Next week, we’re leaving on a grand adventure: a driving trip across the United States. In one month, we plan to see Yellowstone Park; South Dakota’s Black Hills; Chicago; Niagara Falls; Boston with MIT; New York City; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Disney World; New Orleans; Austin, Texas; Roswell, New Mexico; and the Grant Canyon, while also visiting friends and family in Utah, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, and Las Vegas. It’s an intimidating list of things to do, but I can’t imagine it being anything less than memorable. I haven’t been blogging a lot as I focus on getting things prepared for the adventure. I am going to encapsulate some of the things I might have blogged about more fully, though in this runthrough.
Homeschoolers have a reputation for being weird, and I’m beginning to understand why. In the last week, this is some of what our neighbors have had to put up with. First, an explanation of the relative sizes and distances between planets in our solar system (this is why, Ed, you have a marble labelled Saturn on the sidewalk in front of your house.) Second, a reenactment of the Battle of Thermopylae with toy soldiers, with a thorough apology for not having enough soldiers to accurately represent the numbers of Persians. Third, counting to ten in ancient Greek, complete with a definition of ennead. I get the impression people would be more comfortable if we just talked about the weather.
Shiaw-Ling usually doesn’t drink more than a glass of wine, so we were surprised that she had a very alcoholic “I just finished by MFA” party. I wasn’t driving so I drank, but there was no way I could keep up with the alcohol consumption that was expected. Since Candace brought super-Leland, Kelly had a great time herding him and other strange babies which appeared in the park while we were drinking.
We had to leave Shiaw-Ling’s party early for a Boy Scout awards ceremony/BBQ/pool party. It was a little weird to see boy scouts in uniform, but with bathing suits and bare feet, but hey, it’s California black tie.
One of the foreclosed houses sold. Our new neighbors are Hispanic too, but unlike the previous residents, they speak English too. This skill came in handy as they expressed their concern over the pumpkin plant that has now crawled over most of my indulgent neighbor Tony’s yard and is now edging towards them. My neighbor Demeter will be taking care of my plants and house while I’m gone, so I think they’re going to have more concern to express until the Halloween harvest comes in.
Charybdis and Scylla had its first multiculturalism lesson. Actually Shiaw-Ling gave us moon cakes and told us to enjoy them while looking at the full moon on Sunday night. We did so. That is as multicultural as CSA is going to be.
I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to blog while on our vacation–I have to assume not, because there are lot of other things I want and have to do when we’re not driving. But you never know….