unplugged

Just returned from almost a week away. We went to Virginia (Williamsburg area specifically). Not too bad of a drive. That’s what we did on Sunday, left at 6:30 AM and arrived at 4:30 PM. The girls travelled well and it went pretty fast. It is really hot in Virginia in July, 100 degrees most days. Very uncomfortable for us northern folk. Monday we spent acclimating to the heat and went shopping. There was a Pottery world or something that boasted 200 acres of pottery stuff. Karen, Gillian, Jessica (my sister-in-law) and I went. We saw some neat shops, but ironcially no pottery. Nothing. Granted we didn’t go through all 200 acres, but the first 10 buildings had nothing to do with pottery. Ironic. Then we went to a candy store. I got some roasted peanuts in a burlap bag. Mainly for nostalgic reasons although they are very good peanuts. Nostalgic because I remember getting those when my dad took me there when I was 10. I also got some candy. Mmmm, candy. Then we went to the Prime Outlets there. The place we stayed was pretty nice. It was billed as a ‘lodge’, it had a really big living area, a kitchen, a nice deck and 6 bedrooms with bathrooms attached. Very nice since Karen has a large family and it was nice to have a place where we could all gather away from the heat. Tuesday we went to Colonial Williamsburg. We were there for 4 hours and it felt like we didn’t see anything. It was so hot we called it quits and went back. Wednesday we went to the Jamestwon settlement. That was pretty interesting. On the 4th (I lost track of what day that was and don’t feel like looking it up) Jess wanted to see fireworks and Bella wanted to go to. So I drove and cousins Tyler and Chelsea also came with us. We found a fireworks show that had only just started, lucked out and found a good parking spot and got to see most of the show. It was a good fireworks show actually, a very good finale. Thursday it rained for most of the day which killed our plans to go to the beach. Bella was pretty disappointed, but she got to go shopping with Uncle Drew, Aunt Wendy and Tyler and Chelsea so she was happy. Karen, Jess, Gilli, and I went to Basketville, where Karen bought some baskets and Gilli got a peppermint stick. Then we went to an antique store and needed to take the peppermint stick from Gilli so she wouldn’t get everything all sticky. Whoever coined the phrase ‘as easy as taking candy from a baby’ must have never tried to actually take candy from a baby. She would not let go. Then we tried to find the Williamsburg winery. We didn’t have the map but we remembered seeing signs. Of course that only helps if there are enough signs. So we wound up going for quite a drive before getting directions and getting there. Then we had to wait for almost 40 minutes for a tour, which we didn’t take. So then we figured we do the wine tasting even though they wanted $7 per person. But that was part of the tour, so even if we didn’t go on the tour we’d have to wait for the tasting. So we just bought some wine and left. Friday we drove back and everyone was glad to be home. It is nice to spend some time away to unplug from the daily grind and recharge. But it is nice to be back too.