LA is nice, but it’s nice to be home

Thursday was my final day at the conference and I was ready to go home. I’ve said in the past I don’t want to go back to school, and this was too much like school (sit all day in darkened rooms, taking notes). I had checked out of my hotel in the morning and checked my backpack at the conference, so afterwards I was ready to go. I took the subway over to Union Station where I needed to catch the bus to the airport.

In looking around at nearby restaurants, I discovered some nice reviews of the restaurant in Union Station itself, Traxx. And it was pretty good, pork loin chop plus beer equals yum. One problem – the chop was a little pink in the center, and I ate some, which resulted in some gastrointestinal distress later in the evening.

After dinner, I headed over to the buses, caught mine, and was soon at the airport. I got to my gate, sat down and realized why I was feeling some déjà vu – we’d eaten at the restaurant across the way on our way to Hawaii in January. I read away the time before boarding, and the flight itself was fine, just that the aforementioned distress and sitting next to two preteens combined for not much sleep, about an hour (one had a Taylor Swift poster book, should have taken it for a friend of mine).

Friday morning foggy and early we landed at Dulles, and Jill was soon there to pick me up. No rest for the weary, though, as the house needed cleaning. Jill went off to Union Station (East coast version) around noon as I finished cleaning, then I finally sat down to read the paper. That may have been a mistake, as I didn’t make it past the front page before falling asleep. Jill returned with her mom and grandmom before I’d slept for too long, and I managed a bit of conversation before nodding off again. I got up and had the Five Guys burger they’d brought me, before going downstairs and napping a little more. Jill fixed a very tasty salad and a tart from TJ’s for dinner later, and we got to chat a little more before bed.

Saturday they all went out for the day at the Smithsonian. It was Jill’s official graduation weekend, but she decided since not many of her classmates were participating and it would cost additional money to skip it. I slept in and was feeling pretty good. I walked Illa, read papers and watched some TV. After they came back, we went out to dinner at Hooked for some tasty seafood (the sushi was good as usual, but I had the crab legs for the first time – delectable). Usually Jill and I could agree on three desserts to share for the trio, but we couldn’t that night and I went for the cookies and she had the chocolate cake.

Sunday I was woken around 6:30 by the power going out, and then a neurotic dog needing comfort for that, and I go up after that. I made hollandaise sauce for breakfast, saw we were out of milk and went out and got that, then discovered the English muffins they’d picked up the other day were cinnamon raisin, and decided to do all the shopping I needed to for the day then. After I got back, I made Eggs Benedict, then they left to shop and I marinated the chicken drumsticks in an impromptu marinade after searching for chicken marinades online.

They got back and we read for a while, then I started on the rest of dinner – Caesar salad, as well as prepping the asparagus to grill. My dad, mom and sister showed up around 5, and I started grilling. It took a while, but dinner was tasty, and my sister brought blackberry pie and ice cream for dessert. A fun night – Illa was the center of attention as usual. An early night for all of us – seems everyone had to be up early today.