Is it really summer already? Living in Maine does have its perks – it hasn’t been very hot very often as of yet. We have been back from vacation for almost a week and it feels like we never left. Oh well. We had fun while we were actually on the vacation itself. This trip was a momentous one also – it was the first time we didn’t take Quincy with us while we went on a side vacation, just the two of us.
We split the drive from Maine to Maryland into two days. We arrived in the Scranton area for our overnight stay and that night did not set a good tone for the trip. Quincy did not want to sleep in his pack and play – mainly because he could see us lying in the bed in the same room. Long story short – I (Steve) slept on a very short sofa that was next to his pack and play so that Quincy could hold my hand and know he wasn’t alone. This was the only hiccup on the trip.
The next day we arrived at Grammie and Grampa Rock’s house for lunch and stayed thru suppertime so they could get some Quincy face-time. Here’s a gallery of a few pictures taken at their house.
We then went to where Quincy would be staying while we went on to Charlottesville, Virginia – Gramma Dorcas’s place. We left Quincy the next morning. He cried for a minute and then was fine. We’re very proud that he did so well. We did fine also. A good time was had by all parties involved. Quincy got to go to a zoo and then see some of his extended cousins up in Pennsylvania.
While Quincy was having his fun, we drove down to Charlottesville to spend three nights at a nice bed and breakfast that we had dinner at once while we lived in C’Ville – the Silver Thatch Inn. It was hot, but not too bad and we had good weather almost the entire time we were there. Steve dragged Dara to Montpelier (home of James Madison) for half a day and you know what? Dara loved it. They are restoring the house to how it looked in 1820 – it had been enlarged by the DuPont family. I had visited it around 11 years ago and it looked nothing like it does now – it looks really nice. I kept my mouth shut about being a former Monticello guide as well. We even had our own private tour – just us and the interpreter.
After lunch that same day, we drove about 40 miles on the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and completed one short hike up to some nice views. Here’s a gallery of photos of Montpelier and the Park – sorry there is no Quincy, but they are nice pictures nonetheless.
We also spent some time walking around the campus of the University of Virginia – Dara’s old medical school stomping grounds. Not much has changed except for the enormous John Paul Jones Arena which was built near to where we used to live. We also spent an evening with an old friend from my Monticello days who now works at the Law School.
All in all, we had a great trip.
The return drive to Maine was okay. We stayed with Brady, Tracey, Cassie and Max and then made the final push home the next day. I am almost done with the laundry. 🙂