Tales From the Minivan

After getting over a late summer stomach bug, I’ve come to the realization that we’ve been eating out a little too much lately.  This bug came on very quickly and very similarly to when I had food poisoning back in May and was after we ate out at a popular New Brunswick Fish & Chip chain.  Mackenzie too, was ill and ate the same food I did, so I assumed right away it was food poisoning again. That’s when I decided that eating out is just not worth it.  I just don’t think proper food handling is happening anymore, or many are just careless with the food.

The next day Andrew woke up with the same bug, so that’s when I realized that it was most likely the Flu and not food bourne illness.  It given me a new perspective especially with all of the Maple Leaf stuff happening, that I want to know how things are being prepared and handle personally.  This is a difficult thing for me, as I love to eat out!  I love to eat, love trying new dishes and  like the convenience.

That’s when I had the great idea of having restaurant meals at home and preparing them myself!  I completly forgot about this book that Andrew had bought me a few years ago called  “A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes”

By Todd Wilbur

It features recipes and easy directions to some favorites dishes in some popular Restaurant Chains including Olive Garden, Planet Hollywood and TGI Fridays.

Here’s his site as well: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/

Well my first one I tried was a HUGE success!

T.G.I. Friday’s Spicy Cajun Chicken Pasta

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped (1 cup)
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (1 cup)
• 1/2 white onion, sliced and quartered (1 cup)
• 1 clove garlic, pressed
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 4 to 6 mushrooms, sliced (1 1/4 cup)
• 1 cup chicken stock or 1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in 1 cup boiling water
• Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 4 to 6 quarts water
• 1 12-ounce box fettuccine
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium/ high heat.
2. Saute the bell peppers, onions, arid garlic in the butter for 8 to 10 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften slightly.
3. As the vegetables are cooking, cut the chicken breasts into bite- size pieces.
4. Prepare a medium-size pan over high heat with the olive oil. When the pan is hot, add the chicken and cook, stirring, for 5 to 7 minutes or until the chicken shows no pink.
5. When the vegetables are soft (about 10 minutes) add the chicken to the pan.
6. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms, chicken stock, 1/4 teaspoon salt, cayenne pepper, paprika, white pepper, and thyme and continue to simmer for 10 to 12 minutes until it thickens.
7. In the meantime bring the water to a boil in a large pot. If you like, add a half tablespoon of salt to the water. Cook the fettuccine in the boiling water until done. This will take 10 to 12 minutes.
8. When the noodles are done, drain them and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. The butter should melt quickly on the hot noodles. Toss the noodles to mix in the butter.
9. Serve the dish by dividing the noodles in half onto two plates. Divide the chicken and vegetable sauce evenly and spread it over the top of the noodles on each plate. Divide the parsley and sprinkle it over each serving.
10. Enjoy!

Here’s a pic of the Final result!  There was a little left over, I can’t wait to have it tomorrow for lunch!

I forgot too mention this with my last post so I thought I’d create one all for them!  The last few summers while driving through Maine specifically along Interstate 95 we kept seeing these weird cocoon-like web-like formations on the limbs of many trees.  This year we noticed they aren’t there anymore, but there was many dead trees.  We were wondering if it was due to these cocoons?

Fast forward about 500 miles from Maine and guess what we saw along the side of the road?!  They’rrrrrrrrre HEEEEEERE!

If anyone knows what they are please comment!  I probably should know, but I don’t!

Here’s a few shots!

and a close up, there’s some type of wormy things in there!

