Sunday, November 26, 2006
Washington to Washington (and Virginia)
One week we flew to Washington State and the next week, we were flying to Washington DC. The retreat was actually in Staunton, VA, but tickets were much cheaper to fly to Dulles—so that’s what we did! BUT we got there around 4:30 pm, which means RUSH HOUR. We had to go on Hwy 28 from Dulles for about 10 miles and it took us close to an hour. We were stopped an awful lot of the time and crawling along at 5 mph part of the time. Even after we got on the interstate—it was moving pretty slow—we rejoiced when we got up to 20 mph. So it took us quite a while to get to Staunton, VA—even though it was only 120 miles.
When we got to Staunton—we could see our hotel from a distance. It was the Stonewall Jackson hotel and it’s on the registry of Historic Hotels. It’s wonderful—huge lobby with chandeliers and lots of fancy windows and trim. The rooms were interesting—the closet was a little hallway-like thing. You couldn’t even fit the suitcase in sideways—and when the suitcase was there—you couldn’t get to the clothes rod. But it was a neat room—high ceilings, and neat molding around the top of the walls. The hotel had a really nice conference center and restaurant.
Since we had part of a day to explore the historic downtown area, we walked around the area. The city of Staunton is a wonderful example of a great town, with lots of history and some great architecture from the late 1700’s. One of the historical facts that I read said that Staunton was fortunate because it missed a lot of the civil war battles that happened in the Shenandoah Valley. There are several colleges right near the Hotel and a few schools (both colleges and prep schools) that were specifically for women—even 200 years ago. There were many beautiful brick churches—practically on every corner.
Bob drove to Richmond on Friday to pick up Phylliss and they made it back just in time for supper, when the retreat started. According to my schedule, we were supposed to go until 10 pm, but they had changed it to end at 9:30 and had a reception at one of the advisor’s home. Ooops! Oh well, we went to her home a little late, but still had a wonderful time. She has a beautiful old home that has been restored. Every room, hallway, and nook was painted a different color—and bright colors at that. You would expect that to be really gaudy—but it wasn’t. The advisor’s husband repairs watches and clocks, and he had a wonderful collection of antique clocks. There was a huge one over the fireplace that was amazing.
After lunch on Saturday, we had PAM training and we drove over to Blue Ridge Community College to use their computer lab. The Fall colors were at their peak and it was a beautiful drive over there. Following the training, several advisors, Phylliss, and I attended the BRCC’s Induction Ceremony. It was very nice and a lot of fun to be a part of their induction. I’ve always loved Induction Ceremonies. Seeing the excitement as students are recognized for their academic accomplishments is so heartwarming.
That evening, we went to a really great Italian restaurant. Since there were 14 of us, we had made reservations. When we got there, they told us to go up the stairs and through the door and someone would take us to our table. After we climbed those stairs, they took us up another flight, and then another, and then another—we ended up on the fourth floor—but had a great view! They had wonderful pasta dishes that were really yummy!
Following dinner, we went to the Blackfriar’s Playhouse and saw a production of Othello. It was absolutely wonderful! The Blackfriar Playhouse is a recreation of the early theatre that Shakespeare used before he moved into the Globe Theatre. Rather than having regular theatre seating, this one has hard benches—although for an extra $5 you could rent a cushion to sit on and a back for the bench (we all did get that little extra)! Before the play began, the actors talked about how theatre was produced back in Shakespeare’s day. During the intermission, the actors played instruments and sang. They didn’t have any break at all.
After breakfast on Sunday, we brought Phylliss back to Richmond to catch her plane. As we were going over the Blue Ridge Mountains we could see into the Shenandoah Valley—the colors on the trees were absolutely spectacular and the view was wonderful. We decided to drive over to the coast and check out the ocean. So we drove to Virginia Beach, where we had to cross over some very large bridges and tunnels. It was really cool—there would be a bridge that was about 10 miles long and then it would go underwater and become a tunnel for several miles and then we would end up back on a bridge. We had two long bridges like that—I really like bridges and water! We needed to get to Washington DC by that evening, so we decided to drive up the eastern shore of Virginia.
Last summer we heard about the Delmarva Peninsula from the speaker at the Honors Institute. The Delmarva Peninsula is only about 100 miles long, but has parts of three states—Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. He said one year, Virginia even ‘forgot’ to include it on their state maps. So we wanted to see it for ourselves. Although as we drove up it—we couldn’t see the ocean very much. We did drive over to one island for supper. We ended up eating at a restaurant that looked out on a marina. As we went in—they asked if we wanted to be in the outdoor seating or inside—we decided to go to the outside seating—big mistake. We discovered they only had ‘bar’ food—complete with plastic silverware and glasses, greasy food, and noisy people watching a football game.
We headed up for Washington DC and ended up driving right through the middle of the city. We got lost several times, reread our map, and had to backtrack, but did OK. We ended up driving pretty close to the Capitol Building and Washington Monument. It was fun to be wandering around there—and since it was pretty late on a Sunday evening, there wasn’t too much traffic—although it was harder to see street signs. Finally we were heading toward Dulles airport and found a motel for the evening. The next morning, we boarded our plane and headed for home, but having enough time in Mpls to meet up with the boys and have supper with them—our favorite TGI Fridays!
