Ian's Long Trip - The Boring Summary

Last week we took a long and complex trip. Here's the summary. The photos will follow:
- Friday: Left Durham late on 10/1 after a rushed evening packing effort and stayed in a hotel in VA
- Saturday: Drove to DC Saturday and had lunch with friends Ross and Kay, then continued a long day of driving and arrived at Doug's family's cottage in Monterey, MA after midnight.
- Sunday: Saw Grammie, Pa, Aunt Julie, and Uncle Eli in Massachusetts.
- Monday: Ian spent the day with Grammie and Pa while Doug and I went out for the day. Doug was having allergy attacks and problems sleeping in beds designed for sub-6 ft humans. The weather in Massachusetts was cold and rainy, and the weather in Durham was fall perfect. Also, Ian was seemingly opposed to ever getting back in the car (our plan for how to get home). So, we changed our plans and decided that Doug would drive back home to Durham, and Ian and I would spend the middle of the week in Syracuse with my parents and avoid cars as much as possible.
- Monday evening: Doug drove Ian and I to the Albany train station and we arrived in Syracuse by 9:30. Doug drove South and arrived home in Durham on Tuesday.
- Tuesday: Ian, Grandpa, and I went to Binghamton to visit great-grandma for the day (or, as Ian says, "Older Grandma"). We also got to have dinner with Hermit Thrush on our way back.
- Wednesday and Thursday: We hung out in Syracuse, went to the zoo, explored Grandma and Grandpa's yard, etc.
- Friday: Ian and I took the train back from Syracuse to Albany, followed by Grandma and Grandpa in the car. They picked us up at the train station and we drove one more hour back to Monterey.
- Saturday: Grandma, Grandpa, Ian and I spent the day in Monterey.
- Sunday: We all drove an hour to Springfield, had lunch with a friend of mine who also has a toddler son, and then headed to cousin Kelsey's wedding (the motivation for the whole trip in the first place). Stayed in a hotel nearby.
- Monday: Grandma and Grandpa dropped Ian and I off at the Albany train station (again!), and drove home. Ian and I took the train to NYC, sitting in the seat behind former governer George Pataki (who said I was a good mommy, probably because I read Harry the Dirty Dog a ridiculous number of times consecutively at Ian's request). At Penn Station we met Grammie and Pa (at this point I think Ian was starting to find this trip rather confusing!), and had lunch in the city. Then they drove us to JFK and we flew home (on the single plane in the whole terminal that was delayed that day!) Just to round things out and cover the whole family, we saw Uncle Greg when we got to our house (he arrived about 12 hours after we left Durham initially).

So, it was quite a whirlwind. We learned some things about planning family travel/vacation. We had a good time and saw lots of family members. The photos are sporadic (some legs of the journey are undocumented), and not all taken on my camera (some I don't have). I'll share photos of as many interesting parts of the journey as possible. In the next post.