Washington DC - a bonus trip because of the unexpected storm 3/13-3/16

  We drove from South Hill to Falls Church, Virginia. We had a terrible rattle underneath the Prius that kept getting louder and louder. We stopped at a Toyota dealer outside of Richmond but they said it would be hours before they could check it. We envisioned the need of a new car as the rattle grew. We made an appointment (thank you cell phones!) for a Sears Auto place in Falls Church.
    We stayed at the Governor House Inn on Route 50. It was not a great motel but we got a good price and the manager gave us vouchers to the restaurant for two breakfasts which was cool. And, it is next to a big laundromat so we were able to do a wash easily.
     Anyhow, off we went to the Sears place, expecting bad news. But, it was GOOD news. They put the car up on the left and found that a clamp had broken on the muffler system and the heat shield had lost a bolt or two. They gave us the clamp and said it would be fine for a while and screwed the heat shield up. Best of all, even though we were there about half an hour- they did not charge us! (We sent a letter to Sears praising the service and the man who worked on the car.)
     We also went to an Apple store and got another (3rd) new cord for Barbara's MacBookPro.
     Needless to say, the weather was not good while we were there, but Washington was spared the snow that it could have had. Mostly it was cold and very windy.
      We found out that Falls Church has one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the U.S. and we were close to a unique strip mall that has become all Vietnamese with DOZENS of restaurants as well as stores (lots of jewelry ones) and two supermarkets. it is Eden Center. Some of the restaurants were tiny. We ended up eating there for two meals and we liked The Rice Paper so much that we ate there twice. We also went to the supermarket more than once - got some spices and some tea.

Eden Center

      Because of the weather, Washington was empty. The first full day we had a wonderful big breakfast and were the only ones there. All schools were closed and they had a skeleton staff.
       That day we parked easily in the city and went to the National Gallery. It was wonderful. (Although we dodged slush and had wet feet.) It was so nice to have the galleries so empty.

        The next full day we went to the National Museum of the American Indian. Again, it was easy to park and we had the place almost to ourselves. Later we went to Simply Thai, a restaurant we discovered several years ago near the Architecture Museum.

One Bowl, Many Spoons

And, on our way out of the city, we parked at the Jefferson Memorial (quite illegally). Mark stayed with the car and I braved the bitter weather as I have never visited that Memorial close up.

Near the Jefferson Memorial

Freezing Cherry Blossoms

     The last night we were at the motel it sounded like there was a party going on in the next room. But, the room was empty. Hmmm. So, we went to the office. It turns out that they rent out the basement of the motel to an evangelical group. We were told it would be quiet by 9. It was so loud that it was hard to hear our tv - they were miked and there was singing and shouting. It was still going strong at 10 and Mark got dressed and went to the office to complain as it was right below our room and we needed sleep for our next day of driving. It shut down shortly thereafter.
     Overall, it was an unexpected visit to Washington and we had a wonderful time. The downside was that it meant that we had to skip our planned visit to Nan and Jim in Pittsfield. And, they got 33 inches of snow!
      We left Washington and drove to Concord. The roads were nice and clear. We did get stuck in a long traffic jam due to an accident on the George Washington Bridge. (1 1/2 hours) We stopped at Katz's Deli on Route 15 in Connecticut. Mark was craving a deli sandwich! We will stop there again.

Katz's Deli

   

Visit with Cole in Morganton, 3/12

   We left Asheville with snow on the ground and drove to Morganton. It was pretty snowy in the mountain pass, but once we dropped down, the snow disappeared. Whew.

    We stopped to visit Cole who was babysitting for his little sister for the weekend. We had a wonderful chat with him. He is planning a school trip to Ecuador in June to volunteer at an orphanage and do some sightseeing as well.

     Later we met his lovely girlfriend, Mackenzie,  at a pizza place (name escapes me as I am writing this 2 weeks late). We had never met her before so that was really nice.

     We left them and headed toward the coast. We had planned to go up Route 81, but the snow storm made us change our plans. We drove to South Hill just to a hotel at the side of the road. We did drive around the town and went to the grocery store and got food (soups) to eat in our room.

Asheville Visit, March 10, 11, 12

   We drove from Camden to Asheville in time to pick Sage up from her elementary school in Leicester. (Grade 2) Her school is in the hills with cows and horses across the street with great views.

Leicester Elementary School

Sage at pick up from school

View across the street from Sage's school

   We checked into the Homewood Suites. It was quite expensive and also under construction. But, it was a nice room with a separate bedroom for us and a pull out couch for Sage. It also had a little kitchen. Mostly, she loved the pool! After a nice swim, we went to dinner at a pizza place.

Sage at pizza place

Then - more pool!
    The next morning, we took her to her TaiKwanDo class. She's been signing up for a month, but it was only her second class as she has been sick with pneumonia. We were very impressed by the class with its emphasis on respect.

    After that, we went back for more swimming! We had a late lunch at the Cracker Barrel and then we took her show shopping.

We bought her some Nike sneakers and a pair of glittery small heels. Then - back to the pool!  She met two 9 year olds from Dallas and played with them in the pool for over 2 hours. She had a blast.

    The weather is forecasting a big blizzard. Because Sherah is working and we don't really have the time to take her to her other grandmother's in Hendersonville, Sherah sent Isis and her boyfriend to pick her up around 9 p.m. Sage was sad to leave, but it really only cut her off from tomorrow's breakfast, so...it just had to be.
    We were able to Skype with Nick twice and Liz once which was nice, too.

