Back to Virginia

Well, when we last left our intrepid travellers....

We had a great day out in Baltimore and saw the aquarium and the waterfront area. It ws a beautiful crisp day - perfect for photos but the camera battery was dead! :( Ryan loved the aquarium especially and the shark exhibit was very cool. They had an Australian exhbition on which was funny - looking at blue tongues and galahs in Maryland! Apparently, they made a bit of a tactical error when it first opened. They have recently moved the kookaburras into a separate location as they had been eating the display lizards!!

That night, we had a fun final night in Baltimore. James, his brother, Ben, Courtney, Ryan and I went out to a very cool Japanese steakhouse where they do all the cooking right in front of you on the grill. Twas very entertaining! Then we went on to another bar in the Towson area and played some pool.

On Tuesday morning, we got up reasonably bright and early and rented a brand new PT Cruiser to drive down to Virginia. The drive itself was pretty uneventful, though it kept threatening to snow. In Williamsburg, we checked into our hotel and then wandered around the historical Colonial Williamsburg area with James and Courtney until it got too dark and cold to see much! We then walked up to one of Ryan's college eatery hangouts - the College Delly (sic) and Courtney and I tried our first Ruebens for this trip.... MMMMMMM!

We went back to "rest" in the hotel after eating these huge meals but then Courtney and I had the fab idea that since it was only 7pm, there were two perfectly good shopping hours available and the Prime Outlets mall was just down the road!! Ryan and James reluctantly joined us, though we split up when we got there. Ryan and James reckon they did the entire mall twice but Courtney and I maybe managed a quarter before we got "trapped by the savings" at my favourite store in the Outlets - Wilson's Leather. Bags and jackets basically but all heavily reduced!! I got a replacement work bag, leather gloves and a wallet for Ryan - Courtney got two bags, hat, gloves and an incredibly soft black leather jacket. When the boys finally found us in there, we convinced James into a leather jacket too. Courtney and I both commented that we had shopping frenzy adrenalin going by the time we left to head back to the hotel with our booty! I'm going to have to go back one more time as I STILL haven't done all the stores...

We then headed out to the Green Leafe pub, an old favourite of Ryan's and a newer favourite of mine. This was the pub that we went to after the July wedding and we had an equally fun night this time. James kept ordering Courtney cocktails that she wouldn't drink though....

Then yesterday, we did a wander around Colonial Williamsburg again in the daylight and then drove down to Newport News to pick up our car and wave Courtney and James off in theirs as they had to head back to Baltimore. Our car has cost us an ABSOLUTE fortune so we're determined to enjoy it for the next ten days!! I've only turned the windscreen wipers on five times instead of the indicators so far...

We drove up to West Point, where Ryan's sister, Robin lives and caught up with her at the newspaper office where she is editor. It was great to see her and we hung out with her workmates for a while until it was time to head out and pick up the kids. They were so excited to see us - so sweet! We had a quiet night in last night, doing laundry mostly and chatting - and Robin made Ryan fried porkchops which had him in heaven!!

Today we've continued the slow start. We're off to meet up with Robin in downtown West Point. I've charged the camera battery and want to take a whole lot of pics - it's so gorgeous down there!! Not sure what we'll do tonight but tomorrow, Ryan, his dad and Jared are going to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and later we're going to meet up with all the Denbigh people that we've missed so far in Newport News. Ryan and I are also hoping to swing past Denbight High School to say hello in the afternoon so we'll see what happens.