Peru Trip! (Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu) (!!!!)

We made it to Machu Picchu! It was completely amazing. I had no concept of the scope of it from pictures (a whole city! on a mountain!) so seeing it in person was really just awe-inducing.

Okay so that was Day 6. First, to get there, we took a crazy scenic trip by road and rail through all the most beautiful parts of beautiful Peru. I mean every place was more gorgeous than the last. Seriously, Peru, with the scenery. Seriously.

DAY 5: SACRED VALLEY OF THE INCAS

Outside of Cusco, we stopped to see several different Incan ruin sites. One of them was called Sacsayhuamán which totally sounds like "sexy woman" (just trust me, it does) (and if you don't find that funny, then you're exactly like my coworkers and nothing like me) and there were tons of steep steps, but from the top the view of Cusco was breathtaking.

Y'all. The climbing. At 11,000+ feet elevation. With a still-recovering foot. It was haaaaard. Like harder than I want to admit.

We also climbed around in some caves and learned about Incan tradition (we know surprisingly little, which is intriguing to me).

Also there were more alpacas. You could guess that, right?

We saw several ruins sites, road tripping over and through the Andes, and then we stopped for lunch in a little mountain town that's basically totally sustained by its silver mine. I bought a mother earth necklace. Yes I haggled. Yes I love it.

At one point we stopped to walk around and see the scenery of the Sacred Valley, and oh man we could barely breathe deep enough just for normal walking. I think our driver said we were like 12,500 feet or so. It's funny how we were all mostly fine in Cusco at 11k, but that extra 1500 feet did us in. Like dizzy and headachy just for those moments up high, until we came back over the other side of the mountain.

It sure was gorgeous though.

We made it to a darling town called Ollantaytambo (so pleasing to say out loud! do it. yes you. do it!) and caught the train to the village below Machu Picchu.

Let me tell y'all, catching a train in Peru is not the same thing as catching a train in, say, Germany. Or even catching Amtrak here in the states. The boarding cars and lining up process are quite a Thing. Like a big ol' mess that somehow works anyway. I was both horrified and impressed.

The train ride was (you guessed it) SUPER SCENIC. They played pan flute music the whole time, and served juice cocktails (fresh juice with milk in it is a very big thing in Peru) and snacks and it was all very charming.

NIGHT 5: AGUAS CALIENTES

The town at the base of Machu Picchu is called Aguas Calientes, and I have... never seen a town quite like it. It's small, it only exists becuase of Machu Picchu (which was only discovered a hundred-ish years ago), and it is basically just a crop of shopping stalls and guest houses and restaurants and chapels. There are no real roads, and no vehicle traffic, except the buses that take people up the mountain. It felt more like a base camp than a town. It was crawling with backpackers and tourists and people excited to go hike the ruins. There's an air of fun and anticipation, and packed bars and pubs.

dinner on a rooftop terrace! 

Other people in our group were wearying of lack of hot showers (our hotel in Cusco was only intermittently warm, so people had been banking on great showers in Aguas Calientes, but it turns out not only was there no hot water but no water at all, because of some kind of main break? or something? people were still hosing off the sidewalks outside so I don't believe one word of whatever explanation was handed out, ha) but while they were craving hot water, I was craving quiet. It was maybe about Night 5 that the noise of South America started to exhaust me. This is a culture of people who enjoy background noise, and loud music, and blaring tv's that no one is watching. People embrace it as the feeling of living happening, and while I get that, it's also exhausting for me. I'm not an "unneccessary noise" kind of gal, and it can shoot my nerves real quick. The town was fun but even louder than Cusco, which was even louder than Lima, so by bedtime in Aguas Calientes I just wanted all the nightclub thumping to be... less. Or none. I had earplugs, but no earplugs are truly good enough for Peru. Trust.

