Hello, one and all! I was on the road with Paula1470, details will follow in a separate report, let me get those papers off my desk first.

Shortly, we went to Healdsburg, a couple of wineries around, and of course couldn't miss the Sonoma Traintown!!

Sounds like a great weekend, Faina!

Husband, daughter and I hiked into a mountain lake on Saturday. Well, our daughter actually just sat in her backpack most of the way up and back down.

The lake is right on the edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area and sits on the Rocky Mountain Front. We dipped our toes in the freezing water and threw lots of rocks into the lake. If you climb the saddle above the lake you can see the "Chinese Wall" in the Bob Marshall area. But we didn't climb the saddle because we had to be back in Choteau before the ice cream parlor closed.

If you read your tour books for Glacier Nat'l Park, you'll read about doing a loop that includes Choteau, MT. There is a little museum describing the dinosaur digs in the area and a small grizzly bear exhibit. There is also a great ice cream parlor at the museum.

Anyway, I can report that the huckleberry ice cream, chocolate ice cream, and 'moosetracks' ice cream are all very good!

And I can also report that there's nothing like cold Moosedrool beer and pizza after a long day of hiking.

Sunday, our daughter acquired her first tricycle. Our dog is no longer safe on any paved surface.

We had a nice weekend. I hope you all did, too!

Sounds like you both had great weekends! kureiff, what a nice adventure with your little daughter. I would love to go back to the days of tricycles! They grow up too fast, but it does sound like you are enjoying every minute!

We took a little trip down south to visit family. We are still working our way across Louisiana to see relatives, then we'll head back Wednesday. I feel such a sense of loss every time we see St. Tammany parish and all the destruction to their trees. That area is known for its beautiful, thick pines and hardwoods - and they still have trees - but if you saw it before Katrina, then you realize the horrible devastation of that storm.

Happy Monday, Faina and everyone else too!

Well, we had a busy weekend and I'm tired today, lol.

Friday night my DH and I had dinner with our S&BIL who are visiting from the UK. We talked travel - specifically our recent visit to Portugal and the investment property we are interested in purchasing.

Saturday our sons came home to celebrate my BD. We went to dinner and then watched "Little Miss Sunshine" - we had a great time and I highly recommend this movie.

Sunday we headed to Shea Stadium for some baseball. It looks like this will be the year for our Amazing Mets! We are all die-hard Mets fans.

That's it in a nutshell.

Have a great week!

Another Sunday afternoon of fun festivaling! DH, DD and I went to two festivals just off of Western (Chicago).

The first was a (an?) Ukranian festival. When we were there mid-afternoon it was crowded but not to the point of being a hindrance. And it was a beautiful, sunny, warm but not humid afternoon.

Unlike some of the festivals we attended earlier this summer, this one was truly Ukranian. Not just a generic festival with an ethnic name.

There were lots of vender's stalls with t-shirts, giftware, religious articles, etc. Along with the usual banks and realtors.

The only food we had was a sampling of 7 variously filled pierogi. They were so good! And, I thought, a pretty good deal for $5.

We were fortunate enough to be there for a performance of a large children's troupe of Ukranian dancers. They were wonderful!

I had an embarassing moment when I went to get a beer. Seems you had to first buy a ticket and present it to the gentleman serving the beer. But there were no English speakers around at the moment. The gentelman behind me in line tried to explain it to me by showing me his ticket and pointing to the booth where I needed to buy one. I thought he was trying to sell me a raffle ticket! Lord only knows what he thought I thought when I shook my head and said "later"! When I figured it out and thanked him, he gave me a very odd look!

From there we went quite a bit farther down Western to what was actually a church "picinic" at a Greek Orthodox church. So it was, of course, much smaller than the Ukranian festival. But very enjoyable.

It was getting quite crowded by the time we left, around 6:00. But just pleasantly busy when we arrived. Again, the beautiful weather added to our enjoyment. We also appreciated the fact that there were a lot of tables set up. Most of them shaded.

Of course, we had to sample the food! We started with a very tasty custard. And then, awhile later, split a meal of roasted lamb, rice and a mini-Greek salad. The food stand was operated by a local Greek restaurant. Very good! Before we left we bought a dozen of a honey-dipped pastry whose name I wish I could remember to take with us. Delicious!

We bought t-shirts for the kids for a grand total of $5 (yes, for both!). And I got a wonderful cook book put out by the women of the church. The woman who sold them to us proudly pointed out to me that she has three recipes in the book! What a great keepsake of a wonderful afternoon!

Hi Faina,

Just got back yesterday from our Germany/Italy trip. We're busy unpacking, catching up on emails, paperwork (and Fodor's, of course).

Kureiff, I've been that section of Montana in winter, and it thought it was just gorgeous. I hope to see it some day during the summer.

Have a good week, everyone!

LOL about the tricycle, kureiff! Sounds like you had a great weekend!

Happy birthday, STW!

Faina~you know I could not join the GTG as I had to work. So..my weekend was thus: Saturday hit the Berkeley Farmers Market and stock up for the week. Standouts were early girl tomatoes and cantelope(which I grew up referring to as Musk Melon).

Saturday starting @ 3: relatively easy shift taking care of pretty healthy kids. New arrival with very worried(and delightfully loving) family was big and transiently ill. It's always a delight to tell folks their kid will be ok in no time and have it work out.

