Road Trip: Day 4 - Family Brunch and Exploring DC

Today started with a family brunch in Bethesda, MD. It's always great to see family and I am so glad we were all able to get together! You know there will never be a dull moment with Uncle Jimmy, or as I like to call him, Jammi. He also calls me Jammi, even though it is his name not mine....no one understands, but we still love him.

Jammi, the volleyball legend himself! Mom, do you notice the spice rack in the back...you made it! 

Reason #472 we love Jammi, as we sit down to brunch, mind you we have been hanging out for 30 minutes, he calls my Mom in Arizona to "do the face time" only to tell her we will call her back in 20 minutes....wait you called me, hahaha! 

The whole gang, minus Mary Beth (I don't have one with MB, someone send me one!) - Kathy, Anthony (about to be 30!), Jammi, Marissa, me, Layla, Jeff and Chris

Nanny, still strong at 91! I learned at brunch I have a Great Great Aunt Kathleen who was a nun in Sydney, not the first in my family to live in Australia!

After brunch we headed to DC to meet up with Alex, a first year at Kellogg, I guess now he's a second year, weird. Big fan of Alex, we hit it off immediately as we share the sense of humor of 11 year old boys. Alex was on the KWEST trip we lead though Kellogg last year and will be leading the bike trip this year. Thanks for keeping' it alive :) In just a short year he's become a lifelong friend, I tear up a bit thinking of missing his and Lynette's wedding...anyway. 

Alex was in the Army and spent two years in the Honor Guard in Arlington, VA. I will never be able to remember exactly what his title was or any of that, but I just like to think of him as overall Badass. I will leave it at that for the sake of Lynette, his fiancé, he has enough self-confidence :) He was in DC for the weekend so offered to hang out and take us around Arlington Cemetery as I had never been. So glad we didn't have to say goodbye in Evanston and got to see him again! It was an awesome day and he pointed us to lots of special sites and gave insight to how it all works. It was an unforgettable experience - thank you Alex for your service and for showing us around!  

Obligatory out the car window pic of the Australian Embassy

View from Lee's house 

Lockerbie Memorial - 1988 terriorist bombing, I didn't know much about it and had to look it up, I was only 6 but don't remember this at all - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103  

Abner Doubleday's grave, complete with some baseballs, fitting 

Changing of the Gaurd's - they are so precise!  

Alex's favorite place as there a so many hidden graves of heroes that many just walk past 

In that same section, a famous SAE and medal of honor recipient - Chris got to drop a little knowledge on Alex 

Walk though area 60, which is where many of the recent fallen soldiers of Afghanistan and Iraq have been laid to rest. It is shocking how many there are and how young so many of them were - not even able to buy a drink at a bar and paid the greatest sacrifice. 

Gravestone in the tree stump  

Since our tour didn't include water or snacks, we were starving. We headed around the corner for Pupusa's. They were delicious! They are an El Salvador staple described as a mix between a dumpling and quesadilla. Definitely go here!

Final pic with Alex - we will miss you!  

Can't even tell Alex is wearing short shorts :)

Next up - Chris's Uncle Raymond and Aunt Susan's in Virginia (not exactly sure where). It's only a 3 hour drive so we might explore a little more in DC.  

Road Trip: Day 3 - Onward to DC/Maryland

We started the license plate game off with a bang today - first plate Alaska!  Boom! 

We said our goodbyes to Chris' parents and left Cincinnati early in the morning and drove thorough Columbus, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and arrived in Maryland around 7 PM. 

We saw a sign for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania so we decided to take a slight detour. I am really glad we did. This is the beauty of not having a schedule. If you have the opportunity to go, I would do it. They are in the midst of construction, but it is already a really nice tribute. As we drove up, we happened to put a radio lab podcast on "60 words" we had no idea it was related, but it provoked some thought. 

As you walk up there are detailed signs about the events and timeline, a place to leave messages and an area for reflection presentations a few times a day

You walk along a path that is parallel to the plane impact site to the memorial - its hard to see but the boulder in the middle distance is about where the crash was

Each panel of the marble wall has the name of those who passed. The gate in this photo look over the impact of the plane

There were probably about 200 people visiting, more than I expected

This stopped me in my tracks, I forgot a pregnant woman was a passanger until I saw this, its hard to see "and unborn child" 

The Harley Davidson crowd was well over half of the visitors 

A beautiful memorial and a nice peaceful day

We headed back on the road the scenic route and arrived to a BBQ at my cousin Layla and Jeff's house well under way. So far we have clocked 836 miles. One more day in the DC area!

