How To Not Sleep on Amtrak

Assume the train will be kept well-heated so leave travel blanket at home and check in your heavy coat.

Believe your husband won't try to steal your tiny cardboard pillow issued by a sour woman who bellows "I've been working six days straight so don't give me any grief" as she tosses it at your head

Christmas, Chicago, Skilala and Tatanka

Hard to blog during whirlwind vacation. Currently I'm curled up on an uber comfy brown couch in Bozeman, Montana. The mister is engrossed in Star Wars (The Original). Luke just got his first eyeful of dear old daddy Darth. We're bursting with the Korean meal we just scarfed with our gracious hosts Cherlyn and Paul.

I'll update photos as soon as possible. Highlights include:

1. Being surprised at the Alamo Car Rental in Detroit by my sister Megan who flew stealth from Malawi
2. Discovering that Nick is a surprisingly adept ice skater
3. Christmas Eve with my family where my mom says "Just open one gift" but we really open them all
4. Watching my youngest sister take an Irish Car Bomb at a Chicago bar like a champ
5. Meeting my brother's new lady
6. Getting videotaped by my dad
7. Having our train breakdown out of Wolf Point Montana
8. Nordic Skiing at Boghart Ranch outside Bozeman
9. Getting blasted by nose icing air while downhilling at Big Sky with a heap of college chummies
10. Watching my friend Chris lose half his face on the edge of the pool at Fairmont Hot Springs
11. Shooting deer with Nick and Cherlyn on the "Big Hunter" Video Game at Chico Hot Springs
12. Going to Yellowstone today and having a close up encounter with Tatanka...snorting and grass munching right outside the window. I was ready to go Dances with Wolves Kevin Costner crazy on them.


Viva Montana. When do I get to stay here?

Jet Planes

We're looking at airline tickets for our March/April Australian trip. Going to beach with Nick's folks and then down to Tasmania for a wedding. I am looking forward to getting back to Hobart, a brooding city nestled between the brooding mountain and the brooding sea. Nick and I lived together for the first time up on the shoulder of that mountain with astonishing views of the bays, peninsulas and finally the open water. At night we had bandicoots in yard, scratching their ears and nosing through the underbrush. We also had a cantankerous possum who dwelled in our compost heap. After dinner we'd toss our scraps onto the pile and listen to him growl and squeal in delight at this manna from heaven.

Today, or rather tonight, or rather pretty much tomorrow we are flying to mainland. The flight is scheduled for 11.55pm and gets us into Phoenix somewhere around 8am. Then it's a two hour layover and off to Detroit getting in at 4.15pm. For the amount of traveling I do, I've become somewhat of a weenie when it comes to flying. Not sure why. I can remember being shaken and stirred countless times flying into Missoula without lifting an eyebrow. Than a few years ago, BOOM, white knuckle terror.

I have a general propensity to worry. At some point my worry-o-meter, apparently always on the lookout for the latest in brow-furrowing, realized that airplanes were unexploited territory. And away it went. Which is really ridiculous when considering I don't get stomach knots starting my car in the morning, or laughing really hard with my mouth full of food. Both much higher risk activities. So I'm hard at work dismantling my worry-o-meter. It's not very useful. Plus, here in the Pacific, it's a plane or a long swim to anywhere so I better just enjoy it.

Michigander

Nick and I leave on Thursday night for a red-eye to Detroit.

I've got a lot of nostalgia for my childhood growing up in Southeastern Michigan. Scenes of snow quietly settled on bare oak branches, marveling at the naked Neanderthal diorama at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, getting free boxes of brownie mix at Jiffy (my mom was and is still famous in a tri-state area for her ability to sniff out a bargain), walking Main Street in my hometown of Manchester (home of the World Famous Chicken Broil). This prestigious event is made even more awesome by the logo of a chicken busy at the grill. Nick says any time there is an event promoted by the featured animal cooking itself, you know it must rule on multiple levels. I've gotta concur with the wisdom of my mister on this account.

So bring on a temperature somewhere in the low 20's...

So bring on icy roads and a wind that flash freezes a runny nose...

I still own one fleece and...

The woods are lovely, dark and deep