A Journey of Four Thousand Miles...

...isn't truly over until you've stepped into an ocean. Ryan, Gabe, and I did it on a cool Friday afternoon in Santa Barbara, our ears filled with the beats of twenty drums played by twenty middle-aged, pot-smoking white people. For Michael and I, it was in the town of Ocean City, Maryland; still accompanied by middle-aged white people although the East Coast variety, with less pot, a wider waistband, and 2.5 children.

We had arrived to Michael's house on the Patuxent in Prince Frederick, MD the night before after our two-day, 30-hour marathon. At 11am on Wednesday we drove past Invesco Field in Denver on our way to Chipotle, and yet by the time Barack Obama was delivering his acceptance speech at 10pm on Thrusday, we were in reception distance of Washington, D.C.'s local NPR station to hear it live.

We celebrated our midnight arrival to Michael's hometown with a quick stop at Wawa, and then pretty much immediately crashed for a full 12 hours at his house. His dad and sister were nice enough to stay up a few minutes to welcome us, but we all needed sleep and it was nice to be off the road.

Friday was spent relaxing, with the ultimate goal of going out in the family boat. Rain pounded down throughout the afternoon, and it wasn't until 7pm that we were able to go for a short ride up and down the river. We came off the water and accompanied Michael's family for a sushi dinner. It was really nice to see Michael with his brother and sister, who hadn't seen him in months, sharing the unspoken closeness that only siblings can have.

We finished dinner and got back in the car for a late-night drive down to the shore, arriving just before 2am to the condo rented by Michael's other two siblings, step-sisters Livi and Lexi. Saturday was our day at the beach, and then before we knew it it was time to get into the car and drive back to my house in Villanova for what would be the end of my cross-country journey. It was great having Michael over to my house for the eve of his 22nd birthday, and then he was off, back to Rochester, to finish his degree.