We broke a heat record for the day today . . . 107°.
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
New York City to Cobbs Creek, Virginia
We start the last leg of our trip today as we leave Penn Station on Amtrak at 7:05 and reach Fredericksburg, Va, at 11:55am. We are met at FBG Station by a Budget Rental Car employee who drives us to their office at Spotsylvania Towne Center Shopping Mall in the very nice 2013 VW Passat we will be renting. The rental office is most conveniently located, since we have a date at Bravo Restaurant (located in that very same shopping mall) with our dear friend Meta who lives in Richmond but works at The University of Mary Washington right nearby.
After lunch we drive southeast on US 17 and several other state and county roads—helpfully guided by Google Maps on my iphone—toward the Chesapeake Bay to spend an overnight with our friends John and Gail and their dog Casey in their wonderful house on the Piankatank River.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Cobbs Creek to Richmond, Virginia
This afternoon we take the 90-minute drive from Cobbs Creek to Richmond, VA, where we lived and worked for over 30 years before retiring to the good life in Tucson in 2005. After a brief stop for iced coffee in Carytown—one of Richmond’s most characterful shopping areas that has managed to avoid the onslaught of chain stores and national restaurants—we head to The Fan for three nights with our friend Richard.
The Fan, for my readers unfamiliar with Richmond, is a triangular area of streets that “fan out” from a central point at the edge of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where I taught English Literature for 33 years. The Fan is home to distinctive two- and three-story brick townhouses built beginning in the late 19th century. Most of these homes have been beautifully restored and painted bright colors. The residential streets are shaded by large, old trees, and the streets that define the limits of the area are filled with a wonderful selection of bars and restaurants. VCU, which has expanded exponentially in the past ten years, has not invaded the Fan, but thankfully built north, south, and east of the original campus (although former residents of those areas are not very happy with that expansion).
We visit one of these Fan restaurants—Acacia—with Richard, who is a regular customer and the recipient of extra special service. Will’s crab cakes and my flank steak are prepared perfectly, but the highlight of the dinner for me was an appetizer of asparagus baked in the oven with a topping of prosciutto and cheese.
Richmond, Virginia
Out next two brief days in Richmond are well spent connecting with old friends and visiting old haunts. We stop by our former home in Woodland Heights, just across the “nickel” bridge (now 35 cents) from the Fan, and lament about the fallen state of Will’s beautiful gardens and the once-magnificent (and expensively-tended) lawn that has fallen to weeds. We spend an afternoon at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and admire the interior design of the new wing that opened after we left Richmond. The exterior of the addition is not as impressive as the interior, but that may be because the original architect died before completing the project. The gardens and water elements built atop and totally disguising the large parking deck are the most impressive part of the museum’s redesign. We return to the museum for dinner with friends Elizabeth and Pat at the Amuse Restaurant on the top floor for an evening of fine food, strong drink (we understand the importance of “hydration”since moving to Arizona), and high-spirited conversation (we do miss our friends).
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We visit several other of our favorite restaurants for lunches and dinners, but there just isn’t time to cover them all. Just before heading to the airport on Saturday we meet our friend Bud for one more breakfast at Aunt Sarah’s Pancake House, the site of many early-morning (and late night) meals when we lived in Richmond.
And so this journey, like all those before, comes to an end with our flights back to Tuscon, through Atlanta. There is a scary 90-minute delay in Atlanta when we think our 8pm flight, which is the last one of the day to Tucson, will be canceled when we have to return to the gate after having taxied out to the runway. But the minor mechanical problems are fixed, the paperwork completed, and we off for an otherwise uneventful flight home.
This will be the last entry for this current trip, but I hope to be back soon with news about my the next adventure for LFLatSea
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