It's Officially Spring, Right? - Part 1

As you might have seen on Facebook lately, I recently took a trip to the cold and blustery northeast to visit with my best friend from college, Toni, as well as her hubby Robert and their daughter/our goddaughter Juliet.  A great time was had by all!  Below, the first part of the details...

Thursday, March 9th

Chris was approved to work from home on Thursday so he could drive me to LAX first thing in the morning to drop me for my flight.  Since LAX is hit or miss when it comes to crowds, I erred on the earlier side; when he dropped me off two hours before my flight, I noticed that the first stretch of my travel, LAX to St. Louis, was delayed by about 15 minutes.  While this wasn't the biggest deal to me, apparently, that made my STL connection a bit too tight for Southwest standards, so the agent at the desk worked to change my flight to one that I had a better chance of making.  The new flight connected through Chicago Midway with over an hour, so I accepted it, even though it left just an hour from when I stepped foot inside LAX.  I hoofed it through security, grabbed my new boarding pass from the gate agent, and even had time to wait in line at the restroom and then at the California Pizza Kitchen for a breakfast sandwich and bottle of water for the plane.

Since my new boarding card was C37, I figured I'd end up next to the back of the plane lavatory (if not in a special seat on the wing itself), so imagine my surprise when the middle seat in the bulkhead - on both sides - was still available!  I grabbed the spot right away and settled in for my first leg, every now and then sneaking peeks at the therapy dog curled up at his owner's feet in the opposing bulkhead space (he had on a plaid sweater.  He was cute.  The dog, I mean. I have no idea what the guy looked like).  Upon disembarking in Chicago, I headed to Potbelly, a sandwich spot inside the terminal, to get a salad for lunch (as well as a small mac and cheese and a cookie, all for less than what I paid for one sausage biscuit in LAX - freaking California), and while I was eating, Chris starting texting me, concerned about Harley.  Apparently, he was breathing pretty heavily, even while awake - he's always snored, but the heavy conscious breathing was worrisome.  After lunch, as I talked to Chris on the phone, he relayed that the boy had somewhat collapsed while going down the stairs outside, but Chris was able to get him into the shade near the garage, where he was napping.  We discussed putting some water out near him in case he woke up and wanted a drink.  I said goodbye and hopped on my next plane, this time to DC itself.

The flight was uneventful - I was just a few rows back in the cabin, but still in the middle seat - and when we landed in DC, and I texted Chris I had arrived, he immediately called me.  I could tell from his choked up voice that something was wrong, and he let me know that Harley never woke up from his nap in the shade of the garage.  It was really sad, but he was an 11 year old mastiff, so we knew that this day was coming, likely sooner rather than later.  Our sadness was tempered somewhat by knowing that he passed so peacefully; his end was much calmer and less stressful than any other dog we've had so far, and he lived a good, long time to be sure.

We'll miss you buddy.

I am so grateful to Chris for handling the whole situation while I was traveling and out of town, and we were both glad that he was home while everything was happening.  I waited for my suitcase and upon (finally) getting it from baggage claim, headed outside to find Toni, Robert, and Juliet waiting for me in the car.  I quickly filled Toni in on the situation so she'd know what the deal was if I was a bit "off," and hugged everyone hello.

We quickly headed into DC proper, as we had tickets to see a great show - Brain Candy Live! - hosted by Adam Savage (formerly of Mythbusters) and Michael Stevens (host of Vsauce, something I'd not yet heard of but might watch moving forward).  First, we stopped for a quick dinner at Elephant and Castle, a big, shiny version of a pub; all of us had gussied up standard pub fare - shepherd's pie, steak and mushroom pie, and butter chicken - mine, the butter chicken, was delicious, and it seemed like everyone else's was good, too.

We dashed to the theater (although my new flights got me in a bit earlier - 6:15 instead of 6:45 - it was still a close shave to make it on time) and found our seats right at the show was starting; it was fantastic.  Not only was the show smart and entertaining, it was really funny, and it was lovely to be able to vent my emotions from the earlier events of the day in a positive manner.  Some intermission selfies:

Toni and I

Our crew!

Michael and Adam playing Pong

with a homemade hovercraft - 

pushed along on a curtain of air

provided by around 16-20 hair dryers.

Michael and Adam were great hosts for the evening, and you could tell they were truly committed to the audience having a good time.  Near the end of the night, they launched a huge amount of ping pong balls into the crowd in a trash can, and after we cheered to have it happen again, they and their crew spent a good 10-15 minutes repairing the device to ensure we could get the encore we were hollering for.  Really, it was a great show.

Michael and Adam have Juliet's rapt attention.

Yes, that's a tiny Star Trek dress...

Shooting off giant air vapor rings

Once the ping pong balls were launched, our hosts bid us goodnight, asking everyone to be sure to share the balls, should they end up with more than one.  As we made our way to the ground floor, several attendees were bringing huge handfuls of balls to those of us on the upper floors, happily passing them out to everyone who cared to take one home.  The generous spirit of those folks in the crowd was a lovely ending to a great event.

The happy kiddo with her prize

By this time, it was late, so we all headed home and hopped straight into bed, ready for more shenanigans tomorrow!  Coming up on future blogs, we all head into downtown Alexandria and visit the Torpedo Factory, Toni and I go on a girls' cider tasting excursion, and I have an epic travel adventure coming back home.

Later!

Amy