The Trip, Part 2

Well... I didn't exactly intend to wait that long for part two. Life's been a bit on the crazy side lately...

So. The trip.

On Monday, we went to Colonial Williamsburg. It was pretty cool. Of course, the things I liked the most were probably... a little weird. There's an old church there with a really, really old cemetery that was very cool. I've always had a thing for old cemeteries (I guess that's a little morbid, but oh well), and this one was about 200 years older than any I'd been to in and around Kansas. Thankfully, my husband shares my fascination with old cemeteries, so he didn't think I was too crazy when I started bouncing up and down when I first saw it. There were also these really, really awesome old brick walls. I have cool pictures of the walls, which, of course, are at home, but maybe I'll post one later. The day would have been better except for two things. One, we'd both walked and walked and walked and walked and walked the previous two days... so we were kinda wiped out. Two, it was really, really, really, really humid and warm. In Kansas, when we have that kind of weather, it almost always means we're going to have big thunderstorms later in the day. In Virginia, apparently this kind of weather means... it's going to be really, really, really, really, really humid and warm all day.

Tuesday, we headed out for the Jamestown experience. This was by far my favorite of the historical sites we visited. First, we went to Historic Jamestowne, the site of the original settlement that began in 1607. Until a little over 10 years ago, they thought all the original settlement had washed away in the river... then they started digging and found that 90% of it was still there. There were archeologists digging at the sight, and a new museum that just opened this year for the 400th anniversary with a bunch of artifacts they've found. There's also an old church that was built in 1907 on the original footings of the church that was built there in 1617, and the church tower that was built in the 1630s is still mostly standing. (And there was another really old cemetery.)

In the afternoon, we headed over to Jamestown Settlement. They have a recreated Powhatan Indian village, the Jamestown Fort, and replicas of the three ships the original colonists came over on, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. After going on the ships, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have wanted to a colonist. A sailor, maybe, but not a colonist. No way would I want to be cooped up for months in an area smaller than my living room with 12-30 other passengers, unable to bathe, changed clothes... not my idea of a good time. I think I would have stayed in England.

Wednesday, we went to the Yorktown Victory Center and Yorktown Battlefield. The Victory Center had a recreated Continental Army encampment and a 1780s farm. We saw the field where the British troops laid down their arms when Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. We ended the afternoon by eating a super healthy lunch... at Ben and Jerry's. Mmmmmm...

Wednesday was also our 2nd anniversary, so we went to The Whaling Company that night and had really fresh seafood, something we definitely don't have a lot of in Kansas.

Yikes... I guess I'll finish up the trip on another day.

The Trip

Since I'm sure the entire world is waiting in eager anticipation to hear about my trip, here goes... I may break it up into a couple days, since this could get long.

Things started out well. We got to the airport in Kansas City with plenty of time to spare, got checked in, ate breakfast, and life was good.

Then... just as we were thinking we should be boarding the plane really soon, the friendly gate agent tells us that the flight will be delayed... because there was smoke in the lavatory of said plane and the smoke alarms were going off. But, no worries, maintenance is on the way and they'll have things taken care of in no time.

Right.

At 9:37, when our flight was supposed to be departing, maintenance had not only not taken care of the problem, they hadn't even shown up.

The flight got pushed back to 10. Then 10:30. Then 11:00. We were supposed to have a long layover in Atlanta, so we weren't too worried. As long as we left Kansas City by noon, we thought we'd be able to make the connecting flight just fine.

At 11:30, they cancelled the flight. There were 4 other flights leaving Kansas City for Atlanta the rest of that day. We got on the second one out... at 3:30. We were actually supposed to be landing in Virginia at 4:45 (which would be 3:45 in Kansas), so we wouldn't even be leaving Kansas until 15 minutes before we were supposed to be arriving in Virginia. *sigh*

We finally got to Virginia at 11:30 that night. Our bags had, thankfully, followed us safely, we got our rental car, and set out to find our hotel. We landed in Newport News and our hotel was in Williamsburg, about 20 miles away.

