Here I am again... now, onto Saturday...
Saturday, Day 20:
Today I helped Debbie to clean and straighten things up to prepare for the arrival of our friends Lynn and Ryan, coming in from Boston tomorrow. They're staying Sunday and Monday nights with us and then we're heading down to Williamsburg Virginia to spend a night with them. Ryan hails from Virginia so he's keen to show us around and we're looking forward to showing he and Lynn around Baltimore :-)
James and I went to BJ's with Mike this afternoon to stock up on food (what an amazing place!!) and then around 4.30pm we drove up to Southern Pennsylvania to see James' friend Stephan and his wife Cindy. Wolf was there too, and we had a great time hanging out and watching the football. They have 2 gorgeous boxer dogs called Mesa and Lexie and we played with them too for a while. Afterwards we had a big drive back down to Baltimore to Odenton to meet with another of James' friend's, Evets. She and James went to school together and ended up getting back in touch through MySpace. She is lovely, she went to so much trouble to have us with beautiful food laid out, it was so nice to meet her. Another school friend Stan was also there with his cousin Nick, so we spent another great night hanging out having a few drinks with some excellent people. Stan is hilarious and he had us in fits of laughter the entire evening.
Unfortunately I couldn't find my camera to take with me tonight, so there are no pics!! What a shame!!
Sunday, Day 21:
We got ready to head to BWI to collect Ryan and Lynn then discovered that their flight arriving at 11.54am was cancelled and were now arriving arounf 3.30pm. So we went for a drive with Ben over to a sports store, and I went back into that same craft store from the other night to get a few more goodies!! We got home and I wasn't feeling 100% so I took a nap and Ben and James went to collect Lynn and Ryan from the airport.
It was great to see them, and we had a great night at home with everyone over for dinner (James and I, Lynn and Ryan, Debbie, Mike, Steven, Ben, Apple and Pop) and enjoyed a feast of baked chicken, salads, marble cake and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream :-) After dinner the 5 of us went to Cheers bar and met up with Wolf and played some pool and darts- much fun was had by all, it was a fantastic night!
Monday, Day 22:
After a later start this morning due to the big night the night before... we eventually headed Downtown and had some lunch at Edo Sushi on Inner Harbor. Then we went to the National Aquarium which was absolutely amazing, and spent a good couple of hours perusing the many exhibits. They have a new Australian exhibit based on the Northern Territory which was pretty good, but we weren't perhaps quite as impressed as we would have been if we hadn't all lived in Australia!! After the Aquarium we got a coffee and looked through some shops before going home for a while to relax (except for James who went to the gym!!) Eventually we all got ready once again and, with Ben accompanying us and also volunteering to drive "The Mom Bus", we all went over to Apple and Pop's for a drink then went back to The Avenue at White Marsh for dinner. We decided on Japanese again as I was keen to check out a restaurant James had told me about called Kobe, where the Japanese chef prepares your dinner at the table (food plus entertainment!)- and it was every bit as good as I'd imagined it would be!! A pina colada and a Kobe (tequila) sunrise later I was feeling great... then after dinner Ben drove us all over to the Rec Room, adjoining the Recher Theatre, for some pool and another drink- we girls opted for whiskey sours!! We eventually went to bed around 1.30am I think... good times :-)
Tuesday, Day 23:
Saturday, Day 20:
Today I helped Debbie to clean and straighten things up to prepare for the arrival of our friends Lynn and Ryan, coming in from Boston tomorrow. They're staying Sunday and Monday nights with us and then we're heading down to Williamsburg Virginia to spend a night with them. Ryan hails from Virginia so he's keen to show us around and we're looking forward to showing he and Lynn around Baltimore :-)
James and I went to BJ's with Mike this afternoon to stock up on food (what an amazing place!!) and then around 4.30pm we drove up to Southern Pennsylvania to see James' friend Stephan and his wife Cindy. Wolf was there too, and we had a great time hanging out and watching the football. They have 2 gorgeous boxer dogs called Mesa and Lexie and we played with them too for a while. Afterwards we had a big drive back down to Baltimore to Odenton to meet with another of James' friend's, Evets. She and James went to school together and ended up getting back in touch through MySpace. She is lovely, she went to so much trouble to have us with beautiful food laid out, it was so nice to meet her. Another school friend Stan was also there with his cousin Nick, so we spent another great night hanging out having a few drinks with some excellent people. Stan is hilarious and he had us in fits of laughter the entire evening.
