We've really done so much since we left Binghamton at the end of August (how long ago that seems!). We are so grateful to have had the opportunities we've had, to see friends and see sights and then of course to come to England. I'm going to try and start from when we left and give you an idea of what we've done along the way.
We left our house at just the end of August. A few days before we left, we hosted a neighborhood party. Steve had gone 'round the neighborhood and handed out invitations and introduced himself to folks on streets near us. We had well over 50 people at the party and it was great fun. It created a really nice feeling in the neighborhood, which is something that Steve is very good at. Steve's pal from graduate school, Eric, drove over from NJ for a few hours and that was a really nice added element, since we hadn't seen Eric in a really long time (he lives in Atlanta w his family but was visiting relatives in NJ).
We drove to York, Pennsylvania, where Steve's mom and dad live. We have house-sitters, Stefan and Kim, who, along with our friend Ed and our neighbors Connie and John and Suzann & Aidan, are taking good care of our old house while we are gone. We spent several days with Steve's parents and then drove over to Maryland, to visit Steve's brother, Kenny, and Liz and Sarah & Annie & Robby. They have a new house in Virginia and they took us over to see it. Virginia is a beautiful state and the house is high on a hill with a great view. The next day, her cousins showed Sophia how to bounce on a trampoline and she loved it. It was really fun visiting with them for a couple of days.
Next, we drove to see my niece Melissa and her family in Pasadena, MD. We had a really great time spending the day with them. They have 2 dogs and 2 cats which means that Sophia was in heaven, since she loves cats and dogs. (That's my niece Melissa with Sophia at the top).
A couple of days later we took a 3 day trip to the beach. For those of you who know me well, you know how much I loooved this trip. We went to Dewey Beach, Delaware. This is a really small beach town right next to Rehoboth, which is more well known. It was great. We did what Steve sometimes likes to do, which is drive into town without a reservation and then choose a place that we like, for its location, for its ambiance, and hopefully for its reasonable price. We've always had great luck with this method and this time was no different. Since we came after Labor Day weekend, 'peak' season was over, so we were able to get a pretty good price at a time when the weather was still spectacular. We spent our days lounging at the beach, where Sophia and her daddy built castles and dug big holes and mommy relaxed or fetched water for them for the castle moats. We also walked and walked along the beach, then had a great dinner somewhere, and then walked the beach some more and saw some beautiful sunsets. One day while sitting on the patio outside of our room, Sophia spotted dolphins on the distant horizon. She has a great eye (we think she inherited this skill from me, because I had a reputation when I worked in archaeology for often spotting artifacts that were on the ground, or partially hidden, much sooner and more frequently than others looking with me). Steve was with her and they saw hundreds!!! of dolphins leaping and frollicking. Mommies and babies, all ages and sizes. I got outside just in time to see a dozen or so, but even that was amazing.
At the end of this trip, we had the great good fortune of meeting up with our friends Dan & Jen & their son Jake. Dan and Steve had been in touch and so we knew that they were vacationing across the bay at Cape May, NJ. So they took the ferry across the Delaware Bay into Lewes, which was just down the road from us. We strolled around this quaint little town and then had a nice long lunch, with lots of laughing. It was a short visit but really terrific. Jake is 2 months older than Sophia and they got along great. When we came out of the restaurant after lunch, Jake just casually took Sophia's hand and off they walked to see the sights. Adorable does not come close to describing it.
We headed back to York that night and spent the next couple of days catching our breath and getting ready to leave for England. (I'll add more photos later, so please check back!)
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