Old friends in new places

We finally made our way into the District of Columbia at sunset on Friday evening.

Who knew apartment hunting could be so exhausting?  Well we put off sightseeing for the next couple days and enjoyed our first night out in DC...in China Town! 

 


The gate sure was elaborate - but the town itself didn't compare to San Fran's.  But we still enjoyed ourselves - the streets and bars were crowded - proving it's still a hot spot.

We spent the next couple nights catching up with old friends.....

Fellow Mountbattens!  Justin and Jenn

Marchies!  Evan and Cecile (Mama C # 2)

Our lovely host Caroline! We go back 10 years

It was nice to see familiar faces in unfamiliar settings.  DC was starting to feel like home already!  Our next step is to get the touring done with so we can start acting like locals.

East Coast

Our journey North was set back because Eric's flight was delayed 2 hours out of Atlanta.  Apparently they weren't able to turn the "check engine" light off...just like a car...so they had to move everyone to a new plane.

My great Aunt and Uncle saw us off....

Mama C and Uncle Ron

and we were on our way.  The ride was smooth - the new car (yet to acquire a nickname) is a beast on the road. 

We drove up through Georgia and although I did see a lot of signs for peaches, I didn't see any peach trees to my disappointment.

South Carolina was green with the occasional palm tree.

 

North Carolina was laden with tall and bushy pine trees which scented the air with its refreshing and earthy fragrance.

Raleigh, North Carolina - our first stop before DC - was nostalgic for Eric because he lived here for one year in high school.  

He reminisced about his glory days for that one year at Wakefield high school...

And about all the quality moments he spent with Kev at 12513 Ribbongrass Court.

Eric & Kev's old digs

I had spent one Christmas in Raleigh as a kid with my family (celebrating our festivities with my Uncle who we stayed with on this trip) and can only remember feeling confused that there was no snow on the ground since growing up in Maine, we were spoiled with white, fluffy snow every winter.

We continued our travels north the next day for my shortest drive yet since I started this adventure - 4 hours to DC.

Virginia was our first stop and is soon to be Eric's new home!

I, however, will associate it with the first damage to the new car...after 2 days in my possession!!!!

Completely out of my control....

We spent most of our first and second days in VA looking for housing in Arlington, which is a very lovely area and very well connected to the city over the river...

But I don't want to bore you with that so I shall be back for more on the Capital of our beloved country!

The journey continues…

As some of you may have realized, CJ’s end point was Upland.  Mine, you ask yourself?  Back in the Constitution State.  The easiest way back is flying…but who wants to do that?  Well, turns out good things come to those who wait.  I waited long enough to have my very own car and the opportunity has finally arisen.  My lovely Great Aunt and Uncle donated their car to me as a sort of graduation gift from Grad school. 

My new ride

Since they live in Jacksonville, Florida, I have flown there to pick up the car.  The view leaving LA was pretty amazing...

But it didn't make up for the fact that although I tried my hardest not to get any luggage lost on my flight over - i.e. I only had carry-ons - the forces were against me.  The lack of space in the overhead compartments forced me to check my small suitcase in after I had already boarded the plane.  The flight attendant wrote on the luggage tag that my destination was "JAN" (Jackson, Mississippi) when in fact, I was headed for "JAX", Jacksonville, FL.

Intuition told me to say something to her - but logic told me otherwise since she was writing up several other tags I decided she didn't have time to deal with me and at the time I assumed JAN was just another code for JAX - WRONG!

Because my intuition finally got the best of me, I confronted not 1, but 2 Continental agents before boarding the plane, showing them my luggage tag, and asking them if my bag had made it on the plane.  Their response?  It "should" be on the plane.  What kind of ambiguous answer is that?  Yes or No people, that's all I'm looking for.  Well, the 2nd attendant had the nerve to tell me that oh, the airport code is wrong, but the flight number is right, so it "should" make it.

That didn't happen.  My suitcase was left at Jackson, Mississippi only to be recollected and flown back through Houston, and then to Jacksonville at 1 am this morning....that is, after a day and a half of calling their resolution center non stop.  But I regress...

Soooo, back to the point.....I not only traveled down the Western coast of America, but I get to drive my new car up the Eastern coast…and in good company!  My boyfriend Eric is meeting me in FL to enjoy the ride with me.  We’ll be making a couple stops along the way so hopefully we’ll have some interesting sights to share!

I promise I’ll be better about recounting my journey with you more punctually….

It's always sunny in California

Just because the road trip is over doesn’t mean I’m going to stop writing in the blog.  I know I was very slack about completing my entries on time…but it’s hard when you spend the majority of your time in the car with zero access to internet.  Anyway, I have a couple days to experience California for the first time so I’ll continue to share this with all of you.

My first day in Cali was filled with sunshine, good company, and delicious food (merci à moi).  For some reason Cali has lured in a few CT renegades – the lack of humidity, expanse of mountains and beaches and access to a city larger than New Haven may have something to do with it.

CT Invasion

I drove through the small town where Claremont College is located, Claremont Village.  It was very cute and pleasant.

We spent the rest of the day in CJ’s new backyard, equipped with a pool and built in hot tub

a barbecue (the veggie kebabs didn’t come with it – they were courtesy of yours truly



and the perfect set up for Polish Horseshoes.














We also had our doggy friends over to enjoy this relaxing day with us.

Lilly

Link

I forgot to mention we were celebrating the birth of our fellow Connecticut friend and CJ’s new house mate – Sir Jonathon Bone.  Well, it wasn’t technically his birthday but those are just details anyway.

Our aggressive two tiered ice cream cake

After a long day of bbq-ing, swimming and polish horse shoes we retired for the night – so did Lilly.

Cutest dog EVER

My second and last day (sadly) was spent on a high speed tour through LA, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.  My doctor-to-be sister (Gabe) and her doctor-to-be friend (Fran) were my tour guides, and Lilly came along for the ride!

We started in Pomona at Gabe’s school with a lovely view of the San Gabriel Mountains

Once in LA, we drove along Hollywood Boulevard towards Runyon Canyon where we got some mid-day, scorching hot exercise hiking up a mountain to see the Hollywood sign.

Dr.'s Gabe and Fran

Run up this if you want a work out

LA skyline

HOLLYWOOD!

Tree head massage!

We continued down Santa Monica Blvd into Beverly Hills, which aside from really rich things, they also had a really cool looking tree.





















Before doing our brisk walk at the top of Santa Monica beach, we strolled down Third Street Promenade to get some lunch

In order to avoid LA traffic, our time was limited, so I was only able to snap some shots of the beach from afar.

We made our way to Venice beach, which was definitely a beachy, American version of Camden Town in London







The actual beach was lovely! 
















It was here at Venice Beach where I was able to slip my bare feet into the Pacific ocean for the first time EVER!

What a glorious day!

Me enjoying the Pacific waters