Monday April 7th at about 1 pm ... Bec (James' niece ... daughter of his sister, Kate) and her husband Mark arrived from Baltimore by train at the Staples Mill Station. They had arrived to Baltimore from England on Saturday.
It was pouring rain all day long. Actually, there was 1& 1/2 inches in the rain gage in the evening. Sarah and Wade are hosting them but she had to work so James and I picked them up and took them to our house.
In the picture they do FaceTime with her parents back home "arrived safely".
We all had dinner at our house. The plan had been to grill but it would have been "very watery" outside so was quickly changed. Because of Caleb's bedtime all left in good time.
The next day:
They all walked from the house to Aunt Sarah's Restaurant for breakfast. Then James joined them (I had a meeting that morning) and they drove to Jamestown. A picture taken on the way.
First they went to Jamestown, the historical site where the first settlers actually had landed in 1607. Mark was excited because most of the first settlers were actually from the area where his family is from and where he grew up. Actually where Bec and Mark now live (in a house which is about 400 years old and they are restoring). And then they saw the following in this picture:
Bec said they had just found in their garden in the week before coming a chart of this exact face like in the picture. They didn't know what it was but put it on their window sill for the time. Now, isn't that exciting?
In the evening we all had dinner at Sarah and Wade's house. Late afternoon it was still nice enough to sit outside for a while. These pictures were also taken by Bec (like the two previous ones).
In the evening and the next morning I had to put more coats of varnish on bobbins, packed things needed for three days and for the first dinner.
Then James and I went with both of our cars to pick up Sarah, Caleb, Bec and Mark ... and a lot of stuff, most of it Caleb's ha- ha.
First stop in Charlottesville. We had lunch at Fry's Spring Station, a place Sarah had been to before. The wood fired pizza was excellent.
Then we drove to Monticello. Oh yes, we had a boy's car (James and Mark) and a girl's car (me, Sarah and Bec ... and Caleb of course). The girl's car arrived first. Bec and Sarah went to the visitor center to find out about tours.
Caleb and I waited in the car.
They were very disappointed to find out that it was $25 per person. The weather was not nice enough to really enjoy the gardens so we all decided just to go on.
When we arrived at the cabin, we toured it of course. It has 4 bedrooms. This one we called the honeymoon sweet and had a good laugh about it.
When I was looking for something preparing dinner I opened this drawer. Right away we had to think of William. We all miss the Nashville crew! Very much!
It's after 5 o'clock!
Caleb is in bed and we have had dinner.
Yup, and that concludes the first day in Wintergreen.
* * * * * * *
By now (Monday 4-21) Bec and Mark are home again. I received this photo yesterday ... the piece of pottery they just recently found in their garden (in England) so like the one in the museum on Jamestown.
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4 comments:
$25 to tour Monticello does seem excessive. It is NOT a huge mansion, though it is beautiful and the gardens are lovely. The picture of Caleb 'driving' is my favorite!
The fee would have been o.k. But it was a little late on the day, the weather wasn't good enough to enjoy the gardens, and other things were waiting for us. Plus, the British have more history then we could ever dream of.
That is so true! When my English grandmother came to the US for the first time, we took her to the White House and Mount Vernon. She was obviously not terribly impressed. It irritated Momma a bit. Until SHE finally made her first trip to England and she got to see ordinary homes built in the 17th century and places like the Tower of London and all the Cathedrals. Then Momma understood why Nanny wasn't impressed with the White House!
That is the beauty about traveling. We understand things better. And each other. You put your finger on it!
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