Road Trippin'

John and I have been on the road this past week, traveling up the east coast to see some friends and family. Our first stop was New Bern, North Carolina, to see our long-time friends John and Abby Gjertsen.

New Bern is a small town packed with charm. In fact, their downtown area is the way I wish all downtowns were: lots of fun boutiques, art shops, delis, and not a single chain-store to be found. Here's a shot I took on the street by a gorgeous brick church:



There was also this old hardware store, lit with gas lamps and stuffed to the gills with everything you'd need to restore a period house:

Sorry for the yucky iPhone picture; I forgot my camera.

They almost had to drag me out of there. (And if I tell you I bought a copper toilet float - with no intention of using it in a toilet - you won't judge me, right?)

New Bern's main claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola. Since John drinks enough Diet Pepsi and Diet Mountain Dew to bleed soda, we of course had to stop in to the little corner store:

I don't drink soda anymore - and when I did, it was Coke products - so my main highlight was the penny smashing machine. You can bet I got a couple of those!

On our second morning with the Gj's, they received some terrible news. After some tears and hugs, we left them in the care of their families and continued on to see my parents and grandmother in Williamsburg, Virginia. The weather was as miserable there as it was in New Bern, which is to say cold and rainy, so we spent our time prowling antique malls or playing PS3 at their place. (My dad is addicted to racing games, so we were up past midnight crashing into each other and shouting with laughter. Good times.)

And, because it isn't possible for me to leave an antique mall empty-handed, we currently have an old radio cabinet wrapped up and strapped in to our back seat. I forgot to take a picture, but while searching online I stumbled across this ad for it:

Via

Ok, so you can't tell much from the picture, but trust me: it's cool. The radio has been removed so we just have the cabinet, but it's in amazing condition - and it was only $45! Granted, I have no idea how much a 1931 radio cabinet is worth, but considering it originally sold for $142.50, I figure $45 can't be that bad.

We have some fun plans for it, too. I can't wait to show you when we're done!


Our final destination - and where I'm writing this post - is just outside of Washington, D.C. Our good friends Mat and Amy live here, so we're staying with them and their two little boys. We timed our trip to coincide with the cherry blossom festival, which means DC is crowded, but also well worth the crowds:

All around the city, pinkish-white cotton-top trees are snowing petals. It's gorgeous!

John and I walked around the tidal basin on Monday, and spent some time just sitting under the dense canopy of flowers:



We've always loved DC - we even came here for our honeymoon - but I tend to forget just how much walking it takes to get around. I guess I need to be logging more hours on the ol' treadmill desk.

Looking out across the water:


We also saw several painters out:


From there we walked to the Lincoln Memorial and the new(ish) World War II Memorial. It's hard to take an original picture of things so heavily photographed, but here are my best shots (pun intended [of course]):

Walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

The ceiling inside.

Inside one of the two archways of the WWII Memorial.

It was a beautiful day on Monday - warm and sunny - but today we were back to the cold and rain. Plus all this yucky weather seems to have caught up with me, since I woke up this morning with a bit of a head cold. I packed my trusty neti pot, though, so here's hoping I'll be up for another spin around the city tomorrow.

We head home Thursday - wish us luck on the 15-hour drive! (Oy.)