Category Archives: Travel

Scandi Trip, Travel

Day 3: Shrimp and Salmon Cruise in Gothenburg

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Present Day:

First of all, jet lag is real. This is day 4 of waking up before 6 am and feeling ready to go but as all days before, that hits me later. I have hopes that my brain is less foggy today, however!

I got started with telling you about our trip in a previous post and let’s move onto the next day now. Just so you know, I am (at this time) doing one day at a time so I can share with you all the amazing pictures I took!

Trip Report:

We woke up early in Gothenburg (or Göteborg) and headed down to the hotel breakfast. You guys. This breakfast was amazing. It was in a sort of indoor courtyard with plants, a 3 story high skylight ceiling, and so many stations of things to eat. A yogurt station with all imaginable add ins and several kinds of yogurt. A hot station with pancakes, eggs, various meats, oatmeal, hard and soft boiled eggs. A table with various salmon, herring, pates, cold sliced meats, cheeses…and so many breads and crackers to choose from, or toast if desired. And coffee with several kinds of juice. Oh, and croissants and other (small) pastries. We ate much more than we normally would for breakfast and tried quite a variety of things. Do I have any pictures? Evidently not from this day.

After that, we didn’t have any specific plans for the day until evening, so the plan was to get the lay of the city on foot, fight jet lag, and enjoy ourselves and enjoy being in a new country.

The streets are quite walkable, and in Sweden (and Finland) cars yield to pedestrians. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep an eye out, but it means that if you need to cross, they will stop and let you know, and and that pedestrians have much more space in public areas. Throughout the day we were surprised by how FEW cars there were in Gothenburg and instead people were walking, biking, riding scooters, and taking trams and buses.

We never did try any taquitos, but 7-11’s were ubiquitous throughout Sweden.

We walked through some parks, up to the Art Museum, and all over, it seemed. Louie was navigating, which I like to make/allow him to do, since I am the one who plans the trips, it lets him take over and I can relax more that way.

I thought this row of buildings looked really cool.

I tried to get into Gothenburg University, but I didn’t get in.

The famous Poseidon Statue by Carl Milles. Apparently initially the status had a very large you know what, but the city objected so now it has a weirdly small one. The sun was a little tough to deal with so it’s not super well pictured here, I’m sorry to say.

Very cool doors. On an unrelated note, these are supposedly ankle pants, but seeing in these pictures, they are definitely shorter than that (tall girl problems). I think they are better when I wear them with flats rather than sneakers. Oh well.

We needed to get sunscreen (didn’t want to bring a big bottle, plus nivea had some nice sunscreens in Norway and we were hoping to get some more in Sweden) so we went to a grocery store. I highly recommend going to grocery stores in foreign countries anyway, because it can be so fun to look at the food and see what sort of things they have (and buy chocolate).

The Swedes don’t seem to be afraid of bread and crackers.

Many things that come in tubes! Mayonnaise type things.

The Garden Society. We walked through and saw the Palm House (palmhuset) as well.

We got soup dumplings at a place called 168 (what’s with restaurants only using numbers here, haha?) and figured we would walk a bit more before finding more food. We headed for the Haga neighborhood next, and happened upon a place that is quite popular called Cafe Husaren, which seemed like a good place for “fika” which means coffee, snack, and a little break, all in one.

Now, Cafe Husaren is actually known for their giant cinnamon rolls, but we are only two people and didn’t think we could manage.

During busy times they set up a stand outside for those that just want some pastries to go, but we waited in line inside to get coffees as well. Very good, and fun people watching!

We walked around the Haga district more and then headed up to Slottskogen to get a higher view of the city. Steps were involved.

This was a whimsically painted bus that was a bookmobile.

