Falling Waters and Crystal

As Pieter says there are 2 words that never fail to bring a smile to my face: China and Crystal. Dang that boy knows me too well. Seriously, for my wedding registry what I cared the most about was the crystal. So when my parents were here, my mom mentioned that there was a Lenox Factory Outlet nearby that she used to visit, so why didn't we stop by there on the way to see Falling Waters. So the weekend was exactly my definition of perfect: parents, Greek food, architecture, china, and crystal.

We went in and my face literally lit up (just ask Pieter), aisles and aisles of china and crystal vases for cheap, cheap, cheap!. We were running late for our reservation at Falling Waters, so we stopped there, not once, but twice! Before and after so that my mom and I would have enough time there. I bought Christmas presents and then Pieter surprised me and picked out a gorgeous china bud vase for me as a surprise!

Falling Waters was great. I'd grown up hearing about it growing up and had visited the Dana house in Springfield, IL. Fun fact: did you know that a few years ago, Falling Waters was actually "falling into the water." Apparently in stretching the limits of architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright went a little too far and it was found, several decades later that the cantilevers (way the house is held up, think like a diving board) were bending with the stress of the weight. Don't worry, they put in reinforced steel beams and it's all okay now. Anyway, thanks to my parents we now own a popup coffee table book of his most famous houses. Come over and take a look! Seriously, it's THAT cool!

School begins

We started grad school!

I have a thing for 1st day of school pictures and Pieter...well, he humors me :)

Of course, now this mean that we never see each other: I have class from 2:30-7 M-Th and Pieter has class T-F, mainly in the morning, but whatever. Oh do you want to hear about Pieter's first day of school? 

-Rides the bus

-arrives insanely early (this is Pieter we're talking about anyway)

-Goes to his ONE class of the day

-Sits in class: no teacher but full class

-Waits, waits, waits

-Teacher never shows up

-The end

He later found out that the teacher forgot to check the class schedule and went to the wrong room (D'oh). What a 1st day, huh?

Moving day 5: the end is in sight

The last day we drove from Elkhart, Indiana to Hubbard, OH (right on the Ohio/PA border). We went to church in Indiana before hitting the road for the day. It was probably our most expensive day. Why, you ask? Two words. Toll roads. Blech.Don't get me wrong, the whole travel plaza/oasis idea is nice, but I can't get over being charged to drive on a freeway. Though if they charged for bridges in Pittsburgh like they do in CA, we'd probably go broke. Anyway, we couldn't get our keys until Monday so we stayed 90 minutes outside of Piitsburgh. Finally, the hotel had an indoor hot tub, which, after driving for a week felt so nice! We also went to Denny's for dinner. :) I have a passionate love for Dennys...I know, classy right? Pieter thinks it's the greasy scum of the Earth and stares at me in unbelief every time I talk about it. Maybe it''s a combination of the huge amount of food you get for the money and the fact that they used to always send me a coupon for a free smiley face Belgian waffle for my birthday. Anyway, that was our day!

Moving Day 4: We need a break: Chicago

Saturday, we kept things easy since we'd been traveling since Sunday, and hey, why not, it was Chicago! First we battled a killer rainstorm driving into Chicago from Rockford (Rockford Peaches!- I may or may not have chosen to stop there because of A League of Their Own). Is it bad to be totally grateful that Pieter was driving? We went and spent ALL day in the Museum of Science and Industry. Coolest museum ever...hands down, we spent 5 hours there and didn't get close to seeing it all. There was a whole room on the space program with video, simulators and artifacts.

Me geeking out over the Apollo 8 landing capsule. For those of you who don't know, Apollo 8 was the first to orbit the moon and piloted by none other than Jim Lovell, who I got to hear speak last year and geeked out then too :) 

Weather exhibits, trains, a 707 jet, baby chicks hatching, Body Worlds, fetuses from all stages of pregnancy, a person plasticized and then dissected out to just the veins, arteries, and capillaries, and THE U-boat, yes, the Uboat.

 Pieter by the German U-boat that the US attacked and boarded during WWII by Africa.
First time that we'd taken over an enemy ship since the War of 1812! This capture was a huge intelligence score and really gave us the upper hand over the Germans. It was a really patriotic exhibit and made me feel proud to be an American but you had to feel bad for the families of the men on the boat because their families were told that they died, since we had to keep them in hiding after capturing them (yeah, not so much within the Geneva convention) so that the Germans wouldn't change their cryptography codes.

Oh and that night we may or may not have stayed in South Bend, Indiana...another League of Their Own team.

Moving Day 3: Sioux Falls

 

We stayed in Sioux Falls that night and in the morning on Friday went to look at the falls. I had no idea that prisoners quarried most of the rock to make their own prison! The rest of the day was a pretty heavy driving day, crossing  Minnesota, Wisconsin, and finally, ending up in Illinois. There were tons of commercially grown sunflowers lining the roads!