on local restaurants, we came across a beautifully restored hotel at the end of the main street. It was La Posada hotel, a lovingly restored railroad hotel built in the 1930s. It was the perfect dessert oasis for us weary travelers!

We sat down for a wonderful lunch at their restaurant, the Turquoise Room. The service was outstanding and I had their "signature" soup-- half black bean and half cream corn. It sounds odd, but it was delicious!

Steve and I wandered the grounds for awhile and watched a few trains pass on the railroad tracks just behind the hotel. We also amazed at the $99 a night rooms. How had we missed staying here?

The rest of the desert loomed before us and we had a fairly uneventful drive through the rest of Arizona and New Mexico (although see our earlier post about funny signs in New Mexico!). I was particularly excited about the storm clouds building on the horizon... I have been longing for a "real" thunderstorm after living in the Bay Area. Unfortunately, the thunderstorm stayed to the north of us, but we were able to see the desert outlined against a beautiful dark sky.

We stayed the night in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. While our hotel was the omnipresent Holiday Inn Express, it was on Route 66. So, after having much success with Route 66 in Arizona, we got off the highway early and traveled Route 66 in to town. It made for some great pictures with the "retro" vestiges of Route 66 highlighted against the darkening storm clouds.

The very nice desk clerk at the Holiday Inn Express suggested that we eat dinner at Lake City Diner in downtown Santa Rosa. Again, we were treated to a great service and a great meal. The diner was in an old bank building on the very small main street in downtown. We both enjoyed a few beers and some delicious Mexican food, albeit served in a leisurely manner. It was a fitting end to the day.