May 31st dawned bright and early, or so we thought. Things never quite go right do they? We had our last bit of Kansas business that morning, which was to be at the vet at 0800 for the pet's health certificate appointments. We had a very long day of driving ahead of us, and had to be in Dayton, Ohio that night, which is why I scheduled the earliest possible appointment time.
We arrived early, and expected a short appointment. That turned out to be wishful thinking. The actual exams themselves went great, the dog and cat were in great health and passed their exams to go to Germany. The paperwork itself was an issue, as we arrived on a day when their printer was having issues and refused to format correctly. Our quick one hour appointment turned into 2.5. We didn't get out of there till 10:45, ok so it was actually 3 hours as I arrived there at 0745. Finally we were on the road after the appointment, and on our way to Dayton Ohio.
We FINALLY made it to Dayton around 1AM the following day. We were on the road for about 15 hours including stops. And boy were we exhausted. The poor pets were so confused because they didn't know what was happening, and Zeus kept climbing on everyone in the car. We limited our stops as much as possible so we could get to our hotel. I think we got maybe 4 hours of sleep did night after we arrived in Dayton. I will not sugar coat it, Andrew and I nearly tore each other's throats out when we arrived in Dayton. We were tired, cranky and plum wore out. It didn't help that I was uncomfortable leaving the sensitive documents and computers in the trailer, so after we were in bed, I asked him if they'd be safe. He got upset and went outside to go get them. It was not pleasant between us, but after that we just went to bed, at 2AM. Not fun.
June 1st we were up early and on the road before 0900. We had another long day of driving to Baltimore Maryland, and our crunch time was 7PM as we had pets we had to drop off at the kennel. It was a fairly easy day of driving, and we made it to the kennel with plenty of time to spare. With the pets dropped off, we finally headed to our hotel to unload the Uhaul and rest for the night.
The next day, June 2nd, we had to drop our Honda off at the Port so that it could be shipped to Germany. Driving through the poor parts of Baltimore was an interesting experience. It made me a little on edge, but it was incredibly interesting to see. It was extremely run down and dirty. After we finally dropped off the Uhaul, we found a car wash. I have different standards of cleanliness for the car than my husband. All I will say is that this PCS has been one of the most stressful things we have ever done together as a married couple. We spent a couple hours cleaning that thing from top to bottom, and made our port appt at the VPC (Vehicle Processing Center) on time. Success! They accepted the Honda! That was just over a week ago, and it is still sitting in Baltimore. Hopefully it gets on the boat soon.
Now that most of the hard stuff was done, we were free to go on a mini vacation! DC or Bust! I did take a ton of pictures, but they are on my camera and I am too lazy to upload them to the blog right now. We had two days in DC, and the first day we did the Hop On Hop Off tour and saw almost every single thing on that tour. The Capitol Building, Jefferson Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (very moving! Please go see if it if you have a chance), Lincoln Memorial, The White House, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War memorial, The Eternal Flame, Washington National Monument, and we even snuck a half hour into the Museum of Natural History. We had such a great day! I'm glad we were able to take the kids to DC to show them the Nation's Capitol. It was a whirlwind, but a very fun one.
Day two in DC, June 4th, was a very special day for me, as I got to reunite with one of my very dearest friends, Rebecca. Rebecca and I met back in Olympia in 2009, right after Barry died. She was my lifeline for awhile, and had Andrew and I had our proper wedding, she would have been one of my bridesmaids. Eventually we will do that;) She met us at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History with her four kiddos, and her mom. We also went to the National Archives and saw the original Constitution and Bill of Rights
You know how it is when you finally get to see each other after so many years and nothing has changed? That's how it was. You know you have a lifetime friend then. Even though we only got about 6 hours together, it was a wonderful afternoon. Four long years later we finally saw each other again. I will always treasure our friendship. It was so great to be together with our kids again. Till we meet again!
Also...because I am in Germany, Google and Blogger keep wanting to switch to German on me. It's making typing this post insufferable. If anything seems out of context or doesn't make sense, that is why. I tried to catch most of the mistakes. I am going to ask my husband if he can make it so google stays .com and not .de
Tchüss!
