The Other Side of the Big Dream

Oh my, oh my, oh my.  Hard to believe it has been over a month since the last blog entry.  Even harder to believe that tomorrow will be one month since we crossed back into the States.  Apologies for not wrapping up this story in a more timely fashion but it has been one hell of a whirlwind since we've been back.  I am writing this in The Room, which is what I affectionately call my new studio, in our new place in Del Ray.  A crew is currently outside my studio door, sawing and banging away, doing some extensive repairs that we did not know this place needed until we had already moved in.  On Monday, I will start my new job.  It is already starting to feel like all of our adventures, everything you have seen in this blog over the last six months, were all just part of some very elaborate, and very awesome, dream.  In a way it's sad to feel even the slightest bit of disconnect from this adventure but the memories are still there and always will be.  And they seep into my dreams every night and I think about our friends there several times a day and look forward to being there again.  So it's not really disconnect, but still...

Anyway, this blog last left off in Quebec City.  We had just eaten a wonderful (and very expensive) meal and were staying in a huge hostel within the walls of the old city.  That was a Tuesday.  On Wednesday we left Quebec City and made our way up to Mont Tremblant.  It was a longer drive than I imagined it would be but it was a beautiful one.

Quebec is some serious Big Sky country.

Dramatic Quebecois sky.

Mont Tremblant is a ski resort community in the mountains about an hour or so north of Montreal.  We had plans to stop in the city but figured we would not have been able to give it the sort of time it deserved so we decided to bag it and save it for another trip.  We got to Mont Tremblant in the late afternoon and got checked into the Residence Inn where we were given a suite by one of my very awesome former bank clients.  That suite was sweet.  Since it had a kitchen we cooked a delicious dinner and made a fire, after walking around the village for a bit.  It was quaint but still very resort-like.  Lots of shops and restaurants, music blaring from the bar downstairs, gondolas and ski lifts all over.  It was pretty cool, I suppose.  The big draw was the room and the bed...it was so nice to sleep in a comfy bed again.  Those were some lazy times.

There was a lifesize chutes & ladders game - except it is gondolas and ski slopes.  It was very cold outside but we still played this for at least half an hour.  We each got within reach of the win and then lost it all.  Krissy wound up victorious.

Thursday was spent at the Scandanavie Spa, which is this very peaceful place tucked away in the woods, about 15 minutes or so from where we were staying.  We couldn't really splurge for massages but we took full advantage of the other features like the hot pools, cold pools, saunas, solariums, and other relaxing spots.  There were hammocks by the river and very large comfy round sofas that we lounged on.  The place called for complete silence which was nice even though it meant that we couldn't really chat.  It's also apparently forbidden to take photos but we somehow missed that sign and didn't realize until it was too late.  Fortunately, for the blog...

A peek of the river from the spa.

Andersons like to relax at the end of a long trip.

These sofas were amazing.

Krissy is having a great time at the spa.

This waterfall was hot hot hot.

After that we went back to the room and made dinner and relaxed all night.  It was most wise.  It was really chilly and rainy that night but it was still nice to chill out on the balcony and since it's is right in the middle of the shoulder season, there really weren't a lot of people around.

Thursday we got up and got ready for a noon checkout and our drive to Ottawa.  Before that, however, we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain.  My past experiences with gondolas were slightly terrifying but this wasn't bad.  I assume that my zip-line adventure in Costa Rica may have cured me of my fear of cables.  Or maybe this one was more gentle than the one I rode in when we were in Banff.  I dunno.  It was nice.  I wasn't quite prepared for how cold it would be on top of that mountain.  It was 33 degrees fahrenheit up there.  And I wasn't quite dressed for it.  Still we walked around for a while, so Krissy could get some awesome photos, and then we headed down and then out to Ottawa.

Hans was not too keen on taking the gondola.

I love when the leaves change in short, brilliant bursts.

Krissy likes gondolas.

The view from the top of Mont Tremblant.

The view from the top of Mont Tremblant, facing the other direction.

Hans changes his tune.  Maybe he trusts gondolas after all.

The resort village of Mont Tremblant.

Mont Tremblant.

Yo, I'm sittin' down.

 We got to Ottawa in the late afternoon and I was not quite prepared for driving in such a big and crazy city.  It had been a while since I'd driven in one of those and Ottawa....it was like jumping in the deep end.  The layout is a bit crazy and there was construction and traffic everywhere and the maps always led us astray for all the one way roads and, yeah, I threw a bit of a temper tantrum while driving.  Was not too keen on that.  Eventually we found the hostel and got checked in.  The HI Ottawa hostel is housed in a former jail and is really cool in concept but would turn out to actually kinda suck.  It is a huge hostel...not as big as the one in Quebec but still big.  The rooms are all the old jail cells.  Again, from a novelty perspective, this is kind of cool.  What you don't realize is how loud it gets in there.  Because it's a jail and all sound carries and the doors don't fully seal you in, lest you suffocate.  The beds are all old metal bunk beds and are not comfortable at all.  Also, as Krissy was to sadly later find out the hard way, the place has bedbugs.  I would not recommend staying there and we would have raised a little hell had we not stayed there for free.

