Hello, Manhattan!

No trip to the East Coast is complete without a stop in Manhattan, which we hadn’t visited since 2005. Jimmy dared to drive into the city. Luckily the rental car drop off was near the highway, so we didn’t have to negotiate too many one-way streets. We contacted a fellow Jimmy used to work with during his old prepaid phone card days for a suggestion on where to stay and he generously offered us his apartment on the Upper East Side with this amazing view.

I was expecting a one-bedroom bachelor pad, but Peter actually sublets from a woman with very nice taste. We felt very spoiled!

Turns out that Peter doesn’t actually stay in the apartment much because his fiancée owns an apartment nearby. We enjoyed a delicious sushi dinner and champagne on the killer rooftop terrace.

Veronica took the opportunity to take some night shots.

Cornell Vet School...

While Veronica and I were visiting a dorm, Jimmy took Ashlynn to the open house at the vet school.

Ashlynn has always had a special way with animals and I think she would make a great vet. Although she has no interest in being a vet, she enjoyed listening to this dog’s heart...

...and petting one of the world’s ugliest cats.

The highlight of the open house was the equine treadmill demonstration. Apparently, this treadmill can go up to 45 mph, the speed of a thoroughbred race horse.

Cornell University...

We had a full day at Cornell University with a tour and several admin sessions. It was nice to be able to visit a dorm, which is separated from the main campus by this waterfall; we were disappointed that we couldn’t get into the environmental science department.

Cornell is famous for its agriculture department, which runs the school’s dairy. No idea why we though it was a good idea to buy each girl one of their own giant ice cream sandwiches, but they were yummy!

Ithaca, New York...

We had no idea that much of New York was so rural. With the large number of dilapidated barns, cars in front yards and gun stores, we could have easily have been in the South. Not sure how well Veronica would fit in this area after we heard a DJ say, "Sit back and watch your ass grow."

The Ithaca region is famous for its waterfalls. This is Buttermilk Falls, which was just off the main road. It was a bummer that we had no time to go hiking.

We enjoyed an evening in downtown Ithaca, which was full of funky shops. We especially loved our vegetarian dinner at Moosewood Restaurant.

There were several good thrift shops. Veronica had fun swirling this dress, but didn't end up buying it.

Jimmy soon grew tired of shopping, but managed to keep his sense of humor.

Two Nights in a Yurt...

Our next stop was Ithaca, New York to visit Cornell University. At first I was disappointed when I found out that the hotel on campus was fully booked but then I expanded my search and came across the Climbing Vine Cottage. It was a bit of a drive out of town, but we loved staying in a yurt for the first time.

It was surprisingly roomy. Jimmy and I had our own room and the girls shared the loft.

It was cold enough that we need to heat the place with the wood pellet stove.

There was a supply of kiddie books. How fun to read Goodnight Moon to my big girls.

It had a very nice kitchen where we cooked dinner one evening.

First College Tour...

Wellesley College, a small private women’s school, was our first college to visit. The campus was lovely, situated on a lake in Wellesley, Massachusetts, about 45 minutes outside of Boston. We took a campus tour and went to an admissions session. While Veronica went to her first college class, we walked around the town. It wasn’t the cute college town that we would have hoped; in fact, we had sticker shock when we went into a prom dress shop and many of the dresses were around $2,000.

After lunch, we met with two professors to learn about their research, which included a tour of the greenhouses. We were definitely impressed with the science center and its interdisciplinary labs.

We had read about The Sleepwalker statue before we arrived and were happy to find him. It was amazing how realistic he was, which made Veronica very reluctant to pose with him. Apparently, he’s been vandalized with yellow paint since our visit, but he’ll remain until the end of July when the accompanying exhibit in the art museum closes.

That evening we took Joe, Lisa and Allie out for dinner. It brought tears to my eyes when Joe and Lisa offered to be Veronica’s surrogate family if she went to Wellesley (she’s since decided that it’s not the school for her). The next morning, it was time to drive to Ithaca, New York.

Photo Shoot in Massachusetts...

Veronica took advantage of the woods behind Joe and Lisa’s house to do a photo shoot with Ashlynn. As usual, it was too hard for me to choose between the pics, so here’s a bunch.

Home Leave Started in Massachusetts...

Planning our first home leave since August 2011, was extremely complicated as we needed to fit in university tours in four states plus a visit with James’ family. Unfortunately, there was no way to squeeze in a trip to California. We started with two nights in Massachusetts staying with Joe and Lisa that we’d met in Bonaire in 2011. Was very impressed with Joe’s weight loss. Luckily, he’s still willing to eat pizza and fired up his wood burning oven to make us dinner.

Unfortunately, 8-year-old Allie didn’t really remember the girls, but she was willing to let them sleep in her room and play with their dogs.

Ashlynn especially enjoyed Khan, an 8-month-old Newfoundland. On the flight over, she announced, “I’m going to be so annoying on this trip. I can just feel it.” Luckily, she was wrong!

LAMDA, Musical Theatre Examination...

When Veronica started taking singing lessons, she knew that she didn’t want to take the traditional British singing examinations. Her instructor Jenny suggested that she take the LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) exams instead and Veronica loved that idea. In early April, we went with Jenny and one other student to Brussels for the exams.

Veronica sang two songs for her Grade 6 exam, starting each with a short monologue. Here she is setting the scene for singing Skyfall by Adele from the James Bond movie of the same name.

I really loved her performance of Cabaret, which was sung by Liza Minnelli in the movie version of the musical by the same name.

We got to watch the girls rehearse, but couldn’t watch the performance in front of the examiner. Veronica had to wait weeks to find out that she passed. You can watch her performance from Jenny’s earlier that week.

Environmental Committee Co-Chair...

Veronica has really embraced her role this year as Co-Chair of the Environmental Committee at school. For Green Day, she helped to plant a tree which was actually dedicated to her for her hard work and enthusiasm in leading the committee.

She especially loves working with the younger students to come up with ideas of how to make their school more sustainable. One of the big changes they helped push forward was to switch from disposable plastic cups to students carrying their own water bottles.

Upgrading our Yard...

When we first viewed our house, we saw the owner’s wonderful outdoor sofas and hope they’d leave them behind. We didn’t get our way and it took us an extra year, but we finally managed to buy our very own set of outdoor sofas. It’s amazing how much having proper furniture transforms how we use the yard.

There were a lot of options, but we knew that this set was the winner as soon as we saw the table with the little stools since it matches the indoor wicker that we brought with us from North Carolina.

Witness to a Hanging...

Since I’d been to the festival before, I knew that we needed to make our way to the fairgrounds in time to watch the finale: the hanging of the Spanish Commander.

It looked incredibly realistic, but thankfully was all in jest. Immediately afterwards, we headed to the bus for our journey back to The Hague. Fun day!

Interesting Sightings in Brielle...

There were great sights on every corner in Brielle. I loved this fellow’s combination of medieval and modern.

There was an old-fashioned fair with oddities on display on a table. The baby parts in a jar were particularly creepy.

One of the AWC ladies paid the 50 cents to peak in the box at the three-breasted lady.

The simplicity of this calliope makes sense with old date shown on it, but the strange dolls imply a modern twist.

One of the streets was covered in clotheslines and flags, which made it quite festive.

There were several booths with artisans making old-fashioned crafts including this woman with bonnets.