vacay ...

 I booked a vacation today.  My first "adventure" of sorts since 2009.  I'm so excited I can hardly wait.  I'm taking a train ~ a train!!!!!! ~ to Washington, DC Union Station.  

Then I'm catching the metro from Union Station to Dulles airport where one of my oldest friends ~ I've known her for 50+ years and haven't seen her since 2006 ~ will pick me up and I'll spend a few days with her.  

She will drive me to see my one sister that I haven't seen since Christmas 2020 and my other sister that I haven't seen since ... 2002?  

I will also get to meet my 40-year-old nephew for the first time since I didn't find out about him until he was 38.   I'm even getting special t-shirts to wear that say "Aunt.  The Woman.  The Myth.  The Bad Influence." and "I'm that crazy Aunt everyone told you about!" (which is actually a true story). 

Then I get to take a train ~ a train!!!!! ~ back home.

I haven't been on a solo vacay since the Danube River cruise, and don't really count any trips I took with any ex's Who Shall Not Be Named over the last two decades because, to be honest, any trip with that last one was never a fun trip.  It was all about him and him being drunk or him being on drugs and that was never a pleasant experience for me.

So I'm super excited about this vacay, and being on a train.  I haven't taken a train anywhere since ... the mid-70s when I was a kid in Florida and we took one back from Thanksgiving in Arizona to visit family.  Mom's fear of heights became evident when the train went through New Orleans.  I was fascinated by the cemetery we went over with the mausoleums, and wanted Mom to come to look out the window with me, but she was plastered to the wall behind me.

I don't go for a few months, but knowing me, I'll start packing at the end of this month.  It's that anticipation high!