Chris: Friday afternoon over lunch, something happened to my right shoulder. To this day, no idea what happened. I couldn’t even pick up a coffee cup without a lot of discomfort, and that’s the same shoulder that’s involved in photography, to say nothing of the luggage. Went to the chiro after work, and did some shoulder stretches that Dave C. suggested (he’s got a messed up rotator cuff, so he’s been to PT a bunch), and it worked itself out.
Heather: It’s been our year for medical problems, which made me really glad that we were taking this vacation. It was just sheer luck that we had already booked the cruise before I was diagnosed with two herniated discs, or Talia had surgery for the cyst in her sinus cavity, and Chris still hasn’t gone to physical therapy for his torn PCL (although at this point he might not need it). It was a tough and scary-at-times year, and we were ready to have some family time!
C: Most everything except for the electronics and last-minute snacks were packed Friday night, and we were pretty much ready to go. Everyone’s excited, with Talia glomping Heather pretty regularly. In retrospect, they thought the room on the ship was going to be a multi-room setup like in a hotel suite, but there wouldn’t have been much we could do to prepare them for what it would really be like. It’s hard for an adult to fathom what an extra ~50-75 square feet looks like, let alone a kid.
H: It was an utter fluke that we had a suite anyway. Well, ok, it was only because I get a wee bit obsessive-compulsive about planning vacations as they get closer. I sure didn’t hear anyone complaining about the extra space! ^_^
C: Saturday morning, getting ready to go, started copying MP3s down to Heather’s laptop and ripping a DVD up to the “server” so it could go back to NetFlix.
Went to the post office to see Talia’s new mini-Pullip dolls arrived at the Post Office – Heather had asked them to hold the mail until we get back, in part so we could hopefully pick up the package before we left. The package wouldn’t have arrived until after noon, and we needed to be on the road by 11. It was there, so Talia was happy.
Apparently the copying up/down was too much for the server, because it was brought to a crawl. This actually caused some of the home automation scripts to take so long to run that they were starting to overlap, which had never happened before. This ended up causing one of the parts of the home automation system to lock up, and the whole system stopped behaving normally. And this was 45 minutes before our drop-dead time to get on the road. The system had been having problems starting up recently, but I didn’t want to leave the system as it was — none of the lights would turn on when people watching the house approached or opened the doors, and wouldn’t shut off after they leave. I made the decision to just cut the power to the server and bring it back up, to see if it would come up. Fortunately it booted up without incident, and we left.
H: If anyone ever tells you that computers will make your life easier – punch them in the elbow.
c: No problems on the way down. The roads have changed since we used to commute back and forth, though, so the one planned stop didn’t work out. There’s a turkey farm on the way to Baltimore on 11/15, which we had always passed when we were commuting, but never stopped there. Heather wanted to change that. Unfortunately, we have no idea where it is, because we don’t pass it anymore.
H: We passed it on the way home, but we had just eaten a few hours before so we didn’t get to stop there.
Stopped at a McD’s in Corning. We had driven back and forth between York and Buffalo for a couple years, so we decided to ignore one or two of Jill’s suggestions. Ended up taking “the fancy way” through Harrisburg, because we missed one of the more preferred entrances to one of the highways.
Come up to the entrance to I-83, with an on-ramp ending in a yield sign. Yep, we’re back in south-central PA, alright. Two people are stopped at the yield sign as though it’s a stop sign. Hit the brakes, and eventually merged.
Drove past the house on North George. I was prepared to pull off, but Heather was hitting the rescue remedy like it was breath freshener, so we kept going.
H: And it wasn’t like Stephen really cared. Talia was the one that was excited about seeing where she was born, but Mr. S. really didn’t seem to care. If he had really shown an interest in going to the house, I would have just sucked it up. But let’s just say that I really don’t miss living in PA.
C: Made our way into Baltimore. Called George shortly after we hit the MD border, to give him the requisite two-hour notice. Meeting ETA was 7:30. The plan was to hit up the one mall just before the hotel, to go to the Build-a-Bear so the kids could get their Pawsports stamped. Found the mall without too much problem, but we ended up with two more stuffed animals, which wasn’t part of the plan.
H: Not his part of the plan, anyway.
C: Try to get back on the road, but Jill couldn’t find the hotel. Called the hotel, and find out it’s not really in Baltimore, it’s in an adjacent suburb. Finally found it on the GPS, and continue on. It’s in a commercial district, so it was a bit hard to navigate, but we made it. Checked in, and brought our overnight stuff in for the night.
George makes it to the room by like 8, and we head over to the Red Brick Station, which is a brewpub in the middle of a fake small-city downtown. Cute. Bulldoze the real downtown to make a new sterile one with a Starshmucks, Borders, a multiplex, etc.
H: Yeah, let’s call it what it is – a mall. This particular one is called The Avenue at White Marsh and it really was just utterly absurd. It really looked like downtown NT, or parts of Hertel Avenue, or any other number of small towns – just fake and sterile. Give me the real thing any day. (Something like this would never fly in WNY anyway – we like our malls to be inside and heated in the winter, thank you very much.)
C: Good beer at the brewpub, though, and Heather got the 7-beer sampler, and George and I ordering the stout. The three of us order Cuban sandwiches.
H: Seven four-ounce glasses of beer for $6. How can you go wrong with that? And unlike the rest of the Avenue, the Red Brick Station is a locally-owned microbrewery with some great food and excellent beers. When we sail out of Baltimore again, we will be going back!
C: Make it back to the hotel, and talk for a bit more. See George to his car at about 11? 12? so he can head back home, and we go to sleep.
