My Trip Home

Last week I took a trip to my hometown of Frostburg, MD with my daughter Brooklynne.

As I drilled into Brooklynne, we took our car, to a bus, to the airport, to an airplane, to another airplane, to a bus, to a car, and the car to Uncle Pete's.

=== Uncle Pete's ===

The trip started off with 3 days in West Virginia with Uncle Pete and Aunt Judy in a town called Cranesville which was about 4hours west of BWI. Directions there aren't easy, but then again, once you get there, life turns real simple, which was what I really needed to start off vacation.

Brooklynne soon fell into a drill of waking up, shooting out the back door, and filling up on blueberries, raspberries, and currants (sour berries). She liked the doggies, the fish pond, picking flowers, chasing butterflies, and laying in the hammock. I took Brooklynne out to Swallow Falls one day, where we good fun hiking and playing in the stream.

Aunt Judy took us a nice walk up to the local farm pond, where Brooklynne and I swam and built sand castles.

Pete made an outstanding Rib Roast/Salad one night, which for sure I'll be attempting to reproduce later for myself. My only regret, is I forgot to bring leftovers with :( Pete also made us Moms yummy oatmeal pancakes.

I enjoyed this leg of the trip quite a bit, food, company, the various beers left over from Judy's son, playing guitar, hammock time, racing Brooklynne about the yard, driving in familiar back country roads, and finishing a book I was reading. Also enjoyed conversing with the local Ambulance crews :)... ahem...

To be perfectly frank, I think for the most part the above describes an ideal vacation minus some fishing.

Thanks Judy And Pete!

=== Frostburg ===

Then Brooklynne and I loaded up to head into Frostburg. It was an emotional time for me. I though about dropping by some friends of Mom's house, but in the end I chickened out. I do regret this as they are all really wonderful people, but in the spirit of vacation it was nice to not worry about breaking down.

Sooo, I drove past the University (and Mom's old department), once again almost stopping by.

I ended up at Jason's house on Monday afternoon. He had his daughter Sidney and once introduced they seemed to get along pretty well. Sidney looks a good bit like both Mom and Pop, though when she talks I hear Allison.

Jason and I wandered our way down to the local park, let our kids play at the playground near the pool, grabbed some Slushees and headed back. It was really amazing to me, how we just kind of fell in together after so many years.

Jason and I BS'd up some pretty grubbin lunch (Teriyaki'd Tuna Steaks + Oven Fries) (kids ate hot dogs). We chowed and drank a beer, at which point we both felt like napping, but the kids weren't having any.

We rallied with Heather and Abigail to go up to the Hen House for dinner. Brooklynne managed to grow a golf ball on her forehead from smacking into a door jam. Quick call to Advice Nurse, yields the usual: if the kid goes lethargic, starts vomiting, appears confused, go to the ER... My kid always gets confused around nap time, so I nodded and smiled and we left for dinner. (Ran all past the wife, so I wasn't fully responsible for the decision anymore).

Hen House was pretty good grub. I put my old Buddy Evan on notice that there would be hanging out later, and schmoozed with Gary Warn (my first Boss). He assured me if the computer business failed, they would take me back, though we didn't cover salary :) Gary and his family gave me the first positive reward for working hard... They caught me doing an overly diligent job of cleaning one day, and I promptly got moved from dishwashing to the kitchen... That got me on the hook.

We chased the kids around outside for a while, and then it was back to Jason's place. We snagged some beers, and pretty shortly people started filing in. I mainly spent the evening catching up with Leland and Evan.

It was awesome catching up with the crew, and it seemed like everyone is doing pretty well, for not being Hugh Hefner's sole male heir.

Thanks Jason, Heather, Leland, Evan!

=== American University ===

Tuesday morning we took off towards DC... Using phone based GPS, I managed to get to American University building where we met up with Nathan Harshman (2nd Nate on Kemp Drive). He is now a physics professor, and unconsciously can't help but refer to concepts/terms that a Silicon Jockey has no clue about.

We had a yummy lunch, which gave me a good case of the slows (after being up late the night before). Nate was gracious enough to let us putz about the office and play with physics toys, and we enjoyed a fine afternoon outdoors. Nate gifted Brooke a jacob's ladder which she was very happy to play with on the plane after I forgot to charge the DVD player :) Nate is now heavy into running, and a seed of inspiration has been planted... If I can only manage not to kill it :)

=== Arlington ===

Well, soon, enough my whirlwind visit was over and I was on to visit my college buddies Ravi and Mac. We met up outside their apartment, and went to Dinner at PF Changs, where we had some good appetizers, shot-sized desserts. It was great to see Mac and meet his wife Trish, and of course it was always good to see Ravi. Ravi, kindly let me stay at his place (where I slept for 3 hours before cruising to the airport). We ended the night just chilling and watching Semi-Pro which was about my speed at this point in the trip.

=== Homeward Bound ===

Well, finally we headed home, and thankfully I had the GPS, because its not easy to find yourway across DC area to BWI rental car return.

At this point, I was exhausted, and questioning whether my ears would let enough pressure release before bursting (I had come up with some cold), but we all made it home.

I really regret not having a month to spend out East, but I hope that this trip will be the first in a series. Next time I'll try to spend some more time with everyone.

As usual, any of you folks are all welcome to come out anytime. I highly recommend Last full weekend of July (Beer Festival!)

Pics will follow in time...