Virginia

Last week I went on a seven day trip all by myself to my favorite state (Virginia) to visit my favorite friend (Lauren, aka Laurs). This post is a hodge-podge of journal entries, captions, and explanations. I worked on it over the space of four days, and it was surprisingly hard to write. The nostalgia kept getting in my way and I kept looking off into the distance with a glazed gleam in my eye, daydreaming and aching. Visiting beloved faraway friends in beloved faraway places is always bittersweet. Does the bitter make the sweet sweeter? Maybe.

The last time I was in Virginia (or anywhere east of the Mississippi River for that matter) was ten years ago when Jeff and I graduated from SVU. Boy was it good to be back in that humid lush green homeland. The last time I saw Laurs and her family (husband and 3 kids) was 18 months ago in Nottingham, UK, where they lived at the time. My visit to the UK broke down all kinds of perceived travel barriers and we decided to do our best to get together once a year. That decision may be the easiest resolve to keep! Why wouldn't I want to see my best friend every single year?

For my entire five days in Virginia, I chuckled at how my nostalgia for the place transformed its trademark sudden fierce thunderstorms, steamy summer sunshine, and mid-Atlantic bug headquarters into cozy welcome-home signposts. In reality, though, the location was completely secondary to this visit. I came to visit PEOPLE, not a place. People-focused travel is completely different than location-based travel. I would have visited the Snow family whether they lived in Virginia or somewhere much less beloved. Since they do happen to live in Virginia, I lived it up double-time, with quality people and a quality destination.

A word about the home front: Jeff is supreme. When Laurs and I first started talking about a get-together a few months ago, Jeff never wavered in his support. He volunteered for a week of single parenting in the middle of a weeklong unhealthy air advisory (it's wildfire season). In other words, while I was gallivanting around a pretty city with my friends, Jeff was cooped up inside our country cottage with wildfire smoke at the windows and three intense children climbing the walls. He stayed positive! During one or two video calls, I did detect a slightly wild look in his eye, but he bore my absence like the champion he is, and had a Star Wars movie marathon with the kids, wherein they watched all 9 Star Wars movies in three days.

Usually the actual traveling time is a means to an end, and not something to look forward to, but for this trip I planned a rather exciting route to the Seattle Tacoma Airport. I caught a Greyhound bus to Seattle from Sunnyside, and then hopped on the light rail train from the bus station to the airport. It was quite liberating to take long distance public transit in my own state. No driving or parking for me!

Jeff and the kids dropped me off at the bus stop at the Sunnyside Shell station at 3pm on Wednesday, August 8th, and I was on my own, on my first-ever Greyhound bus ride. I was extremely grateful that the large-bellied shirtless man that climbed onto the bus shortly after I did, didn't sit next to me. During the four hour bus ride, I enjoyed looking down on truck drivers from my lofty position up in the bus. I called my mom for a chat. I ate my bagel sandwich for dinner. In order to avoid my nemesis, motion sickness, I did not read.

At 7pm I climbed out of the bus and relished not needing to drive or be responsible for a vehicle in the city as I got my bearings and walked over to the light rail station. 29 minutes later, I stepped off of the light rail train and into the airport. Easy-peasy. Once I was through airport security, I had just under two hours to wait until my red-eye flight, so I called Jeff and then read a book. I love the anonymity of being alone in a crowd. My plane left at 10:30pm.

Bus selfie!

Bus selfie #2.

Light rail selfie! I was selfie'd out by the time I reached the airport, haha.

Zero leg room on the plane. I am only six feet tall, people! This is cruel discrimination.

My best friend! It's blurry, but not bad for a kid-photographer! Blurry pictures look better in black and white. Waah, writing this post and going through these pictures makes me miss her!

Blast from the past, circa 2005, hiking Devil's Marbleyard in Virginia. We met 14 years ago as randomly assigned roommates our freshman year at SVU and quickly became fast friends. We roomed together every semester until I got married and she left on a mission. I have known Laurs five months longer than I've known my husband. We are soul sisters.