Anyway, by mid afternoon we were really dragging, so we went back to the room to take naps and get ready for our evening activity, a “shrimp and salmon cruise“, which sounds ridiculous, but I was so excited about it. One thing people and guidebooks said you should do in Gothenburg was see the archipelago, and this evening cruise seemed like a great way to do it while enjoying a fun meal. We weren’t sure what to expect, so let me tell you in case you are reading this and plan to go yourselves. Don’t bother arriving too early, because the seating is assigned, so there’s no benefit to arriving early. We got a nice table by a window in the dining room. You can walk up to the top deck anytime you want, and there is live music in the dining room, but not too loud, just nice dinner music from one man who played guitar and sang. Drinks aren’t included but you can order them, and dessert is also extra. We didn’t get dessert and didn’t feel at all left out.

Our boat. It wasn’t very big, but big enough for the few hours we spent on it. And of course there are bathrooms.

The decor was wood paneling, of course.

They provided wet tissues, which traditionally I am terrified and grossed out by.

The buffet room. It had so many different kinds of herring as well as two kinds of shrimp in the shells, shrimp with mayonnaise, smoked salmon, potatoes, breads and cheeses, various salads, and more. It was quite tasty!

After walking around all day, it was really nice just to have somewhere relaxing to sit and watch the world go by.

It was exciting to see the ocean bus in the water as well, because we had seen it on land earlier!

My first plate of food.

The pictures don’t really do it justice, though I love the water and sky in this one. As we got further from the city the islands got rockier and smaller. Some had houses and other buildings, some had nothing at all. We really enjoyed getting to see it all!

The trip was about 3 hours total, so just a nice amount of time to eat and relax. By the time we got back, we were just about ready to hit the hay, so we walked back to the hotel (at a leisurely pace) and called it a night!

Scandi Trip, Travel

Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

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Hi everybody! We are BACK from our epic trip to Sweden and Finland. We were gone for about 2 1/2 weeks and it was amazing. I spent yesterday, the first day home, just sort of doing stuff like unpacking, laundry and going to the grocery store (which was an adventure with my groggy tiredness and jet lag). I was impressed by Louie and I unpacking first thing, but we decided it wasn’t ever going to get any easier so we might as well just go with it. Most clothes were going straight to the laundry anyway! He went to work yesterday, but I get two days off: yesterday I did some emailing and catchup, but today I’ll be doing a bit more getting ready for the semester (setting up my billing) and I suppose I should do some practicing to see if I still know how to play the violin!

We may have gone a bit overboard with the chocolate purchasing, but some of those things are gifts, one of them is potato chips, and some are this stuff called salty licorice that I don’t care for but Louie loves.

Please note this excellent scene on the potato chip bag.

Anyway! Let’s begin. I don’t know if I will stick with one day at a time here, or what, but that’s what I wanted to start with to make the pictures feel more manageable. I called this title Day 1 and 2 because we left on a Saturday but arrived on a Sunday.

Let’s set the scene: or that is, some background. Did I tell you why we decided to visit Sweden and Finland? The idea sort of snowballed from a variety of things, but basically, we both loved Norway so much but felt it was too soon to revisit Norway so we would see another Scandinavia country (Sweden) which Louie had visited more than 20 years ago. But also, he had never been to Finland, so I wanted to add that on, and then we also ended up doing a short jaunt to Estonia as well, just a quick overnight via ferry. We started with a 2 week plan but things expanded with travel times…and so here we are. There and back, and it was terrific.

We had an afternoon flight to Chicago, which was delayed, but not a problem since I chose a connection that gave room for some delays. We had tortas at the Frontera Grill in O’Hare (and got to ride a little bus from one terminal to another without having to leave the secure area), and waited for our “big” flight to board. We had upgraded our seats on the way out to the “slightly more leg room” seats in the hopes we would be more comfortable and sleep better.

The seats were as comfortable as economy class seats can be, and I also used a new neck pillow from Wander which worked well. The flight went by quickly enough: not quickly enough to get a good nights sleep, but quickly enough to get to Helsinki.

We had a layover in Helsinki as well and got some coffees and juice and waited for our last connection to board. Helsinki to Gothenburg was next, and it was a short flight.

