Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

Sydney planned quite a lovely day for us today: a leisurely morning, followed by a drive in Acadia National Park, with occasional short hikes to keep us active.  But apparently Murphy’s Law had other plans.

First, Katherine woke us up at 2:30 with her restlessness and kept us deprived of sleep for much of the rest of the night.  Then Sydney realized he had to complete a lengthy assignment for the pedagogy course he’s required to take this summer.  The assignment was due by noon; checkout was at 11am.  The kicker?  He got signed up — involuntarily and without his knowledge — to lead class as soon as he gets back on Wednesday.  Nice, eh?

And the lovely park views at the end of the mountain drive?  Obscured by fog.  So each of the convenient pull-offs yielded vast fields of white dampness.

And the real trouble: sometime last week Katherine stopped loving the baby backpack.  So when we put her in it today to try out one of the shore trails, she started to squirm . . . and then to yell.  So much for our hiking and birdwatching plans.  Katherine is very interested in cooing, smiling, and locking eyes with us, and she cries when we try other things, like sticking her in a carseat for long periods of time.  Oops.

With a bit of grim humor, Sydney and I are looking forward to trying Acadia Park another time, perhaps one in which we can tease our daughter about her former moodiness!

Erin

Sydney and I are currently stretched out in a gigantic bed in a gigantic room in a lovely inn just outside Acadia National Park in Maine.  Katherine is stretched out on a little pad we made for her on the floor.  Not as luxurious as our bed, but a lot safer for her (we’re practically swallowed up in the mattress!).  Despite the drizzles in the forecast, we intend to do some hiking and driving in the park tomorrow morning before resuming our drive home.

As usual, our stop at customs was entertaining.  Both women cooed over the baby, and the “agricultural officer” frowned on our fruit, but let us eat it while she waited.  So we scarfed down golden kiwi.  I felt bad, actually; I would have liked for her to have one, but I was afraid that any overtures I made would be misconstrued.

Erin

Having spent a few more days in Nova Scotia after I got back from Germany, we’re about to head back to Ithaca. We’re planning to make the drive home a leisurely one, i.e., taking three days to do it instead of two.Here’s hoping that Katherine will find this plan agreeable.

Sydney

This morning I got an email from Cornell, alerting me to the theft of an administrative computer that contained my name and social security number (along with those of many other students).  I got a similar email from Yale last year.  I’m getting the sense that this is an all-too-common problem.  Frustrating.  Frustrating.

Just got an email from Sydney; apparently he got the same email.  Lovely.

Erin

We’ve been worked pretty hard at my conference in Germany, but this afternoon we got a break and went on an excursion up the Rhine to the Siebengebirge area (‘seven’ apparently means many—there are over forty). Here are a few pictures that I snagged along the way when I wasn’t too busy doing something else like looking at the cute Black-headed Gulls.

We went in a ship named Moby Dick. It has a tail in the back. But it’s blue. (My advisor, incidentally, is standing in the door looking back.

The bit of the Siebengebirge to which we’re headed (the hill on the right is Drachenfels, which is where Siegfried of Nibelungenlied fame supposedly killed a dragon):

A hotel along the way. Hitler apparently met here with his generals and decided to blow up the only bridge in the area to hinder the advance of the Allies. Hence, ferry is now the only way to get across the Rhine around here:

Getting closer to Drachenfels:

From the top of Drachenfels, looking further up the Rhine:

Thanks to the efforts of other people, there is even a photo with me in it (along with many of the other participants in the conference):

We were told that the ruins at the top of Drachenfels were from a castle built in the 12th century. It turns out that it is an unfinished 21st-century castle, as this picture proves:

A view on the way back down:

One of the interesting attributes of Bonn is the local belief that the French language is a marketing gift to the people of Bonn: ‘bonnjour’ and so forth. The latest manifestation were the menus at the restaurant where we had dinner: ‘bonn appetit!’ And this was at a classy, upscale restaurant near the university.

Sydney

Katherine has not gotten in the bonding time with Grandma that any of us were expecting because she has been eating up a storm.  Growth spurt?  At any rate, she spent all of last night eating–and then slept for 8 1/2 hours.  Blissful.  Then I fed her and Sydney held her while I got up and dressed, Katherine smiling the entire time.  Then I held her, set her down, and she’s now taking her morning nap.  Good baby!

Erin

Katherine seems to have settled down–finally!–and is now behaving just like her normal self.  Except that she’s pulling a growth spurt on us again, it seems, and wants much food and attention.

Sydney, meanwhile, is amused by everyone’s attempts to coddle him as he nurses a nasty case of the flu.  Let’s hope we get him better before he flies to Germany on Friday!

I am seeing a lot less of the garden than I have in former years, and have made good friends with a recliner in the living room, where I watch the world pass and feed Katherine for much of the day.  And then we go for walks in the baby backpack and get funny looks from schoolchildren and admiring stares from grown women.

Erin

The hike to Cape Split turned out to be a total of about ten miles instead of the expected eight. But we survived. Katherine seemed quite happy finally to be bouncing up and down for hours on end. I think she would like to exist permanently in motion.

It’s one of the more spectacular hikes in Nova Scotia, as you walk for miles along this narrow spit of land stretching out into the Bay of Fundy with 200′ cliffs on either side. Here’s a map (the hike starts close to Scots Bay):

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=45.276336,-64.437561&spn=0.201971,0.441513&t=h&z=11&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

And here are a few pictures:

Sydney

We reached the Penner home in Nova Scotia after something like 22 hours of traveling.  Whew!  Katherine traveled really, really well . . . until we hit the Nova Scotia border, when she decided she’d had quite enough of that carseat.  She proceeded to scream the remaining few hours (ack!) and has been keen on keeping us close to her this past day or two.  After the recent intensive mommy time, Sydney’s taking Nelson, Katherine, and me to Cape Split for an 8-mile hike today.  Looking forward to the fresh air after two days in a car!

Erin

Is where we are or at least were for the night. In case anyone is interested. So far Katherine is taking well to the travelling. But the long day of driving will be today.

Sydney