Unfortunately I couldn't find my camera to take with me tonight, so there are no pics!! What a shame!!
Sunday, Day 21:
We got ready to head to BWI to collect Ryan and Lynn then discovered that their flight arriving at 11.54am was cancelled and were now arriving arounf 3.30pm. So we went for a drive with Ben over to a sports store, and I went back into that same craft store from the other night to get a few more goodies!! We got home and I wasn't feeling 100% so I took a nap and Ben and James went to collect Lynn and Ryan from the airport.
It was great to see them, and we had a great night at home with everyone over for dinner (James and I, Lynn and Ryan, Debbie, Mike, Steven, Ben, Apple and Pop) and enjoyed a feast of baked chicken, salads, marble cake and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream :-) After dinner the 5 of us went to Cheers bar and met up with Wolf and played some pool and darts- much fun was had by all, it was a fantastic night!
Monday, Day 22:
After a later start this morning due to the big night the night before... we eventually headed Downtown and had some lunch at Edo Sushi on Inner Harbor. Then we went to the National Aquarium which was absolutely amazing, and spent a good couple of hours perusing the many exhibits. They have a new Australian exhibit based on the Northern Territory which was pretty good, but we weren't perhaps quite as impressed as we would have been if we hadn't all lived in Australia!! After the Aquarium we got a coffee and looked through some shops before going home for a while to relax (except for James who went to the gym!!) Eventually we all got ready once again and, with Ben accompanying us and also volunteering to drive "The Mom Bus", we all went over to Apple and Pop's for a drink then went back to The Avenue at White Marsh for dinner. We decided on Japanese again as I was keen to check out a restaurant James had told me about called Kobe, where the Japanese chef prepares your dinner at the table (food plus entertainment!)- and it was every bit as good as I'd imagined it would be!! A pina colada and a Kobe (tequila) sunrise later I was feeling great... then after dinner Ben drove us all over to the Rec Room, adjoining the Recher Theatre, for some pool and another drink- we girls opted for whiskey sours!! We eventually went to bed around 1.30am I think... good times :-)
Tuesday, Day 23:
...going to try to be brief with these few entries and will add more info later on...
Well, we were up bright but not so early today to head down to Williamsburg, in Virginia, to see Ryan's home town. We decided to hire a car since the great car Uncle Mark had lent us, although having done a great job to New Jersey and back, probably wasn't going to make it to Williamsburg with 4 people and luggage in tow! The boys went over to a car rental place nearby and managed to secure a brand new silver PT Cruiser for our travels down south. It was a really nice car and a total luxury! After having a quick lunch at Ruby Tuesday's just outside of Richmond we continued on to Williamsburg and managed to arrive probably around 4pm I think. It wasn't far from getting dark so Ryan gave us a quick walking tour around part of Colonial Williamsburg (CW) and his college, The College of William and Mary (the second oldest college in the USA). It was just gorgeous, even in the half-dark! We had a quick dinner at The College Delly and then Lynn and I hit the Prime Outlet stores for a couple of hours before they closed- we got some amazing bargains, and I was once again faced with the dilemma of how to get everything we've bought so far home with us... hmmm... we then went to Ryan's old haunt, The Green Leafe, for a few more tasty bevereges. I can assure you that I am not becoming an alcoholic- though I did have a couple more cocktails! Where I had 2 though (a Sidecar and a Blue Lagoon), Lynn had 4 (James kept ordering ones for me that I didn't want so Lynn was "forced" to drink them!! haha) and the boys gave the beer menu a good working over, so tonight I was the best behaved!! :-) Eventually we made it back to the hotel room we were staying in (all sharing a room, it was hilarious) and one by one all fell asleep.
Wednesday, Day 24:
We got up this morning, no one too worse for wear I'm pleased to say! Once we'd packed, showered, dressed and checked out, Ryan gave us another great tour of CW, this time in the daylight, and it was even more beautiful than I had previously thought! I took many photographs but I'm sure they won't really do the town justice at all. We spent a lovely morning walking around, and stopped in at a CW bakery for hot apple cider and gingerbread. We then hit the road once again, drove over to Newport News to drop Lynn and Ryan off at the airport so they could hire a car for themselves- then we said our goodbyes and slowly made our way back to Baltimore. Unfortunately we ended up hitting the peak hour traffic on the Washington DC Beltway and were slightly delayed but overall it was a pretty good trip back, and we got back in at 6.30pm or so after having left Newport News at 2pm.
