The Ocean State

All right, this is going to be a big blog cuz it was a BIG day for the Kalers. So far we have dubbed it "the best sabbatical day so far!" Was it leaving Jersey? Blazing by New York with all the 8am commuters? The fact that Greg let me get behind the wheel again? Let's see....

Above is my view as Greg was freaking out, driving over the George Washington bridge in New York. Below is his view as I was freaking out, driving over the third highest bridge in America, going into Newport, RI.

Josiah was comforting me but it didn't really help too much when he covered my eyes! (By the way, the first highest bridge is the one we crossed in Michigan. The second highest is in Tampa.)

Newport is an island in Rhode Island... a ritzy little sailing town with lots of old New England money. It is the original "Rhode Island"---now check this out--- did you know that Rhode Island is the smallest state with the biggest name? (I confess, before this trip I wasn't even sure where it was on the map.) The official name of RI is "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". It goes back to the slave trading days, where apparently they got a lot of this big time money from making rum from molasses, trading it for slaves, and selling the slaves to the West Indies. They are actually lobbying to change the name in Congress right now... check out this recent NY Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/us/30rename.html?_r=1&hp

We came here to visit our friend Pat, who is in the Navy and living here for the year going to school. He took us to all the cool spots in Newport!!

JJ: We got to climb big rocks. It was hard because we were all in sandals!

Even Coco and Puffkins got to climb the rocks!! Later they got to put on the Rhode Island sticker.

we got to see this mansion, except it's not called a mansion, because its a summer house so its called a "cottage."

This is the Rosecliff cottage. We got to see the backyard. (Cheryl) Have you seen the movie True Lies? This is where theyhad the ball. There are a whole bunch of cottages in Newport and this one is known for its big fancy ballroom.

( JJ) Here is the view looking out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Coco hanging on to the rail. He can't see the land on the other side, so don't worry, he doesn't want to go in.

Hey!! (Greg) This next section is especially for Duane, and any other tennis fans out there. Newport has the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Here is a view of downtown Newport. When we got off the bridge coming into town, Galdys took us right through the middle of the shopping. It was a tight squeeze on cobble stones, but we made it!!

We ended up our tour with a little shopping and look! (JJ) "I got a license plate with my name on it!!" (Coco likes it too)

(Cheryl and all) We know this day was the best one ever because Pat took the whole afternoon off and showed us around. It was nice to see a friendly face, a beautiful place, and also the dogs!!! Pat also gave us all the insider information and cool facts that we never would have known otherwise!

Thanks Pat!! Val and kids, we missed ya!!!

Hugs.

The Garden State

ON THE ROAD AGAIN.....

We left Gally on Saturday and cruised up to New Jersey for a few nights rest. We can see why its called the Garden State, there are so many garden stands along the back roads... and they have plants with huge elephant ears and beautiful flowers. And delicious sweet corn!!

There was a huge thunderstorm the next morning, and we actually woke up to "Lake Superior" right outside Winnie. (It was a nightmare, but I'm moving on...) In the afternoon it cleared up and we took off to check out the boardwalk in Atlantic City.Then we went a little further north and enjoyed an afternoon "down the shore." The boys say the water is much colder here than it was in North Carolina.

Even Shayna got in and enjoyed a bit... the doctor said salt water is a-ok, and today she was able do some tiny jumps on the waves.

Here is Jo-Jo with his blessed tooth that won't come out. It is so prominent now we gave it a name.

Meet Buck. We were hoping to lose Buck in Jersey, but he held on ....through New York... we are all the way up to our third "New" state of the day and he's still with us!!

Before we left the shore, the kids made little mini tide pools so they could watch how the clams dig themselves in the sand, and watch some hermit crabs up close. When it was time to go, Shayna decided to leave the pools there for other kids, but with a note:

It said: "Be very nice to them!"

Goodbye Gally....

That is me, I took that picture on my own. My front tooth (on the left I think?) is loose. I think its gonna come out when we're in Maine.

Look how much they've grown!! They look like mini duckies. We got to feed them, watch my video at the end!

That's Mommy studying, almost out of Gallaudet (like one more day).

There goes Mommy to take her test!! I think she's gonna do great and get a A plus!!

This is my first video ever, thanks to Shayna, she taught me how to do the videos. Now I want to take a video of everything!!

On Saturday we were leaving Gallaudet and we saw the ducklings walking across the parking lot! They were taking a field trip! Me and mom think they were coming out to say goodbye to the Kalers!

Bye Bye Gallaudet!!

Virginia Accomodations...

So, a lot of you were concerned that Shayna's incident happened while we were "so far from home..." and were wondering how we were going to handle the recovery. Once we got cleared from the hospital, we spent one more night in North Carolina and then headed up north to Virginia. We took it real slow driving, made many stops, and decided we were going to stay awhile in the Chesapeake Bay area to really let her rest. We were totally blessed to have a TT park that was the perfect place to let her heal!!

Right on the water. At this point Shayna still couldn't walk and was just happy to have a nice view and the wind in her hair. So we decided to rent a little Shayna mobile....

If you look closely you can see Greg went a little wild and drove her through the mud. She loved every minute of it!!

After a couple days, she was getting more brave and really wanting to swim (though that was a no-no.) So we decided to NOT ask the doctor if we could do this and took her out on our little boat.

You know the story, if you give a mouse a cookie? Well next thing you know we let Shayna go out on our little toodler. She promised it wasn't hurting and we knew her independent determination meant she was healing well....

(She didn't stay out for long, by the way. And after four days she was able to walk around with her tummy pillow, and ready to rock and roll!!) Meanwhile... the boys did swim a lot. And since they hadn't gotten as much time at the beach as they would have liked, they decided to try to surf in the bay....

Overall it was a wonderful place to hang and recover. We'll be back to Virginia in October and I'm real excited to see this place in the fall. Doubt we'll go for the Shayna mobile again but it was nice while it lasted!!

Here's to our precious, almost completely healed at the time of this writing, and here's to a great lesson in being thankful... for fresh air, for mud, and figuring things out. I dare say we are not toooooo afraid of sabbatical now!!!

Hugs!!

Crystal Coast, NC

Lucky for us, this whole weekend started out with friends along. Here we are celebrating our first time setting foot in North Carolina!

Laeticia did the honors with the sticker. She is from France! (That's not even on our map!!)
This is on the way out to Emerald Isle, part of the Crystal Coast. That little white dot is actually an egret... the parts between the island and the mainland are mostly marshes and bird sanctuaries.
But we mainly just wanted to see the ocean!! Here are the boys, getting their first shot at boogie boarding!!

Oh yes, daddy is proud!!!

but hey, who taught him that??!!

(that's Lisa, she's from New Mexico. She was just as happy to see the surf as we were!!) Lisa, Chrissy and Laeticia hung out with the boys over the weekend. They were AWESOME and according to the boys "the best babysitters ever!"
Here we are Tuesday night, Shayna's turn. She could hardly walk, but that didn't stop her. We went and found a quiet spot right away, and enjoyed the most peaceful and RELIEVED time at the beach ever.

See that smile??!! (Amen)


These lovely scraggley trees are all over the island. This is the Atlantic side... all the outer banks islands are barrier islands, so they have waves on one side and then its nice and quiet on the other side. The islands are super skinny, you could probably pole vault from one side to the other. This island you can drive to, the northern islands are by boat only. Those are the official "Outer Banks" and we're gonna check those out, later.

Huge thanks to the crew, who totally salvaged this whole weekend. What would we have done without you?? HUGS