Tiffany Visits!

In April one of my oldest friends, Tiffany Cook, came out to visit. It was such a joy to have her come because, as usually happens when my friends have kids, they can never leave home for very long. Luckily Tiffany had an “ace in the hole,” she was pregnant with her third child at the time as was able to garner enough sympathy from her husband, friends, and family earn a brief getaway. Nice job Mike, you earned a lot of husband points!

Tiffany served as a missionary for our church here in the DC area. As a missionary, you rarely get to have any fun, so this was Tiffy’s big chance to do some of the things she couldn’t do before. Of course, at seven months pregnant I don’t know how much fun you can have, but Tiffany was bound and determined to try.

And now, the many adventures of Tiffany in DC:

Tiffany went out to dinner with single people.
I consider this a brave move for someone that has been married for over 8 years. I must say that Tiffany was a total sport as we talked about love, jobs, dating, and places to get good Mexican food. We ended up eating at El Paso Café, which is probably the best Mexican and Salvadoran food I have had on the East Coast. While that isn’t saying much, I would definitely eat there again.

Tiffany let me be a history nerd at Monticello.
Tiffy did not have a long list of places to see, but she did want to go to Monticello and Mt. Vernon. It is about a 2.5 hour drive down to Monticello from Reston, but it is a lovely trip. I had never been to Monticello in the spring and it was, as always, delightful. Sadly, it was the busiest I have ever seen because everyone was in DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival and made daytrips to Monticello. Regardless, it was a lovely day and I totally wish I was a Jefferson descendent so I could have more access to the place and be buried in the family plot.

Tiffany survived a trip to Baltimore.
It wasn’t actually supposed to be a trip to Baltimore, but boy did it end up that way. We attempted to go to Mt. Vernon, but it was so crowded and just sitting in traffic was totally annoying. Being the wild girls that we are, we decided to drive up to Philadelphia. The trip started off so well…we found a Krispy Kreme, traffic was light, and the weather was fantastic. Then we passed through the Harbor Tunnel outside of Baltimore. Just as we excited the tunnel my car just lost acceleration. It was awful.

So what happened was that my timing belt broke and busted up the engine in the process. I ended up calling AAA for a tow and the Highway Patrol set up flares to make sure no one hit my car as I was blocking a merging lane. The Maryland roadside emergency guy actually pushed my car with his truck so we could get to a shoulder. The tow truck guy took us to his shop, as it was a weekend and most shops were closed. Then Tiffany and I walked down the street and hung out at a McDonald’s in Baltimore until Seabreeze kindly came and rescued us. There was so much crying on my part. For those of you that know I have issues with Baltimore, my car dying and getting stranded in a town I don’t know didn’t help Davis-Baltimore relations.

Things did not go well for my poor little Ford. The repair costs were to range between $1,500 to 3,000 at a minimum for a car that would fetch $1,200 if I could get it running again. I ended up selling it to a salvage yard in Baltimore for $100. I have to say, that if you need a mechanic in Baltimore, go to Curtis Auto Shop in Dundalk. The mechanic was fantastic and didn’t try to rip me off in my fragile state. I would gladly have him look at my new car – a Nissan Sentra that I adore. Seabreeze was an absolute treasure when I didn’t have a car. She let me borrow her car every day so I could take Tiffany around and go car shopping. Seabreeze, you went above and beyond. Shelley and my mom and dad deserve Medals of Valor for kindly putting up with about 15 phone calls a day regarding taking out loans, car shopping, insurance, negotiating, etc. I also still owe Jason a dinner for helping me negotiate buying a car. He is very, very good. Below is a picture of my sweet Ford getting towed away. Sniff, Sniff…


Tiffany let me be a history nerd at Mt. Vernon.
Thanks to Seabreeze we did make it to Mt. Vernon. I love to go to Mt. Vernon and Monticello in different seasons because you really get to see different vegetation and animals. Tiffany has been starting to garden, so it was nice for her to buy some seeds from her trip that she could then plant in her garden at home. I like seeing all the baby animals (I also like how I am 5 year old girl when it comes to baby animals). I even got to pet some baby sheep that were so darling. The new museum at Mt. Vernon is great and I would highly recommend a visit.

Tiffany spent 5 days with me.
I love that Tiffany knows me so well. It was fantastic to spend time with someone that knows when I am full of BS. I just love her to death.

Come back any time Tiffany!