Aunt Fran

Along the way driving from Washington, DC to New York we took a detour to see my Aunt Fran.

She lives near Philadelphia but on the New Jersey side of the river.

We got a little lost on the way, took the 2nd exit after the bridge instead of the 1st exit before the bridge.

But we made it. We arrived around 8 p.m. and could only stay for about 45 minutes.

We chatted while the kids stretched their legs chasing her cats around her house. They acted like they've been there many times. A little too comfortable!

I've only met her once, when I was about 8 when we came through New Jersey on our way from Naples, Italy to Pensacola, FL. My dad was in the Navy and we were transferred.

Aunt Fran was married to Uncle John who is my dad's oldest brother. He is the oldest of the 6 brothers and 20 years older than my dad who was the youngest of the brothers.

I became in contact with her when my dad was ill and I had to contact all of my uncles & aunts about his condition back in Dec 2005.

So we used her bathroom and plugged in my laptop and the DS to charge while we were there.

I gave her some of the souvenirs I bought at the Basilica. She said she hasn't been there since they were building it! Then it was time to go and get back to driving on to New York.

We thought it would take about another 1 1/2 hours and it took 3 1/2! Yikes.