Eastern Ho!

I always want to travel to the east. I never thought of Indiana as eastern until I moved here and people refer to the state as on the east coast! Yeah, I could get to Washington DC in about 10 hours or put my toes in the sand in about the same amount of time but that's still 1 day's drive away. I really have 2 favorite places to go and like going with my family.

My favorite vacation which I have taken twice is to the New England states. We took our second trip 6 years ago after I begged to go back for 8 years. We spent 17 days, 4300 miles and visited all the New England states. We went to Nantucket this time since we went to Martha's Vineyard the first time. Plimoth Plantation is a living history museum of life for the pilgrams. My kids actually liked that the best of the whole trip which really surprised me. We saw fireworks on the Boston Harbor with at least 600,000 other people. We camped on Acadia National something for a few days and then headed to the White Mountains which was Mike's favorite part of the trip. Bears were an issue in those parts though we never saw one. We also had to go to Niagara Falls so that every child has now seen it. I've been there at least 4 or 5 times in my life now and I don't ever need to see it again! Anyway, if you ever want to know about New England, I can tell you plenty. I would never live there but it is my favorite vacation spot and I still have plenty of areas I want to explore. If you ever want to see my 90+ page scrapbook of New England, let me know!

Now to Indiana....well, all of my family lives there and I have an 8 month old niece who looks like me living near Indianapolis. I am working on a scrapbook of Kylie's first year and let's say I've printed out 500 pictures so far that my sister downloaded onto Snapfish. She doesn't know I'm making this book(s) for Kylie. My sister can do her own scrapbooks of Kylie...this one is from me to Kylie. Since my sister is 15 yrs younger, Kylie almost feels like she should be my granddaughter. Our mom passed away 5 years ago so I'm taking over the task of being pseudo grandma to her. At my tender age of 49, I feel I am helping to raise a 3rd generation since helping raise my sister, my own children and now the next generation. What a privledge!!!

Even though I would still say after almost 13 years in Pella that I would move back to Indiana in a heartbeat (it might take 2 heartbeats now!), it would not be as easy as a transition as I would like to think. I have built many relationships in Pella that I would miss. But still............I would love to see my little Kylie more than twice a year.

Connie