HOME

For all of those who asked...ROLL all the way. Now the hard part, is that when you then create all that lovely space in your suitcase, and you fill it will the odd bits of packing that don't fit anywhere else, your suitcase will weigh more than 2 stone 8 lbs. I know this because the night before we left, we stayed at our dear friends the Cruickshanks. They were off in France and we were frantically trying to off-load the last of our furniture..all of which went to good homes...and do all of our last minute stuff before returning home. The house was a godsend and we were weighing our luggage the night before so we didn't have the horrible moment at the airport of realizing 1 bag was overweight and trying to repack on the floors at the check-in counter. Their scale is in stone. So is the one at the gym, so apparently this is still the common way to weigh your person, even though the airlines give the number as 23 kg for luggage. For us this is 50 lbs. So it is midnight, we have to leave at 4 am to have plenty of time at the airport...for anyone traveling through Heathrow..yes you need the whole 2 hours and then some...and we are weighing suitcases and translating it to Kg and lbs...my brain still hurts from that one! But we made it and with Frank's traveling good luck charm(really, his charming personality) got us upgraded the whole way home and arrived to the waiting arms and home of dear Christina, Eric and family. That too was a godsend as we collapsed in various states of exhaustion and delirium that night. The rest of the week was a whirlwind of getting Bridget off to her Freshman overnight, buying school supplies, moving over to the Zamberlin/Thomas house(there is only so much anyone can take of the Adam clan..so we spared Christina further despite her generous protests) and then starting school!!!

Finally on Tues night Aug. 31, 2010...we re-entered 7332 Keen Way N. Can I just say "there's no place like home". It felt great. We all ran room to room relishing the space. Of course, we have nothing in the house but the furniture, so we had to begin stocking. Can I tell you just how much fun it is to go to Costco when ALL of your cabinets are empty!!!

We have had some excitement with various broken appliances, but all-in-all our renters did a fine job of keeping the house in shape. Today was our first day all home and we began the "big dig" in our yard to shape it up a bit and managed to get through 1 of our storage areas as well. It is all coming together and I admit it is a bit fun. I feel like I've just played scrabble with our house(and life) and I got to throw in all the pieces and start over. We are hoping to maintain some of the new found "emptiness" and keep our life clutter free. I'll have to report back on that by Christmas to see if we are able to hold on to that!!! Pictures to follow, I have to update computers etc. But since everyone wanted to know about the packing...I thought I'd oblige.

Cheers to all who listened to me for the past year!

Flat or roll

As I frantically pack everything we own into 5 suitcases(now I know this all fit a month ago!)the eternal dilemma...do you roll the clothes to make them as small as possible, or lay them flat? Bridget is the packing connoisseur in our family and has done some amazing things with our stuff, but right now we have both systems going. Tonight will be the weigh in... so far, it seems you CAN fit more with rolling...BUT it may weight too much and thus be rejected by the airline. I will report in on this so you too can end this debate in your house! OK, maybe our house is just a whole lot weirder than others...I'm willing to believe that :)

North

It is early morning here and we have just come back from a week of touring "The North". Yes, on all of the road signs, it is simply labeled THE NORTH. We stayed in a border town called Carlisle..right on the border with Scotland and saw many Roman forts and hiked Hadrian's wall. For those, like me, who didn't know what this was, he was a Roman Emperor who fortified Britain's borders with "the wild country"..Scotland...by building a 73 mile, 12 ft high, 4 ft thick stone wall across the entire countryside. It is massive and impressive and you can pretty much hike the whole thing. We didn't hike all 73 miles, but got some pretty decent walks on it, over it, and through it. You meet some amazing people along the way for whom this is clearly a goal and are walking at speed to make the whole thing. Gorgeous views, weather and fun digging around old Roman Forts. At one stop(Vindalando) we got to meet with the head archeologist(in year 9 of his doctorate from Duke) who had a team out working the site. He gave this amazing history lesson of who had lived here(6 different forts over the years) and what they had done. It has the oldest collection of written works in Britain. With hand scribed party invitations, garrison lists, business dealings, even school lessons with teacher's corrections! A pretty cool glimpse into the past.
We took in Edinburgh at the start of its Fringe Festival, which is a big music, art, performance extravaganza with street performances everywhere of everything you can imagine and then some. I'm told at night it is even more wild! We went to Alnwick Castle where the first several Harry Potter films were made and had lots of fun pretending. We hiked the Lake District from the town of Keswick. It was so wild to walk through town and EVERYONE, even infants, are wearing hiking boots! The hike was spectacular up and over mountains, looking down at the lakes and finally walking the lake shore back to town.

