The Long and Winding Road

Drive it home, finally. Well, it is not as bad as that sounds.

Monday started ok with the trip to the Science museum. It was a really fun place and I recommend it to anyone going up to that area with kids. It is a total hands on place with lots of little experiments. We spent about 2 hours there and then we went to the King Arthur store. For those who don’t know King Arthur, check out their web site. They have the best flour around and they sell wonderful kitchen products. A lot of it is kosher.

When we walked in, I saw a boy with a Yankees hat on so I said hello (as I was wearing one also). Then I notice the tzitzit hanging from his waist. I see his mom and we start chatting.

“Where are you from?”
“New Jersey.”
“Us too! Where about in New Jersey?”
“Highland Park.”
“Us too!”

Unfortunately my brain just cannot recall her name, but I am sure we will now start bumping into them every other day in Highland Park!

We spent a while there too including some very good cookies and muffins before we made our way back to Lincoln. At the resort things get a bit difficult for Avi as he is just off the wall when there is not much for him to do. Luckily they get Disney Channel there and that seemed to keep him occupied. His bad behaviors from the other day resurfaced and we debated again about going home. Marsha and I really wanted to go to Franconia Notch State Park and since Tuesday was supposed to be a gorgeous day, we decided to go another day.

Tuesday morning we went to Franconia Notch and began our day at the Flume Gorge. Avi was very difficult and did not want to go. He gave me lots of troubles, but I got him on the bus to take us to the start if the trail. We started walking into the gorge and Avi hiked up ahead. The gorge was amazing. I have not seen anything quite like it. I will post some photos later. We got to the top of the gorge and Avi was nowhere to be found. We started on the path back to the visitor’s center, but there were two paths. We took the longer one as that was where most people were going (and we wanted to go that way). On the way I called the visitor’s center and Avi was not there but they said they would look out for him. Five minutes later they called and he was there. He took the shorter path back and got on a bus back to the visitors center. We were a little upset that the bus driver took an 8 year old boy by himself without asking questions, but there were others on the bus so the driver could have assumed he was with them.

We then went to the aerial tram at Cannon Mountain in the park. There were breathtaking views from the top. While on the mountain, we met a nice family from Monsey and I took their picture to email to them (Mom, Dad and seven of their 10 kids!) Avi could not stay up there so he and I went down and Marsha, Noam and Shayna went to the observation deck. She got some nice photos and I will post some soon.

After we got back Avi went back to his normal tantrums but when he watched TV he calmed down. We seriously considered leaving on Wednesday. After many phone calls with friends and family, we decided to do one more day since we planned on going to Story Land, an amusement park nearby. Avi was excited for this, and when he has things to do like this, he is much better behaved. On the way there we decided to see one of the many waterfalls in the area. We picked one to see that was tall but with an easy hike. Well, it turns out that Marsha read the brochure wrong and it was a moderately difficult hike, but the kids made it. Avi again went up ahead, but when we got to the falls he was very well behaved and loved it there. He also hiked ahead on the way down but was very good when we got to the car. I think the adrenalin and endorphins that his body was pumping held him for a while.

Story Land is a nice park for kids up to about 10 or so. The rides are geared for that age and all the kids had a great time. Back at the resort Avi just watched TV again and was easier to handle.

We left the area at about 11:30 on Thursday and had a VERY difficult trip home. Avi was worse than normal for a good chunk of the trip. He did not calm down until we were well into Connecticut. After that he was a little better. We tried to meet my parents for dinner but traffic to them was slow so we went down the parkway and met my in-laws for dinner. Avi freaked at where we were going, admitting to me that he was scared because it was a new restaurant for him and he did not want to go in. A very typical autistic response (one of a number that we saw over this vacation), but I was slowly able to get him insisde.

We finally got home at about 9:00 last night and got the kids to bed.

All in all a difficult vacation, but with a few good moments.

Here are three photos from Wednesday.

Marsha at the falls

Marsha, Noam and Shayna on the flying shoe ride at Story Land

Avi was big enough to ride all the rides at Story Land by himself. Here is his first
time behind the wheel of a “car”.

We are now 3 days into our vacation in New Hampshire. It was a very rough three days. So rough, that we have been considering coming home. The car ride up was actually not too bad in terms of the kids. They were pretty well behaved. Avi got a little upset about being in the third row at some point so he and Noam switched (which made Noam happy) and that solved some of the issues. The real problem with the ride up was the traffic. Essentially we had traffic from New York City up through all of Connecticut. It got better and worse at different points. We left our house at 10:30 am. We pulled into the parking lot of the resort in Lincoln, NH at 7:20 pm with only a few minutes to spare for Shabbat. We had to quickly get the oven going and the hot plate on so that we could have our hot food for Shabbat. Dinner went fine and basically we all just collapsed after dinner.

Shabbat was a different story. After being cooped up all day on Friday, we had to keep the kids in for Shabbat. It was a rainy day yesterday so it made it hard to go out. We went to the indoor pool in the am and that was ok, but then we were in the apartment for a lot of time during the afternoon. We tried to take a walk, but Avi was just too difficult. We were able to get back to the pool in the later afternoon (outdoor this time) and got some nice time in the hot tub there (much to the happiness of my muscles). I am not really hitting on how difficult Avi was. He did some bad things which I am not going to write about, and we already started talking about coming home. We decided to stick it out since being cooped up for two days is very hard for anyone.