Lesson number one: The roads in Virginia are not like the roads in Kansas. In Kansas, the roads are pretty straight forward (I know, I know, we have plenty of flat space for them to be straight). Most roads are laid out in a grid and it's pretty simple to find your way around. In Virginia? Not so much. They turn and twist every which way, and sometimes in order to go one way, you've got to turn the exact opposite way to get there.

We'd gotten directions to the hotel, so we weren't too worried. Unfortunately, the road signs we kept seeing that were pointing to the roads we thought we were supposed to be taking... well, they tended to be pointing different ways than our directions told us to go. Keep in mind that all this was happening around midnight, so it was really, really dark and neither of us had ever been there before. We followed the directions, thinking we'd probably end up in North Carolina or something, but amazingly enough, eventually made it to the hotel.

Lesson number two: We were staying at Travelodge. There are THREE Travelodges within just a few miles of each other in Williamsburg. Our directions... yeah, they weren't for the one we were staying at. The very friendly woman at the desk figured out which one we were supposed to be staying at and gave us directions there. Thankfully, we found it pretty easily.

We spent Saturday and Sunday at Busch Gardens. It. Was. Awesome. I like roller coasters. They have lots and lots of roller coaster, including the Griffon, which I have to say was the best roller coaster I have ever been on in my life... I think we rode it 4 times both days we were there.

There is no floor below you. They take you 205 feet in the air. You go over the lip of the hill and stop... hang there for 5 seconds.... looking straight down. And then they drop you. I've been on roller coasters before that seemed to have a pretty steep drop... but this was actually straight down. Ah... just thinking about it gives me happy shivers... The weather was perfect both days. The crowds were pretty light - I don't think we had to wait for than 15 minutes for anything. It was great.

Ummm... I think I'll stop for now, since this is already kinda long... Tune in next time...

I'm baaaack!

We made it home... It was a great trip!

More later...

Almost there.....

At this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane, getting ready to fly to Virginia. I will have 10 glorious work-free days, and I will be immersed in historical sites to my dorky little heart's content. And I get ride lots of roller coasters this weekend.

I'm pretty sure that it should be 5:00 by now and I should be off work.

I probably won't be around much for the next week... Hooray for vacation!

Hooray!

It has arrived!

It keeps food cold. It doesn't make pathetic groaning noises when trying to run. It keeps my ice cream frozen. It is shiny and wonderful and I love it.

Sushi for One? - Camy Tang

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Sushi for One?

(Zondervan, September 1, 2007)

by

CAMY TANG

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Camy Tang is a member of CFBA and is a loud Asian chick who writes loud Asian chick-lit. She grew up in Hawaii, but now lives in San Jose, California, with her engineer husband and rambunctious poi-dog. In a previous life she was a biologist researcher, but these days she is surgically attached to her computer, writing full-time. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service.

Sushi for One? (Sushi Series, Book One is her first novel. Her second, Only Uni (Sushi Series, Book Two) comes out in February 2008!

To celebrate the launch of her debut novel, she's got a huge contest going on. Camy is giving away baskets of Christian novels and an iPod Nano! Only her newsletter YahooGroup subscribers are eligible to enter, so join today.

For more information about the contest, visit her website.

Contest ends October 31, 2007!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Lex Sakai’s family, big, nosy, and marriage-minded, is ruled by a crafty grandmother. When her cousin Mariko gets married, Lex will become the OLDEST SINGLE COUSIN in the clan, a loathed position by all single female family members.

Lex has not dated for years.

Grandma homes in on this fact and demands, bribes, and threatens Lex to bring a boyfriend (not just a date) to her cousin’s wedding. Lex does not want to date ... not since that terrible incident a few years back ... but, Grandma doesn't give her that choice. Lex's options are slim because she has used her Bible study class on Ephesians to compile a huge list of traits for the PERFECT man (and the more she dates, the more she adds to the list).

The one man she keeps running into (and is completely attracted to) doesn’t seem to have a single quality on her list. It’s only when the always-in-control Lex loses control and lets God take over that all the pieces of this hilarious romance finally fall into place.