9 Days, 7 States, 5 Hotels & 1600 Miles...Phew!

Where have I been? On vacation, that's where! I'm busy trying to get through the enormous pile of vacation laundry, while catching up at work (gee, only 150 emails to sort through!) and attempt to entertain my kids since they are both out of school for the summer. Oh, and I turned 34 yesterday, too. Wow.

So while I'm catching up on that, here are a few pictures from our days on the road; 9 days, 7 states, 5 hotels and 1600 miles...phew! And nobody killed anyone while in the car. Do I know how to plan a road trip or what?

Popsicles in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The Hubs and I were quoting Forrest Gump on the way up the steps and MLK on the way back down.

The main reason for the trip: my oldest friend (we met in preschool when we were four!) got married under a big tree in the South Carolina country. Fireflies, moonshine, banjos and accordions...love it. This is one of my favorite pictures of her -- she looked lovely -- just married and she's looking at me. Her face made me cry!

After the wedding we drove into the Virginia mountains and stayed near a fun indoor/outdoor water park called Matanussen Resort. I would definitely recommend it -- we had a blast! And Jack even learned how to boogie board on their pipeline. I was so impressed with him! Cute, right?

One of the best parts about traveling around The South?

THE FOOD.


I finally got to try a fried green tomato -- something I've been wanting to taste for years. Until last week, I had never even seen a fried green tomato, much less tasted one. My review? It was GOOD. Crispy on the outside, soft and seedy on the inside. It reminded me of a fried zucchini with a much stronger flavor, but in a good way. We also sampled real sweet tea (or "swate tay" as they call it in the south), boiled cabbage, sweet potato pie, ribs, home fries, collard greens....YUM. I know I gained at least five pounds on the trip but, who the hell cares! I got to eat a fried green tomato, people! And BTW, I've totally mastered that I have to let the server know if I want sweetened or unsweetened tea when ordering -- out west, you order an iced tea and you get unsweetened. Period. There is no swate tay (giggle).

The Hubs and I finally got to show our kids how to fish; we've been wanting to do that for a long time. Such a peaceful picture, isn't it? Little did we know chaos was about to commence; this picture was taken right before we locked ourselves out of our friends' house and I almost got my eyes scratched out by a demon cat...but I'll save that story for another blog post.

My typical goofball kids. I wonder where they get that from?


Here we are sitting in front of the United States Capitol building. We were sweating our balls off that day (it was 87 and soooo muggy yuck!), but we got to tour the whole city on a trolley which gave us a nice break from the heat.

Today, The Hubs is back at work, the kids are happy to be sleeping in their own beds again and I've got leftover birthday cake in the freezer. Life is good!