We escaped Brooklyn after one night. We drove to Manhattan, parked near the consulate, and wandered about Midtown for a while before our appointments. We walked through Grand Central and the south part of Central Park, which was just as pretty as I imagined it would be in summer.
Our appointment at the consulate couldn't possibly have gone smoother. We got in early, out quickly, the consular officer was really nice, and there were absolutely no issues. The officer laughed a little bit at our super organized applications, but said they were perfect and he wished every application looked like ours. YAY!
Sayonara, NYC. Maybe we'll be better friends some day.
We bailed on Brooklyn in favor of Baltimore, and our experiences were polar opposites. The hotel was beautiful and we were upgraded to the nicest suite we've ever stayed in-- nicer than our 5-star honeymoon hotel. Huge windows, gorgeous aerial city view, top of the line everything. This picture makes the hotel look like junk, but trust me, it was marvelous.
It was a short walk to Baltimore Harbor, where we ate seafood outside and walked along the boardwalk at sunset. We were so happy to be out of NYC. It was a perfect night.
We drove to Charlottesville the next morning. I obviously love and miss Charlottesville, but Todd also misses it a lot more than he lets on. We ate at all our favorite restaurants, and surprisingly, they all disappointed us. (Todd thinks it might be that my cooking has improved, so he's less desperate.) And it was weird being there, kind of empty. It still looks like it should, but so much of what we loved about it isn't there anymore.
Darden, Grounds, Albemarle House, the Thomas Jefferson Parkway, the downtown mall, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Swannanoa were as beautiful as ever.
The trip was perfectly timed for one of my favorite activities in all the world: watching fireflies on the Lawn. Possibly better than watching the lights on the Eiffel Tower twinkle.
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