Retrieving the grand-dogs

Just before Sarah and Wade left on their vacation they had brought Schatzi and Jimmy to his parents in Pulaski, a 3 1/2 hours drive. We took care of Edy for them, but then we wondered how they would get them back.We were planned to pick up Sarah and Wade from the airport on Saturday evening. That only left the free Sunday before both had to return to work on Monday ... for a round trip in one day?

James and I wanted to go on a hike somewhere. So we thought it would be a good idea to have an outing to Lexington, VA. We had never been except to the Dairy Queen close to the interstate. James found some very nice trails on the internet. So we made arrangements with Wade's parents concerning the retrieval of the dogs and they invited us to spend the night.

After seeing Edy we left for Lexington and were at the Visitor Center around 10am. While James got information I could not resist looking at three quilts which were all assembled from blocks made by different people. Since one block said 1776-1976 I guess the project was for the USA Bicentennial. 

The blocks were  all so nice. I tried not to take a picture of each one.

The "Natural Bridge" which had started my wish for a hike. Unfortunately when James googled on it we found that it seemed just very commercial and not very natural any more. So we had given up that idea.

The blocks were all so different.

The Visitor Center gave us a brochure for a walk through the town. We started out by visiting a coffee shop ... which also had a white chocolate chips and nuts cookie which we shared.  

The coffee shop was very cozy. All those mugs are not for sale because they belong to the 'regular' customers. Some were quite unique.

On our walk we came to the Washington and Lee University. 

The Lee Memorial Chapel. 

No photography allowed behind these doors but there is a link here with more info.
There was a incredible marble sculpture of Robert E. Lee by Edward Valentine of Richmond VA which you can see here. How can anybody chisel something like this out of rock? The museum also was very interesting.

Right next door was the VMI. Also very interesting. There was a big sign 'welcome new cadets'.

Some precision marching training was going on.

The R. E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church was open so we had a peek there too.

I am always very interested in the ecclesiastical art. Trying to get ideas for a banner for our church.

Got to take a look at the lace.

Drawn thread work?

Then we continued our walk through some streets back to the car. Lovely old houses.

We found a bakery for take-away luncheon sandwiches ...

... drove not very far and started our hike. The Chessie Nature Trail follows the old railroad way. It is 6 or 7 miles long but of course we could only go not quite half way because we had to retrace our way back to the car.

It was lovely the whole way. Cool in the shade on this hot day.

Since it was already about 1 pm and we did not want to carry the lunch, we sat down on the first bench. Here a long arm photo. I am not good at it. Not really a photo of the lunch.

When I re-took the photo you can see the lunch but where are the heads? The lunch was most delicious. I had a gyro. Then we hid the bag with the trash (so we did not have to carry it) and reclaimed it on our way back to carry off.

The Maury River.

We were surprised that we had to go underneath I-81.

There was a field of thistles.

Who would think that thistles are so fascinating. Some lost the flower petals from the top.

Others lost them from the bottom.

We had made a good decision when to turn around because as soon as we were in the car there was a super downpour. We would have been drenched.

Another hour and a half and we arrived at Kathy and Mike's at 6 pm. We were so on time that Kathy laughed whether we had waited around the corner. But no, we would have been a little early if the GPS would not have sent us into the wrong street. It was a cul-de-sac.

We enjoyed a very delicious dinner. Homemade pizza and salad. Mike then made 'his' Bananas Foster for which he must be famous.

It was such a nice evening that I forgot to take more pictures. The dogs had been very happy to see us too.

After a very good night's sleep and breakfast we loaded the dogs and went on our way ... 230 miles in 3 1/2 hours. The dogs were great.

Back at our house they were eager to go for a walk in the neighborhood. This time we avoided the water-retention basin. Later we brought them to their house and picked up Sarah and Wade from the airport.

Today (Sunday) we had plans of grilling burgers to go with leftover home-made potato salad. James decided that a little rain would not change his plans. It was gray and drizzling most of the day. At least the garden will like it since we need the rain after a long hot dry spell.