I flew out early Thursday morning. Our plane circled over Baltimore for an hour because their arrivals were backed up. Alex was waiting for me in baggage claim and we hurried off to meet Amy, who happened to be lost because of confusion caused by the GPS. Alex and I drove through downtown Baltimore and then met Amy and kids at a Mediterranean restaurant at the north end of the city. It was so fun to see everyone and have dinner together. I finally got to meet Sean, who was even cuter in real life than photos I'd seen. Jeremy was supposed to be flying in later, at around 12:30 am. Alex drove back to Carlisle with his family and left his car and GPS with me so I could pick up Jeremy and drive back to their house with him. So I had a few hours to kill in Baltimore, waiting for Jeremy! It was pretty bad weather out (slushy rain) which did not make exploring town by foot a particularly attractive option. I first walked to a nearby movie theater, but their last movie had already been playing for 40 minutes. So I thought I'd go across the street and spend my time in the big bookstore (Barnes&Noble-esque). Apparently the employees had decided to close early because of the bad weather.
I remembered that I had seen some other theaters in downtown Baltimore so figured if I could just remember how to get back there, I'd be set. Alex had already programmed the GPS to guide me back to the airport, and I didn't want to mess with that. So I drove back the direction we had come, exited quite a bit earlier than I think I should've, but enjoyed driving through the city. I drove past Johns Hopkins, which was cool. Eventually I found the theater I had seen downtown by the harbor! There were plenty of movies that were starting later so I parked the car in the garage and watched a movie. After it ended I didn't like the prospect of going out into the rain for a couple more hours so I ducked into another theater and started watching what was playing there. It ended up being super scary movie, and I couldn't handle watching it alone. The cold rain was more appealing. So off I went to explore the rainy harbor. I found that the ESPN Zone bar was still open. I watched a tennis match and called to check on Jeremy's flight. It was delayed....crap. Some 50+ year old offered to buy me a drink (who do they think they are?) and I politely declined and stayed intently focused on the tennis match until they shut down the TVs for closing time.
I went back out into the elements and found the night club section. A Wyclef Jean show was just letting out (I had seen that he was coming on Pollstar, but felt pessimistic that I would actually be able to find the venue). I ended up inside a dirty McDonalds with some french fries and caffeine, but hey, I was warm. Ironically, I read my book "The Omnivore's Dilemma", as I sat and ate my McDonalds. When I thought it was time that I headed back to the airport (it was 12:30 am) I walked back to the garage and panicked to see that the garage doors were shut. I ran in to the hotel that was next door and luckily they had a way into the garage, and said that the doors would open as I drove out. I had visions of me stranded in downtown Baltimore and Jeremy stranded at the airport all night.
Once I made it out of the garage, my next challenge was finding the airport. I found that the GPS was not so helpful, since it kept losing the signal. After driving in circles for quite a while, I pulled over to ask a couple (who were having a fight) for directions. I made it to the airport just in time. The drive to Carlisle actually went by fast and the GPS worked beautifully to get us there. Alex awoke to show us to our bed and we slept very well the rest of the night. Alex and Amy's house is beautiful. It is very old, and classy with wood everything--beautiful floors and banisters.
In the morning we got to tour the house. Evan and Juniper had gone to school and Alex was at work. We chatted with Amy for a while, and I got my fill of Sean.
Sean got bundled up, ready for our walk outside 
After a while Alex came back home and we walked through the town of Carlisle to eat breakfast at a delightful little diner. Carlisle is great-- I love all the historical buildings and that Alex and Amy can walk pretty much anywhere! It was a beautiful day-- cold and crisp, but the skies were clear and blue. After our late breakfast it was time to pick Juniper up from school. When I showed up in her classroom she had a look of wonder and confusion on her face. She had seen me the night before in Baltimore, but was asleep when we arrived at her house. It took her a while to realize what I was doing there, and then she was excited. She was very excited to show me her bedroom and all her toys. We played for a while and then it was her nap time. She wanted me to sleep with her in her bed. I laid down for a while but then it became clear that she would not be able to fall asleep with me there, so I left. She just wanted to play.
