“Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies
It’s time to leave this town, it’s time to steal away
Let’s go get lost anywhere in the USA”-Red Hot Chili Peppers
Saturday, February 8th
So, technically we aren’t getting lost, just a couple of pit stops before we make it to our final destination. First stop? Katie and Paul in West Orange, NJ. Katie is Jim’s sister, Laura’s, daughter. She and her husband have had their house for about 7 years. Hard to believe they live so close and we have yet to travel to their house. The weather was going to be iffy, but as weather does… wait… hold your breath… it changes. And so we made the trek, with a few minor bumps, pretty unscathed, driving into uncharted territory. No, we had maps… but after all the fiascos with the old van, Jim purchases a new van, after coming back from NZ. It is still a Chrysler Pacifica hybrid, but without all the bells and whistles. We haven’t worked out all the kinks, and well Apple Car Play was being a bit of a bugaboo. So after a few stops to get it working, it was smooth sailing.
We arrived around 1:30. Still no snow… but supposedly it is coming. We visited for a little bit, toured the house. Started a tour of beers that Paul had purchased as his brewery down cellar is under construction. We watched some hockey. KT went upstairs to take a nap, I soon followed. The boys watched more hockey.
KT made an awesome White chili with white beans and hominy. Paul did his thing cutting up cilantro and jalapeños and we sat down to dinner.. Special surprise! KT had made an incredible homemade chocolate ice cream for dessert. I managed NOT to get a picture, but I am sure we will have some more before we leave, ice cream that is!
So after dinner and walking puppy dogs quickly, we headed over next door to Gary and Sheena’s house for their annual Whiskey night. We met many lovely people… drank some good whiskey, noshed on their yumminess placed lovingly on their dining room table,
There were also fun napkins around the house…
and then politely excused ourselves to walk next door (still not snowing although the salt truck did come by and throw out huge chunks of rock salt) and watched a couple of epsisodes of Mythbusters. Shasta was glad we were home… she was keeping a close eye on us.
Gammy text. She is safe with Bill Hollings, whom, you may remember, we lovingly refer to as “Uncle Bill”! Gammy even sent me a selfie! You go Gammy! And thanks to Ellen for picking her up at the airport, which apparently has changed drastically and the Enterprise had already closed for the evening! See you soon, Gammy ❤️!
End of Day 1 and off to bed we are… had to explore our room. Reminiscing to when the cousins were little.. Legos everywhere. KT still has that passion. Look at the flowers in our bedroom.
Jim loved looking at the lego van!
And then it finally began to snow.. Apparently it had been snowing, but look at it snow outside our window. KT thought it funny that we were fascinated by the snow, I mean we do still have a lot of the white stuff back home, but this snow we don’t have to deal with! And there was no snow on the ground yesterday. So, yes, I did take a little video of the snow! Jim was kind enough to upload both videos to Insta, as I am Insta illiterate.
Sunday, February 9th
Katie and Paul’s house.
The overnight snow has stopped. After I spent an hour or two organizing my thoughts and pictures from yesterday, Jim and I ventured forth for a good walk. There are lots of ups and downs in KT and Paul’s neighborhood. And… on a clear day you can see forever.. I mean if Barbra sang it, it has to be true? Right?
Roosevelt Middle School is a couple blocks over. Home of the… yep, Rough Riders! I don’t know why my pictures are so fuzzy… Well I will do better later.
So I should get up and help KT and Paul make noshies for dinner/late snack. The kitchen is smelling really good. They were excited when we mentioned we had brought our deep fat fryer along with us. KT and Paul’s kitchen is a bit small for appliances. We are going to have falafel balls for noshies, along with homemade hummus, tomato red pepper sauce, homemade pitas, and smoked salmon dip. We never go hungry eating with family!
Before dinner we had a few more beer tastings! And since one shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach, we used some KT and Paul’s Christmas stash of smoked salmon for dip. Think salmon, capers, cream cheese, and red onion, but made into a dip! Life is good! #HowFortunateWeAre
Here are my thoughts on the beer…. As Jim has the beer rating, I am not using it 🤣
Rodenbach-like a Lindemans but less sweet. A lot less sweet. Nice and dry, cranberry present -Paul more of wild yeast sour
Duchess red- cherry sour, wild yeast-so thicker. Sour cherry, good carbonation (Liz terms -sparkly), per Paul this one has more of the balsamic, acidic sour
Seven tribesman-German style pils. Didn’t try this again
Grimm-super spruce- big spruce on the back end. Nice sparkly! Acidic (citrus on the back end)
Inflation Proof-Paul’s Budweiser. Nice light sparkly refreshing really. So Paul’s beer is in Paul’s brew club beer glass. We did have a sample of this yesterday. The ribbon didn’t come from this beer, but YAY Paul for having a Best of Show for beer!🍻
And then a Facetime visit with Q! First noodles and chicken Marsala and then bathtime.. He crawls way too quickly for us to get a shot up the stairs, but he does love his bathtime. Even on non bath nights, he tries to get into the bathroom for bath night!
Dinner is now served. We had an Israeli theme, and since the deep fat fryer was in the car, KT and Paul pulled out their falafel mix and we made falafels. The homemade pitas Paul made were really good.
And now it is time to watch the Super Bowl. God Bless those that play and those that are at home, but should be playing. Also, God Bless those that have to work tomorrow and those that are retired!
#HowFortunateWeAre. #MakeYourOwnSunshine. #RetiredandLovingIt