We made it.

There is, of course, still some adjusting to do (which may be self-evident, given the fact that I'm writing this post at 5:00 in the morning, local time -- and even that's about two hours after I initially woke up!)... But all in all, things have gone about as well as can be expected.  Transportation logistics have gone very well.  The kids have been pretty manageable.  And fortunately, even though I am not sleeping so well on my first night here, Marci and the kids are (aside from a few minor moments of half-wakeful disorientation, which are always to be expected).

Within the first hour of Cor's first day on American soil, he had the privilege of driving within 150 meters of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Museum, the National Archives, and the Capitol Building -- which, I would have to say, was quite an auspicious introduction to his "native" land... Oddly enough, he didn't seem too impressed.  Ah, the fickle fancies of an 8-month-old...

By sunset, we had made it to our destination on the Eastern Shore of Virginia -- a little strip of land between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  We got to enjoy a lovely lasagna dinner with our hosts (Marci's brother and his family).  Even more meaningful than the lasagna, though, was the tall glass of A&W Root Beer, chilled with about 12 cubes of ice which signalled my true homecoming.  And as if that wasn't enough, Jacqueline had made a root beer cake (which I enjoyed very much, though I'd never had it before) and made mention of root beer floats somewhere on the menu within the next couple of days... Ah, yes.  That is indeed when I knew:

We made it.