Sunday: great breakfast and lunch later of BLTs made with those early girl tomatoes...yum. I always read the nupitials in the NY Times follwed by the obits in the SF Chronicle. Both cats stayed in bed with us through the paper and 2 cups of coffee

Tried to clean the week's mail off the dining room table and did get somewhere.

Sunday starting @ 3: another delightfully slow evening in the NICU.
Everyone was stable and we got to sit and visit with one another(there have been some horrific nights lately so this is curative). Looked at photos of co-workers' kids and exchanged stories on how everyone is SO ready for school to start.

I look forward to your trip report

PS:kureiff~I love tracking your kid's "milestones". Good luck to the dog.

Thank you, Caph.

Kurieff, lol, best wishes to your dog. We are enjoying watching our neighbor's little boy graduate to a little two wheel bike with trainers. My husband ran in the house yesterday to tell me to "watch" out the window as he was speeding around the cul-de-sac, just like our sons did when they were that age. Brought a huge smile to us! Enjoy your little girl.

Hi Faina and everyone!

Friday night, fiance and I had a nice relaxing evening of watching a few movies.

Saturday, we went shopping in Glens Falls. The goal was to find clothes for our honeymoon but it's almost impossible to find warm weather clothes right now. We had planned to walker around Lake George on our way back through but it was so late and raining that it never happened. Got home around 11:00pm, made a quick dinner of cheese pizza, and crashed.

Sunday, slept until 10:00, ran a bunch of errands, enjoyed a few glasses of wine and cooked a nice dinner of baked ziti.

This coming weekend, however, is going to be a busy one!

Thanks for the nice thoughts everyone!It's a lot of fun hanging out with a toddler, most of the time. Our dog appreciates your best wishes; she needs them right now to keep her safe from the two year old terror on wheels. ((&))

Happy Birthday, STW!

Pam, my SIL is a NICU nurse, too. You do amazing work!

Caph, the cookbook sounds like a great souvenier!

I had a very quiet weekend. Dh took DS and one of DS friends climbing. The friend had never even camped before, much less backpacked up a mountain! They did Mt. Adams, where DS lost my pair of Oakleys on a prior trip. I asked him to look for them this time

I REALLY wanted to go with them, but DD's plans didn't allow for that. Friends of ours from WA have their own plane, so they flew down and got her and took her back. So I had to take her to the little airfield near us.

Since I was abandoned by the family, I decided to enjoy my alone time. Chick flicks, wine and chocolate Lounged in the sun on the hammock and just basically did nothing.

Now back to real life today, lol!

PamSF,

I have to tell you that I will always have a special place in my heart for neonatal nurses!

Exactly 14 years ago, I was, along with her parents and other grandmother, with our first grandchild at the NICU at UC-Davis hospital in Sacramento.

She was born at 24 weeks, weighing one pound four ounces--566 grams, if I remember correctly.

As kureiff said, you do amazing work, and we will always be so thankful for the nurses and doctors without whom we surely would not have our precious granddaughter.

I am happy to report that she is now a beautiful teenager who is an excellent student, talented musician, science fair winner, and who won a statewide creative writing award last year.

Forgive my bragging, but I thought you might like to hear another success story from those of us who so appreciate what you do.

Byrd

Faina, I have noting to report for this past weekend, but I can tell you that my report for NEXT weekend will be a blast. Fodorites from the Asia Board will converge in Honolulu for a GTG at a Korean restaurant that is located next to a famous strip club. I kid you not!

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...7&tid=34812288

I've already planned to do my long run on Saturday....since the GTG is on Saturday night, I know I'll be too wasted on Sunday to wake up.

Thank you for your sentiments regarding the folks who work in NICU. My nephew is now 20 and close to 6 feet tall. He was born @ 30 weeks and on a ventilator for close to 2 weeks. I was a NICU nurse way back then and the perspective provided me still informs my work.

I must say in the 29 years I have done this work we have figured out a great deal about how to help the babies. How parents survive is still a mystery to me. I am also a family therapist(1/2 time in each vocation). Both of my "jobs" inform the "other".

Congratulations on that healthy and happy former 24 weeker.

"GTG at a Korean restaurant that is located next to a famous strip club." - and somebody said Kal will not be there??

Flew from hot GA to HOT TX to see my sweet daughter. She took me to two new (to me) restaurants: Sampios (Brazilian) and Andiamo Ristorante (yes, Italian).

OMIGOSH.

In a city known for its great food, these two are really winners! The pork tenderloin at Sampios and the poached pear in heavy cream at Andiamo's. Again: OMIGOSH!

The weather became very autumn like this past weekend and there's a bush in my yard that has leaves turning red. Yikes. I'm not ready.

On Sunday we drove to a lovely little town outside of Rochester (along the Erie Canal) for my husband's aunt & uncle's 50th anniversary. Instead of having a big dressy affair, they had a huge outdoor picnic in a lovely grove. Cousins from all over were there, all the teenage 2nd cousins played football. It was really nice.

My husband's cousin, who moved from Buffalo to LA several years ago, was home for the party and once again encouraged us to visit. I found myself checking out places to stay on the Pacific Ocean on VRBO. I haven't been to LA in 21 years and my husband and son have never been, so I'm giving it some serious thought!

Superb, with my kids ... enjoying Margot's in Nashville ... highly recommended for pleasant food.