New England!

I am currently on day 16 of a 16-day vacation (best thing about my job? Yeah, I think so!). I go back tomorrow, and am torn between being happy to see my co-workers, and sad about having to go back to real life.

I spent the first several days of vacation at my dad's house in northeastern Pennsylvania (The Poconos). Got to take my littlest niece to the mall, and let her pick out her birthday present (she turned 8 on the 26th). I got to go to my nephew's 18th birthday party (18?! Seriously? How is this even possible?!). Then I headed home to Maryland for about a week.

My friend Adele had off the second week that I had, so I had plans to meet up with her, but no real set plans. Then I ended up feeling like crap somewhere around Sunday night and Monday morning, so I wasn't going to get up with her at all. But Monday around noon, I seriously said "screw this nonsense!" I decided that sitting around at home just wasn't working for me. I called Adele and told her we were going on a roadtrip.

I picked Adele up, and we headed to my dad's. Spent the night there, and then left pretty early in the morning, and headed toward New England. I finally made it to Rhode Island and to Maine! I have now officially been to every state east of the Mississippi! We spent one night in Maine, then headed back to my dad's the following night before heading back to Maryland yesterday.

I realize my writing is awful, but I just wanted to do a quick documentation of my trip before it was all out of my head.

Some stuff we did:

• The Pez candy factory in Orange Connecticut
• Ate at Mystic Pizza in Mystic, Connecticut
• Ate at The Friendly Toast in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• Slept at a hotel in Kittery, Maine
• Drove through York, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, Maine
• Saw the ocean and walked on the beach in Maine
• Ate at Becky's Diner in Portland, Maine
• Visited the Stonewall Kitchen store in York, Maine
• Visited the Yankee Candle experience store in Deerfield, Massachusetts

I had a blast. I'm glad that I got up off my butt and went, and am thrilled that Adele humored me and came along. We did 1300 miles through nine states in four days and three nights. I don't think I could have done it alone (I did all of the driving, but it was so nice to have someone to talk to, sing along to Disney songs with, look for moose with, yada yada).

Suddenly, I feel very brave. Perhaps brave isn't the right word. I just feel like I can do just about anything right now. Invincible, almost. I know it seems ridiculous, but I feel like I just conquered so much by going on this trip. It has me craving more adventures, and wanting to be brave in other ways. Hoping this feeling keeps up!

Back to work tomorrow...