She's Engaged!

I hope everyone had a fun filled 4th of July weekend. For us the 4th meant heading to Stamford, CT to visit Daughter#1. She has just moved into a new apartment and wanted us to see it. Plus we were way over due for a visit anyway. Daughter#2 decided a visit would be nice and drove up with us. Also making the trip was our dog Rosie, a move that we would regret mightily as the weekend wore on. We drove up on Thursday to avoid the holiday beach traffic. Our halfway point is the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Traffic was relatively light and we made it to Stamford in about 5 1/2 hours.

We drove up and parked behind her new apartment and we admired the new digs, we were oblivious to the one detail she wanted us to really notice - a new ring! Daughter#1 and her bf Matt got engaged just prior to our visit. Needless to say we are all thrilled that they are getting married. Matt is all you could hope for in a son in law and we wish them the best.

After congratulations all the way around, we headed out for a late lunch. It was at this point that we learned that Rosie would not be left on her own in a strange apartment and continually barked. So as not to upset the neighbors, we took her with us. It was just a two block walk to a cafe with outdoor seating and was also dog friendly.

After our late lunch, Ann and I checked into our hotel and met back with the rest at Daughter#1's apartment. The plan was to head up I-95 a few exits to catch the fireworks in Westport. Seeing as our brains were not working, obviously, we took Rosie with us, but since we were watching the fireworks from a beach location, dogs aren't allowed on the beach. Duh. We didn't have to leave, but Rosie had to stay in the car. Ann stayed with her. The rest of us headed out on the beach and had a dinner of subs, chips and beer. From our location we could see both the fireworks from Norwalk and from Westport. Both were great shows and we had a good time. Despite the crowd at the beach, we were able to get out rather fast (as opposed to trying to get in which took us a good 45 minutes after exiting the Interstate). We dropped off the two daughters and Matt at the apartment and Ann and I went to our hotel. About 1:30 in the morning we got the first call from Daughter#1 complaining how Rosie was keeping everyone awake with her whining and pacing. They were also running her outside constantly as she was having gastrointestinal problems owing from stress and feeding her too much people food. The next call came at 2:00 again from Daughter#1 complaining how she had just stepped in some dog poop in her bedroom. It was hard not to laugh, but hey it was funny. They did manage to get through the night, but no one, Ann and I excepted, got much sleep. Clearly something needed to change. I'll cover the rest of the weekend in the next few posts.