Girl's trip

I get a lot of anxiety before I travel.  Kind of super super annoying actually.  So as this trip approached I was filled with irrational dread.  But I pushed through the pain and drove to the ABQ airport well before dawn to catch a flight to SLC where Emily Spencer met me and we flew together to Philadelphia.  Jennette picked us up and took us for delicious fish tacos (best I've had and in Wilmington DE of all places).  After tacos we went to the lovely Longwood Garden that had a very cool after dark light show, which is hard to capture on an iPhone.  Just trust me, it was very cool. 

Longwood Gardens is very cool.  This living plant was was impressive. 

We spent the night at Jennette's and in the morning we picked up some groceries and headed to the Chesepeake where we met up with Becca who drove up from DC for the day.  We walked out to this lighthouse.  Mostly the scenery was irrelevant because the conversation was so satisfying and amazing. 

Jennette has a neighbor that is a designer and her husband has a construction company.  They have this amazing compound right on the Chesepeake that was our home for the rest of the week.  It was PERFECT.  Relaxing, beautiful, etc.  We passed this guy on our way there.  Also we were in TRUMP country.  I had not seen much support for Trump in my neck of the woods and when every car, house, and human is wearing Trump paraphenalia, it began to sink in that he could actually win.  Oh the horror.  Anyway...

This was our place.  A year ago it was a dilapitated ruin, but now it is beautiful. 

We decided to park ourselves down on the dock.  I wish I could describe this place.  It's like the nostalgic summer home you dreamed of having but didn't.  It was amazing.  Seriously. 

There were eagles, there was a sunset, there were fish jumping out of the water.  And of course there was amazing conversation.

Becca had to go home that night, sadly.  The next morning, we went down to the Chesepeake and took the kayaks for a swim.  So amazing.  So many herons.  So much beauty.  So much good conversation.  I believe we were on or near the Elk river. 

For dinner we went to the quaint Chesapeake City, which was very 1860's.  There were some cute shops and we ate right on the water.  And we were discussing the weird scary clown trend when a guy in a scary clown costume on a boat when by.  Weird.  

I'm glad we all color co-ordinated.

That night we stayed up talking until 2 or 3, because that is what girl's trips are for.  In the morning Jennette and I woke up and took the kayaks for another spin before the forecasted rain storm (from the Florida Hurricane) hit. 

We went to this interesting little plantation called Mount Harmon.  It was lovely.  And founding our country on the backs of slaves, really turned out to be a losing strategy.  Anyway on the tour was a lovely couple in We Love Trump shirts. What we didn't know because we had no cell coverage and were unconnected was the disgusting tape of Trump discussing his foul behavior had been leaked the day before. So that's gross.  They were publicly supporting his disgusting attrocious predatory behavior.  Shortly after our tour we discovered the news and we were all shaken.  And scared to death he might win.  And anyway, we talked a lot about that.  And we rented some red box flicks to, which we watched back at our cozy HQ. 

These tobacco barns right on the water made it so ships could come straight from England, drop of luxury goods for the plantations, and pick up the tobacco, making towns not necessary in Tidewater.  I learned this in the fascinating book I'm reading, The Eleven Amerincan Nations.  

The next morning we had to pack up and we headed back to Wilmington where we went to the art musuem.  They had a lovely Pre-Raphaelite collection which felt really out of place in blue collar Wilmington.  But cool.  A great and classic Rosetti.

After this we got lunch and then Jennette dropped us at the Philly airport.  I love these ladies so much.  Amazing people who have been such a support for most of my life.  So glad we did this.  Oh, and the flying that I dread so much....piece of cake.  I love getting to be a crazy old person.  It's awesome.