DAY 6: MACHU PICCHU

We woke up super early (super! early!) (like, every hotel started breakfast at 5am. What? Why? Why do people love Machu Picchu so early in the day? What, it's not going to still be there at noon? I'm sure there's a reason this is a trend but I never did suss it out) and caught a bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu. Let me tell you, that drive was terrifying. I would not have taken my Honda Accord around those curves that fast, and they did it while passing other buses. People kept looking out the bus windows and pointing out all the memorials on the side of the mountain and I was like Y'ALL. CAN YOU NOT.

But we made it to the top, and oh man. So stunning.

Just... all the exclamation points.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had never fully grasped how big it is until I saw it in real life. I mean you can't tell scale in pictures.but each of those little squares is a non-small building, like an entire house or temple or whatever. This was a whole thriving city. People were born and died here and probably never had any reason to leave the mountain. It's huge.

Look at those tiny people and stairs, for scale. 

We spent half a day hiking and climbing around, and we only saw part of it. It would take multiple days to actually see every section, maybe more.

It kept striking me just how far-flung it was. This whole city, up on a mountain. A mountain that's pretttty inaccessible even for modern-day tourists. I mean we took a flight from an international gateway to the closest airport, then a long bus ride over mountains just to catch a train, which is basically the only way into the base camp town, and then a scary ride for miles up the mountain itself, before we even had a glimpse of it. HOW DID THEY EVEN FIND IT?? It was only discovered a hundred years ago, and I can see why! And why/how would they have built a city up on such a high mountain anyway? For safety? Defense? Amazing scenery? It's totally fascinating to me.

Before we hiked down, there were (of course!) (obviously!) more alpacas. Everyone, behold: the most Peru thing that has ever Peru'd:

After a long hard hike (my foot was angry at me but it was so so worth it) we had lunch in town before catching the train out. Look at this delightful lunch view!

We were ravenous, and Peru just kept consistently handing us amazing avocados. Every single one we had (and there were many) were perfectly ripe. I am not even a particularly avocado-y person, but daaaaaang these were incredible.

Also they have giant corn. Look at those huge kernels! They toast them and serve them like pretzels. Fun!

Also this was on the menu at lunch, so I will leave you with this final Machu Picchu thought: trout to the male thing. That is all.

Trout to the male thing. TROUT. TO. THE. MALE. THING.

Peru Trip! (Cusco)

DAY 3: TO CUSCO

We flew from Lima (sea level) south into the Andes to Cusco (11k feet or something bananas), and it was a really stunning flight.

I can see why doing this journey by bus would take 24 hours, even though it was such a short flight. There are so. many. mountains. And not that many roads, and definitely not great roads. It was beautiful to see though.

When we landed there was a bowl of coca leaves (not coco, not cocoa -- but coca: a whole 'nother thing) which we were welcome to chew on to help with elevation sickness? Apparently? I don't know it looks pretty legit to me?

ONLY THREE FREE THOUGH, DO NOT GO CRAZY NOW.

I mean, if you're not getting off the plane in a new place and putting random plants in your mouth immediately, then why even travel, right? (They were not tasty. But, yknow, when in Rome or whatever.)

Basically when we landed it was suddenly winter (because, it was winter) (and in the mountains) but we got checked into our hotel/ guesthouse and I climbed to the roof to look at the hillside. The building is an inteesting mix of indoor/outdoor space (chilly!) but it makes for fun exploring.

We all went out for a great dinner together. Steaks (more alpaca!) came on sizzling hot rocks and finished cooking right at the table. This is also a trend America should embrace, soon and very soon.

It was cold at night. Like, cold! No heater! Winter! Mountains! But they had these giant wool blankets (heavy rugs, basically) and oh man can I say again how amazing alpaca wool is? That stuff is no joke.

Unrelated, I met a baby goat. So there's that.

DAY 4: CUSCO

We started our day with Peruvian Starbucks (judge away, it delighted me and I'm  not sorry) and we used a room there to drink our coffee and have some team meetings, which, well. {Insert unbloggagble frustrations here, and feel free to ask me any time about the intersection of faith and workplace, when you're not in a specific faith-related call. It gets... complicated.}

But the historical city square is just gorgeous.

