Boston

(the happy couple)

Our friends Zora and Addie got married this weekend in a lovely ceremony in Boston, so we flew up there for a long weekend. We stayed with Erica's friend Erin, who slept in a sleeping bag, despite our protests, so that we could use the one bed left in her temporarily roommate-less apartment. Thanks, Erin, you rock.

The wedding was beautiful and tons of fun, with gorgeous river views, quality Quaker silence, a burrito bar, cupcakes, a riotous game of trivia, excellent music, really nice people, and, of course, lots and lots of love. In addition to seeing Erin, Addie, Zora and all the wedding guests, we also had drinks Kevin, dancing at the Hong Kong with our friend Fitz, man-brunch (a new experience for both Erica and Rory) with Fitz, Neel and Ava, and mini-golf with Matt, April and Lily. Lily seems to be off to a great start in the sports department - even at barely five months she can already hold a putter, and she partnered up to great effect with Matt, lending balance, a keen eye, and unshakable calm from her snazzy harness on Matt's chest. Is there any other possible explanation for how a devoted desk-jockey like Matt beat out the entire field at putt-putt?

Also, thanks to the indulgence of the Sithers, Rory (and Erica) had their first exposure to Five Guys burgers. Nobody's quite sure how this place took such a hold on Rory's imagination, but he sometimes seems to talk about it even more than Dairy Queen, although he had never been there until now and only happened to hear about in a passing reference on an NPR podcast. Anyway, they were good burgers, plus you can order online if you want and avoid any sort of human interactions beyond snatching the greasy bag away from an anonymous counterman. (Incidentally, for those in the Boston area who have been drooling and jealous at all these discussion of Dairy Queen, there is one somewhere way up north, between Swampscott and mini-golf. That's specific enough, right? Just follow your nose...)

Tomorrow we're off for Mexico. We don't get in until late at night so it may be a few days before an update. We are finally on Skype though, so feel free to look us up.

This is the end . . . of the driving

Well, many thousand miles later we're at the end of our driving for quite a while. We've settled finally in Austin, TX at Erica's mom's, where we'll be until we depart for Mexico (except for a short trip - by plane - back to Boston for a wedding).

It's been quite an amazing ride. Even without all the stops - which were incredible in their own right - the trip was worth it just to see the incredible variety of scenery along the way. From flat cornfields to the most stunning variety of mountains, grasslands, hills, and valleys. Erica discovered (or revealed) a deep love of trains, manifested in a number of pictures of trains taken from the car. If the frequency of mention is any indication, Rory similarly loves Dairy Queen and vultures, a label which he seems to think applies to any large flying bird in any even semi-arid region. It's easy to forget, living in New England, how incredibly large and varied this country is; easy to take for granted the raw beauty at our fingertips. It's also easy to forget, living in New England, that a lot of people are actually really friendly to strangers. Finally, it's easy to forget that even when you hit the Midwest, you are by no means halfway across the country. The West is enormous.

As a final treat we traveled this weekend from Austin to San Antonio to visit our friend Raudel. He fed us like royalty, as usual, then introduced us to several of his female friends (who seemed to pop up almost everywhere in the city we happened to go). We spent the night in his new home, and from there went on to Houston for the afternoon, where a former co-worker of Rory's treated us to another grilled feast and lots of cold beer. Rory is sure that he misses the raw heat of Houston, but it's hard to find anybody else who agrees. At the least, its a great excuse for a stop at Dairy Queen, which clearly occurred on the drive back to Mary's.

All told, it's been wonderful. And it's nice to look forward to just sitting still (and not in a car) for the next few days. Thanks again to everyone who put us up, put up with us, fed us, washed our clothes, gave us directions, or just got out of the left lane as we came up behind. Keep an eye out for more as we keep the trip rolling.

More Colorado Pictures

We also had the chance, while in Las Cruces (where we are spending the night tonight) to upload a few more photos to our Picasa album of Colorado. Enjoy!

Just an observation - if you are driving through Utah be sure you take note of the "No Services" signs. They are frequent and often ill-located, as in after the last exit with 100 miles to the next exit with services. No worries, we were well fueled to make it the distance, but be aware if you find yourself along I-70. It made us appreciate Arizona that much more when we arrived today - interesting looking plants, cacti, and helpful signage about gas exits.

