I have been out of town for a week- traveling all over the United States!
I left Wednesday morning from LAX to Philly. I got in late, since the flight is 5 hours long with 3 hours lost in time difference. Since no one else had flown in for the funeral as early as I had, I was going it alone for the night. My cousin, Jess, was living in Philly, but I was not sure if I should call her at 9pm and see if she wanted to drive to the airport and grab dinner with me? I should have just given it a whirl, but I was tired and opted for a Denny's solo dinner instead (pales in comparison to hanging out with the cousins). What can you say, though, you know what you are in store for when you pick Denny's as your dinner- I had (amazingly) okay service, the hash browns were undercooked, my eggs were the powder mixture with some greasy cheese on top, and the bacon was, well, that was good. On a whim I ordered their brownie to go (I have heard that it is a tempting treat, though I was marginally dubious about the whole thing.) I took the warm brownie and the ice cream back to my cracked ceiling hotel room at the Holiday Inn and, of course, dove right in. Oh heavens to mercatroy! I had not been lead astray- it was a DAMN good brownie. Despite being rather full, I sat and ate the whole brownie (it was probably not a wise idea and I managed to regret it later as I was too stuffed), but I would do it again.
Mel flew in from San Diego on an overnight flight. She picked up a rental car and was on her way to my hotel to pick me up by 8am the next morning. Thank goodness she called to tell me she was on her way, because after I finally managed to go to sleep (I was still on west coast time), I was still asleep when she called! I hurried to get ready and check out, barely meeting her wet headed in the lobby.
We drove to Lambertville (by way of Dunkin donuts) just in time to see her mom off to work in the morning. Mel and I walked the town and took the dog out for a short stroll. We were both sleep deprived, but we decided to brave going to Peddler's village to peruse the shops there instead of laying down for a much needed nap! We got back in just enough time to go out to dinner with Marie (my aunt and Mel's mom) and her hubby, Ed. We went to a really cute lil' Italian restaurant the next block over from their house. This is what I love about Jersey. In a small town, with no real industry, you have a main street full of artsy shops (for the tourists), a few streets of Victorian mansions now made into two family homes, and then a few town homes intermingled with various local businesses- the corner grocer, the Italian dinner, and of course a hair cut place. I might go crazy living in such a small town, but I sure miss the quaintness, architecture, and locality of it all.
Chris, our cousin who finally is back from overseas, was also going to meet us on Thursday night once he drove up from DC. We ended up talking half the night away in a pub in New Hope (an awesome artistic village across the river in PA from Lambertville, we practically could have walked from Mel's house).
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Friday morning Mel and I woke up early to go over to Riegelsville and visit with family. Elaine warned us that really our departure time was dependant not on WHEN Chris go up but rather IF we could get him out of bed! A few hours later (plus some yummy bagels, thanks Ed!) we were off like a herd of turtles. We met up with Ed, Elaine, Steph, Rich, Danna, and eventually Larry in Riegelsville. We went out to Gramie's old house to see the new additions that were made (it is now a Bed and Breakfast called Stone Cottage Woods).
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Uncle Johnny's farm, now run by two of the eight boys:
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And the one room school house that my grandmother attended:
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After lunch everyone trooped back to the porch to swap photos and stories. But in a few short hours, I had to head back to the airport. It was nice to see everyone, but I will be returning to Riegelsville again soon to lay flowers on my Grandmother's grave since I neither got to say my last goodbye nor so much as see her gravesite.
The trip to the airport was an adventure in itself, but with an almost Lucy and Ethel comedic touch. Chris, Mel, and Danna drive me to the airport. There is such a backup on the return route that everyone laments that they will be stuck in no less than 5 hours of traffic. A warning (ESP) light comes on in the rental Jeep and when I look it up, it says take the car to the dealership. NICE. So Chris continually hits the ESP button since he no longer wants to "hear" Mel's thoughts on the traffic jam. I feel terrible that they are going to have such a long wait, but I am worried about whether I can make it through security in enough time (we are running a little late to not be pushing our luck). After I make it through security, though, I am relieved to get a text message from Mel saying "No traffic. We are almost back." But then I turn to face the gate- there are NO seats, there ARE wall to wall people. No flights are leaving on time and my flight is delayed by about 10 minutes, no biggie. I sit down at gate E8, the ONLY seats that face this gate, and I close my eyes (this is day 3 of no sleep).
