Winter Break- East Coast- New Years

After all the Tahoe adventures, Alex and I headed to the east coast on a whirlwind trip up and down from DC to NH. The trip started out auspiciously with me being bumped off of 5 flights in a row and being stranded in Chicago. There was a snowstorm (only like 6 inches), but American Airlines canceled like half their flights (other airlines did not). Basically as a standby passenger, that means it would have taken 2-3 days to get to DC due to the amount of people stranded. Alex was on a different flight as I flew standby by being a flight stewardess's "fly buddy" and she had a voucher for a ticket on another airline. Mom came to the rescue and found a one way ticket on-line at the last moment. I arrived in DC, later that night to an unhappy girlfriend as her luggage that I checked for her (as I can check luggage for free) did not arrive as it should have.

Luggage goes to your destination regardless if you make the flight. But there was a huge backlog of luggage due to delays last week and cancellations of that day, so it was not on any of the later flights. We got to DC and spent the next two nights at Rob and Kay's house. Kay took Alex out shopping for an outfit as she didn't have any changes of clothes and bought me a new pack of t-shirts. Black and plain...just like me. The night before Alex and I had to start driving North to NJ to visit her family her luggage arrived and we rushed down to the airport to reunite her with it. It was a very happy moment for the vacation.

With luggage in hand, the next morning, Alex and I jogged to the rental car company and picked up our car. Little did we know it came with a surprise gift.



Yup, someone left a 21 pound, now unfrozen turkey in the trunk. I tried to get everyone else to bake it (as we were heading off in the car for the next 2 days), but Rob and Kay werent taking my pitch that it was still good.

After 2 nights being wined, dined, and pampered by Kay we headed off to see Alex's grandma. She's 93 and just got out of surgery. We spent the day visiting her in the hospital and then headed out to see her cousins. Pictured Alex with her cousin Kate.



Next we headed to Alex's Aunt Mikki and Uncle Clay in CT. They had a nice house in the woods and we had breakfast for dinner (eggs, bagels, hash browns, etc).


We looked at old pictures and found in one I look scarily like Alex's brother greg.


Next, we headed up to Garen's which was only like an hour from Alex's Aunt's house and hung out with his brother Ed and his girlfriend Melissa until late that night.


We decided to forgo Boston people and head straight up to NH that night as I was excited to see my little nephews....also being the first sibling there, I could chose which guest room I wanted. It was much colder that Alex was used to in CA so she had to bundle up. We went cross country skiing, where we lost and alex's phone (later a midnight expedition party found it) and snowshoeing, and hung with the siblings.








For New Years Eve we cleared a skating rink on the lake and lit torches and a bonfire. I told everyone that heat rises so its fine to have a bonfire on a frozen lake and they were doubtful at first, but came around later when the decided it would be fun to skate through the flames as a test of manlyness. Aarons friend Hanna and boyfriend Noah were also with us in NH.






Aaron made the first party foul of the new year spilling part of the drink a second after this picture was taken.





The babies were cute as always, but little Alden wanted nothing to do with his creepy uncle Ben anymore as Tractor, Kitty cat, chicken, and boing (boxing bag) were all way cooling than me. He even recoiled in horror when I tried to give him a kiss screaming "NO NO NO." The only time he let me hold him was when he was sleeping and didnt know it was me...(sad panda face). Oh well, I'll buy him a paintball gun in 10 years and buy back his love.....





The last leg of the trip, Alex and I drove back down to DC where her brother, who works for Obama, gave us a tour of the white house. Pretty cool!!! I decided I wanted to be president as they have a bowl of fresh gala apples sitting in the oval office for him everyday. Talk about perks!!!!





We spent the last 2 days at museums and when asked where the most romantic spot to take a picture in the Air and Space museum, knew without hesitation that it would be in front of the unmanned drone, the Predator. Showed in the background with matching set of hellfire missles. Melts the heart.


The most romantic picture in the natural history museum....next to the preserved giant squid....sooooo cool.


It was really, really, cold and windy out. After museuming Kay and Rob treated us out to Etheopian Food and then we heading back to the airport where....surprise, Ben got stuck in Dallas. After being bumped off of 4 flights I made the last seat on a flight to Sacramento...First Class baby!!!! I drank away my rage of rude ticket-counter agents and ate roasted mixed nuts and baked chicken and yams over a nice salad, while putting back my wines, gin N tonics, rum and cokes, mimosas and coffe and baileys. Almost made the whole clusterf*&k in Dallas okay. Mom picked me up and we both complained about hating searching for jobs and how awesome Uncle Rob and Auntie kay are......and how Ilana and Aaron never visit.....