I really liked this door. It was my favorite door I saw in Peru. I called it early, on day 3.

Also, there's a random courtyard with random alpacas. I don't know why. I wasn't with any spanish speakers at the time so I couldn't ask. I just waved.

Always with the alpacas.

We adventured on a city bus (they don't look official, BUT THEY ARE) to the home of one of my colleagues who lives there. He is heading up a nonprofit with some local teachers, to aid and support kids who are aging out of orphanages and group homes. Foster care isn't really a Thing in Peru, so for most of these kids they don't have much of an idea about what living alone or cooking or getting around a city even looks like. I mean it would be a lot for any 18-year-old, but particularly when you've never even seen the life you're trying to live. It's very cool work they are doing, and it was fun to meet his friends and other people involved in his organization, and some of the kids he is working with.

Also the view from his house is not shabby.

We had Pervuian pizza for dinner. Peruvian pizza is a lot like American pizza except you have to walk to the carry-out place to order it, and then it takes several hours (!) because Peru.

While we waited, we went to a Peruvian grocery store, because grocery shopping in new places is one of my MOST FAVORITE THINGS to do when traveling in a new place. I bought all manner of fun snacks and treats to bring home.

Why are these juice boxes this shape, besides simply to delight me?

purple maize!

it's super dry and cold. my lips needed help. this seems legit yes?

Also, we had Inca Kola! I don't know why this delights me so much, it's basically just a super sweet tropical Sun Drop, and yet. Delightful.

I bought Mark an Inca Kola shirt to bring home. Oh yes I did. WHAT. HE LIKES SHIRTS.

I actually did some other fun shopping and wandering in our downtime in Cusco, with one of my colleagues who is also prone to such things. Places stay open late, and shopping in the dark in crowds of people was totally fun! (I'm not being sarcastic in the least.)

There were some really nice stores with beautiful clothes and hats, and I splurged on some amazing alpaca-cashmere scarves in bright colors that I could not walk away from, and a tunic sweater for Charlotte.

I also got to haggle in some little stalls for cute kitch, like coin purses and alpaca ornaments and these tiny Peruvian style hats that I cannot wait for my children to adorn their winter coats with. They're so charming. I'm charmed! SO CHARMED.

Less charming: since most bathrooms don't provide toilet paper, there is TP for sale everywhere, by the roll. Everyone just keeps a roll in their purse. It both makes all the sense in the world and yet none at all. By the end of the trip it made me smile to see it everywhere on every street corner and even roadside farm stands. Ha.

And thus ends this post, with toilet paper.

Peru Trip! (Lima)

{Backdated trip post} Hey so right on the heels of a busy and sad August with the beach and saying bye to Bowden and the frenzy of back to school (and we also replaced the minivan, which was its own particular sh!tshow, but that's a story for another day) I went to Peru!

And Peru is beautiful! Like whoa.

It was a work trip and there were Work Things and some Work Stresses (including Work Stresses About Faith, which I will totally tell anyone reading this if you text me, just not in this here bloggity corner of the internet, where I am mostly hidden but not secret enough, but I HAVE FEELINGS and will gladly vent them in a private forum) but for here and for now, I shall tell all the non-work-related Peru things.

This was part mission trip, part company annual meeting, part sightseeing. Are you ready? Let's go to Peru!

DAY 1: TO LIMA

Another Nathan gave me this delightful Scout passport cover and it made me happy the whole journey south. Like no joke.

Also I paid $75 for premium economy seating, so I wasn't fancy in business class but I had more legroom and better pillows/earplugs/etc, and let me tell you it was worth every penny. Do it. Recommend.

My friend and coworker (Cary) and I both flew from Raleigh and we went a day early so we could see Lima, before the rest of our people got there and we flew to the mountains. So since we were on our own, we used an industry perk and stayed in a beautiful JW Marriott. We did not hate it.

