A little town called Harvard

Our first stop after Maryland was a little town in Massachusetts called Harvard. Not the university, which is actually in Cambridge, but a little quaint New England town with a general store. We stayed with The Mister's aunt and uncle and had a fun time exploring the town.

Next stop: Cape Cod!

Tales from Maryland

So we've been in America for nearly two weeks now, and our trip so far has been sadly under-blogged. But we've been to Washington DC, Virginia, Baltimore, Boston, Cape Cod, upstate New York, Detroit, Phoenix and a heck of a lot of places in between. Again, this is two weeks we're talking about. So, you know, not much time for sitting around at the computer getting a monitor tan.

Let's start at the beginning then, shall we?

First step onto American soil: Glorious. First thing I saw was the bathroom (hey, it was a 9-hour flight) and the first culture shock was immediate. The bathroom was SO clean and everything was SO automatic. I mean, do we really need toilet auto-flushing? Nifty invention, but I've never though to myself "ugh, flushing the toilet manually is such an inconvenience."  The faucet, the soap dispenser, the paper-towel dispenser -- all automatic. And there was SO MUCH WATER in the toilet. Europeans love low-flow toilets and I guess I'm more used to it than I thought I was. It felt like an ocean down there. Overkill, America. Overkill.

First meal: Crab cakes and corn on the cob. Doesn't get more Maryland than that.

First wake up call: 6 a.m., thank you jet lag.

Hurricane Irene hit and kept us in the house right after we arrived, and we're insanely lucky that we didn't arrive even 8 hours later, or we almost certainly would have been stuck in limbo somewhere in the world with canceled flights.

The first week of our trip we hung out in Maryland with The Mister's family. We have some adorable muchkin nieces and nephews to catch up with, and generally enjoyed some family time. Then, we left on our road trip, which I'll leave for the next post.

More Maryland highlights include first American burger in a year (Red Robin, bacon cheeseburger topped with a fried egg), playing charades with the fam, having a mini high-school reunion with some great friends from back in the day, holding Nerf wars with my nephews, and getting my nails painted my by three-year old niece who shouldn't quit her day job of full-time cuteness.

Also, watching The Mister and The Brother of  The Mister have  little duel concert when we were stormed in. Pure awesomeness.

Are you ready?

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, September 2011

I am here. I am alive. I have been frolicking up and down the east coast of the Yoo-nited States and I've got to tell you, there's some pretty scenery out there. But not much internet or time for blogging, no sir, there is not.

But things are about to calm down and on Wednesday I'll be back blogging about Cape Cod, Boston, New Yawk City, upstate New York, Washington DC, and the time I accidentally spoke Spanish to a restaurant employee...who looked Hispanic. And unappreciative.

And don't worry, I will share my thoughts on the Jersey turnpike and exactly where I think it should stick itself (I know you were wondering).

Oh, and I'll bring pictures to share too - millions of pictures.

Tomorrow I'll be in Baltimore for breakfast, Detroit for lunch, and Phoenix for bedtime, so I hope you'll understand my lack of blogging - but come back Wednesday. You bring the snacks, I'll bring the stories.

It was like Christmas

The Mister gave me a nice present to commemorate our trip back to the States - three quarters of a terabyte on a brand new hard drive.

To someone who takes a lot of pictures, this is  better than flowers and waaaay better than chocolate.

Tomorrow we start our law school visits, first in Virginia and then in DC.  Then we go north!