We didn't make it to the Grand Canyon, but we did see the Hoover Dam. We just didn't want to add on the extra 120+ miles to an already long day to see the famous canyon. Besides, we had been seeing mini versions of it for the last three days, right? I guess another trip out west, some day, will be necessary. The Hoover Dam, on the other hand, was easily accessible - we drove over it! We hopped out to get a closer look. It really is impressive. Erica had a hard time reconciling the clean energy with the environmental damage, but she did get past it all in time to spit into the dam before we left. (She is certain that is on a list somewhere of 100 things to do before you die. Or maybe it was 1,000 things to do....)

Tomorrow we head to Texas!

Laaaaaaaas Vegas

What a contrast from camping! We went from the banks of the Colorado river with no showers and only starlight to the Las Vegas boulevard, a shower with two heads, and not a star in sight. We stayed at the MGM, which was pretty nice, although aside from the room and the lion exhibit, we didn't really spend much time there.

We managed to see most of the major hotels/casinos on the strip, gambled a little at most of them (although that was mostly penny slots...) and enjoyed people-watching from a few pretty decent strip restaurants. By Wednesday night, we seemed to really hit our stride - delicious dinner at the Venetian (in our rush we didn't realize until we were seated that we were next door to the restaurant that had been recommended to us. Oops. But the bartender was the best waiter we've had the entire trip), really amazing Cirque du Soleil show, and some big returns on the roulette table and the slots for Erica. (By that point, Rory had given up making bets - reminds us of the joke: you want to know how to play craps? you just put your money on the table and they pick it up, that's how you play craps.)

The show we were treated to was a water-themed extravaganza called "O." The stage was basically an enormous pool - which must have been pretty deep given the height of some of the diving - but they were also able to raise solid platforms of various shapes to provide tumbling/cotortion/dance/etc. platforms. There were flying horses and boats, a floating house with clowns, fire dancers, high divers, trapeze artists and plenty more. Completely riveting.

Accompanying the show was a display of Cirque-du-Soleil-inspired sculpture by the artist Richard MacDonald. The figures captured the dynamism of the performers and the beauty of the human body in motion in stunning ways.

Afterwards we went to New York, New York intending to put our loose change into the only (giant) slot machine that we had found that actually took coins. The line was too long though, so we did the logical second-best thing and put some money down on the roulette table. Good choice - Erica is the bomb.

Erica also discovered some French language skills while strolling through and dining at the Paris Hotel and Casino. The trick is to put "le" in front of most things! Here is a useful Vegas French-English dictionary....

le cashier - the cashier

le centre de conference - the conference center

le elevator - the elevator

Vegas, mon cheri, Vegas - Vegas, baby, Vegas

Colorado River and Arches National Park

We loved Scenic Route 128 so much that we decided to camp for two nights along the shores of the Colorado River, right at Big Bend. For a mere $12 a night we slept in our tent under what we believe was an Aspen tree, enjoyed the Milky Way, didn't shower, and fell asleep to the sounds of the rapids.

We spent Sunday at Arches checking out some different hikes, thanks to the tour book Frances and Jim loaned us. It was wicked hot and completely gorgeous. Neither of us had seen a landscape quite like it. On Monday we made use of the guide book again and spent time in Negro Bill Canyon to see the world's 6th largest land bridge. (We are still not certain what makes a structure a land bridge vs. an arch.) Our most notable meal was Monday's lunch at the Moab Diner. Erica got the breakfast she had been craving (pancakes, sauge patties, eggs and a chocolate shake) and Rory got a "famous" green chili burger with a mint chocolate chip and butterfinger shake (No, he didn't come up with that combination on his own, that was the special shake of the month.) In the afternoon some ominous storm clouds were rolling in so we headed back to our campsite to secure the homestead before we headed out to Bowtie and Corona Arches. The weather held for this last spectacular hike farther south down the river, but our campsite was not so lucky. When we got back we noticed some rather large branches strewn about and some bulletin boards on the ground. It wasn't until this morning that we noticed how bent some of our tent poles were due, presumably, to the fallen branches around the site! Thank goodness we weren't in the tent when the storm hit or it might have been a long night in the car! The storm really changed the color of the river - when we arrived it was a murky brown and after the rain it was a reddish color.

Pictures will probably do it all better justice so we made this web album to share some of what we saw.

