On The Road Again: a house log

Man, it feels like it is been a month since we had a book tour update for ya. Oh, that is because it has. We were on hiatus while bookstores and retailers focused on the holiday rush (instead of hosting authors) so last week’s adventures in Texas and Florida were our first stops since finishing up in DC and Richmond in early December. And as much lively as stops in northern cities like Boston, Chicago, Toronto and Minneapolis were – we were excited to enjoy some warm weather in the southern half of the country. #longpostwarning

But then Austin had to go and look like this…

Texas was apparently in a month-long drought until we (and our strong weather luck) showed up and brought buckets of heavy rain. But that did not stop us from taking in some of this excellent city that people have been raving to us about (it was both of our first times in Austin). We walked a mile-ish in the misty weather to South Congress to do some eating (Guero’s) and shopping. For instance, Sherry hit up the Kendra Scott store and purchased these folks on sale (which she wore later that night to the signing, where she met dozens of other girls also wearing similar ones). In her words: “I did it, I came to Austin and I blended.”

After the consistently exciting earring shopping (simply kidding, I am a dude – so my eyes glazed over during that trip), we wandered into Uncommon Objects, which housed the coolest and quirkest assortment of antiques and weird wares. We were obedient shoppers and followed their “no photography” rule so the only picture we have to share is what we picked up there after Sherry and I spent over an hour rooting through all their bins and baskets of old objects (this is our idea of a good time, and there were tons of wildly odd and amazingly old things to find).

We came home with an old tin 7, an assortment of old dominoes (which say 1-4-3, another go-to number of ours) and letter tiles (that spell L-O-V-E… as you can see). There is talk of a shadowbox in their future for Clara’s big girl room, so we will have to see where they end up.

Once our shopping adventure had us sufficiently damp and sufficiently cold, we trudged back to our hotel to warm up and ready ourselves for that evening’s book signing. They put us up at the W Hotel downtown, which was fairly excellent (plenty of modern tile and wallpaper) but we plan to do a recap post of all of our hotel inspiration (along with hotel-staying pointers that we have picked up along the way) once the tour is over. So for now he’s a preview of the cool textures and patterns found in Austin:

Our signing that night was at BookPeople, which is simply about the biggest independent bookstore we have ever seen. So big they even had our names on a marque outside and a curtain for us to pop out of at the start of our welcome talk. The only thing missing was a giant spotlight or something. (Thanks Sidhya for the picture below).

Unlike our previous stops where we either gave a long talk or no talk at all, this particular week we were tasked with a 15 minute chat followed by some Q&A at each stop. Something we learned simply the day before we left. Oh well. We work best under pressure.

In fact, thanks to the aforementioned rainy walk to South Congress and back, we were able to brainstorm and practice a little chat consisting of five ways that we found writing a book to be surprisingly distinct than writing a journal. And rather than transcribe it here, we asked Alison of the journal House of Hepworths t0 capture it on video for us. Thanks so much Alison! And for anyone wondering where Sherry’s bangs are, well you will get that answer and more. It is a no holds barred conversation about everything from a future Petersik baby to getting a new house and everything in between:

If you watched the video, you may have noticed at one point I stopped to take a photo of Sherry while she talked. You never know when a photo might come in handy right? Sherry was not pleased with my impromptu photo session.

Jamie took the shot above. And here is the shot I captured below. Cannot you simply feel the eye-roll? I will likely get another one for in fact including this gem in the post.

Following the chat and our brief Q&A session, we raced up the stairs to begin the signing portion of the evening. And like our other stops, amongst tons of smiling faces and energetic people there were some good stories to pass along. For example, look how smiley Sidhya, Alison, and Katie are. People ask if signings are overwhelming or tiring but meeting so many lively and glad people gives us nearly an embarrassing amount of energy. We feed off of you folks and before we know it we are all grin-y and hyper too.

We enjoy hearing all of the interesting stories that come up, like this poor woman who got in a fender bender on the way to the signing. Since she did not have any paper handy, she and her friend ended up using the back of our book to exchange insurance info with the other driver. Ha!

Audrey had a minor dental procedure the day before so she was not able to talk or smile (her boyfriend emailed us ahead of time to explain why a seemingly unhappy not-chatting-at-all girl might step up to our table) so we commiserated with her and took this no-smiles-allowed picture.

