Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a good one. We drove to Sacramento on Thanksgiving Day (although what we thought would be a 2-hour drive turned into a 4.5-hour drive because of traffic). We had a fantastic dinner at Lauren's uncle's house, along with a number of relatives and friends.

Today, we went to visit her "aunt", who is actually the wife of her grandmother's uncle, went to lunch with her and Lauren's actual aunt, drove to Berkeley, went to Crate and Barrel, to use up a couple of wedding gift cards we've been holding onto for a while. I then surprised Lauren by taking her to the place we ate on day we met (4 years ago, on the day after Thanksgiving), and then came home.

I was going to write about the worst Thanksgiving I've ever had; Thanksgiving 1996, but I will save that for another day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To B'more and Back

At Dulles Airport

It's 5:41am (Eastern Time). I'm sitting in the Dulles airport, in Northern Virginia.

I decided a few months ago that I wanted to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday, by showing up at my parents' house, in Baltimore. I got a ticket on Virgin America, and the first leg is done.

Virgin America tries really hard to be cool. There was mood lighting on the plane, and someone commented that they felt like they were walking into a club. There was music playing that is not the usual airplane music; it was like club music.

The airline also has the whole TV in the back of the chair set-up that seems to be the thing to do these days. I first time I saw one of those was on a trip I made to Europe in 2000. This set up had TV from dish network, movies (for $8.00!!!) and on demand TV shows for $2. Why you would pay $2 for something that is free (like Bones, the first show on their list) is beyond me.

The flight was uneventful. We took off at about 10 pm (Pacific Time), and I got, maybe, an hour's sleep.

I now need to go pick up a rental car, and drive the hour-and-a-half to Baltimore. I'm killing time now, because it is still dark outside, and I don't really want to start driving while it's still dark. I'm also a little worried about driving that far on one-hour's sleep.

In Towson, 11:15 am EST

I drove the 1.5 hours to Towson. It struck me how different highways look in the Bay Area than in Maryland. I got off the freeway when I saw a sign for a Starbucks at the next exit. Feeling the need for coffee to make it for the rest of the drive, I got off the exit and drove for 3 miles, then gave up. The highways are surrounded by trees, so there is a feeling of being in the middle of nowhere.

I was also struck by the Fall colors. It's been a long time since I've seen Fall foliage (I don't think California has Fall foliage, though you may disagree). I tried to take a couple pictures, but it was pretty cloudy. Here's one...


I went to Emily and Jamaar's house, took a tour, then headed to my parents' house. We knew my dad would be at the grocery store, so we set up for his return. He was gone for over an hour. We sat and waited. And waited. And waited.

When he came home, we surprised him with noisemakers. It was definitely worth it. It was great.

Later in the day

It's now 5:48 pm (EST) and I'm feeling tired. I got 1.5 hours of sleep this afternoon, in addition to the hour I got on the plane.

I've spent much of the afternoon grading, and not much else.

We're now waiting for Emily and Jamaar to show up at my parents' house, to have dinner.

Back at Dulles

It's 6:49 pm (EST) on November 12. My flight is delayed for about an hour. This concerns me, because I probably won't get home until fairly late, and I need to teach tomorrow morning. I didn't bring my class notes with me, so I have no real idea of what I'm going to be teaching in the morning.

Back to the trip...

We went to dinner at a Persian place. It was BYOB, because they don't have a liquor license. I think that's weird. There were a couple of tables where people brought their own bottles of wine. Weird, at least to me.

After dinner, we went home, and really didn't do much the rest of the evening; watched TV, then went to bed.

Today, the house was empty when I got up. I had planned on going to Emily's, my dad's, and my mother's workplace, heading out at about 1pm. Emily called at noon; she would be leaving work because she had strep throat. I went to my dad's work at about 1:45, and ran into a couple of his coworkers who have known me since I was 13. One of them is a big Ohio State fan (the biggest OSU fan I know of). He was somewhat disappointed at OSU's loss over the weekend.

I then went home to eat. I was under the impression that my mom was going to get home before I left, so I stayed home until 3. She didn't show, so I went to her work; she had just left, so I went back home, and said my goodbye to her.

Then I drove to Dulles. I was expecting a lot more traffic than there was. The trip took me a little over an hour (I was thinking it would be 2). I got to the airport, only to find that my flight had been delayed, so I would have 3 hours to kill. I studied some Marketing (I have a test on Thursday), and now I'm doing this. I don't know what I'm going to do with the remaining hour of my time here, but I'll stop for now.

November 13 - 8:49 pm (PST)

I'm back in Mountain View now. I got home a little before midnight last night, and was able to make it through the day today. Today is actually my dad's birthday, so happy birthday!

Over the weekend, I was watching TV with my dad when an ad came on. After the ad, he commented on how that ad campaign had been going on for a while, and how it was still successful after several years, so I want to end this blog post with my version of that ad, in relation to the trip I made to Baltimore over the weekend.

One round-trip ticket from SFO to IAD: $290
One car rental to drive from IAD to Towson: $55
One fill-up of said car rental, to avoid gasoline charges: $22.33
Surprising your dad by flying cross-country on his 60th birthday weekend: Priceless