We Take Ourselves With Us

The day after Christmas or Boxing Day in England and English countries, Ned and I were up to see the sun rise over Lake Tarawera.   Each morning, we woke up to the sounds of NZ's only native animals: birds.  Their musical calls filled the lakeshore. Our agenda that day was filled with activities that highlighted NZ's adventurous culture.  First up: Zorbing.  What is Zorbing?  You climb in a gigantic inflated ball that is filled with water; then as the ball rolls down a hill, you slosh around inside.  The Zorb was created in NZ, and we've not seen it anywhere else.  The kids got Zorb tickets from their cousins and were beyond-eager to give it a go. They zigged, zagged and sloshed their ways down the hill, eventually giggling and wiggling out of the Zorbs and jumping into the nearby hot tub.  All the kids Zorb'd as did four of the adults--Ash, Ned, and I opted to capture the moment from the shade.  Great...

After falling into a dead sleep Saturday night, Sunday got off to a slower start.  Harper eventually drifted down to join me n the lobby.  Her reaction here was triggered by a spoon mishap.  Love her :) Okay, let's talk about Divvy-bikes.  Look how lovely they are in this stock photo: They're all over Chicago, including in front of our hotel.  "Let's ride bikes," we thought.  So, we got 4 Divvy bikes and started riding to breakfast, mapping our route via phone GPS.  You need to check your bike in every 30 minutes or you'll get more charges.  So, problem #1: when we did this, our bikes locked up and the machine wouldn't give us another code.  We needed to get across town for brunch, so after much "discussion" about the bikes, we gave up and grabbed a cab.  More on the bikes later. We joined our friends Alyson and Michael and their daughter Meredith at Sunnyside Up for a crazy yummy brunch: bacon pancakes, confetti pancakes, chocolate chip...