The Frozen North

Time for a spell in my Wisconsin hometown. It's been a good seven years since I've been there in the winter. At 4:30 p.m., it was was nearly dark; on a day when the temperature hit 30 F, everyone was commenting on the heat wave. Oh, that cold that makes the under-layer of the skin ache!

But the warmth of being with family and friends more than made up for the chilly outside. Every day was filled with holiday festivities and/or quality time with loved ones. My mom and sister took my nieces to The Nutcracker ballet, everyone dressed to the nines.

My sweet, loyal high school friend S and her daughter, S, came to visit…

…as did my long-time friend L (currently a Madison resident), who graciously played all kinds of games with my sister's kiddos--including the one we made up where nephew O pretends his body itself is a board game for us to play.

There was gingerbread house decorating at the country club…

…which is also a fantastic place for amazing decorations that just ooze holiday coziness.

I volunteered one morning in my niece E's second-grade classroom, which--crazy but true--was also my second-grade classroom…29 (ahem) years ago. So strange to see my sister's kids prowling the halls of the same elementary school I went to--and to see it so largely unchanged.

There were movie nights with the family, which were almost as entertaining as watching my cousin R polish off an entire pre-movie pizza by himself.

And then just general other family goodness. Playing under the tree…

…eating way too much sugar…

…and creating more sugary treats.

Thanks for the fun cookie-making afternoon, Aunt P!

Plus so many other get-togethers with friends that I totally failed to document. I'm so grateful for all the efforts so many people made to spend time, including drives from Kenosha and other exotic 'Sconnie locales. Also, a special shout-out to loyal blog-reader H.F.E., whom I sadly missed my chance to catch up with at my mom's annual Christmas Coffee, lost in the shuffle of so many people to catch up with. Next time!!

Denver…again!

I'm running out of ways to title posts about my multiple returns to Denver. But it's just such a nice city!

When I bought my plane ticket for my Thanksgiving trip to Orlando and D.C., I didn't know that my car was going to sell so quickly and easily, and I was anticipating driving it back to Wisconsin to sell there. Now car-less, I'll be flying home to WI instead. Now that I'm saving all that driving time, I got to spend it instead as two final days in Denver seeing even more great people I didn't have a chance to connect with in November.

I was inconsistent about taking pictures of these visits, but did get some recorded for posterity. I had a fantastic catch-up over coffee with a former co-worker, L., who just welcomed her third daughter, S. Big thanks to S. for sleeping through most of our chat, waking up for a little meet-and-greet and feeding, and then conveniently konking out again. Babies are so SIMPLE and EASY. (Ha, ha.)

My lunch with D, a board member for the org I worked at in Denver, was another great chance to catch up and share travel tips/info/connections. When I e-mailed my friend C to solicit advice on D's behalf for her upcoming trip to Croatia, auto-correct changed D's actual name to "Drifted," which I failed to notice before sending. C wrote back: "Happy to help with Croatia advice. Do you really have a friend named 'Drifted'?!?!" No, but now I wish I did. That is an AWESOME name.

I also had coffee with gardening buddy B, and apparently got so distracted taking a picture of this incredible desk (made of BOOKS!) at the café/bookstore where we met that I forgot to get a shot of B herself.

Timing was perfect to attend the monthly meeting of the book club that I belong(ed) to. Great fun catching up with this group of ladies, who were really the first people other than my co-workers that I got to know when I first moved to Denver.

Then, my great friend M (middle), her boyfriend D, and M's roommate…also M…welcomed me over to their apt. for an extremely yummy lunch. This table of people made me glow with happiness at its international flavor: D is Italian, M Iranian, and M#2 American, but her mother is from El Salvador and I walked away from the lunch with a list of places to go and see when I am in Central America in a couple months.

And then MORE great food and fantastic company at one of my two favorite Ethiopian restaurants on Colfax. I've never been there with this many people and so have never before seen the gargantuan platter served to our half of the table.

Disturbingly attentive blog readers might recognize this group of women from one or more of the get-togethers in Avon over the past few years. Such attentive readers might also notice with alarm how much of the food on the platter above is missing, a couple of hours later, from the platter below.

For real: this is probably the last Denver post for awhile. Sadly. Already looking forward to the next visit.

The most EXCITING, AMAZING blog post EVER!

Friday, I flew from Orlando up the coast to D.C. and then to my friend L's house in Silver Spring, Maryland. One of the first things L told me upon my arrival is that in following this blog all year so far and seeing the amazing experiences I've gotten to have visiting friends all over the country, she was feeling a little bad that we'd spent my entire visit with her back in April in her basement, me teaching her how to make skirts. She doesn't need to feel bad about that at all--it was in the top five of most satisfyingly productive days of my year so far--but I did agree to her request that I try to make my post about this return visit exciting enough to rival anything I've done with any other friend all year.

So here goes!

It was a whirlwind weekend: a 40-hour reunion with three of my best friends (L, S, and F). The four of us were on the same study abroad program in Padova, Italy, 16 years ago, and while I got to see all three of them in their hometowns as I traveled this year, it is a special treat to have a 4/4 reunion too--before a new year that will bring the birth of S's second child and international travels for me, among other things that will make it tough for us to get together again very soon.

F arrived from Portland a few hours after I did, and the first bottle of wine was soon given some air.

The next morning, with L's husband on duty with her two kiddos (and F's son and daughter safely at home on the other side of the country with their dad) we picked up S at her in-laws' Bethesda home, where she'd arrived the night before from NYC. Hooray for grandparents who are very excited to take their grandchild out for his own adventures so the four of us girls could have a kid-free day together! S's son, L, looked a little less excited to see us go than we felt to go.