We landed in Gothenburg and I had to wait on a bag. We hadn’t intended to check anything on our flights over, but I was bullied by a gate agent into checking my suitcase, which normally wouldn’t matter too much but then we waited about 45 minutes or more for the bags! It was ridiculous and I was mad at myself and the agent.

We got bus tickets on the Flygbussarna, a bus from the airport to the center of Gothenburg, and off we went. I sometimes remember the first time I was in Europe and was fascinated by the different sorts of road signs…it doesn’t pop out as much now, but it’s still fun to notice the different signs and all of the little details that are different from one country to the next. We had a little confusion over which stop to get off because evidently the stop is different on the weekends versus the weekday, but we got off the bus and then used google maps to navigate the 10 or so minute walk to our hotel, the Elite Plaza Hotel Gothenburg, our home for the next 3 nights.

The typical Scandinavian bed set-up: two separate duvet covers. The headboard here was ridiculous and not typical. The room was very nice and in a great location.

The hotel, from across the street. We got cleaned up and headed out in search of an actual meal. Lucky for us it was already about 7 or 8 pm by this point, so we could eat and go straight to bed rather than having to force ourselves to stay awake longer. We had burgers at a nearby restaurant called 2112 and was a rock and roll themed bar. It was jarring to be in a different country, but exhilarating! Sweden uses the Swedish Kronor which you basically divide by 10 in order to think of the dollar amount, but it’s not exactly that. And nobody uses cash, it’s all cards.

After dinner we walked around near the hotel and the water as the sun started to set. I did not get to see if it set all the way down because I was too exhausted.

It’s a working harbor for sure! And so many cobblestones….

Stay tuned for the next installment!

Chautauqua

Chautauqua Time

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Louie and I prefer to visit many different places in the summer: we know people who always do the same thing every summer with their families and it has never been our thing. Yet, we find ourselves visiting Chautauqua for the fifth year in a row, because it’s a lovely place, but it’s also a place we can go hang out with my niece and nephew and sister and brother in law and relax!

Though, when you are dealing with a 5 and 9 year old, relaxing isn’t as much of a thing as you might like. I’m just going to give you some of the highlights of what we did.

We had dinner out at a place called Pine Junction. I recommend the coconut shrimp!

We spent some time at the library on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution. This lion tried to keep us from entering. My nephew really enjoys seeing the library, but he also loves riding the elevator in the library and pretending he doesn’t know it is an elevator and being surprised every time we get to a new floor.

I brought a few gifts, and the biggest hit seemed to be a game called “Cats and Boxes”. I recommend it!

One day Leslie, Louie and I did some kayaking. It was harder that we thought it would be!

Louie had the single kayak and was much more skilled at using his.

Some of the lovely homes overlooking the lake.

We went to Westfield one morning for brunch at the Parkview Cafe (sadly no picture of that, which is sad because Louie and I live in a neighborhood called Parkview), and their claim to fame is that Lincoln got a letter from a young girl who said he should grow a beard in order to win the presidency, and then he did, and visited Westfield later and met the girl. The story is printed on the mugs at the Cafe and then we noticed there was a park on the corner commemorating all of this.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer of February 20, 1861:

At Westfield, Mr. Lincoln greeted a large crowd of ladies, and several thousand of the sterner sex. Addressing the ladies, he said, “I am glad to see you; I suppose you are to see me; but I certainly think I have the best of the bargain. (Applause.) Some three months ago, I received a letter from a young lady here; it was a very pretty letter, and she advised me to let my whiskers grow, as it would improve my personal appearance; acting partly upon her suggestion, I have done so; and now, if she is here, I would like to see her; I think her name was Miss Barlly.” A small boy, mounted on a post, with his mouth and eyes both wide open, cried out, “there she is, Mr. Lincoln,” pointing to a beautiful girl, with black eyes, who was blushing all over her fair face. The President left the car, and the crowd making way for him, he reached her, and gave her several hearty kisses, and amid the yells of delight from the excited crowd, he bade her good-bye, and on we rushed.

