Washington, DC

Location: Washington, DC, USA
Visited: February 2012

My husband I enjoy going to plays, and when he stumbled upon this interesting retelling of the classic Peter Pan tale, we decided to head into the city and see "Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers". And we really enjoyed it. My husband has a more thorough write-up. We'll definitely have to check out more productions by the No Rules Theatre Company.

Orange, VA

Location: Orange, Virginia, USA
Visited: February 2012

The Gilmore Cabin was unfortunately not open for the season yet, but it was really nifty looking. I am fascinated by old decrepit buildings and this one looks like it would have been no disappointment. I'll have to head down there again sometime.

Anyway, shortly after I took a gander at the city of Orange (California is not the only state with an Orange County, yo), which turned out to be more or less your standard Virginia city: Civil War-era curiosities jostling generic modern chains. But I kinda like that motif. I had a nice chat with the fellow in the visitors center, and also took a quick tour through the Montpelier Train Depot, fully restored to how it was in 1910. That is to say, segregated. I'm not sure which was more uncomfortable for me to enter: the door marked "white" or the door marked "colored".

Final note: very little in Orange was actually orange. Quite the missed opportunity, I say.

Orange, VA

Location: Montpelier, Orange, Virginia, USA
Visited: February 2012

If you have a thing for presidential homes, Virginia is the state for you. I don't have all that much interest in James Madison (or Jimbo Mad, as I like to call him), nor did visiting his home rekindle any passion I may or may not have had for the Constitution, but it was a lovely day to be out in the mountains. Montpelier has lovely grounds. The house tour was thorough but a little underwhelming, as the renovation is still only partially completed. The outside is done, but the inside has almost no furnishings.

Crazy things: they said that James read 700 books in a single winter while working on the Constitution (I call shenanigans) and Dolley's favorite ice cream flavor was oyster. Gross.

Alexandria, VA

Location: Mount Vernon, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Visited: March 2012

This was my fourth visit to Mount Vernon, and quite possibly my last for quite a long time. Three friends and I met up for the day ostensibly to mop up the last of the historical markers left to snarf, but really it was more of an excuse to be out in the gorgeous weather and laugh at each other. A lot.

I tried not to reuse any of the images from my last visit, but it looks like I needn't have worried, as their brochure appears to have changed. Note the mansion time on the ticket. Yeah, we didn't make that. There were about eighty tour groups swarming the place so we skipped that line and took a leisurely stroll through the rest of the grounds. All in all a delightful day.

The little cards with the blue text are from the gift shop, freebies with more information about the various merchandise for sale. I didn't end up using nearly as much as I picked up, mostly because I have no interest in the sort of china old Georgie boy used.

One more thing: I drew a little X near the bottom left corner of the second page. That's where I lived when I first moved to Northern Virginia, meaning I was on what was once part of Washington's land. Now I live on what was once part of the Bull Run Battlefield. It's a good thing I kinda dig history. You can't escape it here.