All posts by Dona

Casino hotels and college tour guides

Travel, , ,

After leaving Parts West, Vermont we headed to New York State and our final two colleges. In planning the trip I really only looked at hotel chains that were relatively close to the first school of the day. I’m partial to Hampton Inns. Their beds are comfy and the rooms almost always immaculate and they serve a decent hot breakfast as part of the hotel stay. They also offer decent discounts for AARP members and I get points for staying at Hamption Inns through their hhonors program, although I’m not sure what to do with the points or how many I need for anything.

While there were Hampton Inns near the final two colleges we’d planned on visiting in central New York State (Colgate and Hamilton) their prices were more than I wanted to pay. I checked the college web pages and found a hotel that had good reviews which was cheaper than the Hampton Inns in the area. I figured if a prestigious college suggested this hotel it couldn’t be that bad. The only drawback — it was part of a casino. I asked Dean if he minded staying in a casino hotel and he thought it would be fun so I booked it.

Vernon Downs is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We’d hoped for a decent restaurant, but the few eating establishments we passed were either closed, too far from the hotel or didn’t look appetizing. We checked into our hotel and were told that the buffet was closing in a little over an hour. Dean was sort of excited about the buffet. He had expectations of huge slabs of roast beef carved by men in white coats and tall white chef’s hats. I expected a cafeteria with gray food laden with too much salt.

To get to the buffet we had to walk through the casino and since Andrew was younger than 18 needed an escort. We got a friendly escort who told Andrew to save his money and buy a car instead of gambling. He added, “Look at these people. Do they look happy to you?”

When we arrived at the buffet we were told that in order to get the over age 50 discount we needed to have a “players card”. I was ok paying the extra $4 each, but Dean wanted the discount, so we left Andrew in the buffet (with his orange wristband) and walked to the desk where they issued us each a plastic “players card”.

The buffet was more like I’d expected, except with a little more variety. Dean was disappointed since he thought it would be more fancy. I hate casinos. I hate everything about them. At least this one was smoke-free. There’s nothing sadder than watching old, wrinkled women sitting at a slot machine with a cigarette in one hand and pushing the slot machine buttons or pulling the lever with the other.

Rupert and the Sunrise
Rupert and the Sunrise

In the morning we awoke to sunshine — and since we were on the side of the hotel facing east, we got to see a beautiful sunrise. We ate the free breakfast and headed south to Colgate University. (Andrew nixed Hamilton based on its tagline)

Dean and Clare had visited Colgate and only stayed for the information session — both feeling that Colgate was just not for Clare.  Andrew liked the information session enough to want to go on the tour.

We were lucky to get the tour guide we did. There were three tour guides: two perky sophomore girls with long lists of accomplishments and one slightly geeky Latino science major named Julio. He was the best tour guide we’d had on the trip, except possibly for the rugby-playing girl at Wesleyan. Julio told it like it was — told us what he liked about the school, what he didn’t like about the school, told us his story and really genuinely seemed happy to be there. He had a quirky sense of humor and was just an everyday person — someone with whom many high school juniors could identify as opposed to the many overachieving tour guides we’d encountered.

After the tour and an ice cream sandwich treat from the admissions office, we headed back home to Bethesda. Andrew had become a slightly different person since we left home 5 days earlier. He now had a good idea of the type of college he wanted to end up at and a plan for how to get there. He’s a cool kid and any college would be lucky to have him.

Rupert and the God Cod

Blogging, Travel, , , , ,
Rupert and the God Cod

Rupert was happy that his American family remembered to take him on their trip to visit colleges in the Northeast. Sometimes they forgot to take him along on their journeys and that always made him sad. He especially wished he’d been along for the Ireland trip.

Rupert was also happy that he had a warm and cozy place to ride when his American family toured colleges in the cold rain. While they were soaked, Rupert stayed dry — although he does regret not seeing Diane Lane. He thinks she’s hot.

On Wednesday, April 1, Rupert and his American family visited Middlebury College in Vermont. The day was cold, but not rainy, which made them all happy. At this point on the tour, at least for Dean and Dona, the schools began to blur together. They all had lovely campuses, lots of trees and perky and overachieving tour guides. Andrew liked Middlebury, but it is not at the top of his list.

After the information session and tour, Rupert and his American family had lunch at a cafe in the town of Middlebury. Andrew and Dona liked the food, Dean was not happy with his soup. Dona liked the friendly people who were behind the counter. That kind of thing doesn’t usually impress Dean.

After lunch Rupert and his American family took a slight detour to the town of Parts West, Vermont to visit with Dona’s blogging friends, Indigo Bunting and Lali. Rupert was excited about this visit. He’d met a few other of Dona’s Internet friends as well as Dona’s favorite singer-songwriter, but he’d never met another blogger.