The only disappointment was missing the Hole 'N the Rock, a home that a man dug out of some of the sandstone in the canyonlands. Not just any old house, a 14 room one with a 65 foot chimney, taxidermy exhibits, and a bathtub dug out of the rock. Additionally they have an exotic petting zoo and a General Store. Sigh. It might just be worth another trip to Moab!

Moab, Utah

Wish we would have taken pictures every hour in Colorado to capture the huge changes in landscape. We went from grassland, to Rocky Mountains, to canyons with sheer cliffs of layered rocks, to sandstone hills, and back to flat openness.

In Utah we happened to stop at one of the first exits for a stunning panoramic view and bathroom break just as a fellow Massachusetts traveler was taking a break. He noticed our plates and tipped us off to a most excellent scenic route into Moab. Needless to say if you're headed this way, the extra time is well worth a slow drive down Route 128 (off I-70). Our Massachusetts friend had promised something like the Grand Canyon and we were not disappointed! It was a winding road along the meandering Colorado River with landscape that went from rolling hills with horse ranches and stands of trees, to nothing but rock walls, to wide open vistas with some precarious looking needles of rock. It was truly stunning and we're thinking we'll try to camp along there tomorrow night.

Plenty of places to stop off too, including one where we snapped some pictures and got our feet wet in the mighty Colorado. No swimming though, the current was moving fast and its so silty that there's really no telling the depth. Rory crept out a little into the current for a photo op, which made Erica nervous. Plenty of great skipping stones for the shorebound, though.


Found a nice little hotel in Moab for the night then headed into Arches National Park for the sunset. This is definitely our kind of park, with lots of opportunity to roam off the trails and even some bouldering. It was a short trip, but worth it, as we got to see a really neat double arch that's pretty far from where we'll hike tomorrow.

We'll be camping for the next few nights, so maybe no more updates until Vegas. Vegas, baby, Vegas. Love to all.

Go West...

After a wonderful respite from driving and a great time with our families, we left Madison for the great American West. Our route took us southwest through Iowa, then Nebraska, and finally into Colorado, with a final push out to Moab, Utah planned for tomorrow.

We had hoped to stop somewhere interesting in each state, and were almost successful, but ultimately defeated by the stubborn monotony of Iowa. (Wikipedia claims that this is a diverse and interesting state, so maybe we'll come back someday and look a little harder, but for now - why visit the idiots out wandering around when beautiful Wisconsin is so close by?)

Early on we faced some truly impressive rain and lightning, but not before we were able to stop at the lovely Dickeyville Grotto in famous Dickeyville, Wisconsin. There's nothing subtle about the religion and patriotism here - shrines to saints, Jesus and Mary, Christopher Columbus and Thomas Jefferson - but whether you agree with the viewpoint or not, the construction is pretty marvelous. Literally every inch of each of the shrines (maybe a half-acre of total area) is covered with rocks, resin chips and seashells. The amount of time Father Wernerus put into these structures is a real testament to human idealism - or is that endurance?

Aside from Dickeyville, we also really enjoyed the scenery in Wisconsin around the western border - river country - and lamented that neither of us had really seen very much of our home state. At places the road cuts right through the hills revealing starkly contrasting layers of limestone (we think), sandstone, and various other strata. Quite pretty.

Iowa was a bit of a bust (no surprises really, based on memories of prior trips), but we made good time and then really opened up the old throttle once we hit Nebraska. Nothing but flat, little but corn, and a speed limit of 75. The road traces the Platte River, so there were pretty stands of cottonwood to break up the monotony and we found a real-life stop on the pony express with a friendly local docent to answer our questions. (This alone vaulted Nebraska way past Iowa in the favorite-state-of-the-day competition.)

(This is the second story of the original building, which was restored and moved to a park a few miles south of the original spot. Inside is kind of pretty, in a rough-hewn way, with thick irregular beams and neat displays of Pony Express history and general frontier relics.)

The Pony Express ran all the way from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California: almost 2,000 miles, with posts every 10 miles to change horses and every 50 miles to sleep. The mail was carried in mochilas, special contraptions made to fit over saddles, that carried only about 20 pounds of mail (not much, when you see the mochilas in person). Prices were high - $5 per half-ounce - but apparently couldn't cover the high costs of maintaining so many feeding and resting stations and according to our docent the founders lost a total of over $100,000 over the span of less than two years of operation. Still, it seems like the riders were pretty tough dudes and its an interesting story. All in all, this was a fun stop and one that netted Erica a pretty awesome t-shirt as a souvenir.