After our busy day in NYC yesterday we thought we’d do a slow paced day and do a little hiking and see some of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.  The Delaware River runs between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Here’s a little something from the US National Park Service website:

“For 40 miles the Middle Delaware River passes between low forested mountains with barely a house in sight. Then the river cuts through the mountain ridge to form the famed “Water Gap.” Exiting the park, the river will run 200 miles more to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at Wilmington, Delaware”

We decided to stop into one of the Pennsylvania  Tourist Info Centres to get some kid friendly suggestions of where to hike.  The guide told us about an area an area close to Dingman Falls, called  Childs Park Recreation area.  We decided to have a picnic lunch then take a hike to see the many waterfalls that were in this particular area of the park.   Lunch was great, it was funny another minivan pulled up across from us with New Jersey plates.  Then a family started getting out.  I noticed right away, that a little girl no more than 2 years old hopped out quickly.  I thought that was odd as she would have to be in a car seat?  Then another little boy younger than Ciaran, then another and another.  I stopped counting when I hit 9 people in that Ford Windstar!  The cargo area was completely stuffed as was the roof.  Then about 10 minutes later I hear a cry.  There was an infant there too in an infant car seat carrier (thank goodness)!  10 people were in that van and only 2 of them adults and only one car seat. That made me really mad!

I’m so glad we decided on this area as it was gorgeous!  Here are a few shots:

The kids really enjoy hiking and the waterfalls were the icing on the cake.   After hiking we decided to cross the Delaware River at a place called Dingman’s Ferry.  In 1735, Andrew Dingman from New York State started this crossing at this spot on the River there has either been a Ferry crossing or a bridge in place for crossing over into New Jersey from Pennsylvania since that time.  It is currently privately run and operates as a toll bridge for $1 to cross.  We crossed here then followed the river back through on the NJ side.

It was a little shaky this bridge!  I found out later that each year after Labour Day the bridge closes
for more than a week to allow engineers to inspect the bridge from the tops of the trusses to the underwater foundations, and to perform any necessary maintenance and repairs. Yikes, it’s awfully close to Labor Day!

The kids enjoyed the drive along the river, the roads were very twisty and had what we like to call “Rollercoaster Bumps”!  I was surprised the speed limit was as high as it is.  When I’d see one of the “bumps” I’d speed up a little then let off the gas on the descent, so it would feel like a freefall.  There were lots of squeals coming from the back!

The next cool site we saw was a Self Serve unattended Farm Stand!  I was excited as I saw some fresh corn on the cob.  Of course we stopped and I picked up a dozen.  Was it ever good!  It’s been a long time since I’ve had corn that fresh.  I’m going to make a point to get back to our local farmer’s market when we get home.  I really want to start buying closer to home.

I hopped back in the van after grabbing my corn and we continued on our journey for about 10 minutes or so, then we came across a slight obstacle.

Yes that’s a tree right in the middle of the road!  We got out as did the occupants of the car ahead of us to observe.  We tried tugging at it for a minute or two and took a couple of photos and chuckled.   I accepted defeat and realized that just the 4 of us would not be able to budge this thing.  We took a look at our map and then discovered that this was the only way to go, or we’d have to retrace our steps and drive all the way back up to Dingman’s Ferry.  We decided to go give it a try, by now another vehicle arrived on the other side, and a man got out and started yanking at the debris.  Andrew and I pitched in and we got one side clear enough to pass and we were on our way again!

Just when we thought that was going to be the last strange site on the back country roads of New Jersey we came across this!

and this:

Yes that’s a traffic light right in the middle of no where!!  We burst out laughing but once we started driving we realized why it was there.  The “ONE LANE ROADWAY” was barely one lane, and right along very high cliffs next to the Delaware River.

What a great day, perhaps not as exciting as NYC or an amusement park, but I think it was one of my favorites thus far!

Just a quick post today!  We headed into NYC via Staten Island, it’s just under 2 hours to drive over from the Poconos.

Here’s a Smilebox I created with our photos from the day.  I hope you enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Everyone slept much better last night!  So much better that we all slept in!  Normally this would be welcomed but the drive to Sesame Place was about 2 hours so I wanted to get going early.  We ended up getting on the road by 9am and arrived in Langhorne, PA right around 11am.  Luckily the park had just opened at 10am and didn’t close until 8pm.  We still had the rest of the day ahead of us.  We paid for parking $15 then got our tickets at the door.  I meant to search out discounts or buy my tickets online, but got sidetracked and ended up buying them at the gate….for the 5 of us (Finn was free) it was over $230!  OUCH!  The good news is that this gives us another day there, the bad news is that we won’t be able to take advantage of it, as I’m not sure we want to take the 2 hour drive down to Langhorne again.

