Two Weeks Back "Home"....

Gio and I just finished a whirlwind visit to Washington, DC, in order to help celebrate Great Aunt Joan's 90th birthday.  He and I are great travel buddies as neither of us really suffer from jet-lag and we are experts at fitting in a year's worth of our beloved USA in two weeks.  For this trip we left Maria behind in Pretoria.  Her school was still in session and both Paolo and I wanted to have time alone with each child. 

This was actually the final photo we took on our trip but I wanted to put it first since it is my favorite.  Gio adores his grandparents (Nonno & Nonna) and this was the hardest goodbye of all.  He is pleased also to report that he beat Nonno at checkers more times than he could count.  Proud boy indeed!

So now back to the beginning of our story....
At OR Tambo in Joburg with our final South African meal before boarding our night flight.  Good thing Gio ordered a hamburger.  Might not see any of those for a while....

I did force him to sleep for a few hours but Minecraft was his primary activity during the 12 hour journey to Germany.

3 hours of sleep. At least the lounge in Munich was cozy.

9 more hours to DC and THEN the dreaded People Mover at Dulles Airport.  We landed early so were rewarded with an extra long wait for transport to Passport Control.  

First full day we rushed to see Enzo's half-sister Bocce who lives with two of our favorite people in DC: Micki and her daughter Annie.  Bocce is a bit naughty and loves to roll in stinky stuff so we immediately got to work.

And why not really celebrate being back in the USA after a year by visiting the dentist?!  Fortunately Gio adores Dr. Kuwabara so he counted this as a fun activity.

Back at our hotel and time to Skype with Maria.  Clearly Paolo is not spending too much time on hairdos but she looks happy and that is all that matters.  As Maria said "Me fine!"

This picture is out of order (for the life of me I cannot figure out how to move pics around on this blog!).  A bit jet-lagged our first morning and doing a "bit" of whining as we walk up to Nonno & Nonna's from our hotel.

Passed out in the cab on our way from the airport.  No sleep on the airplane...only here.  A signature move of Gio's.

Okay, back on track with the order of photos.  Here we are on our way to Boston at 5:30AM.  Motto of our holiday is never to be quite caught up on sleep (as evidenced by my crazy eyes!).

First meal in Boston with Gio's beloved Godmother Linda and her husband Allen.  We hit a diner in the Sound End.  Nothing like a waffle-pancake combo to wake the boy up.  The whipped cream with a dash of hot chocolate did not hurt.  (The sugar crash later was ugly!).

Carousel ride on Boston Commons.

The next day we headed out to Wellesly to visit Linda & Allen's son Andrew and his family.

Linda's granddaughter Viola was an instant hit with Gio.  He now counts her officially as "my 7th girlfriend!"  An Italian boy, for sure.

Monday we headed to the New England Aquarium.  The best part of our visit here was that a former 5th grade student of mine (now a married man!) joined us to walk around the exhibits with us.  I have been kicking myself ever since that I did not get a photo of us reunited!  Sorry about that, Edward Scott.  Will have to do that next time!

After seeing "Finding Dory" a week later I am not sure I am ever going to let Gio do a touch exhibit again!

Later we headed out on a whale-watching excursion.  It was a long bumpy ride out there but well worth it as we saw at least 20 Humpbacks!  My photos prove nothing but I promise you it was amazing.  We even saw a mother-daughter double breach!

Catching a nap on the boat-ride back. 

Paolo sent me frequent updates of Maria's antics.  Here he had taken her out to lunch after school....

...and then to his office to "work" while
he conducted a conference call.

After a full week here I finally felt brave enough to enter a grocery store.  For those of us who spend a year or more away from the USA, entering an American grocery store can be overwhelming.  The amount of choices (some insane) is mind-boggling. 

Finally found a hamburger!  With the added bonus of eating them with our adored cousins Rachel, Margot & Eliza.  As a side note, Rachel (the one in glasses) had just had her first front page NYT byline printed this very day!  We were honored to celebrate with her.

On this day we visited a dear friend of mine (both of her daughters had me as their 5th grade teacher quite a while ago) and her wonderful Golden Jax.

Absolutely the sweetest dog I have ever met.

Today's activities: haircut and Duck Doughnuts.  

Such fun catching up with a favorite teaching friend and her hilarious daughters.  This visit to the USA was really filled with so many reunions with my days at Potomac!

I did concede to do one day morning hour of sight-seeing by taking Gio to the top of the Washington Monument.  In all of my years and years in DC I am embarrassed to admit this was my first time up there.  Well worth the trouble of getting the tickets! Thanks, Mom!

Yep, Big Tom does go just about everywhere.

Gio took this one!

Our final weekend in DC was extremely busy.  We started with a visit to Gio's cousins John & Alex.  

Gio adores them both.  Hard to believe but John & Alex are twins! 

And then it was finally time for the grand 90th birthday party for my Great Aunt Joan.  This is the first time in his 7.5 years that Gio dressed up... well, sort of dressed-up.  There was a belt, at least.

The slider bar was a huge hit with Gio. 

The birthday girl.  

Gio took a lot of selfies during the party.  This one was my favorite.  I deleted most of the 200+ others he took!

Nonno as captured by Gio.

And his beloved cousin Eliza (cousin-in-law??).

Gio was happy to discover more girlfriends at the party.  He counts them now as #s 8 & 9.  Dreading the teenage years.

Cake cutting.

#189

5 minutes later he stripped off his fancy duds and leapt into the pool.  Cannot take this guy ANYWHERE!

Cousin Margot featured at the end of the selfie orgy.

Favorite sign in Georgetown.

We headed back to Joan's house on Sunday morning for a family brunch and more fun pool time with the cousins.

A final playdate with Gio's oldest and dearest DC friend, Caden, and his brother Ben. Yep, another Potomac connection as I taught with their mother there.

Goodbyes are tough but we know this friendship will endure.  Buddies since the age of 11 months.

Sunday night we headed to the theater next to our hotel for "Finding Dory."  

Gio's reaction to discovering the seats fully recline: "This is so good I have tears in my eyes!"

Final night in DC and a last meal with Gio's wonderful godfathers Tim & Jay, or as he called them for many years, "Timanjay...and Jay"! Luckiest boy on Earth to have these two.

And so our time in the USA came to an end.  Now we are off to Italy for 5 weeks.  More from there soon!