It is mid-July already and the summer seems to be slipping
away, or should I say melting away since the temperatures here for the past
week or so have been in the mid to high 90s with equal humidity. We normally fare better in the summer, at
least until August, but we have been encased in this weather system for weeks
and most of the time it is without benefit of rain or cooling
thunderstorms. We have been fortunate to
have some dear friends visiting us during this first half of the summer and our
time together has been filled with lots of laughter.
As is usually the case, the only time we really see our area
is when we are showing it to visitors. On this occasion we drove to Berkeley Springs, which used to be
called Bath and is only about forty miles away.
George Washington used to take the waters there and the original thermal
baths are still in use. It is a quaint town supported solely by tourism, but
they have made the most of it and it is quite charming. I wasn’t sure we would ever get there,
however, since I took the path less chosen, which is poetry for getting
lost. Luckily everyone in the car seemed
to have a GPS on their electronic devices so we were never really lost, just
detoured. I’m told we were on the Washington Scenic Byway Trail,
but I was still lost. But my, what a lovely detour! This area of West Virginia is really quite
spectacular and we drove past acres of peach orchards, apple orchards, rolling
hills of grain swaying in the breeze, and through a wildlife preserve that had
more hairpins than a Victorian Madame.
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| The Boys and The Hats |
One day we went to the Charles Town Museum
with our guests. We have only lived here
for seven years so we can be forgiven for not having gone to the museum
earlier! It is really a gem and the
woman who runs it is humorous and knowledgeable and gave us lots of back-stories
to some of the curios in the building.
I’ll post a picture of the three gentlemen with hats, holding a beaver
top hat and hatbox. The hat was made in
Paris from beavers here in the USA and then shipped back for a gentleman in
Virginia to wear at his wedding. We
ended the excursion at an Irish Pub, which we didn’t know existed here in
Charles Town called Paddy’s. It
was swell food and drink all served by a decidedly non-Irish lass who kept
calling us ‘hon’.
On Sunday, July 14th, Cindy and I celebrated
Bastille Day as well as our 30th wedding anniversary by heading to Final Cut
for dinner. We have been there often and
it really is the only fine dining in the area, due to the fact that it is
connected with the casino and they have the money to do it right. I’ve done some wine programs for them so we
all know one another and they were thrilled that we wanted to celebrate with
them. We decided that we would dress to
the nines for dinner, something that really isn’t done in Charles Town. I
dusted off my dinner jacket while Cindy shimmied into a frilly dancing dress
and we were off. I can’t tell you how
many heads were turned as we walked arm and arm though the casino towards the
restaurants. I’m guessing there are at
least three guys that suffered whiplash when they spotted Cindy!
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| Our Big Night |
It was a glorious dinner filled with personal best wishes
from the entire staff, like having dinner with a very extended family. The food
was fantastic, as usual, and the wine list continues to improve. We had a split of Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne
and then a bottle of Lugny
from Burgundy, which is a very dry white wine.
The meal ended on a very sweet note with a special dessert from the
manager. I’ll post a picture of it at
the end of this missive.
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| Anniversary Treat |
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| Thirty Years and counting! |
The next day the magic of the good life disappeared as I
prepared to fly grandson Patrick to San Francisco, where he was to board a
flight to visit Colin and Meagan in Wellington.
The flight went as smoothly as possible, given that we were stuck in a 737
for five + hours. We had a five-hour
wait for his next flight and once he was on that I headed for a hotel. There was a snafu with the reservations and I
was shuttled from one hotel to another.
When I finally got to what would be my home for the evening I was hungry
and very thirsty, only to discover that nothing was open and I was rather far
removed from anything I could walk to.
The next morning I went back to the airport to await the
arrival of granddaughter Hannah who was arriving from New Zealand, and we were
to fly together back to Dulles. She
finally came out with a minder who refused to allow me to sign the papers to
release her to my care, despite the fact that my name was there and I had
enough IDs to choke a horse. She insisted on taking us through normal security,
which was really stupid since I had made arrangements for expedited security,
but she didn’t want to hear anything from me.
The ordeal took one hour and we only had an hour and fifteen minutes until
the next flight, which meant we couldn’t get any food or drink for the
flight. I did have time to get her some
fruit and water and she was so tired that she rested well for the whole
flight. I refrained from my usual
patterns on an airplane since I had to drive precious cargo back to Charles
Town, so it seemed like an endless journey.
I delivered Hannah to her mom who was over the moon having
not seen her for almost a year, and I returned to Cindy’s loving arms at about
11 pm. Cindy had made me lots of snacks
and goodies and had ice-cold wine waiting so we just sat and talked for almost
two hours before we realized how late it was.
I slept the sleep of the innocent from the minute my head hit the
pillow.
Next week the Florida contingent arrives, all eight of them
(2 families) and we are so looking forward to having five days with the kids
and grandkids. I’ve alerted the local
butcher who is - as I write - fattening the proverbial calf, and my wine
merchant is pleased that he now has enough money to make an extra payment on
his boat! Should be a lovely visit. Best wishes for the rest of the summer, Cindy
and Wm
