Broken needle

While I was picking up and down my current project, I broke one of my Brittany sock needle (5 inch US 1 / 2.25 mm ).  It's a sad incident, but, they guarantee the replacement of broken needles for five years.  I am not sure if they send a replacement even to a foreign country, but, I'll try.   For your information, I found out I can keep on knitting with Japanese Standard 0 (2mm, but slightly thicker than US 0) instead of the broken one. 

Thanks for the jet lag, we are waking up considerably earlier than usual (6:00, which is not very early for many people. I know.) every day.  My daughter apparently is on the way of outgrowing naps.  She just can't miss the fun with her cousins, keeps up with big kids until dinner time, and falls asleep at around 8:00.  (It's important to let her bathe before her limit comes to keep her from itchy-scratchy back.  She already has heat rash from a lot of outdoor activities and still doesn't care about getting sweaty and dusty.)  I am supposed to have a good chunk of a knitting time every evening after she goes to bed, but, my eye lids get very heavy almost as soon as my daughter's does.  And my lap top is having a hard time keeping connected to the internet, which means there's not a lot of Ravelry time.  

Moving Update 7/28

We're in Japan. 

Now, staying at my husband's parents' house to shake off jet lags and wait for the customs to give a green light to our stuff.  And of course, to start making purchases, my cell phone, to begin with.

We're in Japan. For three days already.

Day 10 Newark

Breakfast; BW Delaney's (restaurant in the hotel) Blueberry Pancake, French toast with sausage, "Basic" (toast, eggs, bacon)

From Cobleskill to Cooperstown was slightly less than one hour's drive.  The road was local two-way Country Road.  I lost where we were on the map, but all things went well and my husband found a pretty good parking spot at only a few minute's walk from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

I felt electrified.  The history.  The tradition and the will to save it, and the passion to play.  I felt hot inside.

But at the same time, I felt I was in NY Yankees' territory.  I could have enjoyed much more if I were a Yankees' fan.  Later, I found out that my husband was feeling the same way.  Our conclusion is, the HoF must have been made first to enshrine the incredibly talented batter, Babe Ruth.  He must have been too good to just keep in memory.   People must have thought that they (we) need something special to record his greatness.  The rest of the exhibits just followed his memorials after that, we guess.  Anyway, it is a great place to visit for a baseball fan for sure.

Lunch; Autumn Cafe at Oneonta, NY  Hot Open Veggie, BLT, Plain Omelette 

Note; My husband has been in Oneonta before with his business.  He talked again and again about the curried fish he had at this Cafe.  We visited one of  family "legends", so to speak.

From Oneonta, it was only a driving to Newark, to be closer to the airport.

I took over the steering at a service center on I-90.  The weather was not good, raining on and off, sometimes very hard.

I started feeling a slight headache near Newark.  It was just impossible to give back the steering to my husband, so I just kept on driving, which was good, because I couldn't have navigate that complicated direction near the hotel, and my husband couldn't have find the right access road to the hotel under that construction and one-way madness.

Hotel; Best Western Riverview Inn & Suites,  Rahway, NY

It was a little past 7:00 after my husband picked up his last prescription medicine at nearby Walgreens and arrived at hotel.  We just went out for dinner, but I started to feel a little dizzy while driving, and my husband took the steering.  Thus, my driving days are over.  Maybe I was too tired.  Maybe it is my female hormone working weird.  I just didn't feel like driving anymore.  I am done.  I am not going to drive in Japan.  We will not even own a car; it is just too expensive and we don't need it.  I didn't become a good driver after all.

Dinner; Dennys (again)  Double cheese burger, Grilled chicken salad with Ranch dressing (again), Mac & cheese (again) with pineapple

It was almost 8:00 when we got to the restaurant.  My daughter ate almost all the food.  I am so sorry to made her that hungry.  She was happy anyway.

We are running out of clean clothes.  Our hotel doesn't have a guest laundry, so we dropped in at a K-mart and bought some underwear.  This kind of thing is what we can do now but couldn't do five years ago.  We learned a lot, we got used to living here a lot.  We are going to miss a lot of things for sure.

End milage; 2467.3 mile

1 day in America

Tomorrow, we are leaving the hotel at 7:30 to get the 11:10 flight to Narita, Tokyo.  I am not sure I have time to post anything at the airport, even if Wi-Fi is available.  This is going to be the last post from America. 

Day 9 Cobleskill

Last night, my daughter was too tired to eat well.  She did eat some noodle and rice, but that was it and it was 6:30 pm.  This morning when she woke up at 7:20, she was hungry.  Very hungry.

