D to E: Baltimore, MD to South Florida

We woke up early Monday morning, donned our business suits that we keep in a fancy clothes bag, and headed to DC. Max's sister was leaving her job in DC where she could get us into the White House mess for lunch and we jumped on the opportunity. After passing though the security booths, we made it in to have a delicious lunch right next to the "Situation Room." Max had a cheese burger (very patriotic) and Emily had the seared sesame tuna salad. We also had to order the signature desert - "Chocolate Freedom." It's good to be American.Wanting to get to Florida in time to meet up with Max's west coast relatives who were also visiting, we decided to beat out rush hour traffic leaving DC, but 2pm is apparently when rush hour starts now in the area. It took us hours to get through Northern Virginia and to North Carolina where we spent the night at a America's Best Inn.The next day, we woke up early and started driving south. We were excited to be in the South and eat some good stick-to-your-bones southern cookin' along the drive. After Emily researched the difference between west and east North Carolina BBQ on chowhound.com, we decided on Smithfield's, a regional chain serving fried chicken, BBQ pork sandwiches and hush puppies. For about $10, we gorged on a satisfying spread of southern delights, washed down with a giant cup of sweet tea. For dinner, we found B&J Steak and Seafood, which was mentioned on chowhound but also written up in a Boston Globe article on Georgia Colonial Coast. We pulled into the driveway and saw three police patrol cops parked. We knew that we had found a good place, cops always know where to get good food in our opinion. We shared a giant platter of the best sweet Georgia fried shrimp and oysters, Max described the shrimp as "tiny lobsters."There weren't many boondocking spots in south Georgia, so we picked the Crooked River State Park as our destination for the night. We arrived after dark, but figured we had enough leeway the next day (we were just above the Florida border, and only had about 300 miles to go) to take a walk through the park in the morning. Max took Buzz for a short walk through the campground filled with giant oak trees draped with spanish moss, and Emily took a short solo hike through the palmetto grove on the lookout for birds. We finally saw a heron as we were driving out of the park, right before the odometer on the van rolled over its first 100,000 miles.

As we approached Florida, temperatures started rising outside, and as we luckily noticed quickly, in our engine as well. After letting the engine cool down and taking secondary highways to try to not overheat again, Max remembered that after our radiator froze in Wyoming, he had taken the suggestion by another hotel guest to place a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator to keep the wind chill down. Now that we were in hot temperatures again, that cardboard was keeping our engine nice and toasty. We were able to extract it, but were sadly late for the traditional family dinner of steaks and chops.

The rest of the week in Florida was perfect - blue skies, warm weather and good visits with family. We played on the beach, sat in the hot tub and made lots of yummy family dinners. Emily was able to put together an imitation of her great-grandmother's Swedish Christmas Eve dinner, complete with meatballs, mashed potatoes and lingonberries. We also discovered a small museum in Delray Beach hosting an exhibit titled "Pinball Palooza!". full of vintage pinball machines guaranteeing a fun afternoon.

Links: Smithfields, B&J's Steak and Seafood, Crooked River State Park

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