Quaint Overload

Greetings from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. "King of Prussia" has to be the best town name of all time, don't you think? We actually had been thinking of driving a little farther tonight, but when we got to King of Prussia, the town name was so darn appealing that we just had to stay here. I think it even beats "Thermopolis".

So, we've driven through a ton of quaint towns in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island over the past few days, complete with the requisite New England covered bridge and/or lighthouse. It's all pretty darn charming:

Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle of Connecticut, Kathy officially reached her Quaint capacity. It happened right around the time we reached the main street in Mystic, Connecticut. Mystic is a very cute small town (and home to the fine mid-80s Julia Roberts movie "Mystic Pizza"), but after driving through ten similarly cute towns over the past few days, the power of the cuteness might have been a tad diminshed. Or, sadly, even a bit tiresome. And thus the first Quaint Town embargo was established. Temporary, of course, but oh so necessary.

Fortunately, New York City came at just the right time in our trip. New York City is a lot of things, but quaint, it ain't. We had a great time in New York City -- eating well (mmm... Shake Shack), drinking a little too much, sleeping not so much, catching up with family and friends. In other words, just what we needed.

Come to think of it, King of Prussia ain't so quaint either. It actually seems to be composed of one really big mall. But we'll forgive that, just because its name is so excellent.