New Year's in Maryland (and Pennsylvania)
We drove down on a Thursday, starting in the early afternoon.
Traffic was bad in Connecticut, and came to a complete stop in NYC.
We were worried, but then we got to New Jersey and had one of our
fastest trips ever on the NJ Turnpike.
We stopped in briefly to see my family, but had to hurry off
to see John and Katy before they left for Western Maryland.
We played a lot of Fluxx and Ticket to Ride at their house, but for
some reason I didn't take any pictures, so you'll have to take my word
that we had a lot of fun.
Soon it was time to leave, and we took crazy back roads to Gaithersburg
to avoid the Capitol Beltway (since it was rush hour). We got to see my
brother Kevin's new apartment. He gave me a cool Maryland shirt and
some root beer that he brewed himself (which had so much carbonation from
the overenthusiastic yeast that you had to be a bit careful opening it).
Some of his friends came over, and we played more games. The guinea pig
was fed celery on the couch:
I had an amazing game of Ticket to Ride, note my
convoluted route (using blue train cars) from Montreal to Seattle:
We stayed up way too late, and in the morning Kevin cooked breakfast.
We called some friends, and unexpectedly they called back right away.
So we abandoned Kevin to his horrible week of after-hours
end-of-year accounting work, and went to Silver Spring to meet up with
my friend Elaine.
Despite attending UMCP, I had never been to downtown Silver Spring before.
We found it OK, despite the crazy interchangeable lanes on MD-97 that
freaked out Kristina a little.
After eating lunch with them, it was time to finally see my family.
I'm glad we got to see Elaine, because she just got her PhD and now
she's about to move to the Southern hemisphere for a few months before
starting work.
Kristina and I stopped for a quick walk along the Gunpowder Falls
just off of Route 40. We walked from the coastal plain, up to beyond
the Fall line.
There were some impressive potholes, more so than the
"real" potholes region on the other side of I-95:
We followed the blue trail, which was thorn covered and had major trees
across the path. It became impassible at the power line right of way just
before Route 7, so we looped back. Nearby a beaver had been busy:
Here an old sign warns of Unprotected Waters:
Here's a map of where we walked (we didn't cross the stream; the GPS
has issues getting enough precision in rocky valleys):
Finally we made it to my family's house. We got there right before church,
so we tagged along.
The next day we went for a short walk to the top of our street where they
are putting in more houses. Here's a view looking back at Mariner Point
Park; it's a pretty view, it is a shame it will soon be blocked by
development.
We spent the next few days visiting. I helped my dad with Pinball Machine
work (including traveling to near Trenton NJ to pick up a new machine).
We went for a different walk at Gunpowder Falls park
(we tried Harford Glen first, but it was pretty seriously closed).
By coincidence this is the same place we were
last New Year's eve
Here is a tree impressively growing on a rock slab:
We saw this brightly colored fungus:
There was a waterfall, not something you come across often in Maryland.
It's on the Sawmill Trail:
After the hike we said goodbye to my family, made a brief detour to the mall
to return something, and then it was up to Fawn Grove (Pennsylvania). We spent
New Year's there, with Marie's family. Most of the evening was spent playing
cards with her and her brother Pete, and then watching some Full Metal
Alchemist DVDs that she got for Christmas.
They had an impressively blooming
jade plant (it's
descendant in Kristina and my car isn't doing quite so well):
We helped them undecorate their Christmas decorations, and then we had to
leave. It is 2008! Crazy! We stopped in York to visit with one of Kristina's
high school teachers. We had a good (and traditional) meal of pork and
sauerkraut.
Finally it was back to Ithaca. We made good time until the end, when it
started snowing. The roads were never bad, but it was a bit hard to see
the lane markings on NY-13. Snowy as usual!
After all that traveling, it took a few days to get caught up on life.
The day I went back to work it was 4°F in the morning (-16°C).
Back to main Christmas Pictures page