VERMONT--I'd tap that

I have been absent. Absent from my social life. Absent from my ever-growing pile of laundry. Absent from blogging. Absent from my writing. Absent from a normal meal. Absent from sleep. Absent from anything resembling a normal life. All because of a little thing I like to call health care reform. Thank you Sen. Baucus, Pres. Obama, and more importantly Sen. Snowe (Republican or not, you are now on my hate list, Snowe!).

To counter balance this I went on an adventure to Vermont with some great friends to check out the fall foliage. Sometimes I complain about how busy this city is but it's things like autumn on the East coast that keeps me living here. The leaves were absolutely incredible.

Scott's bridge--Vermont's longest wooden bridge.

Taken at Mt. Ascutney. Home of a hitchhiker that murdered three people.

There's another thing that I love about the East, proximity to amazing opportunities. Growing up in Texas it took us a minimum of at least four hours to even get out of the state. Our drive started out in Virginia. Then within a matter of minutes and hours we had made our mark in D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire? and Vermont.

A few highlights from each state (or district?):

Virginia: Where the fun began after I skipped out of my office early...well tried to anyway.

D:C: I am pretty sure all we did here was pick up Peter...but what would we have done with out those amazing dance skills?

Maryland: Mostly driving through this fine state. But we did see a pick-up truck engulfed in flames. That was pretty cool.

New Jersey: Why is it called the "Garden State'? Because "Oil and Petrochemical Refinery State" wouldn't fit on a license plate? Also, no one would want to visit if you referred to NJ as the "Smelly State". Also home to a very nice hole-in-the-wall chicken places that had bullet-proof glass over the serving counter.

New York: We decided that it was time for a midnight snack so we stopped in Manhattan for a NY style pizza. I know what you're thinking...You drove in NYC? Yes, yes I did, NYC cabbie style of course. Most importantly, we saw Jude Law. Yes, THE Jude Law (from the movie The Holiday").

I did in fact take this picture...while driving. Oops. NYC Theatre District.

Connecticut: Home of Yale. Also, home of Brazis, world famous for housing mobsters and "interesting" ravioli. If you are wondering how to get there, it's in the Food Plaza.

Peter having fun with "good but interesting" cheese.

Massachusetts: A quick visit (we didn't get in until like 2 a.m.) with Kyle's parents. I'm not sure anything super funny happened here. Nevertheless, it was a good visit.

New Hampshire?: I was beat in a foot race against Kyle (who is MUCH taller than I am) from Vermont into New Hampshire. Then Michele and I decided to work off some of the junk that we had eaten by running from Vermont, across a bridge and into New Hampshire.

Vermont: Where do I begin? Vermont is an interesting place. Lots of tree-hugging liberals. Perhaps that's why they tap the maple trees? They spent waaaayyyyy too much time just hugging the trees so they decided to do something useful and produce very yummy syrup. We had a great time just exploring the area, eating, snuggling under quilts by the fire while playing endless games, roasting mallows and watching the all of season two of The Office. The leaves were pretty incredible, we had great weather and even better company.

The view from Scott's bridge. Hey Kyle, I can see the leaves in the reflection on the water.

One of our many stops along the way.

Me, Peter, Kyle and Michele-- I'd tap that

Virginia: Where the fun ended with yet another round of Chris Brown's "Forever". It is always nice to climb back into your own bed at the end of a trip but I did wake up missing the smell of a fire and Michele, Kyle and Peter. Do we really have to wait until next year's leaves to go back?

An almost trip to Canada

So my two roomies and decided last minute to drive up to the Hill Cumorah pageant on a Saturday morning. We got there about an hour before the show started, leaving us just enough time to take a quick peak at the Sacred Grove.

Due to a torrential downpour about halfway through the show, we decide to make the two-hour drive to Niagara Falls (mind you, it was already 10:30 p.m.). We call a friend and ask him to book us a hotel on Priceline on the American side of Niagara. What does he do? He gets us a hotel in Canada. Due to a new immigration law, you now have to have a passport or birth certificate to cross the border. Awesome. So we decide to try Buffalo, NY instead. We go to like 15 hotels and none of them had any vacancies. I felt like I was Mary and Joseph because there was NO ROOM AT THE INN...at this point we were tired, soaked and grumpy. That's when we decided to sneak across the border* (kind of like you did once Natalie! ha!).

We make such cute illegal immigrants.

But then we got to see the falls from above and below. That was awesome. We waved at Canada from the water. I believe that I was sprayed by some of the Canadian falls. They did not ask me for a passport for that experience.

I was the captain of our ship. Clearly I have no sense of direction (see below).

This is right before we were swallowed up by the falls.

*I am kidding, of course. Unlike Natalie, we did not actually sneak across the border. We stayed in a disgusting junky motel that had a giant teddy bear on the bed, the bed that all three of us shared for the night.

Softball

This was taken a few days AFTER the lovely foul ball my face decided to catch.

Just call me Auntie Shandi!

I couldn't help it. I have already purchased a few items for my future niece/nephew. I am already bursting with pride. I am seriously going to be the best auntie this world has ever known (no offense Nat).