A visiting Frenzy

FL, GA, SC, NC, WI, IL,VA, DC, DE, MD, PA, NY, NJ, CT, RI

 

This morning I woke up and realized that over the past 15 days, we have been in 15 States! I'll admit that two of them were kind of like "cheating" as we did not drive there, but flew in for just a few days (Illinois and Wisconsin), but the rest were solid "road trip" states as we zigzagged our way up the East Coast from Florida in a visiting frenzy, trying to see everyone we missed over the winter and spend a little time with family before we head out West again for the summer months.

 

We arrived back at the Tampa airport on Sunday after our trip to Chicago, retrieved our van from the economy long term parking lot and left Tampa for the last time, heading North. Our first stop was in Manteo, NC for a quick overnight visit to see some Texas friends who were on the East coast, volunteering at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on the Outer Banks.

 

We met them last summer while we were both volunteering in Big Bend National Park and were thrilled to see them again and share dinner and a few (well, maybe more than a few...) brews at a local brew pub in Manteo. We spent the rest of the evening catching up, relaxing in their Airstream trailer enjoying some good music and a special bottle of "Belgian Red" from the New Glarus Brewery, before retiring to our own RV for a good night's sleep before an early start the next morning.  The 8 days that followed were a whirlwind of driving and visiting that included:

 

Dinner in Newark, Delaware with Dylan (son #1)

Two days in Philadelphia, PA (Andre's final work engagement)

One night visiting family in Washington DC

3 days in Pittsburgh, PA visiting Nick (son #2)

2 days in Rhode Island visiting family and friends

 

Here are some photo's from the last week.

  

On our way to Delaware, we just "happened" to go by
 the Dogfish head Brewery in Milton, DE
 

Mom & Dylan having dinner at the historic
 Deer Park Inn near the U-Del campus

Visiting in DC with Rose & Terry (and our niece Camille, not in the photo).
Rose prepared an old favorite for dinner: Traditional French Meat Pie

On our last day in Pittsburgh with Nick, it was down town on Sunday morning
to catch a few hours of the Pittsburgh Marathon (This was the finish line)

Lots of good vibes as families and strangers alike cheered on the runners
 

Mom and Nick at the "Point" fountain

As I'm writing this, we are preparing to head out of Rhode Island in the morning after an enjoyable couple of days visiting with Andre's parents, my sister Robin and her family and a few good friends. From here it will be a short trip back toward the Mid-Atlantic to spend a few more days with Dylan and then another zig-zag out to Ann Arbor Michigan to visit Andre's sister Lucie and her husband Rob before we start heading West in earnest.  We have accepted a summer position with the Great Basin Institute as Volunteer Visitor Center Hosts at the Galena Creek Visitor Center in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area, and will spend three weeks meandering our way West to get to Nevada for our June 2nd start date. I will post more detail about the volunteer position in a future post.

Cheers for now!