Meet The Parents

Delaware is a place I never in a million years ever would have thought I would visit. Mj is actually the only person I've ever met in my life from there. It's not as cold as I thought it would be. We missed the storms thank goodness but there are still various piles of shoveled snow on the sides of the road.I enjoyed our trip but it's so good to be back home. We stayed the first three nights at Dover Air Force base lodging for only $30 per night. It even has free Wi Fi. Can't beat that. The room are pretty nice too!!

It reminds me a lot of Jacksonville, NC where my older sister currently lives. They are virtually interchangeable which perhaps could be said of many small towns in the South and the East Coast. You have your Super Walmart, Restaurants, fast food joints, and a small downtown area. It's flat and there are trees on either side of the highway that really isn't a freeway. There is lots of greenery and the most adorable little doll house like homes made of brick and aluminum siding. They have porches, sun rooms, and basements. No stucco to be found anywhere. All of the businesses look like charming brick houses. They even have Amish people in Delaware. The girls wear loose gray dresses, black sweaters, black boots, and white bonnets. It was freezing out and these two young girls were wearing that and riding a horse and buggy. I couldn't believe my eyes. The brick downtown jailhouse is more charming than any jailhouse I've ever seen before.

Definitely not a Super Max Prison

Amish Buggy. I can't believe people still live this way!

I met Mj's mom and dad and a bunch of his other relatives. It was really nice to have the opportunity to meet before the wedding. Everyone was really nice and welcoming. After we left Dover where most of his family lives we drove down to Virginia to meet mom. We stopped at a place called Cracker Barrel for breakfast which has the best pancakes I have ever tasted before. Brown and crispy at the edges unlike most restaurant pancakes which are pale and flavorless. The traffic was horrible so it took us about 7 hours but his mom had dinner ready for us when we got there and we had a good time. We spent the night there before heading out the next day to Washington D.C.

I have never been there before and I would definitely like to go back when it's not so darn cold. It was about 32 degrees. I was doing OK the whole trip because my exposure to the arctic conditions came in short spurts but I found myself outside for about an hour straight as we walked around DC and I thought I was getting frostbite. Seriously. My face was numb. My left hand was hurting and my lips were frozen. We checked out two museums at the Smithsonian.

Natural History Museum

We also got to see the huge White House Christmas tree. For some silly reason I thought we were going to be able to walk up to the White House but that was not the case. Security reasons and all I suppose, considering it is the president's house. We were able to see it from behind wire bars and trees. We had nothing to eat the whole day except a shared street vendor hot dog which was absolutely delicious so we took the subway back to our car and went to dinner. One of Mj's friends met us there. My hands literally had pins and needles as the blood began circulating back into them. We stayed the last night at the Hyatt that cost more then our three nights at Dover AFB and was extremely nice although we didn't really get to enjoy it much. We went to bed early to get ready for our 4:30am wake up call so that we could make our 6:45 am flight.

The Garden Room view from our Hotel Room. That's Mj walking towards the check out counter.

At the airport I stood under falling snow. So what right? But as a born and raised Cali girl that is something I have never actually done before. I've seen it for the first time in College and been in Atlanta when it had snowed but that is the extent of it. I thought it would be wet coming down but it's so light and fluffy!!

The flight out here wasn't so bad. Mj and I had the row to ourselves and we kept fairly occupied with reading and the in flight movie. The way home was entirely another story. We sat on the runway for about 2 hours while they de iced the plane. I was in and out of sleep the whole time so I don't really remember. Then our flight from Baltimore to LA was expected to take 5 hours and 11 minutes!! Towards the end of the flight it was so hot I had to take my shirt off and my butt was killing me. Due to the delay we missed our connecting flight and got home a later then expected. We were exhausted. All we wanted to do was get home and take a nap so we could rest up before our NYE dinner.

I always have thought that a couple's ability to travel together is a reflection of the kind of relationship they have. The ex husband and I traveled horribly together. It was stressful and worrisome to the point where it overshadowed excitement over the trip itself and it certainly was a reflection of how bad our relationship was. Things could not be more different with Mj and I. Things did go wrong on our trip here and there but as long as we were together and just went with the flow it was fine.

It is so good to be home. Did I already say that?