Bear Girls on the Road

Fredricksburg, Virgina  03/05/12

Hellos everyone, the beargirls are home from our adventure!  I will be sharing our stories as we go along- we had lots of adventures, met lots of interesting people (including a Congressional Medal of Honor Winner, some gypsies, a very nice teacher from France and an awesome old pizza-eating theater-going babushka-wearing native New York little old lady with an extreme passion for black olives, soccer players from Chile and New Ghana, assorted artists and art teachers, and a national security guard with a healthy distrust of Melissa's 'sonic screwdriver').  and went to lots of museums (some of which were *not* on the conference agenda)- favorites being the Mutter museum in Philadelphia  (medical oddities- my favorite, even though it was the *only* museum that we weren't allowed to take photos in) and the Muesum of Sex in NYC (Melissa's favorite- pictures allowed).  Fun times, fun times.   We ate....lots of bread and pastries (cheesecake from the Magnolia bakery was the hands-down pastry winner), discovered that NYC/Philly has a surprising lack of good coffee places that we could find, and the famous Heartland Brewery has amazing burgers, excellent sweetpotato fries, but the breweries in NC are much, much better.  (Not a beer trip, ended up drinking mostly water and bleah coffee).  The cheaper the hotel the more free amenities- (on the road in Fredricksburg- hotel included: parking, fridge, internet, microwave, real coffeepot, breakfast with WAFFLES).   Toll roads are expensive ($40.00 in tolls to get from DC to NYC), Philadelphia is wonderful and beyond- that it *is* possible to do NY on foot- we did not take a single cab/bus/subway, walked over 30 miles according to Melissa's mapapp, all the way from central park to canal street, weaving back and forth all over.  

We discovered that Bear-hats (Melissa's find, and my favorite hat ever) are incredibly practical, being hat/scarf/mittens all in one with secret zipper pocket for holding phone/id/card/cash/keys... perfect, and everyone loved them.  That eating to many black jellybeans in the car is not a good thing and that I am not to be trusted with open containers of pepper sauce (her front seat *was* light grey..)

But now we are home, well traveled and safe and sound.  Ready to settle in and stay put for awhile...but always planning for the road ahead!   Next year's conference is in Fort Worth (YAY!) and with a bit of luck and good reviews, we will be invited.  Fingers crossed!