Luego Espana and See Ya Later Blog!

We weren't always in the car but sometimes it seemed like it. I am so fond of our first two weeks in Madrid as we were settled in one apartment; we could see a museum or go to the park and then come home, shop for dinner and sometimes eat a vegetable. But we didn't want to stay in one place the whole time and our nomadic time was often when we were happiest--impressed by the beauty around us and delighted by the interesting differences in what we saw, heard, and experienced. Or just playing games in the car together. One of my goals of the sabbatical was to get closer together as a family. It's a gift for any family to get this much uninterrupted time together and we're very grateful for our journey and what we learned about each other.

Another goal was to expand our minds without making the kids miserable. If anything, I had to rejigger my expectations higher as the trip progressed as the boys were so much more interested in art and history than I originally anticipated. I was happy enough if we just lived in Spain and as I noted in my blog description "saw one new thing each day." But we did so much more than we expected and the boys soaked up all kinds of fascinating history.

Mostly we had a good time--cheering on Spain in FIFA 2010, tasting tapas, sampling sidra, cava, and rioja (and so much Fanta for the boys), climbing castles and towers, exploring fortresses and palaces, sword-fighting, searching museums for our new favorite artists, wandering cathedrals and parks, decompressing on the beach, singing loudly to Lady Gaga and Madonna and Village People on the car radio, hiking and swimming and skipping stones, and so much more. Oh yes, and blogging. I should note that Frommers and Fodor's and Rick Steves were all extremely helpful on our trip and what we learned and then relayed in the blog was deeply enriched by these great guides.

Many thanks from the Stackler*Williams Family to Chronicle Books (and to Tyrrell and the amazing Bus Dev team) for making this break possible. A sabbatical is a time to refresh, learn something, and come back with a new perspective--I'll try to live up to this incredible opportunity.

Finally, this blog has been fun--and a surprising amount of work--props to those who do it without the easy and rich daily topics I had at my fingertips. But it's time to say Hasta Luego. Please forgive the typos and horrible grammar. Some days Ed edited me and some days he didn't. I'm pretty sure it's obvious which posts were lacking his keen skill. Maybe we'll get a puppy sometime soon and we'll blog about that!

But for now thanks to Ed, Ben, and Nate for helping me remember and post our trip's best details for our family and friends.

Back in the U.S.A., Part 5

Still more road shots but I couldn't resist all the sites: pretty horse farms, advertising for weapons and meat (Great Prices, Campers Welcome), and oh-so-many trucks.

And then we made it to Maplewood for a too-short visit with our friends, the Dandinos. We only have one photo of the visit as the camera got lost amidst the excitement of the new puppy Buddy. Ed and I wouldn't know each other if it weren't for Tammy's blind date fix-up so we've been friends a long time. Their boys, Tom and Matthew, are the same ages as our boys (or nearly) so they pretty much disappeared into X-Box and basketball mania. And we managed to squeeze in some poker and even a wild B*tch Guts session around Dan's crazy-good meals. We're now going to have to pay the price of all this great "You're Home!" food with salad and water weeks in Alameda....

Back in the U.S.A., Part 4

The road (81 and then 78) from Harrisburg to New Jersey is filled with rolling hills, pretty barns (some Amish), and hilarious billboards. It seemed only fair to blog the countryside just as we did in Spain...

I had to google Keith Stone and it turns out he's an "average man" pitchman for Keystone Light, the official beer of the Nascar Camping World Truck Series (whatever that is) http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/04/keystone-light-spokesman-is-highly-smooth.html. I wonder if everyone else driving this road knows who he is. Cracker Barrel's new campaign--Dinner By Lamplight-- made us laugh out loud. And then we came to the billboards for Roadside America which made me jump to attention as I desperately wanted a photo of this miniature museum which I LOVED as a child. We didn't stop--I didn't want to be disappointed in case nostalgia has clouded my memories of its world-famous delights. And right next door is a Pennsylvania Dutch Gift Haus. Maybe next time...

Back to the U.S.A., Part 3

Soccer in the schoolyard with the Spitzers across the street from my parents' house. Reading the comics and a Kindle with Grandpa! And Grandma's delicious cherry cheese cake tarts that Scott found on one of his visits. Sure, there was some bourbon, some Indian food, some Scrabble, and a bit of other mayhem but it was mostly relaxing after many weeks of go, go, go in Spain! So we drove out of town via Harrisburg (hazy view of the capitol building and super-low Susquehanna River) on our way to New Jersey to visit friends. So thanks Mom and Dad! We had a great time--hope we didn't over-feed the goldfish or kill the lawn!

