Nostalgia

I never thought I would be attached to a car. For me it was always just a functioning vehicle with four wheels. Until now.

We picked up our new car last Saturday and I realized that it made me kind of sad to give up the “old” car. How silly! But the Jeep was our first car in the USA, and I have to admit I really enjoyed the driving.

In Europe we are used to drive small cars, so this big size of the car and higher sitting was new for me. This car is so American, so convenient and comfortable. And I discovered USA (at least some places) in this car, it always reminds me of my beginning here… Of all my small and big adventures.

Silly, it is just a car! Is it not ?!

A Scout life

As all American moms I signed Jakob up for two camps this summer (definitely not enough as I know now…). One was the Scout camp in a state park close by where he spent last week (during the days). What an experience!

He loves to be a Cub Scout, now Webelos, it is one of his favourite activities. But what this camp offered was beyond my expectations.

Every day they had about five different activities: mountain biking, rafting, boating, bb guns, bow and arrow, fishing, swimming, science, archaeology, and so on. And the best: the theme of this year was “Star Wars”! So there was a Jedi Training camp too, of course. Amazing!

The kids were outside in the woods all day and came home tired (but happy). That is the way I like it! Ps. He even learned a few words in sign language!

Window with a view

Have you ever been at Ikea in Brooklyn? We needed a few things for our house so we went there last Saturday ( we still can not give up our European habits…).

My friend asked me later “ So, tell me, what was the buy of the day?”. I answered :” It was more the view(!!) of the day”. While shopping or sitting at the dining area you see the sky line of NYC. Wow!! I was drinking my coffee, to my left was the Statue of Liberty, in the front the Empire State Building! Who wants to take a look at the furniture in the store having this view?! Afterwards we decided to explore the Brooklyn Heights. Another “wow”! We always planned but never made it to Brooklyn ( tucked most of the time in my favourite Soho…)But here I found my second favourite place to go, if even just to sit in one of the street café s and watch people. The old town houses are amazing (the selling prices too!), there is a lot of green and so close to the water… Just a few steps and a full NYC sky line opens up in front of you! And this part of the city has so much flair! Just loved it!

The drive over the Verrazano Bridge (which connects Staten Island with Brooklyn) was absolutely spectacular. On you right side you just look at the open ocean. This reminds me once again about the unique location of NYC. You forget when you are in the middle of Manhattan that there is an ocean in front of you… Ps. And we had an ice cream in the first world wide Haagen-Dazs ice creamery. Yummy!

Last weekend in Virginia

On our way home we choose to stay over night in the western part of Virginia. It is too exhausting to drive 900 miles (from South Carolina) in one day and we wanted to see Charlottesville anyway. Our destination was the Boar`s Head Inn, a country resort close to Charlottesville. We really did not expect to find such an amazing place. It looks like an old castle (was an old mill before), settled between small lakes, very picturesque- like a postcard! The amenities and the restaurant of this hotel were so excellent that we decided to skip our exploring and just relax and enjoy.

Good decision! And we had the chance to drive thru the western part of Virginia (between the Appalachian mountains and the sky view drive) on the next day. What a beautiful country side!

After more than two weeks vacation we finally arrived at home. What did we discovered: this is the best of all places!

A side trip to Beaufort

Not so famous but absolutely worth exploring is the small town Beaufort. The women in the tourism office were excellent, they showed us the most important points of interest. Something that especially captured Jakobs attention was the chocolate factory.

The dark chocolate truffles were excellent! Unfortunat

ely we could not take anything with us, it would melt immediately. Here, I think, I saw my absolute favourite house of this trip. Rhett and Scarlett could still live in this villa…

Still looking for Rhett Butler...

This time in Charleston! Another wonderful city in the South! Even in the heat you never get tired walking through the streets of Charleston. We were so captured by the amazing townhouses, gorgeous churches, the palm trees alleys and the famous oak trees (a special kind that grows here in the South) in the parks that we forgot how hot and humid the air is here in July… We also took the chance to visit one of these houses from inside: very impressive! The air is thick, the people very laid back, everything a little slower than we are used to. We automatically got more lazy, too.

But Charleston offers a contemporary side too: cool restaurants, expensive shops, galleries and many good coffee shops. Of course, we discovered one of them.

What we were drinking? No hot coffee, for sure! Iced (!!) latte, iced chocolate and so on. After drinking one large cup my husband said “I could have 5 of those”. (Still not enough to beat the heat). And imagine, Rhett Butler was wearing a smoking jacket or suit. And he did not drink any iced-latte, that is for sure. Oh, the good old times and the gentlemen of the South!