Last summer, Susan loved Dora the Explorer, and she still does, but, in the past few weeks, she has gotten interested in the Disney princesses. She loves to dress up as Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty and ask if she can go to the party. I guess I started it by telling her the Cinderella story while we were on the long subway rides in Chicago. Now she is watching the videos and looking for princess books.
We often play on-line games before she goes to bed. Dora is still the favorite there. The princess games are not much fun. Susan can get pretty excited about Diego's pyramid game or Dora matching game or one of the adventures. It's amazing to watch her use the mouse at three years old.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Santa Fe
Silvia had wanted to go to Santa Fe for a long time, so she, Susan, and I went on August 13th for 3 days. We didn't get off until about 11 and stopped for lunch at McDonald's in Amarillo. It is about 4 1/2 hours to Santa Fe, so we got there about 3:30 with the time change. The Travelodge billed itself as being remodeled, but it was definitely a work-in-progress! The outside is still quite shabby with little parking. The inside was better, but the light in the bathroom didn't work. I called about it, and the clerk said she would send someone to fix it. I had to call twice more before they decided we should move to another room.
We walked around downtown for a while and ate at Coyote Cantina, up on the roof. I think Susan remembered it from last year when I let her look over the edge. The food was good: duck fajitas for Silvia and pork tacos for me. We made a stop at Border's and found some goodies. Silvia was especially pleased by the materials for ESL.
Silvia and Susan wanted to sleep in, so I went to Pascual's alone and brought them takeout. We started out with the Indians in front of the Governor's Palace. Susan and Silvia really liked looking at the things they had for sale. We went
on to St. Francis Cathedral. It has been cleaned and repainted since I was last there. It looked quite good. There is a new labyrinth in front, and the gardens were great. Inside they have a new baptismal font that people had thrown coins into. Some kids were cleaning it out under the direction of one of the guides. It was pretty funny to see them perched on the grill with their rears in the air.
We had lunch a the Whole Foods Market and did some shopping there before going on to one of
my favorites, Santa Fe Quilting. Susan slept in the stroller while we shopped. They always have great stuff you don't find anywhere else. That night Susan opened up my sack and dressed as a dancing princess with long hair. We made a stop at the other Border's and ate at Maria's. Silvia says she is beginning to realize that you don't have to have beans and cheese with every Mexican meal.
It was quite hot both days, but we could see it was raining in the mountains, so we drove north both afternoons looking for cool. We never got rained on, but it was cooler.
Thursday morning we had to leave, but I had one more stop to make, High Country Gardens. It is a wonderful nursery with xeric plants of all kinds. I especially love the lavenders. Susan played in a huge sandpile, and Silvia and I took pictures of a hummingbird who just sat and let us do it. We made good time getting home. I think they both liked the trip, but Susan thinks she had to sit too long. She is used to being free in the backseat of the car in Taiwan, not sitting in a car seat.
We walked around downtown for a while and ate at Coyote Cantina, up on the roof. I think Susan remembered it from last year when I let her look over the edge. The food was good: duck fajitas for Silvia and pork tacos for me. We made a stop at Border's and found some goodies. Silvia was especially pleased by the materials for ESL.
Silvia and Susan wanted to sleep in, so I went to Pascual's alone and brought them takeout. We started out with the Indians in front of the Governor's Palace. Susan and Silvia really liked looking at the things they had for sale. We went
on to St. Francis Cathedral. It has been cleaned and repainted since I was last there. It looked quite good. There is a new labyrinth in front, and the gardens were great. Inside they have a new baptismal font that people had thrown coins into. Some kids were cleaning it out under the direction of one of the guides. It was pretty funny to see them perched on the grill with their rears in the air.
We had lunch a the Whole Foods Market and did some shopping there before going on to one of
my favorites, Santa Fe Quilting. Susan slept in the stroller while we shopped. They always have great stuff you don't find anywhere else. That night Susan opened up my sack and dressed as a dancing princess with long hair. We made a stop at the other Border's and ate at Maria's. Silvia says she is beginning to realize that you don't have to have beans and cheese with every Mexican meal.It was quite hot both days, but we could see it was raining in the mountains, so we drove north both afternoons looking for cool. We never got rained on, but it was cooler.
Thursday morning we had to leave, but I had one more stop to make, High Country Gardens. It is a wonderful nursery with xeric plants of all kinds. I especially love the lavenders. Susan played in a huge sandpile, and Silvia and I took pictures of a hummingbird who just sat and let us do it. We made good time getting home. I think they both liked the trip, but Susan thinks she had to sit too long. She is used to being free in the backseat of the car in Taiwan, not sitting in a car seat.Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Ezrie's birthday
When Susan and Silvia went with Carl to a party at Lake Tanglewood, they were with Ezrie and her parents. They asked us to celebrate Ezrie's birthday at the end of the month.
