Our Autumn Vacation

It seems like a long time since I've blogged and it has been a while but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy, just too busy to write.

It all started last spring. I won't go into all the details for that is another story but let's just say that that story ends with me buying airline tickets for Jeannie, myself and Grandma & Grandpa Ammon to Washington, DC in the fall to visit Ginger, then rent a car and drive to New England to see the autumn foliage. Sounds like a good plan but a long time in the future so I kinda forget about it.

Suddenly fast forward 6 months and it's a week before we leave and now it seems imminent and very real. Of course, there is always work to take care of before we leave and as always, gets really busy right up to takeoff. Finally, it's the night before, G & G are here spending the night before our early flight out of SF. We arrive in DC after lunch and pick up our van. We plug Ginger's address into Grandpa's GPS and there we are. Considering that Grandma had never flown before, this was a major accomplishment in itself.

There are many stories to be told about traveling on an automobile trip with your parents, especially if you are in fact not 6 yrs old. I won't bore you all with the stories, most of which were the you had to be there variety but still pretty darn funny. I will say that we left DC and veered west. We passed through PA and into NY, hitting both the Catskill and Adirondack Mts. We spent 2 nights in VT, where I saw every LL Bean Special Edition Subaru AWD Outback wagon ever made. I am not kidding, at least every other car on the road in VT is a Subaru. It is bizarre and kind of frightening in a neo-hippy, eco-friendly tree- hugger sort of way. Also discovered in VT that bumper stickers are making a huge come-back. ("What if they had a war and nobody came." "Impeach him now!") You get the idea. When we crossed the state line into New Hampshire it was as if everyone in the van took a huge breath as though we'd been unconsciously holding our breath while passing through this foreign land. New Hampshire was much more to my liking though at the time I didn't know why, it just had a better vibe. Later Ginger told me that NH is a haven for people with Libertarian leanings. I don't agree with their entire philosophy but I will embrace the smaller government aspect of it. But I digress.

After finally finding peak color in the White Mts of NH, we head east and hit the coast at Portsmouth, NH. Now it's time for the Dreaded Drive Down I-95. I did Portsmouth, Boston and NYC in one day, slept good that night! We rolled back into DC in time to do some more sight-seeing there (we'd already done some before we left). Ginger graciously offered us the use of the beds in her apt. while she took the floor. She also arranged reservations at some of the areas best restaurants. It was a memorable trip that we all enjoyed. It was better than a trip, it was an adventure.