The Bookends--Uncle Bailey's 70th & Sarah's Wedding

The driving force for our two-week vacation adventure was timing. My uncle Bailey was turning 70 and his children had planned a surprise party on the Saturday before Memorial Day in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC. My wonderful college friend Sarah was getting married two weeks later in Charlottesville, VA, which is also pretty close to DC. As our family grows, we find flying to be somewhat cost prohibitive, and the thought of driving up and back twice in two weeks was wretched. So we took 2 weeks to explore the mid-Atlantic region and timed it so that Peter's upcoming work trip to DC would coincide. Yes, I know, brilliant. And insane.

So with 3 children ages 7 and under, we packed up the minivan, filled it with coloring books, DVD player, iPods, Mad Libs, trivia questions, dolls, pillows, Mom's handy file of hotel confirmation numbers and mapquest directions, a cooler, sand toys, baby backpack, stroller, snacks and a laptop. We were packed in like sardines! We put over 3700 miles on the van. I took about 900 pictures. We stayed in 6 different hotels and in the company townhouse. We ate out and cooked in. For the most part, we all got along pretty well--and that's a feat when there are 5 people together 24 hours a day for 16 straight days! There are several posts after this one to highlight our travels. This one includes pictures from the two events that began and ended the Marsh Family Adventure of 2009.
Uncle Bailey's Party and Family Lunch on Sunday:











Sarah and Lane's Wedding with reception at Ash Lawn (home of Pres James Monroe) with blue grass music and square dancing!: