Sightseeing, driving, select flooding

We're home in DC after a highly succesful trip to Philadelphia. The surgery went really well, and Scott was discharged on Wednesday night. He's walking relatively well and hasn't needed much of his pain medication. No awful grimaces when he tries to sit down!

But since this is MY blog... the trip was notable for me in two respects. First, because even though Philadelphia is a terrific city less than three hours from me, I had only been there once before, in 1998 on a college tour with my dad. This time I only got to see bits of pieces of it - from thoroughfares as we were driving in, on a walk to a coffee shop on South Street, and on the campus of U Penn where we spent Tuesday night. Fun to be in a place that feels so different from DC and NYC. I'll have to head back for a pure tourism weekend sometime.

The second striking thing about this trip was my realization that I'm terrible at navigating a car. I'm an okay driver - nervous because I don't drive much outside of Duluth, but competent overall. But when it comes to figuring out where to turn, I'm atrocious. Finding entrance ramps for freeways is my particular debility. I think I improved over the course of the trip. If nothing else, I at least got better at (a) noticing signs, (b) reading them and (c) realizing that I just passed the turn I should have taken. Thank goodness for Scott's métier in getting us back on track.

A healing trip for Scott, an educational one for me. A trip that I believe will serve us well in the months to come.



Now that we're back in DC, Scott and I are praying for the heavy rainfall that is predicted to come tonight. The construction in the basement can't be completed until we get a nice, big storm to test out the new drainage system they installed. Until then, we'll continue to camp out on the 2nd floor. It's warmer up there and more congenial, but my stuff is in disarray and I'm anxious to get settled in again down there. So cross your fingers that tonight's flood warnings come true on the streets and NOT in the basement!