I’m relaxed after 10 days away from work. Unfortunately I go back today and I’m not looking forward to it. I haven’t heard back from certain people that I should’ve heard back from and I might have some e-mails waiting for me when I get to work.
So I’m nervous to say the least.
But let’s talk about nice things - the past 10 days!
Thomas has to travel for work several times a year. Several times it is in boring places like Missouri and New Mexico (oops… anyone reading this from those states?) but other times he gets to go to fun places like Baltimore, Maryland - barely an hour away from Washington D.C. I have been to DC before, but it was when I was 10 and on a school field trip so my memories are fuzzy.
I had been hoping he’d be sent to Baltimore for the last year and it finally came through. We headed out there on Friday morning for a week long trip. Thomas only had to work on Monday for a few hours, and then all day on Tuesday and Wednesday which gave us plenty of time to spend some time together and tour the cities.
Because of the time difference we didn’t have much time to do anything on Friday after getting the rental car and checking into the hotel. We were starving and enjoyed dinner at Guy Fieri’s restaurant in the local casino and in the afternoon, while Thomas caught up on sleep, I watched Argentina win a game in the Copa America (which they sadly came in 2nd place this past Saturday).
The weekend was dedicated to DC. I found a walking tour of the city on TripAdvisor who was awesome. It was a free tour that functioned just on tips. The guy is a retired teacher who loves the city. He gave a lot of information and showed us the main sights. We started off by checking out the White House and Washington Memorial - from a far of course. We also saw the Vietnam, World War II, Lincoln, and Korean Memorials.
Saturday was a muggy day with rain in sight. Luckily, though, it held out all throughout our tour (for the most part). As soon as it was over, though, it started pouring. In such a way that my jeans were soaked, my sweatshirt was soaked, and my poor shoes were completely soaked. It made the afternoon uncomfortable, but we were able to enjoy the American History museum. I was cranky most of the time, but Thomas did well to pull me out of my crankiness (he has had to learn!).
We ran out of time on Saturday, so on Sunday we headed to the National Holocaust Museum which took a few hours to go through. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice lunch before braving the DC Metro to get to Arlington National Cemetery and then to the Pentagon.
On Monday we got to enjoy visiting the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and have some fun.
On Tuesday I got to go to Pennsylvania where one of my dad’s cousins’ lives. My dad has never met this cousin and they’ve never been in contact until several years ago when I got in contact with them. This was the first time that anyone had been able to visit him and I was very excited to get the opportunity! This cousin is 94 years old and is still moving around, cooking dinner, and has better printing than most men a third his age. He knew my grandma, whom I never got to meet and has been the family historian. I was glad to get to pick his brain a little bit!
It was an all around great trip and I’m glad I got to go along with Thomas on it. I’m hoping he gets sent to New York City again and also Niagara Falls! In the meantime this will suffice.
Coming home was nice because I still had 3 ½ days left on my break and I also got to celebrate the 4th of July - one of my favorite holidays!
I also got to buy a Chromebook which is where I’m typing this. My MacBook Pro is on its last legs and was not lasting on a battery charge for long and took forever to do anything. So far, after a false start with a Samsung version of the laptop, I am liking this Toshiba version. The laptop is light, portable, and easy to use! Score! Even better, it was only $300!
