Back East, part 1

We went back East for 10 days at the end of March. Our kids have two weeks off for Spring Break, which seems a bit excessive; but it gave us a little extra time to be there plus relax at home for a few days. Our last family trip there was almost 6 years ago, when Levi was a baby.  We were overdue! We actually thought about driving to save money, but then we found airplane tickets for $294 round trip. We couldn't pass that up. The problem was that we flew out of Los Angeles at 6:00 A.M., so we had to leave our house at 12:30 A.M.! It was an exhausting day, but the kids did awesome!  It's so much easier to fly with bigger kids. Everyone had their own carry-on luggage (even Chloe), and we didn't check any luggage. We packed light!

We stayed with Dave's mom in Berkeley Springs, WV. The kids spent a lot of down time playing pool in her basement. 

We went through quite a bit of scrapple, which is something we can't get in California. In fact the grocery store workers here have never even heard of it. It's kind of like a sausage loaf that you slice and fry until it gets crispy. Everyone loved it.

We both grew up back East, and it was fun to show the kids some of the places that are special to us. The first day we drove up to St. Francis College (which has since been changed to a University). It snowed on the way there! Thankfully it cleared up by the time we got to Altoona. I have so many bad memories of driving up Rt. 22 between Altoona and Cresson in the snow!  

We ate lunch at Frankies (where Dave and I first danced and shared mocktails) and walked around the bookstore and student union. One of my favorite things about St. Francis is all the pine trees, which you can kind of see behind this window. Back there is the place of the bon fire where we met as well as the gazebo where Dave proposed. 

My college roommate, Jill, on the left, now teaches there; she gave us a little tour of the Physician Assistant department as well as two new buildings on campus. Sherry is the one who introduced me and Dave, and she drove all the way down from Rochester (4 1/2 hours) to see us! The kids met her during our last trip back East; we stayed with her for a couple nights while we went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. One of my favorite things about this trip was meeting up with dear friends. It's amazing how we can go so many years not seeing each other, and then it's like no time has passed when we get together. After touring campus we headed over to Jill's beautiful home and had dinner with her family. Her parents came over (love them!!) and we had a great visit. Seriously, I didn't want to leave. I wish I would have taken a picture of Jill and Craig and their 2 girls, Madison and Avery. 

This is soon after we started dating in 1994, and these are the same clothes we wore the night we met. I think Sherry is the one who took the picture! Then Dave wore that same hat 4 years later when he proposed. We've sure changed a lot, but the place looks almost exactly the same. It was a fun walk down memory lane.