Blogs from Virginia, United States, North America - page 96

by Mrs Plod Woke with the early birds again this morning--how strange that it's not hadedas I hear! I still find that when I wake in the night I am dreaming about South Africa, and I am momentarily disoriented. Transitioning back is going to be hard. I'm glad we've had some down-time here in Fairfax!! We had plans this morning to track down an award-winning putt-putt golf place. Boo gave us some great directions, and after breakfast and clean up, we headed out. The Perils of the Lost Jungle Miniature Golf Course was quite pricey (or am I just cheap?)--$25 for the 3 of us, but it was rather unusual, and lots of fun. I lead on the first 9 holes, and Ross cleaned up on the second. We left there in search of gas for ... read more

Today could be a "cut-and-paste" of yesterday, except we went to the Jaipur, a FABULOUS Indian buffet, for lunch, and we went to Trader Joes instead of the mall. Spent part of the morning watching "the golf", playing with Conor, and changing his pants!! Enjoyed a lovely lunch, but was absolutely STUFFED when we left. The food was very, very good, with quite a nice variety of dishes, so it was hard to not try and sample everything. I only had seconds, but my stomach was just not used to that much food, and I was quite uncomfortable when we left. Ross felt a bit yucky, too! Trader Joes was another DC request (Smithsonian, Civil War battle fields, monuments...whatever!) That is one cool grocery store! I am glad that there is one in Minneapolis, because the ... read more

The excitement - I can feel it now. What was for months nothing more than a cool idea and a few interesting lines of conversation to toss at friends over drinks is now something rather more. It's really dawning on me that in less than 3 days time, we'll be living out of two and a half backpacks, while throwing ourselves halfway around the world. The more rooted part of me wants to grab my own neck and shake it like a crazy man, and scream "what the hell are we getting ourselves into??". The crazy part of me wants to jump up and down and yell "Woohoo!!!" I think the crazy part is winning. -Derek (and only Derek for the moment; Sandra doesn't have time for these petty considerations right now - she's trying ... read more

On our way up through North Carolina and Virginia we stopped at the town of Mount Airy...which was Andy Griffith's home town. This is what he based his show on, and the town has embraced that image whole-heartedly. They've recreated the sets from the show in a small area of town and even offer sherrif car tours of the "famous sights". Paul got a kick out of it, whistling the theme song all day long. Danielle was thrilled by this, of course. :) Next on our agenda was the lovely little town of Charlottesville Virginia, and the home of Thomas Jefferson. It was named Monticello, and though not grand or incredibly beautiful, it was very interesting. Jefferson spent some time in France and brought back a lot of ideas with him of how a house ... read more

Yesterday was probably one of the most fun days Jerry and I have had living here. Not that living here isn't fun in itself, but we chose to get out of town a little bit. We were like all the other DC residents who escape from the rat race for the weekend and headed west. Of course, our goals tend to be quite different. First we went geocaching in an old park. Yes, Kelli, I blame you for this addiction, because when you mentioned it and I had no idea what you were talking about, I had to research it. At which point I bought a pretty yellow GPS and went at it. And just so no one else has to go researching it, geocaching is like a high tech scavenger hunt. You get a set ... read more