Last Sunday we drove to Philadelphia — the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania. Danya and his dad have already been there on more than one occasion, but for Ignat and I this was a new, uncharted on our personal maps territory.

The City of Brotherly Love is the 6th most populous city in the US. We, however, were more interested not in its modern urban developments, but in the historical landmarks, such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Carpenters’ Hall.

The Liberty Bell is a prominent symbol of the American war of Independence. It was used to summon people for the reading of the Declaration of Independence. It obviously is not the only bell used for such purpose, but definitely is the most famous one.

We waited in a short line in order to get into the center where the bell hangs now. It was surrounded by happily smiling to their cameras tourists and for a brief moment I felt like I touched history. It would be cool to hear what the bell sounds like!

Independence Hall, which by the way is pictured on the back of $100 bill, is the place where the Liberty Bell originally hang. The building is known as a place where the Declaration of Independence was created and approved. We weren’t fortunate enough to get inside the building, but appreciated this piece of history from a very close distance.

We walked a bit through the “Old City” district of Philadelphia and saw the Irish Memorial, dedicated to the Irish people who fled from famine in Ireland in the middle of the 19th century.

Before living the city, Danya drove us through more modern districts, but I wasn’t really impressed by anything. After all, all large urban areas are somewhat similar (at least in this country).

On our way back we visited Trenton, the capital of New Jersey. We checked out the State Capitol, which is pretty good looking (we didn’t take any pictures though since it was already dark). All in all — it was a good one-day trip and I enjoyed it!

We have booked yet another one of our mega road trips yesterday. Planning and booking¹ this kind of trip took us 5 hours of labor and that’s considering that we had a good idea of the route² already. I want to do a full write up of the current plan as I did the last time for future references.

On the early morning of Saturday, November 22nd, we fly³ out to El Paso, Texas. We rent a car⁴ at the airport and proceed to check out the city and the local parks. We spend our first night⁵ here.

On Sunday morning we drive out east in the direction of Carlsbad, New Mexico. We’re staying in a hotel located in a near by town of Artesia, New Mexico for the next night⁶. On our way we plan Read more…

Наша поездка в Pocono Mountains мне очень понравилась. Мы с Данькой раскатывали губы на тихий спокойный отдых в кругу друзей — и получили именно то, что хотели.

Всего нас поехало 12 человек и снимали мы два домика. В одном поселились Маруки с двумя парами родителей, а в другом мы с нашими родителями, Игнатом и Мойшей. Домики из кедра оказались просто замечательными — чистенькие, уютные, с камином, холодильником, плитой и всяческой кухонной утварью. Возле каждого домика под навесом имеется стол и несколько деревянных стульев; еще к каждому дому прилагается гриль, на котором можно жарить разные вкусности. Мне понравилось и то, что домики стояли в окружении деревьев — почти “в дикости”.

По ночам лес наполнялся разными звуками, но я до сих пор не уверенна кто их издавал — то ли лягушки, то ли цикады, то ли еще какие твари ползуче-летучие. Мы видели разную живность — тёмно-коричневых маленьких жабок, ярко-зелёного огромного кузнечика, крохотную изящную ящерку, странных кузнечико-бабочек, деловитых бурундучков, бесстрашных белок и даже парочку пугливо косящихся на нас оленей. Птиц же в лесу оказалось меньше, чем я ожидала, но время от времени они радовали нас своими песнями.

Курорт так же позаботился о том, чтобы гостям было чем занятся — совершенно бесплатно можно было покататься на лодке, поиграть в бадминтон казёнными ракетками, покататься на детских качелях, а за небольшую плату можно было взять в аренду катамаран или каяки. Еще на территории были натянуты сетки для тенниса и воллейбола, стояли столы для игры в пинг-понг (правда, до них надо было идти от нашего домика минут 20). На лодке мы с Даней так и не покатались — зато Мойша, Игнат и Данина мама воспользовались такой редкой возможностью.

Озеро было чистое, и вполне приятное для плавания. В воскресенье мы с Даней и его папой немного поплавали, но кроме нас никто больше на это не решился (Игнат поплескался немного, но так как с плаванием у него дела обстоят туго, составить нам компанию он не смог).

Мне также очень понравились наши прогулки по лесу — такое светлое, спокойное чувство охватывает от близости к природе…

В эту поездку выяснилось, что Данька-то у нас повар на все руки! Стейки, шашлыки и бургеры у него получились очень вкусные и сочные. Вообще я поняла, что залог хорошего стейка — это правильное мясо и огонь (а не плита дома). Данин папа купил skirt и flank steaks, которые мы посолили, поперчили и положили на гриль. Пожалуй, skirt steak вышел немного вкуснее, но flank steak составил ему достойную конкуренцию.

А ночью мы ходили смотреть на небо — звёзд было много, особенно если сравнивать с Нью-Йорком. Я вообще могу распознать очень мало созвездий — Большую да Малую Медведиц и Кассиопею, но это не мешает мне с любопытвом рассматривать небесную нетвердь раз за разом. Данин папа рассказал нам как найти полярную звезду и определить стороны света (я, со своим географическим критинизмом, всё равно запутаюсь, но послушать было интересно).

Вобщем, отдых удался на славу. Жалко было уезжать. Еще мы немного понервничали на обратном пути из-за “шалящих” тормозов нашего драндулета (не в обиду ему будет сказанно). Но тфу-тфу всё обошлось — все целы! Зато возникло сильное желание купить новую машину. На работу было идти очень грустно.

