Greetings from the East Coast

Ken and I have been here on the East Coast since last Thursday visiting his friends and family. We've been on the move between Washington DC, Baltimore MD, Silver Springs MD, Frederick MD, Fredricksburg VA, Salisbury MD and now Onancock VA where his parents live. I'm so sick of being in the car.

But if you are going to be traveling this summer and it involves driving, here's something that does make the driving more enjoyable: a new gadget I call the "Marriage Saver" also known as the Garmin Street Pilot. You just type in your destination and a nice lady tells you (14+ languages, optional) when to turn and how far you have left to go. It's all based on GPS information that it gathers live via satellite. Last year we tried to navigate DC with a map & our wits and almost came to blows. But this year I insisted we opt for an GPS navigator in the rental car. Ken did one better and decided that we should just buy one instead. I love the Garmin.

(Cool Tugboat in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, MD)

The weather for the most part has been um, all over the place: 92 degrees with god-awful humidity to 85 with a nice cool breeze. I hear Seattle is perfect right now. I'm so glad we're missing it. Of all the cardinal rules of living in Seattle, the biggest one is "never leave during the 4 months of weather you tolerate the other 8 dreary ones for."

(Check this out: The boat across for this one is the USS Constellation in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It just shot off a cannon and the gunpowder blast creates a smoke ring. How neato is that?)

******

On Monday, we drove through Trappe MD and visited Dave & Carla, high school friends of Ken. We spent a delightful (but sweltering) afternoon at their farm. Ken got to ride a "blind" horse and be a horse to Katelynn, their daughter.

(Ken and Dove, the masked equus)

( Katelynn and her horsey)

(As artful as a horse's ass can be on a hot day.)

Coming up....Tomorrow is Corey's (our nephew) high school graduation, Friday we see the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Saturday is a Richardson (Ken's Mom's side) family reunion including a blue crab feast. It's going to be a packed weekend.

I really hope the weather stays non-humid---and that I stop getting migranes. I've had 2 in 2 days now. It could be heat, hormones, having icecream a record 3 times in one trip or the alignment of Jupiter & Mars, but for whatever is causing them, I'm putting them on notice-- no more this trip, okay?