On July 28th, we went to Medi Park for watermelon and playground and feeding the ducks. The children had a wonderful time.
Coming home
We had too much stuff!! Of course we used it all, but we still had too much. We decided to use the subway from the airport to downtown to get to Union Station the last morning. Our hotel had a free shuttle to the airport. We got to the subway without much trouble and onto the train. However, repairs to the lines were being made and closed some of the stations for the weekend. We had to transfer to a bus with all that stuff. When we go to the place to get on the subway again, and it was elevated without an elevator or escalator, I said it was time for a cab to Union Station. We got there with no problems after that, check the extra luggage, and ate lunch while we waited for the train to load.
Again we got seats together. The trains were
comfortable except the restrooms. We had room to spread out and sleep and play games with Susan. Again we enjoyed the observation car, and, this time, we ate in the diner. The food was good and not too expensive. We were prepared for cold at night. What we weren't prepared for was a freight train that broke down in front of out train and held us up 7 hours. We got into Ft. Worth 6 1/2 hours late, 8:30 at night. We got a motel, dinner, and slept until 9.
On the drive home we saw the camels between Electra and Iowa Park. I stopped on the shoulder when we saw that part of the herd was close to the fence. We sat there about 10 minutes, watching the camels and taking pictures.
Again we got seats together. The trains were
comfortable except the restrooms. We had room to spread out and sleep and play games with Susan. Again we enjoyed the observation car, and, this time, we ate in the diner. The food was good and not too expensive. We were prepared for cold at night. What we weren't prepared for was a freight train that broke down in front of out train and held us up 7 hours. We got into Ft. Worth 6 1/2 hours late, 8:30 at night. We got a motel, dinner, and slept until 9.On the drive home we saw the camels between Electra and Iowa Park. I stopped on the shoulder when we saw that part of the herd was close to the fence. We sat there about 10 minutes, watching the camels and taking pictures.
Chicago 2
The city of Chicago has a wonderful variety of architecture, from the 1800's to the most modern. However, when I read more about some of the buildings on the Internet, I found that some 
of the most modern looking were at least 20 years old. These two buildings at the Marina were built in the late 70's and remodeled about 10 years ago. They look like corn on the cob. The upper part has 450 pie-shaped apartments, and the bottom has room for 450 cars.
of the most modern looking were at least 20 years old. These two buildings at the Marina were built in the late 70's and remodeled about 10 years ago. They look like corn on the cob. The upper part has 450 pie-shaped apartments, and the bottom has room for 450 cars.We saw one that looked like a castle. It turned out to be the water building
for the city, built more than 100 years ago. We walked on Michigan Av one day, looking at the people and stores. Susan got tired and rode in the stroller, then fell asleep, so she missed the castle. Her allegiance is changing from Dora to the Disney princesses, especially Cinderella. Silvia bought her some "princess" shoes in the Disney store.
for the city, built more than 100 years ago. We walked on Michigan Av one day, looking at the people and stores. Susan got tired and rode in the stroller, then fell asleep, so she missed the castle. Her allegiance is changing from Dora to the Disney princesses, especially Cinderella. Silvia bought her some "princess" shoes in the Disney store.We finished the day by going to Millennium Park. The picture of Susan with the purple shoes is taken under "Cloud Gate", a huge metal sculpture that looks like a drop of Mercury. Another
thing we saw in the park was a changing display of glass bricks with pictures of people of Chicago. We saw it just a the light was going. There are places in the park for musical events, art displays, a prairie garden, a fountain, a bridge. It's a wonderful park. I was impressed by another park too, Grant. It contains several museums, gardens, a sculpture garden, a display of globes (similar to the horses in Amarillo). We didn't have time to visit the museums. I'll have to save that for another time, but we walked in the park and gardens. The first thing we saw was a huge sculpture called "Agora". It consists of figures without heads or arms and larger than life size. I don't know how many there were, probably 100. We liked the globes. They have been painted and decorated with the theme of green Earth. We took a water taxi from that end of the park to Navy Pier, an amusement park.In front of the Children's Museum was another small park. Some little girls were in their bathing
suits playing in the fountain. There were mosaic areas depicting the ocean and Chicago history. I liked best the life-sized figures of children playing 'crack the whip'.
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