Pandemic Week 79: Joe's NY Road Trip

 It has been nearly 2 years (Thanksgiving 2019) since the Virginia Fagellas saw family in New York.  A milestone birthday celebration for Uncle John on September 18 marked the perfect occasion for a long overdue gathering.  Joe decided to make a longer trip out of it to visit some long time friends and see his sisters.  Since Anna and Theresa had school/work, they stayed behind and Joe headed up I-95.

The first order of business for Joe was to sign-up for AirBnB so that he could reserve a place for a couple of nights on the east end of Long Island.  Now, Joe is not one to sign-up for things (social media, mailing lists......he is all about minimizing giving people his data).  Usually Theresa handles all of the sign-ups (she has concluded that due to various data breaches, most everyone has her data).  Since Theresa was not going on this trip, Joe needed to access the system.  He found a beautiful place right on the water.  He also found a place that had the most rules (no shoes in the house, not red wine, don't leave the AC on if you leave the house, etc....).  He must have done a good job following the rules because he got a good review from the host.  The second order of business was entertainment for the ride up.  Joe found some audiobooks at the library to pass the time (specifically, he had John Boehner speaking to him....as Joe his review of the book).

Joe left Tuesday morning and spent the week catching up with high school friends and his sister Loren.  Unfortunately, his sister Mary was sick with bronchitis and could not join in the festivities (Joe did managed to stop by for a 20 minute visit in the back yard).  The main even was John's birthday on Saturday, which featured beautiful weather and amazing food (courtesy of Deborah who is quite an excellent cook).  Lucy, Terri, Loren, James, Andrew & Rachael all made it for the festivities.  A good time was had by all and it was great to catch-up (Anna & Theresa look forward to seeing everyone at Thanksgiving).  Joe headed back to Virginia on Saturday night in record time (apparently everyone was someplace else).

While Joe was gone, highlights from Anna and Theresa's week included the following:

John's Birthday Celebration

  • Anna started her swim club practices, which are 3 days a week.  She was not excited about this.
  • Anna & Theresa managed to fix dinner each night without Dad there.  It was a little late sometimes and Anna had to be coached on what "start dinner" means (don't just do 1 step - keep going), but they made it.
  • Anna & Theresa both got their flu shot.
  • Theresa took Anna and her friend Maddie ziplining on Saturday night.  This was a belated birthday present.  There are no pictures because it was dark.  While the course was lit and there was a full moon, Theresa & Anna concluded that they prefer daylight for an obstacle course in the trees and ziplining.
  • Storm got to join the neighborhood doggie swim at the pool.  This was a first time event in which all the dogs could swim before the pool is drained for the season.  Storm was not interested in swimming, but he was quite happy to hang out with all the dogs (it was a well attended event).  There was also an ice cream truck that was offering "pup cups" in addition to regular ice cream.  Storm got a pup cup (vanilla ice cream with a dog biscuit) for his 16th birthday celebration.  He needed a very long nap after that event.
Welcome back Joe!
Storm enjoying his "pup cup"




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