Kicking off the N. American Portion of our ATW
From July 21 to December 4, 2026 we continue our Around-The-World ticket in the United States. The 6 weeks we spent at the condo in Jax Beach, so I won't blog about that.
Seeing Lisa and Rob in Selbyville!
On August 15, 2026 at 4am Chris and I were awake to get to the airport in time for our flight to Philadelphia. Even though it was only about 7am when we took this photo, we would have had champagne if we could have found some....
The flight ended up being about 20 minutes late due to something the captain noticed on his walk around. I'm sure it had nothing to do with all the condensation that was coming out of the vents (or was I?....)
It was an uneventful flight, as you can see.
We raced to the rental agency to pick up our car and start our drive to Delaware. A note about Delaware - it is NOT in New England. A fact pointed out to me several times when I said it was. This was normally followed by "but I (or my husband, brother, nephew, etc) am from New England). I'm sure I was taught in school that Delaware was part of New England as one of the original colonies, but now I know (and will never forget) that Delaware is Mid-Atlantic Coast. I did triple check this in Dr. Google, because I couldn't believe I was wrong.
Buni helped with driving.
We arrived in Selbyville to Lisa and Rob's beautiful home and met their family: Cali (calico), Bentley (tabby) and Millie (black cat). Here we see them meeting Buni.
They also have a foster child called Desi. Also a tabby and not allowed in the house
We had our own living suite which Buni settled right into.
That evening we had an amazingly scruptious home cooked meal with crab cakes, squash casserole, grilled corn on the cob and some of Rob's home grown tomatoes. I'm just realizing I forgot to take photos, but, believe me it was wonderful.
After dinner it was off to the local vineyard outdoor garden for drinks and to listen to the band. The band was great and Rob knew one of the members.
and the day wouldn't be complete without ice cream. I had butter brickle which was amazingly good - so good, in fact, that I again forgot to take a photo. (fire the photographer).
We passed a very restful night (with buni)
and were up for a trip to Bethany Beach and to see all the places Lisa talks about, so I have a context for the future discussions.
We had a wonderful breakfast at Good Earth which featured home grown ingredients. I had avocado toast with an egg on top. Chris had a version of a full English breakfast, Rob had a sort of buddha bowl of vegetables and sausage on the side, Lisa a bucket of salad. Again, the photographer must have fallen asleep because there are no photos.
Because no meal is complete without it, we stopped at another dairy after breakfast for more ice cream. I had cookies and cream. I do not remember taking the photo on the left, so perhaps it was the official photographer who must have been getting over a hangover based on the angle. Rob tried, rather successfully, to get into this ice cream truck, which was actually. more Buni sized.
We relaxed in the afternoon and prepared for the big cocktail party blow-out that evening. Lisa and Rob were kind enough to invite all the local hiking friends who I knew from our group hikes AND their spouses. Again, there was amazing food and am glad I don't live closer because I would be buying a whole new wardrobe.
Lisa was kind enough to give me a training session in the morning before we had to say goodbye and head to Washington, D.C. (I was also corrected that WDC is West of our location, not South).
Thank you for a great stay Lisa and Rob!
Along the way we tried to get more ice cream at the Vanderwende Dairy. Big disappointment when their website was wrong and it was closed:(
Then we continued to Annapolis for a coffee with Karen (hiking friend from the Ireland trip) and had a lovely catch up and coffee for about 90 minutes. It was Karen's 35 wedding anniversary today, so Happy Anniversary!
We were very lucky with traffic and made it to Washington by about 2pm.
We are staying at the Alexandria Hampton Inn which seems nicely situated to our tomorrow destinations. More on that in the next blog.
It was great seeing you and Chris at Lisa and Rob’s. Safe travels and I’ll see you in January.