The Ride Home!

We woke up early, packed lunch, and put the rest of our stuff in the car. We said goodbye to his mom and sister and got on the road. The trip went by so quickly, I'm sure we both would've liked a couple more days! We sang for the video camera and listened to a couple of really hilarious comedians' cds on the ride home. We got into Murfreesboro around 6:30ish, unpacked his stuff at his house, and then he took me to my house and we had dinner with my fam. Sad that the trip is over, but extremely happy that I was able to go and that things went so well. I will look forward to many more vacations with Matt!

Gramma Miki and Fort Story

Matt and I helped his mom with some house/yard work this morning and then we got ready for the beach. Lynda, Matt's mom, Matt, and I headed to the beach after packing lunch. It started to pour while we were driving so she thought it would be a good idea to go visit his grandma before trying to go to the beach. We went over to his Gramma Miki's house (met up with Missy-she was already there) and spent a couple hours talking and listening to all of her great stories of memories from her childhood and about their family history. We ended up eating our packed lunch inside because it didn't look like it was clearing up to be a very good beach day. After saying our goodbyes we headed to the beach to see if we could maybe get one more beach day. It still hadn't really cleared up so they decided to take me to Fort Story, a military base, and show me the Cape Henry Light House. We walked up the "millions" of stairs to get to the top where we could see the other working lighthouse and the shoreline! It was a beautiful view, but still no sun. We stopped by Matt's dad's house one more time and then drove back to the house to pack. It has been a wonderful trip. I wish we could've had one last day at the beach, but there is always next time! Time for bed...no falling asleep on the ride home!

Sailing!

Today we had a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and then it was off to the beach!  Matt found a secret pocket in his wallet that was full of unused gift cards so after free gas at Wawa and free Slurpees at 7-11, we went to FYE to get some free music and a dvd for the ride home. Then we met up with Matt's step brother Carl to go sailing on Carl's sailboat. It was beautiful out and we got some really great pictures. When we got home we showered and then went to see Taking of Pelham 123 with Matt's mom. 

Lazy Day

Nothing much to say about yesterday. Matt took his car in again to get fixed and then we waited around the house for them to call and tell us that his car was ready. Around 3 we went to Trina and Buddy's house to pick up the groceries/household goodies that Trina bought for Matt to take home. Then we went to Matt's dad's house for another cookout. We caught up with one of Matt's friends from childhood at a local bar. Then we went home and now we're going to bed! Goodnight

Band of Horses

A relaxed and lazy morning then we were off to the beach. We stopped at Doumar's for some BBQ sandwiches. We collected some shells, watched a few people surf (or attempt to surf), splashed around for a bit, and took a long walk up and down the beach before we realized we were getting a little too pink. We ran through the sand to avoid burning our feet. After our beach fun we went to get ice cream at Handles which is an ice cream shop that Matt's grandparents own. The ice cream was delicious. We came home, showered, and ate dinner with Matt's mom. Then we went to the Norva where we saw Band of Horses play! They were amazing...the show was really great and we got to hear a lot of their new songs.

DC

The alarm was set for 5:30! After a quick shower, we were on the road. After a funeral procession and lots of traffic, we arrived in Vienna at around 9:30 and took the metro to DC. When we got to DC we headed straight to the Zoo. We saw lions and tigers and bears oh my! (aka zebra, gorillas, pandas, hippos) We went to a picnic area and ate the yummy pb&j and snacks that Matt packed for us. Then it was back to the metro. We walked through the Federal Triangle and then went to the Smithsonian Museums. Our first stop in the National Mall was the Smithsonian Castle. Then we went to the Hirshhorn Museum where we saw a giant naked man sculpture. Then we walked next door to the Air and Space Museum. From there, we walked out into the center of he "Mall" and got some photos of the Capitol building. Then we took a long walk to the American History Museum which was filled with tons of artifacts of American popular culture and history (Lincoln's hat and Dorothy's ruby slippers to name a couple). Matt walks really fast and I had to remind him to slow down a lot but we walked close to the Washington Monument and a very nice Asian man took a couple photos of us by the monument. Then we walked over to the White House...we saw Obama playing in the front yard with his dog and he asked us to come in and have dinner. Only playing, but we did get some neat pictures of the White House and their sneaky secret service people. After that we made an attempt to walk to the Lincoln Memorial but the storm clouds had a different idea for the outcome of our day. We quickly made our way back to the metro. We made it down the stairs right as it began to rain. We rode the metro back to Vienna and ran to the car. It stormed most of the ride home. We stopped at Ponderosa (all you can eat buffet) for dinner. I got some pics of the sunset, a beautiful rainbow, and some lightening! We fell asleep almost immediately after we got home. I had a great time with Matt today....it was a long day filled with fun. He was very sweet and we had a great adventure exploring the city together. 

