A Joy-Filled Journey

We had the nicest time this past week! It was a short little trip, but filled with so much pleasure. We were too busy having fun to take many pictures!

We left on Tuesday morning, arriving in Midlothian (don't you love the name!), Virginia in the late afternoon. Our older son Tom  and his family welcomed us and served a delicious dinner. They were full of news: Nate will be starting ninth grade at a prestigious Richmond high school and Aberdeen has been invited to join a select female choir.

Wednesday morning, after pancakes and bacon, we headed to downtown Richmond to see a special exhibit. Everyone loved it, and we learned a lot about Julia, starting with her early childhood. We were all touched by the romanticism between Julia and Paul.

The exhibit was everything we'd hoped. The interactive parts were well planned and varied.

Aberdeen attempts one of Julia's recipes.

Anastasia stopped at the library that afternoon while Joe and I had a nap. She picked up a movie and that evening we all enjoyed "Julie and Julia," of course. We'd had a yummy dinner at a Mexican place; the food was very different from what we were used to at Mexican restaurants, featuring delicious stews. 

The next morning, following a fabulous breakfast of French eggs and tender scones, all made by Anastasia and Tom, we played games with the grandchildren and just visited.

After lunch we gave them goodbyes and headed north on I-95, arriving in Alexandria in the late afternoon.  Younger son Andrew had a lot going on: Both of his sons will be starting new schools next week and there were evening orientation sessions. Eventually all of this came to an end and we all went out to an amazing pizza place where Andrew had thoughtfully made a reservation a month previously! We'd never had anything like it . . . .

We visited in the evening and caught up on all the news. On Friday morning, Andrew made us yogurt parfaits, and after Amy had gone to work and Miles had gone for his next orientation, Eli introduced us to some new games and we had a great time learning them and in one case I even won!

We left in the late morning, headed to D.C. and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art where I'd learned there was a special exhibit of quilts made by Amish women in the early part of the 20th century. 

I couldn't get enough of it!

All of the quilts, of course, were made from solid fabrics and in some of them, the blacks actually shone. The color combinations were glorious and many patterns (Bowtie, Log Cabin, etc.) were explained and shown in numerous examples. I did take a few  about a bazillion photos and even then ended up buying the book about the exhibit in the museum's gift shop! 

We had a nice lunch in the museum's cafe and then began the journey home. Weaving our way around D.C. was challenging, and there were patches of intense traffic before we got to 301, but it was a safe trip and we had a lot to talk about. 

We slept well last night!