This is what she ate for breakfast; half the waffle (of waffle maker at breakfast buffet), one hard-boiled egg, 3/4 container of vanilla yogurt, a small cup of apple juice AND a half cup of milk, and 1/4 of a small apple.   Phew. 

Today was a day for a long drive.  From Toronto past Kingston, back to USA, to today's hotel at Cobleskill, NY.  We started at 8:30.

The weather was not so good. Rained on and off all the way.  We took turns on driving, long driving on highway.

Lunch; Cracker and Barrel (again) at Waterton, NY.  Tuesday's lunch special (meatloaf and mushed potato), sugar-cured ham, fried chicken tenders (again) with green beans, turnip greens, carrots and corn for sides  We chose almost the same vegetables for sides.  They are just great. 

And on highway again.  Except for the weather, it was like the day 5 and 6 mix-and-match.  My daughter could catch up a lot of sleep.  

I fell asleep after my husband took the steering at Oneida Service center. (Oh, I noticed the sign was "Service Centre" in Canada.)  When I woke up, he was making a left turn into a local street, under the sign that says "Cooperstown" with arrow pointing to the right.  I remembered that we have a reservation at a hotel in the town located about 40 minutes from Cooperstown, because the hotel in Cooperstown was ridiculously expensive.  We drove through the hilly farms to get the lovely town of Cobleskill.  The car was very low on gas, so it was a big relief to find a gas station after 5 minutes of looking-around-being-worried-what-if-this-town-doesn't-have-any-gas-station kind of driving.

Hotel; Best Western Inn of Cobleskill

As soon as you enter the front door, you smell pool.  My daughter was so excited.  Good thing we arrived before 5:00.  She went to pool with Dad, and I knit a little at pool side.

Dinner; BW Delaney's (restaurant in the hotel)  Pot roast and mashed potato, Chicken Bruchetta pasta, Fish and Chips, Cheesecake and icecream for deserts.

My husband has a soft spot on Pot roast.  He just loves it.  The best one he had was at a diner in Port Lavaca, TX.  He says mine comes the second (but far behind), and today's was the third best.  

After the dinner, my husband found a nearby playground and took the activity-depleted little Japanese girl there.  I went back to the room early, and read the e-mail from my knitting friend, Cynthia.  I was so happy that I got one yarn (Handmaiden) from her recommendation.

Tomorrow, we will visit the main purpose of this trip.  I am feeling sad from time to time since yesterday.  Tomorrow is practically the last day.  

2 days in America

Day 8 Toronto

Breakfast was leftover steak & potato for me and my husband, and cereal & milk and orange juice for my daughter. Apparently, our family is moving toward better way if a person is what he eats.

We visited Toronto Zoo first in the morning by car, stayed until a little past 1:00.  Our daughter had a really good time there, although she was staying up late until past 11:00 last night (got in the bed around 10:10, just couldn't make herself up to sleeping.  Partly, our fault as parents.)   
Lunch; Toronto Zoo Africa Restaurant pizza and chicken wings
Note; We are idiots. Didn't have more than 5-6 Canadian dollars (thinking we are going to pay with credit card for all the purchases and all), almost missed a lunch. The ATM machine looked shiny when I see it inside the Africa Restaurant. An afterthought, maybe they accepted American dollars at the Hamburger stand we cancelled all the order and got pissed off. Hunger makes our mind blurred. End Hunger. Seriously.

Took TTC from Scarborough Center (parked the car in mall parking lot) to King to visit Hockey Hall of Fame. I think I lost the extra money we withdrawn before the lunch (maybe with all the paper napkins down to trash). I couldn't find it at the subway station anyway, and withdrew again. The attendant at the train station booth looked pissed off by something. Maybe it was me. I didn't like him, too, anyway.

Hockey Hall of Fame was so clean and shiny. We had good time there, made a lot of purchase at the store, including my husband and daughter's Sidney Crosby black Penguins jersey.
We took our family's "Hockey Guy", Kuma-tan the Bruin with us, too. He looked really moved.

After a break at Starbucks, walked to Queens to take a street car, took another at Spadina, got off at Nassau St. to go to Lettuce Knit. It was close to 5:30 when we arrived. I got these;

allhemp6LUX, KPPPM in two colorways, Handmaiden Casbah, from upper left to right to down. 

We had a healthy Vietnamese supper at SaiGon Palace on Spadina, walked to Bathurst subway station, went back to Scarborough Center and went back to the hotel.

