Bella Visits Lola and Granddad

We had the most wonderful three + weeks with our beautiful granddaughter,  Bella and wanted to capture the memories for us and for her.

Bella seemed to enjoy everything we did together and thanked us all the time . She said she knew we were spoiling her and was lucky we were rich.

We explained we were far from rich but she then said "But you are over-comfortable, right ?"

A new financial term : "over-comfortable" 

On her first Saturday with us, Bella got to sit on the stage and watch Peter and the Dream Catcher at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton VA. She stared down the evil pirate who menacingly told her kids would be needed for his boat.  She did not like the fact he took a swig from her soda and did not drink it after that , perhaps fearing pirate germs.

The very next day, Neil and his daughter Sophie came to visit. It was so nice of Neal to take the two hour drive down to C'Ville , especially since it was Father 's Day. We had lunch, followed by Sweet Frog and then went peach picking at Carter's Mountain.

We made quite a few trips to Sweet Frog. Bella made the most colorful combinations of frozen yogurt.

The following weekend we drove to Busch Gardens and visited both the Waterpark and the Amusement Park.Nicest of all, Bella got to see her best friend Sienna.

The week before, Bella attended a  camp at ACAC and got to go swimming for at least two hours a day . Somehow, I neglected to take photos at the camp which she enjoyed tremendously.  She made a good friend, Julia and that led to three play dates.

What could be better than one best friend than two great friends!  It just so happened that Rosie, her friend on our block, was going to the Amusement Park the next day and she joined Bella and Sienna. They had a ball.

Here they are again deciding what to do next : really scary roller coaster or not.

Bella's friend Lucy went with us everywhere . Here she is resting after a day long outing at the park. She actually had much more energy left than did Lola and Granddad.

Bella and Sienna discovered Bubba's General Store and Ice Cream Parlor on Saturday night.

Bella got to visit Lindenhurst the next weekend. It is our ancestral home on the Island of Long.  She enjoyed playing with Theo who sought out her attention .

He had tough competition next to this little cutie, Annabella. So adorable.

The best part , of course, was meeting all her cousins. For some reason, she referred to cousins Kevin  Kyle as Billie  & Bob . Not quite sure why but she always laughed when she did.  Here we are at Ihop's on Saturday morning.

On a Sunday afternoon, we visited with Marty & Maureen , Uncle Eddie and Megan. Bella got to swim to her heart's content.   We stayed util 5 pm and then left to attend the twin's birthday party which was just starting.

She loved seeing cousins Alex, Ben and Brandon.  It was the twins birthday. She had presents for all her family members who in turn could not get over how thoughtful they were. For example, Brandon told he just started playing chess and she gave a chess set as his present.

I am not sure Bella played with Brian's Great Dane . It was the size of a small horse and still growing. But I know she was thrilled to see it.

Cousin Marie and Aunt Helen, who Bella calls Grams, were particularly delighted to see Bella

Bella also got to see Emma Kate with her parents Kaitlin and Mike. We attended Rocco's christening Saturday afternoon.

In between an Ihop breakfast and the christening, we went to see Despicable Me 3

My favorite picture. How can you not be crazy about this beautiful girl.

Bella and Lola in front of the lovely flowers.

One of the fun rides at Hersey Park

One of the most fun things Bella did was to see the seals perform at the Hershey Aquarium.

One of the four performers . MC said if you clapped harder they would perform better as they loved applause.  (oh, please)  Everyone  clapped and cheered  enthusiastically (oh please)

I almost wrote that the seals were the best thing about the visit when I remembered Chocolate World where we saw how candy was made and even made our own candy bar.

The candy makers.

The last stage of the process: designing your own label.

Lola already made a candy bar but did she then buy this gigantic bar too?

Come to think of it, there was an incredible amount of ice cream and frozen yogurt consumed on this trip.

A lot of ice-cream.

Could there ever be too much ice-cream?

On the day before she left, we all went to the Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport.

Bella is holding up the era of flight. Before that she got to go on two space rides. Who knew a museum could be so much fun.

End of the day at the museum and time to go back.

Previous Trips- 2003 : China & the Great Wall

I paid these mercenaries to accompany and protect me in case any Mongols remained  in the area .

Along the way, there were lovely bridges and small shrines making  the path so pretty.

Natural formations were equally lovely.

Isn't nature magnificent?

The wall stretches as far as the eye can see. The total length is 5,500 miles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

Japanese tourists were everywhere and usually fashionably dressed.

There are quite a few entrances, or gates,  to the Great Wall. Badaling is the closest to Beijing. This time I went to Mutianyu  accompanied by my embassy friend and his young son.

The people in the background give a indication of how wide the wall is. I heard you could fit two average size sedans side by side

The snow began to fall  as we climbed up making the path and, especially the steps, slippery and dangerous.  My embassy friend had on hiking boots but I had on sneakers. He called down to this lady who was selling soda and snacks at the bottom of the steps. She came up to us. He told me to hold on to her waist and to give her a small tip at the end.   I was embarrassed but, what the heck, I was safe.

On the road to Southern Virginian

The Trip To Southern Viginia

We had so much fun driving from Charlottesville to Roanoke and stopping at places along the way such as Bedford, Lexington, Poplar Forest and Roanoke.   We laughed at a place called the Pink Cadillac Diner and became most somber at the D- Day Memorial.

Bedford, Va.  suffered the highest per capita number of deaths during the  Normandy Invasion of any city in the U.S. To honor the sacrifice of its sons, it built the National  D-Day Memorial.

It not only honors its own sons  but lists the names of the 4,413 US and Allied soldiers who died in the invasion.

https://www.dday.org

We visited a number of antique stores in the area, some were even called "salvage" stores.

Her are some of the items on sale.

I guess not all customers were honest . Thus the need for high tech security.

Everyone knows  Jefferson's home, Monticello .  But how many know about his home in Poplar Forest?  He said Monticello was for entertaining but Poplar Forest was for relaxing.

Learn more about Poplar Forest:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poplar_Forest

Everything Jefferson built was classy.  Here is a lovely  brick structure  . It is an outhouse

This is the Roanoke City Market. Now a collection of small stores and shops.

This was the center of the city as far as we could tell.   Many of the buildings were red brick. None were taller than the building on the right.

The lovely red brick, once again.

We showed up hungry one Sunday at the Roanoker hoping the line would not be too long.   We were seated in less than ten minutes. The Roanoker had a huge area, rooms off rooms, to accommodate people.  It also had a "booths only" lay out.  No problem.  I prefer a booth to a table.






Gosh, here again we find the customers are less than honest. What kind of an area had we come to?

 Just kidding.  In point of fact, we had visited an area that had old time charm and friendly, well meaning people.