Decompression Weekend

As I said in the last post, I worked myself into the ground at work the past two weeks, so I was more than ready for a fun and relaxing weekend in Pittsburgh to recharge the batteries.  Once we knew for sure that I could go, I could finally get bouncing-off-the-walls excited about it!

We ended up getting on the road a bit earlier than I had anticipated, since I got to leave work on-time, so we were in Pittsburgh by about 10:30 on Friday night.  We sat around chatting with Dan's parents for a while, and I got a tour of their house before we crashed.  Over the course of the weekend, I came to realize that being at the R family's house made me really nostalgic for my own childhood home in Massachusetts.  Sure, I love the house that my parents moved into in Virginia, and I know that they're loving being in the DC area, but it's kind of sad not to have that childhood home to go home to over the holidays.  A townhouse can only feel like "home" to a certain extent, so I guess being in the house this weekend reminded me of that.

I woke up on Saturday morning much more rested, and Dan drove me around town to give me the grand tour of his hometown.  Though it was significantly larger than Longmeadow, it still had that small town charm about it, so it reminded me a lot of home.  I got to see the first house Dan lived in, the house where his dad grew up, all of the schools that he went to, and a bunch of other places around town.  After a delicious lunch that his mom whipped up for us, we drove over to Mt. Washington, which boasts beautiful, scenic views of downtown Pittsburgh.  However, when we were up there, it started hailing, which, when accompanied by strong winds, had us running back to the car.  We drove around the South Side, the city's bar district, before driving over to Oakland, more specifically, to Pitt's campus, where our Hoyas ended up suffering a depressing defeat at the hands of the Panthers.  After licking our wounds for a reasonable amount of time, we met up with some of Dan's high school friends at a bar in his hometown.

On Sunday morning, we went out to breakfast at a wonderful local diner with Dan's parents.  We got DELICIOUS hotcakes (pancakes with almost crepe-like thinness, mine rolled with cream cheese and blueberries), and then settled in back home to watch most of the Australian Open men's final.  We said our goodbyes shortly after 1 and were back on the road.

When we got home last night, I felt completely rejuvenated emotionally.  I had spent a fantastic weekend with my wonderful boyfriend and his family, who have been nothing but welcoming and sweet to me since I met them.  I feel so at-ease around them that I almost forget that it's not my own parents that I'm hanging out with, and I definitely count myself lucky in that respect!  Hopefully we'll be able to make another trip up there sometime soon, particularly when the weather is nicer :)