nocureforgravity

We woke up on our final morning at the Thomas’ home, got packed and ready to go, played with Emma just a bit more, then headed out.

We followed Ryan through the streets of Blacksburg and Christiansburg to get to the Waffle House, a Southern staple. It was after 11 am by the time we had breakfast, so it really ended up being both breakfast and lunch. The waffles were great, as was the bacon. The waitresses had great Virginia accents, and one of them had quite a mustache.
Continue reading “Virginia to North Carolina” →

On Wednesday we slept in a bit. After I got out of the shower, Ryan suggested we go and get donuts from a popular local donut shop. While Dave was getting up, Ryan and I took Emma for a little ride to pick up the donuts. They were quite good – not too heavy, and very flavorful.

While Dave, Ryan, and I ate breakfast, we tried to figure out what to do for the day. I was advocating visiting some kind of caverns, knowing that it would be warm and humid and probably a little miserable to do any kind of outdoor activity. Ryan had recently taken his parents on a hike called the Cascades, in Jefferson National Forest nearby. Dave thought that sounded like a good choice.
Continue reading “Hiking the Cascades… No, not THOSE Cascades” →

Tuesday was awesome! Well, getting up at 5 am was a bummer, but it was totally worth it. Ryan’s friend Juan picked us up at 6 am and we drove for about three hours to Hico, West Virginia.

We had only been in West Virginia for a short while when, driving in the middle lane of a three-land highway, we noticed the Dodge Durango a quarter mile in front of us swerve a bit, and then a large object go flying from the front of the truck and go hurtling into the median. The driver had just hit a deer. I’ve never seen anything that large fly so far. Up ahead was a turnoff on the side of the highway, and the guy pulled over. We also turned out to make sure he was okay. We accidentally passed him, but after a couple of seconds, he drove up to let us know he was okay. There was a big crack above his grill, and the truck was making a hissing noise, which he hoped was his air conditioner rather than his radiator. But he drove off and seemed relatively okay.

Not long after that, we arrived at North American River Runners – a whitewater rafting company owned by our friend Heather’s family – rather early. We hung out for a bit hoping the weather would go from chilly and overcast to sunny and maybe not too humid.
Continue reading “Rafting the New River” →

On Monday we slept in quite a bit (until about 10:15 am Eastern), trying to catch up from all the social events of the weekend. Once we were finally up and fed, Ryan took us on a bit of a tour of Blacksburg. (Unfortunately, Elyn had to work, so she couldn’t hang out with us. Ryan, being a student, pretty much makes his own schedule.) There wasn’t a whole lot to tour – it’s a fairly small town, other than the University.
Continue reading “Go Hokies!” →

Not much to report for Sunday. We went to church at Washington International Church and it was a great homecoming as always. We enjoyed worship, caught up many old friends (and a few new ones), and were treated to Booeymonger sandwiches by Mama Wong. This was our first chance during our whole visit to get a chance to chat with Mama Wong, though Pastor unfortunately had other committments so we talked to him for just a bit right before we left.
Continue reading “From DC metro area to Southwestern VA” →

Saturday morning we got up early and headed for campus to catch a couple of the seminars. The first seminar was called “The Catholic Church: Why We State, Where We Need to Go”. The panel consisted of a Jesuit priest, a woman who is a Catholic lay leader and heads the Social Justice department, and a man who had been a Jesuit but left to get married. They had some very interesting and spiritually insightful things to say. After they shared a bit, they opened it up to the rest of the room (a fairly large classroom that was packed) for people to share their own thoughts and to ask questions. It was really good and we were glad we went.

After that, we went to Gaston Hall (the largest auditorium on campus) for “A Conversation with George Tenet”. I’m here to tell you something you might not know: the man can NOT sit properly in a chair.

Continue reading “Reuniting with Georgetown” →

This was a good weekend of reuniting with Georgetown, though not so much with people from the Class of 2000.

I should probably explain briefly how Georgetown reunion weekends work. Each year, on the weekend after Memorial Day weekend, GU invites all alumni celebrating 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-, 25-year, etc reunions back to campus for a reunion weekend. They offer receptions, seminars, and other events that are open to all the classes. Then there are a few events organized for specific classes and/or groups, particularly the class parties on the Friday and Saturday evenings of the weekend.
Continue reading “Return to DC” →

Harken back to last fall, when the air was crisp (actually in San Diego, warm and sunny and very dry) and baseball fans all over the country were abuzz. The big news was the American League Championship Series, a classic matchup between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

At some point early in the series, as we prepared to watch one of the games, Dave brought up a conversation he had earlier with our friend Ryan….
Continue reading “Our Upcoming Tour” →