Rupert could tell that Dona was excited, but nervous, about meeting Indigo Bunting and Lali. He thinks Dona was nervous because she felt she was overstepping an unmarked boundary — that some people like to be more anonymous than she does online and that Indigo Bunting and Lali might only be agreeing to the meeting because they were too nice to say no. He suspected Dona was also nervous because Dean was never comfortable meeting Dona’s Internet friends.

As soon as Dona phoned Indigo Bunting and heard her voice, Rupert knew that Dona was no longer nervous. It was exciting to turn that last corner and see Route 153 for real. She saw the post office and other landmarks she’d read about in IB’s blog posts.

Rupert and his American family arrived at Indigo Bunting’s house at exactly the same time as Lali did. When Indigo Bunting opened the door she hugged everyone, saying “I hope you’re huggers!” It was exactly how Dona hoped it would be.

Dona, Dean and Andrew had (delicious) coffee, cookies and pie with Indigo Bunting and Lali while enjoying a lively conversation about everything from college visits to birds to coffee to towns in Vermont. Rupert got a thrilling ride on the God Cod, some photos were taken and everyone drove over to visit Lali’s home where they met Bisou, Lexi, Wolfie, Lali’s husband and the chickens. They admired the wattle fence as well.

Indigo Bunting gave Rupert and his American family a loaf of Rupert Rising Bread which they tasted about an hour later as they drove to their next college town. It was delicious and they planned the meal it would compliment when they got home the next evening.

On the way back to Bethesda the next evening, Andrew answered Dona’s question, “So what did we learn on this trip?” with “We learned that blogging friends are really nice!” Rupert, Dean and Dona all agreed.

Indigo Bunting, Cedar Waxwing & Lali

In which we get wet and probably see a movie star

Travel, , , ,

We awoke to heavy rain and the prospect of touring two schools in that rain. I was not excited.

Our first stop was Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. Dean had already visited Wheaton with Clare on what he describes as a perfect fall day: abundant sunshine, colorful trees, crisp but not too chilly. Today was not a perfect fall day. It was a dreary spring day with, what we’d discover later that afternoon,  record breaking rain.

I’d misplaced my (still wet from yesterday) gloves and forgot to take my Connecticut College poncho into the admissions office and didn’t want to go back to the car to get it. I was cranky and cold.

We were divided into groups and took off across the campus with a cheerful senior tour guide. Luckily for us we spent much talking time inside buildings and were able to walk quickly from one warm building to another.

As we entered our second building I heard a female voice behind me asking Dean if we were part of the college tour. I didn’t look around, but wondered why the newcomers had not joined the second group.

Later I saw the newcomer – a tall young woman with long dark brown hair dressed in opaque gray tights, a yellow cashmere cardigan under a waist length charcoal gray (leather?) jacket. On her feet she wore dark gray ankle-height Wellingtons. She was definitely the most stylish student in the tour group. I also took notice of her because she flashed a lovely smile at everyone she saw. No one, that I saw, returned the smile. I felt bad for her.

We continued the tour, and when we went into the residence hall I saw the mother of the newcomer. She reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t quite place her. Someone I’d seen on television or in the movies. I assumed that I’d figure it out later – who this woman looked like. We exchanged a couple of words in passing (excuse me / pardon me)

As we ended our tour another woman approached me and asked if I’d noticed the movie star among us. I said I thought I recognized someone, but couldn’t place her. The woman whispered, “Diane Lane”, and added, “but I don’t think she has kids the age of our kids.”

I snuck a few more glances at “Diane Lane” wondering if it could really be her. I convinced myself that it probably wasn’t her. She and her daughter left while I was using the bathroom. Neither Dean nor Andrew really noticed the mom so they couldn’t judge whether or not it was, in fact, Diane Lane. However they both noticed the daughter.

On the ride home we checked IMDB which told us she has a daughter born 9 months after Andrew was born so she could very well be looking at colleges this year. Andrew found a photograph of Diane Lane and her daughter on a website – tall, dark hair, same shaped face. That cinched it. We were convinced Diane Lane and her daughter were on our tour. I just checked again and saw more photos of her. I’m sure it was her.

Oh, and the college was cool too. Andrew might consider it, depending on whether or not Diane Lane’s daughter goes there how his other college visits go.

We drove through Boston via Boston University and Harvard (just to look) to get to Medford and Tufts University. I didn’t go on the tour because my coat was still wet and I still couldn’t find my gloves. I sat in the car in the parking garage while Dean and Andrew walked in the [record breaking] rain. The university is on a hill, so the wind was very strong. I do feel guilty for not trekking through the rain along with my husband and son, but the fact that I was warm and dry was enough to squash the guilt. Andrew probably won’t apply to Tufts because of their foreign language requirement.

So far this trip has been quite useful. Andrew is learning what he likes and doesn’t like about schools and will be able to make informed decisions about more schools he might like to visit and ones he knows he probably won’t like so much.

We’re on the road to Vermont now where we’ll stay in Rutland and drive to Middlebury tomorrow morning.