Day Two: East Lansing visit

I took Robby to Kellogg Conference Center for his new faculty orientation today then drove around East Lansing a bit. Someone had recommended living in the Bailey area, which is the neighborhood directly north of campus (north of Grand River Road). It's a cute little neighborhood with small, old houses. I saw a few people taking walks & walking their dog. It reminded me of Havertown, Pennsylvania. I drove up to Burcham Ave., where Deddy once lived for a month, until I hit East Lansing High School. It has an enormous campus with a student population that's half of most high schools in Los Angeles. It has large playing fields and a state-of-the-art football field (of course). I also passed a large middle school with a football field (oh brother). Burcham eastbound became windy and residential - condo complexes & tract housing. Then I came down Okemos Road and returned to my uncle's house.

The streets here are surprisingly empty. As I drove around at 8am, I was surprised by how few cars and people I saw on the big and residential streets. I hardly saw anyone leaving his house for work. I have a feeling that when next Wednesday arrives and students return to Michigan State University, the streets of East Lansing will be bustling and noisy. Still, I'm surprised to see so few residents of East Lansing out and about.

Touching Base: LA > SF > LA > HI > SF > LA > MI

It's been a long time since I've written in this. Life got kind of crazy at the end of June. My last day of teaching was on June 24th, and on that day we bolted to Napa Valley, California, for a wedding at Cornerstone Winery. We spent a few wonderful days living in North Beach (Little Italy) in San Francisco, where Atticus got to watch old Chinese people do calisthenics at Washington Square Park, we weaved through the congested Stockton Avenue with the stroller to get some good dimsum, & we saw boys plankingat Union Square in downtown SF.

We came back down to LA and spent a few weeks recuperating. I

successfully defended my dissertation proposal on July 27th, and when Robby spent a week in Germany, I went to live with my parents for a week.

Everything has been all fun & travel since the dissert

ation proposal defense. I had a girls' lunch date with Rebecca and friends in Villa Blanca, a restaurant in Beverly Hills owned by a participant in "Real Housewives of Orange County." The food was all right, every dish was chipped, the flowers in the centerpiece fading, and the menus falling apart.

Then I went to

a Japanese salon in West LA and cut 24 inches of hair. The stylist convinced me that I shouldn't get a boy cut, so I got a bob. The next day Robby went to Beverly Hills for a cut & shave, & he cut his 24 inches of hair too.

Then we drove up to San Francisco for a 1 week trip to Kauai with my sisters and t

heir families. I forgot about this blog (forgot that it was part travelogue), so I'll have to make my comments about Hawaii brief. I haven't been to Hawaii since 1987, & I've never been to Kauai before, so it was a

ll a new experience for me.

We stayed in Po'ipu, the south part of Kauai, at the Wyndham Resort (Koloa Landing). They had good airfare & hotel dea

ls, and we rented 3 condos for 3 families. There were 9 adults and 6 kids in total. Our condos faced a large children's pool that was no more than 4 feed deep. Atticus played in the 1

-foot area. Brenneker's Beach was the best place to go snorkling. Sheraton Beach was a great place to learn how to

surf. Spouting Horn was a quick, fun trip. Lydgate Park had an awesome baby beach. Tip Top Cafe for breakfast was good. We couldn't go far because the babies had to take their naps

every afternoon. This meant no long drives to the north side of Kauai nor long car trips to Waimea Canyon nor long hikes.

On the day

of our departure, United had a problem with our plane that it ignored in Los Angeles. As we sat on the plane and waited to depart, the flight crew had to decide whether to ship the missing mechanical part from Honolulu or fly us all to Honolulu & leave from there. After a few hours of waiting at the gate, United canceled our flight & sent us to a Marriott for the night. It was a huge headache, especially with small children, no milk, butt wipes, or diapers. I am still pretty irate about United's failure to fix the problem in Los Angeles, where airplane parts are plentiful.

We took a 9am flight the following morning. Atticus was wonderful in the plane, so time went by quickly. As soon as we landed in San Francisco, we hopped in our car and drove down to Los Angeles. We stopped at Harris Ranch for dinner and arrived to our home at 10:30pm. It was quite a doozy of a day.

Two days later, we drop off Atticus at my parents' and hop on a plane to Michigan.

I learned that Spirit Airlines really sucks. DON'T fly Spirit Airlines. Sure, the flights are cheap, but it charges passengers to choose seats ($10), for carry-on baggage ($35 online, $40 at the gate), and to print boarding passes at the airline counter. We didn't see anything of this coming, so we were totally taken aback by all the charges.

Now we're in Michigan to drive around and look for potential neighborhoods in which to live. Robby had a new faculty orientation tomorrow, and I'll hang out with my uncle all day.