Of course, the family visits were the highlight of the trip. We were able to spend true quality time with everyone in Maryland -- to include with my brother's family visiting from Chicago and my in-laws visiting from North Carolina. All of the children in the family are thriving and seem to have grown impossibly taller and wiser in the time we've been apart. They are imaginative and inquisitive and affectionate and so funny. Each of them made us laugh with their stories and jokes and antics. We miss everyone already.
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| Maryland, May 2007 |
As I mentioned, we sold our boat while we were home. That was bittersweet. We loved spending time on the boat, and have many memories of excursions with family and friends, but we knew that it was silly to hang onto it while we're living in the UK. We took her out for a final glorious run down the river -- I took a few pictures to commemorate the final voyage -- all the while promising ourselves that we'd buy another when we return to Annapolis.
Being at the boat gave us a good reason to visit with some of our Annapolis neighbors and to check out our house from a distance. The house looked to be in good shape, which is a relief. (And it was nice to see the yard looking good while knowing that we didn't have to spend our own weekend time to get it looking that way!) The renters seem content, and we're pleased that they are enjoying our home.
We went to the NCAA lacrosse championship game in Baltimore with my brother and his wife, and we saw a great Little League baseball playoff game with my brother-in-law's family. (The Marlins didn't win, but our older nephew got a massive hit and an RBI!) English football is great, but nothing beats watching lacrosse and baseball on a sunny day at home.
My younger nephew, the birthday boy, was eager to show us his fish, tadpoles, frogs, toads, bunnies, and his snake. Quite an impressive menagerie! (My sister-in-law is a saint, I swear it.)
We celebrated my parent's 47th wedding anniversary on Memorial Day with a great family dinner at McCormick & Schmick's on the water in Baltimore. The inner harbor area looks fantastic -- I woke up early on Sunday morning after spending the night at Mom & Dad's, and took a long walk around the harbor. [Everyone that I passed nodded and said "good morning", by the way! :-) ] There were two beautiful tall ships in town, everything looked spruced up and clean, and all of the new construction has added a new vitality to the area. Impressive.
Oh, and did I mention that we ate? And ate, and ate, and ate... We had everything that we've missed -- great steaks, crabs (both hard- and soft-shelled), Lebanese food, grilled foods, Mom's potato salad & devilled eggs, Maria's meatballs & pasta salad, Dad's chili, crab dip from Eddie's, fresh salsa from Whole Foods, sushi, hazelnut coffee, real iced tea, Kendall Jackson chardonnay, York Peppermint Patties...it was all delicious. But now it's time to go back to the gym and work it all off...
The time flew, of course. It was all over too quickly. But it was a fantastic few days!
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