States Traveled Through/To: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC
Soundtrack: The National, WTF Podcast (interview: Steve O from Jackass).
Yesterday we left Brooklyn. With all of the chaos leading up to it, there hasn’t been much time to process it. But we woke up this morning in our empty apartment, frantically pulled all our things together, realized we had way too much stuff, did a final walkthrough with our weird French landlord, handed over our keys, and closed the door behind us. On the way out, a sweet send off from our amazing upstairs neighbors – Barry and Kay and their two children, Freya and Rocco.
After a quick stop at our favorite Park Slope coffee shop, we made our way out of Brooklyn yelling goodbyes to everything we passed. And then we were off! But we weren’t going to get out without one last New Jersey trauma (formerly the site of many wrong turns and white knuckles on last year’s RV trip). Just as we thought we were home free…”I think Charley needs to be changed”. So we pulled into a little Jersey gas station, and I carted all the stuff into the little bathroom, and….no way in hell. This bathroom was straight out of a horror movie. “No big deal, we can use the back seat” – surprise! Full outfit change. Nothing like wrangling a wiggly naked baby on a backseat covered in a 5 inch layer of Wally hair! Off to a roaring start.
We passed through several states and made it to our destination, Washington D.C. After a rough couple weeks of living in an apartment full of boxes, it was such a relief to check into our beautiful, dog friendly hotel. DC is beautiful! All old brick buildings, and every one is something interesting: the Armenian embassy, the Nicaraguan embassy, the American Association for Mathematics, Johns Hopkins campuses. We walked from our hotel to the National Mall and saw the White House, the Washington monument, and a collection of different memorials. We were pleasantly surprised to find that DC isn’t overwhelmingly slammed with hoards of tourists and vendors. We could walk through the historic streets without feeling like salmon. On our way home we saw some big SUV’s and motorcades – Obama??
Turns out, maybe! We came home and found the coverage of the White House Correspondents’ dinner happening last night. We got super nerdy about watching all the coverage knowing it was happening just down the street! Although we suspect by the commercials of Chuck Woolery endorsing at home medical devices that we were probably the only ones watching. After 3 hours of all of the build up filler coverage, the big speeches finally started…and I fell asleep and missed it all. Carey said it was pretty good. 😉
Amazing nights sleep after many sleepless last days in Brooklyn, a nice early morning walk among the embassies with Wally, and then on the road again! Asheville, here we come.
Jill & Carey 