Drew U. and the Ivy League

Last week was the Turkey's spring break. He got to sleep late and play video games most of the week while I was at work. I think he reveled in the sheer laziness of it all. Can't blame him. After all, that was what I did on my spring break, too.

Starting Thursday though, I took over the scheduling. No more sleeping 'til noon and showers were a must. We got up, packed up, and headed out. First stop was not the grocery store, not the mall, not downtown Annapolis, but Drew University.

That's right - Drew U.! This was the Turkey's first official college tour and I wanted to make it a fun one. What better place than a university that shares his name? :-)  The walking tour of campus was nice and the Turkey was impressed with all it had to offer for such a small place. "Small" in this instance is 1600 students.  teeny tiny

 
Drew University is in Madison, NJ. It was a lovely drive on a gorgeous spring day. We did the walking tour of campus, stopped at the bookstore to get the requisite Drew t-shirt, walked around on our own taking pictures (you can tell by the shadows it was late afternoon), laughed a lot, and then meandered towards the car. Can you guess our next destination by the picture below?

That's right - Princeton! Welcome to the Ivy League!

We met my friend Laura and her 6-year-old daughter for dinner. I hadn't seen Laura in over 14 years and it was a treat to catch up in person and finally meet her daughter who is a delightful firecracker. We settled at Winberie's for a casual dinner and then headed over to The Bent Spoon for gelato. Mmmmm! The Bent Spoon is apparently an institution in town and has really unique flavors. Sour cream gelato anyone? (Don't knock it. That's what Laura had so I got to taste it and it was surprisingly good. Who knew?!) Peanut butter, mango, coconut, pear and prosecco, vanilla bean....it was all so so so SO yummy!

After a night in heavenly beds at the Westin, we headed back downtown for breakfast and our own walking tour of Princeton.

PJ's Pancakes, the site of breakfast. We had seen it while driving around the night before and had casually remarked that we might try it for breakfast. When a friend recommended it via facebook, it was a done deal. Diners over the years have written/carved their names into the table tops. We had a few laughs reading the comments on the table before the Turkey added his own "Go Terps!" to the menagerie. This was definitely the ONLY time I would let and encourage him towards graffiti. Oh, and their pancakes were seriously fluffy and scrumptious, too.

Pancakes done and parking found, we walked across the street and meandered through campus.

It was again a gorgeous morning and the walk was lovely. Drew remarked on more than one occasion that he felt he was at Hogwarts instead of a college campus in the US! With so much gothic architecture I can totally understand that sentiment. It is indeed unlike most of the campuses in this country.

Before you start asking, the answer is NO. Drew is not thinking of applying to Princeton. This was simply a fun expedition since we were close to the campus. Puh-leeze! Let's revisit tuition remission at Maryland, shall we?

But have I told you about his time in Harvard? Remind me about that some day.

Back to the trip...

After the Princeton experience we came back to reality with a thud, landing in Brooklyn. We spent some time with my brother and sister-in-law and new nephew, walking around the city, checking out the Brooklyn Flea Market, and generally just hanging out.

We came away without pictures of the baby who is a super cutie and likes to try to talk and did a good job of sliming my purple shirt (stay tuned for pictures because we'll see him again next weekend)...right...no pictures of the baby this trip but with pictures of this:

Do you see it? It's the second house in the row. No, it is not my brother's house. It is ... drum roll, please ...

A PINK HOUSE! The entire thing is painted PINK! Sister-in-law knew I would get a kick out of it so she took us a couple blocks out of the way to find it. Yee haw!

Gotta love home owners with a sense of humor! :-)

And yes, I got away with NO pictures of the baby but 3 - count 'em: one, two, THREE - pictures of a pink house. *sigh* I can't even chalk it up to too many peep-tinis. I can, however, blame it on a pink obsession. After all, the baby is a boy so no pink. (Did that work? Do you believe it? No? Rats. Me either.)

Hi, my name is Jess and I like pink.

Must. Start. Taking. Baby. Pictures.