Dinner; Chicken noodle soup (Pho Ga),  Vietnamese Vermicelli with Grilled Beef,  Spring rolls, steamed rice

Note;  We are idiots.  We didn't have enough Canadian dollars (again) and had to make our payment partly with American dollars.  I feel very bad I didn't add enough tips.  The food was so good and the nutrition of the soup felt to sink down to the core of our body and spirit.  I swear I'll come back to Toronto someday as soon as possible to make up for it.

Toronto is a big city.  We had known that, but should have known better.

3 days in North America

Day 7 Toronto

We had leftover Chinese to-go for breakfast.  It was much better than it sounds, thanks to the quality of the food (not oily) and a little help from the hotel's breakfast buffet (Froot Loops and Milk for my daughter, apples to go).

Weather was not so good.  It began raining last night, and it still was hanging around us.

Today was the biggest "sight seeing" day in this trip.  Niagara Falls.

It was awesome.  Just "Wow. ......  WOW."  

If somebody watched us go American Falls and the Falls at Canada side, he might have thought we were not enjoying so much.  Well, we did enjoy and get very impressed, are very glad to come, but did not spend money for more than the parking fees (on both sides) and snacks, souvenir penny, and lunch.  We didn't ride any trolley or boat, didn't visit behind the falls, didn't go up to the observation tower.  My daughter (sometimes fearless, but considerably cautious almost all the time) was scared by the water and got worried about the trees stuck on the rocks under the bridge near the Falls.  My husband has an acrophobia.  We all got satisfied just by walking down to the river side, taking a look and feeling the mist and sound.  As my husband said, we all "filled up" by the atmosphere.

Lunch; at the Falls Souvenir shops area (Canada)  Burger, Hot dog 

From the Falls (I think I love this simple Canadian way of naming that natural wonder) ,  it was a smooth drive to Toronto.  The rain was coming down sometimes pretty hard.  We were glad to get to the hotel by 4:00.

Problem was, our room was not ready yet, and we found out that when we entered the room.  Very disappointed.  We had to take down all the baggages again to the lobby and wait for the housekeeping to be done.  My daughter and I went to the pool and my husband opened his laptop and checked the e-mail during the waiting.  In afterthought, it was a very useful time.  The room itself is very good.  We are so glad we are staying another night here tomorrow.

Dinner; The Keg (two buildings down along the street from the hotel)  Lobster and Steak, Sirloin Steaks, Billy Miner Pie (coffee icecream pie in chocolate crust and caramel sauce)

Note; Their service was excellent.  Their food was awesome.  The server lady offered celery&carrot sticks with orange wedges as salad for my daughter, whose good vegetable eating demand hasnot  been filled for several days.  She said (with daddy's suggestion) "Everything was good!" when we leave to the server with a big smile.

Hotel; Best Western Executive Inn

Tomorrow is a big day.  Zoo, Hockey Hall of Fame, and yarn shopping.

4 days in America (North America, correctly)

Day 6 Buffalo, NY

Last evening, after dinner, my daughter couldn't go to sleep without checking out the hotel pool (at 9:00 PM).  To cut it short, I had to promise her that we would come back first thing in the morning, but only if she can wake up with the alarm clock.  She did.  And I had to keep the promise.

Pro Football Hall of Fame was an amazing place.  The history, the passion, the record....  I had tears in my eyes in every exhibition room.  We spent more time than we had thought.

Lunch; Cracker&Barrel  Saturday's special chicken&rice, Chicken&dumplin', Fried chicken tender

Note; their vegetable sides were awesome. 

From Canton, OH to Buffalo, NY was about 4 hours' drive.  The weather was not perfect with lots of clouds.  We have not seen the Great Lakes yet.  Driving was great.

Hotel; Best Western the Inn of Lackawanna

It has a pool, too.  Of course my daughter had to go to check it out.  We went to the pool 3 times in less than 24 hours.  I haven't done that for these 25 years. (I was in a synchronized swimming team back in my early 10's.  Back then in summer, it wasn't so uncommon spending more than 8 hours in the water everyday.)

Dinner; China King Chinese Restaurant  Egg drop soup,  Wanton soup,  Moo goo gai pan, Lo-main, Bean curd Szechuan style 

We had them To Go and ate at hotel room, bringing down pillows and sitting on the floor.  Yes, we need doses of Asian thing from time to time.

Tomorrow, we will drive to Toronto, Canada.  I need to do a little homework about its public transportation.

End milage; 1786.4 mile

5 days in America