Louie and my niece reenacting the statue which was of the meeting. It seemed like a pretty big deal for something small, but I guess you make a statue when you can!

We watched Jurassic Park live in concert. I guess I hadn’t seen Jurassic Park in a long time, and it was a much better movie than I recall–have action movies gotten so much worse lately? Or perhaps it was always pretty good and it was the sequel that was bad? In any case, the music was too loud sometimes but we really enjoyed the evening.

My niece is in an opera this summer and we saw part of a rehearsal. She is in Hansel and Gretel as part of the children’s chorus and this was the rehearsal where they starting adding in the staging to the music. I’m sorry we won’t get to see the performance.

We had been doing some nice photos and some silly ones, and evidently nobody understood which was which.

Selfie at Bemus Point. I bought new sunglasses on this trip (I really needed a pair as my “good” pair had broken and I had been wearing a very scratched up pair) and I like the look of them!

Overall we had a lovely visit. Not pictured: time in the hot tub, walking around the farm land where they live. Lowlights: waking up early with the kids and sometimes a 5 year being a little whiny, but super cute and loving as well. The 9 year old was definitely more mature than ever, very skilled on the violin and piano, worked great with her little brother, and they both seem to be having a great summer! My sister and her husband are busy running around doing more than one job each and keeping the house running.

We got home then, and I got to truly sleep in yesterday: I slept till 9 and it was absolutely glorious. I always love spending time with my family, but it is also wonderful to get home. Oh! We got Taco John’s on our drive home, which was good. We like to get bean burritos and potato oles and then put some potato oles into the burritos to add texture and flavor. Delicious!

Philadelphia

Philadelphia to Home

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St Louis to Manhattan to Brooklyn

Brooklyn to Elizabethtown

Elizabethtown, Lititz, and Back to Philadelphia

It IS a 4 part series! The whole trip was about 9 days, and we really got into the vacation feeling, where you feel like you can’t quite remember what “real life” was like and you are just sightseeing and following people around.

So, we left off having gotten to Philadelphia.

This was the view out of one of the windows of the hotel.

It would have been nice to really sleep in, but sightseeing awaited, and we had made arrangements to meet my brother for coffee and breakfast (at least for us), so we met him in the morning and went to a place called Elixir, which was near the hotel (and we had been in the past). It was excellent, and Louie and I enjoyed an almond croissant, some sort of savory cheese pastry, and cappuccinos.

After that we met up with Louie’s dad, Richard, and walked to the Barnes Museum. It’s a museum that is all a collection from one man’s house, and it’s really fantastic.

It was a pretty nice day temperature wise, but the weather seemed to be threatening rain.

The rooms of the museums are filled with art, and arrranged mostly how Barnes had them arranged in his home, so works from different periods and different artists are all side by side. I enjoyed it, though I always feel a bit ignorant when it comes to art.

It did start raining at one point, which of course didn’t affect our museum enjoyment, but then when it came time for lunch we decided it was a good reason to simply eat at the museum cafe. This was no hardship as the food was delicious.

After lunch I think Louie would have gladly spend more time at the museum, but the general consensus was to move on, but to where? Jesse remembered the Eastern State Penitentiary was both nearby and a part of our uncle Ed’s Philadelphia tour these days, so we headed there next.

It was a bit rainy, but not too bad, and most of the tour is inside with an audio guide. It was really interesting and thought provoking, and we learned about the history of prisons in the US, specifically this prison as well as more broadly, and thought about how many people are incarcerated in our country versus other countries as well.

After the tour we walked back towards the hotel and Richard’s apartment.

Me and my brother Jesse

We had a little downtime and just hung out in the hotel lobby while Richard rested and then we met for dinner with Kiyoko as well. We went to a Chinese restaurant which only served vegetarian food, and it was really tasty: we ordered a bunch of different dishes and shared. Nobody went away hungry! Jesse took a train back home after dinner. Louie and I stopped at a nearby dive bar called Dirty Frank’s: we couldn’t resist as our old neighbor’s cat is named Dirty Frank. We had a beer and then headed “home”.