Our trip to Pocono Mountains exceeded my expectation and was pretty much perfect, not considering the minor incident of our car losing its braking ability. It was probably one of the most relaxing vacations we had. In fact, it was so good that all the people who went with us who I talked to today were in a state of minor depression from the fact that everyone had to go back to work.

On Friday we all left a bit earlier from work than usual and were on the road by about 7pm. Maruk picked up Ignat and Misha and they left a bit earlier. Surprisingly enough we didn’t get stuck in traffic and our trip there took a bit more than 2 hours — which is unheard of around NYC especially on a long weekend.

Since the latest time to check in was 9pm and we got there a bit after that I asked Maruk to get our keys, which he did. We decided not to stop for dinner on our way there since Misha and Ignat were hungry as well. It was already dark when we arrived and it was a bit confusing inside the resort itself, but we were greeted by 3 flash lights shining in the darkness.

We parked right in front of our door and I was totally impressed by the cabin itself. It was a house built out of cedar and the living room area had very high ceilings going all the way up to the roof. It had a full kitchen with everything you could wish for, including dishes, silverware, pots, kettles, and all kinds of other cooking tools. The living room had a nice fireplace built out of stone. And the house had 3 small, but very cozy separate bedrooms.

The cottage itself was located right in the middle of the woods. Even though we couldn’t see much around, the forest was singing with hundreds of voices of frogs and crickets. And the air was so fresh you knew you were far away from New York City. The setting was perfect for a perfect weekend.

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First thing we did when we arrived was cooking a bunch of hot-dogs. Alena or mama made a light salad from fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. We all sat down around the large family table in the living room and had our little, but delicious dinner.

After a bit of talking and going over to Maruk’s house to say hello to his family everyone was ready to turn in for the day, since everyone was fresh off work and after a long drive.

Each room had windows which you could open by spinning a handle. I opened ours so we could get in some fresh forest air. There was a conveniently placed dimmer right above the bed. We got under a warm blanket, turned off the light and fell asleep soon after, listening to the sound of rain and singing forest.

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Next morning we woke rather early, by our standards at least. I got out of bed, put on my flip-flops and went outside. Turns out Misha, Ignat and papa woke up much earlier and went out for a walk. Mama said that they were on their way back already, but they got lost somewhere around the lake.

Our cabin was pretty far away from other cabins and was surrounded by oaks and maples. Also I was surprised to discover that the lake was clearly visible and was no more then 100 meters away. There was a decent grill nearby and there was another big table outside under the covered porch.

Later on Misha discovered that they had all kinds of sporting equipment available for the guest without any fees. There were different balls for volleyball and basketball, badminton rackets, there was a volleyball net and we even had a boat assigned to our cabin.

Everything was just great.

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The weekend flew by very quickly. People played a lot of badminton, we grilled a lot of steaks, burgers and shish-kebabs, did a lot of hiking around the forest and around the lake, swam a bit, played cards and enjoyed the company of good friends and family.

During the evenings we did a lot of star gazing and sitting in the beach chairs right near the water.

We celebrated my birthday on the Saturday with a big dinner and I got a bunch of cool presents.

We also took a lot of pictures, which I hope to post soon.

That’s pretty much it. Everything was great, the place was great, the company was great. I had a lot of fun and I loved our weekend get-away. We will definitely visit this place again. Maybe during the winter when everything is going to be covered in snow. And we’ll be able to sit and talk inside our cabin around the warm fireplace.

As you can see there are very few empty spots left on our refrigerator. The main reason is that we try to buy a magnet every time we visit some place — with few exceptions where we forgot to find one. We also got a bunch from friends and family.

The top door has magnets of the places that we’ve visited. Majority of them are from the places that we visited together — the exceptions are Minsk and Moscow. I like to just stand it front of the fridge sometimes looking over our collection and remember how and where each one was bought. So many good memories.

Субботу мы посвятили поездке в город Квебек — столицу одноименной провинции. 200 с хвостиком км пути от Монреаля пролетели незаметно. На подьездах к городу мы получили возможность полюбоваться изгибами реки святого Лаврентия по одну сторону дороги, и небольшими уютными домиками по другую. Было забавно видеть развешанное для просушки бельё практически возле каждого домика — вспомнились Беларусь и детство.

Поближе к излюбленному туристами старому городу мы застряли в стоячей пробке. Но вскоре нам повезло — удалось запарковаться на одной из платных стоянок, причём дешево (всего $8 долларов на любой срок в пределах 12 часов). Старый город оказался немного иным чем я представляла. Наверное, моё подсознание подсовывало мне виды Троицкого Предместья (сохранившаяся часть старого Минска). Небольшие площади и дорожки буквально кишели людьми. Вообще надо заметить, что Квебек отпраздновал своё 400-летие буквально за Read more…

This was my first visit to French Canada, and the second visit to the country itself. We grouped with Danya’s parents just as the last time — and this made the trip even more interesting. Danya’s dad used to work as a tour guide, so he knows a lot about the history of Canada as well as tourist attraction spots.

We left Brooklyn at around 14:30 on Thursday, picked up Danya’s mom from work, and headed towards Montréal. The traffic was brutal, just as expected, so it took us 3-4 hours to drive through Manhattan.

On our way we stopped two times for sightseeing — in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, and in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont. Harford’s capitol building is just gorgeous. It’s made of marble and granite, and has some noticeable features of Gothic design. I must say that it’s one of the most impressive Read more…