Rough start

Fifteen hours of travel deep, we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, to find half our luggage had not. With a five hour layover to spend,  we sprung for the steep $27 fare to take the train downtown, and had a wonderfully sunny stroll that helped our spirits immensely.

I didn't worry much about our lost bag then, assuming it was an average case of separation, not real loss. But when our bags were still missing days later, the denial wore off and a bit of panic moved in (thank you Facebook besties for talking me through my mid-night low). After days of bad online forms, phones with no humans, and attitudes that suggested they might not get back to us, our bag reappeared in the databases.  On the fifth day the luggage gods gave us our sandals and swimsuits and chargers and books and it was good.

So, after our walk around Frankfurt, and 24 hours after we started, we landed on Crete. We bedded in Heraklion that first night, with a plan to awake rested and tour Knossos before moving on to our real destination (Xania).  And this is where I began to fear that, in the debate over "epic" or "crazy", crazy might prove the victor.  It seems the time reversal was really hard on Eleanor.  She woke with full body trembles and vomits.  The hotel was booked solid, as were others nearby; we had to press on.  When our plan to get her turned around with fresh air at Knossos proved foolish (think hot, curvy bus trip + sick kid) I drugged her. Luckily, I have some anti-nausea meds that weren't lost by the airline. They worked wonders, giving us back our happy and curious kid for a tour of HOT Knossos plus a quick peek at the original frescos housed in the archeology museum in town (photos below).  

There is just no way this trip would have worked for us when Eleanor was younger, and I guess the jurry is still out as to whether this is wise even now... But things are getting smoother each day.

School's Cool

It's the last day of school today, and I'm looking back on some of the cool projects assigned to the second graders this year.  Here is a recap...

Greece Poster: During the neighborhood storyline at school, a Greek family moved into the class's fictional neighborhood, and all the kids were sent home to research four facts about Greece.  They made posters to show what they learned.  This was Eleanor's design, I helped when asked by printing images from the computer and providing straight lines where requested.  There was a 5 euro note taped to it before, but I've taken it off so I can spend it... in GREECE!

Family Poster: The kids did a classroom unit in which they considered what it means to be a family.  The kids were asked to make up an emblem to represent their own family, and then they designed posters incorporating symbols that might be meaningful in their own family (notice the Stewart plaid in the background).  The kids also interviewed "elders" in their families, asking for advice about life.  I love this poster.

Israel Project:  In class, the kids each picked a country to research and Eleanor chose Israel.  At home, they complimented the class research with a creative project somehow related to the country.  Eleanor created a copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which we hope to see this summer!

Art:  Our school in Portland doesn't have as much art instruction as our school in Texas had, but the kids do get Art Infusion (taught by parents)  once a month, and Art Cart (taught by a real teacher) once a week most of the Spring term.  They produced many lovelies, here is one of my favs; it's from an Art Infusion lesson...

Animal report:  Right here at the end of school the class was immersed in an Animal Sanctuary storyline, and alongside that the kids were researching an animal of choice.  There is always a creative project to be done at home, to compliment the research and writing they are doing in the classroom.  A lot of this last project had to come home (including the research and writing) because they just had too much to get through the last few weeks at school.  It was a homework heavy last month!  And here is the elephant diorama Eleanor made, with paper mached elephants.

 

Such a cool class!

Eleanor and the Fantastic Ms. Hanes

Sprucing up the backyard

This spring brought some much needed backyard sprucing.  Raised beds to give a more intentional space to the veggie patch, trellises to bring more privacy (someday), more understory plants around the existing beds, and a little stone wall around the big tree to give us better planting space and a small seat.  For the first time in years nothing in my backyard is rotting, or leaking, or dying, or just not coming together like I thought it would. It all works.  It is so very lovely to be back there right now I can't believe we're leaving! Let's hope it lasts?

view from studio, to my right

view from studio, to my left

Eleanor as Laura Ingalls

Our elementary school marches a parade full of storybook characters through the neighborhood each year.  Eleanor went as.... you guessed it, her favorite pioneer girl, Laura Ingalls.

Buckbeak the hippogriff and Laura Ingalls

Epic or Crazy? Either way, it will be a summer to remember.