Journal excerpt from Thursday August 9, 2018:

8:09pm, eastern time. I have slept for not quite 1.5 of the last 38 hours. But I am in Virginia!!! At the Snows' house!! Wahoo! My plane landed at 6:30am local time today (3:30am WA time). I read for the first half of the 4.5 hour flight, then got too drowsy and dozed in a half awake stupor for the last half of the flight. It felt long. My kneecaps pressed uncomfortably onto the hard back of the seat in front of me even when I sat straight up. I kept accidentally bumping my sore scabs from my run-fall. I was sitting between 2 broad-shouldered men, both of whom were sprawling, knees apart, heads lolling, fast asleep for most of the flight. Needless to say, my personal bubble was invaded and I prayed that I wouldn't pick up any foul germs from their close-proximity mouth-breathing like I did last time I sat next to a sleeping person on a plane. We flew into the sunrise and landed 3 hours in the future in Baltimore at 6:30am eastern time.

I've had such a nice day hanging out with Laurs and her cute kids, Emma (age 7), Zoe (age 4), and Lukas (age 2). We went swimming with the kids this morning and then I took an hour-long nap while Lukas took his nap. It felt so decadent to indulge in a nap on a soft surface laying flat and stretched out after all of that time crunched up in the plane.

At 3pm when Lukas and I both woke up, the kids went to a friend's house while Laurs and I took her van in to the dealership for a tune-up. While we waited, we went on a walk and talked. I told Laurs, "this is the most fun I've ever had at a car shop!" It was an entire 2 hours of one-on-one talk time with my best friend! Who cares where we were? We just walked around and talked and talked about all kinds of things, from politics to parenting and many things in between. It was so refreshing to have a long uninterrupted conversation with such a close friend. We adults/parents don't get to hang out nearly as much as we used to, and it felt rejuvenating on so many levels.

When the van was done, we picked up the kids and stopped for dinner at a quick Mediterranean restaurant (think Chipotle/Cafe Rio but with Mediterranean food). Yum!

The crickets are chirping. An hour ago the cicadas were super loud (they've tapered off since then). I even saw a firefly when I peeked outside to hear the bugs. Sweet Virginia.

Laurs and I put her kids to bed since her husband Chris was working late. For the rest of the evening, we sat on the couch talking and laughing our heads off at Michael McIntyre's comedic routines. A good belly laugh with a good friend is pure bubbly joy.

4 year old Zoe, carefully doing my hair

It makes me so happy that I can be friends with my best friend's kids. Lukas and Zoe were so much fun! Lukas let me share his bedroom. He was a cute little roomie. I slept on a mattress on the floor next to his crib.

Virginia zen run: On Friday morning, day two, I went on a beautiful humid 5 mile run. Before this run, the last time I ran in Virginia, I was in college! (10 years ago)

I took several pictures of the various scenery that I passed while running. Lake Anne was quite peaceful with a darling little planned neighborhood and wharf area.

Cool bridge. Green greenery. Deciduous trees are so welcoming--none of those conifer spiky needles here.

Family dinner: Peruvian food at the mall. Left to right: Emma, Chris, Zoe, Lukas, Laurs, and me. The Snows have excellent taste in food, pun intended. They took me to all kinds of delicious restaurants: Peruvian, Mediterranean, classic burgers with frozen custard, and of course the ever-present-and-tasty Cafe Rio. My somewhat picky palate was pleased, and my finicky tummy didn't even give me problems. Hurrah!

Journal excerpt from Saturday, August 11, 2018:  

Total steps today: 28,989. Laurs and I ran 4 miles together this morning, then took the metro to downtown Washington D.C. after lunch, around 1pm (Chris had the kids). It was such a fun long walk! The weather was hot, sunny, and humid, and we sweated a ton, but it was so lovely walking around the capital, looking at monuments with my dear friend. I love how we have such meaningful conversations and that we see eye to eye on so many topics. It is so refreshing to be with such a comfortable, long-time, beloved friend.

The monuments were large and lovely and meaningful. I especially liked the Lincoln Memorial, as always, and the World War II memorial was also wonderful. We sat on the edge of the fountain there and cooled our feet in the water (the sign said sitting with feet in the water was allowed, but no walking or wading). When we were done with the monuments, we stopped in the Smithsonian Museum of History to cool off a bit and use the bathroom. It was so nice and air conditioned in there! When we exited shortly afterwards, a big dark cloud had rolled in and it was pouring rain. We waited it out, then started walking again and got caught in another downpour and waited that one out under a tree. Then we stopped at a pharmacy and got cold beverages and rehydrated on our way back to the metro.