SpicyBeachBEES

I had to follow Matt to the auto repair shop this morning because his car was making some awful screechy noises. After we got home, Matt had to leave for his dentist appointment so I did a salsa work out video with Missy while he was gone. When they finished working on his car we headed to the beach. We went to about 52nd street and enjoyed a much more calm beach day. Missy took some fun shots of us playing in the water. We took Matt's mom to Applebees for dinner. When we got home we planned our trip for the next day!!

Uncle Buddy and Aunt Trina

Missy, Matt, and I went to the beach this morning!! There were a lot of soccer tournaments going on on the beach today. We went to about 19th street (we've been going further down to about 50-60th street) so it was very crowded, but it was still fun. We took a walk down to the pier and took some pictures and then of course caught some rays. We were a little early to Matt's aunt and uncle's house. We snacked on some very yummy dip and then headed to the boat. His uncle Buddy took us on a boat ride out on the Ocean. The water was super choppy, but it was a lot of fun! After the boat ride we had a cook out that was also extremely delicious. We talk with the fam for a while and then headed home for the night. 

Rob Dyrdek day

Today was the day we were setting off to meet Rob Dyrdek. We had a Mr. Potato Head with us ready for him to sign...it's an inside thing from work. As we were driving by Costal Edge where he would be later that day, we saw there was already a line and so they decided that I needed to run and get into line. Matt didn't even completely stop before they were urging me to hop out to get in line. We waiting in line from 12:30 to 4:30 when we finally got to meet him. While standing in line we realized that not too many more people were going to get through the line because he was leaving at 5. They cut the line off about 15 people after us. (It was a good thing I got out of the car that quickly). It was a long boring wait, but Rob signed our stuff and said a number into Matt's video camera for his 1000 happy faces project. We met up with Rob's friend Andrew and went to the beach. We played Bocce Ball and splashed around in the waves. Matt and I were both pretty exhausted got ready for bed shortly after we got home. 

Beach time!

We woke up this morning and got ready for the beach! Matt's family lives in Chesapeake, Virginia so it's about a 45 minutes drive to Virginia Beach. On the way it started to pour :( We had to slow down to about 40 miles an hour on the interstate because the rain was so heavy. We kept driving and when we parked close to the beach we decided to wait in the car for 15 minutes and see if the weather would clear up at least enough to walk down to the beach for a couple minutes. The rain started to clear so we hurried to the beach. By the time we hit the sand the sun started to come out. We were the only people on the beach for miles and it ended up being a beautiful day. We kicked off our flip flops and ran for the water. The water was pretty cold but we kept running till we could dive in. We stayed in for only a few minutes before we decided to dry off and go for a walk down the beach. After our walk we headed for the car and drove to a couple beach shops for some souvenirs. We ate a late lunch at Doumar's aka home of the world's first ice cream cone maker. After showers and dinner at the house with Matt's mom and sister we went to the Funny Bone Comedy Club. It was a great show, but it is late and I am exhausted after our first long day in Virginia.

11 hour car ride to VA

I woke up at 5:30, showered, and finished getting my stuff together. I packed sandwiches, chips, cookies, and water for the road. Matt picked me up at 6 am and we were on the road right after I said bye to my mom and dad. We listened to music and snacked. Around 8 am I fell asleep for about 45 minutes. We had to stop for gas twice, but after 11 long hours on the road we made it to Matt's home in Chesapeake, VA. We were greeted by a "Welcome Home Matt and Kim" sign his sister had made and hung on the door. I met his mom and his sister, we talked, had dinner at the house, and then went to bed...it was a very long day (but a good one)!

Virginia Beach

Going to Virginia Beach tomorrow with Matt for a week. I will get to meet family, we will take a day trip to DC, and the rest of the trip will be spent lying on the beach!