Anniversary Trip 2008

Last year Nick and I had a very nice, uneventful anniversary trip. This year, it was very nice, but somewhat eventful.

• Thursday, May 15, 2008. 3:00 PM- Julie arrives home early to pack for vacation. Finds 6 week old kitten with badly infected eye outside of apartment.


• 3:30 PM- Trapped the kitten despite not really wanting to touch it and chasing it all over in my dress and work shoes.


• 3:45 PM- On my way to animal shelter, using my printed mapquest directions, I pass Nick on his way home with his happy GPS tucked into his console, not even being used.


• 3:55 PM- Can't find shelter. Text Nick "GPS."


• 4:00 PM- Find shelter. Drop of Kitten. Told by staff they will try to find it a home.


• 4:15 PM- Lost again. Stupid one way streets and "No Left Turn." Still cursing Nick and his unused GPS.


• 4:30 PM- Finally get home and start packing.


• 6:00 PM- Melissa calls back to tell me I can come use her hose to clean my cat carrier. Little guy was gross.


• 6:15 PM- Get on road. Don't have time to clean cat carrier. Go to Total Wine and get gas for trip.


• 6:45 PM- Pass a family standing outside of a completely burnt van, looking very sad, tired, and charred. Wonder what happened, but the pro's are on the scene.


• 8:30 PM- Reach Shenandoah National Park. No one is working the gates. There is a sign that says to pay when you leave. We feel guilty since we have a pass and aren't going to stop to show it when we leave.


• 9:00 PM- Start going through patches of cloud. Can't see anything.


• 9:30 PM- 10 miles later. Reach hotel room. Thankful we are in one piece.


• 10:30 PM- asleep


• 1:30 AM- Wake up to Daisy eating her food.


• 1:31 AM- Realize Daisy is on the bed with me.


• 1:32 AM- Start "bowing" Nick to get him up. I have lethal elbows.


• 1:33 AM- We have this conversation:

Nick: "What?"

Julie: "Something is eating Daisy's food and I don't think it's Daisy."

Nick (the eternal sceptic): "Why?"

Julie: "Daisy is right here."

Nick: "OK"

Julie: Either he doesn't believe me or he's sleepy. I wait for the noise again. Once we hear it I say, "See."

• 1:37 AM- Nick finally believes something is eating Daisy's food, so we turn on the light and wait. Sure enough, the mouse finally comes out and eats some more food and takes a drink from Daisy's water bowl. Daisy is shaking and barking/whining/growling.


• 1:40 AM- Nick is up out of bed with a trashcan in hand and the balcony door propped open.


• 1:41 AM- Nick is giving me the evil eye. He thinks I had something to do with the mouse. It's true, I can conjure up animals to interrupt his precious sleep when I know they will bother him the most.


• 2:00 AM- Mouse finally gets chased out of our room, by the brave, heroic Nick and scurries off across our balcony.


• 2:03 AM- We get back in bed. Daisy does some pacing to make sure the mouse is gone.


• 2:05 AM- We are trying to get back to sleep. I have my leg pressed against Nick. He asks if I can move over a little. I do and he stays where he is, so mad about my mouse-hearing abilities that he can't stand to touch me. This makes me laugh.


• 2:07 AM- Nick is asleep.


• 3:00 AM- Julie is awake


• 4:00 AM- Julie is still awake. Stupid mouse. All I can think about is how I don't want it to get into my goldfish crackers. I bought a bigger box than usual.


• 8:00 AM- We wake up. I must have finally fallen asleep. Nick admits that he was irrationally blaming me for a) the existence of mice, b) that there was a mouse in our room, and c) that I heard the mouse and woke him up for it. I argued that I didn't know that what was eating Daisy's food was actually a mouse and shouldn't I wake up my husband for things like that? Anyway, I knew he was mad at me for the mouse. Plus, it was nice to see him succumb to irrationality, even if it was from tiredness.

We made it through the rest of the weekend with minor incidents and mouse citings. The fog finally lifted so we could see the valley. We went on some great hikes. If you are in Shenandoah near the central region, Lewis Falls is an awesome 3.3 mile circuit hike with some scrambling and a stream crossing. The stream is actually the waterfall and after you cross it you get to an overlook for the falls. You return on the AT, which is relatively easy.

On Saturday night, our last night, the mouse paid a visit to Nick while we were watching TV. He got on the bedside table right next to Nick's head to try to steal Nick's cookie. This really upset Nick since he loves cookies. So he chased the little guy all over. The pic is where he hid after we pulled out the bedside table. We asked for another room, but they didn't have one. They did come put a mouse detering plug-in in our room and Nick finished his cookie in one huge bite. Turns out mouse deterrers only work in theory. We still heard the thing running around all night. Daisy would pace for about an hour, hunting mice, and come to bed for an hour. She is no mouser. We finally got up at 5AM and checked out. We figured we could still get home early enough to take a nap. It was a beautiful drive home with very little traffic, save the house they had to move across the street we were on, so we did get stopped for a while, but we got to see a house move. We made it home safely and managed to get some more sleep before Nick called his family to find out that his Great Aunt Mary had passed away. So, a lot of happenenings. I've been putting off returning my phone calls from the weekend cause I need an uneventful day.