I do like Washington DC and would like to spend some more time there—I’ve been there three times—two full weeks at Honors Institutes and one other time when we were traveling, but still feel like I haven’t seen it all. Guess I’ll have to do another trip….
When we got to Staunton—we could see our hotel from a distance. It was the Stonewall Jackson hotel and it’s on the registry of Historic Hotels. It’s wonderful—huge lobby with chandeliers and lots of fancy windows and trim. The rooms were interesting—the closet was a little hallway-like thing. You couldn’t even fit the suitcase in sideways—and when the suitcase was there—you couldn’t get to the clothes rod. But it was a neat room—high ceilings, and neat molding around the top of the walls. The hotel had a really nice conference center and restaurant.
Since we had part of a day to explore the historic downtown area, we walked around the area. The city of Staunton is a wonderful example of a great town, with lots of history and some great architecture from the late 1700’s. One of the historical facts that I read said that Staunton was fortunate because it missed a lot of the civil war battles that happened in the Shenandoah Valley. There are several colleges right near the Hotel and a few schools (both colleges and prep schools) that were specifically for women—even 200 years ago. There were many beautiful brick churches—practically on every corner.
Bob drove to Richmond on Friday to pick up Phylliss and they made it back just in time for supper, when the retreat started. According to my schedule, we were supposed to go until 10 pm, but they had changed it to end at 9:30 and had a reception at one of the advisor’s home. Ooops! Oh well, we went to her home a little late, but still had a wonderful time. She has a beautiful old home that has been restored. Every room, hallway, and nook was painted a different color—and bright colors at that. You would expect that to be really gaudy—but it wasn’t. The advisor’s husband repairs watches and clocks, and he had a wonderful collection of antique clocks. There was a huge one over the fireplace that was amazing.
After lunch on Saturday, we had PAM training and we drove over to Blue Ridge Community College to use their computer lab. The Fall colors were at their peak and it was a beautiful drive over there. Following the training, several advisors, Phylliss, and I attended the BRCC’s Induction Ceremony. It was very nice and a lot of fun to be a part of their induction. I’ve always loved Induction Ceremonies. Seeing the excitement as students are recognized for their academic accomplishments is so heartwarming.
That evening, we went to a really great Italian restaurant. Since there were 14 of us, we had made reservations. When we got there, they told us to go up the stairs and through the door and someone would take us to our table. After we climbed those stairs, they took us up another flight, and then another, and then another—we ended up on the fourth floor—but had a great view! They had wonderful pasta dishes that were really yummy!
Following dinner, we went to the Blackfriar’s Playhouse and saw a production of Othello. It was absolutely wonderful! The Blackfriar Playhouse is a recreation of the early theatre that Shakespeare used before he moved into the Globe Theatre. Rather than having regular theatre seating, this one has hard benches—although for an extra $5 you could rent a cushion to sit on and a back for the bench (we all did get that little extra)! Before the play began, the actors talked about how theatre was produced back in Shakespeare’s day. During the intermission, the actors played instruments and sang. They didn’t have any break at all.
After breakfast on Sunday, we brought Phylliss back to Richmond to catch her plane. As we were going over the Blue Ridge Mountains we could see into the Shenandoah Valley—the colors on the trees were absolutely spectacular and the view was wonderful. We decided to drive over to the coast and check out the ocean. So we drove to Virginia Beach, where we had to cross over some very large bridges and tunnels. It was really cool—there would be a bridge that was about 10 miles long and then it would go underwater and become a tunnel for several miles and then we would end up back on a bridge. We had two long bridges like that—I really like bridges and water! We needed to get to Washington DC by that evening, so we decided to drive up the eastern shore of Virginia.
Last summer we heard about the Delmarva Peninsula from the speaker at the Honors Institute. The Delmarva Peninsula is only about 100 miles long, but has parts of three states—Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. He said one year, Virginia even ‘forgot’ to include it on their state maps. So we wanted to see it for ourselves. Although as we drove up it—we couldn’t see the ocean very much. We did drive over to one island for supper. We ended up eating at a restaurant that looked out on a marina. As we went in—they asked if we wanted to be in the outdoor seating or inside—we decided to go to the outside seating—big mistake. We discovered they only had ‘bar’ food—complete with plastic silverware and glasses, greasy food, and noisy people watching a football game.We headed up for Washington DC and ended up driving right through the middle of the city. We got lost several times, reread our map, and had to backtrack, but did OK. We ended up driving pretty close to the Capitol Building and Washington Monument. It was fun to be wandering around there—and since it was pretty late on a Sunday evening, there wasn’t too much traffic—although it was harder to see street signs. Finally we were heading toward Dulles airport and found a motel for the evening. The next morning, we boarded our plane and headed for home, but having enough time in Mpls to meet up with the boys and have supper with them—our favorite TGI Fridays!
I do like Washington DC and would like to spend some more time there—I’ve been there three times—two full weeks at Honors Institutes and one other time when we were traveling, but still feel like I haven’t seen it all. Guess I’ll have to do another trip….
# posted by bjm @ 7:00 PM 