We got through security and started in the water park side of the park as it was desperately hot, I don’t know the exact temperature, but I would say it was definitely in the 30’s!  This family of Maritimers is not used to that!

The boys splashed around in their new Nammu Swim Hats.  They are a UV Sun hat, and work really well, they stayed on the boys heads all day.  I was finding that whenever the boys would be out swimming they would never wear a hat then their little scalps were getting burned.  They never complained about the Nammu’s and wore then from 11am to 6pm!

Finn was loving splashing around at Ernie’s Water Works, and Liam was working with the other kids on this water works contraption.

Ernie’s Wave pool was another hit, even Mackenzie swam here.  She enjoyed the Ernie fast facts.

Big Birds Lazy river was worth the wait, but a tip for anyone going here on a busy day, don’t get into the first line you see, go a little further around the river and you’ll see a second line which is MUCH, MUCH smaller.  Finn loved riding in the tube with me, although all he wanted to do was nurse and kept grabbing at my bathing suit! He had seen a little girl nursing in the line, and starting signing for milk then.  The other mom and I were joking around about it.  It was nice to see another nursing mom, she’s the only one I saw in the park all day, and believe me there was no lack of babies.  I have never seen so many strollers crammed into a theme park.  Other than Finn, I only saw one baby being worn and it was a beautiful little newborn in a ring sling by her very proud dad.  We did bring our umbrella stroller, but Finn never sat in it at all.  We used it for our camera bag and backpack, it did come in handy that way.

Once we got off Big Bird’s Lazy River, Andrew took Mackenzie Liam and Ciaran on the Rubber Ducky Raft Ride aka- The Sky Splash as we weren’t sure if Finn was allowed to ride it.  I sat down and gave him a little drink as discreetly as I could in a swimsuit.  I saw a woman kind of staring me down, and thought that they were disapproving stares.  Turns out she was a LLL leader, and she came over and talked to me for a few minutes and gave some encouraging words, she was very nice.  Finn slept for a few minutes while we waited for the rest of the crew on the Raft ride.  I got some great shots of them coming down.

Hunger was setting in and Captain Ernie’s next to the Lazy River was calling us.  The food wasn’t bad, but as usual themepark fare, pricey!  $8 for a kids meal!  It did come in a cute little Elmo Head Souvenir  thingy.  It think they’ll make great little party favors for an Elmo themed birthday, perhaps Finn’s 2^nd?

After having a bite to eat, we headed over to Elmo’s World.  This area of Sesame Place has most of the rides.  We managed to ride a few, but the lines were very long and didn’t get on all of the ones we wanted to.  There was also this huge rope climbing structure, Mackenzie and Ciaran weaved their way through it way above our heads.  I took Finn down to a little area for toddlers and he had so much fun playing with the large foam blocks.

Next it was time to get a drink for the boys, I had decided to purchase one of those large souvenir bottles for $5.00 earlier in the day, this way you could get refills for $1.50 instead of the $3.00 they were charging.  When I went to buy it, the Sesame Place employee did not hear me correctly and thought I wanted a refill,  and gave me the bottle for the price of a refill instead of the full cost!  Just a tip if you ever get there some day, all of the indoor eating places have fountain pop and free refills.  I didn’t find this out until later.  We started the day out drinking water as I froze our reusable containers, but they soon melted and there was barely a water fountain to be found in the park.

After getting the boys a drink, we noticed that people were lining up along the main Sesame Street for the Parade!  We decided to saty and watch, and Andrew devised a plan that as soon as it was over we would try and hit a roller coaster called the Vapour Trail!  The Parade was cute, the boys tried and tried to get high fives from the characters, Liam succeeded once getting Grover.  Ciaran was a little upset when it ended without him getting a high five too.

