Back in Town

After being gone for 3 weeks, we are now back in Brooklyn. We left mid-August for several reasons:
1. Escape the brutal heat that engulfs the city in August.
2. Visit our sisters and friends on the West coast.
3. Travel as a work/play diversion while Lindsay is out of school.

We left a couple of days after her camp ended and flew the week-old airline Virgin America. I kept thinking of how elegant airplane travel used to be. People actually dressed up in their best outfits to fly. What a far cry it's become. Now you have to drag your bags around along with your children. The security is spotty and seemingly pointless. My sister used the term "security theater" and I think that's dead on. There's a huge show, with great inconvenience to all, without actually making the passengers safer.

Tell me why we still have to take our shoes and belts off? It also seems that some of the restrictions have been kept to earn the airports more money. Why can't we bring drinks through security anymore? Actually, if someone is going to tell me about explosive liquids, I'll mention that you are allowed to bring milk, formula and juice if you have an infant or toddler. I brought on 2 large cups of juice without one question being asked. Check the TSA website and you will see that it's allowed. There was an incident a few years ago when a mother was questioned about a bottle of breast milk she had for her infant. I think she was forced to drink it to prove that it wasn't some sort of bomb making liquid. I guess there was a lawsuit, because the TSA specifically states that you will not be made to drink the liquid you bring for your child. I'm all for this, but please tell me why childless people can't bring liquids on as well.

I was shocked by the discomfort we experienced with Virgin America and was already to pen one of my letters to customer service. It seems as though this is the norm these days though. They charged extra for absolutely everything. They supposedly had food, but it was a tiny snack for $7. They charged $8 for movies and several dollars for "premium tv" I was half expecting to have to swipe my credit card to use the bathroom! Kids tv consisted of god-awful cartoons instead of anything decent like PBS kids, or Discovery kids. I felt that 3 1/2 years of brainwashing my kid had been undone on that flight.

We allowed extra time at the airports because I was actually bringing film. Remember that stuff? I don't like them to x-ray it because it fogs. So they need to hand check it. They are still encased in light tight foil packets and the TSA folks usually just swipe them with their little cloth and run it through their chemical sensor. Every now and again, I get someone who hates the world and wants to teach me a lesson. We had one guy in England deliberately take his sweet time swiping one roll at a time. I think he was hoping we would get all stressed out about missing our flight. The joke was that we had about 3 hours, so we didn't bat an eyelash with his power play. Other security guys offered to help him to speed things up, but he sent them away. Anyway, we allow lots of time when we fly with film. In the San Francisco airport one of the women started to open all of the foil packets. This isn't desirable because the rolls are then apt to get fogged from sunlight. I asked her why she wasn't just swiping them and she called over a colleague. I overheard that they were out of the swiping cloths (it was 8:30am). She then made a big show of inspecting each roll as though that was the approved method. Security theater!!

I will post more about our trip later, which was wonderful.

Camping

Neil and I are taking Lindsay on her first camping trip on Monday. We chose Beartown State Forest as the best spot. First of all, it is beautiful. It's a small park with a small lake. There's a nice trail that circles the lake. It's actually the place where Neil proposed to me. The other reason we chose Beartown is that it is quite close to his parents house in case anything goes dreadfully wrong. I'm not anticipating anything, but we want an out just in case.

So, we're spending a lot of time planning, shopping and packing. I'm not a camper, so I really have no idea what to pack for meals and supplies. We're going to stop by the in-laws on the way up and borrow their big coolers and some plastic bowls and cups. We have a picnic basket w/ plastic plates and utensils. We have an ancient canvas tent that someone gave us and we just ordered sleeping bags.

The funny thing about Beartown is that there actually are bears. Actually it's not very funny. I'm concerned about the whole food/toothpaste thing. They say you should put your food and cosmetics in the back of your car. So here's the thing...we had a friend who worked at Yosemite National Park. He said that putting food in cars didn't stop the bears. One family came back to their car to find their windshield completely ripped off and a bear sitting in the backseat munching on whatever they left inside. Yikes!!

So besides the bears, I'm really looking forward to this trip. Neil predicted that this is going to be one of those ugly New York summers and it looks as though he's going to be right. Tempers are already high. We had a murder on our block last week, where two brothers got into a fight over a bicycle and one shot the other. It was an ugly scene with police in riot gear, police tape crisscrossing the street, dogs trying to sniff and track down the brother who did the shooting, etc. The man who was shot was one of the crazy characters who grew up in the neighborhood who everyone knew.

I'm looking forward leaving the city to do some outdoor knitting. I've packed watercolor paint and paper and will do some painting with Lindsay. She just tried watercolors for the first time a few weeks ago and seemed to enjoy them. I'm looking forward to being where it's green and taking some nature photos. And I'm looking forward to exploring the woods with Neil and Lindsay and finding the spot where we got engaged.