Beyond

I hope I never lose my sense of wonder. If that makes me naive, then so be it.

Thursday 22 July 2010

road trip recap

- a post in which I just realized there a lots of initials. hmm. But, in interests of a shred of internet anonymity, I will use them. If you simply must know who an initial is, email me and I might just tell. -

July had a first for me: a road trip with just me and the girlies. R and A had been in Birmingham for World Changers and after a week of hot work painting and scraping, stayed on in the city with the B's. Several fun days with S, B, and L later, they started driving north.

Meanwhile, I headed south with M to meet them part way. After an overnight stay with the H's in PA, we got an early start and headed past Baltimore and Washington, to meet S and the girls at a hotel in Williamsburg. Happy hugs and reunions all around!

We had entertained thoughts of Colonial Williamsburg, having missed it in December after a snowstorm, but with the day half gone we decided instead to try Jamestown Settlement - open later, and cheaper admission. It's very cool: a recreated fort, seaside (complete with ships!), and Native village with people in period costume showing different aspects of life in the area in 1607. The girls got to try twisting grass into rope, watching flint tools and clay pots be made, scraping a deer hide, and seeing a musket fired. It was so hot though and we were glad to get back to the hotel before supper.

M being stately on the ship's deck

The next day S returned south (boo for not being able to say when we'll see her next!) and we started north. Had an last minute scheduled lunch meet-up with a friend from WoW in Richmond, which was lots of fun and at Panera! Love that restaurant. Then we got to face Friday afternoon Washington traffic. ouchies.

Eventually though we did return to our first night's stop in PA, where we stayed on for a couple days. Saturday was spent at Gettysburg, a place D would have loved and I want to go see again. We did a self-guided car tour led by a CD (note: that's an audio CD, not somebody's initials ... sigh... this gets confusing). Sunday was relaxing with the H's, something we definitely liked after all the driving and before our return home on Monday.

A few highlights:

- bashing my head on most of the beams on the ship. Low ceilings are not my friend.
- long talks and silliness in the truck with the girls
- many games of pool at the H's, the girls loved that. (A: "can we get a pool table?")
- s'mores! yummmm. Many thanks to GH for that great idea!
- seeing S, even for only such a short time, and hand-delivering my letter. Wonder if she followed the instructions of putting it in her mailbox a la Mr. Bean when she got home?
- meeting DH's parents, listening to his dad play the banjo and singing along with him for a short bit. That was fun!
- seeing history, both re-enacted and walking the places where it actually happened.
- sitting and talking, often described as 'doing nothing', are simple pleasures that I really do enjoy.
- learning about some PA railway history, also interesting. Realizing that I would not have the patience to make a scaled, accurate model railway :) But it sure was cool to see the one others had made.
- one of these days, we really do need to make it to Williamsburg.

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