Holiday pt. 3: Five States, Five Nights

[lederhosen]

While I can still vaguely remember stuff... not sure I have all of this in the right order, but near enough.


After the wedding and next morning's breakfast, we set off to meet deor and malada in NY. It was about a six-hour drive, and the first time I've driven on US roads.

The drive was pretty uneventful. At some point we found a rest stop with a very unhappy-looking wooden bear out the front, and got photos of that. We got into Johnson City about 6 pm and were greeted by an enthusiastic malada; after returning the rental car, we headed back to their place.

We chatted a bit and checked our email; I think we had an early night. Rey and I were both in the mood for a low-key morning, so after greeting deor we settled into a morning of gaming (to the strains of 'Scary Solstice'). We played Super Munchkin/Munchkin Fu (and accidentally went home with two of Ky-and-Malada's dice and the bottom of the Munchkin Fu box instead of our Super Munchkin one). I think we played Settlers of Catan. And then we got into a game of Talisman, but we still had a long way to go when torin3 and Sandy showed up so we said our goodbyes and headed on to Pennsylvania. (IIRC, about a 3-hour drive - we were very grateful for the lift, especially since taking the rental any further would have been prohibitively expensive.)

An evening in Pennsylvania, where we admired torin3's enamel work and notasquirrel got acquainted with some rather large snakes. And finally got around to giving them their wedding present; one of these days maybe we'll find the engagement present we bought for them and then promptly lost.

Next morning, they generously drove us on to Maryland, where we met up with silmaril. We mentioned that we were looking for a video to 'thank' squirrelbuddy for 'Dragon Pearl', and she pointed us at a nearby anime/etc shop full of things that made my eyes bleed. Seriously, WTF? She had to work that afternoon, so we visited the Air & Space Museum - Buzzy got to lick a piece of moon rock - before heading back, saying goodbye to torin3 & Sandy, and meeting up with silmaril and Breno for yummy dinner. The brewery/restaurant had a weird little shop attached that sold things like a "Betty Page dressed up as Cleopatra" doll and a librarian action figure with Realistic Sshhh-ing Action. And we got a tentacle bunny for goddess_of_impe.

Then on to Three Left Feet. My footwork is as terrible as ever, but some of the dances were ones I vaguely remembered from SCA years back, so at least I didn't actually injure anybody :-) Afterwards silmaril introduced us to 'Firefly' (the first episode is free!) and by that stage it was definitely bedtime. Oh, and we'd introduced silmaril to Tim Tams and Moxie, both of which were well received :-)

Next day, we had an afternoon flight out of Dulles, and silmaril had to work. So we said our goodbyes and checked our baggage in early, then took a short trip over to the Air & Space Museum's other building, the Udvar-Hazy Center, which is a gigantic hangar-type-thingy full of historical aircraft. Among others, we walked around the Space Shuttle Enterprise, a Concorde, and the Enola Gay. I was surprised at how uncomfortable I felt seeing that last; I'm not often emotionally affected by the weight of history in places and things, but I was this time.

Oh, and the guards at the Udvar-Hazy "ma'am"ed me. All in all it happened five times on the trip, and usually on the days when I hadn't shaved. Go figure.

We got back to Dulles in nice time for our flight across to Los Angeles, where we were met by squirrelbuddy and her husband. notasquirrel showed off the little squirrel-sized spacesuit he'd 'acquired' at the NASM, and a naked-but-for-silver-space-boots teddy bear wandered out of our bags complaining of a concussion. More on the LA leg later.

Comments

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I taste-tested the Anzac biscuits too. I need to identify the ingredient that gives it just that twist of taste, then try to duplicate them, because yum.

Also, either you or reynardo left a cardigan/polar looking thingy. Should I attempt to make it cross the ocean after you? Address?

[psychowoof.livejournal.com]

yes, I also think Anzac biscuits are nummy. We had them several times on our bus journeys in Austrailia when we were there in '01.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

One recipe here. The tin should probably have a list of ingredients for comparison; a bit of ginger can be a nice addition.

That was Rey's, and she says it can go to Goodwill or whatever's convenient - we have others.

[torin3.livejournal.com]

Glad to see that you suffered no ill effects from our attemp to overfeed you two. Oh, and Sethra says she misses notasquirrel.