North Carolina

Visit to North Carolina

We visited Scott, Nicole, and Madison (my brother and his family) in North Carolina and had the best time! We went to a huge pumpkin patch and took a hayride to the patch where we each picked our favorite pumpkin. Being brought up near the beach where play areas were filled boxes sand, we were fascinated that up up here in NC and in MD children enjoying playing in uncooked corn kernels. Who would have thought?! :) We had fun carving pumpkins and Madison experienced her first pumpkin seed picking, baking, and eating. MMmmm...

Our First Ice-Capade

The weather had been absolutely beautiful here in Maryland! For the first time, this Florida girl is experiencing seasons. The leaves are changing and as we drive down the roads there are signs for farmer's markets, Halloween in the Garden, and food and holiday festivals. The days are getting colder and colder. The other morning we woke up to ice on our cars! Robert, being the first to leave, comes back into the house and says, "There's ice on our cars! How are we suppose to get ice off?" I say, "I dunno, pour warm water on it I suppose." So, we did and come to find out later that morning at work that pouring hot water on your car can cause your windows to crack! The teachers were laughing as my eyes widened in horror as they explained that you have to scrape the ice off your car. One of the teachers then gave me this long scraper with a brush and explained how to use it. I come home and explain that we're suppose to go out into the freezing morning around 6:30 some mornings and scrape the ice off our cars before getting into the car that takes 10 minutes to warm up. This is going to be a LONG winter. However, my loving husband said he would scrape the ice off my car each morning. I am so loved... or so I thought. Come to find out, he knows that this is going to be a shocking winter for me and if their is ANY chance of moving to another cold place he'd better try his best to make it tolerable. :)

Train to Maryland

Ok, so here we are (well, here I am... someone had to take the picture and Tia's hair was doing that Sideshow Bob thing), getting ready to get on the train! We drove to Sanford, left our car with a valet parker (don't be fooled by the fancy name... although, he did put a plastic covering over the seat so as not to stain my already-stained seat covers, very lah-dee-dah), got on the train and, wouldn't you know it, started drinking. There was a complementary wine tasting being held for the upper class passengers.

Tia's big debut as the star of the webpage and just doing a wee bit of "chug-a-lug" if you get my meaning. This food and beverage car was geared towards people getting together and meeting one another. It was very common for anyone to just sit right next to you, ask you where you're from, and then continue with a conversation getting to know one another and sharing each other's travelling stories.

The sleeping arrangements were actually quite rough as I was sleeping in a bed exactly 2 inches wider than my body. Furthermore, I was laying on the top bunk, which for some reason they suspended a good 23 feet from the bottom bunk, and when I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I almost peed my pants trying to figure out how to Jackie Chan my way to the bottom with out stepping on Tia or free falling to an unsure and unsteady floor. But, luckily, once I maneuvered my way down, went to the bathroom and came back, I had a good 78 minutes of tossing and turning on a comfy and plush 1.5 inch thick mattress enjoying all the spacious room of what Alcatraz inmates so belovingly referred to as "the hole". We really DID have a great time.