So far, Colorado is beautiful and empty and much more contoured than the Midwest. Not so surprising... It is also crazy dark out here. We can see the appeal. Lots more to go - we're really looking forward to the mountains.

Until next time, all our love to all our readers and thanks to Super 8 for free wireless. Take that S.S. Badger.

Adventures in Madison

Well, she did it! Baube left her apartment fairly willingly. No cajoling necessary! (Just realizing some may not know who or what Baube is - Erica's maternal grandmother, Baube is Yiddish for Grandmother. She is a spritely 90 year old lady who can't hear well, tells great stories, and admits to "always saying 'no' the first time you ask me to do something.")

We took a lovely jaunt over to Olbrich Gardens, the local botanical garden, over on the east side of Madison. Baube was pretty quiet the whole ride through town, just taking in all the changes to the town since she has lived there (roughly 1938 - right Mary?). Once we arrived we hopped on the stretch golf-cart for an amateur tour of the gardens. The highlight for Erica was the Thai Pavilion with it's amazing structure, a gift from the Thai government, as well as different animal statues, pools, and manicured juniper bushes! After that Baube was still eager to see more so we commandeered a wheelchair and went to get a closer look at some Hibiscus plants with humongous flowers, Baube's favorite thing we saw. She kept talking about returning to the garden at midnight so she could steal a cutting from the Hibiscus so she could grow it on her own. A funny image, if you know her. She is quite the green thumb, though!

Another memorable moment was today when the whole family headed out for a canoe excursion on Lake Wingra. Lake Wingra, you should know, is a pretty murky, algae-filled lake. Rory, Erica, Dani and the kids, Audrey and Drew, set off for what would be an hour long journey. It was Audrey and Drew's first canoe trip so there was much discussion of paddles, remaining seated in the boat, and different lake wildlife. Audrey really started to get into the trip when she got her hands in the water and touched some seaweed. Drew was hopeful about finding froggies, but wound up disappointed. Once we were clear of some of the grosser stuff Audrey decided to jump in and swim along. She was in and out of the boat, twirling in the water, and swimming after dropped sponges. Drew thought he wanted to swim too, but every time Dani had him in the water he basically screamed bloody murder....


But that is not all, by any means.
After a picnic lunch the fun really got started!
Picture this: serene lake with a short dock. Rory and two small kids out on the dock, trying fishing for the first time. Audrey, 3.5 years old, takes an unannounced flying leap off the dock and hooks herself with her own line. Rory jumps in after her to fish her out. No serious injuries, just a lifelong aversion to fishing. Wait, wait, it gets better. As we are all standing on the dock comforting Audrey, Drew, almost 2 and a non-swimmer, tumbles off the dock into the water. Again, Uncle Rory jumps in to the rescue. Again, and thankfully, no serious injuries, just another lifelong aversion to fishing.

In the end it was nothing that a little Michael's Frozen Custard couldn't fix. Ice cream fixes everything. (Also of note is that Rory fell into the lake at that exact spot when he was younger too! Except he took his plunge some time in late winter so there was ice involved! Rory also went out for ice cream then to aid in his recovery).

Also, for those of you concerned with our ability to get things done now that we are on a 5 month vacation you should all know we checked off all the items on our list of Madison things to do. Linda took care of the kids while Dani, Dave, Rory and Erica all headed out to Dotties for some amazing burger goodness. Then it was off to the Union for some beers.

Tomorrow we head west!

Madison, WI

We have managed to cross off one thing on our list of things to do in Madison - Babcock Ice Cream. What a delicious delight, replete with dripping cones, messy faces, and down home dairy goodness. Erica went for the usual chocolate peanut butter in a sugar cone. The Foster family seemed to favor the orange custard chocolate chip. Also, the Fosters managed to astonish Erica with their similar ice cream eating tactics - they all use a finger to push ice cream into the cone so that when they get to the cone part there is ice cream in it! (Erica just uses her tongue to push the ice cream into the cone.) Previously she had thought Rory was alone in this odd habit, but both Linda and Dani did it! There is still time for Audrey and Drew....


We've been seeing some of Baube too. She is doing well and more accepting of help than on prior visits. She had a grocery list at the ready, as well as a plan for the different things she wanted "cooked" for her. Today she hovered as Erica expertly chopped some fruit and mixed it with cottage cheese. Baube needs a 2nd breakfast so she won't starve before lunch and this concoction seems the perfect fit.