DAY 2: LIMA

We met up with two other ladies who had flown in early, and we explored the city.

We took a lovely walk around Miraflores. Aren't these houses lovely?

We wandered through a fun mall built right into the cliffs over the Pacific.

We admired beautiful tile at a beautiful church (and peeked in on a wedding, like creepers) (also beautiful).

We had lunch overlooking an Incan ruin! We ate our first alpaca and guinea pig. (My mother in law just read that and fainted. Sorry, vegan grandma!)

We took a taxi to the historic center of town and I made them follow me around with my guidebook on a walking route, telling them fun! facts! along the way.

We also somehow creeped on another wedding in another cathedral. Oops?

Somehow we ended up in a huge market downtown which, it turns out later, we had no business being in (Lima isn't the safest city in the world, true story), but it was very cool to see.

Like a big warehouse selling all manner of animal carcass meat, and home stuff, and seafood, and clothing, and oh these little quail eggs everywhere!

People eat these as snacks, like carts at stoplights sell them directly to drivers in car windows. Interesting!

Eventually we were somehow in Chinatown (yes, Lima has a Chinatown) and finally hailed a cab back to our hotel. We shopped around and bought some fancy presents (you guys, baby alpaca wool is bananas soft. like a whole different kind of cashmere) - scarves and chocolates and artisan soap for Anneliese in a rainbow, because why not? - and had pisco sours, this very Peruvian cocktail everyone there loves. Pisco is like a grape liquor (not wine but fermented differently?) and egg white and sour fruity mixers of various sorts. So tasty!

Also, in Peru the bar snacks aren't chips and nuts, but banana chips. I would like for America to embrace this trend, soon and very soon.

We had an amaaaaazing seafood dinner right over the crashing waves. Like just spectacular food. Maybe the best seafood I have ever had.

And more pisco sours. This time with lucuma, which I had never heard of, but is a tangy South American fruit they call "the last gold of the Incas" which is everywhere there (like we eat apples) and seems very mango-ish but doesn't taste like a mango.

Look at you, reading through Day 1 and already learning some sh!t about Peru! Gold star, you! (And me!)

farewell breakfast in Lima, overlooking the cliffs

Bowden, 2002 - 2016

I wish I had enough words, or better words. I don't.

She was our first baby, the first thing we ever loved together.

She was snuggly and she was stinky and she was not interested in your shenanigans. A real old biddy. Our old biddy. She was bemused by Simon and tolerated the three human hoodlums we insisted on bringing home.

She slept between my knees. She could spritely jump up onto our tall bed, until her final weeks.

She loved popcorn and sitting on top of the couch. She hated grates and was terrified of drains in the road. She was a magnet for the sunny spot on the floor.

She was the one being on this planet who loved me above all the other beings. All of them. How did I deserve such love?

We buried her in the backyard, crying and sweating. We already miss her.

She was loved, and we are so sad.

Bumgarner (Birthday!) Beach Week

With all the grandkids getting older and starting school, in a variety of school districts with varying school district schedules, we opted last year to move our family's beach week to August instead of spring break. So we had to wait several extra months this year to scratch our beach itch, but we finally made it! And celebrated Charlotte's birthday there, to boot!

(Girl's going to start thinking she gets a trip every year for her birthday.)

I made a laughably fundorable janky sunshine cake, per her beach birthday request, and it was... something. (She loved it.)

In better crafty news, I also made that shirt myself with a roll of iron on glitter paper and a blowing up a fun font and tracing it, oh yes I did, LIKE A BOSS.

Her one birthday request for the beach was to have an egg hunt. Normally we have always been there near Easter of course, and we often do a big family egg hunt outside on Easter afternoon after our beach arrival. Egg hunts aren't really part of our Easter celebration at home, so she totally associates eggs with the beach, not Easter itself. And. So. She wanted one for her birthday. At the beach. BECAUSE EGG HUNTS ARE A NORMAL BEACH ACTIVITY DUH.

