who knew...

airport love, a photo by foto fledgling on Flickr.

... six yrs. ago (nearly to the day) when this photo was taken on our way home from a wedding here in Western PA that we would be living in the hub of Western PA three years on.

I certainly didn't; but I wouldn't change it for all the world.

planes, trains, and automobiles.... even Greyhound on occasion

I love to travel... and I have traveled every which way there is since as long as I can remember.

I started flying solo at a very young age (pre-K), and have always found a certain freedom to being up in the air away from it all. Sometimes just wishing we never had to touch down. Even today with all the hassles involved I still find myself mostly blissed out when the plane is taking off.

Sharing a love of flight with my girlie

Then of course there is the good ol' road trip, and by a road trip I mean at least through three states and overnight; not driving straight through to one's destination, but stopping every so often to photograph America (including the world's largest RubberBand Ball)... Everyone should experience at least one; although with gas prices going the way they are this might be a past time left in the past more and more.

the lure of the black top

I even took a Greyhound from CA to the deep south with my grandmother as a preteen (wish I had pictures from this). I don't know that I would recommend this, but traveling by bus is sometimes a very cheap and easy alternative. I'm thrilled that MegaBus has recently come to Pittsburgh. A fabulously cheap method of travel.

But I think more then anything I LOVE traveling by train, not sure what exactly it is that enthralls me - the history/idea of train travel, the lulling sounds, watching the landscape go by, but when I've had the chance to do it (you have to have more time on your hands) I've jumped on board like a "hobo in Jersey". So next week I am taking the train to Chicago to visit a friend for a mini-vaca. The trip there will be overnight - so not a whole lotta scenery watching, but that's okay. I am just looking forward to escaping a bit of everyday life, seeing a friend, and riding the rails.

Preparing to travel down the West Coast in a totally absurd getup.

With all the regular life living (working, grocery shopping, driving HFG to the bus stop every school morning) and routines we've created I sometimes forget that we JUST moved 2500 miles across country. Sure I get it that we moved, but it doesn't always hit me that we've just done this... like less then four months ago!

but then... we will be driving over to my husband's aunt's house, or to his friends' in Greensburg... and it hits me like a ton of bricks. It took me a few times before I realized what that was about... until this Halloween when we went Trick or Treating with our friends in their neighborhood. I don't have to pack a suitcase and find someone to watch the dog and check in at the airport and fly on a plane, etc. to get to their place. We just turn on the radio, throw some food in the dog bowl and drive (about the same time/distance to their house as it was from our house in Seattle to the airport) to their house. Then at the end of it, we just drive home, climb in our very own bed, and go to sleep. I don't know how to explain how crazy that is, but to me it is crazy. Honestly, it can take me a few days to recover from that mind blowing craziness.

Here are some lovely fall photos while I freak the BLEEP out....

here, there, and everywhere

I awoke to a cup of coffee and oatmeal with my Uncle Bernhard (no one around here pronounces his name correctly either), at the butt crack of dawn. After some lovely morning chatter I headed off to spend a moment with Jeremy and start a new tradition for Mother's Day (breakfast at Ruthie's in Ligonier). After some tasty bacon, and perfect over hard eggs (yolks not broken, way to go Ruthie's), I headed into Braddock to meet Jenny and her peeps. It was a lovely day with the sun in and out behind the clouds, and I found the three gals making the most of the day: digging up the vacant lot next door. Diligently preparing the ground for a garden to grow all the makings of salsa and pasta sauce (a gal after my own heart). It was nice chatting, and having the chance to make two more friends. I am looking forward to having them over for enchiladas (they are all craving decent Mexican, and Michael makes a mean pan of chicken enchiladas) when we have completed the move and start to settle in.

After feeling like a lunp of uselessness (I wasn't exactly dressed for hard labor), I headed into the city to meet my other new friend, Michael (cause just what I need is one more of those in my life) who promptly showed my that P*brgh has decent local coffee (they even had coconut syrup!). After briefly sitting, sipping, and giving cliff notes on our lives, he, ever so graciously, offered to give me the delux private tour of where to and where not: beginning in Shady Side, a quick jaunt along Liberty Ave then back south through Squirrel Hill, a jump on the East Parkway to Mt. Washington over to the North Shore and back again to Shady Side; a true gentleman.



It was a lovely day exploring, and I am can't wait to get here permanently and do some more of the same. It was a lot, but so worth the plethora of information intake.

not a girl scout thing

I am headed , solo style, to the 'Burgh on Saturday for a lil' look see and what have you, before I continue on to a work conference in DC.

Initially the huz was going with me so we could check it out together, but plans change, life happens.... now I am headed east on my own. I admit to being a little happy about the chance to see my new home through my own eyes; the guy has a tattoo of the area code on his leg for cryin' out lawd. What little I've seen is from the point of a passenger driving along I-376 on our way to Ligonier, PA; and the one night at Station Square with a trip up the Monongahela Incline.



The idea of driving 'round random neighborhoods with no paticular destination, no choice but to take a route I know nothing about is enchanting. There are "paths" we travel in Seattle so often that when Michael is in the driver's seat I can close my eyes and envision exactly where we are along the way.

to be able to go here, there, everywhere, anywhere, nowhere