The East Coast

Hi again everyone.  We've had a busy week, so this is the first time there's been a night available where I wasn't exhausted and had internet access.

After Florida, Jenny and I went to my friend Adam's in North Carolina.  He made us a delicious dinner consisting of honey chicken, squash and yams.  This was followed by a tour of his extensive rifle collection and of Fort Brag where he works.  We returned to his apartment for drinks and gaming - always a great combination with Adam.

In Maryland we stayed with Uncle Gary, Aunt Pat and my cousins Kevin and Ryan.  They treated us to crabcakes and prawns, but the grandest gesture was Gary allowing me to bury the armadillo carcass in his yard.  Whew was that thing pungent when I extracted it from its multilayered container.  I'll retrieve the bones when I visit with mom later this summer.  It poured the following day, which made our tour of Washington DC wetter than we preferred.  Kevin was an excellent tour guide however, and Jenny enjoyed seeing the landmarks for the first time.  I had the idea to photograph a stuffed pigeon at the Smithsonian for my pigeon-obsessed friend Lyndsey back in Seattle, but was was highly disappointed that one wasn't represented in their displays, despite having every other bird found in Washington DC.  The day ended with a marathon of Rock Band songs, with me on guitar, Kevin on bass and Jenny singing.

New York was overwealming.  While I found the skyscrapers and rampant video displays pleasantly futuristic, I hate being in large crowds, so that aspect was annoying.  I much preferred the city at night, especially the Empire State Building, which faded up into the clouds.  Jenny and I watched The Little Mermaid musical, which was very well done.  Ariel's voice was fantastic.  The next day, I got to go behind the scenes at the American Museum of Natural History to study coelurosaur fossils for my dinosaur studies.  The curator (who I had spoken to before online) was very friendly, and allowed me to see and photograph several undescribed specimens.  Additionally, I was surprised by some Shuvuuia fossils which were on loan from Mongolia.  The information I gathered will certainly help my analysis, and they invited me back whenever I wanted.  After the museum, Jenny and I walked through Central Park, eventually found our way to the Statue of Liberty, and had a delicious dinner in Little Italy.

We stayed in Maine for three nights to visit my friend Mallory, who had previously visited me two Christmases ago.  That was nice because it gave me my first chance to doll up on the trip.  For those of you who don't know (primarily extended family who haven't tried to look me up on MySpace or Facebook), I'm a crossdresser (and no, I'm not gay; any other questions, feel free to ask next time we meet).  I dared not try that in the south (ha!), but Maine's nice and liberal and Mallory's been amazingly supportive ever since we met on an online makeup group.   We went out to breakfast, to a beach, and drank at her friend Tom's house.  Tom was especially nice to pay for all the drinks and the third day's dinner, while I'm grateful to Mallory for housing Jenny and I on somewhat short notice.  Jenny and I enjoyed visiting a couple other rocky beaches while Mallory was at work on Friday, and she had a girl's day out shopping and getting her hair done on Saturday.

Currently I'm writing from my Uncle Dave's house in Youngstown, Ohio.  His family provided fun conversation and should be congratulated for hosting us despite having so many people here already.  It was good to catch up with my cousin Davene, who I hadn't seen in a decade or more.  But we've exchanged Facebook pages now, which will hopefully lead to more regular communication.

Tomorrow we go to the Creation "Museum" (should be hilarious), then it's the long but fast drive straight home.  I probably won't get another chance to update until I'm back in Seattle.  Look forward to more pics then though, including the armadillo carcass. ;)