back home in snowville....

We got back from our awesome boat trip and spent some time in

the hotel room before going down for a final meal at the Mussel Bar.  I stick with just mussels and water, Oscar devours their fries even with green things on them and John gets a burger.  He says that the burger the night before and this one are both in his top 5 burgers of all time….I think

he’s just glad to be off my crazy diet that we’ve had at home.  But they are both awesome looking and tasting burgers.  My mussels are crazy good and even though I need a couple of slices of bread to sop up some of the mushroom and bacon sauce, I don’t think that 

I overdo the grains this time.  My neck and hands are on fire because I’ve been exposed to the sun on this trip and even though I have been vigilant the last couple of days with sunscreen, any alcohol just intensifies the itching from my

sun allergy.  We pack up the room while Oscar takes another long bath with cleaning and try to get to bed early because we have to get up even earlier for our trip home.  We will try to catch the first metro out of our station, take it to the end of its 

line, get on the Amtrak train to BWI, take the shuttle from the train station to the airport and hopefully get on a plane.  Given how the trip out was, I wake up 15 minutes before the alarm and get everyone going early.  Which turns out to be a good

 thing because we catch the first train and the next one is not for 30 minutes which would have had us miss the Amtrak train on the other side.  So, we make the first phase or our trip and Oscar gets irritated by the 14^th stop of when we’re going 

  to get there.  He has decided that he misses his puppy at home and now just wants to be there.  I can totally empathize.  At the New Carrolton station, we make it to the Amtrak line and I casually ask others there if they are going to buy their tickets on the train.  One couple

 says yes and then another lady says that she missed the first train and her husband had to go online and buy her business class seats because the train is sold out.  For half a second, I panic and then the other lady says, just get on and when they come to take your ticket, buy it and if not, you’re getting off at the next stop anyway…..and I calm down again.  John says he’s going to let me take the lead on buying the tickets, so when we get

 into our seats (which the first two cars of coach are completely empty), the conductor comes by and I explain that I have to buy tickets from him, he says that we have to call (which I tried to do, but the phone number told me to buy them on the train) and he says that he’ll be back and we have to have cash.  Well, I have the cash and we wait for him to come back and enjoy our left over food and snacks from the hotel room on the train.  We get off at BWI without seeing the conductor again, but I think he’s surprised when we stop 

after getting off and tell him that we owe him money.  He waves us away and the shuttle to the airport is waiting for us.  We jump right on and get dropped off at the check in.  We check in and check the bags, have 2 hours now before our plane.  Breeze through security and get to watch an honor flight come in at BWI.  I think we’ve gotten to see one every time we’ve come through here and it makes me cry every time.  The volunteers are there applauding and the whole rest of the concourse gets into the applause and hand shakes of these vets being wheeled off the plane.  John said something about WWII, but every one that I saw

had hats that said Korea or Vietnam.  So, I’m thinking that our WWII vets are few and far between now.  It’s amazing to think that these vets in wheelchairs are from later conflicts…..anyway, we get some food and play around on the moving walkways before boarding the plane pretty easily and then sit on the tarmac for over an hour for them to do maintenance on the plane.  Oscar is playing in his seat with John being the pilot talking to the control tower just always asking for 

 permission to take off and John  keeps telling him “no”.  It’s cute, but sad because this is now two flights in a row.  I’m going to give them some leeway for being antsy about planes right now, we’re in the 737 800, not the Maxx 8, but I think that they’re making sure everything is ship shape before they do anything now.  The man in front of us, turns 

around and looks at Oscar after the 3^rd pilot announcement of more delays and says, “you’re taking this better than I am.”  And better than his mother too.  Again, the most important part is getting home safe….which we eventually do.  Easy drive home even though we landed with it snowing….after 70 degrees at Mt. Vernon, that’s hard to stomach again….