Luckily the disappointment of the lack of a high five was short-lived as we raced up the ramp of the Vapour Trail.  One little problem we forgot about was Finn sleeping on my back in the Ergo!  Ooops!  Mackenzie is not a ride person so she was happy to stay back with Finn, so we managed to transfer him over to her back without waking him!  I rode with Liam, who at the last minute tried to get off, I convinced him he’d be fine and off we went.  Ciaran on the other hand loved it and was grinning the entire ride!

On our way out of the park  one of the security officers offered to take our pic too!  What a great park, a lot of fun for any age!

After spending most of the last two days in the van, we decided to take it easy and check out the resorts pool and take a drive around the area to get our bearings.  As usual the pool was way too cold for me, I loike it well over 80, and this one was not even close to that.  I tried to do a little catch up reading and brought my book by Peter Walsh- “It’s All Too Much” about clutter control.  I think I’m going to jump back into the Clutter Control Bootcamp once school goes back in.

Mackenzie has been enjoying a renewed love of swimming and I think it’s due to her latest fad of “mermaids”. She’s been drawing them, reading about them and looking for movies about them.  I’m wondering if it has to do with the new Little Mermaid movie that’s coming out next week?

The Pool are at Sciota Village at Big Valley was really nice.  The pool was crystal clear, and there was a small jacuzzi and lots of lounge chairs.  Finn wasn’t overly happy with the temperature of the pool either so mainly played on the chairs and eventually found a volleyball to play with.

It seems that Liam has lost a lot of his confidence in his swimming abilities.  When we were in Florida in May, he was doing great!  Today all he did was complain and whine for water wings.  Ciaran on the other hand, was very confident yet still a little cautious, which for him is a good thing he was always the daredevil fearless one.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to enroll them both in swimming lessons this fall as their activity.  Soccer was a bust, so hopefully swimming will be better.

After a fairly good sleep, we hit the road again just before a stop at Dunkin Donuts for Breakfast.  I say it was fairly good sleep but what I mean is everyone slept well except Mackenzie and I.  She was up sniffling most of the night and her sniffling kept me up most of the night.  I need to get her into see her doctor again for more allergy testing.

Pokemon was loaded up again with a whole new series of episodes, and we fired up the iPod Touch in the front, with a Best of the 80’s compilation Andrew found.  I think Mackenzie is growing an appreciation for the one hit wonders of the 80’s that her parents adore.  I know she was surprised when I belted out every single word of the B52’s Love Shack!  I think I surprised myself too!  We got back on the road and just made it into Connecticut and the boys needed another potty break.  This time we stopped at a more familiar place!  I was surprised as I new Tim Hortons were starting to branch out through the US, but had no idea they were down as far as Connecticut.  Here’s one that we stopped at in Vernon/Rockville, CT.

The directions I printed up from Google Maps had a us taking a few different routes I probably would not have looking at the Road Atlas.  I really enjoyed this route though, and it didn’t add any extra time.  The estimated travel time was 5 hours, and we made it in just over that as we hit a little bumper to bumper at a few of the tolls.  What I like about the route was that it took us through some of the more scenic routes, one of them being the New York State Thruway across to New Jersey over the Tappan Zee Bridge, which connects to the Palisades Parkway on the other side of the Hudson River.  The traffic was heavy as it was Saturday morning, but my co-pilot kept me in check with very good navigating!

We ended up finding the resort with no difficulty at all, and were here early!  Luckily they still let us check in as our little house was ready!  The resort we’re staying at is called : Sciota Village at Big Valley (CY-ota).  I kept pronouncing it wrong all week!  Try googling it!  I couldn’t find a while lot of details or reviews, but for the price we paid for it on SkyAuction, I couldn’t really complain.

Our little self-contained unit (Iroquois) has 3 bedrooms, and 1 bath with washer/dryer.  A full  kitchen including a dishwasher.  It’s just the perfect size for us and all one level!  A huge bonus with a very active toddler!  It wasn’t the most modern unit we’ve had, but it served our needs and was close to outlet shopping and the major highways and attractions of the Pocono Mountains. Here’s a few photos of our house and the surrounding views.  I thought I took more indoor shots but I guess we were too busy exploring!

