The Wisconsin Martins

Yesterday, we arrived safely home from our summer vacation. On July 15, we drove from Oregon, WI to Strongsville, OH to spend 2 days with my grandmother. On July 18, we drove from Strongsville to Buffalo, NY to visit Christine’s parents. We stayed for about 2 hours, then left for Williamsville, NY to visit some of Christine’s friends at Camp Cherith. We stayed for the evening, then drove back to Buffalo to spend the night.

On Saturday, July 19, we drove down to Pittsburgh, PA to visit some of my old college friends and some of our old college hangouts: Uncle Sam’s Subs and Dave & Andy’s ice-cream. We spent the night at the Mariott Pittsburgh City Center (thank-you, Priceline.) On Sunday morning, we worshipped with Allegheny Center Alliance Church. We went there during my last three years of college and it was a joy to be back there once more. Sunday afternoon, we drove back to Buffalo where we spent the remainder of our vacation.

On Friday, July 25, we left Buffalo and headed home. We drove as far as Shipshewana, IN before spending the night at Der Ruhe Blatz, in the heart of Amish country. On Saturday morning we ate a fantastically delicious breakfast at the Blue Gate Restaurant before walking through several of the local shops. We left Shipshewana around 11am and arrived home around 4pm.

I finally remembered how to bypass Chicago, on the drive home. I took 80-West, through Indianna, then 80-94 North, then 290 North (Tri-State toll-way), which goes west around the Chicago suburbs. Finally, we hooked back up with 90-North and drove into Wisconsin. It saved us the hassle of Chicago traffic and didn’t take any longer than 90-North through Chicago normally takes.

Finally, here’s a look at our vacation in numbers:

2100. The total number of miles we drove, round-trip.
847. The total number of pictures we brought home. We took some ourselves and Esther’s grandmothers took the rest.
700. The total amount we spent on our vacation.
295. The total number of hours we were away from home.
5. The number of different cities we visited.
4. The number of different cities we slept in.
3. The number of days that we spent half on the road, half actually doing something.
2. The number of different hotels we slept in and the number of days that we spent doing nothing but driving.
0. The amount of video we took this trip.

Here’s a look at how we spent our vacation dollars:

It’s getting harder and harder to take pictures and videos of Esther. She’s recently discovered the camera. Not “discovered” in the sense that she wants to get it down and play with it. No, she’s discovered that there are pictures on the back of it. She’s discovered that when she sees someone using the camera, she can run up and look at the pictures on the back. More and more of our pictures and videos just show a girl running towards the viewer.

Take yesterday, for example. Over the weekend, I brought up a large box from the basement. Esther decided that it was a great toy, so we left it upstairs for her. Yesterday, she was playing in it and I wanted to snap a few photos. Far easier said than done.

She noticed that I was using the camera and she quickly got up and ran towards me to see what the display on the back was showing.

I put the camera away and we both tried to distract her and get her interested in the box again. I was hoping to snap some pictures while she wasn’t paying attention. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

She ran into the box, hit the back wall, turned around and noticed the camera. Then she came charging right back out to see what was going on.