Once again, I'm posting this waaaaaaay after the fact, but better late than never, right?
Vic and I went to visit my parents in Virginia for about a week in the middle of September. Lots of fun stuff during the trip. My parents live on a horse farm on one of the largest lakes in Virginia, Smith Mountain Lake. It's a man-made lake, meaning that back in the 60's they dammed up a river and flooded a bunch of valleys. Ended up with a twisty-windy thing that is about 60 miles long, but has over 500 miles of shoreline. Think lots and lots of little coves. Makes a good lake for selling houses because you can fit so many on it with that much shoreline. During the summer it's packed full of folks skiing and swimming and boating. Strangely, when Labor Day hits, everyone bails completely. So, we practically had the lake to ourselves when we were out on it, which was nice.
We got there Friday mid-day (we left Thursday mid-day here...so much fun flying to the East coast from Hawaii, haha). Friday evening Kathleen and Derrick and Ridge along with Heidi and Charles all came for dinner. It was great seeing them and how big Ridge has gotten. For those who don't know, Kahtleen is my "God-Sister", meaning, my Mom is her Godmother and Heidi (her Mom) is my Godmother. Her Dad, Charles, also happens to be one of my Dad's best friends from high school. In any case, that was great. Not sure I have too many pictures from Friday though.
One of me chatting with Nova Friday evening.
Saturday we went with my parents to a Virginia Tech football game. My Dad and I both went there to school, so it was great getting to go to a game. I miss football here in Hawaii. Yes, they play it here, of course, UH is pretty decent some years, but it just isn't the same. For one, if you want to catch a mainland game on TV you have to get up at ungodly hours of the morning Saturday morning and it just isn't right to watch football before lunch. For another, we always get the west coast programming and that usually means I miss the Tech game anyway in lieu of them playing an Iowa or Arizona game, blah blah. So yeah, getting to go to a game was epic. On top of that, we beat Marshall 52-10, which isn't too shabby. ;)
With my Little Brother, Jared, from Phi Sigma Pi at the tailgate before the game.
The tickets were at the top of the South endzone. Ha.
Reflecting the game in my shades!
Way up high!
Go Hokies!
The game was supposed to be a "whiteout".
Walking through campus after the game.
Dad doing a zombie walk, or maybe pointing out some things on campus.
Sunday, we all went to see Mema which was good.
Then Mom and I taught Vic to water ski. He loved it and did great which was awesome.
Waverunner ride before the water skiing lesson.
My parents' cove of the lake looking nice. :)
Vic with his water ski coaches.
Some nice pics Vic took from the front yard looking up towards the barn. I like the different lighting in the two pics.
Monday, Dad and Vic and I played golf at Mariner's Landing. We had a great time. I even got a par on the hole that goes a bit over the lake.
Vic at that hole.
Dad at that hole. You can see the ball as it heads out over the water. We all did well on that hole.
Dad giving me some pointers.
Monday afternoon we took the boat out and at at Moosie's (one of my favorite restaurants). We even boated all the way to the dam which is about a 45 minute boat ride down stream.
Vic, Mom and Me on the main channel of the lake. You can see, it's not that wide.
Us on the boat (me being my usual-gooberific-self).
Dad driving up to the dam.
Mom in front of the dam. She said she had never seen it before which I thought was funny. Couldn't figure out how my Dad and I had seen it multiple times without her, but we had.
Goobering it up some more...
Um, yeah...
Tuesday we went down to Martinsville, where I went to high school and saw Elizabeth Mabe who is a really good family friend who babysat me when I was little. I adore her and hadn't seen her in years, so that was great. We took her out to lunch and she seemed to be doing really well. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures.
Went up to the barn for a bit when we got back Tuesday afternoon. Vic, of course, remembered to take pictures then.
Mom's boarding some donkeys now. They were rescued from Death Valley.
Mom's one-eyed cat. One of the other barn cats beat it up a long time ago. Cool cat though.
Me and Nova.