We stopped at Tyson's Corner and had dinner at Shake Shack. Then we took the metro a few more stops and went to the grocery store. We walked home in the dark, carrying the groceries and arrived at the Snow house around 8:30pm. We spent the rest of the evening talking and watching Parks and Rec after Chris got home and the kids were in bed. I love these people.

Miss Emma. We played at the park with the kids after our run on Saturday morning.

I gave Emma my camera and she took several rather good pictures.

Zoe, taken by Emma.

Emma's selfie. Cute girl.

I think Lukas took this post-run picture, hahaha.

Ah, the view from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

I always manage to forget just how BIG the Lincoln Memorial and the other monuments are.

More than once, observant passersby noticed our sad attempts at taking selfies with my camera and offered to take a picture for us (cameras are hard to aim for selfies). What surprised me even more than the offers to take pictures was how thorough the volunteers were, moving around, snapping several different angles. Maybe they liked my zippy little pocket camera--in the age of cell phone photography, the pocket point-and-shoot camera is becoming a novelty.

My favorite picture of the day--a selfie taken with my camera that actually turned out somehow.

Thank you, nice family that paused and rescued us from our selfie ineptitude! It must've been bad if a family herding a sweaty toddler around national monuments noticed, haha.

My inner zen was humming at the perfect, straight paths lined with perfectly straight lines of trees. The symmetry of the National Mall is a monument in itself.

The World War II memorial (one of them). I felt reverent, peaceful, awed, patriotic and hopeful at the memorial sites. So much selfless sacrifice makes up the history of our country. I hope we can live up to them.

Feet in the fountain, enjoying a quiet monumental moment.

The concrete we sat on about toasted our buns, it was so hot. Thankfully the cold fountain water balanced out the heat. We talked some and sat quietly for a while too. Sometimes sitting quietly together is just as eloquent as having profound thought-provoking conversations. The greatest friends are just as soul-filling in conversation as they are in silence.

Ok, I had to post one of our pathetic selfie-fails. By the time we made it all the way over to the Washington Monument, we were both feeling rather tired, hungry, and sweaty. This was a very halfhearted attempt at a final monument picture. Then we moved on.

Journal excerpt from Monday, August 13, 2018:

Today was my last day in Virginia with the sweet Snow family. It has been such a nice trip. I loved visiting them and catching a glimpse of their day to day life here. It's been five days since I saw my own dear family, and I feel all rested up from their daily demands. Time away really is such effective medicine to restore my oomph for parenthood.

This morning I went on a ten mile run along the nearby Washington and Old Dominion rail to trail bike path. It was lush and green and humid and overcast. The birds were singing and the bugs were chirping in such a homey way, I felt like I could have run forever. I settled for ten miles. It felt so good and I realized afterwards that today's run was probably my last chance for a good solid long run for the next couple of weeks because of the wildfire smoke that is clogging the Yakima Valley. I lived it up today!

This afternoon, we took Laurs's kids to the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy air and space museum, which was only 15ish minutes away. It was fun looking at all of the aircraft and the enormous Discovery space shuttle. We picked up Cafe Rio salads for dinner on the way home. After the kids were in bed, Laurs, Chris, and I played a nifty three layer tic tac toe game called Otrio. My brain was strained, haha.

My alarm is set for 4:30am so we can get to the airport in time.

[end journal entry]

Pictures from my ten miler:

