Live: When you take a road trip with your 12 year old sister

A few weekends ago my sister Phoebe and I took a quick little trip to visit our brother and his family in Virginia. Would you like to take a look-see? You would? Great, lets go! To get started, when you take a road trip with your 12 year old sister you must first stop by the library to pick up a few books on tape (we went with a few Princess Diaries books and a couple  by Sarah Vowell, if this trip wasn't kinda last minute I might have also run out to Target and pick up one of those "Now -eight million and twenty-five" cds, those make for great road trippin' music.) You will also want some snacks and your sun glasses, oh and don't forget to grab money for the tolls.

After quickly getting yourselves out of Dodge (read: Michigan), you might end up feeling lost in Ohio, but once you fix the very unhelpful GPS you will finally feel like you are on your way. (Really it took us a million years to make it through, but we did finally wind our way through the night to the 10th colony. Arriving just after dawn at the Marine base Quanico, where we enjoyed spending time with out niece, nephew, brother and sister in-law. Maybe I'll share some of our VA adventuring later.)

When it is time to head home you might choose to do the drive over an afternoon, as it turns our drive home was perfectly timed, no traffic not much construction easy, easy, easy. You might also want to let your sister take over the camera for the drive home, she will try very hard to grab a shot of every state sigh you drive past (and do an okay job even if they are a little blurry), she will also try and take a picture of all the places that you say are a beautiful view even when they all look the same (none of those will turn out, oh well)!

One thing is for sure you will have to stop at Chick-Fil-A before you leave Maryland, because really how can you go to the south and not grab a chicken sandwich with a pickle on it? Plus they have the really good kind of ice!

When you drive through Pennsylvania you will find yourself saying over and over "isn't that beautiful?" and your sister will say yes even though this beautiful place looks just like the last five and they are all just farms nestled in among mountains and nothing all that great.

When there is a farmers market at one of the rest stops you will have to buy a bag of apples and an assortment of jams, fruit butters and relishes to take home with you. If only so you can say while presenting the gift of spicy Chow-Chow to your dad that you just picked it up at a rest stop!

On your drive you might forget all about getting cash for the tolls before you leave town, so your sister will have to pay them. She might take a picture to help you remember you need to pay her back.

As the sunsets and the land you drive through looks more and more like home, you will think that going someplace for the weekend is great, but getting there is half the fun!

 Finally when you go on a road trip with your 12 year old sister you will have to let her DJ from time to time. So I'll leave you with a little playlist she made of Phoebe's road trippin' jams!

P.S. The Princess Diaries books are a little dated I had to explain many references to my sister.

Also a quick google search tells me that there is a Chick-Fil-A in Toledo, Ohio so I guess they have been working their way into the Midwest. 

 

Live: Ann Arbor Summer Festival

Really I didn't have any intention to talk about the Ann Arbor Summer Festival this year, but then the ads kept popping up online and I saw the program my parents brought home from the Al Green show they went to on Saturday that was part of the Festival and I was smitten with the art work. A quick google search later and I know that the work was done by Tony Godzik. I love everything about the work that he has done from the colors to the lettering. Doesn't it just scream SUMMER?!?

 Come on this is so good! Plus I heard this morning on the radio that you can still get tickets to see Ira Glass this Saturday - I'll be there so you know all to cool kids are going! So I had to let you know about that. And if you are around you will maybe want to make it out to one of the free concerts or movies shown at Top of the Park as part of the festival. I plan on getting there at least one night this year.

Hummm after all this chatter I'm really looking forward to hanging out in A2 this summer. Anyone else heading out to take part in the festival? Do ever find your self smitten with someones creative work?

p.s. I don't know anything about Nellie McKay, but don't you want to see her show after looking at that ad. Such good work, I tell ya!

Watch: Bunheads

Has anyone else checked out the new ABC Family show Bunheads yet? I watched it last night and found it to be all together adorable. It is from the creator of Gilmore Girls (and has GG's own Kelly Bishop as an old school dance teacher!) so you know it is going to have quirky fast talking ladies and a town full of oddfellows. You can still check out the pilot episode on Hulu!
Let me know what you think. I know I'll be watching.

Summer Camp: Write It On Your Heart

When I was a kid going to summer camp meant a lot of things getting new clothes, making new friends, passing the swim test, making the perfect packing list, tagging your luggage so it didn't get dropped off at the wrong bus stop and memorizing scripture. So this week I thought I would share with you my current scripture memory verse(s) Jude 24-25. I've been working on writing these words on my heart, but let me tell you memorizing was a lot easier when I was a lot younger!

p.s. are you wondering what happened to last weeks post? no! well I'll fill you in anyway - the internet ate it, not sure how but when I sent to publish it last week it had just vanished. oh well, better luck next time!

List: Summer Wish List

There is no denying that summer is here. So I've been thinking about my summer wish list. You know a list of things I hope to do this summer. To start though I thought I'd list a few things I have already done.

1. Attend the annual Greek Festival at the Greek Orthodox church in town. I have wanted to check this out for years. It was great fun, next year I'll get together a bunch of folks to head out grab some dinner and enjoy the music and dancing.
2. Watch my youngest brother graduate from high school. Ike not only graduated last Sunday, as class president he gave a speech, that was both funny an moving! The kid also made all state at the State Track and Field meet the day before!
3. Plant some flowers. This isn't actually going all that well. I think I killed some of my tubers before I even put them in the ground (oy!), but my bright pink Geraniums seem to be doing well.
4. Go yard saling. Last Saturday a whole bunch of us girls made a day of it visiting a big neighborhood wide yard sale and grabbing lunch.

Now on to the TO DO list!

1. Take bike rides!
2. Visit my brother's family in Virginia.
3. Have a new profile picture taken for the blog (and all my other online haunts).
4. Grill out.
5. Swim.
6. Spend a day on Big Water (that would be at one of the lovely Great Lakes).
7.  Go to the movies.
8. Visit with old friends.
9. Bake a cake.
10. Go to the fair.
11. Watch fireworks.
12. Paint my front door.
13. Organize the office.
14. Eat outside.
15. Cheer on the Tigers at a game.
16. Visit a big city.
17. Take a road trip.
18. Wear a fancy hat.
19. Drink ice tea.
20. Sew.
21. Read.
22. Walk in a parade.
23. Meet new people.
24. Spend time with my family.
25. Dance.

Carousel image

Summer Camp

Of course I'm looking forward to this movie, I love Wes Anderson and I love old school summer camps and movies about odd children and Edward Norton and when people say things like "Jimminy Cricket" and Jason Schwartzman and well you get the idea. But that isn't really what this post is about. It is about something else fun that I'm looking forward to. My Friday posts "Summer Camp" each week I'm pulling together a post that has the feeling of my summer camp days of yore. So check back each week for a little bit of camper fun!

P.S. you can hear Mr. Anderson talk about the film here.
P.P.S. who wants to see Moonrise Kingdom with me this weekend? I think I can fit it in between yard sale-ing and watching my littlest bro graduate!