To start off the best summer ever, I am going to Nauvoo, Illinois and Washington DC with some dear friends of mine--the Mautzes ("the Mautz." whatever.). For those of you who don't know the story, I met Bro. and Sis. Mautz in the MTC, as we were all preparing to serve in New Caledonia. We only had about a week in the MTC together, and little did my companion and I realize how great of friends we had found in them. After 16 months of serving with them, working in the office with them, calling them with all of our problems, laughing with them, eating mangos and lemon cake and Duke's with them, sleeping over at their apartment after my temporary companion's extended family threatened to break my legs, and learning to love the people in New Cal, we are pretty much family. And boy am I grateful! They pretty much played the role of parents to all of the missionaries in New Caledonia and were 100% invaluable to us. By the way, if you know any senior couples considering a mission, tell them to go! They are very needed. Anyway, as I was planning my trip out to DC to visit them, they invited my to tag along with them to Nauvoo for a wedding of one of the elders from the mish. I've never been to DC or Nauvoo, so I thought, "why not?!" And here we are.
So I flew into DC last night. First time! I was pretty excited. Since I know that I'm the last person in the world to visit our nation's capital, I'll try not to expound, but I'll just say that it's cool. The guy sitting on the plane next to me was nice enough to point out some of the landmarks as we were flying in. So cool. And I am definitely a fan of the east coast. Or at least, what I've seen of it. Virginia is very green. I told the Mautzes that they live in a forest. They pretty much do. I love it.
We got up this morning and set out for our ten-hour drive. We drove through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania (I really tried to get the sign in the picture, it just didn't work out too well),
West Virginia,
Ohio,
and Indiana.
Remember how I get obsessed with places and decide I want to move there? Turns out I was right about Pennsylvania (North Carolina remains to be seen)--it's so green and hilly with little picturesque barns and houses everywhere. It's adorable. The countryside made the drive enjoyable enough, until about the middle of Ohio, where it got flat and boring. Blah.
We finally made it to Indiana, got checked into our hotel, and went to a chinese food buffet. So. Good. I finished off the day with a swim in the hotel pool and a chance tv-showing of Dirty Dancing. So. Great. I love road trips.
Tomorrow we set off for western Indiana. Woot!
1 comment:
One of my clearest memories from going back East was driving on the freeway thinking, 'How in the heck are you supposed to know which way you're going???' The trees formed a canopy over the entire interstate. Once I got home all I could think is how ugly Utah is. 15 years later and I still miss the green...I really think that's why I have to incorporate it into my decor: green walls, green bedspread, green, green, green.
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