Shukie and I went to my home town, Ridgefield CT, over the Memorial Day weekend.  It’s been a long time since I’ve even just passed through, and it was fun to show him where I came from.  Not sure if it clarified anything for him….  It was a great place to grow up, and it still would be.  Not much has changed, a few new (gigantic) houses, the shopping centers are a little different, and they *gasp* allow colorful signs on Main Street!  But the hot dog guy was still there, the old high school was still ugly, though it is now surrounded by beatiful new buildings (kids these days are so lucky).  The house I grew up in looks different, a giant tree is gone and the front walk is now very formal looking.  Here are pictures of how it was then and how it is now.

We also went to my favorite park, where I took my first pictures in pursuit of art with my Dad’s old Canon SLR.  We ate giant sandwhiches from the deli that is still there and took Lula for a walk.  We visited my mother’s grave for an official introduction with Shukie, and we planted some pretty pink flowers for her.  Here are some more pics from our trip:

Amy & Lula at the park in my neighborhood

At my elementary school

Hanging out at the park

Shukie and I spent the weekend in Alpharetta GA a bit ago for a visit with Dear Old Dad and Leslie. We took the CNN tour (didn’t see anyone famous – Anderson Cooper must have been hiding from me) and went to one of my favorite places to eat in Atlanta, Café Intermezzo. We went up to Athens and got a tour of the UGA campus from Lee, Leslie’s daughter. We finished off with a meal at a great tapas place in town. Reminds me of when we went to Spain on a family vacation and Kerri wanted to take us to her favorite tapas place. Dad eventually just had to know why it was Kerri wanted to take her family to a topless bar! Check out the pics from our trip.