Road Trip: Day 2 - Cincinnati Skyline & BBQ

No trip to Cincinnati is complete without a trip to Skyline and hands down the Clifton Skyline is the best! We only went once this trip....one trip for the Kist's wedding we had Skyline 4 times in 36 hours. As much as I like Skyline, that was gross.  

Cheese Coney, 3-way and a sweet tea!

Rookie Skyline move is to twirl the spaghetti, you have to cut  it sideways

After our skyline visit we headed to Nick and Marie's for a goodbye BBQ with Chris' college friends.  It was a great night and you guys almost made us break our rule of not driving hungover the next day.

Thanks for coming Sarah, Scott, Eva & Ella, Nick & Marie, John, Emily & Graham, Julie & Ben, Steph and Dan, Rebbie, Jim and Chuck! We will see you guys in Australia, right???

Patio Party

Em, Chris, John, Jim and Nick talking about who knows what, chipies maybe

Even Chris held the baby

And so did I, he's so cute!

Everyone wants to hold Graham!  Eva and Ella were too cute, but its impossible to take a photo of three kids!

Speelman Siblings

Road Trip: Day 1 - Chicago to Cincinnati

We got an early start on Thursday so that we could make it to Cincinnati for the USA v Germany soccer game. Closing the door to the apartment for the last time was a bit strange...and then we realized we forgot to leave our mail keys, oops.

We packed up our car, stopped at Crossfit Etown to drop off some protein powder and headed to Lake Shore Drive for the last time. Within 30 minutes of driving we vowed to never drive hungover again. It was awful, good thing it was only a 5 hour drive. But seriously, we both felt terrible. The goodbyes the night before were worth it :)

We got to Harvey and Emily's House the second Germany scored the only goal of the game, boo.  We watched the rest of the game with the Harvey's and then headed to Hyde park for a beer on a patio.  

After a quick must take nap we headed to a Cincinnati staple, Montgomery Inn, for ribs with the Speelman family. They are DELICIOUS and the company was great as usual!  We will miss Marlene, Bill, Julie and Ben!   

No pictures from Day 1 - oops....

More Shipping Decisions

Nothing like the last minute to motivate you to get it all done. We were lazy in the research department for shipping companies, don't do what I did, unless you have a Jules and an Oscar. These two got quotes from a few shipping companies and did a lot of leg work, they are trustworthy, so we decided that was good enough for us and went with Suddath, the one they picked. Thanks guys!

We booked an appointment for a quote and we spent about five more hours the day before they came deciding what would go and stay from the kitchen.  We put everything on the dining room table that we would take - this was more for us than the shipping company.

I highly recommend doing this method if you aren't taking everything. Taking a picture helped so we knew what decisions we already made. But now that I look at this picture we changed our minds a lot - we defiantly added to this pile and took some away. It was helpful to sit on the decision for a while and think about it.

Its amazing how much stuff you accumulate.  We were able to give a lot of it away because really who stores a salad spinner. To give most of our stuff away we took photos of everything, added it to dropbox and sent a link to friends. Delivering stuff was actually a nice way to also day goodbye individually and throw in an occasional costume.

Bone Crusher Heads to Arizona

Despite my mom rolling Bone Crusher's face up in the window on the way to the airport, I think he is in good hands.  But seriously, thanks Mom for taking the little wee-man to Arizona. She even bought him a little pool to keep cool :)

The trip to the airport was easy. He got though security easily and was just a clam happy boy - I was more nervous than he was!

Travel crate, not the biggest fan

Little dude waiting to board, he was so calm

There was a Mom with 6 kids and he was very interested in the crying infant 

Bone's first flight was on the Southwest Penguin flight....I know he is just a dog, I don't need to be reminded :)  

The flight was 4 hours and my mom said he didn't make a peep.  Thanks Mama!  And no Lisa, Wendy, Van and Garrett you can't keep this one!