Thanksgiving weekend: Gravestones, No Turkey Bones

We had a very nice Thanksgiving, in spite of the fact that we missed family and friends this year.

Tom and I had a great dinner at the Fort Belvoir officer's club and I was happy to forgo the cooking and clean-up. no turkey day leftovers though....

 The next day,we headed to Charlottesville Virginia to see Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.  We have been lucky to have such an unseasonably warm Fall and beginning of Winter and have not been hampered in our travels by inclement weather.  The traffic was light and we were quite pleased with ourselves for choosing a perfect day to see the estate. Then, while listening to the radio we heard there was a big football game at the University of Virginia  and heavy traffic was expected- darn!   We had just commented on the wide open spaces and great little towns we had passed through and then the city folk drivers began appearing on the highway into Charlottesville. Increased speeds, horn honking and unwillingness to let others merge, betrayed their origins.   Oh well, soon we had the roadways to ourselves again and we marveled at the beautiful scenery at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Monticello was beautiful and fairly uncrowded. The Christmas events were scheduled for the following weeks with many visitors expected, so we had a nice unhurried tour.  It would be beautiful to see it in the Spring when the gardens are in full bloom.  Worth the trip and a must see in Virginia.  http://www.monticello.org/  A recurrent theme of the weekend was gravestones and we saw some beautiful old burial sites and headstones. Jefferson is buried there and his family plot is a short walk from the mansion.

We had just seen the Leonardo DiCaprio movie J. Edgar, interesting to see since it was partially filmed in the DC area. At the conclusion of the movie, it said that he was buried in the Congressional Cemetery in DC.  We decided a field trip was in order and spent a few hours there seeing various headstones of notables such as John Phillip Sousa, Matthew Brady and Taza- son of the Apache Chief Cochise. http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/welcome-historic-congressional-cemetery

The cemetery was an odd mix of the very old, dating back to The War of 1812 while jutting out in the middle of an urban area that has seen better days. Very interesting and another unexpected find in DC.

The grand finale of Thanksgiving weekend was seeing A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre with friends Kari and JR.  It was our second time to see this version of the play. I understand that it is updated every five years or so.  http://www.fords.org/event/christmas-carol-1  Thanks for choosing such great tickets Kari-outstanding  seats.  I got teary-eyed during the play as I knew this would be my last time to see this wonderful production.  And true to form, there was even a prominent gravestone in the play! Ebeneezer Scrooge's, show to him by the Ghost of Christmas Future.

As you can see, my blogging has continued to be backlogged and we are visiting the sites so fast I can barely keep up with it. Only about 6 weeks left before we leave for Arizona and although my wish list of places to visit is being fulfilled, we have a lot more to see.

Fall Fun and Technology Fails

Last Fall, we missed a lot of opportunities for celebrating the change of seasons here in the Northeast. It has been fun to see the beautiful leaves change and to finally feel the humidity and heat gradually fade away. My brother-in-law Robert said that the Shenandoah Valley  on the Fall was a sight not to be missed, so I started scouting the various festivals and events in the area. All of our day trips are restricted to 12 hours maximum due to our Sandy, who would not be kind to a non-family member taking her outside for a potty break.

We planned a trip to Syria Virginia to attend the 2011 Apple Festival at Graves Mountain Lodge.  The weather was perfect and we set off to enjoy the day. The only thing that worried me was the fact that the website of the  lodge had a PO Box for an address, so all we had was the name of the town and zip code.  Well, we finally made it, but we nearly gave up.  When we walked up to the lodge there was a brochure with a proper street address, better late than never. 

We got some beautiful pictures of the venue and the changing leaves were quite spectacular.  We decided to get a new camera after our friends Kevin and Tracy visited and we realized our camera was in need of an update.  We treated ourselves to a new "bridge camera" with better speed and  distance qualities and felt it would be nice to photograph our new grandson due in May.   We are still trying to get the full benefit of the camera and you will notice some very poor lighting in some subsequent posts.  It is a experiment each time we use it to decide on whether to use the flash or not.


Well, I don't want to  assign blame, but a member of our household hasn't quite reconciled to the fact that reading glasses are needed more often than not. Long story short, the whole memory card was erased, so I have to give credit  to the Graves Mountain website for the pictures on this blog-phooey!
www.gravesmountain.com  

We enjoyed the fresh air, good food and just being around friendly, relaxed people who were not rushing around and were just out to have a fun day.

The food was plentiful and we bought apple butter, kettle corn and a bag of apples from the adjacent orchard.  The FFA (Future Farmers of America) were stirring a big black kettle over and open fire and it took me back to Redmond Oregon where so many of the boys in my high school class wore their FFA blue corduroy jackets.  It turned out they were making "Pure Sorghum Syrup, woodfire cooked".  I have no idea what I will do with it, but I sure don't want to haul it back to Arizona so I better figure it out. 

I have to say that when we do leave the confines of the city, we are happily surprised that folks are so friendly and courteous.  The beautiful homes and yards with porches and rocking chairs on them make me wistful for small town life.  Virginia is beautiful and so rich in history, it has been fun to be here, but we are both  preparing our hearts and minds for the return trip to the Southwest.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore was a destination that seemed a must see while we were here.  My maternal Grandpa Frank Jenkins, was born in Baltimore and I was anxious to catch a glimpse of the city.
The trip was uneventful an we were lucky to dodge the rush hour traffic coming and going. By the way, drivers honk their horns there too! 

We took about two pictures before our new camera refused to work and I was not happy!  Looking back, I am pretty sure this was when the Apple Festival pictures disappeared........  The problem was remedied with a new memory card.  Luckily for us, we were within walking distance of a Best Buy store - problem solved and we enjoyed a great day at the aquarium.                                  

http://www.aqua.org/

Looking at the website before hand, it seemed that it would be optimal to visit the Aquarium on a weekday.  We enjoyed a full hour of practically having the place to ourselves when the school buses rolled up!  The kids were well behaved though. Most of them had school uniforms on and were with adult chaperone's that actually kept an eye on them. 

The aquarium is fairly new and beautiful, well worth the trip if you are in the area. They do a fantastic job of educating the public about pollution, climate change and endangered ocean species.  A sad fact of life as I found out when visiting the Washington National Zoo. 

I really should have written this blog a month ago when I could remember more detail... The volunteer docents were so nice and eager to show us the sights. They also have volunteers in scuba gear who feed the fish and even clean up fish poop and wipe down the sides of the tanks.  I guess I never thought of the fact that the tanks don't clean themselves.

My friend Christine told me about a cute little town called Occoquan Virginia. It is only about a 30 minute drive from our place and I really took a shine to this great little town. It is on the waterfront and has so many cute restaurants and shops. http://www.historicoccoquan.com/

 I found a year round Christmas store and bought  ornaments for Holly and Ryne for the expected baby and for my yoga teachers. http://www.goldgoose.com/

We were supposed to go on a Ghost Walk one weekend near Halloween, but the weather was so cold, rainy and windy that we didn't go- darn it!  There are so many Ghost tours and walks in the area, I would hate to leave Virginia without experiencing one.

I actually got to go to Occoquan twice so we could retake pictures lost from the accidentally deleted memory card-winning! 



I think we have the camera situation figured out now and I will find out in the next few minutes as I try to insert the pictures into the blog,something that usually tries my patience.

Well, we have enjoyed our second and last Fall here in Virginia, after all Virgina is for Lovers (and horn honkers!)