The next morning we had Elixir again, though we tried different pastries, and then met Richard to visit the Mercer Museum in Doylestown. It was about an hour drive, and is a fascinating place, filled with old objects from around the country.

It’s hard to describe, but you walk into a giant room with stuff everywhere, different floors to walk around and items hanging from the center, and it’s just a bit overwhelming. It’s the sort of place you could return several times and never see everything.

I like how this was free from all opiates. Evidently worth mentioning. The pharmacy area was just full of fascinating old medicine bottles.
If you look, you’ll see Richard and Louie.

There are chairs and bikes and all kinds of things just hanging from the ceiling.

Anyway, after wandering around for an hour or two, we were hungry, so headed off on foot for lunch. Doylestown has a cute downtown, and we found a nice looking Peruvian restaurant.

My dish had ceviche in it and was delicious, albeit rather spicy.

We went to the Moravian Tileworks next as Richard wanted to buy something, and I ended up getting a tile with a cat on it as a souvenir. After that we headed back to the hotel, and rested up before dinner.

We went to Positano Coast Restaurant for dinner and shared some oysters and other cold fish, and then I had the sea urchin linguine…it was really delicious and amazing! We again ate until we were stuffed and then walked back. It was actually pretty funny: on the walk to the restaurant we ran into some of Richard’s former students and ended up taking pictures with them (they were in town for a sort of reunion!) Small world, as always. It should be noted that while we walked a decent amount in Philadelphia, it was never as much as we walked in New York, and the streets were much less busy.

The next day we again started with Elixir (yes, it was that good and also that close to our hotel) and then mostly walked around. We were going to do a tour of the Masonic Temple, but it turned out that they had a private event there. We walked over to the Library and looked around, joined a rare book tour and got to see some things not normally open to the public, including a stuffed raven that belonged to Charles Dickens that most likely inspired Poe. And then played the theremin for a bit.

We had a late lunch with Kiyoko then, and ate at the Oyster House (mmm shrimp salad sandwich) and then had to head to the airport to fly home.

It was a fun trip: we saw a bunch of relatives, ate some delicious food, walked a ton (averaging 9-10 miles a day in NYC and 5-6 miles a day in Philadelphia), and got to relax after a stressful year of teaching.

It’s also always lovely to be home. The cats seemed happy to see us.

And now I’m teaching, playing Les Mis, eating less delicious food and more just normal food including food that can be eaten quickly, and it’s been a long week! Muny shows get out late (home around 11:30) and then I’ve been having to get up around 7, which was less fun. The rest of the week will be easier though, and I have to say that I’ve been having a lot of fun with the show. Louie and a friend of mine are coming to see it tomorrow night, and I think they will enjoy it.

Travel

Elizabethtown, Lititz, and back to Philadelphia

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Wow, per usual, this trip recap series is taking an embarrassingly long amount of time. Current life continues, with teaching, going to see THREE operas, and playing in the pit for Les Miserables at the Muny (very fun!).

St Louis to Manhattan to Brooklyn

Brooklyn to Elizabethtown

We left off on the train from New York to Elizabethtown (via Philadelphia). We arrived at the Elizabethtown train station and my aunt Connie (my mom’s sister) picked us up. We went to her house for lunch–just a few minutes in the car. Her boyfriend Carl (she has a long-time boyfriend just like I do, haha!) met us and we had a nice time catching up and such. I probably hadn’t been to Connie’s house in this millennium but I remembered it a bit still. She’s lived there a long time and has it decorated just how she likes it and it is very neat and tidy. She had some decor out from her recent trip to South Africa.

After lunch we drove to Lititz to pick up my uncle Ed (my mom’s older brother) for a tour of Lititz. Ed loves giving tours, this has always been his favorite thing (it seems) and he has always been incredibly energetic and full of interesting knowledge. In my younger years we went on tours of New York City and Philadelphia with him. Ed is sick, so his physical energy is low, but he was still as eager as ever to tell us the wonders and history of Lititz.

