Mon's Lap Band Journey: I'm back! (Lots of pics!)

I feel like I haven't posted in months! We're finally back from our trip to Philadelphia, which was SO MUCH FUN. The main reason for the trip was my boyfriend's cousin's wedding. She's always been more like a sister to him; she lived with his family for a long period of time in their teens. So the wedding was a really big deal to Charles, who also officiated the ceremony. It had also been 9 years since he'd been back to Philly, which is where he grew up. When we weren't busy with wedding stuff, we drove around his old neighborhood & took pictures, ate at the diner his grandma used to take him to when he was little, and walked around at a local nature reserve. Oh, and I ate terribly the entire time I was gone! Cheese steaks, pizza, pancakes, booze, all the stuff I shouldn't eat. Luckily I only gained a pound...it must have been all that dancing I did at the wedding. Joking around with Charles, I said "well, I learned something from this trip: all I have to do is stuff my face with cheese steaks every time I get the urge and I can maintain my weight!"

The drive was rough, but not nearly as bad as I feared it would be. On our way there, we drove about 10 hours the first day, then stopped at a hotel for the night (in Wheeling, WV) because it was raining so hard we couldn't see the road. There were only 2 rooms left, and we got the next to last one. The guy who walked in behind us got the other one, and it was crazy because we found out he also drove from St. Louis that morning, and he only lives like 2 miles from us! Uh, small world I guess. Oh, and he was also on his way to Philly. We were like, "are you sure you're not going to Shannon's wedding???" All they had left were suites so we wound up spending way more than we wanted to, but that's the price you pay for just driving until you can't anymore...oh well.

The next day we got up and did the last 6 hours of the journey, which were the worst. Pennsylvania is LONG, and once you get through the mountains, the turnpike is pretty boring. For the last 2 hours of the trip I was squirming in my seat constantly. On the plus side, our rental car was nice and I like it a lot--it was a Nissan Rogue, which is nice and roomy without feeling huge. I hated to drop it off this morning!

The ride back was better. We did the whole 950 miles in one day, leaving Philly at 9am and getting home at midnight (luckily we gained an hour on the way back!). We wound up stopping a little more often than we did on the way there so as to not push ourselves too far. We also occupied ourselves by listening to The Shining on audiobook, which I admit scared the CRAP out of me in the middle of Illinois in the dark. It was late late late when we got home, but we decided for some odd reason that we wanted to watch Arrested Development and have some drinks. We actually made it through 2 episodes, but we were drunk after a few sips of our drinks! I guess that's what a long road trip will do.

Here are some pics...

On the way there--western Pennsylvania is so beautiful!!! I loved the mountain tunnels :)