heading home....

Monday morning it was time to think about heading north again. We had traveled down on Friday in one long (12 hour) ride, but we all decided that returning home, we would cut the ride in half. We went back to the Colonial city to "say goodbye" and take in a couple of tours before getting on the road. We also did a bit of Christmas shopping... and a few photo opts...









Here's a great picture of our friends!!!!

You know.. this could SO be my job!!! Let's see, to work in Colonial Williamsburg.. driving a buggy or riding horse back... yup that could so be me!!!!

We came home via the Chesapeake bay route. It is a bit longer than the interstate run, but it is a much prettier ride. We also wanted to show Kelli and Rick the Chesapeake bay bridge.. which is really three bridges and two tunnels that span the bay.

There is a visitors center in the middle of the bridge that we stopped at. It has a little restaurant and gift shop, plus great views of the bay. It was very windy and cold.. the water was quite rough.

A view of one of the tunnels and bridges....

Tankers were waiting in the bay for their inspections before entering the harbor. We continued on, and made it to about a half way point before we put up for the night. Things were going well at home, but the kids were anxious to have us back, and I was missing my puppies.. besides, there is another story to tell... but that's in a blog to come.....

the Grand Illumination...

So much for the "sunny south".. the "mild temperatures" of Virginia... it was sunny, but it was down right COLD... even for new england folks like us. Course, we know how to handle the cold, and wisely had packed all sorts of cold weather clothes. Sunday morning, we woke to snow!!! just a light dusting to be sure, but now we have seen Williamsburg with a bit of snow as well.







It didn't last the day, and only stuck to the leaves and the shadow parts of the grass.. but it certainly added to the Christmas look of the colonial city.












The decorations were grand. And each house or business puts their own special twists on the decorations. The big grand houses, usually have pretty grand wreaths.... this one had all sorts of dried flowers, feathers and the like...

This one was mostly "greens", but then they used oranges and lemons, and the peelings from them made the 'curlies"...

and here's the wreath that the blacksmith had.... tools, some coal... and a few greens....

you've heard... "strike while the iron is hot"....






We spent the day touring the buildings, admiring the decorations and just enjoying the trip. It was such fun to take Kelli and Rick along..we loved showing the city off to folks who had never seen it before. Though it's hard to show anyone all of it in just one short visit. One thing about Colonial Williamsburg, there is something for everyone, and you really can't see it in just a few days.....

There were many things going on... after all the Grand Illumination is one of the highlights of the season. This coral group was very good, I suspect they were from the college of William and Mary, and we had such fun standing and listening to them.

And when it got dark... the fireworks really began... we decided to stand near the palace.. but there were two other locations of fireworks.. and all three go at the same time.

There was a big crowd of people, but we only felt crowded during the fireworks. Afterwards, there was music and all kinds of entertainment. We didn't stay too much longer, because after having been outside for the entire day, we were all getting a little chilly.






We found a great little restaurant, had a nice hot meal, and it was the end of another fun day. As we knew, the weekend was going by much too fast.....