Eight Days and Counting!!!

Okay, we are eight days and counting! I have spent the last couple of weeks visiting old friends, making new ones, and saying "goodbye" (for now) to family.

Took a trip up to New Jersey to visit my best friend, Jim, and his family. I don't think I have stayed up that late, so many nights in a row, and finished off so many bottles of wine. We had such a great time. Jim's wife, Paola, was a wonderful host and I truly felt at home there with their family.

The highlight of our visit was when Paola invited an Argentinian couple over for dinner. We were given a demonstration on how to drink mate (an Argentinian and Uruguayan drink similar to tea but with a real kick). Marc said I looked like a natural drinking it and fears I will be carrying my own flask around shortly.

Mate (mah-tay) cup

While in North Jersey, I also got the chance to reconnect with another gradeschool buddy, Nikki, and feel blessed to have grown up with such great people around me. Thanks Nik!!!

Took a trip to Philadelphia, as well, to visit my mother, grandmother, and Aunt. It was bitter sweet. The visit was too short, but we made the most of it. The girls would say there favorite part was eating the Tower of Pisa (six scoops of gelatto icecream). I will have to get a photo of that from my Aunt.

Liberty Harbor RV Park

Last, but not least we took a trip to New York, New York. We stayed in a Liberty Harbor RV park  in Jersey City. It was great! We set our tent trailer up and from where we were sitting we could see the Statue of Liberty. In the morning we just walked a few blocks and caught a train right into New York. The city was amazing. We spent our days pounding the pavement, taking in all the sights and smells (not all good), and spent a bit of time wondering "Where are the restrooms?"

Marc and the girls in Times Square

We were able to get tickets for the 911 Memorial (which was a beautiful tribute), and stumbled into Little Italy for their San Gennaro festival (biggest and longest religious festival in nyc). It was there that Marc became Italian. I never saw a man eat so much. He tried cannolli, sausages, italian ice....he was very happy. As Marc was tasting the foods, Raye, Morgan, and Mary spent their time haggling with a Chinese vendor for pashmina scarves (the Chinaman won).

Marc's favorite...sausage!!!

Little Italy

appealing food in China Town

unappealing alligator feet....

In New York, we also got to visit with my cousin, Lynsay, and she directed us to two of the girls favorite places...Saks Fifth Avenue shoe department and the infamous Magnolia Bakery (Sex and the City) where everyone enjoyed a $3.50 cupcake.

Now we are back in Maryland downsizing again. We left our tent trailer at Jim's and I just listed it on Craigslist last night. That was my third home in the last year to say "goodbye" to. We had an amazingsummer traveling across the states. Saw so much and experienced so much. Too much to actually write about, but I don't regret it at all (except that we miss our dogs). Now I am weeding through the remains of our belongings and trying to figure out how to get Rayelynn's 88 key digital piano that we drug around all summer down to Uruguay without getting stolen!

The Blog. Okay, I have decided to give this "blogging" business a try.  Along our travels this summer, I worked on coming up with a clever title or name for the blog....call it a (non)writer's block because all I could come up with was "Seven Spuds a Strollin".  I admit that I played with the names the "Seven Stupids" and the "Traveling Nobodies", but eventually decided on the potato theme.  So, this is the start of our South American journey (as I have just counted 21 days left until departure on the calendar)....YIKES!!!  I must admit that, even though I have had a lot of time to prepare for the trip, I am feeling a bit "excited".  The unknown.

What I do know. We are flying out of Washington, DC on October 4th and arriving in Montevideo, Uruguay the morning of the 5th. We have two stops in El Salvador and Peru.  From Montevideo, we may be getting a ride from a friend of Marc's to Treinta y Tres (I may just write "33" from now on- its much shorter). He has generously offered to pick us up with all of our luggage and take us to 33 (two hours away).  He also is the one who found our rental house and worked out a lot of the details. Raul has no idea how much he has put my mind at ease. I am already very grateful for a friend I have never met.

The rental. The rental house is a small three bedroom home in the downtown area just a couple blocks away from the city park. Wait that sounds kind of familiar?????  Funny how that worked out. Rosie was happy to see (on Google Earth) that is only two blocks from a hot dog restaurant (? that doesn't sound right, but it is a store selling hot dogs rather than a typical hot dog stand) It is hard to say much else about the rental house, as I have only seen a few photos in an email from Raul, but it looks like it will work. The house is furnished (which is nice) and I am hoping we will be able to find everything else we need in the local stores. Well, already I have been a bit "wordy", I will sign off for now. I will post as I go.