When I open my eyes, I check my phone for flight updates and the time. I have missed a call form my dad. "Where are you?" I ask him, since the whole family is flying in on one flight that should be there at the time my flight was supposed to take off. "We are at baggage claim." WHAT?? They exited their plane at gate E8, walked past me, walked past the wall to wall people stuck in delays, and went to baggage claim? Well, I end up getting stuck in PHL airport for 3 hours (had I known this I would have gone to baggage claim and gotten dinner with the family), but unfortunately, we get stuck ON the plane on the runway for 3 hours. I had heard that there were bad thunderstorms, so no aircrafts could take off to the north or the west, but since we were going to Texas, the pilot was trying to get us cleared to launch. I later find out that the servers and backup servers in PHL and Baltimore have crashed, so all flights are affected. However, I manage not to miss my connecting flight in Nashville since we arrive at 9pm and my flight to Austin is delayed for 3, 4, 5, 6, then SEVEN whole hours. I landed at Austin-Bergstrom national airport at 4:00 am. No sleep. After a fun and exciting bout with Avis (no you cannot pick up your reserved car here because your flight was delayed, and excuse me while I yell at a new employee for half an hour), I finally arrive at Constance and Steve's house at 6am (BLESS YOU GUYS!) They leave the door open for me, and I fall to sleep for a quick nod before I am up again at 9am to start the wedding day!
Chessa and Heather's wedding was beautiful! I got some good pictures and was happy to hear that Chessa and Heather liked them too!
Sunday was the first day I got some real sleep in 4 days, but it was probably worth it all. However, sitting in Philly for 3 hours with all those people, made me catch a cold! So by Monday when Constance wanted to go diving, I manages to get 5 feet down in Lake Travis before my ears plugged up. Well, us divers have a cure for that! After a short moment topside for some serious dive candy, I was ready to go again! Forget a little stuffy nose getting in the way of me going underwater on scuba!
Monday night was Draught house bar night, and my favorite people came out! (Well most of them... where was everyone else?)
Tuesday I was planning on catching a flight back to LA, so after lunch with Chloe, and linner with Larunce, Mimi, and gang (at Chuys!!!), I headed for the airport. However, my luck seems not to have traveled with me, as I was delayed in Phoenix for 5 hours. I was done sitting in airports for the weekend, so I called up my Twinkie (my identical looking sister) and asked her to come hang out with me. We decided actually, to head back to her house (almost an hour drive from the airport) just to sit on the couch and gossip for a few hours before returning to PHX! Once I returned, I learned that I could have caught an earlier flight, but whatever. I am glad I got a chance to see Chris, since we managed to miss each other in PHL.
So, Paul got to pick me up at 2 am on Wednesday morning. Suffice to say, I did not make it into work that day.
I left Wednesday morning from LAX to Philly. I got in late, since the flight is 5 hours long with 3 hours lost in time difference. Since no one else had flown in for the funeral as early as I had, I was going it alone for the night. My cousin, Jess, was living in Philly, but I was not sure if I should call her at 9pm and see if she wanted to drive to the airport and grab dinner with me? I should have just given it a whirl, but I was tired and opted for a Denny's solo dinner instead (pales in comparison to hanging out with the cousins). What can you say, though, you know what you are in store for when you pick Denny's as your dinner- I had (amazingly) okay service, the hash browns were undercooked, my eggs were the powder mixture with some greasy cheese on top, and the bacon was, well, that was good. On a whim I ordered their brownie to go (I have heard that it is a tempting treat, though I was marginally dubious about the whole thing.) I took the warm brownie and the ice cream back to my cracked ceiling hotel room at the Holiday Inn and, of course, dove right in. Oh heavens to mercatroy! I had not been lead astray- it was a DAMN good brownie. Despite being rather full, I sat and ate the whole brownie (it was probably not a wise idea and I managed to regret it later as I was too stuffed), but I would do it again.
Mel flew in from San Diego on an overnight flight. She picked up a rental car and was on her way to my hotel to pick me up by 8am the next morning. Thank goodness she called to tell me she was on her way, because after I finally managed to go to sleep (I was still on west coast time), I was still asleep when she called! I hurried to get ready and check out, barely meeting her wet headed in the lobby.
We drove to Lambertville (by way of Dunkin donuts) just in time to see her mom off to work in the morning. Mel and I walked the town and took the dog out for a short stroll. We were both sleep deprived, but we decided to brave going to Peddler's village to peruse the shops there instead of laying down for a much needed nap! We got back in just enough time to go out to dinner with Marie (my aunt and Mel's mom) and her hubby, Ed. We went to a really cute lil' Italian restaurant the next block over from their house. This is what I love about Jersey. In a small town, with no real industry, you have a main street full of artsy shops (for the tourists), a few streets of Victorian mansions now made into two family homes, and then a few town homes intermingled with various local businesses- the corner grocer, the Italian dinner, and of course a hair cut place. I might go crazy living in such a small town, but I sure miss the quaintness, architecture, and locality of it all.
