Blog Master G

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July 4th Festivities

Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 · No Comments

A four-day weekend is a rare and wonderful thing. Ours began Friday afternoon with a drive to the New York-New Jersey border, where we checked into our hotel and readied ourselves for the wedding of fellow Vassar alum Frances and her now-husband Andrew. With signs at the stop lights reading “Wait for Green,” the terribleness of New Jersey drivers was reinforced and continues to astound me; we saw at least one or two cars come to a stop at the red before driving right through it, despite the sign. We ended up in the wrong cab with a non-English speaking cabbie who wouldn’t talk to us or acknowledge that he had no idea where we were going until he had driven us 15 minutes in the wrong direction; he had refused to take us back to the hotel when we were leaving the parking lot and suspected he didn’t know where to go. It’s a scary thing to be in a cab with no meter or license on display and driven by someone who won’t talk to you; these should be basic requirements of anyone who operates a taxi. He deserved a lot more wrath than Jen’s declaration that his behavior was unacceptable. When we finally got to the wedding, we had a blast. Western and Korean ceremonies were both beautiful.

Saturday we hit the road and began the long journey to the DC area, navigating our way around Philadelphia and the Live 8 concert that was underway. Reinforcing our hatred for New Jersey highways, signs to a rest stop guided us off the highway in our intended direction and back on the highway in the opposite direction eight miles back to the exit we had just passed. Does that make sense in the mind of the New Jersey driver? We were delighted to stop for a late lunch at Waffle House, our first since Day 5 of our cross-country drive, where I put back a couple pecan beasts. We eventually arrived in DC, where Enoch and sister Jan greeted us with open arms and home. After enjoying some river-side drinks in Georgetown, Enoch gave us a midnight tour of The Mall. DC is a happenin’ town. It was my first time there and I hope to return one day to see more of it.

Sunday we hit the road to beat the July 4th traffic. We broke up the monotony of seven hours on the road through the hills of Pennsylvania with a stop at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg. It was shocking and gut-wrenching to see some of the actual shackles, “slave collars,” and bills of sale for slaves in the south c. 1850 and 1860.

It really felt like two weekends in one as we capped off the festivities yesterday with a ton of yard work, the parade down Broadway to welcome the New York City Ballet to its 40th season at its summer home in Saratoga, drinks at the Gaffney’s patio, and some evening porch time.

Happy Independence Day!

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Tags: weekends