Yesterday and today we've been in Northern Virginia where Nicole grew up staying with her best friend Amanda. We ate at local spot Frost Diner. Best country cooking I've ever had.
And we engaged in another local tradition. Driving around.
View from Amanda's cabin. It's nice to be out in the country away from things. Quiet and calm.
Nicole has been talking about Amanda for a long time so it was a real treat to spend some time with her. For lunch she took us to the restaurant she manages. It was closed but they opened things up for us and made us a special meal. I've never had such royal treatment.
Yesterday it was raining but today it was crisp and clear and sunny. Out in the woods there's a very visceral sense of things coming alive. Spring as something active. A tangible process. You can almost hear the growth.
We paid a visit to Nicole's grandmother and uncle.
On Tuesdays Amanda takes swing dancing classes in Alexandria. Nicole sat in on the class and I walked around for a bit. I stumbled upon the George Washington Masonic Monument. Very bizarre. I couldn't go in because it was after hours but I walked around the grounds while the sun was setting.
The rhythm here is considerably slower than what I'm use to. Plans don't seem to be very important. People just float along. It's nice to slow down but I found it, at times, a bit of a struggle. You get use to the pace of life in Chicago and almost anywhere else it seems to crawl. It's like that feeling you get after driving on the highway for a long time and then having to slow down to 30 once your in the city. Beanpole calls it "caterpillars". I felt a bit chaffed at times, eager to get up and do something, go some where, get moving. But I had to remind myself I'm on vacation, there is no where I need to be, to just relax.
We've been eating out a lot. I noticed they don't bring you water automatically here, you have to ask for it. Regional differences.
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