Amazon Kindle (2nd gen)

Back in May I spotted a woot! deal for Amazon’s second-generation Kindle e-reader and jumped on it, not for myself (I do my reading on my iOS devices), but as an end-of-the-school-year present for my daughter. We gave it to her on the last day of school in celebration of her straight As report card and she freaked. Her best friend had gotten a Nook for her birthday and she’d been asking for an e-reader ever since. She loves to read (we find open books scattered all over the house face down), so being able to put a bunch of books on a tiny device she can take with her anywhere was an appealing idea.

This was the first time I’d laid hands on, and actually used, a Kindle! Hard to believe, given my fondness for gadgets, but I’ve been reading books on small LCD screens since my Palm/iPAQ days so I never felt the need for a dedicated e-book reader.

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WIJFR: The Hunger Games

In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

During our recent family vacation road trip, we all “read” (listened to) the audiobook version of Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games.” We spent almost 68 hours in the car, so we had no trouble getting through all 11 hours of it.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 10 – home!

Not a lot of excitement today, just driving and the anticipation of finally getting back home.

We grabbed a quick breakfast, checked out of our last hotel, and were on the road by 8:30am. At 10:15 we crossed the border back into Florida. After going around Jacksonville to I-10, we took the back routes, cutting south and west to meet up with I-75 around Ocala just after 12:30pm. Two hours later (after a quick stop to pick up grocerie), we were pulling into the driveway. Whew, we made it!

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Road Trip 2011: Day 9 – driving to GA

We saw our first rain of the trip this morning when we woke up. All of us were looking forward to breakfast at The Old Chikahominy House in Williamsburg, and it can get crowded quickly on a Sunday morning, so by 7:30am we were on the road, driving east on I-64 through the light rain. By the time we got to Williamsburg an hour later, the rain had stopped and it was shaping up to be a decent day weather-wise. Adding to our delight, the restaurant was almost completely empty and we were seated immediately.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 8 – driving to VA

Our hotel in Norwich wasn’t the greatest, but that’s what we get for making a last-minute change to our itinerary. The new plan was to stop at my aunt and uncle’s house in Stamford, CT for brunch so we skipped breakfast at the hotel this time and were on the road by 8am. Two hours later we were sitting in their dining room having a wonderful, relaxing meal and catching up on family news.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 7 – heading south

Our original plan called for us to spend Friday in Boston, maybe taking a harbor cruise or going to some of the places we didn’t get to see yesterday. As we talked about it back in the hotel last night, however, we realized we had seen all we wanted to see and maybe it made sense to start heading south to make tomorrow’s drive (to Richmond, VA) a little easier. So this morning, as we ate breakfast in the hotel room, we made last minute reservations at a hotel outside of Norwich, CT and decided that’s where we would stop tonight.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 6 – historic Boston

After breakfast (again) this morning at the hotel buffet, we drove over to Woburn to see some old family places (my mother-in-law grew up in the area). Then went to downtown to the city of Boston. We had pre-purchased tickets online for the Old Town Trolley tours, so after parking the car we walked to the nearest stop and boarded the trolley to see the sights.

The Junior Ranger badge for Boston National Historical Park isn’t nearly as straightforward as some of the other national parks we’ve visited since it involves visiting multiple sites around the city. My daughter really wanted to earn that badge, though, so we knew we were in for a lot of walking and lot of sight-seeing today.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 5 – Vermont and back

We made it to Boston yesterday, but we’re just using it as our base of operations today. We had breakfast at the hotel and then got back in the car for the drive up to Ben & Jerry’s in Vermont. After making through the rush hour traffic jamming the I-95/I-93 interchange, we were on our way. Right across the border in New Hampshire, we goggled at the state liquor store at the very first rest stop.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 4 – driving to Boston

With our now familiar morning routine, we got up early, had breakfast at the hotel, and were on the road by 8:30am. About an hour later, after driving through Allentown (and playing the requisite Billy Joel song), we made a slight detour off the highway in Easton, PA to drive past the Crayola Factory. We really didn’t have time to go through it (and it was paid admission anyway) so after a quick photo opp it was back to the highway and then over the border into New Jersey.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 3 – driving to PA

With Starbucks in hand, we started driving out of Greenville around 8am this morning. In North Carolina we saw our first serious traffic of the trip, but luckily it was going the other direction. The line of stopped vehicles was miles long and had apparently been there a while since people were out of their cars wandering around. Yikes.

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