Posts in category travel

Mile High Nora

Jul27th
2012 Leave a Comment Written by kevin

Jen got some time off from work, so the whole family went for a walk around downtown Denver. We saw the capitol, visited the so-so Colorado history museum, and ate delicious vegetarian food at City O’City, the filthiest hipster dive rathole of a restaurant any of us has ever been to. I thought the food was really amazing (Nora uncharacteristically refused to eat) but we’ve rarely had such terrible service. The most upsetting part was the way all the staff we interacted with seemed to treat Nora as an inferior being for being small (probably what put her off her lunch). It makes no sense at all. Hipsters should love kids who, after all, have only one gear, don’t have any brakes, think they’re indestructable, routinely make bad decisions, and wear tiny, tiny clothes ALL the time.

nora

Hotel Pool

Jul26th
2012 Leave a Comment Written by kevin

We took daily advantage of the wacky hotel pool in Denver. It had a tiny indoor part and then a long, narrow channel connecting it to a much larger, deeper outdoor part on a balcony up on the 7th floor of our hotel. Nora, of course, loved getting to go swimming every day. Here are a couple of pictures of her looking all grown up and tall.

nora, sports

Denver Children’s Museum

Jul23rd
2012 Leave a Comment Written by kevin

Nora and I went for another very long walk; this time to the Denver Children’s Museum. It’s much smaller either than the one in Houston or the Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor, but it makes up for its tiny size by being extraordinarily well staffed and well stocked with art/project supplies. We spent several hours there painting, playing dress up, designing rockets, playing dress up, dancing, being firefighters, etc. 4 enthusiastic thumbs up but, if you’re going, pack your own lunch. The food options available are … unappetizing.

A 2 mile hike followed by a day of playing proved to be too much for the little one. I ended up carrying her part of the way home (we stopped at a Starbuck’s *inside* an REI to share a cookie and some water); then she collapsed into maybe the longest, deepest nap of her young life.

daddy, nora

Denver Zoo

Jul22nd
2012 Leave a Comment Written by kevin

Nora loves to volunteer, whenever possible, as an amateur zookeeper. The only thing she loves more than learning about the animals at the zoo is explaining those things to other people (while gesturing grandly with her arms). Honestly, if she were any more exactly like her old dad it would be scary.

Denver has a wonderful zoo! It was quite a trek from where the bus from the hotel dropped us off, but both Nora and I had a blast.

daddy, nora

austin city limits

Jul7th
2012 1 Comment Written by jen

Kevin was invited to give a talk at The University of Texas at Austin, so we all drove the three hours west to spend a long weekend in the state’s capital. What a great city! Cooler temperatures, cleaner air, great food, lots of people walking around and riding bikes — reminded us of Ann Arbor (but with sun). We visited the Austin Children’s Museum, climbed up to see the amazing view from the top of Mount Bonnell, ran all over the grounds of the capitol, saw some of the inside of the capitol building and ate lunch in their cafeteria, played on the playground and rode the train at Zilker Park, and even did some splashing in the river. Sadly, the camera did not accompany us on many of these adventures, but here are the pictures we do have:

mommy, nora

meet n’ greet

Oct16th
2011 Leave a Comment Written by jen

There are a lot of characters to meet at Disney World:

nora

Daredevil

Oct14th
2011 5 Comments Written by kevin

Here’s what Nora looks like on a roller coaster. This particular coaster was Splash Mountain in Disney’s aptly-named Adventureland. This is, I believe, Jen’s favorite ride and, while Nora loved it, she preferred the teacups and the carousel in Fantasyland.