Tomorrow we may even get her out to the Arboretum. We are excited to see what it is in bloom there with the warm and wet summer Madison has been having.

Across the Pond

Well, we're in Madison now and trying to see as much friends and family as we can before we move on. Visited Erica's aunt, uncle and cousins in Whitefish Bay where Aunt Sue treated us to a spectacular feast, then jaunted over to Greendale for late night pie, old pictures and a Greek diner with Rory's grandparents. For those who've never been to Madison, a short list of recommendations (all, tellingly, involving food):

• Michael's Frozen Custard
• Babcock Ice Cream
• Dotty Dumpling's Dowry Burgers
• Beer on the Union Terrace

Here's our post from Lake Michigan too, written on the boat:

Well, no post from the lake itself - who wants to pay for wireless anymore? - but I'm sure nobody was waiting on pins and needles to hear about it...

Saturday we slept in a bit then went for a long barefoot run on the beach. Rory's aunt and uncle live on a stretch of beach just south of Ludington and we fell asleep to the sound of waves both nights.

Luckily for us the wind was southerly for a few days too, so the water temperature was in the seventies. We spent a leisurely afternoon on the beach with Nancy and Dennis, then drove up to Ludington State Park for a little hike. What a beautiful place - the "Queen of the North" they call it. Dunes, beaches, an enormous lake and gorgeous trails. We didn't hike far but did manage to see the new dams, in the same place as the originals, built there to facilitate the lumber trade that justified settlement there back in the day. Dennis told us that pretty soon salmon would be swimming upstream to spawn. Unfortunately for them, there's no fish ladder, so they spend there last days futiley throwing themselves at the dam and being picked off by jubilant fishermen. Dennis wasn't sure why they even swim up that river, because they certainly weren't born there, but nobody ever said fish were very smart. (Erica thinks that's funny coming from a former future-ichthyologist - but people study moss too and that's a lot dumber than fish.)

And the ferry.... Despite some minor seasickness on Erica's part the crossing has been delightful. It was crazy windy early on, following some spectacular thunderstorms early this morning. (Erica's hair doesn't normally look like this.)

Stacks of deck chairs and chaise lounges were blowing in clusters across the decks and the trash cans would have followed if they weren't thoughtfully tied to the rails. It was windy enough that Rory wouldn't get close to the rails except to grab with one hand. It's easier to get blown over when you're taller than average... (The other hand was busy holding his shirt on - it was really windy, windy enough that "you can feel your eyelashes blowing around" according to Erica.)

We hunkered down with a few other brave souls on the lounges near the bow bulwark, although nobody had warned us to bring sleeping bags like some of the others. Soon enough the wind died and the sun came out and we both promptly fell asleep. So easy with the sound of the waves and the wake and the gentle rocking of the S.S. Badger.

As to the ferry itself: don't be fooled by its humble name and obscure ports of call. This is a big, big boat. We watched it come in to Ludington last night - a popular tourist passtime - and it is massive from the side. Originally it was built to transport railroad cars, with passenger cars only filling the top deck. Since then it's been converted to passenger-cars only (plus the occasional tractor) with about 40 cabins to rent, a couple galleys, a movie theater, an arcade - with Big Buck Hunter! (but no pinball, obviously) - a museum, a "boatique," and a kids playroom. There's bingo and trivia in the dining hall, which draws a crowd, but we've spent most of out time on the deck. Oh, and it burns coal. That's right, coal. Crazy. The bingo man says its the largest coal-fired steamship in the world. We figure its the only coal-fired steamship in the world . . . but both of those things could be true, and we're really not that up to speed on world shipping trends.

After we land we'll hit the candy store, then head south to Whitefish Bay and Greendale. Tomorrow, on to Madison.

Time to go - land ho!

P.S. We did hit the candy store. Special thanks to Erica's mom for the books on road food. Beerntsen's Candy is a cute little shop serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and lots and lots of chocolate. Very mom-and-pop feel and very tasty treats. Definitely a jewel of Manitowoc.

Where are we?

Hanging on the beach was so relaxing and the water was so warm we started to wonder if we had made it to Mexico already! Here's the sunset on the second night, from Nancy and Dennis's porch. More on our Lake Michigan crossing soon.

