Post Trip--Ellicott City, MD

So much to catch up on rewinding my trip back home to celebrate mom's wonderful life. So, here we go, back again. Here is my "tattoo." All the girls got one. Mine was just in a more conspicuous place than theirs. :-P

Before dropping the boys off at the airport to come back to Tennessee, I was craving Ledo's pizza. So that's just where we went. Oh, I miss good pizza. We can't get it down here. Probably a good thing. The kids were grabbing the camera and taking LOTS of photos. Enough!

After dropping the boys off at BWI, I headed to Amy's. Here's her back yard tree house and her twins swinging. Yep, that's my brother Jim on the side there. I had forgot to bring the Mangria, leftover from the celebration the day before. He was kind enough to bring us four bottles! Sweet. Now, that's the way to keep the celebration going. All the girls, the GGC, were staying at Amy's and I pulled in to do the same Sunday night.

Aim knew I hadn't yet celebrated my birthday and was sweet enough to have a cake made for me and Kelly (who's birthday is just after mine).

It's a lobster pot--an inside joke, sorry.

We all sang happy birthday and enjoyed the cake. It was all butter cream icing. Oh my. No wonder I've gained 10 pounds! Thank you Amy, so much.

We enjoyed ourselves, as you can see. The ol' gang was back together.

We stayed up 'til all hours. The best girls in the world here.

The next morning, we went into the old part of Ellicott City. I had never been. Being a Virginian girl, we didn't wonder over to Maryland much. Ha. Little rivalries, I suppose. Silly but true. Anyway, it is a charming town!

With wonderful shops.

And nooks and crannies.

We were late in getting out, as usual (after a long night), and we found a little place that was still open for lunch.

The Rumor Mill is an Asian Fusion tapas-type restaurant. Mmmmmm.

And tapas we did.

And desert too, of course. The pastry chef brought all the goodies out himself.

It all was fabulous, including all the homemade ice creams, including a Girl Scout Thin Mint flavor!

Then it was time for some speed shopping. It was coming up on 5 pm already! Woooosh!

Can you tell my heart was palpitating? It was.

We just made it into this shop before closing time.

Thank goodness!!! Oh my.

I loved the gas lamps on top of this building!

We stopped for some coffee before heading back home.

And Pam, Kelly and I packed up and headed to Arlington. We caravanned on the Beltway. to Kelly's house. This shot is bad, but I'm always mesmerized when you come around this bend and see the Mormon Temple. The hub calls it Oz. You just kinda come up on it, in all its glory.

We made it to Kell's where we toasted once more. (This was a very good champagne. I don't normally care for the stuff.) We stayed up later than we should have but talked and talked and missed our Amy but im'd her most of the night. Silly girls.

And then came Tuesday. Kelly went back to work, Pam had to work on her MIL's condo and get it ready to sell and I moved on to my next house, my SIL Mary Jane's.

More to come.

xo ro