Lots of time on the road

Friday was an easy-going day, for the most part.  Mark and I had breakfast with Cindy, our usual workday morning with her.  Sometimes, I accidentally sleep in and find that she's gone to work already when I get up.  I was determined not to let that happen yesterday since it was the last workday morning breakfast we could spend together until the trip up next May.  Mark never misses!  He sets his alarm, showers, and gets out of the bathroom early enough so as not to be in her way when she gets up.  Then he gets downstairs so he can make her a cup of coffee when she comes down.  He is so nice!  They talk about everything under the sun, and sometimes they talk about things in the morning paper.  Breakfast at Cindy's house is delightful.

After she left for work, Mark and I watched some TV and got ready to go to the movies.  We went to see the new Amazing Spiderman movie in 3D.  It was OK.  I liked it well enough, especially because it had Emma Stone and Sally Fields in it.  Sally Fields played Aunt May and Martin Sheen played Uncle Ben.  Those performances made it worth the price of admission.  Otherwise, it was just OK, but I'm glad I saw it.

I went back to the house and put the chicken and vegetables for dinner into the oven.  My plan was to let it all bake about four hours.  Mark stayed home to be sure the house didn't burn down from the oven being on, and it also worked well for letting Lowell in when he came after work.  I left around 3:30 to go pick up Emily in Columbia.  It was fun playing with Trillian for a few minutes when I got there, but the drive back was horrendous.  There was no road going from Columbia to north Baltimore that wasn't just inching along because it was a Friday rush house and a home baseball game.  My roundtrip took three hours!  Crazy, but I had fun talking to Emily the whole way. 

Cindy, Ken, Logan, and Kip were also there for dinner.  What a fantastic night!  I hated to see everybody go because I knew I would not see them again until May, unless some of them decide to fly south to see us.  We will be back in May for Lowell's graduation from University of Baltimore. I have to admit that I felt sad when I hugged Lowell and Emily and said good bye.  Logan and Kip were the next to leave.  We had not seen Logan since Evey's wedding!  Unbelievable.  He is going to be a senior in high school next year and then on to Art School.  What a talent!  Cindy and Ken took off around 11 p.m., the last to leave.  It was a great way to end our visit with the family by having a big dinner party.

Today is our last full day up in Maryland.  We are going to synagogue, although we are getting a very late start!  Then we will head to Frank's house to load the car with the boxes of Alice's Passover things that we flagged last Saturday.  Annie is hosting Mah Jongg again, and eight of us will be playing.  That's going to be great fun.  The day will end with some pizza, schmoozing, and cruise excursion talk at Jen R's house.  Georganne is babysitting Felix tonight, so Rudy, Phyllis, Mark, and I are hanging out with her.  That will conclude our trip up north.

Tomorrow we will do last minute laundry, pack, and hit the road about 11 a.m.  We only have to go to Lorton, VA to catch the auto train.  If there is not a lot of traffic, and there shouldn't be on Sunday, I think it will not take longer than two hours to get there.  Monday morning we will detrain in Sanford, FL around 9 a.m. , so we expect to pull into our driveway by 11 a.m. at the latest.  I'm looking forward to taking the train home. It's so relaxing.  I'm also looking forward to sleeping in my own bed Monday night.  This trip has been very busy, full of wonderful activities and fantastic people, but after almost three weeks, it will also feel very good to get home.