Virginia is for Lovers

I went to Virginia!

It was such a fun trip, even the parts where I had to work longer days than I ever do here in Florida. Those people are workhorses and the office is soooooo quiet. It's a lot louder and more social here, dare I say more fun?

But I've always loved Virginia and it was kind of life-changing to be back.

I moved to Virginia from Chicago when I was 10 or 11. I did not go happily; I hated being torn from the only place I'd ever lived. But even in my grumpy pre-teen state, I acknowledged that Virginia was beautiful and eventually grew to love living there. So being back after 6 years, seeing the gorgeous scenery and the familiar sights was like medicine for my soul.

I landed at Dulles and within an hour I was in my beloved Leesburg eating Roy Rogers. Yes, I have a Roy Rogers obsession. It's kind of weird (I'm kind of weird) because I certainly wasn't obsessed with it when I lived here. I always enjoyed the roast beef sandwich (never ate anything else there) and I loved the bbq sauce but I didn't go there all that often and I really didn't think about it after moving away until one day in 2013 when I suddenly got a craving to have it again. And that my friends, is pretty much why I planned a trip there that year.

Taz did not share my obsession and thought I was pretty weird about it but we hadn't been to Virginia in 4 years so it was time for a visit anyway. Of course I told everybody that we were coming to see friends and family but really, it was Roys.

So, of course, for last week's trip I had planned that it would be my first stop once landing...and it was...and it was totally worth it.

While I was in Leesburg I just had to swing by our house. This was so special to us, it was the first house we purchased and since it was a dirt lot when we wrote the contract, we were able to pick the model, outside style and all the flooring, countertops and cabinets. We felt so very grown up when we bought this. And a little bit like children pretending to be grown up. I swear I thought at some point during the closing they would turn to us and tell us it had all been a big joke and they weren't going to trust us with such a big investment. But they didn't, those silly people actually handed us a key!

We loved the outside because it reminded us of Colonial Williamsburg which is one of my favorite places because of all the history. I still love the look of the place and wish we could have lived there long - we were there from 1994 - 1998 - but I no longer feel an emotional attachment. The only thing that made me a little emotional was that they had torn down the enormous deck that Taz had designed but it was 25 years old so had probably gotten old and rickety. I don't know if I'll ever go back to see this house again.

After the house I swung by Wegmans. We never had a Wegmans when we lived in Virginia and I had never heard of them until Taz worked for a company based out of Rochester, NY and had to travel there at least once a month for 2 years. Wegmans is headquartered in Rochester and it's an enormous gourmet grocery store so he would stop there and stock up on their Asian buffet at the beginning of each trip so that he had dinner that he could warm up in the room each night.

He loved those stores (I'd say it was #2 on his list right after Andronicos in Palo Alto) so it was like Christmas to him when we discovered this one in Leesburg in 2013. So, of course, I had to make a pilgrimage there this time. I love the store too and we especially enjoyed their huge cheese selection.

One thing we really fell for last time was a particularly pungent brie that, at the time, Wegmans called Earthy Brie. They had 3 different levels of brie - mild, medium and earthy which is now called intense. We both loved particularly flavorful cheese so this brie was right up our alley and I was looking forward to trying it again. That picture up there is of the EMPTY tray where the earthy brie was supposed to be. They were out. Quelle horreur! I ended up "settling" for something that I can buy here in Florida but I never do because it's expensive. It was delicious but I decided to check again right before I left on Saturday so that I could take some of the earthy stuff home with me at least.

The rest of the day was spent catching up with my former coworkers from the '90s. That was fantastic, they looked exactly the way they always had and it felt so familiar to be with them right from the start. That's not always the case when you haven't seen somebody in 25 years.

Drove to my perfectly adequate hotel near work and fell sound asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that there was a strange light from under the curtains but thought it must be a light on the building. The clock said it was 1:05 so I went back to sleep. Woke up again at 1:45 and finally decided to investigate the source of that light.

It was the sun. It was completely light outside, like it was the middle of the day. I was dazed and confused, wondering what day it even was and then I panicked wondering if I'd completely overslept and missed half the day. And why did the clock say 1:45 when it was clearly closer to noon?

Ok, so I misread the clock - it was 7:45. So I hadn't overslept exactly but I needed to be at work around 8:30 and I still had to dress and put on all my makeup and do something with my hair and then there was hot breakfast downstairs and I really didn't want to miss out on that. So I hauled ass a little faster than I usually do and managed to eat and still make it to work on time. Yay me.

Work was good, learned lots and then it was that lovely dinner where we spent 4 hours talking and it was amazing. I've already told you all about that. Still makes me smile to think about it. If it had been a date, I would have rated it as the best first date ever. Kind of makes me sad that it wasn't a date.

