I'm home

It's been another long stretch since posts, but the first few weeks were rather uneventful, and then I was on the road with no computer.

I was lucky enough to be able to upgrade to first class the entire trip from Fairbanks to Washington, DC. It's much more comfortable than flying coach, with so much more space. The plane arrived at 4:45 p.m. (10 minutes early) at National Airport on Apr. 28. I was very pleased to find the Washington area subway system, the Metro, has a station immediately adjacent to the airport's baggage claim area. I grabbed my bag and headed for the train. Surprisingly, the huge rush hour crowds I expected weren't there. There were a lot of people, but the crush I dreaded didn't happen.

I had to change from the yellow line to the red line several stops from the airport, but the signs in the stations were clear and easy to follow. Additionally, people were friendly and very helpful with answers to my questions.

It took me about 40 minutes to get from the airport to Shady Grove, MD, the final stop for the train. My sister and brother-in-law were waiting for me. From Shady Grove, it was just under 2 hours rainy drive to my parents' home in Liverpool, PA.

My stay in Liverpool was shorter than usual because of the conference in Arlington, VA, I had to attend. However, I was able to visit with all of my PA sisters and my brother. My sister in AZ phoned while I was there as well, so we were able to chat a few minutes.

I didn't do a lot - shopped with my mom, my sister Leesa and her son Jed; drove through Liverpool to see how it had changed; had breakfast with my mom; sister Leah and her husband Paul; and sister Luci and her daughters Lindsey and Meghan; visited on the porch with my parents, sister-in-law Karen, sister Leah, niece Janine and great-niece Elizabeth and chatted with my brother John.

I enjoyed some PA Dutch food - scrapple (a personal favorite), pot pie (beef, another favorite), liver puddin - but had to end the trip with scallops and shrimp with fresh pineapple & berries. As much as I love the PA Dutch food, I'm not used to eating it any more and found it too heavy.

It was wonderful to sit on the porch and see all the trees in full leaf, robins building a nest and other birds all over the place. I think one of the most serene scenes is the Susquehanna River from my dad's porch. I felt all the stress of work and winter lift from my body and simply enjoyed sitting doing nothing but being with people I love and miss.

I enjoyed the lilacs, bluebells, paper whites (narcissus) and other flowers. My lilacs here are the very light lavender color, and I love the dark purple in the front yard in PA.

My dad is an outdoorsman and enjoys taking his fox hounds out for a run when he's able. The three are tied in an area out back, and Dad visits them several times during the day. He feeds them each morning at 9. They apparently have an internal clock, as they'll begin standing and looking at the house about 8:30 each morning. I shot several photos of them, and Dad and I agree that Kate exemplifies the phrase "hangdog expression."

All too soon the PA time ended and I had to get back to Arlington for the conference. It was a very good conference, with a lot of seminars on various public affairs topics. I was able to see a number of old friends and former coworkers - both bosses and people who had worked for me.

I sat in on sessions with presentations by people from Google, Facebook and Twitter, as we are being encouraged to create web presences on those sites. I'm looking forward to putting some of the information I got to work.

Unfortunately, I didn't do any touristy things in the DC area. There were icebreakers and banquets 3 of the 4 nights I was there, and it rained nearly the whole time, including our last night. So I spent most of the time right in the hotel. I really wanted to see the women veterans memorial and revisit the Mall and Smithsonian, but I guess I'll have to save that for next time.

I wasn't able to upgrade on my return trip, so was crammed into an aisle (thankfully) seat in row 21 from DC to Seattle. Then I had a 6-1/2 hour layover in Seattle. My seat from Seattle to Fairbanks was in row 7, so there weren't a lot of people passing by the seat and that plane had a little more room than the earlier one. Nonetheless, I was so happy to see Fairbanks again and the trip at an end.

When I arrived at 9 p.m., it was daylight and sunny with a light breeze. It felt wonderful, and I was elated to see almost all the snow completely gone and trees beginning to show just a hint of green.

As much as I love visiting family and other places, there's no place like home - and these days that's Fairbanks.