I had the opportunity of meeting my cousins on the weekend. My second cousin S lives in Washington DC. Her parents who live in Alabama were driving down to Boston to attend their son’s graduation from MIT and did a stopover in DC. It felt great to be with family members and it seemed to placate the gnawing homesickness I have been feeling lately.

Driving into DC makes my wife and even me a little batty. I was happy that she was the one driving, after all she knows the roads a whole lot more than me. We had printed out the route from MapQuest and it pulled a number on us and took us in the wrong direction. My wife spotted it before we were completely offtrack and figured out that she was better off without the stupid map. And soon we were heading in the right direction.

S lives in a beautiful and very cutesy apartment. It has two floors/levels… the upper level has the living space, dining space and kitchen. The lower level is connected by stairs and has the bedrooms and bathrooms. There is even a common rooftop deck with a good view. Having a space that opens to the sky especially in the city is a treat.

My cousins who drove from Alabama got to meet my wife and daughter for the very first time. The evening was filled with lots of laughter and chitchat. S whipped up some really good Italian food which I thoroughly enjoyed. Salad with caramelized pears with almonds and goat cheese, pasta with pesto sauce and some zucchini thrown on the side. The meal concluded with cake, strawberries and whipped cream dessert that my wife made. I had a wonderful time and I hope everyone else did .

Anju behaved very well throughout the evening and went to sleep around 2100hrs. As we bid our goodbyes I tell my cousin to have lots of fun and a blast. How very apt and appropriate of me to say something like that to someone on a Road Trip?? My cousin was gracious enough to remind me and I wished her again ‘Have fun but don’t have a blast‘ .