Salem, Ohio

From Washington DC, we got a train to Alliance, Ohio. We arrived at 2am and were soon picked up by Mark. We were there to see Trace's friend Beth (whom she met in 1995 when they both studied abroad in Scotland), her husband Mark and their three kids. We hadn't seen each other since 1998, and we hadn't met their kids: 5-year-old Cait, 3-year-old Aidan and 1-year-old Lia. So the visit was well overdue!

Mark took us to their home in Salem, Ohio. We got to stay there for three days, and we had the best time. Beth is a teacher, and we got to go along with her one afternoon to help tutor some of her 4th graders in math as well as talk to them about wildlife in Australia. It was such fun! We hung out a lot with the three kids, who are so cute. We had a ball. Sunday was Veterans Day, and Mark preached a very moving service at his Methodist Church. We were happy to be there for that and to see him at work! Afterwards, Chris was delighted to go with him and some kids to a Cleveland Browns vs Pittsburg Steelers football game. The horrible Steelers won, but Chris had a great time nonetheless (and shocked Trace by coming home with a souvenir Steelers towel -- boooooooooo!).

One night we all went bowling, which was great fun. It confirmed that Trace is much better at bowling on the Wii than in real life!!! Beth won by a landslide, and we had a lovely dinner afterwards. Another night we went along to a dinner party for Beth's mom. We had a great time there as well.

We were sad to leave them. Thanks for everything, you guys!!! Hopefully it won't take another nine years for us to meet up again...