You knew that sooner or later we would wind up in jail.

Anyway, none of that was to damper our evening though.  Krissy hung out and read while I walked around a bit, checked out a local record store, and milled around.  I was very excited because my friends from St. John's, Green & Gold, were in town and playing at a venue two blocks away from the hostel.  I ran into them on my way to the record store and it was good to catch up and hear about their tour and such.  After my little solo adventure I went back and scooped up Krissy and we headed to Smoke's, for our last awesome poutine in Canada this year.  I got my favorite, the bacon cheeseburger poutine, and it was totally delicious.  Man, just writing about it is making my mouth water.  Del Ray needs a Smoke's.  I bet it would do a great business here.  Hmm.  Anyway...

There is no masking the happiness this guy has at this moment.

So we had some time to kill before the Green & Gold show so we walked around a bit, digesting our delicious irresponsible supper, and came across this place called The Loft which is just about the best place ever.  It is a board game lounge.  You go in and pay a flat $5 to play all night and you can order beer and food and they have a huge wall that is filled, floor-to-ceiling, with board games.  And not just the stupid shitty ones like Monopoly and Sorry but all the awesome German board games and geeky card games and all those other ones that we love to play.  Everything from Pandemic to Ticket To Ride to Settlers Of Catan to Bohnanza to The Resistance to Tsuro....well over a thousand games in there.  And the people who work there know how to play them all and they will walk you through the shelves and recommend games and teach you how to play them if you don't already know.  It was amazing.  We played Carcassone which is a game that I need to play more.  It was really hard pulling ourselves out of there but we had places to be so we made a mental note to find more places like that in the area (the closest thing DC has is not very good so we are trying to convince our friend Nathaniel to open one...I will gladly work there).

Part of the collection at The Loft.  A very impressive spread indeed.

The Loft board game lounge, in Ottawa.  We did not take these photos...I stole them off their website...but I had to show you guys a bit about this place.  It was very awesome.  I wish there was a place like this nearby.

So we left The Loft and headed to the venue to see the show.  Went in what we thought was the right place and there were DJs spinning on stage and odd people around and it soon became apparent that we went into the wrong place.  We were aiming for the place next door.  Obviously it happens all the time because they were cool about it and they gave us our money back.  Went into the right place and saw the guys in the band and chatted with them for a bit.  Before they played, however, there was this cat named Rajiv who did a set and he was a tough pill to swallow.  He was loud, very obnoxious, probably quite drunk, and his songs didn't make a lot of sense.  He was solo, for most of the set, and played a very loud electric guitar like he was in a band.  Towards the end of the set Steve & Len got up and backed him up on a few songs and I will admit that it did get better.  But it was still rough and Krissy wasn't feeling well by that point so she left.  Which is a bummer because she ended up missing a great set by Green & Gold.  I got up front and filmed the whole show (the audio turned out a bit distorted...I will try and salvage some of the footage).  It was great to hear their new songs, and other stuff that I didn't already know, along with many of my favorites.  Their music was such an integral part of our trip and it was most fitting to be able to see them play on our last night in Canada. I was about to leave after their set but since there was still plenty of time before the bar closed, their rhythm guitarist, Chris, stepped up front and Steve & Len got back on stage (Len played bass) and they did a whole set of Chris' songs, which are all quite remarkable in their own right.  I definitely want to hear more of that.  I filmed that set as well and then chatted with them for a bit before heading back to the hostel.  I had a very long drive ahead and was to get not much sleep.

Green and Gold rock Ottawa.

So Friday we woke up and got the hell out of there as early as we could.  Made a few stops along the way, mostly to collect bags of chips...they have very different chip flavors in Canada and we needed to stock up.  We got to the border a little before noon I think and it was the easiest border crossing ever.  Much easier than our debacle last year, or even when we crossed into Canada.  Just had to pull over and pay a $4 duty on my booze and we were off.  Now, one thing I learned about driving all over Canada is that there are no cops.  The only time you need to worry about speed is when there might be moose around, or potholes.  Things are a little different in the US and I learned that quickly as I managed to get a speeding ticket less than an hour after crossing the border.  Dagger!

So we drove through upstate New York and took a detour through Ithaca, so Krissy could revisit the Cornell campus (she spent a summer there in a program while in high school).  That place was nuts.  Early 19th century, castle-looking architecture sitting next to 21st century, Jetsons-looking buildings. And students everywhere.  We did not stay there long.  We did stop at a spot for some Chinese food.  You can't get good Chinese in Atlantic Canada and we'd been missing it.  That might not have been the best Chinese we've had but it was still amazing.  We finally got back to Krissy's folks house, in Connecticut, sometime mid-evening and we were beat.  We chatted for a little while but it was soon off to bed.

