Back home and where do I begin?

Look how green our little island has become since we left on vacation.   I had to stop along the road today and catch a few photos of the lupines, the green hills, the low clouds and the clear water.  What a beautiful place!

A visiting vessel out by Alaska Ship Supply.

So our vacation is done and we missed more than a week without the computer.   I was going to try to condense but I just have too many photos I want to post so you will have to bear with me!   I will probably have to do two entries to get everything in.  Not only did we miss posting about vacation, we didn't get to talk about the SHOCKING Sarah Palin resignation!  You know there is more to that story.  Just can't wait to hear what it is.   :)   I don't think she got her basketball analogy quite right...she's not exactly "passing the ball," but more like slamming it onto the court in a little hissy fit and going home without finishing the game. 

After our road trip, we went back to my Mom's in New Jersey for a few more days.   My nieces never cashed their birthday checks so we did a little shopping.   Becca picked out a "my little pet shop" case

while Alex bought a Hannah Montana wig and microphone

which her dad and several others had to model.   How do you think my brother looks as a blonde?

Mom and I took a walk around her cute little town, Laurel Springs.  I have always liked all of the old homes there, though this turret house needs a paint job.

Formerly a bed and breakfast, but now a family lives here.

Laurel Lake, where my grandparents "courted."  The poet Walt Whitman spent summers in Laurel Springs and enjoyed taking mud baths here.   His summer home is preserved as a museum in town but we didn't make it over to take a pic.

More interesting homes

The weather was lovely and all the flowers were in bloom along Mom's street.

This was my grandparents' house, which was always our home base when we came back to visit between military assignments.   My mom grew up here, my grandparents lived here till they died, and my brother's family lived here for a couple of years.  I remember there were always lots of flower boxes on the porch, along with big rocking chairs where we would sit and watch the world go by.   We played "step ball" on these steps, caught fireflies in the back yard, picked Grandpop's juicy Jersey tomatoes out of his garden, helped Grandmom hang laundry on the clothesline, and read books on the window seats in the attic.   It makes me sad that strangers live in the house now and I know that my grandparents would not be happy with the condition it's in.  They were always so proud and meticulous about their house and their yard.  

The kids' dad and I rented this house when we lived in Laurel Springs for my two years of grad school at Rutgers. Sarah learned to walk here and Bonnie was born while we lived in this house.  We were only a block away from my grandparents and would walk down to see them regularly, eat lunch with them, and pick Grandpop up for walks with Sarah in her stroller.   The present owners have really done a lot of work and it looks completely different than when we were there.  I couldn't even see into the back yard because it's all landscaped with tall bushes and has a fence around it.  For years, we could still see the sticker we'd put in Sarah's bedroom window that would let the firefighters know there was a child in the room in case of an emergency.  :)  But times march on and that's not there any more, either.

Laurel Springs Elementary School where I attended part of 5th grade before moving to Germany.   When my sister and I attended, this was the girls' entrance.  Girls and boys were not allowed to mingle.  :)

This is the Philadelphia skyline as we drove back into the city to leave on Tuesday.   Our time in Jersey was pleasant and relaxing.  Rich and I made a pilgrimage to our teenage stomping grounds, saw the house his family lived in, drove along the back road behind McGuire AFB, observing that they are tearing down all of the base housing which made me think that any last little remnants of our existence there will now be eliminated.  Is this sounding like a melancholy post?!  Just thinking about the passage of time and how everything changes.   I know many people think of New Jersey as a very industrial state but we were surrounded by beautiful green fields, farmland and forests.  Unfortunately, the camera battery was dead.  :) We kept looking for people we knew but the closest we got was recognizing the name on a woman's tshirt when we stopped at a farmer's market to purchase peaches, plums and cherries.  We didn't have the nerve to ask her if she was married to a guy we went to high school with.  Someone pulled into my ex boyfriend's driveway right as we drove by but we didn't stop.  I guess we didn't want to seem too pitiful, stuck in the past.  LOL

Mom and I got pedicures, she made her world famous spaghetti, we went out for "frozen custard," we sat on the deck to eat breakfast and bask in the sunshine.  The weather was gorgeous the whole time.  

