Less than Twelve Parsecs

The second day of our train trip started off slow, as we made it to the diner car barely in time for breakfast. Alas, our plan for French toast was brutally thwarted when we learned that they had run out. No amount of fluffy pancakes, made-to-order omelettes, breakfast quesadillas or fruity Chobani yogurt could come even close to making it up to Gaius. It was French toast or else. Luckily we soon recovered, bellies full and getting all crafty in the observation car. We made little fairy mail boxes with messages for fairies and leprechauns to invite them in our home: and weaved miniature Ojos de Dio: [This is Mara's self-driven photography posing, I did not give her any direction other than mentioning I was going to take a photo of her with her craft. She got seriously intense with the lens...] Soon, the views outside became too overwhelming to ignore. Our photos barely do them justice, but our memories will ho...

The title for this post seems totally misleading, but I promise it does make sense. This week many public/charter schools in our area are closed for "Ski Week", and everyone disappears in search of snow. Most of our friends go to wonderful Tahoe, braving the awfully aggravating trafic on the way there and back. The trouble is that Fae is now 3.5mo and much more self aware and opinionated. She is ok in the car seat on the way to get Mara from school and back, but anything past a 45 minutes nap definitely does not fit well in her schedule. We've tried convincing her with unappealing results - half hour of continuous screaming is not something we want to repeat often. She's such a sweet adorable baby most of the time! In comes the Grand Plan that I've been stewing over for more than a year now: cross country train trip on the Zephyr train ! There's no car seat, it's technically a loooong moving house with gorgeous views, restaur...