Dela-what?

Hey everyone!

Just a quick update on my life since the last post. Last weekend we had the women's retreat (and the men had their respective retreat as well) and we decided to go to Rehoboth Beach, which is in the great state of Delaware. We left first thing on Saturday morning, I rode with Karey Yeats and Katers (Katie), Christa, and Jonah (Caitlin) all the way to the eastern edge of the continent. It took a bit longer than expected due to construction and traffic, but after eating lunch we got to the beach around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. It was PACKED but we managed to find an adequate spot to spread out and lounge. I went in the water with Christa for awhile, can I just say - wow - it was COLD! It took some getting used to, reminded me of good ol' North Carolina. So after that I came back and took a brief nap in the sun, read a lot (a lot for me, I probably read for a little over an hour) and took a walk with Katers and Tara up and down the boardwalk.

After we were done soaking up the sun, we headed to the Summer House for dinner. It was a very nice "beachy" restaurant with good food and a friendly waitstaff. We decompressed, talking about the day, the many adventures (a few seagull bombers, Katers' amazing sunglasses raccoon-tan, how amazing the beach was in general), and finally got back in the car and headed for Newark, DE, home of the University of Delaware.

We checked into our hotel (which had FREE cookies, FREE snowcones, FREE coffee - this place was a college student's DREAM) and relaxed, awaiting news on the rest of the weekend. We convened in Tara, Christa and Katers room to deliberate the next days' activities. Let me tell you - it was like watching C-SPAN. We started calling ourselves "The Senator from ___" and Amy played Majority Leader as she guided us to make a decision. It took FOR-EV-ER. Just like the Senate, actually. At one point Katers called the front desk and talked to "Michael" who was more that happy to give us some ideas of what to do. We were all so tired and Katers phone presence was just so hilarious that most of us couldn't keep it together when she was on the phone, she just sounded so...engaged with what he was saying. Even Karey almost fell off her chair at one point because she was laughing so hard.

So we decide to check out some of Michael's ideas in the morning. Turns out they were all duds (thanks for nothing Michael) so we decide to go to Annapolis, MD instead. We went to the Naval Academy which had a really gorgeous chapel and some really gorgeous naval officers. We spent some time scouting the place out and then went to Chick and Ruth's Delly for lunch (you should google them and check out their website - its awesomeness is just to complex for me to write about). After a Starbucks run to round out the day, we were back in the car heading home. Its weird to think of DC as home, but as we crossed the bridge from Arlington going into the city, thats exactly how I felt - like I was going home.

The boys got back later that evening and we had fun swapping stories and adventures before heading to bed to start the long week.

I still need to update about the Pentagon, but I don't have time for that right now. So I'll do it later. Hope you're all having a stellar weekends! Praise God for beautiful weather!

Jess