The Visit Up North

I'm working from home today and have a few minutes to write about our visit. Hopefully I'll hit the high points:

Wednesday
The drive was long, but uneventful. Lily got bored with "Mary Poppins" partway through, which was a surprise for us. She won't nap in the car, which seems bizarre to me. What better way to pass the time?

We had great weather for the trip until about Canton. I think we got to Mark & Jen's just before the weather hit up there because it didn't come down hard until Mark started cooking dinner on the grill. It was nice to find Akron at a balmy 60, but of course that didn't last. Lily and Mark had great fun with the umbrella and discussing how she would have to "go to the cave" for various infractions.

Lily really enjoyed playing with Uncle Mark's 2-AA cell MagLite and even had it in her room. This was important because she slept without a night light and the flashlight gave her a sense of confidence.

Thursday
The weather was officially starting to turn. It was pouring when I was stretching, but by the time I went out to run it was a fairly pleasant 48. As I finished my run I walked maybe 30 yards past the house to cool off and was just sort of absent-mindedly looking at the house. I was a little surprised to see flashing in one window. I thought maybe Jen was up and watching TV, though that seemed strange to me. Then I realized that Lily was awake at 6:30 and playing with the flashlight.

We had a fantastic dinner and it was great to see Chris, Krissy, and the twins. By the end of the day the rain had turned into sleet which turned into a heavy, wet snow. The Westsiders had to deal with some of that on the trip home, but it went well.

Friday
We spent the day with Grandpa E and Grandma Judy. We hit some snow as we passed I-480, but it wasn't a bad trip. Lily got to see Grandpa E's alma mater and she also got to take a carriage ride at Legacy Village. We enjoyed yet another great meal and even got to take some pie home besides. My personal highlight may have been getting out of the car at Mark & Jen's house and seeing football highlights on a TV through a neighbor's window. I wasn't sure how it happened, but I did know that Arkansas players running with their helmets held high was a good thing for OSU's national title hopes.

Saturday
The big event of this day was the Akron Christmas parade. Mark, Jen, Lily, and I bundled up and went out. Lily was nearly run over by a classic fire truck from Hudson as she tried to retrieve a poorly-thrown candy cane with her mittens on. If you look very closely you can see us in the bottom-right quadrant. Look for Mark's green jacket, my red hat, and Lily's pink hat and scarf.


We met Chris, Krissy, and the twins for dinner Saturday night. We shared a nice meal to end our visit.

Sunday
We didn't really rush as we left the house and left at 9:00. The trip went pretty well, but we did run into some pretty heavy traffic in spots. Surprisingly, we didn't have much traffic in Wytheville, VA, but we did have a long wait for cheap gas. I'm starting to think that it's just not worth the wait to save a penny a gallon. We also had a slow ride home on I-40 because of a few fender-benders.

Overall, it was a great trip. We may have to come up in the summer so we can enjoy some of Cleveland's good stuff. Cleveland is not at its best in late November.