After her birthday, the rest of the week was full of drinking and ice cream and watching the Olympics together, which was sort of fun since we hadn't done that together since we were kids.

We also took some of the kids to a tye dye event in the little pavilion by the town hall. Excellent activity.

We waited by a turtle nest for some turtle rescuers to shepherd some babies into the ocean (Holden Beach is a turtle sanctuary and we were there exactly the right week!) but it had already mostly hatched, so we only got to see leftover eggs, no babies.

John and Mark and the kids built a lot of sandcastles. Like, a lot. A LOT. Sometimes I think those two only pretend to be into it "for the kids" because they just legit like digging themselves.

Anneliese figured out how to ride waves in on the boogie board, and spent literal hours doing it. At one point during the week she asked me if there was an olympic medal for boogie boarding. "No reason, just curious."

We had some lovely evenings out on the beach, too. Our normal (little kid) routine had been to bring everyone in by 4 or 5 for dinner and then into bed afterwards. But this time of year, when it's hot in the day and everyone doesn't need to be in bed super early (because Olympics) (and getting older), it became easier to have some a/c time inside in the middle of the afternoon, and play to our hearts' content in the evening. Just so amazingly beautiful.

And fun uncles make things pretty fun too.

Thanks for a fun week as always, Dad and Cathy! It's so fun to see how the kids grow up all crowded around you at the beach every year. We are lucky to do this and lucky to have you.

It seems every Carolinian family has "their" beach town that they go to every year, a thing that is apparently unfamiliar outside of this part of the country. But it happens, it starts to feel like home, everyone has one, and this one is ours.

See you next year, Holden Beach.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte!

I am posting this in the wee hours of Charlotte's 5th birthday, from the beach, our annual trip with my dad. This is our second year on the road for her special day. Basically she's going to start expecting a trip every year for her birthday, and I will have very wide eyes (and say no) (but secretly want to say yes).

She was really excited to claim a top bunk when we got here today, something she quickly named as her birthday right (she didn't get a top bunk at GWL for Nathan's birthday, and has been talking about it ever since). But some hours after bedtime she got scared up high, appeared for several "bathroom breaks," one of which ended in tears and fears -- so we did a bed shuffle and now she is sound asleep beside me, my sweet baby girl who wants to be a big girl but clearly still isn't, in so many ways.

Oh, my heart.

So while I am busy having difficulty comprehending the passing of time, and also that my child is five, my youngest baby, and thinking about how much a youngest baby growing up just wreaks havok on the mom feels -- as I'm thinking about all that, I am also just now remembering I intended to make a cake tonight, and whoops! Got distracted by ice cream and the Olympics and totally forgot. It's nothing that I can't do in the morning, of course -- our "party" plans for the day are very vague, because, yknow, vacation -- but it just goes to show that while youngest kids can pull extra at your heartstrings, they also get a teensy bit forgotten. POOR THIRD CHILD, ETC.

But she is indeed five, and she will have cake, and the cake will be wearing sunglasses, I think? I hope? and she does squeeze my heart, this little Booler. She is growing up right before our eyes; most days it feels like the perfect balance of happy/sad.

Some of my favorites from the last year:


If you can't see the embeded video, click here to watch on YouTube.

(If you love memory lane like I do, here are her first, second, third, and fourth years too.)

Oh sweet little girl, I both ache for your diminishing babyness, and love the race into your big-kid-ness. I love you more than you can ever know. Keep dancing, every time you feel a dance in you. This year and always.

Happy birthday, dear Charlotte.

Charlotte At Almost Five

Charlotte is almost five! Happy due date, five years ago today! Age five! Five forever! I love five! I am about to have another five-year-old (yay)! ... My last five-year-old (sob).

But really. Look at this beautiful young lady. She hardly seems like a baby anymore.

(Hahahahahaaaaaa yeah right *wipes tear* no no, she's obviously still The Baby. Of course.)