Today we got up and we decided to do a small hike near the resort and to go on a local train ride which follows the Pemigewasset River. (can you pronounce it?) The hike was ok, but the kids wanted to go back too soon. Then we had some lunch and went to the train. It started out nice. Avi was looking out the window and helping me to take some photos. Suddenly, they came down the car with a snack cart and that set him off. I told him he could not have anything as we had our own snacks and he lost it. Basically for the next hour he cried and carried on. I got him basically calmed down by the time the ride ended.

We got back to the apartment and relaxed a bit. We talked with Avi to find out what he really wanted to do and to try and deal with the snack problem. Over the past year food has been a major problem for Avi. He eats little at meal times and sneaks junk food in his room. We try very hard to stop this but it is hard at times. Marsha went to the store to get a few things, and picked up some extra snacks so hopefully Avi will have an easier time.

Tomorrow is Marsha’s birthday. Our plan is to drive to Norwich, VT. There is a kids science center there and we will make pilgrimage to the King Arthur Flour Company. Avi likes museums so hopefully it will be an easier day. On Tuesday, we plan on going to Franconia Notch state park. There is a gondola ride up a mountain which the kids should like as well as the flume gorge where you can walk through a gorge and see beautiful waterfalls. Hopefully the kids will like that as well. If we have time we will go see where the old man on the mountain used to be.

If we make it through Tuesday, we might go to Story Land which is a popular kids amusement park up here.

That’s all for now.

Avi is coming home today with about 1 ½ weeks of camp left. As always, it is two steps forward and one step back. I don’t want to go into major details, but he had some difficult days at camp and the feeling is that he should come home while there were still more positives rather than have him stay and start to turn into negatives. Needless to say we are disappointed, but we know that this is for the best.

This week and next will be difficult for sure and we have no idea how we will approach them as Avi will be home full time with Marsha. On the 21^st we leave on vacation to New Hampshire, and we know that on family vacation, Avi is usually very good (especially when I am there full time) so we expect a good time then, but we may have to seek out some sort of help over the next week or so.

God willing, after a year at the new school Avi will be in a better position to go to camp again. We are definitely hoping for that. In the meantime, we will get through the next weeks and then help Avi prepare for the next part of our long and winding road.

First off, a few notes. When I began my endeavor of titling all of my postings with Beatles song titles, I never said that I would not repeat them, so this is my first repeat. To be fair though, in that posting I was talking about the album, not the song, so perhaps this is not a repeat!

Second, this post is in honor of my friend Marla Zirin who is travelling cross country with her husband Rich and daughter Mikayla. Please read their blog about the trip!

Third, the song does play a VERY tangential part in this posting, but it is not about the Beatles. First, listen to this and then I will continue.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E26GN6uhrCs]

As you can see we are talking about David Cassidy (for those who know Marla, now you know why this is in her honor). I grew up watching the Partridge Family and like all boys of that time, I was secretly in love with Laurie Partridge (aka Susan Dey). But the real talent in this show (and group) lay with David Cassidy. He became one of the biggest heartthrobs of the time and sold millions of records with the Partridge Family and on his own.

Now about 35 years later, David is starring in a new sitcom on ABC Family called Ruby and the Rockits. His co-stars include his step Brother Patrick Cassidy and Alex Vega (of Spy Kids fame). And the show is written and produced by one of his other step-brothers (and another teenage heartthrob) Shaun Cassidy (his third step-brother Ryan is the set designer on the show). I decided to check this show out and in the end I was pleasantly supprised.

The premiss of the show is that David and Patrick play brothers who were rock stars in the 80s and now have a very strained relationship. David has continued in music, now headlining at a lounge in a local Indian casino and Patrick owns a successful car dealership. Into the mix comes Ruby, David’s daughter he did not know he had. She moves in with Patrick and his family and the two brothers bury the hatchit. I’ll leave it there. In the end the show is funny at times and sometimes sincere. David Cassidy is hilarious as the aging rock star and Alex Vega, as Ruby has a remarkable voice. There is at least one live song in each episode and they are very fun to listen to.

I recommend this show as good family entertainment (oh and I hear that later in the season a certain mama partridge is going to show up!).

Avi has been up at camp for just about a week now. From what we can tell he is having a good time. He has not written home except to say that he could not find his flashlight, so we do not know what he is thinking. Luckily the camp posts photos each evening and on a few occasions we have seen Avi in the photos.

On Shabbat afternoon, I happened to look at my cell phone while it was plugged in for charging and saw that there was a voice mail. I took a look at the missed call and recognized it as the camp. They had called just after Shabbat began Friday night. Shabbat may start later at camp, so I am sure they thought Shabbat had not started. Getting worried, I called the camp even through it was still Shabbat. I spoke to the camp assistant director and she told me not to worry that it was all taken care of. Well, I tried not to think about it, and on Monday morning I called.

The camp is for kids with similar issues as Avi and they are good at dealing with them. Avi was not wanting to participate on Friday and wandered off a bit and he was giving them problems with the shower. So they came up with a plan that he can have a snack after his shower and he also promised to try each activity for at least 15 minutes on Monday and then they would increase the time each day. If he liked the activity he would continue but if not, he could play with one of the counselors. This is to go for this whole week while they have an extra counselor. We should hear back on Sunday as to how this worked.

Robyn, our contact at the camp told us that very often the kids just have one day when they cannot participate and when they act out. Friday was just Avi’s day. Robyn helps Avi so she must have some sort of counselor position although not Avi’s directly and she has been there for 7 years so she seems to know what she is doing.

So we are hoping we get a letter from Avi and we are sending him letters pretty much daily (through email). In the meantime we are trying to get his room cleaned up and re-designed so that he will not leave the mess he always does.

Finally here are a couple of photos of Avi from yesterday. I am guessing that he was playing Guitar Hero (they use video games sometimes when it rains).