Jamie Thingelstad

We have arrived in Asheville! We got going quickly this morning and clicked off the last 4 hours of the drive pretty fast. Mazie was kind enough to sleep for nearly two hours, so it all went pretty fast. We arrived in Asheville around noon and decided to head straight to the Biltmore Estate before getting into the hotel.

The Biltmore Estate is pretty amazing. Imagine 8,000 acres of lush landscape with the largest private residence in the United States hidden away in it. We toured the estate itself, which took about 45 minutes at a fast clip and spent a couple of hours walking the grounds. There is a hotel on the estate and at first thought the idea of spending a few days there sounded kind of boring, but after visiting I would be up for that trip with no reservations. If you are in the area, you should definitely try to take it in. The amount of wealth necessary to create something like that, and even more, to keep it in the family still, is simply astounding.

After our afternoon at the Biltmore we checked into our hotel. We are staying at the Princess Anne Hotel. We are in #207 if you look at the floor plan. This is a very old-world hotel that is listed in the national register of historic places. It only has about 25 rooms, but each room is spacious with a living space, separate bedroom, and small kitchen. The elevator is a trip, it will fit me and about two suitcases as it creeks up. We are in a good location, with a number of things within walking distance.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

Today is a driving day! I’m catching up on the Big Adventure from our hotel room in Roanoke, Virginia. We drove a little over 6 hours but I feel like we put in a lot more hours than that. The first 3 hours were in very busy traffic along the eastern corridor. Six lanes going each way with ridiculous traffic wears on you quickly. Add to that that Mazie had a pretty horrible day in the car, spending at least 3 hours of it crying. Oh, and one more thing, Tammy has an ear infection that is causing her a lot of pain. She went to the urgent care on Friday and got a prescription for some anti-biotics. She’s feeling a little better, but not much.

While we were driving I saw a road sign for Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. I knew about this road from A Walk in the Woods. Bryson’s book highlights this as a bit of a travesty. The national park is amazing, and the Appalachian Trail goes right through the park. The 105 miles of Skyline Drive were more than we could explore with our time, but we could do a part of it. Now, you could argue that with a screaming baby and a wife with an ear infection, taking an unplanned detour through a drive at elevation was not a smart idea. You could argue that, and you would be right, but I still took the detour.

Bryson makes the point in his book, and this is the travesty, that something like 95% of the visitors to this amazing national park never even leave their cars. They simply drive through it on Skyline Drive. I’m happy to say that we at least stopped at one lookout point. But, with the conditions being what they were, we quickly boogied down the road and resumed our path on the Interstate as soon as we could.

We made it to Roanoke, Virginia and had dinner at Macado’s (truly, everyone does have a website now). We are going to get an early start tomorrow to finish the drive into Asheville and hopefully see the Biltmore Estate.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

This was the last week in New Jersey and we began preparation for the last two weeks of vacation. Grandma Kaye and Aunt Angie were out through Wednesday which was great. They were all able to do stuff during the day while I was at the office and everyone had a lot of fun. Angie took something like 230 pictures just to prove the point!

This final week was the most “normal” of the weeks. I didn’t have any all day meetings, or any business dinners. It was nice to rev down just a little bit and Tammy was happy to see me in the evenings a bit earlier. The week wrapped up at work and we are leaving our 800 square feet two bedroom and heading on vacation now.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

Today we extended the Great Adventure both North and South. The day started very early when Mazie woke up at 5:15am and decided that she was going to be awake. We didn’t get to sleep until very late so it was a tired morning. We took a drive this morning and went to the Bronx Zoo. Mazie, Tammy and I along with Grandma Kaye and Aunt Angie had a great time. The Bronx Zoo was really impressive. We had seen a special on their new Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit and it was pretty great.

We then headed back down to the apartment and left Mazie with the relatives and headed to Philadelphia for dinner. I’d never been to Philly and I was really impressed. It seemed like a really nice city. We visited the store we have some furniture in our house from, American Pie. We had an awesome dinner at El Vez. If your in Philly – go to El Vez. Great food, great atmosphere; just a lot of fun all around!

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

Day 16 of the Great East Coast Adventure was a lot of fun. Mazie got us all up at the normal time and we decided to go into Princeton to have breakfast at PJ’s Pancake House. I’m stunned that they actually own pancakes.com. What an awesome URL. I can almost guarantee that some “with it” student at Princeton gave it to them. We had a stunning breakfast that could not be beat and started the day out right. If you find yourself in PJ’s – I highly recommend the Buckwheat Pancakes.

After that we met my boss and his wife and we all headed to the New Jersey Grounds for Sculpture (Sculpture Garden). This place was really impressive and a lot of fun. Perfect outdoor activity for Mazie as well. It’s much bigger than I expected, and the sculpture is very well done. As a bonus, they have done an incredible job of getting the landscape that surrounds the sculpture just right. A+ and a great time with kids.

Tammy, Mazie and I headed to dinner at the Main Street Bistro after that and had some really good food. I’ve wanted to take Tammy to the places that I typically go to when I’m here on business. That way when I call home and say “I went here” she actually knows where I went. I’ve probably been to this restuarant more than any other in Princeton.

