short but sweet this year

Sarah and I finally made it home. All in all, our trip looked like this. On the first day, we drove from Texas to Knoxville, TN. We stayed in an exorbitantly priced Motel 6 just outside Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The scenery was beautiful. The Motel 6 was not. The second day, we drove from Knoxville to Princeton. It was hot, almost Texas hot (This was right in the middle of the big heat wave on the east coast.)

We stayed in Princeton for two weeks. As I've mentioned, I had a really great time at my workshop. I got to meet lots of people in my field, some from as far away as New Zealand. Others from as close by as the city next door to ours. Princeton has a great campus, and it was a lot of fun experiencing a new school for a little bit. During the two weeks, I learned a lot about how to research group behavior. I also got to take a trip to New York City and to the Jersey shore.

After leaving Princeton, Sarah, Matt, Rebekah, and I all went to Maine to visit Peter and his girlfriend Lindsay. It was a long drive, and we got stuck in a huge traffic jam in New Hampshire and Maine. It was worth it, though, because we got to see Peter and Lindsay for a few days. We all had a great time. Sarah went tent camping for the first time. She especially liked the hotdogs and s'mores that we had around the campfire. She did not like the rain and subsequent damp sleeping bags/damp everything. I think that's pretty understandable. Maine was really great also. Lots of nice scenery and mom and pop shops and restaurants. One night when we were driving back to our campsite, we almost hit a porcupine. I honked and he turned his butt toward us and put up his quills as he sauntered away.

After leaving Maine, we made the drive back to Princeton to drop off Matt and Rebekah, pick up the rest of our stuff, and sleep for one night. We said our goodbyes the next day and headed 3.5 hours down the road to Washington D.C. to visit some of our friends who just bought a rowhouse right in the middle of D.C. It was a short visit, but we had a really good time. We stayed up late talking, and then got up at 4:45 AM the next morning to start the 22 hour drive back home.

The drive home was very long. I didn't get tired until the very, very end (about 30 minutes from home). At one point I thought I saw a dinosaur walking along the side of the highway. I didn't. We finally pulled into our driveway at 2 AM. The cats and house were fine; although, they'd apparently had some sort of barfing contest while we were gone. I don't know who won, but it wasn't us.

And that's it. Sarah starts school on Monday, and I'm in the middle of getting back to work today. Goodbye summer. You were short but sweet this year.