The comforts of home : )

I feel like staying in a decent hotel is like getting a big hug, it's relaxing and serene and quiet and the stress of day to day life isn't around - but I'm glad to be home and have a kitchen and the pets around and do laundry whenever I like!

I have a sneaking suspicion that somehow I've turned into a high maintenance traveler.  It's a big deal for me because I used to pride myself on packing light.  Six years ago, I took a month long trip to Australia and New Zealand with only a school backpack and a messenger bag.  In college, my friend and I were quite pleased with ourselves for packing only a small rollerbag and carryon for our three week trip to London in the middle of winter, while some of our classmates had brought suitcases that were taller than they were!

I came to this realization while packing to leave Boston as I was placing a duvet cover and set of clothes hangers into my luggage.  Why was I packing up clothes hangers and a duvet cover, you might ask?

I like the idea of triple sheeting, but in practice, it annoys the #$%@ out of me!  I love down comforters and will always choose to stay at a hotel with those instead of the polyester coverlets given an option... but the sheets inevitably slip around and expose the comforter and it makes a big mess to fix when you make the bed in the morning.  I just don't want to have anything on a hotel bed touching me that I know for sure couldn't have been washed between guests.  After my first week, I decided that I would just scope out the duvet cover options at TJ Maxx... lo and behold, there was a yellow one for $30!  I was sold (with 3.5 weeks left, I thought it was worth $10 a week!)  It was so worth it.  Come to think of it, this wasn't my first offense with hotel bedding purchasing.  I got sheets for our two weeks in Cincinnati last year (I wish that hotels would use fitted sheets so that the bed wouldn't fall apart and expose the mattress the minute you sit down!) and a pillow for our hotel in Toronto last summer (another 5 week stay and I still use that pillow at home).

Most hotels seem to have fewer than a dozen hangers and when you're in a place for 5 weeks and sharing a room, you'll probably collectively have more than 10 things to hang up (especially if you're a girl... dresses, shirts, jacket, skirt, etc.)  I ironed my shirts and dresses and then ironed my husband's shirts - and I don't play around with my ironing.  I work in wardrobe, so I'm used to getting paid good money to iron, and I have yet to find someone to pay me for ironing my own clothing!  So I headed over to my old friend TJ Maxx and bought a set of 18 of those skinny felted hangers for $10.

On a side note - even though I haven't dressed a show that involved me prepping button up shirts in a year and a half, I timed myself while ironing my husband's shirts and I can still iron a long sleeve shirt in less than 5 minutes.  I haven't lost my touch!  One of our favorite touring wardrobe heads, Mike, used to put signs up saying "If you spend more than 5 minutes on a shirt, you're not ironing it, you're making love to it."  I was always a decent ironer, but after working Jersey Boys for a month and ironing over a dozen shirts every night and even more during work calls twice a week, I really got really good.

I wouldn't go to such lengths for comfort if I traveled for just weekend trips a couple of times a year.  When I travel, it's for a good amount of time and my husband is working the whole time, so it feels more like we're living there, not vacationing.

I've been back home for a few days now, and I've been really struck with how much I like our house.  I've always liked it, but didn't realize just how glad I'd be to see it again!  I can't get over how awesome our skylights are in the kitchen and bathroom and just how BRIGHT our house is!  I'm soaking it up, not having realized how dark our hotel room in Boston was.  I'm actually enjoying the sunlight so much that I haven't stopped to notice that I'm back in the southern summer heat!  My first night back, I was also surprised by how loud the insects and critters are even when you're in the house... it only took a month to forgot what nature sounded like!

Catching Up: Hartford, CT

Conveniently, my sister's graduation weekend in VT lined up nicely with my husband's stay in Hartford, CT.  The day after graduation, I took my sister's car and headed to Connecticut.  Originally, I was going to take a leisurely and scenic train trip, but since the lake was flooded and my sister's restaurant wasn't open for the season yet, she decided to spend the week in Maine with my dad and then they would head down to Hartford for an extended family get-together on Saturday.  Naturally I already had my train ticket in hand and the night we got to Burlington, VT, my sister realized that I ought to take her car to Hartford so that she could drive it back up to VT.  How tidy!

It was perfect having a car in Hartford, because there were a lot of things outside the downtown area to do. We took a drive out to visit my cousin and her family, and I was able to get out to my uncle's house as well.  Most exciting though, was the easy trip to West Hartford and the discovery of yummy gluten free hamburger buns... and subsequently the discovery of which bakery they came from (obviously we drove out there too!)

This kooky polka dotted house was next to the gluten free bakery.  It seems to be some sort of gift shop and girly party place.

Great view from our hotel window.  It was a suites hotel and we lucked into a corner room, so we had two windows in the living room and one in the bedroom... and they all opened!

Hartford has a lot of roads in need of line re-painting... half the time I couldn't figure out if it was I was driving in one or two lanes!

Many insurance companies call Hartford home, including Traveler's Insurance who has this super cool gigantic umbrella in their plaza.

Mark Twain Statue made of legos.  Love it.

This is the carriage house at Mark Twain's home - there was a lot of interesting woodwork, I really liked the dragon in the eave

Mark Twain's house had really fancy brickwork too

Catching Up: Vermont family trip

In May, my dad and I drove up to Vermont for my sister's college graduation.  The drive itself wasn't too noteworthy, other than getting to meet my friend's brand new baby.  The time in Vermont was a whirlwind of graduation activities, minor sightseeing, and packing up my sister's room!  We had a great trip and good weather mostly.   

The drive through New York State and into Vermont was a funny mix of beautiful sunny skies and threatening clouds.

Whitehall, NY is the birthplace of the US Navy thanks to the wartime significance of defending Lake Champlain.  This is the hull of the USS Ticonderoga from 1812.  

This sign was tacked to the inside of an old covered bridge at the Shelburne Museum

You can never have enough specialty planes!  This is inside the woodworking shop at Shelburne Museum.  We certainly take our factory carved moldings and millwork for granted these days...

This Ticonderoga was a major ferry boat running the Lake Champlain routes.  Sadly, luxury ferry boats became a thing of the past and it was moved across land very slowly by a specially built railroad track to the Shelburne Museum.  It's really snazzy on board and there were 6 staterooms even though the passage was just a matter of hours.

Vermont has lots of old round barns.  This one, at the Shelburne Museum, has a great collection of carousel pieces inside.

Remember how I said the lake was flooded?  Yikes!

Loving the covered bridges!

Enjoying a relaxing moment with my parents and sisiter at 6pm on May 21st the day of the supposed apocalypse.

The whole state was covered in lilac blooms.  bliss!

Trust the University of Vermont to be so forward thinking and progressive with their water fountains!  Can we get these in all public buildings and airports please?

My favorite doorway in Burlington, VT

My sister's senior year apartment was in this house.  Remember what I said about being jealous of the college kids living in cute Victorians?