Camden, South Carolina - Research Stop

We stopped in Camden, S.C. on March 9 for one night. (450 miles or so). We stayed at a Comfort Inn just outside of town. After we left Rt 95, we took real back roads into Camden.
 We got to Camden in time to spend an hour at the Camden Museum & Archives where we did a little computer work to see what they might have in the way of photos from the time that Anna Gardner was there. (1873) Pretty much there are no photos from the time period, but we found a few from a little bit afterwards.

Mather Boarding School, Cooking Class

Mather School - building where Anna and 3 other teachers lived and taught

  We went to eat at an excellent Mexican Restaurant in town called Saluda. What was nice was that it was a healthy approach to Mexican food, not all loaded with cheeses. Barbara had a tuna ceviche dish. We split a chicken chile relleno that was excellent and with no cheese. Mark had crab tacos. All was good.

Saluda Restaurant

   The next day we went back to the Museum for about 2 hours and downloaded some photos and got a little more information about the Mather School where Anna lived before it was called that. (She worked at the Jackson School. There is now a Jackson Elementary School right across from where the Mather School was. (A CVS there now.)
   After that, we drove to Asheville where we picked Sage, age 8, up from school.

Orlando Break

  We left Atlantic Beach to spend a few days of relaxation in Orlando at Legacy Vacation Villas in Kissimmee. We barely went over 1 mile a day as we were there to just read and relax. Barbara worked mostly on editing her book on Anna Gardner which is mostly written. We took breaks by going to the Publix for food and also by going to the hot tub. That was pretty much our few days there! We did go to for a good Indian food lunch one afternoon, "Taste of the Punjab" but that was our only meal out!

Atlantic Beach Feb 25-March 3

   We moved from Vero to Atlantic Beach to visit with Michael and Nancy in their condo there.
   One day, we took off on our own, took the river ferry across the St John's River and then drove up Talbot Island and Amelia Island all the way to Fernandina Beach. It was not crowded as it was a bit on the chilly side. So, we were able to park at the main beach in Fernandina. After getting to the end, we drove back, went to the last Harris Teeter in Florida and got a picnic lunch. We then drove back to the bridge and ate it. During the day we saw several osprey (one really close), black skimmers, Royal Terns, Forsters Terns, Caspian Terns, a flock of hooded mergansers.  It was a very nice day.

Black skimmers, Caspian Terns

Terns, gulls, skimmers at Fernandina Beach

Ferry

Picnic lunch

Osprey

   One evening Mark made a nice chicken dinner and Michael and Nancy had one of their friends over, the woman who sold them their condo. Her name is Stuart; it was a nice evening.

Mark and Michael at Atlantic Beach on a nice walk

    For several evenings, Christina and Mike came over with 3 year old James and 1 year old Sawyer.
    We had two lovely meals out - one at a French Bakery for lunch in Jacksonville after having visited EcoRelics, a huge warehouse of recycled stuff.

Nancy, Mark, Michael at French Bakery

    We had a lovely dinner at Blue Orchid, a truly terrific Thai restaurant. Yum!

Mark, Nancy, Michael at Blue Orchid.

    The main activity was helping Chris and Mike move from their little apartment to their new 3-bedroom house in Neptune Beach. They had thought they'd be able to stay in their apartment till March 15th, but it turned out to be March 3rd, so they were really under time pressure. Mike and Nancy did a lot of painting. We helped with the cleaning and the moving mostly. Mark and Mike changed out all the plugs and switches. We also put together James's bunk bed. They were able to move in the day that we left but still have a lot of work to do.

Christina painting in new house

Mark and Michael contemplating bunk bed parts

Mark and Michael outside the new house

Kitchen in progress

Vero Beach, Feb 10 - 25M

Mark and Michael

Alice and Mark

Cal, Mark, Alice at Cafe in Vero

Helen, Mark, Barbara at 12A Buoy in Fort Pierce

Helen, Barbara, Mark in Fort Pierce

Cal, Barbara (in new glasses), Alice

  In Vero, we mostly kept the folks company. John took off for a vacation during that time. Mike and Nancy dropped in on their way to Atlantic Beach.
     Barbara had an afternoon with Diane and Bob, but did not take photos. She also had lunch with Helen Trebby to talk about the latest book club book, Another Brooklyn as they both missed the Nantucket meeting. Later on, Mark, Barbara and Helen went to 12A Buoy for a wonderful lunch. (Photos above)
    We went to 12A Buoy also for Barbara's birthday (67!) We both had ahi tuna, but done different ways. Both really really good.

  We went to see two movies: Lion, which we really liked a lot and The Great Wall which was less than mediocre.
   The weather was pretty good while we visited and we took quite a few walks around Spanish Lakes. We got some short visits to the beach but the day we had hoped to take a dip, it was much too windy.

Atlantic Beach, 2/9

  We drove from Charleston to Atlantic Beach. We had a nice day and evening with Michael. (Nancy was in Miami helping Julia to look at wedding venues.) First, the three us took a nice beach walk.

 In the evening, Michael made a lovely meal and Christina, Mike, James and Sawyer came over. Somehow, photos were only taken of Christina and Sawyer. Too bad.

   The next morning, Michael took us over to see the house that Christina and Mike are about to buy. It is a great little house only a few blocks back from Neptune Beach. They plan to add on in a year or so. It is in a nice family neighborhood.

 Then, we followed Michael to Vero Beach where he stopped en route before heading down to Lake Worth.