Blogs from Fairfax, Virginia, United States, North America - page 3

Hey friends - I'm getting ready to head out this Friday, September 5, on my cross country "Intro to Retirement" adventure. It's two months tomorrow since I left FNS, and, while I can't say I've gotten as much done at home as I hoped to during this period, I am ready and raring to go on the trip. I'm posting a map of by initial plans for my travel, but I expect there to be changes along the way, especially if Nick (my grandson!) decides to show up a bit earlier than his expected Oct. 1 due date. The first part of my route focuses on U.S. Route 50 (one of the first coast to coast highways) and the Great River Road, a series of highways which meanders along the Mississippi River. I expect the high ... read more

by Mrs Plod Got the rest of our stuff packed up, had breakfast, showered and played with Conor a bit. Soon it was time to leave on our last flight of the trip! Tim took us back to Dulles airport, where we got through security with no fuss. Grabbed a quick lunch to take on the plane, and left on time. The pilot was pretty sure that we would arrive in Minneapolis early. We did--at 3:30 for 4:04. We headed over to baggage claim, and waited about 45 minutes for our bags to arrive. Once they finally did, we met up with Doris, our wonderful driver for our final leg. After getting through rush-hour traffic, we were on the way. We stopped in Albert Lea for dinner, and headed homeward once again. We got home just ... read more

Today could be a "cut-and-paste" of yesterday, except we went to the Jaipur, a FABULOUS Indian buffet, for lunch, and we went to Trader Joes instead of the mall. Spent part of the morning watching "the golf", playing with Conor, and changing his pants!! Enjoyed a lovely lunch, but was absolutely STUFFED when we left. The food was very, very good, with quite a nice variety of dishes, so it was hard to not try and sample everything. I only had seconds, but my stomach was just not used to that much food, and I was quite uncomfortable when we left. Ross felt a bit yucky, too! Trader Joes was another DC request (Smithsonian, Civil War battle fields, monuments...whatever!) That is one cool grocery store! I am glad that there is one in Minneapolis, because the ... read more

Yay! We left Cedar Falls this morning and headed to Minneapolis with my dear friend and co-worker, Doris as chauffeur. We checked in for our flight to Washington DC, switched our seat assignments from the exit row (since Owen is not yet 15!), grabbed a sandwich from Caribou Coffee, and got on the plane. Then we sat for about an hour while a faulty jumpseat was repaired, and Air Traffic Control contemplated the bad weather in the DC area. We were kept up-to-date on things, though, which was good. After an uneventful flight, we arrived in DC 40 minutes late, grabbed our checked bag of baby clothes for Conor, and met Tim (our brother-in-law) out front. We spent the evening rocking and holding baby Conor--he was having a rough day! We are all packed up ... read more

to Great SmokyLpaw just a bit tired still but we were ready to explore the great smokies. Great Smokies located south of Pigeon Forge for approximately 9 miles. to go to the park we had to go to Gatlinburg located just a mile north of the park. i was amazed to see that there were a large amount of what i call man-made attractions in this town: a tram to get you to see moutaintop views, a lift which serves that same purpose as a tram, ripley museum-aquarium-entertainment center, a haunted house by a river, and a space needle. not sure if i left out anything else. a huge amount of tourists crowded both sides of the street. i wonder if their primary goal was to visit the park or the town. it took us a ... read more