Virginia’s slogan "Virginia is for Lovers" is appropriate for us since we had our first date of the trip there. A full 6 months on the road with all 4 of us together 24/7 is a lot of family time, so needless to say we were excited about our date.
There’s a lot of pressure when you’re going out on your first date in 6 months. What do you do? Go to a movie? While it would have been nice to see a newly released flick, it just seemed wrong. After all we'd finally have a chance to talk without little ears listening in on our conversation, but we'd be in a dark theater where conversation is frowned upon. Go bowling? Now we enjoy bowling, but we can go bowling in any town, in any state across America - with the kids. So what did we do without the kids that was uniquely Virginia? We strolled the Virginia Beach boardwalk and then went out to dinner at a restaurant the kids wouldn’t enjoy nor could we afford with them along, and we chatted...without little ears listening.
Here are some other highlights from Virginia:
Best Meal: Siagon Pearl in Williamsburg. Some friends came out to Virginia to meet us and offered to watch the kids one evening so that Mike and I could go out - thus our first date in 6 months. We scrambled at the offer and rushed out the door before they could change their minds! Dinner at this nice Vietnamese restaurant was delicious. Maybe the meal was so wonderful because we were finally alone. It's hard to tell. In fact, we may never know, but we’ll remember it fondly regardless.
Worst Meal: City Dogs in Richmond. When asking our hotel desk clerk about dinner options, she recommended finding a place on Cary Street. It was a nice area of town with mostly pricey restaurants. We settled on City Dogs, the only one within our budget. It was housed in an eclectic, old building and served hot dogs and beer. Neat place, but let’s face it, it was a hot dog.
Biggest Surprise: We were shown our first Southern hospitality at Art Connected in Stafford. I wasn’t familiar with Southern hospitality, but after Art Connected, I’m a fan! In fact, if Southern hospitality were on Facebook, I’d “like” it. Frida, the owner, is such a sweet, southern woman. While we were there, she invited a few of her artists to meet with us, and they even prayed for us. We are so thankful to Frida for hosting us and donating artwork, which we later raffled at an event.
Biggest Disappointment: Missing the Christmas lights on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. As we were strolling along the boardwalk, they were setting up for Holiday Lights. Now we have Christmas light displays in Illinois, but they’re not cute beach themes, like Santa fishing and surfing, along with a Nativity in the sand, and you certainly don't drive on a cement boardwalk to view the light displays. Needless to say, we were disappointed to read they didn't start until after our week in Virginia was over.
Best Bribe: Before meeting up with our friends, we volunteered at the Donate Life booth at the marathon in Richmond. We had bribed our kids by telling them if they weren’t helpful at the booth, we’d torture them by taking an extra long time on the way to meet our friends. For example, we'd splurge and eat at a sit-down restaurant and then stop at the local grocery store before meeting them. It may sound awful, but it worked! Levi and Chloe were extremely helpful during our entire shift at the busy booth keeping the supplies stocked on the table and never once asking, "How much longer?"
Worst Closure: Amazingly nothing, but we did run out of time at Mt. Vernon. George Washington’s home is perched atop a hill overlooking the Potomac. We toured the home and grounds, but our favorite part was the education center and all the movies therein, which are wonderfully educational. In addition, they aren’t shy about talking about George Washington’s belief in Providence either. Sadly we had to rush through the last half of the museum because it was late in the afternoon, and it was closing. In hindsight I wish we had spent less time looking around the grounds and more time in the museum.
Most Beautiful Place: UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) Memorial Garden. The garden is designed so that you purposefully walk through the different sections, thus leading you through organ and tissue donation symbolically. First off is the Wall of Tears, representing the shedding of tears by the donor family. Then is a water sculpture which represents organ donation itself. Next is the Wall of Names showing the diversity of organ donation. We found “Anne” which was the closest we found to Mike’s donor, Annie. The Butterfly Garden represents new life through organ donation. Lastly is the source of the water, the fountain that drops a single drop of water at a time, causing a ripple effect throughout the entire Memorial Garden. It was very touching and beautiful.