As we left our cabin we headed to York, but first stopped in the North Moors National Park, where 3/4 of the world's heather moors are grown. This was so obscure in the guide book, I felt I must see it. So you cruise along through farm country...counting cows and such...and suddenly you turn right and there are acres and acres of rolling hills that are all purple!! Just covered in heather. So we stopped in a local bakery for some sandwiches and hiked away up the mountains. We ended up eating lunch on the rock rubble of an old Bronze Age house/hovel/shelter. We made it to York in time to wander this medieval city with winding roads and over-hanging buildings. We climbed the 277 steps to the top of York Minster(the Cathedral) and then when down into the crypts where you see that this massive building is built on the remains of both a Roman and Norman site. Every 500 years or so, you can see where things settled, got filled over with rock and started building again! I am glad I saw this AFTER I had climbed up to the top. After a relaxing dinner, we went on the Ghost Hunt of York, where you wander the streets with a story-teller and look for ghosts . All good fun.

We are now home and just slept our last night in the Cromford Way house. We move the last of the furniture to the new various owners tonight and pack our things and move into friends' house while the cleaners come through tomorrow. We have just a couple of days for our last minute sight-seeing, but it is funny as we talk about what we want to do...no one has any ideas. that is a good thing, we worked our way through the guide books and pretty much have seen it all! It must be time to come home.

North and Scotland

Nick training to be a night at Alnwick Castle(of Harry Potter Fame)..he's got quite the aim!, Hiking through the Lake District 10 K through the mountains and still smiling! Edinburgh fir "The Fringe Festival" and the boys in some crazy hamster wheel on water thing and hiking Hadrian's Wall headed to Nick's mile castle...really it is called that :)

Greece

Our nightly after dinner walk to watch the sunset near 1 of our beaches. Us, touring Knossos Palace, home of the Minotaur and The Labyrinth

July Updates

Well, after all of the excitement of visitors from home, reality set in. We now had 1 week until the movers arrived. This all seemed doable at the time, but then remembering that when we came here, we each had 2 suitcases plus a carry on and now the new airline restrictions are 1 suitcase. So we spent the weekend trying to sort out what each of us will need for the next 3 months, that can fit into a suitcase and weigh less than 50 lbs. There were some hard choices. In the middle of all of this, the kids were STILL in school(that is the recurring theme here) so we had to keep out a few extra pencils, markers etc as various end of year activities/projects came up. That said, Frank then had several emergency trips to Germany that week...he managed to be home the morning the movers arrives, but had to leave in the afternoon. We found out later some things that did/not get shipped from his office. But within 5 hours, our house was packed and we were back to camping with 1 pot, and everyone having 1 fork, cup, bowl and plate to their name. Having done it all before, everyone slipped right back into this Spartan living.

Now came the interesting part of selling our furniture, etc. It seemed daunting at first, but after the first few things sold, it became addictive. We've had fun posting things, watching the e-mails come in and then people show up with a van and cash and out life gets simpler and simpler.

School finally ended this week and we had lots of awards and general happiness all around. Bridget received the Math award and the Athletics award... funny, in case you don't remember that I spent the first 6 weeks we were here trying to convince them that she needed to be in a higher Math group, and, did I tell you all she broke/shattered the school record for javelin and did her own personal best by 22 cm!! Nick got his SAT's back..those big end of yr 6 exams that he had to take extra classes for all year. Well, he smoked them, getting 5's..the highest you can get. Matthew earned highest marks in his class, so all things considered we were feeling pretty proud !

Now we are vagabonds until we can get into our Seattle house on Sept.1. So, we will travel for the next few weeks. We leave on Tues for a week in Greece..never been, looking forward to some relaxing at the beach, then a week- 10 days touring through Northern England, the Lake District, Hadrian's Wall, Yorkshire and Scotland. All looks to be filled with hiking, biking and running around castles. We come home for a coupke of days..with any luck all of the furniture will be sold by then...and then fly out to Seattle on the 19th of August.

Poor Bridget has to hit the ground running, as she has her Freshman retreat starting on the 20th and then try-out week for sports on the 23rd. First Day is Aug.27th. I am sure she is up to the challenge. The boys and I will be busy getting new school supplies, clothes etc and driving by our house everyday looking longingly at it :)

I will try to post pictures of our travels, and keep you all posted on our whereabouts..so you can hide if you need to :) The clock is ticking and we can't wait to see all of your smiling faces. You will be happy to know that we are having a going away party here. Friends are giving it for us. It won't be quite the crazy Green Lake event, but we are looking forward to spending some relaxing time with everyone before we go. There have been so many great people who have opened their hearts and homes to us that we feel so grateful that the universe took care of us on this year of wild adventure!

Day 2/Erasmus Bridge

We were right in the middle of the Erasmus Bridge for the start of Day 2. It was beautiful and we were so CLOSE to the riders, I don't know how they do it ! I got my up close picture of Lance and the other leaders in the yellow jersey and some great shots of the bridge .