My daughter and I flew home last night, Washington Dulles to Seattle. I fell asleep on the plane and slept nearly the whole trip. My daughter then did the two hour drive from Seattle to home. A caffeine headache got me up at 4 am west coast US time, since it's 7 on the east coast. Also by 4 I have ten hours of sleep in the last 24.
We had a lovely trip. Eight days staying with my son and his girlfriend, two with a friend I've known since the 1980s in Virginia. My son and girlfriend took two days off and drove us from Maryland to Fredericksburg, Virginia to my aunt and one of my cousins, then to Roanoke to the other aunt and cousins, then to Culpepper to see a friend of theirs. On the way to Dulles I said, "Thank you both for being willing to live here, for working for the government and for driving us everywhere. I am so glad I don't live here." It's all a massive snarl of highways with the Beltway 8 lanes or 10 or 12. Practically everything is 4 lanes. We were on the Beltway two days ago and a guy on a motorcycle was fooling around. Three times he did wheelies at 70 miles an hour and then burned past us weaving out of sight. No armor, either, doing this in khakis and sneakers. My daughter says the motorcycle had three foot placement setups for tricks and looked like something out of Tron. I say "Donorcycle." Life is apparently cheap.
There are very few people that I would risk staying with for 8 days. But my son and his girlfriend are so nice and nice with each other. They set the bar high for hosting. It was a delight.
Happy HanKwanChristSolNewtonmas to all.