Saturday we got the whole family together and went to the Big E, which is a massive multi-state festival that happens this time every year.  It just so happened that we went on the all-time-record-attendance day, when there was something like 107,000 people there.  It was totally nuts.  We rode some awesome rides and ate some ridiculous food so it wasn't a bust but it was very hard to maneuver a group of eight adults and four kids through that mess of people.  We all slept very well that night.

So much ridiculous food at the Big E.  And you just want to eat it all.

Brayden and Jake ride the hot wheels.

Midway Madness.

Kelly and Brayden ride the kite flyer at the Big E.  That ride is fun.

Not sure what these guys were called but they played some pretty solid celtic-tinged jam-rock at the Big E.  The vocals weren't so hot but they could wail.  That kid in the Rush t-shirt is only like 16 years old but he can jam on those bagpipes.  

Sunday we had a nice big dinner at the house with the family and all the kids and that was fun.  It was a lot better than watching the Redskins lose to Philly (my first game of what is proving to be another terrible season) which I got to do that afternoon.  The rest of the day was spent just watching football and vegging out.  Very necessary.

Monday was the big drive home.  Pretty uneventful.  We pulled into Reston, where we were staying at my sister's place, in late afternoon and had a nice good reunion.  We listened to all my Newfoundland CDs and drank Black Horse and had us a time.  My cousin Joe got married the following weekend and my sister & her family came up from Georgia and we had us an amazing weekend.  Like I've said many times throughout this blog, I never quite missed home but I sure did miss the people.  It was great to see everyone again and get back into the swing of that.

Hans reunites with his Uncle Lucky.

Uncle Hans hangs out with Ethan on his 11th birthday.

Lucky Rasta Mon

Kaylie and Kaya play a round of our favorite game - Walk On Uncle Hans' Back.
The older I get, the more I need it.  The older they get the more effective they are.  Win.

So yeah, my original plan was to get home and sleep for at least four days.  Instead we hit the ground running.  Within a week of coming home we signed a lease on a new place (after touring something like sixteen different properties) and I interviewed for a job that I wound up getting.  Krissy went back to work on the 1st, so she is now fully back into the swing, and I start my job on the 20th, next Monday.  Craziness!

It was not my intention to go back into the bank business, since this trip was to serve as a way to get out of it, but I needed a job and nothing else was popping right out.  Funny story, this.  I had applied to work at United, which was who I worked for when I left, and I stopped by my old branch to say hello.  Went to Rocco's for lunch, where I know everyone because they are longtime clients of the bank, and they were telling me about this new bank that was moving into the building across the street, where I had worked for four years with Virginia Commerce Bank (before it sold to United and we moved across the street).  I was curious.  So I went home and looked up the bank and saw that they were still looking for people for that new location.  So I sent my resume and told them how I used to work in that building, etc.  So the next day we are in Old Town, meeting with our realtor and pop into the United Bank on King Street, where one of my former managers works.  She told me that she was leaving the bank and said that she was going to work in our old building.  So I told her about how I had just applied to work there the night before.  We had a laugh about that and she called the HR folks and told them about me and their response was that they had already sent me a message.  Serendipity, I suppose.

It will be nice to be back in my old spot with people that I know and love.  It will still be a long drive but now that I am in Del Ray, that cuts a good 20 minutes off my commute, at least.  So that is a plus.  Until then, I will get this place as settled as possible and maybe relax a bit.  I am set to brew my next batch of beer this weekend.  I have this wild idea in my head of eventually getting a place in Trinity East and setting up a brewery there.  That would be the most amazing thing ever.  But that is still many years down the road.

We have a lot of other tricks up our sleeve for the time between now and then.  A whole lot.  This adventure is just the tip of the iceberg.  In some cases, literally......oh man I miss Newfoundland.

In the meantime, it is nice to be reunited with my toys once again.  Replacing the Sidebar is my new music room, known simply as The Room.  Colleen came up with the name and it works on two different levels.  An ambiguous name like that suggests that this room could be for anything.  It also pays homage to The Rooms, which is that amazing museum in St. John's.  But this is just one room.  It is much larger than the Sidebar and it will house my CD and vinyl collections as well as serve as my recording studio and my office.  About half of the room is complete.  I still need to get a wall unit for my vinyl and bring that back from Amanda's, along with the rest of my guitars.  I am looking very forward to writing and recording my next album here.

One finished wall of The Room.

One partly finished wall of  The Room.  The wall unit to the left of the desk features my entire non-digital musical archive.  Every CD I've ever put out, every cassette master, band rehearsal, demo tape, videocassette, test pressing, etc, dating back to 1985.  A 250-gig hard drive holds the digital portion of the archive.  I make a fair bit of music.

Thanks everyone for paying attention to this blog over the course of this adventure.  It has been a lot of work but very fun to chronicle our shenanigans in this kind of forum.  This will surely be the last entry, since this particular journey is complete.  There will be further blogs in the future, as we begin to shake loose our newfound chains and get on the move again.  More on that as it materializes.

Oh, and for your last little moment of zen....we were playing Cards Against Humanity with the siblings after we got back and I was reading back the cards I was given and this was among them:

Feelin' the love.