The view of the house from the left lawn.

Back yard

View from the front yard

After we got settled in we headed out to get some dinner, we weren’t up for Friendly’s again so we tried out the Cluck U Chicken.  Of course as soon as I saw the name I immediately thought of LOST I know all of you Losties will know what I mena.  Andrew attempted to order the 911 hot wings, but was discouraged from it.  I guess you have to sign a waiver to do their 911 Challenge, and if you are able to eat 10 of their wings without anything to drink in an allotted time frame you get your wings free, a t-shirt and your photo on their Wall of Fame.  I will admit I was being impatient and just wanted to eat and made Andrew get the regular hot.  Turns out the hot was more like a medium and he ate all of his 10 in a few minutes without a drink.  I think we may have to go back.

As always grocery shopping took forever as there is just so much variety down here.  I picked up some new things, some breakfast  and dinner foods and a few pints of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream including Mackenzie’s favourite- Phish Food and mine Karamel Sutra!

Today was Day One of our road trip to Pennsylvania, we hit the road around 10:30am, about 2 hours behind schedule, but this is nothing new!  Our destination today was Chelmsford, Massachusetts.  It’s about an 8 hour drive, just west of Boston along Interstate 495.  I can’t believe what a great drive it was! We stopped to fuel up once we hit Maine, then didn’t have to stop again until we hit the capital of Maine, Augusta this time to fill our bellies at Friendly’s.  For those of you not familiar it’s a US family “Friendly” restaurant, that has great ice cream as well.

We let the boys run off a little steam on the Friendly’s side lawn, then loaded everyone up again in the van.  Liam and Ciaran seemed to have a renewed love of Pokemon again  and soon became entranced in it, as Andrew, Mackenzie and myself sang our lungs out to ABBA Gold. I absolutely love ABBA, and after seeing Mamma Mia twice last week, I knew I needed it for our road trip.  Mackenzie was funny, as soon as a song from the movie would come on, she’d tell me the exact scene!  Here, I thought she didn’t like the movie.  Finn, was just loving our singing and the animation in Mackenzie.  I was little skeptical as I switched his car seat just before the trip and wasn’t sure how he’d like it.  The boys have been fighting every time we got in the van over what seat they were going to sit it.  In the back row of the van I had our Britax Marathon installed with our Sunshine Kids Radian.  To alleviate the feuding I decided to move Finn’s Marathon to the back, and bring the Radian to the middle row and install it rear-facing.  Yes Finn at 19 months is still rear-facing!  Take a look at this link for some of the reasons why he’s safer this way:

The Radian in our Mazda MPV is a great fit Rear Facing, I got a rock solid installation without any pool noodles and was even able to tether it rear facing!  Anyhow, he’s doing great in the seat although, his little head tends to not seem as comfortable as he is in the Marathon.

We continued on from Augusta, and had to make one roadside pit-stop for a pee break, fairly close to the New Hampshire border, thankfully I remembered the little potty!  The next thing we knew we were in Chelmsford, Ma!  Our Hotel (The Radisson) was just off I-495 and was a great deal!  We used Hotwire.com to book it after Tracy recommended using the site.  It can be a gamble, as you book the hotel, without knowing what property you’re going to get.  You’re told what the hotel’s amenities are, how many stars and where it’s located, but not the company.  For $49, I was willing to chance it, I knew it was a three star and did a search on another site, and saw it had to be the Radisson or the Best Western so I went along and booked it.  As soon as it’s paid for, you find out the property.  I think I’ll use this again, as we saved about $60 by booking here over their site!

The hotel had a nice pool, and we all took a dip after a long day in the van.  There was another couple there that had a daughter named Mackenzie and well, and we chatted with them, and they gave us some tips on Eastern Pennsylvania, and of course I reciprocated and gave them some facts about the Maritimes.  They were very intrigued by the Northumberland Straight and the fact that the water is so warm there, in fact it’s the warmest Salt Water North of Virginia!

After our dip it was PJ time and off to sleep.