Our first stop was the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery for a guided tour.

This factory is where the hard pretzel was invented. We got a tour that showed us how they used to make soft pretzels and the story of how Julius invented the hard pretzel. Ed had hoped his granddaughter (hmmm…my first cousin once removed) was working, but she was done for the day and so we missed seeing her.

Carl holding a bag of horse and buggy shaped pretzels. We would have bought some if the bag were smaller, but nobody in our group wanted that many pretzels!

Part of the tour involved shaping your own soft pretzel. Apparently they then used to bake the pretzels and give them to you, but they don’t do that any longer and they just take them away and give you a small bag of hard pretzels at the end.

After the pretzel tour, we went nearby to the Lititz History Museum where Ed works part time as a volunteer guide, and he showed us through the museum and told us all the interesting things. We learned quite a lot about Moravians, who were the big religious group who founded the town of Lititz. This was all somewhat interesting as I’d never really been to Lititz: my mom grew up in nearby Akron and my grandparents lived there until they passed away. Ed and his wife Twila did too, until they moved into a retirement community in Lititz, and Ed has really gotten involved in the town since then.

The Lancaster Symphony was playing a Memorial Day concert in the park that evening, so we got dinner at the restaurant in the park (burgers and such) and walked around a bit more. Ed needed to rest a fair amount, and at one point a storm blew through, which delayed the concert a bit. But they were able to play after all, and the weather was lovely at that point.

After the concert, we took Ed home and then headed back to Elizabethtown (about thirty more minutes drive). We were exhausted by then so went to bed.

The next morning we met Carl again and went to brunch at a nearby restaurant, the Whisk Cafe. We sat outside and enjoyed the weather and delicious food. After lunch we drove to some viewpoints of the Susquehanna river and took a short hike out to Chickie’s Rock.

We went to pick up Ed again after that, and did a driving tour through Amish farm country while Ed told us all about what was being done to preserve the farming way of life in Lancaster County while development was coming in all around…

Ed only had a few hours to spend with us, so after we did some auto touring, we had to leave him again and head back to E-town. We had an early dinner at T. J. Rockwell’s, said our goodbyes, and then caught our train to Philadelphia, right on time. It was really great to see everybody and spend time together, and I’m so glad we made the trip!

Our train to Philly was uneventful, and then Louie’s dad picked us up at the train station and drove us to the hotel we were staying at, the Cambria. It was very nice and we had a corner room with windows on two sides. (His dad didn’t have room for us but treated us to a hotel nearby his apartment.) We checked in and dropped off our things and then went over to visit with his dad and his wife Kiyoko, who had made some delicious fish soup and dessert. We were a little hungry since dinner was so early, so it was nice to eat a little bit and chat. We finally got to bed closer to midnight, probably (very late for this early riser, but I’m getting used to being less of an early riser and enjoying that.)

Okay, I’ll leave it there and write one more post to finish up our trip. I will try to do that in the next few days rather than wait an entire week! Upcoming highlights: the Eastern State Penitentiary and seeing my brother Jesse.

New York, Travel

Brooklyn to Elizabethtown

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I’ll continue telling you about our recent trip to New York and other parts of the East.

St Louis to Manhattan to Brooklyn

Carrie had some appointments and rehearsals the second day we were visiting her, and it was storming that morning as well. Louie and I slept in a bit (we were both still recovering from the school year at that point, and it was frankly, glorious. I was and still am amazed every morning I don’t have to wake up before 6 am!)

We had mentioned to Carrie that we had not had “New York Bagels” so after she had her morning appointment and the rain let up, we headed to her favorite closest place called Bagel Pub. I had a pumpernickel everything bagel with smoked salmon cream cheese, and it was tasty! We learned how much Brooklyn is like a small town as well by Carrie running into someone she knew (this was a common occurrence). I am always struck by this sort of thing–I grew up in a small town and assumed that big cities were more anonymous and you would walk around and wouldn’t know anyone, and truthfully, you will run into people you know all over the place. Cities are more pockets of various communities, like a small town on every few blocks.