And how cool is this? Megan and Brian both work at Home Depot so they brought us our quite own apron, which was intricately designed by the lettering person at their store (shout out to the Evan Road Home Depot #6550!). It was so excellent it deserved a murtsy (that is a man curtsy for anyone not familiar). Murtsying is the new planking. You heard it here first.

Being in Austin, we got plenty of request to do “Hook ‘Em Horns” in our photos. It took Sherry a few tries to realize it was not an aggressive, ready-to-charge style finger horn and it is supposed to point up at the sky. At lease Celeste did not seem to mind.

And of course there is consistently the occasional goofy photo in the mix. The girls chose to do “over excited,” but I apparently went in a shocked / dental-exam direction.

And we cannot forget to mention Jess who has achieved a book signing hat trick by attending all three Texans signings. In honor of her achievement in book travel attendance, I whipped up this graphic. It is no Golden Globe, but I tried. She explains more about her showcase of endurance on her journal.

And lastly, thanks to the clever “I Like You A Whole Lotto” treat from Jamie (she got us each a scratch off card) I have officially won ten more dollars from the Texas State Lottery in my lifetime than from my own state’s games. As for Sherry, she came out with a big goose egg. Er, moon or anchor or something.

If you want to read some other accounts of our Austin stop, here is one from Amanda & Corey and another from another Amanda (which includes a video shout out to her sick friend Ruthie). All in all, we had a blast in Austin. It was sufficient of a taste (albeit a dreary one) that we’d like to come back and explore for much more than a day.

Luckily our next stop – Miami, FL – was the exact opposite weather-wise. Hallelujah. The clouds parted and LMFAO began playing in our heads. Our publisher likes putting us up in unique, not-your-average-beige-walled hotels whenever they can (their goal is to try to get us into “not-chains with some flair” – and this spot in South Beach took the cake. It was called Dream and when we walked into the room, this is what greeted us. Well, minus the Sherry. Me-ow Miami. Am I right?

I’d never been to Miami before, so my impression of the city has been guided by music videos and the like. So the blue mood-lighting fairly much fit right into my picture of Miami. Could not you see them shooting a Will Smith video here? And the uniqueness of this hotel did not stop there. Simply check out the glass-doored bathroom. Our honest evaluation after a 24 hours stay is: we get the allure of a glass door on your shower, but the purpose of a “hey, look everyone!” toilet escapes us. It lead to several “I am peeing- do not look!” warnings over the course of our 24 hour stay. But all in all, it was a totally lively and over-the-top place to stay. Heck, it is likely the most memorable hotel of the whole tour so far.

Sidenote: the glass door also acts as an unintentional mirror for the user of the bathroom. As in, you can see your whole body sitting on the pot. You have been warned.

Moving on… we landed in Miami around 3pm, so after we got settled into our hotel room, we headed out for a late lunch/early dinner at the closest eatery we could find. And we wasted no time making the first of many seemingly non-stop Dexter references of the trip. Here is Sherry’s I am-in-Miami-so-I will-give-you-a-Dexter-pose pose.

We were running short on time before our signing that night, but we made sure to walk over to the beach for some obligatory sand-between-our-toes time. We only had about ten minutes to spare (and Sherry was wearing a sweater and jeans) but it was excellent.

We did not want to leave. But alas, we had a signing to attend to (plus we had forgotten our bathing suits – and if ever there were a beach not to be overdressed at… well, you’ve seen the music videos). So we headed to our signing at Books & Books in nearby Coral Gables. Perhaps the Miami heat was simply getting to us (not the basketball team), but it was simply about the prettiest bookstore we had ever seen. There was this glowing courtyard surrounded on three sides by a Spanish-style building with a bar under an arched breezeway.

And the inside was equally awe-inspiring. I want a room like this in my house. Stat.

Like Austin, we kicked things off with a version of the same talk followed by Q&A. We again covered essential topics like Sherry’s bangs (which were pinned back due to the frizz-inducing humidity). The signing portion of the day was a blast as usual. Sherry was glad to learn from Nicholl that her gold “Jersey” purse also doubled as a gold “Miami” purse. That is my girl, fitting in with the locals wherever she goes.

