We enjoyed a fabulous week on the east coast in Virginia and DC, June 25th through July 1st!
I am a great-aunt of four adorable little kids.
My sister Eileen and her husband Jose have two children (now adults), Stephen and Laura.
Stephen and his wife Alison have two sons, Teddy (age 5) and Brooks (age 1 1/2).
Laura and her husband Paul have two daughters, Leah, (age 2 years 2 months, and Claire (born Feb 8, barely a five-month-old).
I really wanted to visit Eileen and Jose and see my niece and nephew and great nieces and nephews!
We spent the first night, June 25th in Charlottesville with Eileen and Jose. The next morning June 26th, Laura came over with Leah and Claire. Leah is very shy, and didn't want us to take her picture, but I did get his photo of Jose with Claire.
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| Jose on the front porch in Charlottesville, holding precious Claire |
My sister Anne and my mother also traveled to Charlottesville for this reunion. On Wednesday, we all piled into cars for the one hour drive to Wintergreen resort, located in the Blue Ridge mountains, where we stayed in a lovely, spacious rental house.
We enjoyed staying in the Blue Ridge mountains for three days / nights! Such a beautiful area. On Thursday, we hiked the trail to Shamokin Falls
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| My 91-year-young mother and me taking a break on our hike |
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| At the falls with my mom and my sister Anne |
It was a gorgeous short hike of less than two miles. And, the trailhead was less than a twenty minute drive from the rental house, so it was ideal.
The Gomez family was way ahead of us. It didn't take them very long to get to these gorgeous waterfalls!
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| Jose, Brooks, Stephen, Alison, Teddy and Eileen |
A highlight feature of the rental house for Teddy and Brooks was the hot tub. They went in the hot tub every day, sometimes more than once.
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| Stephen in the hot tub with his kids Brooks and Teddy |
On Friday, we visited the nearby Spruce Creek playground and park in the morning.
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| Eileen (holding Brooks) and Anne on the see-saw |
All aboard on the Ho Train at the park (we affectionately named it the Ho Train in honor of Jose).
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| Eileen, Mary, Mom, Anne and Jose on the "train" |
After we left the park, we stopped in at Bold Rock Cidery in nearby Nellysford to sample some of their hand crafted cider.
In the late afternoon, we took another very short hike. Laura's girls joined us. We walked less than a mile to this scenic overlook:
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| Leah, Laura, Eileen and Mom - four generations of girls / women! |
Happy to spend time with my wonderful sisters! We live so far apart that unfortunately we don't see each other very often. But we sure have fun whenever we are together.
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| Anne, Mary, Eileen |
Back at the house after the late afternoon hike, Gerry took this photo of Paul holding Claire, and Laura holding Leah. It was a challenge to capture this photo, because Leah is really camera-shy.
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| Paul (holding Claire), and Laura (holding Leah) |
Here is a sunset photo on our final evening in Wintergreen. We walked ten minutes to this overlook around 8:00pm to view the sunset over the Blue Ridge mountains. So lovely a view!
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| a spectacular sunset on our final night in Wintergreen |
Then it was onward to the next phase of our vacation - time in DC. We left Wintergreen at 9:30am Saturday morning, June 29th. Eileen drove us to the train station in Charlottesville and we boarded the 11:20 am Amtrak train to DC. It was a 2 hour 40 minute very comfortable train ride to DC.
We checked into the Yotel hotel, conveniently located a half-mile from the DC train station, also near the Capitol, and the Smithsonian Institute museums, and a little over a mile from my college roommate's daughter's townhouse in DC. We walked to the Capitol grounds on Saturday late afternoon. It was hot and muggy.
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| Us at the Capitol |
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| Gerry at the Capitol, (among some random strangers) |
It was 90+ degrees at 5:00pm, so we didn't walk to Laura's townhouse (my college roommate's daughter) for dinner on Saturday evening. We took an Uber instead. My college roommate Natalie and her husband Steve drove from their home in Lancaster PA to join us in DC on Saturday evening. We were thrilled!
Laura and her boyfriend Eric prepared an excellent gourmet dinner for us - delicious halibut with a special sauce, roasted potatoes, and an exquisite kale salad with artisan sherbet and fresh fruit for dessert.
It was so nice to see them. Natalie and I have been friends since 1978, my freshman year at Shippensburg University, PA and her sophomore year.
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| Natalie and me on Sat.evening. Where did the time go? |
We were very fortunate to get reservations to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Sunday morning. We spent more than 3 hours in the museum, but could have easily spent two days to absorb all of the information. I highly recommend this museum!
After our time at the museum we explored the Botanical Gardens. It was half outdoors, and half indoors, which was good. Temps were in the 90s and seeing plants, flowers, seeds and more indoors was a good option.
We walked to a local pub for dinner on Sunday evening. Here is a photo of us, as we walk toward the restaurant by the Capitol at night.
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| DC is amazing,even though politics is scary for us |
Monday morning at 11:00 am we had a tour of the Capitol building with an aide from our stellar Representative Adam Schiff's office. Gerry had made the arrangements ahead of time. We got up early on Monday and left the hotel at 9:00 am and walked to the White House and then to the Washington Monument before our tour. A lot of excellent sight seeing on our own.
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| behind the gates at the White House Monday morning |
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| a selfie with the Washington Monument in the background on Monday morning |
We enjoyed our tour of the Capitol on Monday morning. An aide from Adam Schiff's office named Faith led the tour along with an intern named Luke. Both of them were probably in their 20s, so young, but so good! We were fortunate to have the private tour; just the two of us and the two of them.
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| in front of the Rosa Parks statue at the Capitol on our tour |
What a wonderful week in VA and DC ! We laughed a lot and talked a lot, and ate a lot of delicious meals, especially with Eileen and Jose, who went over and beyond with their hospitality.
Very grateful and appreciative of this week on the East Coast with dear family and dear friends!
