NoVA

Monday morning we set out for northern Virginia. In Virginia (and many places in the US) life is a journey by car and journey we did. In a minivan no less! We are such a hip couple. Though not the coolest ride, Sandy's sister trusted us with her new minivan, so we've been cruising the state in an Odyssey. After walking, biking and taking transit most places, traveling in a minivan is like being in a space ship.

This is a quiet stretch of Route 1 heading north but still just outside of Fredericksburg:

We stopped at the Swedish furniture mecca known as Ikea where Sandy was overjoyed to encounter an authentic Swedish meatball plate at bargain prices!

After getting our fill of Swedish delights we got back on the road - this time onto the always pleasant I-95. Of course it was stop and go for much of the journey:

I'm not sure this photo adequately captures it but there is some pretty awesome on- and off-ramp action at key interchanges on I-95:

We made our annual stop at Ravi Kabob - the most amazing Pakistani food in the US! The place is definitely not for vegetarians but the boneless chicken kabobs, the chickpea sauce over rice, the amazing bread - it's all heavenly.

After Ravi's it was back in the car for the final leg of our Monday journey - to Jackie's, er, I mean Will and Miriam's home in D.C. After a few wrong turns (that took us through some cool old DC neighborhoods as well as past the Washington Monument), we finally arrived!

We are still in Northern Virginia. Sandy woke up this morning with massive sinus congestion and a wee fever that hasn't let him really get out of bed yet...I made the arduous three block journey to whole foods for chicken noodle soup and ginger ale as well as to CVS for sudafed, mucinex and so on. We're hoping it passes soon.