![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
East Coast tour: the extended remix
So, as my previous post indicated, I came back yesterday from a trip to New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.
The original purpose was to attend the graduation of my nephew Z from Coast Guard boot camp, which was in Cape May, NJ (about as far south as you can get in NJ). So I flew in to JFK on Thursday on an early, early flight out of Seattle and drove down (about 3.5 hours, counting getting slightly lost a couple of times; fortunately my G1 does a decent imitation of a GPS navigation device, minus the auto-position-updating and voice cues for turns, plus Street View if needed). For the occasion, I rented a Prius*, so I could satisfy my curiosity about hybrids.
I hung out that evening mostly with my brother N, whom I haven't seen for a while. I keep trying to get him to jump on the bandwagon and move out to Seattle, but he's got a pretty good job as a firefighter/medic now in Charlottesville, so he'd have to have a really good offer.
Friday morning was the graduation. Zach played trumpet in the band for his own graduation, which I thought was a bit odd (I've played in a few graduations, but not my own) but cool. Sadly, he was not given the opportunity to do his by-now apparently popular rendition of "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". (Seriously. This from the kid who went in with a stated intention of keeping a low profile...not that he's good at that.) That night we hung out and I introduced him to Star Control 2. ("First one's free, kid...")
Saturday morning I drove off to what I am informed is downstate (New York to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
judovitch and saratchka. I eventually got there about 4 hours later (after missing the "branch to Fishkill", heh heh, and briefly thinking I'd somehow lost my wallet at a scenic overlook). On the way my friend D in NYC told me that he'd just discovered that the trains didn't do what he thought they did, so I agreed to drag him to his concert that evening; later amnesiadust's own transportational troubles caused judovitch and I to drive out to New Haven to pick him up (after dropping D off) and drag him back to judovitch's place. Much hanging out, delivering of bad puns, spinning of dice, bonding over D&D systems, talking about kids and their raising and education, and SC 2 ensued at various points.
Sunday I spent with J, S, their sprightly sprogs, and A, after which J kindly drove A back to New Haven so that I wouldn't have to, and I took off for JFK. The trip back was mostly uneventful except that I unexpectedly ended up having an empty seat next to me on a full flight (== awesome; Delta's seats seem even smaller than normal, somehow).
I wish that I'd been able to bring Megan and the kids--J&S's kids are the same ages, near enough--but it was an awesome vacation, even with all the driving around. I hadn't seen J&S since my wedding (almost eight years and collectively 5 kids ago--gak!) and it was great to get a chance to hang out with S and get to know her better. (judovitch, you lucked out, my friend.)
Sadly, I missed seeingfdmts (unexpected trip out of town) and fenicedautun (unavailable unless I wanted to drive up to Boston and then back down to NYC, which really would have been looney tunes--note to self, next time do an open-jaw flight) but I did at least have a good chat with fdmts, which I haven't had the pleasure of doing in a very long time.
Good times.
*It wasn't as unusual-feeling as I was expecting, although the behavior at very low speeds was kind of cool (look, Ma, no gas!). The one thing that bugged me was the division of the rear window into two sections--whose bright idea was that, anyway?
The original purpose was to attend the graduation of my nephew Z from Coast Guard boot camp, which was in Cape May, NJ (about as far south as you can get in NJ). So I flew in to JFK on Thursday on an early, early flight out of Seattle and drove down (about 3.5 hours, counting getting slightly lost a couple of times; fortunately my G1 does a decent imitation of a GPS navigation device, minus the auto-position-updating and voice cues for turns, plus Street View if needed). For the occasion, I rented a Prius*, so I could satisfy my curiosity about hybrids.
I hung out that evening mostly with my brother N, whom I haven't seen for a while. I keep trying to get him to jump on the bandwagon and move out to Seattle, but he's got a pretty good job as a firefighter/medic now in Charlottesville, so he'd have to have a really good offer.
Friday morning was the graduation. Zach played trumpet in the band for his own graduation, which I thought was a bit odd (I've played in a few graduations, but not my own) but cool. Sadly, he was not given the opportunity to do his by-now apparently popular rendition of "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". (Seriously. This from the kid who went in with a stated intention of keeping a low profile...not that he's good at that.) That night we hung out and I introduced him to Star Control 2. ("First one's free, kid...")
Saturday morning I drove off to what I am informed is downstate (New York to see
judovitch and saratchka. I eventually got there about 4 hours later (after missing the "branch to Fishkill", heh heh, and briefly thinking I'd somehow lost my wallet at a scenic overlook). On the way my friend D in NYC told me that he'd just discovered that the trains didn't do what he thought they did, so I agreed to drag him to his concert that evening; later amnesiadust's own transportational troubles caused judovitch and I to drive out to New Haven to pick him up (after dropping D off) and drag him back to judovitch's place. Much hanging out, delivering of bad puns, spinning of dice, bonding over D&D systems, talking about kids and their raising and education, and SC 2 ensued at various points.Sunday I spent with J, S, their sprightly sprogs, and A, after which J kindly drove A back to New Haven so that I wouldn't have to, and I took off for JFK. The trip back was mostly uneventful except that I unexpectedly ended up having an empty seat next to me on a full flight (== awesome; Delta's seats seem even smaller than normal, somehow).
I wish that I'd been able to bring Megan and the kids--J&S's kids are the same ages, near enough--but it was an awesome vacation, even with all the driving around. I hadn't seen J&S since my wedding (almost eight years and collectively 5 kids ago--gak!) and it was great to get a chance to hang out with S and get to know her better. (
judovitch, you lucked out, my friend.)Sadly, I missed seeing
fdmts (unexpected trip out of town) and fenicedautun (unavailable unless I wanted to drive up to Boston and then back down to NYC, which really would have been looney tunes--note to self, next time do an open-jaw flight) but I did at least have a good chat with fdmts, which I haven't had the pleasure of doing in a very long time.Good times.
*It wasn't as unusual-feeling as I was expecting, although the behavior at very low speeds was kind of cool (look, Ma, no gas!). The one thing that bugged me was the division of the rear window into two sections--whose bright idea was that, anyway?