The vacation has begun!!! Chris, Parker, Madelyn and I flew out of Houston International at 7:30 on Saturday morning. Daddy flew in from Nigeria on Friday night so we stayed at a hotel by the airport the night before our flight to maximize our time with him before we left. So here we are, the mommy, daddy, two kids, three suitcases, plus everyone's backpacks/carry-on's.....one would have thought that we were making a permanent move to the East Coast!!!! Thankfully we were checked in by a sky captain at the curb and we avoided some major lines checking in. The sky captain also directed us to an optional security area as we were cutting it pretty close to our flight time. Mind you this whole time Madelyn is not in the stroller so between her and Parker I felt like I was hearding cattle through the terminal. Got to security, fairly small line, and Madelyn has a major meltdown. She didn't want to stay in line, she didn't want to take off her backpack, she didn't want to take off her shoes, and she didn't want to walk through the metal detector. By this time I was sweating and really ticked off.....why couldn't we just get through this calmy?!? I must say that the guy checking our tickets actually smiled at us and went kind of fast in checking our tickets and the guy at the metal detector told me to go ahead and carry her through. Got through security.....shoes on and Maddie in stroller.....and headed to the gate (this is about 7:00, take-off is at 7:30). Get to the gate and it says that the next flight departing is to Mexico City.....pardon my language, but WTH? Mexico City is the last place I want to go!!! Check the departures only to discover that our gate had been changed from E to C. We all haul it over to the gate and get there as they were boarding our seats. Needless to say we got on, flight went well, kids did great, and we landed safely in Baltimore, Maryland.
Our first stop was to Williamsburg, VA to visit Nona Wilson, Chris' grandmother (Betsy's mother), whom we hadn't seen in a good while. We have missed her so much and we really wanted her to meet Madelyn so it wonderful that we could make this trip. She lives a Patriot's Colony, a retirement community for former military families. It is so beautiful!! We stayed in a guest apartment that was very nice....it had a very cozy feeling. On Saturday night we all went to dinner in the dining room. Dining in the dining room required a sports coat for men and dresses for women.....oy vey!!! Parker was already packing his sports coat because he wants to be ready to meet Barack Obama while we are in Washington (don't know if he's planning on wearing it the entire time, I'll get back to you on that). Everyone looked nice and acted great at dinner. Don't think that we embarassed Nona too bad. :) The next morning Uncle Steve and Aunt Linda came from Mathews, VA to join us all for bruch. We so enjoy spending time with them and were greatful to be able to see them. Chris later told me that Linda and Nona both told him that Parker and Madelyn were such well behaved children....I couldn't have been more proud!! After brunch we went to Colonial Williamsburg where we saw a reinactment of the British taking over something (can't remember what Chris told me they were taking over) and then drove over to Newport News, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. We so enjoyed being able to spend time with Nona, this is time that can never go away and can never be taken back. We are fortunate!
Monday morning we picked mom and dad up in Baltimore, MD and drove to Easton, PA. It was great to reconnect with M & D, but we were all so tired that we had a pretty uneventful Monday night. Just to backtrack a bit..... We have a thing about visiting different states and taking our picture at the state line. Chris and I missed Virginia and Maryland......don't know where they were, but we got Pennsylvania, oh well, we'll keep trying! This morning, Tuesday, we went through the Crayola Factory where we learned how they make crayons and markers. It is a great place because there is every product available for the kids (and adults) to make all sorts of projects. Part of admission are free crayons, markers, and modeling clay....very cool!! We had a great time and left with a butt load of Crayola goodies! After leaving the Crayola Factory we headed to Princeton, NJ to see the Princeton campus. The drive to Princeton was absolutely beautiful, as was the campus. We had a picnic on the campus grounds and let the kids run off some energy. I sat there watching my kids run around the Princeton campus and couldn't help but think that maybe it wasn't me actually sitting there......it was a very surreal moment! After walking around the campus for a while we got back on the road towards our final destination of Milford, CT. We drove through New Jersey and New York to get to Connecticut and didn't get pics at any of the state lines......missed the darn signs AGAIN!!! Driving through New York City was so awesome that I just wanted to stay there, however, the traffic was horrible so I was pretty happy when we got through it all!! Parker kept trying to see if he could see the Statue of Liberty, but never saw her and it wasn't for a lack of trying!!
At the current moment we are in Milford, CT. In the morning we will visit the Yale campus, Plymouth Rock, eat lobster, go whale watching, and do whatever else we can squeeze in our day! :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment