Hooray for T-Day!

Ari and I had a 6-day break for Thanksgiving this year! Wednesday - Monday. Here are a few pictures of how we spent it. (Not pictured: Intense shopping at DSW [I think the four of us bought 7 pairs of shoes?!])

First, we took an Amtrak train from NYC to Pittsburgh. It was cheaper than flying, and I managed to convince Ari it'd be easier, since we only had to take one train to get to the Amtrak station, and then his parents would pick us up in Pittsburgh. 

But then a freight train stalled in Lancaster, so we had to get off the train in Harrisburg and hang out for three hours while they organized buses to take us farther down the track to re-board a new train. Blerg. 

Once we finally got on the buses, they took us to the train and had us enter the train directly from the tracks. Exciting! And also pretty frustrating that the process took so long. It was supposed to be a 9-hour trip, but ended up taking 12 hours. In the end, though, we didn't get too upset about it. I mean, we had enough time to watch Kill Bill vol. 1 AND vol. 2 on my laptop! (I liked Vol. 2 significantly better than Vol. 1, but it's definitely not in my top 20 favorite movies or anything.)

Boarding the train from the tracks. 

We sent this text to Ari's parents to let them know we were back on the train, finally!

On Thanksgiving morning, we walked around Mill Creek Park (essentially Ari's parents' backyard) with some family and friends. 

We went to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Ari's uncle's house, and came back to the house to find the power shut off on the whole street. We enjoyed lighting all the candles and hanging out in the soft glow for about an hour before the power came back on. 

Friday, we went to downtown Youngstown to take the little kids to Oh Wow, a kids museum. It was actually pretty cool for adults too... 

Walking around downtown. Ari was very popular with the young'uns. 

On Saturday morning, the kids (and their parents) had to leave, but not without covering Ari with stickers and climbing all over him. 

We went out for Chinese food and I got annoyed at the poor grammar on the fortune cookie fortunes. 

We introduced Ellyanna's boyfriend, Adam (Far right) to the famous Handel's ice cream (a Youngstown institution).

On the last full day in town (Sunday), we drove to the botanical gardens, which were...not so botanical. They were mostly brown. But we got a pretty new of Glacier Lake.

And today we flew home (only a 1-hour flight) with no delays or problems. Back to work tomorrow. But only for two weeks before I fly to California for Christmas! 

The Girlfriend Experience

This post has nothing to do with Steven Soderbergh's film. But this weekend I experienced being a girlfriend, and what it's like when you're the girlfriend meeting LITERALLY 50 family members (of your boyfriend).

Flew into JFK on Weds night, and spent a day lazin' around on Thursday before making the 9 1/2 hour drive from Brooklyn to Youngstown, Ohio to meet Ari's parents and siblings and extended family for the first time. They were all super nice, thankfully, although Ari had warned me that his mother could be scary (she served in the Israeli army, after all), it was all hearsay. They were all very welcoming and sweet, and the whole family gets along ridiculously well (I wasn't sure families like that actually existed).

Anyway, there was a reunion/birthday party on Saturday night for approximately 50 relatives/friends, and I think I met them all. Platters of food; a birthday cake in the shape of a 3D castle, and 10 boxes of pizza. It was a fun night.

We packed up to leave on Sunday morning, and got 30 miles into Pennsylvania, only to discover at the first rest stop that our brakes weren't working! So 2 hours later we were towed back to Youngstown, spent an EXTRA night in Youngstown, waited for the car to get fixed, which took until 7pm. So we got back to Brooklyn at 2am this morning. Hooray!

Highlights of the weekend:

• Handel's Ice Cream (a Youngstown institution)--we bought 5 different flavors (chocolate pecan, mint chocolate chip, cookies and cream, peach, black cherry)
• Learning Rummikub (a family institution, apparently)
• Finding a cool random Indian/Pakistani market on our scenic walk around the car repair shop
• Walking around the lake (Newport Lake) that is literally less than a block from Ari's backyard. And the area is so lush and GREEN in summer! And humid. I felt like I was in Hawaii.