I had planned on driving to Virginia Beach to stay with my Uncle Bruce on Wednesday, but due to a bit of miscommunication we ended up deciding that I should drive down early on Thursday. I hadn't realized how far east Virginia Beach is! I was grateful when he said that he had made plans with my cousin Bart (his son) to meet somewhere near Richmond - a halfway point between the two of them - especially when he said we had lunch reservations for 11:30am.
I know that the day before Thanksgiving is a terrible one to travel, but I also expected Thanksgiving morning - particularly driving through both Baltimore and DC - to be a very special experience, so I woke up very early (it's rare that I wake up before the sun does these days, even in the winter) and got on the highway. Lo and behold - empty roads the whole way! I arrived at the restaurant in sleepy little Powhatan around 10:20, but the servers were very kind and let me in so that I could sit at our table and write postcards - they even brought me a cup of coffee before I could think of asking for one once they heard I had driven from Philly! We were eating in a building that I think doubled as the community event hall and performance space - our table was on the stage. The older woman who was in charge was tickled by the idea that the three of us were all driving from different places - Philly, DC, and VA Beach - just to come and have Thanksgiving in Powhatan, and kept smiling at us the whole time as we sat and talked, it was really sweet of her. This was, of course, the day my voice decided to start giving up - on the drive down my car-singing alternated between squeaky high pitched and gravely "I have a cold" low pitch (it was pretty funny, actually, especially because I felt fine, just a little stuffy and sore throated) but during lunch it pretty much behaved, just a little deeper than usual.
I had planned on being in VA Beach for two nights, but now that I'd missed one by driving down a day later, it seemed silly to drive out there only to turn around the next day and go back to DC. So we all said goodbye and I followed Bart back to Alexandria. It was a lot of fun just getting to hang out with him in his apartment - I had no idea that he had lived there for so long! All these things you find out when you grow up and your older cousins become actual people instead of "my cousin who I see briefly every few years at family events". We got to Skype with Juliaette (my cousin who I stayed with in Springfield), who was just home from the hospital following the birth of her third son, Cy Thomas. Welcome to the family! She and Aunt Judith Ann had their hands full with the three of them (ages 3 1/2 yrs, almost 2 yrs, and 2 days, respectively), but everyone seemed to be doing very well indeed.
Bart and I watched some of the many football games on TV (well, I might have also been a little distracted by writing a few emails...), and we decided to go to the theater to see the new Hunger Games movie. There are some things in America that shock me that I then feel gratified when I find that they shock other folks too - in this case, the price of popcorn at a movie! I think we paid more for popcorn and two drinks than the cost of the tickets, it really put into perspective an article I read a few months ago about how the vast majority of money that a movie theater makes is from food sales, not tickets. This theater was also shocking in that each chair was a powered faux-leather recliner! Super comfy, which was well appreciated for such a long movie.
Driving way too early
The awesome spires mean DC is nearby!
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