My cute nieces Alex and Becca riding along to the Amtrak station in Philly to see us off.

Philadelphia, near the train station

My adorable nephew Billy. 

My sister in law Patty, her kids, and my mom took us to Philly to catch the train to Newark for our flight(s) home.  We were told to be at Amtrak an hour ahead of time, so we dutifully showed up at 2 PM, obtained our tickets, and were instructed to wait in "line 3" to go to our train.  We lined up behind a bunch of other people and were sent down an escalator.  The man checking tickets got confused about the train numbers, but when I said, "Newark?" he replied "yes," and told us to go ahead.  We got downstairs and realized we were just going to be sitting on a bench next to the track for an hour.  Rich decided to go upstairs and look for magazines while I sat with all of our luggage (we thought we would be able to check our bags, but NO). Shortly, all of the people downstairs got on a train and left.  I was sitting there by myself when an Amtrak employee came over and asked "are you waiting for a train or something?"   Me: "Yes."  Amtrak guy: "What time?"  Me: "3."  Amtrak guy: "THREE?!!  Why are you down here?"  Me: "We just checked in and came down here to wait."  Amtrak guy:  "You are not supposed to be down here till it's time for your train."  Me: "I'm sorry, no one told us that and the guy at the line let us come down.  Do you want me to leave?  My  husband is upstairs...I don't think I can carry all this stuff myself."  Amtrak guy: "You are not supposed to be here.  Let me see your ticket."  Me:  "My husband has our tickets in his pocket.  Do I need to leave?"  Amtrak guy:  "Well, they  might change the track for your train.  I don't know."  Me: "Do I need to leave or not?"  Amtrak guy: "No, I guess you are all right."  Walks off.  No one else in sight. I try to read my magazine but I am a little nervous.  I call Rich on his cell phone.  Luckily he has it with him--I figured it would start ringing in the backpack in front of me.  :)  He says he is upstairs and they won't let him come back down because it's not time for our train yet.  LOL  

I read some magazines and call my kids while I sit there.  Eventually Rich talks a woman into letting him come back down but she tells him he's too early for his train and DON'T GET ON THAT TRAIN that's coming right now.   He says the people upstairs seemed very annoyed with him for not knowing what was expected.    However, no one explained anything to us and how were we to know that only one trainload of people at a time is allowed to go down to the tracks?!  The woman who gave us our tickets was extremely friendly but she sure did not give us all the info we needed.  How hard would it have been to explain the procedures?    Needless to say, after the experience Aidan and I had with Amtrak workers in Newark, this did not go over too well.  I am thinking Amtrak needs some customer service training for its employees.  

So eventually our train did come and we loaded up all of our luggage without any major issues; at least this train was not packed and there was room for our suitcases without having to struggle to squeeze them into a tiny space and thankfully no one bawled us out for not doing it right and no one gave us any pearls of wisdom like "see, there's always a solution."  LOL

It's only an hour train ride to Newark, where we caught the tram to our terminal and got on board Alaska Air bound for Seattle.  I had the dreaded middle seat and it was a very LOOOONNNNNNGGGGG 5 hour, 36 minute flight.   We had a little layover in Seattle and then off to Anchorage on an Alaska Air "combi," which carries freight in the front and passengers in the back.  I was in the middle seat again but at least it was only a 3 hour flight.  Then the real fun--arriving in Anchorage at 2:21 AM and having to sleep in the airport till our flight home the next morning.  Not my favorite thing to do but we did manage to get some rest, had breakfast, and went to Pen Air to wait.   I didn't know a soul there, which is highly unusual!  We had to stop in BOTH King Salmon and Cold Bay, something I have never done before.   Supposedly we were "heavy" and needed fuel but we also noted they were unloading cargo in Cold Bay.  After all that, our three hour flight turned into almost five.   Were we happy to be home?  You betcha.