We had a relaxed evening and at 10:00pm I drove to Newark airport to pickup Grandma Kaye and Aunt Angie who are staying with us for the next couple of days.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

On Day 12 of the Great Adventure I pretended like I was an average east coast commuter. I had a 9:00am meeting in New York City so I took the trains into the city. I got to Princeton Junction when I should, managed to avoid the local train and take the express that came a little later but got me in earlier. The ride was actually a pretty pleasant hour.

I always hear stories about how people are working away on the train into the city. My observation is that sleeping is the #1 favorite activity. I managed my way through Penn Station in NYC to get to the E train and make my way to where my meeting was. It took me 3 hours to make it to my meeting, and I was 15 minutes late. Crazy.

I took a few wrong turns and I’m sure I could have shaved 30 minutes off of that easy, but it’s pretty crazy to me that people out here do a 2 hour commute without even blinking. 4 hours every day spent just moving your person from one location to another.

I didn’t take the train home, but didn’t leave the city until 7:00pm so I got back to the apartment around 9:00pm.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

It’s Sunday morning and the beginning of Day 10 of the Great Adventure. We are in Washington DC beginning our second day of sightseeing. Grandma Chrest and Aunt Alona arrived on their flight last night just before the bad weather really settled in from Hurricane Earnesto. It was very windy with lots of rain. Their flight was almost diverted to Philadelphia, and the next flight into DC wasn’t going to land. They arrived on time and made it to downtown on the metro.

Yesterday we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to see the sites:

The White House

We didn’t go in the grounds or anything – that requires security clearance from your state senator (really!). Just took the usual pictures from in front, etc.

Washington Monument

Several comments about the phalic nature of this national monument followed by me saying “But I really like it” and then Tammy saying “Go figure.”

National Holocaust History Museum

This museum leaves you awe struck at the horror and misery of what happened during the holocaust. It was pretty hard with Mazie. She wasn’t too excited about sitting in her stroller that long and with subject matter like the holocaust you really don’t want your kid disturbing everyone else. Not a great place to go with kids, but if you can go, go. It’s a must see.

World War II Monument

This is one of the newest monuments on the mall. It is at the opposite end of the reflecting pool from the Lincoln Monument. It is also a really good monument. There was a group of WW II veterans there when we were there that made the monument more impactful. Seeing three vets with a picture of one of there friends that didn’t make it taking a picture of themselves at the location of their state makes it all much more powerful.

Korean Monument

I hadn’t seen this monument before and I really liked it. I wasn’t able to see it at night, and this one would strike me as amazing at night. There are scenes engraved into rock that appear to float in the dark at night. There are also a number of statues of soldiers on patrol in the monument. It feels like you are on patrol with them.

Lincoln Memorial

I hadn’t visited this before, so it was nice to spend some time here. Lincoln was such an amazing president. Reading the excerpts from his addresses makes me sad at the state of political discourse in the country these days which essentially boils down to “terrorism, scary!”

Vietnam Memorial

The Vietnam Memorial struck me more on this visit than the previous times I had seen it. I’m sure because my Mom was with me and she actually knew someone who’s name was on the wall. What an amazing monument really. No other monument actually engages the visitor in an activity. Mom got a rubbing of the name off the wall. Powerful stuff really.

We had dinner at the Capitol Grill (not the steakhouse) in downtown and then took it easy in the evening.

Still making our plans for our final full day in DC. Hopefully the weather is better. We are probably heading to the Smithsonian for part of the day.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

Day 8 of the Great Adventure starts with a relatively lazy morning as we prepare to head to Washington DC for the long weekend. This week has been crazy. I had two evening business events filled with very busy schedules in the day. I mostly just got up at 6 am each day, got showered and left very early to get a head start on the day and came home well after Mazie was asleep. Mazie decided that she should just wave goodbye to me whenever she saw me. 🙁

It rained most of the week as well so it wasn’t a first great week of the Great Adventure for anyone. Tammy and Mazie came into the office on Thursday and we all had lunch together at the company cafeteria. I showed them around the office a bit.

I’m pretty excited to head down to DC. My mom and sister are coming out to spend the weekend with us. I’ll post some updates from DC and try to get some pictures up as well.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.

So the headline from the Great Adventure tonight is that Mazie absolutely hates, and I need to emphasize this, hates, sleeping here. Tammy is in with her right now and Mazie just screams at the top of her lungs whenever she is placed in the crib. We’ve never seen her like this before. She is a very good sleeper and you can usually just put her down and she goes to sleep. Not here.

Last night it took Tammy 90 minutes of absolutely top-notch Mom work to get her to sleep, and it’s not looking any better tonight. She wouldn’t sleep in there for her nap. In fact, she only got a nap because they went to the store and she fell asleep on the way there and proceeded to sleep for 2 hours in her car seat.

I’m sure she’s pretty exhausted from the two long days of driving, and I’m hoping that she will get back on track soon. The time change, however slight for us, also throws her for a loop I’m sure. But boy oh boy do I hope this doesn’t last much longer.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.