Places to Go/Things to Do - A Few, Quick Days at Universal Orlando

I know I don't share much in this space much anymore, so I should probably check in. And, honestly, I'm not sure about the future of No Monsters in My Bed. I've started blogging more on my professional website and I'd love it if you would follow me/check in over here.

I'm hoping to keep No Monsters as a place to share longer posts and opinions - book reviews, random links, etc., while moving my personal photos to Darcy Troutman Photography, but, truthfully, I haven't felt like sharing as much as I used to. My kids are older and entitled to more privacy and, like everyone else, sometimes social media just seems overwhelming.

We will see.

In the meantime, LOTS of photos from our trip to Universal are online here (I find squarespace's photo uploader to be much more user-friendly than Blogger's uploader) - please stop by!!

Places to Go (Vacation) - Camping in November at Sky Meadows State Park (Delaplane, VA)

Happy Monday!! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We spent the weekend with Dan's family - eating SO MUCH food and then visiting the Vermeer exhibit at the National Gallery of Art and Kingdom of Colors at Artechouse. As far as art goes, we couldn't have had two more different experiences in one day - but I really enjoyed both.

The photos are from the weekend before last - when we spent Friday night camping at Sky Meadows State Park. We had hoped to see the meteor shower, but the light pollution was worst than anticipated (plus, we went to sleep rather early). Sky Meadows is a walk-in campground - the sites are about 1 mile from the parking lot. The hike/walk is easy, but it felt a little surreal to arrive at our campsite in the dark. As did hiking in with P as the light slowly faded away around us.

On the upside - we were thrilled to camp without bugs, but turns out ticks last longer than expected - both dogs found a few. So it goes. The night was COLD, but all in all the experience was pretty amazing (I heard owls all night) and I'm hoping we'll go again next year.

Places to Go (Vacation) - Running Through Autumn at Storm King Scultpure Park (Cornwall, NY)

A few weeks ago I binge-watched the second season of Master of None. In one of the last episodes, the main character and a friend take an autumn daytrip to Storm King Art Center, which is about 1 hour north of NYC. I'd never heard of Storm King before, but I was smitten.

Unfortunately, October is the peak of my busy season so I didn't think we could make our own trip. Then I found out the kids had a few days off school and everything fell into place. (Plus, let's be honest - I love a roadtrip).

We ended up spending two days at Storm King (the park is REALLY big) and on the second day my best friend and her family managed to join us (and then we drove back to Long Island to hang with them).

Watching all the kids play/run/explore together was pretty incredible. Especially with scenery like this!

Places to Go (Vacation) - Europe 2017 - Part VIII - Vienna, Austria

I can't believe it is October and I'm still blogging vacation photos. I have THOUSANDS of photos from September I haven't even looked at yet. Between work and kids' sports I can never get over how crazy autumn becomes. On the upside, I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but I've photographed the most amazing couples and families this fall - so I'm feeling incredibly blessed.

Sorry, I digress, back to our last week of vacation . . .

By the time we reached Vienna, our last of 10 cities, everyone was pretty over vacation. And, in retrospect, a month of traveling was probably too much. The kids are already begging me to tone it down next year ("two weeks, mom, please! like other families. just two weeks."). But I love a road trip and once I start planning I have a hard time saying "enough".

Okay, so enough whining. On the upside, I'm a huge Vienna fan. I visited fifteen years ago and have always wanted to return. I remembered the art exhibits being some of the best I've ever seen (they still were!)







Upon arrival in Vienna, after chilling at our airbnb for awhile, we hopped on the u-bahn and headed to Prater Amusement Park. A truly interesting/quirky place. Sort of like Disney meets the county fair. Some of the rides were scary/awesome (Jurassic Park kept us all frightened for weeks!) and some are so rickety you're scared to ride. This is all from my point of view, my kids thought they were in heaven (hence we kept going back every night).





For our first full day in Vienna, we walked to the KunstHausWien art museum, where they had a phenomenal exhibit of Edward Burtynsky's water photographs (check out his website here).











After KunstHausWien, we headed over to the Schönbrunn Palace, where the kids had a blast in the labyrinth and playground (and it was nice to spend an afternoon just hanging out and watching them play for awhile).



Me and mini-me.





The flying bird was a hit.





Another night at the Prater amusement park.







On our second day in Vienna, Dan had to fly home early for a wedding. So I dragged the kids to Vienna's museum quarter for a day of art. I can't say the kids were thrilled, but they rallied. The art was awesome and I was so so happy.



Wolfgang Tillman's anti-Brexit posters were part of the "How to Live Together" exhibit. Aren't they beautiful? And heartbreaking?



By art museum #3 the kids were starting to break down.





But then they rallied.



Art museums all day = ice cream sundaes at night.









For our final day in Europe, I tried to make things "extra fun" by taking the kids to the incredibly cheesy Timetravel Vienna. I thought it would be Disney-esque, but instead it was just silly. Oh well. We then visited the Haus der Musik, one of the coolest/most interactive museums ever. And finished our day at Vienna's Romermuseum, where we saw the city's Roman ruins. Pretty cool.



Finally, on Sunday, we flew back to the US (direct this time). The blurry photo above is our last photo from Europe (in front of our apartment's big door) and even though we were all exhausted - the smiles on my kids make me remember that all in all we had an absolute blast.