This summer we’re spending 6 weeks with 2 backpacks and 1 eight-year-old travelling  5 different countries = Greece, Israel, Jordan, France and Germany.  We’ve spent almost as much time organizing this trip as we will spend on the trip!  We’ve successfully secured 38 nights of lodging, 7 flights, 3 Greek ferries, 1 overnight train, and an understanding of how to find countless taxis, buses, and metro transfers.  And, we’ve thrown in some pre-booked tours too (like a private driver to take us to Petra, and a bus/bike tour of Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria).  Last summer I was impressed by our living out of a Prius for 2 weeks.  I was so naïve.

So, here is our itinerary.  Follow along as we go!  I’ll blog occasionally, when I have the right mix of time and internet access.  I will at least let the parental units know we’re still alive!

June 14:   last day of school
June 15 – 16:  depart Portland at 10:30am, layover in Seattle, then fly to Frankfurt.  Five hours in Frankfurt, then on to Heraklion, Crete, arriving 10pm on June 16. 
June 17 – June 23:  on Crete.  First tour Palace of Knossos, then take an island bus to Chania and check into our base until June 23. Lots of time in sand and calm water.  I can’t wait!
June 23:   overnight ferry to mainland Greece.  Wake up on 24th and switch to another ferry headed to Naxos island
June 24 -30:  lounging on Naxos, here.  More lying about on the beach.
June 30:  ferry back to mainland, taxi into Athens
July 1-2:  in Athens, touring Acropolis and at least one museum.  Likely just walking around taking in the iconic temples of Western culture.  Eleanor and Sabina are reunited as our friends join us here in Athens.  We’ll travel together until July 10th.

July 3:  flight to Israel with our friends, settling in this night in a hotel in Haifa.
July 4:   touring Haifa area
July 5:  We’ll move south to Jerusalem by the end of the day, to stay with our friends.  We plan to…  see the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Israel Museum, view the city from the cemetery, and walk around the old city a little.  We also hope to leave the girls time to just hang out in Sabina’s new room/ garden.
July 8:  travel out to Dead Sea, take a float, then head south into Eilat for two nights in an apartment.
July 9:  A private tour guide will pick us up at the apartment and take us into Jordan to wander around Petra .  We’ll eat lunch in Jordan, then be brought back to Eilat before we burn up.  It is the desert, in July, after all.

July 10:  head back to Tel Aviv for our flight out to Paris.  Start this day in Israel, sleep this night in Paris (wha?!?)
July 11-15:  in Paris, in a lovely apartment in the 16th, not too far from the Trocodero.  Need I say more?  Ok… pastries, art, pastries, lights, pastries, frenchy things and pastries.  We'll also be in town, accidentally, for the big fireworks show behind the Eiffel Tower July 14.  My sister Amy joins us here! (and stays with us until we leave for the states)



July 15:  after a day of seeing the last of our must-do sites in Paris, we’ll catch an overnight train, couchette class, from Paris to Munich.  Classic European adventure!
July 16:  We awake in Munich!  Staying in a fantastically located apartment, we’ll use Munich as our base until July 22.  We’ll bike around Munich, see the Glockenspiel, shop in the farmers’ market, drool over German toys, visit Neuschwanstein Castle, fossil hunt in Naturpark Altmuhltal,
and day-trip to Mittenwald to take in some violin making Bavaria.
July 22:  depart Europe and head to Wisconsin via Dublin and Chicago.  Crash with the St. Clairs in Wisconsin for a week.
July 28:  arrive back in Portland!

Family Band!

Not really.  But at the June violin recital, Mike accompanied Eleanor and Mikey in their Musette Duet, so it was sort of like a family band.  Now, will the video post in Blogger?  Uh, nope.  Ok, so here is the video over at Vimeo:  http://vimeo.com/67538382

OMSI family camp

This year we managed to sign up early enough for OMSI's fabled family camp to get a slot in the Memorial Day Weekend, Hancock Field Station campout near Fossil, OR.  Three nights in a "rustic" cabin, with meals and classes and hikes and campfires and good family fun provided.  All while being surrounded by beautiful high-desert country.  Every bit as good as it sounds!  We were lucky enough to have friends that wanted to go and share a cabin with us, so Eleanor got to weekend it with one of her best friends (that is Max in the pictures).

our cabin



Max and Eleanor sport mud paint while hiking



lunch break on a hike