Williamsbore

No, I didn't misspell my title. Let's just say we were a little underwhelmed at Williamsburg today. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Remember how yesterday I said we were in the car on our way to Virginia? Well, I do tend to be prone to carsickness, but that is usually just on curves and bumps and things like that. I have no trouble reading in the car on a highway. But somehow, soon after I finished the blog and was doing other stuff on the computer, I suddenly got very carsick. I had the computer on the left armrest of my seat so I was turned a bit sideways for a while, but I thought if I just stopped looking at the computer and closed my eyes I would feel better quickly. Um, no. We had to stop and I got sick -- and then a felt all better. That was about halfway through the 6-hour drive from Charleston to Virginia, which is also the longest leg of our traveling between cities.

The kids did very well in the car. I was a little worried because this is a much smaller van than ours (it is a Volkswagon something I have never heard of) and the kids are just so big. Not to mention 5 giant suitcases and 5 backpacks. It had worked fine for a couple of hours but I wasn't sure about six. In the middle we have a bench rather than captains chairs and in the back there is just room for one person because we have 2/3 of it full of luggage. Well, fortunately the boys ended up together on the bench seat because they get along so much better than Luke and Anna Kate. If you don't believe me, check this out.......In Virginia we are staying at Rudy and Cheryl's house. They are some of my parent's best friends and we feel really close to them as well. In fact, this was the stop Anna Kate was most excited about because she couldn't wait to hang out with them. They are the ones who had just come in town the day my mom got sick so I feel super bonded to them after living through that ordeal together. Here is their beautiful home:
When we arrived Cheryl had an amazing meal prepared for us and it was just heavenly to have some home-cooked food after eating at so many restaurants. We feel so comfy and cozy in their home. We have three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor. Last night the guys went to play tennis and then to see a movie. Anna Kate and I stayed up late visiting with Rudy and Cheryl. It was a very nice, low-key day.

So today we had plans to go to Williamsburg which was an hour drive from the house. I had done a lot of research and reading about it so I thought I knew what to expect, but my opinion is that they have a very good marketing director because it was not nearly as enchanting as it was in all the materials I looked at. And I LOVE historical things. Let me clarify though...I REALLY liked Williamsburg. A lot. For the first hour or two. But we got there at 11:00am and had tickets to an evening performance at 7:30pm. By 3:00 we were sitting in a very picturesque garden genuinely enjoying ourselves (actually Todd even took a nap) but wondering what we were going to do for the next 4 hours. We decided we would see if we could get our money back for the evening show and head on home. Fortunately they did refund our tickets so we left there about 5:30pm and were eating Mexican food with Rudy and Cheryl by 6:30pm. If I had it to do all over again, I would definitely still go back to Williamburg -- I just would have let everyone sleep in as long as they wanted to and leave the house about 2:00pm.

I got a little grouchy during the day just because being the trip planner I feel an enormous amount of pressure that everyone is having the time of their life. Imagine what it feels like to see this:
It is a little stressful to feel like you have chosen how to spend everyone's time and money and they might not be enjoying themselves. But then, I was blessed with a moment that made it all worthwhile...
Who really cares where you are or what you are doing if you are enjoying EACH OTHER.

One funny story is when we were trying to decide what to do to fill our time, Todd said we should drive over to Jamestown. I said, "Well, I think Jamestown is less than this so I vote no on that." What I meant was Jamestown had less to see than Williamsburg. A while later Todd again said that we should drive over to Jamestown to which Anna Kate replied, "But Dad, didn't mom say that Jamestown was worse than this?" We started laughing so hard. "No, honey. I said 'less' not 'worse.' " So funny.

Actually we really had a lovely time -- we just didn't need that much of it. Here are some photos of us enjoying ourselves:

We were being silly in this picture because Todd told us to put our heads together. For some reason I can't add anymore pictures so check them out on facebook.

Tonight after dinner I went to watch the boys play tennis while I wrote this blog and we just came home to find Anna Kate and Cheryl playing Monopoly. Tomorrow the guys are going to Rudy and Cheryl's Country Club to play golf and the girls are just going to hang out. Should be a nice, relaxing day.