When Juniper was up from her nap we got bundled up again and walked to Evan's school. Juniper and I went inside to wait outside his classroom. I don't know if we were supposed to do that. All of the moms were waiting outside and I got funny looks from people inside. We watched Evan get his things together and chat with his friends excitedly. They all lined up at the door and he still didn't see me for quite some time. What a treat to see his face light up when he saw me! He started jumping up and down and showed his friends, "That's my aunt Lizzy!" It feels so good to be loved by a child... We went around the back and played on the playground for a while before walking back home. The walk was fairly slow since both Evan and Juniper were eating snow the whole way back. Back at home we played, had hot chocolate and played some more. That evening we went to a birthday party of some of their friends.
On Saturday we packed into the car and went to Amish country, first visiting a marketplace full of fresh, homeade goods. It was so fun to browse, and we found some tasty treats and had lunch.
Evan brought his own money to spend at their candy counter and showed off his purchases. 
Our next stop was a town called Intercourse. What were they thinking? It was a little strange to see an Amish town selling T-Shirts that played on the name of their town. One wouldn't expect such talk from the Amish. The thing that amused us the most though was seeing the people riding these huge, self-propelled scooters. The image of people in proper suits, hats and beards taking long, exaggerated strides as they pushed themselves along the highway was hilarious. We looked through the town, went to the quilt museum (pretty awesome what they can do), and ate the best soft pretzels in the world.
Juniper window shopping
Quilt museum 
Best pretzels ever 
Evan continued to work on his candy. Maybe he got his love of ringpops from me. 
Juniper 
After Intercourse (hehe), we went to go ride on an old steam train, but it was closed for the season. During the drive, Juniper entertained us by singing songs she composed herself! Lyrics and all... On they way home, we stopped at a grocery store in Mechanicsville (great town names in PA), got some groceries and went home for dinner. After the kids went to bed we had a nice time staying up to talk with Alex and Amy.
The next day we had a delicious breakfast of cinnamon roll french toast, made by Amy. I got a chance to have a little photo shoot session with darling Sean. Sometimes he smiles so hard, he can hardly contain himself. It is like he's trying to laugh, but he just chokes a little instead.
Later on in the day we went to go on a little winter hike. On the drive we saw some huge owls perched in the trees. Juniper was excited, since owls are her favorite. Evan had us playing "snow elves" while we were hiking. Since we were snow elves, we didn't feel as cold. 
After we got back from the hike, Juniper took a nap and we bundled up to eat delicious popcorn a la Amy and watch Ghostbusters. This was Evan's first time seeing it and he loved it. That evening we all made dinner together. Jeremy was head chef, directing his specialty, Picadillo Cubano with rice and black beans and I made a salad with candied pecans, blue cheese, dried cranberries, celery, apple and mixed greens. We had ice cream with Amy's delicious hot fudge for dessert.
After the kids had gone to bed Alex, Amy, Jeremy and I played Ms Pac Man for ages and then had a game of Liar's dice. Such fun times.
The next day (MLK day), Evan and Juni had school off (but Alex didn't). Since we were flying out of Baltimore that afternoon we went there early to see the Aquarium. It was a great aquarium. Evan was very interested to learn that an octopus has 3 hearts! Portable DVD players have revolutionized car trips:
Juni feeding fish 
Watching dolphins 
Horseshoe crab 
Outside of the aquarium we walked over to see the big "pirate ship." Since Evan and my dad's favorite game to play together is pirates, he wanted to be sure that my dad saw this picture of him. Evan and Pirate ship 
One last picture of Sean all bundled up, with a red little nose from the cold air: 
We had such a great time. It was sad to leave Alex and Amy and these little ones. It would be awesome if we lived closer together. The icing on the cake was that on the way home we got bumped from one of our connections, earned $600 in travel credit and still made it home that night, albeit a little later.
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