Ludington, MI

Over 1,000 miles logged! No exact numbers yet until we can confirm that the trip odometer cycles back to 0 after 1000 miles. Another few days of driving and we'll be able to tell for sure...

Some highlights from today:

• Sleeping in!
• Chatting with Erin and playing with Jacob (He has quite the throwing arm! Also he and Rory are now good enough friends that Jacob cried when Rory went upstairs to take a shower.)
  
• Souvenir Ohio penny with excellent spelling.... (See photo above.) Keep looking, you'll see it!
  
• Lunch with Alison and Grant in Toledo (sorry to have missed Jimmy)
• Seeing what appeared to be an operational GM facility from the highway
• Pretty drive up 31 from Muskegon to Ludington
• Sharing dinner and stories with Nancy and Dennis, while the sun set over Lake Michigan

Looking forward to the beach tomorrow and the ferry ride on Sunday. The SS Badger - wifi, snack-bar and a free movie - what better way to cross the pond. Look for updates mid-cruise... Guaranteed to entertain the whole family.

OHIO! and more pictures

We safely made it through the state of Pennsylvania, with a brief stop in Philadelphia to pick up our stuff. A day full of driving... relatively uneventful. We bypassed some traffic, ate some subway, and missed a turn on our way to Rory's cousin's home. We were fed a delightful dinner and entertained by their 16 month old!

NYC pics
-Our friend's daughter really wanted Erica to try on her shoes, and tie them! This is also about when she found my wallet...







-A shot of Rory and Nate. Something tells me there may be a very similar picture laying around somewhere from 10 years ago.





-Bryn and Nate! We were sad to say goodbye since they are moving to Switzerland while we are away. It was wonderful to spend time with them

Philadelphia in Pictures

Here are some pics of Tina, and the rest of the family, as promised.

- Mike and Ali before the ceremony

- Mary telling Tina, Mike and Ali a bit about her Hebrew name, Hasha. It was our great grandmother's name, Baube's mom. Lots of other interesting and meaningful things happened to welcome dear Tina to her immediate family, extended families, Jewish community, and the world. Then there were lots of great explanations of her different names. Mary told everyone about Tina's middle name, Hasha, given to her in honor of her great great grandmother, Baube's mom.

- The Ramberg contingent after

- Couldn't resist a cute one with Rory holding Tina....

New York - Day 2

We spent a hot day traipsing around New York. I wore my "sensible" shoes, fashion and hipness be damned. Rory is even contemplating walking sandals because his feet got hot.

It was a thoroughly New York day. We woke up and went for a run/walk/sprint in Central Park. (If you aren't familiar with a run/walk/sprint it is when you run for a bit and then you (I mean, I) get lazy and decide to walk, then you (I) feel bad for not running and decide we should sprint to make up for it).

Later in the afternoon we headed to the MoMA. One of Rory's friends happens to work for a corporate sponsor of the museum so we were able to get in for free. Whoa. It was sort of overwhelming how many famous pieces of artwork are housed in that one building. We literally made it through two floors and that was that. Matisse, Rivera, Cezanne, Rousseau, Picasso, Dali, Magritte, Modigliani, Van Gogh, Monet, Mondrian, Kandinsky.... One of the highlights was seeing Umberto Boccioni's Dynamism of a Soccer Player. We have a poster of it at home and it great, but seeing the real thing was really neat.

For dinner we headed to a Chinatown favorite with new and old friends, as well as an adorable, almost-two year old. During the day, said two year old became obsessed with my wallet so the night also entailed a brief bartering session with a vendor over a coin purse that I could exchange for the return of my items. Although she knew she was getting the short end of the trade, once we all plied her with our lose change to fill her new purse it was a done deal.

Again, more pics to follow once we are in possession of our camera

New York

So we did a little backtracking and headed to nyc.

It seems that some of you have had trouble with the first picture I posted of Tina. That will be remedied once we have our computer again.... As we are staying with some dear friends in the south Bronx we thought we would leave most of the non-essentials with Mike and Ali and Tina in Philly. You can expect some adorable pics and pithy commentary soon!

New York has already been a blast, including adventures in parking in west midtown Manhattan, mixed drinks with a good friend, an amazing Korean feast, and some tourist dodging in Times Square.

Welcome, Tina Nontando Ramberg-Michael

Oh girl!

The first stop on our journey is Philadelphia for the baby naming and welcoming ceremony for our newest niece, Tina Nontando Ramberg-Michael. So sweet.

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