Christmas Miles 736 - 1019: St. Marys

On the morning of the 28th we packed up the car for our second-to-last destination - my hometown of St. Marys, PA.  We were spending a full day and a half there (which meant sleeping two nights in a row in the same place! Oh how glorious!!!) and we were excited to get some relaxation in - something we felt like we had not yet achieved.  The start of the day was beautiful and we made great time.  We had never made this trip from the direction we were traveling (usually we would take this route FROM St. Marys instead of TO) and Dave thoroughly enjoyed the mountains, rivers, and scenery of central Pennsylvania.

However, once we got onto Interstate 80 it started to snow, and conditions immediately began deteriorating.  We had to slow down considerably, as the roads were snow covered.  It was somewhat treacherous for those last 50 miles or so, but we made it safe and sound and were finally reunited with Murph!!!

He was surprisingly uninterested in us

Actually, that picture is from the next night in St. Marys and not the eve of arrival, but it serves it's purpose nonetheless.  And really, we weren't too surprised to find Murph less than enthusiastic to see us, since my parents probably gave him more love and attention than we even do, and since it's the nature of the Cavalier Spaniel to "love the one you're with."

Anyway, we did get some good relaxation in during our time in St. Marys. We watched two movies - Angels and Demons and the Hangover, and we were SORELY disappointed in the Hangover.  Was it because we were too tired to really enjoy it? Was it because it was too hyped up by others as being the most amazing movie of all time?  We'll never know, but I can honestly say that I don't think either of us laughed out loud once during that entire movie, and that's rare for us and a comedy.

On our second and final night in St. Marys we went to visit my aunt/godmother and uncle.  We had decided to gift them with a picture of us from our wedding, since we had noticed during a visit that summer we were the only ones with a wedding photo NOT prominently featured in the foyer area.  How happy we were to find that we would be the ONLY ONES featured for a short period of time, since the pictures had been removed to allow room for the stable.  They even made space for us inside the stable with baby Jesus.

No caption necessary

Finally, as we were getting ready to leave, we noticed that we were also not featured on their refrigerator, which held dozens of holiday themed pictures.  Apparently we're wildly competitive when it comes to making sure that we receive equal face time in photos featured in prominent places, so my aunt decided that we would take a photo in front of the Christmas tree that could be featured on the fridge-of-honor the next year.

So, all in all, our trip to St. Marys was successful.  Very relaxing with some crazy antics thrown in.  The next morning we packed the car bright and early and started our drive back to Pittsburgh.  We were VERY excited to be heading home....