And Danielle sewed this adorable superhero cape for Clara – although Sherry’s sporting it more like a bib in this pic. I keep trying to get a picture of Clara wearing it now that we are home but she will not stand still once it is velcroed on. She has one speed when the cape is on: fast.

Since our two events in Florida were fairly close geographically and neither bookstore was quite large, the line was not as long as we have seen in other places. Which meant by the time we got to the end we apparently hadn’t depleted our small-talk tank and proceeded to talk the ears of the last few folks in line. Bethany (far right in the photo below) wrote about the whole thing, including a run down of some of the questions we answered earlier in the evening. She also had a funny run-in with Sherry in the restroom. Thank goodness those doors were not glass.

Since our next stop in Fort Lauderdale was only about a 45 minute car ride away, Thursday was likely the most chill tour day we have had so far. Typically it is all “get up crazy early to taxi to the airport so we can fly out and then taxi to our next hotel before taxiing to the event and somehow eating something better than airport food when possible.” But this one day we got to sleep in, catch up on some work, eat a sit down breakfast, and take in some of the excellent architecture along Ocean Drive. In a whirlwind trip (six flights in four days!) this was that one leisurely moment. So we were dedicated to soaking it up.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale early in the afternoon we took a moment to take in our hotel – which included this view from our balcony – and then headed out to grab a bite to eat. We did not realize simply how far our hotel was from all of the action so we ended up walking over 3 miles before at last landing at Casablanca Cafe. It was in fact an excellent walk though. And it felt good to stretch our legs from all of that time spent in taxis and on planes. Our pictures from this portion of the trip began to become fewer and farther between, as I think Florida was starting to trick us into thinking we were on vacation or something.

So forgive me for jumping ahead, but after having an excellent lunch (we highly recommend Casablanca Cafe), we caught a taxi back to our hotel (we did not have time to walk the 3 miles back and make it to our event in time), swiftly changed into our signing “uniforms,” and then headed to The Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale which has a Books & Books in its gift shop. From there, it was fairly much the same chat and Q&A that we had done the last two nights – except this time we had sharks! (The museum was in the process of packing up their shark exhibit, so it was right next to our podium).

The people of Fort Lauderdale were a strong way to cap off this week of signings. Friendly, warm, and even somewhat familiar – we had one guy stop by who we’d seen the night before in Miami (hi Steve!) and Sherry also met the sister of one of her high school friends (hi Erin!). There was also Jenna, who had us sign her well-enjoyed paintbrush.

While that was not the first paintbrush we have signed, I will say Caitlin handed us the first Lowe’s receipt we were asked to put our mark on. Well, I take that back, I have signed plenty of Lowe’s receipts in my day… but typically at the checkout counter.

But perhaps the cutest thing we were asked to autograph that day was this little guy’s homemade shirt. In case you cannot read it, Otto is sporting a “$herdog is my homegirl” shirt. Oh, and a bowtie. Which kinda makes the outfit.

When the signing was over we unexpectedly had the time and energy left to grab a real dinner, so we strolled down Las Olas Blvd and found ourselves walking into The Royal Pig – and were immediately met by a gasp. Jen (at the right) and her sister had been at the signing earlier and was surprised to see us again. So after we scarfed an remarkable dinner (the food in Ft Lauderdale was the best of the trip so far, simply because we had time to enjoy two meals and we happened to enjoy both of them) we chatted it with her and took another photo to cap off the night. You can read her hilarious version of the events on her journal.

Then the next morning it was back to the ol’ airport routine and we boarded flights #5 and #6 of the journey. At least each of these plane rides got us closer to home.

And when we at last landed in Richmond Friday afternoon we got the best greeting. As we exited security we heard a familiar voice yelling “Daddy! Mommy!” and running our way. We had expected to simply meet my dad in the arrivals lane outside the airport, but he and mom (who played baby/house/Burger-sitters while we were away) surprised us by bringing Clara to the airport to greet us. Oh what I would give to have that moment on video. Let us simply say it got Sherry all misty-eyed. We missed our girl.

We had this week off from touring, but we are back on the road next week (Tacoma on Friday, Portland on Saturday, and Palo Alto on Sunday). You can see all the details here on our book tour page. We cannot wait to West Coast it up and hope to see some of you then. Oh yeah, and if there are any strings you can pull to get Miami weather up there in the Pacific Northwest we’d like to officially submit that request now. Thanks for your consideration.