USA

Dr. DeWitt the veterinarian!

We had a very fun and joyful stop in Ithaca, NY to watch Justin’s sister Jessica graduate from veterinary school at Cornell University.  It’s good to have a doctor in the family!

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Was in New Jersey!  I got a nasty tick bite.  Those things are so gross.  Justin had to dig it out with a needle and tweezers.  And we thought we had escaped that kind of thing when we returned from South America unscathed!!!

Giant tick (from the horse, not the one from me!!!)

Because we were already heading to upstate New York for my sister’s graduation from Cornell Vet, Hazel and I thought it’d be fun to go up to see Niagara Falls.  Even Dad hadn’t ever been there!  So we packed up the car with the four of us (Mom, Dad, Hazel and me) and the dog Izsak.  Mom found a neat place called the Grand Canyon (of Pennsylvania) that is about halfway (4 hours drive) from Marlton to Niagara and we had a nice little stop there complete with hiking:

The Grand Canyon!

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While we were in the Philadelphia area we had to have a Philly Cheesesteak.  There are two famous spots to eat them, Pat’s and Geno’s, and they are right across the intersection from each other.  We chose Geno’s because the line was shorter, it looks fancier, he’s had some crazy political controversy, and we had never had either, so we had to start somewhere!

Lining up in the street!

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We’re having such a wonderful time here in New Jersey!  It’s pretty amazing to be living in a house for a little while again, speaking a language we know well, and getting to spend a lot of time with family.  We’ve even managed to have some adventures, a haircut, and a bit of new clothing!

A few days ago we went down to Cape May, a nice town in the far south of New Jersey.  It is one of the best birdwatching places in the US and since my dad was with us we got to see a lot of different birds – 80 species in the same day!  We had a guest photographer, my mom, since she is looking at cameras for when she meets up with us in Africa, so all of the photos in this post were taken by her.

Hundreds of birds at Cape May

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Party it up dude!

We’ve had an incredible couple of days in Seattle!

Family!

Food!

Scenery!

And now we’re off!  See you in New Zealand!!!

After two very long days we’ve made it to my parents’ house on Bainbridge Island, WA.  I won’t say much about yesterday except that it involved shots, cleaning and saying goodbye to Daisy.  Not my favorite.

We managed to leave the Bay Area at around 3:30 p.m. after stopping at Barefoot Coffee for a little caffeine fix.  After a four hour or so drive we made it to Anderson, CA which is just south of Redding, CA.  Justin found us a great deal on a hotel and it turned out to be a really nice place.  If you’re ever driving through we recommend it highly.  It was the Gaia Shasta Hotel.

Our roomÂ

They also had a yummy all-you-can-eat breakfast (I seem to be getting a lot of those lately!) for $3.50 a person.

Yummy Breakfast!

11 hours, a double rainbow, and a rainbow that appeared to end in our car later we arrived safe and sound on Bainbridge Island.  Now we have a few days to relax and see family (Justin’s parents are arriving shortly!!!  This is so GREAT!!!) and then we head to New Zealand on Saturday.

Rainbow's End

It feels really, really good to get this trip on the road!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Turkey Trotters (minus Justin since he was taking the photo)

We started out the day today by running in the Turkey Trot in downtown San Jose.  We did the 5k, but they also have a 10k and tons of people showed up in the perfect (but chilly) weather.  They were saying that there were 14,500 runners there and it was a very festive atmosphere!  There was a costume contest and the people watching while running made the 53 minutes it took me to run it go a lot faster.  Justin was a champ and finished in 29 minutes!  Our friends do this run every year and if we were sticking around I think we’d add it to our traditions too.  Thanks John and Cynthia for sharing your tradition!

Victory is ours!!! And now the turkey will be too....