By the time this hits in interwebs, I will probably be face planted in bed sleeping off an awesome weekend in New Orleans. After catching a bus to the airport at 3:45 AM (as in, THE MORNING TIME) the last thing I’m going to want to do is write. So…

Washington, DC:

Most of my travel has occurred in the past ten years than in my entire life (you can read about some trips here, here, and here) but this is my first real foray into ‘jetting off for the weekend just for the heck of it’. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months. I thought I’d put my brand new two hour delay to good use by compiling a list of things I’m thankful for:

1. early to airport = prime ‘delay camp’ location
2. mid-afternoon flight (originally anyway) means time to get sub on way to airport which proves very handy…
3. … because being hungry can be rage inducing when airline employees are a big pile of no help regarding which of the three gates listed for your flight is the winner
4. mid-afternoon flight also means remembering what you forgot to do and then being able to obtain cat food before leaving
5. learning how to balance laptop on roller bag FTW

Dallas, TX

Multiple hour delay at Baltimore + 5 minutes to meet connecting flight = runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun

Miss connecting flight by 5 minutes + no seats on last flight = possible unplanned vacation in Dallas, TX

Random airline agent at empty gate + her personal awesomeness = surprise seat on last flight out

New Orleans, LA

Behold, the longest line in taxi history (picture taken from the CENTER of the line…THE CENTER):

And yet, I can’t wait to do it all over again. Travel just hits you like that I guess.

It is officially one of my favorite times of the year. Nasty, rude, grump-inducing winter has packed up his snow and moved on (I hope). Flowers are blooming, you can roll your window down without freezing to death, and festivals have started gearing up. I’ve already been to Longwood Gardens twice (and seen the tulips for the first time) and spent yesterday afternoon wandering through the first entry in my festival calendar: the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (click here for last year’s blog entry). So I thought I’d celebrate my good buddy spring with some pictures collected thus far.

What the Human Says: That is one bald sheep!

What the Sheep Says: Oh you think my haircut is funny? Enjoy your allergies, human. *shakes straw dust, dirt, and dander everywhere*

A visit to Longwood Gardens with my mom and Aunt Catherine makes up some of my coolest childhood memories. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

I have a bloggity Smithsonian project coming up this summer; more on that later :).

I never realized how huge trains were until I stood next to one. And was unreasonably proud that I understood the categorization system for locomotives, even though I forgot it around five minutes after leaving the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

Enough said!