Wednesday was quite an adventure, as I wanted to go see Jennifer Booker (previously Mabe, Elizabeth's daughter, who is like my adopted big sister...we were both only children), but she lives up near Richmond, a couple hours away. It just so happened that Mom had a conference to go to in Charlottesville, which isn't exactly the same direction as Richmond, but kind of closer. So, Vic and I rode up there with her and while she was in the conference we checked out Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. Not being from the East coast, Vic had never gotten to see much historical colonial stuff, so we had a great time touring the house and the grounds. The last time I was up there was second grade though, so while I thought I would remember it, I didn't really (in my mind, I think I was remembering Mount Vernon which I visited in 5th grade).
Walking up for our tour.
Acting like I'm on a nickel.
Vic on a nickel. :)
Us in front of the gardens looking out over some more of Jefferson's acreage.
Garden kisses and seriousness.
Jefferson was pretty tall (statue was to scale).
Afterwards we picked Mom up and drove towards Richmond and got to have dinner with Jennifer and her husband Michael, who just returned from Afghanistan and their two kids John and Andrew. I hadn't seen them since Andrew was a baby and he is in 1st grade now. It was so great to see them all and get to laugh and catch up. Vic commented that Jennifer was just as crazy as me, but we explained that we probably did that to each other. We laughed a lot and had a blast, and because of all the laughing and talking, again, I forgot to take pictures (argh!).
Thursday, Vic and I went to see Mema again and then had some great Mexican food with Mom in Rocky Mount. Why we have no good Mexican food in Hawaii, I have no idea, but it was nice to have some yummy Mexican food for a change. Vic and I also went to the amazing Kroger's by my parents house. Not quite sure what is going on there, normally Kroger's is a regular grocery store like Safeway, but for some reason they just tripled the size of theirs and it has some amazing stuff. They have a whole international section with food from almost every country. I even got a Mexican Coke with real sugar! We bought a bunch of stuff and mailed it back to ourselves. :) Thursday afternoon, Mom and I rode together. She has a trainer who comes to work my horse, Nova and her horse, Windee and so he came and showed me all the things he works with Nova on. It was quite fun and Mom got a big kick out of getting to ride with me. I miss Nova a lot, so it was good to get to see what he is up to. George seems like a really good horseman, doing everything positively and a lot of work with legs rather than directing by reins. Nova and Windee both ride in halters or bosals, no bits or bridles, which is nice to see. Wish I could bring Nova out here to Hawaii, but he has a really nice life there with my Mom on their 20+ acres of green green grass.
Mom on her horse, Windee. Windee is the daughter of one of my older horses, Shy Anne and the half-sister of Nova, my youngest horse. They have the same Dad. My older pony, Princess, is Nova's Mom. This all gets confusing at time if you don't know them (ask Vic...I think he finally has it all sorted out).
George riding Nova.
Mom and I riding together.
George giving some instructions.
This is Copy Cat. Some explaination is necessary. My whole life (and I believe for some years before I was born), my parents' barn always had a grey tabby cat. This cat would get old or run off and within a very short period of time a grey tabby kitten or other cat would just show up. They've always been called Copy. This is the newest Copy. I wanted to bring her to Hawaii so badly. Very awesome cat.
Daisy-filled-view of the barn.
Two of my favorites, Vic and Nova.
Vic says, "Whatcha doing there, buddy?" I like this pic. :)
Shy Anne, Windee's Mom. She's almost 29 years old and is pretty much retired and hangs out and eats grass like that all the time.
Nova. :)
Nova's cute face.
Nova's "lightning bolt" under his chin. You can kinda see. I'll have to find a better picture sometime.
Sad horsey eyes. So cute.
There were lots of other fun things interspersed in the trip, including a lot of good food. I made salsa for my parents which they nom'd right up. Also showed my Mom how to make my Greek tuna salad. Finally got to let Vic taste my Mom's German potato salad one day, and of course, when Heidi came up she brought her American potato salad, which I always find ironic. Got Chipotle for lunch in Charlottesville on Wednesday, which if you know of my Chipotle obsession, you know that practically made the whole trip...haha. Got my favorite sandwich at Moosie's, which is one of the original restaurant at the lake and just barely snuck into Joe's Italian restaurant before he went on vacation (Joe's was the original restaurant at the Lake and is possibly some of the best Italian food on the planet...he's straight from Italy and brings his younger family members over to learn how to cook from him...amazing, amazing food).
Friday, we flew back to Hawaii. It was a great visit, but, as always, I was happy to be back here in the islands. :)