Charlotte seems to have already entered into Age Five Delightfulness. She is old enough to be independent and have preferences and chase after what she wants and likes. But she's still young enough to have none ounces of too cool, and lots of innocent curiosity still in her.

Plus, she still says some words wrong. Syrup like cereal: syriup. The bonus room is the bennis room. Eating two pieces of toast is toast-es.When she wants you to leave something where it is (a song on the radio, the PJ's she wants to wear all day, etc) she says stay it on. And actually, stay makes more sense than leave, so I get it.

She is chatty and full of stories, half the time made up and half the time completely earnest retellings of mundane events ("and then he poured the cereal but mixed it with the other cereal can you even believe that???" *cue wild hand motions*) and unlike the other two, who we naively maybe once thought were talkative, Charlotte kind of never. stops. talking.

She has two made-up friends, Apple and Sushi (I don't even know) and when no one else will play with her, she plays with them. I have never seen a child outside of a novel so committed to her imaginary friends. Or so chatty with them. She and Apple and Sushi have an army of small toys like her Daniel Tiger "toysies" figurines, and Calico Critters, and a few Paw Patrol pups, and she creates whole worlds and houses and neighborhoods for them, and will do this for hours.

Also, she has several small purses and bags and even a portable Calico house, but her preferred transportation method for her most precious toys is a pizza breadstick box. She takes it all over the house and even on playdates. (Again, I don't even know.)

She dances and skips around the house, because why walk?

She floats around the pool in her puddle jumper, because why learn to swim? (Sigh.)

She follows Nathan and Anneliese and still can't quiiiite keep up, and "hey guys wait for me!" is still a very big part of her life.

She and Anneliese play together ever better, they are both very into dolls and babies and it has been a bonding thing for them this year. It has taken years for them to seem as close to the same age as they are (less than two years! only one school year apart! it has always seemed a much bigger chasm) but I think we are finally getting there.

She still sucks her thumb (no, I do not care anymore), and she calls it her "strong thumb" because it helps her feel better. I will never argue with that. Girl's got an overbite like whoa, braces are coming, there's no more preventing it, so thumb away, little one.

I feel like Charlotte eats almost nothing, and she is somewhat wee, but she's growing, so... meh? She does like french fries and gummy snacks. And gogurt and pizza. And sandwiches but only if they're cut in certain shapes (because obviously puzzles are delicious but dinosaurs are not). She also apparently loves the arsenal of snacks she keeps sneaking into her room and then doing a terrible job of hiding the evidence from. *mad face*

She sort of fails in her own Sneaky Wheelhouse though, replying when I call upstairs to her with things like, "I don't have my scissors, you don't need to come up here!"

Um.

She loves coloring, and is still really good at fine motor type things for her age. "Can you please print me something" has basically been her motto this year, there aren't enough coloring pages in the world to sate this child.

She loves winter, the only one in our house who grins in the outdoor chill, and bundles into her coat and hat with glee. (The rest of us glare at her properly, I promise.)

She loves being read to, but has shown very little interest in trying to read on her own yet.

She thinks she is good at numbers, and shushes everyone at least once a day to tell us "plus one plus one is two" and wait for people to lavish praise on her for such genius. (The amount of eye rolling from Nathan cannot be overstated.)

She likes to pray, and is the one who leads us in prayer 99% of evenings before dinner. She has a whole medley of blessings she likes to say.

She is off to kindergarten in a month. WHAT.

She is wheezy and sunshiney and makes the best mad faces of anyone I know. She has no modesty. She cries having her hair brushed. She cheats at games and tries to charm her way out of it. She is strong and delicate at the same time. She has gobs of friends and would play with them all every day if she could. She loves people, and new people, and she's never met a stranger. She's a good listener, always ready for a story or a joke. When she's happy to see you, she quite literally jumps up and down in excitement, and it's the best feeling in the world.

She made and makes our family complete.

Happy almost five, Charlotte Booler. You won't stay five forever, but we're sure going to enjoy it while it's here, you delightful little human, you.