We went straight over to Aunt Donna's and Uncle Mark's as today was Pop's 80th birthday and they were hosting his celebrations!! Rob and Maria had arrived back from their honeymoon the night beforehand so it was good to see them again. We were so thrilled to be able to stay for Pop's birthday, and it was so nice to be a part of one more family celebration before having to leave the US!
James went over to Rob and Maria's condo after the party but I decided that I'd better head home to begin the packing which was going to be an adventure in itself.
Thursday, Day 25:
Well, today went all too fast!! We had to take the rental car back, do laundry, do laundry, finish packing, pick up a few last-minute things from the supermarket and be at Apple and Pop's for a chinese dinner by 6-ish. James went to the gym while I went shopping at the Wockenfuss Candies store (they sold a lot of gorgeous things, not just candy)- I was in there for over an hour looking and talking to the shop assistant who was a lovely, very Baltimore, older lady. We were also really pleased to be able to see Wolf again before we left, and luckily were able to meet his friend currently over from Denmark for a few days. We all had a quick lunch at Taco Bell (hooray!!) then went over to the Gunpowder State Park for a short walk in the woods.
It was a nice day; the weather is getting quite cold now- the water in the bird bath had frozen sometime overnight, and by 10.30am it was 32 degrees fahrenheight (0 degrees celcius)- officially the coldest temperature I've ever been in!! While walking in the woods I thought my nose and ears were going to snap off- soo cold!! Wolf drove us home the scenic way, and I got to admire the Maryland countryside one last time (this trip!)
Wednesday, Day 24:
We got up this morning, no one too worse for wear I'm pleased to say! Once we'd packed, showered, dressed and checked out, Ryan gave us another great tour of CW, this time in the daylight, and it was even more beautiful than I had previously thought! I took many photographs but I'm sure they won't really do the town justice at all. We spent a lovely morning walking around, and stopped in at a CW bakery for hot apple cider and gingerbread. We then hit the road once again, drove over to Newport News to drop Lynn and Ryan off at the airport so they could hire a car for themselves- then we said our goodbyes and slowly made our way back to Baltimore. Unfortunately we ended up hitting the peak hour traffic on the Washington DC Beltway and were slightly delayed but overall it was a pretty good trip back, and we got back in at 6.30pm or so after having left Newport News at 2pm.
We went straight over to Aunt Donna's and Uncle Mark's as today was Pop's 80th birthday and they were hosting his celebrations!! Rob and Maria had arrived back from their honeymoon the night beforehand so it was good to see them again. We were so thrilled to be able to stay for Pop's birthday, and it was so nice to be a part of one more family celebration before having to leave the US!
James went over to Rob and Maria's condo after the party but I decided that I'd better head home to begin the packing which was going to be an adventure in itself.
Thursday, Day 25:
Well, today went all too fast!! We had to take the rental car back, do laundry, do laundry, finish packing, pick up a few last-minute things from the supermarket and be at Apple and Pop's for a chinese dinner by 6-ish. James went to the gym while I went shopping at the Wockenfuss Candies store (they sold a lot of gorgeous things, not just candy)- I was in there for over an hour looking and talking to the shop assistant who was a lovely, very Baltimore, older lady. We were also really pleased to be able to see Wolf again before we left, and luckily were able to meet his friend currently over from Denmark for a few days. We all had a quick lunch at Taco Bell (hooray!!) then went over to the Gunpowder State Park for a short walk in the woods.
It was a nice day; the weather is getting quite cold now- the water in the bird bath had frozen sometime overnight, and by 10.30am it was 32 degrees fahrenheight (0 degrees celcius)- officially the coldest temperature I've ever been in!! While walking in the woods I thought my nose and ears were going to snap off- soo cold!! Wolf drove us home the scenic way, and I got to admire the Maryland countryside one last time (this trip!)
1 comment:
Yay, you made it to Taco Bell. I had it today too! Life is good.
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