Bed #1:We spent two glorious nights in Istanbul, Turkey, albeit in a tiny, tiny bed. Istanbul has to be one of my favorite cities in the world. We took a boat ride, saw old buildings and ate amazing food (no more diet). It was a great start to the summer.
Bed #2:
Long Island, New York. 2 nights, tiny bed. We sort of used my parent's house as a home base in the US this summer so it was the most slept in bed.
Bed #3:
Orlando, Florida. 8 nights in another tiny bed (notice a trend here?). This is where my
in-laws live. We had a nice time going to farmer's markets, Disney, and just generally hanging out and relaxing. The highlight of the trip was meeting a friend from India and her 17 siblings at the Magic Kingdom. What an incredible family. Her parents had Alicia and her older brother without any trouble. Then they struggled with infertility and ended up having triplets with the help of IVF. After that her parents began adopting children from all over the world, many with special needs. The kid's ages range from 4-34. All I can say is, "Wow!"
Bed #4:
Murphy Lake, Minnesota. 13 nights in THE most comfortable bed all summer. There was a lot happening the two weeks we spent there. Jason's grandmother, who had been suffering from lung cancer decided it was her time to go. She passed away two days after we got there. It was sad, as funerals are. But Jason and I were so grateful that we were there and could be with family. Gramma Nancy had a plan and I know she would have been so pleased to see us all together eating bars and telling stories. She was a pretty cool lady. We had fallen in love with Murphy Lake the summer before and had decided that we wanted to buy a place there. As you can tell with this blog post, our summers can be hectic. We really wanted to find somewhere we could spend a few months a year in the fresh air. We found a place that was perfect. So perfect, in fact, we didn't even look at another place. From the day we went to look at the house to closing day was about 4 weeks. It was surprisingly easy to buy a house.
Back to Bed #2 for three nights to hang with my family and eat lots of yummy seafood.
Bed #5:
Liberty, NY. Our first pitstop on a our wedding road trip. Nothing to report here. It was your average Holiday Inn bed. Big, comfy and overpriced. But it was a much needed rest stop on our way to Ottawa.
Bed #6:
Ottawa, Canada. Two nights on a futon was worth seeing our dear friends Kristi and Jason. It was so good catching up with them. I miss them loads and wish I could see them more than maybe once a year.
Bed #7:Grand Falls, New Brunswick. After a long drive through Quebec we were looking for a place to eat some dinner and sleep. After making a few wrong turns off the Trans Canada we ended up finding this local joint called Le Kozy. They had amazing BBQ ribs. And it was so much fun listening to the locals meander between English and French effortlessly. We also learned as we were sitting there that, in true Canadian fashion (being that it's like America but different) they are in a time zone east of EASTERN STANDARD TIME! What?! Here we are at the falls.
Bed #8:
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Same as Bed #5. This was a pitstop to meet up with our friends before the wedding. It was Canada Day which is like The 4th of July. Another example of Canada being like America, but different. The Bride's parents had all the guests at their house for lobster rolls, games and fire works. Jason and I were the only two that showed up in Canada T-shirts. They are like 4th of July shirts, but different.
Bed #9:
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Three nights in what may have been the tiniest bed all summer. Hotel owners please take note: A full size bed is not intended for two people. Anyway, we had lots of fun catching up with old friends. The wedding was lots of fun. I woke up the next morning sore from all the boogying the night before. Jason and I definitely misbehaved ourselves. Nova Scotia is crazy beautiful and I'm pretty sure we overdosed on lobster and mussels by the end of our trip.
Bed #10:
Prince Edward Island, Canada. After the wedding we headed up to PEI to eat more mussels and visit more friends from our days in Korea. Our friend's son was my student when he was a second grader and is now going into middle school. It was so cool sitting around and talking with him.
Bed #11:
Fryeburg, Maine. Two nights hanging with friends from India. There is nothing like being with friends from India, not even being with friends from Korea. We are lucky to have friends and family who are supportive and even curious about what we do, but, it's our friends in India that truly get it. It was here that I got the inspiration for this blog entry. Our friends had also slept in 13 different beds this summer.
Bed #12:
Danville, Vermont for wedding #2. Three nights at Injunjoe's Cabins. This little piece of Americana was by far the best place we stayed all summer. It was, also, the most uncomfortable bed we slept in. It was owned by this little old Quebecois lady that we affectionately called Nona. It was built in the 50's and hasn't been updated since. We shared a little cabin with Alicia (the one with 17 siblings). There were about 45 other guests from the wedding there and it turned into quite the party place. Like hanging with friends from India, there is, also, nothing like meeting friends and family of our friends from India.
Needless to say the wedding itself was loads of fun. There was more misbehaving andI woke up the following day feeling sore from getting down on the dance floor.
The day after the wedding was spent in the sunshine hanging with the newlyweds eating left over guacamole and drinking micheladas. That day we decided that we really wanted to head back to MN for the closing. So the next day we headed back to bed #2 for two nights and then flew to MN in time for the closing.
We slept in Bed #4 for one night before closing. I also happened to be ovulating so I'm currently hoping that the luck we had with the house will somehow extend to my uterus. Now that we are on the subject I just wanted to mention that not only was I ovulating, but I actually had a sex drive like in the days before fertility drugs. And I had had one ALL SUMMER. Can I get a "hell yeah" for that!
Finally Bed #13:
Murphy Lake, Minnesota. Three nights on a blow up mattress in our new home! It was a magical three days there. Our house is empty but we managed to have our first dinner party. We even had unexpected guests, as tends to happen on Murphy. We made a fire pit and met our new neighbors. We would have loved to stay longer but we had to get back to NY to go see Famous Doctor. So we said our good-byes and made plans for next summer.
Back to Bed #2:
Long Island, NY for some QT with my family. We are actually staying 8 nights here, 5 down 3 more to go. These last days of summer for us are about hanging with old friends, and my nieces and nephews, eating some sweet corn and, oh yeah, Famous Doctor. We went to see him on Wednesday. It was so nice sitting down with a doctor who wasn't in any kind of rush. He sat with us for an entire hour and went over all that we have already done and explained what he wanted us to do. Basically, we still don't know why I'm not getting pregnant and there are a number of cultures and blood tests that both Jason and I can get to help us understand why. I feel so much more comfortable with this approach. I, also, know that I wouldn't have been as open to it a year ago. I was is such a state of panic that I wouldn't have listened. I just wanted to get pregnant already. I still do. But I am accepting that, for me, it is going to take some time. So that's where we are. This summer is just what the doctor ordered, that and some lab tests. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm looking forward to getting back to India.
I feel rested and calm. I'm ready to continue my journey...