Back to the U.S.A., Part 2: Side Trip to Gettysburg

Ed's sister lives with her family in Virginia and we managed to meet up with Cindy and her son David (missing: husband Gerry and daughters Sarah and Rebecca/Ben) in Gettysburg, PA for lunch. My parents joined us at Dobbins' Springhouse Tavern for some Civil War-era atmosphere. It was great to see them (after too many years) and we traded Spain travel stories. We loved San Sebastian/Donostia, but we were surprised to hear that Cindy, who has lived in Pakistan, India, etc., considers the Spanish beach town her favorite city.

We also toured Gettysburg's incredible museum, which offers up context, texture (lift the soldier's 45 lb pack by the gun barrel!), and multiple points of view to what were the worst 3 days in July. Then there is the movie narrated by Morgan Freeman--I sobbed through most of it due to his moving explanation of how our country found itself so broken and why Gettysburg was both so crucial and so painful. And finally there is the vast battlefield tour--audio, guides, etc. It's astonishing that these bucolic fields could have been so bloody. We're going to have to come back when the kids get a little older but here are some panoramic shots of Little Roundtop, Devil's Den, and the Copse of Trees for all you history buffs.

Our time in Gettysburg made this sign, on Market Street in my hometown of Camp Hill, that much more meaningful. It marks the northernmost skirmish between the Confederates and the Union. I always knew that was part of Camp Hill's history--made all the more amusing one summer when my mom looked up from her gardening to find 3 Civil War soldiers (reenactors, of course) on horseback and sorely in need of instructions back to Route 15. How they intended to get back to Gettysburg (an hour away by car) via the highway was anyone's guess but my mom just wishes she'd had a camera handy.

Back to the U.S.A., Part 1

I know it's called Sabbatical in Spain but I can't skip the Sabbatical on the East Coast (technically our layover). I'm from a very small town, Camp Hill, PA. You may know it from the Book-of-the-Month Club return address--though the real warehouse is in Mechanicsburg which didn't cut it with the NYC literary types from the mid-20th century.

My dad puts up the flag most good days; he also waves at policemen he doesn't know. He spent most of our visit sharing the comics with Ben and Nate and hiding in his bedroom with the Kindle while we took over the house.

We got a chance to see our friends the Setzers and Spitzers, whose children all know the Williams Family "toy room" that my very nice mom keeps stocked with my old Hot Wheels loop-de-loop, Yahtzee, marble racers, etc. Usually we have a larger group of high school friends around but somehow in planning the sabbatical I failed to tell anyone we'd be in Camp Hill. Then again, we were jet-lagged so it's probably best as we were asleep by 9 p.m. most nights.

Every year we pull out the slip-and-slide and the boys hurl themselves down the plastic. The boys played some Magic game with Ed and Scott. And we played some soccer and took some walks. I showed the boys my childhood church but when we tried to go inside, I got chased off by the caretaker next door: "Ma'am, ma'am, is there something you need?" in that tone of voice that means this isn't the time to go to church lady so back away and go on home. I was sort of surprised after the churches in Spain which are open day and night but maybe it was clear we were nosy heathens.

So we jumped back and forth over our neighborhood creek and wandered home. I saw an older neighbor in his garden and when I reintroduced myself to me he said "Well, god bless you Sally Williams."

It was a great visit thanks to good friends and my indulgent, generous parents.

More Random (From All Over)

(1) Outside Parc Guell, a mime lizard getting the boys into the act. They soooooo wanted to pose with her.

(2) And what constitutes a car seat for kids in Port Lligat? Well, that would be a dune buggy with a box on top that three pre-schoolers jumped out of when it screeched to a stop.

(3) FIFA excitement (taped up on a shop's window in Barcelona) the day after Puyol's spectacular goal to beat Germany.

(4) Nate's shot of me teaching Ben to row a boat in one of Madrid's parks...sadly Nate didn't get a shot of Ben's turn but it was some hard rowing and he turned it back over to me pretty quickly. Evidence for when he tells me that I never take him anywhere.

(5) And here's our friend, the sunbathing lemur... beside my foot at the Madrid zoo.