It's a long road home

We finally made it back to Cambridge! And believe you me, it wasn't easy.
We should have known that Sunday afternoon was the worst time to drive towards NYC. We should have known that everyone would be headed back from the weekend. We should have known that getting home would take an eternity. But we were foolishly optimistic; we thought that, yes, the 8-hour drive from DC to Boston might take a little longer than necessary, but nothing to worry about. Silly Wilsons. Our optimism didn't last for long.

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Our goal eventually mutated from going all the way to Cambridge in one shot to just getting past NYC before stopping for the night. What should have been a 4-5 hour drive from DC to NYC turned into 10 long hours of bumper to bumper nightmares! To put it in perspective, the first 4 hours of our drive we averaged a meager 19 mph. I swear there was an old man with a walker who passed us.

We didn't make it to a stopping point in Stamford, CT until past midnight. We hadn't made reservations anywhere because we didn't know where we would actually be when darkness fell and we succumbed to exhaustion, and it turns out that finding a reasonable hotel in Stamford at 1 a.m. is near impossible. The first place we stopped at was shadier than shady, the second place was almost $300 a night, the third and fourth places were both undergoing renovations, etc. We finally settled on a La Quinta Inn at around later than 1:30. Sheesh!

We didn't even attempt to hit the road Monday morning earlier than 10 a.m. The only reason we got up earlier than that was because the free breakfast ended at around 9. Hoorah for bagels. Thankfully, the rest of the drive went quickly and smoothly, and between stopping for lunch, etc, we rolled into C-bridge around 2 p.m. to the wonderful Holden Green (more to come about our new digs soon!).

National Cathedral and DC Temple

On the list of things to see before we leave DC was the Washington National Cathedral, and with only one more week until we head back to Boston, we finally went to see it today. It's almost like we took a weekend trip to Europe, right? Right.

That is, except for the Darth Vader sculpture. No, I'm not making this up. It's not some urban legend like the face on the back of the Lincoln Memorial (we looked and didn't see one, but I blame bad lighting). The Darth Vader sculpture really exists. And it gives me another reason to appreciate DC.

And since we had time, we thought we'd swing by the DC Temple, as well.

But there's no Darth Vader sculpture there. We didn't even look.

Baby Mozart

Rollover News and More Laughter

Caution: this post is blatant and shameless baby-promotion and is really for the grandparents, though anyone else is of course more than welcome to take a look if you're interested - and you know you are.

Kiddo has started rolling over from back to front. It's pretty cute, if we do say so ourselves. Usually, Felicia sets him in what we call the play pen (just a thing on the ground) whenever she wants to eat, vacuum, etc. Felicia caught him rolling over as she was eating her Raisin Nut Bran the other morning. Here's a shot of him post-rollover.

I guess he's rolled over a few times since, but never when Daddy is around.

Kiddo's also gotten to be a bit more of a laugher lately. He really likes Peek-a-Boo, but really I think he just likes me laughing (although if I laugh too hard it just makes him cry. Hmmmm.).

National Aquarium! Finally!

We made it! It only took two tries to go to the National Aquarium before we finally made it in.


(Is this picture a little creepy? I can't decide.)

Was it better than the New England Aquarium? The New England Aquarium has penguins, but the National Aquarium has dolphins.... It's a toss up. As you may or may not remember, the New England Aquarium is pretty darn cool. We do enjoy a good aquarium.

But, so you don't think we are aquarium snobs, while we were in Utah last May we visited the aquarium in Sandy. How many of you can say you've been to The Living Planet? Doesn't that sound enticing? And don't let the whole Utah is a land-locked state thing fool you into thinking the aquarium couldn't have anything interesting. What makes it worth the money is the opportunity to pet the stingrays. Oh yeah.

Scott's Wedding

Scott McGregor and Brandon go way back to the days of library security (Woo woo!). Since they worked together and lifted together three days a week, there were probably times while we were dating that Scott saw more of Brandon than I did. Needless to say, we were glad we were within driving distance of Leonardtown, MD to attend the wedding. (Btw--Did you know there are Amish people in Maryland? Neither did we!)



After the ceremony there was a dinner and dancing. Brandon can't resist laying down his groove-thang when he hears a good beat. I can't blame him, because he's got some moves! This picture doesn't do him justice.


Congratulations Scotty!