Chris, our cousin who finally is back from overseas, was also going to meet us on Thursday night once he drove up from DC. We ended up talking half the night away in a pub in New Hope (an awesome artistic village across the river in PA from Lambertville, we practically could have walked from Mel's house).
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Friday morning Mel and I woke up early to go over to Riegelsville and visit with family. Elaine warned us that really our departure time was dependant not on WHEN Chris go up but rather IF we could get him out of bed! A few hours later (plus some yummy bagels, thanks Ed!) we were off like a herd of turtles. We met up with Ed, Elaine, Steph, Rich, Danna, and eventually Larry in Riegelsville. We went out to Gramie's old house to see the new additions that were made (it is now a Bed and Breakfast called Stone Cottage Woods).
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Uncle Johnny's farm, now run by two of the eight boys:
.jpg)
And the one room school house that my grandmother attended:
.jpg)
After lunch everyone trooped back to the porch to swap photos and stories. But in a few short hours, I had to head back to the airport. It was nice to see everyone, but I will be returning to Riegelsville again soon to lay flowers on my Grandmother's grave since I neither got to say my last goodbye nor so much as see her gravesite.
The trip to the airport was an adventure in itself, but with an almost Lucy and Ethel comedic touch. Chris, Mel, and Danna drive me to the airport. There is such a backup on the return route that everyone laments that they will be stuck in no less than 5 hours of traffic. A warning (ESP) light comes on in the rental Jeep and when I look it up, it says take the car to the dealership. NICE. So Chris continually hits the ESP button since he no longer wants to "hear" Mel's thoughts on the traffic jam. I feel terrible that they are going to have such a long wait, but I am worried about whether I can make it through security in enough time (we are running a little late to not be pushing our luck). After I make it through security, though, I am relieved to get a text message from Mel saying "No traffic. We are almost back." But then I turn to face the gate- there are NO seats, there ARE wall to wall people. No flights are leaving on time and my flight is delayed by about 10 minutes, no biggie. I sit down at gate E8, the ONLY seats that face this gate, and I close my eyes (this is day 3 of no sleep).
When I open my eyes, I check my phone for flight updates and the time. I have missed a call form my dad. "Where are you?" I ask him, since the whole family is flying in on one flight that should be there at the time my flight was supposed to take off. "We are at baggage claim." WHAT?? They exited their plane at gate E8, walked past me, walked past the wall to wall people stuck in delays, and went to baggage claim? Well, I end up getting stuck in PHL airport for 3 hours (had I known this I would have gone to baggage claim and gotten dinner with the family), but unfortunately, we get stuck ON the plane on the runway for 3 hours. I had heard that there were bad thunderstorms, so no aircrafts could take off to the north or the west, but since we were going to Texas, the pilot was trying to get us cleared to launch. I later find out that the servers and backup servers in PHL and Baltimore have crashed, so all flights are affected. However, I manage not to miss my connecting flight in Nashville since we arrive at 9pm and my flight to Austin is delayed for 3, 4, 5, 6, then SEVEN whole hours. I landed at Austin-Bergstrom national airport at 4:00 am. No sleep. After a fun and exciting bout with Avis (no you cannot pick up your reserved car here because your flight was delayed, and excuse me while I yell at a new employee for half an hour), I finally arrive at Constance and Steve's house at 6am (BLESS YOU GUYS!) They leave the door open for me, and I fall to sleep for a quick nod before I am up again at 9am to start the wedding day!
Chessa and Heather's wedding was beautiful! I got some good pictures and was happy to hear that Chessa and Heather liked them too!
Sunday was the first day I got some real sleep in 4 days, but it was probably worth it all. However, sitting in Philly for 3 hours with all those people, made me catch a cold! So by Monday when Constance wanted to go diving, I manages to get 5 feet down in Lake Travis before my ears plugged up. Well, us divers have a cure for that! After a short moment topside for some serious dive candy, I was ready to go again! Forget a little stuffy nose getting in the way of me going underwater on scuba!
Monday night was Draught house bar night, and my favorite people came out! (Well most of them... where was everyone else?)
Tuesday I was planning on catching a flight back to LA, so after lunch with Chloe, and linner with Larunce, Mimi, and gang (at Chuys!!!), I headed for the airport. However, my luck seems not to have traveled with me, as I was delayed in Phoenix for 5 hours. I was done sitting in airports for the weekend, so I called up my Twinkie (my identical looking sister) and asked her to come hang out with me. We decided actually, to head back to her house (almost an hour drive from the airport) just to sit on the couch and gossip for a few hours before returning to PHX! Once I returned, I learned that I could have caught an earlier flight, but whatever. I am glad I got a chance to see Chris, since we managed to miss each other in PHL.
So, Paul got to pick me up at 2 am on Wednesday morning. Suffice to say, I did not make it into work that day.