Just like when Momma was a Kid.....

 

Dear Monkey,

 

 

      A couple of weeks ago, we took you on one of the first trips to Maine that you may remember when you grow up. You loved it like Mommy and Daddy do. It is one of Mommy's favorite places to go in the world and I can tell you may be the same way.

 

      We spent lots of time on the lake. You loved your Bat mobile floaty.



 



 

     And you pretended to be a superhero in your new swimsuit. 

And, we took you to your first trip to Santa's Village.... You didn't want to leave!

 

You rode on your first rides by yourself. You were so proud and we were proud of you! 

      You loved the penguin statues... Probably because they were wearing a hat.

                   And you saw the big man. You told him you wanted dragons.

                  We also played the Elfabet game! You found almost all the letters. You loved stamping the card yourself.

                There was also ice cream and a visit to one of our local eateries! All in all a great trip! You have been asking when we can go back. We will go in a few weeks... but for now you will just keep asking to go. Just like when Mommy was a kid!

 

 

Love,

Mommy

Wednesday- The Journey Home

This is the only picture from Wednesday. The trip home was long, but worth it because of this picture. This is the d20 Blonde and The Universe and their adorable child who have been mentioned here before. It was a great visit, and we wish we could have stayed longer but we needed to get home.

Our rude awakening came on I90 in MA: Mr. said he wasn't feeling well and proceeded to get worse. By the time we got home, he was really sick.

Not the ending to the glorious vacation we hoped for...

Tuesday - Oh say can you see...DC?

Unfortunately our morning began with Yarngeek's truck stalling and not starting back up. Her day off that was supposed to be playing with us at the Smithsonian was instead spent dealing with her broken car. :(

She encouraged us to go, making sure to tell us that she would be fine and we headed toward the platform.


















The Metro was far more comfortable than the T, mainly because the chairs were cushioned! So it was a comfortable ride in to the Smithsonian.

The Smithsonian consists of a ton of museums, but we were only going to focus on two: Air and Space and American History.


Our first stop was the Air and Space Museum. We got to see the Spirit of St Louis, the Apollo capsule, the original Wright Brothers plane and lots of WW II planes. Here is Mr. in that exhibit.


















We even learned about all the effort it takes for the astronauts to get into their suits! Did you know that Kevlar was actually invented for the space program?

After a quick lunch, we went over to the American History Museum. They had lots of really neat stuff. The coolest by far was seeing the Star Spangled Banner Flag. It was huge and very well kept. The only parts that were missing were the portions that the flag maker's family cut to sell when they couldn't make ends meet.

We also saw the First Ladies exhibit, where only a few days prior, the current First Lady donated her inauguration dress. It was stunning.





















But we were not done! We also saw some amazing artifacts from the Apollo Theater, Julia Child's kitchen, Kermit the frog, the ruby slippers... and something about lasers!



















(Mr. was super excited about that!)


We picked up a copy of the White House Cookbook and the Presidential cookie cookbook. (The macaroons looked incredible!)


After the museum, we headed over to the memorials. Our goal was to see the WW II memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial.

We passed by the Washington Monument, which was breathtaking. While we were over there we saw the White House in the distance, and I managed to get a photo of Mr.


















The WWII memorial was gorgeous, and a beautiful tribute to all the men and women who served our country durring that tough time and those who died for the cause.

The Lincoln Memorial was just as impressive as the last time, but more so... the view from there is spectacular!




























Post Vietnam Memorial, we grabbed a cab and went to the nearest Metro. A short hop back and we were in Crystal City to meet our hosts for Tapas. It was my first time trying this, and it was delicious and tons of fun. Also: The best sangria I have ever tasted!

Then it was back to our hosts house where we got to just relax and chat. When it got a little late, we turned in... we had a long journey home in the morning.

Monday... Time to Visit DC!

Monday only has one picture to it, as we were traveling all day. We got up early in the morning and repacked the car. After checking out of the hotel, we met some of the stragglers for breakfast and farewells. I was so sad I actually teared up in the car. But we were not heading home, but rather heading towards Washington D.C. where we were going to be staying with our friends Yarngeek and Madwabbit and their adorable daughter Plum.

On our way out of town, and before we reached Church on Fire! (Please note: that is the actual name of the church.) We got a picture of this beautiful car:

The ride took the morning and into the afternoon. We arrived safely, spent the afternoon getting settled in, and caught a viewing of Empire Records. (Damn the man, Save the Empire!!) When we got hungry, we went out and grabbed some Thai food in Old Alexandria.

Old Alexandria was awesome! It had the older houses pushed together and made me think of what the old colonial city looked like at the beginning. The street we were on had tons of fun store fronts, and after dinner we strolled down and got ice cream from a great home made place. (I got one... Stomach be damned!)

Afterwards we went back to the Yarnwabbits house, and hung out and chatted for a bit until it was time to go to bed. We were all worn out because it was a travel day. I fell asleep dreaming of the sight seeing that was to come!

Saturday: Gaming and Spies and Mexican, OH MY!

Saturday began with an early-ish start and our easy-peasy trip to NCSU for the gameday kickoff. Our first game was our friend's Spycraft game. I had played in the first two chapters, and my ass kicking Techie does not disappoint. (I killed the electricity and rerouted the calls to 911 and the electric company from the house to my phone and could answer. It was AWESOME!)

(Our awesome GM....I can not say enough about how great a game this was.)

We then left with a group and went to have some Mexican food. It was good. I am still not sure I got what I ordered, but it was yummy. Not only that, I got to catch up with friends of ours that we very rarely see.

Then, because our afternoon GM had to cancel, my (super talented) husband ran his Repo Man game. Let me tell you, this game is fun. This game had me laughing so hard I couldn't keep the camera straight...

I played a 1980's Las Vegas Stripper (yes, you read that completely right.) who had the IQ of the gum she was chewing. I can't tell you any of the best lines or scenes, because Mr. is running this for a few more conventions/ gamedays in our future.

We all had such great chemistry as a group. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard during a game! Mr. also said that is the most fun he has ever had running a gameday/convention game. It was so much fun!

After the game, we all went over to our Hosts' house and we ate BBQ and drank and played Rockband. Below, Mr. and our friends Rel, Bubba and Mik form a super group for a song.

After it was back to our hotel, where we read and crashed to watch some SNL!

Thursday Night: Away we go!

So Thursday we got home and packed the car. Once we were done saying goodbye to the Nacho Kitten, we were off bound for adventure! I began the trip, mostly due to my knowledge of the Mass Pike Traffic flow!

As such there is only one real photo to share! It comes from our hotel in Jersey, where we stopped to sleep.

Look at what they were hosting:

Vacation was Bliss!

So the Mr. and I went this year to the tri-annual North Carolina Gameday over the weekend and we decided to make a vacation out of it. We left after work on Thursday night and were gone until Wednesday night!

This mini-vaca was not just to North Carolina, but also to our Nation's Capital, Washington DC!

It was awesome! As Kick Buttowsky says, "It was Epic!"

It was also much needed. As Mr. said, he can't remember a gameday with that many great games that everyone loved. We couldn't remember the last time we laughed that hard in a game.

It also reminds me that we should have a retirement community where all we do is play games and crack jokes.

I was trying to figure out how best to deal with the awesomeness of this trip without showing all 300 photos. (Which are available for viewing on Facebook.)

I think I am just going to start at the beginning and pick a couple pictures for each day that tell that day's story!

Starting with the next post!