Visiting friends

The last week or so has been a bit of a whirlwind! We left DC and headed for West Virginia to see Martins friend, Patrick Sauer. It just happened to be our 15th anniversary that night and Patrick and his wife, Michelle, treated us to dinner at a local restaurant that is in an old historical house downtown. Calista made friends with their 15 year old daughter, Emily who was kind enough to keep Calista entertained for the evening. They also have a 12 year old son with a killer bedroom!! The boys hung out with him and played video games, their favorite thing!

We had a good nights sleep, parked at the end of their driveway, and the next morning went to Harpers Ferry where the Civil War started. All the buildings in downtown Harpers Ferry have information and historical artifacts to look at. We have certainly learned a lot of history on this trip for sure! We said our goodbyes around 5:00 pm and headed toward Towson, Maryland, to visit a highschool friend of mine, Ezra Gollogly. Ezra and I worked on the Alaska Railroad together after our senior year in highschool and hadn't seen each other since our wedding day, fifteen years ago. Funny that our reunion would land a day after our anniversary!

We got into Towson around 7:00 and were able to park at the Masonic Temple right next door to Ezra's house. We ordered pizza for dinner and sat around chit chatting until 10:30 or so. It was a short visit but so nice to see him again. He has an adorable daughter, Mina, that Calista was quite happy to keep entertained. His wife was out of town on business so we didn't get to meet her, which was a bummer, but I am sure we will meet again some day.

The next day we took our time getting going, went and did some grocery shopping, and then drove a little north to Bel Air to visit Curt and Tina Wade, some other friends from Fairbanks. Curt dated one of my good friends in highschool so we spent quite a bit of time together back in those days. Tina and I worked at the Fairbanks Clinic together, before I had Kevin, and her and Curt ended up getting married several years ago and now have two boys who are 7 (Cooper) and 17 months (Hayden). Curt and Tina actually attended highschool together at North Pole High. They got some Maryland crab and we spent the evening cracking crab and visiting. Curt recently bought a Mustang convertible so he let Martin and the boys ride along when he picked up the crab, with the top down. Now I have Martin dreaming about a Mustang again! It was one of the most enjoybable evenings and so good to see them again too. It has been such a privilege to see people that we thought we might never see again.

We left Curt and Tina's around 11:00 and headed to Pennsylvania. Some more Fairbanks friends of ours (Kevin and Claudine Jones and their kids Kyla and Brent) live in Carlisle. We parked at a local campground there as we were needing ammenities by this point. Calista woke up the next morning rather sick with a nice case of pharyngitis. Her throat was pretty nasty and she was running a fever. We stopped by the Jones to say a quick hello and then back to the motorhome to nurse Calista. She spent the next night puking so we couldn't do much the next day either. Tristan hit it off with Brent quite well so I took just him over to their house with me to visit for a couple of hours. That night we took Calista to the hospital because it was looking like strep. Four hours and $225.00 later we were told that she just had pharyngitis. The next morning she woke up all perky and ready to go! We had dinner with the Jones' that night and stayed and visited for a while. Brent and Tristan had a great time playing basketball in the driveway and games on the computer while Kyla played with Calista and showed her a little how to bead. Kyla makes beautiful earrings and, of course, I had to get some!!

The next day (Tuesday, May 9) we went to Hersheys and stalked up on chocolate. It was fun to see how chocolate is made and to get a tour around Hershey; the whole town smells like chocolate! We went back to Carlisle that evening and said our goodbyes. We woke up yesterday morning and drove to Gettysburg. We went to a museum there; the National Cemetery, where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address; and the battlefield, where that battle was fought. Then last night we drove back down to DC. Martin and Kevin had a few more things that they wanted to see before we head to Jamestown so they are in DC today while Tristan, Calista, and myself are taking a down day in the motorhome. It is raining today so it seems fitting anyway!