• Can you just smell that wet green heavy air? The Washington Old Dominion pathway was an unexpected slice of remoteness in the middle of the heavily populated D.C. suburbs.
• The signs along the pathway were extremely entertaining. I think Difficult Run is the name of the creek in the background, but I enjoyed it for other reasons.
• Are runners supposed to be cautious, or are non-runners supposed to look out for those crazy  runners? I mean, you never know what a tired runner will do.
• Hands-down, thumbs-up, my favorite sign on the trail. Beautifully specific and in large print too, so no mistaking: Fairfax County means BUSINESS. Control your animals. I don't think I even heard a dog bark once while I was in Virginia. It was such a nice break for my very worn nerves.
• I couldn't resist peeking down this enchanting boardwalk branching off of the main pathway.
• The boardwalk led to this bridge and then on to a neighborhood, but I stopped at the bridge and just stood there, listening to the sounds of the Virginia woods. The trickling creek, the twittering birds, the cheeping bugs, and the heavy humid otherwise-silence of the place strummed a chord deep in my heart and I basked for a while before resuming my run.
• When I realized how long I had been gone, I picked up the pace and threw down a 7:35 tenth mile. It was a satisfying end to a dreamy run. (I was dripping sweat and gasping for air at the end, so obviously it was a good one :)

Pictures from the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum:

• It has been seven years since my own son was this little, and I have to say there is nothing like going to a giant hangar full of airplanes with a two year old boy. Lukas is such a cute little buddy!
• This has been to OUTER SPACE! The thing was massive. I could hardly take it in.
• Bad/blurry selfies kind of defined this trip, hahaha, but somehow a bad selfie is almost better than a good one because really, it's more about BEING there, not about looking good in a picture. (the kids were off looking at a display of different inventions for astronauts to pee in space--when I joined them I was intrigued. Bleh!)
• For some reason I got a kick out of the suspended astronaut suit (it also spent some time in space). It gives a peek of perspective to how large the Discovery space shuttle is.
• This jet-powered speedster flew from LA to DC in 64 minutes. I love seeing the real deal, not replicas. The World War II Nazi planes (not pictured) with actual swastikas painted on them totally freaked me out: when those swastikas were painted on, the people painting them MEANT IT. EEK.

Journal excerpt from Tuesday, August 13, 2018:

9:55pm Pacific time. This morning I got up at 4:30am eastern time and Laurs drove me to the airport in Baltimore. I miss her already! My journey home from Virginia was halted by a hefty 4 hour flight delay at BWI. While waiting, I got antsy and power walked 3 miles around the airport (carrying my backpack, timing it with my Garmin watch, and staying hydrated on fancy airport water, of course). Flying solo means I had to carry my backpack on my long (sweaty) walk. Weight training! But the walk really helped my legs feel ready to sit on the cramped airplane.

At last I boarded the plane and 4 hours and 48 minutes later, landed in Seattle just after 2pm. My mom rescued me and we went to Five Guys for a late lunch/early dinner. Jeff and the kids are coming to pick me up tomorrow.

[end journal entry]

 

Ready for an airport walk. I am very much a packing light nerd: I LOVE packing! I carefully planned the bare essentials for this trip and fit them all into my small backpack. Of course packing in a small backpack meant I had to wear my junky running shoes, but it was worth it and a baby wipe cleaned the worst of the dust and grunge off of my running shoes. That plastic bag has my lunch: expensive refrigerated airport sandwich and water bottle.

By the end of my walk, I was well acquainted with BWI's D concourse. After 50 minutes of power-walking, I returned to my gate to find a line of people boarding the plane at last! The airline was not very forthcoming on details of the delay and kept saying "we hope to board shortly." That was probably the longest way to draw out a four hour delay, stringing us along like that. Hence my power walk. I walked out and back down the three hallways of the D concourse, always coming back to my gate to check the flight status before starting another branch of the walk.

On Thursday morning, after a peaceful DEEP night's sleep in my parents' quiet house, I went on a run in Bellevue at my favorite park, Lewis Creek Park. The contrast in flora and fauna between Virginia and western Washington never ceases to amaze me.

• Note to self: running down a steep trail is not an ideal time for a selfie, but it sure is fun!
• I always love this particular mossy branched tunnel at Lewis Creek Park.
• Ferns, mossy trees, hills, wetlands--Lewis Creek Park has it all.
• And Thursday afternoon, home sweet home:
• I actually took this picture on the day I left, but my kids hugged and kissed me hard when I got home too, so it fits here just fine.
• A hug and a big squeeze from my Jay. Rose's hugs were so intense that I couldn't manage a camera while hugging her.
• Real life, here I come! I like this real life.

Jeff grew quite the impressive, if prickly, beard in the seven days we were apart. He asked "should I shave?" and I said "it all depends on how many kisses you want."

He shaved.