Family Vacation
In case any of you were wondering why I suddenly went silent for the past week, it's because I was out of town. I don't like advertising stuff like that until after I'm back which is why there was no mention of this until now.
So where was I? Well, Chriss had technical training in D.C. on Tuesday and Wednesday. We decided last minute to turn it into a family vacation, making it the first one in four years. And, we decided, since we were making a road trip out of it, we might as well go some other places we've always wanted to go. So we turned it into a rather round about trip and went to Kirtland, OH; Alexandria, VA/Washington D.C.; and Gettysburg, PA. It was a ton of fun and we got back last night.
Kirtland:
We picked T up from school last Friday and headed out. It's a six hour drive from where we live to Kirtland, so we got to our hotel around ten o'clock.
Two days before we left, I found out onegrapeshy was having a book signing to celebrate the release of Say the Word and that the bookstore was only twenty minutes from our hotel. I convinced my husband to take a detour and so we spent most of Saturday in Cleveland where I got to meet not only onegrapeshy but brian_ohio and his wife and mela_lyn and her husband. I know, lucky me! It was so much fun! I packed my copy of Before, After, and Somebody Inbetween and bought Say the Word at the bookstore and got them both signed. (I started reading Say the Word last night before I went to bed and stayed up much later than planned because I couldn't put it down. I'm about 100 pages in already and it's great so far). After the signing we all went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Chriss was such a good sport the whole day and T really took a shining to mela_lyn . She was a huge hit with him.
After we left there, we spent the rest of the day at the visitor's center in Kirtland. On Sunday we took a tour of the Kirtland Temple and the Kirtland Village.
Alexandria/D.C.:
We left Kirtland Monday morning and drove to Alexandria, VA. Everything was going smoothly until we had to merge onto the beltway. Oh. My. Goodness. To avoid getting all wordy and ranty, let's just say that driving into, around, and out of the D.C. area is a nightmare. We got lost many times and for hours at a time. That said, our hotel was awesome! Work paid for all the but the last night there. We stayed at the Hawthorne and had one of those suites with a kitchen and dining room and 42" plasma TV.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Chriss had to work so T and I took the hotel shuttle to the metro station and then took the train to King Street in Old Town Alexandria. We took tours of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial and the John Carlisle house. We also bought a scavenger hunt kit that had us going all over Old Town searching for places that were significant to George Washington's life. (Oh and I found a couple of bookstores while there and ended up coming home with about five more books to add to my library). During these two days, I learned that for all the exercising I do, I am not in as good a shape as I thought. All the walking and the stair climbing about did me in. Granted, the walking was on cobblestones and we walked at least four or five miles a day. There was a free trolley that went up and down King Street every twenty minutes that we did take advantage of when we could, but I didn't learn about it until _after_ we'd already walked the 20 blocks from the metro station to the waterfront on Tuesday.
Thursday all three of us were able to go sight-seeing. So we took the metro to the Washington Mall and started the day at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Then, T insisted we walk all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial after which we walked all the way back to the Air and Space Museum. Chriss and I were so tired and my feet were killing me by then so we only saw the space part of the musuem. Needless to say, we crashed by the time we got back to the hotel.
Gettysburg:
Friday we left D.C. (once again getting lost a handful of times). We left the hotel at eleven and even though it's only supposed to be a two hour drive to Gettysburg, because of all the times we got lost, we didn't get there until four. After all of this, we really want to get a GPS.
We went to the visitor's center and bought a dramatized audio tour and drove around the battlefield in our car. By the time the battlefield closed, we were only halfway through the tour so we finished the other half yesterday after we checked out of the hotel. It was an amazing experience. I've always been fascinated by this period of our history but until I was there and seeing the place for myself, did it really hit me that these were real people that fought and died there.
Home:
We left Gettysburg after lunch yesterday and got home around nine-ish. As much fun as we had, I'm glad to be back and sleeping in my own bed and not eating out for almost every meal. And once I unpack, I'll be glad to not live out of a suitcase anymore. I'm gonna give myself a day or two to recouperate from our trip and then it'll be time to dive into revisions. I have to admit, it was nice not thinking about writing for a week, but now I miss it. I'm ready to get back to work. : )
I'm gonna try and catch up on here as best I can, but given how long I was gone, there's no way I can catch up on anything. So if there's anything you want to make sure I don't miss, just point me in that direction please. : )
So where was I? Well, Chriss had technical training in D.C. on Tuesday and Wednesday. We decided last minute to turn it into a family vacation, making it the first one in four years. And, we decided, since we were making a road trip out of it, we might as well go some other places we've always wanted to go. So we turned it into a rather round about trip and went to Kirtland, OH; Alexandria, VA/Washington D.C.; and Gettysburg, PA. It was a ton of fun and we got back last night.