But go we went. Hey, look, there's our nation's capitol in the background!

And oh, look, the Washington Monument! This really is one of the most exciting and eventful blog posts of the road trip!

All joking aside, we had a pretty thrilling day, in our own style. F suggested a visit to the National Gallery, which sounded very cultured and impressive. Especially if you ignore it that pretty much all we did there was use the bathroom, get hollered at by security guards for walking into the center of the lobby (which was not roped off but for some reason was off-limits), and take a few artsy-looking pictures in the very artsy space. For your consideration…

"Expectant mother with phone in main hall":

"Cherubs, recreated":

From the National Gallery, we went to the American Indian Museum. Most people probably go to this museum to learn more about American Indians. Us? We heard the cafeteria/café is spectacularly good. And oh, it is. Blue corn bread. Need I say more?

After gorging ourselves on fares from the Americas, we went back to our roots: gelato! Gone are the days of gelato for every meal (which honestly did sometimes happen that year back in bell'Italia, and the horrifying pictures of us prove it). But given what a powerful foundation for lasting friendship the stuff turned out to be, it was a moral imperative to head to DuPont Circle for some great gelato that L had scouted out for us. It really was probably some of the best gelato I've ever had. Dulcezza's, if you ever have the chance to go there.

Dark chocolate and salted caramel, oh my.

The gelato made us so happy that the employees of some of the shops we visited after that could not help but comment on the glow it caused. No joke: one shoe salesman said, "You all seem like a lot of fun." Which somehow didn't come off as creepy, even despite the fact that he was being forced by the management to wear a Santa's Elf hat during his shift. I didn't have the heart to take a picture of him suffering that indignation. So I made F, S, and L pose with some of their day's loot, instead.

After our frenetic eight hours of child-free-dom, we returned to L's house and continued the fun draped in children.

I even received a drawing from L's daughter, S, who also happens to be one of the youngest readers of this blog. Hi, S!

Among the drawing and pasta cooking and salad tossing and laughing and nail polishing and other forms of blissful chaos, there was prosecco. With raspberry. Even _I_ had some, and despite not liking booze or carbonation, see how it's appealingly refreshing.

How'd I do on the extremely exciting blog post, L?
It may not be a national park or particular activities that make for drool-worthy pictures, but I wouldn't trade this group of friends for anything. So as far as I'm concerned, a weekend with these ladies is equal to any of the other most exciting parts of my year.

Orlando & Grandma

It's harder to come up with blog posts when I stay in the same place for ten days at a time!

Most years I lived in Denver, I would fly to Orlando for a long weekend to hang out with my amazing Grandma G -- who, at 91, is still sharp as a tack and playing her weekly round of golf. (She gives me hope that fifty years from now I might still be able to trot the globe in one way or another.)

Now that I am unemployed, homeless, and even car-free (it's okay to use the word "hobo"; I kind of like it) it seemed like a great time to avoid our typical "This visit was far too short!" routine of the Denver years. So I planned for more than a week with G over Thanksgiving. My parents also came to Orlando for the holiday weekend, and we had a lovely T-day dinner out.

Other than that, it's been long walks every day, visits to the pool, lots of time to read, some movie-going, and just general relaxing goodness. Whenever G is around, there is also plenty of playing these:

Which is directly related me losing a lot of these:

We played a bunch of Phase 10 and 3-13 when my parents were here…

…and then after they left, we resumed afternoon card games with the ladies at the pool.

What a lady, that G.

Home sweet Denver

Apparently I'm on vacation from my vacation, because I've been absolutely inconsistent with taking photos of my lovely time in Denver catching up with so many friends. In particular, I really failed at getting shots of my time with former co-workers who are now, simply, friends. Here are a few pictures I did take, in case anyone reading knows any of these great people and would be happy to see them smiling (and, in this first case, with a baby who was still in utero when I left Denver in the springtime!).

I also got to spend an entire weekend up in Avon with eight of my Denver girlfriends, which was a wonderfully relaxing way to catch up with people. There were several art projects going on, lots of good food cooked and shared, and even lessons given in poi and belly dancing. So fun!

If you'll permit me a bit of nostalgia...

It's been…

...nearly 8 months.

...30,000 miles.

...all 13 Canadian provinces and territories.

...28 U.S. states.

…a year of visiting dozens of friends I hadn't seen for 1, 3, 5, or even 10 years.

…countless new experiences, friends, and places enjoyed.

My car--otherwise known as "my home" for most of this year--sold within 24 hours of me posting it on Craigslist in Denver. I got a little melancholy watching its new owner drive it away. In all those miles, absolutely NOTHING went wrong with it except for that one flat tire in Labrador and some windshield dings. Seems crazy to sell it. But I guess its final gift to me is the funding, through its sale, of the next leg of the adventure. (Stay tuned in early 2014. Though I'll try to do at least a few posts as I spend the next six weeks enjoying the holiday season with friends and family in Colorado, Florida, and Wisconsin.) And all good things must come to an end. So farewell, trusty CR-V. You've been a reliable and appreciated travel buddy.

And though the trip may be over, the car moved on to its next life, and me moving on to the next chapter, my cheesy nostalgic memories of the journey are mine to keep. It's been a grand one.

In fact, I wouldn't mind doing it all over again in another year or two. There is much more to see in every place I went, plus so many places I had to drive on past, some friends I missed, entire sections of the continent untouched by green marker. Will have to do something about that. Next time.