Best Tourist Spot: Yorktown Battlefield National Park. It’s all about the tour guide, or in this case, Park Ranger. The ranger talk was captivating. We learned that a sudden storm prevented Cornwallis and his men from escaping via boat across the York River, and therefore Washington won the Battle of Yorktown. It’s yet another example of God helping Washington and the colonies win the Revolutionary War. After the ranger talk, we explored the trenches and even had a picnic lunch on one such trench used for defense in the Revolutionary War.
Worst Tourist Spot: Historic Jamestown. It’s confusing because both Yorktown and Jamestown have a national park and a living history museum. We opted for the national park in both cases because, first of all, it was free due to our national park pass, and for the most part you can’t go wrong at the national parks…except in this case.
Based upon the park ranger’s recommendation for our limited amount of time, we skipped the movie. Mistake #1. We’ve found as we’ve traveled to the historical sights, it’s best to watch the movie. When you watch it initially, it lays out the background and history for you, but enough travel tips...
Interestingly enough, up until a few years ago they thought the original Jamestown settlement was located in the adjacent river. Just recently, they discovered the actual site of the settlement near the river in the national park and are still in the process of excavating it. It sounds exciting, but all we could see were ropes and a museum full of artifacts behind glass display cases…rather boring if I may admit that honestly. If it weren’t for the beautiful sunset over the river and the numerous deer in the park, we’d have set a record for being in and out in record time.
Best Drive: Colonial Parkway. It’s actually a road maintained by the National Park Service which connects the 3 sights that make up the historic triangle: Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. No semi trucks or billboards are allowed on it, and the speed limit is reduced. Because of the beautiful fall leaves, I didn’t mind the 45 mph speed limit. In fact, it was rather refreshing.
Worst Drive: The traffic was horrible in Arlington City, even on a weekend. The culprit was a busy Costco causing a parking and driving nightmare for several blocks. I can’t believe the town allowed Costco to build in the middle of the congested downtown area. With everyone doing their weekend shopping, the gridlock was worse there than in nearby Washington politics.
Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Watching the kids playing with old friends was heart warming but sad, too, knowing it would only last a few days.
Biggest Revelation: That’s what’s on the back of the nickel! I never realized it was Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home, on the back of a nickel. How strange that a President’s private residence would be on the back of a coin. Once again, though, I loved seeing it with my own 2 eyes: the Little-Leaf Linden tree from Europe that swooped down on the front lawn, the European design alcove for the beds, the spinning door in which the servants placed food for Jefferson and his butler to serve the guests themselves so that no servants could hear the private conversations...what an amazing place! I guess it makes "cents" that it's on the back of a coin.
Most Fun Spot: Playing hoop and stick on the grassy knoll at Colonial Williamsburg. It was fun racing Levi and Chloe. The thought crossed my mind that we were playing the same games children played, probably on that very knoll in front of the palace, in the 18th century. Our clothing was different, but the goal was surely the same: to keep your hoop rolling farther and faster than anyone else’s. Some things never change.
Funniest Memory: Scribblish. If you can imagine the telephone game marrying Pictionary, Scribblish would be their offspring. In this game, it’s always funny to see how something as simple as a can of soda, for example, can change into something as ridiculous as a monkey taking a shower. We laughed for hours, but I guess you had to be there…
Worst Memory: Saying goodbye to our friends after several days of hanging out together. Before they left, the weather was nice and sunny, but after they left, it changed and turned cloudy and rainy which accurately reflected our moods the rest of the day.
Best Memory: Having an argument with Mike and realizing we both “win” when we both lose. I know that doesn’t make sense, but it was the best example of arguing and then immediately resolving it that I can think of in our 19 years of marriage. We both “won” by neither of us trying to fight for ourselves but rather working together to come to a compromise, and we both walked away happy and unified in our marriage. This is what God designed for marriage, and it only took 19 years to realize it! We're a little slow...
My VA Hike: A 4 mile loop trail near our hotel winding through the beautiful fall foliage. Fall is my favorite season, and hearing the leaves crunching beneath your feet is one of my favorite sounds.
What We Did Miss: The Christmas lights at Virginia Beach, Yorktown Victory Center, Jamestown Settlement, (the living history museums not the national parks), and others all recommended to us.
In Summary: Virginia, you are for lovers… and families and adventurists and historians. There is such a variety of things to see and do!
-The Mom
UNOS does sound very inspiring. maybe someday we'll venture out that way and see that very special place.
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