Kirtland:
We picked T up from school last Friday and headed out. It's a six hour drive from where we live to Kirtland, so we got to our hotel around ten o'clock.
Two days before we left, I found out onegrapeshy was having a book signing to celebrate the release of Say the Word and that the bookstore was only twenty minutes from our hotel. I convinced my husband to take a detour and so we spent most of Saturday in Cleveland where I got to meet not only onegrapeshy but brian_ohio and his wife and mela_lyn and her husband. I know, lucky me! It was so much fun! I packed my copy of Before, After, and Somebody Inbetween and bought Say the Word at the bookstore and got them both signed. (I started reading Say the Word last night before I went to bed and stayed up much later than planned because I couldn't put it down. I'm about 100 pages in already and it's great so far). After the signing we all went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Chriss was such a good sport the whole day and T really took a shining to mela_lyn . She was a huge hit with him.
After we left there, we spent the rest of the day at the visitor's center in Kirtland. On Sunday we took a tour of the Kirtland Temple and the Kirtland Village.
Alexandria/D.C.:
We left Kirtland Monday morning and drove to Alexandria, VA. Everything was going smoothly until we had to merge onto the beltway. Oh. My. Goodness. To avoid getting all wordy and ranty, let's just say that driving into, around, and out of the D.C. area is a nightmare. We got lost many times and for hours at a time. That said, our hotel was awesome! Work paid for all the but the last night there. We stayed at the Hawthorne and had one of those suites with a kitchen and dining room and 42" plasma TV.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Chriss had to work so T and I took the hotel shuttle to the metro station and then took the train to King Street in Old Town Alexandria. We took tours of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial and the John Carlisle house. We also bought a scavenger hunt kit that had us going all over Old Town searching for places that were significant to George Washington's life. (Oh and I found a couple of bookstores while there and ended up coming home with about five more books to add to my library). During these two days, I learned that for all the exercising I do, I am not in as good a shape as I thought. All the walking and the stair climbing about did me in. Granted, the walking was on cobblestones and we walked at least four or five miles a day. There was a free trolley that went up and down King Street every twenty minutes that we did take advantage of when we could, but I didn't learn about it until _after_ we'd already walked the 20 blocks from the metro station to the waterfront on Tuesday.
Thursday all three of us were able to go sight-seeing. So we took the metro to the Washington Mall and started the day at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Then, T insisted we walk all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial after which we walked all the way back to the Air and Space Museum. Chriss and I were so tired and my feet were killing me by then so we only saw the space part of the musuem. Needless to say, we crashed by the time we got back to the hotel.
Gettysburg:
Friday we left D.C. (once again getting lost a handful of times). We left the hotel at eleven and even though it's only supposed to be a two hour drive to Gettysburg, because of all the times we got lost, we didn't get there until four. After all of this, we really want to get a GPS.
We went to the visitor's center and bought a dramatized audio tour and drove around the battlefield in our car. By the time the battlefield closed, we were only halfway through the tour so we finished the other half yesterday after we checked out of the hotel. It was an amazing experience. I've always been fascinated by this period of our history but until I was there and seeing the place for myself, did it really hit me that these were real people that fought and died there.
Home:
We left Gettysburg after lunch yesterday and got home around nine-ish. As much fun as we had, I'm glad to be back and sleeping in my own bed and not eating out for almost every meal. And once I unpack, I'll be glad to not live out of a suitcase anymore. I'm gonna give myself a day or two to recouperate from our trip and then it'll be time to dive into revisions. I have to admit, it was nice not thinking about writing for a week, but now I miss it. I'm ready to get back to work. : )
I'm gonna try and catch up on here as best I can, but given how long I was gone, there's no way I can catch up on anything. So if there's anything you want to make sure I don't miss, just point me in that direction please. : )