Holiday Travels to the East Coast

On Dec. 24th, D and I got up at 4:30 am to join the masses in flying to visit loved ones on the other side of the country. We were headed to Raleigh to share in the Christmas cheer with my younger sister Ali whose husband Ben happened to be finishing up his very lengthy tour of almost a year abroad in various Middle Eastern countries. We received some happy news that he is leaving Afghanistan and will be rejoining my sis on January 5, and won't be out of the country for at least a year. YAY!

Here are some annecdotes from our excursion:

We had the easiest, most uneventful flights, go figure. We flew Continental and received a FREE turkey and cheese sandwich, Ruffles chips and snack size Muskateers bar on the flight. Pretty remarkable in the days where they usually only give you the requisite soft drink, not even a snack-American.

We drove to Maryland on Xmas morning, in good spirits, warmed by the bright sunshine on the cold day. Not too many travelers on the 6 hour drive up I-95 , and we listened to xmas music the whole way. Emma, Ali's black lab was quite well behaved and joined us on the trip. We stopped at a rest stop and D always gets items from the vending machine that I haven't tried before, as I am a self-identified goat, and this time it was some salt and pepper chips, which turned out to be really good. His Shrek snickers had green caramel in it which was very unappetizing and looked a lot like it was moldy. My sister has a Prius, and we only passed 3 on the way to MD, and did a "woot, woot" everytime we saw one.

Dennis and Emma chillin sleepily in the backseat, only 4 more hours to go!

We drove through Richmond, and DC, and up to a town just shy of the PA border, in the Cactoctin Mts, near Fredrick, off I-15 someawheres near Gettysburg and Camp David to a really cute house in the country with Ben's immediate family who made us feel at home. Kathy and Charlie and Katy are all teachers so we traded some fun student stories. We saw lots of deer, laughed a bunch, ate some crabcakes, meatballs, local potato chips and tried some deliciously decadent cookies that aren't really cookies at all, but creamy sugary deliciousness called Bergers. Dennis took a package home with us, yum!

Kathy and Charlie's house in PA.

After Xmas, we traveled for a day trip to DC. DC has the cleanest subway system I have ever seen, easy to park and ride from Gaithersburg, no advertising, and no smell and really easy to navigate. It reminded me of Disneyland space mountain, sorta dated and futuristic at the same time, dark with lights from below. It was raining the day we visited, so we went to a few museums- Natural History, Contemporary Art, National Archives, Space, and some of the monuments -Lincoln, WW2, Vietnam, but by 4pm, soaked to the bone, ready to get some coffee, we called it a day, and got some coffee, visited the H&M on 11th(no trip is complete without that), and metroed it outta there. It would have been great to have more days there, but that was pretty good for a first go around. You can see how cold and rainy it was from our photos.

All we need is the third sister with a green coat and black cap and we would be the trifecta.

Only one of us had an umbrella--forecast was SLIGHT chance of rain

Ben's sister Katy and mom Kathy had been prepped about D and I's obsession with Baltimore that began with really John Waters many years ago, and recently Ace of Cakes, and the show The Wire we have just finished the first 4 seasons of and waiting for the 5th to begin (Jan 5th!). I seem to related everything to some type of tv show, I admit it, and I love to visit cities and then go home and watch movies and shows that feature the city. Katy graciously took us dorks on a tour, and showed us around, the harbor, the Baltimore police station, pointed out a rowhouse for us Westerners, and it pretty much looks just like it does on the Wire, boarded up homes next to revitalized homes, pretty scary in some parts, pretty cool in others, a sort of decaying but evolving city, and I am guessing though that the residents love it there. We took a picture of the Ace of Cakes building, hoping for a sneak peek of Mary Alice or one of the peeps, but then went to the harbor areas, and took some pics outside.

Mary Alice, are you there?

This is a row house...

The Dobbin House decorates with fruit and garland, very pretty.

We went to Gettysburg that night for some dinner at the Dobbin House, the first stop on the Underground Railroad of which the original building from the 1700's still stands, and is now a restaurant with some amazing food. The town was really cute and decked out for the holidays, looked amazing at night. No wonder East Coasters get nostalgic for the East at Xmas time.

Doesn't it look like this could be the set of the Gilmore Girls?

Goodbye Mid Atlantic States and warm jackets and pants!

We then traveled back to NC, had some Mellow Mushroom pizza, which is a SE chain, that is oh so yummy, and saw the movie Juno. A perfect end to a great week.