After our bagels, Louie and I headed to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for the afternoon. We weren’t sure if it would rain, but overall we did get lucky and it only rained a little bit for a short time.

The gardens were smaller overall than we realized, but they were well laid out and really enjoyable. It wasn’t too busy either, which was nice amidst the hustle and bustle outside.

We saw this turtle, just hanging out.

After we finished at the Botanical Gardens, we walked to get coffee nearby, and then walked all the way back to Carrie’s (probably about an hour at that point!). We took a little break, and then caught the train to meet our friend Lauren for dinner in Greenpoint. We went to a Polish restaurant called Karczma and ate entirely too much delicious food (pierogies and stuffed cabbage, but somehow no photos), and then headed to a concert Carrie and her quartet, The Rhythm Method, were putting on.

It was in a super cool venue, sort of in an industrial area, and you wouldn’t even expect a concert there. It felt very “New York”, haha.

It was a great concert, super interesting and thought provoking, and I really enjoyed watching Carrie and her group perform, along with the other guest performers on the concert. Louie and Lauren didn’t stay the whole time and instead went out somewhere in the area, but I stayed till the end, and then Carrie and I took a Lyft (what, no walking?) and hung out at her place until we were exhausted, and Louie came home later.

The next day we did laundry at the apartment and ate leftover Polish food for breakfast, then headed back into Manhattan to meet up with another aunt and uncle of Louie’s. We had lunch first at a place called Simply Noodles (can you guess what we ate?) and then met up with Ralph and Susie at their apartment.

We went to the Met Museum with them, walking through Central Park to get there. New Yorkers get “pay what you want” admission so it isn’t too big of a deal just to go for a short time. Susie wanted to check out the rooftop art, so that was the plan.

We wandered around the museum for a short while, but then headed back to their apartment and enjoyed wine and cheese up on the rooftop until we needed to catch a train back to Brooklyn for our next event.

Carrie had asked awhile back if Louie and I wanted to do a “float”, which was a silent disco: we would all wear headphones and hear the same music, and follow a prescribed route with the group while dancing. It was not at all the sort of thing we do in our normal lives, but Louie and I wanted to experience what Carrie does and also push our own boundaries, so we agreed. We met up with the float people at a brewery, where we ate dinner first (impossible smash burgers, quite tasty).

It was a fun evening, especially as we had no idea what to expect. We were surrounded by many Juilliard musicians (ha!) but also random people, and would go down streets dancing, stop in random parking lots to dance, and it was a lot of fun. We were probably some of the oldest people there, but somebody has to be, right?

We were exhausted after a few hours (they do take breaks) and decided to skip the last segment since we were all traveling the next day. We did stop at a German bar near Carrie’s house to unwind before bed though. And it is worth noting that when I turned in our headphones to the float person, apparently I said that it was fun but it was “really late”. It was like 10:45 pm and Louie said that definitely cemented our status as “old” within the group. Haha!

The next morning Louie and I had a train to catch so we were up early. Our train would leave Penn Station at 9:09 am and we were in Brooklyn, which meant about 30-40 minutes of train rides away, so we left by 7:45 am in order to have time to grab a coffee and breakfast at the station. We had no trouble getting there, and got some nice pastries and coffee and relaxed in the lounge for a bit.

We were disappointed to learn that our train didn’t have a cafe car though, so the coffee we had was all the coffee we would have! We were en route to Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, usually just called E-town, to visit some relatives of mine and stay with my aunt Connie that night.

The train ride. Once we got to Philadelphia, we were told we actually had to switch trains to continue our trip. This was actually a good thing as we had been seated moving backwards, and then we chose seats moving forward, win! We also got to pick our new seats before they allowed the general boarding from Philadelphia to board, so it was no big deal.

The train ride was just over 3 hours, and uneventful. However, that seems like a good time to end this blog post, haha. Next time: E-town, Lititz, and then the train back to Philadelphia.