Friday was another busy but good work day and then it was me time again! I was moving to another hotel, one that Taz and I stayed at whenever we came home to Virginia.

It's an all-suite hotel that is mostly used for business so it's expensive during the week but then hugely discounted on weekends so even I could afford it. I LOVE this place. It would make a perfect apartment for me, I would move in tomorrow if I could. I feel safe here as a single female traveler and it's got a ton of restaurants out the back door, even a movie theater so there is plenty to do without even having to leave the property.

But, of course, I needed to leave the property to go explore. This was the town we moved to when I was a kid and it was also the town Taz moved to when his father sent him to live in the US with his sister. It's where we were both living when we met and it was where we first lived after we got married. There are a million memories in this town.

My favorite Mexican restaurant although it wasn't as good as I remembered it. But maybe that's because I used to visit their original location in a different town.

 My old church right across from Anitas.

Our first house after getting married. We lived here, in this townhouse, until we purchased the Leesburg house 8 years later.

Not the best picture because I took it from my car window but this was the house Taz lived in when he first came to the United States. It was owned by his sister and brother in law until just a few years ago. It was the first single family house he had lived in since he was 6 and he thought of it as a mansion. He lived there with 2 sisters, 1 brother in law, 2 nephews and sometimes his parents. Sounds crowded to me.

My middle school. I stumbled on it by accident, it wasn't in the place I thought I had left it all those years ago and I wasn't expecting to see it on this particular street that I had randomly turned down but there it was. Which is where it's always been, my memory was faulty. I had good times here but I hadn't been back to see it since the age of 13, which kind of explains the faulty memory since that was at least a decade ago...or two...or...

Saturday, my last day in town, was a mix of catching up with my best friend from high school and running around by myself. I enjoyed the catching up part more than being by myself. I went back to Leesburg to walk around the town but it wasn't as much fun as I'd thought it would be and I was ready to leave 30 minutes after arriving which was way too early because my flight didn't leave for another 7 hours. It would have been fun to walk around with someone.

Leesburg is very quaint, very historical. I had always loved to visit the town as a kid so I was thrilled when I actually got to live within walking distance of the downtown later as an adult. 

The courthouse where we eloped, not knowing we'd eventually live in the town.

The war memorial where we said our vows. I always thought that was ironic. We stood in front of the back of it, not the part that lists the names of all the dead, thank goodness.

The restaurant where we had our "after eloping" lunch. It was a bbq restaurant called The Branding Iron at the time. Now it's a bakery/ice cream shop.

When I ran out of steam in Leesburg I decided to head back to Roys because Roy Rogers makes everything better. Plus the roast beef sandwich is less calories and fat than a hamburger so it's practically health food! What, you're not buying that? Too bad, I ate it anyway.

Plus, thanks to a suggestion from the CFO at my company, I asked about getting packets of bbq sauce so that I could take them home and try to figure out how to make it. In 2013 we weren't smart enough to think about packets so Taz and I pumped sauce into plastic containers and somehow snuck it through the TSA at the airport so that he could try to figure out how to recreate it at home for me. He never quite got it but he made some tasty sauce. Now I'll try again with my precious packets. I'm already trying to scheme how I can get them to send me more packets in the mail when I run out. Or maybe I can convince my friends to go to the restaurant and pick them up for me.

Geez, I look grumpy in this picture and I really wasn't. I just don't smile as much these days. I was trying to show my frizzy airport hair.

I finally gave up and ended up back at the airport 2 hours earlier than I had planned but I found a comfortable seat and just read until it was time to board and head back to Florida.

I had a great trip. Not only did I make important connections at work and reconnect with old friends but I connected with myself as well. A lot of this trip was revisiting the past and saying goodbye. I will always treasure those years and memories but it's time to look to the future.

One surprising thing that happened was this trip reminded me of how much of Virginia is still inside of me. I never missed Virginia after we moved away, never was homesick for it even when we visited in 2009 and 2013. I guess it was because I loved living in California so I never looked back once we left. But now I'm in Florida and I don't love it here so suddenly Virginia is calling to me a little and I do consider moving back one day.

Before I do that, however, I would like to visit in each of the seasons including the dreaded winter. I would especially love to visit this fall because I love that season and we really don't have it here in Florida. I would love to see the leaves change color and feel the cool breeze, wear sweaters and boots, etc.

So then here's the bad news - travel is expensive and my low balance bank account alert showed up today for the first time in over 3 years. That gave me a mini-freakout. It means I've pretty much run through the savings that Taz and I had and I'm on my own now...which means no travel right when the travel bug has been woken up by this trip which was funded by work. Shoot. There are so many places around the world I want to see so I won't let this defeat me...just as soon as I figure out how to do that.