Driving (with) Miss Jessie

I really should be doing my taxes and paying the bills right now, but I'm a bad girl. (I'm not a complete slacker; I did do laundry today.) I just get so excited when Ally's napping 'cause that means I actually have full use of my two hands and half a brain. So, here I am on the computer, with the final installment of our grand adventure.

I have this great friend named Jessica. She's like a sister-- but even better since she actually cares enough to visit sometimes. (Amy, did I catch your attention?) She lives in Raleigh and was crazy enough to be an adopted Hoffman and gracious enough to be our personal chauffeur for our second week in North Carolina. We are grateful for Jessica, and also for her parents' willingness to run a "halfway house" with an open-door policy and homemade fried chicken that's finger-licking good.

Jessie drove us around Raleigh to look at some of the Victorian homes up by the capitol. That's when we stumbled upon the Oakwood Cemetery, so we went in and wandered around a bit. I know, only a weird mother would consider hanging out in a cemetery where you don't know any of the dead as "quality time". But we had fun and Ally seemed to enjoy it too. Within this historic cemetery, they have a Confederate Cemetery where about 1500 soldiers were laid to rest. Maybe it's the ignorant Yankee in me, but I was perplexed by the multiple unknown soldier graves that were adorned with confederate flags. If their identities remain a mystery, their continued allegiance to such ideology would be unknown as well. I much preferred seeing the American flags on the soldiers' graves. To me, that was a symbol of healing and unity. I'm proud to be an American, no matter where I live.


Our last real day of adventuring (Friday the 16th), Jessica took us to the Marbles Museum. At first I was leery of them charging regular admission for 1-year-olds, but after 5 minutes I could see why it was appropriate. Ally had so much fun driving.


She drove the cool car. Do you see her little feet sticking out the bottom like the Flintstones?








She drove the mail truck.








She drove the boat. (Not a flattering picture of either one of us.)







She drove the big city bus.







She drove an ambulance while a pregnant 10-year-old gave birth to multiple babies with some under-aged assistance in the back.









She tried to drive the firetruck, but decided on fighting the fires instead since she couldn't reach the steering wheel.






It was a full day of fun in the Marbles' scaled-down grown-up world. Besides all the driving and the dressing up, Ally learned about the weather, got her fingers pinched in some big gears, and worked on Lego construction projects with some other kids.




We didn't let her use the real tools (including an actual saw) at the unsupervised wood-working stations, but she and Mickey did try on the goggles. When we had last seen Daddy, Ally had 2 functioning eyes, and all her fingers and toes-- and I intended to return her in the same condition. Safety first!