Cosi is better than Starbucks

Location: Philadelphia
Miles behind us: around 400? I will do better at looking at the mileage next time I'm the one driving...
Music: Kate's road trip CD (although to be fair, now we're listening to whatever horrid mix is playing in the Cosi)

Ahoy hoy!
We are enjoying free wi-fi from Cosi (we now love them despite their overpriced Diet Cokes) and taking the opportunity to update. We don't want to spend a whole lot of time wasting the day in here, so here comes a fairly simplistic recap of the beginning of our trip.
We began the trek with a lengthy, arduous drive. Yes, that's right, all the way to Fairfax, VA (after a few farewell stops.) We enjoyed and appreciated a party thrown by Ms. Gaby Ellenberger and attended by friends from around the state. There was a lot of dancing, laughing, and drinking (except by the people driving home and me, for my temporary detox after a week at the beach with my family and lots of wine.) It was great to get an opportunity to have a sort of farewell bash with some of our favorite friends from W&M. It was also pretty hilarious to discuss future plans with everyone, as most everyone discussed med school and law school and real jobs and peace corps and the sort. Paul and I kind of threw our hands up and went, "meh." We figure living our of the backseat of Speed Blazer is just as prominent and successful as the rest of our friends. ;)

A goodbye from some of our finest friends in VA

From Fairfax, we drove up to Owings Mills, MD (my first time behind the wheel of the big SUV!), where we stayed with the lovely Gayle Bowerman for a few nights. Our first day was mainly spent catching up and bumming around, and watching bad TV (Jeff Foxworthy??) The next day, Paul and I headed into Baltimore to check out the scene.

I love Baltimore THIIIIIIIS much!

...but this seems a little strong a claim.

We were impressed by the Heritage Walk (3.2 miles of historical buildings and museums and statues) and by just how many green spots one could find in the city! We also toured Johns Hopkins, which had a really nice campus and a cute park/trail just down the road. We've decided Paul should go to grad school there. Gayle met us in town after she got off work and we went to Nacho Mamas, which was probably the most impressive part of the day. We split the special, which was a pitcher of margarita and fajitas. That doesn't sound that great until you find out that it was $25 and made all three of us so full that we couldn't possibly eat anymore plus we brought home leftovers. What a great deal...

The outside of the American Visionary Museum, which we had free passes to but was closed on Mondays :(

The next day put Paul and me in Annapolis, which is so cute! The town (city?) is small and quaint and it was fun to pretend to house shop. The harbor was pretty, with lots of boats (and expensive dragon paddle boats,) and we again followed a sort of Heritage Walk (this one being our own path.) One of my favorite parts of the day, though, is when we first got there. Paul and I were off in search of the Visitor's Center because he really needed a bathroom and we wanted a map so we could find what to see/do. Well, about 30 seconds after he said, "I need a bathroom so badly!" we were approached by a woman in colonial garb who started telling us about the free Heritage Museum. She went through her whole spiel about what was there and concluded with, "and it's got the best bathrooms in the city on the second floor." We were sold. And it happened to be right across the street from where we were. The museum was small but nice and informative (and prompted a newfound interest in the Revolutionary War for me) and it did, in fact, have great bathrooms.

The harbor at Annapolis.

Back to Owings Mill, we went to see the tail end of Gayle's company's softball game. I waved a lot to try to embarrass her, but probably succeeded only in embarrassing myself. We went to Don Pablo's for chips, salsa, and margaritas (which I've now sadly passed up two days in a row!) with the team and then back to Gayle's.

Up early this morning to pack up, shower, and meet Gayle for breakfast at her company's cafeteria (only 1.95 for the Deluxe Omelette!) and off to Philly we drove. I was again behind the wheel of Speed Blazer. I'm getting better, but I still am constantly reminded of just how different it is from my Volvo. We parked, found the internet, booked our hotel for tonight (a very good price for a very short drive from town center), and readied ourselves for the day. And now we are off to see Philly!